Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors That Increase the Effective Concentration of CXCR4 Dictate Feline Immunodeficiency Virus Tropism and Kinetics of Replication

ABSTRACT The surface glycoprotein (gp95) of the feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) binds in a strain-specific manner to several cell surface molecules, including CXCR4, heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs), DC-SIGN, and a 43-kDa cell surface receptor on T cells recently identified as CD134 by M. Shimojima et al. (Science 303:1192-1195, 2004). CXCR4 is the entry receptor in all known cases, and the other molecules act as binding receptors to help facilitate infection. In this report, we confirm and extend the findings regarding CD134 as a primary receptor for FIV. In addition, we show that temperature critically influences the binding properties of FIV gp95 to CXCR4 and HSPGs. The data show that gp95 of the field strain FIV-PPR bound to CXCR4 at 22°C, whereas binding was not detected at 4°C. In contrast, binding of the laboratory adapted FIV-34TF10 gp95 was observed at either 4°C or 22°C, albeit at increased levels at the higher temperature. The level of CXCR4 increased after the temperature was switched from 4 to 22°C, whereas the level of HSPGs decreased, resulting in higher binding of gp95 from both strains to CXCR4 and lower binding of gp95 of FIV-34TF10 to HSPGs (FIV-PPR gp95 does not bind to these molecules). The findings also show that HSPGs facilitate the CXCR4-mediated infectivity of CrFK and G355-5 cells by FIV-34TF10. These two nonlymphoid cell lines express very low levels of CXCR4 and are permissive to FIV-34TF10 but not to productive infection by FIV-PPR. However, overexpression of human CXCR4 in CrFK or G-355-5 cells resulted in extensive cell fusion and infection by FIV-PPR. Taken together, these findings indicate that factors that increase the effective concentration of CXCR4 enhance FIV infectivity and may involve (i) temperature or ligand-induced conformational changes in CXCR4 that enhance SU binding, (ii) coreceptor interactions with gp95 that either alter gp95 conformation to enhance CXCR4 binding and/or raise the localized concentration of receptor or ligand, or (iii) direct increase in CXCR4 concentration via overexpression.
An Echinococcus multilocularis Antigen B3 Proteoform That Shows Specific Antibody Responses to Active-Stage Alveolar Echinococcosis

ABSTRACT Alveolar echinococcosis (AE), caused by the Echinococcus multilocularis metacestode, represents one of the most frequently fatal zoonoses. Early diagnosis significantly reduces morbidity and mortality associated with AE. Diagnosis of AE largely depends on a combination of imaging and serological tests due to its minimal clinical manifestations. Several antigens derived from the whole worm and protoscolex have been targeted for AE serodiagnosis, while the antigenic properties of E. multilocularis hydatid fluid (EmHF) are unclear. We observed two AE-specific 6- and 8-kDa antigen proteoforms through an immunoproteome array of the EmHF. We identified these proteins as representing an E. multilocularis antigen B3 (EmAgB3) isoform, and the proteins were shown to be encoded by the same gene. We cloned the gene and expressed the recombinant EmAgB3 protein (rEmAgB3) in Escherichia coli. rEmAgB3 exhibited sensitivity of 90.9% (80/88 cases) and specificity of 98.5% (597/606 samples) by immunoblotting. The positive and negative predictive values were 89.9% and 98.6%, respectively. The protein did not show antibody responses to 33 AE sera collected during posttreatment follow-up monitoring. Mouse sera experimentally infected with AE protoscoleces began to demonstrate specific antibody responses to native and recombinant EmAgB3 6 months after infection. At that stage, fully mature metacestode vesicles that harbored the brood capsule, primary cell, and protoscolex were observed within an AE mass(es). The response declined along with worm degeneration. Our results demonstrate that the immune responses to this EmAgB3 isoform were highly correlated with worm viability accompanied with AE progression. rEmAgB3 is a promising biomarker for serological assessment of AE patients.
Molecular mechanisms of development of the gastrointestinal tract

The gut offers a complex but rich organ system to study visceral pattern formation. The gut is an early evolutionary advance. Data supports that the molecular controls of gut pattern formation are be conserved across species. The gut develops in a stereotyped manner in many different species, by using a basic mechanism of development, the epithelial‐mesenchymal interaction. Signaling between the endoderm and mesoderm is essential for normal gut development. The signaling molecules involved are just being described and include factors known to be critical in embryonic development of other systems. The gut has four major patterned axes: anterior‐posterior (AP), dorsal‐ventral (DV), left‐right (LR), and radial (RAD). The molecular pathways used to control pattern in each of these axes are the subject of this review. Major advances in the understanding of AP and LR axis formation in the gut have been described within the past few years. RAD and DV axes are now hot topics for investigation. Despite advances in these areas of gut development, basic events remain poorly understood. Discovery of specific factors that control gut pattern formation may provide a template for the study of pattern formation in other visceral/organ systems. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An empirical examination of the determinants of audit report delay in France

Purpose This study aims to investigate the determinants of delay in publishing audited reports. Design/methodology/approach The research is conducted on a sample of French listed companies, covering the period of five years (from 2010 to 2014). The authors use pooled ordinary least squares regression analysis, modeling audit delay as a function of the following explanatory variables relating to the attributes of companies and their auditors. Findings A statistically significant association is found between audit delay and type of audit firm, audit opinion, firm size, the month of year-end and profitability. The results suggest that audit delay lag is reduced by appointing an international audit firm but is extended by aspects of qualified audit opinion. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is to investigate audit report in a developed capital market by taking advantage of access to proprietary data on audit timing and audit opinion. This allowed to overcome some of the problems of data quality that inhibit importing research methods from France to other advanced capital markets.
Early alteration of insulin stimulation of PI 3-kinase in muscle and adipocyte from gold thioglucose obese mice.

The activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PIK) was studied in vivo and in vitro in soleus muscle and adipocytes from young (8 wk) and old (30 wk) gold thioglucose obese mice. Insulin resistance assessed from muscle glucose transport and glycogen synthesis was present both in young and old obese mice. Adipocyte lipid synthesis and muscle glycolysis or glucose oxidation are not defective in young obese mice but become resistant later on. After incubation with 50 nM insulin, muscle antiphosphotyrosine-immunoprecipitable PIK activity was stimulated 5- to 10-fold in both young and old animals. This response was impaired by 56 and 75% in muscles from young and old obese mice, respectively. Insulin stimulation of receptor tyrosine kinase activity was only slightly decreased in muscle of young obese mice, whereas insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) tyrosine phosphorylation was blunted. The altered PIK stimulation in muscle, which is present both in vivo and in vitro, is thus characterized by a reduced association of PIK activity with IRS-1 and appears to result from a diminished IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation. In adipocytes isolated from lean mice, antiphosphotyrosine-immunoprecipitable PIK increased 25-fold within 10 min of incubation with insulin. This stimulation was markedly altered both in young and old obese mice, whereas lipogenesis was insulin resistant only in old obese animals. In adipocytes from young obese mice, insulin's stimulatory effect on the phosphorylation of insulin receptor beta-subunit, pp60, and an exogenous substrate was normal, whereas IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation was markedly depressed. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Effect of Intravenous Morphine and Ketorolac on Pain Control in Long Bones Fractures

Background: According to the lack of adequate studies on comparing the analgesic effect and complications of ketorolac with morphine in long bone fractures, this study aimed to compare the efficacy of ketorolac with morphine in patients referring to the Emergency Department with long bones damage and fracture. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study, 88 patients with long bone fracture were selected randomly and divided into two groups. To scale the intensity of pain, visual analog scale (VAS) were used. Intravenous ketorolac and morphine with the loading dose of 10 mg and 5 mg, respectively was administered to a group, followed by 5 mg and 2.5 mg every 5–20 min, if necessary (VAS ≥4). The pain scores before injection and at 5 min, half an hour and 1-h after the injection were measured and recorded for all patients. Results: The mean age of the ketorolac and morphine groups was 29.1 ± 12.5 and 33.2 ± 11.4, respectively. In the groups, there was 63.6% and 70.5% of male patients respectively. The mean ± SD of pain score before the injection was 7.59 ± 1 and 7.93 ± 1.09 (P = 0.13). One hour after the injection, the mean ± SD of pain in the both groups was 1.41 ± 0.9 and 1.61 ± 1.17 and the mean pain score has no significant difference in the two groups before the injection. Repeated measures ANOVA test also showed that the trend of changes in pain score had no significant difference in both groups (P = 0.08). Conclusion: According to the fewer side effects of ketorolac and effective pain release versus morphine, ketorolac could be suggested to use.
Forecast Combination for Euro Area Inflation: A Cure in Times of Crisis?

The period of extraordinary volatility in euro area headline inflation starting in 2007 raised the question whether forecast combination methods can be used to hedge against bad forecast performance of single models during such periods and provide more robust forecasts. We investigate this issue for forecasts from a range of short-term forecasting models. Our analysis shows that there is considerable variation of the relative performance of the different models over time. To take that into account we suggest employing performance-based forecast combination methods, in particular one with more weight on the recent forecast performance. We compare such an approach with equal forecast combination that has been found to outperform more sophisticated forecast combination methods in the past, and investigate whether it can improve forecast accuracy over the single best model. The time-varying weights assign weights to the economic interpretations of the forecast stemming from different models. The combination methods are evaluated for HICP headline inflation and HICP excluding food and energy. We investigate how forecast accuracy of the combination methods differs between pre-crisis times, the period after the global financial crisis and the full evaluation period including the global financial crisis with its extraordinary volatility in inflation. Overall, we find that, first, forecast combination helps hedge against bad forecast performance and, second, that performance-based weighting tends to outperform simple averaging.
Role of atopy in the natural history of wheeze and bronchial hyper‐responsiveness in childhood

The role of atopy in the development of asthma has become increasingly recognised. We have been prospectively following a birth cohort of children of atopic parents to document the development of atopic disease. Our aim in this study was to document the natural history of BHR and wheeze at 10 years of age and to relate this to atopy. We reviewed 47 of our original cohort of 79 infants at 10 years of age and documented their clinical history of atopic disease and performed allergen skin prick tests and BHR to histamine. Thirty‐three (70%) children wheezed at some time during their 10 years of life, with 13 commencing in infancy. Twenty‐two children (47%) had current wheeze at 10 years of age. Wheeze in infancy was a poor predictor (RR 1.23, Cl95 0.66–2.23) of current wheeze while wheeze commencing after infancy was a good predictor (RR 2.89, Cl95 1.45–5.2). In contrast both atopy in infancy (RR 2.94, Cl95 1.92–4.53) and current atopy (RR 3.58, Cl95 1.43–9.03) were strong predictors of current wheeze. Analysis of BHR confirmed the importance of atopy in predicting its occurrence and severity. Sensitisation to D. pteronyssinus appeared to be the strongest predictor of both current wheeze and BHR. These observations confirm the importance of atopy in predicting outcome in children with asthma and suggest that wheezing in infancy and wheezing in later childhood may have different pathogenetic mechanisms.
Union Decline in Britain, CEP Discussion Paper No. 864

This paper investigates the demise of unionisation in British private sector workplaces over the last quarter century. We show that dramatic union decline has occurred across all types of workplace. Although the union wage premium persists it is quite small in 2004. Negative union effects on employment growth and financial performance are largely confined to the 1980s. Managerial perceptions of the climate of relations between managers and workers has deteriorated since the early 1980s across the whole private sector, whether the workplace is unionised or not.
Correlation Neglect and Overconfidence. An Experimental Study

For the first time in economic research, the present experimental study confrontedÂ participants with the task to predict stock prices ex ante in order to analyze theÂ interrelation of the behavioral anomalies overconfidence and correlation neglect. Â The study shows that the participants considerably overestimate their accuracy ofÂ forecasting (overconfidence). Almost half of all participants (42.2%) disregard theÂ correlation among return developments for different financial instrumentsÂ (correlation neglect). It was also observed that the correlation neglect, whenÂ forecasting diversified financial instruments (funds), has a cushioning effect onoverconfidence.JEL classification numbers: G02, G11, G12, G17, D81, D84Keywords: Behavioral Finance, Experiments, Stock Price Forecasts, CorrelationÂ Neglect, Overconfidence
Heat Transfer from a Cylinder in Cross-Flow of Single and Multiphase Flows

In this paper, the average heat transfer characteristics for a cross flow cylinder of 16 mm diameter in a vertical pipe has been studied for single-phase flow (water/oil) and multicomponent (non-boiling) flow (water-air, water-oil, oil-air and water-oil-air). The cylinder is uniformly heated by electrical heater placed at the centre of the element. The results show that the values of average heat transfer coefficients for water are around four times the values for oil flow. Introducing air as a second phase with water has very little effect on heat transfer rate, while the heat transfer increased by 70% in case of oil. For water–oil flow, the heat transfer coefficient values are reflecting the percentage of water up to 50%, but increasing the water more than 50% leads to a sharp increase in the heat transfer coefficients to become close to the values of pure water. The enhancement of heat transfer by mixing two phases may be attributed to the changes in flow structure near to cylinder surface which lead to thinner boundary layer and higher turbulence. For three-phase flow, the heat transfer coefficients for all cases fall within the limit of single-phase flow of water and oil and are very close to pure water values. The net effect of the turbulence augmentation due to the introduction of air and the attenuation due to the introduction of oil leads to a thinner boundary layer of oil over the cylinder surface covered by a mixture of water and air bubbles. Keywords—Circular cylinder, cross-flow, heat transfer, multicomponent multiphase flow
In vivo cranial bone strain and bite force in the agamid lizard Uromastyx geyri

In vivo bone strain data are the most direct evidence of deformation and strain regimes in the vertebrate cranium during feeding and can provide important insights into skull morphology. Strain data have been collected during feeding across a wide range of mammals; in contrast, in vivo cranial bone strain data have been collected from few sauropsid taxa. Here we present bone strain data recorded from the jugal of the herbivorous agamid lizard Uromastyx geyri along with simultaneously recorded bite force. Principal and shear strain magnitudes in Uromastyx geyri were lower than cranial bone strains recorded in Alligator mississippiensis, but higher than those reported from herbivorous mammals. Our results suggest that variations in principal strain orientations in the facial skeleton are largely due to differences in feeding behavior and bite location, whereas food type has little impact on strain orientations. Furthermore, mean principal strain orientations differ between male and female Uromastyx during feeding, potentially because of sexual dimorphism in skull morphology.
A Role for the PERIOD:PERIOD Homodimer in the Drosophila Circadian Clock

Circadian clocks in eukaryotes rely on transcriptional feedback loops, in which clock genes repress their own transcription resulting in molecular oscillations with a period of ∼24 h. In Drosophila, the clock proteins Period (PER) and Timeless (TIM) operate in such a feedback loop, whereby they first accumulate in the cytoplasm of clock cells as a heterodimer. Nuclear translocation of the complex or the individual PER and TIM proteins is followed by repression of per and tim transcription, whereby PER seems to act as the prime repressor. We found that in addition to PER:TIM complexes, functional PER:PER homodimers exist in flies. Specific disruption of PER homodimers results in drastically impaired behavioral and molecular rhythmicity, pointing the biological importance of this clock protein complex. Analysis of PER subcellular distribution and repressor competence in the PER dimer mutant revealed defects in PER nuclear translocation and a disruption of rhythmic period transcription. The striking similarity of these phenotypes with that of reduced CKII activity suggests that the formation or function of the PER dimer is closely linked to this kinase. Our results confirm a previous structural model for PER and provide strong evidence that PER homodimers are important for circadian clock function.
GAIA scope: Framework for the project scope management in software development process

This article presents the initial development of an ongoing project titled GAIA Scope - Framework for management of project scope in the software development process. The idea of developing this framework is based on fact and the existing need in managing scope projects more effectively and efficiently. The framework will be based on guidelines and standards known as COBIT, ITIL, MPS-Br, CMMI and PMBOK The framework will consist of services divided into different maturity levels, which facilitates the implementation and deployment of it. Manage projects is not an easy activity, and coupled to this the project scope management plays a crucial and decisive role in the success of it. This framework can be used in conjunction with other frameworks developed by the time the GAIA Laboratory of the State University of Londrina (UEL), Brazil.
Falls and injury prevention should be part of every stroke rehabilitation plan

Objective: To evaluate falls incidence, circumstances and consequences in people who return home after stroke rehabilitation, so that appropriate falls and injury prevention strategies can be developed. Design: Prospective cohort study. Setting: Community. Subjects: Fifty-six subjects with stroke who were participating in a rehabilitation programme and returning to live in a community setting completed the study. Main measures: Subjects completed a prospective falls diary for six months after discharge from rehabilitation, and were interviewed after falls. Physical function was measured by the Berg Balance Scale (BBS) and the Functional Independence Measure (FIM). Results: Forty-six per cent of people (26/56) fell, with most falls (63/103 falls) occurring in the two months after discharge from rehabilitation. One subject had 37 similar falls and these falls were excluded from further analysis. Falls occurred more often indoors (50/66), during the day (46/66) and towards the paretic side (25/66). People required assistance to get up after 25 falls (38%) and 36 falls (55%) resulted in an injury. People sought professional health care after only 16 falls, and activity was restricted after 29 falls (44%). The Berg Balance Scale and Functional Independence Measure scores were lower in people who had longer lies after a fall, and who restricted their activity after a fall (p < 0.05). Lower physical function scores were also associated with falling in the morning, wearing multifocal glasses at the time of a fall, and injurious falls (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Falls are common when people return home after stroke. Of concern are the small number seeking health professionals’ assistance after a fall, the high proportion restricting their activity as a result of a fall and the number of falls occurring towards the paretic side.
Tuberculosis chemotherapy practices in major metropolitan health departments in the United States.

Twenty-eight metropolitan health departments in the United States reporting more than 200 cases of tuberculosis annually were surveyed to determine the standard of practice in the diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. Twenty-seven departments responded adequately for inclusion in this report. All programs used Mantoux skin tests with 5 TU of PPD-T, and only 3 programs ever used any other skin test. In contrast, only 26 % of the programs followed the American Thoracic Society recommendation to collect 4 to 6 sputum samples in evaluating the bacteriologic status of patients suspected of pulmonary tuberculosis. Forty-five per cent of the programs continued to follow some or all patients after completion of the designated course of antituberculosis chemotherapy. Two drug regimens (isoniazid with ethambutol or with rifampin) were used most frequently in the initial treatment. No program used parenteral agents in more than 11% of patients receiving initial treatment for pulmonary tuberculosis. Shor.