Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 2 L Protein Regions Required for Interaction with Other Viral Proteins and mRNA Capping

ABSTRACT The large RNA polymerase (L) protein of human parainfluenza virus type 2 (hPIV2) binds the nucleocapsid, phosphoprotein, and V protein, as well as itself, and these interactions are essential for transcription and replication of the viral RNA genome. Although all of these interactions were found to be mediated through the domains within the N terminus of L, the C terminus of the L protein was also required for minigenome reporter gene expression. We have identified a highly conserved rubulavirus domain near the C terminus of the L protein that is required for mRNA synthesis but not for genome replication. Remarkably, this region of L shares homology with a conserved region of cellular capping enzymes that binds GTP and forms a lysyl-GMP enzyme intermediate, the first step in the cellular capping reaction. We propose that this conserved region of L also binds GTP (or GDP) to carry out the second step of the unconventional nonsegmented negative-strand virus capping reaction.
Motor control, excitement, and overarm throwing.

Although motor control has historically been an important discipline, it runs the risk of being overshadowed by other newer areas of neuroscience. One response would be to generate increased excitement in motor control, e.g., by more clearly defining the big questions, by discussing them in new audience-friendly formats, and by promoting them, perhaps in the context of applied motor control. One recent exciting development has been a shift to the study of natural multijoint movements in three dimensions. We are currently investigating one such multijoint movement, overarm throwing. The question we are asking is, What causes inaccuracies in overarm throws? Is it errors in the timing or in the velocity of joint rotations that produce the hand trajectory? Surprisingly, inaccuracies (high and low throws) do not result from errors in rotations of proximal joints; instead they result from variability in the timing of onset of finger opening. It remains to be determined whether the decreased accuracy in throwing in cerebellar patients is caused by an increase in this error or from disorder in some other multijoint coordinating mechanism.
Are BMI and other anthropometric measures appropriate as indices for obesity? A study in an Asian population Published, JLR Papers in Press, July 16, 2004. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M400159-JLR200

We have examined the relationships between percentage of body fat (PBF) and risk factors for cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance and how good body mass index (BMI) and other anthropometric measures are as indices of obesity. High PBF levels were associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and insulin resistance. The World Health Organization BMI of 30 kg/m2 for obesity has low sensitivity, 6.7% and 13.4% for men and women, respectively. For every obese man and woman identified, 6.7 and 1.76 times nonobese men and women, respectively, will be misclassified as obese. With the locally established BMI cutoff point for obesity of 27 kg/m2 for men and 25 kg/m2 for women, the sensitivity was improved to 46.7% and 60.8%, respectively. For every obese man and woman identified, 3.76 and 1.64 times nonobese men and women, respectively, will be misclassified as obese. None of the other anthropometric indices was better than the locally established BMIs. We showed that the BMIs for obesity for our local men and women are different. These BMIs were most precise among all indices studied. However, they still lead to high false-positive rates. For more effective management of the problem of obesity, we need to develop more precise, simple, and cost-effective methods for the measurement of PBF.
A brief comparison of the pathophysiology of inflammatory versus neuropathic pain

Purpose of review The causes of inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain are fundamentally different. There are, however, common mechanisms underlying the generation of each pain state. We will discuss some specific elements observed in both tissue and nerve injury pain states and consider the hypothesis that these two states actually demonstrate a convergence over time. Recent findings The increased pain sensation following tissue and nerve injury results from several mechanisms, including altered ion channel expression in dorsal root ganglion neurons, enhanced dorsal horn glutamate release from primary afferents, enhanced glutamate receptor function in second-order neurons, disinhibition in the dorsal horn and glia cell activation. The role of specific subtypes of receptors, ion channels and glutamate transporters is revealed at peripheral and central sites. Importantly over time, a number of changes, in the dorsal root ganglion and in dorsal horn observed after tissue injury resemble changes observed after nerve injury. Summary Recognition of mechanisms common to both inflammatory pain and neuropathic pain might shed light on the understanding of the transition from acute pain to persistent pain.
Steric Gate Variants of UmuC Confer UV Hypersensitivity on Escherichia coli

ABSTRACT Y family DNA polymerases are specialized for replication of damaged DNA and represent a major contribution to cellular resistance to DNA lesions. Although the Y family polymerase active sites have fewer contacts with their DNA substrates than replicative DNA polymerases, Y family polymerases appear to exhibit specificity for certain lesions. Thus, mutation of the steric gate residue of Escherichia coli DinB resulted in the specific loss of lesion bypass activity. We constructed variants of E. coli UmuC with mutations of the steric gate residue Y11 and of residue F10 and determined that strains harboring these variants are hypersensitive to UV light. Moreover, these UmuC variants are dominant negative with respect to sensitivity to UV light. The UV hypersensitivity and the dominant negative phenotype are partially suppressed by additional mutations in the known motifs in UmuC responsible for binding to the β processivity clamp, suggesting that the UmuC steric gate variant exerts its effects via access to the replication fork. Strains expressing the UmuC Y11A variant also exhibit decreased UV mutagenesis. Strikingly, disruption of the dnaQ gene encoding the replicative DNA polymerase proofreading subunit suppressed the dominant negative phenotype of a UmuC steric gate variant. This could be due to a recruitment function of the proofreading subunit or involvement of the proofreading subunit in a futile cycle of base insertion/excision with the UmuC steric gate variant.
Comparison of CatWalk Analysis and von Frey Testing for Pain Assessment in a Rat Model of Nerve Crush Plus Inflammation

Study Design. Assessment of pain-related behavior and immunohistology of the dorsal root ganglion in a rat model. Objective. To investigate pain-related behavior in a rat model of nerve crush plus inflammation using the CatWalk system. Summary of Background Data. A definitive method for evaluating animal models of lumbar disease has not been established. Von Frey testing has often been used in this type of study, but the reliability remains in question. The CatWalk system is a computer-assisted apparatus for analyzing gait that provides an automated way to assess gait function during pain. However, there have been few reports using this system for models of lumbar disease. Methods. Fourteen rats were divided into 2 groups: a treatment group and a sham group. For the treatment group, nucleus pulposus was applied to the sciatic nerve and the sciatic nerve was pinched. Two different methods for assessment of pain-related behavior, von Frey testing and CatWalk analysis, were used before surgery and at 4 and 7 days after surgery. Immunohistochemistry was used to examine calcitonin gene-related peptide expression in L4 to L6 dorsal root ganglia. Results. No significant differences were found between the treatment and sham control groups using von Frey testing. However, significant differences in 4 parameters were found between the 2 groups using the CatWalk system (P < 0.05). The proportion of calcitonin gene–related peptide-immunoreactive neurons was higher in the treatment group than in the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion. Our results demonstrate that the CatWalk system is useful for the measurement of pain-related behavioral change in our rat model in which nociception was indicated at a cellular level. Although further studies are needed, we think that this system is a valid alternative method for the evaluation of models of lumbar disease in rodents.
Transferability of clinical skills acquired on simulator to real life clinical practice.

AIM The aims of this study were to determine the relationship between performances of students in clinical skills laboratory and real life clinical practice and to determine the experiences and views of instructors as it relates to teaching in skills laboratory. METHODS The performances of two randomly selected sets of graduates in the operative examinations conducted in skills laboratory were compared with the performances of the same sets of graduates in the operative examinations conducted on life patients two years later using Spearman's rank test. Experiences and views of two teachers from each of the six dental schools in southern Nigeria as it relates to teaching in clinical skills laboratory were obtained using a structured questionnaire. RESULTS There was an insignificant correlation between the outcomes at both examinations (p value was 0.18). Most of the respondents (62.5%) agreed that teaching in skills laboratory was tiresome and most (75.0%) strongly agreed that the number of students constitutes a serious challenge to learning. Most of the respondents regarded their role in skills laboratory as that of an expert as against that of a facilitator. CONCLUSION There was a weak correlation between performances in skills laboratory and real life environment. Students' number appears to make teaching in skills laboratory unpleasant and teachers had a wrong perception of their role.
Biological Activities of Naturally Occurring Antibodies Reactive with Candida albicans Mannan

ABSTRACT Sera from normal adult humans may contain high levels of antibody reactive with Candida albicans mannan. This study examined selected biological activities of such antibodies, focusing on sera that were collected from 34 donors and analyzed individually. The results showed that antimannan titers were normally distributed. Reactivity as determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with serotype A mannan generally paralleled reactivity with serotype B. Analysis of the kinetics for activation of the complement system and deposition of complement component 3 (C3) onto serotype A and serotype B cells showed a decrease in the lag time that occurred before the onset of rapid accumulation of C3 that correlated with increasing antimannan titers. In contrast, there was a decrease in the overall rate of accumulation of C3 on serotype A cells that was strongly correlated with increasing antibody titers; serotype B cells showed no such decrease. An evaluation of the contribution of mannan antibody to opsonophagocytic killing showed that mannan antibody in individual sera and antimannan immunoglobulin G (IgG) affinity purified from human plasma contributed to killing by neutrophils in a dose-dependent fashion in the absence of a functional complement system. However, affinity-purified antibody in very high concentrations was inhibitory to both complement-dependent and complement-independent opsonophagocytosis, and this finding suggests a prozone-like effect. In contrast, if the complement system was functional, antimannan IgG was not needed for opsonophagocytic killing. These results suggest that naturally occurring mannan antibodies and the complement system are functionally redundant for opsonophagocytic killing by neutrophils.
PET Reconstruction With an Anatomical MRI Prior Using Parallel Level Sets

The combination of positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) offers unique possibilities. In this paper we aim to exploit the high spatial resolution of MRI to enhance the reconstruction of simultaneously acquired PET data. We propose a new prior to incorporate structural side information into a maximum a posteriori reconstruction. The new prior combines the strengths of previously proposed priors for the same problem: it is very efficient in guiding the reconstruction at edges available from the side information and it reduces locally to edge-preserving total variation in the degenerate case when no structural information is available. In addition, this prior is segmentation-free, convex and no a priori assumptions are made on the correlation of edge directions of the PET and MRI images. We present results for a simulated brain phantom and for real data acquired by the Siemens Biograph mMR for a hardware phantom and a clinical scan. The results from simulations show that the new prior has a better trade-off between enhancing common anatomical boundaries and preserving unique features than several other priors. Moreover, it has a better mean absolute bias-to-mean standard deviation trade-off and yields reconstructions with superior relative l2-error and structural similarity index. These findings are underpinned by the real data results from a hardware phantom and a clinical patient confirming that the new prior is capable of promoting well-defined anatomical boundaries.
Adjunct Faculty Embraced: The Institution's Responsibility

Adjuncts are a vital part of the academic institution. The institution has a responsibility to provide training, resources, and development for adjuncts. This article considers five general areas regarding adjuncts identified by Richard E. Lyons. Consideration of these areas is needed by institutions in order to provide quality training and development for adjuncts. Practical ideas are shared that are incorporated into each general area.
Therapeutic Applicability of Anti-Inflammatory and Proresolving Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid-Derived Lipid Mediators

The enzymatic oxygenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids by lipoxygenases and cyclo-oxygenases is a resourceful mode of formation of specific autacoids that regulate the extent and pace of the inflammatory response. Arachidonate-derived eicosanoids, such as lipoxin A4, prostaglandin (PG)D2, PGF2α, PGE2, and PGD2-derived cyclopentenones exert specific roles in counter-regulating inflammation and turning on resolution. Recently recognized classes of autacoids derived from long-chain ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, the E- and D-series resolvins, protectin D1, and maresin 1, act as specialized mediators to dampen inflammation actively, afford tissue protection, stimulate host defense, and activate resolution. It is held that counter-regulatory lipid mediators and the specific molecular pathways activated by such endogenous agonists may be suitable for pharmacological use in the treatment of inflammatory disease. The anti-inflammatory drug aspirin is a striking example of a drug that is able to act in such a manner, namely through triggering the formation of 15-epi-lipoxin A4 and aspirin-triggered resolvins. Different aspects of the therapeutic applicability of lipid mediators have been addressed here, and indicate that the development of innovative pharmacotherapy based on anti-inflammatory and proresolution lipid mediators presents novel prospects for the treatment of inflammatory disease.
Model-based analytics for profiling workloads in virtual network functions

With the flexibility and programmability levels offered by Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), it is expected to catalyze the upcoming “softwarization” of the network through software implementation of networking functionalities on virtual machines (VMs). While looking into the different issues thrown at NFV, numerous works have demonstrated how performance, power consumption and, consequently, the optimal resource configuration and VM allocation vary with the statistical features of the workload — specifically, the “burstiness” of the traffic. This paper proposes a model-based analytics approach for profiling (virtual) network function (VNF) workloads that captures traffic burstiness, considering — and adding value to — hardware/software performance monitor counters (PMCs) available in Linux host servers. Results show good estimation accuracies for the chosen PMCs, which can be useful to enhance current methods for finegrained provisioning, usage-based pricing and anomaly detection, and facilitate the way towards an agile network.
Citedness, uncitedness, and the murky world between

We test a recent claim in an opinion piece (interactions, May/June 2008, pp. 45-47) that publications by HCI researchers have little or no impact. The alleged "phenomenon of uncitedness" was not supported. An examination of all 443 papers in the CHI Proceedings (1991-1995), ACM TOCHI (1994-1999), and Human-Computer Interaction (1991-1995) found an average of 93.8, 106.7, and 80.4 citations per paper, respectively. H-index as an impact measure is explained, with values given for members of the CHI Academy. The mean of 34.3 suggests that the group, taken as a whole, have had a significant impact on human-computer interaction.
Secular trends in parent-reported television viewing among children in the United States, 2001-2012.

OBJECTIVE Examine trends in parent-reported television (TV) viewing among preschoolers (2-5 years) and children (6-11 years) between 2001 and 2012. METHODS Data from the 2001-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were used. The analytic sample included 5724 preschoolers and 7104 children. Parent proxy of TV viewing at each of the six 2-year cycles was assessed. RESULTS Statistically significant decreases in mean TV viewing between 2001 and 2012 were observed for preschoolers of nearly all gender, race-ethnicity and poverty combinations (exception of Mexican American boys), with the largest decrease occurring among non-Hispanic white boys (29% decrease; 2.24 h/day in 2001-2002 to 1.59 h/day in 2011-2012; P = .01). There was evidence of progressive decrease in mean TV viewing among children, but not to the extent that occurred among the preschool population. Across the six respective cycles for the entire preschool sample, the proportion watching <2 h/day of TV was: 34.9, 34.2, 43.9, 43.4, 39.1 and 49.2 (P(trend) < . 001). For children, the respective proportions were: 32.9, 25.2, 38.2, 36.5, 38.1 and 36.6 (P(trend) = . 01). CONCLUSIONS Statistically significant decreases in mean TV viewing between 2001 and 2012 were observed for preschoolers and children. However, a relatively large proportion of parents report their children watching 2 or more hours/day of TV.
How do adolescents access health information? And do they ask their physicians?

OBJECTIVE To improve understanding about how high school students use electronic tools to obtain health information and how this information affects their behavior. DESIGN/METHODS Using a cross-sectional design, we administered an anonymous survey to high school students in grades 9 through 12 at a single private Catholic high school, inquiring about their use of electronic tools to obtain health information, topics of interest, sources used to obtain information, and modifications in their behavior based on that information. Descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of variance were used to compare trends across grade levels. RESULTS Of 705 students enrolled, 24.7% were either absent or chose not to participate in the survey. Of the remaining 531 students, 497 completed the surveys, for a response rate of 70.5% (497 of 705) and a participation rate of 93.6% (497 of 531). All students were comfortable using the Internet, and >90% used it at home and in school. Access to broadband applications averaged 95% at home and 80% at school. A significant proportion (0.66; p < 0.0001) of students reported that they trusted the information found online, and 22% (not significant) modified their behavior on the basis of the information they found. Forty-two percent searched for general health information, and 43% investigated specific medical conditions or disease states. Topics related to skin were researched significantly more than nutrition, birth control, and sexually transmitted diseases. Although a significant number of students (p < 0.05) reported conducting e-mail conversations related to health topics with their teachers, <5% had e-mail communications with physicians. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that most high school students used the Internet and broadband applications at school and at home as resources for health care information. A significant number of students trusted the online information, and at nearly one-quarter subsequently modified their behavior. Students conducted e-mail conversations with teachers about health-related topics, but few students used this tool to communicate with their physicians. This information raises questions about design and implementation of strategies to provide adolescents access to appropriate health care information, including that provided by physicians.
Hemicraniectomy in elderly patients with space occupying media infarction: improved survival but poor functional outcome

OBJECTIVE To assess the survival rate and functional outcome in elderly patients with space occupying supratentorial infarction who underwent hemicraniectomy compared with those who received medical treatment alone. METHODS All patients older than 55 years with space occupying middle cerebral artery (MCA) infarction treated in our clinic between January 1998 and July 1999 were included in this retrospective analysis. Patients were eligible for decompressive surgery if they were younger than 75 and had no severe comorbidity. Hemicraniectomy was performed regardless of the affected hemisphere. All patients were followed up for assessment of functional outcome; data were assessed according to the Barthel index and modified Rankin scale and cover a period of 3 to 9 months after infarction. RESULTS Twelve out of 24 patients underwent hemicraniectomy. Eight patients who were operated on survived; only one patient died of transtentorial herniation, three other deaths were due to medical complications. None of the survivors had a Barthel score above 60 or a Rankin score below 4. Nine out of 12 medically treated patients died of transtentorial herniation, one patient died of medical complications. The two surviving patients had a Barthel score below 60 and a Rankin score of 4. CONCLUSIONS Craniectomy in elderly patients with space occupying MCA infarction improves survival rates compared with medical treatment alone. However, functional outcome and level of independence are poor. Craniectomy in elderly patients should not be performed unless a prospective randomised trial proves beneficial.