Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
CD8+ Lymphocytes Do Not Mediate Protection against Acute Superinfection 20 Days after Vaccination with a Live Attenuated Simian Immunodeficiency Virus

ABSTRACT In order to test the hypothesis that CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes mediate protection against acute superinfection, we depleted >99% of CD8+ lymphocytes in live attenuated simian immunodeficiency virus macC8 (SIVmacC8) vaccinees from the onset of vaccination, maintained that depletion for 20 days, and then challenged with pathogenic, wild-type SIVmacJ5. Vaccinees received 5 mg per kg of humanized anti-CD8 monoclonal antibody (MAb) 1 h before inoculation, followed by the same dose again on days 3, 7, 10, 13, and 17. On day 13, peripheral CD8+ T lymphocytes were >99% depleted in three out of four anti-CD8 MAb-treated vaccinees. At this time attenuated SIVmacC8 viral RNA loads in anti-CD8 MAb-treated vaccinees were significantly higher than control vaccinees treated contemporaneously with nonspecific human immunoglobulin. Lymphoid tissue CD8+ T lymphocyte depletion was >99% in three out of four anti-CD8 MAb-treated vaccinees on the day of wild-type SIVmacJ5 challenge. All four control vaccinees and three out of four anti-CD8 MAb-treated vaccinees were protected against detectable superinfection with wild-type SIVmacJ5. Although superinfection with wild-type SIVmacJ5 was detected at postmortem in a single anti-CD8 MAb-treated vaccinee, this did not correlate with the degree of preceding CD8+ T lymphocyte depletion. Clearance of attenuated SIVmacC8 viremia coincided with recovery of normal CD8+ T lymphocyte counts between days 48 and 76. These results support the view that cytotoxic T lymphocytes are important for host-mediated control of SIV primary viremia but do not indicate a central role in protection against acute superinfection conferred by inoculation with live attenuated SIV.
A connection-limited neural network by InfoMax and InfoMin

It is well known that edge filters in the visual system can be generated by the InfoMax principle. But, such models are nonlinear and employ fully-connected network structures. In this paper, a new artificial network model is proposed, which is based on the ldquoInfoMinrdquo principle and linear multilayer ICA (LMICA). This network utilizes cumulant-based objective functions which are derived from the InfoMax and InfoMin principles with large noise. Because the objective functions do not rely on any nonlinear models, a linear model can be employed. It simplifies the model considerably. Besides, this network can deal with quite large number of neurons by employing a connection-limited structure as in LMICA. In addition, it is more efficient than even LMICA because it does not need any prewhitening. Numerical experiments show that this network generates hierarchical edge filters from large-size natural scenes and verify the validity of the InfoMin principle.
Astrocytic hypertrophy in dysmyelination influences the diffusion anisotropy of white matter

The effect of a proteolipid protein (PLP) mutation on the developing white matter anisotropy was examined by diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DT‐MRI) in a noninvasive study of a mouse model of Pelizaeus‐Merzbacher disease (PMD). The jimpy PLP mutation in mice produces an irreversible dysmyelination in jimpy males, whereas heterozygous females exhibit a transient hypomyelination, as assessed by a longitudinal study of the same mice during development. Modifications of the different individual DT‐MRI parameters were highlighted by specific changes in tissue structures caused by the mutation that includes the hypomyelination, axonal abnormalities, and recovery. Astrocytic hypertrophy is a striking cellular event in dysmyelinated jimpy brain, where most axons or bundles of fibers are entirely wrapped by astrocyte cytoplasmic processes, so its influences on DT‐MRI parameters in dysmyelination were examined for the first time. DT‐MRI data of the jimpy brain were compared with those obtained from dysmyelination of (oligo‐TTK) transgenic mice, induced by oligodendrocyte killing, which have a mild astrocyte hypertrophy (Jalabi et al., 2005 ), and from recovering jimpy females, which have reduced astrocyte hypertrophy. The unique morphological feature of astrocytes in jimpy males coupled with an increase in the water channel protein aquaporin 4 (AQP4) was found to facilitate the directional water diffusion in the white matter. In addition to the major changes of DT‐MRI parameters in the two dysmyelinated mice caused by the myelin loss and axonal modifications, the amplified magnitude of radial and axial diffusions in jimpy males was attributed principally to the strongly pronounced astrocyte hypertrophy. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Maternal Obesity and Rectovaginal Group B Streptococcus Colonization at Term

Objective. To test the hypothesis that maternal obesity is an independent risk factor for rectovaginal group B streptococcus (GBS) colonization at term. Study Design. Retrospective cohort study of consecutive women with singleton term pregnancies admitted in labor at Barnes-Jewish Hospital (2004–2008). Maternal BMI ≥ 30 Kg/m2 (obese) or <30 Kg/m2 (nonobese) defined the two comparison groups. The outcome of interest was GBS colonization from a positive culture. Baseline characteristics were compared using Student's t-test and Chi-squared or Fisher's exact test. The association between obesity and GBS colonization was assessed using univariable and multivariable analyses. Results. Of the 10,564 women eligible, 7,711 met inclusion criteria. The prevalence of GBS colonization in the entire cohort was relatively high (25.8%). Obese gravidas were significantly more likely to be colonized by GBS when compared with nonobese gravidas (28.4% versus 22.2%, P < 0.001). Obese gravidas were still 35% more likely than nonobese women to test positive for GBS after adjusting for race, parity, smoking, and diabetes (adjusted OR 1.35 [95% CI 1.21–1.50]). Conclusion. Maternal obesity is a significant risk factor for GBS colonization at term. Further research is needed to evaluate the impact of this finding on risk-based management strategies.
Modified Beer-Lambert law for blood flow

The modified Beer-Lambert law is among the most widely used approaches for analysis of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) reflectance signals for measurements of tissue blood volume and oxygenation. Briefly, the modified Beer-Lambert paradigm is a scheme to derive changes in tissue optical properties based on continuous-wave (CW) diffuse optical intensity measurements. In its simplest form, the scheme relates differential changes in light transmission (in any geometry) to differential changes in tissue absorption. Here we extend this paradigm to the measurement of tissue blood flow by diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS). In the new approach, differential changes of the intensity temporal auto-correlation function at a single delay-time are related to differential changes in blood flow. The key theoretical results for measurement of blood flow changes in any tissue geometry are derived, and we demonstrate the new method to monitor cerebral blood flow in a pig under conditions wherein the semi-infinite geometry approximation is fairly good. Specifically, the drug dinitrophenol was injected in the pig to induce a gradual 200% increase in cerebral blood flow, as measured with MRI velocity flow mapping and by DCS. The modified Beer-Lambert law for flow accurately recovered these flow changes using only a single delay-time in the intensity auto-correlation function curve. The scheme offers increased DCS measurement speed of blood flow. Further, the same techniques using the modified Beer-Lambert law to filter out superficial tissue effects in NIRS measurements of deep tissues can be applied to the DCS modified Beer-Lambert law for blood flow monitoring of deep tissues.
A choral organizational structure for the developing male singer

The purpose of this study was to propose an organizational model that would enable a community boy choir organization to provide a continuous curriculum of vocal instruction for the male singer at all stages of his vocal development. The proposed organizational structure included four choirs for male singers: the treble training choir; senior treble choir; changing-voice ensemble; and tenor/bass ensemble. The rationale behind the proposed community boy choir organization rested largely on the realization of a changing-voice ensemble for the male adolescent. Based upon data collected from a review of literature and survey of prominent community boychoir programs, the researcher asserted that a choir for the adolescent male was critical to the success of a continuous choral curriculum for the male singer. The changing-voice ensemble would allow the conductor to address the distinctive physiological, psychological and social challenges of the adolescent male within a homogeneous ensemble, ultimately retaining the adolescent throughout his entire vocal development. Conclusions from this study included: the individual singer and his community boy choir organization profited from both a well-sequenced and
Generic Peer-to-Peer Networks: Theory, Implementation and Applications in Image Retrieval Using the Wavelet Transform

Almost ten years have passed since the expression “peer-to-peer” reached the large internet population. It has had considerable success, but there still seems to be a long way ahead. In these ten years, a wealth of peer-to-peer systems has been proposed by the research institutions, but only few have made it commercially. While the research community introduces ever more advanced structured peer-to-peer networks, the public seems to prefer the simplicity and elasticity of unstructured peer-to-peer networks, despite their numerous and obvious flaws. Even developers or system designers seem to prefer either unstructured networks, or, at best, hybrid systems. Why? One of the important factors, business considerations aside, is that designing, implementing and testing one such system before deployment is virtually impossible for someone without a PhD in the area. Even comparing existing systems is difficult, because there is no unifying benchmarks or models. This thesis addresses this problem by introducing theoretical models for both structured and unstructured networks, by implementing simulators to help system designers get a better idea of the performance before going to a real implementation and, finally, by showcasing an image retrieval application on structured peer-to-peer networks. We organize this work in 4 chapters, in addition to the introductory and concluding remarks. First, we make a thorough overview of the state of the art in peer-to-peer networks, both structured and unstructured, as well as existing attempts at providing a generic model for such networks. In the same chapter, we also review techniques in information retrieval on peer-to-peer networks, as well as image retrieval techniques that we will subsequently adapt for our application environment. Afterwards, we dedicate one chapter for each of the three important contributions of the thesis: the structured network model, the unstructured network model and the image retrieval application. This thesis demonstrates the possibility of defining new peer-to-peer networks or modeling existing designs easily, as well as the applicability of image retrieval techniques in a
Identifying graphs from noisy and incomplete data

There is a growing wealth of data describing networks of various types, including social networks, physical networks such as transportation or communication networks, and biological networks. At the same time, there is a growing interest in analyzing these networks, in order to uncover general laws that govern their structure and evolution, and patterns and predictive models to develop better policies and practices. However, a fundamental challenge in dealing with this newly available observational data describing networks is that the data is often of dubious quality -- it is noisy and incomplete -- and before any analysis method can be applied, the data must be cleaned, and missing information inferred. In this paper, we introduce the notion of graph identification, which explicitly models the inference of a "cleaned" output network from a noisy input graph. It is this output network that is appropriate for further analysis. We present an illustrative example and use the example to explore the types of inferences involved in graph identification, as well as the challenges and issues involved in combining those inferences. We then present a simple, general approach to combining the inferences in graph identification and experimentally show the utility of our combined approach and how the performance of graph identification is sensitive to the inter-dependencies among these inferences.
The Ultimate Solution Approach to Intractable Problems

There is now strong belief that P 6 NP. This means that some very com- mon problems cannot be solved eciently under current and so called Von Neumann type computer architectures including parallel configurations. And, this will remain the case even in relatively low dimensions. What one may hope to achieve is the best possible solution given the available facilities within the allowed time. This makes the current definition of the optimum redundant for practical purposes. Therefore, a new definition of the optimum is required as well as appropriate approaches to find it. This paper will put forward a definition for the practical or sensible optimum, the s-optimum, consider its consequences and suggest what can be the ultimate approach to finding it. Although this approach is generic and can be applied in any context, optimisation and search are the specific contexts we will be concerned with here.
Maintaining dynamic graph properties deterministically

In this paper we present deterministic fully dynamic algorithms for maintaining several properties on undirected graphs subject to edge insertions and deletions, in polylogarithmic time per operation. Combining techniques from [6, 10], we can maintain a minimum spanning forest of a graph with k different edge weights in O(k log n) amortized time per update; maintain an 1+ -approximation of the minimum spanning forest in O(log n log(U(1 + ))/ log(1 + )) amortized time per update, where edge weights are between 1 and U ; test if a graph is bipartite in O(1) worst-case time, supporting updates in O(log n) amortized time; test if the removal of k given edges disconnect the graph (k-edge witness problem) in O(k log n) amortized time, supporting updates in O(log n) amortized time; maintain a maximal spanning forest decomposition of order k in O(k log n) amortized time per update. For all these problems, our algorithms match the previous best randomized bounds, and improve substantially over the best deterministic bounds.
Low molecular weight RNAs with homologies to cellular DNA at sites of adenovirus DNA insertion in hamster or mouse cells.

The adenovirus type 2 (Ad2)‐transformed hamster cell line HE5 contains one or very few integrated copies of Ad2 DNA. At the site of insertion of Ad2 DNA, the cellular DNA sequence has been completely preserved and has homologies to small unpolyadenylated, cytoplasmic RNAs of 300 nucleotides in length and to minority populations of smaller RNAs present in HE5 cells and in normal hamster cells. The 300‐nucleotide RNA is present on average in approximately 20 copies per cell. This RNA, and shorter RNAs, reveal homologies to the hamster DNA sequence of approximately 400 nucleotides to the right of the site of insertion of Ad2 DNA, which is present in one or very few copies per genome. The nucleotide sequence of the DNA segment homologous to this RNA does not contain open reading frames in excess of a sequence encoding 18 amino acids. Thus, it is unlikely that the small RNAs are actually translated and their function is unknown. The nucleotide sequence does not exhibit similarities to known low mol. wt. RNAs of eukaryotic origin. The low mol. wt. cellular RNA has been found in HE5 cells, in other hamster cell lines and organs, and also in mouse cells. There are differences with respect to size and abundance in the RNAs smaller than 300 nucleotides between HE5 cells and LSH hamster embryo cells. The adenovirus type 12 (Ad12)‐induced mouse tumor CBA‐12‐1‐T carries greater than 30 copies of integrated Ad12 DNA. The cellular DNA sequence at the site of Ad12 DNA insertion exhibits homologies to small RNAs (approximately 300 nucleotides long) from mouse cells. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Joint pricing and power allocation for uplink macrocell and femtocell cooperation

In this paper, we study cooperation among mobile users for uplink in two-tiers heterogeneous wireless networks. In our cooperative model, a macrocell user equipment can relay its data via a femtocell user equipment when it cannot connect to its macro base station or any femtocell base stations directly. In this scenario, the macrocell user equipment tries to find the best relay user in a set of candidate relay femtocell user equipments to maximize its utility function. Additionally, the candidate relay femtocell user equipments give a pricing-based strategy per each power unit to the macrocell user equipment along with power level at relay femtocell user equipments which would be used for relaying data in order to maximize both the relay femto and macrocell user equipment's utility function. In static network environment, this problem is formulated as a Stackelberg game. Moreover, in stochastic network environment we find stochastic optimization in a long-term for both the utility functions by modeling the problem as a restless bandit problem. Simulation results illustrate the efficiency of our proposal.
HU-444, a Novel, Potent Anti-Inflammatory, Nonpsychotropic Cannabinoid

Cannabidiol (CBD) is a component of cannabis, which does not cause the typical marijuana-type effects, but has a high potential for use in several therapeutic areas. In contrast to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), it binds very weakly to the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors. It has potent activity in both in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory assays. Thus, it lowers the formation of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, a proinflammatory cytokine, and was found to be an oral antiarthritic therapeutic in murine collagen-induced arthritis in vivo. However, in acidic media, it can cyclize to the psychoactive Δ9-THC. We report the synthesis of a novel CBD derivative, HU-444, which cannot be converted by acid cyclization into a Δ9-THC–like compound. In vitro HU-444 had anti-inflammatory activity (decrease of reactive oxygen intermediates and inhibition of TNF-α production by macrophages); in vivo it led to suppression of production of TNF-α and amelioration of liver damage as well as lowering of mouse collagen-induced arthritis. HU-444 did not cause Δ9-THC–like effects in mice. We believe that HU-444 represents a potential novel drug for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.
Omnidirectional transformation-optics cloak made from lenses and glenses.

We present a design for an omnidirectional transformation-optics (TO) cloak comprising thin lenses and glenses (generalized thin lenses) [J. Opt. Soc. Am. A33, 962 (2016)1084-7529JOAOD610.1364/JOSAA.33. 000962]. It should be possible to realize such devices in pixelated form. Our design is a piecewise nonaffine generalization of piecewise affine pixelated-TO devices [Proc. SPIE9193, 91931E (2014)PSISDG0277-786X10.1117/12.2061404; J. Opt18, 044009 (2016)]. It is intended to be a step in the direction of TO devices made entirely from lenses, which should be readily realizable on large length scales and for a broad range of wavelengths.
Supersolar metal abundances in two galaxies at z ∼ 3.57 revealed by the GRB 090323 afterglow spectrum

We report on the surprisingly high metallicity measured in two absorption systems at high redshift, detected in the Very Large Telescope spectrum of the afterglow of the gamma-ray burst GRB090323. The two systems, at redshift z = 3.5673 and z = 3.5774 (separationv � 660 km s −1 ), are dominated by the neutral gas in the interstellar medium of the parent galaxies. From the singly ionized zinc and sulfur, we estimate oversolar metallicities of (Zn/H) = +0.29±0.10 and (S/H) = +0.67±0.34, in the blue and red absorber, respectively. These are the highest metallicities ever measured in galaxies at z > 3. We propose that the two systems trace two galaxies in the process of merging, whose star formation and metallicity are heightened by the interaction. This enhanced star formation might also have triggered the birth of the GRB progenitor. As typically seen in star-forming galaxies, the fine-structure absorption Siii ∗ is detected, both in G0 and G1. From the rest-frame UV emission in the GRB location, we derive a relatively high, not corrected for dust extinction, star-formation rate SFR � 6 M⊙ yr −1 . These properties suggest a possible connection between some high-redshift GRB host galaxies and high-z massive sub-millimeter galaxies, which are characterized by disturbed morphologies and high metallicities. Our result provides additional evidence that the dispersion in the chemical enrichment of the Universe at high redshift is substantial, with the existence of very metal rich galaxies less than two billion years after the Big Bang.