Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Immune Therapeutic Potential of Stem Cells from Human Supernumerary Teeth

Discoveries of immunomodulatory functions in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have suggested that they might have therapeutic utility in treating immune diseases. Recently, a novel MSC population was identified from dental pulp of human supernumerary teeth, and its multipotency characterized. Herein, we first examined the in vitro and in vivo immunomodulatory functions of human supernumerary tooth-derived stem cells (SNTSCs). SNTSCs suppressed not only the viability of T-cells, but also the differentiation of interleukin 17 (IL-17)-secreting helper T (Th17) -cells in in vitro co-culture experiments. In addition, systemic SNTSC transplantation ameliorated the shortened lifespan and elevated serum autoantibodies and nephritis-like renal dysfunction in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) model MRL/lpr mice. SNTSC transplantation also suppressed in vivo increased levels of peripheral Th17 cells and IL-17, as well as ex vivo differentiation of Th17 cells in MRL/lpr mice. Adoptive transfer experiments demonstrated that SNTSC-transplanted MRL/lpr mouse-derived T-cell-adopted immunocompromised mice showed a longer lifespan in comparison with non-transplanted MRL/lpr mouse-derived T-cell-adopted immunocompromised mice, indicating that SNTSC transplantation suppresses the hyper-immune condition of MRL/lpr mice through suppressing T-cells. Analysis of these data suggests that SNTSCs are a promising MSC source for cell-based therapy for immune diseases such as SLE.
The ras‐related mouse ypt1 protein can functionally replace the YPT1 gene product in yeast.

The protein‐coding region of the essential Saccharomyces cerevisiae YPT1 gene coding for a ras‐related, guanine‐nucleotide‐binding protein was exchanged in chromosome VI by the protein‐coding segment of either the mouse ypt1 gene or the v‐Ki‐ras gene, and different chimeric YPT1‐v‐Ki‐ras genes. The mouse ypt1 protein with 71% of identical residues compared with the yeast Ypt1 protein could functionally fully replace its yeast homologue as long as the mouse gene was overexpressed under transcriptional control of the inducible GAL10 promoter. In contrast, neither the viral Ki‐ras nor the hybrid proteins were able to substitute for the loss of YPT1 gene function. This study suggests that different parts of the yeast Ypt1 protein are required for the interaction with cellular targets and that these essential parts are conserved in the mammalian ypt1 protein.
Finding Your Way , Courtesy of Machine Learning

In this paper, we consider the multi-label, multi-class prediction problem in the context of classifying undergraduate education requirements at Stanford University – namely, given a course’s description, determining what general education requirements it satisfies. Given the extremely tough challenge of using a small dataset, we opt to consider models and make modifications that are able to handle multiple classes and produce multiple labels with very limited training examples. We present a slightly modified version of Naive Bayes, an application of BoosTexter, and several iterations of linear classification techniques. Then, we explore the performance of techniques from deep learning including RNN, LSTM, and GRU.
International Union of Pharmacology. LXV. The Pharmacology and Classification of the Nuclear Receptor Superfamily: Glucocorticoid, Mineralocorticoid, Progesterone, and Androgen Receptors

The glucocorticoid receptor (GR[1][1]), mineralocorticoid receptor (MR), progesterone receptor (PR), and androgen receptor (AR) are classic members of the nuclear receptor superfamily, composing subfamily 3C. Members of this subfamily are among those receptors that were cloned the earliest, with the
A low-noise transformer-based 1.7 GHz CMOS VCO

A low-noise transformer-based 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS VCO operates at 1.7 GHz. The VCO core consumes 4.5 mA from 2.5 V, and results in phase noise of -116, -137 and -142 dBc/Hz at 100 k, 600 k and 1 MHz from the carrier, respectively. The tuning range is 107 MHz for 0-2.5 V tuning voltage. The oscillator is based on a transformer-type resonator.
Impact analysis of maintenance tasks for a distributed object-oriented system

The work described in this paper is part of an ongoing project to improve the maintenance process in a Vienna Software-House. A repository has been constructed on the basis of a relational database and populated with metadata on a wide variety of software artifacts at each semantic level of development-concept, code and test. Now the repository is being used to perform impact analysis and cost estimation of change requests prior to implementing them. For this, hypertext techniques and ripple effects are used to identify all interdependencies. A tool has been constructed to navigate through the repository, select the impacted entities and pick up their size, complexity and quality metrics for effort estimation.
Five-Year Outcomes of Surgical Treatment for Degenerative Lumbar Spinal Stenosis: A Prospective Observational Study of Symptom Severity at Standard Intervals after Surgery

Study Design. A prospective observational study of patients undergoing surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis. Objective. To determine whether the long-term outcomes differ as a function of age and gender. Summary of Background Data. The long-term results of surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis are not well understood, and the patient characteristics that predispose patients to worse outcomes are unknown. Methods. Seventy patients who underwent decompressive laminotomy with or without arthrodesis for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis were prospectively studied at standard intervals after surgery with respect to symptom severity rated on a visual analog scale (VAS). Results. The VAS scores for younger patients improved steadily for 3 or 6 months, after which the improvement was maintained until 60 months. The VAS scores for older patients showed a similar time course until 36 months, after which the VAS scores were worse compared with those for younger patients. The VAS scores for females were worse than those for males, in three symptoms queried, at one or more of the evaluation time points. Conclusion. In patients undergoing surgery for degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis, older age predicts a greater risk of late recurrence of symptoms, and women have higher VAS scores than men after surgery.
Improving screening for mental disorders in the primary care setting by combining the GHQ-12 and SCL-90-R subscales.

Most of patients with mental disorders are cared for in the primary care sector, rather than in the mental health sector. Self-report questionnaires can be used as screening instruments to identify mental disorders in primary care. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) is a widely used screening questionnaire for common mental disorders. Unfortunately, the GHQ-12 generates many false presumptive positives and forces the employer to expend resources on confirmatory testing. Therefore, the aim of the present report was to investigate a two-stage questionnaire screening design in a primary care setting. The GHQ-12 was used as an initial screening test followed by the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R). A randomly selected sample of adult outpatients (N = 408) from 18 primary care offices was screened using the two questionnaires. A structured diagnostic interview and an impairment rating were used as standards. Subjects were classified into true-positives and false-positives based on their GHQ-12 score and the clinical interview. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analysis were performed to determine whether the SCL-90-R increased accuracy in screening for mental disorders by discriminating between true-positive and false-positive cases. The SCL-90-R subscales Depression, Obsessive-Compulsive, and Somatization were identified as factors associated with the GHQ-12 classification. Therefore, a significant improvement in screening performance of the GHQ-12 is obtained by combination of the test results. The approach may reduce artifact due to high scoring tendencies not associated with psychological disorder.
Operated low grade astrocytomas: a long term PET study on the effect of radiotherapy

The role of postoperative radiotherapy in patients with low grade gliomas is not established yet. PET with 11C methionine (MET) and 18F fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) was used to perform cross sectional comparisons as well as within patient follow up studies in 30 operated patients with fibrillary astrocytoma WHO II. Uptake of tracer by tumour was quantified by radioactivity concentration ratios in tumour over contralateral brain (T/C). Comparing patients who did (n=13) or did not (n=17) receive external radiotherapy subsequent to first tumour resection, no differences in MET and FDG T/C between both groups were found during a postoperative period of 94 months (when recurrence and malignant progression of low grade astrocytomas are expected). Malignant progression occurred at a similar rate in both patient groups at a mean (SD) postoperative interval of 46 (26) months. Irrespective of whether radiotherapy was applied or not, malignant tumour recurrences showed higher T/C values (MET: 1.70 (0.64), FDG: 0.98 (0.23)) than recurrences without signs of malignancy (MET: 1.21 (0.21), FDG: 0.82 (0.08)) (Mann-Whitney: MET p=0.086, FDG p=0.035). The data show a relative lack of radiotherapy administered immediately after first tumour resection. In the course of disease, patients with tumours undergoing malignant progression may be identified with PET tracer methods.
Revision of the GROMOS 56A6CARBO force field: Improving the description of ring‐conformational equilibria in hexopyranose‐based carbohydrates chains

This article describes a revised version 56A6CARBO_R of the GROMOS 56A6CARBO force field for hexopyranose‐based carbohydrates. The simulated properties of unfunctionalized hexopyranoses are unaltered with respect to 56A6CARBO. In the context of both O1‐alkylated hexopyranoses and oligosaccharides, the revision stabilizes the regular 4C1 chair for α‐anomers, with the opposite effect for β‐anomers. As a result, spurious ring inversions observed in α(1→4)‐linked chains when using the original 56A6CARBO force field are alleviated. The 4C1 chair is now the most stable conformation for all d‐hexopyranose residues, irrespective of the linkage type and anomery, and of the position of the residue along the chain. The methylation of a d‐hexopyranose leads to a systematic shift in the ring‐inversion free energy (4C1 to 1C4) by 7–8 kJ mol−1, positive for the α‐anomers and negative for the β‐anomers, which is qualitatively compatible with the expected enhancement of the anomeric effect upon methylation at O1. The ring‐inversion free energies for residues within chains are typically smaller in magnitude compared to those of the monomers, and correlate rather poorly with the latter. This suggests that the crowding of ring substituents upon chain formation alters the ring flexibility in a nonsystematic fashion. In general, the description of carbohydrate chains afforded by 56A6CARBO_R suggests a significant extent of ring flexibility, i.e., small but often non‐negligible equilibrium populations of inverted chairs, and challenges the “textbook” picture of conformationally locked carbohydrate rings. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Effect of Amino Acid Substitutions on the Activity of Carnobacteriocin B2

Carnobacteriocin B2, a 48-amino acid antimicrobial peptide containing a YGNGV motif that is produced by the lactic acid bacterium Carnobacterium piscicola LV17B, was overexpressed as fusion with maltose-binding protein in Escherichia coli. This fusion protein was cleaved with Factor Xa to allow isolation of the mature bacteriocin that was identical in all respects to that obtained from C. piscicola Similar methodology permitted production of the precursor precarnobacteriocin B2 (CbnB2P), which has an 18-amino acid leader, as well as six mutants of the mature peptide: CbnF3 (Tyr3 → Phe), CbnS33 (Phe33 → Ser), CbnI34 (Val34 → Ile), CbnI37 (Val37 → Ile), CbnG46 (Arg46 → Gly), and Cbn28 (truncated frameshift mutation: (carnobacteriocin B2 1-28) + ELTHL). Examination of these compounds for antimicrobial activity showed that although CbnI34, CbnI37, and CbnG46 were fully active, CbnB2P, CbnF3, CbnS33, Cbn28, and all of the fusion proteins had greatly reduced or no antimicrobial activity. Expression of the immunity protein that protects against the action of the parent carnobacteriocin B2 in a previously sensitive organism also protects against the active mutants. Because carnobacteriocin B2 also acts as an inducer of bacteriocin production in C. piscicola, the ability of the precursor CbnB2P and the mutants to exert this effect was examined. All were able to induce Bac− cultures and reestablish the Bac+ phenotype except for the truncated Cbn28. The results demonstrate that very minor changes in the peptide sequence may drastically alter antimicrobial activity but that the induction of bacteriocin production is much more tolerant of structural modification, especially at the N terminus.
SemTopMF - Prediction Recomendation by Semantic Topics Through Matrix Factorization Approach

The Matrix Factorization model proved as a state of art technique in the field of Recommender Systems. The latent factors in these techniques are mathematically derived factors that are useful in terms of dimensionality reduction and sparsity removal. In this paper, we exploited the information on these latent factors in addition with semantic knowledge fetched from the DBpedia dataset to predict the movies to users, based on their selected topics in the past. We incorporate matrix factorization with the Semantic information to increase the accuracy of the recommendation and also increase the contextual information into it. For handling cold start users, we also provide an opportunity for the user, to select topics at the run time and prediction will be made according to their selection. To improve the diversity of the prediction in both the cases we also used a specific strategy for the end user recommendation.
Extrapulmonary tuberculosis in non-human immunodeficiency virus-infected adults in an endemic region

AIMS: Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) still constitutes an important clinical problem. We aimed to evaluate the incidence and features of extrapulmonary tuberculosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively evaluated 14,266 tuberculosis patients diagnosed between January 1999 and December 2003 in a tertiary care hospital in Istanbul. As many as 2,435 patients (17.1%) with EPTB were evaluated for the incidence and features. RESULTS: Of the 14,266 patients, 4,154 were female (29%) and 10,112 were male (71%) and were aged between 14 and 86 years with a mean age of 35 ± 14 years. As many as 660 (17.9%) patients were diagnosed as EPTB in 1999, 568 (17.8%) in 2000, 357 (13.7%) in 2001, 462 (22%) in 2002 and 388 (14.5%) in 2003. EPTB presented most commonly as pleurisy (66%), followed by lymphadenitis (23%). Lymphadenitis and pleurisy were more commonly observed among female TB patients (60%) and among male TB patients (59%) respectively. EPTB showed a significant female predilection (26.8%) compared to male patients (13.1%). Multi-organ involvement was observed in 37 (1.5%) patients (two organs in 33 and three organs in 4). As many as 197 (8%) EPTB cases had pulmonary tuberculosis simultaneously. CONCLUSIONS: EPTB still constitutes an important clinical problem. The rates of EPTB have remained constant despite the decline in pulmonary tuberculosis cases. In the current study, we present our experience of the incidence and features of EPTB patients without HIV infection. In this study, EPTB cases constituted one-fifth of all tuberculosis cases presented to our center in the study period.
Systematic review of interventions for improving the performance of community health workers in low-income and middle-income countries

Objective To systematically review and critically appraise the evidence for the effects of interventions to improve the performance of community health workers (CHWs) for community-based primary healthcare in low- and middle-income countries. Design Systematic review following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. Methods 19 electronic databases were searched with a highly sensitive prespecified strategy and the grey literature examined, completed July 2016. Randomised controlled trials evaluating interventions to improve CHW performance in low- and middle-income countries were included and appraised for risk of bias. Outcomes were biological and behavioural patient outcomes (primary), use of health services, quality of care provided by CHWs and CHW retention (secondary). Results Two reviewers screened 8082 records; 14 evaluations were included. Due to heterogeneity and lack of clear outcome data, no meta-analysis was conducted. Results were presented in a narrative summary. The review found one study showing no effect on the biological outcomes of interest, though these moderate quality data may not be indicative of all biological outcomes. It also found moderate quality evidence of the efficacy of performance improvement interventions for (1) improving behavioural outcomes for patients, (2) improving use of services by increasing the absolute number of patients who access services and, perhaps, better identifying those who would benefit from such services and (3) improving CHW quality of care in terms of upstream measures like completion of prescribed activities and downstream measures like adherence to treatment protocols. Nearly half of studies were compound interventions, making it difficult to isolate the effects of individual performance improvement intervention components, though four specific strategies pertaining to recruitment, supervision, incentivisation and equipment were identified. Conclusions Variations in recruitment, supervision, incentivisation and equipment may improve CHW performance. Practitioners should, however, assess the relevance and feasibility of these strategies in their health setting prior to implementation. Component selection experiments on a greater range of interventions to improve performance ought to be conducted.
Fault detection in a three-phase system grid connected using SOGI structure to calculate vector components

Fault detection algorithms are very important in grid connected systems. They are used to analyze a three-phase system behavior in real time. When something wrong happens, they start some procedures to avoid the collapse. A three-phase system cannot be considered a simply sum of three independent phases, which leads us to apply some vector transform to obtain a more elegant representation of systems. A control system grid connected is based on the vector transform. In this paper we analyze a fault detection performance between some vector transform algorithms, and present a good way to accomplish these transforms using a SOGI (Second Order Generalized Integrator).
Delayed cerebral ischemia after subarachnoid hemorrhage: Comparing and integrating classification systems

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a significant healthcare problem. It is estimated that 30000 Americans suffer from aneurysmal SAH each year. Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) is one of the major causes of morbidity and mortality after SAH, and occurs in 20–40% of patients. [4,5,8] To better predict and diagnose DCI after SAH, multiple grading scales have been published, of which the Fisher score is the most well‐known. [3] More recently, this score has been modified to predict symptomatic vasospasm after SAH more accurately. [4] Many other prediction models have been developed and published, and some of them use different parameters to calculate various outcomes that are associated with DCI and vasospasm. [1,2,7] Here, we present the SAH DCI app, which was developed to facilitate comparison between the various grading scales and to aid physicians in the use of prediction models. It incorporates automated calculation of a maximum of seven SAH grading scales, namely, the WFNS SAH grade, the Hunt and Hess grade, the original and modified Fisher grade, the early prediction scale by De Rooij et al., the BEHAVIOR score, and the VASOGRADE score. [1‐4,6,7,9] The WFNS SAH grade and the Hunt and Hess grade are general outcome predictors, and the other classification systems are specific predictors for DCI.
Overuse of screening colonoscopy in the Medicare population.

BACKGROUND All relevant authorities recommend an interval of 10 years between normal screening colonoscopies. We assessed the timing of repeated colonoscopies after a negative screening colonoscopy finding in a population-based sample of Medicare patients. METHODS A 5% national sample of Medicare enrollees from 2000 through 2008 was used to identify average-risk patients undergoing screening colonoscopy between 2001 and 2003. Colonoscopy was classified as a negative screening examination finding if no indication other than screening were in the claims and if no biopsy, fulguration, or polypectomy was performed. Time to repeated colonoscopy was calculated. RESULTS Among 24,071 Medicare patients who had a negative screening colonoscopy finding in 2001 through 2003, 46.2% underwent a repeated examination in fewer than 7 years. In 42.5% of these patients (23.5% of the overall sample), there was no clear indication for the early repeated examination. In patients aged 75 to 79 years or 80 years or older at the time of the initial negative screening colonoscopy result, 45.6% and 32.9%, respectively, received a repeated examination within 7 years. In multivariable analyses, male sex, more comorbidities, and colonoscopy by a high-volume colonoscopist or in an office setting were associated with higher rates of early repeated colonoscopy without clear indication, while those 80 years or older had a reduced risk. There were also marked geographic variations, from less than 5% in some health referral regions to greater than 50% in others. CONCLUSIONS A large proportion of Medicare patients who undergo screening colonoscopy do so more frequently than recommended. Current Medicare regulations intending to limit reimbursement for screening colonoscopy to every 10 years would not appear to be effective.
Rainfall Variability in January in the Federal District of Brazil from 1981 to 2010

The Federal District is a politically and economically important part of Brazil, which suffers from water stress. Exploratory analyzes were conducted using data on rainfall in the Federal District from the monthly precipitation time series to assess the rainfall variability in January, a month that falls in the middle of the rainy season in the region. A time series of 30 years (1981–2010), recorded at 19 rain gauges was analyzed. The resulting exploratory analyses show a gradient of increasing rainfall in the westward direction in the Federal District. Moreover, the time series shows a moderate inter-annual variability in rainfall volume, which is, however, of a stationary nature.