Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Unrelated donor or autologous marrow transplantation for treatment of acute leukemia.

High-dose chemoradiotherapy followed by marrow transplantation from an HLA-matched sibling donor is curative for patients with acute leukemia. Autologous marrow transplantation has been used with success for some patients without such a sibling. Alternatively, the option of performing a transplant from an HLA-matched unrelated donor has been made possible by the recent development of large registries of HLA-typed volunteers. The purpose of this study was to compare the outcomes for patients with advanced leukemia treated by unrelated or autologous marrow transplantation. Forty-three patients with acute myeloid or lymphoid leukemia were transplanted from a closely HLA-matched unrelated donor. Results were compared with those of a disease-, disease-stage-, and age-matched cohort of 77 patients treated with autologous marrow transplantation at the same institution during the same period. Myeloid reconstitution with peripheral granulocyte counts greater than 10(9)/L was achieved in 93% of unrelated recipients and 70% of autologous recipients at a median of 24 and 36 days after transplantation, respectively (P = .0001). The cumulative proportions of patients discharged alive (79% v 77%) and times from transplant to first hospital discharge (35 v 34 days) were not different between unrelated and autologous recipients (P = .65). For patients transplanted in complete remission, relapse occurred after transplantation in 27% of the unrelated and in 55% of the autologous recipients (P = .08). For patients transplanted in relapse, the corresponding posttransplant relapse rates were 48% and 63%, respectively (P = .72). Forty percent of unrelated recipients and 28% of autologous recipients died in remission. Leukemia-free survivals were 33% for unrelated and 25% for autologous recipients transplanted in remission (P = .45), and 12% for unrelated and 5% for autologous recipients transplanted in relapse (P = .75). Unrelated donor transplants appear no less effective than autologous transplants to achieve long-term survival and may be more effective in eradicating leukemia in patients who have failed conventional chemotherapy. Further studies are warranted to assess the relative effectiveness of unrelated and autologous transplantation performed earlier in the course of the disease.
Abstract 570: Characteristics of Long Non-coding RNAs in the Brown Norway Rat and Alterations in the Dahl Salt-Sensitive Rat

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are emerging as important mediators of genomic regulation. lncRNAs, however, remain poorly characterized in the rat model organism, which is widely used in hypertension research. Using poly(A)-independent and strand-specific RNA-seq, we identified approximately 1,500 to 1,800 lncRNAs expressed in each of the following tissues of Brown Norway rats: the renal cortex, renal outer medulla, liver, cardiac left ventricle, adrenal gland, and hypothalamus. Expression patterns and the binding of histone H3K4me3 to promoter regions were confirmed for several of the identified lncRNAs. Patterns of rat lncRNA expression appeared to be more tissue-specific than mRNA. Rat lncRNAs, on average, had similar lengths to mRNA but substantially fewer exons. The median abundance of rat lncRNAs was approximately 40% of that of mRNA. Approximately 28% of the lncRNAs identified in the renal outer medulla appeared to lack a poly(A) tail. Differential expression of 74 lncRNAs was detected in the renal outer medulla between Dahl salt-sensitive SS rats and salt-insensitive, congenic SS.13BN26 rats fed a high-salt diet. Two of the differentially expressed lncRNAs, which were confirmed, were located within the substituted congenic region. The study identified genome-wide characteristics of lncRNAs in the rat model and suggested a role of lncRNAs in hypertension.
Prediction of Type 2 Diabetes by Hemoglobin A1c in Two Community-Based Cohorts

OBJECTIVE Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) can be used to assess type 2 diabetes (T2D) risk. We asked whether HbA1c was associated with T2D risk in four scenarios of clinical information availability: 1) HbA1c alone, 2) fasting laboratory tests, 3) clinic data, and 4) fasting laboratory tests and clinic data. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We studied a prospective cohort of white (N = 11,244) and black (N = 2,294) middle-aged participants without diabetes in the Framingham Heart Study and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. Association of HbA1c with incident T2D (defined by medication use or fasting glucose [FG] ≥126 mg/dL) was evaluated in regression models adjusted for 1) age and sex (demographics); 2) demographics, FG, HDL, and triglycerides; 3) demographics, BMI, blood pressure, and T2D family history; or 4) all preceding covariates. We combined results from cohort and race analyses by random-effects meta-analyses. Subsidiary analyses tested the association of HbA1c with developing T2D within 8 years or only after 8 years. RESULTS Over 20 years, 3,315 individuals developed T2D. With adjustment for demographics, the odds of T2D increased fourfold for each percentage-unit increase in HbA1c. The odds ratio (OR) was 4.00 (95% CI 3.14, 5.10) for blacks and 4.73 (3.10, 7.21) for whites, resulting in a combined OR of 4.50 (3.35, 6.03). After adjustment for fasting laboratory tests and clinic data, the combined OR was 2.68 (2.15, 3.34) over 20 years, 5.79 (2.51, 13.36) within 8 years, and 2.23 (1.94, 2.57) after 8 years. CONCLUSIONS HbA1c predicts T2D in different common scenarios and is useful for identifying individuals with elevated T2D risk in both the short- and long-term.
Part 2: Home-based family caregiving at the end of life: a comprehensive review of published qualitative research (1998-2008)

Family caregivers are crucial for supporting home death. We reviewed published qualitative research on home-based family caregiving at end of life (1998—2008), synthesizing key findings and identifying gaps where additional research is needed. Multiple databases were searched and abstracts reviewed for a focus on family caregiving and palliative care; full articles were reviewed to extract data for this review. In total, 105 articles were included. Findings are presented in the following areas: the caregiving experience and contextual features; supporting family caregivers at end of life; caregiving roles and decision-making; and rewards, meaning and coping. We noted a lack of definitional clarity; a reliance on interview methods and descriptive, thematic analyses, and a relative lack of diversity of patient conditions. Research needs are identified in several areas, including the bereavement experience, caregiver ambivalence, access to services, caregiver meaning-making, and relational and contextual influences on family caregiving at end of life.
Metabolic Efficiency Promotes Protection From Pressure Overload in Hearts Expressing Slow Skeletal Troponin I

Background—The failing heart displays increased glycolytic flux that is not matched by a commensurate increase in glucose oxidation. This mismatch induces increased anaplerotic flux and inefficient glucose metabolism. We previously found adult transgenic mouse hearts expressing the fetal troponin I isoform, (ssTnI) to be protected from ischemia by increased glycolysis. In this study, we investigated the metabolic response of adult mouse hearts expressing ssTnI to chronic pressure overload. Methods and Results—At 2 to 3 months of age, ssTnI mice or their nontransgenic littermates underwent aortic constriction (TAC). TAC induced a 25% increase in nontransgenic heart size but only a 7% increase in ssTnI hearts (P<0.05). Nontransgenic TAC developed diastolic dysfunction (65% increase in E/A ratio), whereas the E/A ratio actually decreased in ssTnI TAC. Isolated perfused hearts from nontransgenic TAC mice showed reduced cardiac function and reduced creatine phosphate:ATP (16% reduction), but ssTnI TAC hearts maintained cardiac function and energy charge. Contrasting nontransgenic TAC, ssTnI TAC significantly increased glucose oxidation at the expense of palmitate oxidation, preventing the increase in anaplerosis observed in nontransgenic TAC hearts. Elevated glucose oxidation was mediated by a reduction in pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 expression, enabling pyruvate dehydrogenase to compete against anaplerotic enzymes for pyruvate carboxylation. Conclusions—Expression of a single fetal myofilament protein into adulthood in the ssTnI-transgenic mouse heart induced downregulation of the gene expression response for pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase to pressure overload. The consequence of elevated pyruvate oxidation in ssTnI during TAC reduced anaplerotic flux, ameliorating inefficiencies in glucose oxidation, with energetic and functional protection against cardiac decompensation.
QBf-based boolean function bi-decomposition

Boolean function bi-decomposition is ubiquitous in logic synthesis. It entails the decomposition of a Boolean function using two-input simple logic gates. Existing solutions for bi-decomposition are often based on BDDs and, more recently, on Boolean Satisfiability. In addition, the partition of the input set of variables is either assumed, or heuristic solutions are considered for finding good partitions. In contrast to earlier work, this paper proposes the use of Quantified Boolean Formulas (QBF) for computing bi-decompositions. These bi-decompositions are optimal in terms of the achieved quality of the input set of variables. Experimental results, obtained on representative benchmarks, demonstrate clear improvements in the quality of computed decompositions, but also the practical feasibility of QBF-based bi-decomposition.
Memory Limitations and Structural Forgetting: The Perception of Complex Ungrammatical Sentences as Grammatical

Results from an English acceptability-rating experiment are presented which demonstrate that people find doubly nested relative clause structures just as acceptable when only two verb phrases are included instead of the grammatically required three. Furthermore, the experiment shows that such sentences are acceptable only when the intermediate verb phrase is omitted. A number of specific accounts of forgetting are considered. Two early proposed theories of this effect, the disappearing syntactic nodes hypothesis (Frazier, 1985) and the least recent nodes hypothesis (Gibson, 1991), are not consistent with the experimental results. The results, together with other acceptability patterns, suggest that the representations that are retained (and subsequently forgotten) in processing sentences consist of the lexical wordstrings processed thus far. Three possible accounts of the results are considered: (1) the high memory cost pruning hypothesis within the framework of Gibson (1998); (2) a recency/primacy accoun.
Parallel feature extraction and heterogeneous object-detection for multi-camera driver assistance systems

We present a flexible architecture for image-based feature detection and object classification on an FPGA. This architecture is tailored to the requirements of future driver assistance systems, which will make it necessary to detect a wide range of different object types in multi-camera systems requiring highly efficient hardware. In contrast to other designs, which typically address a specific object type or only accelerate early processing steps, the proposed pipeline offers different operation modes to switch resources for either detection or classification speed. In addition, the architecture can incorporate heterogeneous processors for different feature types. The design is tailored to support any object detection system using weak features and cascaded classifiers. For evaluation, a classic Viola Jones Detector is implemented being fully compatible with OpenCV.
Distribution Pattern of Chlorophyll-a in the Delta Wulan Waters, Demak Regency, Central Java, Indonesia

The Delta Wulan waters are categorized as estuarine waters, which are greatly influenced by the sedimentation from the Wulan River and Serang River. Besides, the Delta Wulan Waters are vulnerable to the impact of pollution from anthropogenic waste. This research aims to examine the distribution pattern of chlorophyll-a and water quality parameters in the Delta Wulan Waters. Samplings were carried out at 12 stations, which were located in the middle of the Delta Wulan waters. One liter of water samples was taken using a Niskin bottle. The water quality measurements were carried out in situ. The research revealed that the highest chlorophyll-a value was found at Station 11 (2.94 ug/L) in November 2023, and the lowest chlorophyll-a value was also found in November 2023 at Station 6 (0.01 ug/L). Meanwhile, in August 2023, the chlorophyll-a value was in the range of 0.53–8.02 µg/L. The observations in August and November showed that the distribution pattern of chlorophyll-a was regular for stations 1 to 12 (dispersion index value < 1)
Obesity and Food Choices Among Faculty and Staff at a Large Urban University

Abstract Objective: In order to address increasing health care costs associated with obesity, this study sought to determine prevalence of overweight and obesity and examine eating behaviors, food choices, health beliefs, and attitudes of university employees. Participants and Methods: An online survey was distributed to > 3,800 faculty and staff at a large public metropolitan university in Winter 2008. Results: Almost half (48%) of 806 respondents were classified as overweight or obese. Compared to those with normal weights, overweight and obese respondents consumed fewer fruits and vegetables (p < .05), were less confident in making healthful food choices (p < .001), and were more influenced by food choices available in on-campus dining facilities (p < .05). Conclusions: Obesity among university employees warrants attention. Because these employees have less self-efficacy and consume less healthful diets than their normal weight colleagues, universities need to improve on-campus access to healthful foods.
Applicability of the Carrier Number Fluctuations Model for Random Telegraph Noise of Nanoscale MOSFETs Operating in Saturation

Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) amplitudes are analyzed for different drain-source voltage biases in bulk MOSFETs issued from a CMOS 40 nm technology. The study highlights the modulation of RTN amplitudes due to the responsible trap’s position along the channel from source to drain. We show that the carrier number fluctuation (CNF) model can still be very accurate, even in saturation region, for traps located around the middle of the channel, but either underestimates or overestimates the resulting current shift, when applied to traps near the drain or source regions. The results emphasize the need to take into consideration the possible RTN amplitude modulation in saturation for realistic modeling.
Multi-Objective Tradeoffs in the Design Optimization of a Brushless Permanent-Magnet Machine With Fractional-Slot Concentrated Windings

In this paper, a robust parametric model of a brushless permanent magnet machine with fractional-slot concentrated windings, which was developed for automated design optimization is presented. A computationally efficient finite-element analysis method was employed to estimate the dq-axes inductances, the induced voltage and torque ripple waveforms, and losses of the machine. A method for minimum effort calculation of the torque angle corresponding to the maximum torque per ampere load condition was developed. A differential evolution algorithm was implemented for the global design optimization with two concurrent objectives of minimum losses and minimum material cost. An engineering decision process based on the Pareto-optimal front for 3,500 candidate designs is presented together with discussions on the tradeoffs between cost and performance. One optimal design was finally selected, prototyped and successfully tested.
Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems in Arid Zones Can Use Ancient Subterranean Carbon as an Energy Source in the Local Food Web

Groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are defined by their reliance on subterranean water resources, but GDE food webs may also depend on it as an energy source. Mazumder et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JG004925), show a clear dependency of a local GDE food web on very old, potentially geological, carbon sourced from palaeo‐groundwater discharge in the arid Great Artesian Basin in Australia. These findings support the emerging paradigm that ancient groundwater carbon is an important component of inland water carbon cycling and contemporary ecosystem functioning. Future work is needed to determine what proportion of total GDE energy needs are derived from groundwater carbon across a range of geological and hydroclimatic settings.
DFT study of defects in graphene

Defects or imperfections in materials could be extremely useful at the nanoscale level since they could be exploited to modify the properties of nanomaterials for various practical applications. In this paper ab-initio calculations have been performed to study the stability, structural distortions and magnetism caused by defects and dopants in graphene sheet by the creation of vacancies, the inclusion of boron and nitrogen atoms and coexistence of both. All the calculations have been performed by using SIESTA (Spanish Initiative for Electronic Simulations with Thousands of Atoms) code based on density functional theory. Structural optimization shows that introducing a carbon vacancy into a graphene sheet changes the structural distribution of the neighbor atoms. In the case of coexistence of boron (nitrogen) atoms and vacancy, the modified graphene is magnetised only when B (N) atoms locate away from vacancies. These interesting results provide the possibility of tuning the properties according to application of graphene by carefully choosing the shape and size of defects.
Activation of Innate Immune-Response Genes in Little Brown Bats (Myotis lucifugus) Infected with the Fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans

Recently bats have been associated with the emergence of diseases, both as reservoirs for several new viral diseases in humans and other animals and, in the northern Americas, as hosts for a devastating fungal disease that threatens to drive several bat species to regional extinction. However, despite these catastrophic events little Information is available on bat defences or how they interact with their pathogens. Even less is known about the response of bats to infection during torpor or long-term hibernation. Using tissue samples collected at the termination of an experiment to explore the pathogenesis of White Nose Syndrome in Little Brown Bats, we determined if hibernating bats infected with the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans could respond to infection by activating genes responsible for innate immune and stress responses. Lesions due to fungal infection and, in some cases, secondary bacterial infections, were restricted to the skin. However, we were unable to obtain sufficient amounts of RNA from these sites. We therefore examined lungs for response at an epithelial surface not linked to the primary site of infection. We found that bats responded to infection with a significant increase in lungs of transcripts for Cathelicidin (an anti-microbial peptide) as well as the immune modulators tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukins 10 and 23. In conclusion, hibernating bats can respond to experimental P. destructans infection by activating expression of innate immune response genes.
Deep learning techniques applied to skin lesion classification

Skin cancer is a global health issue, and its early diagnosis is essential to avoid mortality. Automated classification of skin lesions can offer a fast and efficient way to diagnose skin lesions accurately. This paper presents an approach to skin lesion classification using deep learning techniques. Our methodology involved a combination of image preprocessing methods, data augmentation, transfer learning, and an ensemble strategy to classify between three skin lesion classes. Our final proposal consisted of the ensemble of EfficientNet-B2, EfficientNet-B5, and ResNeSt101 models. Our model demonstrated high performance on the ISIC 2017 dataset, obtaining a performance of 0.9300 and 0.8132 for AUC and balanced accuracy, respectively.
Time to Treatment Response in Patients with Follicular Lymphoma Treated with Bortezomib Is Longer Compared with Other Histologic Subtypes

Purpose: To determine the antitumor activity of the novel proteasome inhibitor bortezomib in patients with indolent non–Hodgkin's lymphoma. Experimental Design: Patients with follicular lymphoma (FL), marginal zone lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, small lymphocytic lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia were eligible for study. Bortezomib was given at a dose of 1.5 mg/m2 as an i.v. push on days 1, 4, 8, and 11 of a 21-day cycle. Eligibility included the following: (a) no more than three prior therapies, (b) at least 1 month since prior chemotherapy, (c) measurable disease, and (d) an absolute neutrophil count of >1,000/μL and a platelet count >50,000/μL for the first dose of any cycle. Results: Seventy-seven patients were registered, of which 69 were assessable for response based on the completion of two cycles of therapy. Subtypes included FL (59.5%), mantle cell lymphoma (52%), small lymphocytic lymphoma/chronic lymphocytic leukemia (16.2%), marginal zone lymphoma (21.6%), and one Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia. The median number of prior therapies was three. The most common grade 3 toxicity was lymphopenia (35%) and thrombocytopenia (31%). Twenty-five patients experienced grade ≤2 sensory neuropathy (32), and 8% experienced grade 3 neurosensory toxicity. The overall response rate was 45% (40% on an intention to treat) including 10 complete remissions. Of 18 patients with FL, 9 responded with 4 complete response. The median time to treatment response for FL was 12 weeks, whereas the median time to treatment response for other subtypes of non–Hodgkin's lymphoma was only 4 weeks. Conclusions: These data suggest that bortezomib has significant single agent activity in patients with FL, and that longer durations of treatment may improve overall response. Clin Cancer Res; 16(2); 719–26
Exogenous Carbon Monoxide Decreases Sepsis-Induced Acute Kidney Injury and Inhibits NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation in Rats

Carbon monoxide (CO) has shown various physiological effects including anti-inflammatory activity in several diseases, whereas the therapeutic efficacy of CO on sepsis-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) has not been reported as of yet. The purpose of the present study was to explore the effects of exogenous CO on sepsis-induced AKI and nucleotide-binding domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation in rats. Male rats were subjected to cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) to induce sepsis and AKI. Exogenous CO delivered from CO-releasing molecule 2 (CORM-2) was used intraperitoneally as intervention after CLP surgery. Therapeutic effects of CORM-2 on sepsis-induced AKI were assessed by measuring serum creatinine (Scr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN), kidney histology scores, apoptotic cell scores, oxidative stress, levels of cytokines TNF-α and IL-1β, and NLRP3 inflammasome expression. CORM-2 treatment protected against the sepsis-induced AKI as evidenced by reducing serum Scr/BUN levels, apoptotic cells scores, increasing survival rates, and decreasing renal histology scores. Furthermore, treatment with CORM-2 significantly reduced TNF-α and IL-1β levels and oxidative stress. Moreover, CORM-2 treatment significantly decreased NLRP3 inflammasome protein expressions. Our study provided evidence that CORM-2 treatment protected against sepsis-induced AKI and inhibited NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and suggested that CORM-2 could be a potential therapeutic candidate for treating sepsis-induced AKI.