Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term effects of cyclophosphamide therapy in steroid-dependent or frequently relapsing idiopathic nephrotic syndrome.

BACKGROUND It has been demonstrated that alkylating agents such as cyclophosphamide (CYP) are effective in reducing the risk of relapse in frequently relapsing (FRNS) and steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS). Little is known about prognostic factors in SDNS and FRNS treated by CYP. The objectives of this study are to determine long-term outcomes and factors associated with sustained remission in these patients. METHODS We retrospectively studied the data from 143 children (104 boys) with SDNS and FRNS treated with CYP in six centres over 15 years. Relapse-free survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier method. The determinants of long-term remission were assessed by univariate and multivariate analyses using Cox proportional hazard models. RESULTS Median age at diagnosis was 3.7 years (interquartile range: IQR 2.3-5.9), and median follow-up was 7.8 years (IQR 4.0-11.8). CYP treatment was introduced after a median time of 1.7 years (IQR 0.7-5.9) after diagnosis. Patients received a median cumulative dose of 168 mg/kg (IQR 157-197) body weight. Relapse-free survival was 65%, 44%, 27% and 13% after 6 months, 1 year, 2 years and 5 years, respectively. In multivariate analysis, sustained remission >2 years was associated with age at treatment >5 years (P = 0.02) and cumulative dose of CYP >170 mg/kg (P = 0.02). Frequently relapsing versus steroid-dependent status and female gender were predictors of borderline significance. Height and body mass index standard deviation score were significantly influenced by CYP treatment. CONCLUSION In our study, long-term efficacy of cyclophosphamide in steroid-responsive nephrotic syndrome is disappointing. Further well-designed trials are required to evaluate the efficacy of other steroid-sparing agents.
Inducible caspase-9 suicide gene controls adverse effects from alloreplete T cells after haploidentical stem cell transplantation.

To test the feasibility of a single T-cell manipulation to eliminate alloreactivity while sparing antiviral and antitumor T cells, we infused 12 haploidentical hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients with increasing numbers of alloreplete haploidentical T cells expressing the inducible caspase 9 suicide gene (iC9-T cells). We determined whether the iC9-T cells produced immune reconstitution and if any resultant graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) could be controlled by administration of a chemical inducer of dimerization (CID; AP1903/Rimiducid). All patients receiving >10(4) alloreplete iC9-T lymphocytes per kilogram achieved rapid reconstitution of immune responses toward 5 major pathogenic viruses and concomitant control of active infections. Four patients received a single AP1903 dose. CID infusion eliminated 85% to 95% of circulating CD3(+)CD19(+) T cells within 30 minutes, with no recurrence of GVHD within 90 days. In one patient, symptoms and signs of GVHD-associated cytokine release syndrome (CRS-hyperpyrexia, high levels of proinflammatory cytokines, and rash) resolved within 2 hours of AP1903 infusion. One patient with varicella zoster virus meningitis and acute GVHD had iC9-T cells present in the cerebrospinal fluid, which were reduced by >90% after CID. Notably, virus-specific T cells recovered even after AP1903 administration and continued to protect against infection. Hence, alloreplete iC9-T cells can reconstitute immunity posttransplant and administration of CID can eliminate them from both peripheral blood and the central nervous system (CNS), leading to rapid resolution of GVHD and CRS. The approach may therefore be useful for the rapid and effective treatment of toxicities associated with infusion of engineered T lymphocytes. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov as #NCT01494103.
Expression and mutational status of treatment-relevant targets and key oncogenes in 123 malignant salivary gland tumours.

BACKGROUND Malignant tumours of the salivary glands (MSGT) are rare and pleomorphic entities. Patients with advanced disease may benefit from targeted therapy; however, specific targets for optimising and personalising treatments are yet to be identified. DESIGN Immunohistochemistry for C-KIT, EGFR, HER2, MUC1, phospho-mTOR, androgen/estrogens/progesterone receptors and Ki67 was carried out and evaluated in terms of progression-free and overall survival. High throughput molecular screening of key oncogenes was done in 107 patients using routine diagnostic methods and Sequenom technology. RESULTS Several therapy leads were identified, including high levels of HER2 and androgen receptors in salivary duct carcinomas, C-KIT in myoepithelial carcinomas and EGFR in mucoepidermoid carcinomas. Recurrent mutations involving downstream elements of the EGFR pathway were found in HRAS, notably in tumours with a myoepithelial component, and in other key oncogenes (KRAS/NRAS/PI3KCA/BRAF/MAP2K). On the other hand, <1% of samples had EGFR or HER2 mutations. CONCLUSION Several tumour subtypes overexpressed targets of directed therapies suggesting potential therapy leads. Genotyping results suggest activation downstream of EGFR in 18 of the 107 samples that could be associated with low efficacy of EGFR inhibitors. Other molecules, such as PI3K/MEK or mTOR inhibitors, may have anti-tumour activity in this subgroup. The high mutation rate in HRAS highlights a novel key oncogenic event in MSGT.
Purification and NH2-terminal amino acid sequence of guinea pig tumor-secreted vascular permeability factor.

Rodent and human tumor cell lines secrete a potent vascular permeability factor (VPF) which causes a rapid and substantial increase in microvascular permeability to plasma proteins without causing mast cell degranulation, or endothelial cell damage or without exciting an inflammatory cell infiltrate [D. R. Senger, S. J. Galli, A. M. Dvorak, C. A. Perruzzi, V. S. Harvey, and H. F. Dvorak. Science (Wash. DC), 219: 983-985, 1983; D. R. Senger, C. A. Perruzzi, J. Feder, and H.F. Dvorak. Cancer Res., 46: 5629-5632, 1986]. VPF now has been purified to homogeneity from guinea pig tumor cell culture medium; it is a Mr 34,000-43,000 protein, and a NH2-terminal amino acid sequence has been derived. A synthetic peptide corresponding to amino acid residues 1-24 of the native protein was used to raise rabbit antibodies which bind all of the vessel permeability-increasing activity secreted by guinea pig tumor cells and which stain purified VPF on immunoblots. These findings establish that this NH2-terminal amino acid sequence was derived from the permeability factor. Homology searches found no identity or close similarity between VPF NH2-terminal sequence and database sequences, indicating that VPF is distinct from other proteins for which sequence data are available. In particular, no sequence similarity was found between tumor-secreted VPF and other mediators of increased vessel permeability including plasma and glandular kallikreins.
High-Accuracy Joint Position Estimation and Posture Detection System for Driving

In this paper, we present a novel Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) that monitors driving posture. To achieve accuracy and robustness of the system, we propose a high-accuracy method for estimating the joint positions of drivers and an algorithm for detecting abnormal driving posture. The key ideas for improving the accuracy of joint position estimation are that we train a Random Forests classifier with driver image sets that we built and we introduce specific knowledges to recognize the body parts of the driver. To achieve robustness, we invented an abnormal posture detecting algorithm that accumulates information on the most recent postures. We integrated our technologies in an actual vehicle. We evaluated the accuracy and the coverage of the abnormal posture detection of our system by conducting driving tests on a test course. The results show that this system detects four abnormal driving postures, discriminates small changes in posture, and has robustness against vehicle vibrations, environment lighting, and differences in drivers' physiques.
A Possible Correlation between the Luminosities and Lifetimes of Active Galactic Nuclei

We use the clustering of galaxies around distant AGNs to show with ~90% confidence that fainter AGNs are longer lived. Our argument is simple: since the measured galaxy-AGN cross-correlation length r0 ~ 5 h-1 Mpc does not vary significantly over a 10 mag range in AGN optical luminosity, faint and bright AGNs must reside in dark matter halos with similar masses. The halos that host bright and faint AGNs must therefore have similar abundances, and bright AGNs are rare partly because their lifetimes are short.
CATS: A Synchronous Approach to Collaborative Group Recommendation

Group recommender systems introduce a whole set of new challenges for recommender systems research. The notion of generating a set of recommendations that will satisfy a group of users with potentially competing interests is challenging in itself. In addition to this we must consider how to record and combine the preferences of many different users as they engage in simultaneous recommendation dialogs. In this paper we introduce a group recommender system that is designed to provide assistance to a group of friends trying the plan a skiing vacation. The system uses the DiamondTouch interactive tabletop to allow up to 4 users to simultaneously engage in parallel recommendation sessions and we describe how personal and shared profiles and interaction spaces can be managed to generate sets of recommendations for the individual as well as the group.
GraphGen: Exploring Interesting Graphs in Relational Data

Analyzing interconnection structures among the data through the use of graph algorithms and graph analytics has been shown to provide tremendous value in many application domains. However, graphs are not the primary choice for how most data is currently stored, and users who want to employ graph analytics are forced to extract data from their data stores, construct the requisite graphs, and then use a specialized engine to write and execute their graph analysis tasks. This cumbersome and costly process not only raises barriers in using graph analytics, but also makes it hard to explore and identify hidden or implicit graphs in the data. Here we demonstrate a system, called GraphGen, that enables users to declaratively specify graph extraction tasks over relational databases, visually explore the extracted graphs, and write and execute graph algorithms over them, either directly or using existing graph libraries like the widely used NetworkX Python library. We also demonstrate how unifying the extraction tasks and the graph algorithms enables significant optimizations that would not be possible otherwise.
Expression, Purification, and Biophysical Characterization of a Secreted Anthrax Decoy Fusion Protein in Nicotiana benthamiana

Anthrax toxin receptor-mediated drug development for blocking anthrax toxin action has received much attention in recent decades. In this study, we produced a secreted anthrax decoy fusion protein comprised of a portion of the human capillary morphogenesis gene-2 (CMG2) protein fused via a linker to the fragment crystallizable (Fc) domain of human immunoglobulin G1 in Nicotiana benthamiana plants using a transient expression system. Using the Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMV) 35S promoter and co-expression with the p19 gene silencing suppressor, we were able to achieve a high level of recombinant CMG2-Fc-Apo (rCMG2-Fc-Apo) protein accumulation. Production kinetics were observed up to eight days post-infiltration, and maximum production of 826 mg/kg fresh leaf weight was observed on day six. Protein A affinity chromatography purification of the rCMG2-Fc-Apo protein from whole leaf extract and apoplast wash fluid showed the homodimeric form under non-reducing gel electrophoresis and mass spectrometry analysis confirmed the molecular integrity of the secreted protein. The N-glycosylation pattern of purified rCMG2-Fc-Apo protein was analysed; the major portion of N-glycans consists of complex type structures in both protein samples. The most abundant (>50%) N-glycan structure was GlcNAc2(Xyl)Man3(Fuc)GlcNAc2 in rCMG2-Fc-Apo recovered from whole leaf extract and apoplast wash fluid. High mannose N-glycan structures were not detected in the apoplast wash fluid preparation, which confirmed the protein secretion. Altogether, these findings demonstrate that high-level production of rCMG2-Fc-Apo can be achieved by transient production in Nicotiana benthamiana plants with apoplast targeting.
A Low Profile Tilted Beam Single Arm Spiral Antenna On A High Impedance Surface For Beam Steering Applications

This paper presents the extension of the high impedance surface (HIS) idea and its application to the switchable beam single arm spiral antennas proposed in (A. Mehta et al., 2006, 2004) in order to reduce its substrate thickness. A low profile single arm spiral antenna for tilted beam radiation using a small ground plane (0.97 lambdag) and a practical coax feeding from bottom is presented. As pointed out in (A. Mehta et al., 2006) the spiral antenna generates a tilted beam when the radiation occurs from its first two wavelength loop concurrently. Using switches, as shown in (A. Mehta et al., 2006), the radiation from the second wavelength loop can be altered resulting in steering of the beam in the space. Hence, steering a tilted beam in space is easy with the structure proposed, consequently it helps in achieving an uncomplicated beam swing. Since it is low profile, this antenna is suitable for implementation in small wireless transceivers for beam adaptive applications.
Grounded Discovery of Coordinate Term Relationships between Software Entities

We present an approach for the detection of coordinate-term relationships between entities from the software domain, that refer to Java classes. Usually, relations are found by examining corpus statistics associated with text entities. In some technical domains, however, we have access to additional information about the real-world objects named by the entities, suggesting that coupling information about the "grounded" entities with corpus statistics might lead to improved methods for relation discovery. To this end, we develop a similarity measure for Java classes using distributional information about how they are used in software, which we combine with corpus statistics on the distribution of contexts in which the classes appear in text. Using our approach, cross-validation accuracy on this dataset can be improved dramatically, from around 60% to 88%. Human labeling results show that our classifier has an F1 score of 86% over the top 1000 predicted pairs.
Chapter 15: Disease Gene Prioritization

Disease-causing aberrations in the normal function of a gene define that gene as a disease gene. Proving a causal link between a gene and a disease experimentally is expensive and time-consuming. Comprehensive prioritization of candidate genes prior to experimental testing drastically reduces the associated costs. Computational gene prioritization is based on various pieces of correlative evidence that associate each gene with the given disease and suggest possible causal links. A fair amount of this evidence comes from high-throughput experimentation. Thus, well-developed methods are necessary to reliably deal with the quantity of information at hand. Existing gene prioritization techniques already significantly improve the outcomes of targeted experimental studies. Faster and more reliable techniques that account for novel data types are necessary for the development of new diagnostics, treatments, and cure for many diseases.
ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY OF LIFE OF RETIRED POPULATION

Quality of life (QoL) is a concept that characterizes the material and spiritual comfort of human existence. In the medical sense, the term is associated with health. In Kazakhstan, as in many other countries is happening a process of increasing of the part of population in retirement age. The objective of this study was to assess the QoL of retired population in Kazakhstan. Current data acquisition was realized by questionnaire respondents by SF-36 questionnaire. The survey covered 203 respondents. The study population was formulated by the method of random selection. Statistical analysis of data was performed using methods of variation statistics. All indicators of scales SF-36 were above average. General indicators: physical (PH) and mental (MH) well-being were assessed as not large less than average (42.6/43.2). The male population of the retirement age had better scores on all eight SF-36 scales compared to the female population. Indicators of QoL of working population were assessed higher than indicators of nonworking population. Also, it was found that presence of job positively influences to the QoL of retired population. KEY WORDS: Quality of life, SF-36 questionnaire, retired population, Kazakhstan. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/ 10.15181/atee.v1i0. 1316
Self Consistent Field method with damped oscillation for nano device

As CMOS technology progresses, device dimensions have been scaled down into the nanometer regime and classical physics failing to characterize the nanoscale devices as quantum mechanics start to play an important role in their characteristics. Modeling Quantum transport is being very significant for rigorous performance analysis of nano devices and simulation plays an important role in the field of nano device modeling. The most widely accepted method for simulation of nano devices is Self Consistent Field (SCF) method which uses Non-Equilibrium Green's Function (NEGF) formalism self consistently with Poisson solver equation. The NEGF formalism provides a rigorous description of quantum transport in nanoscale devices but heavy in computation. Now to reduce the computational burden a supervised algorithm in the updating procedure of SCF method is proposed in this paper. It reduces the computational burden drastically and to show the superiority a comparison in simulating DGMOSFET by traditional SCF and our proposed algorithm is provided.
Distinct myoprotective roles of cardiac sarcolemmal and mitochondrial KATP channels during metabolic inhibition and recovery

The protective roles of sarcolemmal (sarc) and mitochondrial (mito)KATP channels are un‐clear despite their apparent importance to ischemic preconditioning. We examined these roles by monitoring intracellular calcium ([Ca]int), using fura‐2 and fluo‐3, in enzymatically isolated rat right ventricular myocytes. Myocyte mortality, estimated using a trypan blue assay, changed approximately in parallel with changes in [Ca]int. Chemically induced hypoxia (CIH), induced by application of cyanide and 2‐deoxy‐glucose, caused a steady rise in [Ca]int. Calcium increased more rapidly on ‘reoxygenation’ by return to control solutions. The protein kinase C (PKC) activator PMA abolished both phases of calcium increase. The mitoKATP channel‐selective blocker 5‐hydroxydecanoate partially prevented the PMA‐induced protection during CIH, but not during reoxygenation. In contrast, HMR 1098, a sarcKATP channel‐selective blocker, abolished protection only during the reoxygenation. Adenosine (A1) receptor activation prevented or reduced increases in [Ca]int and improved cell viability via a PKC and mito/sarcKATP channel‐dependent mechanism. PKC‐dependent protection against cytoplasmic calcium increases was also observed in a human cell line (tsA201) transiently expressing sarcKATP channels. Protection was abolished only during the reoxygenation phase by the amino acid substitution (T180A) in the pore‐forming Kir6.2 subunit, a mutation previously shown to prevent PKC‐dependent modulation. Our data suggest that sarc and mitoKATP channel populations play distinct protective roles, triggered by PKC and/or adenosine, during chemically induced hypoxia/reoxygenation. —Light, P. E. , Kanji, H. D. , Manning Fox, J. E. , French, R. J. Distinct myoprotective roles of cardiac sarcolem‐mal and mitochondrial KATP channels during metabolic inhibition and recovery. FASEB J. 15, 2586–2594 (2001)
Resistance exercise increases active MMP and β1‐integrin protein expression in skeletal muscle

Recent studies indicate that matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and critical linkage proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM) regulate skeletal muscle mass, although the effects of resistance training (RT) on protein expression and activity are unclear. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of RT on MMP activity and expression of ECM‐related proteins. Ten male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly assigned to 1 bout (1B) or 18 bouts (18B) of electrical stimulation. The right gastrocnemius muscle was isometrically contracted via percutaneous electrical stimulation (five sets of 5 sec stimulation × five contractions/set with 5 sec interval between contractions and 3 min rest between sets) once (1B) or every other day for 5 weeks (18B). The left leg served as a control. Activity of MMP‐2 and MMP‐9, determined via gelatin zymography, was increased (P < 0.05) immediately after 1B. However, MMP activation was not evident following 18B. No changes in collagen IV, laminin α2, α7‐integrin, or ILK protein expression were detected immediately following 1B or 18B. However, β1‐integrin protein expression was significantly increased (P < 0.05) with 18B. Our results suggest that resistance exercise activates MMPs during the initial phase of RT but this response is attenuated with continuation of RT.
Migrant Social Workers, Foreign Credential Recognition and Securing Employment in Canada: A Qualitative Analysis of Pre-Employment Experiences

Canada is a culturally diverse receiving country for transnational migration, and social workers are among the professional migrants who arrive in Canada each year. This article draws on findings from a four-year, grounded theory study on the professional adaptation processes and experiences of migrant social workers (n = 66) in the Canadian context. Study findings highlight a range of internal (personal) attributes and external (contextual) elements that interact to serve as either protective or vulnerabilizing factors during the pre-employment phase of professional adaptation. The focus of this article is to describe the interactions of protective and vulnerabilizing factors associated with the experience of obtaining recognition of foreign credentials and securing employment as a social worker in Canada. The findings demonstrate that migrant social workers in Canada face significant barriers in these two pre-employment phases of professional adaptation. A range of research and policy implications is identified. In particular, we highlight the disconnect that exists between Canada’s migration-friendly policies, and the lack of organizational and governmental supports and services to facilitate successful labour market integration of migrant social workers.
Phase noise behaviour of fractional-N synthesizers with ΔΣ dithering for multi-radio mobile terminals

This paper presents phase noise behaviour and design aspects of PLL based frequency synthesizers with DeltaSigma dithering for cognitive multi-radio mobile terminals. Principal features of PLL based frequency synthesizers and 1-bit DeltaSigma dithering are presented and simulated. Moreover, frequency synthesizer requirements for main standards in the frequency band 800 MHz to 6 GHz are investigated as well.
AUTONOMOUS AGENT CONTROL USING CONNECTIONIST XCS CLASSIFIER SYSTEM

In this paper a new connectionist classifier system CXCS is proposed, which uses a layer of competitive artificial neurons for decision making. New algorithms of the CXCS learning in multi-step problems are developed, where the correct result becomes known only at a certain system's step. CXCS is employed to control an autonomous agent in discrete environments.