Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mediterranean Weather Conditions and Exacerbations of Multiple Sclerosis

Background: Previous studies provide increasing support for the impact of environmental factors on disease incidence and activity in multiple sclerosis (MS). Objectives: The purpose of this research was to assess the relationship between the incidence of MS relapses and weather conditions in Israel. Methods: Clinical data, including occurrence of relapses in 235 patients, during 3 consecutive years (2001–2003) were assessed against the general daily meteorological variables. Initially, the relationship between the relapses and their mode of distribution was evaluated. Second, the relationship between the number of relapses on a specific date and the meteorological variables was assessed. Third, the tendency to seasonality in the occurrence of relapses was examined. Results: No significant correlation was found between the number of relapses and a specific season, month or day. Moreover, no clear relationship was found between certain meteorological variables or a combination of variables and the frequency of the relapses. Conclusion: The meteorological parameters studied were not found to have a significant impact on the occurrence of relapses in this group of patients. These findings raise questions regarding the clinical significance of the impact of weather conditions, at least in the context of the Mediterranean climate, on the disease course of patients with MS.
Nucleotide sequence and transcriptional analysis of the redD locus of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2)

Previous genetic evidence suggested that the redD gene product might be involved in the regulation of undecylprodigiosin (Red) biosynthesis in Streptomyces coelicolor. The redD+ gene was subcloned on a 2.2-kilobase-pair restriction fragment from the S. coelicolor redCD region by complementation of S. coelicolor JF1 (redD42). The DNA sequence of the 2.2-kilobase-pair redD-complementing region was determined, and the redD coding sequence was identified by computer analysis and deletion subcloning. Transcription at the redD locus was analyzed by using in vivo promoter probing, high resolution S1 mapping, and in vitro runoff transcription. A face-to-face arrangement of promoters was deduced, in which the proposed redD promoter was opposed by a cluster of four other promoters for another unidentified open reading frame. In time course experiments, redD transcription preceded that at two biosynthetic loci, redE and redBF; transcription at the latter two loci was reduced in redD42 mutants. The putative redD polypeptide lacked any strong sequence similarities to other known proteins.
VPriv: Protecting Privacy in Location-Based Vehicular Services

A variety of location-based vehicular services are currently being woven into the national transportation infrastructure in many countries. These include usage- or congestion-based road pricing, traffic law enforcement, traffic monitoring, "pay-as-you-go" insurance, and vehicle safety systems. Although such applications promise clear benefits, there are significant potential violations of the location privacy of drivers under standard implementations (i.e., GPS monitoring of cars as they drive, surveillance cameras, and toll transponders). In this paper, we develop and evaluate VPriv, a system that can be used by several such applications without violating the location privacy of drivers. The starting point is the observation that in many applications, some centralized server needs to compute a function of a user's path--a list of time-position tuples. VPriv provides two components: 1) the first practical protocol to compute path functions for various kinds of tolling, speed and delay estimation, and insurance calculations in a way that does not reveal anything more than the result of the function to the server, and 2) an out-of-band enforcement mechanism using random spot checks that allows the server and application to handle misbehaving users. Our implementation and experimental evaluation of VPriv shows that a modest infrastructure of a few multi-core PCs can easily serve 1 million cars. Using analysis and simulation based on real vehicular data collected over one year from the CarTel project's testbed of 27 taxis running in the Boston area, we demonstrate that VPriv is resistant to a range of possible attacks.
Rheumatoid arthritis synovial fluid macrophages express decreased tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand R2 and increased decoy receptor tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand R3.

OBJECTIVE To characterize the expression pattern of tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and its cognate receptors (TRAIL R1, R2, R3, and R4) on rheumatoid arthritis (RA) synovial fluid (SF) lymphocytes and monocyte/macrophages and on cultured RA synovial fibroblasts. METHODS The expression of TRAIL and TRAIL receptors on RA SF lymphocytes and monocyte/macrophages, normal macrophages, and RA synovial fibroblasts was examined by flow cytometry with previously characterized monoclonal antibodies. The ability of adenoviral-mediated delivery of TRAIL to induce macrophage or RA synovial fibroblast apoptosis was examined by flow cytometry. RESULTS By flow cytometry, neither TRAIL nor its cognate receptors was detectable on RA SF lymphocytes or RA synovial fibroblasts. In contrast, RA SF macrophages expressed TRAIL R3, a decoy receptor (P < 0.01 versus isotype control), but not TRAIL, or TRAIL R1, R2, or R4. Normal peripheral blood-derived monocyte-differentiated macrophages expressed TRAIL R2 (P < 0.01), but not TRAIL or the other TRAIL receptors. Adenoviral-mediated delivery of TRAIL had no effect on the survival of normal macrophages or RA synovial fibroblasts but readily induced apoptosis in the prostate cancer cell line (PC-3) that expressed TRAIL R1 and R2. CONCLUSION TRAIL R1 and R2, which are required for signal transmission by TRAIL, were not detected on RA SF lymphocytes, macrophages, or synovial fibroblasts. These observations do not support a potential therapeutic role for TRAIL in RA.
Differential Regulation and Substrate Preferences in Two Peptide Transporters of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT Dal5p has been shown previously to act as an allantoate/ureidosuccinate permease and to play a role in the utilization of certain dipeptides as a nitrogen source in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Here, we provide direct evidence that dipeptides are transported by Dal5p, although the affinity of Dal5p for allantoate and ureidosuccinate is higher than that for dipeptides. Allantoate, ureidosuccinate, and to a lesser extent allantoin competed with dipeptide transport by reducing the toxicity of the peptide Ala-Eth and decreasing the accumulation of [14C]Gly-Leu. In contrast to the well-studied di/tripeptide transporter Ptr2p, whose substrate specificity is very broad, Dal5p preferred to transport non-N-end rule dipeptides. S. cerevisiae W303 was sensitive to the toxic peptide Ala-Eth (non-N-end rule peptide) but not Leu-Eth (N-end rule peptide). Non-N-end rule dipeptides showed better competition with the uptake of [14C]Gly-Leu than N-end rule dipeptides. Similar to the regulation of PTR2, DAL5 expression was influenced by the addition of Leu and by the CUP9 gene. However, DAL5 expression was downregulated in the presence of leucine and the absence of CUP9, whereas PTR2 was upregulated. Toxic dipeptide and uptake assays indicated that either Ptr2p or Dal5p was predominantly used for dipeptide transport in the common laboratory strains S288c and W303, respectively. These studies highlight the complementary activities of two dipeptide transport systems under different regulatory controls in common laboratory yeast strains, suggesting that dipeptide transport pathways evolved to respond to different environmental conditions.
A Survey of Robot Tactile Sensing Technology

This paper reviews the current state-of-the-art in tactile sens ing technology. We examine in detail the different methods of transduction employed by tactile sensors and describe various significant designs that incorporate these methods. We then describe the different techniques used to process and analyze tactile data. Finally, we conclude with an assessment of the current state of development.
Irinotecan as a second-line monotherapy for small cell lung cancer.

OBJECTIVES The present study was designed to investigate the efficacy of irinotecan monotherapy as a second-line treatment for small cell lung cancers (SCLCs). METHODS Irinotecan monotherapy was administered to 46 SCLC patients who were previously undergone cisplatin based chemotherapy protocols. Response to treatment, time to progression (TTP), overall survival rates and adverse events associated with irinotecan monotherapy (300mg/m2; total 153 cycles; mean 3.78 ∓ 1.98) were determined, retrospectively. RESULTS Limited stage disease was diagnosed in 19.6% of patients (n=9) while 80.4% (n=37) were diagnosed with extensive stage cancer preceeding the irinotecan monotherapy. None of the patients had complete response to irinotecan. Partial response and stable disease were achieved among 17.5% of patients. Mean time to tumor progression (TTP) was determined to be 11.3±5.94 weeks while overall survival was 13.3±6.83 months. Considering adverse events, grade 3 and 4 toxicity was encountered in 8.9% and 4.5% of patients, respectively. Irinotecan monotherapy in brain metastasized tumors was found to be associated with significantly higher survival times compared with tumors lacking brain metastasis (15.0±5.95 vs 10.7±4.82 months; p< 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Irinotecan as a monotherapy in the second-line treatment of SCLC seems to have an acceptable level of toxicity and significant palliative effects. The prominent survival step-up effect particularly in brain metastasis patients appears worthy of note.
2B4 Acts As a Non–Major Histocompatibility Complex Binding Inhibitory Receptor on Mouse Natural Killer Cells

Natural killer (NK) cells are critical in the immune response to tumor cells, virally infected cells, and bone marrow allografts. 2B4 (CD244) is expressed on all NK cells and the ligand for 2B4, CD48, is expressed on hematopoietic cells. Cross-linking 2B4 on NK cells with anti-2B4 monoclonal antibody leads to NK cell activation in vitro. Therefore, 2B4 is considered to be an activating receptor. Surprisingly, we have found, using antibody-blocking and 2B4-deficient NK cells, that NK lysis of CD48+ tumor and allogeneic targets is inhibited by 2B4 ligation. Interferon γ production by NK cells is also inhibited. Using a peritoneal tumor clearance assay, it was found that 2B4−/− mice have increased clearance of CD48+ tumor cells in vivo. Retroviral transduction of 2B4 was sufficient to restore inhibition in 2B4−/− primary NK cells. It was found that although mature NK cells express SH2D1A, in vitro–derived NK cells do not. However, both populations are inhibited by 2B4 ligation. This indicates that 2B4 inhibitory signaling occurs regardless of the presence of SH2D1A. These findings reveal a novel role for 2B4 as a non–major histocompatibility complex binding negative regulator of NK cells.
The effect of chronic antipsychotic treatment on sexual behaviour, hormones and organ size in the male rat

Antipsychotic drug-induced sexual dysfunction is an important and problematic side effect. We have investigated the effect of chronic antipsychotic treatment on sexual behaviour, sex hormones and genital organ size in the male rat. The following sexual functions were significantly impaired in both risperidone (2 mg/kg) and haloperidol (2 mg/kg) groups at 3 weeks: Libido (assessed in mounting frequency and intromission), sexual arousability/motivation (in terms of Latencies for mounting and intromission) and orgasm (in terms of Latency for ejaculation). At 6 weeks, haLoperidol also suppressed the `hit ratio' (intromissions/mounts) as well as the above-mentioned parameters indicating erectile dysfunction. Risperidone had no significant effect on sexual function at 6 weeks. Compared with the control group, haLoperidol and risperidone decreased the serum Level of testosterone after 6 weeks but not after 3 weeks. The two drugs did not influence the serum Level of Leutenizing hormone (LH). At 3 weeks, the epididymis was significantly decreased beLow controls in both risperidone and haloperidol groups. At 6 weeks, the epididymis, seminal vesicle and prostate weights were significantLy reduced in the haLoperidol group, but not in the risperidone group. The serum concentration of testosterone significantly correLated with sex organ weight, but not with sexual behaviours. These results suggest that sexual function, testosterone Levels and genital tissue size in male rats were affected to different degrees by risperidone and haloperidol. These findings contribute to our understanding of antispsychotic drug-induced male sexual dysfunction.
PWM Series Dimming for Slow-Dynamics HPF LED Drivers: the High-Frequency Approach

This paper deals with the capability of pulse width modulation (PWM) dimming operation added to the high-power factor-integrated buck-flyback converter (IBFC), which was developed in previous works for LED lighting applications. First, the two main dimming techniques will be introduced, namely, analog dimming and PWM dimming. Then, the three main PWM dimming schemes found in the literature, that is, enable dimming, series dimming, and parallel dimming, will be briefly discussed. Afterwards, the IBFC topology will be tested performing both analog and enable dimming. In addition, a new proposal is introduced: the high-frequency series PWM dimming technique, which overcomes all the challenges faced when developing PWM dimming capabilities in low slew-rate constant-current fixed-frequency-controlled converters and offers all the advantages of PWM dimming over analog dimming while maintaining good efficiency. The proposed dimming-technique control loop, as well as the laboratory tests, will be presented, discussed, and compared to analog dimming and PWM dimming, showing satisfactory results in terms of dimming ratio, input current total harmonic distortion (THDI), and power factor.
Are Competition and Extrinsic Motivation Reliable Predictors of Academic Cheating?

Previous studies suggest that extrinsic motivation and competition are reliable predictors of academic cheating. The aim of the present questionnaire study was to separate the effects of motivation- and competition-related variables on academic cheating by Hungarian high school students (N = 620, M = 264, F = 356). Structural equation modeling showed that intrinsic motivation has a negative effect, and amotivation has a positive indirect effect on self-reported academic cheating. In contrast, extrinsic motivation had no significant effect. Indirect positive influence on cheating, based on some characteristics of hypercompetition, was also found, whereas attitudes toward self-developmental competition had a mediated negative influence. Neither constructive nor destructive competitive classroom climate had a significant impact on academic dishonesty. Acceptance of cheating and guilt has significant and direct effect on self-reported cheating. In comparison with them, the effects of motivational and competition-related variables are relatively small, even negligible. These results suggest that extrinsic motivation and competition are not amongst the most reliable predictors of academic cheating behavior.
PEGylated and CD47-conjugated nanoellipsoidal artificial antigen-presenting cells minimize phagocytosis and augment anti-tumor T-cell responses

Purpose Antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are powerful tools to expand antigen-specific T cells ex vivo and in vivo for tumor immunotherapy, but suffer from time-consuming generation and biosafety concerns raised by live cells. Alternatively, the cell-free artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs) have been rapidly developed. Nanoscale aAPCs are recently proposed owing to their superior biodistribution and reduced embolism than conventional cell-sized aAPCs, but pose the challenges: easier cellular uptake and smaller contact surface area with T cells than the cell-sized counterparts. This study aimed to fabricate a new “stealth” nano-aAPCs with microscale contact surface area to minimize cellular uptake and activate antigen-specific T cells by combination uses of ellipsoidal stretch, PEGylation, and self-marker CD47-Fc conjugation. Methods The spherical polylactic-co-glycolic acid nanoparticles were fabricated using a double-emulsion method, and then stretched twofold using film-stretching procedure followed by PEGylation and co-coupling with CD47-Fc, H-2Kb/TRP2180-188-Ig dimers, and anti-CD28. The resulting PEGylated and CD47-conjugated nanoellipsoidal aAPCs (EaAPCPEG/CD47) were co-cultured with macrophages or spleen lymphocytes and also infused into melanoma-bearing mice. The in vitro and in vivo effects were evaluated and compared with the nanospherical aAPCs (SaAPC), nanoellipsoidal aAPCs (EaAPC), or PEGylated nanoellipsoidal aAPC (EaAPCPEG). Results EaAPCPEG/CD47 markedly reduced cellular uptake in vitro and in vivo, as compared with EaAPCPEG, EaAPC, SaAPC, and Blank-NPs and expanded naïve TRP2180-188-specific CD8+ T cells in the co-cultures with spleen lymphocytes. After three infusions, the EaAPCPEG/CD47 showed much stronger effects on facilitating TRP2180-188-specific CD8+ T-cell proliferation, local infiltration, and tumor necrosis in the melanoma-bearing mice and on inhibiting tumor growth than the control aAPCs. Conclusion The superimposed or synergistic effects of ellipsoidal stretch, PEGylation, and CD47-Fc conjugation minimized cellular uptake of nano-aAPCs and enhanced their functionality to expand antigen-specific T cells and inhibit tumor growth, thus suggesting a more valuable strategy to design “stealth” nanoscale aAPCs suitable for tumor active immunotherapy.
Exploiting Diverse Knowledge Sources via Maximum Entropy in Named Entity Recognition

This paper describes a novel statistical namedentity (i.e. "proper name") recognition system built around a maximum entity framework. By working v,ithin the framework of maximum entropy theory and utilizing a flexible object-based architecture, the system is able to make use of an extraordinarily diverse range of knowledge sources in making its tagging decisions. These knowledge sources include capitalization features, lexical features, features indicating the current section of text (i.e. headline or main body), and dictionaries of single or multi-word terms. The purely statistical system contains no hand-generated patterns and achieves a result comparable with the best statistical systems. However, when combined with other handcoded systems, the system achieves scores that exceed the highest comparable scores thus-far published. 1 I N T R O D U C T I O N Named entity recognition is one of the simplest of the common message understanding tasks. The objective is to identify and categorize all members of certain categories of "proper names" from a given corpus. The specific test bed which will be the subject of this paper is that of the Seventh Message Understanding Conference (MUC-7), in which the task was to identify "names" falling into one of seven categories: person, organization, location, date, time, percentage, and monetary amount. This paper describes a new system called "Maximum Entropy Named Entity" or "MENE" (pronounced "meanie"). By working within the framework of maximum entropy theory and utilizing a flexible object-based architecture, the system is able to make use of an extraordinarily diverse range of knowledge sources in making its tagging decision. These knowledge sources include capitalization features, lexical features, and features indicating the current section of text. It makes use of a broad array of dictionaries of useful single or multi-word terms such as first names, company names, and corporate suffixes, and automatically handles cases where words are in more than one dictionary. Our dictio152 naries required no manual editing and were either downloaded from the web or were simply "obvious" lists entered by hand. This system, built from off-the-shelf knowledge sources, contained no hand-generated pat terns and achieved a result which is comparable with that of the best statistical systems. Further experiments showed that when combined with handcoded systems from NYU, the University of Manitoba, and IsoQuest, Inc., MENE was able to generate scores which exceeded the highest scores thus-far reported by any system on a MUC evaluation. Given appropriate training data, we believe that this system is highly portable to other domains and languages and have already achieved good results on upper-case English. We also feel that there are plenty of avenues to explore in enhancing the system's performance on English-language newspaper
Preliminary Analysis of Osteocyte Lacunar Density in Long Bones of Tetrapods: All Measures Are Bigger in Sauropod Dinosaurs

Osteocytes harbour much potential for paleobiological studies. Synchrotron radiation and spectroscopic analyses are providing fascinating data on osteocyte density, size and orientation in fossil taxa. However, such studies may be costly and time consuming. Here we describe an uncomplicated and inexpensive method to measure osteocyte lacunar densities in bone thin sections. We report on cell lacunar densities in the long bones of various extant and extinct tetrapods, with a focus on sauropodomorph dinosaurs, and how lacunar densities can help us understand bone formation rates in the iconic sauropod dinosaurs. Ordinary least square and phylogenetic generalized least square regressions suggest that sauropodomorphs have lacunar densities higher than scaled up or comparably sized mammals. We also found normal mammalian-like osteocyte densities for the extinct bovid Myotragus, questioning its crocodilian-like physiology. When accounting for body mass effects and phylogeny, growth rates are a main factor determining the density of the lacunocanalicular network. However, functional aspects most likely play an important role as well. Observed differences in cell strategies between mammals and dinosaurs likely illustrate the convergent nature of fast growing bone tissues in these groups.
Risk Factors for Health Care-Associated Bloodstream Infections in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Background Healthcare-associated bloodstream infections (HCA-BSI) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). Objectives We aimed to determine the causative organisms and risk factors of HCA-BSIs in NICUs. Methods This study was performed between January 2011 and December 2014 in the neonatal intensive care unit of Dicle university, Turkey. The study consisted of 126 patients (infected group) with positive blood culture and 126 randomly selected patients (uninfected control group) with negative blood culture after four days of hospitalization. Results We found that the most common causative agents isolated from nosocomial infections (NIs) were 20.7% Staphylococcus epidermidis, 26.7% Klebsiella spp. , and 13.3% Acinetobacter spp. Incidences of low gestational age, low birth weight, vaginal birth type, and long length of hospitalization were higher in the infected neonates than in the uninfected neonates. In the univariate analysis, surgical operation, ventriculoperitoneal shunt, use of umbilical catheter, nasogastric or orogastric tube, urinary catheter, mechanical ventilation, surfactant treatment, erythrocyte transfusion, plasma transfusion, thrombocyte transfusion, total parenteral nutrition infusion, intracranial hemorrhage, length of hospital stay, fifth-minute Apgar score, and total parenteral nutrition time were significantly associated with NIs. In the multiple logistic regression analysis, fifth-minute Apgar, use of erythrocyte transfusion and surgical operation were found as the independent risk factors for HCA-BSI. Conclusions This study determined the causative organisms and risk factors of HCA-BSIs in NICUs.