Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and classification of chronic kidney disease in cats randomly selected from four age groups and in cats recruited for degenerative joint disease studies

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) and degenerative joint disease are both considered common in older cats. Information on the co-prevalence of these two diseases is lacking. This retrospective study was designed to determine the prevalence of CKD in two cohorts of cats: cats randomly selected from four evenly distributed age groups (RS group) and cats recruited for degenerative joint disease studies (DJD group), and to evaluate the concurrence of CKD and DJD in these cohorts. The RS group was randomly selected from four age groups from 6 months to 20 years, and the DJD group comprised cats recruited to four previous DJD studies, with the DJD group excluding cats with a blood urea nitrogen and/or serum creatinine concentration >20% (the upper end of normal) for two studies and cats with CKD stages 3 and 4 for the other two studies. The prevalence of CKD in the RS and DJD groups was higher than expected at 50% and 68.8%, respectively. CKD was common in cats between 1 and 15 years of age, with a similar prevalence of CKD stages 1 and 2 across age groups in both the RS and DJD cats, respectively. We found significant concurrence between CKD and DJD in cats of all ages, indicating the need for increased screening for CKD when selecting DJD treatments. Additionally, this study offers the idea of a relationship and causal commonality between CKD and DJD owing to the striking concurrence across age groups and life stages.
Trained vs untrained evaluator assessment of body condition score as a predictor of percent body fat in adult cats

Body condition scoring (BCS) provides a readily available technique that can be used by both veterinary professionals and owners to assess the body condition of cats, and diagnose overweight or underweight conditions. The objective of this study was to evaluate a five-point BCS system with half-point delineations using dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Four evaluators (a veterinarian, veterinary technician, trained scorer and untrained scorer) assessed 133 neutered adult cats. For all scorers, BCS score was more strongly correlated with percent body fat than with body weight. Percent body fat increased by approximately 7% within each step increase in BCS. The veterinarian had the strongest correlation coefficient between BCS and percent fat (r = 0.80). Mean body fat in cats classified as being in ideal body condition was 12 and 19%, for 3.0 and 3.5 BCS, respectively. Within BCS category, male cats were significantly heavier in body weight than females within the same assigned BCS category. However, DXA-measured percent body fat did not differ significantly between male and female cats within BCS category, as assigned by the veterinarian (P >0.13). Conversely, when assessed by others, mean percent body fat within BCS category was lower in males than females for cats classified as being overweight (BCS >4.0). The results of this study show that using a BCS system that has been validated within a range of normal weight to moderately overweight cats can help to differentiate between lean cats and cats that may not be excessively overweight, but that still carry a higher proportion of body fat.
Privacy-Preserving Crowdsensing: Privacy Valuation, Network Effect, and Profit Maximization

In spite of the pronounced benefit brought by crowdsensing, a user would not participate in sensing without adequate incentive, indicating that effective incentive design plays a critical role in making crowdsensing a reality. In this work, we examine the impact of two conflicting factors on incentives for users' participation: 1) the concern about privacy leakage and 2) the (positive) network effect from many sensing participants. The former factor hinders privacy- aware users from participating, whereas the latter encourages users' participation. Taking into consideration both factors, we devise a privacy-preserving crowdsensing scheme, in which a reverse `privacy' auction is first run by the crowdsensing platform to select users based on their privacy valuations and the network effect. Then the trusted platform carries out differentially private data aggregation over the collected data such that the released sensing result remains useful for the task agent, while all participants' data privacy is guaranteed. A natural objective here is then to maximize the profit of the task agent, i.e., the difference between its utility and the total reward to the participants. To this end, the platform utilizes a random-sampling based mechanism for the `privacy' auction, followed by a Laplace mechanism for data aggregation. We show that this auction mechanism design is 4-competitive, and further it exhibits desirable properties, including individual rationality, truthfulness, computational efficiency. Simulation results corroborate the theoretical properties of the proposed privacy-preserving crowdsensing scheme.
Pharmacological rescue of diabetic skeletal stem cell niches

Local delivery of a missing growth factor to the skeletal stem cell niche restores bone healing in diabetic mice. Stem cells: The key to boosting bone healing in diabetes Among a myriad of difficulties, people with diabetes have problems with their bones; after a break, their bones do not heal well. Tevlin et al. use mice to investigate the cause and to devise a solution. In several models of diabetes, skeletal stem cells, which normally multiply to repair a bone injury, failed to do so. The high blood concentrations of TNFα in these diabetic mice inhibited a growth factor within the stem cell niche. The authors succeeded in reversing this deficit; delivery of the missing factor directly to the niche restored the expansion of stem cells after injury and normalized bone healing. Correction of the inhospitable niche environment for skeletal stem cells is a promising approach for this complication of diabetes and perhaps for other stem cell–based diseases. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease frequently associated with impaired bone healing. Despite its increasing prevalence worldwide, the molecular etiology of DM-linked skeletal complications remains poorly defined. Using advanced stem cell characterization techniques, we analyzed intrinsic and extrinsic determinants of mouse skeletal stem cell (mSSC) function to identify specific mSSC niche–related abnormalities that could impair skeletal repair in diabetic (Db) mice. We discovered that high serum concentrations of tumor necrosis factor–α directly repressed the expression of Indian hedgehog (Ihh) in mSSCs and in their downstream skeletogenic progenitors in Db mice. When hedgehog signaling was inhibited during fracture repair, injury-induced mSSC expansion was suppressed, resulting in impaired healing. We reversed this deficiency by precise delivery of purified Ihh to the fracture site via a specially formulated, slow-release hydrogel. In the presence of exogenous Ihh, the injury-induced expansion and osteogenic potential of mSSCs were restored, culminating in the rescue of Db bone healing. Our results present a feasible strategy for precise treatment of molecular aberrations in stem and progenitor cell populations to correct skeletal manifestations of systemic disease.
Integrated molecular analysis of tumor biopsies on sequential CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade reveals markers of response and resistance

Profiling of melanoma patients treated with checkpoint blockade reveals TCR clonality and copy number loss as correlates of therapeutic response. Checking on checkpoint inhibitors Immune checkpoint blockade has greatly improved the success of treatment in melanoma and other tumor types, but it is expensive and does not work for all patients. To optimize the likelihood of therapeutic success and reduce the risks and expense of unnecessary treatment, it would be helpful to find biomarkers that can predict treatment response. Roh et al. studied patients treated with sequential checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA-4 and then PD-1. In these patients, the authors discovered that a more clonal T cell population specifically correlates with response to PD-1 blockade, but not CTLA-4, which may help identify the best candidates for this treatment. In addition, increased frequency of gene copy number loss was correlated with decreased responsiveness to either therapy. Immune checkpoint blockade produces clinical benefit in many patients. However, better biomarkers of response are still needed, and mechanisms of resistance remain incompletely understood. To address this, we recently studied a cohort of melanoma patients treated with sequential checkpoint blockade against cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen–4 (CTLA-4) followed by programmed death receptor–1 (PD-1) and identified immune markers of response and resistance. Building on these studies, we performed deep molecular profiling including T cell receptor sequencing and whole-exome sequencing within the same cohort and demonstrated that a more clonal T cell repertoire was predictive of response to PD-1 but not CTLA-4 blockade. Analysis of CNAs identified a higher burden of copy number loss in nonresponders to CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade and found that it was associated with decreased expression of genes in immune-related pathways. The effect of mutational load and burden of copy number loss on response was nonredundant, suggesting the potential utility of a combinatorial biomarker to optimize patient care with checkpoint blockade therapy.
Bacterial colonization and succession in a newly opened hospital

Patients share their microbiota with their rooms and with nursing staff, and this shapes the microbial ecology of the hospital environment. A new hospital teems with life Lax et al. conducted a yearlong survey of the bacterial diversity associated with the patients, staff, and built surfaces in a newly opened hospital. They found that the bacterial communities on patient skin strongly resembled those found in their rooms. The authors demonstrated that the patient skin microbial communities were shaped by a diversity of clinical and environmental factors during hospitalization. They found little effect of intravenous or oral antibiotic treatment on the skin microbiota of patients. The microorganisms that inhabit hospitals may influence patient recovery and outcome, although the complexity and diversity of these bacterial communities can confound our ability to focus on potential pathogens in isolation. To develop a community-level understanding of how microorganisms colonize and move through the hospital environment, we characterized the bacterial dynamics among hospital surfaces, patients, and staff over the course of 1 year as a new hospital became operational. The bacteria in patient rooms, particularly on bedrails, consistently resembled the skin microbiota of the patient occupying the room. Bacterial communities on patients and room surfaces became increasingly similar over the course of a patient’s stay. Temporal correlations in community structure demonstrated that patients initially acquired room-associated taxa that predated their stay but that their own microbial signatures began to influence the room community structure over time. The α- and β-diversity of patient skin samples were only weakly or nonsignificantly associated with clinical factors such as chemotherapy, antibiotic usage, and surgical recovery, and no factor except for ambulatory status affected microbial similarity between the microbiotas of a patient and their room. Metagenomic analyses revealed that genes conferring antimicrobial resistance were consistently more abundant on room surfaces than on the skin of the patients inhabiting those rooms. In addition, persistent unique genotypes of Staphylococcus and Propionibacterium were identified. Dynamic Bayesian network analysis suggested that hospital staff were more likely to be a source of bacteria on the skin of patients than the reverse but that there were no universal patterns of transmission across patient rooms.
The impact on teachers of designing and implementing a Health at Every Size curriculum unit

With growing concern over the ‘obesity epidemic’ in children, schools have become the front line of defence in the ‘war against obesity’. However there is a growing body of evidence of unintended harm associated with school-based health education programs framed as ‘obesity prevention’, including body dissatisfaction, eating and physical activity disorders and size-based bullying, harassment, violence and discrimination. An alternative paradigm known as Health at Every Size (HAES) aims to avoid such unintended negative consequences and to promote holistic health and well being. A HAES focused curriculum unit was designed and implemented at a school in Queensland, Australia. The impact of the project on students and teachers was evaluated. This paper reports on the results of classroom observations and individual semi- structured interviews, which were used to collect qualitative data about the impact on teachers. There was a substantial and positive impact on teachers' knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and teaching skills. The HAES paradigm enabled teachers to design and implement a curriculum unit consistent with the holistic, ecological (social) model of health and syllabus requirements, and have a positive impact on student learning and teaching practice.
Assessment of intravenous adipose-derived allogeneic mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of feline chronic kidney disease: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in eight cats

Objectives Feline chronic kidney disease (CKD) is characterized by chronic tubulointerstitial nephritis, and inflammation contributes to the progression of renal fibrosis. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have demonstrated anti-inflammatory and antifibrotic effects in rodent CKD models. However, few randomized trials evaluating the effectiveness of MSC therapy for diseases in companion animals have been reported. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of allogeneic MSCs for the treatment of feline CKD using a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Methods MSCs were isolated from the cryopreserved adipose tissues of specific pathogen-free research cats and culture expanded. CKD cats were enrolled in a randomized, placebo-controlled, blinded one-way crossover clinical study. Four CKD cats were randomized to receive 2 × 106 MSCs/kg intravenously at 2, 4 and 6 weeks. Four CKD cats were randomized to receive placebo, with two cats crossing over to the MSC treatment group and one cat failing to complete the trial. Complete blood counts, chemistry and urinalysis were performed at weeks 0, 2, 4, 6 and 8. Glomerular filtration rate (GFR) via nuclear scintigraphy and urine protein:creatinine ratio (UPC) were determined at weeks 0 and 8. Results Six cats received three doses of allogeneic MSC culture expanded from cryopreserved adipose without adverse effects. No significant change in serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, GFR by nuclear scintigraphy, UPC or packed cell volume was seen in cats treated with MSCs. Individual changes in GFR were 12%, 8%, 8%, 2%, –13% and –67% in treated cats compared with 16%, 36% and 0% in placebo-treated cats. Conclusions and relevance While administration of MSC culture expanded from cryopreserved adipose was not associated with adverse effects, significant improvement in renal function was not observed immediately after administration. Long-term follow-up is necessary to determine whether MSC administration affects disease progression in cats with CKD.
The Cost of Treating Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia

Community acquired pneumonia (CAP) is associated with significant mor bidity, mortality and utilization of health care resources. While the reported incidence of pneumonia has been relatively stable over time, the hospital discharge rate for pneumonia rose between 1984 and 1995. The length of stay, however, has continued to fall. There is considerable variation in how CAP is managed across the United States as re flected in variations in hospital admission rates, hospital lengths of stay and the costs of treating a case (both inpatient and outpatient). In 1994 the estimated cost of an episode of care was $264 for outpatients and $7500 for inpatients (including hospital and physician care and follow-up care). The total costs associated with treating CAP were about $10 bil lion in that year. Strategies for decreasing the cost of treating CAP include identifying low risk patients who can safely be treated as outpatients, decreasing lengths of hospital stay, decreasing the use of emergency departments as sites for initial evaluation, and promoting the use of lower cost antibiotic therapy.
New class of precision antimicrobials redefines role of Clostridium difficile S-layer in virulence and viability

Rare Clostridium difficile mutants lacking surface-layer protein A escape killing by Avidocin-CDs and display severe phenotypic defects that compromise virulence in animals. Forcing microbes to make a difficult decision Clostridium difficile infects hundreds of thousands of people a year and is becoming increasingly difficult to treat. While investigating a C. difficile–specific antimicrobial derived from a genetically modified bacteriocin, Kirk et al. isolated strains resistant to the treatment, which were found to have mutations in the surface layer. The mutants had defensive defects and attenuated virulence but were still able to colonize the gut of hamsters. In addition to revealing biology about C. difficile, these findings showcase how making targeted antimicrobials can force bacteria into forgoing virulence in favor of survival. There is a medical need for antibacterial agents that do not damage the resident gut microbiota or promote the spread of antibiotic resistance. We recently described a prototypic precision bactericidal agent, Av-CD291.2, which selectively kills specific Clostridium difficile strains and prevents them from colonizing mice. We have since selected two Av-CD291.2–resistant mutants that have a surface (S)-layer–null phenotype due to distinct point mutations in the slpA gene. Using newly identified bacteriophage receptor binding proteins for targeting, we constructed a panel of Avidocin-CDs that kills diverse C. difficile isolates in an S-layer sequence-dependent manner. In addition to bacteriophage receptor recognition, characterization of the mutants also uncovered important roles for S-layer protein A (SlpA) in sporulation, resistance to innate immunity effectors, and toxin production. Surprisingly, S-layer–null mutants were found to persist in the hamster gut despite a complete attenuation of virulence. These findings suggest antimicrobials targeting virulence factors dispensable for fitness in the host force pathogens to trade virulence for viability and would have clear clinical advantages should resistance emerge. Given their exquisite specificity for the pathogen, Avidocin-CDs have substantial therapeutic potential for the treatment and prevention of C. difficile infections.
NL-SAR: A Unified Nonlocal Framework for Resolution-Preserving (Pol)(In)SAR Denoising

Speckle noise is an inherent problem in coherent imaging systems such as synthetic aperture radar. It creates strong intensity fluctuations and hampers the analysis of images and the estimation of local radiometric, polarimetric, or interferometric properties. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing chains thus often include a multilooking (i.e., averaging) filter for speckle reduction, at the expense of a strong resolution loss. Preservation of point-like and fine structures and textures requires to adapt locally the estimation. Nonlocal (NL)-means successfully adapt smoothing by deriving data-driven weights from the similarity between small image patches. The generalization of nonlocal approaches offers a flexible framework for resolution-preserving speckle reduction. We describe a general method, i.e., NL-SAR, that builds extended nonlocal neighborhoods for denoising amplitude, polarimetric, and/or interferometric SAR images. These neighborhoods are defined on the basis of pixel similarity as evaluated by multichannel comparison of patches. Several nonlocal estimations are performed, and the best one is locally selected to form a single restored image with good preservation of radar structures and discontinuities. The proposed method is fully automatic and handles single and multilook images, with or without interferometric or polarimetric channels. Efficient speckle reduction with very good resolution preservation is demonstrated both on numerical experiments using simulated data, airborne, and spaceborne radar images. The source code of a parallel implementation of NL-SAR is released with this paper.
Recording a patient diet over the radical course of radiotherapy for prostate cancer using a diet diary: a feasibility study

Abstract Aims: To obtain an estimate of dietary fibre and fluid intake in Australian men undergoing prostate radiotherapy and to establish feasibility and patient compliance with recording normal diet without intervention during the radical course of radiotherapy. Methods: Eleven participants were enrolled and treated with 74–78 Gray (Gy) to the prostate over 8 weeks. Participants were instructed to record a diary of their food and fluid intake and bowel motions for the duration of treatment. Treating radiation therapists were instructed to initial the diet diary daily. Diet diaries were assessed for compliance by analysing the number of days over the treatment period and the number of diary pages submitted. The diet diaries were analysed for nutrient intake of fibre and fluids. Results: A total of 10 of 11 participants submitted a diet record for the full duration of treatment with a median compliance of 100% (range 90.4–100%) of days recorded. The mean (standard deviation) of fibre and fluids recorded in the diets were 21.5 g (5.5) and 2227.1 g (733.1), respectively. Conclusions: It is feasible for patients to record a diet diary over a radical course of prostate radiotherapy. In this study, most patients were highly compliant with submitting a diet record for each day during treatment.
Role of the Thymus in Recovery of the Immune Mechanism in the Irradiated Adult Mouse

Summary 1. Inbred mice were thymectomized at 2 months of age, given lethal doses of irradiation and syngeneic marrow therapy. Controls were either sham-thymectomized and irradiated or sham-irradiated and thymectomized. 2. Thymectomized irradiated mice failed to reject allogeneic skin grafts and to produce either a primary or a secondary immune response to sheep erythrocytes when tested 4–10 weeks after irradiation. At that time, control mice had normal immune functions. 3. Lymphocytes were markedly diminished in the experimental and the thymectomized control groups. They were present and within normal limits in sham-thymectomized irradiated controls. The depression in the thymectomized irradiated mice characteristically involved the small mononuclear cells. 4. It is concluded that recovery of the immune mechanism following total body irradiation takes place by means of a thymus-dependent mechanism.