Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Generation of immunogenic dendritic cells from human embryonic stem cells without serum and feeder cells.

AIM Dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccines have a potential utility for use in the treatment of malignancy. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) may provide a more cost-effective and reliable source of DCs for immunotherapy purposes, providing on-demand access for patients. METHOD We developed a protocol to generate DCs from hESCs in vitro in the absence of serum and feeder cells. This protocol uses growth factors bone morphogenetic protein-4, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), stem cell factor and VEGF in serum-free media to generate hESC-derived monocytic cells. These cells are further differentiated to hESC-derived immature DCs with GM-CSF and IL-4, and matured to hESC-derived mature DCs with a maturation cocktail consisting of GM-CSF, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IFN-gamma and PGE2. RESULTS This study demonstrates the applicability of our defined differentiation process in generating functional hESC-derived DCs from multiple hESC lines. We show that hESC-derived immature DCs phagocytose, process, and present antigen upon maturation. hESC-derived mature DCs express the maturation marker CD83, produce Th1-directing cytokine IL-12p70, migrate in response to chemokine, and activate both viral and tumor antigen-specific T-cell responses. CONCLUSION We developed a chemically defined system to generate unlimited numbers of DCs from hESCs. Our results demonstrate that hESC-derived DCs generated from this process are immunogenic and have the potential to be used for DC immunotherapy.
The value of cultivating norms for market orientation in professional service firms

Purpose This paper aims to center on the value of cultivating norms for market orientation (MO) in professional service firms (PSFs). Based on social capital theory, three variables for norm-based behavioral activities of MO were suggested, i.e. leadership support (LS), relationship learning in teams (RLT) and collective engagement (CE). Moreover, three variables were suggested as performance outcomes of norm-based behavioral activities of MO, i.e. employee commitment (EC), service quality provision (SQP) and two dimensions of a firm’s innovative capability (exploratory [EXPLOR] and exploitative innovation [EXPLOIT]). Design/methodology/approach Using a survey, a conceptual model was developed and empirically tested. All participants were employed in consultancy firms representing the population of PSFs. Findings The findings reveal that RLT, LS and employee CE are particularly suitable in forming norm-based behavioral activities of MO for PSFs. Moreover, the findings reveal that the two dimensions of a firm’s innovative capability (EXPLOR and EXPLOIT) provide strong performance outcomes for norm-based behavioral activities of MO. Moreover, the results also reveal that norm-based behavioral activities of MO for PSFs influenced both EC and SQP. Originality/value Using social capital theory, the study contributes to identifying both forming variables and performance outcomes centered on norm-based behavioral activities of MO for PSFs.
Feasibility of laparoscopic orthotopic kidney transplantation: initial research with a pig model.

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to investigate the feasibility of laparoscopic orthotopic kidney transplantation. MATERIAL AND METHODS This study involved bilateral laparoscopic nephrectomy in pigs. One of 2 kidneys harvested from the first or second nephrectomy was chosen as the donor kidney to be transplanted to the left or right side in the second nephrectomy position. Eight laparoscopic orthotopic kidney transplantations were performed. RESULTS The mean venous anastomotic time was 70 minutes (45-108 minutes). The mean arterial anastomotic time was 31 minutes (23-45 minutes). Three pigs received life-supporting auto-renal allografts. Their serum creatinine levels were 163, 285, and 440 µmol/L (baseline: 133 µmol/L), respectively, at postoperative day 7. One died of a possible anesthetic overdose immediately after the operation. Four pigs died at postoperative days 2, 3, 4, and 4. Of 8 completed laparoscopic orthotopic kidney transplantations, 6 had autopsy-proven reliable artery and vein anastomoses. Histopathologic examination of the autografts demonstrated normal renal architecture in 1 survival, and acute tubular necrosis in the remaining 7 (stenosis in one and arterial thrombus in another). CONCLUSIONS Our study reinforces the feasibility of laparoscopic orthotopic kidney transplantation in pigs. This study comprised only initial practices; further practice is needed to refine the surgical procedures and decrease surgical complications in laparoscopic orthotopic kidney transplantation.
mRNA expression of leukemia‐associated antigens in patients with acute myeloid leukemia for the development of specific immunotherapies

Specific immunotherapies for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) using leukemia‐associated antigens (LAA) as target structures might be a therapeutic option to enhance the graft‐vs.‐leukemia effect observed after allogeneic stem cell transplantation or to prolong a complete remission (CR) achieved by chemotherapy. Significant mRNA expression of LAA is a prerequisite for such immunotherapies. Here, previously characterized antigens associated with solid tumors (TAA) and newly characterized LAA were investigated for their expression in up to 60 AML patients and in leukemia cell lines. To investigate their specificity for leukemic blasts, the mRNA expression was also characterized in PBMN and CD34 positive cells of healthy volunteers and in a panel of normal tissues. The following antigens showed high mRNA expression in AML patients: MPP11 was detected in 43/50 (86%), RHAMM in 35/50 (70%), WT1 in 40/60 (67%), PRAME in 32/50 (64%), G250 in 18/35 (51%), hTERT in 7/25 (28%) and BAGE in 8/30 (27%) of AML patients. Real‐time RT‐PCR showed a tumor‐specific expression of the antigens BAGE, G250 and hTERT, as well as highly tumor‐restricted expression for RHAMM, PRAME and WT1. The antigen MPP11 was overexpressed. These antigens might be candidates for immunotherapies of leukemia patients and, because of their simultaneous expression, also for polyvalent vaccines. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cover song recognition based on MPEG-7 audio features

Lately, song industry has developed rapidly throughout the world. In the past, there were many applications which used song as their main themes, such as Shazam and Sound hound. Shazam and Sound hound could identify a song based on recorded one through the application. These applications work by matching the recorded song with an original song in the database. However, matching process is only based on the particular part of the spectrogram instead of an entire song's spectrogram. The disadvantages of this method arise though. This application could only identify the recorded original song. When application recorded a cover song, it cannot identify the title of the original song's since the spectrogram of a cover performance's and its original song's is entirely different. This paper exists to discuss how to recognize a cover song based on MPEG-7 standard ISO. KNN was used as classification method and combined with Audio Spectrum Projection and Audio Spectrum Flatness feature from MPEG-7 extraction. The result from this method identifies an original song from recorded cover of the original one. Result for experiment in this paper is about 75–80%, depends on testing data; whether the testing data is a dominant vocal song or dominant instrument song.
Exercise Induces Myonuclear Ubiquitination and Apoptosis in Dystrophin‐deficient Muscle of Mice

Apoptosis plays a major role in several diseases, including viral infections, autoimmune diseases, cancer, cardiac infarct, and neurological disorders. To investigate the role of apoptosis in muscular dystrophy, dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice were subjected to spontaneous exercise and skeletal muscles were analyzed for apoptosis and ubiquitin. The increase of apoptotic myonuclei after exercise was detected by TUNEL, by electron microscopy, and by DNA analyses for high molecular weight and for ladder fragments. Expression of ubiquitin correlated with exercise and with positive myonuclei for apoptosis. Biochemical analysis confirmed a high level of ubiquitination both in sarcoplasmic and myofibrillar proteins. Muscles from sedentary congenit control mice (C57B) were negative for apoptosis, while after exercise some nuclei were positive. We also revealed that normal myoblasts committed to apoptosis in vitro showed an increased expression of ubiquitin. Western blot for bcl-2, FasL, and BAG1 showed a significant decrease of bcl-2 product only in mdx mice after exercise. Thus, spontaneous exercise results in the increase of ubiquitin expression and in the reduction of bcl-2 tightly related to programmed cell death in mdx mice. These findings confirm that DNA fragmentation, absent in muscles of sedentary normal mice but present in mdx mice at rest, dramatically increases after exercise, shedding new light on exercise-induced muscle damage and on its progression in dystrophinopathies.
Horse Welfare and Natural Values on Semi-Natural and Extensive Pastures in Finland: Synergies and Trade-Offs

In several regions in Europe, the horse is becoming a common grazer on semi-natural and cultivated grasslands, though the pasturing benefits for animals and biodiversity alike are not universally appreciated. The composition of ground vegetation on pastures determines the value of both the forage for grazing animals as well as the biodiversity values for species associated with the pastoral ecosystems. We studied three pastures, each representing one of the management types in southern Finland (latitudes 60–61): semi-natural, permanent and cultivated grassland. All have been grazed exclusively by horses for several decades. We aimed to evaluate feeding values and horses’ welfare, on the one hand, and impacts of horses on biodiversity in boreal conditions, on the other. Though there were differences among the pastures, the nutritional value of the vegetation in all three pastures met the energy and protein needs of most horse categories through the whole grazing season. Some mineral concentrations were low compared to the requirements, and supplementation of Cu, Zn and Na is needed to balance the mineral intake. Only minor injuries or health problems were observed. All metrics of biological values, as well as number of species eaten by horses, were particularly high in a semi-natural pasture compared to other pasture types. The highest ratio of species cover preferred by horses to the total cover was found in the permanent pasture, while at the regularly re-seeded pasture, there was a particularly high cover of species, indicating low biodiversity values on grassland. There was, therefore, a trade-off between the quantity of forage and biological values in pastures, but not in quality. The results provide clear indication both for the suitability of the studied pasture types to horses and for grazing of horses for biodiversity management. In each pasture type, specific management is needed to simultaneously achieve objectives of adequate pasturing and biodiversity. The short duration (only one grazing season) must be considered when applying the results.
Electronically Mediated Time-out Initiative to Reduce the Incidence of Wrong Surgery: An Interventional Observational Study

Background:“Wrong surgery” is defined as wrong site, wrong operation, or wrong patient, with estimated incidence up to 1 per 5,000 cases. Responding to national attention on wrong surgery, our objective was to create a care redesign intervention to minimize the rate of wrong surgery. Methods:The authors created an electronic system using existing intraoperative electronic documentation to present a time-out checklist on large in-room displays. Time-out was dynamically interposed as a forced-function documentation step between “patient-in-operating room” and “incision. ” Time to complete documentation was obtained from audit logs. The authors measured the postimplementation wrong surgery rate and used Bayesian methods to compare the pre- and postimplementation rates at our institution. Previous probabilities were selected using wrong surgery rate estimates from the observed performance reported in the literature to generate previous probabilities (4.24 wrong surgeries per 100,000 cases). Results:No documentation times exceeded 5 min; 97% of documentation tasks were completed within 2 min. The authors performed 243,939 operations over 5 yr using the system, with zero wrong surgeries, compared with 253,838 operations over 6 yr with two wrong surgeries before implementation. Bayesian analysis suggests an 84% probability that the postimplementation wrong rate is lower than baseline. However, given the rarity of wrong surgery in our sample, there is substantial uncertainty. The total system-development cost was $34,000, roughly half the published cost of one weighted median settlement for wrong surgery. Conclusion:Implementation of a forced-completion electronically mediated time-out process before incision is feasible, but it is unclear whether true performance improvements occur.
Development of transgenic mice that inducibly express an active form of c‐Src in the epidermis

Recent work from our laboratory has shown that elevated src kinase activity enhances tumor promotion, malignant progression, and metastasis during multistage skin carcinogenesis. In this study, we have generated “gene‐switch” src530 transgenic mice to further analyze the role of this nonreceptor tyrosine kinase in multistage carcinogenesis. Target transgenic mice that have an activated form of the human c‐src (src530) gene fused with GAL4 binding sites upstream of the thymidine kinase (TK) promoter were generated. Two lines of epidermis‐specific transactivator mice were used that targeted the expression of GLVPc or GLp65 transactivators, fusion molecules containing a truncated progesterone receptor with a GAl4‐DNA binding domain, with either a mouse loricrin (ML) or human keratin 14 (HK14) promoter, respectively. The transactivator mice (ML.GLVPc or HK14.GLp65) and the target mice (TK.src530) were mated to generate bitransgenic mice, and src530 transgene expression was induced by topical application of RU486 (mifepristone, a progesterone receptor antagonist). In both ML.GLVPc/TK.src530 and HK14.GLp65/TK.src530 bitransgenic mice, histological analysis revealed that only the bitransgenic mice had marked epidermal hyperplasia and hyperkeratosis after treatment with RU486. Neither the nontransgenic mice nor the mice hemizygous for either the transactivator transgene or the target transgene alone showed any response to treatment with RU486. In addition, no differences were observed in the skin of the bitransgenic mice versus nontransgenic littermates without treatment of RU486. Interestingly, in HK14.GLp65/TK.src530 bitransgenic mice, squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) arose along the periphery of the area of the punch biopsies in 25% of the bitransgenic mice several weeks after taking the biopsy and subsequent to RU486 treatment. Collectively, the data support a role of c‐src activation in epidermal hyperproliferation. Furthermore, the data support the conclusion that src activation can substitute for an initiating event in the presence of a tumor promoting stimulus (i.e., wounding). Finally, inducible src530 transgenic mice provide a new tool for dissecting the role of src activation in multistage carcinogenesis by allowing temporal control of the expression of this oncogene. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Role of exercise in rehabilitation of cancer survivors

Approximately 70% of all children diagnosed with malignancy become long‐term survivors. Anthracycline cardiotoxicity may complicate physical performance and invite a “spectrum of disuse. ” There is a paucity of information derived from longitudinal, prospective, randomized clinical trials of exercise in cancer survivors, and there are no guidelines concerning the risk of recreational (non‐competetive) exercise in adolescent and young adult patients with anthracycline cardiomyopathy. This review will discuss screening procedures that should be performed when assigning exercise regimens to cancer survivors with or without evidence of left ventricular dysfunction. Current recommendations for exercise testing and exercise prescription are also provided. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2005;44:595–599. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Making Cornish–Fisher Fit for Risk Measurement

The truncated Cornish–Fisher inverse expansion is well known and has been used to approximate value-at-risk and conditional value-at-risk. The following are also known. The expansion is available only for a limited range of skewness and kurtosis. The distribution approximation it gives is poor for larger values of skewness or kurtosis. We develop a computational method to find a unique corrected Cornish–Fisher distribution efficiently for a wide range of skewness and kurtosis. We show it has a unimodal density and a quantile function that is twice continuously differentiable as a function of mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis. We extend the univariate distribution to a multivariate Cornish–Fisher distribution and show it can be used together with estimation-error reduction methods to improve risk estimation. We show how to test goodness-of-fit. We apply the Cornish–Fisher distribution to fit hedge-fund returns and estimate conditional value-at-risk. We conclude that the Cornish–Fisher distribution is useful in estimating risk, especially in the multivariate case where we must deal with estimation error.
Enzyme–microbe synergy during cellulose hydrolysis by Clostridium thermocellum

Specific cellulose hydrolysis rates (g of cellulose/g of cellulase per h) were shown to be substantially higher (2.7- to 4.7-fold) for growing cultures of Clostridium thermocellum as compared with purified cellulase preparations from this organism in controlled experiments involving both batch and continuous cultures. This “enzyme–microbe synergy” requires the presence of metabolically active cellulolytic microbes, is not explained by removal of hydrolysis products from the bulk fermentation broth, and appears due to surface phenomena involving adherent cellulolytic microorganisms. Results support the desirability of biotechnological processes featuring microbial conversion of cellulosic biomass to ethanol (or other products) in the absence of added saccharolytic enzymes.
Flow cytometry detection of Shiga toxins in the blood from children with hemolytic uremic syndrome

Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is the main cause of acute renal failure in early childhood. Most cases are due to intestinal infections from Escherichia coli strains (STEC) which produce by Shiga toxin (Stxs). Stx1 and Stx2 produced by STEC in the gut are absorbed into the circulation and, after binding on polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNs), are targeted to renal endothelium. The aim of the present work was the development of a method to detect Stxs bound on circulating PMNs and to diagnose STEC infections in patients with HUS.
Resource allocation for downlink joint space-time and power domain non-orthogonal multiple access

A quasi-orthogonal space-time block code (Q-OSTBC) has been proposed to achieve a better multiplexing-diversity tradeoff. With unequal diversity order of symbols, the code can effectively mitigate the error propagation in the successive interference cancellation (SIC) based detector for each user. As well known, non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) has been recognized as a promising technique for 5G networks due to its superior spectral efficiency, many connections, and user fairness. In this paper, we have multiplexed the space-time and power domains and combined the Q-OSTBC with NOMA to further improve the system throughput. Both optimal and suboptimal power allocation schemes have been designed to maximize the system rate with the total power constraint and the quality of service (QoS) constraint of the weak user. Simulation results have validated our theoretical claims, and also shown that the proposed algorithms can realize the efficient power allocation with very low computational complexity.
Sensitivity of palm print sign in prediction of difficult laryngoscopy in diabetes: A comparison with other airway indices

Background and Aims: Diabetic patients are prone for the limited joint mobility syndrome. The atlanto-occipital joint involvement limits adequate extension of head and neck during laryngoscopy making intubation difficult. The collagen glycosylation starts in the fourth and fifth inter-phalangeal joints. The degree of inter-phalangeal involvement can be assessed by scoring the ink impression made by the palm of the dominant hand (palm print [PP] sign) The aim of our study was to evaluate the PP sign as a screening tool for predicting difficult laryngoscopy in diabetic patients. Methods: A total of 60 diabetic patients undergoing general anaesthesia with endotracheal intubation were assessed pre-operatively for their airway indices using the modified Mallampati test, thyromental distance, degree of head extension, the PP test and the prayer sign and their corresponding Cormack-Lehane scores were noted. Statistical analysis was performed using Fischer exact test. Results: Of the 60 patients, 15 had positive PP sign. Of the 13 difficult laryngoscopies encountered, 10 patients had a positive PP sign. PP sign was the most sensitive index in predicting difficult laryngoscopy. P =0.000 was obtained and considered as statistically significant. The sensitivity was 76.9%, specificity 89.4%, positive and negative predictive value 71.4% and 91.3% and accuracy 86.7%, respectively. The other signs were not significant in predicting difficult laryngoscopy. Conclusion: The PP test appears to be the most sensitive and specific in the prediction of difficult laryngoscopy in diabetic patients.
A homeodomain protein related to caudal regulates intestine-specific gene transcription

The continually renewing epithelium of the intestinal tract arises from the visceral endoderm by a series of complex developmental transitions. The mechanisms that establish and maintain the processes of cellular renewal, cell lineage allocation, and tissue restriction and spatial assignment of gene expression in this epithelium are unknown. An understanding of the regulation of intestine-specific gene regulation may provide information on the molecular mechanisms that direct these processes. In this regard, we show that intestine-specific transcription of sucrase-isomaltase, a gene that is expressed exclusively in differentiated enterocytes, is dependent on binding of a tissue-specific homeodomain protein (mouse Cdx-2) to an evolutionarily conserved promoter element in the sucrase-isomaltase gene. This protein is a member of the caudal family of homeodomain genes which appear to function in early developmental events in Drosophila melanogaster, during gastrulation in many species, and in intestinal endoderm. Unique for this homeodomain gene family, we show that mouse Cdx-2 binds as a dimer to its regulatory element and that dimerization in vitro is dependent on redox potential. These characteristics of the interaction of Cdx-2 with its regulatory element provide for a number of potential mechanisms for transcriptional regulation. Taken together, these findings suggest that members of the Cdx gene family play a fundamental role both in the establishment of the intestinal phenotype during development and in maintenance of this phenotype via transcriptional activation of differentiated intestinal genes.