Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Surgical Advances in Laparoscopic Donor Nephrectomy

Since it was first described in the 1990s, conventional laparoscopic donor nephrectomy has been the standard of care at most major transplant centers. Clayman et al. described the first successful conventional laparoscopic nephrectomy in 1991 for intrinsic renal disease [1]. Several years later, a conventional laparoscopic donor nephrectomy procedure was successfully performed in a large animal model [2], while Ratner and colleagues described the first successful conventional laparoscopic live donor nephrectomy one year later [3]. Donor were discharged home within two days and most returned to work within two weeks postoperatively. Moreover, recipient outcomes were significantly better than deceased donor allografts.
Compressed cooperation in an amplify-and-forward relay channel

The theory of compressed sensing (CS) is very attractive in that it is possible to reconstruct sparse signals with a sub-Nyquist sampling rate. Recently many researches have applied CS as the channel code, and show its great potential in communication systems. This paper studies the compressed cooperation in an amplify-and-forward (CC-AF) relay channel, where CS is used to compress the source data and AF relay is used to forward the received signals. When different deployments of measurement matrices are considered, we design different decoding strategies and analyze the corresponding achievable rates. With the derived rates, numerical calculations show that CC-AF outperforms the direct transmission without relay. In addition, the performance of CC-AF and the existing compressed cooperation with decode-and-forward relay is also compared.
Alpha and gamma oscillations characterize feedback and feedforward processing in monkey visual cortex

Significance One of the main unresolved questions in cognitive neuroscience is how low-level and high-level areas of the visual cortex interact with each other during perception and cognition. We investigated whether cortical oscillations can be used to distinguish feedforward from feedback processing. We studied the propagation of α- and γ-oscillations through the cortical layers and between different visual cortical areas. We induced oscillations in different areas with microstimulation and influenced them using a pharmacological approach. The results of these experiments demonstrate that γ-oscillations propagate in the feedforward direction, whereas α-oscillations propagate in the feedback direction. We conclude that high- and low-frequency oscillations provide markers of feedforward and feedback processing, respectively. Cognitive functions rely on the coordinated activity of neurons in many brain regions, but the interactions between cortical areas are not yet well understood. Here we investigated whether low-frequency (α) and high-frequency (γ) oscillations characterize different directions of information flow in monkey visual cortex. We recorded from all layers of the primary visual cortex (V1) and found that γ-waves are initiated in input layer 4 and propagate to the deep and superficial layers of cortex, whereas α-waves propagate in the opposite direction. Simultaneous recordings from V1 and downstream area V4 confirmed that γ- and α-waves propagate in the feedforward and feedback direction, respectively. Microstimulation in V1 elicited γ-oscillations in V4, whereas microstimulation in V4 elicited α-oscillations in V1, thus providing causal evidence for the opposite propagation of these rhythms. Furthermore, blocking NMDA receptors, thought to be involved in feedback processing, suppressed α while boosting γ. These results provide new insights into the relation between brain rhythms and cognition.
Natural History of Human Immunodefiency Virus Type 1 Infection in Children: A Five-Year Prospective Study in Rwanda

Objective. To compare morbidity and mortality of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected and HIV-1-uninfected children and to identify predictors of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and death among HIV-1-infected children in the context of a developing country. Design. Prospective cohort study. Setting. Maternal and child health clinic of the Centre Hospitalier de Kigali, Rwanda. Participants. Two hundred eighteen children born to HIV-1-seropositive mothers and 218 born to seronegative mothers of the same age and parity were enrolled at birth. Outcome Measures. Deaths, clinical AIDS, nonspecific HIV-related manifestations, and use of health care services. Results. Fifty-four infected and 347 uninfected children were followed up for a median of 27 and 51 months, respectively. With the exception of chronic cough, the risk of occurrence of nonspecific HIV-related conditions was 3 to 13 times higher in infected than in uninfected children. The recurrence rate and severity of these findings were increased systematically in infected infants. Estimated cumulative risk of developing AIDS was 28% and 35% at 2 and 5 years of age, respectively. Estimated risk of death among infected children at 2 and 5 years of age was 45% and 62%, respectively, a rate 21 times higher than in uninfected children. Median survival time after estimated infection was 12.4 months. Early infection, early onset of HIV-related conditions, failure to thrive, and generalized lymphadenopathy were associated with subsequent risk of death and/or AIDS, whereas lymphoid interstitial pneumonitis was predictive of a milder disease. Conclusions. In Africa, HIV-1-infected children develop disease manifestations early in life. Specific clinical findings are predictive of HIV-1 disease, AIDS stage, and death. Bimodal expression of HIV-1 pediatric disease is encountered in Africa, as in industrialized countries, but prognosis is poorer. human immunodeficiency virus infection, children, vertical transmission, natural history, Africa.
Thyroid transcription factor‐1 immunostaining in World Health Organization type AB thymoma

James P Beirne Darragh G McArt Jacqueline A James Manuel Salto-Tellez Perry Maxwell W Glenn McCluggage Ovarian Cancer Research Focus Group, Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Gynaecological Cancer Centre, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Department of Bioinformatics, Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland, The Northern Ireland Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University Belfast and The Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Department of Pathology, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, Belfast, Northern Ireland
The Geological Evolution of the Aden‐Owen‐Carlsberg Triple Junction (NW Indian Ocean) Since the Late Miocene

The Aden‐Owen‐Carlsberg triple junction is the place where Arabia, Somalia, and India meet in the Arabian Sea (NW Indian Ocean). Here we present a new seismic data set crossing a key structure of the triple junction, namely, the Beautemps‐Beaupré pull‐apart basin at the southern end of the Owen Fracture Zone. The seismic data set is tied to Ocean Drilling Program Leg 117 Sites at the top of the Owen Ridge, which provides a detailed tectono‐stratigraphic framework since the Late Miocene. We show that the triple junction configuration has been disturbed by a major kinematic change at ~8 Ma and since then experienced a series of transient structural adjustments. A major structural episode is recorded at 2.4 Ma, expressed by the opening of the Beautemps‐Beaupré Basin and the uplift of its southern flank (the Beautemps‐Beaupré Ridge). This episode is coeval with the formation of the present‐day Owen Fracture Zone and must be considered as a part of a major structural reorganization of the entire India‐Arabia plate boundary up to the Makran subduction zone. This 2.4‐Myr‐old geological episode is unrelated to any significant kinematic change, leaving questions over its driving mechanism.
Scaling Database Languages to Higher-Order Distributed Programming

We describe the Tycoon approach to scale the successful notion of a uniform, type-safe persistent object store to communication-intensive applications and applications where long-term activities are allowed to span multiple autonomous network sites. Exploiting stream-based data, code and thread exchange primitives we present several distributed programming idioms in Tycoon. These programming patterns range from client-server communication based on polymorphic higher-order remote procedure calls to migrating autonomous agents that are bound dynamically to network resources present at individual network nodes. Following Tycoon’ s add-on approach, these idioms are not cast into built-in syntactic forms, but are expressed by characteristic programming patterns exploiting communication primitives encapsulated by library functions. Moreover, we present a novel form of binding support for ubiquitous resources which drastically reduces communication trafficfor modular distributed applications.
gSLICr: SLIC superpixels at over 250Hz

We introduce a parallel GPU implementation of the Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) superpixel segmentation. Using a single graphic card, our implementation achieves speedups of up to $83\times$ from the standard sequential implementation. Our implementation is fully compatible with the standard sequential implementation and the software is now available online and is open source.
Fiscal Foresight and Information Flows

News - or foresight - about future economic fundamentals can create rational expectations equilibria with non-fundamental representations that pose substantial challenges to econometric efforts to recover the structural shocks to which economic agents react. Using tax policies as a leading example of foresight, simple theory makes transparent the economic behavior and information structures that generate non-fundamental equilibria. Econometric analyses that fail to model foresight will obtain biased estimates of output multipliers for taxes; biases are quantitatively important when two canonical theoretical models are taken as data generating processes. Both the nature of equilibria and the inferences about the effects of anticipated tax changes hinge critically on hypothesized information flows. Different methods for extracting or hypothesizing the information flows are discussed and shown to be alternative techniques for resolving a non-uniqueness problem endemic to moving average representations.
Victimization experiences and the stabilization of victim sensitivity

People reliably differ in the extent to which they are sensitive to being victimized by others. Importantly, “victim sensitivity” predicts how people behave in social dilemma situations: Victim-sensitive individuals are less likely to trust others and more likely to behave uncooperatively—especially in socially uncertain situations. This pattern can be explained with the sensitivity to mean intentions (SeMI) model, according to which victim sensitivity entails a specific and asymmetric sensitivity to contextual cues that are associated with untrustworthiness. Recent research is largely in line with the model’s prediction, but some issues have remained conceptually unresolved so far. For instance, it is unclear why and how victim sensitivity becomes a stable trait and which developmental and cognitive processes are involved in such stabilization. In the present article, we will discuss the psychological processes that contribute to a stabilization of victim sensitivity within persons, both across the life span (“ontogenetic stabilization”) and across social situations (“actual-genetic stabilization”). Our theoretical framework starts from the assumption that experiences of being exploited threaten a basic need, the need to trust. This need is so fundamental that experiences that threaten it receive a considerable amount of attention and trigger strong affective reactions. Associative learning processes can then explain (a) how certain contextual cues (e.g., facial expressions) become conditioned stimuli that elicit equally strong responses, (b) why these contextual untrustworthiness cues receive much more attention than, for instance, trustworthiness cues, and (c) how these cues shape spontaneous social expectations (regarding other people’s intentions). Finally, avoidance learning can explain why these cognitive processes gradually stabilize and become a trait: the trait which is referred to as victim sensitivity.
EFFECTIVENESS OF SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS IN ELIMINATING THE CASSAVA MOSAIC VIRUS FROM INFECTED CASSAVA (Manihot Esculenta Crantz) PLANT MATERIALS

Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food for many people in the tropical regions. However, yield of cassava has reduced of late due to high incidence of cassava mosaic disease (CMD) which is caused by the cassava mosaic virus (CMV). This necessitated the study on the production of disease free cassava materials from CMD cassava plants through somatic embryogenesis. CMV infected cassava leaves were cultured for callus tissue induction and somatic embryos (SE) generation on modified MS media supplemented with 2, 4–D. The SE maturation was carried out on modified MS media supplemented with Benzyl Amino Purine (BAP). Callus tissue initiation and induction started ten (10) days after plating (DAP), SE were generated 35 DAP and survival rate of explants was 90.2 %. Maturation of SE occurred 60 DAP and the number of somatic embryos per explant ranged from 5 – 14. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) were used to detect the presence of CMV on leaves, callus tissues and SE. East African Cassava Mosaic Virus (EACMV) and African Cassava Mosaic Virus (ACMV) were two different strains of CMV detected in the leaf, callus tissue and SE from CMD cassava explants. The SE that was generated from CMV infected leaves of cassava showed 87.5% virus free with the PCR technique of viral particle detection. The outcome of the study demonstrated the effectiveness of somatic embryogenesis in eliminating the ACMV from infected materials and EACMV from infected cassava plants to produce viral free planting materials.
Richardson-Lucy Deblurring for Scenes under a Projective Motion Path

This paper addresses how to model and correct image blur that arises when a camera undergoes ego motion while observing a distant scene. In particular, we discuss how the blurred image can be modeled as an integration of the clear scene under a sequence of planar projective transformations (i.e., homographies) that describe the camera's path. This projective motion path blur model is more effective at modeling the spatially varying motion blur exhibited by ego motion than conventional methods based on space-invariant blur kernels. To correct the blurred image, we describe how to modify the Richardson-Lucy (RL) algorithm to incorporate this new blur model. In addition, we show that our projective motion RL algorithm can incorporate state-of-the-art regularization priors to improve the deblurred results. The projective motion path blur model, along with the modified RL algorithm, is detailed, together with experimental results demonstrating its overall effectiveness. Statistical analysis on the algorithm's convergence properties and robustness to noise is also provided.
Flower Colour Modification of Chrysanthemum by Suppression of F3'H and Overexpression of the Exogenous Senecio cruentus F3'5'H Gene

Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum × morifolium) is one of the most important ornamental plants in the world. They are typically used as cut flowers or potted plants. Chrysanthemum can exhibit red, purple, pink, yellow and white flowers, but lack bright red and blue flowers. In this study, we identified two chrysanthemum cultivars, C × morifolium ‘LPi’ and C × morifolium ‘LPu’, that only accumulate flavonoids in their ligulate flowers. Next, we isolated seven anthocyanin biosynthesis genes, namely CmCHS, CmF3H, CmF3’H, CmDFR, CmANS, CmCHI and Cm3GT in these cultivars. RT-PCR and qRT-PCR analyses showed that CmF3′H was the most important enzyme required for cyanidin biosynthsis. To rebuild the delphinidin pathway, we downregulated CmF3’H using RNAi and overexpressed the Senecio cruentus F3′5′H (PCFH) gene in chrysanthemum. The resultant chrysanthemum demonstrated a significantly increased content of cyanidin and brighter red flower petals but did not accumulate delphinidin. These results indicated that CmF3′H in chrysanthemum is important for anthocyanin accumulation, and Senecio cruentus F3′5′H only exhibited F3′H activity in chrysanthemum but did not rebuild the delphinidin pathway to form blue flower chrysanthemum.
Proteasomal Degradation and N-terminal Protease Resistance of the Codon 145 Mutant Prion Protein*

An amber mutation at codon 145 (Y145stop) of the prion protein gene results in a variant of an inherited human prion disease named Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker syndrome. The characteristic features of this disorder include amyloid deposits of prion protein in cerebral parenchyma and vessels. We have studied the biosynthesis and processing of the prion protein containing the Y145stop mutation (PrP145) in transfected human neuroblastoma cells in an attempt to clarify the effect of the mutation on the metabolism of PrP145 and to gain insight into the underlying pathogenetic mechanism. Our results demonstrate that 1) a significant proportion of PrP145 is not processed post-translationally and retains the N-terminal signal peptide, 2) most PrP145 is degraded very rapidly by the proteasome-mediated pathway, 3) blockage of proteasomal degradation results in intracellular accumulation of PrP145, 4) most of the accumulated PrP145 is detergent-insoluble, and both the detergent-soluble and -insoluble fractions are resistant to mild proteinase K (PK) treatment, suggesting that PK resistance is not simply because of aggregation. The present study demonstrates for the first time that a mutant prion protein is degraded through the proteasomal pathway and acquires PK-resistance if degradation is impaired.
Is Alcohol Use Developmentally Normative ? Paradoxical Correlates of Older Adolescent Drinking and Implications for Harm Reduction

This article summarizes the proceedings of a symposium, chaired by Peter Monti and cochaired by Tracy O’Leary, that was presented at the 2001 RSA Meeting in Montreal, Quebec. The aim of this symposium was to present data on groupand individual-based interventions for adolescent alcohol and substance abuse, with a discussion of the implications of research findings bearing on developmental considerations when working with adolescents and young adults. Elizabeth J. D’Amico, PhD, reviewed recent findings on adolescents’ choice of type of substance abuse treatment. Jennifer L. Maggs, PhD, presented a developmental perspective on this issue. Tracy O’Leary, PhD, presented data on enhancing motivational interviewing with the presence of a supportive peer for college students cited for alcohol infractions. Mary E. Larimer, PhD, presented 1-year follow-up results of the Greeks 2000 Project, a 5-year longitudinal study designed to evaluate the efficacy of an alcohol abuse prevention program provided to college students who were entering a pledge class (first year) of Greek houses. Barbara McCrady, PhD, a noted expert on the treatment of couples for substance abuse problems, served as discussant.
Specific heat and sound velocity at the relevant competing phase of high-temperature superconductors

Significance A variety of experiments have supported the idea that high-temperature superconductivity is caused by the interaction of quantum mechanical zero-point fluctuations of a competing order with electrons. One of the strangest features of this order is that a transition to it appears to occur without a noticeable specific heat anomaly. We show unambiguously that a proposed order, in which currents spontaneously flow in close loops within each unit cell of the compound, is such that an unusual signature of transition to it is found in the sound velocity experiments but that it is unobservable in the specific heat measurements. Stringent conditions are provided by the analysis for other possible orders to be relevant to the fundamental physics of high-temperature superconductivity. Recent highly accurate sound velocity measurements reveal a phase transition to a competing phase in YBa2Cu3O6+δ that is not identified in available specific heat measurements. We show that this signature is consistent with the universality class of the loop current-ordered state when the free-energy reduction is similar to the superconducting condensation energy, due to the anomalous fluctuation region of such a transition. We also compare the measured specific heat with some usual types of transitions, which are observed at lower temperatures in some cuprates, and find that the upper limit of the energy reduction due to them is about 1/40th the superconducting condensation energy.
Fully Virulent Bacillus anthracis Does Not Require the Immunodominant Protein BclA for Pathogenesis

ABSTRACT The BclA protein is the immunodominant epitope on the surface of Bacillus anthracis spores; however, its roles in pathogenesis are unclear. We constructed a BclA deletion mutant (bclA) of the fully virulent Ames strain. This derivative retained full virulence in several small-animal models of infection despite the bclA deletion.
Retina expression and cross-species validation of gene silencing by PF-655, a small interfering RNA against RTP801 for the treatment of ocular disease.

PURPOSE PF-655, a synthetic 19-mer siRNA, targeting the RTP801 gene is currently in clinical trials for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema. Preclinical studies have shown a dose-related suppression of RTP801 expression in rat disease models. Investigative studies were conducted with PF-655 to validate the Dutch-Belted rabbit as a biologically relevant species for gene silencing to support nonclinical ocular toxicity and continual dosing studies. METHODS Cross-species comparison and DNA sequencing was done to determine the level of homology between PF-655 and rabbit RTP801. Human (HEK 293) and rabbit (SIRC cornea) cell lines were stimulated with CoCl(2) to mimic hypoxic stress (an inducer of RTP801 expression) and treated with PF-655. Taqman-polymerase chain reaction and immunoblot analysis were performed to gauge RTP801 expression in cell culture and rabbit retinas. RESULTS Sequence analysis showed a 1-base mismatch in the PF-655 targeting site from genomic DNA of Dutch-Belted rabbit and the SIRC cell line, a cornea cell derived from the New Zealand White rabbit. HEK and SIRC CoCl(2)-stressed cells induced RTP801 expression 10-20-fold above control conditions. Treatment with 20 or 100 nM PF-655 showed a decrease in gene expression, 40%-50% relative to appropriate controls. RTP801 mRNA was detectable in primary rabbit retina tissues, with cycle threshold values showing a large linear range for the assay. CONCLUSION These results support our investigation into cross-species validation of gene suppression by a therapeutic siRNA designed to a human gene. The SIRC cell line was utilized as a surrogate to test the degree of RTP801 gene silencing induced by PF-655 in vitro. With a 1-base mismatch, the level of silencing in a rabbit ocular cell line was comparable to that of a human cell line. Sequence analysis and expression data confirmed the relevance of the RTP801 target gene in rabbits and the utility of this species as a relevant animal model. Additionally, our work outlines a tractable method that validates relevant larger non-rodent species for ophthalmic drug testing.