Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The frequency and risk factors of allergy and asthma in children with autism--case-control study.

INTRODUCTION The evolution of autistic disorders in children depends on many factors, like concomitance of the other diseases, which can escalate the autistic symptoms. One of those groups are allergic diseases, which have one of the highest prevalence rates in children. OBJECTIVES The aim of this analysis was to determine the frequency of asthma and allergy in children with autism in comparison to controls and the risk factors of allergic diseases and asthma in both groups. MATERIAL AND METHODS Study population included 96 cases diagnosed with childhood or atypical autism and 192 controls matched individually by year of birth, gender and physician's practice. The analysis was performed in each group separately giving possibility to compare the results between study groups. RESULTS The frequency of asthma and allergic diseases in both groups has not revealed any statistically significant differences. Children with autism have been affected by asthma in 5,2% and by allergy in 25,0%, controls in 4,7% and 21,9% respectively. All cases of asthma was diagnosed in boys, commonly allergy was also more frequent in boys than girls in both studied groups. However those differences was statistically insignificant. The father's allergy and asthma was revealed as a risk factor of allergy in children with autism. In controls additionally allergy or asthma diagnosed in mother or grandparent increased risk of allergy in children. CONCLUSIONS Children with autism were affected by asthma and allergy with similar frequency like children without autistic disorders. Allergy in father was the risk factor of allergic diseases in children with autism.
Serum-Derived Hepatitis C Virus Infection of Primary Human Hepatocytes Is Tetraspanin CD81 Dependent

ABSTRACT Hepatitis C virus-positive serum (HCVser, genotypes 1a to 3a) or HCV cell culture (JFH1/HCVcc) infection of primary normal human hepatocytes was assessed by measuring intracellular HCV RNA strands. Anti-CD81 antibodies and siRNA-CD81 silencing markedly inhibited (>90%) HCVser infection irrespective of HCV genotype, viral load, or liver donor, while hCD81-large intracellular loop (LEL) had no effect. However, JFH1/HCVcc infection of hepatocytes was modestly inhibited (40 to 60%) by both hCD81-LEL and anti-CD81 antibodies. In conclusion, CD81 is involved in HCVser infection of human hepatocytes, and comparative studies of HCVser versus JFH1/HCVcc infection of human hepatocytes and Huh-7.5 cells revealed that the cell-virion combination is determinant of the entry process.
Capital-embodied Technological Progress and Obsolescence: How Do They Affect Investment Behavior?

I estimate a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to investigate the effects of capital-embodied technological progress on business cycle fluctuations, highlighting the role of economic obsolescence. Against a temporary shock to capital-embodied technological progress, I find that investments rise only in quality-adjusted terms. The behavioral response of agents in new investment is muted, thereby avoiding substantial discards of old capital goods, which are made obsolete more than usual. By incorporating the loss in the value of old capital goods, while specifying properly the rise in the rental rate and the value of a marginal unit of capital so that they reflect their market value, the reaction of new investment remains limited while the utilization of old vintages intensifies. I argue that agents compensate for capital losses on old capital goods caused by such a shock and avoid further discards of old capital goods in the production process by limiting new investment.
Treatment with total lymphoid irradiation, cyclosporin A and a monoclonal anti‐T‐cell antibody in a hamster‐to‐rat heart transplantation model: Graft survival and morphological analysis

Abstract. Treatment with preoperative total lymphoid irradiation and post‐transplant cyclosporin A has been shown to have a synergistic effect on graft survival in alio‐and xenotransplantation. Specific monoclonal antibodies against T cells and T cell subpopulations could offer new ways of preventing graft rejection in xenotransplantation. Graft survival and histology were examined after total lymphoid irradiation plus cyclosporin A treatment versus cyclosporin A plus a monoclonal antibody in a concordant, heterotopic, hamster‐to‐rat heart transplantation model. Preoperative total lymphoid irradiation was given at a dose of 1. 25 Gy, 12 times over a period of 3 weeks. Cyclosporin A at a dose of 12. 5 mg/kg per day was administered perorally and OX‐19, a pan T cell monoclonal antibody, was given as intraperitoneal injections at doses of 100 μg or 500 μg/kg per day from day 0 until graft rejection. While total lymphoid irradiation alone prolonged graft survival to 9. 4 days, total lymphoid irradiation plus cyclosporin A extended graft survival to a mean of 22 days. Cyclosporin alone or combined with the monoclonal antibody could not increase graft survival significantly when compared to untreated animals, which rejected their grafts within 3. 7 days. Vascular rejection was the characteristic morphological finding, even after some weeks of excellent graft function. In conclusion, total lymphoid irradiation and cyclosporin A had a synergistic effect on graft survival in this concordant xenotransplantation model, although recent impressive results from other groups could not be reproduced. Total lymphoid irradiation combined with cyclosporin A appears to delay a primary humoral graft rejection, while the mechanism of rejection, judged by histology, stays the same.
RENAL CELLS IN CULTURE AS A MODEL FOR CYSTINOSIS

The established renal cell line LLC-PK1 was used as a model to investigate the mechanism underlying kidney malfunction observed in cystinosis patients. In this disease lysosomal accumulation of cystine impairs kidney function, and glycosuria is an early clinical manifestation. The linkage between lysosomal accumulation of cystine and impairment of kidney function is still unclear, and no animal model is available. In an attempt to gain a better insight into this relationship, we studied the effects of lysosomal loading with cystine on the survival and functions of normal noncystinotic renal epithelial cells (LLC-PK1), nonrenal fibroblasts (NIH-3T3), and cystinotic fibroblasts (GM2837). Incubation of the cells with cystine dimethylester (CDME) resulted in time- and dose-dependent accumulation of cystine, with 80% of the cystine in the lysosomal fraction. The lysosomal concentration of cystine increased in the three cell lines after 3 hours of incubation and declined significantly after 48 hours in the normal, but not cystinotic, cells. The accumulation of cystine in the lysosomes caused dose- and time-dependent cell mortality, assessed by measuring the activity of the cytosolic enzyme, lactic dehydrogenase, in the medium. Survival of fibroblasts and renal cells was similar in all three cell lines. The concentrating capacity (the ratio fo the intra- and extracellular concentrations) of the nonmetabolized sugar analog, alpha methyl glucoside (AMG), was used to assess the function of the kidney cells. The sugar concentrating capacity of LLC-PK1 cells was reduced after incubation with CDME in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Since there was no change in sugar efflux between the untreated and treated cells, we conclude that an impairment of the uptake of AMG is responsible for the reduction in the sugar-concentrating capacity in LLC-PK1 cells. In the absence of a genetically impaired animal model, LLC-PK1 cells treated with CDME can be used to investigate the cellular mechanisms responsible for the impairment of kidney function in cystinotic patients.
File-Size Preserving LZ Encoding for Reversible Data Embedding

Methods for recycling the redundancy due to reference multiplicity in the LZ77 algorithm have already been proposed. These methods can be characterized in terms of reversible data embedding. In these methods, the redundancy in LZ77 is used to embed extra information in codewords. This paper proposes an LZ77 variation that specializes in reversible data embedding. The proposed encoding algorithm performs neither compression nor expansion. Instead, it embeds maximum possible extra information without changing the input file size. The asymptotic embedding capacity of this algorithm is evaluated, and it is shown that a duality relation exists between compressibility and embedding capacity.
Preparation of Sticky Escherichia coli through Surface Display of an Adhesive Catecholamine Moiety

ABSTRACT Mussels attach to virtually all types of inorganic and organic surfaces in aqueous environments, and catecholamines composed of 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine (DOPA), lysine, and histidine in mussel adhesive proteins play a key role in the robust adhesion. DOPA is an unusual catecholic amino acid, and its side chain is called catechol. In this study, we displayed the adhesive moiety of DOPA-histidine on Escherichia coli surfaces using outer membrane protein W as an anchoring motif for the first time. Localization of catecholamines on the cell surface was confirmed by Western blot and immunofluorescence microscopy. Furthermore, cell-to-cell cohesion (i.e., cellular aggregation) induced by the displayed catecholamine and synthesis of gold nanoparticles on the cell surface support functional display of adhesive catecholamines. The engineered E. coli exhibited significant adhesion onto various material surfaces, including silica and glass microparticles, gold, titanium, silicon, poly(ethylene terephthalate), poly(urethane), and poly(dimethylsiloxane). The uniqueness of this approach utilizing the engineered sticky E. coli is that no chemistry for cell attachment are necessary, and the ability of spontaneous E. coli attachment allows one to immobilize the cells on challenging material surfaces such as synthetic polymers. Therefore, we envision that mussel-inspired catecholamine yielded sticky E. coli that can be used as a new type of engineered microbe for various emerging fields, such as whole living cell attachment on versatile material surfaces, cell-to-cell communication systems, and many others.
Relationship between muscle fatty infiltration and the biological characteristics and stimulation potential of tenocytes from rotator cuff tears

The healing after rotator cuff surgery is still dissatisfying, and increased muscle fatty infiltration even more impairs the healing success. To achieve sufficient healing after rotator cuff reconstructions, the use of growth factors may be one possibility. The aim of the study was to identify a possible relationship between fatty infiltration of the supraspinatus muscle and cellular biological characteristics and stimulation potential of tenocyte‐like cells (TLCs). TLCs of 3 donor groups differing in grade of muscle fatty infiltration were analyzed for their cellular characteristics and were stimulated with BMP‐2 or BMP‐7 in a 3D scaffold culture. The cell count and potency for self‐renewal were significantly decreased in TLCs from donors with high muscle fatty infiltration compared to the lower fatty infiltration groups. Cell count and collagen‐I expression as well as protein synthesis were stimulated by growth factors. Interestingly, TLCs of the high fatty infiltration group exhibited a weaker stimulation potential compared to the other groups. TLCs from donors with high muscle fatty infiltration generally revealed inferior characteristics compared to cells of lower fatty infiltration groups, which may be one reason for a weaker healing potential and may represent a possible starting point for the development of future treatment options. © 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 32:129–137, 2014.
It's the end of the world and we feel fine.

In October of 2012, the New York University (NYU) Health Sciences Library was advancing on many fronts. Library staff members were in the middle of conducting strategic planning, developing a new liaison program, planning new knowledge and data management services, and starting to think about a much-needed renovation of our main facility. As expected for any academic health sciences library, we were deliberate and systematic in these efforts, confident that our tried-and-true methodical and careful work would deliver a steady stream of manageable and comforting progress and change.
Driving schemes for a-Si and LTPS AMOLED displays

Design of stable active matrix organic light-emitting diode (AMOLED) displays comes with significant challenges that stem from the electrical property of the backplane materials, line parasitics in the matrix, and the opto-electronic property of the organic light-emitting diode (OLED). This paper reviews voltage and current programming schemes for AMOLEDs. Following a systematic review of pixel circuits, design considerations are examined for both current and voltage schemes with focus on stability and programming speed for both amorphous silicon (a-Si) and low temperature polysilicon (LTPS) pixel circuits. In particular, spatial parameter variations and stability, which hinder reliable operation of AMOLED display backplanes, are discussed. Analysis shows that while driving schemes reported hitherto maybe suitable for small and medium size displays, new schemes are critically needed for large-area high-resolution AMOLED displays.
Subject gaps are still easiest: relative clause processing and Georgian split ergativity

•What explains the Subject Gap Advantage (SGA)? ◦ Syntactic Structure: Universally, subject gaps are highest in the phrase structure and therefore most accessible [3]. ◦ Linear Distance: Shorter filler–gap dependencies are better [1]. ◦ Case Cues: Gaps associated with informative morphology (ACC/ERG) slow parsing by triggering projection of structure to license it, or by eliminating incompatible continuations [4].
The anti-fracking movement and the politics of rural marginalization in Lithuania: intersectionality in environmental justice

ABSTRACT While the environmental justice perspective focuses on the unequal distribution of environmental risks and benefits across different groups based on race, class, or gender, intersectionality approaches avoid the use of a priori categories to examine marginalization. We argue that intersectionality can broaden the scope of environmental justice studies by examining interactive, historically grounded processes through which categories of difference are produced. To support this argument, we present an illustrative case of the movement in Lithuania that challenged Chevron’s plans to prospect shale resources for potential fracking. We conduct a narrative analysis of public discourses surrounding the formation of the movement and track the creation of a particular category of difference: the rural community, represented in opposition to the urban. We show how the public debate in Lithuania culminated in questioning the legitimacy of the anti-fracking movement and devaluing the rural population more broadly. We also show how both media accounts and anti-fracking movement leaders ignored social inequalities in rural villages. We conclude with a discussion of how the intersectionality approach provides an analytical lens to consider geopolitical tensions as part of the matrix of power relations that can be understood as expressions of ontological insecurity in global borderlands.
Design and fabrication of depletion GaAs LSI high-speed 32-bit adder

A GaAs LSI 32-bit adder implemented in BFL (buffered FET logic) gates has been designed and fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility of high-performance depletion GaAs LSI. Power dissipation reduction has been successfully achieved by reducing the number of level-shifting diodes to one, conforming with the FET threshold voltage (-0.5 V) and supply voltages (2 V, -1 V). Computer simulation was carried out with the interconnect parasitic capacitance included. In the IC, carry-look-ahead operation was utilized for realizing high-speed performance for 32-bit addition. The fabricated IC implementation required 420 gates, including 2100 FETs and 420 diodes, within a chip area of 4.6 mm/spl times/2.5 mm. High-speed performance was evaluated by packaging an IC chip. A maximum addition time of 2.9 ns with power dissipation of 1.2 W was obtained.
Health Shocks and the Evolution of Earnings over the Life-Cycle

We study the contribution of health shocks to earnings inequality and uncertainty in labor market outcomes. We calibrate a life-cycle model with idiosyncratic health, earnings, employment and survival risk, where individuals make labor supply and savings decisions, adding two novel features. First, we model health as a complex multidimensional concept. We differentiate between functional health and latent health risk, and between temporary/persistent and predictable/unpredictable health shocks. Second, we model interactions between health and human capital accumulation. We ﬁnd that, in an environment with both costly health shocks and means-tested transfers, low-skill workers find it optimal to reduce their labor supply in order to maintain eligibility for transfers that protect them from potentially high health care costs. Thus, means-tested transfers generate a moral hazard eﬀect that causes agents (especially those with low productivity) to invest less in human capital. Provision of public insurance can alleviate this problem and enhance labor supply.
Membrane binding of Escherichia coli RNase E catalytic domain stabilizes protein structure and increases RNA substrate affinity

RNase E plays an essential role in RNA processing and decay and tethers to the cytoplasmic membrane in Escherichia coli; however, the function of this membrane–protein interaction has remained unclear. Here, we establish a mechanistic role for the RNase E–membrane interaction. The reconstituted highly conserved N-terminal fragment of RNase E (NRne, residues 1–499) binds specifically to anionic phospholipids through electrostatic interactions. The membrane-binding specificity of NRne was confirmed using circular dichroism difference spectroscopy; the dissociation constant (Kd) for NRne binding to anionic liposomes was 298 nM. E. coli RNase G and RNase E/G homologs from phylogenetically distant Aquifex aeolicus, Haemophilus influenzae Rd, and Synechocystis sp. were found to be membrane-binding proteins. Electrostatic potentials of NRne and its homologs were found to be conserved, highly positive, and spread over a large surface area encompassing four putative membrane-binding regions identified in the “large” domain (amino acids 1–400, consisting of the RNase H, S1, 5′-sensor, and DNase I subdomains) of E. coli NRne. In vitro cleavage assay using liposome-free and liposome-bound NRne and RNA substrates BR13 and GGG-RNAI showed that NRne membrane binding altered its enzymatic activity. Circular dichroism spectroscopy showed no obvious thermotropic structural changes in membrane-bound NRne between 10 and 60 °C, and membrane-bound NRne retained its normal cleavage activity after cooling. Thus, NRne membrane binding induced changes in secondary protein structure and enzymatic activation by stabilizing the protein-folding state and increasing its binding affinity for its substrate. Our results demonstrate that RNase E–membrane interaction enhances the rate of RNA processing and decay.
The Impact of Intercultural Experiences on Preservice Teachers' Preparedness to Engage with Diverse Learners.

Free to read on publisher website The diversity of student populations globally is increasing more rapidly than the diversity of the teaching workforce. Concerns are that beginning teachers are ill-prepared to meet the needs of the diversity of students in their classrooms. This lack of preparedness has been partially attributed to inadequate preparation within teacher education programs. We advocate that preservice teachers need to understand how their prior intercultural experiences can be utilised to better prepare them for teaching diverse groups of learners. This qualitative study (n=40) draws on Hammer’s (2009) Intercultural Development Continuum to explore the impact that these experiences have on shaping preservice teachers as teachers of diversity. We use the data to illustrate the breadth of positioning on the IDC of these preservice teachers. Findings indicate that prior quality engagement with diversity over time enhances preservice teachers’ intercultural competence. We describe how teacher education can better prepare preservice teachers for engaging diverse learners.
c‐kit<low Pluripotent Hemopoietic Stem Cells Form CFU‐S on Day 16

Using Ly5 congenic mice, we characterized the early differentiation step of pluripotent hemopoietic stem cells. Lineage− (Lin−)/CD71− cells in the bone marrow cells were separated into major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class Ihigh/c‐kitlow and MHC class Ihigh/c‐kit
Origin and spread of a common deletion causing mucolipidosis type II: insights from patterns of haplotypic diversity

Coutinho MF, Encarnação M, Gomes R, da Silva Santos L, Martins S, Sirois‐Gagnon D, Bargal R, Filocamo M, Raas‐Rothschild A, Tappino B, Laprise C, Cury GK, Schwartz IV, Artigalás O, Prata MJ, Alves S. Origin and spread of a common deletion causing mucolipidosis type II: insights from patterns of haplotypic diversity.
Testing of AJAX-Based Web Applications Using Hierarchical State Model

As Ajax, a widely used web development technique, is able to dynamically construct the structures of DOM elements on the browser side, more and more executions of business logic have been shifted from back-end servers to front-end browsers. Moreover, by means of Ajax technique, updates of Web content can take place asynchronously in the background without requesting the whole web pages from servers so it gains the benefit from reducing the amount of network traffic between browsers and web servers. However, in term of web application testing, the existing approaches, adopting web-browsing paths as test cases, are failed to apply in such web applications. In this paper, we propose a test model for Ajax-based web applications based on a hierarchical state machine. The test model is established from observing the state changes of HTML element's attributes and the events that trigger the changes, and then transformed into state transition test trees. Finally, it generates corresponding test cases composed by triggered events to test the behavior of Ajax-based web applications.
A longitudinal study of the bilateral benefit in children with bilateral cochlear implants

Abstract Objective: To study the development of the bilateral benefit in children using bilateral cochlear implants by measurements of speech recognition and sound localization. Design: Bilateral and unilateral speech recognition in quiet, in multi-source noise, and horizontal sound localization was measured at three occasions during a two-year period, without controlling for age or implant experience. Longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses were performed. Results were compared to cross-sectional data from children with normal hearing. Study sample: Seventy-eight children aged 5.1–11.9 years, with a mean bilateral cochlear implant experience of 3.3 years and a mean age of 7.8 years, at inclusion in the study. Thirty children with normal hearing aged 4.8–9.0 years provided normative data. Results: For children with cochlear implants, bilateral and unilateral speech recognition in quiet was comparable whereas a bilateral benefit for speech recognition in noise and sound localization was found at all three test occasions. Absolute performance was lower than in children with normal hearing. Early bilateral implantation facilitated sound localization. Conclusions: A bilateral benefit for speech recognition in noise and sound localization continues to exist over time for children with bilateral cochlear implants, but no relative improvement is found after three years of bilateral cochlear implant experience.