Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Management and Outcomes of Immune Cytopenia Following Pediatric Heart Transplantation

Background: Autoimmune cytopenias are significant complications that can occur after pediatric solid organ transplants and often tacrolimus-induced. A variety of treatment methods have previously been investigated, however, little research has focused solely on autoimmune cytopenias in pediatric cardiac transplantation. The purpose of this study was to assess the outcomes of common treatment methods utilized in pediatric heart transplant patients presenting with autoimmune cytopenias. Methods: This single center retrospective study included all pediatric patients from 0-18 years at the time of transplant, who were diagnosed with autoimmune cytopenias following heart transplant between January 1996 and July 2019. Results: Thirteen patients (6.9%) out of 188 total heart transplant patients were diagnosed with autoimmune cytopenia (AIC). All patients received immune modulation (primarily tacrolimus) to prevent rejection and 7 of 13 patients (53%) had preceding viral infection. The median time from transplant to the diagnosis of the first episode of AIC was 3.6 years (IQR 0.7-4). The most common immune cytopenia was autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) (10/13, 76.9%). Multi-lineal cytopenias (Evans syndrome) were common and occurred in 8 cases (8/13, 61.5%; 5 cases with two lines and 3 cases with three lines). Five patients (5/13, 38.5%) were diagnosed with a single immune cytopenia. First-line therapy with steroids and/or IVIg was only successful in four cases (4/13, 30.8%): two patients with AIHA required only pulse steroids treatment; one patient with adenovirus infection and pancytopenia, and another patient with autoimmune thrombocytopenia (AITP) responded to high dose IVIg only. Overall, the majority of the cases, 8 patients (8/13, 62%) failed steroids and/or IVIg, and required second-line therapy with antiCD20+ rituximab to achieve sustained response. This group included all 4 patients with isolated autoimmune neutropenia (AIN). Conclusions: Tacrolimus-induced AIC often requires treatment in patients with heart transplant. A subset of patients develops AIC that can be multi-lineal and require second-line therapy. In our cohort, rituximab resulted in excellent response in first-line refractory cases. Response rates varied between treatment types and the type of autoimmune cytopenia. *Correspondence to: Alfred Asante-Korang MD, MRCP (UK), FACC, Director of Transplant Cardiology & Heart failure, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, St Petersburg, FL 33701, Associate Professor, Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA, Tel: 727-767-4772; E-mail: Aasante5@jhmi.edu
Primary Diagnostic Tools for SARS-Cov-2 Infection (COVID-19): Current Challenge

Pandemic outbreaks are always a challenge for the health care management to hold the mortality rate when preventive measures are not established. The only solution is to control the spread by conducting massive screening and isolating affected ones from the healthy ones. The research concentration is to develop rapid diagnostics and screening at lower cost. Rapid diagnostic methods are being used and developed worldwide.Multiple studies suggest that RT-PCR, protein testing and CT should be the principal diagnostic instrument for routine testing in patients with COVID-19. But three factors are still indistinct in those diagnostic methods such as rapidity, sensitivity, and specificity. Thus, alternative approaches that provide higher efficiency and lower time requirement are highly appreciated for switching the super spread infectious disease detection.Moderntimes, microfluidics alternatively called lab on a chip or POCT have been widely used in cancer and viral detection, specifically for virus detection in very recent days. The ability of POCT tests to provide short time results,suitable in low resource clinics even at home. So, we saw the importance of miniaturized tools suitable for COVID-19 detection will endure the current expensive methods. Despite the limitations, approved tests are still experiencing good results against a great pandemic. We reviewed and highlighted the point of care testing (PCOT) method is not less than any other screening method by reviewing a wide research setting.
Effect of orientation of lateral methyl substituent on the thermal behaviour of the mesophase in binary systems of 4-substituted phenyl 4ʹ-(4”-alkoxy phenylazo) benzoates

ABSTRACT Several binary systems made from two laterally substituted azo/ester isomers, namely 2ʺ- (and 3ʺ-) methyl-4-substituted phenyl 4ʹ-(4ʺ-alkoxyphenylazo) benzoates, where the length of the terminal alkoxy group = 8 and 16 carbons, while the other terminal substituent, X, varies between CH3O, CH3, H, Br and CN groups, were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and phases identified by polarised light microscope (PLM). For the sake of comparison, two another binary systems made from 2ʺ- (or 3ʺ-) methyl-4-substituted phenyl 4ʹ-(4ʺ-alkoxyphenylazo) benzoates (n = 8 and X = CH3) each was mixed with its laterally neat analogue and similarly investigated. Results were discussed on the basis of constructed phase diagrams whereby various mesomorphic properties were observed dependent on X, n, and position of the lateral methyl group. In most of the cases, the mixtures exhibited eutectic compositions, while linear or nearly linear nematic and smectic A-composition temperature dependence were observed. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Evaluation of Cardiopulmonary, Blood Gases and Clinical Effects of Dexmedetomidine-Ketamine and Midazolam-Ketamine Anesthesia in New Zealand White Rabbits

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dexmedetomidine-ketamine and midazolam-ketamine combinations on cardiopulmonary and clinical parameters in New Zealand white rabbits. The DXK group (n=8) received dexmedetomidine (50 µg/kg) and ketamine (20 mg/kg), and the MDK group (n=8) received midazolam (0.6 mg/kg) and ketamine (20 mg/kg) in the same syringe through the intramuscular (IM) route. Before anaesthesia and for 120 minutes, reflexes, haemodynamic values and blood gas changes were monitored. It was determined that anaesthesia was induced within a shorter time and lasted longer in DXK. The difference between the groups in terms of the time of loss of the pedal reflex (2.0 min in DXK, 7.5 min in MDK) was statistically significant (p<0.05). It was observed that, in both groups, the heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), respiratory rate (RR) and oxy-haemoglobin saturation (SpO2) values decreased, and the end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2) values increased, but these changes were greater in DXK. With regard to arterial blood gasses, a reduction in pH and pO2 and an increase in pCO2 were also more noticeable in DXK. Consequently, at the doses applied, dexmedetomidine-ketamine caused more noticeable changes in the haemodynamic values and blood gasses in comparison to midazolam-ketamine. High-dose dexmedetomidine (50 µg/kg) and low-dose ketamine (20 mg/kg) achieved induction in a shorter time but led to a significant reduction in RR. It was concluded that the combination of midazolam (0.6 mg/kg) and ketamine (20 mg/kg) could be regarded as appropriate for the anaesthesia of New Zealand white rabbits.
Influence of Salicylic Acid and Jasmonic Acid on Wheat Under Drought Stress

ABSTRACT Salicylic acid and jasmonic acid play an important role in plants coping with abiotic stresses. An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of salicylic acid and jasmonic acid on wheat under drought. Seeds were primed with jasmonic acid (100µM) and salicylic acid (10 Mm). Water stress was applied by withholding water and each treatment was replicated three times with a factorial block design. Application of Salicylic acid and Jasmonic acid mitigated drought effects in wheat. Results revealed that 100µM Jasmonic acid was more effective than 10 mM SA. Drought decreased germination by 26%, whereas application of Jasmonic acid and Salicylic acid ameliorated stress with the increase of germination by 27% and 21%, respectively. An increase in the shoot length of 23% and 20% was observed with Jasmonic acid and Salicylic acid, under drought conditions. The increase in water potential was 60% and 47% with JA and SA while the increase in proline and soluble sugar was 14% and 25% respectively. The application of Jasmonic acid and Salicylic acid has a potential to enhance the growth of wheat plants under drought.
The heterogeneous selective reduction of PHB as a useful method for preparation of oligodiols and surface modification

A selective heterogeneous reduction of natural PHB with lithium borohydride as a reducing agent has been described. Despite the method proceeding in a heterogeneous way, it allows obtaining hydroxyl terminated oligomers with low polydispersity, controlled average molecular weight, and defined end groups. The structure of resulting oligomers has been proven by 1H NMR and mass spectrometry. This method would constitute a source of PHB oligodiols useful in the synthesis of new tailor-made biomaterials. It has also been demonstrated that this simple method may be used to modify the surface chemistry of the polyester by generating free hydroxyl groups on the outermost face. The presence of hydroxyl groups on the polymer surface was confirmed by ATR-FTIR studies as well as contact angle measurement. As expected, the change in surface chemistry improved the hydrophilicity of the polymer surface. Since surface properties are critically important for cell–material interactions, this kind of modification may be a very useful tool in tissue engineering.
Quantifying how urban landscape heterogeneity affects land surface temperature: A comparison of discrete and continuous approaches

The present study examines the efficiency of discrete and continuous approaches to measuring urban heterogeneity effects on land surface temperature (LST). In the discrete approach, landscape metrics have been widely applied to quantifying the relationship between land surface temperature and urban spatial patterns and have received acceptable verification from landscape ecologists but some studies have shown their inaccurate results. The objective of the study is to compare landscape metrics and alternative approaches to measuring urban heterogeneity effects on LST. We compared landscape metrics results with nine texture-based measures, and two local spatial autocorrelation indices (local Moran’s I and Gi statistics) applied to NDVI and BAI indices as a proxy of the spatial patterns of Tehran vegetation and built-up classes. The statistical results showed that urban landscape heterogeneity had significant impacts on the LST variations, and there was a compatibility between landscape metrics and alternative measures results. Overall results showed that the less-fragmented, the more complex, larger, and the higher number of patches, the lower LST. The most significant relationship was between patch density (PD) and LST (r= -0.71). Higher values of PD have mostly been interpreted to show higher fragmentation, but other landscape metrics and alternative measures declined this conclusion. Our study demonstrated that PD was not a reliable metric and presented no information about the spatial distribution of landscape elements. This study confirms alternative measures for overcoming landscape metrics shortcomings in estimating the effects of landscape heterogeneity on LST variations and gives land managers and urban planners new insights into the urban design.
Experimental Analysis of Soot Formation and Oxidation in a Gas Turbine Model Combustor Using Laser Diagnostics

Sooting ethylene/air flames were investigated experimentally in a dual swirl gas turbine model combustor with good optical access at atmospheric pressure. The goals of the investigations were a detailed characterization of the soot formation and oxidation processes under gas turbine relevant conditions and the establishment of a data base for the validation of numerical combustion simulations. The flow field was measured by stereoscopic particle image velocimetry, the soot volume fractions by laser-induced incandescence, the heat release by OH chemiluminescence imaging and the temperatures by coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering. Two flames are compared: a fuel-rich partially premixed flame with moderate soot concentrations and a second one with the same parameters but additional injection of secondary air. Instantaneous as well as average distributions of the measured quantities are presented and discussed. The measured soot distributions exhibit a high temporal and spatial dynamic. This behaviour correlates with broad temperature probability density functions. With injection of secondary air downstream of the flame zone the distributions change drastically. The data set, including PDFs of soot concentration, temperature and flow velocity, is unique in combining different laser diagnostics with a combustor exhibiting a more challenging geometry than existing validation experiments.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
Crawling subsampling for multivariate spatial autoregression model in large-scale networks

: In network data analysis, multivariate spatial autoregression (MSAR) models may be used to analyze the autocorrelation among multiple responses. With large-scale networks, the estimation for MSAR on the entire network is computationally expensive. In this case, the subsampling method could be adopted. This approach selects a sample of nodes and then uses the estimate based on the sample to approximate the estimate on the full data. However, traditional sampling methods cannot obtain unbiased parameter estimates. Considering the second-order friend information of sampled nodes, we propose the crawling subsampling (CS) method for a general framework. Thereafter, based on the sampled data only, we construct the least-squares objective function. Under certain conditions, the computational complexity of optimizing the objective function is linear with the sample size n s . The identiﬁcation condition for the parameters on the sampled network is theoretically provided. The sample size order requirement is provided, and the asymptotic properties of the least-squares estimators are investigated. The numerical results for the simulated and real data are presented to demonstrate the performance of the proposed CS method and least-squares estimator for the MSAR model.
Bone Health in Patients of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia on Imatinib Therapy

Original Research Article Background: Long term toxicities of imatinib are important as patients need to take it for a long duration probably for lifetime. Effect of imatinib on serum calcium and phosphate has been shown in few studied. We planned this study to evaluate the effect of imatinib on bone health. Material and Methods: In this study bone health of 104 patients of CML and 104 normal healthy individuals was assessed and compared by Serum Calcium, Serum Magnesium, Serum Phosphorus, Serum Vitamin D, Serum Alkaline phosphatase, and DEXA scan. Results: Mean serum calcium level was 9.25 mg/dl in CML patients and 9.53 mg/dl in normal healthy individuals (p value < .01). Level of serum phosphorus was 2.15 mg/dl in CML patients versus 3.41mg/dl in normal controls (p value < .001). Mean serum vitamin D level of CML patients was 27.96 ng/ml versus 23.85 ng/ml (p value < .01). Mean BMD of CML patients was -0.83 versus 0.99 in normal individuals. (p value > .05). Conclusion: Long term use of imatinib in CML patients affects the bone health significantly and may impact the quality of life.
Determinants of Dividend Policy: An Empirical Study of Consumer Goods Firms in Indonesia

This research aims to figure out the determinants of firms’ dividend policy (propensity to pay dividends as well as the ratio of dividend payout). A dividend policy is a policy used by a company to decide how much it will pay out to shareholders in the form of dividends. Usually, a company retains a part of its earnings and distributes the other part as a dividend. We employed two regression models, Model 1 adopts the logistic regression, while Model 2 adopts the multiple regression to meet the research objectives. Through the purposive sampling technique which complies with the stipulated criteria, a total of 38 samples of Model 1 and 20 samples of Model 2 from the consumer goods sector in the year 2015–2018 are selected to represent the entire population. Among the five independent variables being tested, profitability and firm size reveal a significant impact on both firm’s propensity to pay dividends and dividend payout ratio, while investment opportunity set and capital structure expose a statistically significant effect on dividend payout ratio, yet showed insignificant results on the dividend-paying decision. On the contrary, stock liquidity reveals no effect on both models and therefore fails to espouse the liquidity hypothesis of dividends. All independent variables exhibit a simultaneous influence on both response variables.
Impact of Asymmetric and Symmetric Overhangs on Torque Quality and Axial Magnetic Force Computations in Surface Mounted PM Synchronous Motors

Permanent magnet (PM) motors have become great alternatives to traditional induction motors. Overhang, on either the rotor or the stator, is commonly used in PM motors. In this study, various alternatives of stator or rotor overhang in PM synchronous motors are investigated in detail. Both asymmetric and symmetric overhang cases are considered in the article. The impact of overhang on the torque quality and torque densities is investigated using 3-D finite element analysis (3D-FEA). Axial magnetic forces during assembly with and without overhang are also simulated and variation of axial force for different cases of overhangs is explored. A prototype PM motor with rotor overhang is used to validate the analyses experimentally.
Distribution-Free CUSUM-Type Control Charts for Monitoring Industrial Processes: An Overview

In the present paper we provide an up-to-date overview of nonparametric Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) monitoring schemes. Due to their nonparametric nature, such memory-type schemes are proved to be very useful for monitoring industrial processes, where the output does not match to a particular distributional model. Several fundamental contributions on the topic are mentioned, while recent advances are also presented in some detail. In addition, some practical applications of the nonparametric CUSUM-type control charts are highlighted, in order to emphasize their crucial role in the contemporary online Statistical Process Control.
Fully Group Convolutional Neural Networks for Robust Spectral–Spatial Feature Learning

Convolutional neural network (CNN) has been widely applied in hyperspectral image (HSI) classification exhibiting excellent performance. Weak generalization of CNN models to different datasets is a common issue in this domain largely because of limited amount of labeled training samples. In this article, we propose a fully group convolutional neural network (FGCNN) method that integrates cascades of shuffled group convolutions tailored to different network stages. To our knowledge, this is the first reported full-group CNN model in general, and we design it in particular for robust spectral–spatial classification of HSI. In the primary feature extraction stage, we develop an original multiscale spectral feature extraction approach based on a novel concept of multikernel depthwise convolution that we define in terms of shuffled and importance-weighted group convolution. In the subsequent stage, we introduce a discriminative spectral–spatial feature extraction method with a novel group competition block to capture informative features with relatively few parameters. The final feature fusion stage is defined as a novel lightweight group feature fusion method that sharply reduces fusion weights compared to traditional methods with fully connected layers. Experimental results on three datasets show that the proposed FGCNN yields robust classification accuracy under the same hyperparameter settings compared to the current state-of-the-art.
Identification of pigeonpea genotypes with wider adaptability to rainfed environments through AMMI and GGE biplot analyses

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh] is an important pulse crop grown under Indian rainfed agriculture. Twenty eight pigeonpea genotypes were tested for stability and adaptability across ten rainfed locations in the States of Telangana and Karnataka, India using AMMI (additive main effects and multiplicative interaction) model and GGE (genotype and genotype by environment) biplot method. The grain yields were significantly affected by environment (56.8%) followed by genotype × environment interaction (27.6%) and genotype (18.6%) variances. Two mega environments were identified with several winning genotypes viz., ICPH 2740 (G15), TS 3R (G10), PRG 176 (G8) and ICPL 96058 (G22). E2 (Gulbarga, Karnataka), E3 (Bidar, Karnataka) and E6 (Vikarabad, Telangana) were the most discriminating environments. Genotypes, ICPH 2740, PRG 176 and TS 3R were the best cultivars in all the environments whereas PRG 158 (G9), ICPL 87119 (G12), ICPL 20098 (G19) and ICPL 96058 (G22) were suitable across a wide range of environments. Genotypes, ICPH 2740 and PRG 176 can be recommended on a large scale to the farmers with small holdings to enhance pigeonpea productivity and improve the food security
Up-to-Downwave Asymmetry of the CFOSAT SWIM Fluctuation Spectrum for Wave Direction Ambiguity Removal

The surface wave investigation and monitoring (SWIM) aboard the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT), a pioneer conically scanning wave spectrometer, was successfully launched on October 29, 2018. Its innovative configuration composed of one nadir and five rotating near-nadir beams is designed to simultaneously observe the directional wave spectrum at a global scale. In this study, we systematically implement the spectral analysis of the radar backscattering with the periodogram technique to obtain the fluctuation spectrum for each azimuth direction. The 2-D fluctuation spectrum of the three spectral beams ( $\theta = 6^\circ $ , 8°, and 10°) combines all the azimuth directions within one entire rotation of 360°. The case study demonstrates that the wave features (peak wavelength and direction) are roughly consistent between the estimated fluctuation spectrum and the collocated WaveWatch III wave slope spectrum. A marked up-to-downwave asymmetry of the fluctuation spectrum with larger spectral level in the upwave direction for all the three spectral beams is observed. A ratio is defined between the fluctuation spectrum within the [0°, 180°] sector relative to the [180°, 360°] sector. Statistics display that this ratio is greater than 1 when it denotes the up-to-downwave ratio and smaller than 1 for the down-to-upwave ratio. This observed spectrum asymmetry is linked to the asymmetric modulation from upwind to downwind. In addition, we employ such finding to help remove the 180° wave direction ambiguity from a practical point of view. Preliminary results of the direction ambiguity removal display a bias of 41.3°, 40.6°, and 36.7° for the beams. The 10° beam shows slightly better performance compared to the other two beams in terms of bias and standard deviation. This shall lay a strong basis for the operational implementation of such algorithm to resolve the direction ambiguity.