Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Up-regulation of CD64-expressing monocytes with impaired FcγR function reflects disease activity in polyarticular psoriatic arthritis

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess monocyte Fc receptor (FcR) status and function in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) in relation to healthy controls (HC) and to disease activity. Method:The study population comprised 23 patients with active polyarticular PsA and 33 age- and gender-matched HC. Immunoglobulin (Ig) levels, inflammatory laboratory parameters, patient-reported outcomes of joint disease activity, skin scoring (Psoriasis Area and Severity Index, PASI), and joint status were determined in the patients. Monocytes were analysed for the expression of FcRs for IgG (FcγR) class I (CD64), IIa (CD32a), IIb (CD32b), and III (CD16), the FcR for IgA (FcαR) (CD89), and surface-bound IgG. The monocytic FcγR function was assessed by evaluating IgG immune complex (IC) binding and tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α production following IgG-IC stimulation. The monocytes were further subdivided and analysed according to their CD14 and CD16 expression. Results:The PsA patients presented elevated serum levels of IgG1, 2, and 3 and increased numbers of CD64+ monocytes. Furthermore, the PsA monocytes exhibited increased cell-bound IgG, and the FcγR function was affected in terms of reduced IgG-IC-mediated TNF-α release. These findings correlated significantly with different markers of joint disease activity. PsA was also accompanied by an increase in the CD16 low-expressing monocyte subset. Conclusions:An intensified humoral immune response affects monocytes and their FcR status in active polyarticular PsA. The up-regulated CD64+ monocytes seem to be have an important role in psoriatic joint inflammation. These cells may prove to be a useful target in future PsA therapeutic interventions.
Human Cord Blood CD4+CD25hi Regulatory T Cells Suppress Prenatally Acquired T Cell Responses to Plasmodium falciparum Antigens

In malaria endemic regions, a fetus is often exposed in utero to Plasmodium falciparum blood-stage Ags. In some newborns, this can result in the induction of immune suppression. We have previously shown these modulated immune responses to persist postnatally, with a subsequent increase in a child’s susceptibility to infection. To test the hypothesis that this immune suppression is partially mediated by malaria-specific regulatory T cells (Tregs) in utero, cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMC) were obtained from 44 Kenyan newborns of women with and without malaria at delivery. CD4+CD25lo T cells and CD4+CD25hi FOXP3+ cells (Tregs) were enriched from CBMC. Treg frequency and HLA-DR expression on Tregs were significantly greater for Kenyan as compared with North American CBMC (p < 0.01). CBMC/CD4+ T cells cultured with P. falciparum blood-stage Ags induced production of IFN-γ, IL-13, IL-10, and/or IL-5 in 50% of samples. Partial depletion of CD25hi cells augmented the Ag-driven IFN-γ production in 69% of subjects with malaria-specific responses and revealed additional Ag-reactive lymphocytes in previously unresponsive individuals (n = 3). Addition of Tregs to CD4+CD25lo cells suppressed spontaneous and malaria Ag-driven production of IFN-γ in a dose-dependent fashion, until production was completely inhibited in most subjects. In contrast, Tregs only partially suppressed malaria-induced Th2 cytokines. IL-10 or TGF-β did not mediate this suppression. Thus, prenatal exposure to malaria blood-stage Ags induces Tregs that primarily suppress Th1-type recall responses to P. falciparum blood-stage Ags. Persistence of these Tregs postnatally could modify a child’s susceptibility to malaria infection and disease.
A new multi-view articulated human motion tracking algorithm with improved silhouette extraction and view adaptive fusion

This paper proposes a new articulated human motion tracking and pose estimation algorithm using an improved silhouette extraction method with view adaptive fusion. It is developed around the baseline algorithm in HumanEva, which uses the Annealed Particle Filter (APF). Shadow detection and removal and a level-set method are employed to achieve better silhouette extraction. An adaptive view fusion approach is also proposed to improve the matching between the human 3D model and the observations. Experimental results show that the proposed approach has considerably better performance than the baseline algorithm in the HumanEva dataset, due to better shadow handling and data fusion of multiple views.
High Glucose Concentration Does Not Modulate the Formation of Arterial Medial Calcification in Experimental Uremic Rats

High phosphate-induced phenotypic switching of smooth muscle cells (SMCs) into osteogenic cells is critical for the formation of arterial medial calcification in chronic kidney disease. Because vascular calcification is also prevalent in type 2 diabetes, we examined whether glucose concentration affects high phosphate-induced SMC phenotypic switching and calcification. First, the formation of arterial medial calcification was compared among 4 groups: adenine-fed uremic rats, streptozotocin-injected hyperglycemic rats, adenine-fed and streptozotocin-injected uremic/hyperglycemic rats, and control rats. Calcification was obvious in uremic and uremic/hyperglycemic rats, whereas it was undetectable in the others. Aortic calcium contents were significantly elevated in uremic and uremic/hyperglycemic rats, but they were not different between the two groups. Moreover, hyperglycemia had no effects on the reduced expression of SMC differentiation markers including smooth muscle α-actin and SM22α and on the increased expression of osteogenic markers, such as Runx2, in uremic rats. Second, cultured SMCs were incubated in the medium with various concentrations of phosphate (0.9-4.5 mmol/l) and glucose (5-50 mmol/l), and calcium deposition was measured. Although high phosphate dose-dependently increased calcium contents, they were unaffected by glucose concentration. Results suggest that glucose concentration does not directly modulate high phosphate-induced SMC phenotypic switching and arterial medial calcification.
Caractérisation morphologique et moléculaire des espèces ligneuses du genre Medicago

P la taxinomie et la distinction entre taxons, certaines differences morphologiques peuvent parfois suffire. Quelquefois, un seul caractere observable permet de differencier une espece ou un groupe d'especes (couleur de la corolle, type de gousse, etc.). Mais le cas le plus commun est le chevauchement des taxons; dans ce cas, un ensemble de caracteres doit etre considere pour caracteriser les especes (LESINS et LESINS, 1979).
Incomplete Penetration Type Flaws Detection in Weldments Using Morphological Image Processing Techniques

- It is necessary to detect suspected defect regions in the radiographic weld images to find the flaw and its causative factors. This requires processing of radiographic images by a suitable approach This paper presents an image processing approach to process incomplete penetration type flaws in radiographic images of the weld specimens considering morphological aspects of the image. In the present approach, radiographic weld image is processed to get the image with good contrast and reduced noise using image enhancement techniques like histogram equalization and noise filtering. This is followed by an effective edge detector such as Canny operator to find the edges of flaws, which are further used to segment the image to fixed the boundaries. The boundaries are fixed using morphological image processing approach i.e. dilating few similar boundaries and eroding some irrelevant boundaries decided on the basis of pixel characteristics. The incomplete penetration type flaws are clearly identifiable in the finally processed image, which is obtained by superimposing the segmented image over the original enhanced image.
Correlation among genotype, phenotype, and biochemical markers in Gaucher disease: implications for the prediction of disease severity.

Gaucher disease is a lysosomal storage disorder characterized by a deficiency of the enzyme acid beta-glucosidase. The clinical manifestations of Gaucher disease are highly variable, and although certain genotypes are often associated with mild or severe symptoms, a defined correlation between genotype and phenotype does not exist. Identification of biochemical markers characteristic of pathology may be of use in predicting the progression of the disease state. In this study the relationship among genotype, glycolipid substrates, lysosomal proteins, and the clinical manifestations of Gaucher disease has been evaluated. Plasma glycolipids were analyzed using electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry. Lysosomal-associated membrane protein-1 (LAMP-1) and saposin C were determined by immunoquantification. Patients with Gaucher disease were shown to have an increased 16:0-glucosylceramide/16:0-lactosylceramide ratio and elevated concentrations of LAMP-1 and saposin C in plasma. A general relationship was found to exist among the 16:0-glucosylceramide/16:0-lactosylceramide ratio, LAMP-1 and saposin C levels, and patient phenotype, providing a refinement of the genotype-phenotype correlation. These findings have major implications for the diagnosis, prediction of disease severity, and monitoring of therapy in patients with Gaucher disease.
An extensible platform for specification of integrated languages for model management

This thesis addresses the problem of integrated and uniform programmatic model management in Model Driven Engineering (MDE). An MDE process typically involves a number of models that are expressed using different modelling languages and technologies. In the context of an MDE process, many different operations such as validation, comparison, model-to-model transformation, model-to-text transformation, refactoring and merging need to be performed on such models in an automated manner. The hypothesis of this thesis is that these tasks can be supported in an integrated and uniform way by a platform that provides reusable core facilities and an extensible architecture that enables the construction of interoperable and consistent task-specific languages that share abstract and concrete syntax, operational semantics and implementation. To evaluate the validity of the hypothesis, such a platform has been designed and a reference implementation has been provided. Results obtained from relevant case studies in the ModelWare and ModelPlex EU projects as well as in the context of intenral and external collaborations validate the hypothesis as they demonstrate the significant reuse, interoperability and uniformity benefits of such an approach.
Software Defined Wireless Networks ( SDWNs ) : Unbridling SDNs

The software defined networking (SDN) paradigm promises to simplify network configuration and resource management dramatically. Such features are extremely valuable to network operators and therefore, the industrial and the academic research and development communities are paying increasing attention to SDN. Although manufactures of wireless equipment are increasing their involvement in SDN-related activities, to date there is not a clear and comprehensive understanding of what are the opportunities offered by SDN in most common networking scenarios involving infrastructure-less wireless communications and how SDN concepts should be adapted to suit the characteristics of these networking environments. This paper is a first attempt to fill this gap. In fact, it aims at analyzing how SDN can be beneficial in infrastructure-less wireless networking environments, and how it should be expanded to take the characteristics of such networking environments into account. Also, a complete SDN solution for wireless personal area networks, named Software Defined Wireless Network (SDWN) is presented and some design guidelines are provided.
Impact of proto-oncogene mutation detection in cytological specimens from thyroid nodules improves the diagnostic accuracy of cytology.

CONTEXT Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) is the gold standard for the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules but has the limitation of inadequate sampling or indeterminate lesions. OBJECTIVE We aimed to verify whether search of thyroid cancer-associated protooncogene mutations in cytological samples may improve the diagnostic accuracy of FNAC. STUDY DESIGN One hundred seventy-four consecutive patients undergoing thyroid surgery were submitted to FNAC (on 235 thyroid nodules) that was used for cytology and molecular analysis of BRAF, RAS, RET, TRK, and PPRgamma mutations. At surgery these nodules were sampled to perform the same molecular testing. RESULTS Mutations were found in 67 of 235 (28.5%) cytological samples. Of the 67 mutated samples, 23 (34.3%) were mutated by RAS, 33 (49.3%) by BRAF, and 11 (16.4%) by RET/PTC. In 88.2% of the cases, the mutation was confirmed in tissue sample. The presence of mutations at cytology was associated with cancer 91.1% of the times and follicular adenoma 8.9% of the time. BRAF or RET/PTC mutations were always associated with cancer, whereas RAS mutations were mainly associated with cancer (74%) but also follicular adenoma (26%). The diagnostic performance of molecular analysis was superior to that of traditional cytology, with better sensitivity and specificity, and the combination of the two techniques further contributed to improve the total accuracy (93.2%), compared with molecular analysis (90.2%) or traditional cytology (83.0%). CONCLUSIONS Our findings demonstrate that molecular analysis of cytological specimens is feasible and that its results in combination with cytology improves the diagnostic performance of traditional cytology.
River Otter Population Size Estimation using Noninvasive Latrine Surveys

ABSTRACT Across much of North America, river otter (Lontra canadensis) populations were extirpated or greatly reduced by the early 20th century. More recently, reintroductions have resulted in restored populations and the recommencement of managed trapping. Perhaps the best example of these river otter reintroductions occurred in Missouri, regarded as one of the most successful carnivore recovery programs in history. However, abundance estimates for river otter populations are difficult to obtain and often contentious when used to underpin management activities. We assessed the value of latrine site monitoring as a mechanism for quantifying river otter abundance. Analyses of fecal DNA to identify individual animals may result in an improved population estimate and have been used for a variety of mammal species. We optimized laboratory protocols, redesigned existing microsatellite primers, and calculated genotyping error rates to enhance genotyping success for a large quantity of river otter scat samples. We also developed a method for molecular sexing. We then extracted DNA from 1,421 scat samples and anal sac secretions (anal jelly) collected during latrine site counts along 22–34-km stretches representing 8–77% of 8 rivers in southern Missouri in 2009. Error rates were low for the redesigned microsatellites. We obtained genotypes at 7–10 microsatellite loci for 24% of samples, observing highest success for anal jelly samples (71%) and lowest for fresh samples (collected within 1 day of defecation). We identified 63 otters (41 M, 22 F) in the 8 rivers, ranging from 2 to 14 otters per river. Analyses using program CAPWIRE resulted in population estimates similar to the minimum genotyping estimate. Density estimates averaged 0.24 otters/km. We used linear regression to develop and contrast models predicting population size based on latrine site and scat count indices, which are easily collected in the field. Population size was best predicted by a combination of scats per latrine and latrines per kilometer. Our results provide methodological approaches to guide wildlife managers seeking to initiate similar river otter fecal genotyping studies, as well as to estimate and monitor river otter population sizes.
La Biodiversidad en el contexto Educativo. Múltiples miradas en el escenario mundial

El presente trabajo explora el campo de la biodiversidad en el contexto educativo. La metodologia empleada partio del mapeamiento informacional bibliografico propuesto por Molina et al . , (2012), y el analisis documental descrito por Quintana y Montgomery (2006), con articulos encontrados en seis bases de datos. Las categorias de analisis fueron: Concepciones, Perdida, Educacion Ambiental, Educacion para el desarrollo sostenible, Estrategias de Ensenanza-aprendizaje, Reconexion y Diversidad Biocultural. Para terminar, se concluye senalando la riqueza de tematicas a nivel mundial y como esta tiene la posibilidad de realizar aportes en la formulacion de agendas de investigacion en un tema que, como este, es relevante y estrategico para el pais.
Temperature thresholds for cutaneous pain.

Thresholds for pricking pain, as well as withdrawal points and endurance limens, were measured in 40 untrained subjects. The measurements were made in terms of the instantaneous temperature of the skin during thermal irradiation. The thresholds were lower and more variable for these subjects than for highly trained ones. They varied with the region of skin stimulated, ranging from 40.8℃ on the palm to 42.2℃ on the forehead, and were about 1℃ higher on skin blackened with India ink than on normal skin. Adaptation to pain occurred regularly, sensitivity being decreased in repeated measurements. Implications for pain threshold measurements in general are discussed. Submitted on March 31, 1958
Heat-Nav: Using Temperature Changes as Navigation Cues

HCI is increasingly exploring how temperature can be used as an interaction modality. One challenge is that temperature changes are perceived over the course of seconds. This can be attributed to both the slow response time of skin thermoreceptors and the latency of the technology used to heat and cool the skin. For this reason, thermal cues are typically used to communicate single states, such as an emotion, and then there is a pause of tens of seconds to allow the skin to re-adapt to a neutral temperature before sending another signal. In contrast, this paper presents the first experimental demonstration that continuous temperature changes can guide behaviour: significantly improving performance in a 2D maze navigation task, without having to return to a neutral state before a new signal is sent. We discuss how continuous thermal feedback may be used for real world navigational tasks.
Early Identification of Seronegative Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection with Severe Presentation

ABSTRACT Specific antibodies against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), usually used for diagnosis, almost invariably become detectable within 3 months of exposure. We report on a patient whose HIV infection was identified early by a combined antigen/antibody test, but seroconversion did not occur for 7 months, until the implementation of antiretroviral therapy.
Implementing an Algorithm for Detecting Redundant Linear Constraints in Semidefinite Programming

We study the system consisting of a linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraint and linear constraints of the form: A(x) := A0 + n ∑ i=1 xiAi 0, bj + a T j x ≥ 0 (j = 1, 2, . . . , q) where Ai are m×m symmetric matrices, aj and x ∈ IR , and bj ∈ IR. A(x) 0 means that A(x) is positive semidefinite. A constraint in the above system is redundant if eliminating it from the system does not change the feasible region. Otherwise it is referred to as necessary. There are computational and cognitive benefits to removing redundant constraints in semidefinite programming. In a recent paper, Jibrin and Daniel developed ideas for identifying redundant linear constraints in the given system. We improve and implement these ideas as an algorithm. We test the algorithm on various examples.
Automatic chaptering of VoD content based on DVD content

In this paper we propose a framework for automatically chaptering VoD content based on its DVD version. The idea is to benefit from artistic work performed for DVD chapter creation even if DVD and VoD video content are not exactly the same. The framework is based on a sparse to dense frame synchronization, combining both global and local image descriptions, together with adaptive video sequence splitting to enable the processing of very long sequences. A way to extract specific information from a DVD is also embedded in the framework. Results of the evaluation performed on official movie releases are presented in the paper.
Loss of Elp3 Impairs the Acetylation and Distribution of Connexin-43 in the Developing Cerebral Cortex

The Elongator complex is required for proper development of the cerebral cortex. Interfering with its activity in vivo delays the migration of postmitotic projection neurons, at least through a defective α-tubulin acetylation. However, this complex is already expressed by cortical progenitors where it may regulate the early steps of migration by targeting additional proteins. Here we report that connexin-43 (Cx43), which is strongly expressed by cortical progenitors and whose depletion impairs projection neuron migration, requires Elongator expression for its proper acetylation. Indeed, we show that Cx43 acetylation is reduced in the cortex of Elp3cKO embryos, as well as in a neuroblastoma cell line depleted of Elp1 expression, suggesting that Cx43 acetylation requires Elongator in different cellular contexts. Moreover, we show that histones deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) is a deacetylase of Cx43. Finally, we report that acetylation of Cx43 regulates its membrane distribution in apical progenitors of the cerebral cortex.