Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The enhanced antigen‐specific production of cytokines induced by pertussis toxin is due to clonal expansion of T cells and not to altered effector functions of long‐term memory cells

Pertussis toxin (PT) has been shown to act as an adjuvant that enhances the production of both Th1 and Th2 cytokines to coinjected protein antigens. It has remained unresolved, however, how PT affects the clonal sizes, long‐term effector functions, and Th1/Th2/Th0 differentiation of the T cell responses induced. We have studied the effects of PT on the development of the CD4+ T cell response to a prototypic antigen, hen eggwhite lysozyme (HEL). HEL injection with incomplete Freund's adjuvant (IFA) resulted in an IFN‐γ–/IL‐5+ Th2 recall response. In comparison, co‐administration of PT with HEL:IFA enhanced the frequencies of IL‐5‐producing T cells up to eightfold, and induced the differentiation of high frequencies of IFN‐γ‐producing CD4+ T cells. The results showed that the IFN‐γ and IL‐5 produced, originated from clonally expanded Th1 and Th2, but not Th0 cells, and that the effector functions of long‐term memory cells were unaffected. Adoptive transfer experiments suggested that PT mediated these effects via activation of APC, not by acting on the T cells directly. The effects of PT on the developing T cell response required the presence of the holotoxin (A‐ and B‐subunit); the individual subunits did not show adjuvant effects. The data suggest that PT enhanced cytokine production by promoting differentiation and vigorous clonal expansion of Th1 and Th2 cells via activation of APC.
New Frontiers for Applications of Thermal Infrared Imaging Devices: Computational Psychopshysiology in the Neurosciences

Thermal infrared imaging has been proposed, and is now used, as a tool for the non-contact and non-invasive computational assessment of human autonomic nervous activity and psychophysiological states. Thanks to a new generation of high sensitivity infrared thermal detectors and the development of computational models of the autonomic control of the facial cutaneous temperature, several autonomic variables can be computed through thermal infrared imaging, including localized blood perfusion rate, cardiac pulse rate, breath rate, sudomotor and stress responses. In fact, all of these parameters impact on the control of the cutaneous temperature. The physiological information obtained through this approach, could then be used to infer about a variety of psychophysiological or emotional states, as proved by the increasing number of psychophysiology or neurosciences studies that use thermal infrared imaging. This paper presents a review of the principal achievements of thermal infrared imaging in computational psychophysiology, focusing on the capability of the technique for providing ubiquitous and unwired monitoring of psychophysiological activity and affective states. It also presents a summary on the modern, up-to-date infrared sensors technology.
Estimation of the rate and number of underreported deliberate self-poisoning attempts in western Iran in 2015

OBJECTIVES Rates of attempted deliberate self-poisoning (DSP) are subject to undercounting, underreporting, and denial of the suicide attempt. In this study, we estimated the rate of underreported DSP, which is the most common method of attempted suicide in Iran. METHODS We estimated the rate and number of unaccounted individuals who attempted DSP in western Iran in 2015 using a truncated count model. In this method, the number of people who attempted DSP but were not referred to any health care centers, n0, was calculated through integrating hospital and forensic data. The crude and age-adjusted rates of attempted DSP were estimated directly using the average population size of the city of Kermanshah and the World Health Organization (WHO) world standard population with and without accounting for underreporting. The Monte Carlo method was used to determine the confidence level. RESULTS The recorded number of people who attempted DSP was estimated by different methods to be in the range of 46.6 to 53.2% of the actual number of individuals who attempted DSP. The rate of underreported cases was higher among women than men and decreased as age increased. The rate of underreported cases decreased as the potency and intensity of toxic factors increased. The highest underreporting rates of 69.9, 51.2, and 21.5% were observed when oil and detergents (International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision [ICD-10] code: X66), medications (ICD-10 code: X60-X64), and agricultural toxins (ICD-10 codes: X68, X69) were used for poisoning, respectively. Crude rates, with and without accounting for underreporting, were estimated by the mixture method as 167.5 per 100,000 persons and 331.7 per 100,000 persons, respectively, which decreased to 129.8 per 100,000 persons and 253.1 per 100,000 persons after adjusting for age on the basis of the WHO world standard population. CONCLUSIONS Nearly half of individuals who attempted DSP were not referred to a hospital for treatment or denied the suicide attempt for political or sociocultural reasons. Individuals with no access to counseling services are at a higher risk for repeated suicide attempts and fatal suicides.
Biomarker Profiles in Heart Failure Patients With Preserved and Reduced Ejection Fraction

Background Biomarkers may help us to unravel differences in the underlying pathophysiology between heart failure (HF) patients with a reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and a preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Therefore, we compared biomarker profiles to characterize pathophysiological differences between patients with HFrEF and HFpEF. Methods and Results We retrospectively analyzed 33 biomarkers from different pathophysiological domains (inflammation, oxidative stress, remodeling, cardiac stretch, angiogenesis, arteriosclerosis, and renal function) in 460 HF patients (21% HFpEF, left ventricular ejection fraction ≥45%) measured at discharge after hospitalization for acute HF. The association between these markers and the occurrence of all‐cause mortality and/or HF‐related rehospitalizations at 18 months was compared between patients with HFrEF and HFpEF. Patients were 70.6±11.4 years old and 37.4% were female. Patients with HFpEF were older, more often female, and had a higher systolic blood pressure. Levels of high‐sensitive C‐reactive protein were significantly higher in HFpEF, while levels of pro‐atrial‐type natriuretic peptide and N‐terminal pro‐brain natriuretic peptide were higher in HFrEF. Linear regression followed by network analyses revealed prominent inflammation and angiogenesis‐associated interactions in HFpEF and mainly cardiac stretch–associated interactions in HFrEF. The angiogenesis‐specific marker, neuropilin and the remodeling‐specific marker, osteopontin were predictive for all‐cause mortality and/or HF‐related rehospitalizations at 18 months in HFpEF, but not in HFrEF (P for interaction <0.05). Conclusions In HFpEF, inflammation and angiogenesis‐mediated interactions are predominantly observed, while stretch‐mediated interactions are found in HFrEF. The remodeling marker osteopontin and the angiogenesis marker neuropilin predicted outcome in HFpEF, but not in HFrEF.
An Analysis of Service Bundles of Mobile Network Operators with Free Services Included

To attract more users, mobile network operators may offer both chargeable/metered and free services as parts of their product bundles. However, an extra cost of providing the free services and their substitution effect on metered services in the bundles may reduce their profitability. Therefore, the mobile network operators must decide on including free services in their offered bundles based on the profitability. In this paper, we develop an analytical framework composed of leader-follower game models to obtain the Stackelberg equilibrium strategy of the mobile network operators and analyze several important properties of the equilibrium. The proposed framework takes into account the congestion effect resulting from incorporating free services in the bundles. The game models are general and capable of analyzing different setting of bundles. Extensive performance evaluations show that the inclusion of free services can improve the profit of the mobile network operators when (i) the users’ interest for the free services is above a certain value, (ii) the free services add small cost to the bundle, and (iii) the users’ demand of free services is less dependent on that of metered services in the bundle.
The Parallel and Distributed Future of Data Series Mining

There is an increasingly pressing need, by several applications in diverse domains, for developing techniques able to index and mine very large collections of sequences, or data series. Examples of such applications come from biology, astronomy, entomology, the web, and other domains. It is not unusual for these applications to involve numbers of data series in the order of hundreds of millions to billions, which are often times not analyzed in their full detail due to their sheer size. In this work, we describe past efforts in designing techniques for indexing and mining truly massive collections of data series, based on indexing techniques for fast similarity search, an operation that lies at the core of many mining algorithms. We show that there are two bottlenecks in mining such massive datasets, namely, the time taken to build the index, and the time required to answer exactly similarity queries. In response to these challenges, we discuss novel techniques that adaptively create data series indexes, allowing users to correctly answer queries before the indexing task is finished. We also show how our methods allow mining on datasets that would otherwise be completely untenable, including the first published experiments using one billion data series. Moreover, we present our vision for the future in big sequence management and mining research: we argue that more efforts should concentrate on parallel (including modern hardware optimization opportunities) and distributed solutions, which have until now been largely unexploited.
Testing Hedges Under the Standard Tranched Credit Pricing Model

In the first paper, Christopher Finger presents empirical tests on variations of the standard model for tranched credit derivatives, or synthetic CDOs. There is a rich literature of new model proposals or extensions, but little empirical work focusing on the typical application of the model. Christopher examines a dataset of historical tranche and underlying credit prices, starting from the onset of the credit index tranches as liquid instruments, and including much of the market upheaval of the last year. He performs a backtesting exercise, evaluating the standard model against both simpler and more complex alternatives. This exercise challenges two commonly accepted notions: first, that a sophisticated pricing model is needed to describe the relationship between tranche and underlying, and second, that the standard model can be extended to provide useful hedging information. While the standard model does stand up to the first challenge, its extensions fail on the second.
Comparison of Impaired Subcortico-Frontal Metabolic Networks in Normal Aging, Subcortico-Frontal Dementia, and Cortical Frontal Dementia

Normal aging, progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) are characterized by different degrees of decline in frontal lobe functions. We used (18)FDG-PET and statistical parametric mapping (SPM96) to compare relative subcorticofrontal metabolic impairment at rest in 21 healthy elderly subjects (HES), 20 PSP patients, and 6 FTD patients. When HES were compared to 22 healthy young subjects, widespread decrease in metabolism was observed in bilateral medial prefrontal areas including anterior cingulate cortices, in dorsolateral prefrontal areas, in left lateral premotor area, in Broca's area, and in left insula. In PSP compared to the 43 healthy subjects (HS), we observed subcorticofrontal metabolic impairment including both motor and cognitive neural networks. Impairment of functional connections between midbrain tegmentum and cerebellar, temporal and pallidal regions was demonstrated in PSP as compared to HS. When comparing FTD to HS, glucose uptake was primarily reduced in dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices and in frontopolar and anterior cingulate regions. There was also bilateral anterior temporal, right inferior parietal, and bilateral striatal hypometabolism. Finally, FTD showed more severe striatofrontal metabolic impairment than PSP, while mesencephalothalamic involvement was only observed in PSP. Our data suggest that subcorticofrontal metabolic impairment is distributed in distinct subcorticocortical networks in normal aging, PSP, and FTD. Subcorticofrontal dementia in PSP is related to hypometabolism in discrete frontal areas, which are probably disconnected from certain subcortical structures. The concept of subcortical dementia is reinforced by our data, which show disrupted functional connections between mesencephalon and cerebellar cortex, inferior and medial temporal regions, and pallidum.
Isolation and structural analysis of three neutral glycosphingolipids from a mixed population of Caenorhabditis elegans (Nematoda:Rhabditida).

The free-living nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, has been proposed and analyzed as a prototypic model for parasitic nematodes. In order to study whether there is a structural basis for the proposed analogy with respect to nematode glycoconjugates, we have analyzed Caenorhabditis elegans glycosphingolipids. Three, simple neutral glycosphingolipid components of the neutral glycolipid fraction were isolated by high-performance liquid chromatography. Structural analysis was performed by methylation analysis, exoglycosidase cleavage, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry, and ceramide analysis. The chemical structures have been determined as Glc beta 1Cer, Man beta 4Glc beta 1Cer and GlcNAc beta 3Man beta 4Glc beta 1Cer; that are characterized as belonging to the arthroseries of protostomial glycosphingolipids. The ceramide moiety of the parent glycosphingolipid-ceramide mono-hexoside was dominated by 2-hydroxy fatty acids, and a d17:1 spingoid-base with an iso- or anteiso-branched chain. The chemical composition of the three glycosphingolipids from Caenorhabditis elegans displayed close structural coincidence with the equivalent structures from the porcine parasitic nematode, Ascaris suum (G.Lochnit, R.D. Dennis, U.Zähringer, and R.Geyer, Glycoconjugate J., 1997), in support of this organism as a prototypic glycosphingolipid model for parasitic nematodes.
A Nosocomial Outbreak of Escherichia coli Producing CTX-M-15 and OXA-30 β-Lactamase

During a survey of the prevalent subtypes of extended-spectrum β-lactamases in a university hospital in Korea, a nosocomial outbreak of Escherichia coli producing CTX-M-15 and OXA-30 β-lactamases was detected. The outbreak comprised various infections, including bloodstream infections and colonization, and persisted for several months in various areas of the hospital.
Inflamed Intestinal Mucosa Features a Specific Epithelial Expression Pattern of Indoleamine 2,3-Dioxygenase

Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) catalyzes the first step in the degradation of tryptophan, an essential amino acid. During inflammation IDO can be induced in different cell types resulting in local tryptophan depletion. This inhibits T cell proliferation and may induce apoptosis. High expression of IDO was previously found in inflammatory bowel disease and is thought to represent a mechanism for downregulation of the local immune response. Our aim is to investigate the expression pattern of IDO in normal and inflamed murine and human intestinal mucosa. Immunohistochemical staining for IDO was performed on paraffin sections of colon of two mouse models for colitis and their controls and on paraffin sections of human ileum and colon in normal and two different inflammatory conditions, namely inflammatory bowel disease and diverticulitis. IDO immunohistochemistry showed similar results in murine and human tissue. In normal, as well as in inflamed mucosa, some mononuclear cells, fibroblasts and endothelial cells were positive for IDO. In inflamed mucosa a specific expression pattern of epithelial IDO was found where epithelial cells flanking ulcers or bordering crypt abscesses showed high IDO expression. Moreover, in human intestinal inflammation, IDO was expressed in ulcer associated cell lineage. Since bacterial invasion is more pronounced in erosions and in crypt abscesses and since IDO activity and the resulting local tryptophan depletion can cause growth arrest of several tryptophan-dependent microorganisms, IDO expression in the vicinity of interruptions of the epithelial barrier may point to a role for IDO as a local anti-infectious agent. Furthermore, expression of IDO at the margin of ulcerations and in the reparative ulcer-associated cell lineage suggests involvement of IDO in repair processes.
Topology detection of complex networks with hidden variables and stochastic perturbations

Complex networks have found widespread real-world applications. One of the key problems in research of complex networks is topology identification, which is concerned with deciding the interaction patterns from observed dynamical time series. This presents a very challenging problem, especially in the absence of the knowledge of nodal dynamics and in the presence of system noise. In this paper a simple and yet efficient approach is proposed for topology identification of complex networks in such challenging scenarios. The main idea behind the proposed approach is to use piecewise partial Granger causality, which measures the directed connections of nonlinear time series influenced by hidden variables. The effectiveness of the proposed approach in relation to network parameters is demonstrated by a commonly-used testing network.
Resource allocation in network coded multiple access relay channels

This paper investigates the resource allocation problem for uplink multiple-access relay channels (MARC) with network coding. Firstly, the difference between traditional relay channels and MARC is presented, and then a joint optimization problem considering power allocation and relay selection is formulated to maximize the sum-rate under total power constraint. The optimal algorithm is proposed by optimizing two separate sub problems and then two low-complexity suboptimal algorithms are further given. The simulation results demonstrate performance gain of the proposed optimal algorithm over the traditional four time-slot scheme. Moreover, the impact of total transmission power and relay number on system performance is also evaluated.
Gene-Based Risk Stratification for Cardiac Disorders in LMNA Mutation Carriers

Background— Mutations in LMNA (lamin A/C), which encodes lamin A and C, typically cause age-dependent cardiac phenotypes, including dilated cardiomyopathy, cardiac conduction disturbance, atrial fibrillation, and malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Although the type of LMNA mutations have been reported to be associated with susceptibility to malignant ventricular arrhythmias, the gene-based risk stratification for cardiac complications remains unexplored. Methods and Results— The multicenter cohort included 77 LMNA mutation carriers from 45 families; cardiac disorders were retrospectively analyzed. The mean age of patients when they underwent genetic testing was 45±17, and they were followed for a median 49 months. Of the 77 carriers, 71 (92%) were phenotypically affected and showed cardiac conduction disturbance (81%), low left ventricular ejection fraction (<50%; 45%), atrial arrhythmias (58%), and malignant ventricular arrhythmias (26%). During the follow-up period, 9 (12%) died, either from end-stage heart failure (n=7) or suddenly (n=2). Genetic analysis showed truncation mutations in 58 patients from 31 families and missense mutations in 19 patients from 14 families. The onset of cardiac disorders indicated that subjects with truncation mutations had an earlier occurrence of cardiac conduction disturbance and low left ventricular ejection fraction, than those with missense mutations. In addition, the truncation mutation was found to be a risk factor for the early onset of cardiac conduction disturbance and the occurrence of atrial arrhythmias and low left ventricular ejection fraction, as estimated using multivariable analyses. Conclusions— The truncation mutations were associated with manifestation of cardiac phenotypes in LMNA-related cardiomyopathy, suggesting that genetic analysis might be useful for diagnosis and risk stratification.
A Profit Frontier Estimation of Bank Efficiency after Financial Reform in the Dominican Republic

This dissertation assesses the profit efficiency of commercial banks in the Dominican Republic after a 1991 financial reform that liberalized interest rates and introduced a universal bank {multibanco) charter. A restricted profit efficiency frontier is fitted to panel data for 1991-1994. Technical and allocative inefficiency are evaluated from the assumption of maximization of profits restricted by regulatory constraints, on the basis of shadow prices that differ from actual prices. The distortion coefficients from the parametric estimation of allocative inefficiency capture the net effects of regulation, managerial behavior, and market power. A cost frontier is also estimated, and a financial ratio analysis add robustness to the results. Using a fixed-effect model, technical inefficiency is estimated as bank-specific, and allocative inefficiency is estimated as netput-specific. Banks are ranked using the technical inefficiency estimates relative to the best-practice bank. Profit-frontier, cost-frontier, and financial-ratio rankings are compared, and a high Spearman correlation coefficient is found among the rankings. Group means are compared and, when two outliers at the most efficient end are excluded, multibancos are found to be less technically inefficient than non-multibancos. Because economies of scope could not be estimated, technical inefficiency rankings do not provide sufficient information that multibancos are more efficient than non-multibancos. Due to allocative inefficiency, banks were found to produce more investments and less loans than is optimum. On the input side, banks hold too many deposits per employee. Since the parameters are measured relative to labor, fitted shadow shares were evaluated at the geometric means to estimate the difference between optimal shares and shadow shares. Estimated shadow shares are
An Innovative Assay for the Analysis of In Vitro Endothelial Remodeling: Experimental and Computational Evidence

The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying vascular remodeling are currently investigated by experimental strategies which aim to mimic the complex environmental conditions found in vivo. Some of them focus on the tubulogenic activity of dispersed endothelial cell populations, while others evaluate vascular sprouting. Here we propose a new method to assess matrigel invasion starting from confluent or subconfluent monolayers of human microvascular ECs (HMVEC) seeded on different substrates. The experimental setting is also validated by an improved hybrid multiscale mathematical approach, which integrates a mesoscopic grid‐based cellular Potts model, that describes HMVEC phenomenology, with a continuous one, accounting for the kinetics of diffusing growth factors. Both experimental and theoretical approaches show that the endothelial potential to invade, migrate, and organize in tubule structures is a function of selected environmental parameters. The present methodology is intended to be simple to use, standardized for rapid screening and suitable for mechanistic studies. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 243–248, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.