Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of cell-surface determinants important for baculovirus infection.

Baculovirus gp64 envelope glycoprotein is a major component of the envelope of the budded virus and is involved in virus entry into the host cells by endocytosis. To investigate the cell-surface molecules important for infection of baculovirus into mammalian cells, we constructed a recombinant baculovirus, Ac64-CAluc, which has gp64 and luciferase genes under the polyhedrin and the CAG promoter, respectively. For controls, we constructed recombinant viruses possessing vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) G protein, mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) S protein, or green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene under the polyhedrin promoter and the luciferase gene under the CAG promoter (AcVSVG-CAluc, AcMHVS-CAluc, and AcGFP-CAluc). Treatment of HepG2 cells with phospholipase C markedly reduced the reporter gene expression by Ac64-CAluc or AcVSVG-CAluc in a dose-dependent manner, whereas AcMHVS-CAluc was shown to be resistant to the treatment. Inhibition with purified lipids and susceptibility to the mutant CHO hamster cell lines deficient in phospholipids synthesis suggest that the interaction of gp64 and phospholipids on the cell surface might play an important role in baculovirus infection into mammalian cells.
Ipsilateral sequential arm movements after unilateral subthalamic deep‐brain stimulation in patients with Parkinson's disease

Unilateral STN‐DBS significantly improves the performance of contralateral sequential arm movements. Whether unilateral STN‐DBS also improves ipsilateral sequential movement is unclear. In this study in unmedicated parkinsonian patients, we tested the effect of unilateral STN‐DBS on the performance of ipsilateral sequential movements and compared it with the performance of contralateral sequential movements. Three‐dimensional movements were recorded with the ELITE system and three kinematic variables were considered: total movement time (TMT), total inter‐onset latency (IOL), and spatial accuracy. Unilateral STN‐DBS significantly decreased TMT in the contralateral arm and only tended to do so also in the ipsilateral arm, whereas it significantly decreased IOL and worsened spatial accuracy only on the contralateral side. Before unilateral STN‐DBS a positive correlation was present between the clinical impairment and the TMTs in the contralateral and ipsilateral sides. After unilateral STN‐DBS the UPDRS scores improved in the contralateral and to a lesser extent also in the ipsilateral side. Correlation analysis between clinical and kinematic data showed no differences between the contralateral and ipsilateral sides. Our kinematic findings show that after STN‐DBS parkinsonian patients' performance of a sequential motor task improves significantly on the contralateral but only tended to do so on the ipsilateral side. Ipsilateral changes can be explained by the observation that the output structures of the basal ganglia send large ipsilateral and less dense contralateral projections to the thalamus. © 2008 Movement Disorder Society
Dynamic Modeling of Communication Partners for Socially Interactive Humanoid Robots

One of the challenges in the development of humanoid robots is the realization of a perception system which is capable of supporting natural human-robot interaction. The design of such a system should be guided from psychological knowledge of inter-human interaction. This knowledge can be used to select relevant information and transfer existing results from inter-human to human-robot interaction. This thesis provides a concept for the development of a perception system intended for natural human-robot interaction. The realization of the concept provides major contributions in the three main evolutionary steps of the development process: Information selection, information extraction and information representation. The selection of relevant information for any communication process is based on a thorough analysis and classification of communication signals. Representatives of each category are selected and a suitable minimal communication model is proposed incorporating both memory as well as timing considerations. The second step – the information extraction – uses the raw information of the physical sensor system to extract basic perceptual information. The required extractors are described in detail contribution to both auditory as well as visual information processing techniques. And finally a hierarchy of fusion modules including an exemplary generation of abstract high level information is proposed to provide a suitable representation of the perceived information. The formal description of these percepts forms the interface to the emotionbased control architecture. Experimental results with the humanoid robot Roman and the control architecture revealed promising results. Successful experiments in the interactive Tangram game scenario have been realized with a single interaction partner including the generation of high level information. The multi-modal data extraction and fusion is demonstrated in a multiperson observation situation.
PHOTODYNAMIC THERAPY WITH VERTEPORFIN IN POLYPOIDAL CHOROIDAL VASCULOPATHY: Results After 3 Years of Follow-Up

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of verteporfin photodynamic therapy on the treatment of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. Methods: A prospective, nonrandomized institutional study was conducted involving 42 eyes of 38 patients with newly diagnosed symptomatic polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy treated exclusively with photodynamic therapy. Twenty-seven eyes completed 3 years of follow-up. Subjects were observed every 3 months with evaluation of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA), retinography, and fluorescein and indocyanine green angiography. Treatment was given whenever the patient exhibited subfoveal exudation on fluorescein angiography. Results: Mean BCVA was 0.91 ± 0.33 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution on the initial visit and 0.93 ± 0.39 on the 36-month visit. Patients were submitted to an average of 3.19 treatment sessions. On the final evaluation at 36 months, 14.8% of the treated eyes improved their BCVA by at least 0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution, 74.1% had no significant loss of BCVA, and 25.9% lost ≥0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution. Recurrences were frequent (59.3% of the eyes at 3 years of follow-up), responded well to retreatment, and were not associated with additional BCVA loss. Conclusion: Photodynamic therapy remains a good option for management of polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy. After 3 years, approximately three fourths of the treated eyes had no significant loss of vision, and 14.8% showed significant improvement in visual acuity.
Connected components objects feature for CBIR

With the popularity of the network and expansion of multimedia technology, the traditional techniques of information retrieval do not satisfy the requirements of users. Recently, the content based image retrieval and its techniques have become the hot topic to satisfy a great development. In this paper, a new method is proposed to solve the problem of regions of interest (ROI) based image retrieval. The ROI technique which is based on segmenting the image into fixed partitions is computationally costly. The proposed method is based on the connected components and interesting of objects to generate the histogram and statistical texture feature vectors. These resulted vectors are used to retrieve images from a large image database. The color and texture features of the connected components are computed from the histograms of the quantized HSV color space and Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM), respectively. The vectors matching process is based on the histogram intersection. It is obvious the experimental data clearly shows the efficiency of the proposed method in comparison to the traditional ROI technique in terms of computationally cost.
Wide range time-of-flight camera: design, analysis, and simulation

Time-of-flight cameras measure the distances to scene points by emitting and detecting a modulated infrared light signal. The modulation frequency of the signal determines a certain maximum range within which the measured distance is unambiguous. If the actual distance to a scene point is longer than the maximum range, the measured distance suffers from phase wrapping, which makes the measured to be shorter than its actual distance by an unknown multiple of the maximum range. This paper proposes a time-of-flight camera, which is capable of restoring the actual distance by simultaneously emitting light signals of different modulation frequencies and detecting them separately in different regions of the sensor. We analyze the noise characteristic of the camera, and aquire simulated depth maps using a commercially available time-of-flight camera, reflecting the increased amount of noise due to the use of dual-frequency signals. We finally propose a phase unwrapping method for restoring the actual distances from such a dual-frequency depth map. Through experiments, we demonstrate that the proposed method is capable of extending the maximum range at least twice, with high success rates.
A study of cross‐resistance pattern and expression of molecular markers of multidrug resistance in a human small‐cell lung‐cancer cell line selected with doxorubicin

A doxorubicin‐resistant variant of the human small‐cell lung‐cancer cell line N592 was selected by in vitro continuous exposure to increasing drug concentrations. The aim of this study was to examine the cross‐resistance pattern, cellular pharmacokinetics of doxorubicin and expression of molecular factors of resistance. The sub‐line N592/DX exhibited a multidrug‐resistance phenotype, which was somewhat atypical, since it included cisplatin. Development of doxorubicin resistance could not be attributed to differential doxorubicin uptake or retention. Verapamil partially reverted doxorubicin resistance without affecting cellular pharmacokinetics. These findings are consistent with undetectable levels of mdr‐1 ‐gene expression in these cells. A molecular analysis of other putative mechanisms of multidrug resistance indicated no alterations in GSH levels or GSH‐related enzymes, but a marginal reduction of topoisomerase II α expression in the resistant sub‐line. This reduction, which was associated with an increase in topoisomerase I, does not explain the high degree of resistance. This study supports the view that alternative, unidentified mechanisms, which may be of clinical relevance, must be involved in the development of multidrug resistance of small‐cell lung cancer.
A systematic review on survival and success rates of implants placed immediately into fresh extraction sockets after at least 1 year.

BACKGROUND Type I immediate implant placement has gained popularity because it may reduce treatment time, number of surgeries and post-extraction bone loss. However, this is potentially challenged by inadequate keratinized mucosa for flap adaptation and difficulties in achieving primary stability. Moreover, it has been proven that post-extraction bone loss is an inevitable biological process, which affects treatment outcomes. OBJECTIVES To estimate survival and success rates of implants and the implant-supported prostheses, the prevalence of biological, technical and aesthetic complications, and the magnitude of soft and hard tissue changes following implant placement immediately into fresh extraction sockets. MATERIAL AND METHODS An electronic search in MEDLINE (PubMed) and the Cochrane Library from 1991 to July 2010 was performed to include prospective studies on immediate implants with a mean follow-up time of at least 1 year. The survival rates were computed using the STATA statistical software. Weighted means of soft and hard tissue changes were obtained by the inverse variance method. RESULTS A total of 46 prospective studies, with a mean follow-up time of 2.08 years, were included. The annual failure rate of immediate implants was 0.82% (95% CI: 0.48-1.39%), translating into the 2-year survival rate of 98.4% (97.3-99%). Among the five factors analysed (reasons for extraction, antibiotic use, position of implant [anterior vs. posterior, maxilla vs. mandible), type of loading], only the regimen of antibiotic use affected the survival rate significantly. Lower failure rates were found in groups that were provided with a course of post-operative antibiotics. The success of implant therapy was difficult to assess due to scarce reporting on biological, technical and aesthetic complications. Soft tissue changes occurred mostly in the first 3 months after the provision of restoration, and then stabilized towards end of the first year. Marginal bone loss predominantly took place in the first year after implant placement, with a magnitude generally less than 1 mm. Controversy on hard tissue preservation with platform-switching technique remained unsolved. CONCLUSIONS Despite the high survival rate observed, more long-term studies are necessary to determine the success of implant treatment provided immediately after tooth extraction. Special attention has to be given to aesthetic outcomes.
Tailoring the selectivity of chemical sensors based on graphene decorated with metal nanoparticles

Here, we present the effect of the graphene decoration with palladium nanoparticles (NPs) on the sensor sensitivity. A key aspect of this work is the method used for the decoration, that is made directly on pristine graphene obtained by the exfoliation of natural graphite in eco-friendly solvents at room temperature; the subsequent microwave treatment supplies the energy needed for the reduction of the palladium salt into palladium nanoparticles (PdNPs), which directly stick onto the pristine graphene surface. The PdNPs decoration results in a great improvement of the device response towards hydrogen, by definitively turning the high sensitivity versus nitrogen dioxide of the pristine material.
Involvement of Pin1 induction in epithelial–mesenchymal transition of tamoxifen‐resistant breast cancer cells

Acquisition of resistance to tamoxifen is a critical therapeutic problem in breast cancer patients. Epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), where cells undergo a developmental switch from a polarized epithelial phenotype to a highly motile mesenchymal phenotype, is associated with invasion and motility of cancer cells. Here, we found that tamoxifen‐resistant (TAMR)‐MCF‐7 cells had undergone EMT, as evidenced by mesenchymal‐like cell shape, downregulation of basal E‐cadherin expression, and overexpression of N‐cadherin and vimentin, as well as increased Snail transcriptional activity and protein expression. Given the roles of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)‐3β and nuclear factor (NF)‐κB in Snail‐mediated E‐cadherin deregulation during EMT, we examined the role of these signaling pathways in the EMT of TAMR‐MCF‐7 cells. Both Ser9‐phosphorylated GSK‐3β (inactive form) and NF‐κB reporter activity were increased in TAMR‐MCF‐7 cells, as was activation of the phosphatase and tensin homolog depleted on chromosome ten (PTEN)–phosphoinositide 3 (PI3)‐kinase–Akt pathway. Pin1, a peptidyl‐prolyl isomerase, was overexpressed in TAMR‐MCF‐7 cells, and Snail transcription and the expression of EMT markers could be decreased by Pin1 siRNA treatment. These results imply that Pin1 overexpression in TAMR‐MCF‐7 cells is involved in the EMT process via PTEN–PI3‐kinase–Akt–GSK‐3β and/or GSK‐3β–NF‐κB‐dependent Snail activation, and suggest the potential involvement of Pin1 in EMT during breast cancer development. (Cancer Sci 2009; 100: 1834–1841)
Comparison of a rapid nonisotopic polymerase chain reaction assay with four commonly used methods for the early diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 infection in neonates and children

To initiate antiretroviral therapy and prophylaxis for Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, it is important to identify human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1)-infected infants as soon after birth as possible. This study was undertaken to evaluate a novel 5-hour nonisotopic (NI) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay (Amplicor® PCR; Roche Molecular Systems) and four other commonly used HIV-1 diagnostic tests including culture, oligonucleotide hybridization PCR, p24 antigen and immune complex-dissociated (ICD) p24 antigen tests and to determine the optimal age at which to perform these tests for the early and rapid diagnosis of HIV-1 in infants and children. We prospectively evaluated 225 infants and children, including 114 neonates, for HIV-1 infection. HIV-1 infection was defined as 2 positive HIV cultures. Of the 225 infants and children, 57 were infected, 138 were uninfected and 30 were of unknown (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Classification P0) status. The sensitivity of NI PCR was 60% in cord blood, 40% at 0 to 2 days, 67 to 80% in the neonate (3 to 30 days) and 95 to 100% after 1 month of age. NI PCR was as sensitive as oligonucleotide hybridization PCR, culture, p24 antigen and ICD p24 antigen in the first 2 months of life and was more sensitive than p24 antigen or ICD p24 antigen thereafter. Specificity was 94% for cord blood and 99 to 100% for all age groups. The majority of HFV-1-infected newborns can be identified with NI PCR if testing is performed at birth and again between the third and fourth weeks of life. For older infants and children 2 NI PCR tests can correctly diagnose 98.5% of infected and uninfected infants and children. NI PCR of umbilical cord blood might also be useful as an initial -screening test to identify infants who may be infected with HIV-1.
One bite or two? A prospective trial comparing colonoscopy biopsy technique in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis.

BACKGROUND AND STUDY AIMS Surveillance for mucosal dysplasia in patients with chronic ulcerative colitis requires numerous biopsies (often over 40). The aim of the present study was to determine if two biopsies could be obtained with jumbo forceps before removing them from the instrument (double biopsy technique), as opposed to one biopsy per pass, without sacrificing the histological quality of the biopsy material. METHODS Twelve patients with chronic ulcerative colitis underwent colonoscopy, and four-quadrant biopsies were obtained at 10 cm intervals. For biopsies at each interval, two quadrants were obtained using the double biopsy technique and the other two quadrants were obtained individually. Two pathologists blinded to the biopsy technique examined each biopsy for technical and diagnostic qualities. The primary outcome was the histological adequacy in the evaluation of dysplasia. RESULTS A total of 468 biopsies were obtained. A higher proportion of double-biopsy specimens were inadequate for dysplasia assessment compared with single-biopsy specimens (OR=2.78, 95% CI 1.37 to 5.59; P=0.005). In the double biopsy technique group, 14 samples were deemed inadequate due to actual tissue specimen loss, compared with eight samples in the single biopsy technique. However, when analysis was repeated using only the retrieved specimens, the double biopsy technique continued to be at higher risk of obtaining inadequate specimens (OR=14.5, 95% CI 2.1 to 98.7; P=0.006). CONCLUSIONS The results of the present study suggest that the double biopsy technique is vulnerable to specimen loss and reduced histological quality, and the adoption of this technique as an equivalent method for tissue sampling may be premature.
Expression of β‐1,4‐galactosyltransferase I in rat Schwann cells

Glycosylation is one of the most important post‐translational modifications. It is clear that the single step of β‐1,4‐galactosylation is performed by a family of β‐1,4‐galactosyltransferases (β‐1,4‐GalTs), and that each member of this family may play a distinct role in different tissues and cells. In the present study, real‐time PCR revealed that the β‐1,4‐GalT I mRNA reached peaks at 2 weeks after sciatic nerve crush and 3 days after sciatic nerve transection. Combined in situ hybridization for β‐1,4‐GalT I mRNA and immunohistochemistry for S100 showed that β‐1,4‐GalT I mRNAs were mainly located in Schwann cells after sciatic nerve injury. In conclusion, β‐1,4‐GalT I might play important roles in Schwann cells during the regeneration and degeneration of the injured sciatic nerve. In other pathology, such as inflammation, we found that LPS administration affected β‐1,4‐GalT I mRNA expression in sciatic nerve in a time‐ and dose‐dependent manner, and β‐1,4‐GalT I mRNA is expressed mainly in Schwann cells. These results indicated that β‐1,4‐GalT I plays an important role in the inflammation reaction induced by intraperitoneal injection of LPS. Similarly, we found that β‐1,4‐GalT I in Schwann cells in vitro was affected in a time‐ and concentration‐dependent manner in response to LPS stimulation. All these results suggest that β‐1,4‐GalT I play an important role in Schwann cells in vivo and vitro during pathology. In addition, β‐1,4‐GalT I production was drastically suppressed by U0126 (ERK inhibitor), SB203580 (p38 inhibitor), or SP600125 (SAPK/JNK inhibitor), which indicated that Schwann cells which regulated β‐1,4‐GalT I expression after LPS stimulation were via ERK, SAPK/JNK, and P38 MAP kinase signal pathways. J. Cell. Biochem. 108: 75–86, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Experience with Multiple Processor Versions of Concurrent C

Concurrent C, a superset of C providing parallel programming facilities, is considered. A uniprocessor version of Concurrent C was first implemented. After experience with this version, the Concurrent C implementation was extended to run on two types of multiple processor systems: a set of computers connected by a local area network (the distributed version) and a shared-memory multiprocessor (the multiprocessor version). Experience with implementing and using these versions of Concurrent C is described. Specifically, the language changes triggered by the multiple processor implementations, some sample programs, a comparison of the execution times on various systems, and the suitability of these multiple processor architectures are discussed. >
Critical observation on the exponential growth of nature-inspired computation

We take inspirations from nature very often in solving many complex scientific and day to day problems. Nature inspired computing is a branch of computer engineering deals with the development of algorithms simulating behaviors of natural species for solving complex problems not easily solvable by available computational models. Based on biological systems, various algorithms have been presented in the literature such as Ant Colony Optimization (ACO), Bat Algorithm (BA), Firefly Algorithm (FA), Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), and many more. The paper critically analyzes the importance and impact of parameter setting for the performance of some of the nature inspired computation, various challenges for them and their application areas.
Inducción de un Lexicón de Opinión Orientado al Dominio

In this paper we explain the building of an English lexicon of adjectives and their semantic orientations. Rather than defining the semantic orientation of a term as a single value, we induce many real values representing the semantic orientation of that term being used in different domains. The automatic building of this resource has been based on the construction of graphs from conjunctive expressions between adjectives observed in a review corpus. A modified PageRank algorithm, adapted to be used with graphs with positive and negative edges, was applied to these graphs to obtain the values for the semantic orientation of terms. The method has been evaluated using Micro-WNOp, getting similar results or even better than those reported by some recent papers.