Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The CD8+ T Cell Population Elicited by Recombinant Adenovirus Displays a Novel Partially Exhausted Phenotype Associated with Prolonged Antigen Presentation That Nonetheless Provides Long-Term Immunity1

We have previously reported that the CD8+ T cell response elicited by recombinant adenovirus vaccination displayed a delayed contraction in the spleen. In our current study, we demonstrate that this unusual kinetic is a general phenomenon observed in multiple tissues. Phenotypic analysis of transgene-specific CD8+ T cells present 30 days postimmunization with recombinant adenovirus revealed a population with evidence of partial exhaustion, suggesting that the cells had been chronically exposed to Ag. Although Ag expression could no longer be detected 3 wk after immunization, examination of Ag presentation within the draining lymph nodes demonstrated that APCs were loaded with Ag peptide for at least 40 days postimmunization, suggesting that Ag remains available to the system for a prolonged period, although the exact source of this Ag remains to be determined. At 60 days postimmunization, the CD8+ T cell population continued to exhibit a phenotype consistent with partially exhausted effector memory cells. Nonetheless, these CD8+ T cells conferred sterilizing immunity against virus challenge 7–12 wk postimmunization, suggesting that robust protective immunity can be provided by CD8+ T cells with an exhausted phenotype. These data demonstrate that prolonged exposure to Ag may not necessarily impair protective immunity and prompt a re-evaluation of the impact of persistent exposure to Ag on T cell function.
Widening socioeconomic inequalities in US life expectancy, 1980-2000.

BACKGROUND This study examines changes in the extent of inequalities in life expectancy at birth and other ages in the United States between 1980 and 2000 by gender and socioeconomic deprivation levels. METHODS A factor-based deprivation index consisting of 11 education, occupation, wealth, income distribution, unemployment, poverty, and housing quality indicators was used to define deprivation deciles, which were then linked to the US mortality data at the county-level. Life expectancy estimates were developed by age, gender, and deprivation levels for three 3 year time periods: 1980-82, 1989-91, and 1998-2000. Inequalities in life expectancy were measured by the absolute difference between the least-deprived group and each of the other deprivation deciles. Slope indices of inequality for each gender and time period were calculated by regressing life expectancy estimates on deprivation levels using weighted least squares models. RESULTS Those in less-deprived groups experienced a longer life expectancy at each age than their counterparts in more-deprived groups. In 1980-82, the overall life expectancy at birth was 2.8 years longer for the least-deprived group than for the most-deprived group (75.8 vs 73.0 years). By 1998-2000, the absolute difference in life expectancy at birth had increased to 4.5 years (79.2 vs 74.7 years). The inequality indices also showed a substantial widening of the deprivation gradient in life expectancy during the study period for both males and females. CONCLUSIONS Between 1980 and 2000, those in higher socioeconomic groups experienced larger gains in life expectancy than those in more-deprived groups, contributing to the widening gap.
Cell-Mediated Immunity in Elite Controllers Naturally Controlling HIV Viral Load

The natural course of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is characterized by high viral load, depletion of immune cells, and immunodeficiency, ultimately leading to acquired immunodeficiency syndrome phase and the occurrence of opportunistic infections and diseases. Since the discovery of HIV in the early 1980s a naturally selected population of infected individuals has been emerged in the last years, characterized by being infected for many years, with viremia constantly below detectable level and poor depletion of immune cells. These individuals are classified as “elite controllers (EC) or suppressors” and do not develop disease in the absence of anti-retroviral therapy. Unveiling host factors and immune responses responsible for the elite status will likely provide clues for the design of therapeutic vaccines and functional cures. Scope of this review was to examine and discuss differences of the cell-mediated immune responses between HIV+ individuals with disease progression and EC.
The Trk A, B, C's of Neurotrophins in the Cochlea

The spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) are the afferent neurons of the cochlea, connecting the auditory sensory cells—hair cells—to the brainstem cochlear nuclei. The neurotrophins neurotrophin‐3 (NT‐3) and brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are expressed in the cochlea and both support SGN survival during development. These neurotrophins remain expressed in the postnatal cochlea and continue to play additional roles for SGNs, contributing to maintenance of hair cell‐SGN synapses and regulating expression of ion channels, presynaptic and postsynaptic proteins, and SGN membrane electrical properties in a physiologically important spatial pattern. Remarkably, NT‐3 and BDNF have different, even opposing, effects on SGN physiology despite the close similarity of their receptors TrkB and TrkC. Recent studies have also raised the possibility that precursor proneurotrophin forms of the neurotrophins play a role in responses to trauma in the cochlea, signaling through the proneurotrophin receptor p75NTR. Here, we review expression and function of neurotrophins and their p75NTR and Trk‐family receptors in the cochlea. We focus, in particular, on neurotrophin functions other than support of SGN survival, including regulation of SGN neurite growth, synaptic and membrane physiology. These functions, unlike survival, are ones for which BDNF and NT‐3 substantially differ in their effects. Signal transduction mechanisms of p75NTR and of Trk‐family receptors are discussed, indicating how these lead to different responses, and we speculate on how BDNF and NT‐3 can cause different phenotypic changes in SGNs. Because these complex signaling interactions remain incompletely understood, use of neurotrophins as therapeutic agents in the cochlea should be approached with caution. Anat Rec, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
THE FEASIBILITY OF INTEGRATING SPECIAL NEEDS ADOLESCENTS

The feasibility of integrating special needs students in regular classrooms depends largely upon the roles played by the key constituents in the enterprise: the regular classroom teachers. Special needs include learning disabilities, behavioural disorders/emotional disturbances, English as a second language, hearing and vision impairments, mental and physical handicaps. This thesis incorporates both a literature study and a field-based study and is composed of five chapters. Chapter 1 (Introduction) presents the problem, provides a rationale and definitions and sets the context for the study. Chapter 2 (Literature Study) examines the debate surrounding integration. The discussion in Chapter 2 is grouped around seven main themes: 1. Models of service delivery 2. Prevalence and labelling 3. Efficiency of special education 4. Ideological agenda of integration 5. Feasibility of integration 6. Roles of regular and special educators 7. Class size/preparation time. The literature study concludes that teachers are unlikely to support total integration of special needs students for a
Diagnostic and prognostic role of Ki67 immunostaining in human astrocytomas using four different antibodies.

OBJECTIVE Astrocytomas have an inherent tendency to progress, and histopathological examination and grading do not always identify these subsets of tumors. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate whether different Ki67 antibodies could assist in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of these tumors. MATERIAL AND METHODS Forty-one cerebral astrocytomas, graded according to the latest criteria of the World Health Organization, were included in the study: 22 diffuse fibrillary astrocytomas, 10 anaplastic astrocytomas and 9 glioblastomas. Standard immunohistochemical analyses were performed using 4 different commercially available Ki67 antibodies. The immunohistochemical data were correlated with the clinical course. RESULTS There were positive correlations between the proliferation indices (PI) obtained with the different Ki67 antibodies. The Ki67 PIs increased significantly with increasing malignancy grade, and the antibodies discriminated well between low- (grade II) and high-grade tumors (grade III and IV). For the entire tumor material, the use of median values as cutoff divided the astrocytomas into 2 groups: those tumors with the higher Ki67 PIs had significantly poorer prognosis than those with lower indices. CONCLUSIONS Ki67 immunostaining serves as an important supplementary tool in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of human astrocytomas.
Phone position/placement detection using accelerometer: Impact on activity recognition

Smart phone platforms, equipped with a rich set of sensors enable mobile sensing applications that support users for both personal sensing and large-scale community sensing. In such mobile sensing applications, the position/placement of the phone relative to the user body provides valuable context information. For example, in physical activity recognition using motion sensors, the position of the phone provides important information, since the sensors generate different signals when the phone is carried in different positions and this makes it difficult to successfully identify the activities with sensor data coming from different positions. In this paper, we investigate whether it is possible to successfully identify phone positions using only accelerometer data which is the most commonly used sensor on physical activity recognition studies, rather than using additional sensors. Additionally, we explore how much this position information increases the activity recognition accuracy compared with position independent activity recognition. For this purpose, we collected activity data from 15 participants carrying three phones in different positions, performing activities of walking, running, sitting, standing, climbing up/down stairs, transportation with a bus, making a phone call, interacting with an application on the smart phone, sending an SMS. The collected data is processed with the Random Forest classifier. According to the results of position recognition, using basic accelerometer features which are also used in the activity recognition, can achieve an accuracy of 77.34%, however, this ratio increases to 85% when basic features are combined with angular features calculated from the orientation of the phone. According to the results of the activity recognition experiments, on average the results are similar for position specific and position independent recognition. Only for the pocket case, 2% increase was observed.
The Relationship between Human Resource Development System and Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is an attitude toward the job and the work context that has been in the centre of attention of theoreticians, researchers and practitioners for many decades. Past researches confirm that job satisfaction is related to employee’s job performance, organisational commitment, organisational citizenship behaviour, life satisfaction, and health. These job– related outcomes are also the main goals of HR function. The aim of the paper is to theoretically and empirically describe the role of HR practices in the area of HR development: training and education, career development, performance management and reward management, on job satisfaction. The study has been conducted on a sample of Slovenian employees (N = 824), from medium size private and public sector organisations. Cluster analysis of participant responses on the HRM practices questionnaire shows four different groups of organisational approaches to HR development that are moderately related to job satisfaction. The results are discussed from four perspectives: individual attitudes, HRM theory, social exchange theory and the psychological climate theory.
Reflection Symmetry Detection Using Locally Affine Invariant Edge Correspondence

Reflection symmetry detection receives increasing attentions in recent years. The state-of-the-art algorithms mainly use the matching of intensity-based features (such as the SIFT) within a single image to find symmetry axes. This paper proposes a novel approach by establishing the correspondence of locally affine invariant edge-based features, which are superior to the intensity based in the aspects that it is insensitive to illumination variations, and applicable to textureless objects. The locally affine invariance is achieved by simple linear algebra for efficient and robust computations, making the algorithm suitable for detections under object distortions like perspective projection. Commonly used edge detectors and a voting process are, respectively, used before and after the edge description and matching steps to form a complete reflection detection pipeline. Experiments are performed using synthetic and real-world images with both multiple and single reflection symmetry axis. The test results are compared with existing algorithms to validate the proposed method.
A 1-GHz direct digital frequency synthesizer in an FPGA

The architecture and design of a high-speed quadrature direct digital frequency synthesizer (DDFS), implemented in an FPGA, is presented. The architecture is based on a novel multiplier-based angle-rotation algorithm that does not distort the magnitude of the sine and cosine outputs. This algorithm maps well into the DSP slices present in modern FPGAs. Implemented in a Xilinx Virtex-7 device, the design dissipates 54.9 mW of power at 1 GHz, a performance previously attainable only in ASIC designs.
CONTEXTUAL DIFFERENCES IN OFFENSE CLASSIFICATIONS: EXAMINING GENDER, RACE, AND AGE DIFFERENCES

Since the 1980s, girls have started to constitute growing numbers of juvenile court caseloads. Some suggest that girls are becoming increasingly more delinquent and violent, while others argue that changes in policing and processing account for the growing number of female offenders. This study explores the idea that girls’ arrest rates may be increasing because gendered contextual differences are obscured in broad offense categories, meaning that girls and boys may engage in very different behaviors that lead to similar charges. This study explores the relationships between gender, race, and age and the contextual details of offenses, as discussed in police reports. Using a matched pairs design, bivariate analyses revealed very few statistically significant relationships between these variables. Significant relationships between contextual differences and gender did not exist, and few relationships existed between race and age and contextual details. Understanding the differences, or lack thereof, between boys’ and girls’ behaviors within similar charges contributes to the greater juvenile justice literature regarding gender.
The BTNL2 A allele variant is frequent in Danish patients with sarcoidosis

Background: The butyrophilin‐like 2 (BTNL2) gene is located on chromosome 6p21.3 close to the HLA‐class II genes. An association has been reported between sarcoidosis and a single nucleotide polymorphism in BTNL2, rs2076530, also termed the A allele.
Bone Formation Following Intramedullary Femoral Reaming Is Decreased by Indomethacin and Antibodies to Insulin-like Growth Factors

Objective We aimed to: 1) compare rates of in vitro bone formation following reamed and nonreamed intramedullary fixation in a murine model of femoral fracture healing; and 2) examine whether antibodies to insulin-like growth factor (IGF) I, IGF II, or indomethacin (an inhibitor of the inflammatory process) affect bone formation following intramedullary reaming. Design Experimental study. Participants Twenty-four C57 black mice were randomized to two groups: reamed (n = 12), and nonreamed intramedullary nail insertion (n = 12). Intervention In the reamed group, the femoral canals were successively reamed with 30-, 27-, 25-, and 23-gauge stainless steel pins and stabilized with a 27-gauge pin. In mice randomized to the nonreamed group, a 27-gauge pin was inserted. An external three-point bending force created a midshaft transverse femoral fracture. Seven days postsurgery, each mouse was killed, and the right femur was removed. Following pin removal, the callus was minced, the bone marrow was removed, and both were ultracentrifuged at 1200 rpm for 5 minutes. The supernatent was cocultured with 3-day-old murine calvarial cells in culture media. At day 5 of culture, reamed plasma and calvarial cell cocultures were exposed to either 1.0 &mgr;g/mL of anti-IGF I, 1.0 &mgr;g/mL of anti-IGF II, 2 &mgr;M indomethacin, or served as controls (calvarial cells only). The cells were cultured for a total of 21 days. Main Outcome Measurements The number of bone nodules was quantified by light microscopy. Results Reamed pin insertion resulted in 4.1-fold and 8.9-fold increases in the mean number of bone nodules compared to pins inserted without reaming and controls, respectively (399 ± 40.0 vs. 97.0 ± 21.0, p < 0.001). The positive effect of intramedullary reaming on bone nodule formation was reversed with the administration of antibodies to IGF I and IGF II. The addition of anti-IGF I or anti-IGF II to calvarial, or osteoblastlike, cells treated with supernatent from the callus and bone marrow of mice with prior intramedullary reaming resulted in significant declines in the mean number of bone nodules (p < 0.001). Specifically, treatment of osteoblastlike cells with anti-IGF I or anti-IGF II resulted in 7.0-fold and 5.4-fold declines in mean bone nodule formation compared to cells without such treatment Conclusions Intramedullary reaming prior to pin insertion resulted in a significantly greater number of bone nodules than pin insertion only. Antibodies to IGF I, IGF II, and indomethacin reversed the stimulatory effect of reaming on bone nodule formation, suggesting their role in modulating the course of fracture healing following intramedullary reaming.
Mapping the Human Body for Vibrations using an Accelerometer

In this paper, an accelerometer is used to measure the vibration of the neck and thorax, in order to detect important signals that can be used in the diagnosis of sleep apnoea. Accelerations produced by the heart signals, the breathing movement and the snoring sounds are detected by an accelerometer attached to the skin. Mean power levels of the signal in different frequency bands are used to map the surface of the neck and thorax, where the accelerometer has been positioned in 15 different locations. A program in Matlab is used to fit this surface plot. Getting an adequate location for the accelerometer is a clear help to the diagnosis of sleep apnea.
MATE CHOICE FOR OPTIMAL (K)INBREEDING

Mating between related individuals results in inbreeding depression, and this has been thought to select against incestuous matings. However, theory predicts that inbreeding can also be adaptive if it increases the representation of genes identical by descent in future generations. Here, I recapitulate the theory of inclusive fitness benefits of incest, and extend the existing theory by deriving the stable level of inbreeding in populations practicing mate choice for optimal inbreeding. The parsimonious assumptions of the model are that selection maximizes inclusive fitness, and that inbreeding depression is a linear function of homozygosity of offspring. The stable level of inbreeding that maximizes inclusive fitness, and is expected to evolve by natural selection, is shown to be less than previous theory suggests. For wide range of realistic inbreeding depression strengths, mating with intermediately related individuals maximizes inclusive fitness. The predicted preference for intermediately related individuals as reproductive partners is in qualitative agreement with empirical evidence from mate choice experiments and reproductive patterns in nature.
Inhibitory effects of 19 antiprotozoal drugs and antibiotics on Babesia microti infection in BALB/c mice.

INTRODUCTION Different results have been achieved in the evaluation of antiparasitic drug activity in Mongolian jirds, hamsters, and BALB/c mice infected with Babesia microti. The aims of the present study were to find a preferable method for drug screening and to re-evaluate the activity of several drugs against B. microti. METHODOLOGY The activity of 19 drugs on B. microti-infected BALB/c mice was evaluated. The study was built on Peters' four-day suppressive test, and the pathogenicity of the blood from the treated mice was also used as indicator. RESULTS The results showed that 15 of the 19 drugs had little or no in vivo effect against B. microti. The inhibitory rates of atovaquone and azithromycin were high at all doses, but the microscopy-negative blood of recovered mice was still infectious. Similar to robenidine hydrochloride at 25 and 50 mg/kg, primaquine at 100 mg/kg had a 100% inhibitory rate. Robenidine hydrochloride achieved a 100% inhibitory rate at 100 mg/kg, and the blood of recovered mice did not result in parasitemia in subpassage experiments. Parasite-negative blood from mice treated with antimalarial drugs (clinically used for babesiosis) still caused parasitemia in subpassage experiments. This suggests that these drugs cannot eradicate the parasites. CONCLUSIONS Peters' four-day suppressive test and the pathogenicity of the blood from the treated mice are suitable methods for preliminary investigating possible drugs against B. microti. Considering that robenidine hydrochloride achieved the best activity against B. microti in BALB/c mice in our study, further studies are needed.
Effect of Digitalis on Carotid Sinus Baroreceptor Activity

The effect of intracarotid injections of ouabain (25.0 μg) or acetylstrophanthidin (1.56 μg) on feline carotid sinus baroreceptors was evaluated using an isolated perfused carotid sinus preparation. The effects of the drugs on baroreceptor activity were determined by monitoring carotid sinus nerve activity and systemic arterial blood pressure. Administration of either drug to the isolated carotid sinus region altered the relationship between the change in carotid sinus pressure and the fall in systemic arterial blood pressure. Raising the carotid sinus pressure produced a greater depressor response when digitalis was present (−29.6 ± 3.8 mm Hg) than it did when digitalis was absent (−15.3 ± 2.6 mm Hg). Digitalis administration also resulted in a greater increase in carotid sinus nerve discharge when carotid sinus pressure was increased. At a constant carotid sinus pressure, digitalis increased the spontaneous firing of the carotid sinus nerve; the drug-induced augmentation in nerve firing was identical to that produced by raising carotid sinus pressure. These changes in baroreceptor activity in the presence of digitalis occurred without drug-induced changes in the pressure in the isolated carotid sinus region. The results demonstrate that the digitalis preparations studied can directly alter the sensitivity of baroreceptors and produce significant changes in carotid sinus nerve activity and cardiovascular function.