Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pretransplant Desensitization with Costimulation Blockade and Proteasome Inhibitor Reduces DSA and Delays Antibody-Mediated Rejection in Highly Sensitized Nonhuman Primate Kidney Transplant Recipients.

BACKGROUND Patients with broad HLA sensitization have poor access to donor organs, high mortality while waiting for kidney transplant, and inferior graft survival. Although desensitization strategies permit transplantation via lowering of donor-specific antibodies, the B cell-response axis from germinal center activation to plasma cell differentiation remains intact. METHODS To investigate targeting the germinal center response and plasma cells as a desensitization strategy, we sensitized maximally MHC-mismatched rhesus pairs with two sequential skin transplants. We administered a proteasome inhibitor (carfilzomib) and costimulation blockade agent (belatacept) to six animals weekly for 1 month; four controls received no treatment. We analyzed blood, lymph node, bone marrow cells, and serum before desensitization, after desensitization, and after kidney transplantation. RESULTS The group receiving carfilzomib and belatacept exhibited significantly reduced levels of donor-specific antibodies (P=0.05) and bone marrow plasma cells (P=0.02) compared with controls, with a trend toward reduced lymph node T follicular helper cells (P=0.06). Compared with controls, carfilzomib- and belatacept-treated animals had significantly prolonged graft survival (P=0.02), and renal biopsy at 1 month showed significantly reduced antibody-mediated rejection scores (P=0.02). However, four of five animals with long-term graft survival showed gradual rebound of donor-specific antibodies and antibody-mediated rejection. CONCLUSIONS Desensitization using proteasome inhibition and costimulation blockade reduces bone marrow plasma cells, disorganizes germinal center responses, reduces donor-specific antibody levels, and prolongs allograft survival in highly sensitized nonhuman primates. Most animals experienced antibody-mediated rejection with humoral-response rebound, suggesting desensitization must be maintained after transplantation using ongoing suppression of the B cell response.
Potential Use of Community-Based Rapid Diagnostic Tests for Febrile Illnesses: Formative Research in Peru and Cambodia

In 2012, the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency Joint Science and Technology Office initiated a program to develop novel point-of-need diagnostic devices for surveillance of emerging infectious diseases including dengue, malaria, plague, and melioidosis. Prior to distribution of devices to observe their correct use among community members in Iquitos, Peru, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia, research was conducted to: 1) assess acceptability of use, including the motivation to use a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) before or instead of seeking care at a health facility, 2) explore comprehension of RDT use instructions, and 3) examine possible strategies for large scale RDT distribution and use at each site. In February 2014, 9 focus group discussions (FGD) with community members and 5 FGD with health professionals were conducted in Iquitos, and 9 FGD with community members and 9 in-depth interviews with health professionals in Phnom Penh. In both places, participants agreed to use the device themselves (involving finger prick) or could identify someone who could do so in their home or neighborhood. The main incentive to RDT use in both sites was the ability for device results to be used for care facilitation (post confirmatory tests), specifically reduced wait times to be seen or obtain a diagnosis. Comprehension of RDT use instructions was assessed in Iquitos by asking some participants to apply the device to research team members; after watching a short video, most steps were done correctly. In Phnom Penh, participants were asked to describe each step after reading the instructions; they struggled with comprehension. Health professionals’ main concerns in both sites were their community’s ability to accurately use the test, handle complicated instructions, and safety (i.e., disposal of lancets). Health system structure and ability to use home diagnostic devices varied in the two disease endemic sites, with substantial challenges in each, suggesting the need for different strategies for RDT large scale community use, and illustrating the value of formative research before deployment of novel technologies.
Room for Improvement: Rates of Birth Cohort Hepatitis C Screening in Primary Care Practices—A WWAMI Region Practice and Research Network Study

Introduction: An estimated 2.4 million people in the United States live with hepatitis C. Though there are effective treatments for chronic hepatitis C, many infected individuals remain untreated because 40% to 50% of individuals with chronic hepatitis C are unaware of their hepatitis C status. In 2013, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended that adults born between 1945 and 1965 should be offered one-time hepatitis C screening. The purpose of this study is to describe rates of birth cohort hepatitis C screening across primary care practices in the WWAMI region Practice and Research Network (WPRN). Methods: Cross-sectional observational study of adult patients born between 1945 and 1965 who also had a primary care visit at 1 of 9 participating health systems (22 primary care clinics) between July 31, 2013 and September 30, 2015. Data extracted from the electronic health record systems at each clinic were used to calculate the proportion of birth cohort eligible patients with evidence of hepatitis C screening as well as proportions of screened patients with positive hepatitis C screening test results. Results: Of the 32 139 eligible patients, only 10.9% had evidence of hepatitis C screening in the electronic health record data (range 1.2%-49.1% across organizations). Among the 4 WPRN sites that were able to report data by race and ethnicity, the rate of hepatitis C screening was higher among African Americans (39.9%) and American Indians/Alaska Natives (23.2%) compared with Caucasians (10.7%; P < .001). Discussion: Rates of birth cohort hepatitis C screening are low in primary care practices. Future research to develop and test interventions to increase rates of birth cohort hepatitis C screening in primary care settings are needed.
Dirichlet Invariant Process for Spherically Symmetric Distributions

In this paper, we describe a Bayesian nonparametric approach to make inference for a spherically symmetric distribution. We consider a Dirichlet invariant process prior on the set of all spherically symmetric distributions and we derive the Dirichlet invariant process posterior. Indeed, our approach is an extension of Dirichlet invariant process for the symmetric distributions on the real line to a spherically symmetric distribution where the underlying distribution is invariant under a finite group of rotations. Moreover, we obtain the Dirichlet invariant process posterior for the infinite transformation group and we prove that it approaches to Dirichlet process.
Limits on transfer learning from photographic image data to X-ray threat detection.

BACKGROUND X-ray imaging is a crucial and ubiquitous tool for detecting threats to transport security, but interpretation of the images presents a logistical bottleneck. Recent advances in Deep Learning image classification offer hope of improving throughput through automation. However, Deep Learning methods require large quantities of labelled training data. While photographic data is cheap and plentiful, comparable training sets are seldom available for the X-ray domain. OBJECTIVE To determine whether and to what extent it is feasible to exploit the availability of photo data to supplement the training of X-ray threat detectors. METHODS A new dataset was collected, consisting of 1901 matched pairs of photo & X-ray images of 501 common objects. Of these, 258 pairs were of 69 objects considered threats in the context of aviation. This data was used to test a variety of transfer learning approaches. A simple model of threat cue availability was developed to understand the limits of this transferability. RESULTS Appearance features learned from photos provide a useful basis for training classifiers. Some transfer from the photo to the X-ray domain is possible as ∼40% of danger cues are shared between the modalities, but the effectiveness of this transfer is limited since ∼60% of cues are not. CONCLUSIONS Transfer learning is beneficial when X-ray data is very scarce-of the order of tens of training images in our experiments-but provides no significant benefit when hundreds or thousands of X-ray images are available.
IJSRD-International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 5, Issue 02, 2017 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613

Steel is by far most useful material for building construction and in last decades steel structure has played an important role in construction industry. Presented in this paper is review of the nonlinear static pushover analysis method. It is necessary to design a structure to perform well under seismic loads. To model the behavior of steel structure analytically in its non-linear zone is difficult. Push over analysis explicitly evaluates how a structure is likely to perform, given the potential hazard it is likely to experience, considering uncertainties response. It is necessary to design a structure to perform well under seismic loads. In this study non-linear analysis is carried out for high rise steel frame building with different bracing configuration. Steel braced frame is one of the structural systems used to resist lateral deflection of the structures. In this project a steel building model is taken, this model is compared in different aspects such as different type of bracing system. Present study is based on the collection of pushover analysis (nonlinear static analysis) of steel structure with different type of Bracing system. In This paper we concentrate on the analysis of different type of Bracings K bracing at corner, X bracing, V and more Concentric and eccentric Bracing with help of SAP2000.
Early Discontinuation of P2Y12 Antagonists and Adverse Clinical Events Post–Percutaneous Coronary Intervention: A Hospital and Primary Care Linked Cohort

Background Early discontinuation of P2Y12 antagonists post–percutaneous coronary intervention may increase risk of stent thrombosis or nonstent recurrent myocardial infarction. Our aims were to (1) analyze the early discontinuation rate of P2Y12 antagonists post–percutaneous coronary intervention, (2) explore factors associated with early discontinuation, and (3) analyze the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (death, acute coronary syndrome, revascularization, or stroke) associated with discontinuation from a prespecified prescribing instruction of 1 year. Method and Results We studied 2090 patients (2011–2015) who were recommended for clopidogrel for 12 months (+aspirin) post–percutaneous coronary intervention within a retrospective observational population cohort. Relationships between clopidogrel discontinuation and major adverse cardiac events were evaluated over 18‐month follow‐up. Discontinuation of clopidogrel in the first 4 quarters was low at 1.1%, 2.6%, 3.7%, and 6.1%, respectively. Previous revascularization, previous ischemic stroke, and age >80 years were independent predictors of early discontinuation. In a time‐dependent multiple regression model, clopidogrel discontinuation and bleeding (hazard ratio=1.82 [1.01–3.30] and hazard ratio=5.30 [3.14–8.94], respectively) were independent predictors of major adverse cardiac events as were age <49 and ≥70 years (versus those aged 50–59 years), hypertension, chronic kidney disease stage 4+, previous revascularization, ischemic stroke, and thromboembolism. Furthermore, in those with both bleeding and clopidogrel discontinuation, hazard ratio for major adverse cardiac events was 9.34 (3.39–25.70). Conclusions Discontinuation of clopidogrel is low in the first year post–percutaneous coronary intervention, where a clear discharge instruction to treat for 1 year is provided. Whereas this is reassuring from the population level, at an individual level discontinuation earlier than the intended duration is associated with an increased rate of adverse events, most notably in those with both bleeding and discontinuation.
RESPONSE OF DIFFERENT IRRIGATION DEPTHS AND NUTRIENTS UPTAKE TO VEGETATIVE GROWTH OF YOUNG OLIVE CULTIVARS

The response of different irrigation depths on vegetative growth and nutrient uptake of young trees of different olive cultivars i.e., Baincullela, Leccino, and Frantoio were studied. The experiment was laid out in split plot design having four irrigation depths with three replications. The soil analysis was done at the start and end of the experiment. Potential evapo-transpiration and rainfall were measured daily accordingly. Drippers were adjusted each time according to the water requirement and according to the depth. The moisture content of the soil was determined at different irrigation depths (30, 60, and 90 cm) with gravimetric method on monthly basis. The irrigation water was applied for 100, 80, 60 and 40% amount of relative irrigation depths release as for pan evapo-transpiration consumption. The data for shoot growth, shoot diameter, leaf area and leaf water content were recorded. The results showed significant variations in all studied parameters with respect to both irrigation depths and cultivars, except leaf area. Different irrigation depths as well cultivar’s type substantially affected the nutrient uptake. The maximum nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium uptake were recorded with controlled irrigation depth in cv. Frantoio. It was concluded that well water application has best performance with cv. Frantoio. Key word: Olive, Irrigation depth, Nutrient uptake and Cultivars.
Achal: Building Highly Reliable Networked Control Systems

In a highly reliable networked control system, active replication of critical system components is necessary for instantaneous recovery from crash or a network partition failure. However, due to Byzantine errors, the replicas can diverge and produce incorrect outputs. In this work, we target the specific problem of replica coordination in presence of environmentally-induced Byzantine errors, while addressing challenges and constraints specific to the CPS domain.
University of Southern Denmark In Vitro Polarized Resonance Raman Study of N719 and N719-TBP in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells

The working efficiency of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs) depends on the long-term stability of the dye itself and on the microscopic structure of the dye-semiconductor interface. Previous experimental studies of DSCs based on ruthenium dye with bipyridine ligands (N719) adsorbed to the TiO2substrate applied FTIR,un-polarized Raman (RS) and un-polarized resonance Raman (RRS) spectroscopy. In the un-polarized RRS studies of N719/TiO2 – DSCs the discussion of the adsorption of N719 was based on the rather weak carbonyl or carboxyl group stretching vibrations and on minor spectral changes of overlapping Raman modes, whereas conclusions about the dye-stability was based on the observation that fresh and aged DSCs had almost identical RRS spectra. In the present paper we address the problems mentioned above, by utilizing the unique property of Raman scattering that the polarization of the scattered light is generally different from the polarization of the laser light. When the excitation is chosen within the visible absorption band of N719 only the skeleton ring-modes in N719 are enhanced and are observed as the most intense bands in the RRS spectra. We demonstrate by experimental results on N719/TiO2 – DSCs that by combining an analysis of the wave number dependent polarization of these modes with the small shifts observed in the visible absorption spectra of adsorbed, non-adsorbed molecules and degradation products new and more reliable information about dye stability and about the adsorption of the dye on TiO2 can be obtained. Furthermore it is found that the polarization fluorescence anisotropy is very different for adsorbed and non-adsorbed dye molecules. This information is automatically obtained when processing the Raman data. The conclusion is that if the polarization properties of the resonance Raman spectra are analyzed instead of just analyzing the minute spectral changes of the (weaker) Raman bands the potential of RRS as an on-site tool for investigation of DSCs can be greatly improved.
Gallibacterium infection in chickens

Gallibacterium has recently been included as a new genus of the family Pasteurellaceae Pohl 1981, which encompasses bacteria previously reported as Pasteurella anatis, [Actinobacillus] salpingitidis and avian Pasteurella haemolytica-like organisms. Identification has, so far, exclusively relied on phenotypical characterization. Here we present a method based on a Cy3 labelled in situ hybridization probe targeting 16S rRNA to allow specific detection of bacteria belonging to the genus Gallibacterium. The probe, GAN850, showed no cross-reactivity to 25 other poultry associated bacterial species including members of the families Pasteurellaceae, Enterobacteriaceae and Flavobacteriaceae, when evaluated by whole cell hybridization. The probe was further evaluated by hybridization to formalin-fixed spleen and liver tissues from experimentally infected chickens, in which it proved useful for detection of Gallibacterium. Additionally, spatial distribution and host-cell affiliation of Gallibacterium, at various time points during the infection process, was possible. In conclusion, the in situ hybridization technique described may be of use as a diagnostic tool as well as for studies to elucidate the pathogenesis of Gallibacterium infections in chickens. ______________________________________________________________________
Carbonic anhydrase II does not regulate nitrite‐dependent nitric oxide formation and vasodilation

Although it has been reported that bovine carbonic anhydrase CAII is capable of generating NO from nitrite, the function and mechanism of CAII in nitrite‐dependent NO formation and vascular responses remain controversial. We tested the hypothesis that CAII catalyses NO formation from nitrite and contributes to nitrite‐dependent inhibition of platelet activation and vasodilation.
Modulation Influence on RF Fields Power Deposition Inside Biological Objects: A Dosimetric Analysis on Layered Planar and Spherical Models

A theoretical dosimetric approach is followed in the radiofrequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Analytical methods are applied in order to compute the absorbed electromagnetic field inside planar and spherical models of biological objects. Two algorithms are implemented in Mathcad environment: one is based on transmission line theory – for treating the planar layered models, and the other, based on Mie theory of electromagnetic scattering – for treating the spherical homogeneous and layered models. The excitations are microwaves in the UHF and SHF bands, either continuous or modulated. Features of absorbed fields are targeted, and differences underlined. Generally, modulated fields have different deposition features in the models, depending on both the target geometry and dielectric characteristics, and on the incident signal spectral content. The functionality of the algorithms for modulated signals is proved here, and partial conclusions extracted. For the near future our focus is the generalization of conclusions and finding of the rule of thumb regarding field deposition of modulated fields.
An investigation into early-life stress and cognitive function in older age

ABSTRACT Early-life stress (ELS) has previously been identified as a risk factor for cognitive decline, but this work has predominantly focused on clinical groups and indexed traditional cognitive domains. It, therefore, remains unclear whether ELS is related to cognitive function in healthy community-dwelling older adults, as well as whether any effects of ELS also extend to social cognition. To test each of these questions, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) was administered to 484 older adults along with a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery and a well-validated test of social cognitive function. The results revealed no differences in global cognition according to overall experiences of ELS. However, a closer examination into the different ELS subscales showed that global cognition was poorer in those who had experienced physical neglect (relative to those who had not). Social cognitive function did not differ according to experiences to ELS. These results indicate that the relationship between ELS and cognition in older age may be dependent on the nature of the trauma experienced.
Human and climate global-scale imprint on sediment transfer during the Holocene

Significance Using a compilation of 14C and pollen data of lake sediment records from over 632 sites globally, we identified the timings of first increase in lake sedimentation. Changes in lake sediment rates at this time are closely linked to increased sediment supply from hillslope erosion. The analysis on the relative roles of the driving factors indicated that a significant portion of the Earth’s surface shifted to human-driven soil erosion already 4,000 y ago following land deforestation. The long-term perspective afforded by this synthesis provides evidence that human beings are a geological force that have altered lateral soil and sediment transfers globally well before the great acceleration in human activity post-World War II and before the start of the Industrial Revolution. Accelerated soil erosion has become a pervasive feature on landscapes around the world and is recognized to have substantial implications for land productivity, downstream water quality, and biogeochemical cycles. However, the scarcity of global syntheses that consider long-term processes has limited our understanding of the timing, the amplitude, and the extent of soil erosion over millennial time scales. As such, we lack the ability to make predictions about the responses of soil erosion to long-term climate and land cover changes. Here, we reconstruct sedimentation rates for 632 lakes based on chronologies constrained by 3,980 calibrated 14C ages to assess the relative changes in lake-watershed erosion rates over the last 12,000 y. Estimated soil erosion dynamics were then complemented with land cover reconstructions inferred from 43,669 pollen samples and with climate time series from the Max Planck Institute Earth System Model. Our results show that a significant portion of the Earth surface shifted to human-driven soil erosion rate already 4,000 y ago. In particular, inferred soil erosion rates increased in 35% of the watersheds, and most of these sites showed a decrease in the proportion of arboreal pollen, which would be expected with land clearance. Further analysis revealed that land cover change was the main driver of inferred soil erosion in 70% of all studied watersheds. This study suggests that soil erosion has been altering terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for millennia, leading to carbon (C) losses that could have ultimately induced feedbacks on the climate system.