Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Expression of mRNAs for pore‐forming protein and two serine esterases in murine primary and cloned effector lymphocytes

The cDNAs encoding several proteins present in the granules of cytolytic effector lymphocytes have now been cloned. These included the cytolytic pore‐forming protein (PFP) or perforin, and at least six serine esterases (SE), also called granzymes. The cDNA probes for PFP, SE‐1, and SE‐2 are used here to study the expression of these proteins in murine primary effector lymphocytes. Among the stimuli effective in inducing the expression of PFP, SE‐1, and SE‐2 were recombinant interleukin‐2, the lectin concanavalin A in the presence of phorbol esters, and allogeneic cells in mixed lymphocyte cultures. Some correlation was seen between the levels of PFP and SE mRNAs and cytotoxicity measured in a standard 51Cr release assay. We also examined a panel of 13 cloned cytotoxic T Lymphocyte (CTL) lines and found that mRNAs for PFP and SE‐2 were expressed in all CTL lines, including some that were previously considered not to produce PFP. Twelve of the 13 CTL lines also proved to possess the mRNA for SE‐1. One thymoma cell line, TIMI.4, did not express mRNA for PFP, although it expressed mRNA for SE‐1 and SE‐2.
Exploring an Optimal Online Model for New Job Recommendation: Solution for RecSys Challenge 2017

The RecSys Challenge 2017 is a competition of recommender systems including both the offline and online phases. The task of the challenge is recommending new jobs to users considering the satisfaction of both the users and the job recruiters. This paper presents our approach to this challenge. We built content-based recommendation models using gradient boosting decision trees. The models were finely tuned for both the offline and the online phases using different internal evaluation protocols. Our approach achieved 6th place in the preliminary offline phase and 3rd place in the final online phase.
Statistical Applications in Genetics and Molecular Biology Hierarchical Shrinkage Priors and Model Fitting for High-dimensional Generalized Linear Models

Genetic and other scientific studies routinely generate very many predictor variables, which can be naturally grouped, with predictors in the same groups being highly correlated. It is desirable to incorporate the hierarchical structure of the predictor variables into generalized linear models for simultaneous variable selection and coefficient estimation. We propose two prior distributions: hierarchical Cauchy and double-exponential distributions, on coefficients in generalized linear models. The hierarchical priors include both variable-specific and group-specific tuning parameters, thereby not only adopting different shrinkage for different coefficients and different groups but also providing a way to pool the information within groups. We fit generalized linear models with the proposed hierarchical priors by incorporating flexible expectation-maximization (EM) algorithms into the standard iteratively weighted least squares as implemented in the general statistical package R. The methods are illustrated with data from an experiment to identify genetic polymorphisms for survival of mice following infection with Listeria monocytogenes. The performance of the proposed procedures is further assessed via simulation studies. The methods are implemented in a freely available R package BhGLM (http://www.ssg.uab.edu/bhglm/).
ADAM33 Is Not Essential for Growth and Development and Does Not Modulate Allergic Asthma in Mice

ABSTRACT A disintegrin and metalloprotease 33 (ADAM33) is a transmembrane protease and integrin ligand that has been identified as an asthma susceptibility gene product. To determine whether ADAM33 plays important roles in mammalian development and the modulation of allergic airway dysfunction, we generated ADAM33-null mice by gene targeting. ADAM33-null mice were born at expected Mendelian ratios, and both male and females developed normally and were fertile. No anatomical or histological abnormalities were detected in any tissues. In an animal model of allergic asthma, ADAM33-null mice showed normal allergen-induced airway hyperreactivity, immunoglobulin E production, mucus metaplasia, and airway inflammation. Our results demonstrate that ADAM33 is not essential for growth or reproduction in the mouse and does not modulate baseline or allergen-induced airway responsiveness.
Evaluation of Compatibility and Stability of a Novel Anticonvulsant Enaminone Compound with Common Tableting Excipients

Thermal analysis has become an indispensable analytic tool in drug-excipient compatibility studies. This study was performed to investigate the compatibility and stability of a novel anticonvulsant enaminone compound E122 with selected pharmaceutical excipients used commonly in oral solid dosage forms, namely corn starch, hydroxyl propyl methyl cellulose, microcrystalline cellulose and lactose monohydrate. Thermal analysis and isothermal stress testing were used to conduct compatibility and stability studies respectively. Differential scanning calorimetry and thermogravimetric analysis proved that E122 compound is fully compatible with all the studied excipients. Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy, which was used as a complementary technique further confirmed the findings of the thermal analysis. Isothermal stress testing showed no significant degradation and discoloration for E122 compound.
Comparison of Sofosbuvir Plus Ribavirin Treatment with Pegylated Interferon Plus Ribavirin Treatment for Chronic Hepatitis C Genotype 2

Background: Sofosbuvir plus ribavirin (RBV) therapy showed higher sustained virological response at 12 weeks after treatment (SVR12) than pegylated interferon (peg-IFN) plus RBV; however, liver function, fibrosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma markers have not been assessed so far. Summary: Patients (n = 21) receiving Sofosbuvir plus RBV and those (n = 24) receiving peg-IFN plus RBV were enrolled in this study. Changes in alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and α-fetoprotein (AFP) levels, platelet (PLT) counts, FIB-4, and aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) in both groups were assessed in patients achieving SVR12. Also, fibrosis regression was assessed using pathophysiological biomarkers, such as hyaluronic acid, bone morphogenetic protein 7 (BMP-7), and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in the Sofosbuvir plus RBV group. In both groups, while the reduction in ALT levels was significant that of AFP was not. Compared with the baseline, although serum PLT count at the end of treatment (EOT) was significantly higher in the Sofosbuvir plus RBV group, it was significantly lower in the peg-IFN plus RBV group. Although a significant decline in fibrosis markers such as FIB-4 and APRI was observed between the baseline and at EOT in the Sofosbuvir plus RBV group, no significant change of these markers was observed in the peg-IFN plus RBV group. Moreover, BMP-7 and CTGF were significantly lower at EOT than the baseline in the Sofosbuvir plus RBV group. Key Message: The treatment with Sofosbuvir plus RBV results in not only a higher SVR, but also improves the liver function and the degree of fibrosis.
A pupil center detection algorithms for partially-covered eye image

This study focuses on development of the algorithms that can be applied in video-oculograph method to find a center of a pupil area in captured eye image, "where the pupil area is partially covered by eyelashes and eyelids. The eye image captured by monochrome charge-coupled device camera and frame grabber has spatial resolution of 640 pixels by 480 pixels and 8-bit gray levels per pixel. We assumed that the pupil area in the captured eye image was a perfect circle. The center of pupil area could be obtained by applying the proposed algorithms for thresholding of captured gray-scale image, size filtering and noise removing techniques even though the pupil area was partially covered by eyelashes and eyelids.
Disseminated strongyloidiasis with central nervous system involvement diagnosed antemortem in a patient with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and Burkitts lymphoma

A 45‐year‐old man presented with central nervous system involvement as the initial manifestation of disseminated infection with Strongyloides stercoralis. Several concurrent clinical factors contributed to this event, all related to the patient's immunosuppression, including high‐grade lymphoma, corticosteroid therapy, and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. This is only the third case of CNS involvement in disseminated strongyloidiasis diagnosed antemortem.
Cluster-Based Online Routing Protocols for Ad Hoc Network

In geographical routing algorithms, mobile nodes rely on geographical position to make routing judgments. Researchers frequently discuss such routing algorithms in 2D space. However, in reality, mobile nodes spread in 3D space. In this paper the authors present four new 3D geographical-based routing algorithms Cylinder, Greedy-Cylinder, Cluster-Cylinder, and Greedy-cluster-Cylinder. In Cylinder routing, the nodes are locally projected on the inner surface of a cylinder, perimeter routing is executed after that. Greedy-Cylinder starts with Greedy routing algorithm until a local minimum is reached. The algorithm then switches to Cylinder routing. Cluster-Cylinder elects a dominating set for all nodes and then uses this set for projection and routing. The fourth algorithm Greedy-cluster-Cylinder is a combination between Greedy-Cylinder and Cluster-Cylinder. The authors evaluate their new algorithms and compare them with many classical known algorithms. The simulation outcomes show the substantial enhancement in delivery rate over other algorithms.
Thermosensitive Au-PNIPA yolk-shell nanoparticles with tunable selectivity for catalysis.

Metallic nanoparticles have been the subject of intense research recently because of their catalytic properties, which may differ considerably from the bulk metal. As the free nanoparticles tend to aggregate and are difficult to handle in catalytic applications, colloidal carrier systems have been developed that encapsulate and stabilize the particles. 5] More recently, so-called smart carrier systems, such as thermosensitive microgels, have become the focus of research. These hybrids react on external stimuli and allow the catalytic properties to be altered accordingly. Thus, thermosensitive polystyrene (PS)-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) core–shell microgels were applied as the active nanoreactor for the immobilization of metal nanoparticles. The catalytic activity of immobilized metal nanoparticles can be tuned by the swelling and shrinking of the microgels. Liz-Marz n et al. have developed a AuPNIPA core–shell colloidal system. They found that the thermoresponsive PNIPA shell with limited cross-linking allows for particularly efficient control of the catalysis of encapsulated Au nanoparticles. Recently, yolk–shell structures that consist of a single metal nanoparticle within an inorganic or polymeric shell 19] have become the subject of intense research. These systems can be used to tune the catalytic activity of the enclosed nanoparticle by a suitable architecture of the shell. Yolk–shell structures have the clear advantages in that individual metal nanoparticles are enclosed in a compartment that prevents aggregation with other nanoparticles. Furthermore, the embedded gold nanoparticle has a free surface that is not blocked by any surface group or polymer compared to the Au-PNIPA core–shell system. Moreover, the permeability of the shell may be tuned to a certain extent. Therefore, yolk– shell systems may be regarded as true nanoreactors that allow the catalytic activity of single nanoparticles to be studied in a defined environment. Herein we present a thermosensitive yolk–shell system that uses temperature as a trigger for reaction. Figure 1a shows the underlying principle of these systems: A single Au nanoparticle is encapsulated in a hollow thermosensitive PNIPA shell. The porosity and the hydrophobicity of this shell can be tuned in a well-defined manner by temperature while the colloidal stability of the entire hybrid is fully maintained. We show this by monitoring the reduction of hydrophilic 4-
Length of hospital stay is shorter in South Asian patients with acute pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common diagnosis in UK hospitals and confers a significant hospital stay (LOS). There is very little evidence concerning ethnic variations on LOS in patients with PE. We sought to investigate ethnic variations in LOS in a large sample of 3440 patients with PE from 2000 to 2013 across seven hospitals in the north west of UK. We found that South Asian patients have significantly lower LOS compared with Caucasian patients. We discuss possible reasons for, and implications of, this finding.
Fractal-based gradient-match and side-match vector quantization for image coding

In this paper, we propose the fractal-based gradient match vector quantizers (FGMVQs) and the fractal-based side match vector quantizers (FSMVQs) for the image coding framework. The proposed schemes are based upon the non-iterative fractal block coding (FBC) technique and the concepts of the gradient match vector quantizers (GMVQs) and the side match vector quantizers (SMVQs). Unlike the ordinary GMVQs and SMVQs, the super codebooks in the proposed FGMVQs and FSMVQs are generated from the affine-transformed domain blocks in the non-iterative FBC technique. The codewords in the state codebook are dynamically extracted from the super codebook with the side-match and gradient-match criteria. The redundancy in affine-transformed domain blocks is greatly reduced and the compression ratio can be significantly increased. Our simulation results show that about 10% - 20% bit rates in the non-iterative FBC techniques are saved by using the proposed FGMVQs and FSMVQs.
Typing of Plasmodium falciparum DNA from 2 years old Giemsa-stained dried blood spots using nested polymerase chain reaction assay

A panel of 129 Giemsa-stained thick blood spots (TBS) confirmed for Plasmodium falciparum infection having different levels of parasite density were collected from a malaria endemic area. DNA was extracted and nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was performed to amplify P. falciparum DNA. Nested PCR assay successfully amplified P. falciparum DNA at a very low parasitaemia of ~10 parasites/μl of blood. Current PCR assay is very simple and can be used retrospectively to monitor the invasion and prevalence of different Plasmodium species in endemic areas.
A Particle-Swarm-Optimization-Based Decentralized Nonlinear Active Noise Control System

This paper proposes a functional-link-artificial-neural-network-based (FLANN) multichannel nonlinear active noise control (ANC) system trained using a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm suitable for nonlinear noise processes. The use of PSO algorithm in a multichannel ANC environment not only reduces the local minima problem but also removes the requirement of computationally expensive modeling of the secondary-path transfer functions. A decentralized version of a multichannel nonlinear ANC is also developed, which facilitates scaling up of an existing ANC setup without rederiving the learning rules. This is possible as the controller module of each channel is independent of others. Simulation study of the two new multichannel ANC systems demonstrates comparable mitigation performance. However, the decentralized one is preferred to as it possesses the added advantage of scalability.
Beyond the Genetic Basis of Sensation Seeking: The Influence of Birth Order, Family Size and Parenting Styles

Genetic analyses of sensation seeking have shown fairly high heritabilities for measures of this trait. However, 40 to 60% of the variance remains unexplained by genetic factors. This longitudinal study examines the influence of characteristics of the family environment -- birth order, family size, socio-economic status and parenting styles -- on two dimensions of sensation seeking: disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. Previous research has shown that these dimensions load on the same factor, are related to biologically based impulsive disorders, and have a common genetic basis. Questionnaire and biographical data obtained from 532 female and 479 male young adults (age between 18 and 30 years) were analyzed using structural modeling. The results show that participants who experienced little parental care and much control were more likely to have high scores on disinhibition and boredom susceptibility. It appears that these family factors may partly explain the previously reported effects of birth order and family size on sensation seeking.
Highly potent anti-CD20-RLI immunocytokine targeting established human B lymphoma in SCID mouse

Rituximab (RTX), a chimeric IgG1 monoclonal antibody directed against the CD20 antigen, has revolutionized the treatment of B-cell malignancies. Nevertheless, the relapsed/refractory rates are still high. One strategy to increase the clinical effectiveness of RTX is based on antibody-cytokine fusion protein (immunocytokine; ICK) vectorizing together at the tumor site the antibody effector activities and the cytokine co-signal required for the generation of cytotoxic cellular immunity. Such ICKs linking various antibody formats to interleukin (IL)-2 are currently being investigated in clinical trials and have shown promising results in cancer therapies. IL-15, a structurally-related cytokine, is now considered as having a better potential than IL-2 in antitumor immunotherapeutic strategies. We have previously engineered the fusion protein RLI, linking a soluble form of human IL-15Rα-sushi+ domain to human IL-15. Compared with IL-15, RLI displayed better biological activities in vitro and higher antitumor effects in vivo in murine and human cancer models. In this study, we investigated the advantages of fusing RLI to RTX. Anti-CD20-RLI kept its binding capacity to CD20, CD16 and IL-15 receptor and therefore fully retained both antibody effector functions (ADCC and CDC), and the cytokine potential of RLI. In a severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mouse model of disseminated residual lymphoma, anti-CD20-RLI was found to induce long-term survival of 90% of mice up to at least 120 days whereas RLI and RTX, alone or in combination, just delayed the disease onset (100% of death at 28, 40 and 51 days respectively). These findings suggest that such ICK could improve the clinical efficacy of RTX, particularly in patients with refractory B-cell lymphoma.
Supplement to “ A Framework For Estimation of Convex Functions ”

In this supplement we prove the additional technical lemmas stated in Section 7.1 which are used in the proofs of the main results. Lemma 4 The function H−1 defined in Section 2.1 is concave and nondecreasing. It is strictly increasing for all x where H−1(x) < 12 . Moreover for C ≥ 1 it satisfies H−1(Ct) ≤ C 2 3H−1(t). (60) The function K defined in Section 2.1 is also increasing and satisfies for C ≥ 1 C 2 3K(t) ≤ K(Ct) ≤ CK(t). (61) Proof of Lemma 4: First note that H is a nondecreasing convex function. Moreover there is a unique point x0 such that it is strictly increasing on some open interval (x0, 1 2) where fs(x0) = 0. The inverse function H −1(x) is thus strictly increasing on the interval (0, H( 2)). In this interval H −1(x) < 12 . For x > H( 1 2), H −1(x) = 12 . It follows that H −1 is nondecreasing. The concavity of H−1 is guaranteed because it is the inverse of an increasing convex function. Now let C ≥ 1. Then since fs is convex and fs(0) = 0 it follows that whenever C2/3y ≤ 12 , Cfs(y) ≤ fs(Cy) and hence also CH(y) = C √ yfs(y) ≤ C √ yfs(C y) = H(Cy). ∗The research of Tony Cai was supported in part by NSF Grant DMS-0604954 and NSF FRG Grant DMS-0854973.
Spatial discrimination deficits as a function of mnemonic interference in aged adults with and without memory impairment

It is well established that aging is associated with declines in episodic memory. In recent years, an emphasis has emerged on the development of behavioral tasks and the identification of biomarkers that are predictive of cognitive decline in healthy as well as pathological aging. Here, we describe a memory task designed to assess the accuracy of discrimination ability for the locations of objects. Object locations were initially encoded incidentally, and appeared in a single space against a 5 × 7 grid. During retrieval, subjects viewed repeated object‐location pairings, displacements of 1, 2, 3, or 4 grid spaces, and maximal corner‐to‐opposite‐corner displacements. Subjects were tasked with judging objects in this second viewing as having retained their original location, or having moved. Performance on a task such as this is thought to rely on the capacity of the individual to perform hippocampus‐mediated pattern separation. We report a performance deficit associated with a physically healthy aged group compared to young adults specific to trials with low mnemonic interference. Additionally, for aged adults, performance on the task was correlated with performance on the delayed recall portion of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), a neuropsychological test sensitive to hippocampal dysfunction. In line with prior work, dividing the aged group into unimpaired and impaired subgroups based on RAVLT Delayed Recall scores yielded clearly distinguishable patterns of performance, with the former subgroup performing comparably to young adults, and the latter subgroup showing generally impaired memory performance even with minimal interference. This study builds on existing tasks used in the field, and contributes a novel paradigm for differentiation of healthy from possible pathological aging, and may thus provide an avenue for early detection of age‐related cognitive decline. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Beyond LDL cholesterol reduction.

Within the past decade, clinical trials of LDL-C reduction have convincingly demonstrated that LDL-C reduction in primary and secondary prevention trials can significantly reduce clinical cardiac events.1 Arteriographic investigations have demonstrated that LDL-C reduction can significantly reduce the rate of arteriographically defined disease progression.1 Despite the success of LDL-C reduction, close examination of the trial results reveals that a substantial number of subjects who received treatment and achieved significant LDL-C reduction still had a clinical event or evidence of arteriographic progression (Table 1⇓). In the LRC-CPPT, for example, there was a 17% reduction in clinical events, which was made up of 187 events in the control group and 155 in the treatment group (32 fewer events). In SSSS, there was a 30% reduction in clinical events, which was composed of 622 events in the placebo group and 431 in the treatment group (191 fewer events). Although the reduction in clinical events is gratifying and laudable, it was not enough for the 155 subjects in the LRC-CPPT or the 431 subjects in SSSS who received treatment yet still had an event. The reason for such a large number of poor responders may lie in the prevalence of metabolic abnormalities linked to atherosclerosis that are not detected on routine laboratory tests and hence are not adequately treated with just LDL-C reduction.2 3 This issue also involves the concept of monotherapy, which takes on added importance with the report that multifactorial risk reduction reduces clinical events significantly more than single therapy.4 View this table: Table 1. Clinical Cardiovascular Events Reported in Several Large Trials in Control and Treatment Groups These disorders have a strong familial inheritance pattern, and CAD can be considered a genetic disease attributable to multiple gene-environment interactions.5 The Figure⇓ illustrates the approximate prevalence of well-recognized lipoprotein disorders along …