Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development of a Treatment Regimen for Human Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infection in Bone Marrow Transplantation Recipients by Adoptive Transfer of Donor‐Derived CMV‐Specific T Cell Clones Expanded In Vitro a

CMV infection represents a major cause of morbidity and mortality in immunosuppressed bone marrow transplant (BMT) recipients. Life-threatening CMV infection was found to occur only in patients who did not develop a CMV-specific CD8+ Tc response. Therefore, methods to clone and expand CMV-specific Tc were developed to facilitate analysis of the specificity of the CD8+ Tc response to CMV responsible for protective immunity in seropositive donors, and to permit adoptive transfer of in vitro expanded CMV-specific Tc derived from bone marrow donors into immunocompetent HLA-matched BMT recipients to augment resistance to CMV. The immunodominant class I-restricted Tc response present in healthy seropositive individuals was found to be specific for a conserved CMV antigen introduced into the cytoplasm and presented shortly following viral penetration and uncoating, and did not require endogenous viral gene expression and protein synthesis. Thus, the protective immune response to CMV mediates lysis of virally-infected cells prior to virion assembly. Processing of viral proteins and access to presentation in the context of class I MHC molecules immediately following infection of target cells was selective for internal virion proteins, such as the tegument protein pp65. By contrast, presentation by infected cells of GB, the major CMV envelope protein, or IE, the major regulatory protein, was delayed due to a requirement for endogenous synthesis in infected cells, and CD8+ Tc specific for these proteins were detected in low frequency as compared to the immundominant response.
Formulation Dependent Pharmacokinetics—Does the Dosage Form Matter for Nifedipine?

This was an open-label, randomized, 3-way crossover study that compared in 25 healthy male subjects, the pharmacokinetics of a single 60-mg dose of nifedipine GITS tablet versus (1) 20-mg doses of nifedipine prolonged action tablets given q12h for a total of two doses and (2) 2 × 10 mg doses of nifedipine capsules given q8h for a total of three doses. Following capsule administration, there was a rapid rise in plasma concentration of drug achieving a peak concentration of 196(35) ng/mL (mean and coefficient of variation) within 0.7 (105) hours and an AUC∞ of 973(39) ng.hr/mL. After nifedipine PA there was also a rapid rise in plasma concentration of drug achieving a Cmax of 85.5 (36) ng/mL with a tmax of 1.7(58) hours and an AUC∞ of 879(46) ng.hr/mL. For the nifedipine GITS formulation, there was a lag in the plasma concentration time profile for approximately 2 to 3 hours, then it rose gradually achieving a Cmax of of 686(54) 30.5(63)ng/mL with a tmax of 15.0(50) hours and an AUC∞ ng.hr/mL. The AUC∞ and Cmax were significantly (P = 0.0001) greater in the capsule and PA formulations than for the GITS; however, the tmax for the GITS formulation was significantly (P = 0.001) longer than for the other formulations. This study suggests marked formulation-dependent pharmacokinetics, which may have important clinical implications.
Changes of Alkaline Phosphatase, Inorganic Phosphorus and Total Calcium in Sera of 11 to 17 Year Old Healthy Adolescents, and their Relationship to Growth

A semi-longitudinal study in 111 healthy school children, 11 years old, was started in May 1976 to evaluate age-related "normal-ranges" of two so-called "routine" blood parameters during adolescence. Follow-up examinations were performed at one-year intervals until 1982. In this paper growth velocity is described and results of estimations of alkaline phosphatase, inorganic phosphorus (Pi) and total calcium (Ca) are presented and compared with values in the literature. Peak growth velocity in girls (5.94 +/- 1.92 cm/year) occurred between 11 and 12 years, in boys (7.73 +/- 2.4 cm/year) between the age of 12 and 13 years; from the age of 14 years onwards boys were significantly taller than girls. A strong relationship (p less than 0.05) between growth and alkaline phosphatase could be shown throughout the period observed. Alkaline phosphatase activity varied within a wide range and reached mean peak values at the age of 11 years in girls (470.9 +/- 114.8 U/l) and the age of 13 in boys (514.4 +/- 135.7 U/l). Afterwards, alkaline phosphatase activity decreased towards adult levels. Inorganic phosphorus constantly decreased in both boys and girls until the age of 16, while from the age of 16 to 17 years a significant increase could be observed in both sexes. Total calcium values showed a significant increase between 12 and 13 years in boys and between 13 and 14 years in girls; after the age of 14 values decreased significantly in both sexes. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Joint conjugate gradient and Jacobi iteration based low complexity precoding for massive MIMO systems

In massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) downlink systems, the computational complexity of the matrix inversion for precoding is becoming a bottleneck for the system implementation, along with the increased antenna dimension at the base station and the number of served users. By traditional approximate matrix inversion algorithms, for example, series expansion, gradient or iteration methods, the proper system performance can be achieved by lower complexity for each recursive expansion or iteration, while keeping lower convergence rate. In this paper, a novel joint conjugate gradient (CG) and Jacobi (JC) iteration method is proposed to speed up the convergence rate as well as guaranteeing the bit error rate (BER) performance. In this proposal, the CG is firstly used twice to find a more accurate searching direction for the following low complexity JC iterations. Numerical simulations and complexity analysis show that, with lower computational complexity, our proposal can obviously outperform previous nonjoint iteration methods. Even compared with recently proposed joint steepest descent and Jacobi method in [7], our proposal can obtain the similar or even better BER performance with faster convergence rate, which indicates lower total hardware implementation complexity and latency.
LIM homeodomain proteins Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 expressions in the developing pineal gland of chick embryo by immunohistochemistry

Abstract: LIM homeodomain proteins Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 expression and their role in nervous tissue and endocrine glands have been reported; however, nothing is known concerning Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 expression in the developing pineal gland of the chick embryo. The aim of the present study was to determine the ontogeny of Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 expression in the developing pineal gland of chick embryo using immunohistochemistry. The results showed that Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 immunopositive cells were first detected in the pineal evagination of chick embryos at day 4 (E4) and E4.5 of incubation, respectively. In the later developing stages, both Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 immunopositive cells were consistently detected in the follicular and parafollicular pinealocytes throughout the pineal gland. The relative percentage of Islet‐1 immunopositive (Islet‐1+) cells relative to the total cells was about 6% at E4.5, and then kept increasing (P < 0.05) and reached about 40% by E12.5; this was followed by no obvious changes until the chicks were newly hatched. The change in Lim‐3 immunopositive (Lim‐3+) cell number was parallel to that of Islet‐1, although Lim‐3+ cell were significantly fewer than Islet‐1+ cell numbers from E4.5 to E8.5 (P < 0.05). Dual immunohistochemical staining results showed that almost all the Lim‐3+cells expressed Islet‐1 at every stage examined, and about 90% of Islet‐1+cells were proliferating cell nuclear antigen negative. These results suggest that both Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 may be involved in regulating the development and functional maturation of the pineal gland, although further studies are required in elucidating the functional roles of Islet‐1 and Lim‐3 and the related mechanisms.
Investigating the active ingredients of cognitive behaviour therapy and counselling for patients with chronic fatigue in primary care: developing a new process measure to assess treatment fidelity and predict outcome.

OBJECTIVES To develop a brief measure of the therapy process and use it to examine which therapeutic ingredients were associated with outcome in a sample of patients from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) versus counselling for patients with chronic fatigue in primary care. It was hypothesized that the two therapies would be clearly distinguishable and that in terms of process variables, the therapeutic alliance would be important in predicting outcome. DESIGN The data for this study were collected alongside a RCT in primary care and included audiotaped therapy sessions. These tapes were assessed by two independent raters using a newly devised measure in order to evaluate therapy process and its relationship with outcome. METHODS Tapes from 71 patients participating in the RCT were assessed to form the basis of the process analysis. Outcome was self-reported fatigue symptoms at 6 months follow-up. Data reduction was achieved via a principal component analysis (PCA). Factors were entered into a multiple regression analysis to produce a final model of predictors of outcome. RESULTS The process measure showed that although the treatments could be distinguished, there was some overlap between them. The key predictor of a good fatigue outcome was emotional processing, including the expression, acknowledgement and acceptance of emotional distress. CONCLUSION A new process measure was developed successfully which now warrants further testing. It was able to assess treatment adherence and unpack, and distinguish the common factor which predicted outcome across therapy modalities. The findings lend preliminary support to the view that the specific techniques associated with particular 'brand names' of therapy are not necessarily the 'active ingredients' that help patient's change within the primary care setting. Emotional processing predicted outcome for patients with chronic fatigue and therefore future research might explore this in more depth, in order to understand better how it can be facilitated.
Electric discharge plasmas influence attachment of cultured CHO K1 cells

Non‐thermal plasmas can be generated by electric discharges in gases. These plasmas are reactive media, capable of superficial treatment of various materials. A novel non‐thermal atmospheric plasma source (plasma needle) has been developed and tested. Plasma appears at the end of a metal pin as a submillimetre glow. We investigate the possibility of applying the plasma needle directly to living tissues; the final goal is controlled cell treatment in microsurgery. To resolve plasma effects on cells, we study cultured Chinese hamster ovarian cells (CHO‐K1) as a model system. When these are exposed to the plasma, instantaneous detachment of cells from the surface and loss of cell–cell interaction is observed. This occurs in the power range 0.1–0.2 W. Cell viability is assessed using propidium iodide (PI) and cell tracker green (CTG) fluorescent staining utilizing confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). Detached cells remain alive. Use of higher doses (plasma power >0.2 W) results in cell necrosis. In all cases, plasma‐influenced cells are strictly localized in submillimetre areas, while no reaction in surrounding cells is observed. Due to its extreme precision, plasma treatment may be applicable in refined tissue modification. Bioelectromagnetics 25:362–368, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A modified pattern recognition algorithm and its application in power system transient stability assessment

A modified pattern recognition algorithm based on the residual analysis and the recursive partition is proposed in this paper, which is more effective than the original algorithm in cases of high-dimension finite-sample practical engineering problems. The proposed approach is first verified with artificial testing data and then applied to power system transient stability assessment (TSA). Case studies show that the proposed pattern recognition scheme can successfully find out the relationships between the pre-contingency steady state quantities and the stability indices under each specified fault. According to the spatial description of the obtained patterns in the feature space, the transient stability levels can be predicted according to the system operation states. Thus the TSA scheme obtained can not only predict the stability index, such as the CCT value, of faults but also offer instability preventive control strategies. Simulation results on the IEEE New-England test system verifies the feasibility and good performance of the proposed algorithm. As a pattern recognition technique, it can be widely applied in different engineering domains to realize knowledge acquisition.
Tobacco Nectarin I

Nectarin I, a protein that accumulates in the nectar of Nicotiana sp. , was determined to contain superoxide dismutase activity by colorimetric and in-gel assays. This activity was found to be remarkably thermostable. Extended incubations at temperatures up to 90 °C did not diminish the superoxide dismutase activity of nectarin I. This attribute allowed nectarin I to be purified to homogeneity by heat denaturation of the other nectar proteins. By SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, nectarin I appeared as a 29-kDa monomer. If the protein sample was not boiled prior to loading the gel, then nectarin I migrated as 165-kDa oligomeric protein. By matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, the protomer subunit was found to be a 22.5-kDa protein. Purified nectarin I contained 0.5 atoms of manganese/monomer, and the superoxide dismutase activity of nectarin I was not inhibited by either H2O2 or NaCN. Following denaturation, the superoxide dismutase activity was restored after Mn2+ addition. Addition of Fe2+, Cu2+, Zn2+, and Cu2+/Zn2+ did not restore superoxide dismutase activity. The quaternary structure of the reconstituted enzyme was examined, and only tetrameric and pentameric aggregates were enzymatically active. The reconstituted enzyme was also shown to generate H2O2. Putative nectarin I homologues were found in the nectars of several other plant species.
Enhancing the multivariate signal of [/sup 15/O] water PET studies with a new nonlinear neuroanatomical registration algorithm [MRI application]

This paper addresses the problem of neuro-anatomical registration across individuals for functional [/sup 15/O] water PET activation studies. A new algorithm for three-dimensional (3-D) nonlinear structural registration (warping) of MR scans is presented. The method performs a hierarchically scaled search for a displacement field, maximizing one of several voxel similarity measures derived from the two-dimensional (2-D) histogram of matched image intensities, subject to a regularizer that ensures smoothness of the displacement field. The effect of the nonlinear structural registration is studied when it is computed on anatomical MR scans and applied to coregistered [/sup 15/O] water PET scans from the same subjects: in this experiment, a study of visually guided saccadic eye movements. The performance of the nonlinear warp is evaluated using multivariate functional signal and noise measures. These measures prove to be useful for comparing different intersubject registration approaches, e.g., affine versus nonlinear. A comparison of 12-parameter affine registration versus nonlinear registration demonstrates that the proposed nonlinear method increases the number of voxels retained in the cross-subject mask. The authors demonstrate that improved structural registration may result in an improved multivariate functional signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Furthermore, registration of PET scans using the 12-parameter affine transformations that align the coregistered MR images does not improve registration, compared to 12-parameter affine alignment of the PET images directly.
Mise en place de la polarite antero-posterieure de la drosophile au cours de l'ovogenese : etude de la localisation de l'arnm du morphogene bicoid au pole anterieur de l'embryon

La polarite antero-posterieure de l'embryon de drosophile depend de la prelocalisation de determinants maternels a ses poles opposes au cours de l'ovogenese. L'arnm de bicoid est le determinant anterieur. Nous demontrons ici que cette localisation depend de sa partie 3 non traduite et qu'au moins trois facteurs differents reconnaissent specifiquement ce signal de localisation anterieure. Ces facteurs font partie d'une machinerie de localisation qui transporte et puis arrime l'arnm de bicoid a la bordure anterieure de l'ovocyte. L'un de ces facteurs, staufen, reconnait la structure tridimensionnelle de la region 3' non traduite de cet arnm et l'associe au cytosquelette, vraisemblablement par l'intermediaire d'une molecule-moteur qui se deplace vers l'extremite positive des microtubules
IsomiR Bank: a research resource for tracking IsomiRs

UNLABELLED : Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology has revealed that microRNAs (miRNAs) are capable of exhibiting frequent differences from their corresponding mature reference sequences, generating multiple variants: the isoforms of miRNAs (isomiRs). These isomiRs mainly originate via the imprecise and alternative cleavage during the pre-miRNA processing and post-transcriptional modifications that influence miRNA stability, their sub-cellular localization and target selection. Although several tools for the identification of isomiR have been reported, no bioinformatics resource dedicated to gather isomiRs from public NGS data and to provide functional analysis of these isomiRs is available to date. Thus, a free online database, IsomiR Bank has been created to integrate isomiRs detected by our previously published algorithm CPSS. In total, 2727 samples (Small RNA NGS data downloaded from ArrayExpress) from eight species (Arabidopsis thaliana, Drosophila melanogaster, Danio rerio, Homo sapiens, Mus musculus, Oryza sativa, Solanum lycopersicum and Zea mays) are analyzed. At present, 308 919 isomiRs from 4706 mature miRNAs are collected into IsomiR Bank. In addition, IsomiR Bank provides target prediction and enrichment analysis to evaluate the effects of isomiRs on target selection. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION IsomiR Bank is implemented in PHP/PERL + MySQL + R format and can be freely accessed at http://mcg.ustc.edu.cn/bsc/isomir/ CONTACTS : aoli@ustc.edu.cn or qshi@ustc.edu.cn SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Seasonal influenza activity in Hong Kong and its association with meteorological variations

Influenza seasons appear consistently in the temperate regions, but are more variable in tropical/subtropical regions. The determinant for such variation remains poorly understood. This study documented the activity of influenza over a 10‐year period in Hong Kong; examining its association with changes in temperature and relative humidity. The two types of influenza exhibited different correlations with meteorological variations. Influenza A showed two seasonal peaks occurring respectively in winter/spring and summer months in most years. Influenza B showed a clear winter/spring peak, but its activity during summer months was more variable. Cold and humid conditions were associated with a higher activity of both influenza A and B. In contrast, hot and humid conditions were associated with a higher activity of influenza A, but were associated with only a moderate, less consistent increase in the activity of influenza B. A trend of increase in the magnitude of summer peaks of influenza A, but not influenza B, was observed. A hypothetical 2°C rise in temperature would decrease the proportion of favorable days for influenza A in December–April from 78% to 57%, but an increase from 58% to 71% in May–November; with a similar effect (from 83% to 62%) for influenza B during December–April, but a modest change (from 17% to 18%) during May–November. The presence of two seasonal peaks of influenza annually emphasizes the need to evaluate the duration of protective immunity offered by vaccination. Further study on the effects of climate change and global warming on the activity of influenza is warranted. J. Med. Virol. 81:1797–1806, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Factorial designs in clinical trials: options for combination treatment studies.

OBJECTIVE This study reviews the use of factorial designs in clinical trials investigating combinations of therapies. METHOD Factorial designs may be used when (1) the factors are regarded as being independent or (2) the factors are thought to be complementary and a specific aim is to investigate these interactions. We describe what is meant by a factorial design and the issues that need to be addressed when using such a design. We discuss these issues in general and describe how they have been addressed in various prevention trials and in the COMBINE Study, which is a treatment trial of combinations of therapies for alcohol dependence. RESULTS Trials of type (1) can provide substantial cost savings in conducting multiple unrelated prevention studies in the same group of participants. Such a factorial trial poses few design challenges beyond those of a standard parallel group trial. Trials of type (2) require consideration of aspects that are intrinsic to the factorial design. CONCLUSIONS A factorial design is a useful way to examine the effects of combinations of therapies, but it poses challenges that need to be addressed in determining the appropriate sample size and in conducting interim and final statistical analyses.
Serum Levels of CD137 Ligand and CD178 are Prognostic Factors for Progression of Myelodysplastic Syndrome

Excess apoptosis leading to ineffective hematopoiesis is a common feature of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). CD178 (Fas ligand/APO-1 ligand) and CD137 ligand (CD137L), 2 molecules involved in the regulation of apoptosis, have previously been found in sera of patients with malignancies and have been hypothesized to participate in the pathogenesis of various diseases. We analyzed sera of patients with MDS and found that while time to progression of MDS correlated with the IPSS score there was no correlation of CD137L or CD178 serum levels with this score or with karyotype, bone marrow blast count or cytopenia. However, when cut-off-values for significant differentiation between cases with higher/lower levels of these molecules were determined we found that high levels of soluble CD137L (sCD137L) and low serum levels of soluble CD178 (sCD178) correlate with statistical significance to rapid progression of disease as estimated by log-rank-test. Conversely, low levels of sCD137L and high levels of sCD178 correlate significantly with prolongation of time to progression of disease. Our results indicate that serum levels of sCD137L and sCD178 represent valuable novel indicators for prognosis and disease progression and may be a useful parameter for treatment decisions in patients with MDS.