Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Regulatory T Cells from Colon Cancer Patients Inhibit Effector T-cell Migration through an Adenosine-Dependent Mechanism

Regulatory T cells suppress many effector T-cell functions. Tregs from patients with colon cancer were found to inhibit transendothelial migration of conventional T cells, perhaps explaining the paucity of effector T cells within tumors. T cell–mediated immunity is a major component of antitumor immunity. In order to be efficient, effector T cells must leave the circulation and enter into the tumor tissue. Regulatory T cells (Treg) from gastric cancer patients, but not from healthy volunteers, potently inhibit migration of conventional T cells through activated endothelium. In this study, we compared T cells from colon cancer patients and healthy donors to determine the mechanisms used by Tregs from cancer patients to inhibit conventional T-cell migration. Our results showed that circulating Tregs from cancer patients expressed high levels of CD39, an ectoenzyme mediating hydrolysis of ATP to AMP, as a rate-determining first step in the generation of immunosuppressive adenosine. Tumor-associated Tregs expressed even more CD39, and we therefore examined the importance of adenosine in Treg-mediated inhibition of T-cell transendothelial migration in vitro. Exogenous adenosine significantly reduced migration of conventional T cells from healthy volunteers, and blocking either adenosine receptors or CD39 enzymatic activity during transmigration restored the ability of conventional T cells from cancer patients to migrate. Adenosine did not directly affect T cells or endothelial cells, but reduced the ability of monocytes to activate the endothelium. Taken together, our results indicate that Treg-derived adenosine acts on monocytes and contributes to reduced transendothelial migration of effector T cells into tumors. This effect of Tregs is specific for cancer patients, and our results indicate that Tregs may affect not only T-cell effector functions but also their migration into tumors. Cancer Immunol Res; 4(3); 183–93. ©2016 AACR.
Why Cells Grow and Divide? General Growth Mechanism and How it Defines Cells’ Growth, Reproduction and Metabolic Properties

We consider a general growth mechanism, which acts at cellular level and above (organs, systems and whole organisms). Using its mathematical representation, the growth equation, we study the growth and division mechanisms of amoeba and fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. We show how this mechanism, together with biomolecular machinery, governs growth and reproduction of cells, and these organisms in particular. This mechanism provides revealing answers to fundamental questions of biology, like why cells grow and divide, why and when cells’ growth stops. It also sheds light on questions like why and how life originated and developed. Solving the growth equation, we obtain analytical expression for the growth curve of fission yeast as a function of geometrical characteristics and nutrient influxes for RNA and protein synthesis, and compare the computed growth curves with 85 experiments. Statistical evaluation shows that these growth curves correspond to experimental data significantly better than all p.
Discrete Cortical Regions Associated with Knowledge of Color and Knowledge of Action

The areas of the brain that mediate knowledge about objects were investigated by measuring changes in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using positron emission tomography (PET). Subjects generated words denoting colors and actions associated with static, achromatic line drawings of objects in one experiment, and with the written names of objects in a second experiment. In both studies, generation of color words selectively activated a region in the ventral temporal lobe just anterior to the area involved in the perception of color, whereas generation of action words activated a region in the middle temporal gyrus just anterior to the area involved in the perception of motion. These data suggest that object knowledge is organized as a distributed system in which the attributes of an object are stored close to the regions of the cortex that mediate perception of those attributes.
Motivational and Skills, Social, and Self-Management Predictors of College Outcomes: Constructing the Student Readiness Inventory

The authors used a rational-empirical approach to construct the Student Readiness Inventory, measuring psychosocial and academic-related skill factors found to predict two important college outcomes, academic performance and retention, in a recent meta-analysis. The initial item pool was administered to 5,970 first-year college students and high school seniors to empirically validate and cross-validate the underlying factor structure. Ten first-order and 3 second-order factors were derived, partially resembling the original conceptual model. Future study is needed to explore the criterion and predictive validities of the factors constituting this inventory.
A systematic review of observational pain assessment instruments for use with nonverbal intubated critically ill adult patients in the emergency department: an assessment of their suitability and psychometric properties

AIM AND OBJECTIVE To examine the psychometric properties and suitability of the available observational pain instruments for potential use with nonverbal critically ill adult patients in the emergency department. BACKGROUND In the emergency department, assessing pain in critically ill patients is challenging, especially those unable to communicate the presence of pain. Critically ill patients are commonly unable to verbally communicate pain due to altered oral communication (e.g. endotracheal intubation) and/or diminished consciousness (e.g. sedation, delirium), placing them at great risk of inadequate pain management. Over half of intensive care critically ill intubated patients experience moderate-to-severe pain whilst intubated and mechanically ventilated. DESIGN Systematic review. DATA SOURCES The CINAHL, EMBASE, MEDLINE, ProQuest databases, and the Cochrane Library and the National Institute of Clinical Excellence were also searched from their date of inception to April 2016, with no language restrictions applied. REVIEW METHOD Studies were identified using predetermined inclusion criteria. Data were extracted and summarised and underwent evaluation using published classification of psychometric tests for consistency of interpretation. RESULTS Twenty-six studies evaluating five observational pain assessment instruments that had been used with critically ill intubated patients were identified. All five instruments included behavioural indicators, with two including physiologic indicators. All five instruments have undergone validity and reliability testing involving nonverbal critically ill intubated patients, three were examined for feasibility, and one instrument underwent sensitivity and specificity testing. None have been tested within the emergency department with nonverbal critically ill intubated adult patients. CONCLUSION The use of an appropriate and valid observational pain assessment instrument is fundamental to detecting and optimising pain management in nonverbal critically ill intubated patients in the emergency department. Of the observational pain assessment instruments reviewed, the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool was identified as most appropriate for testing in a prospective trial in an emergency department setting.
The effect of strophanthidin on action potential, calcium current and contraction in isolated guinea‐pig ventricular myocytes.

1. A method is described for producing high yields of calcium‐tolerant ventricular myocytes from guinea‐pig hearts (73.4% rod‐shaped cells, n = 19). Their action potential (AP) and membrane currents were recorded using conventional microelectrodes and cell shortening was measured optically using a linear photodiode array. 2. The sensitivity of the guinea‐pig Na(+)‐K+ pump to strophanthidin (a rapidly acting digitalis analogue) was determined by measuring the inhibition of outward pump current by different doses. The pump was found to have a dissociation constant (KD) for strophanthidin of 1.11 x 10(‐5) M, and 5 x 10(‐4) M‐strophanthidin inhibited the pump maximally. 3. Exposure to strophanthidin resulted in an initial lengthening followed by a shortening of the AP, and an increased contraction. Initial AP lengthening was associated with a more positive AP plateau which became more negative as the AP shortened. 4. There was a reversible reduction of Ca2+ current (ICa) during exposure to strophanthidin. ICa changed reciprocally with contraction and with a similar time course. 5. Strophanthidin exposure caused a reduction of ICa at all activating voltages, suggesting that it resulted in a reduction of Ca2+ conductance with little change of its voltage dependence. 6. The role of an increase of intracellular calcium (Cai2+) was investigated by impaling myocytes with microelectrodes containing BAPTA 1,2‐bis (2‐amino‐phenoxy)ethane‐N,N,N',N'‐tetraacetic acid, a calcium chelator) to increase Cai2+ buffering. Strophanthidin still shortened the AP when BAPTA was present, suggesting that a rise of Cai2+ is not a major cause of AP shortening. 7. Although AP shortening was little affected, the decline of ICa with strophanthidin was markedly reduced when BAPTA was present, suggesting that a rise of Cai2+ was the cause of the ICa decline with strophanthidin. 8. When barium ions carried the current through Ca2+ channels, strophanthidin did not reduce Ca2+ channel current, suggesting that this compound does not have a direct inhibitory effect on the channel. 9. The results suggest that strophanthidin causes a reduction of ICa by increasing Cai2+, via the mechanism of Cai(2+)‐dependent inactivation of ICa. The reduction of ICa at least partially explains the AP shortening and more negative plateau with strophanthidin. 10. The shortening of the AP, more negative plateau and reduced ICa have negative inotropic effects which oppose the direct positive inotropic effect of strophanthidin.
Multi-user Broadcast Authentication in Wireless Sensor Networks

Broadcast authentication is a critical security service in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), as it allows the mobile users of WSNs to broadcast messages to multiple sensor nodes in a secure way. Although symmetric-key- based solutions such as muTESLA and multilevel muTESLA have been proposed, they all suffer from severe energy- depletion attacks resulted from the nature of delayed message authentication. This paper presents several efficient public-key-based schemes to achieve immediate broadcast authentication and thus avoid the security vulnerability intrinsic to muTESLA-like schemes. Our schemes are built upon the unique integration of several cryptographic techniques, including the Bloom filter, the partial message recovery signature scheme and the Merkle hash tree. We prove the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed schemes by a comprehensive quantitative analysis of their energy consumption in both computation and communication.
Responding to child sexual abuse: an evaluation of social work by children and their carers

This paper presents the views and perceptions of 35 children and their current carers regarding the social work response to child sexual abuse. Interviews with the children and carers, including foster carers and residential carers, were carried out 2–4 years following disclosure, thus the nature of social work support in the longer term, as well as the initial response, is assessed and described. Three evaluations of social work support are presented: the child-ren’s evaluations of social workers known since disclosure, and two evaluations from the carers, one focusing on the child’s needs, and one focusing on their own as carers. All three evaluations perceived the majority of social workers as having helped. Aspects of social work considered essential included providing emotional support and reassurance, providing information and explanation and arrang-ing and coordinating services, including counselling or therapy. Carers of children who were abused by someone outside the family were less likely to receive social work support. The frustra-tion and disappointment expressed by some of these carers reaffirms the importance of assessing needs even when the child is considered protected from further abuse. The findings of this study support the need to refocus responses to abused children and their families.
Open Devaluation and Rejection of a Fellow Student: The Impact of Threat To a Self-Definition

An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of a threat to a person's self-definition on the subsequent rating of a target person and on the person's distancing from a associating with that target person. Devaluation of the target and dissociation from the target were found, given the following theoretical preconditions: (a) The subjects were highly committed to a given self-definition, in this case that of psychologist; (b) the target person was initially perceived as relatively incompetent in the area of psychology; and (c) the ratings of the target had to do with the particular self-definition in question and not with other facets of the target. The experiment was designed, and results interpreted, from the perspective of a theory of symbolic self-completion (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982). Linkages to the other theories are also discussed.
Anti-Semitism from the Standpoint of its Arab Victims in a South American Border Zone

This article excavates three violent moments that culminate in the collective victimization of Arabs in the so-called ‘tri-border area’ between Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina: a 1970 shooting at the Israeli embassy in the Paraguayan capital of Asunción; a 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires; and, finally, the 1994 bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA), a major Jewish community center complex in Buenos Aires. By exploring how Arabs in the two main cities of this tri-border zone, Foz do Iguaçu and Ciudad del Este, were constructed in relation to two earlier attacks against Israeli diplomatic offices in Asunción and Buenos Aires, this article aims to grasp how these episodes were recast after the 1994 AMIA bombing. It suggests that while the 1970 incident at the Israeli embassy in Asunción was all but forgotten, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was memorialized within a more powerful narrative about anti-Semitism, which framed as its foil Arabs in the Triple Border region. The wider goal of this article is to show how the tragic 1994 event rooted in Jewish suffering was also employed to collectively victimize Arabs in the Triple Border through the late 1990s.
Nodal Inflammatory Pseudotumor Caused by Luetic Infection

Inflammatory pseudotumor of lymph nodes (IPT-LN) represents an unusual cause of lymphadenitis of unknown etiology. Upon the observation of a case of IPT-LN associated with Treponema pallidum (Tp) infection, we analyzed a series of 9 IPT-LN and 9 extranodal IPT (spleen, 4 cases; lung, orbit, gut, skin, and liver) for the presence of Tp, using a polyclonal antibody anti-Tp. At the time of biopsy, none of the patients was suspected for luetic infection, nor specific serologic tests were available. IPT-LN areas extensively involved the nodal parenchyma in 4 cases, whereas they were focal in the remaining 5 cases. Capsular thickening and inflammation (6/9), venulitis (3/9), small granulomas (3/9), and follicular hyperplasia (7/9) were observed in the associated lymphoid parenchyma. Tp were detected in 4/9 cases of LN-IPT and in none of the extranodal IPT. Tp were extremely abundant within the IPT areas and in the perivascular tissues in the surrounding parenchyma, whereas they were scattered within the capsule. In Tp+ cases, marked follicular hyperplasia was the single distinctively associated feature. Double immunostains revealed that Tp were predominantly contained in the cytoplasm of CD11c+ CD163+ macrophages, some of which co-expressed HLA-DR. In addition, scattered S100+ interdigitating dendritic cells also showed intracytoplasmic Tp. This study shows that a significant number of IPT-LN is associated with Tp infection. A spirochetal etiology can be suspected in cases of IPT-LN, independently from the extension of the lesions, especially when pronounced follicular hyperplasia is found. Infection by Tp of macrophages and dendritic cells are in keeping with in vitro data and indicate that immune mediated mechanisms may be involved in the pathogenesis of the lesions.
Psychosis-Proneness and Neural Correlates of Self-Inhibition in Theory of Mind

Impaired Theory of Mind (ToM) has been repeatedly reported as a feature of psychotic disorders. ToM is crucial in social interactions and for the development of social behavior. It has been suggested that reasoning about the belief of others, requires inhibition of the self-perspective. We investigated the neural correlates of self-inhibition in nineteen low psychosis prone (PP) and eighteen high PP subjects presenting with subclinical features. High PP subjects have a more than tenfold increased risk of developing a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder. Brain activation was measured with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging during a ToM task differentiating between self-perspective inhibition and belief reasoning. Furthermore, to test underlying inhibitory mechanisms, we included a stop-signal task. We predicted worse behavioral performance for high compared to low PP subjects on both tasks. Moreover, based on previous neuroimaging results, different activation patterns were expected in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in high versus low PP subjects in self-perspective inhibition and simple response inhibition. Results showed increased activation in left IFG during self-perspective inhibition, but not during simple response inhibition, for high PP subjects as compared to low PP subjects. High and low PP subjects showed equal behavioral performance. The results suggest that at a neural level, high PP subjects need more resources for inhibiting the self-perspective, but not for simple motor response inhibition, to equal the performance of low PP subjects. This may reflect a compensatory mechanism, which may no longer be available for patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders resulting in ToM impairments.
Producers and Important Dietary Sources of Ochratoxin A and Citrinin

Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a very important mycotoxin, and its research is focused right now on the new findings of OTA, like being a complete carcinogen, information about OTA producers and new exposure sources of OTA. Citrinin (CIT) is another important mycotoxin, too, and its research turns towards nephrotoxicity. Both additive and synergistic effects have been described in combination with OTA. OTA is produced in foodstuffs by Aspergillus Section Circumdati (Aspergillus ochraceus, A. westerdijkiae, A. steynii) and Aspergillus Section Nigri (Aspergillus carbonarius, A. foetidus, A. lacticoffeatus, A. niger, A. sclerotioniger, A. tubingensis), mostly in subtropical and tropical areas. OTA is produced in foodstuffs by Penicillium verrucosum and P. nordicum, notably in temperate and colder zones. CIT is produced in foodstuffs by Monascus species (Monascus purpureus, M. ruber) and Penicillium species (Penicillium citrinum, P. expansum, P. radicicola, P. verrucosum). OTA was frequently found in foodstuffs of both plant origin (e.g., cereal products, coffee, vegetable, liquorice, raisins, wine) and animal origin (e.g., pork/poultry). CIT was also found in foodstuffs of vegetable origin (e.g., cereals, pomaceous fruits, black olive, roasted nuts, spices), food supplements based on rice fermented with red microfungi Monascus purpureus and in foodstuffs of animal origin (e.g., cheese).
The Seven Percent Solution

Gross spreads received by underwriters on initial public offerings (IPOs) in the United States are much higher than in other countries. Furthermore, in recent years more than 90 percent of deals raising $20-80 million have spreads of exactly seven percent, three times the proportion of a decade earlier. Investment bankers readily admit that the IPO business is very profitable, and that they avoid competing on fees because they 'don't want to turn it into a commodity business. ' We examine several features of the IPO underwriting business that result in a market structure where spreads are high. Copyright The American Finance Association 2000.
Laboratories and real-time computing: integrating experiments into control courses

The paper describes the approach used at the Department of Automatic Control at Lund Institute of Technology to maintain a high level of practical laboratory experiments. The Department integrates laboratory experiments into its control courses. If the laboratory exercises are properly organized and the student volume is sufficiently large, it is possible to combine a high level of practical laboratory experiments in control education at a reasonable cost. The use of off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software are important, With desktop processes, it is possible to achieve high utilization of lab space and high student throughput.
Incremental benefits of FDG positron emission tomography over CT alone for the preoperative staging of ovarian cancer.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine whether the addition of positron emission tomography (PET) with the radiotracer FDG to cross-sectional imaging, such as CT, increases accuracy in the detection of tumor spread. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Fifteen patients who were thought to have ovarian cancer on the basis of the results of physical examination, sonography findings, and level of serum cancer antigen 125 were enrolled over an 11-month period. After screening, patients underwent two imaging examinations-abdominopelvic CT and whole-body FDG PET- within 2 weeks before surgery. Also before surgery, staging accuracy was assessed separately using CT with or without FDG PET (which was based on modifications of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics [FIGO] criteria). The results of the histology and surgery findings were used to assess the accuracy of the scanning findings. RESULTS Staging revealed stage III disease in seven patients (IIIC, n = 6; IIIB, n = 1), stage II in three (IIC, n = 2; IIB, n = 1), and stage I in five (IC, n = 3; IA, n = 2), according to the FIGO criteria. Although CT staging correlated with postoperative staging in eight (53%) of 15 patients, consensus evaluation of CT with FDG PET staging improved correlation with postoperative staging in 13 (87%) of 15 patients. CONCLUSION The addition of FDG PET to CT increases accuracy in staging of ovarian cancer.
Variations in Blink Rate during Non-Visual Tasks

A total of fifty-five subjects were tested in three experimental situations. Blinking was recorded electrically, and related to various features of the three non-visual tasks. A new type of suction electrode was developed for this purpose. It was found that blink rate fell below the normal resting rate during the learning of a stylus maze, and during a special audio-tracking task. During pauses between each trial, blink rate was above the resting rate. There was a significant tendency for those subjects who showed the greatest difference in blink rate during the trials and the pauses between each trial to make the fewest errors per run of the stylus maze. In the audio-tracking task the subjects followed a changing note with a second oscillator. Blink rate was found to be inversely related to the rate of change of the course tone.