Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correction: Viral Glycoprotein Complex Formation, Essential Function and Immunogenicity in the Guinea Pig Model for Cytomegalovirus

Development of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) vaccine is a major public health priority due to the risk of congenital infection. A key component of a vaccine is thought to be an effective neutralizing antibody response against the viral glycoproteins necessary for cell entry. Species specificity of human CMV (HCMV) precludes direct studies in an animal model. The guinea pig is the only small animal model for congenital cytomegalovirus infection. Analysis of the guinea pig CMV (GPCMV) genome indicates that it potentially encodes homologs to the HCMV glycoproteins (including gB, gH, gL, gM, gN and gO) that form various cell entry complexes on the outside of the virus: gCI (gB); gCII (gH/gL/gO); gCIII (gM/gN). The gB homolog (GP55) has been investigated as a candidate subunit vaccine but little is known about the other homolog proteins. GPCMV glycoproteins were investigated by transient expression studies which indicated that homolog glycoproteins to gN and gM, or gH, gL and gO were able to co-localize in cells and generate respective homolog complexes which could be verified by immunoprecipitation assays. ELISA studies demonstrated that the individual complexes were highly immunogenic in guinea pigs. The gO (GP74) homolog protein has 13 conserved N-glycosylation sites found in HCMV gO. In transient expression studies, only the glycosylated protein is detected but in virus infected cells both N-glycosylated and non-glycosylated gO protein were detected. In protein interaction studies, a mutant gO that lacked N-glycosylation sites had no impact on the ability of the protein to interact with gH/gL which indicated a potential alternative function associated with these sites. Knockout GPCMV BACmutagenesis of the respective glycoprotein genes (GP55 for gB,GP75 for gH,GP115 for gL,GP100 for gM,GP73 for gN andGP74 for gO) in separate reactions was lethal for virus regeneration on fibroblast cells which demonstrated the essential nature of the GPCMV glycoproteins. The gene knockout results were similar to HCMV, except in the case of the gO homolog, which was non-essential in epithelial tropic virus but essential in lab adapted GPCMV. Overall, the findings demonstrate the similarity between HCMV and GPCMV glycoproteins and strengthen the relevance of this model for development of CMV intervention strategies. PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone. 0135567 August 12, 2015 1 / 33 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Coleman S, Hornig J, Maddux S, Choi KY, McGregor A (2015) Viral Glycoprotein Complex Formation, Essential Function and Immunogenicity in the Guinea Pig Model for Cytomegalovirus. PLoS ONE 10(8): e0135567. doi:10.1371/journal.
TRPV channels and vascular function

Transient receptor potential channels, of the vanilloid subtype (TRPV), act as sensory mediators, being activated by endogenous ligands, heat, mechanical and osmotic stress. Within the vasculature, TRPV channels are expressed in smooth muscle cells, endothelial cells, as well as in peri‐vascular nerves. Their varied distribution and polymodal activation properties make them ideally suited to a role in modulating vascular function, perceiving and responding to local environmental changes. In endothelial cells, TRPV1 is activated by endocannabinoids, TRPV3 by dietary agonists and TRPV4 by shear stress, epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) and downstream of Gq‐coupled receptor activation. Upon activation, these channels contribute to vasodilation via nitric oxide, prostacyclin and intermediate/small conductance potassium channel‐dependent pathways. In smooth muscle, TRPV4 is activated by endothelial‐derived EETs, leading to large conductance potassium channel activation and smooth muscle hyperpolarization. Conversely, smooth muscle TRPV2 channels contribute to global calcium entry and may aid constriction. TRPV1 and TRPV4 are expressed in sensory nerves and can cause vasodilation through calcitonin gene‐related peptide and substance P release as well as mediating vascular function via the baroreceptor reflex (TRPV1) or via increasing sympathetic outflow during osmotic stress (TRPV4). Thus, TRPV channels play important roles in the regulation of normal and pathological cellular function in the vasculature.
Learning in Neural Networks with Material Synapses

We discuss the long term maintenance of acquired memory in synaptic connections of a perpetually learning electronic device. This is affected by ascribing each synapse a finite number of stable states in which it can maintain for indefinitely long periods. Learning uncorrelated stimuli is expressed as a stochastic process produced by the neural activities on the synapses. In several interesting cases the stochastic process can be analyzed in detail, leading to a clarification of the performance of the network, as an associative memory, during the process of uninterrupted learning. The stochastic nature of the process and the existence of an asymptotic distribution for the synaptic values in the network imply generically that the memory is a palimpsest but capacity is as low as log N for a network of N neurons. The only way we find for avoiding this tight constraint is to allow the parameters governing the learning process (the coding level of the stimuli; the transition probabilities for potentiation and depression and the number of stable synaptic levels) to depend on the number of neurons. It is shown that a network with synapses that have two stable states can dynamically learn with optimal storage efficiency, be a palimpsest, and maintain its (associative) memory for an indefinitely long time provided the coding level is low and depression is equilibrated against potentiation. We suggest that an option so easily implementable in material devices would not have been overlooked by biology. Finally we discuss the stochastic learning on synapses with variable number of stable synaptic states.
Keratinocyte Growth Factor Gene Delivery via Mesenchymal Stem Cells Protects against Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Lung Injury in Mice

Acute lung injury (ALI) and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are associated with high morbidity and mortality, and have no specific therapy. Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) is a critical factor for pulmonary epithelial repair and acts via the stimulation of epithelial cell proliferation. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been proved as good therapeutic vectors. Thus, we hypothesized that MSC-based KGF gene therapy would have beneficial effects on lipopolysaccharide(LPS)-induced lung injury. After two hours of intratracheal LPS administration to induce lung injury, mice received saline, MSCs alone, empty vector-engineered MSCs (MSCs-vec) or KGF-engineered MSCs (MSCs-kgf) via the tail vein. The MSCs-kgf could be detected in the recipient lungs and the level of KGF expression significantly increased in the MSCs-kgf mice. The MSC-mediated administration of KGF not only improved pulmonary microvascular permeability but also mediated a down-regulation of proinflammatory responses (reducing IL-1β and TNF-α) and an up-regulation of anti-inflammatory responses (increasing cytokine IL-10). Furthermore, the total severity scores of lung injury were significantly reduced in the MSCs-kgf group compared with the other three groups. The underlying mechanism of the protective effect of KGF on ALI may be attributed to the promotion of type II lung epithelial cell proliferation and the enhancement of surfactant synthesis. These findings suggest that MSCs-based KGF gene therapy may be a promising strategy for ALI treatment.
Logic Partition Orderings for Multi-FPGA Systems

One of the critical issues for multi-FPGA systems is developing software tools for automatically mapping circuits. In this paper we consider one step in this process, partitioning. We describe the task of finding partition orderings, i.e., determining the way in which a circuit should be bipartitioned so as to best map it to a multi-FPGA system. This allows multi-FPGA partitioners to harness standard partitioning techniques. We develop an algorithm for finding partition orderings, which includes a method for increasing parallelism in the process, as well as for including multi-sectioning and multi-way partitioning algorithms. This method is very efficient, and capable of handling most of the current multi-FPGA topologies.
Histomorphometric assessment of bone necrosis produced by two cryosurgery protocols using liquid nitrogen: an experimental study on rat femurs

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of liquid nitrogen cryosurgery on the femoral diaphysis of rats. Material and Methods The femoral diaphyses of 42 Wistar rats were exposed to three local and sequential applications of liquid nitrogen for 1 or 2 min, intercalated with periods of 5 min of passive thawing. The animals were sacrificed after 1, 2, 4 and 12 weeks and the specimens obtained were processed and analyzed histomorphometrically. Results The depth and extent of peak bone necrosis were 124.509 μm and 2087.094 μm for the 1-min protocol, respectively, and 436.424 μm and 12046.426 μm for the 2-min protocol. Peak necrosis was observed in the second experimental week with both cryotherapy protocols. Conclusions The present results indicate that the 2-min protocol produced more marked bone necrosis than the 1-min protocol. Although our results cannot be entirely extrapolated to clinical practice, they contribute to the understanding of the behavior of bone tissue submitted to different cycles of liquid nitrogen freezing and may serve as a basis for new studies.
Pathogen Inactivation of Cellular Blood Products—An Additional Safety Layer in Transfusion Medicine

In line with current microbial risk reduction efforts, pathogen inactivation (PI) technologies for blood components promise to reduce the residual risk of known and emerging infectious agents. The implementation of PI of labile blood components is slowly but steadily increasing. This review discusses the relevance of PI for the field of transfusion medicine and describes the available and emerging PI technologies that can be used to treat cellular blood products such as platelet and red blood cell units. In collaboration with the French medical device manufacturer Macopharma, the German Red Cross Blood Services developed a new UVC light-based PI method for platelet units, which is currently being investigated in clinical trials.
High-Performance, Language-Independent Morphological Segmentation

This paper introduces an unsupervised morphological segmentation algorithm that shows robust performance for four languages with different levels of morphological complexity. In particular, our algorithm outperforms Goldsmithis Linguistica and Creutz and Lagusis Morphessor for English and Bengali, and achieves performance that is comparable to the best results for all three PASCAL evaluation datasets. Improvements arise from (1) the use of relative corpus frequency and suffix level similarity for detecting incorrect morpheme attachments and (2) the induction of orthographic rules and allomorphs for segmenting words where roots exhibit spelling changes during morpheme attachments.
WebVizOr: A Visualization Tool for Applying Automated Oracles and Analyzing Test Results of Web Applications

Web applications are used extensively for a variety of critical purposes and, therefore, must be reliable. Since Web applications often contain large amounts of code and frequently undergo maintenance, testers need automated tools to execute large numbers of test cases to determine if an application is behaving correctly. Evaluating the voluminous output-typically Web pages full of content-is tedious and error-prone. To ease the difficulty, testers can apply automated oracles, which have tradeoffs in false positives and false negatives. In this paper, we present the design, implementation, and evaluation of WebVizOr, a tool that aids testers byapplying a set of oracles to the output from test cases and highlighting the symptoms of possible faults. Using WebVizOr, a tester can compare the test results from several executions of a test case and can more easily determine if a test case exposes a fault.
Using distributed genetic programming to evolve classifiers for a brain computer interface

The objective of this paper is to illustrate the application of genetic programming to evolve classifiers for multi-channel time series data. The paper shows how high performance distributed genetic pro- gramming (GP) has been implemented for evolving classifiers. The partic- ular application discussed herein is the classification of human electroen- cephalographic (EEG) signals for a brain-computer interface (BCI). The resulting classifying structures provide classification rates comparable to those obtained using traditional, human-designed, classification methods.
The pattern of lung cancer mortality in Montenegro

The aim of the study was to examine recent lung cancer mortality trends in Montenegro in the period 1976–2000, with special emphasis on correlation with tobacco consumption. A population-based study analysing lung cancer mortality in Montenegro in the period 1976–2000 was carried out. Mortality rates were adjusted by direct method. A cohort analysis of age-specific death rates was performed. The analysis of tobacco consumption (cigarettes consumption per capita) was based on the official data for the period 1965–1990. Linear regression coefficients in a time trends analysis of mortality rates and tobacco consumption were assessed using Fisher's test. The highest average standardized lung cancer mortality rates in Montenegro increased in each successive five-year period for both sexes from 1976 to 2000, with highest values in the last five years (1996–2000). In males the death rate has almost doubled, and in females it was nearly three-fold higher. In the cohort analysis of age-specific death rates, all age groups in the birth cohort born before 1911 had a higher lung cancer mortality risk than those in the birth cohort comprising those born between 1912 and 1931. The rates showed an increasing tendency in all age groups irrespective of sex, except in males in the 25–44 age group. The time analysis of lung cancer mortality rates for the period 1976–2000, revealed annual changes of 3% for males and 6.6% for females, respectively. During the period observed the consumption of cigarettes increased by 98.2% (from 1.064 kg per capita in 1965 to 2.109 kg per capita in 1990). The significant increasing tendency in cigarette consumption was registered (y=1.10+0.05x, P=0.001). A significant correlation between lung cancer mortality rates and cigarette consumption is also observed (r=0.427, P=0.037). Smoking trends up to the 1990s in Montenegro, indicate that one can expect lung cancer mortality rates to continue to increase in males but even more so in females.
Men and older people are less likely to use NHS Direct

EDITOR—Last year George discussed the underuse of NHS Direct by certain groups in society.1 Other investigators have also identified variations in the use and awareness of the service. 2 3 We examined this issue by conducting a survey of people in general practice waiting rooms at two surgeries in Southwark, London. We surveyed 207 people aged 13–90 (a …
The relation of ST segment deviations in 12-lead conventional Electrocardiogram, right and posterior leads with the site of occlusion in acute inferior myocardial infarction

Background: In addition to diagnosing the acute myocardial infarction (MI), stratifying high-risk patients and proper treatment strategies are important issues in managing patients complaining of chest pain and suspecting MI. Many studies have been conducted to predict the occlusion site by interpreting the ST segment deviations in Electrocardiogram (ECG). Additional posterior and right precordial leads are suggested in literature to increase the sensitivity of prediction. The goal of this study was to determine the relation of ST segment changes in ECG (conventional 12 leads ECG besides right and posterior leads) with the site of occlusion within the vessel. Methods: Retrospectively, from total 138 patients, 76 of them were analyzed as single vessel acute Inferior ST elevation Myocardial infarction (I-STEMI)-ST which 56 (74%) had Right Coronary Artery (RCA) occlusion [22(29.3%) proximal RCA, 24(32%) middle RCA and 10(13.3%) distal occlusion of RCA], 19(25%) had Left Circumflex artery (LCx) lesion and one had middle Left Anterior Descending (LAD) artery occlusion. On admission ECGs and coronary artery intervention films, were reported within maximum time of 6 days in hospital stay, and re-evaluated by two cardiologists. Results: Fiol’s algorithm was 93% sensitive and 50% specific for predicting RCA occlusion. The ST elevation in lead III was associated with RCA stenosis (Odds Ratio (OR): 12, Confidence Interval (CI): 2.2-68.9), the association between ST elevation in lead II with LCx involvement was not significant. The V4R was a good marker for RV involvement on-admission, (OR=8, CI: 1.6-37.5). Sum of ST deviation in posterior leads (V7 to V9) ≥ 2mm had positive and significant relation to LCx stenosis (OR=4, CI: 1.3-14). Conclusion: Benefit of adding posterior and right leads to 12-lead ECG is shown to be noteworthy in present and prior studies, in identifying LCx stenosis and poor prognosis involvement.
Output decisions for stochastic LDPC decoders

Stochastic decoding is a method to iteratively decode error-correcting codes such as low-density parity-check codes. Due to the computational simplicity of its decoding algorithm, stochastic decoding provides not only low silicon area but also competitive performance. In this paper, we research the different techniques used to determine the code bits generated by stochastic decoders during the final decision process. We investigate an efficient method where code bits are directly decided based on the final stochastic bits generated at output nodes. This observation contributes to saving chip area and providing high throughput for stochastic decoders.
Studies on cognitive performance in burnout

Studies on the relation between fatigue and performance often fail to find a strong and direct link, implying that multiple factors may be involved. A literature search on the fatigue-performance relationship suggests that two different conceptual frameworks are employed concerning the appraisal of fatigue in relation to performance: an adaptation-oriented framework and an emotion-related framework. In this study we investigated whether adaptation-oriented appraisal and emotion-related appraisal exist as separate dimensions in a healthy population. A list of statements derived from these frameworks was presented to 127 healthy individuals. A principal component analysis revealed a six-factor solution and a three-factor solution of fatigue appraisal, closely related to the conceptual frameworks. These findings are in line with our impressions from the literature that fatigue can be appraised in an adaptation-oriented way and in an emotion-related way. In addition, we found a third factor: “social rejection because of fatigue”. We investigated whether the different appraisal dimensions were related to general level of fatigue, anxiety and depression. Only emotion-related appraisal and general level of fatigue were related. Worrying and focusing on fatigue is apparently related to the experience of fatigue whereas attributing fatigue to the unrewarding properties of a task is not. Knowledge about the appraisaldimensions underlying the fatigue-performance relationship may contribute to a better understanding of individual differences in fatigue effects on performance.
Molecular and genetic markers in the local-regional management of breast cancer.

The clinical application of molecular markers in the diagnosis, staging, and management of breast cancer continues to expand. Although the use of molecular markers in local-regional disease does not approach the level of their application in the systemic management of breast cancer, a growing body of rature supports the potential for molecular and genetic factors in clinical decision making regarding the local-regional management of breast cancer. As with conventional clinical and histopathologic factors, data regarding molecular and genetic factors as they relate to local-regional relapse may be conflicting and are subject to the usual limitations of predominantly retrospective studies. There are, however, some consistent data suggesting associations between local-regional control of disease and several molecular markers, including hormone receptor status, HER2/neu, p53, proliferative markers, and others. Interpretation of these data and how to use this information in clinical practice remains challenging. The available rature regarding the use of genetic and molecular markers in the local-regional management of breast cancer is summarized in this review.
Artificial Neural Networks Background , Evolutionary Models and History *

The theory of the artificial neural networks (NNs) is an important division of the artificial intelligence (AI) theory. It reflects the key components of the AI-systems [1]: representation, reasoning and learning. On the other hand, according to [2] the artificial NNs differ from the symbolic AI-machines by the level of explanation, by their processing style and by their representational structure. If the symbolic AI is described in a “top-down” fashion, the NNs have a natural learning capability and they operate in a “bottom-up” manner. If in classical AI the emphasis is on building symbolic representations, which are discrete and arbitrary and the processing is sequential, the NN models are of a parallel distributed processing. In such models the processing takes place through the interaction of a large number of neurons. Each of the neurons sends excitatory or inhibitory signals to other neurons in the network. In addition, NNs place great emphasis on neurobiological explanation of cognitive phenomena. The role of the artificial NNs as a technical counterpart of their biological prototypes is explained in Section 2. If in classical AI the processing is sequential, which most probably can be explained by the sequential nature of natural language and logical inference, and also by the von Neumann’s machine structure, the parallelism in the NNs makes them more flexible and robust. The false switching of a single neuron is not crucial for the whole system, because each feature is spread in parallel to many neurons. The automatic processing of contextual information is another important corollary of parallelism. Knowledge in NNs is not represented by declarative expressions, but by the very structure and activation state of the network. It is the whole NN that is responsible for the solution of a given problem. Every neuron is potentially affected by the global activity of all other neurons in the network and the result is an automatic context handling. The texts most closely related to the NN processing style, but encompassing the representativeness of classical AI (in hybrid models) are cited in Section 3.