Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isotypically restricted activation of B lymphocytes by lactic dehydrogenase virus

Lactic dehydrogenase elevating virus (LDV) was found to selectively stimulate IgG2a synthesis in infected mice. Within one week after infection, the production of IgG2a increased nearly 50‐fold whereas that of IgM, IgA, IgGl and IgG3 remained virtually unchanged. IgG2b synthesis was also enhanced but to a lesser extent. Several observations suggested that this stimulation of IgG2 production resulted from a polyclonal B cell activation: (a) the isoelectric focusing patterns of IgG2a, before and after LDV infection were exactly the same, (b) the frequency of clones with anti‐LDV activity in hybridoma collections derived from infected mice was extremely low (less than 4/ 1000) and (c) the proliferative response elicited by LDV in unsensitized animals was comparable with that induced by lipopolysaccharide. The effect of LDV on immunoglobulin synthesis was drastically reduced in nude mice but was not affected by the X‐linked B lymphocyte defect of animals carrying the xid mutation.
Establishing a cancer caregivers program: An interdisciplinary approach

Recent improvements in diagnostic techniques and treatment modalities have resulted in increasing numbers of cancer patients receiving therapies on an ambulatory basis. In addition, current health care economics and the impact of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) have contributed to decreasing lengths of hospital stays. As a result, the responsibility of providing care for the patient with cancer at home often rests mainly with the family members. A review of the literature indicated that this responsibility contributes to stress for family caregivers because of their lack of knowledge in implementing the skills required in managing the day-to-day care of the patients. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methodological strategies used in developing a cancer caregivers program. The objectives of the program were to assist family caregivers in meeting the physical needs of the patient at home as well as to enable the family caregivers to care for themselves.
Cognitive outcome following brain injury and treatment with an inhibitor of Nogo-A in association with an attenuated downregulation of hippocampal growth-associated protein-43 expression.

OBJECT Central nervous system axons regenerate poorly after traumatic brain injury (TBI), partly due to inhibitors such as the protein Nogo-A present in myelin. The authors evaluated the efficacy of anti-Nogo-A monoclonal antibody (mAb) 7B12 administration on the neurobehavioral and cognitive outcome of rats following lateral fluid-percussion brain injury, characterized the penetration of the 7B12 or control antibodies into target brain regions, and evaluated the effects of Nogo-A inhibition on hemispheric tissue loss and sprouting of uninjured motor tracts in the cervical cord. To elucidate a potential molecular response to Nogo-A inhibition, we evaluated the effects of 7B12 on hippocampal GAP-43 expression. METHODS Beginning 24 hours after lateral fluid-percussion brain injury or sham injury in rats, the mAb 7B12 or control antibody was infused intracerebroventricularly over 14 days, and behavior was assessed over 4 weeks. RESULTS Immunoreactivity for 7B12 or immunoglobulin G was detected in widespread brain regions at 1 and 3 weeks postinjury. The brain-injured animals treated with 7B12 showed improvement in cognitive function (p < 0.05) at 4 weeks but no improvement in neurological motor function from 1 to 4 weeks postinjury compared with brain-injured, vehicle-treated controls. The enhanced cognitive function following inhibition of Nogo-A was correlated with an attenuated postinjury downregulation of hippocampal GAP-43 expression (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Increased GAP-43 expression may be a novel molecular mechanism of the enhanced cognitive recovery mediated by Nogo-A inhibition after TBI in rats.
Mutations in the Human Cytomegalovirus UL27 Gene That Confer Resistance to Maribavir

ABSTRACT Previous drug selection experiments resulted in the isolation of a human cytomegalovirus (CMV) UL97 phosphotransferase mutant resistant to the benzimidazole compound maribavir (1263W94), reflecting the anti-UL97 effect of this drug. Three other CMV strains were plaque purified during these experiments. These strains showed lower-grade resistance to maribavir than the UL97 mutant. Extensive DNA sequence analyses showed no changes from the baseline strain AD169 in UL97, the genes involved in DNA replication, and most structural proteins. However, changes were identified in UL27 where each strain contained a different mutation (R233S, W362R, or a combination of A406V and a stop at codon 415). The mutation at codon 415 is predicted to truncate the expressed UL27 protein by 193 codons (32% of UL27) with a loss of nuclear localization. The expression of full-length UL27 as a green fluorescent fusion protein in uninfected fibroblasts resulted in nuclear and nucleolar fluorescence, whereas cytoplasmic localization was observed when codons 1 to 415 were similarly expressed. Viable UL27 deletion mutants were created by recombination and showed slight growth attenuation and maribavir resistance in cell culture. Marker transfer experiments confirmed that UL27 mutations conferred maribavir resistance. The UL27 sequence was well conserved in a sample of 16 diverse clinical isolates. Mutation in UL27, a betaherpesvirus-specific early gene of unknown biological function, may adapt the virus for growth in the absence of UL97 activity.
HIV/AIDS Prevention Among the Male Population: Results of a Peer Education Program for Taxicab and Tricycle Drivers in the Philippines

This study assesses the results of a 2-year community-based peer education program aimed at increasing HIV/AIDS knowledge, attitudes toward condoms, and condom use behavior among taxicab and tricycle drivers in the Philippines. Pretest, posttest, and follow-up data were collected throughout the educational intervention program. The results of the repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicate a significant change on knowledge about HIV/AIDS from baseline to posttest and from posttest to follow-up (F= 449.27, df= 2, p< .001). There was also a significant change on attitudes about condom use from baseline to posttest and from posttest to follow-up (F= 425.19, df= 2, p= 0.001), and a significant effect on condom use behavior with commercial sex workers from baseline to posttest and follow-up (F= 428.31, df= 2, p= .001). The peer-mediated intervention was found to be an effective means of HIV/AIDS prevention among taxi and tricycle drivers in the Philippines.
Glycoprotein E1 of hog cholera virus expressed in insect cells protects swine from hog cholera

The processing and protective capacity of E1, an envelope glycoprotein of hog cholera virus (HCV), were investigated after expression of different versions of the protein in insect cells by using a baculovirus vector. Recombinant virus BacE1[+] expressed E1, including its C-terminal transmembrane region (TMR), and generated a protein which was similar in size (51 to 54 kDa) to the size of E1 expressed in swine kidney cells infected with HCV. The protein was not secreted from the insect cells, and like wild-type E1, it remained sensitive to endo-beta-N-acetyl-D-glucosaminidase H (endo H). This indicates that E1 with a TMR accumulates in the endoplasmic reticulum or cis-Golgi region of the cell. In contrast, recombinant virus BacE1[-], which expressed E1 without a C-terminal TMR, generated a protein that was secreted from the cells. The fraction of this protein that was found to be cell associated had a slightly lower molecular mass (49 to 52 kDa) than wild-type E1 and remained endo H sensitive. The high-mannose units of the secreted protein were trimmed during transport through the exocytotic pathway to endo H-resistant glycans, resulting in a protein with a lower molecular mass (46 to 48 kDa). Secreted E1 accumulated in the medium to about 30 micrograms/10(6) cells. This amount was about 3-fold higher than that of cell-associated E1 in BacE1[-] and 10-fold higher than that of cell-associated E1 in BacE1[+]-infected Sf21 cells. Intramuscular vaccination of pigs with immunoaffinity-purified E1 in a double water-oil emulsion elicited high titers of neutralizing antibodies between 2 and 4 weeks after vaccination at the lowest dose tested (20 micrograms). The vaccinated pigs were completely protected against intranasal challenge with 100 50% lethal doses of HCV strain Brescia, indicating that E1 expressed in insect cells is an excellent candidate for development of a new, safe, and effective HCV subunit vaccine.
Status and challenges of PCM modeling

From the stage of concept-level alternative to Flash memories, the phase-change memory (PCM) is rapidly gaining the status of reference technology for high performance, high endurance next generation non volatile applications. To sustain the development of new and scaled PCM technologies, a comprehensive understanding and modelling of the cell at the material, cell and large-array levels are required. This paper will address the most significant achievements in the electrothermal modelling of PCM single cell. After reviewing the transport modeling in the amorphous and crystalline phases of the chalcogenide material, we focus on the application modeling of the cell, discussing programming current minimization by geometry optimization, trade-off between programming current and readout resistance and the program disturb issue. Scaling of the PCM is extensively addressed, comparing isotropic and non isotropic scaling and the respective impact on cell reliability. The open issues for PCM physical modeling are finally pointed out.
‘Paracrine’ control of spermatogenesis

Spermatogenesis is a remarkably complex but precise process yielding highly differentiated haploid germ cells from diploid stem cells. Although many factors have been implicated in the paracrine control of spermatogenesis, functional proof is only available for a few regulators. Among those are androgens, growth factors and stem cell factor. Cell‐ and organ‐specific gene‐targeting will provide important insights into the relevance of local factors controlling male gametogenesis. As testicular communication frequently occurs between rather remote cells and compartments, it is proposed that the term ‘local’ rather than ‘paracrine’ mediators/factors should be used, since the latter term refers to communication amongst neighbouring cells (and mainly via diffusion).
Localized cell stiffness measurement using axial movement of an optically trapped microparticle

Abstract. A simple optical tweezers design is proposed to manipulate particles in the axial direction and estimate particle position with nanometer sensitivity. Balb3T3 cell is probed using two different-sized particles, and the localized cell stiffness is evaluated using Hertz model. A series of experiments are performed to obtain the necessary parameters for the cell stiffness computation: particle displacement, trapping stiffness, force exertion, and cell deformation. The computed cell stiffness measurements are 17 and 40 Pa using 4 μm- and 2 μm-sized particles, respectively. Results suggest that the proposed optical tweezers scheme can measure the stiffness of a particular cell locale using Hertz model, offering insights about how cells respond to outside mechanical stimulus.
Creative Partnerships for Funding Nursing Research

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program and the Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) program are two federal funding mechanisms that some nurses in academic positions have used to support research and development of innovative nursing products or services. Both the SBIR and STTR mechanisms are excellent sources of funding for nurse researchers who want to capitalize on relationships with small businesses or obtain seed money to fund high-risk projects with potential to attract new venture capital. This article provides an overview of National Institutes of Health (NIH)—funded SBIR and STTR programs and summarizes similarities and differences between the programs. The article also describes unique features of NIH SBIR and STTR funding mechanisms that differentiate them from other R-series funding mechanisms, reviews evaluation criteria for SBIR and STTR projects, and discusses critical partners and resources for proposal development. Finally, the article describes characteristics of successful partnerships and provides examples of SBIR/STTR-funded projects.
Human Frequency-Following Responses to Two-Tone Approximations of Steady-State Vowels

Auditory nerve single-unit population studies have demonstrated that phase-locking plays a dominant role in the neural encoding of the spectrum of speech sounds. Since the scalp-recorded human frequency-following response (FFR) reflects synchronous, phase-locked activity in a population of neurons in the rostral auditory brainstem, it was reasoned that the human FFR might preserve information about certain acoustic features of speech sounds. FFRs to three different two-tone approximations of vowels (/u/,/c/, and /a/) were obtained from 10 normal-hearing human adults at 85, 75, 65 and 55 dB nHL. Spectrum analyses of the FFRs revealed distinct peaks at frequencies corresponding to the first and the second formants across all levels suggesting that phase-locked activity among two distinct populations of neurons are indeed preserved in the FFR. Also, the FFR spectrum for vowels /c/ and /a/ revealed a robust component at 2F1–F2 frequency suggesting that the human FFR contains a neural representation of cochlear nonlinearity. Finally, comparison of FFRs to the vowel approximations and the individual components at F1 and F2 revealed effects that may be suggestive of two-tone synchrony suppression and/or lateral inhibition. These results suggest that the scalp-recorded FFR may be used to evaluate not only neural encoding of speech sounds but also processes associated with cochlear nonlinearity.
Oocyte‐type linker histone B4 is required for transdifferentiation of somatic cells in vivo

The ability to reprogram in vivo a somatic cell after differentiation is quite limited. One of the most impressive examples of such a process is transdifferentiation of pigmented epithelial cells (PECs) to lens cells during lens regeneration in newts. However, very little is known of the molecular events that allow newt cells to transdifferentiate. Histone B4 is an oocyte‐type linker histone that replaces the somatictype linker histone H1 during reprogramming mediated by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). We found that B4 is expressed and required during transdifferentiation of PECs. Knocking down of B4 decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis, which resulted in considerable smaller lens. Furthermore, B4 knock‐down altered gene expression of key genes of lens differentiation and nearly abolished expression of γ‐crystallin. These data are the first to show expression of oocyte‐type linker histone in somatic cells and its requirement in newt lens transdifferentiation and suggest that transdifferentiation in newts might share common strategies with reprogramming after SCNT. — Maki, N. , Suetsugu‐Maki, R. , Sano, S. , Nakamura, K. , Nishimura, O. , Tarui, H. , Del Rio‐Tsonis, K. , Ohsumi, K. , Agata, K. , Tsonis, P. A. Oocyte‐type linker histone B4 is required for transdifferentiation of somatic cells in vivo. FASEB J. 24, 3462–3467 (2010). www.fasebj. org
Forgetting of Prior Remembering in Persons Reporting Recovered Memories of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Case studies of individuals reporting recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse suggest that some overestimate their prior forgetting of the abuse. People reporting recovered or continuous memories of childhood sexual abuse and control subjects reporting no history of abuse participated in two experiments examining this “forgot it all along” phenomenon. Participants in Experiment 1 were more likely to forget that they had previously recalled a studied item if they were cued to think of it differently on two recall tests than if they were cued to think of it in the same way on the two tests. This effect was stronger for recovered-memory participants than for continuous-memory and control participants. In Experiment 2, participants recalled autobiographical events three times over a period of 4 months. Much as in Experiment 1, they underestimated prior remembering when the events had been recalled in a different emotional frame (positive vs. negative) on the previous occasion. This underestimation was more pronounced for recovered-memory participants than for continuous-memory and control participants.
Postvoiding Stress Evolution in Confined Metal Lines

Electromigration (EM)-induced voiding is an important reliability concern in modern integrated circuits. Resistance degradation in interconnect metal lines caused by voiding was studied in this paper theoretically by solving the continuity equation describing the stress evolution caused by growing void. A rigid confinement surrounding a metal line makes inapplicable an approximation of the line edge drift for modeling the void volume evolution unless a line is in a stress-free equilibrium state caused by the presence of a saturated void. Derived analytical solution to the continuity equation with a voidless initial condition provides drastically different stress evolution kinetics in comparison with the case of the line edge drift model. It demonstrates that a large stress gradient, which was developed between the surface of a void precursor (flaw) and a metal, becomes a major driving force for the atom migration from the void surface to the metal. In this case, the initial evolution of the void volume does not depend on the electric current density contrary to the case of the line edge drift approximation characterized by the linear dependence of the void growth rate on the current density. At long time limit, the derived solution provides the same kinetics and the steady state with the stress linearly distributed along the line as in the case of preexisted void. The proposed model results much faster kinetics of the void growth and the line resistance degradation than the line edge drift approximation. Void nucleation time can be employed as a reasonable approximation of the EM-induced time to failure in the confined metal line.
Influence of Jet-Cooking Corn Bran on Its Antioxidant Activities, Phenolic Contents and Viscoelastic Properties

Corn bran was subjected to high-shear and jet-cooking with or without alkaline treatment. The highest antioxidant activity was found in the soluble solids from jet-cooked corn bran without alkaline treatment. Jet-cooking under alkaline conditions resulted in a soluble fraction having the highest phenolic content but without increasing antioxidant activity. Phenolic contents of soluble solids were significantly higher than the insoluble solids. A colorimetric method using spectrophotometer was suitable to determine total phenolic content, whereas LC-ESI-MS technology was used for identifying important individual phenolic acids, namely caffeic, coumaric and ferulic acid. The insoluble solids from alkaline treatment had the highest water holding capacity and interesting viscoelastic properties. These results suggested that jet-cooking corn bran may be a useful processing procedure for creating phytochemical and functional products.
SHED Differentiate into Functional Odontoblasts and Endothelium

Studies on mechanisms underlying the differentiation of dental pulp stem cells are critical for the understanding of the biology of odontogenesis and for dental tissue engineering. Here, we tested the hypothesis that stem cells from exfoliated deciduous teeth (SHED) differentiate into functional odontoblasts and endothelial cells. SHED were seeded in tooth slice/scaffolds and implanted subcutaneously into immunodeficient mice. SHED differentiated into functional odontoblasts that generated tubular dentin, as determined by tetracycline staining and confocal microscopy. These cells also differentiated into vascular endothelial cells, as determined by beta-galactosidase staining of LacZ-tagged SHED. In vitro, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) induced SHED to express VEGFR2, CD31, and VE-Cadherin (markers of endothelium) and to organize into capillary-like sprouts. VEGF induced ERK and AKT phosphorylation (indicative of differentiation), while inhibiting phosphorylation of STAT3 (indicative of ‘stemness’). Collectively, this work demonstrates that SHED can differentiate into angiogenic endothelial cells and odontoblasts capable of generating tubular dentin.
DEVELOPMENT OF AN ACTUATED CABLE ORTHOTIC GLOVE TO PROVIDE ASSISTANCE OF FINGER EXTENSION TO STROKE SURVIVORS

An externally actuated glove, controlled by a microprocessor, is being developed to assist finger extension in stroke survivors. The goal of this device is to allow repeated practice of specific tasks for hand therapy in the home environment. The device allows the user three control modes: voice recognition, electromyography or manual. These modes can be used either independently or combined according to the needs of the user. Both position and force feedback are available for control and safety. Initial testing of the prototype has shown promising performance.
Agreement of General Sampled-data Multi-agent Systems

This paper focuses on looking for the maximum allowable sampling period for multi-agent systems with general linear dynamical agents. As long as the sampling period is less than the bound, there exists a linear agreement protocol solving the agreement problem of the sampled-data multi-agent systems. Firstly, the agreement problem is converted to the simultaneously stabilizing problem of some specific systems. Secondly, the maximum allowable sampling period for SISO sampled-data multi-agent systems is provided based on the instable eigenvalues of continuous-time system matrix. Then by solving the H∞ optimal control problem of certain system with uncertainty, an allowable bound of sampling period is obtained.
Geometric structure of the femoral neck measured using dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry

An algorithm was developed to estimate the strength of the femoral neck from data generated by the dual‐energy x‐ray absorptiometry (DXA). This algorithm considers shape of the proximal femur as well as cross‐sectional moment of inertia (CSMI) in the estimate. Proximal femora (10) from cadavers of white adults and an aluminum step wedge were scanned with the Lunar DPX to validate the calculation of CSMI. After scanning, each femoral neck was sectioned at its narrowest portion for direct measurement of CSMI. Three healthy young women were scanned five times each to evaluate the reproducibility of geometric measurements using DXA. There was a strong linear association between the CSMI measured directly and using DXA in both cadaver bones (r2 = 0.96) and the aluminum step wedge (r2 = 0.99). The coefficient of variation for CSMI from repeated measurements using DXA was less than 3%. This indicates that it is possible to estimate reproducibly the bending rigidity of bone from DXA measurements. The data from 306 normal subjects were analyzed to investigate geometric changes in the femoral neck with age. Although there was no strong correlation between CSMI and age in normal subjects of either sex, safety factor (SF, an index of strength of the femoral neck during walking) and fall index (FI, an index of the strength of the femoral neck during a fall) decrease with age in both sexes. We observed an alteration of the geometric structure of the femoral neck with age that may increase the stress on the femoral neck and decrease SF and FI.