Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
FLT3 Gene Mutations in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients in Northeast Thailand

Background Mutations in the FLT3 gene are associated with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). FLT3 mutations have been identified in approximately 30% of de novo AML patients, particularly those with typical karyotype and inferior prognosis. Therefore, we examined the frequencies of an internal tandem duplication (ITD) and missense mutations of the FLT3 gene and their associated clinical characteristics in patients with AML in northeast Thailand. Material/Methods The leftover bone marrow and/or peripheral blood specimens of 65 newly diagnosed AML patients recruited from Srinagarind Hospital, Khon Kaen University, northeast Thailand, between January 2020 and May 2021 were included in this study. FLT3-ITD and FLT3-tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) were amplified using PCR-related techniques. Results The frequencies of FLT3-ITD and TKD were found to be 16.9% (11/65) and 10.8% (7/65), respectively. One patient had ITD and TKD mutations. The white blood cell count and peripheral blast percentage of FLT3-ITD-positive patients were statistically significantly higher than those of the FLT3-wild type patients, while the peripheral blast percentage of FLT3-TKD-positive patients was significantly lower. No other clinical characteristics among FLT3-positive and FLT3-wild-type patients were observed. DNA sequencing identified 4 FLT3-TKD mutations. The c.2504A>T; Asp835Val and c.2503G>C; Asp835His mutations were predicted as pathogenic mutations while the 2 novel mutations, c.2508C>A; Ile836= and c.2508C>G; Ile836Met were predicted as neutral mutations. Conclusions This study showed for the first time that FLT3-TKD mutation is common among northeast Thai AML patients. The data should prove useful for selecting efficacious targeted treatment plans for the patients.
Word Learning: Homophony and the Distribution of Learning Exemplars

ABSTRACT How do children infer the meaning of a word? Current accounts of word learning assume that children expect a word to map onto exactly one concept whose members form a coherent category. If this assumption was strictly true, children should infer that a homophone, such as “bat”, refers to a single superordinate category that encompasses both animal-bats and baseball-bats. The current study explores the situations that lead children to postulate that a single word form maps onto several distinct meanings, rather than a single superordinate meaning. Three experiments showed that adults and 5-year-old French children use information about the sampling of learning exemplars (and in particular the fact that they can be regrouped in two distinct clusters in conceptual space) to postulate homophony. This unexplored sensitivity and the very possibility of homophony are critically missing from current word learning accounts.
Elevated Activity of Transcription Factor Nuclear Factor of Activated T-Cells 5 (NFAT5) and Diabetic Nephropathy

The expression of aldose reductase is tightly regulated by the transcription factor tonicity response element binding protein (TonEBP/NFAT5) binding to three osmotic response elements (OREs; OREA, OREB, and OREC) in the gene. The aim was to investigate the contribution of NFAT5 to the pathogenesis of diabetic nephropathy. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from the following subjects: 44 Caucasoid patients with type 1 diabetes, of whom 26 had nephropathy and 18 had no nephropathy after a diabetes duration of 20 years, and 13 normal healthy control subjects. In addition, human mesangial cells (HMCs) were isolated from the normal lobe of 10 kidneys following radical nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma. Nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins were extracted from PBMCs and HMCs and cultured in either normal or high-glucose (31 mmol/l d-glucose) conditions for 5 days. NFAT5 binding activity was quantitated using electrophoretic mobility shift assays for each of the OREs. Western blotting was used to measure aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase protein levels. There were significant fold increases in DNA binding activities of NFAT5 to OREB (2.06 ± 0.03 vs. 1.33 ± 0.18, P = 0.033) and OREC (1.94 ± 0.21 vs. 1.39 ± 0.11, P = 0.024) in PBMCs from patients with diabetic nephropathy compared with diabetic control subjects cultured under high glucose. Aldose reductase and sorbitol dehydrogenase protein levels in the patients with diabetic nephropathy were significantly increased in PBMCs cultured in high-glucose conditions. In HMCs cultured under high glucose, there were significant increases in NFAT5 binding activities to OREA, OREB, and OREC by 1.38 ± 0.22-, 1.84 ± 0.44-, and 2.38 ± 1.15-fold, respectively. Similar results were found in HMCs exposed to high glucose (aldose reductase 1.30 ± 0.06-fold and sorbitol dehydrogenease 1.54 ± 0.24-fold increases). Finally, the silencing of the NFAT5 gene in vitro reduced the expression of the aldose reductase gene. In conclusion, these results show that aldose reductase is upregulated by the transcriptional factor NFAT5 under high-glucose conditions in both PBMCs and HMCs.
Role of Bim in Regulating CD8+ T-Cell Responses during Chronic Viral Infection

ABSTRACT Apoptosis is critical for the development and maintenance of the immune system. The proapoptotic Bcl-2 family member Bim is important for normal immune system homeostasis. Although previous experiments have shown that Bim is critical for the apoptosis of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells during acute viral infection, the role of Bim during chronic viral infection is unclear. Using lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus clone 13 infection of mice, we demonstrate a role for Bim in CD8+ T-cell apoptosis during chronic viral infection. Enumeration of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells by major histocompatibility complex class I tetramer staining revealed that CD8+ DbNP396-404+ T cells, which undergo extensive deletion in wild-type mice, exhibited almost no decrease in Bim mutant mice. This contrasts with CD8+ DbGP33-41+ and CD8+ DbGP276-286+ T cells that underwent similar decreases in numbers in both Bim mutant and wild-type mice. Increased numbers of CD8+ DbNP396-404+ T cells in Bim mutant mice were due to lack of apoptosis and could not be explained by altered proliferation, differential homing to tissues, or increased help from CD4+ T cells. When viral titers were examined, high levels were initially observed in both groups, but in Bim mutant mice, clearance from the spleen and sera was slightly accelerated. These experiments demonstrate the critical role of Bim during chronic viral infection to down-regulate CD8+ T-cell responses and have implications for designing strategies for optimizing immunotherapies during situations where antigen persists, such as chronic infection, autoimmune syndromes, and cancer.
Le criquet pèlerin au Sahel

Ce document regroupe les informations generales sur la biologie et l'ecologie du criquet pelerin Schistocerca gregaria la dynamique de ses populations, les mecanismes de la transformation phasaire, autant d'informations necessaires pour mettre en oeuvre une strategie de lutte preventive. Dans ce cadre, l'accent a ete mis tout particulierement sur les aspects pratiques de la prospection acridienne : savoir identifier l'espece avec certitude, apprendre a la caracteriser au niveau phenologique et au niveau phasaire, pouvoir en denombrer correctement les effectifs et evaluer les potentialites de ses biotopes, tous ces elements etant indispensables pour effectuer un diagnostic precis et prendre des decisions de lutte raisonnees
Cortical brain development in nonpsychotic siblings of patients with childhood-onset schizophrenia.

CONTEXT Cortical gray matter (GM) loss is marked and progressive in childhood-onset schizophrenia (COS) during adolescence but becomes more circumscribed by early adulthood. Nonpsychotic siblings of COS probands could help evaluate whether the cortical GM abnormalities are familial/trait markers. OBJECTIVE To map cortical development in nonpsychotic siblings of COS probands. DESIGN Using an automated measurement and prospectively acquired anatomical brain magnetic resonance images, we mapped cortical GM thickness in healthy full siblings (n = 52, 113 scans; age 8 through 28 years) of patients with COS, contrasting them with age-, sex-, and scan interval-matched healthy controls (n = 52, 108 scans). The false-discovery rate procedure was used to control for type I errors due to multiple comparisons. SETTING An ongoing COS study at the National Institute of Mental Health. PARTICIPANTS Fifty-two healthy full siblings of patients with COS, aged 8 through 28 years, and 52 healthy controls. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Longitudinal trajectories of cortical GM development in healthy siblings of patients with COS compared with matched healthy controls and exploratory measure of the relationship between developmental GM trajectories and the overall functioning as defined by the Global Assessment Scale (GAS) score. RESULTS Younger, healthy siblings of patients with COS showed significant GM deficits in the left prefrontal and bilateral temporal cortices and smaller deficits in the right prefrontal and inferior parietal cortices compared with the controls. These cortical deficits in siblings disappeared by age 20 years and the process of deficit reduction correlated with overall functioning (GAS scores) at the last scan. CONCLUSIONS Prefrontal and temporal GM loss in COS appears to be a familial/trait marker. Amelioration of regional GM deficits in healthy siblings was associated with higher global functioning (GAS scores), suggesting a relationship between brain plasticity and functional outcome for these nonpsychotic, nonspectrum siblings.
The effect of low-viscosity cement on mantle morphology and femoral stem micromotion: A cadaver model with simulated blood flow

Background Limited data exist on the performance of low-viscosity cement in clinically realistic cadaver models. Methods Paired stem/cement/femur constructs were generated with low-viscosity and standard-viscosity cements. The constructs were created and tested under simulated in vivo conditions, for which novel techniques were developed during this study. Mantle function was quantified by stem/cortex micromotions over 105cycles of “stair-climbing”. Mantle morphology was determined from transverse sections. Results Penetration of low-viscosity cement was greater proximally but less distally (p = 0.02). Low-viscosity cement resulted in more stem retroversion (p = 0.04), but there was no difference in subsidence (p = 0.4). Low-viscosity cement mantles had greater fractions of non-apposed interface (p = 0.006). Fraction of non-apposed interface predicted stem retroversion (R2 = 0.64, p = 0.002). Interpretation Low-viscosity cement resulted in inferior cement mantles. Early micromotion was reduced by better interface apposition. The greater stem retroversion of low-viscosity cement would probably lead to higher revision rates. Early stem migration is due to interface non-apposition. Techniques should be developed to reduce non-apposition of cemented interfaces.
Automated Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy using Fluorescein Angiography Photographs

State-of-the-art convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and denoising techniques were used to diagnose the presence and severity of Diabetic Retinopathy from Fluorescein Angiography photographs. Data was provided by EyePacs consisting of fudus photographs with varying ranges of DR severity labeled by clinicians. A convolutional neural network classifier engineered from GoogLeNet for 5-class severity classification performed best with an AUC of 0.79% and an accuracy of 0.45%. This paper improves on past work in the scale and heterogeneity of the dataset used, to the best of our knowledge, no other published work on DR screening deals with a dataset of our magnitude.
The Role of Parents in Developing Visual Turn-Taking in Their Young Deaf Children

Young deaf children use their vision to gather both language input and information about the environment. This dual requirement greatly complicates conversational turn-taking for the children and their parents, particularly when interaction centers on a visual focus such as a book. Data are presented here on the onset and maintenance of visual attention to signing in three profoundly deaf children, ages 2;9 - 3;7 years, while interacting with their hearing mothers about a story told through pictures. The data indicate that the children's visual attention in this situation was quite variable, although all of them experienced problems with their need to focus simultaneously on two sources of information: the mother's signs and the picture book. Suggestions for developing visual turn-taking skills are made, based on the research on first-language acquisition and the interactions of deaf mothers with their children.
Ultrafast and Predictive Mass Spectrometry–Based Autotaxin Assays for Label-Free Potency Screening

Autotaxin (ATX) is a promising drug target for the treatment of several diseases, such as cancer and fibrosis. ATX hydrolyzes lysophosphatidyl choline (LPC) into bioactive lysophosphatidic acid (LPA). The potency of ATX inhibitors can be readily determined by using fluorescence-based LPC derivatives. While such assays are ultra-high throughput, they are prone to false positives compared to assays based on natural LPC. Here we report the development of ultrafast mass spectrometry–based ATX assays enabling the measurement of data points within 13 s, which is 10 times faster than classic liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. To this end, we set up a novel in vitro and whole-blood assay. We demonstrate that the potencies determined with these assays are in good agreement with the in vivo efficacy and that the whole-blood assay has the best predictive power. This high-throughput label-free approach paired with the translatable data quality is highly attractive for appropriate guidance of medicinal chemists for constructing strong structure-activity relationships.
Low-Cost Circularly Polarized Origami Antenna

In this letter, we present a novel circularly polarized (CP) origami antenna. We fold paper in the form of an origami tetrahedron to serve as the substrate of the antenna. The antenna comprises two triangular monopole elements that are perpendicular to each other. Circular polarization characteristics are achieved by exciting both elements with equal magnitudes and with a phase difference of 90°. In this letter, we explain the origami folding steps in detail. We also verify the proposed concept of the CP origami antenna by performing simulations and measurements using a fabricated prototype. The antenna exhibits a 10-dB impedance bandwidth of 70.2% (2.4–5 GHz), and a 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth of 8% (3.415–3.7 GHz). The measured left-hand circular polarization gain of the antenna is in the range of 5.2–5.7 dBi for the 3-dB axial-ratio bandwidth.
Night driving: effects of glare from vehicle headlights on motion perception

Elderly drivers often experience disability glare at night from the headlights of oncoming vehicles. To assess the effect of glare from vehicle headlights on visual performance for seeing moving targets, experiments were performed at night on a dimly lit road with observers seated in a stationary motor car viewing a computer‐generated stimulus display at a distance of 23 m (the stopping distance for 50 kph). The display was set 2 m to the side of a second stationary car whose position on the road was that of an oncoming vehicle with respect to the observer. The headlights of the observer's car were on low‐beam while those of the opposing car were switched off (control condition), on low‐beam or on high‐beam. Experiments were performed using mean display luminances of 50 cd/m2 and 0.5 cd/m2. Spatial contrast sensitivity functions for the directional discrimination of drifting (8 Hz) sinusoidal gratings were measured using three different viewing conditions: normal vision (binocular visual acuity (BVA) = 6/6); blurred vision (BVA = 6/9‐); and simulated intraocular lens opacities (BVA =6/6 ‐). The data were fitted with an exponential function, which was extrapolated to 100% contrast to estimate dynamic visual acuity. The results show that simulated lens opacities, which have little or no effect on standard day time measures of visual acuity, have a marked effect on night‐time measures of contrast sensitivity for moving targents. Taking into account the average luminance of objects lit by road lighting, we estimate that high‐beam glare reduces maximum contrast sensitivity by an order of magnitude in persons affected by mild lens opacities, giving a dynamic acuity of 1.0 c/deg (6/180 Snellen equivalent) or less. From this and other studies we argue that there is now a strong case for the introduction of vehicle‐licensing sight re‐testing at regular intervals in the UK. In addition, we suggest that vehicle‐licensing authorities consider the feasibility of introducing sight tests under night‐time driving conditions.
Bayesian Collaborative Denoising for Monte Carlo Rendering

The stochastic nature of Monte Carlo rendering algorithms inherently produces noisy images. Essentially, three approaches have been developed to solve this issue: improving the ray‐tracing strategies to reduce pixel variance, providing adaptive sampling by increasing the number of rays in regions needing so, and filtering the noisy image as a post‐process. Although the algorithms from the latter category introduce bias, they remain highly attractive as they quickly improve the visual quality of the images, are compatible with all sorts of rendering effects, have a low computational cost and, for some of them, avoid deep modifications of the rendering engine. In this paper, we build upon recent advances in both non‐local and collaborative filtering methods to propose a new efficient denoising operator for Monte Carlo rendering. Starting from the local statistics which emanate from the pixels sample distribution, we enrich the image with local covariance measures and introduce a nonlocal bayesian filter which is specifically designed to address the noise stemming from Monte Carlo rendering. The resulting algorithm only requires the rendering engine to provide for each pixel a histogram and a covariance matrix of its color samples. Compared to state‐of‐the‐art sample‐based methods, we obtain improved denoising results, especially in dark areas, with a large increase in speed and more robustness with respect to the main parameter of the algorithm. We provide a detailed mathematical exposition of our bayesian approach, discuss extensions to multiscale execution, adaptive sampling and animated scenes, and experimentally validate it on a collection of scenes.
Links Between Contexts and Middle to Late Childhood Social‐Emotional Development

Guided by the social-emotional learning (SEL) framework, we studied developmental trajectory patterns of five key competency outcomes spanning middle through late childhood: altruism, empathy, self-efficacy, aggression, and hyperactivity. We then assessed their links to middle childhood home, parental, and community contexts. Data from the Institute of Education Sciences' Social and Character Development Program, which comprised nearly 2,400 elementary school students who were followed from Grades 3 through 5, were analyzed using growth mixture modeling. Three trajectory groups emerged for each outcome, which were linked to childhood contexts. Positive parenting was associated with a lower likelihood of following a negative empathy trajectory among children. Neighborhood intergenerational closure promoted a stable self-efficacy trajectory. Residing in a high-risk community was linked to increasing normative beliefs about aggression. These findings suggest an important role of contexts in influencing childhood social-emotional development in the later elementary school years.
Molecular Epidemiology of the sil Streptococcal Invasive Locus in Group A Streptococci Causing Invasive Infections in French Children

ABSTRACT We found 31 different emm-toxin genotypes among 74 group A streptococcal isolates causing invasive infections in French children. The predominant emm types were emm1 (25%), emm3 (8%), emm4 (8%), emm6 (7%), and emm89 (9%). Sixteen percent of isolates harbored the streptococcal invasive locus, half of them belonging to emm4.
Management of adult tethered cord syndrome: our experience and review of literature.

BACKGROUND Tethered cord syndrome (TCS) is a complex clinicopathologic entity, mostly described in children with limited number of studies describing in adults. This unique and rare subgroup of patients presents with characteristic features of TCS, but unlike children, pain is a predominant clinical symptom. MATERIALS AND METHODS Case records of 24 patients aged ≥16 years who had undergone surgery with a diagnosis of TCS between 2001 and 2011 were reviewed. Patients who have underwent surgery earlier for tethered cord or for diastematomyelia/spinal dysraphism and patients who had radiological evidence of tethering elements like lipoma of the cord on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) were excluded from the study. RESULTS Low backache was the most common presenting symptom. At the time of final follow-up, 15 (83.3%) patients had shown improvement in backache. Weakness improved by at least one grade in seven (77.8%) patients. Bladder symptoms improved in six (50%) patients. CONCLUSION In case of symptomatic patient with low-lying cord, detethering is an advisable option.
Immunoregulatory Role of Ocular Macrophages: The Macrophages Produce RANTES to Suppress Experimental Autoimmune Uveitis 1

Murine experimental autoimmune uveitis (EAU) is a model of human uveitis. Ocular-infiltrating macrophages play a crucial role in the generation of tissue damage in EAU. In fact, several chemokines are actually produced in the inflamed eye. The aim of this study was to elucidate the role of ocular macrophage-derived chemokines in EAU. C57BL/6 mice were immunized with human interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein peptide 1–20, and the EAU severity was scored at multiple time points based on microscopic fundus observations (retinal vascular dilatation and exudates) and histological examinations. The peak inflammatory response was observed 1 wk (day 16) after the beginning of macrophage infiltration to the eye (day 9). Ocular-infiltrating cells were enriched or depleted of macrophages by magnetic beads and analyzed by real-time RT-PCR for chemokine mRNA production. We found that only the macrophage-enriched cells from the eye produced RANTES, and thus proposed that macrophage-derived RANTES facilitated the ocular inflammations. In contrast to our postulate, neutralization of RANTES by specific Ab in vivo on days 9 and 13 exacerbated EAU. We also found that the ratio of ocular CD4/CD8 T cells was markedly increased after treatment. As a result, RANTES neutralization might exacerbate EAU by modulating the type of T cell subsets recruited to the eye. In conclusion, our data provide insight into the immunoregulatory role of macrophages and RANTES in the pathogenesis of ocular inflammation. Not all macrophage-derived chemokines cause local inflammation, since RANTES produced by ocular macrophages appears to suppress EAU.