Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Procyanidin B1 Purified from Cinnamomi Cortex Suppresses Hepatitis C Virus Replication

Background: A combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin is the current standard therapy for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, but this combination provides relatively low efficacy, especially in some patients with HCV genotype 1 infection; therefore, the development of novel therapeutic agents is required for further improvement in the treatment of chronic HCV infection. Methods: HCV pseudotype and subgenomic replicon assays were used in this study. The interaction of compounds with HCV receptors was examined using flow cytometry. Intracellular RNA levels were determined by semi-quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR. Results: Procyanidin B1 (PB1), a dimer of (−)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin, purified from Cinnamomi cortex, inhibits infection by vesicular stomatitis virus and HCV pseudotype virus in Huh-7 cells, with 50% effective concentrations of 29 and 15 μM, respectively. No inhibitory effects were observed in each component of PB1. We found that PB1 does not interfere with viral entry or receptor expression, but inhibits HCV RNA synthesis in a dose-dependent manner. Conclusions: These results indicate that PB1 suppresses HCV RNA synthesis, possibly as a HCV RNA polymerase inhibitor. Our results might contribute towards the development of more effective inhibitors for HCV infection from natural plants.
Autistic Traits Affect P300 Response to Unexpected Events, regardless of Mental State Inferences

Limited use of contextual information has been suggested as a way of understanding cognition in people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, it has also been argued that individuals with ASD may have difficulties inferring others' mental states. Here, we examined how individuals with different levels of autistic traits respond to contextual deviations by measuring event-related potentials that reflect context usage. The Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to quantify autistic-like traits in 28 university students, and 19 participants were defined as Low or High AQ groups. To additionally examine inferences about mental state, two belief conditions (with or without false belief) were included. Participants read short stories in which the final sentence included either an expected or an unexpected word and rated the word's degree of deviation from expectation. P300 waveform analysis revealed that unexpected words were associated with larger P300 waveforms for the Low AQ group, but smaller P300 responses in the High AQ group. Additionally, AQ social skill subscores were positively correlated with evaluation times in the Unexpected condition, whether a character's belief was false or not. This suggests that autistic traits can affect responses to unexpected events, possibly because of decreased availability of context information.
Apoptosis of Cultured Neuroblastoma Cells Is Induced by Ceramide and Not by Ligation of the Fas/Apo-1/CD95 Receptor

The expression of the Fas/APO-1/CD95 receptor on the neuroblastoma cell lines IMR-32, Kelly, SK-N-SH, LS and SiMa was investigated. The induction of apoptosis was attempted by incubation with Fas antibody IgM and IgG, Fas ligand and with ceramide. All neuroblastoma cell lines proved to be positive for Fas/APO-1/CD95 receptor expression by FACS. However, propidium iodide staining in FACS showed that neither incubation with the Fas antibody nor with the Fas ligand resulted in convincing apoptosis of the neuroblastoma cells. On the other hand, incubation with ceramide rapidly led to all signs of apoptosis morphologically and in the FACS. Therefore, other pathways than Fas/Apo-1/CD95 ligation must be of significance for the apoptosis of these neuroblastoma cell lines.
MR Imaging of the Liver before and after Transcatheter Hepatic Chemo-Embolization for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Transcatheter chemo-embolization (TCE) in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) was performed in 38 patients. The patients were examined by MR imaging before TCE as well as one week and 4 to 5 weeks after TCE. The tumor signal intensity in T2 weighted images increased in 13 cases and decreased in 19 cases after TCE. Increased intensity seemed to reflect intra-tumoral hemorrhage or liquefaction accompanying tumor necrosis. Decreased intensity seemed to reflect coagulation necrosis. In 9 of 18 cases followed over a 2-month period the signal intensity had decreased in both T1 and T2 weighted images. In these patients the tumor showed no recurrence at angiography and the decreased signal seemed to reflect the completion of coagulation necrosis. A hyper- and/or hypointense rim around the tumor appeared in 22 cases. These changes were thought to be perifocal edema or granulation tissue around the tumor. MR imaging was useful in evaluating the necrotic process of the tumor after TCE.
Identification and Initial Characterization of the Effectors of an Anther Smut Fungus and Potential Host Target Proteins

(1) Background: Plant pathogenic fungi often display high levels of host specificity and biotrophic fungi; in particular, they must manipulate their hosts to avoid detection and to complete their obligate pathogenic lifecycles. One important strategy of such fungi is the secretion of small proteins that serve as effectors in this process. Microbotryum violaceum is a species complex whose members infect members of the Caryophyllaceae; M. lychnidis-dioicae, a parasite on Silene latifolia, is one of the best studied interactions. We are interested in identifying and characterizing effectors of the fungus and possible corresponding host targets; (2) Methods: In silico analysis of the M. lychnidis-dioicae genome and transcriptomes allowed us to predict a pool of small secreted proteins (SSPs) with the hallmarks of effectors, including a lack of conserved protein family (PFAM) domains and also localized regions of disorder. Putative SSPs were tested for secretion using a yeast secretion trap method. We then used yeast two-hybrid analyses for candidate-secreted effectors to probe a cDNA library from a range of growth conditions of the fungus, including infected plants; (3) Results: Roughly 50 SSPs were identified by in silico analysis. Of these, 4 were studied further and shown to be secreted, as well as examined for potential host interactors. One of the putative effectors, MVLG_01732, was found to interact with Arabidopsis thaliana calcium-dependent lipid binding protein (AtCLB) and with cellulose synthase interactive protein 1 orthologues; and (4) Conclusions: The identification of a pool of putative effectors provides a resource for functional characterization of fungal proteins that mediate the delicate interaction between pathogen and host. The candidate targets of effectors, e.g., AtCLB, involved in pollen germination suggest tantalizing insights that could drive future studies.
Efficacy and safety of erlotinib HCl, an epidermal growth factor receptor (HER1/EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in patients with advanced ovarian carcinoma: results from a phase II multicenter study

The aim of this single-arm, phase II study was to estimate the tumor response rate and safety profile of erlotinib HCl (erlotinib, Tarceva™, OSI-774) monotherapy in patients with refractory, recurrent, HER1/EGFR-positive epithelial ovarian tumors, who had failed prior taxane and/or platinum-based chemotherapy. Thirty-four patients received 150 mg erlotinib orally once daily for up to 48 weeks or until disease progression or dose-limiting toxicity. Two patients had partial responses, lasting 8+ and 17 weeks, giving an objective response rate of 6% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7–19.7%). Fifteen patients (44%) had stable disease, and 17 patients (50%) had progressive disease. Median overall survival was 8 months (95% CI, 5.7–12.7 months), with a 1-year survival rate of 35.3% (95% CI, 19.8–53.5%). Patients with rash survived significantly longer than those without (P = 0.009), correlating with rash grade. Erlotinib was generally well tolerated. The most frequent erlotinib-related adverse events were rash (68%) and diarrhea (38%). Erlotinib had marginal activity but was generally well tolerated. The safety profile appears more favorable than typically experienced with standard chemotherapeutic agents, which is encouraging in these heavily pretreated patients. Combination of erlotinib with chemotherapy or other targeted agents should be considered.
Impact Analysis Based on Change Requirement Traceability in Object Oriented Software Systems

 Abstract — Change requirement traceability in object oriented software systems is one of the challenging areas in research. We know that the traces between links of different artifacts are to be automated or semi-automated in the software development life cycle (SDLC). The aim of this paper is discussing and implementing aspects of dynamically linking the artifacts such as requirements, high level design, code and test cases through the Extensible Markup Language (XML) or by dynamically generating Object Oriented (OO) metrics. Also, non-functional requirements (NFR) aspects such as stability, completeness, clarity, validity, feasibility and precision are discussed. We discuss this as a Fifth Taxonomy, which is a system vulnerability concern.
Determination of the substrate repertoire of ADAMTS2, 3, and 14 significantly broadens their functions and identifies extracellular matrix organization and TGF‐β signaling as primary targets

A disintegrin and metalloproteinase with thrombospondin type I motif (ADAMTS)2, 3, and 14 are collectively named procollagen N‐proteinases (pNPs) because of their specific ability to cleave the aminopropeptide of fibrillar procollagens. Several reports also indicate that they could be involved in other biological processes, such as blood coagulation, development, and male fertility, but the potential substrates associated with these activities remain unknown. Using the recently described N‐terminal amine isotopic labeling of substrate approach, we analyzed the secretomes of human fibroblasts and identified 8, 17, and 22 candidate substrates for ADAMTS2, 3, and 14, respectively. Among these newly identified substrates, many are components of the extracellular matrix and/or proteins related to cell signaling such as latent TGF‐β binding protein 1, TGF‐β RIII, and dickkopf‐related protein 3. Candidate substrates for the 3 ADAMTS have been biochemically validated in different contexts, and the implication of ADAMTS2 in the control of TGF‐β activity has been further demonstrated in human fibroblasts. Finally, the cleavage site specificity was assessed showing a clear and unique preference for non‐polar or slightly hydrophobic amino acids. This work shows that the activities of the pNPs extend far beyond the classically reported processing of the aminopropeptide of fibrillar collagens and that they should now be considered as multilevel regulators of matrix deposition and remodeling. —Bekhouche, M. , Leduc, C. , Dupont, L. , Janssen, L. , Delolme, F. , Vadon‐Le Goff, S. , Smargiasso, N. , Baiwir, D. , Mazzucchelli, G. , Zanella‐Cleon, I. , Dubail, J., De Pauw, E. , Nusgens, B. , Hulmes, D. J. S. , Moali, C. , Colige, A. Determination of the substrate repertoire of ADAMTS2, 3, and 14 significantly broadens their functions and identifies extracellular matrix organization and TGF‐β signaling as primary targets. FASEB J. 30, 1741–1756 (2016). www.fasebj. org
Community resources for mental health care in India

India faced many challenges at the time of independence in 1947. India has a long history of medicine and political organisation. However, the situation with regard to health and mental health in 1947 was not satisfactory. In 1947, for a population of over 300 million, there were only a handful of psychiatrists, only 10,000 psychiatric beds (onebed per 30,000 population), there were no training centres of psychiatry, the legislation governing the mentally ill was the Indian Lunacy Act 1912, the expectation of life at birth was 35 years. However, there was high tolerance by the community and emotional commitment of families to the mentally ill individuals. In 1999, the population has tripled to 1000 million, the number of psychiatrists are about 3000, there are over 30,000 psychiatric beds, about 50 centres provide postgraduate training in psychiatry, the legislation has been updated (Mental Health Act 1987), a new positive law Persons With Disabilities Act, 1995 is in place, the life expectancy at birth is 65 years and about 30% of the population live in urban areas. The positive features or community tolerance/acceptance and the family support for the mentally ill continues. The situation in 1947 presented many challenges to Indian psychiatrists. A striking feature of the last 50 years is the continuous and systematic efforts by psychiatrists to innovate to meet the mental health needs of the population and to utilise the community resources for mental health care. These efforts of Indian professionals have relevance to other developing countries and to the development of community mental health movement in the world.
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…The effects of narration and appearance on the perception of robots

First evidence suggests that introducing robots by means of a narrative story can lead to more positive interactions and evaluations [1]. It is unclear whether this positive framing of robots by narratives works equally for different robot design approaches and appearances. To address this open question we conducted 2×6 between-subjects online experiment and varied the introduction (narrative vs. instruction manual) and appearance of the robot (6 different robot appearances). We replicated previous results on evaluation effects for different robot appearances. Results indicate that robots introduced by a narrative story were evaluated as being more likable, intelligent, autonomous, and humanlike. They were also perceived to be less mechanical and less uncanny. However, there were no interaction effects between narration and robot appearance suggesting that narration is beneficial for robots regardless of their appearance and hence is a strong mechanism to shape positive expectations before actually interacting with a robot.
Esophageal Atresia: Mortality and Complications Related to Gastroesophageal Reflux

Low birthweight and associated anomalies are important risk factors in patients with esophageal atresia. Gastroesophageal reflux is also a common problem in these patients and can lead to serious complications. The aim of this retrospective study was to analyse complications and mortality in 110 patients treated for esophageal atresia between January 1971-December 1987, in order to determine what role reflux may play. Symptoms of reflux were common in most patients during the first years of life. In some cases the symptoms were serious and even caused some late deaths by aspiration. The overall mortality was 12% (13/110). Early mortality (six patients) was caused by prematurity and associated anomalies, whereas late mortality often was caused by aspiration or other respiratory complications. Patients who had been operated with a circular myotomy showed more complications, but did not show a higher mortality rate than the remainder. This study confirms the importance of identifying patients with reflux at an early stage in order to prevent serious complications and mortality.
The phytoplankton community response(s) to global changes and their effect(s) on ecosystem functioning with a special focus on Phaeocystis spp, a harmful algae

Les ecosystemes cotiers, interface entre terre et mer, sont soumis au changement climatique ainsi qu’a de fortes pressions anthropiques. Par consequent, les eaux cotieres sont sujettes a eutrophisation. Le phytoplancton demande une attention particuliere du a son role de producteur primaire des ecosystemes marins. Recemment, l’efflorescence des algues nuisibles est devenue mondialement, une inquietude croissante. Le but de la these a ete de decrire et de mesurer les reponses temporelles et les causalites de la structure de communaute phytoplanctonique sous impact des changements globaux, en presence d’une algue nuisible. Pour ce faire, le concept de niche ecologique et une methode statistique, ont ete adaptes. Les "Within Outlying Mean Indexes" ont ete proposes pour affiner l’analyse "Outlying Mean Index" en combinant ses proprietes avec la decomposition de la marginalite de l’analyse "K-select". Les dynamiques des sous-niches de la communaute d’espece ont ete etudiees dans des conditions environnementales d’ abondances basses (L) ou fortes (H) de Phaeocystis spp. Le sous-ensemble H etait caracterise par une large niche de Phaeocystis spp. ainsi qu’une forte diversite de diatomees. Dans le sous-ensemble L, Phaeocystis spp. a subit une forte contrainte biologique probablement induite par la competition des diatomees pour les ressources. La relation diversite-productivite du phytoplancton s’est averee plus forte a l’echelle saisonniere que sur le long-terme. Le desequilibre des ressources n’a pas eu de lien direct avec la productivite a long terme. Le succes a long terme de l’espece invasive et de son impact sur la productivite, est favorise par une suite d’annees froides avec des ressources elevees et desequilibrees, augmentant le nombre de petites especes de diatomees et donc son efflorescence. Enfin, je discute des ameliorations methodologiques, du potentiel d’utilisation de l’approche par traits, et d’eventuelles montages experimentaux pour supporter les resultats de la these.
THE INOSINIC ACID PYROPHOSPHORYLASE ACTIVITY OF MOUSE FIBROBLASTS PARTIALLY RESISTANT TO 8-AZAGUANINE.

Assay of IMP pyrophosphorylase:" The incubation mixture (total volume 45 Jl) contained about 3 ,ug of protein; 110 ,ug of crystalline bovine albumin; 8 mjum of hypoxanthine-8-C 1 (7.6 uc per Mm); 50 mum of 5-phosphorylribose 1-pyrophosphate; 270 m/Am of MgCl2; and 180 m/Am of tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane at pH 7.4. After incubation at room temperature for 2 hr, 30 Ml of the incubation mixture were transferred to ion exchange paper (Reeve Angel paper, grade SB2, loaded with Amberlite IRA400 resin-Cl- form). One-tenth N formic acid was al-lowed to ascend through the origin spot, the paper was dried, and the origin spot was cut out, mounted (Tracerlab, Inc.; E-7B -rings and disks), and assayed for radioactivity (Nuclear-Chicago model D47 thin end-window counter) to within 5% error. Under these conditions, phosphorylated derivatives of hypoxanthine-8-C'4 are held at the origin and are present in an amount proportional to enzyme concentration. The reaction was linear for at least 2 hr. An increased concentration of hypoxanthine-8-C" or 5-phosphorylribose 1-pyrophosphate did not increase the rate of the reaction. Essentially no radioactivity was bound at the origin spot when 5-phosphorylribose 1- pyrophosphate was omitted. The specific activity of IMP pyrophosphorylase referred to below represents the counts per minute of phosphorylated derivatives of hypoxanthine-8-C14 per Mug of cell extract protein per 2 hr at room temperature. Materials and Methods. -Randomly bred 6- to 8-week-old Swiss mice were superovulated by the intraperitoneal injection of 5 I.U. of pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (Gestyl, Organon), followed
Effect of Intravenous Esomeprazole 40 mg and Pantoprazole 40 mg on Intragastric pH in Healthy Subjects

Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effect on intragastric acidity over 24 h on days 1 and 3 following treatment with intravenous (i.v.) esomepra-zole 40 mg (CAS for esomeprazole sodium: 161796-78-7) and pantoprazole 40 mg (CAS for pantoprazole sodium: 138786-67-1). Methods: In an open, randomised, two-way cross-over study, 36 healthy volunteers received esomeprazole (Nexium®) 40 mg or pantoprazole 40 mg, both administered once daily as an i.v. bolus injection for 3 consecutive days. Continuous 24-h pH recordings were made under standardised conditions at baseline and on days 1 and 3 of each treatment period. The primary variable was the percentage of time with intragastric pH > 4 during a 24-h period. Results: Time with intragastric pH > 4 was significantly greater with esomeprazole than with pantoprazole during the first 4 h (47.8 % vs. 18.9 %), as well as for the 24-h period of day 1 and day 3 (day 1: 38.8 % vs. 23.7 %; day 3: 55.0 % vs. 35.2 %, p<0.0001 for all times examined). Mean of median intragastric pH with esome-prazole was significantly higher than with pantoprazole during the 24-h period (day 1: 3.2 vs. 2.2, p<0.0001; day 3: 4.3 vs. 3.1, p<0.00001). Conclusion: Esomeprazole administered as a 40 mg i.v. bolus injection provided faster and more effective control of intra-gastric acidity than a 40 mg i.v. bolus injection of pantoprazole, and also maintained pH > 4 longer both during the first 4 h on day 1 and during the 24-h period of day 1 and day 3 of dosing.
Concept drift learning and its application to adaptive information filtering

Tracking the evolution of user interests is a problem instance of concept drift learning. Keeping track of multiple interest categories is a natural phenomenon as well as an interesting tracking problem because interests can emerge and diminish at different time frames. The first part of this dissertation presents a Mbultiple Tbhree-Dbescriptor Rbepresentation (MTDR) algorithm, a novel algorithm for learning concept drift especially built for tracking the dynamics of multiple target concepts in the information filtering domain. The learning process of the algorithm combines the long-term and short-term interest (concept) models in an attempt to benefit from the strength of both models. The MTDR algorithm improves over existing concept drift learning algorithms in the domain. Being able to track multiple target concepts with a few examples poses an even more important and challenging problem because casual users tend to be reluctant to provide the examples needed, and learning from a few labeled data is generally difficult. The second part presents a computational Fbramework for Ebxtending Ibncomplete Lbabeled Dbata Sbtream (FEILDS). The system modularly extends the capability of an existing concept drift learner in dealing with incomplete labeled data stream. It expands the learner's original input stream with relevant unlabeled data; the process generates a new stream with improved learnability. FEILDS employs a concept formation system for organizing its input stream into a concept (cluster) hierarchy. The system uses the concept and cluster hierarchy to identify the instance's concept and unlabeled data relevant to a concept. It also adopts the persistence assumption in temporal reasoning for inferring the relevance of concepts. Empirical evaluation indicates that FEILDS is able to improve the performance of existing learners particularly when learning from a stream with a few labeled data. Lastly, a new concept formation algorithm, one of the key components in the FEILDS architecture, is presented. The main idea is to discover intrinsic hierarchical structures regardless of the class distribution and the shape of the input stream. Experimental evaluation shows that the algorithm is relatively robust to input ordering, consistently producing a hierarchy structure of high quality.