Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
I. THE ONTOGENY OF CELLS BEARING IMMUNOGLOBVLIN OF PATERNAL ALLOTYPE AND THE FATE OF THESE CELLS AFTER TREATMENT WITH ANTIALLOTYPE ANTISERA BY MICHAEL R. HARRISON AND ROSE G. MAGE

Since Dray's original description of allotype suppression in the rabbit (1), suppression of immunoglobulin (Ig) 1 allotypes in mice (2, 3), of Ig classes in chickens (4) and mice (5), and of Ig idiotypes in mice (6) has been documented. Nonetheless, the mechanism by which exposure to appropriate anti-Ig antisera suppresses production of a specific allotype, class, or idiotype is not known. In the rabbit, the expression of b locus allotypic determinants present on kappatype light chains can be suppressed by exposing rabbits in utero or at birth to appropriate antiallotype antisera (allotype suppression) (1, 7-9). I t is reasonable to hypothesize that an early event in the establishment of suppression is the interaction of the injected antibodies with specific Ig determinants present on the membranes of bone marrow-derived lymphocytes (B lymphocytes) or their precursors. However, in the rabbit an appropriate Ig-bearing "target" cell has not previously been demonstrated in the crucial perinatal period when antiallotype antisera are effective in inducing suppression, nor has the fate of such a target cell after interaction with suppressing antibodies been studied. Our previous studies demonstrating a complete deletion of b5-bearing lymphocytes from the peripheral blood of adult homozygous bSb 5 rabbits suppressed for b5 (10) suggested that such Ig-bearing target cells may be eliminated during induction of allotype suppression.
Costs of Testing for Ocular Chlamydia trachomatis Infection Compared to Mass Drug Administration for Trachoma in The Gambia: Application of Results from the PRET Study

Background Mass drug administration (MDA) treatment of active trachoma with antibiotic is recommended to be initiated in any district where the prevalence of trachoma inflammation, follicular (TF) is ≥10% in children aged 1–9 years, and then to continue for at least three annual rounds before resurvey. In The Gambia the PRET study found that discontinuing MDA based on testing a sample of children for ocular Chlamydia trachomatis(Ct) infection after one MDA round had similar effects to continuing MDA for three rounds. Moreover, one round of MDA reduced disease below the 5% TF threshold. We compared the costs of examining a sample of children for TF, and of testing them for Ct, with those of MDA rounds. Methods The implementation unit in PRET The Gambia was a census enumeration area (EA) of 600–800 people. Personnel, fuel, equipment, consumables, data entry and supervision costs were collected for census and treatment of a sample of EAs and for the examination, sampling and testing for Ct infection of 100 individuals within them. Programme costs and resource savings from testing and treatment strategies were inferred for the 102 EAs in the study area, and compared. Results Census costs were $103.24 per EA plus initial costs of $108.79. MDA with donated azithromycin cost $227.23 per EA. The mean cost of examining and testing 100 children was $796.90 per EA, with Ct testing kits costing $4.80 per result. A strategy of testing each EA for infection is more expensive than two annual rounds of MDA unless the kit cost is less than $1.38 per result. However stopping or deciding not to initiate treatment in the study area based on testing a sample of EAs for Ct infection (or examining children in a sample of EAs) creates savings relative to further unnecessary treatments. Conclusion Resources may be saved by using tests for chlamydial infection or clinical examination to determine that initial or subsequent rounds of MDA for trachoma are unnecessary.
Intrinsic Alignments of Galaxies and Their Effects on Weak-Lensing Detections of Mass Concentrations

In this paper we analyze the number counts of false peaks resulting from intrinsic ellipticities in lensing convergence maps, including the alignment of source galaxies. The full noise variance in convergence κ-maps can be written as σ = σ + σ, where σ is the noise contributed from randomly oriented source galaxies and σ denotes the additional noise from intrinsic alignments. However, it is observationally difficult to measure σ, and usually only σ can be estimated in weak-lensing observations. Thus, the observational signal-to-noise ratio is often defined with respect to σ0ran, which we denote as νran. The true signal-to-noise ratio ν in terms of σ0 is then ν = νran/(1 + σ/σ)1/2. Given a detection threshold on νran, a larger value of σ/σ leads to a lower threshold on ν and therefore a larger expected number of false peaks. With σ/σ ~ 10%, the average number of false peaks with νran ≥ 3.5 nearly doubles compared to that without considering the alignment, and for νran ≥ 5, the number is tripled. As a result, the efficiency of weak-lensing cluster detection declines significantly. The increase of the number of false peaks also affects the likelihood of the existence of dark clumps. On the other hand, if one can observationally distinguish false peaks and true peaks, the number of false peaks can be used to tightly constrain the level of intrinsic alignments. The CFHTLS Deep survey's 3.61 deg2 lensing observations and follow-up studies find that 5 out of the 14 peaks with νran > 3.5 are likely to be false peaks, giving rise to a constraint of σ ≤ 1.6 × 10-5 (1 σ) at the angular scale of 1' for galaxies at redshift z ~ 1. The corresponding limit on the correlation of intrinsic ellipticities is 3.2 × 10-5.
Burden of Acute Gastrointestinal Illness in Gálvez, Argentina, 2007

This study evaluated the magnitude and distribution of acute gastrointestinal illness (GI) in Gálvez, Argentina, and assessed the outcome of a seven-day versus 30-day recall period in survey methodology. A cross-sectional population survey, with either a seven-day or a 30-day retrospective recall period, was conducted through door-to-door visits to randomly-selected residents during the ‘high’ and the ‘low’ seasons of GI in the community. Comparisons were made between the annual incidence rates obtained using the seven-day and the 30-day recall period. Using the 30-day recall period, the mean annual incidence rates was 0.43 (low season of GI) and 0.49 (high season of GI) episodes per person-year. Using the seven-day recall period, the mean annual incidence rate was 0.76 (low season of GI) and 2.66 (high season of GI) episodes per person-year. This study highlights the significant burden of GI in a South American community and confirms the importance of seasonality when investigating GI in the population. The findings suggest that a longer recall period may underestimate the burden of GI in retrospective population surveys of GI.
Exponential ergodicity of the solutions to SDE's with a jump noise

The mild suﬃcient conditions for exponential ergodicity of a Markov process, deﬁned as the solution to SDE with a jump noise, are given. These conditions include three principal claims: recurrence condition R , topological irreducibility condition S and non-degeneracy condition N , the latter formulated in the terms of a certain random subspace of R m , associated with the initial equation. The examples are given, showing that, in general, none of three principal claims can be removed without losing ergodicity of the process. The key point in the approach, developed in the paper, is that the local Doeblin condition can be derived from N and S via the stratiﬁcation method and criterium for the convergence in variations of the family of induced measures on R m .
Testing the early Late Ordovician cool-water hypothesis with oxygen isotopes from conodont apatite

Abstract Latest Sandbian to early Katian sequences across Laurentia's epicontinental sea exhibit a transition from lithologies characterized as ‘warm-water’ carbonates to those characterized as ‘cool-water'carbonates. This shift occurs across the regionally recognized M4/M5 sequence stratigraphic boundary and has been attributed to climatic cooling and glaciation, basin reorganization and upwelling of open ocean water, and/or increased water turbidity and terrigenous input associated with the Taconic tectophase. Documentation of oxygen isotopic trends across the M4/M5 and through bracketing strata provides a potential means of distinguishing among these alternative scenarios; however, oxygen isotopic records generated to date have failed to settle the debate. This lack of resolution is because δ18O records are open to multiple interpretations and potentially confounding factors related to local environmental conditions have not been tested by examining the critical interval in multiple areas and different depositional settings. To begin to address this shortcoming, we present new species-specific and mixed assemblage conodont δ18O values in samples spanning the M4/M5 boundary from the Upper Mississippi Valley, Alabama, and Virginia. The new results are combined with previous studies, providing a record of δ18O variability across SE Laurentia. The combined dataset allows us to test for regional trends at a resolution not previously available. Our results document a ~1.5‰ decrease in values across Laurentia instead of increasing δ18O values across the M4/M5 as predicted in various ‘cool-water’ scenarios. In short, these results do not support a shift to ‘cool-water’ conditions as an explanation for changes in early Katian carbonates across the M4/M5.
Cancer Chemopreventive Activity of Resveratrol

Abstract: Cancer chemopreventive agents are designed to reduce the incidence of tumorigenesis by intervening at one or more stages of carcinogenesis. Recently, resveratrol, a natural product found in the diet of humans, has been shown to function as a cancer chemopreventive agent. Resveratrol was first shown to act as an antioxidant and antimutagenic agent, thus acting as an anti‐initiation agent. Further evidence indicated that resveratrol selectively suppresses the transcriptional activation of cytochrome P‐450 1A1 and inhibits the formation of carcinogen‐induced preneoplastic lesions in a mouse mammary organ culture model. Resveratrol also inhibits the formation of 12‐O‐tetradecanoylphorbol‐13‐acetate (TPA)‐promoted mouse skin tumors in the two‐stage model. The enzymatic activities of COX‐1 and ‐2 are inhibited by resveratrol in cell‐free models, and COX‐2 mRNA and TPA‐induced activation of protein kinase C and AP‐1‐mediated gene expression are suppressed by resveratrol in mammary epithelial cells. In addition, resveratrol strongly inhibits nitric oxide generation and inducible nitric oxide synthase protein expression. NFκB is strongly linked to inflammatory and immune responses and is associated with oncogenesis in certain models of cancer, and resveratrol suppresses the induction of this transcription factor by a number of agents. The mechanism may involve decreasing the phosphorylation and degradation of IκBα. At the cellular level, resveratrol also induces apoptosis, cell cycle delay or a block in the G1→ S transition phase in a number of cell lines. Thus, resveratrol holds great promise for future development as a chemopreventive agent that may be useful for several disorders. Preclinical toxicity studies are underway that should be followed by human clinical trials.
Dracorhodin Perchlorate Induced Human Breast Cancer MCF-7 Apoptosis through Mitochondrial Pathways

Objective: Dracorhodin perchlorate (DP) was a synthetic analogue of the antimicrobial anthocyanin red pigment dracorhodin. It was reported that DP could induce apoptosis in human prostate cancer, human gastric tumor cells and human melanoma, but the cytotoxic effect of DP on human breast cancer was not investigated. This study would investigate whether DP was a candidate chemical of anti-human breast cancer. Methods: The MTT assay reflected the number of viable cells through measuring the activity of cellular enzymes. Phase contrast microscopy visualized cell morphology. Fluorescence microscopy detected nuclear fragmentation after Hoechst 33258 staining. Flowcytometric analysis of Annexin V-PI staining and Rodamine 123 staining was used to detect cell apoptosis and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP). Real time PCR detected mRNA level. Western blot examined protein expression. Results: DP dose and time-dependently inhibited the growth of MCF-7 cells. DP inhibited MCF-7 cell growth through apoptosis. DP regulated the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax, which were mitochondrial pathway proteins, to decrease MMP, and DP promoted the transcription of Bax and inhibited Bcl-2. Apoptosis-inducing factor (AIF) and cytochrome c which localized in mitochondrial in physiological condition were released into cytoplasm when MMP was decreased. DP activated caspase-9, which was the downstream of mitochondrial pathway. Therefore DP decreased MMP to release AIF and cytochrome c into cytoplasm, further activating caspase 9, lastly led to apoptosis. Conclusion: Therefore DP was a candidate for anti-breast cancer, DP induced apoptosis of MCF-7 through mitochondrial pathway.
HLA-MATCHING AND PRETRANSPLANT BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS IN CADAVERIC RENAL TRANSPLANTATION&mdash;A CHANGING PICTURE WITH CYCLOSPORIN

mean of 5&middot;0 h after the onset of suspected acute myocardial infarction were randomised either to a control group or to a group receiving atenolol (5-10 mg iv immediately, followed by 100 mg/day orally for 7 days). Vascular mortality during the treatment period (days 0-7) was significantly lower (2p<0&middot;04) in the treated group, 313/8037 (3&middot;89%) versus 365/7990 (4&middot;57%), but this 15% difference has wide 95% confidence limits (from about zero to about a quarter). No subgroups were identified in which the proportional difference in days 0-7 was clearly better, or clearly worse, than 15%. After the treatment period, there was only a slight further divergence (691 vs 703 additional vascular deaths
Sparse representation of medical images via compressed sensing using Gaussian Scale Mixtures

The increased high-resolution capabilities of modern medical image acquisition systems raise the crucial tasks of effectively storing and interacting with large databases of such data. The ease of image storage and query would be unfeasible without compression, which represents high-resolution images with a relatively small set of significant transform coefficients. Due to the specific content of medical images, compression often results in highly sparse representations in appropriate orthonormal bases. The inherent property of compressed sensing (CS) working simultaneously as a sensing and compression protocol using a small subset of random projection coefficients, enables a potentially significant reduction in storage requirements. In this paper, we introduce a Bayesian CS approach for obtaining highly sparse representations of medical images based on a set of noisy CS measurements, where the prior belief that the vector of transform coefficients should be sparse is exploited by modeling its probability distribution by means of a Gaussian Scale Mixture. The experimental results show that the proposed approach maintains the reconstruction performance of other state-of-the-art CS methods while achieving significantly sparser representations of medical images with distinct content.
Dark matter production from cosmic necklaces

Cosmic strings have gained a great interest, since they are formed in a large class of brane inflationary models. The most interesting story is that cosmic strings in brane models are distinguished from the standard cosmic strings in future cosmological observations. If the strings in brane models are branes or superstrings that can move along compactified space, and also if there are degenerated vacua along the compactified space, kinks interpolated between degenerated vacua become ‘beads’ on the strings. In this case, strings turn into necklaces. In the case where the compact manifold is not simply connected, a string loop that winds around a nontrivial circle is stable for topological reasons. Since the existence of the (quasi-)degenerated vacua and the nontrivial circle is a common feature of brane models, it is important to study cosmological constraints on the cosmic necklaces and the stable winding states. In this paper, we consider dark matter production from loops of the cosmic necklaces. Our result suggests that necklaces can put a stringent bound on certain kinds of brane models.
Transparent, biocompatible nanostructured surfaces for cancer cell capture and culture

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood which have detached from both the primary tumor and any metastases may be considered as a “liquid biopsy” and are expected to replace tumor biopsies in the monitoring of treatment response and determining patient prognosis. Here, we introduce a facile and efficient CTC detection material made of hydroxyapatite/chitosan (HA/CTS), which is beneficial because of its transparency and excellent biological compatibility. Atomic force microscopy images show that the roughness of the HA/CTS nanofilm (HA/CTSNF) substrates can be controlled by changing the HA:CTS ratio. Enhanced local topographic interactions between nano-components on cancer cell membranes, and the antibody coated nanostructured substrate lead to improved CTC capture and separation. This remarkable nanostructured substrate has the potential for CTC culture in situ and merits further analysis. CTCs captured from artificial blood samples were observed in culture on HA/CTSNF substrates over a period of 14 days by using conventional staining methods (hematoxylin eosin and Wright’s stain). We conclude that these substrates are multifunctional materials capable of isolating and culturing CTCs for subsequent studies.
Detection of Invasive Colon Cancer Using a Novel, Targeted, Library-Derived Fluorescent Peptide

Sensitive methods to detect the earliest forms of colorectal cancers remain a challenge despite the development of serum and stool biomarkers. We reasoned that fluorescent affinity ligands derived from library screens can be developed to improve the detection and localization of early malignant lesions by endoscopy. We have developed an imaging agent for real-time endoscopic tumor detection in a murine model using a previously identified phage library-derived colon cancer-specific cyclic peptide and fluorescent moieties. The modified peptide had a 24 minute blood half life and tumoral accumulation was 6.9% of injected dose/g, ∼7-fold higher than a scrambled control peptide. Orthotopic colonic tumors (HT29) were readily detectable by fluorescence endoscopy even when tumors were submucosal. These results show proof-of-principle that disease-specific library-derived fluorescent probes can be rapidly developed for use in the early detection of cancers by optical means.
Follow-Up of the Hoorn Study Hyperhomocysteinemia Increases Risk of Death , Especially in Type 2 Diabetes : 5-Year

Ellen K. Hoogeveen, Pieter J. Kostense, Cornelis Jakobs, Jacqueline M. Dekker, Giel Nijpels, Follow-Up of the Hoorn Study Hyperhomocysteinemia Increases Risk of Death, Especially in Type 2 Diabetes : 5-Year Print ISSN: 0009-7322. Online ISSN: 1524-4539 Copyright © 2000 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved. is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231 Circulation doi: 10.1161/01.CIR. 101.13. 1506 2000;101:1506-1511 Circulation. http://circ.ahajournals. org/content/101/13/1506 World Wide Web at: The online version of this article, along with updated information and services, is located on the
UCP-Networks: A Directed Graphical Representation of Conditional Utilities

We propose a directed graphical representation of utility functions, called UCP-networks, that combines aspects of two existing preference models: generalized additive models and CP-networks. The network decomposes a utility function into a number of additive factors, with the directionality of the arcs reflecting conditional dependence in the underlying (qualitative) preference ordering under a ceteris paribus interpretation. The CP-semantics ensures that computing optimization and dominance queries is very efficient. We also demonstrate the value of this representation in decision making. Finally, we describe an interactive elicitation procedure that takes advantage of the linear nature of the constraints on "tradeoff weights" imposed by a UCP-network.
Effects of Stimulus Direction on the Correlation between Behavior and Single Units in Area MT during a Motion Detection Task

Trial-to-trial variations in the firing rates of neurons in the middle temporal visual area (MT) are correlated with the behavior of macaque monkeys performing motion detection and motion discrimination tasks. Here we examine how these correlations depend on the direction of motion used for a detection task relative to the preferred direction of the neuron under study. There was a robust correlation between the firing rate of MT neurons and the animal's detection of motion when the direction of that motion was within ∼45° of the preferred direction of the neuron. This correlation was undetectable using motions that were ∼90° away from the preferred direction, and an inverse correlation between activity and behavior was found for motion in the null direction. Correlation between reaction times and single-cell activity in MT followed a similar pattern. Although motion detection could have been based solely on the activity of neurons preferring the expected direction, these results suggest that it depends on the relative activity of neurons preferring opposite directions of motion. They furthermore show that the subset of neurons used to guide behavior can vary from trial to trial based on task requirements.
Local Reasoning for Global Invariants, Part I: Region Logic

Dedicated to the memory of Stephen L. Bloom (1940--2010). Shared mutable objects pose grave challenges in reasoning, especially for information hiding and modularity. This article presents a novel technique for reasoning about error-avoiding partial correctness of programs featuring shared mutable objects, and investigates the technique by formalizing a logic. Using a first-order assertion language, the logic provides heap-local reasoning about mutation and separation, via ghost fields and variables of type “region” (finite sets of object references). A new form of frame condition specifies write, read, and allocation effects using region expressions; this supports a frame rule that allows a command to read state on which the framed predicate depends. Soundness is proved using a standard program semantics. The logic facilitates heap-local reasoning about object invariants, as shown here by examples. Part II of this article extends the logic with second-order framing which formalizes the hiding of data invariants.