bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Toll‐like receptor 3 polymorphism and its association with hepatitis B virus infection in Saudi Arabian patients
Authors: Al‐Qahtani Ahmed , Al‐Ahdal Mohammed , Abdo Ayman , Sanai Faisal , Al‐Anazi Mashael , Khalaf Nisreen , Viswan Nisha A. , Al‐Ashgar Hamad , Al‐Humaidan Hind , Al‐Suwayeh Riham , Hussain Zahid , Alarifi Saud , Al‐Okail Majid , Almajhdi Fahad N. 
Published: July 2012

AbstractHepatitis B virus (HBV) is the major causative agent of chronic liver complications including cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Individuals infected with HBV show a wide spectrum of disease manifestations ranging from asymptomatic carriers to HCC. TLR3 is part of the innate immune system that recognizes double‐stranded RNA (dsRNA) and provides early immune response to exogenous antigens. The genetic polymorphisms such as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the TLR3 could be considered as factors for the susceptibility to viral pathogens including HBV. Due to lack of knowledge on the role of TLR3 polymorphisms in HBV infection, this study investigated the distribution of nine SNPs in the TLR3 gene and its association with Saudi Arabian patients infected with HBV. A total of 707 patients and 600 uninfected controls were examined for different parameters including the nine SNPs (rs5743311, rs5743312, rs1879026, rs5743313, rs5743314, rs5743315, rs111611328, rs78726532 and a newly identified SNP located at position 184322913 of chr4). The association analysis confirmed that only one SNP, rs1879026 (G/T), showed a significant difference (P = 0.0480; OR = 0.809, 95% CI = 0.655–0.999) in the distribution between HBV carriers and uninfected controls. While, the rest of the SNPs showed no significant association with regards to HBV infection or in the progression to cirrhosis of the liver and HCC. Furthermore, haplotype analysis revealed that one haplotype GCGA (rs1879026, rs5743313, rs5743314, and rs5743315, respectively), was associated significantly with HBV infection in this population. These findings indicate that genetic variations in the TLR3 gene could affect the outcome of HBV infection among Saudis. J. Med. Virol. 84:1353–1359, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Diversity in the VP7 encoding genes of rotavirus strains isolated from adolescent and adult cases of acute gastroenteritis
Authors: Tatte Vaishali S. , Chitambar Shobha D. 
Published: July 2012

AbstractA study was conducted to examine the diversity in the VP7 genes of rotavirus strains circulating in adolescent and adult cases of acute gastroenteritis during two different time periods, 1993–1996 and 2004–2007. The multiplex RT‐PCR carried out on 131 rotavirus positive fecal specimens detected 65 (49.6%) single and 48 (36.6%) mixed infections of VP7 genotypes that included 43G1 (38.1%), 37G2 (32.7%), 8G3 (7.1%), 15G4 (13.3%), and 10G9 (8.8%) specificities. Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis of the VP7 gene amplicons revealed the presence of G1‐IA (4.7%), G1‐IB (69.8%), and G1‐IC (25.5%) lineages within the G1 strains, G2‐IIb1 (70.3%) and G2‐IIb2 (29.7%) lineages within G2 strains, G3‐3S1 (12.5%) and G3‐3S4 (87.5%) lineages within G3 strains, G4‐Ia (6.7%) and G4‐Ib (93.3%) lineages within G4 strains, and G9‐III lineage within G9 strains. The variability within VP7 genotypes was evident by 1.4–8.0% and 1.3–3.9% amino acid divergence respectively from the prototype strains and between the groups of strains at the two time points. This is the first report describing the phylogenetic analysis of VP7 genes of rotaviruses from adolescent and adult cases of acute gastroenteritis in India. Since adults infected with rotavirus could act as a source of infection and affect the epidemiology of rotaviruses in children, genetic analysis of the rotavirus strains circulating in adults is required. The intragenotypic diversity within VP7 genes demonstrated by the present study highlights the need for constant surveillance of rotavirus infections to understand better the evolution and transmission of group A rotaviruses in the community. J. Med. Virol. 84:1481–1488, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Correlation between pretreatment viral sequences and the emergence of lamivudine resistance in hepatitis B virus infection
Authors: Sueki Ryota , Maekawa Shinya , Miura Mika , Kadokura Makoto , Komase Kazuki , Shindo Hiroko , Kanayama Asuka , Ohmori Takako , Shindo Kuniaki , Amemiya Fumitake , Nakayama Yasuhiro , Uetake Tomoyoshi , Inoue Taisuke , Sakamoto Minoru , Enomoto Nobuyuki 
Published: July 2012

AbstractThe emergence of amino acid or nucleotide substitutions leads to lamivudine resistance in hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected patients. The aim of this study was to investigate whether viral sequences help predict the emergence of lamivudine resistance. The study subjects comprised 59 consecutive patients infected with HBV treated with daily therapy of 100 mg lamivudine. Among those, 32 patients with adequate pretreatment serum preservation were investigated for the correlation between viral amino acid substitutions and the appearance of lamivudine resistance with consideration of clinical background by determining dominant HBV full open reading frames. Viral resistance to lamivudine emerged in 28 of 59 patients (47%) in a median period of 2.45 years. Sequence comparisons of HBV genomes between patients who later developed lamivudine resistance and patients who did not revealed the existence of significant differences between the two groups in the pre‐S1 84 (P = 0.042), pre‐S2 1 (P = 0.017) and 22 (P = 0.015), and polymerase tp 95 (P = 0.046), judged by a log‐rank test. Viral sequence analyses revealed the presence of amino acid substitutions in HBV pre‐S1 and pre‐S2 that may be associated with the emergence of lamivudine resistance during chronic HBV infection. J. Med. Virol. 84:1360–1368, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Human immunodeficiency virus enhances hepatitis C virus replication by differential regulation of IFN and TGF family genes
Authors: Zhang Xiaozhen , Daucher Marybeth , Baeza Josue , Kim Cheol‐Woo , Russell Rodney , Kottilil Shyamasundaran 
Published: July 2012

AbstractHIV co‐infection significantly impacts the natural history of hepatitis C virus (HCV) by increasing plasma HCV viral load, accelerating liver disease progression, and reducing rates of HCV clearance. Cytokines play an important role in regulating hepatic inflammation and fibrogenesis during chronic HCV infection, yet the impact of HIV on cytokine expression is unknown. In this study, an HCV continuous infection cell culture system was modified to permit co‐infection with HIV to test the hypothesis that virus‐induced disregulation of immune‐response genes, particularly interferons and TGF‐β, may create a permissive environment for the initial establishment of HIV/HCV co‐infection in the host. CCR5‐expressing Huh‐7.5 hepatoma cells were transduced with human CD4 antigen to allow HIV infection in vitro. Co‐infection of CD4+ Huh‐7.5 cells with HIV and HCV or co‐culture of HIV‐infected CD4+ Huh‐7.5 cells and HCV‐infected Huh‐7.5 cells increased the level of HCV RNA compared to HCV mono‐infection. Quantitative gene expression analysis revealed HIV‐induced up regulation of most tested IFN family genes when compared to HCV or co‐infection. HCV infection induced up regulation of many TGF family genes that were subsequently down‐regulated in the presence of HIV or HIV/HCV. Interestingly, co‐infection resulted in down regulation of several IFN genes and significant up regulation of TGF‐β genes leading to an overall enhancement of HCV replication. These data suggest that HIV infection may influence HCV replication in vitro by increasing levels of HCV RNA, possibly through the differential regulation of endogenous IFN and TGF family genes. J. Med. Virol. 84:1344–1352, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Seroprevalence of neutralizing antibodies to human adenovirus type 5 in healthy adults in China
Authors: Yu Bin , Zhou Yan , Wu Hao , Wang Zhen , Zhan Yang , Feng Xiao , Geng Ranshen , Wu Yongge , Kong Wei , Yu Xianghui 
Published: July 2012

AbstractHuman adenoviruses have been used to develop candidate HIV vaccine vectors, but a major obstacle to the use of vectors derived from Ad5 and other common serotypes is the high prevalence of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) in humans. Prior studies have reported a prevalence of Ad5 between 60% and 70% in Europe and US, and up to 98% in surveyed African and Asian (Thai) tropical countries. However, few studies have reported on the Ad5 prevalence in Chinese populations. In this study, a total of 1,250 healthy adult serum samples from six administratively separate regions of China were screened by high‐throughput luciferase‐based virus neutralization assays. Results showed that overall 72% of healthy adults were Ad5 seropositive, and 46.4% with baseline Ad5 NAb titers of >200 in China. Comprehensive analysis by geographical region and age showed that the seroprevalence of Ad5 in southern China such as Guangxi was higher than that in other regions. Geographical differences and climate were considered as the major factors affecting the titer levels of Ad5 in healthy adults. In addition, no apparent gender and ethnic difference was found in any group classified according to region, age, or NAb titer. The present study may provide useful insights for the future development of Ad5‐based vaccines and gene therapy. J. Med. Virol. 84:1408–1414, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Molecular epidemiology of rotavirus and norovirus in Ile‐Ife, Nigeria: High prevalence of G12P[8] rotavirus strains and detection of a rare norovirus genotype
Authors: Japhet Margaret Oluwatoyin , Adesina Olufisayo Adeyemi , Famurewa Oladiran , Svensson Lennart , Nordgren Johan 
Published: July 2012

AbstractRotavirus (RV) and norovirus (NoV) are considered the most common causes of viral gastroenteritis in children. In this study, the prevalence of RV and NoV infection in 55 children with diarrhea from the rural community Akinlalu in Southwestern Nigeria was investigated using real‐time PCR assays. The RV and NoV strains were genotyped by PCR and/or sequencing. RV and NoV infections occurred with a prevalence of 34.5% and 25.5% respectively, with predominance in children <1 year. Most infections occurred during the dry season with increasing prevalence of RV as the dry season progressed (October–January). Infections with RV VP6 subgroup (SG) II were more prevalent (27.3%) than SGI (7.3%). Similarly, NoV genogroup II infections were more common (23.6%) than genogroup I (1.8%). Five children out of 55 (9.1%) were co‐infected with both RV and NoV. Notably, G12P[8] was the predominant RV strain (36.8%, n = 7), observed for the first time in Nigeria. The VP7 gene of the G12 strains clustered within lineage III, sharing high nucleotide identity with each other (>99%) indicating introduction in Nigeria from a single donor. Furthermore, a putative novel genotype within genogroup I NoV was detected, which till date has only been reported once in humans. To conclude, a high prevalence of the emerging G12P[8] RV strain was observed for the first time in Nigeria, as well as a putative novel NoV genotype in humans. These results provide new information which can be important for future vaccine evaluations and possible introduction in Nigeria. J. Med. Virol. 84:1489–1496, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The prevalence and long term outcome of occult hepatitis B virus infections in community based populations
Authors: Minuk G.Y. , Kowalec K. , Caouette S. , Larke B. , Osiowy C. 
Published: July 2012

AbstractFeatures of occult hepatitis B infection in community‐based populations have yet to be described. In this study we documented: (1) the prevalence and demographics, (2) associated serology and viral loads, and (3) clinical outcomes of occult hepatitis B infection in community‐based populations. Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)‐negative sera collected from three Northern Canadian communities (HBsAg prevalences: 11–12%) in 1983–1985 were tested for HBV‐DNA by nested stage polymerase chain reaction. Of 706 HBsAg negative sera, 9 (1.3%) were HBV‐DNA positive. The median age of occult hepatitis B infected patients at the time of sampling was 9.8 years (range 3.1–50.4 years) and six (67%) were female. Two (22%) individuals were anti‐HBs positive (in the absence of prior vaccination). Viral loads were undetectable in all but two samples (2.40 and 2.86 log10 IU/ml). Only one of the five (20%) patients who were assessed clinically, remained HBV‐DNA positive at 25–30 year follow‐up. There was no clinical, biochemical or radiologic evidence of chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma in these individuals or on review of the charts from the remaining four infected patients. The results of this study suggest that in community‐based populations: (1) occult hepatitis B infection is not as common as HBsAg positive infection, (2) the majority of infected subjects are young females, (3) a minority are anti‐HBs positive, (4) viral loads are either undetectable or low, and (5) in the absence of concurrent liver disease, occult hepatitis B infection does not appear to be associated with long term adverse clinical outcomes. J. Med. Virol. 84:1369–1375, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Critical points of Brazil nuts: a beginning for food safety, quality control and Amazon sustainability
Authors: Lima Andriele M , Gonçalves Evonnildo C , Andrade Soraya S , Barbosa Maria SR , Barroso Karla FP , de Sousa Mayara B , Borges Larissa , Vieira Jozé LF , Teixeira Francisco M 
Published: July 2012

AbstractBACKGROUND: One difficulty of self‐sustainability is the quality assurance of native products. This research was designed to study the risks and critical control points in the collection, handling and marketing of Brazil nuts from native forests and urban fairs in the Brazilian Amazon by characterisation of morphological aspects of fungi and posterior identification by molecular biology and determination of aflatoxins by high‐performance liquid chromatography.RESULTS: Several corrective actions to improve product quality were found to be necessary in both sites. Growth of fungi was observed in 95% of fragments of Brazil nuts from both sites during the between‐harvest period. Aflatoxin levels indicated that, although fungal growth was observed in both sites, only Brazil nuts from the native forest showed a high risk to human health (total aflatoxin level of 471.69 µg kg−1).CONCLUSION: This study has shown the main issues related to the process design of Brazil nuts, supporting the necessity for research on new strategies to improve the quality of nuts. Also, the habit of eating Brazil nuts stored throughout the year may represent a risk to farmers. © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry
Keep in touch: Does spatial overlap correlate with contact rate frequency?
Authors: Robert Karine , Garant Dany , Pelletier Fanie 
Published: July 2012

AbstractQuantifying animal contact rate is crucial both in fundamental and applied studies to understand the evolution of sociality and predict the spread of infectious diseases. Researchers typically use home‐range overlap among individuals as a proxy of contact rate, assuming a positive correlation. However, very few studies have assessed how the correlation between home‐range overlap and contact rate may vary with ecological context. We used proximity loggers to quantify intraspecific contact rate among raccoons (Procyon lotor) and explored the correlation between contact rate and home‐range overlap in different seasons. We monitored 15 female raccoons that formed 121 dyads during summer 2010 and winter 2011. We compared contact rate with the 5 most common overlap indices: home‐range overlap proportion, home‐range overlap probability, utilization distribution overlap index (UDOI), volume of intersection index, and Bhattacharyya's affinity index. Our results generally supported the contention of a positive and significant correlation between home‐range overlap and intraspecific contact rate in raccoons. The strength of the relationship differed among seasons and indices, being weaker during winter than summer for home‐range overlap proportion and home‐range overlap probability. When contact rates were high, their frequency had stronger correlations with the UDOI and volume of intersection index indices than with the other indices. Our results suggest that the UDOI performs better than other indices, as we obtained a good contact rate–home‐range overlap correlation with this index with animals both aggregated and randomly distributed in space. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.
Allergic fungal otomastoiditis: A case report
Authors: Chen Chiung‐Ming , Chiang Ching‐Wen 
Published: July 2012

AbstractAllergic mucin is described as thick, peanut butter‐like mucus impacted in the paranasal sinuses of patients with allergic fungal rhinosinusitis. The presence of allergic mucin in the middle ear has never been reported. We encountered a 65‐year‐old female with allergic mucin found impacted in her left middle ear and mastoid cavity during revised tympanoplasty surgery at our institute. Bilateral endoscopic sinus surgery performed 3 months later showed no evidence of fungal infection or allergic mucin in her paranasal sinuses. We report the case herein and propose the term allergic fungal otomastoiditis for this disease entity.
Coherent fiber supercontinuum for biophotonics
Authors: Tu Haohua , Boppart Stephen A. 
Published: July 2012

AbstractBiophotonics and nonlinear fiber optics have traditionally been two independent fields. Since the discovery of fiber‐based supercontinuum generation in 1999, biophotonics applications employing incoherent light have experienced a large impact from nonlinear fiber optics, primarily because of the access to a wide range of wavelengths and a uniform spatial profile afforded by fiber supercontinuum. However, biophotonics applications employing coherent light have not benefited from the most well‐known techniques of supercontinuum generation for reasons such as poor coherence (or high noise), insufficient controllability, and inadequate portability. Fortunately, a few key techniques involving nonlinear fiber optics and femtosecond laser development have emerged to overcome these critical limitations. Despite their relative independence, these techniques are the focus of this review, because they can be integrated into a low‐cost portable biophotonics source platform. This platform can be shared across many different areas of research in biophotonics, enabling new applications such as point‐of‐care coherent optical biomedical imaging.
Fano resonance in novel plasmonic nanostructures
Authors: Rahmani Mohsen , Luk'yanchuk Boris , Hong Minghui 
Published: July 2012

AbstractRecently, a large number of experimental and theoretical works have revealed a variety of plasmonic nanostructures with the capabilities of Fano resonance (FR) generation. Among these structures, plasmonic oligomers consisting of packed metallic nanoelements with certain configurations have been of significant interest. Oligomers can exhibit FR independently of the polarization direction based on dipole–dipole antiparallel modes without the need to excite challenging high‐order modes. The purpose of this review article is to provide an overview of recent achievements on FR of plasmonic nanostructures in recent years. Meanwhile, more attention is given to the optical properties of plasmonic oligomers due to the high potential of such structures in optical spectra engineering.
Fabrication of multilayer metamaterials by femtosecond laser‐induced forward‐transfer technique
Authors: Tseng M.L. , Wu P.C. , Sun S. , Chang C.M. , Chen W.T. , Chu C.H. , Chen P.L. , Zhou L. , Huang D.W. , Yen T.J. , Tsai D.P. 
Published: July 2012

AbstractA novel method based on femtosecond laser‐induced forward transfer for high‐throughput and efficient fabrication of periodic multilayer plasmonic metamaterials is demonstrated. With precisely controlling laser raster path applied on sputtered multilayer thin films, the laser‐ablated materials can be transferred to another substrate leaving the fabricated multilayer structure on the original substrate. Subsequently, three‐dimensional metamaterials can be made by multilayer structuring. Moreover, all the experimental results show that to create such multilayer split resonant rings (SRRs) with uniform profile, the laser fluence should be fine controlled under proper conditions. The optical property of fabricated multilayer SRR array is investigated by optical measurements and finite‐difference time‐domain simulations, showing various resonant modes in the middle‐IR region. The calculated induced current distributions exhibit rich resonance properties of the structures as well. This work markedly extends the laser direct writing technique to a wide application in fabricating complicated metamaterials and plasmonic devices efficiently.
Morse homology for the heat flow – Linear theory
Authors: Weber Joa 
Published: July 2012

AbstractConsider the linear parabolic partial differential equation \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}${\mathcal {D}}_u\xi =0$\end{document} which arises by linearizing the heat flow on the loop space of a Riemannian manifold M. The solutions are vector fields along infinite cylinders u in M. For these solutions we establish regularity and a priori estimates. We show that for nondegenerate asymptotic boundary conditions the solutions decay exponentially in L2 in forward and backward time. In this case \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}${\mathcal {D}}_u$\end{document} viewed as linear operator from the parabolic Sobolev space \documentclass{article}\usepackage{amssymb}\begin{document}\pagestyle{empty}${\mathcal {W}}^{1,p}$\end{document} to Lp is Fredholm whenever p > 1. We close with an Lp estimate for products of first order terms which is a crucial ingredient in the sequel 13 to prove regularity and the implicit function theorem. The results of the present text are the base to construct in 13 an algebraic chain complex whose homology represents the homology of the loop space.
Surface Functionalization of Poly(ether imide) Membranes with Linear, Methylated Oligoglycerols for Reducing Thrombogenicity
Authors: Lange Maik , Braune Steffen , Luetzow Karola , Richau Klaus , Scharnagl Nico , Weinhart Marie , Neffe Axel T. , Jung Friedrich , Haag Rainer , Lendlein Andreas 
Published: July 2012

AbstractMaterials for biomedical applications are often chosen for their bulk properties. Other requirements such as a hemocompatible surface shall be fulfilled by suitable chemical functionalization. Here we show, that linear, side‐chain methylated oligoglycerols (OGMe) are more stable to oxidation than oligo(ethylene glycol) (OEG). Poly(ether imide) (PEI) membranes functionalized with OGMes perform at least as good as, and partially better than, OEG functionalized PEI membranes in view of protein resistance as well as thrombocyte adhesion and activation. Therefore, OGMes are highly potent surface functionalizing molecules for improving the hemocompatibility of polymers.