Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Recovery from Pure Red Cell Aplasia Caused by Anti‐Erythropoietin Antibodies After Kidney Transplantation

The use of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) is a major advance in the treatment of patients with anemia caused by chronic renal failure (CRF). The development of antierythropoietin (anti‐EPO) antibodies following treatment with rHuEPO has been observed in an increasing number of patients. This causes pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) and requires the definitive withdrawal of rHuEPO. Many patients require immunosuppressive therapy before anti‐EPO antibodies disappear completely. We report a case of PRCA owing to anti‐EPO in a 20‐year‐old hemodialyzed man who was receiving immunosuppressive therapy for a liver transplantation carried out in childhood. He required repeated red cell transfusions until a kidney transplantation was performed. He received an induction therapy with antithymocyte globulins and a maintenance regimen consisting of steroids, tacrolimus and mycophenolate mofetil. This new immunosuppressive treatment led to the complete disappearance of anti‐EPO antibodies within a few weeks after the kidney transplantation. Erythropoiesis and endogenous erythropoietin synthesis were restored following transplantation, without leading to an increase in the titer of anti‐EPO antibodies.
DynaSpAM: Dynamic spatial architecture mapping using Out of Order instruction schedules

Spatial architectures are more efficient than traditional Out-of-Order (OOO) processors for computationally intensive programs. However, spatial architectures require mapping a program, either statically or dynamically, onto the spatial fabric. Static methods can generate efficient mappings, but they cannot adapt to changing workloads and are not compatible across hardware generations. Current dynamic methods are adaptive and compatible, but do not optimize as well due to their limited use of speculation and small mapping scopes. To overcome the limitations of existing dynamic mapping methods for spatial architectures, while minimizing the inefficiencies inherent in OOO superscalar processors, this paper presents DynaSpAM (Dynamic Spatial Architecture Mapping), a framework that tightly couples a spatial fabric with an OOO pipeline. DynaSpAM coaxes the OOO processor into producing an optimized mapping with a simple modification to the processor's scheduler. The insight behind DynaSpAM is that today's powerful OOO processors do for themselves most of the work necessary to produce a highly optimized mapping for a spatial architecture, including aggressively speculating control and memory dependences, and scheduling instructions using a large window. Evaluation of DynaSpAM shows a geomean speedup of 1.42× for 11 benchmarks from the Rodinia benchmark suite with a geomean 23.9% reduction in energy consumption compared to an 8-issue OOO pipeline.
Elevation‐dependent effects of climate change on vegetation greenness in the high mountains of southwest China during 1982–2013

Effects of climate change on vegetation greenness have attracted considerable attention in the context of global change; however, the dependence of such climatic effects on elevation remains poorly understood. In this study, we examine the relationship between vegetation greenness change and climate change and, in particular, characterize how this relationship changes with elevation in the high mountains of southwest China by using the remotely sensed normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and observed temperature and precipitation data sets for the period of 1982–2013. The results show that vegetation exhibited a greening trend (slope: 0.0008 year−1, p < 0.01) under climate warming (slope: 0.04 °C year−1, p < 0.01) and drying (slope: −2.47 mm year−1, p > 0.05). The vegetation greening and climate warming trends were stronger in the higher elevation plateaus than in the lower elevation mountains. Statistical analysis showed that temperature was the main driving factor on vegetation greening, and the driving effect was elevation‐dependent. A substantially more significant correlation between climate warming and vegetation greening was found in the higher elevation plateaus, which reveals a higher temperature sensitivity of these plateaus. In addition, a significant correlation between inter‐annual standard deviations of NDVI and precipitation during 1982–2013 was tracked over the entire study area.
Attitudes of Local Communities Towards Biodiversity and Conservation: A Case Study of Mount Kilimanjaro and Usambara Mountains Surrounding Villages

An important question in conservation is how to conserve both the renewable natural resources and abiotic elements of the environment in the face of changing human use patterns. Given that the livelihood of many people depends on the environment, the current challenge facing many nations is no longer deciding whether conservation is a good idea. Rather it is important to know how resources can be conserved in the national conservation interest without affecting the livelihood of the communities dependent on them. It was therefore the aim of this study to document and incorporate some understanding of the local people’s attitudes towards conservation and see how this can be integrated into a programme for the sustainable conservation of natural resources. In order to investigate the attitude of local communities around protected areas/reserves towards the forest and wildlife of their area and to understand the views of a local community about conservation of the area, the use of sample surveys using a semi-structured questionnaire was implemented. A total of 200 people were interviewed, from two villages adjoining Mount Kilimanjaro Forest Reserve (PA), and another two villages located adjacent to a Forest Reserve in the West Usambara Mountains. Results show that the attitudes of people towards conservation differed between the two study areas. A majority (64%) of West Usambara villagers showed a negative attitude whereas 95% of Mount Kilimanjaro villagers supported the need for conservation. This suggests that, in a large country like Tanzania, with diverse ecological zones, cultures and attitudes, different conservation approaches are needed in different areas to cater for these disparities.
TGF-β3 stimulates stromal matrix assembly by human corneal keratocyte-like cells.

PURPOSE We have previously shown that TGF-β3 (T3) stimulates extracellular matrix (ECM) assembly while maintaining antifibrotic characteristics in a model using human corneal fibroblasts (HCFs). This model, however, requires non-physiological levels of serum. In the current study, we tested whether T3 could stimulate human corneal keratocytes (HCKs) in vitro to assemble a functional ECM, while maintaining their characteristics. METHODS Human corneal keratocytes and HCFs were isolated and cultured using 1% or 10% serum, respectively ±T3. The constructs were processed for indirect immunofluorescence (IF), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and qRT-PCR, analyzing for keratocyte marker, keratocan, and ECM components, collagen (col) types I, III, and V. RESULTS Quantitative reverse transcriptase PCR data showed that keratocan, col I, and V were all upregulated in HCKs compared with HCFs, whereas col III was expressed at low levels in HCKs. Transforming growth factor beta 3 stimulation further enhanced the level of change. Without T3, HCK constructs were very thin, approximately 5 μm; however, as with HCFs, upon stimulation with T3, HCK constructs increased in thickness by approximately 5-fold. Cell counts and ECM production revealed that HCKs assembled more ECM per unit area compared with HCFs, and IF revealed downregulation of fibrotic markers, col III, and thrombospondin-1, with T3 stimulation. Transmission electron microscopy data revealed aligned ECM with long fibrils for all conditions except HCK Controls. Human corneal keratocytes+T3 also showed denser collagen fibrils with more consistent fibril diameter. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the data suggests that it is possible to stimulate matrix secretion and assembly by HCKs in vitro by using a single growth factor, T3.
Can Formulas Derived From Pyroxenes and/or HEDs Be Used to Determine the Mineralogies of V‐Type Asteroids?

We compare methods for determining the pyroxene mineralogies of V‐type near‐Earth asteroids from their reflectance spectra. We evaluate whether band centers derived from the spectra of synthetic pyroxenes can be used to achieve greater analytical accuracy than is achieved through the use of band centers derived from the spectra of basaltic achondrites (howardites, eucrites, diogenites or HEDs). We conclude that band centers derived from the reflectance spectra of synthetic pyroxenes with known mineralogies do not provide useful diagnostic information to derive equations for determining accurate pyroxene compositions of V‐type asteroids. Band centers from the reflectance spectra of HEDs with known pyroxene mineralogies can be used to derive equations for determining accurate pyroxene compositions of V‐type asteroids. HEDs are physical mixtures of a number of different types of pyroxenes and best simulate the surfaces of V‐type asteroids. Formulas using the Band I center appear best for determining asteroid pyroxene mineralogies for V‐type asteroids due to the current difficulty in doing accurate temperature corrections to the Band II center. Most of the observed V‐type near‐Earth asteroids have interpreted mineralogies similar to eucrites or howardites. One of the observed near‐Earth asteroids could possibly have a surface mineralogy similar to diogenites.
Osteolytic bone resorption in adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) is caused by human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1). Patients with ATLL frequently develop humoral hypercalcemia of malignancy (HHM) resulting from increased osteoclastic bone resorption. Our goal was to investigate the mechanisms of ATLL-induced osteoclastic bone resorption. Murine calvaria co-cultured with HTLV-1-infected cells directly or conditioned media from cell cultures had increased osteoclast activity that was dependent on RANKL, indicating that factors secreted from ATLL cells had a stimulatory effect on bone resorption. Factors released from resorbing bone stimulated proliferation of HTLV-1-infected T-cells. Parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), both osteoclast stimulators, were expressed in HTLV-1-infected T-cell lines. Interestingly, when HTLV-1-infected T-cells were co-cultured with pre-osteoblasts, the expression of osteoprotegerin (OPG), an osteoclast inhibitory factor, was significantly down-regulated in the pre-osteoblasts. When OPG was added into the ex vivo osteoclastogenesis assay induced by HTLV-1-infected T-cells, osteoclastogenesis was strongly inhibited. In addition, HTLV-1-infected T-cells inhibited expression of early osteoblast genes and induced late genes. These regulators will serve as future therapeutic targets for the treatments of HHM in ATLL.
Comment on "Equatorial Pacific coral geochemical records show recent weakening of the Walker circulation" by J. Carilli et al.

Carilli et al. [2014] present new geochemical proxy records of sea surface temperature (SST) and salinity spanning 1959–2010 from coral cores collected from Butaritari Atoll, Gilbert Islands, Republic of Kiribati (3.07°N, 172.75°E). The continuous measurement of SST by in situ and satellite platforms generally began in the early 1980s (e.g., the Tropical Atmosphere-Ocean array of moorings [McPhaden et al., 1998] and the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer infrared satellite [Reynolds et al., 2002]), and instrumental reconstructions extending back to the midnineteenth century [e.g., Smith et al., 2008] rely on sparse observational sampling both in space in time. The Carilli et al.’s [2014] records thus represent a potentially valuable addition to estimates of past climate variability in the important western tropical Pacific region, confirming the dominant role of El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, the conclusion that the Walker circulation has exhibited a long-term weakening trend over the last several decades is based on an interpretation of the proxy record that does not consider well-documented natural interdecadal variability and is based on trends in a proxy record that are opposite from trends in the observational record over the overlapping portion of the satellite era. In addition, Carilli et al. [2014] misinterpret the relationship between their proxy record of SST and trends in ocean circulation due to incorrect assumptions about the physical oceanographic context of Butaritari. These two issues are addressed below.
Multifaceted dialogue between graft and host in neurotransplantation

Current restorative neurotransplantation research focuses mainly on the potential of the neural graft to replace damaged or missing cell populations and to deliver needed gene products in the form of transgenes. Because of this graft‐oriented bias of the procedure, possible dormant regenerative capabilities within the host have been largely underestimated and dismissed as insignificant. This review discusses existing evidence that neural grafts can have stimulating effects on host‐intrinsic plasticity that can help regeneration of the mammalian central nervous system. If confirmed, the synergistic interaction between graft and host might substantially enhance our therapeutic possibilities. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Elastography for the Non-Invasive Evaluation of Hepatic Fibrosis in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Patients: A Systematic Review & Meta-Analysis

Background In order to better monitor non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients at higher risk for HCC, there is a need for non-invasive diagnostic approaches to screen for the presence of advanced fibrosis in these patients. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis will be to evaluate the diagnostic efficacy of ARFI elastography in detecting hepatic fibrosis in NAFLD patients. Methods Relevant studies were identified from systematic searches of several major electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials). The primary outcomes were the summary sensitivity, summary specificity, the diagnostic odds ratio, and the summary receiver operating characteristic curve (SROC) of ARFI elastography in detecting significant fibrosis (defined as 4>F≥2) in NAFLD patients. Study quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Studies of Diagnostic Accuracy included in Systematic Review (QUADAS-2). Results The summary sensitivity and specificity of ARFI in detecting significant fibrosis were 80.2% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.758–0.842; p = 0.0000) and 85.2% (95% CI: 0.808–0.890), p = 0.1617), respectively. The pooled diagnostic odds ratio of ARFI in detecting significant fibrosis was 30.13 (95% CI: 12.08–75; chi-squared = 14.59, p = 0.0237). The area under the SROC curve (AUC) was 0.898 (standard error (SE): 0.031) with a Q* index of 0.830 (SE: 0.033). Conclusions ARFI elastography appears to be modestly accurate in detecting significant fibrosis in NAFLD patients. Future studies in this field should provide head-to-head comparisons of ARFI elastography versus other elastographic imaging modalities in NAFLD patients.
Mixed Infection with cagA Positive and cagA Negative Strains of Helicobacter pylori Lowers Disease Burden in The Gambia

Background The prevalence of Helicobacter pylori including strains with putatively virulent genotypes is high, whereas the H. pylori-associated disease burden is low, in Africa compared to developed countries. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of virulence-related H. pylori genotypes and their association with gastroduodenal diseases in The Gambia. Methods and Findings DNA extracted from biopsies and H. pylori cultures from 169 subjects with abdominal pain, dyspepsia or other gastroduodenal diseases were tested by PCR for H. pylori. The H. pylori positive samples were further tested for the cagA oncogene and vacA toxin gene. One hundred and twenty one subjects (71.6%) were H. pylori positive. The cagA gene and more toxigenic s1 and m1 alleles of the vacA gene were found in 61.2%, 76.9% and 45.5% respectively of Gambian patients harbouring H. pylori. There was a high prevalence of cagA positive strains in patients with overt gastric diseases than those with non-ulcerative dyspepsia (NUD) (p = 0.05); however, mixed infection by cagA positive and cagA negative strains was more common in patients with NUD compared to patients with gastric disease (24.5% versus 0%; p = 0.002). Conclusion This study shows that the prevalence of H. pylori is high in dyspeptic patients in The Gambia and that many strains are of the putatively more virulent cagA+, vacAs1 and vacAm1 genotypes. This study has also shown significantly lower disease burden in Gambians infected with a mixture of cag-positive and cag-negative strains, relative to those containing only cag-positive or only cag-negative strains, which suggests that harbouring both cag-positive and cag-negative strains is protective.
Human Object-Similarity Judgments Reflect and Transcend the Primate-IT Object Representation

Primate inferior temporal (IT) cortex is thought to contain a high-level representation of objects at the interface between vision and semantics. This suggests that the perceived similarity of real-world objects might be predicted from the IT representation. Here we show that objects that elicit similar activity patterns in human IT (hIT) tend to be judged as similar by humans. The IT representation explained the human judgments better than early visual cortex, other ventral-stream regions, and a range of computational models. Human similarity judgments exhibited category clusters that reflected several categorical divisions that are prevalent in the IT representation of both human and monkey, including the animate/inanimate and the face/body division. Human judgments also reflected the within-category representation of IT. However, the judgments transcended the IT representation in that they introduced additional categorical divisions. In particular, human judgments emphasized human-related additional divisions between human and non-human animals and between man-made and natural objects. hIT was more similar to monkey IT than to human judgments. One interpretation is that IT has evolved visual-feature detectors that distinguish between animates and inanimates and between faces and bodies because these divisions are fundamental to survival and reproduction for all primate species, and that other brain systems serve to more flexibly introduce species-dependent and evolutionarily more recent divisions.
TACI: Taxonomy-Aware Catalog Integration

A fundamental data integration task faced by online commercial portals and commerce search engines is the integration of products coming from multiple providers to their product catalogs. In this scenario, the commercial portal has its own taxonomy (the “master taxonomy”), while each data provider organizes its products into a different taxonomy (the “provider taxonomy”). In this paper, we consider the problem of categorizing products from the data providers into the master taxonomy, while making use of the provider taxonomy information. Our approach is based on a taxonomy-aware processing step that adjusts the results of a text-based classifier to ensure that products that are close together in the provider taxonomy remain close in the master taxonomy. We formulate this intuition as a structured prediction optimization problem. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first approach that leverages the structure of taxonomies in order to enhance catalog integration. We propose algorithms that are scalable and thus applicable to the large data sets that are typical on the web. We evaluate our algorithms on real-world data and we show that taxonomy-aware classification provides a significant improvement over existing approaches.
Psychiatric morbidity and substance use in young people aged 13-15 years: results from the Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health.

BACKGROUND Psychoactive substance use is strongly associated with psychiatric morbidity in both adults and adolescents. AIMS To determine which of alcohol, nicotine and cannabisis mostclosely linked to psychiatric disorders in early adolescence. METHOD Data from 2624 adolescents aged 13-15 years were drawn from a national mental health survey of children. The relationship between psychiatric morbidity and smoking, drinking and cannabis use was examined by logistic regression analyses. RESULTS Having a psychiatric disorder was associated with an increased risk of substance use. Greater involvement with any one substance increased the risk of other substance use. Analyses of the interactions between smoking, drinking and cannabis use indicated that the relationship between substance use and psychiatric morbidity was primarily explained by regular smoking and (to a lesser extent) regular cannabis use. CONCLUSIONS In this sample, links between substance use and psychiatric disorders were primarily accounted for by smoking. The strong relationship is likely to be due to a combination of underlying individual constitutional factors and drug-specific effects resulting from consumption over the period of adolescent development and growth.
Evaluation of web maps for the communication of flood risks to the public in Europe

ABSTRACT Floods are one of the most significant hazards in Europe. This paper describes an iterative approach consisting of designing and evaluating static flood risk maps. In the first step, the use of different colour schemes and background types (e.g. topographic map, street map, and satellite images) is evaluated in an online survey. Next the design is optimized based on the outcomes of dedicated focus groups. The usability tests include the users’ preference, also considering their characteristics (age, gender, and expertise). The obtained results of each step are integrated to optimize the design of evacuation route maps and flood depth maps.
Prostate Cancer Detection by GSTP 1 Methylation Analysis of Postbiopsy Urine Specimens 1

Purpose: We assess the feasibility of a urinary test for prostate cancer detection in a high-risk patient cohort based on methylation-specific PCR analysis of the class glutathione S-transferase (GSTP1) gene promoter. Experimental Design: A total of 45 men underwent transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy of the prostate for suspected malignancy. Clean-catch voided urine specimens were prospectively collected from each patient immediately after biopsy. Genomic DNA was isolated from urine specimens and subjected to sodium bisulfite modification. Methylation of the GSTP1 promoter was examined in a blinded manner by methylation-specific PCR analysis and correlated with pathology results, and clinical information was obtained from the patient record. Results: Methylation of GSTP1 in the urine was detected in a total of 18 of 36 (50%) informative cases. A total of 7 of 18 (39%) patients with prostate adenocarcinoma identified on their initial biopsy had detectable urinary GSTP1 methylation (58% sensitivity among informative cases). Abnormal urinary GSTP1 methylation was also detected in 7 of 21 (33%) patients without evidence of cancer on biopsy and in 4 of 6 (67%) patients diagnosed with atypia or high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia. Conclusions: We have demonstrated the feasibility of a novel, noninvasive molecular approach for the detection of epigenetic changes associated with prostate cancer. A screening test based on GSTP1 methylation in the urine specimens of patients with suspected prostate malignancy may be a useful adjunct to serum screening tests and digital rectal examination findings for identification of men at increased risk of harboring cancer despite a negative biopsy. This molecular assay has potential application for stratification of patients into lowand high-risk groups for surveillance versus repeat biopsy.