Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fatal immunopathogenesis by SIV/HIV-1 (SHIV) containing a variant form of the HIV-1SF33 env gene in juvenile and newborn rhesus macaques.

SIV/HIV-1 (SHIV) chimeric clones, constructed by substituting portions of the pathogenic molecular clone SIVmac239 with counterpart portions from HIV-1 clones, provide a means to analyze functions of selected HIV-1 genes in vivo in nonhuman primates. Our studies focused on SHIVSF33, which contains the vpu, tat, rev, and env genes of the cytopathic, T-cell line tropic clone HIV-1sf33 (subtype-B); this clone has a premature stop codon in the vpu gene. In three juvenile macaques inoculated intravenously with SHIVSF33, low-level persistent infection was established; no disease was observed for a period of >2 years. However, at approximately 16 months p.i. , one of four SHIVSF33-infected juvenile macaques exhibited an increase in virus load, depletion of CD4(+) T cells in peripheral blood and lymph nodes, and other symptoms of simian AIDS (SAIDS). Virus recovered from this animal in the symptomatic stage was designated SHIVSF33a (A, adapted); this virus displayed multiple amino acid sequence changes throughout the HIV-1 env gene compared with the input SHIVSF33 clone. Additionally, a mutation in all clones from SHIVSF33a restored the open reading frame for the vpu gene. In vitro evaluations in tissue-culture systems revealed that SHIVSF33a replicated to higher levels and exhibited greater cytopathicity than SHIVSF33. Furthermore cloned env genes for SHIVSF33a were more fusogenic in a cell-fusion assay compared with the env gene of the SHIVSF33. Intravenous inoculation of SHIVsf33a into juvenile and newborn macaques resulted in a rapid decline in CD4(+) T cells to very low levels and development of a fatal AIDS-like disease. A cell-free preparation of this pathogenic chimeric virus also established persistent infection when applied to oral mucosal membranes of juvenile macaques and produced a fatal AIDS-like disease. These studies on pathogenic SHIVSF33a establish the basis for further investigations on the role of the HIV-1 env gene in virus adaptation and in mechanism(s) of immunodeficiency in primates; moreover, the chimeric virus SHIVSF33a can play a role in elucidating mucosal membrane transmission and development of antiviral vaccines in newborns as well as juvenile and adult macaques.
Efficient Immobilization of Tyrosinase Enzyme on Layered Double Hydroxide Hybrid Nanomaterials for Electrochemical Detection of Polyphenols

Gold screen-printed electrodes coated with thin films of layered double hydroxides containing cobalt and aluminium (Co<sub>1.57</sub> Al(OH)<sub>x</sub>SO<sub>4</sub>, shortened as CoAl) have been investigated for the design of an electrochemical tyrosinase-based biosensor used for the detection of a complex mixture of polyphenols extracted from green tea. Physicochemical analyses show that the resulted biosensor exhibits very attractive characteristics: a high sensitivity, a large dynamic range (up to 1000 ng.mL<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), and very low limits of detection (0.33 pg.mL<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> and 0.03 pg.mL<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> for oxidation and reduction, respectively).
Area Efficient Architecture for Network on Chip ( NoC ) based Router

This work consists of FPGA based design of reconfigurable router for NoC applications using VHDL. The router designed in this proposed session has four channels (namely, east, west, north and south) and a crossbar switch each consist FIFO buffers and multiplexers. FIFO buffers are used to store the data and multiplexers are used to control the input and output of the data. Firstly, south channel is designed which includes the design of FIFO and multiplexers. After that, the switch, arbiter and crossbar will design. All these designed channels, FIFO buffers, multiplexers and crossbar switches are integrated to form the complete router architecture. The proposed design is simulated using Modelsim and the RTL view is obtained using Xilinx ISE 13.4. Xilinx SPARTAN-6 FPGAs are used for synthesis of proposed design. Fixed priority arbiter is used to reduce the area of the proposed reconfigurable router.
Sphingosine Kinase 1 Is Up-regulated during Hypoxia in U87MG Glioma Cells

Sphingosine 1-phosphate (S1P), a sphingolipid metabolite that plays an important role in the regulation of cell survival, growth, migration, and angiogenesis, acts both inside the cells and as an extracellular mediator through binding to five G protein-coupled receptors (S1P1-5). Sphingosine kinase 1 (SK1), the enzyme responsible for S1P production, is overexpressed in many solid tumors, including gliomas. One common feature of these tumors is the presence of “hypoxic regions,” characterized by cells expressing high levels of hypoxia-inducible factors HIF-1α and HIF-2α, two transcription regulators that modulate the levels of proteins with crucial roles in tumor progression. So far, nothing is known about the role and the regulation of SK1 during tumor-induced hypoxia or about SK1 regulation and HIFs. Here we investigated the role of HIF-1α and HIF-2α in the regulation of SK1 during hypoxic stress in glioma-derived U87MG cells. We report that hypoxia increases SK1 mRNA levels, protein expression, and enzyme activity, followed by intracellular S1P production and S1P release. Interestingly, knockdown of HIF-2α by small interfering RNA abolished the induction of SK1 and the production of extracellular S1P after CoCl2 treatment, whereas HIF-1α small interfering RNA resulted in an increase of HIF-2α and of SK1 protein levels. Moreover, using chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis, we demonstrate that HIF-2α binds the SK1 promoter. Functionally, we demonstrate that conditioned medium from hypoxia-treated tumor cells results in neoangiogenesis in human umbilical vein endothelial cells in a S1P receptor-dependent manner. These studies provide evidence of a link between S1P production as a potent angiogenic agent and the hypoxic phenotype observed in many tumors.
The pCL vector system: rapid production of helper-free, high-titer, recombinant retroviruses

We describe the construction and characterization of retroviral vectors and packaging plasmids that produce helper-free retrovirus with titers of 1 X 10(6) to 5 X 10(6) within 48 h. These vectors contain the immediate early region of the human cytomegalovirus enhancer-promoter fused to the Moloney murine leukemia virus long terminal repeat at the TATA box in the 5' U3 region, yielding the pCL promoter. By selecting vectors designed to express genes from one of four promoters (dihydrofolate reductase, Rous sarcoma virus, long terminal repeat, or cytomegalovirus), the pCL system permits the investigator to control the level of gene expression in target cells over a 100-fold range, while maintaining uniformly high titers of virus from transiently transfected producer cells. The pCL packaging plasmids lack a packaging signal (delta-psi) and include an added safety modification that renders them self-inactivating through the deletion of the 3' U3 enhancer. Ecotropic, amphotropic (4070A), and amphotropic-mink cell focus-forming hybrid (10A1) envelope constructions have been prepared and tested, permitting flexible selection of vector pseudotype in accordance with experimental needs. Vector supernatants are free of helper virus and are of sufficiently high titer within 2 days of transient transfection in 293 cells to permit infection of more than 50% of randomly cycling target cells in culture. We demonstrated the efficacy of these vectors by using them to transfer three potent cell cycle control genes (the p16(INK4A), p53, and Rb1 genes) into human glioblastoma cells.
A DDITIVE G AUSSIAN PROCESSES FOR BLENDING GAUGE AND SATELLITE RAINFALL DATA

Predicting ground rainfall from satellite estimates is useful as input for many applications, especially for areas with sparse rain gauges. We propose a predictive model based on an Additive Gaussian process (AGP) which can be viewed as the sum of a GP for the influence of the satellite estimate and a GP for the spatial distribution of rainfall between gauges. The hyperparameters for the covariance function estimates maximize the leave-oneout predictive densities. Initial results indicate that the proposed AGP model provides more accurate predictions compared with traditional kriging and inverse weighting methods. I. DATA AND MOTIVATION Spatial estimates of ground rainfall are widely used for scientific applications such as modelling agricultural output and evaluating flood risk. Rain gauges can be sparse, especially in developing countries and in rural areas. Satellite estimates of rainfall provide uniform spatial coverage but are indirect estimates of precipitation, and tend to suffer from systematic bias. The proposed model takes as input satellite measurements for the entire region and gauge observations at specific locations, and can predict the expected monthly gauge rainfall at arbitrary points. The predicted gauge rainfall is a smooth spatial field. This allows for predictions of ground rainfall at new points, for which there have been no gauge observations. Satellite pixels are measured on a grid, and rain gauges are both observed and predicted at arbitrary locations.The satellite estimate of rainfall for a particular location is taken to be the value of the pixel which contains the location. The datasets used are the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B43v7 satellite estimates, and gauge observations from a region covering Pakistan and northwest India in which gauges are sparse. Only data from principal monsoon months, July and August, are used. Figure 1 shows an example predictive mean surface Corresponding author: H Strong, University of California, Irvine, Irvine CA hstrong@uci.edu 1 University of California, Irvine 2 International Research Institute for Climate and Society, Columbia University, New York based on some gauge observations for a particular month. The TRMM input is not shown.
Living Alone and Discharge to Skilled Nursing Facility Care after Hospitalization in Older Adults

Community‐based older adults are increasingly living alone. When they become ill, they might need greater support from the healthcare system than would those who live with others. There also has been a growing concern about the high use of postacute care such as skilled nursing facility (SNF) care and the level of variation in this use between hospitals and regions. Our objective was to examine whether living alone contributed to the risk of being discharged to a SNF.
Haematological anomalies in a fresh water teleost, Colisa fasciatus, on acute exposure to cobalt.

Colisa fasciatus, a fresh water teleost, when exposed for 90 hrs to a sublethal concentration of 195 p.p.m. (0.87 of the 96 hrs LC50 value) cobalt elicited leucopenia due to reduction in the number of circulating small lymphocytes. The treatment also caused decline in blood clotting time with a concomitant increase in the abundance of circulating thrombocytes. No differences in total erythrocyte count, haematocrit, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and haemoglobin values were found between the control and treated fish. The hepatosomatic index of fish increased significantly after exposure to cobalt. Results are discussed in terms of fish's reaction to acute stress.
WHO coordinated research on the role of animals in influenza epidemiology: introduction.

One of the most intriguing problems in the field of communicable diseases centres in the origin of " new " pandemic strains of influenzavirus. Although accurate identification of human influenza did not begin until Smith et al.1 reported the isolation of the virus from human nasal washings, descriptions of " influenza " pandemics during the past several hundred years leave little doubt that at least some of those described correspond to the pandemics experienced during the last 40 years for which the strains of virus responsible have been isolated and studied. Shope,2 however, had already reported the isolation of a strain of virus from cases of swine influenza and he should be given credit for providing the first real evidence of the viral etiology of influenza. Shope 3 reviewed his own classical work in swine and related it to the 1957 pandemic, which started in China and subsequently swept throughout the world, and to earlier pandemics. It had long been Shope's contention that swine in the USA had acquired their influenza infection from humans during the 1918 pandemic and that the viral strain he isolated in 1931 represented, in fact, the prototype of the 1918 pandemic. Subsequent serological and epidemiological investigations in man lent support to this hypothesis. But it was not until the recent pandemic caused by the A/Hong Kong/68 (H3N2) strain that direct evidence was obtained of widespread infection of swine with a human strain,4 and thus that influenza sometimes behaves as a zoonosis. It should be added that while the linked cycle, discovered by Shope, between swine infection with Haemophilus influenza suis and virus transmitted through swine lungworms and earthworms may occur, with clinical infection being precipitated by weather change, such a biologically complicated arrangement is apparently not essential for natural infection according to the epidemiological studies reported by Nakamura et al. on page 481 of this issue. The crucial question in influenza epidemiology, which still remains unanswered, is the origin of " new" pandemic subtypes with their major antigenic shifts. Before the 1957 pandemic only a few workers, led by Shope, paid any attention to the possible relationship between animal and human influenza. In 1955 and 1956 the recognition that the viruses causing fowl plague, duck influenza, and equine influenza belonged to the same group as human influenza type A spurred some interest in this field.5. 6, 7, 8, 9 Thus in July 1957, soon after the onset of the new Asian virus
N glycosylation of the virus binding domain is not essential for function of the human poliovirus receptor

The human poliovirus receptor (hPVR) is a glycoprotein with three immunoglobulin-like extracellular domains, of which the N-terminal domain (V-type domain) is necessary and sufficient for virus binding and uptake. The effect of N glycosylation of the V domain of hPVR on binding and entry of poliovirus was studied. Stable mouse L-cell lines were generated that express PVR-specific cDNA. One of the cell lines expressed a mutant of hPVR, in which both asparagine residues of the two N-glycosylation sites of the V domain were changed to aspartate (N105D) and serine (N120S), respectively. In the second mutant cell line, the portion of the cDNA encoding the V domain of hPVR was substituted by the homologous sequence of the recently isolated PVR cDNA from monkey cells. This V domain naturally lacks both N glycosylation sites and encodes D105 and S120 at the respective positions of the open reading frame. Absence of N glycosylation at these sites was demonstrated by in vitro translation of the two mutant coding sequences in the presence of microsomal membranes. Both PVR mutant cell lines were capable of poliovirus binding and replication. However, binding of anti-PVR monoclonal antibody D171 and protection from viral replication by this antibody were observed only with the glycosylation mutant carrying the human V domain. In contrast, infection of the cell line expressing the monkey-human hybrid receptor was not blocked even though monkey cells are fully protected by monoclonal antibody D171. The data suggest that N glycosylation of the V domain of hPVR is not essential for viral replication in human tissues and that differential glycosylation of hPVR at these sites is likely not a determinant of viral tissue tropism. Furthermore, the virus binding site and the epitope recognized by monoclonal antibody D171 do not appear to overlap.
Ways to Improve Temperature Measurement Accuracy of InfraScope Thermal Mapper

In this paper we discuss the ways to improve the accuracy of InfraScope Thermal Mapper. We demonstrate the theory about space resolution and how it influences the temperature measurement using InfraScope Thermal Mapper. Then a way to enhance the accuracy by choosing the space resolution adequately is presented. Some experiments are designed and the results prove the way is effective. Then we study on the basic structures and work procedures of this instrument, combining with theory analysis we conclude an efficient emissivity measurement method. Following which we can measure emissivity at a single temperature. Then we analyze errors brought in by this method in emissivity calculation procedure, deliberately propose ways to improve on the measurement accuracy. At last, we verify the improvement by precise experiments.
Quick recovery in Transactional Flash

Maintaining metadata consistency is a critical issue in designing a filesystem. Although satisfactory solutions are available for filesystems residing on magnetic disks, these solutions may not give adequate performance for filesystems residing on flash devices. Prabhakaran et al. have designed a metadata consistency mechanism specifically for flash chips, called Transactional Flash[1]. It uses cyclic commit mechanism to provide transactional abstractions. Although significant improvement over usual journaling techniques, this mechanism has certain drawbacks such as complex protocol and necessity to read whole flash during recovery, which slows down recovery process. In this paper we propose addition of thin journaling layer on top of Transactional Flash to simplify the protocol and speed up the recovery process. The simplified protocol named Quick Recovery Cyclic Commit (QRCC) uses journal stored on NOR flash for recovery. Our evaluations on actual raw flash card show that journal writes add negligible penalty compared to original Transactional Flash's write performance, while quick recovery is facilitated by journal in case of failures.
A Carrier-Based PWM Strategy With the Offset Voltage Injection for Single-Phase Three-Level Neutral-Point-Clamped Converters

Single-phase three-level neutral point clamped (NPC) converters are widely applied in high-speed railway electrical traction drive systems. A significant problem related to the single-phase three-level NPC converters is the fluctuation of the neutral-point voltage. In this paper, a capacitor voltage balancing technique is proposed that injects an offset voltage into the sinusoidal modulating signals of the conventional carrier-based pulsewidth modulation (CBPWM) method. Furthermore, when the injected offset voltage is maximized, it cannot only balance the dc-link capacitors voltages, but also reduce switching losses. Theoretical analysis has shown that both methods can control the neutral point voltage effectively, but the neutral point voltage controller in the CBPWM with maximum offset voltage injection (CBPWM-MOVI) has a faster dynamic response. It was observed that the high-order harmonics frequencies of the line current are centered around the twice switching frequency in the CBPWM with the offset voltage injection (CBPWM-OVI) but are centered around the switching frequency in the CBPWM-MOVI. And also, the CBPWM-MOVI has switching commutations number at least 25% below that of the CBPWM-OVI in one modulating signal period. The performances of the two strategies were verified by simulation and experimental tests.
Modified Form of the Fibrinogen Bβ Chain (des-Gln Bβ), a Potential Long-Lived Marker of Pancreatitis

Background: During an investigation of genetic variants of fibrinogen, we observed a novel form of the Bβ chain, with a mass decrease of approximately 128 Da, in one of the controls. The plasma sample originated from an individual who had experienced acute pancreatitis a week earlier but whose serum amylase activity had returned to normal. We investigated the structure of the modified fibrinogen and explored its relationship to pancreatic disease. Method: Fibrinogen was isolated from the plasma of 9 individuals with increased pancreatic amylase activity (114–1826 U/L) and presumed pancreatitis and from 6 control individuals with amylase activities <56 U/L. Fibrinogen (or fibrin) Bβ chains were isolated by reversed-phase HPLC and analyzed directly by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Tryptic and CNBr peptide mapping and thrombin treatment pinpointed the location of the 128-Da loss in mass. Results: The acquired fibrinogen Bβ chain modification was attributable to the loss of its C-terminal glutamine residue. Incubating purified fibrinogen with pancreatic carboxypeptidase A (CpA) produced an identical modification. The des-Gln Bβ fibrinogen accounted for >80% of the Bβ chains in 3 of the individuals with increased amylase but only approximately 5% of the Bβ chains in control samples. Conclusion: Pancreatic CpA activity is used as an index of acute pancreatic disease, but given that the circulatory half-lives of fibrinogen and CpA are approximately 4 days and only 2.5 h, respectively, measuring des-Gln Bβ fibrinogen, the in vivo product of CpA activity, could provide clinicians with retrospective evidence of disease.
Subthalamic Nucleus Lesions Are Neuroprotective against Terminal 6-OHDA-Induced Striatal Lesions and Restore Postural Balancing Reactions

Inactivation of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) by deep brain stimulation or lesioning can ameliorate symptoms in Parkinson' disease (PD) and may alter the underlying progressive degenerative process. We evaluated the effects of STN lesions in a terminal lesion model of PD in rats. Multiple intrastriatal 6-OHDA injections (4 x 7 microg) resulted in a partial loss of striatal TH-positive innervation (-30 to -40%) and nigral dopaminergic neurons (-60%), which was associated with behavioral deficits as observed in drug-induced rotational asymmetry, side-stepping, and postural balancing reactions. Unilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the STN did produce a 50-60% loss of STN neurons based on stereological analysis, which did not induce a functional impairment in rotational asymmetry or spontaneous sensorimotor behaviors. When STN lesions were performed 1 week prior to the 6-OHDA terminal striatal lesions, a significant rescue effect (+23%) on nigral dopaminergic neurons against terminal 6-OHDA neurotoxicity could be demonstrated, whereas striatal TH-positive fiber loss was not attenuated in these animals. In addition, animals with combined STN and striatal lesions exhibited a significant recovery in postural balancing reactions induced by 6-OHDA terminal lesions and did not show a significant impairment in any of the other behavioral parameters examined. Taken together, STN lesions can exert neuroprotective effects on nigral dopamine neurons in a partial lesion model of PD which result in recovery of spontaneous sensorimotor behavior. These findings may therefore provide new insights into the functional interaction between the glutamatergic and the dopaminergic neurotransmitter systems and foster novel therapeutic concepts for the early and middle phases of Parkinson's disease.