Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GENE THERAPY Engineered AAV vector minimizes in vivo targeting of transduced hepatocytes by capsid-speci fi c CD 8 1 T cells

• A murine model was developed for capsid-specific CD8 cell responses in AAV gene therapy for hemophilia. • Y-F mutant capsid minimizes the effect of anticapsid CD81 T cells on hepatocyte-derived factor IX expression in mice and in human cells. Recent clinical trials have shown that evasion of CD8 T-cell responses against viral capsid is critical for successful liver-directed gene therapy with adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors for hemophilia. Preclinical models to test whether use of alternate serotypes or capsid variants could avoid this deleterious response have been lacking. Here, the ability of CD8 T cells (“cap-CD8,” specific for a capsid epitope presented by human B*0702 or murine H2-L molecules) to target AAV-infected hepatocytes was investigated. In a murine model based on adoptive transfer of ex vivo expanded cap-CD8, AAV2transduced livers showed CD8 T-cell infiltrates, transaminitis, significant reduction in factor IX transgene expression, and loss of transduced hepatocytes. AAV8 gene transfer resulted in prolonged susceptibility to cap-CD8, consistent with recent clinical findings. In contrast, using an AAV2(Y-F) mutant capsid, which is known to be less degraded by proteasomes, preserved transgene expression and largely avoided hepatotoxicity. In vitro assays confirmed reduced major histocompatibility complex class I presentation of this capsid and killing of human or murine hepatocytes compared with AAV2. In conclusion, AAV capsids can be engineered to substantially reduce the risk of destruction by cytotoxic T lymphocytes, whereas use of alternative serotypes per se does not circumvent this obstacle. (Blood. 2013;121(12):2224-2233)
Structural phase transition in (GaAs)1-xGe2x and (GaP)1-xSi2x alloys: Test of the bulk thermodynamic description.

Nonisovalent ({ital A}{sup III}{ital BV}){sub 1{minus}{ital x}C2{ital x}}{sup IV} semiconductor alloys exhibit a transition as a function of composition between a phase with the zinc-blende symmetry (where the two fcc sublattices of the diamond lattice are unequally occupied by {ital A}{sup III} and {ital B}{sup V} atoms) and a phase with the diamond symmetry (where the two sublattices have equal occupations). Previous thermodynamic models of this transition have considered only nearest-neighbor interactions between {ital neutral} atoms. This approach ignores the important electrostatic interactions associated with electron transfer between the electron-rich {ital C}{sup IV}-{ital B}{sup V} ( donor'') bonds and the electron-deficient {ital A}{sup III}-{ital C}{sup IV} ( acceptor'') bonds. We have reexamined the validity of a three-dimensional bulk thermodynamic model for (GaAs){sub 1{minus}{ital x}}Ge{sub 2{ital x}} and (GaP){sub 1{minus}{ital x}}Si{sub 2{ital x}} using an energy model that includes such electrostatic interactions and pairwise energies extracted from first-principles local-density total-energy calculations.
Performance Based Maintenance of Road Infrastructure by Contracting - A Challenge for Developing Countries

Road authorities always strive to reduce the maintenance costs of road infrastructure systems using various traditional methods of contract. Contracting out road maintenance to the private sector based on performance measures is an alternative solution to maintain road infrastructure in a cost-effective way and is named as Performance Based Maintenance Contracting (PBMC). Many countries have succeeded in minimizing road infrastructure maintenance costs using performance-based maintenance contracts over the last two decades. However, implementation of PBMC is still a challenge for many developing countries because of resource and skill limitations, corruption and poor management systems. This paper discusses and analyses the problems and difficulties in the successful implementation of PBMC in developing countries.
RMIT University at TREC 2006: Terabyte Track

• The ability use either a Porter’s stemmer (Porter, 1997), a “ light” stemmer which achieves slightly worse effectiveness than Porter’s with far better efficienc y, or no stemming. • Transparent indexing of gzip files. • Similarity metric configuration: an enhanced set of similar ity metrics, including Dirichlet-smoothed language modelling (Zhai and Lafferty, 2004), Okapi BM25 (S parck Jones et al., 2000), cosine and pivoted cosine (Singhal et al., 1996) metrics. In addition, Zettair now defines a simple language for implementing new metrics. • Impact ordered operation: Zettair can now generate and use i mpact-ordered (Anh and Moffat, 2002) inverted lists. • Options to control memory usage, resulting in greatly reduc memory consumption, especially during indexing. • Increased indexing speed. • Integratedtrec eval effectiveness evaluation.
Infant Cardiac Surgery: Mothers Tell Their Story

Background: Serious congenital heart disease frequently requires major congenital heart surgery. It causes much distress for parents, which may not always be recognized and treated appropriately. Patients and Methods: As part of a larger study, 26 mothers of two-month-old infants subjected to recent cardiac surgery were interviewed in depth. Each mother was invited to describe her own and what she perceived were her infant’s experiences and to comment on the interview process. A systematic content analysis of the interviews was performed using qualitative research methodology. Results: Almost all participants described acute stress symptoms relating to the diagnosis and the infant’s surgery. In addition, most mothers reported that the interview helped them to think about and integrate what had happened to them and their infant, suggesting a probable therapeutic value to the interview. Conclusions: A suitably qualified and experienced mental health professional, assisting the mother to tell her story about the diagnosis and her infant’s cardiac surgery, may provide a valuable, brief, and very cost-effective therapeutic intervention for these mothers and infants. It has the potential to alleviate maternal distress, with associated gains for the developing mother–infant relationship, reducing infant morbidity, and enhancing the quality of life for both infant and mother.
An Enhanced Community-based Reputation System for Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks

— Reliable traffic message communication is one of the most essential goals for implementing secure vehicular ad hoc networking environment. In order to support secure traffic message communications, we propose an improved vehicular reputation system that manages the reputations of vehicles and verifies the reliability of traffic messages based on the vehicle reputation. We enhance our previously proposed community-based reputation model that an agent roadside unit (A-RSU) designated by a vehicle manages the reputation of the vehicle, and issues reputation certificates. In particular, we introduce practical ways of evaluating vehicle’s reputation in real time and delivering the evaluated results to the A-RSU efficiently. The reputation of a vehicle is measured by the communication behaviors of the vehicle. All traffic event-based messages of the vehicle are evaluated by neighbors, and a local proof of the evaluation is delivered to the A-RSU. Finally, the A-RSU updates the reputation certificate of the vehicle based on the local proofs. We introduce an aggregated local proof generation mechanism based on the agreement of neighbors, and also provide efficient local proof delivery strategies. Our simulation results show that our proposed routing model outperforms in terms of average link duration, throughput and routing overheads than other routing strategies.
Candida glabrata's recurrent infections: biofilm formation during Amphotericin B treatment

Candida species are responsible for recurrent human infections, mostly in immunocompromised patients, due to their high vulnerability. Candida glabrata has a major role in systemic candidiasis and Amphotericin B (AmB), a polyene only used in hospitals, is frequently used to treat this disease. Lately, however, clinical evidences of Candida recurrent infections during these treatments are being described, probably due to biofilm (re)formation during this therapy. Thus, this work aims at inferring if C. glabrata biofilms are still being formed during AmB treatment. For that, C. glabrata biofilms were formed in the presence of AmB and analysed by dry weight. Matrix composition was analysed quantifying carbohydrates and, specifically, β‐1,3 glucans. Results demonstrated that, although in a lesser extent, C. glabrata is able to develop biofilms in the presence of AmB, with a thick extracellular matrix, with an increase on carbohydrates, especially β‐1,3 glucans. Therefore, it is confirmed that complex biofilms of C. glabrata can be formed during an AmB treatment.
Extended-Spectrum-Cephalosporin Resistance Genes in Escherichia coli from Beef Cattle

Resistance to extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESC) has rarely been detected in Enterobacteriaceae from beef cattle in Canada ([1][1]); in contrast, in the United States, it has repeatedly been found in bacteria from cattle (see, for instance, references [2][2] to [5][3]). To assess whether similar
Duration of untreated illness (DUI) and schizophrenia sub-types: A collaborative study between the universities of Milan and Moscow

Background: Several studies show an association between a long duration of untreated illness (DUI) and poor outcome in schizophrenic patients. DUI, in turn, may be influenced by different variables including specific illness-related factors as well as access to local psychiatric services. Aims: The purposes of the present study were to detect differences in terms of DUI among schizophrenics coming from different geographic areas and to evaluate differences in DUI across diagnostic sub-types. Method: One hundred and twenty-five (125) schizophrenic patients of the Psychiatric Clinic of Milan (n = 51) and Moscow (n = 74) were enrolled. SCID-I was administered to all patients and information about DUI was obtained by consulting clinical charts and health system databases, and by means of clinical interviews with patients and their relatives. DUI was defined as the time between the onset of illness and the administration of the first antipsychotic drug. One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were performed to find eventual differences in terms of DUI across diagnostic sub-types. Results: Italian patients showed a longer DUI (M = 4.14 years, SD = 4.95) than Russians (M = 1.16 years, SD = 1.43) (F = 24.03, p < .001). DUI was found to be longer in paranoid schizophrenics (M = 3.47 years, SD = 4.19) compared to catatonic patients (M = 0.96 years, SD = 0.94) (F = 3.56, p = .016). Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that the different schizophrenic sub-types may differ in terms of DUI, likely due to different clinical severity and social functioning. Studies with larger samples are needed to confirm the data of the present study.
Research on automatic acquisition method of Chinese domain ontology backbone based on Hownet

Currently, ontology is widely used in the field of information science, and ontology backbone has been proved to be the major component and a key part of ontology. This paper proposes an acquisition method of ontology backbone, which is expanded on the basis of clustered domain term. Firstly, this method uses Hownet to take segmentation of domain term, and then takes semantic disambiguation for abbreviation based on Hownet and guideless method. Finally, it automatically obtains concept, concept hierarchy and its corresponding instance. Experiment results confirmed that this method is practical and effective.
Identification and Susceptibility Testing of Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa by Direct Inoculation from Positive BACTEC Blood Culture Bottles into Vitek 2

ABSTRACT Inoculation of an automated system for rapid identification (ID) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) directly from positive blood culture bottles will reduce the turnaround time of laboratory diagnosis of septicemic patients, which benefits clinical outcome and decreases patient costs. Direct test results, however, must always be confirmed by testing a pure overnight culture, which is the “gold standard. ” We studied the accuracy of direct testing versus repeat testing in order to investigate the possibility of refraining from repeat testing. We also assessed the clinical risk of reporting results based on direct testing only. We inoculated Vitek 2 (bioMérieux) directly from 410 positive BACTEC 9240 (BD) blood culture bottles containing gram-negative rods and studied the ID and AST results. In a comparison of direct inoculation with the standard method, a total of 344 isolates of Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were tested, and 93.0% were correctly identified. Of the 39 (10.2%) samples that contained bacilli not identifiable by Vitek 2, only 1 gave a conclusive, correct result. The overall MIC agreement among 312 isolates was 99.2%, with 0.8% very major and 0.02% major error rates. Of only three (polymicrobial) samples, the direct susceptibility pattern would be reported to the clinician as too sensitive. Vitek 2 results obtained from direct inoculation of blood culture bottles containing gram-negative bacilli are safe enough for immediate reporting, provided that ID and AST are consistent. Repeat testing is not necessary, unless Gram stain or overnight subculture results raise doubt about the purity of the culture.
Color Image Authentication based on Two-Dimensional Separable Discrete Hartley Transform ( CIA 2 D-SDHT ) *

*Department of Computer Science & Engineering Greater Kolkata College of Engineering & Management Baruipur, West Bengal, 743387, India ** Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of Kalyani Kalyani, West Bengal, 741235, India (sudipta.ghosal@gmail.com; jkm.cse@gmail.com) Abstract In this paper, a novel watermarking technique based on two-dimensional separable discrete Hartley transform (2D-SDHT) has been proposed for color image authentication (CIA2DSDHT). Each 2 x 2 sub-image block of the carrier image is pre-adjusted, if necessary and then transformed using 2D-SDHT in row major order. Two bits of secret data are fabricated at second and third bit positions of each transformed component. An inverse two dimensional separable discrete Hartley transform (2D-ISDHT) has been applied on embedded block followed by a postadjustment operation on the frequency components to re-generate watermarked image with minimum degradation in spatial domain. The recipient at the destination end perform reverse operation to extract the secret bits stream. A message digest is obtained from the extracted watermark which in turn is compared with the extracted message digest for authentication. Experimental results conforms that the proposed technique offer better payload and PSNR over existing techniques [17-22].
Direct and Indirect Economic Incentives to Mitigate Nitrogen Surpluses: A Sensitivity Analysis

The reduction of nitrogen (N) surplus is an ongoing topic in the agri-environmental policies of many countries in the developed world. The introduction of N balance estimation in agricultural sector models is therefore pertinent and requires an interdisciplinary approach. We extended the agent based agricultural sector model SWISSland with an N farm gate balance estimation to pre-evaluate the introduction of a levy on N inputs, particularly a levy on fertilizer and imported concentrates, on N surplus reduction in the Swiss agriculture. The model was based on the Swiss farm accountancy data network (FADN) for 3,000 farms. The modelâ€™s ability to represent the N balance was assessed by conducting a structured full factorial sensitivity analysis. The sensitivity analysis revealed the possibility to switch to organic farming and the hectare based payments for ensuring food security as key parameters with the largest influence on the modelled N surplus. The evaluation of N input levy scenarios suggested that an introduction of a tax of 800% of N price will reduce the N surplus by 10% indicating a price elasticity of -0.03. The sensitivity analysis and the results from the levy scenarios suggest that indirect instruments, such as optimizing the direct payments scheme, should be considered rather than direct instruments for an effective N surpluses mitigation in Swiss agriculture.
Live demonstration: FPGA based 3840×2160 video decoding and displaying system

A demonstration of FPGA-based 3840×2160 UHDTV (Ultra-high definition TV) H.264 video decoding and displaying system is proposed in this paper. The proposed system can decode and display 3840×2160 video by two Altera Stratix III DE3 FPGA boards, which are connected together with each other by HSTC cable. Video processing system requires high memory bandwidth. This paper locate decoder module and display module in different FPGA board and try to use two off-chip memory of the two boards, in order to provide more memory bandwidth.
Pentoxifylline Decreases Dialysis Risk in Patients With Advanced Chronic Kidney Disease

Few studies evaluated the effects of pentoxifylline on hard endpoints in patients with predialysis stage 5 chronic kidney disease (CKD). Thus, we tried to explore the effects of pentoxifylline and its interaction with renin‐angiotensin‐aldosterone system (RAAS) blockade on the development of endstage renal disease (ESRD) and mortality. This nationwide cohort study retrospectively included patients who had a serum creatinine level of >6 mg/dL and received erythropoiesis‐stimulating agents (ESAs) between 2000 and 2010. We analyzed 7,366 pentoxifylline users and 7,366 propensity score‐matched nonusers. Using Cox proportional hazard models, pentoxifylline reduced the risks of ESRD and the composite renal outcome but not that of mortality. In terms of the risks of developing ESRD, pentoxifylline alone exerted a comparable beneficial effect to combined therapy with an RAAS inhibitor and greater renoprotection than RAAS inhibitor monotherapy. This study suggests pentoxifylline is efficacious in slowing progression to ESRD in patients with predialysis stage 5 CKD.
Detection of disseminated tumor cells in peripheral blood of colorectal cancer patients

All cancer staging systems seek to identify clinical and pathological features that can predict outcome or guide therapy. In particular, a non‐invasive method for the early detection of disseminating disease would be of great interest. We investigated the use of cytokeratin genes expression to detect blood metastases from colorectal tumors. Epithelial tumor cells were isolated from whole blood using the monoclonal antibody (MAb) BerEP4 and magnetic beads, and detected by reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction using oligonucleotides derived from the cDNA sequences of cytokeratins 8, 19 and 20. The sensitivity of this assay was determined by spiking SW620 colon carcinoma cells in normal blood. Using cytokeratin 19 expression we were able to detect 1 epithelial tumor cell in 1 ml of whole blood. The clinical applicability of this technique was explored by evaluating patients with a colorectal carcinoma. Epithelial cells were detected in the blood of 12 out of 23 patients, 2 (20%) of 10 with Astler‐Coller stage A or B, and 10 (77%) of 13 with stage C or D cancer. In conclusion, this test is a non‐invasive, sensitive, and specific assay for detecting circulating epithelial cells in blood. It may be useful for the early diagnosis of disseminating disease, to determine whether the presence of micrometastatic cells at the time of surgery is correlated with an early relapse and for monitoring adjuvant therapeutic trials. Int. J. Cancer 74:540–544, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Fieldward and Pathward: Dynamic Guides for Defining Your Own Gestures

Although users accomplish ever more tasks on touch-enabled mobile devices, gesture-based interaction remains limited and almost never customizable by users. Our goal is to help users create gestures that are both personally memorable and reliably recognized by a touch-enabled mobile device. We address these competing requirements with two dynamic guides that use progressive feedforward to interactively visualize the "negative space" of unused gestures: the Pathward technique suggests four possible completions to the current gesture, and the Fieldward technique uses color gradients to reveal optimal directions for creating recognizable gestures. We ran a two-part experiment in which 27 participants each created 42 personal gesture shortcuts on a smartphone, using Pathward, Fieldward or No Feedforward. The Fieldward technique best supported the most common user strategy, i.e. to create a memorable gesture first and then adapt it to be recognized by the system. Users preferred the Fieldward technique to Pathward or No Feedforward, and remembered gestures more easily when using the technique. Dynamic guides can help developers design novel gesture vocabularies and support users as they design custom gestures for mobile applications.
Fluorimetric determination of tetracyclines in biological materials.

A method for the fluorimetric determination of tetracyclines in biological materials based on solvent extraction of mixed tetracycline-calcium trichloroacetate ion pairs from aqueous solutions is described. The extraction of tetracycline (TC) and chlorotetracycline (CTC) is almost quantitative, whereas only very poor extraction occurs with oxytetracycline (OTC). However, saturation of the aqueous phase with sodium chloride results in complete extraction of OTC into the organic phase. This effect enables OTC to be determined in the presence of TC and CTC. Ethyl acetate was found to be the most suitable extractant. The fluorescence of the organic phase is measured after addition of magnesium ions and a base.The excitation maxima of all three tetracycline derivatives are at about 400 nm and emission maxima are at 500 nm. They differ only very slightly and cannot be used for differentiation between the derivatives. The following detection limits for CTC in biological materials were found: serum, 0.05 µg ml–1; muscle tissue, 0.125 µg g–1; kidney, 0.15 µg g–1; liver, 0.3 µg g–1; and milk powder with high fat content, 2 µg g–1. Recoveries were between 30 and 45%.
Word length selection method based on mixed simulation for digital PID controllers implemented in FPGA

Digital controllers implemented in an FPGA for switching power converters are becoming an important alternative to the traditional analog solutions. Assuming that the digital controller is described using a hardware description language (VHDL), the ADVance MS mixed-signal simulation tool is used to simulate in closed loop the digital controller in order to analyze the finite word-length effects. The use of the VHDL fixed point package in this procedure to select the word length may shorten the design cycle.
Laminar distribution of neuropeptide Y‐immunoreactive neurons in human prefrontal cortex during development

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is present in neurons of the adult human cerebral cortex. In view of the reported roles of NPY in the central nervous system in health and during certain disease conditions, we have studied normal development of NPY immunoreactivity (‐ir) in the human prefrontal cortex (PFC), Brodmann areas 9 and 46. Twenty‐six specimens ranging from the ages of 14 postovulatory weeks to 34 years exhibited patterns that revealed six periods in the development of the laminar distribution and density of NPY‐ir neurons.