Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Temperature-sensitive mutants in herpes simplex virus type 1 ICP4 permissive for early gene expression

A large number of temperature-sensitive (ts) mutants of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) in the gene encoding the immediate-early transcriptional regulatory protein, ICP4, have been isolated and characterized with respect to expression of the immediate-early, early, and late viral gene products. The hallmark of these mutants is the overproduction of immediate-early gene products and the underproduction of early and late gene products. The present study involves the preliminary genetic and molecular characterization of two unique regulatory mutants of HSV-1, ts48 and ts303. Genetically, both mutants exhibit inefficient complementation with eight ts mutants in complementation group 1-2, which defines the gene for ICP4, and marker rescue experiments place the mutations in both mutants in the 3' portion of the coding sequence for ICP4. Sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis of ts48- and ts303-infected cell polypeptides synthesized at the nonpermissive temperature demonstrates that immediate-early polypeptides ICP4 and ICP27 are overproduced, with the simultaneous production of early polypeptides ICP6, ICP8, gB, and others. Immediate-early polypeptides are resynthesized upon temperature shift-up early in infection; however, shift-up late in infection does not result in the resynthesis of immediate-early polypeptides. Late gene products are either absent or underrepresented under long-term labeling conditions. To examine the effects of the mutations in ts48, ts303, and other ICP4 mutants specifically on early gene expression, trans-induction experiments were performed in cells transfected with the gene for chloramphenicol acetyltransferase under early gene control (tk) and superinfected with KOS, tsB32, ts48, and ts303. Mutant tsB32 did not induce chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity above the basal level; however, ts48 and ts303 induced chloramphenicol acetyltransferase activity nearly equal to wild-type levels. Fifteen to fifty percent of wild-type levels of viral DNA are synthesized at the nonpermissive temperature in ts48- and ts303-infected cells, indicating that immediate-early and early gene functions are intact (or nearly so) and that the block in ts48 and ts303 is in a regulatory event subsequent to that exhibited by other mutants in complementation group 1-2 which are DNA-.
Health Behavior Combinations and Their Association With Inflammation

Purpose: Studies have examined the independent and additive effects of health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, diet, sleep, and smoking) on systemic inflammation, but we know little about whether different pairs of these behaviors differentially influence inflammation, which was the purpose of this study. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2005–2006. Subjects: A total of 2051 adults (≥20 years). Measures: A questionnaire/interview was used to assess sleep and dietary behavior; physical activity was assessed via accelerometry; smoking was assessed via cotinine levels; and a blood sample was taken to assess systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein; [CRP]). Analysis: Multivariable linear regression analysis. Results: Six health behavior pairs were evaluated: (1) active and healthy diet, (2) active and adequate sleep, (3) active and nonsmoker, (4) healthy diet and adequate sleep, (5) healthy diet and nonsmoker, and (6) adequate sleep and nonsmoker. After adjusting for age, gender, race-ethnicity, poverty level, and chronic disease, only active and nonsmoker (β = −.15) and healthy diet and adequate sleep (β = −.16) were associated with CRP. Conclusion: Regular physical activity and smoking avoidance and healthy eating and adequate sleep were the two health behavior pairs associated with less inflammation. This suggests that certain health behaviors may act synergistically on reducing systemic inflammation, whereas other health behavior combinations may not. Such knowledge may help to develop and implement tailored health behavior interventions.
Interpretation of captopril renography using artificial neural networks

The purpose of this study was to develop a method based on artificial neural networks for interpretation of captopril renography tests for the detection of renovascular hypertension caused by renal artery stenosis and to assess the value of different measurements from the test. A total of 250 99mTc‐MAG3 captopril renography tests were used in the study. The material was collected from two different patient groups. One group consisted of 101 patients who also had undergone a renal angiography. The angiographies, which were used as gold standard, showed a significant renal artery stenosis in 53 of the 101 cases. The second group consisted of 149 patients, who's captopril renography tests all were interpreted as not compatible with significant renal artery stenosis by an experienced nuclear medicine physician. Artificial neural networks were trained for the diagnosis of renal artery stenosis using eight measures from each renogram. The neural network was then evaluated in separate test groups using an eightfold cross validation procedure. The performance of the neural networks, measured as the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, was 0·93. The sensitivity was 91% at a specificity of 90%. The lowest performance was found for the network trained without use of a parenchymal transit measure, indicating the importance of this feature. Artificial neural networks can be trained to interpret captopril renography tests for detection of renovascular hypertension caused by renal artery stenosis. The result almost equals that of human experts shown in previous studies.
ffi cient Enumeration Algorithms for Connected Induced Subgraphs with Large Girth

The girth is the length of shortest cycle in a graph. Recently, the problem for computing the girth of a graph have been studied well. Itai and Rodeh developed the first non trivial algorithm for computing girth in general graphs. Their algorithm runs in O (nm) time in the worst case and it runs in O(n) time on average case. For unweighted planer graphs, Djidjev gave a O ( n log n ) time algorithm for computing girth. Chang et al. improved Djidjev’s algorithm to a linear time algorithm. To the best of our knowledge. there are no known results for enumeration of induced connected subgraphs with large girth. In this paper, we propose two algorithms to solve this problem. The former algorithm enumerates all solutions in O (n) time using O ( n ) space. The latter algorithm enumerates all solutions in O (m) time using O (m) space.
Low-dose steroid therapy in cyclosporine-treated renal transplant recipients with well-functioning grafts. The Canadian Multicentre Transplant Study Group.

OBJECTIVE Low-dose prednisone given on alternate days as a steroid adjunct to cyclosporine therapy was investigated primarily for its influence on kidney graft and patient survival and, secondarily, on renal function and complications. DESIGN Multicentre randomized double-blind clinical trial. SETTING Fourteen Canadian transplant centres. PATIENTS A total of 523 patients with well-functioning renal transplants (cadaveric grafts or grafts from living related donors) and without active graft rejection reactions who were entered into the trial from 1982 to 1985. INTERVENTION Patients were randomly assigned 90 days after transplantation to receive either placebo (260 patients) or low-dose prednisone (263 patients). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Graft and patient survival. MAIN RESULTS After at least 5 years of follow-up 50 patients assigned placebo had lost their graft and 17 had died; the corresponding figures for those assigned prednisone were 38 and 16. After an average interval of 1.4 years 143 patients in the placebo group and 123 patients in the prednisone group had stopped therapy with the test drug or had had their treatment group decoded or both. Patients were withdrawn from the study 2 years after stopping the test therapy. The actuarial 5-year graft survival rates were 73% and 85% in the placebo and prednisone groups respectively (p = 0.03), and the actuarial 5-year patient survival rates were 92% and 94% respectively (p = 0.6). This analysis included 43 and 29 graft losses and 14 and 12 deaths in the placebo and prednisone groups respectively. Weibull parametric modelling of graft survival identified the following variables as risk factors for graft loss: histocompatibility leukocyte antigen B (HLA-B) mismatching (p = 0.007), donor death from cerebrovascular accident (p = 0.01), increased donor age (p = 0.02) and being a male recipient (p = 0.05). When these factors were included in the Cox proportional hazards model, the influence of assigned treatment on graft survival was reduced to p = 0.1. Donor death from cerebrovascular accident (p = 0.002), diabetes mellitus in the recipient (p = 0.02) and increased recipient age (p = 0.05) were risk factors for patient death. Renal function and incidence of complications were similar in the treatment groups. CONCLUSIONS Continued administration of low-dose prednisone on alternate days is advisable, particularly in patients with cadaveric grafts and those with previously failed transplants.
Engagement of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules leads to nitrite production in bone marrow‐derived macrophages

The present study was designed to examine whether engagement of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules can lead to induction of NO synthase in bone marrow‐derived macrophages. We treated the macrophages with toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (TSST‐1), a superantigen which activates T cells in an MHC class II‐dependent manner. Upon addition of syngeneic spleen cells as a source of mature T cells to the TSST‐1‐treated macrophage culture, NO2− production was greatly increased. To test whether monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to MHC class II antigens also serve as an effective trigger signal for induction of NO synthase we incubated the cells with the anti‐I‐Ad/b mAb D3.137 and measured NO2− production in culture supernatants. The addition of the mAb D3.137 resulted in NO2− production which was completely suppressed by NG‐monomethyl‐L‐arginine, a homologue of L‐arginine, indicating that antibody‐induced NO2− production was due to activation of NO synthase. The ability of anti‐I‐A antibodies, which may imitate the effects of T cells, to induce NO2− production suggests that MHC class II molecules act as transmembrane signal transducers finally leading to induction of NO synthase.
The Profit Motive and Spine Surgery

Study Design. The profit motive and market medicine have had a significant impact on clinical practice and research in the field of spine surgery. An overview of current concerns is presented. Objective. The objective of this study was to provide those involved in the study and treatment of spinal disorders with a critical overview of the effects of the profit motive on our practices. Summary of Background Data. Historically, the profit motive has been viewed as eroding the standards of spine surgery, encouraging surgeons to operate aggressively and researchers to bias their results. Although there are legitimate concerns regarding the role played by such market forces, the profit motive exerts several quite positive effects on spine surgery as well. Methods. Negative and positive aspects of the profit motive in spine surgery are explored along with alternative approaches. Results. The profit motive in spine surgery can result in unnecessary surgery, as well as the push to market of unproven technologies. Yet, without a robust profit motive, it is unclear where sufficient funding could be found to support research and education, and to underwrite the advancement of new technologies. Conclusions. The profit motive significantly influences the way we practice and conduct research in spine surgery. To minimize the negative aspects of the profit motive, spine surgeons and researchers must refrain from being used by companies to rush products to market and/or compromising patient care out of self-interest.
A game theoretical model of traffic with multiple interacting drivers for use in autonomous vehicle development

This paper describes a game theoretical model of traffic where multiple drivers interact with each other. The model is developed using hierarchical reasoning, a game theoretical model of human behavior, and reinforcement learning. It is assumed that the drivers can observe only a partial state of the traffic they are in and therefore although the environment satisfies the Markov property, it appears as non-Markovian to the drivers. Hence, each driver implicitly has to find a policy, i.e. a mapping from observations to actions, for a Partially Observable Markov Decision Process. In this paper, a computationally tractable solution to this problem is provided by employing hierarchical reasoning together with a suitable reinforcement learning algorithm. Simulation results are reported, which demonstrate that the resulting driver models provide reasonable behavior for the given traffic scenarios.
Spectroscopic Properties of Protochlorophyllide Analyzed In Situ in the Course of Etiolation and in Illuminated Leaves¶

Abstract The spectroscopic properties of photoactive (i.e. flash-transformable) and nonphotoactive protochlorophyll(ide)s (Pchl(ide)) were reinvestigated during the development of bean leaves in darkness. Two phases in the process of Pchl(ide) accumulation were apparent from quantitative measurements of pigment content: a lag phase (first week) during which photoactive Pchl(ide) accumulated faster than nonphotoactive Pchl(ide); and a fast phase (second week), showing parallel accumulation of both types of Pchl(ide). ‘Flashed-minus-dark’ absorbance difference spectra recorded in situ at 77 K showed that P650–655 was the predominant form of photoactive protochlorophyllide regardless of developmental stage. Quantitative analysis of energy migration processes between the Pchl(ide) forms showed the existence of energy transfer units containing a 1:8 ratio of nonphotoactive and photoactive Pchl(ide)s during development. Gaussian deconvolution of in situ 77 K fluorescence spectra indicated that the 633 nm band of nonphotoactive Pchl(ide) was made of four bands, at 625, 631, 637 and 643 nm, whose relative amplitudes only slightly changed during development. The emission band of photoactive Pchlide was also analyzed using the same method. Three components were found at 644, 652 and 657 nm. The emission band of P650–655 included the last two components, which become predominant only in fully etiolated plants. Photoactive Pchlide with an emission maximum at 653 nm was detected in the light during development of leaves of photoperiodically grown plants.
Copulation Type Affects Parturition in the Guppy

In some animals, females are often compelled to mate with less desirable males due to the males' alternative mating tactics. Male guppies, Poecilia reticulata, exhibit courtship displays and cooperatively copulate with females. However, they also exhibit sneaking behaviors and coercively copulate with females. To examine the consequences of these two mating patterns, we investigated the influence of copulation type, i.e., cooperative or coercive, on parturition and brood size of females. A single female was allowed to freely contact and copulate with a single male only once. Males that cooperatively copulated with females had larger orange spot areas (an important criterion of female mate choice) than males that copulated coercively. Most females that were coerced into copulation did not give birth to offspring within 100 days after mating. The probability of parturition was high when females copulated cooperatively, and when their mates exhibited frequent postcopulatory jerking behavior. However, the results suggest that copulation type did not affect brood size. Brood size was positively influenced by both female body size and male orange spot area. These results suggest that parturient success is low when females are coerced into mating by less desirable males, whereas brood size is independent of copulation type.
A 1H NMR study of a ternary peptide complex that mimics the interaction between troponin C and troponin I

The troponin I peptide Nα‐acetyl TnI (104–115) amide (TnIp) represents the minimum sequence necessary for inhibition of actomyosin ATPase activity of skeletal muscle (Talbot, J.A. & Hodges, R.S., 1981, J. Biol. Chem. 256, 2798–3802; Van Eyk, J.E. & Hodges, R.S., 1988, J. Biol. Chem. 263, 1726–1732; Van Eyk, J.E., Kay, C.M., & Hodges, R.S., 1991, Biochemistry 30, 9974–9981). In this study, we have used 1H NMR spectroscopy to compare the binding of this inhibitory TnI peptide to a synthetic peptide heterodimer representing site III and site IV of the C‐terminal domain of troponin C (TnC) and to calcium‐saturated skeletal TnC. The residues whose 1H NMR chemical shifts are perturbed upon TnIp binding are the same in both the site III/site IV heterodimer and TnC. These residues include F102, I104, F112, I113, I121, I149, D150, F151, and F154, which are all found in the C‐terminal domain hydrophobic pocket and antiparallel β‐sheet region of the synthetic site III/site IV heterodimer and of TnC. Further, the affinity of TnIp binding to the heterodimer (Kd = 192 + 37 μM) was found to be similar to TnIp binding to TnC (48 + 18 μM [Campbell, A.P., Cachia, P.J., & Sykes, B.D., 1991, Biochem. Cell Biol. 69, 674–681]). The results indicate that binding of the inhibitory region of TnI is primarily to the C‐terminal domain of TnC. The results also indicate how well the synthetic peptide heterodimer mimics the C‐terminal domain of TnC in structure and functional interactions.
Adherence to cancer prevention guidelines and cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and total mortality: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND Several health agencies have issued guidelines promoting behaviors to reduce chronic disease risk; however, little is known about the impact of such guidelines, particularly on cancer incidence. OBJECTIVE The objective was to determine whether greater adherence to the American Cancer Society (ACS) cancer prevention guidelines is associated with a reduction in cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and total mortality. DESIGN The NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study, a prospective cohort study of 566,401 adults aged 50-71 y at recruitment in 1995-1996, was followed for a median of 10.5 y for cancer incidence, 12.6 y for cancer mortality, and 13.6 y for total mortality. Participants who reported a history of cancer or who had missing data were excluded, yielding 476,396 subjects for analysis. We constructed a 5-level score measuring adherence to ACS guidelines, which included baseline body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake, and several aspects of diet. Cox proportional hazards models were used to compute HRs and 95% CIs for the association of the adherence score with cancer incidence, cancer mortality, and total mortality. All analyses included fine adjustment for cigarette smoking. RESULTS Among 476,396 participants, 73,784 incident first cancers, 16,193 cancer deaths, and 81,433 deaths from all causes were identified in the cohort. Adherence to ACS guidelines was associated with reduced risk of all cancers combined: HRs (95% CIs) for the highest compared with the lowest level of adherence were 0.90 (0.87, 0.93) in men and 0.81 (0.77, 0.84) in women. Fourteen of 25 specific cancer sites showed a reduction in risk associated with increased adherence. Adherence was also associated with reduced cancer mortality [HRs (95% CIs) were 0.75 (0.70, 0.80) in men and 0.76 (0.70, 0.83) in women] and reduced all-cause mortality [HRs (95% CIs) were 0.74 (0.72, 0.76) in men and 0.67 (0.65, 0.70) in women]. CONCLUSIONS In both men and women, adherence to the ACS guidelines was associated with reductions in all-cancer incidence and the incidence of cancer at specific sites, as well as with reductions in cancer mortality and total mortality. These data suggest that, after accounting for cigarette smoking, adherence to a set of healthy behaviors may have considerable health benefits.
Urinary and erythrocyte polyamines during the evaluation of oral alpha-difluoromethylornithine in a phase I chemoprevention clinical trial.

Pharmacokinetics of alpha-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) in plasma and polyamine levels in urine and erythrocytes (RBC) of subjects considered to be at a higher-than-normal risk for developing cancer and receiving DFMO in a phase I chemoprevention trial were monitored over a period of 6 months at DFMO doses ranging from 200 to 6400 mg/m2/day. DFMO pharmacokinetics was linear and attained an average peak plasma concentration of 58 micrograms/ml and an average area under the concentration x time curve from 0 to 6 h of 240 micrograms/ml.h at an administered dose of 1600 mg/m2. Transient decreases in RBC polyamine levels were observed in only 3 of 22 subjects; all of the others showed an increase in the levels at some time during DFMO administration. In contrast to these findings, 17 of 22 subjects showed a decline in urinary polyamines; 10 of 22 showed this decline by the end of the first month and the remaining subjects during subsequent administration of the drug. One subject with familial polyposis who had high RBC and urinary polyamine levels prior to DFMO treatment showed a significant decline in urinary polyamines and responded to DFMO treatment with nearly complete resolution of the polyps in the rectal stump. Our results suggest that (a) DFMO concentrations achieved in this study are adequate to modulate polyamine pools as reflected by their reduced urinary excretion; (b) the red blood cell polyamines are not reliable indicators of DFMO activity; and (c) the modulation of polyamines occurs at doses of DFMO that are tolerated by a majority of the subjects.
What is a light source?

Traditional light source modelling is concerned with specific types of light sources, the two most common of which are point sources and daylight. Little attempt has been made, however, to relate different types of sources to each other. For example, how may the lighting from an overcast sky be compared to that from a lamp? Having a theoretical framework to compare different types of light sources is important for computer vision, in particular for understanding shading and shadow cues. A vision system needs to take account of the light source in order to interpret these cues. In this paper, we present a framework for comparing types of light sources which is based on a dimensional analysis of the set of light rays in a free space. Specifically, we introduce a 4-D light source hypercube in which the different types of sources may be embedded and compared. We also present a novel definition for light sources which generalizes the standard definition of a source as an emitter.