Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immune response to experimentally induced infection with respiratory syncytial virus: possible role in the development of pulmonary disease.

Groups of mice were immunized intraperitoneally with HEp-2 lysate or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-infected HEp-2 cells with or without adjuvant(s). The animals were subsequently challenged intranasally (i.n.) with RSV and/or HEp-2 lysate and studied for RSV shedding in the lung, antigen-specific antibody response and pulmonary histopathology. A significant decrease in virus shedding was detected in each of four groups of animals immunized with a virus preparation and in two of four groups that received a HEp-2 lysate. Mice immunized with adjuvant(s) developed higher antibody-specific responses. All vaccinated animals developed pulmonary histopathology only on subsequent i.n. inoculation with RSV and/or HEp-2 lysate. Denatured extracts of purified RSV, HEp-2, BALB/c lung, cotton rat lung, Buffalo green monkey kidney and human buccal epithelium were tested for reactivity against the sera of immunized mice by an immunoblot method. Sera from all groups of immunized mice reacted with the extracts tested. The data suggest a possible role of reactivity to viral as well as non-viral components in the pathogenesis of RSV vaccine-induced pulmonary inflammation in the mouse model system.
Transcription Factor Early Growth Response 3 Is Associated with the TGF-β1 Expression and the Regulatory Activity of CD4-Positive T Cells In Vivo

TGF-β1 is an important anti-inflammatory cytokine, and several regulatory T cell (Treg) subsets including CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs and Th3 cells have been reported to exert regulatory activity via the production of TGF-β1. However, it has not yet been elucidated which transcription factor is involved in TGF-β1 transcription. Early growth response 3 (Egr-3) is a zinc-finger transcription factor that creates and maintains T cell anergy. In this study, we found that Egr-3 induces the expression of TGF-β1 in both murine and human CD4+ T cells. Egr-3 overexpression in murine CD4+ T cells induced the production of TGF-β1 and enhanced the phosphorylation of STAT3, which is associated with TGF-β1 transcription. Moreover, Egr-3 conferred Ag-specific regulatory activity on murine CD4+ T cells. In collagen-induced arthritis and delayed-type hypersensitivity model mice, Egr-3–transduced CD4+ T cells exhibited significant regulatory activity in vivo. In particular, the suppression of delayed-type hypersensitivity depended on TGF-β1. In human tonsils, we found that CD4+CD25−CD45RO−lymphocyte activation gene 3 (LAG3)− T cells express membrane-bound TGF-β1 in an EGR3-dependent manner. Gene-expression analysis revealed that CD4+CD25−CD45RO−LAG3− T cells are quite different from conventional CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Tregs. Intriguingly, the CD4+CD25−CD45RO−LAG3− T cells suppressed graft-versus-host disease in immunodeficient mice transplanted with human PBMCs. Our results suggest that Egr-3 is a transcription factor associated with TGF-β1 expression and in vivo regulatory activity in both mice and humans.
Molecular cloning and characterization of gag-, pol-, and env-related gene sequences in the ev- chicken

Using less stringent hybridization conditions and cloned viral DNA probes representing the avian sarcoma virus gag, pol, env, and long terminal repeat (LTR) gene sequences, we detected related sequences in two avian species purportedly lacking all endogenous avian leukosis viruses, the ev- chicken and the Japanese quail. The blot hybridization patterns obtained with the various probes suggest the presence of between 40 and 100 copies of retrovirus-related sequences in the genomes of these two species. An ev- chicken genomic DNA library was prepared and screened with gag-specific and pol-specific DNA probes. Several different clones were obtained from this library and characterized. Analysis of these clones revealed that the retrovirus-related gene sequences are linked in the order LTR-gag-pol-env-LTR, a structure indicative of a complete provirus. These data indicate the presence of previously unidentified endogenous retrovirus species in avian cells, suggesting that under the appropriate conditions of hybridization additional, more distantly evolved families of endogenous retrovirus genes may be identified in vertebrate species.
On the optimal choice of strike conventions in exchange option pricing

An important but rarely-addressed option pricing question is how to choose appropriate strikes for implied volatility inputs when pricing more exotic multi-asset derivatives. By means of Malliavin Calculus we construct an optimal log-linear strikevconvention for exchange options under stochastic volatility models. This novel approach allows us to minimize the difference between the corresponding Margrabe computed price and the true option price. We show that this optimal convention does not depend on the specific stochastic volatility model chosen. Numerical examples are given which provide strong support to the new methodology.
A common module mining method for variant products

It is obvious that product variation and customization have become the current trend to fulfill the customer requirements in severe competitive environment. However, how to manage the ever-increasing number of variant products becomes a critical challenge for enterprises. To address this problem, this research proposes a common module mining method to derive common modules from variant products. First, each product is decomposed into a set of single-level trees (SLTs). Then, SLT similarities in any pair of SLTs in the product database are derived. Finally, a mining algorithm is developed to generate common modules. A set of experiments are conducted to show the feasibility of the proposed method. These common modules are found so that similar production and maintain approaches can be applied. The result shows that the proposed method is a valuable tool to manage massive variant products.
Multivariate predictors of blood product use in cardiac surgery.

OBJECTIVE To determine factors associated with an increased risk of post-cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) blood product usage in adult cardiac surgical patients. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Academic hospital. PARTICIPANTS Patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB were studied over a 7-month period. INTERVENTIONS The outcomes studied were receipt of more than 2 U of packed red blood cells (PRBCs), receipt of any other blood component products (cryoprecipitate, fresh-frozen plasma [FFP], or platelets), or surgical re-exploration for bleeding. Preoperative and intraoperative risk factors for bleeding were analyzed. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Increased age and preoperative creatinine level, low body surface area, preoperative hematocrit, nonelective surgery, lower temperature on bypass, and duration of bypass were associated with an increased risk of transfusion of >2 U of PRBCs. Low body surface area, repeat surgery, nonelective surgery, and CPB time were associated with transfusion of platelets, fresh-frozen plasma, or cryoprecipitate and/or surgical re-exploration. The following factors were associated with neither transfusion of more than 2 U of PRBC nor transfusion of platelets, FFP or cryoprecipitate, or surgical re-exploration: gender, preoperative international normalized ratio, preoperative antiplatelet medications, and preoperative intravenous heparin. CONCLUSION Therapies aimed at reducing transfusion of blood products should be aimed at those patients with low body surface areas, baseline anemia, and those undergoing long or repeat surgeries.
Analysis of the Role of the EnvZ Linker Region in Signal Transduction Using a Chimeric Tar/EnvZ Receptor Protein, Tez1*

Tez1 is a chimeric protein in which the periplasmic and transmembrane domains of Tar, a chemosensor, are fused to the cytoplasmic catalytic domain of EnvZ, an osmosensing histidine kinase, through the EnvZ linker. Unlike Taz1 (a similar hybrid with the Tar linker), Tez1 could not respond to Tar ligand, aspartate, whereas single Ala insertion at the transmembrane/linker junction, as seen in Tez1A1, restored the aspartate-regulatable phenotype. Analysis of the Ala insertion site requirement and the nature of the insertion residue on the phenotype of Tez1 indicated that a junction region between the transmembrane domain and the predicted helix I in the linker is critical to signal transduction. Random mutagenesis revealed that P185Q mutation in the Tez1 linker restored the aspartate-regulatable phenotype. Substitution mutations at Pro-185 further demonstrated that specific residues are required at this site for an aspartate response. None of the hybrid receptors constructed with different Tar/EnvZ fusion sites in the linker could respond to aspartate, suggesting that specific interactions between the two predicted helices in the linker are important for the linker function. In addition, a mutation (F220D) known to cause an OmpCc phenotype in EnvZ resulted in similar OmpCc phenotypes in both Tez1A1 and Tez1, indicating the importance of the predicted helix II in signal propagation. Together, we propose that the N-terminal junction region modulates the alignment between the two helices in the linker upon signal input. In turn helix II propagates the resultant conformational signal into the downstream catalytic domain of EnvZ to regulate its bifunctional enzymatic activities.
Deprivation and quality of primary care services: evidence for persistence of the inverse care law from the UK Quality and Outcomes Framework

Objective: To examine whether the quality of primary care measured by the 2004 contract varies with socioeconomic deprivation. Design: Retrospective analysis of publicly available data, comparing quality indicators used for payment that allow exclusion of patients (payment quality) and indicators based on the care delivered to all patients (delivered quality). Setting and participants: 1024 general practices in Scotland. Main outcome measures: Regression coefficients summarising the relationships between deprivation and payment and delivered quality. Results: Little systematic association is found between payment quality and deprivation but, for 17 of the 33 indicators examined, delivered quality falls with increasing deprivation. Absolute differences in delivered quality are small for most simpler process measures, such as recording of smoking status or blood pressure. Greater inequalities are seen for more complex process measures such as diagnostic procedures, some intermediate outcome measures such as glycaemic control in diabetes and measures of treatment such as influenza immunisation. Conclusions: The exclusions system succeeds in not penalising practices financially for the characteristics of the population they serve, but does not reward the additional work required in deprived areas and contributes to a continuation of the inverse care law. The contract data collected prevent examination of most complex process or treatment measures and this analysis is likely to underestimate the extent of continuing inequalities in care. Broader lessons cannot be drawn on the effect on inequalities of this new set of incentives until changes are made to the way contract data are collected and analysed.
BD-QRD, Block THP and Constrained Sphere Decoding for Multi-User MIMO Systems

This paper presents a multi-user MIMO transceiver design with a block-based decomposition and precoding scheme. To exploit spatial diversity, we propose to use block-diagonal QR decomposition (BD- QRD) to decompose the channel matrix. To eliminate multiple access interference (MAI), block- Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (B-THP) is further proposed to be combined with BD-QRD so that the equivalent channel matrix after precoding at the transmitter becomes a block diagonal matrix. On the other hand, the block-based sorting is adopted to balance the energy spread among all spatial pipes for BD-QRD and thus the performance can be further enhanced. With these decomposition and precoding techniques at the transmitter, the sphere decoding (SD) techniques can be employed at the receiver with a small revision to constrain the search space. We show that the proposed BD-QRD, B-THP, and constrained SD for multi-user MIMO systems retaining the spatial diversity, outperform the conventional QRD-THP and BD-SVD in the interested SNR region.
Psychiatric Interviewing Techniques III. Naturalistic Study: Eliciting Feelings

Summary A naturalistic study was undertaken of 36 video and audio-taped interviews undertaken by 7 different psychiatric trainees. The interviews studied were those conducted in the ordinary course of clinic work for diagnostic and therapeutic planning purposes by trainees when first seeing the parent or parents of a child newly referred to a psychiatric clinic. It was found that a variety of rather different interview techniques seemed to facilitate emotional expression. These included a low level of interview talk with few interruptions, a high rate of open rather than closed questions, direct requests for feelings, interpretations and expressions of sympathy. The issue of how far these associations reflected causal influences is discussed.
Immunocytochemical localization of estrogen and progesterone receptors in imprint preparations of breast carcinomas

The role of mammography as an effective means of early detection of breast cancer is well established. Needle localization of occult tumors under mammographic guidance has become the principle method of sampling impalpable breast lesions. As a result, the number of clinically inapparent breast carcinomas sampled has increased rapidly. Under these circumstances, as a result of the size and the nature of these “early carcinomas,” it may not be possible to assess the hormone receptor expression of these tumors by conventional biochemical assay and/or immunocytochemical analysis. To determine the usefulness of imprint preparation for detecting hormone receptors, 214 examples of primary, recurrent, and metastatic breast cancers were studied. Immunostaining of imprint preparations with monoclonal antibodies against the estrogen (H222SPy) and progesterone receptors (KD68) showed a high degree of concordance with immunocytochemical assay and biochemical analysis done on frozen tissue of the same tumors. This technique can be done easily and is well suited for tumors that are too small and/or ill defined to permit separate sampling for hormone receptor analysis.
EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP, QUALITY OF PEOPLE DAN QUALITY OF WORK METHODS DALAM MENDORONG KESIAPAN INDIVIDU UNTUK BERUBAH

Abstract: Individual readiness to change is an important factor and indispensable in the process of organizational change. Aspects of 'people' and 'methods' can affect an individual's readiness to change. This study aims to fill the research gap that has not been observed in the literature about individual readiness to change through the quality of human resources and quality of working process. Besides, this study also purposes to give theoretical contribution related to the importance of empowering leadership role through the people dimension (employee engagement) and work method dimention (culture of innovation) in affecting the individual‟s readiness to change. We SEM (Structural Equation Modeling) test statistical software SmartPLS to test model. The population of this study was 100 civil servants in all departments/agencies in Semarang. The results showed that Empowering Leadership influenced Employee Engagement, and Innovation Culture. While Employee Engagement significantly effects on Readiness to Change, and Innovation Culture does not significantly effect on Readiness to Change. The implication of this research is the leader of an organization should maximize the role of leadership that empowers or empowering leadership in influencing the readiness of individuals that exist within the organization to change towards better.
Hypertension and the eye

Purpose of review This article reviews the findings of systemic hypertension in the eye and how these changes represent disease in the eye itself, as well as the predictive value of fundoscopic findings in relation to overall health. Systemic hypertension is associated with observable changes in the retinal microvasculature, including retinopathy, choroidopathy and optic neuropathy, as well as with an increased risk of ocular vascular abnormalities such as arterial and venous occlusive disease, retinal arteriolar macroaneurysm formation and embolic events. Hypertension also confers increased risk for development and progression of diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration. Grading systems have been proposed that attempt to correlate observed ocular hypertensive changes with systemic vascular disease severity, morbidity and mortality. Recent findings The widespread availability of digital imaging systems and computer analysis along with revised grading systems has enabled a more precise and reliable examination. This has renewed the interest in the use of routine fundoscopic screening for patients with hypertension in an effort to identify microvascular changes that may provide prognostic information for cardiovascular risk stratification and disease progression. Summary Identification of early microvascular changes on fundoscopic examination using reliable and reproducible imaging techniques may become an important and routine screening modality for the prevention and management of both the ocular and systemic complications of hypertension.
Sympathetic and reflex abnormalities in heart failure secondary to ischaemic or idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy.

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is characterized by a sympathetic activation and a baroreflex impairment whose degree is directly related to the clinical severity of the disease. However, whether these abnormalities vary according to the ischaemic or idiopathic dilated nature of the CHF state has not been conclusively documented. In patients with a clinically stable, chronic CHF state in New York Heart Association functional class II and III, due either to ischaemic heart disease (IHD; n=22, age 60.3+/-2.4 years, means+/-S.E.M.) or to idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC; n=20, age 58.9+/-2.8 years), and in 30 age-matched controls, we measured arterial blood pressure (using a Finapres device), heart rate (by electrocardiogram) and postganglionic muscle sympathetic nerve traffic (by microneurography) at rest and during baroreceptor manipulation induced by the vasoactive drug-infusion technique. Blood pressure values were not significantly different in CHF patients and controls. Compared with controls, heart rate was similarly increased and left ventricular ejection fraction (by echocardiography) similarly reduced in CHF patients with IHD or IDC. Muscle sympathetic nerve traffic was significantly greater in CHF patients than in controls, and did not differ between patients with IHD or IDC (67.3+/-4.2 and 67.8+/-3.8 bursts/100 heart beats respectively). This was also the case for the degree of baroreflex impairment. These data show that CHF states due to IHD or to IDC are characterized by a similar degree of peripheral sympathetic activation and by a similar impairment of the baroreflex function. Thus the neuroadrenergic and reflex abnormalities characterizing CHF are independent of its aetiology.
Acute, unilateral transverse sinus occlusion during craniectomy in seven dogs with space-occupying intracranial disease.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of acute, unilateral transverse sinus occlusion on intracranial pressure (ICP) and postoperative mortality in dogs with structural intracranial disease. STUDY DESIGN Affected dogs had a single transverse sinus occluded during craniectomy for intracranial mass biopsy or removal. ANIMALS Seven dogs with space-occupying intracranial disease in the cerebellopontine angle area. METHODS The ipsilateral transverse sinus was permanently occluded during the surgical approach to the intracranial lesion to increase surgical exposure by allowing a caudal lateral rostrotentorial craniectomy to be combined with a suboccipital craniectomy. In five dogs, intracranial pressure was monitored during surgery using a fiberoptic intracranial pressure monitoring device. RESULTS Initial ICP varied among dogs, ranging from 7 to 21 mm Hg. Intracranial pressure, however, decreased in all dogs after craniectomy and durotomy (P < .05). No increase in intracranial pressure occurred after transverse sinus occlusion (P = .42). All dogs survived the surgical procedure. CONCLUSIONS Acute, unilateral transverse sinus occlusion during craniectomy in dogs with space-occupying intracranial lesions did not result in significant increases in ICP or intraoperative mortality. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Acute, unilateral transverse sinus occlusion during craniectomy can be used to increased surgical exposure to the caudal fossa of the brain without increased risk of increasing ICP.
Toward better refinement of comparative models: Predicting loops in inexact environments

Achieving atomic‐level accuracy in comparative protein models is limited by our ability to refine the initial, homolog‐derived model closer to the native state. Despite considerable effort, progress in developing a generalized refinement method has been limited. In contrast, methods have been described that can accurately reconstruct loop conformations in native protein structures. We hypothesize that loop refinement in homology models is much more difficult than loop reconstruction in crystal structures, in part, because side‐chain, backbone, and other structural inaccuracies surrounding the loop create a challenging sampling problem; the loop cannot be refined without simultaneously refining adjacent portions. In this work, we single out one sampling issue in an artificial but useful test set and examine how loop refinement accuracy is affected by errors in surrounding side‐chains. In 80 high‐resolution crystal structures, we first perturbed 6–12 residue loops away from the crystal conformation, and placed all protein side chains in non‐native but low energy conformations. Even these relatively small perturbations in the surroundings made the loop prediction problem much more challenging. Using a previously published loop prediction method, median backbone (N‐Cα‐C‐O) RMSD's for groups of 6, 8, 10, and 12 residue loops are 0.3/0.6/0.4/0.6 Å, respectively, on native structures and increase to 1.1/2.2/1.5/2.3 Å on the perturbed cases. We then augmented our previous loop prediction method to simultaneously optimize the rotamer states of side chains surrounding the loop. Our results show that this augmented loop prediction method can recover the native state in many perturbed structures where the previous method failed; the median RMSD's for the 6, 8, 10, and 12 residue perturbed loops improve to 0.4/0.8/1.1/1.2 Å. Finally, we highlight three comparative models from blind tests, in which our new method predicted loops closer to the native conformation than first modeled using the homolog template, a task generally understood to be difficult. Although many challenges remain in refining full comparative models to high accuracy, this work offers a methodical step toward that goal. Proteins 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
The EU's "Rhetorical Entrapment" in Enlargement Reconsidered: Why Hasn't It Worked for Turkey?

This article analyzes the EU’s December 2004 Brussels decision regarding membership talks with Turkey. While the Brussels Council launched accession negotiations with Turkey, the adopted Framework for Negotiations formulated exceptionally stringent membership terms. This is a puzzle for normative institutionalism because prior to Brussels, Turkey had su! ciently complied with the EU’s liberal democratic membership criteria and systematically engaged in “rhetorical action” to “entrap” the EU in its liberal, inclusionary enlargement discourse. It is argued that the puzzle is explained by how the EU member states’ enlargement preferences played out in an intergovernmental bargaining context when it came to the inclusion of Turkey. ABSTRACT The EU’s “Rhetorical Entrapment” in Enlargement Reconsidered: Why Hasn’t It Worked for Turkey?