Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dendritic cells delivered inside human carcinomas are sequestered by interleukin‐8

In the course of a clinical trial consisting of intratumoral injections of dendritic cells (DCs) transfected to produce interleukin‐12, the use of 111In‐labeled tracing doses of DCs showed that most DCs remained inside tumor tissue, instead of migrating out. In search for factors that could explain this retention, it was found that tumors from patients suffering hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal or pancreatic cancer were producing IL‐8 and that this chemokine attracted monocyte‐derived dendritic cells that uniformly express both IL‐8 receptors CXCR1 and CXCR2. Accordingly, neutralizing antihuman IL‐8 monoclonal antibodies blocked the chemotactic attraction of DCs by recombinant IL‐8, as well as by the serum of the patients or culture supernatants of human colorectal carcinomas. In addition, tissue culture supernatants of colon carcinoma cells inhibited DC migration induced by MIP‐3β in an IL‐8‐dependent fashion. IL‐8 production in malignant tissue and the responsiveness of DCs to IL‐8 are a likely explanation of the clinical images, which suggest retention of DCs inside human malignant lesions. Impairment of DC migration toward lymphoid tissue could be involved in cancer immune evasion. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Modal Preferences Predict Elderly Patients' Life-sustaining Treatment Choices as Well as Patients' Chosen Surrogates Do

The purpose of this study was to compare the accuracy of an actuarial method of predicting patients' preferences for life-sustaining treatment with the accuracy of surrogate decision makers. 401 outpatients 65 years old or older (mean = 73 years) and their self-designated surrogate decision makers recorded preferences for four life-sustaining medical treatments in nine hypothetical illness scenarios. The surrogates did not predict the patients' preferences more accurately than did an actuarial model using modal preferences. Surrogates' accuracy was not influenced by the use of an advance directive (AD) or discussion of life-sustaining treatment choices. In clinical practice, an actuarial model could assist surrogate decision makers when a patient has no AD, an AD is unavailable, a patient's AD is vague or describes treatment choices for only extreme or unlikely disease states, no proxy decision maker has been designated, or a patient was never competent. Key words: decision making; advance directives; substituted judgment; elderly; surrogates; actuarial. (Med Decis Making 2000;20:271- 280)
Identification of a bone marrow precursor of the earliest thymocytes in adult mouse

The thymus requires continuous replenishment of progenitors from the bone marrow (BM) to sustain T cell development. However, it remains unclear which hematopoietic progenitors downstream from hematopoietic stem cells in the BM home to the thymus in adult mice. In this work, we demonstrate that although multiple BM populations have intrinsic T lineage differentiation potential, a small subset of multipotent progenitors (MPPs) expressing CCR9 preferentially homes to the thymus. These CCR9+ MPPs are phenotypically similar to the most immature early T lineage progenitors (ETPs) in the thymus and are present in the peripheral blood. Similar to ETPs, CCR9+ MPPs undergo Notch signaling, as indicated by higher expression of Notch1 and downstream target Hes1 genes compared with other MPP subsets. Furthermore, CCR9+ MPPs possess differentiation potential similar to that of ETPs, with very limited granulocyte/macrophage differentiation potential, but they can differentiate into T, B, and dendritic cells. These characteristics implicate CCR9+ MPPs as the BM precursors of the earliest thymic progenitors. In addition, our data suggest that before transition from BM to thymus, MPPs are lymphoid-specified and primed for T lineage differentiation.
Effect of epilepsy on female fertility and reproductive abnormalities

Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences / Volume 4 / Issue 2 / May Aug 2011 endocrinal disturbances. [2] They may interfere with the hypothalamic pituitary axis and produce amenorrhea, oligomenorrhea, and prolonged and irregular cycles. [2] Higher incidence of PCOD is also reported in women taking valproate sodium, and a retrospective series reported PCOD in 43% of women taking valproate for epilepsy. [2,6] A recent study done in India, concluded that infertility was least common (7.1%) in those epileptic women who were not on antiepileptic drug (AED) exposure compared to those who were with AED exposure (31.8% with one AED exposure, 40.7% with two AED exposures, and 60.3% with three or more AED exposures). [1] Epileptic women who were taking phenobarbital had a significantly higher risk of infertility, but no such trend was observed with other AED drugs. [1] Infertility was also common in epileptic women who were older in age, with lower education. [1]
Molecular circuit design

With a more realistic vision of a possible limit for miniaturization of components with conventional CMOS technology, a new technology has surfaced -molecular electronics which, from the bottom-up approach, aims at the construction of electrical devices to implement computation using individual or small collections of molecules, offering an alternative way to build nanoscale circuits. These circuits have the potential to reduce device size and fabrication costs by several orders of magnitude relative to conventional CMOS. Recently, some mechanisms have been considered as a basis to molecular electronic systems design. Two terminal molecular devices that work as diodes have been synthesized, with similar behavior to rectifying and tunnel diodes. In this article, a study on the synthesis of molecular circuits is presented, integrating simulated molecular devices as the molecular Tour-Reed diode based on the evolvable hardware (EHW) paradigm.
An early report from newly established laboratory‐based influenza surveillance in Lao PDR

Please cite this paper as: Vongphrachanh P, Simmerman JM, Phonekeo D, Pansayavong V, Sisouk T, Ongkhamme S, Bryce GT, Corwin A, Bryant JE. An early report from newly established laboratory‐based influenza surveillance in Lao PDR. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 4(2), 47–52.
Routing and Congestion Control for Ad-hoc Networks

In this paper, we consider the mobility effect with a jointly optimal design of cross-layer congestion control, routing and scheduling for ad-hoc networks. We first formulate the rate constraint and scheduling constraint. In this way, we use multi-commodity flow variables. Then formulate resource allocation in networks with fixed wireless channel and single-rate devices. Because of entrance of the effect mobility in optimal design, we formulate resource allocation as utility and cost function, together in a maximization problem with those constraints. By dual decomposition, decompose the resource allocation problem vertically into three sub-problems: congestion control, routing and scheduling. These three sub-problems interact through congestion and link price.
Search for Saturn's X‐ray aurorae at the arrival of a solar wind shock

After a decade of observations, evidence for X‐ray auroral emission from Saturn has yet to be found. By analogy with processes known to take place on Jupiter, Saturnian X‐ray aurorae may be expected to be powered by charge exchange (CX) between energetic ions and the planet's atmospheric neutrals; if the ions are of solar origin, the emission should be brightest during episodes of enhanced solar wind (SW). We have explored this possibility by propagating SW parameters measured near the Earth to Saturn, and triggering X‐ray observations at the time SW enhancements were expected to reach the planet. This was done in April–May 2011 with the Chandra X‐ray Observatory, and we report on two observations carried out at the time when a significant SW disturbance reached Saturn, as indicated by Cassini magnetic field, plasma and radio measurements: variability is observed between the two Chandra datasets, but we do not find evidence for X‐ray brightening in the auroral regions. The variability can be explained by scattering of solar X‐rays in Saturn's atmosphere during an episode of solar X‐ray flaring. We conclude that the strength of any CX auroral X‐ray emission on Saturn was below Chandra's detectability threshold. By‐products of this investigation are stringent upper limits on the X‐ray emission of Titan and Enceladus. The Cassini measurements concurrent with the Chandra observations confirm and pinpoint temporally the arrival of the SW enhancement at Saturn. SW propagation predictions are a useful tool for investigating and interpreting the effects of SW interactions with planetary environments.
Molecular phylogenetics and the evolution of labral spines among eastern Pacific ocenebrine gastropods.

Labral spines are sharp projections of the apertural lip found in some marine gastropods that are used to penetrate hard-shelled prey. The majority of gastropod genera that contain labral spine-bearing species are found in the subfamily Ocenebrinae (Gastropoda: Muricidae). To reconstruct the evolutionary history of labral spine-bearing and labral spine-lacking gastropods in the eastern Pacific (EP) Ocean, partial sequences of two mitochondrial genes (cytochrome oxidase I and 12S rRNA) were obtained from representative taxa. Despite high nucleotide bias, a variety of phylogenetic reconstruction methods produced the same tree topology. The traditional taxonomic view that all "Nucella-like" spine-bearing taxa in the EP belong to a monophyletic "Acanthina" is rejected due to nonmonophyly of this group. The more recently recognized "Acanthinucella" is also not monophyletic, and we therefore propose the new genus Mexacanthina for two Mexican species formerly assigned to Acanthinucella. The genus Ocinebrina, which first appears in the middle Eocene, is not a stem EP ocenebrine lineage and may also not be a monophyletic clade. Tracing the evolutionary history of labral spines among extant lineages indicates that the absence of a labral spine is ancestral for all EP ocenebrines. Ancestral conditions could not be resolved unambiguously for all nodes of the phylogeny based on extant taxa. However, by jointly considering both molecular phylogenetic relationships and the phylogenetic affinities of several extinct taxa, all remaining character state transformation can be inferred unambiguously. Based on this analysis, a labral spine likely evolved independently in at least four lineages of EP ocenebrines. Although homoplasy appears to characterize labral spine evolution among ocenebrine gastropods, the structural position of a labral spine was evolutionarily altered in one lineage, indicating that different types of labral spines do not necessarily reflect convergent evolution.
Effects of aerobic and resistive exercise training on glucose disposal and skeletal muscle metabolism in older men.

BACKGROUND Aging is associated with insulin resistance, primarily as a result of physical inactivity and increased abdominal obesity. We hypothesized that aerobic (AEX) or resistive (RT) exercise training would result in comparable improvements in glucose disposal in older men, but that there would be different metabolic adaptations in skeletal muscle. METHODS Thirty-nine older (63+/-1 years, mean+/-standard error of the mean), overweight and obese (body mass index=30.3+/-0.4 kg/m2) men were assigned to AEX (treadmill walking and/or jogging, n=19) or RT (upper and lower body, n=20) programs 3 d/wk for 6 months, with 9 completing AEX and 13 completing RT. Testing before and after the exercise programs included body composition, euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamps, and vastus lateralis muscle biopsies. RESULTS Maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) increased by 16% after AEX (p<.01), while leg and arm muscle strength increased by 45+/-5% and 27+/-5% after RT (p<.0001). Although participants were monitored to maintain their body weight during the exercise program, body weight decreased by 2% after AEX (p<.05), and increased by 2% after RT (p<.05). Whole-body glucose disposal, determined during the last 30 minutes of a 2-hour 480 pmol/m2/min euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp, increased comparably by 20%-25% after AEX (51+/-5 to 61+/-5 microM/kgfat-free mass/min, p<.05) and RT (49+/-3 to 58+/-3 microM/kgfat-free mass/min, p<.05). The increase in vastus lateralis muscle glycogen synthase fractional activity in response to insulin stimulation was significantly higher after AEX compared to after RT (279+/-59% compared to 100+/-28% change, p<.05). Neither AEX nor RT altered muscle glycogen synthase total activity, glycogen content, or levels of phosphotidylinositol 3-kinase. CONCLUSION These results suggest that AEX and RT result in comparable improvements in glucose metabolism in older men, whereas an increase in insulin activation of glycogen synthase occurred only with AEX. These improvements in insulin sensitivity could reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes and attenuate the development of cardiovascular disease.
Connecting Hsp70, sphingolipid metabolism and lysosomal stability

Heat shock protein 70 (Hsp70) is an evolutionary highly conserved molecular chaperone. Upon cancer-associated translocation to the lysosomal compartment, it promotes cell survival by inhibiting lysosomal membrane permeabilization, a hallmark of stress-induced death. We have recently shown that Hsp70 stabilizes lysosomes by binding to the endo-lysosomal lipid bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate (BMP), an essential co-factor for lysosomal sphingolipid catabolism. The Hsp70–BMP interaction enhances the activity of acid sphingomyelinase, an important enzyme that hydrolyzes sphingomyelin. Importantly, treatment with recombinant Hsp70 effectively reverts the dramatic increase in lysosomal volume and decrease in lysosomal stability in cells from patients with Niemann-Pick disease, a genetic disorder associated with reduced acid sphingomyelinase activity. These findings give new insight into the mechanisms controlling lysosomal stability and integrity, and open new exciting possibilities for the treatment of cancer as well as Niemann-Pick disease.
Breast cancer racial differences before age 40--implications for screening.

BACKGROUND Most authorities advocate mammogram screening for breast cancer beginning at age 40 based on the age-specific distribution and incidence of breast cancer in the general population. This policy has been bolstered by studies that demonstrate that, for the general population, mammography in the 40-49 age bracket reduces mortality. However, it also has been reported that African-American breast cancer patients are diagnosed more often than white patients below the age of 40. Young African-American women are also more likely to have advanced disease at the time of diagnosis with predictably higher mortality. The purpose of this investigation is to explore the question, whether a subset of African-American women, age 30-39, by virtue of increased vulnerability, would benefit from early mammogram screening. STUDY DESIGN The age-specific distribution (age 30-84) of African-American and white breast cancer patients in five State cancer registries were compared. Prognostic indicators (tumor size and nodal status) in two of the five registries in African-American and white breast cancer cases below the age of 40 were compared. Age-specific incidence in the 30-39 age group and the relative populations of black and white women in the United States were noted in the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Report (SEER) (1994-1998) and The U.S. Census 2000. RESULTS The differences of age-specific distribution and age-specific incidence of African-American and white breast cancer patients were found to be significant. More than 10% of African-American women with breast cancer were diagnosed before age 40 compared to 5% of white patients. The incidence of breast cancer (SEER Report 1994-1998) in the 30-39-age bracket for African-American and white women was 48.9 and 40.2 at the 95% confidence level, while the proportion of African-American and white women reported by the Census Bureau was not too dissimilar, 15.8% and 14.6% respectively. Prognostic indicators (tumor size and nodal status) support the notion that young African-American women are more likely to have advanced disease at diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS African-American women in the 30-39 age group have twice the age-specific distribution, have a higher incidence compared to their white counterparts, and exhibit more ominous prognostic signs. This study provides evidence that African-American women in the 30-39 age category represent a high-risk group that may benefit from efforts at earlier detection. Although mammography remains the preferred screening modality, investigators have pointed out difficulties encountered when using mammography in young women, including low sensitivity, high breast density, cost/benefit concerns, and low positive predictive value. Nevertheless, the increasing mortality and persistent racial incidence gap in young African-American women, age 30-39, argue for considering early screening mammography in spite of recognized concerns.
Fear of childbirth and psychosomatic support ‐ A follow up of 72 women

BACKGROUND Women with severe anxiety of childbirth need special support. AIMS To follow up women who had received individualized psychological/obstetric support because of anxiety of delivery and to describe this model of support. METHODS Questionnaires were sent to 100 women who had suffered from anxiety of delivery and to 100 matched references; 72 pairs provided answers. RESULTS Some women in the study group (25%) accepted psychotherapy during the pregnancy, and the others a modified support. In comparison with the references they remembered the pregnancy as a less positive experience (p=0.02), less vigor (p=0.002), less psychic well-being (p=0.04), more worry about health (p=0.04), more need for encouragement (p=0.001) and less emotional preparedness for delivery (p=0.01). Their experiences of delivery were similar as the references' and in some respects even more positive. The women who initially had wished a cesarean section but eventually underwent a vaginal delivery were as satisfied as those who had not wished a cesarean section. The women recommended the staff to take women's worry seriously (study and reference group 64% and 26% respectively, p-value 0.003) and to build up trust and give support (30% and 19% respectively, p-value 0.003). CONCLUSION Women with fear of childbirth remembered the pregnancy as distressing, in spite of support. They remembered the delivery similarly as references, also those who initially had asked for a cesarean section but eventually underwent a vaginal delivery.
Cochlear Implantation of Patients with Far-Advanced Otosclerosis

Objective: This current single-subject, repeated-measures study was to describe our experience with 30 patients who had been diagnosed with “far-advanced otosclerosis” and who were included in our program of cochlear implants. We analyzed the history of the patients and their families before implantation, the surgical findings, and the performance over a follow up of 3 years. Material and Methods: All patients met one or more of the after criteria: 1) previous surgical intervention as a treatment of their otosclerosis; 2) signs of pericochlear hypodensities in high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scans; and 3) family precedents of otosclerosis. All underwent standard surgical cochlear implantation. Results: In 78% of the cases, a stapedectomy had previously been realized. Cochlear otosclerosis could be appreciated in HRCT in 78% of the patients. A family history of otosclerosis was found in 40%, and 33.3% of patients had familial precedents of nonfilial hypoacusis. The mean results in the two-syllable test were 20% preimplantation, 54% 6 months after implantation, and 52%, 62%, 54% at 1, 2, and 3 years after implantation. In the CID sentence test, they were in the order of 32% preimplantation and of 64% at 6 months, 66% after 1 year, of 68% after 2 years, and reaching 72% after 3 years. No complications related to the surgery were detected. Conclusion: Patients diagnosed with far-advanced otosclerosis have a good prognosis with cochlear implantation comparable to that of other patients in whom postlingual implants are performed.
Linguistic realisation as machine translation: Comparing different MT models for AMR-to-text generation

In this paper, we study AMR-to-text generation, framing it as a translation task and comparing two different MT approaches (Phrase-based and Neural MT). We systematically study the effects of 3 AMR preprocessing steps (Delexicalisation, Compression, and Linearisation) applied before the MT phase. Our results show that preprocessing indeed helps, although the benefits differ for the two MT models.
A BICM Scheme with Iterative Demapping and Decoding for Non-Coherent MIMO Communication

A bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) scheme with iterative demapping and decoding (ID) is developed for non-coherent communication over a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel. The scheme exploits the underlying Grassmannian geometry of the signalling scheme that achieves the ergodic capacity of the non-coherent model at high signal-to-noise ratios. In particular, this geometry gives rise to an efficient list-based demapping algorithm that substantially reduces the computational complexity of the receiver. By allowing the decoder to augment the demapping list, the performance degradation of this efficient algorithm can be rendered insignificant. We compare the performance of the proposed scheme with that of a training-based BICM-ID scheme and show, via simulation, that the proposed scheme can provide significantly better performance at high data rates.
A comparison of quality of care indicators in urban acute care hospitals and rural critical access hospitals in the United States.

OBJECTIVE Two recent Institute of Medicine reports highlight that the quality of healthcare in the US is less than what should be expected from the world's most extensive and expensive healthcare system. This may be especially true for critical access hospitals since these smaller rural-based hospitals often have fewer resources and less funding than larger urban hospitals. The purpose of this paper was to compare quality of hospital care provided in urban acute care hospitals to that provided in rural critical access hospitals. DESIGN Cross-sectional study analyzing secondary Hospital Compare data. T-test statistics were computed on weighted data to ascertain if differences were statistically significant (P=0.01). SETTING Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services hospitals. PARTICIPANTS US Acute Care and Critical Access hospitals. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Differences between urban acute care hospitals and rural critical access hospitals on quality care indicators related to acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia. RESULTS For 8 of the 12 hospital quality indicators the differences between urban acute care and rural critical access hospitals were statistically significant (P=0.01). In seven instances these differences favored urban hospitals. One indicator related to pneumonia favored rural hospitals CONCLUSIONS Although this study focused on only three disease states, these are among the most common clinical conditions encountered in inpatient settings. The findings suggested that there may be differences in quality in rural critical access hospitals and urban acute care hospitals and support the need for future studies addressing disparities between urban acute care and rural critical access hospitals.