Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Features, Treatment, and Outcome of HIV-Associated Immune Thrombocytopenia in the HAART Era

The characteristics of HIV-associated ITP were documented prior to the HAART era, and the optimal treatment beyond HAART is unknown. We performed a review of patients with HIV-associated ITP and at least one platelet count <20 × 109/L since January 1996. Of 5290 patients in the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS database, 31 (0.6%) had an ITP diagnosis and platelet count <20 × 109/L. Initial ITP treatment included IVIG, n = 12; steroids, n = 10; anti-RhD, n = 8; HAART, n = 3. Sixteen patients achieved response and nine patients achieved complete response according to the International Working Group criteria. Median time to response was 14 days. Platelet response was not significantly associated with treatment received, but complete response was lower in patients with a history of injection drug use. Complications of ITP treatment occurred in two patients and there were four unrelated deaths. At a median followup of 48 months, 22 patients (71%) required secondary ITP treatment. This is to our knowledge the largest series of severe HIV-associated ITP reported in the HAART era. Although most patients achieved a safe platelet count with primary ITP treatment, nearly all required retreatment for ITP recurrence. New approaches to the treatment of severe ITP in this population are needed.
Development of a Chromatic Pupillography Protocol for the First Gene Therapy Trial in Patients With CNGA3-Linked Achromatopsia.

Purpose To establish a feasible and sensitive pupillographic protocol to assess outer and inner retinal function for the first gene therapy trial in achromatopsia patients (ACHM) with mutations in CNGA3. Methods Twenty-seven CNGA3-ACHM patients and 22 age-matched control subjects were tested using chromatic pupillography. Three different protocols were established to assess the pupillary light reflex parameters and to create the final protocol. In the individual protocols, various stimulus parameters (i.e., intensity, duration, wavelength, adaptation states) were applied to evaluate the impact of these stimuli on the pupillary response in untreated ACHM patients. Results In the light-adapted conditions, CNGA3-ACHM patients showed significantly reduced maximal amplitudes compared with the control group when using a 1-second high intensity (28-lux corneal illumination) blue or red stimulus (P < 0.005). In the dark-adapted conditions, CNGA3-ACHM patients unexpectedly revealed significantly increased maximal amplitudes when stimulating with red (1 second) or blue (4 ms and 1 second) stimuli of low intensity (0.01-lux corneal illumination; P < 0.05). Pupil responses of CNGA3-ACHM patients after high intensity (28 lux) red and blue 1-second stimuli were within the normal range. Conclusions Chromatic pupillography demonstrated significant reduced pupil responses to stimuli addressing primarily cone function, an increased sensitivity to rod-favoring stimuli and evidence for disinhibition of intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells in CNGA3-ACHM patients. A final protocol was established based on these findings. These conclusions may be useful for the objective assessment of efficacy gained by gene therapy or other innovative interventions in this hereditary retinal disorder.
Perceived Life Satisfaction and the Organization of Personal Project Systems

A new methodology for the systemic appraisal of personal project systems was utilized as an approach to understanding perceived life satisfaction. Variables derived from the Personal Projects Matrix were shown to explain variability in reported life satisfaction in two separate, studies, one with a university sample, the other in a small community. High life satisfaction was found to be associated with (a) involvement in projects of high short-term importance that were highly enjoyable and moderately difficult, and (b) the presence of a social network that shared project involvements and offered social support. A cross-validation analysis revealed that the results obtained with the larger university sample generalized to the community group. The studies reported below were based on three interrelated assumptions: (a) that perceptions of life satisfaction are related to the way in which individuals structure and organize their projects and concerns; (b) that these projects and concerns may be conceived as being organized in systems whose properties can be assessed; and (c) that indexes based on such measurement will explain significant proportions of variance in global measures of perceived life satisfaction.
Information geometry, one, two, three (and four)

Although the notion of entropy lies at the core of statistical mechanics, it is not often used in statistical mechanical models to characterize phase transitions, a role more usually played by quantities such as various order parameters, specific heats or suscept ibilities. The relative entropy induces a metric, the so-called information or Fisher-Rao m etric, on the space of parameters and the geometrical invariants of this metric carry information about the phase structure of the model. In various models the scalar curvature, ${\cal R}$, of the information metric has been found to diverge at the phase transition point and a plausible scaling relation postulated. For spin models the necessity of calculating in non-zero field has limited analytic consideration to one-dimensional, mean-field and Bethe lattice Ising models. We report on previous papers in which we extended the list somewhat in the current note by considering the {\it one}-dime nsional Potts model, the {\it two}-dimensional Ising model coupled to two-dimensional quantum gravity and the {\it three}-dimensional spherical model. We note that similar ideas have been ap plied to elucidate possible critical behaviour in families of black hole solutions in {\it four} space-time dimensions.
Cooperative Caching and Transmission Design in Cluster-Centric Small Cell Networks

Wireless content caching in small cell networks (SCNs) has recently been considered as an efficient way to reduce the data traffic and the energy consumption of the backhaul in emerging heterogeneous cellular networks. In this paper, we consider a cluster-centric SCN with combined design of cooperative caching and transmission policy. Small base stations (SBSs) are grouped into disjoint clusters, in which in-cluster cache space is utilized as an entity. We propose a combined caching scheme, where part of the cache space in each cluster is reserved for caching the most popular content in every SBS, while the remaining is used for cooperatively caching different partitions of the less popular content in different SBSs, as a means to increase local content diversity. Depending on the availability and placement of the requested content, coordinated multi-point technique with either joint transmission or parallel transmission is used to deliver content to the served user. Using Poisson point process for the SBS location distribution and a hexagonal grid model for the clusters, we provide analytical results on the successful content delivery probability of both transmission schemes for a user located at the cluster center. Our analysis shows an inherent tradeoff between transmission diversity and content diversity in our cooperation design. We also study the optimal cache space assignment for two objective functions: maximization of the cache service performance and the energy efficiency. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves performance gain by leveraging cache-level and signal-level cooperation and adapting to the network environment and user quality-of-service requirements.
Police Work, Burnout, and Pro-Organizational Behavior

This study assessed officers' perceptions of daily work experiences (operational and organizational) and the nature of their associations with burnout and pro-organizational behavior (organizational citizenship behavior [OCB]). The moderating and mediating effects of dispositional affect and coping style were also considered. Findings showed that (a) appraisals of negative experiences (hassles) depended on frequency of exposure to the different facets of work, whereas positive organizational experiences (uplifts) were perceived as being more uplifting than operational ones; (b) burnout and OCB were more strongly associated with organizational experiences than with operational ones; and (c) only problem- and emotion-focused coping moderated, but did not mediate, associations, suggesting that chronic exposure to stressful events may act independently of disposition and that both coping styles may be beneficial.
THE RELATION BETWEEN ACUTE VASCULAR AND INTERSTITIAL RENAL ALLOGRAFT REJECTION AND SUBSEQUENT CHRONIC REJECTION

Chronic rejection of renal allografts is a major cause of late graft loss. However, time of onset, relation with acute early rejection episodes, and risk factors are largely unknown. We undertook a cohort study of 482 consecutive patients from a single center who received a cadaveric renal allograft between January 1983 and April 1991. During the first 3 months after transplantation, 76 (15.8%) patients developed vascular rejection and 115 (23.9%) developed interstitial rejection. One-year graft survival of patients without rejection, with interstitial rejection, and with vascular rejection was 87.8%, 87%, and 48.7%, respectively. Five-year graft survival was 73.5% for the group without rejection, 71.4% for patients with interstitial rejection, and 34.3% for patients with vascular rejection. The adjusted relative risk of graft loss was 4.92 (95% CI 3.25–7.43) for patients with vascular rejection and 1.27 (95% CI 0.80–2.02) for patients with interstitial rejection compared with patients without early rejection, taking the time dependency of the rejection events and prognostic factors into account. The incidence of vascular rejection was increased in patients with primary nonfunction (RR 1.69, 95% CI 1.01–2.84), with 1 HLA-DR mismatch (RR 2.38, 95% CI 1.44–3.93), with 2 HLA-DR mismatches (RR 3.24, 95% CI 1.25–8.42), with a prolonged cold ischemia time (RR 1.03, 95% CI 1.00–1.06 per hr), and with 1 or more previous transplantations (RR 1.76, 95% CI 1.01–3.07). Risk of developing vascular rejection was decreased in patients using CsA as compared with azathioprine (RR 0.41, 95% CI 0.24–0.67). Early vascular rejection, occurring within 3 months after transplantation, is the most important predicting variable of both early and late graft loss. Use of CsA, less HLA-DR mismatching, and a cold ischemiatime of short duration possibly prevent the development of vascular rejection.
KINDERGARTENERS' VOCABULARY ACQUISITION AS A FUNCTION OF ACTIVE VS. PASSIVE STORYBOOK READING, PRIOR VOCABULARY, AND WORKING MEMORY

An experimental design was used to investigate the effect of active versus passive storybook reading conditions on the vocabulary acquisition of kindergarteners who differed in level of prior vocabulary and phonological working memory. Sixty-six children, pretested on the Senechal Vocabulary Test-Adapted (SVT-A) for target word knowledge, categorized as high or low vocabulary level based on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) performance, and categorized as high or low working memory level on the Children's Test of Nonword Repetition (CNRep), were randomly assigned to active or passive storybook reading conditions. While listening to a single episode of storybook narrative, children: (a) actively participated by answering a what or where question immediately after each sentence containing a target word, or (b) passively participated by listening to a recast containing a familiar synonym for each target word. Factorial analyses of SVT-A posttest target-word acquisition revealed that children with high.
Getting Everyone on Board

Drawing on the principles of upper echelons theory and team leadership research and using 101 subsidiary top management teams (TMTs), our study revealed that subsidiary CEO transformational leadership that was focused evenly on every TMT member increased team effectiveness and firm performance, whereas leadership that differentiated among individual members decreased both outcomes. By differentiating the amount of individual consideration and intellectual stimulation across TMT members, CEOs unintentionally disrupted the team’s dynamics (team potency), ultimately reducing team effectiveness and subsidiary firm performance ratings. Furthermore, CEO gender and moral inconsistency across executives served as moderators of the detrimental effects of differentiated leadership on the outcomes. The negative effect of differentiated leadership behavior was stronger among female CEOs and those who failed to consistently exhibit moral behaviors that might justify differentiation in transformational leadership.
CD57+ CD4 T Cells Underlie Belatacept‐Resistant Allograft Rejection

Belatacept is a B7‐specific fusion protein used to prevent allograft rejection by blocking T cell costimulation. Generally efficacious, it fails to prevent acute rejection in a sizable minority of patients. In experimental models, memory T cells mediate costimulation blockade–resistant rejection (CoBRR), but this remains undefined in humans. To explore relationships between individual patients' immune cell phenotypes and CoBRR, we studied patients receiving belatacept or conventional calcineurin inhibitor–based immunosuppression. We identified a population of CD57+PD1− CD4 T cells present prior to transplantation that correlated with CoBRR. Contrary to data recognizing CD57 as a marker of senescence on CD8 T cells, we discovered a nonsenescent, cytolytic phenotype associated with CD57 on CD4 T cells. Moreover, CD57+ CD4 T cells expressed high levels of adhesion molecules implicated in experimental CoBRR, were CD28−, expressed a transcriptional phenotype broadly defining allograft rejection and were shown to be present in rejecting human kidney allografts. These data implicate CD57+ CD4 T cells in clinical CoBRR. If prospectively validated, this characteristic could identify patients at higher risk for acute rejection on belatacept‐based therapy.
Hypothalamus-Olfactory System Crosstalk: Orexin A Immunostaining in Mice

It is well known that olfaction influences food intake, and conversely, that an individual’s nutritional status modulates olfactory sensitivity. However, what is still poorly understood is the neuronal correlate of this relationship, as well as the connections between the olfactory bulb and the hypothalamus. The goal of this report is to analyze the relationship between the olfactory bulb and hypothalamus, focusing on orexin A immunostaining, a hypothalamic neuropeptide that is thought to play a role in states of sleep/wakefulness. Interestingly, orexin A has also been described as a food intake stimulator. Such an effect may be due in part to the stimulation of the olfactory bulbar pathway. In rats, orexin positive cells are concentrated strictly in the lateral hypothalamus, while their projections invade nearly the entire brain including the olfactory system. Therefore, orexin appears to be a good candidate to play a pivotal role in connecting olfactory and hypothalamic pathways. So far, orexin has been described in rats, however, there is still a lack of information concerning its expression in the brains of adult and developing mice. In this context, we revisited the orexin A pattern in adult and developing mice using immunohistological methods and confocal microscopy. Besides minor differences, orexin A immunostaining in mice shares many features with those observed in rats. In the olfactory bulb, even though there are few orexin projections, they reach all the different layers of the olfactory bulb. In contrast to the presence of orexin projections in the main olfactory bulb, almost none have been found in the accessory olfactory bulb. The developmental expression of orexin A supports the hypothesis that orexin expression only appears post-natally.
LSD1-mediated epigenetic modification is required for TAL1 function and hematopoiesis

TAL1 is a critical transcription factor required for hematopoiesis. However, perturbation of its activity often leads to T cell leukemia. Whether and how its transcriptional activities are regulated during hematopoiesis remains to be addressed. Here, we show that TAL1 is associated with histone demethylase complexes containing lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1), RE1 silencing transcription factor corepressor (CoREST), histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1), and histone deacetylase 2 in erythroleukemia and T cell leukemia cells. The enzymatic domain of LSD1 plays an important role in repressing the TAL1-directed transcription of GAL4 reporter linked to a thymidine kniase minimal promoter. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the TAL1-associated LSD1, HDAC1, and their enzymatic activities are coordinately down-regulated during the early phases of erythroid differentiation. Consistent with the rapid changes of TAL1–corepressor complex during differentiation, TAL1 recruits LSD1 to the silenced p4.2 promoter in undifferentiated, but not in differentiated, murine erythroleukemia (MEL) cells. Finally, shRNA-mediated knockdown of LSD1 in MEL cells resulted in derepression of the TAL1 target gene accompanied by increasing dimeH3K4 at the promoter region. Thus, our data revealed that histone lysine demethylase LSD1 may negatively regulate TAL1-mediated transcription and suggest that the dynamic regulation of TAL1-associated LSD1/HDAC1 complex may determine the onset of erythroid differentiation programs.
Fully Accounting for English Learner Performance

This article presents a set of recommendations that promote a more nuanced, meaningful accountability policy for English learners in the next authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The authors argue that the ESEA reauthorization must strengthen the law’s capacity-building purpose so that federal, state, and local leaders support continued attention, direction, and innovation in effectively educating ELs. The recommendations put forth in this article focus on monitoring both current and former ELs, establishing time frames for the attainment of English language proficiency, and setting expectations for academic achievement that are reflective of English language proficiency level and time in the state’s school system.
Self-determined motivation as a predictor of burnout among college athletes.

In this study, we examined self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) as a framework for understanding potential antecedents of burnout in 598 American college athletes. Using a cross-sectional design, the aims of the study were to investigate relationships among the dimensions of athlete burnout and the degree of self-determination among college athletes. As hypothesized, results indicated a strong relationship between the degree of self-determination and the dimensions of burnout, thus providing support for the utility of an SDT explanation regarding the occurrence of burnout. Findings also showed motivational variables to be the most powerful predictor of burnout (Devaluation, 44.5%; Reduced Sense of Accomplishment, 28%; Physical/Emotional Exhaustion, 15.4%). Implications of these results for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
THE EFFECTS OF TWO ANKLE BRACES ON SPRINT SPEED, AGILITY, AND VERTICAL JUMP HEIGHT IN HEALTHY FEMALE COLLEGIATE ATHLETES

Title: THE EFFECTS OF TWO ANKLE BRACES ON SPRINT SPEED, AGILITY, AND VERTICAL JUMP HEIGHT IN HEALTHY FEMALE COLLEGIATE ATHLETES Researcher: Sonia J. Masse Adviser: Dr. Robert Kane Date: May 2006 Research Type: Master’s Thesis Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the Swede-O Ankle Lok and the Ankle Stabilizing Orthosis ankle braces on sprint speed, agility, and vertical jump height in healthy NCAA Division II and III female athletes. Problem: Studies on how prophylactic ankle devices (ankle bracing) effect performance have come to an inconsistent conclusion as to whether performance is inhibited by the bracing. Method: Twenty female NCAA Divisions II and III athletes from California University of Pennsylvania and Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont volunteered to participate in this study. Subjects were required to participate in three days of testing in which they performed a 40-yard dash, T-test for agility, and a vertical jump for each condition (Swede-O Ankle Lok brace, Ankle Stabilizing Orthosis (ASO) brace (soft-shell braces), and no brace). The order the braces were worn was randomly selected and each subject served as their own control when wearing no brace. Findings: No significant difference was found for athletes performing functional activities when wearing a brace or no brace. Eight of the twenty subjects have previous bracing experience and no significant effect was found between the group with previous
Impact of Impaired Aerobic Capacity on Liver Transplant Candidates

Background. Oxygen consumption at peak exercise (peak VO2) is the most accurate index of aerobic capacity (AC), which reflects the physical condition of an individual and is currently considered the gold standard for cardiorespiratory fitness. Evaluation of peak VO2 to identify high-risk candidates for liver transplantation (LT) may represent an interesting approach. The aims of this study were (a) to describe AC and identify factors independently associated with peak VO2; (b) to analyze the prognostic value of peak VO2 in patients referred for preliminary evaluation of LT; and (c) to provide preliminary data on the influence of peak VO2 on length of hospitalization and the need for oxygen support after LT. Results. Peak VO2 was determined in patients referred for preliminary evaluation for LT. One hundred thirty-five candidates were included. More than half had severe alterations in peak VO2. Age, gender, model-for-end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, tobacco use, and hemoglobin were independently associated with peak VO2. Candidates with severe alterations in peak VO2 had a lower 1-year survival than others. Model-for-end-stage liver disease score and peak VO2 were independently associated with survival. In patients with a MELD above 17, those with severe alterations of peak VO2 AC had lower 1-year survival than the others. Among patients who underwent LT, those with severe impairment of peak VO2 showed a trend toward a higher mean length of hospitalization after LT and had significantly longer need for oxygen support. Conclusions. Peak VO2 is severely impaired in candidates for LT and affects survival and post-LT course. Perioperative respiratory rehabilitation programs validated in lung and heart transplantation must be tested.
Emotional processing and emotional memory are modulated by interoceptive awareness

The ability to perceive interoceptive signals plays a central role in many theories of emotions. The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between interoceptive awareness and the conscious processing and memory of emotional information. Heart-rate changes were recorded during baseline and affective picture presentation in two groups of participants, differing in cardiac awareness. After a 60-minute break, a recognition task was conducted. Statistical analyses revealed significantly stronger heart-rate deceleration to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli in participants with high interoceptive awareness. In the subsequent picture recognition task, participants with high interoceptive awareness demonstrated a superior recall of pleasant and unpleasant pictures, while no differences were found between interoceptive awareness groups for pictures of neutral content. Our results demonstrate a strong relationship between the perception of cardiac signals and both the processing as well as the recognition of emotional stimuli. High interoceptive awareness was related to increased physiological responses to emotional stimuli and is therefore an important mediating variable when investigating cardiovascular reactivity both in healthy subjects as well as in clinical populations.