Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Host immunological response and factors associated with clinical outcome in patients with the novel influenza A H7N9 infection.

In March 2013, an influenza outbreak caused by the novel avian-origin H7N9 influenza A virus emerged in eastern China and had caused 43 fatalities by 31 July 2013, although the basis for disease pathogenesis still remains unclear. To assess the immunological and viral factors associated with disease severity, viral RNA and inflammatory cytokines were quantified for 18 H7N9 patients in Shanghai, China. Detailed clinical information was collected and clinical laboratory investigations were performed for all patients. H7N9 infection is characterized by high pharyngeal virus load and frequent detection of viral RNA in blood. High pharyngeal virus load persisted through the first 10 days of antiviral therapy in fatal cases. Genetic characterization of the H7N9 virus revealed an Arg292Lys mutation in the neuraminidase gene associated with oseltamivir-resistance. Pronounced lymphopenia and high chemokine and cytokine levels were observed in H7N9-infected patients, particularly in those where disease was fatal. Serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-8 and macrophage inflammatory protein-1β in our subjects also correlated positively with pharyngeal virus load. Lymphocyte counts <0.5 × 10(9) cells/L, and serum IL-6 >97 pg/mL, IL-8 >40 pg/mL and C-reactive protein >90 mg/L were identified as being connected with adverse clinical outcome through univariate logistic analysis. Significant survival differences were also observed between patients with serum C-reactive protein <90 mg/L or creatinine <90 μmol/L and those with higher levels. Our data demonstrated that high viral load, and the resulting intense inflammatory responses, played an important role in H7N9 pathogenesis. Though immunomodulatory treatment has potential benefits, the focus of clinical management should be on preventing the intense cytokine response by early diagnosis and effective antiviral treatment.
Does a lack of contiguity with visual text cause the modality effect in multimedia learning

In the reported study it was examined whether the modality effect in multimedia learning is caused either by more cognitive resources being available when studying pictures accompanied by auditory text or by the need to split attention between written text and pictures. Ninety-eight students learned about the development of tornados. They heard or read the verbal explanation concurrently with, before, or after the corresponding picture. Learning was measured by verbal recall, pictorial recall, and transfer. For pictorial recall a modality effect was found with simultaneous presentation but not with sequential presentation. This indicates that the modality effect is caused by a split of attention with visual text and picture and not by enhanced cognitive resources with auditory text and picture.
High-Temperature Cubic Boron Nitride P-N Junction Diode Made at High Pressure

A p-n junction diode of cubic boron nitride was made by growing an n-type crystal epitaxially on a p-type seed crystal at a pressure of 55 kilobars and a temperature of about 1700�C. A temperature-difference solvent method was used for the crystal growth, and beryllium and silicon were doped as acceptors and donors, respectively. Formation of the p-n junction was clearly confirmed at 1 bar by rectification characteristics and by existence of a space charge layer of the junction as observed by electron beam induced current measurement. This diode operated at 530�C.
Selective solubilization of proteins and phospholipids from red blood cell membranes by nonionic detergents.

Treatment of isolated human erythrocyte membranes with Triton X-100 at ionic strength ⋍0.04 preferentially released all the glycerolipid and glycoprotein species. At low ionic strength, certain nonglycosylated polypeptides were also selectively solubilized. The liberated polypeptides were free of lipids, but some behaved as if associated into specific oligomeric complexes. Each detergent-insoluble ghost residue appeared by electron microscopy to be a filamentous reticulum with adherent lipoid sheets and vesicles. The residues contained most of the membrane sphingolipids and the nonglycosylated proteins. The polypeptide elution profile obtained with nonionic detergents is therefore nearly reciprocal to that previously seen with a variety of agents which perturb proteins. These data afford further evidence that the externally-oriented glycoproteins penetrate the membrane core where they are anchored hydrophobically, whereas the nonglycosylated polypeptides are, in general, bound by polar associations at the inner membrane surface. The filamentous meshwork of inner surface polypeptides may constitute a discrete, self-associated continuum which provides rather than derives structural support from the membrance.
[A biomechanical study on the retrodiscal tissue of human temporomandibular joint].

In order to investigate the biomechanical properties and functional mechanism of the retrodiscal tissue (RT) of human temporomandibular joint (TMJ), we conducted a uniaxial tensile test on thirteen RT specimens taken from eight fresh TMJs of the human cadavers aged between 8-15 years (m = 11.8 yrs). The experimental data were analyzed in conjunction with the Quasi-Linear Viscoelastic Theory as proposed by Fung YC to characterize the time-dependent behaviour and the constitutive relationship of the RT. The results showed that the physiological biphasic zone of stress-strain curve lied within 20%-30% strain levels. The elastic modulus (MPa), tensile strength(MPa) and strain to failure(%) were high. There were significant differences in strain to yielding and energy resorption (N.mm) between lateral and medial RT. There was a good agreement between theoretical prediction value and experimental result within 6% strain level. These data suggest that there would be a higher passive deformation and lower safety storage of strength in the RT which could be related to anterior displacement of the TMJ disc and that Fung's Theory can adequately describe the stress-time behaviour and the constitutive relationship of the RT within lower strain rate.
A hybrid model to investigate language change

In this paper we propose a hybrid multi-agent modelling framework which facilitates investigation into sound change by combining the socio-phonetic model of Nettle [14] and the exemplar-based model of Wedel [21] into a single uniﬁed model. The framework facilitates simulation scenarios of different social networks with varying interaction schemes and social distances between the agents. Additionally, the structure of an individual agent’s mental lexicon is embedded in an exemplar-theoretic setting. The goal of this modelling framework is to enable examination of competition be-tween different phonetic forms. Though in no way limited to this particular example, we illustrate our new hybrid framework with the case of competition between phonetically intuitive /mb/ and unintuitive [mp] voicing variants of post-nasal stops in Tswana.
Effects of the ras‐related rap2 protein on cellular proliferation

Ras oncogenes encode 21‐kDa (p21s) GTP binding proteins that are capable of transforming immortalized cells in culture. The ras‐related rap 1A/Krev‐1/smgp21A protein, that exhibits a similar structural organization and contains the same effector domain as ras proteins, antagonizes ras‐transformation. In order to investigate whether the closely related (61% identical) rap2 protein had similar capacities, the corresponding cDNA was inserted into constitutive as well as inducible mammalian expression vectors. Neither the wild‐type, nor an „activated”︁ mutant carrying a glycine‐to‐valine substitution at position 12, had any transforming activity. Several independent lines of evidence demonstrate that the rap2 protein exhibits neither growth‐promoting nor growth‐inhibitory effects, and that its over‐expression does not interfere with ras‐induced transformation. Thus, in spite of their great similarities, the rap 1A/Krev‐1/smgp21A and rap2 proteins have distinct physiological properties.
The regulation of membrane 125I‐ and 86Rb+ permeability in a virally transformed cell line (NCL‐SG3) derived from the human sweat gland epithelium

We have explored the factors that may regulate membrane permeability in a cell line (NCL‐SG3) derived from the human sweat gland epithelium. Ionomycin increased the rate of 125I‐efflux from preloaded cells and this action appeared to be due to an increase in intracellular free calcium ([Ca2+]i). The ionomycin‐evoked increase in 125I‐ efflux was reduced in cells that were exposed either to barium or to valinomycin in the presence of a high concentration of external potassium. It thus appears that a fraction of the ionomycin‐evoked increase in 125I‐ efflux is due to the activation of potassium channels and experiments using 86Rb+ also suggested that ionomycin increased the rate of potassium efflux, an effect which was totally abolished by barium. Blockade of Na(+)‐K(+)‐2Cl‐ cotransport and of Cl‐ ‐HCO3‐ exchange reduced the basal rate of 125I‐ efflux and the ionomycin‐evoked increase in 125I‐efflux from control cells and from cells depolarized by valinomycin. These transport systems thus contribute to anion efflux, although [Ca2+]i‐dependent chloride channels also appear to be present. Acetylcholine increases [Ca2+]i in the secretory cells of human sweat glands, but this neurotransmitter did not increase [Ca2+]i in NCL‐SG3 cells and so membrane permeability was not under cholinergic control. Adrenaline did not increase [Ca2+]i, but this hormone did evoke cyclic‐3',5'‐adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP) production. However, membrane permeability was not under adrenergic control, as the cells did not appear to express functional, cyclic AMP‐dependent anion channels. This may be because they were not fully differentiated under the culture conditions. ATP consistently evoked a dose‐dependent increase in anion efflux that appeared to be mediated by [Ca2+]i. The increase in [Ca2+]i was initiated by the release of calcium from a limited internal store and was subsequently sustained by calcium influx. UTP and ADP also increased [Ca2+]i, whereas adenosine, AMP and alpha,beta‐methylene ATP were without effect. These data thus suggest that a subclass of type 2 purine receptor, which is functionally coupled to phosphoinositidase C, is present in these cells.
MyD88 Plays a Unique Role in Host Defense but Not Arthritis Development in Lyme Disease1

To assess the contribution of TLR signaling in the host response to Borrelia burgdorferi, mice deficient in the common TLR adaptor protein, myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), were infected with B. burgdorferi. MyD88-deficient mice harbored extremely high levels of B. burgdorferi in tissues when compared with wild-type littermates and greater amounts of spirochetes in tissues than TLR2-deficient mice. These findings suggest that, in addition to TLR2, other MyD88-dependent pathways play a significant role in the host defense to B. burgdorferi. MyD88−/− mice maintained the ability to produce Abs directed against B. burgdorferi. Partial clearance of spirochetes was evident in long term infection studies and immune sera from MyD88-deficient mice were able to protect naive mice from infection with B. burgdorferi. Thus, the acquired immune response appeared to be functional in MyD88−/− mice, and the inability to control spirochete numbers was due to a failure of cells involved in innate defenses. Although macrophages from MyD88−/− mice responded poorly to Borrelia sonicate in vitro, MyD88−/− mice still developed an inflammatory arthritis after infection with B. burgdorferi characterized by an influx of neutrophils and mononuclear cells. The findings presented here point to a dichotomy between the recruitment of inflammatory cells to tissue and an inability of these cells to kill localized spirochetes.
Keeping proteasomes under control—a role for phosphorylation in the nucleus

The 26S proteasome is the primary site for protein breakdown in the nucleus and cytosol of eukaryotic cells. This 60-subunit proteolytic machine selectively degrades ubiquitinated proteins. These substrates initially bind to its 19S regulatory complex, which is located at the ends of the barrel-shaped 20S core proteasome, within which proteins are hydrolyzed to small peptides. This ATP-driven process involves several different enzymatic steps including substrate binding, deubiquitination, unfolding, and translocation into the 20S particle (Fig. 1). However, only recently have clear insights emerged about how these multiple processes are coordinated and how proteasomes become localized to different cellular compartments. For example, recent studies show that binding of ubiquitinated proteins activates the proteasome's degradative machinery (1). Nevertheless, many ubiquitinated proteins bind to the 26S but escape proteolysis, only to be deubiquitinated and released (2). These observations of inherent regulation make it likely that there are also exogenous cellular mechanisms that regulate proteasome activity. Fig. 1. Role of the 26S proteasomes in degrading ubiquitinated proteins. Polyubiquitinated substrates initially bind to subunits Rpn10 and Rpn13 and become deubiquitinated. This process activates proteolysis (24). Substrates are unfolded by the six ATPase subunits (Rpt1–6), which open the gated pore in the α-ring to allow translocation into the 20S core, where they are cleaved to peptides by the six active sites on β-subunits. This illustration is adapted from the EM images provided by Wolfgang Baumeister (Max Planck Institute, Martinsried, Germany) (25). A number of studies have reported that proteasome subunits can be modified by phosphorylation, glycosylation, ubiquitination, or proteolysis by caspases. However, the physiological significance of these posttranslational modifications and their effects on proteasome function has been unclear. Unfortunately, most of these intriguing findings have not yet … [↵][1]2To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Alfred_Goldberg{at}hms.harvard. edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
Using Neural Networks in Preparing and Analysis of Basketball Scouting

Basketball is the one of most popular sports, in Serbia and in the world. It is a team sport. Actors of a basketball game are the players from two opposing teams, their team officials with coaches, assistant coaches, doctors and officials (commissioner, referees, table officials, statisticians). Every team, depending on a league or competition, may have no more than 12 or 10 players per game, and of those 5 are actively engaged in the game [1]. Basketball game would not start without 5 players from each game on the court. In Europe, regular basketball game is divided into 4 quarters of 10 minutes each, while in NBA every quarter is 2 minutes longer. If a result is draw, after regular time additional time of 5 minutes is played, as many times as necessary to decide a winner of a game.
Classification of tumour 1H NMR spectra by pattern recognition

1H spectra of tumours or normal tissues, which include signals from all hydrogen‐containing metabolites, are too complex for the human eye to interpret. We have studied 58 1H spectra from perchloric acid extracts of three normal tissues (liver, kidney and spleen) and five rat tumours (GH3 pituitary, fibrosarcoma, Morris Hepatomas 7777 and 9618a and Walker carcinosarcoma). Instead of editing them or quantifying individual metabolites, we have used statistical pattern recognition techniques to classify them into groups. This automatic, objective method differentiated spectra from normal and malignant rat tissue biopsies, and from different types of cancer. It seems likely that this technique can be applied to human tissues and thus used for cancer diagnosis.
DC Current Rejection for a Half-Bridge Current-Mode Control Grid-Connected Inverter

the dc current rejection of a single phase half-bridge grid-connected inverter with a line-frequency isolation transformer is researched in this paper. The impact of the magnetic dc bias of the transformer is given out from the mathematic model of the transformer in current-mode control. For the half-bridge current-mode inverter, the dc current rejection method is presented based on the relationship of dc current component and voltages across the filter capacitors of the dc bus. Simulation and experiment results indicate that the dc component of inverter current saturates the transformer and degrades the quality of current injected into the grid. With voltage balance control of the filter capacitors, the dc current control of half-bridge current-mode grid connected inverter is realized.
Mental state decoding in past major depression: Effect of sad versus happy mood induction

Individuals with mild depression show an enhanced ability to read or “decode” others' mental states. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether this pattern of performance is related specifically to the pathology of depression or whether it is simply a feature of the transient dysphoric state. Forty-one undergraduates with a previous episode of major depression and 52 undergraduates with no depression history participated in a mental state decoding task following a sad versus happy mood induction. Previously depressed participants were significantly more accurate in their mental state judgements than were the never-depressed participants, suggesting that enhanced mental state decoding may be a specific feature of depression in remission. Furthermore, previously depressed participants whose positive mood increased in response to the happy mood induction showed a poorer level of performance on the task, similar to that observed in the never-depressed group. Thus, a happy mood may have induced a somewhat less accurate, but perhaps more adaptive, approach to processing social information. These findings were robust after controlling for current level of depression and anxiety symptoms, intensity of response to the mood induction, response times, and performance on a control task.
Proteome Analysis Reveals Caspase Activation in Hyporesponsive CD4 T Lymphocytes Induced in Vivo by the Oral Administration of Antigen*

The oral administration of antigen can lead to systemic antigen-specific hyporesponsiveness, also known as oral tolerance. This phenomenon is a representative form of immune tolerance to exogenous antigen under physiological conditions. We have previously reported that long term feeding of dietary antigen to ovalbumin-specific T cell receptor (TCR) transgenic mice induced oral tolerance of peripheral T cells with impairment in their TCR-induced calcium-signaling pathway. In this study, we utilized two-dimensional electrophoresis to compare intracellular protein expression patterns of orally tolerant and unsensitized CD4 T cells. We detected 26 increased and 16 decreased protein spots and identified 35 of these by mass spectrometry. The results indicated that the expression of caspases was up-regulated and that the protein levels of intact proteins susceptible to caspase cleavage, such as Grb2-related adaptor downstream of Shc (GADS), were decreased in orally tolerant CD4 T cells. Western blotting experiments confirmed that expression of the active form of caspase-3 and the antiapoptotic factor, X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis, were both up-regulated in orally tolerant CD4 T cells, which were found to be nonapoptotic. We further demonstrated that orally tolerant CD4 T cells could not form normal TCR signaling complexes associated with GADS and showed down-regulated phospholipase C-γ1 activation, which is likely to contribute to the impairment of TCR-induced calcium signaling. Our findings indicate that orally tolerant CD4 T cells up-regulate caspase activation and show decreased levels of caspase-targeted proteins, including TCR signaling-associated molecules, while up-regulating antiapoptotic factors, all of which appear to contribute to their unique tolerant characteristics.
Enhanced ODMRP using conditioned broadcasting algorithm

Broadcasting is a common operation in on-demand multicast routing protocol to establish and refresh routing table. A straightforward broadcasting by flooding is usually very costly and will result in serious redundancy and contention. A conditioned broadcasting algorithm for on-demand multicast routing protocol is proposed, which computes the rebroadcast probability of packets through neighbor node density and relative distance. By applying this algorithm to on-demand multicast routing protocol in ns-2 platform, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm improves the protocol efficiency and reduces the redundant information.
The GA5 locus of Arabidopsis thaliana encodes a multifunctional gibberellin 20-oxidase: molecular cloning and functional expression.

The biosynthesis of gibberellins (GAs) after GA12-aldehyde involves a series of oxidative steps that lead to the formation of bioactive GAs. Previously, a cDNA clone encoding a GA 20-oxidase [gibberellin, 2-oxoglutarate:oxygen oxidoreductase (20-hydroxylating, oxidizing), EC 1.14. 11. -] was isolated by immunoscreening a cDNA library from liquid endosperm of pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima L.) with antibodies against partially purified GA 20-oxidase. Here, we report isolation of a genomic clone for GA 20-oxidase from a genomic library of the long-day species Arabidopsis thaliana Heynh. , strain Columbia, by using the pumpkin cDNA clone as a heterologous probe. This genomic clone contains a GA 20-oxidase gene that consists of three exons and two introns. The three exons are 1131-bp long and encode 377 amino acid residues. A cDNA clone corresponding to the putative GA 20-oxidase genomic sequence was constructed with the reverse transcription-PCR method, and the identity of the cDNA clone was confirmed by analyzing the capability of the fusion protein expressed in Escherichia coli to convert GA53 to GA44 and GA19 to GA20. The Arabidopsis GA 20-oxidase shares 55% identity and > 80% similarity with the pumpkin GA 20-oxidase at the derived amino acid level. Both GA 20-oxidases share high homology with other 2-oxoglutarate-dependent dioxygenases (2-ODDs), but the highest homology was found between the two GA 20-oxidases. Mapping results indicated tight linkage between the cloned GA 20-oxidase and the GA5 locus of Arabidopsis. The ga5 semidwarf mutant contains a G-->A point mutation that inserts a translational stop codon in the protein-coding sequence, thus confirming that the GA5 locus encodes GA 20-oxidase. Expression of the GA5 gene in Ara-bidopsis leaves was enhanced after plants were transferred from short to long days; it was reduced by GA4 treatment, suggesting end-product repression in the GA biosynthetic pathway.