Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-emergency waiting list for lung transplantation: early results of a nation-based study.

OBJECTIVES The high mortality rate observed on the regular waiting list (RWL) before lung transplantation (LTx) prompted the French organ transplantation authorities to set up in 2007 a dedicated graft allocation strategy, the so-called 'high-emergency waiting list' (HEWL), for patients with an abrupt worsening of their respiratory function. This study reports on the early results of this new allocation system. METHODS Among 11 active French LTx programmes, 7 were able to provide full outcome data by 31 December 2011. The medical records of 101 patients who were listed on the HEWL from July 2007 to December 2011 were reviewed for an intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS Ninety-five patients received LTx within a median waiting time on the HEWL of 4 days (range 1-26), and 6 died before transplantation. Conditions were cystic fibrosis (65.2%), pulmonary fibrosis (24.8%), emphysema (5%) and miscellaneous (5%). The median age of the recipient was 30 years (range 16-66). Patients listed on the HEWL came from the RWL in 48.5% of the cases and were new patients in 51.5%. Forty-nine were placed under invasive ventilation and, in 26 cases, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) prior to transplantation was necessary as a complementary treatment. ECMO for non-intubated patients was performed in 6 cases. Eighty-one bilateral and 14 single LTx were performed, with an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 29.4%. One- and 3-year survival rates were 67.5 and 59%, respectively. Multivariate analysis shows that the use of ECMO prior to transplantation was the sole independent mortality risk factor (hazard ratio = 2.77 [95% CI 1.26-6.11]). CONCLUSIONS The new allocation system aimed at lowering mortality on the RWL, but also offered an access to LTx for new patients with end-stage respiratory failure. The HEWL increased the likelihood of mortality after LTx, but permitted acceptable mid-term survival rates. The high mortality associated with the use of ECMO should be interpreted cautiously.
Natural Convection in a Porous Medium Cavity with an Applied Vertical Magnetic Field using Lattice Boltzmann Method

— We report the results of an lattice Boltzmann simulation of magnetohydrodynamic damping of sidewall convection in a rectangular enclosure filled with a porous medium. In particular we investigate the suppression of convection when a steady magnetic field is applied in the vertical direction. The left and right vertical walls of the cavity are kept at constant but different temperatures while both the top and bottom horizontal walls are insulated. The effects of the controlling parameters involved in the heat transfer and hydrodynamic characteristics are studied in detail. The heat and mass transfer mechanisms and the flow characteristics inside the enclosure depended strongly on the strength of the magnetic field and Darcy number. The average Nusselt number decreases with rising values of the Hartmann number while this increases with increasing values of the Darcy number. of magnetic field the porous the heat transfer and fluid circulation within the cavity. on the natural convection of a conducting fluid saturating a porous medium in the of a magnetic field in an
Empowering Citizens for Well-being and Chronic Disease Management With Wellness Diary

Chronic conditions closely related to lifestyles are the major cause of disability and death in the developed world. Behavior change is the key to managing well-being and preventing and managing chronic diseases. Wellness diary (WD) is a mobile application designed to support citizens in learning about their behavior, and both making and maintaining behavior changes. WD has been found acceptable, useful, and suitable for long-term use as a part of an intervention. When used independently, however, it does not seem to have enough engaging and motivating features to support adoption and long-term commitment. The main improvement needs identified based on a review of WD-related studies were: personalization of the application to individual needs, increasing motivation during early use, maintaining motivation, and aiding in relapse recovery in long-term use. We present concepts to improve the personalization of WD as well as improvements to the feedback and interpretation of the self-observation data. We also present usage models on how this type of mobile application could be utilized.
Overexpression of Cd40 Ligand in Murine Epidermis Results in Chronic Skin Inflammation and Systemic Autoimmunity

CD40–CD40 ligand (L) interactions play a pivotal role in immune-mediated inflammatory responses via the activation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs). To investigate the effects of continuous activation of resident tissue APCs, in this case the Langerhans cells (LCs) of the skin, CD40L expression was targeted to the basal keratinocytes of the epidermis of mice using the keratin-14 promoter. Approximately 80% of the transgenic (Tg) mice spontaneously developed dermatitis on the ears, face, tail, and/or paws. Compared with littermates, Tgs had a >90% decrease in epidermal LCs yet increased numbers within the dermis suggestive of enhanced emigration of CD40-activated LCs. Tgs also displayed massive regional lymphadenopathy with increased numbers of dendritic cells and B cells. Moreover, a decrease in IgM and an increase in IgG1/IgG2a/IgG2b/IgE serum concentrations was detectable. Screening for autoantibodies revealed the presence of antinuclear antibodies and anti-dsDNA antibodies implicative of systemic autoimmunity. Accordingly, renal Ig deposits, proteinuria, and lung fibrosis were observed. Adoptive transfer of T cells from Tgs to nonTg recipients evoked the development of skin lesions similar to those found in the Tgs. Dermatitis also developed in B cell–deficient CD40L Tg mice. These findings suggest that in situ activation of LCs by CD40L in the skin not only leads to chronic inflammatory dermatitis but also to systemic mixed-connective-tissue-like autoimmune disorders, possibly by breaking immune tolerance against the skin.
Directly Administered Antiretroviral Therapy for HIV-Infected Individuals in Opioid Treatment Programs: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial

Background Data regarding the efficacy of directly administered antiretroviral therapy (DAART) are mixed. Opioid treatment programs (OTPs) provide a convenient framework for DAART. In a randomized controlled trial, we compared DAART and self-administered therapy (SAT) among HIV-infected subjects attending five OTPs in Baltimore, MD. Methods HIV-infected individuals attending OTPs were eligible if they were not taking antiretroviral therapy (ART) or were virologically failing ART at last clinical assessment. In subjects assigned to DAART, we observed one ART dose per weekday at the OTP for up to 12 months. SAT subjects administered ART at home. The primary efficacy comparison was the between-arm difference in the average proportions with HIV RNA <50 copies/mL during the intervention phase (3-, 6-, and 12-month study visits), using a logistic regression model accounting for intra-person correlation due to repeated observations. Adherence was measured with electronic monitors in both arms. Results We randomized 55 and 52 subjects from five Baltimore OTPs to DAART and SAT, respectively. The average proportions with HIV RNA <50 copies/mL during the intervention phase were 0.51 in DAART and 0.40 in SAT (difference 0.11, 95% CI: −0.020 to 0.24). There were no significant differences between arms in electronically-measured adherence, average CD4 cell increase from baseline, average change in log10 HIV RNA from baseline, opportunistic conditions, hospitalizations, mortality, or the development of new drug resistance mutations. Conclusions In this randomized trial, we found little evidence that DAART provided clinical benefits compared to SAT among HIV-infected subjects attending OTPs. Trial Registration ClinicalTrails.gov NCT00279110 NCT00279110? term = NCT00279110&rank = 1
First spinosaurid dinosaur from Australia and the cosmopolitanism of Cretaceous dinosaur faunas

A cervical vertebra from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria represents the first Australian spinosaurid theropod dinosaur. This discovery significantly extends the geographical range of spinosaurids, suggesting that the clade obtained a near-global distribution before the onset of Pangaean fragmentation. The combined presence of spinosaurid, neovenatorid, tyrannosauroid and dromaeosaurid theropods in the Australian Cretaceous undermines previous suggestions that the dinosaur fauna of this region was either largely endemic or predominantly ‘Gondwanan’ in composition. Many lineages are well-represented in both Laurasia and Gondwana, and these observations suggest that Early–‘middle’ Cretaceous theropod clades possessed more cosmopolitan distributions than assumed previously, and that caution is necessary when attempting to establish palaeobiogeographic patterns on the basis of a patchily distributed fossil record.
Probabilistic Reasoning for Entity & Relation Recognition

This paper develops a method for recognizing relations and entities in sentences, while taking mutual dependencies among them into account. e.g., the kill (Johns, Oswald) relation in: "J. V. Oswald was murdered at JFK after his assassin, K. F. Johns. " depends on identifying Oswald and Johns as people, JFK being identified as a location, and the kill relation between Oswald and Johns; this, in turn, enforces that Oswald and Johns are people.In our framework, classifiers that identify entities and relations among them are first learned from local information in the sentence; this information, along with constraints induced among entity types and relations, is used to perform global inference that accounts for the mutual dependencies among the entities.Our preliminary experimental results are promising and show that our global inference approach improves over learning relations and entities separately.
Control of two-wheeled mobile robot via homogeneous semiconcave control Lyapunov function: Verification by experimental results

We proposed a control law of a homogeneous semiconcave control Lyapunov function for a two-wheeled mobile robot. However, we have not confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed method by an experiments. In this paper, we apply the proposed method to a Roomba, a two-wheeled mobile robot and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Bounds on Traffic Grooming in Star and Tree Networks

We consider the problem of grooming traffic in WDM star and tree networks to minimize equipment cost. We prove an important result regarding wavelength assignment in both topologies. We present a series of lower and upper bounds on the optimal solutions for both star and tree networks. The bounds allow us to evaluate a set of heuristics we also develop.
Symbiosis in an overlooked microcosm: a systematic review of the bacterial flora of mites

SUMMARY A dataset of bacterial diversity found in mites was compiled from 193 publications (from 1964 to January 2015). A total of 143 mite species belonging to the 3 orders (Mesostigmata, Sarcoptiformes and Trombidiformes) were recorded and found to be associated with approximately 150 bacteria species (in 85 genera, 51 families, 25 orders and 7 phyla). From the literature, the intracellular symbiont Cardinium, the scrub typhus agent Orientia, and Wolbachia (the most prevalent symbiont of arthropods) were the dominant mite-associated bacteria, with approximately 30 mite species infected each. Moreover, a number of bacteria of medical and veterinary importance were also reported from mites, including species from the genera Rickettsia, Anaplasma, Bartonella, Francisella, Coxiella, Borrelia, Salmonella, Erysipelothrix and Serratia. Significant differences in bacterial infection patterns among mite taxa were identified. These data will not only be useful for raising awareness of the potential for mites to transmit disease, but also enable a deeper understanding of the relationship of symbionts with their arthropod hosts, and may facilitate the development of intervention tools for disease vector control. This review provides a comprehensive overview of mite-associated bacteria and is a valuable reference database for future research on mites of agricultural, veterinary and/or medical importance.
Cognitive distributed computing: a new approach to distributed data centres with self-managing services on commodity hardware

New computing, management and programming models with a novel distributed intelligent managed element DIME network architecture are used to provide end-to-end service visibility and control across distributed physical or virtual infrastructure. Resulting decoupling of application and service transaction management from both distributed infrastructure management and virtual machine image movement at run-time as practised today enables policy based, secure, service-mobility across physical servers or virtual machines deployed in data centres or public clouds. Using the new architecture we have implemented a web-stack with service self-repair, auto-scaling, live-migration and end-to-end service transaction security independent of server and network security mechanisms. In this paper, we describe auto-scaling, live-migration and performance management of an Apache managed application in operation across physical or virtual servers deployed in data centres or public clouds.
Oscillating Positive Expiratory Pressure on Respiratory Resistance in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease With a Small Amount of Secretion

Abstract This study aims to evaluate the acute effects of an oscillating positive expiratory pressure device (flutter) on airways resistance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Randomized crossover study: 15 COPD outpatients from Asthma Lab–Royal Brompton Hospital underwent spirometry, impulse oscillometry (IOS) for respiratory resistance (R) and reactance (X), and fraction exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) measures. Thirty minutes of flutter exercises: a “flutter-sham” procedure was used as a control, and airway responses after a short-acting bronchodilator were also assessed. Respiratory system resistance (R): in COPD patients an increase in X5insp (−0.21 to −0.33 kPa/L/s) and Fres (24.95 to 26.16 Hz) occurred immediately after flutter exercises without bronchodilator. Following 20 min of rest, a decrease in the R5, &Dgr;R5, R20, X5, and Ax was observed, with R5, R20, and X5 values lower than baseline, with a moderate effect size; there were no changes in FeNO levels or spirometry. The use of flutter can decrease the respiratory system resistance and reactance and expiratory flow limitation in stable COPD patients with small amounts of secretions.
Safety of drug eluting stents in patients on chronic anticoagulation using long‐term single antiplatelet treatment with clopidogrel

Background: Use of triple therapy with aspirin, clopidogrel, and anticoagulants significantly increases bleeding, thus drug eluting stents (DES) are usually avoided in patients requiring anticoagulation. We tested use of DES vs. BMS using a long‐term therapy with clopidogrel only and anticoagulants in this group of patients. Methods: We enrolled 165 consecutive patients, 79 receiving DES (age 67 ± 9 years, 84% with atrial fibrillation) and 86 receiving bare metal stents (BMS) (age 70 ± 11 years, 71% with atrial fibrillation). All patients received aspirin + clopidogrel + oral anticoagulants for 4 weeks, then aspirin was stopped and clopidogrel was continued during the 12‐month follow‐up. Primary end point was the combined incidence of major adverse coronary events and major bleedings. Results: Incidence of the primary endpoint was 10.1% in patients with DES and 26.7% in patients with BMS (P = 0.01). There was a large difference in incidence of target vessel revascularization (8.1% for DES, 23.3% for BMS, P = 0.01), whereas incidence of myocardial infarction (3.8% in DES vs. 8.1% in BMS) and major bleeding (1.3% vs. 2.3%, respectively) were not significantly different. There were no cases of stent thrombosis. On multivariate Cox regression analysis, the only factor associated with a reduced risk of the primary endpoint was use of DES (hazard ratio 0.35 with 95% confidence interval 0.14–0.85, P = 0.02). Conclusions: Results of our cohort study suggest that use of DES associated with a treatment with clopidogrel only may be safe and significantly reduce the need for new revascularization in patients requiring chronic anticoagulation. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Multi-Instance Multi-Label Learning with Application to Scene Classification

In this paper, we formalize multi-instance multi-label learning, where each training example is associated with not only multiple instances but also multiple class labels. Such a problem can occur in many real-world tasks, e.g. an image usually contains multiple patches each of which can be described by a feature vector, and the image can belong to multiple categories since its semantics can be recognized in different ways. We analyze the relationship between multi-instance multi-label learning and the learning frameworks of traditional supervised learning, multi-instance learning and multi-label learning. Then, we propose the MIMLBOOST and MIMLSVM algorithms which achieve good performance in an application to scene classification.
Identification of the cellular mechanisms that modulate trafficking of frizzled family receptor 4 (FZD4) missense mutants associated with familial exudative vitreoretinopathy.

PURPOSE Fifteen missense mutations in the frizzled family receptor 4 (FZD4) reported to cause familial exudative vitreoretinopathy (FEVR) were evaluated to establish the pathological cellular mechanism of disease and to explore novel therapeutic strategies. METHODS The mutations were generated by site-directed mutagenesis and expressed in HeLa and COS-7 cell lines. Confocal fluorescence microscopy and N-glycosylation profiling were used to observe the subcellular localization of the mutant proteins relative to wild-type (WT). Polyubiquitination studies were used to establish the involvement of the proteasome. Culturing at reduced temperatures and incubation in the presence of chemical compounds were used to enhance mutant protein processing and exit out of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). RESULTS Confocal fluorescence microscopy of the mutants showed three distinct subcellular localizations, namely, a plasma membrane pattern, an ER pattern, and a mixed pattern to both compartments. Confocal fluorescence microscopy and N-glycosylation profiling established the predominant ER localization of P33S, G36N, H69Y, M105T, M105V, C181R, C204R, C204Y, and G488D mutants. Coexpression of these mutants with WT FZD4 showed the inability of the mutants to trap WT FZD4. Culturing the expressing cells at reduced temperatures or in the presence of chemical agents directed at ameliorating protein misfolding resulted in partial rescue of trafficking defects observed for M105T and C204Y mutants. CONCLUSIONS Defective trafficking resulting in haploinsufficiency is a major cellular mechanism for several missense FEVR-causing FZD4 mutants. Our findings indicate that this trafficking defect might be correctable for some mutants, which may offer opportunities for the development of novel therapeutics approaches for this condition.
Definition of welding parameters by cooling time in temperature range 800-500ºC

Cooling time in the temperature range 800 - 500°C has a great effect on the structures that arrise in the heat affected zone of welds steel. Data on optimal cooling time t8/5 for the certain steels can be found in the literature. The period of the cooling time t8/5, during the welding of the particular joints, in addition to the thickness and physical properties of welded steel, depends on shape of the weld, the welding process and welding parameters as well. In this work, the procedure for the selection of welding parameters for a butt joint welded to the microalloyed steel P 460 NL1 is presented. The microstructure in the heat affected zone and the results of measurement of their hardness are showed and analysed. It is concluded that the welding parameters selected with the help of cooling time t8/5 provide the satisfactory structure and hardness of welds.
Opioid receptor selectivity of heroin given intracerebroventricularly differs in six strains of inbred mice.

Heroin administered i.c. v. acts on supraspinal mu opioid receptors in ICR mice but on delta receptors in Swiss Webster mice. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which genotype plays a role in the opioid receptor selectivity of heroin across a range of fully inbred strains of mice. Six inbred strains were given heroin i.c. v. 10 min before the tail-flick test. Differences in the descending neurotransmitter systems involved in supraspinal opioid-induced analgesia were evaluated as the first step. Antagonism by bicuculline given intrathecally indicated the involvement of supraspinal delta receptors in activating spinal gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors; antagonism by intrathecal methysergide indicated either mu or kappa receptor involvement. Antagonism by intrathecal yohimbine implicated mu and eliminated kappa receptor involvement. Intracerbroventricular opioid antagonists (beta-funaltrexamine, 7-benzylidenenaltrexone, naltriben, or nor-binaltorphimine) provided further differentiation. Based on these initial results, receptor selectivity was determined by more extensive ED50 experiments with i.c. v. administration of heroin with opioid antagonists, beta-funaltrexamine (for mu), naltrindole (for delta), and nor-binaltorphimine (for kappa). The combined results indicated that heroin analgesia was predominantly mediated in C57BL/6J by delta, in DBA/2J and CBA/J by mu, and in BALB/cByJ and AKR/J by kappa receptors. The response in C3H/HeJ appeared to involve mu receptors. The results indicate that the opioid receptor selectivity of heroin is genotype-dependent. Because these genotypes are fully inbred, the genetically determined molecular and neurochemical substrate mediating the different opioid receptor selectivities of heroin can be studied further.
Exercise activates the endocannabinoid system

Extensive documentation exists showing that exercise induces analgesia and sedation. Despite decades of research attempting to explicate a neurochemical basis for these phenomena, the mechanism underlying these changes is unknown. Using trained male college students running on a treadmill or cycling on a stationary bike for 50 min at 70–80% of maximum heart rate, we report here the first evidence that exercise of moderate intensity activates the endocannabinoid system, suggesting a new mechanism for exercise-induced analgesia and possibly other physiological and psychological adaptations to exercise.
MyoD stimulates Delta‐1 transcription and triggers Notch signaling in the Xenopus gastrula

The Notch signaling cascade is involved in many developmental decisions, a paradigm of which has been the selection between epidermal and neural cell fates in both invertebrates and vertebrates. Notch has also been implicated as a regulator of myogenesis, although its precise function there has remained controversial. Here we show that the muscle‐determining factor MyoD is a direct, positive regulator of the Notch ligand Delta‐1 in prospective myoblasts of the pre‐involuted mesoderm in Xenopus gastrulae. Injection of a dominant MyoD repressor variant ablates mesodermal Delta‐1 expression in vivo. Furthermore, MyoD‐dependent Delta‐1 induction is sufficient to activate transcription from promoters of E(spl)‐related genes in a Notch‐dependent manner. These results indicate that a hallmark of neural cell fate determination, i.e. the feedback loop between differentiation promoting basic helix–loop–helix proteins and the Notch regulatory circuitry, is conserved in myogenesis, supporting a direct involvement of Notch in muscle determination.