Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Angiopoietin 2 Stimulates TIE2-Expressing Monocytes To Suppress T Cell Activation and To Promote Regulatory T Cell Expansion

Angiopoietin 2 (ANGPT2) is a proangiogenic cytokine whose expression is often upregulated by endothelial cells in tumors. Expression of its receptor, TIE2, defines a highly proangiogenic subpopulation of myeloid cells in circulation and tumors called TIE2-expressing monocytes/macrophages (TEMs). Genetic depletion of TEMs markedly reduces tumor angiogenesis in various tumor models, emphasizing their essential role in driving tumor progression. Previously, we demonstrated that ANGPT2 augments the expression of various proangiogenic genes, the potent immunosuppressive cytokine, IL-10, and a chemokine for regulatory T cells (Tregs), CCL17 by TEMs in vitro. We now show that TEMs also express higher levels of IL-10 than TIE2− macrophages in tumors and that ANGPT2-stimulated release of IL-10 by TEMs suppresses T cell proliferation, increases the ratio of CD4+ T cells to CD8+ T cells, and promotes the expansion of CD4+CD25highFOXP3+ Tregs. Furthermore, syngeneic murine tumors expressing high levels of ANGPT2 contained not only high numbers of TEMs but also increased numbers of Tregs, whereas genetic depletion of tumor TEMs resulted in a marked reduction in the frequency of Tregs in tumors. Taken together, our data suggest that ANGPT2-stimulated TEMs represent a novel, potent immunosuppressive force in tumors.
PORT EFFICIENCY MODELLING IN THE POST CONCESSIONING ERA: THE ROLE OF LOGISTICS DRIVERS, AGILE PORTS AND OTHER PERSPECTIVES

The work described the use of efficiency measures and other logistics metrics and drivers in improving port performance for the port concessionaires. Both the logistical drivers of transportation, facilities and inventory and the cross functional drivers of information, pricing and sourcing have been analyzed to ascertain their contribution to the port supply chain. The role of the regulator in applying the rate of return regulation and price cap regulation to induce concessionaire cost reduction and their technological inputs into the port system have been compared. Static efficiency as well as dynamic efficiency and their benefits to the port concessionaires have been analyzed. A situation has been developed where agile ports will develop healthy partnership cultures through dynamic partnerships with other agile ports and dry ports with integrated transportation chains.
Physical activity level is an independent predictor of the diurnal variation in blood pressure

Objective The aim of this study was to define the relationship between physical activity and the magnitude of the percentage fall in blood pressure at night (nocturnal dip). Methods We simultaneously monitored 24-h ambulatory blood pressure and measured physical activity by actigraphy in 434 patients. Blood pressure was measured every 20 min; the actigraph integrated an activity score every 10 s. Mean daytime and night-time activity were calculated from mean scores for the 15 min preceding each blood pressure measurement. Nocturnal dip in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP) were regressed on mean (log-transformed) daytime activity. Mean night-time activity, age, gender, smoking status, body mass index (BMI) and clinic blood pressure were added into a multiple linear regression. Results The patient group was heterogeneous in age, gender and mean 24-h blood pressure. Mean daytime activity level was significantly and positively associated with the magnitude of the nocturnal dip in both SBP and DBP. Increased night-time activity was significantly associated with a smaller nocturnal dip. Older patients had a smaller nocturnal dip per log unit daytime activity. Nocturnal dip in SBP was greater in males, and smaller in those taking antihypertensive medications. Smoking, BMI and clinical blood pressure level were not associated with the extent of the nocturnal dip after adjustment for other factors. Conclusions Daytime and night-time physical activity levels are independently and significantly predictive of the magnitude of the nocturnal dip in blood pressure. Variation in activity may confound interpretation of 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and contribute to the poor reproducibility of dipper status.
A new sociotechnical model for studying health information technology in complex adaptive healthcare systems

Background Conceptual models have been developed to address challenges inherent in studying health information technology (HIT). Method This manuscript introduces an eight-dimensional model specifically designed to address the sociotechnical challenges involved in design, development, implementation, use and evaluation of HIT within complex adaptive healthcare systems. Discussion The eight dimensions are not independent, sequential or hierarchical, but rather are interdependent and inter-related concepts similar to compositions of other complex adaptive systems. Hardware and software computing infrastructure refers to equipment and software used to power, support and operate clinical applications and devices. Clinical content refers to textual or numeric data and images that constitute the ‘language’ of clinical applications. The human–computer interface includes all aspects of the computer that users can see, touch or hear as they interact with it. People refers to everyone who interacts in some way with the system, from developer to end user, including potential patient-users. Workflow and communication are the processes or steps involved in ensuring that patient care tasks are carried out effectively. Two additional dimensions of the model are internal organisational features (eg, policies, procedures and culture) and external rules and regulations, both of which may facilitate or constrain many aspects of the preceding dimensions. The final dimension is measurement and monitoring, which refers to the process of measuring and evaluating both intended and unintended consequences of HIT implementation and use. We illustrate how our model has been successfully applied in real-world complex adaptive settings to understand and improve HIT applications at various stages of development and implementation.
Photoaffinity scanning in the mapping of the peptide receptor interface of class II G protein—coupled receptors

The family of G protein‐coupled receptors constitutes about 50% of the therapeutic drug targets used in clinical medicine today, although the mechanisms of ligand binding, activation and signal transduction for G protein‐coupled receptors are not yet well defined. This review discusses ongoing research using the photoaffinity scanning method to map the bimolecular interface between class II G protein‐coupled receptors and their ligands. Furthermore the available computer model of class II peptide ligand docking into the receptor, based on the positional constraints imposed by the photoaffinity scanning analyses, will be discussed briefly. The ultimate goal of these efforts is to understand the molecular basis of receptor binding and therefore to generate a template for rational drug design. Copyright © 2003 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A comparison of quality of life and travel-related factors between in-center and satellite-based hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Shorter travel times and distance to dialysis clinics have been associated with improved patient outcomes and a higher health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The objective of this study was to compare HRQOL between prevalent in-center and satellite dialysis patients, as well as compare travel-related factors that contribute to HRQOL between in-center and satellite-based patients. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASURES: The London Health Sciences Centre is a tertiary care center with in-center and regional satellite hemodialysis units. Patients who consented and completed a questionnaire (n = 202) were enrolled into a cross-sectional, cohort observational study. Patients were administered the Medical Outcomes Short-Form 36 (SF-36) and the Kidney Disease Health Related Quality of Life (KDHRQOL) tool and were asked questions relating to travel to dialysis clinics. RESULTS Patients who underwent dialysis in the satellites had similar demographics, comorbidities, and laboratory parameters. Patients who underwent dialysis in satellite units reported a significantly superior score on the dialysis stress domain of the KDHRQOL questionnaire. There was no significant difference between in-center and satellite patients on the basis of the SF-36. Satellite patients also reported a significantly decreased cost of transportation, a significantly increased proportion who drive themselves to clinics, and significantly decreased travel time. CONCLUSIONS Patients who underwent dialysis in satellite units demonstrated similar characteristics, comorbidities, surrogate outcomes, and most aspects of HRQOL. Travel time, cost, and receiving treatment in one's own community are important factors that may contribute to a trend toward higher reported HRQOL by patients in satellite dialysis units.
Osmotically stable L forms of Haemophilus influenzae and their significance in testing sensitivity to pencillins

The sensitivity of Haemophilus influenzae to penicillins in vitro, determined either by serial antibiotic dilution in broth or by the disc method on agar, is apparently profoundly influenced by inoculum size if the results are read by macroscopic inspection. Microscopic inspection of the growth, however, reveals that the turbidity in heavily inoculated broth containing concentrations higher than the minimal inhibitory concentration is the product of L forms which have failed to succumb to osmotic lysis. Similarly, minute colonies appearing in the `inhibition zone' of disc tests are composed of L forms. In both broth and agar tests reduction of the osmolality of the medium from 340 to 144 mOsm per kg failed to bring about lysis of organisms exposed either to ampicillin or amoxycillin. The significance of this remarkable osmotic stability of haemophilus L forms is discussed in relation both to testing of sensitivity of this organism to penicillins and to persistence of chronic haemophilus infections of the lower respiratory tract.
Single-Incision Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in a Pediatric Population: A Preliminary Report

Laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become a standard procedure for treatment of gallbladder diseases. The operation is performed through a four-trocar technique. Single-incision laparoscopy (SIL) has recently gained popularity. The purpose of our study was to review our cases of SIL cholecystectomy and to evaluate the safety and feasibility of this technique. After the approval of the Institutional Review Boards, we performed a retrospective chart review of our SIL cholecystectomy cases performed between January 2008 and August 2009. Pertinent clinical data were extracted. The outcomes were reported as operating room time, intraoperative and postoperative complications, length of stay, and intravenous narcotic use. We identified 24 patients (19 females and five males) with a mean age of 15 years. Most patients (67%) had a diagnosis of symptomatic cholelithiasis. Two patients had gallstone pancreatitis, three had acute cholecystitis, and one had a hydropic gallbladder. Two patients had an intraoperative cholangiogram performed. Average operating room time was 97.5 ± 34.5 minutes (range, 65 to 145 minutes). There were no intraoperative complications. All patients had minimal (one to three doses) need for intravenous narcotics. All patients have had excellent cosmetic results on postoperative follow-up. SIL cholecystectomy in children is safe and feasible, even in the setting of acute cholecystitis and the need for cholangiogram.
A Comparison of HIV-Related Risk Factors Between Black Transgender Women and Black Men Who Have Sex with Men

Abstract Purpose: Rates of HIV infection among transgender women (TW) are higher than rates observed among men who have sex with men (MSM), and black or African American individuals are at a disproportionately higher risk for HIV than individuals of other races. Limited information, however, is available regarding the needs of black TW and their risk for HIV. Numerous scholarly works and surveillance reports have combined TW with MSM, which has stymied our ability to understand the unique needs of black TW. Methods: To identify patterns of HIV risk among black TW and black MSM, the current study utilized a cross-sectional, convenience sample to compare sociodemographic risk factors, HIV prevention tools, HIV-related risk factors, and psychosocial and sexual risk factors in a sample of 58 black TW and 764 black MSM. Participants were recruited between 2012 and 2014 from Atlanta, GA. Results: Findings demonstrated that black TW were significantly more likely to report lower educational attainment (odds ratio [OR]=0.60, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.42–0.85, p=0.005), greater likelihood of being homeless (OR=2.49, 95% CI: 1.30–4.78, p=0.006), lower HIV testing knowledge (OR=0.66, 95% CI: 0.52–0.83, p=0.001), and higher likelihood of having engaged in transactional sex (OR=1.95, 95% CI: 0.99–3.83, p=0.052) compared to black MSM. Conclusions: These findings highlight the need to understand how risk factors for HIV present themselves similarly and differently for both black TW and black MSM, and for HIV prevention programs and interventions to incorporate evidence-based content for each group.
CoHaRT: A P2P-based deterministic transmission of large data amounts using CoAP

In Industrial Ethernet environments, usually only small amounts of data are transmitted. These transmissions must be deterministic to meet hard real-time requirements. But prospectively, also the deterministic transmission of high amounts of data and data streams is required. In this paper, a system based on the modified Peer-to-Peer network Kad called HaRTKad combined with the standardized protocol CoAP is presented to fulfill these requirements. The HaRTKad network bases on UDP. Because of the limited size of UDP packets, only small amounts of data can be transmitted and interpreted. Therefore, CoAP was chosen as protocol on top of HaRTKad. A highlight of CoAP is its applicability on constrained devices like embedded systems in automation environments. It has a very low overhead, high simplicity, and is very effective and well suited for the intended domain. CoAP enables the transmission and interpretation of big data amounts using the blockwise transfer. Thereby, HaRTKad ensures the deterministic data transmission of the packets. The combination of CoAP and HaRTKad is called CoHaRT. Besides the described concept of CoHaRT, real measurements from a running prototype are presented to demonstrate the performance of the data transmission.
Health‐related quality of life in childhood epilepsy: the results of children's participation in identifying the components

Separate groups of children with epilepsy, recruited from a regional pediatric epilepsy database, and their parents were established to discuss their life with epilepsy. Twenty‐nine children (aged between 6 years and 10 years 4 months) and 42 of their parents were placed into nine and 17 groups respectively. The participants provided information about their own perceptions of life with epilepsy. Discussions were taped and textual analysis followed to extract, understand, explain, and categorize the health‐related quality of life (HRQL) components. The process enabled us to identify the burdens and concerns of children with epilepsy, and to identify five emerging dimensions: (1) the experience of epilepsy, (2) life fulfillment and time use, (3) social issues, (4) impact of epilepsy, and (5) attribution. Identifying and understanding the components of HRQL is crucial for developing an HRQL scale in childhood epilepsy. In addition, this list of elements can help health professionals improve their services by considering and addressing aspects of the epilepsy experience beyond the traditional issues for children with epilepsy and their families.
A fast technique for frequency tracking of transient process in low-voltage distribution systems

A different technique from the existing techniques is presented in this paper. The technique is developed to use for estimating the frequency of distribution systems both in transient processes of RL circuits and static processes. On the basis of numerical differentiation, 7 sampling points of the sampling sequence are employed for the estimation and computation. The signals with period component (AC component) and non-periodic component (DC component) is sampled to estimate the frequency of distribution systems in transient processes at high accuracy. A study example is given to illustrate the proposed technique in Matlab.
Measuring the Elastic Modulus of Small Tissue Samples

Independent measurements of the elastic modulus (Young's modulus) of tissue are a necessary step in turning elasticity imaging into a clinical tool. A system capable of measuring the elastic modulus of small tissue samples was developed. The system tolerates the constraints of biological tissue, such as limited sample size (≤1.5 cm3) and imperfections in sample geometry. A known deformation is applied to the tissue sample while simultaneously measuring the resulting force. These measurements are then converted to an elastic modulus, where the conversion uses prior calibration of the system with plastisol samples of known Young's modulus. Accurate measurements have been obtained from 10 to 80 kPa, covering a wide range of tissue modulus values. In addition, the performance of the system was further investigated using finite element analysis. Finally, preliminary elasticity measurements on canine kidney samples are presented and discussed.
Ethics of AI

The first question concerns the kinds of AI we might achievemoral, immoral, or amoral. The second concerns the ethics of our achieving such an AI. They are more closely related than a first glance might reveal. For much of technology, the National Rifle Association’s neutrality argument might conceivably apply: “guns don’t kill people, people kill people. ” But if we build a genuine, autonomous AI, we arguably will have to have built an artificial moral agent, an agent capable of both ethical and unethical behavior. The possibility of one of our artifacts behaving unethically raises moral problems for their development that no other technology can. Both questions presume a positive answer to a prior question: Can we build an AI at all? We shall begin our review there.
A High Performance and Secure Palmprint Template Protection Scheme

Security and protection of biometric template has been the bottleneck of its applications due to permanent appearance of biometric features. To tackle this problem, many algorithms, that do not store the template in its original form, have been reported in recent years. In this paper, we propose a high performance and secure cancelable palmprint authentication algorithm for palmprint template protection based on texture features. Firstly, the anisotropic filter is employed to obtain the original palmprint template. Then, the feedforward–feedback nonlinear dynamic filter (FFNDF) is used to generate Cancelable Palmprint templates. At last, the independent matching scores are fused at the score level. The cancelable system can provide large re-issuance ability and can be implemented very fast for real applications. The experimental results on PolyU palmprint database show that both the chaotic key and biometrics play equally significant roles in cancelable and it can be easily generalized to other palmprint texture codes.
Topical network of breast cancer information in a Korean American online community: a semantic network analysis

Introduction. Health information-seeking and sharing online has become immensely intertwined with day-to-day information-seeking of US immigrants with health concerns. Despite the consist recognition of unique health needs among different US immigrant communities, little is known about the distinctive patterns and extent of health information behaviour of Korean Americans, who are one of the most rapidly growing Asian immigrant populations in the USA. Method. The study uses online discussion forums whose participants are Korean Americans living in the USA. A mixed methodology of both content and semantic network analyses was used for data analysis. Results. It was revealed that forum participants discuss two dominant topics: breast cancer tests and treatment. Although breast cancer tests was the central topic, the emphasis was on diagnosis rather than prevention. Additionally, the data indicates that participants derive psychological or emotional support from breast cancer information-seeking and sharing. Moreover, concerns stemming from insurance and financial difficulties are the biggest causes of distress for those affected by breast cancer. Conclusions. The findings from this study demonstrate the complexity of health information-seeking behaviour and the subsequent vast spectrum of concerns. Online health information behaviour involving breast cancer is often copnnected not only with medical practices but also with social, financial and psychological challenges as well.
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis ino1 gene is essential for growth and virulence

Inositol is utilized by Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the production of its major thiol and of essential cell wall lipoglycans. We have constructed a mutant lacking the gene encoding inositol‐1‐phosphate synthase (ino1), which catalyses the first committed step in inositol synthesis. This mutant is only viable in the presence of extremely high levels of inositol. Mutant bacteria cultured in inositol‐free medium for four weeks showed a reduction in levels of mycothiol, but phosphatidylinositol mannoside, lipomannan and lipoarabinomannan levels were not altered. The ino1 mutant was attenuated in resting macrophages and in SCID mice. We used site‐directed mutagenesis to alter four putative active site residues; all four alterations resulted in a loss of activity, and we demonstrated that a D310N mutation caused loss of the active site Zn2+ ion and a conformational change in the NAD+ cofactor.