Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
T cell specialization at environmental interfaces: T cells from the lung and the female genital tract of lpr and gld mice differ from their splenic and lymph node counterparts

Mice homozygous for lpr and gld accumulate CD4−CD8− (double‐negative, DN) B220+CD510Thy‐110 αβ T cells in the spleen and lymph nodes (LN), while mucosal gut T cells are normal. To study other mucosa‐associated T cell populations, we examined T cell subsets separated according to expression of αβ T cell receptor, CD4, CD5, CD8, Thy‐1 and B220 in the lung and the female genital tract (FGT) of adult MRL lpr, C3H lpr and C3H gld mice. αβ T cell accumulation was detected in both the FGT and the lungs of lpr and gld mice but, in contrast to the spleen and LN, equal proportions of DN B220+ and CD4+ of CD8+ (single‐positive, SP) B220− T cells were observed in these sites, and the T cells had an increased expression of Thy‐1 and CD5. Staining for CD44, L‐selectin, and CD45RB revealed a higher percentage of effector/memory T cells in lpr and gld lungs and FGT compared to spleens and LN. CD69 expression suggested chronic activation of DN and SP T cells in lpr and gld lungs and FGT. Thus, we show that FGT and lung resident T cells are affected by lpr and gld mutations, but that their phenotypes are distinct from those of systemic T cells. These data suggest that T cells associated with FGT and lung mucosal tissues represent a separate lineage from systemic T cells, and/or that the abnormal T cells in lpr and gld mice are selected against in mucosal surfaces exposed to environmental antigen.
Modeling the bioconversion of starch to P(HB-co-HV) optimized by experimental design using Bacillus megaterium BBST4 strain

ABSTRACT Poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-hydroxyvalerate) (P(HB-co-HV)) is a prominent biopolymer as a potential candidate for use in the biomedical area. Several Bacillus spp. strains show promising characteristics in the use of several carbon sources and are an interesting alternative for the production of P(HB-co-HV). Sewage from the agricultural and food processing industries can be used to obtain abundantly starch as a carbon source for PHA production. The aim of the present study was to optimize by response surface methodology and desirability, the production of PHA by a Bacillus megaterium strain using starch as the sole carbon source. Two optimal conditions were determined without sporulation and were used to perform new experiments to calibrate and validate a mechanistic model, developed to simulate the dynamics of PHA and biomass production. The developed model successfully represents the kinetics of the microorganism. Employing different characterization techniques, it was determined that the PHA produced by the strain is a copolymer composed of different HB:HV proportions. Using starch as the sole carbon source in a minimal salt medium, this work shows the first reports in the literature of: 1) a mathematical model for predicting growth kinetic and PHA production for B. megaterium strain and 2) a Bacillus spp. producing P(HB-co-HV) copolymer.
Important prognostic histological parameters for patients with invasive ductal carcinoma of the pancreas

For clinicians, the orthodox histological investigation of patients with invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) remains important for predicting prognoses. The purpose of the present study was to determine the most important of the known prognostic histological parameters (including fibrotic focus and tumor necrosis), enabling the outcomes of 101 patients with IDC of the pancreas to be predicted accurately. Furthermore, we established a scoring classification consisting of important prognostic histological parameters examined in this study. Multivariate survival analyses showed that invasive tumor size of more than 3 cm, the presence of tumor necrosis, the presence of nerve plexus invasion and lymph vessel invasion scores of 2 or 3 were important prognostic factors. Our scoring classification, consisting of the above four parameters, accurately classified the outcome of patients independent of the invasive tumor size of IDC. We concluded that invasive tumor size of 3 cm or more, the presence of tumor necrosis, the presence of nerve plexus invasion and lymph vessel invasion scores of 2 or 3 are important histological prognostic parameters for patients with IDC of the pancreas. Furthermore, the scoring system consisting of the above four histological parameters is probably a very useful prognostic histological classification for patients with IDC of the pancreas. (Cancer Sci 2005; 96: 858–865)
Does Internal Control Over Financial Reporting Really Alleviate Agency Conflicts?

This study investigates whether internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) alleviates the managerial expropriation of corporate resources. We do this by examining the potential effects of material weaknesses in internal control on the values of corporate cash holdings and capital expenditures. Our findings suggest that ICFR facilitates the scrutiny and discipline of capital markets and thus alleviates the agency problems. Our results support the premise that high financial reporting quality impairs managers' abilities to use corporate resources in a self-serving manner.
National Representation in the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Literature: A Bibliometric Analysis of Highly Cited Journals

BackgroundIn recent years, significant growth has been observed in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery. However, the national productivity to the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery remains unknown. We therefore intended to reveal national contributions in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery. MethodsArticles published in the 6 highly cited journals in plastic and reconstructive surgery in 2005–2009 were retrieved from the Medline and Web of Science. The number of total articles, the per capita numbers, 5-year impact factors (5y-IF), and citations were tabulated to assess the contribution of different countries. ResultsA total number of 5745 articles were published in the 6 journals from 2005 to 2009 worldwide. North America, West Europe, and East Asia were the most productive regions. High-income countries published 79.72% of the total articles. United States (USA) published most of the articles during 2005 to 2009 (2015/5745, 35.07%), followed by United Kingdom, Turkey, Japan, and China. Besides, USA also had the highest total 5y-IF (5010.76), the highest mean 5y-IF (2.49), and the highest total citations (11,788). When normalized to population size, Sweden had the highest number of articles per million persons (12.26), followed by Switzerland (8.02) and Netherlands (7.77). ConclusionsUSA is the most productive country in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery. When normalized to population size, some European countries might be more productive.
Factors predicting survival of patients with gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND Gastric cancer is one of the most common causes of cancer death in Taiwan. The literature has previously shown that age, tumor site, T categories, and number of metastatic nodes significantly affect prognosis. The aim of this study was to determine the long-term survival of patients with gastric cancer, as well as the effect of particular prognostic factors on survival. MATERIALS AND METHODS This was a survival analysis study with retrospective design. We reviewed the records of 64 patients with adenocarcinoma of the stomach who had undergone gastrectomy with curative intent between 2009 and 2012 at a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan. Data extracted from patient documents included age, gender distribution, tumor location, and pathological grading. RESULTS The median follow-up time was 4 years, and there were 31 deaths attributed to gastric cancer. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that retrieval of less than 15 lymph nodes from a patient was a significant predictor of survival. A significant predictor of poorer survival was higher pathological grading. CONCLUSIONS Our results indicate that the number of lymph nodes retrieved and pathological grading could be viewed as crucial prognostic factors affecting the survival of individuals with gastric cancer.
Practical Design and Implementation Procedure of an Interleaved Boost Converter Using SiC Diodes for PV Applications

The implementation of an interleaved boost converter (IBC) using SiC diodes for photovoltaic (PV) applications is presented in this paper. The converter consists of two switching cells sharing the PV panel output current. Their switching patterns are synchronized with 180° phase shift. Each switching cell has a SiC Schottky diode and a CoolMOS switching device. The SiC diodes provide zero reverse-recovery current ideally, which reduces the commutation losses of the switches. Such an advantage from the SiC diodes enables higher efficiency and higher power density of the converter system by reducing the requirement of the cooling system. This paper presents also an optimization study of the size and efficiency of the IBC. Based on 1) the steady-state characteristic of the topology; 2) the static and dynamic characteristics of the switching cells; 3) the loss model of the magnetic components; and 4) the cooling system design, the paper provides a set of design criteria, procedures, and experimental results for a 2.5 kW IBC prototype using SiC diodes.
Investment Income--Is There a Company Effect?

The insurance literature contains a number of papers which, from different perspectives, describe the role of investment income in pricing insurance (including: Fairley [4], Hill [7], Kahane [8], and Venezian [11]). Though these papers differ in a number of respects, they all lead to the same conclusion, that the product of the risk free interest rate and the funds provided for investment by the writing of insurance policies must be treated as an offset against the expected value of profit from underwriting. Thus, whatever approach is taken in estimating the theoretical price or profit margin, it becomes necessary to evaluate this component. Most approaches to the estimation of the effect of investment income both in the theoretical exercises or in actual ratemaking (such as in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and North Carolina during the seventies and early eighties) have relied on some industry average of the funds generated by a dollar of premiums, often for specific lines of insurance. Such an approach would work well if the relationship between premiums and reserves, which has been termed the "float" (Venezian [11]) or the "funds generating coefficient" (Doherty [3]) were the same for all insurance companies. In other situations the assumtpion that all insurers behave alike may produce inadequate rates for companies that discharge their obligations quickly and more than adequate rates for companies that delay the payment of losses as much as possible. This is not consistent with good public policy and has lead to an examination of the basic hypothesis that the float is the same in a given line for all companies (Fields [5]). Though data are not ideal for answering this question, the conclusion is that the float differs significantly among companies in some of the major lines of insurance. The effect of using a single value, based on aggregate industry results, might not harm individual insurance companies too much if the insurers that
Temporal clustering effects in the network traffic evaluated by queueing system performance

We study the temporal clustering effects in the computer network traffic on the performance of a node with a given throughput limited by its outgoing channel capacity. The empirical data sets are exemplified by three different HTTP servers. We consider the inter-arrival times and the service times and evaluate the average system performance by the queuing system simulation. Our results indicate that the common M/M/1 model underestimates both the average queue size and the average sojourn time by one to two decades at 10-90% average system utilization. This leads to the 3-5 times underestimation of the required outgoing channel throughput to maintain the given average sojourn time. In contrast, by using an alternative model with Pareto-class distributions this underestimation can be reduced by more than one decade. The model is further improved once the long-range correlations in the inter-arrival times sequence are taken into account. Finally, we focus on the analysis of the long-range correlations in the total outgoing intraday traffic and discuss its potential implications on the occurrence of overloads and their reproducibility by the suggested model.
Decision-making impairments following insular and medial temporal lobe resection for drug-resistant epilepsy

Abstract Besides the prefrontal cortex, the insula and medial structures of the temporal lobe are thought to be involved in risky decision-making. However, their respective contributions to decision processes remain unclear due to the lack of studies involving patients with isolated insular damage. We assessed adult patients who underwent resection of the insula (n = 13) or of the anterior temporal lobe (including medial structures) (n = 13) as part of their epilepsy surgery, and a group of healthy volunteers (n = 20), on the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and on the Cups Task. Groups were matched on sociodemographic, estimated-IQ and surgery-related factors. On the IGT, patients with temporal lobe resection performed significantly worse than both the insular and healthy control groups, as they failed to learn which decks were advantageous on the long-term. On the Cups Task, the insular and temporal groups both showed impaired sensitivity to expected value in the loss domain, when compared with healthy controls. These findings provide clinical evidence that the insula and mesiotemporal structures are specifically involved in risky decision-making when facing a potential loss, and that temporal structures are also involved in learning the association between behavior and consequences in the long-term.
Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome in Childhood With Hematologic/Oncologic Diseases

Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome (PRES) is a clinico-neuroradiologic disease entity represented by characteristic magnetic resonance image (MRI) findings of subcortical/cortical hyperintensity in T2-weighted sequences, more often observed in parieto-occipital lobes, accompanied by clinical neurologic alterations. PRES is a rare central nervous system complication in childhood hematologic-oncologic patients and shows very different neurologic symptoms between patients, from numbness on extremities to generalized seizure. The etiology of PRES was not well known until these days. In this study, 8 patients with PRES were reviewed, retrospectively. There were 4 patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia, 1 with aplastic anemia, and 3 with solid tumors (1 patient each for neuroblastoma, Ewing sarcoma, and osteosarcoma). Allogeneic stem cell transplantation was performed in 2 patients. Immunosuppressive agents such as tacrolimus and cyclosporine A were used in 3 patients. One neuroblastoma patient was in immediate postoperative status. All patients experienced seizure attacks of different types and showed typical MRI findings. Follow-up MRIs revealed significant improvements. From this review, we might consider chemotherapy and surgery as additive causes for PRES other than immunosuppressive agents. Therefore, careful examination of the patients receiving chemotherapy and surgery was needed to find out this uncommon but good prognostic complication.
Traditional Chinese medical herbs staged therapy in infertile women with endometriosis: a clinical study.

BACKGROUND Endometriosis is a common gynecological disease defined as the presence of endometrioid tissue (glands and stroma) outside the uterus. About 30 to 40% patients with endometriosis are infertile. In traditional Chinese medical system, endometriosis associated infertility is mostly caused by kidney deficiency and blood stasis. The herb of reinforcing kidney and removing blood stasis is designed to treat the disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS All the 80 up-to-standard patients were divided into two different groups exactly according to the random principle. They were treated with hormone and traditional Chinese medical herb separately. After half year's therapy, all the patients received one year's follow-up. Their transvaginal ultrasonographic changes, serum hormone levels and pregnancy rate were recorded to analysis the effect. RESULTS No significant difference happened in two groups' demographic and clinical characteristics (P > 0.05). After the treatment, the effect on serum hormone levels and specific markers are significant (P < 0.05). The transvaginal ultrasonographic changes were positive, too. The text on hepatic and renal function confirmed to the safety of the herb. Compared to hormone therapy, the traditional Chinese medical herb is safe and effective for endometriosis patients with infertility. CONCLUSION Compared with hormone therapy, traditional Chinese medical herb's two-staged therapy is effective and safe for endometriosis patients with infertility.
Childhood behavioral profiles leading to adolescent conduct disorder: risk trajectories for boys and girls.

OBJECTIVE To examine the link between childhood behavioral dimensions and adolescent conduct disorder (CD) among a large sample of boys and girls monitored longitudinally. METHOD Teachers rated the behaviors of 1,569 children every year between kindergarten and grade 6. On the basis of these seven yearly ratings, groups of children who followed distinct trajectories on three behavioral dimensions--hyperactivity, fearfulness, and helpfulness--were identified with a semiparametric statistical analysis. Children were then categorized into one of eight behavioral profiles, representing different combinations of the trajectories. Logistic regressions were used to estimate the relation between the profiles and CD in adolescence (mean = 15.7 years). RESULTS Boys had a significant risk for CD if they were hyperactive (odds ratio [OR] = 4.27; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-10.16); hyperactive and unhelpful (OR = 2.83; CI, 1.07-7.46); or hyperactive, fearless, and unhelpful (OR = 3.93; CI, 1.27-12.17). Girls had a significant risk for CD only if they were both hyperactive and unhelpful (OR = 4.61; CI, 1.31-16.24). More boys than girls exhibited profiles of risk and met criteria for CD in adolescence. CONCLUSIONS Sex-specific childhood behavioral profiles that represented risk for CD in adolescence were identified. There were sex differences in the prevalence of the childhood profiles representing risk for CD.
28 Cardiotonic Steroids and Cardiac Fibrosis

It is well known and has been shown that patients who have chronic renal failure tend to develop and die of cardiac causes. These patients are known to develop a cardiomyopathy that is characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy and significant diastolic dysfunction. It has also been shown that the chronic renal failure condition is characterized by significant sodium pump inhibition due to increases in the circulating levels of cardiotonic steroids (CTS) such as marinobufagenin (MBG). In this review we will try to elucidate the mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of uremic cardiomyopathy and the role of CTS in the pathogenesis as well as the possible areas of therapeutic interventions.
A second-order high-resolution finite difference scheme for a size-structured model for the spread of Mycobacterium marinum

We present a second-order high-resolution finite difference scheme to approximate the solution of a mathematical model of the transmission dynamics of Mycobacterium marinum (Mm) in an aquatic environment. This work extends the numerical theory and continues the preliminary studies on the model first developed in Ackleh et al. [Structured models for the spread of Mycobacterium marinum: foundations for a numerical approximation scheme, Math. Biosci. Eng. 11 (2014), pp. 679–721]. Numerical simulations demonstrating the accuracy of the method are presented, and we compare this scheme to the first-order scheme developed in Ackleh et al. [Structured models for the spread of Mycobacterium marinum: foundations for a numerical approximation scheme, Math. Biosci. Eng. 11 (2014), pp. 679–721] to show that the first-order method requires significantly more computational time to provide solutions with a similar accuracy. We also demonstrated that the model can be a tool to understand surprising or nonintuitive phenomena regarding competitive advantage in the context of biologically realistic growth, birth and death rates.
The effect of age on proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression in oral gingival epithelium of healthy and inflamed human gingiva.

BACKGROUND Age-related changes in proliferative activity in human gingival epithelium are uncertain. Proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a nuclear protein associated with the cell cycle. Nuclear PCNA immunoreactivity is found in the proliferative compartment of normal tissues. The aims of this study were to investigate the localization of PCNA expression in oral gingival epithelium (OGE) and to define the age-related changes as to PCNA-proliferative index (PI) in inflamed as well as healthy gingiva. Mitotic index (MI) was also used as a conventional marker of cell proliferation. Additionally, the effect of aging upon the maximum epithelial thickness (MET) was determined. METHODS Twenty older (65 to 85 years) (study) and 20 middle-aged (35 to 45 years) (controls) subjects were included in the study. Biopsies were obtained both from healthy and inflamed gingiva. The expression of PCNA was evaluated in formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded gingival samples using an immunoperoxidase technique and PC 10 monoclonal antibody to PCNA. Hematoxylin and eosin stained sections were used for the quantitative measurement of MI and MET. RESULTS All the tissue sections contained positive staining cells for PCNA in the gingival epithelium. Although PCNA expression was observed both in the basal and suprabasal layers, it was more prominent in the suprabasal layers. PI in inflamed gingiva was significantly higher in the older group. However, no significant difference was observed between the study and control groups with respect to PI in healthy gingiva. When all the subjects taken into the study were analyzed as a single group, PI in the inflamed gingival samples were found to be increased with aging. Nevertheless, no age-related change was noted in MI and MET. In both the study and the control groups, PI, MI, and MET were found to be increased due to inflammation. CONCLUSIONS Our data indicate that PCNA expression in inflamed gingiva is higher in older subjects. Furthermore, a significant correlation was noted between aging and PCNA expression in inflamed gingiva. As there is no increase in mucosal epithelial thickness despite increased proliferation, we speculate that the duration of the PCNA+ phase in cell cycle may be longer in older subjects. This study also implies that PCNA immunolocalization can be used as an index of the state of cell proliferation in both biological and pathological events of the gingiva and/or other mucosal tissues.