Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The presence of Philadelphia chromosome does not confer poor prognosis in adult pre‐B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in the tyrosine kinase inhibitor era – a surveillance, epidemiology, and end results database analysis

The BCR‐ABL1 fusion gene is caused by a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22, resulting in an abnormal chromosome 22 (Philadelphia chromosome; Ph). Prior to the introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI), the presence of BCR‐ABL1 conferred a poor prognosis in patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). We compared the survival of Ph+ and Ph−ALL during the period when TKIs were universally available in the US for Ph+ALL, using a Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Database analysis. A total of 2694 patients with pre‐B ALL (206 Ph+ALL; 2488 Ph−ALL) aged ≥18 years, who were diagnosed between 2010 and 2014, were identified in SEER registries. The median overall survival (OS) was 32 months in Ph+ALL (95% confidence interval [CI] 18 months‐not reached) and 27 months (95% CI 24–30 months) in Ph−ALL (Log‐rank test P‐value 0·34). Older age was associated with worse prognosis in both Ph+ALL and Ph−ALL. Age‐adjusted OS was inferior in Hispanics and African‐Americans compared to non‐Hispanic whites. Survival of pre‐B ALL shows continued improvement with time. Philadelphia chromosome status does not confer poor prognosis in pre‐B ALL in the TKI era: prognostic factors in pre‐B ALL should be re‐evaluated in the light of this finding.
A hybrid method for overlapping speech detection in classroom environment

Classroom discourse, which is a major composition of classroom, contains a slew of useful information such as providing the feedback to the teachers may lead to an improvement of the teaching quality. Generally, the classroom discourse can be divided into four categories/activities: teacher discourse, student discourse, quiet, and discussion. The automatic classification of activities provides a practical way to deal with the classroom discourse. However, the recognition of the discussion activity (a kind of overlapping speech) poses a great challenge to the treatment of the classroom discourse analysis. Therefore, in this paper, a new hybrid method based on the silence distribution and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) was proposed for the detection of overlapping speech. The results were found to be satisfactory and in good agreement with an experimental data. Based on these experimental results, the performance of the speaker segment of classroom event can be efficiently analyzed.
Quasi-experimental Studies in the Fields of Infection Control and Antibiotic Resistance, Ten Years Later: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVE A systematic review of quasi-experimental studies in the field of infectious diseases was published in 2005. The aim of this study was to assess improvements in the design and reporting of quasi-experiments 10 years after the initial review. We also aimed to report the statistical methods used to analyze quasi-experimental data. DESIGN Systematic review of articles published from January 1, 2013, to December 31, 2014, in 4 major infectious disease journals. METHODS Quasi-experimental studies focused on infection control and antibiotic resistance were identified and classified based on 4 criteria: (1) type of quasi-experimental design used, (2) justification of the use of the design, (3) use of correct nomenclature to describe the design, and (4) statistical methods used. RESULTS Of 2,600 articles, 173 (7%) featured a quasi-experimental design, compared to 73 of 2,320 articles (3%) in the previous review (P<.01). Moreover, 21 articles (12%) utilized a study design with a control group; 6 (3.5%) justified the use of a quasi-experimental design; and 68 (39%) identified their design using the correct nomenclature. In addition, 2-group statistical tests were used in 75 studies (43%); 58 studies (34%) used standard regression analysis; 18 (10%) used segmented regression analysis; 7 (4%) used standard time-series analysis; 5 (3%) used segmented time-series analysis; and 10 (6%) did not utilize statistical methods for comparisons. CONCLUSIONS While some progress occurred over the decade, it is crucial to continue improving the design and reporting of quasi-experimental studies in the fields of infection control and antibiotic resistance to better evaluate the effectiveness of important interventions. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2018;39:170–176
Autonomous control strategy of bidirectional AC/DC converter in low voltage hybrid microgrid

Bidirectional AC/DC converter is particularly important for the hybrid microgrid. Based on the analysis of power droop characteristics of low-voltage microgrid, an autonomous operation control strategy for bidirectional AC/DC converters in low voltage hybrid microgrid is proposed in this paper. The AC/DC microgrids bus voltage is normalized according to the fluctuation range of sub-microgrid voltage. The P-V droop control of bidirectional AC/DC converter is designed to make the normalized bus voltage of AC and DC sub-microgrids the same and bus voltage within the allowable range. With making full use of the remaining capacity of the bidirectional AC/DC converter, the Q-δ droop control is designed to maintain the frequency stability in the AC sub-microgrid, which has not yet been investigated before, and would certainly rely on the coordinated operation of DC sources, AC sources, and interlinking converters. Simulation results verify the availability of the proposed control strategy.
Estimation system of occupant behavior against the use of electricity using Bayes method and decision tree algorithm

Occupancy Monitoring using Household Electricity Meters stated that digital power meter suitable for use as a sensor for occupancy detection with average accuracy. The estimated occupancy with future electric current sensors can identify electricity consumption usage patterns to estimate future electricity consumption and a model of a daily routine for energy efficiency. The current occupancy detection system has several drawbacks, namely: Cost of implementation is quite expensive; user privacy; Accuracy of detection, and Intrusiveness. As a result, it is feasible to study on other potential approaches to address the deficiencies in the system and the occupancy estimation can also estimate the model's daily routine to be one reason for the policy-making authorities for energy efficiency. In this study, the authors make the system estimates the consumption behavior of the household electric loads with maximum hypothesis Bayes methods a priory probability (HMAP) and decision tree algorithm, using low cost hardware, the system reached the value of the Positive Predictive Value (PPV) equal to 64.5 percents.
Efficient ultrafiltration-based protocol to deplete extracellular vesicles from fetal bovine serum

ABSTRACT Fetal bovine serum (FBS) is the most commonly used supplement in studies involving cell-culture experiments. However, FBS contains large numbers of bovine extracellular vesicles (EVs), which hamper the analyses of secreted EVs from the cell type of preference and, thus, also the downstream analyses. Therefore, a prior elimination of EVs from FBS is crucial. However, the current methods of EV depletion by ultracentrifugation are cumbersome and the commercial alternatives expensive. In this study, our aim was to develop a protocol to completely deplete EVs from FBS, which may have wide applicability in cell-culture applications. We investigated different EV-depleted FBS prepared by our novel ultrafiltration-based protocol, by conventionally used overnight ultracentrifugation, or commercially available depleted FBS, and compared them with regular FBS. All sera were characterized by nanoparticle tracking analysis, electron microscopy, Western blotting and RNA quantification. Next, adipose-tissue mesenchymal stem cells (AT-MSCs) and cancer cells were grown in the media supplemented with the three different EV-depleted FBS and compared with cells grown in regular FBS media to assess the effects on cell proliferation, stress, differentiation and EV production. The novel ultrafiltration-based protocol depleted EVs from FBS clearly more efficiently than ultracentrifugation and commercial methods. Cell proliferation, stress, differentiation and EV production of AT-MSCs and cancer cell lines were similarly maintained in all three EV-depleted FBS media up to 96 h. In summary, our ultrafiltration protocol efficiently depletes EVs, is easy to use and maintains cell growth and metabolism. Since the method is also cost-effective and easy to standardize, it could be used in a wide range of cell-culture applications helping to increase comparability of EV research results between laboratories.
Normalizing: adolescent experiences living with type 1 diabetes.

PURPOSE The purpose of this research study was to gain a greater understanding of adolescents' experiences living with diabetes and build a theoretical paradigm to inform interventional design. METHODS Classical grounded theory was utilized; 15 in-depth interviews of 11 subjects were conducted with Caucasian adolescents' ages 11 to 15 with type 1 diabetes. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis. Codes were linked to create the paradigm. RESULTS A theoretical model was developed about the concept of "normalizing. " Normalizing is defined as the ability of the adolescents to integrate diabetes into the background of their daily life by creating routines to make diabetes "part of me. " Codes identified in normalizing included: (1) recognizing life is changing, (2) taking action to prevent a crisis, (3) disclosing to engage support, (4) taking on the burden of care, (5) accepting the "new normal," and (6) hoping for a normal future. CONCLUSIONS Normal developmental tasks of adolescence were closely related and contribute to understanding why adolescents struggle with diabetes. These research findings place a different and positive perspective on diabetes management; the focus shifts to supporting wellness and maintaining a normal life rather than on illness. Findings are expected to be of value to health providers working with adolescents with type 1 diabetes, parents, nursing researchers, and adolescents facing the challenge of diabetes management.
Oxidative stress induces imbalance of adipogenic/osteoblastic lineage commitment in mesenchymal stem cells through decreasing SIRT1 functions

With rapidly ageing populations worldwide, the incidence of osteoporosis has reached epidemic proportions. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), a by‐product of oxidative stress and ageing, has been thought to induce osteoporosis by inhibiting osteogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). However, specific mechanisms of how ROS results in alterations on MSC differentiation capacity have been inconsistently reported. We found that H2O2, an ROS, simultaneously induced MSC lineage commitment towards adipogenesis and away from osteogenesis at the functional as well as transcriptional level. In addition, H2O2 decreased the activities of SIRT1, a histone deacetylase and longevity gene. By silencing and reconstituting SIRT1 in MSCs, we demonstrated that H2O2 exerted its disparate effects on adipogenic/osteoblastic lineage commitment mainly through modulating SIRT1 expression levels. Treatment with resveratrol, a SIRT1 agonist, can also reverse this ROS‐induced adipogenesis/osteogenesis lineage imbalance. Moreover, SIRT1 regulation of RUNX2 transcriptional activity was mediated through deacetylation of the ROS‐sensitive transcription factor FOXO3a. Taken together, our data implicate SIRT1 as playing a vital role in ROS‐directed lineage commitment of MSCs by modulating two lineages simultaneously. Our findings on the critical role of SIRT1 in ROS/age‐related perturbations of MSC differentiation capacity highlight this molecule as a target for maintenance of MSC stemness as well as a potential anabolic target in osteoporosis.
A hyperelastic model for mechanical responses of adherent cells in microinjection

Single cell microinjection is widely used in biological sciences, especially in genetic engineering and cytopathology. To investigate mechanical responses of the adherent cell in microinjection, a general geometrical description of adherent cells in microinjection is proposed. Based on finite strain theory in isotropic hyperelasticity and minimal potential energy principle, a hyperelastic model of the adherent cell is developed. Factors affecting the interaction force and the stress distribution in the adherent cell penetration are revealed and analyzed. The force-deformation relationship obtained in the proposed model shows high similarity with classical Hertz model, while more detailed mechanical behaviours of the adherent cell in microinjection can be discovered from the proposed model.
Shadow removal from single image using color invariant method

Shadows are caused when light from a source of light is blocked by opaque objects. In the field of image processing, the shadow cause many technical difficulties. Shadows may give us a wrong interpretation of the shape, colour, or orientation of the image. Objects may appear to merge, when shadow of one object falls on another object and making the object count lesser. Hence removal of shadows is a very crucial and inevitable task of many of computer vision algorithms, such as segmentation, object detection and tracking etc. Shadows are caused due to illumination variation. An object may have a shadow in a particular illumination but the same object would not have a shadow in a different illumination. This paper deals with removal of shadows using illumination invariant methods based on the fact that an illumination invariant image is a shadow free image. The resultant illumination invariant shadow free image can be used as the input to those applications, where the presence of shadow causes adverse effect. The first step of the method is to find the log chromaticity of image. Next step is to obtain the 1D invariant image. Shadow free chromaticity image is then obtained from the illumination invariant image for better display of the output image. The proposed method is implemented and the results obtained proved the superiority of the method.
Disruption of network for visual perception of natural motion in primary dystonia

In healthy subjects, brain activation in motor regions is greater during the visual perception of “natural” target motion, which complies with the two‐thirds power law, than of “unnatural” motion, which does not. It is unknown whether motion perception is normally mediated by a specific network that can be altered in the setting of disease. We used block‐design functional magnetic resonance imaging and covariance analysis to identify normal network topographies activated in response to “natural” versus “unnatural” motion. A visual motion perception‐related pattern (VPRP) was identified in 12 healthy subjects, characterized by covarying activation responses in the inferior parietal lobule, frontal operculum, lateral occipitotemporal cortex, amygdala, and cerebellum (Crus I). Selective VPRP activation during “natural” motion was confirmed in 12 testing scans from healthy subjects. Consistent network activation was not seen, however, in 29 patients with dystonia, a neurodevelopmental disorder in which motion perception pathways may be involved. Using diffusion tractography, we evaluated the integrity of anatomical connections between the major VPRP nodes. Indeed, fiber counts in these pathways were substantially reduced in the dystonia subjects. In aggregate, the findings associate normal motion perception with a discrete brain network which can be disrupted under pathological conditions.
Economical Wet Extraction of Lipid from labyrinthula Aurantiochytrium limacinum by Using Liquefied Dimethyl Ether

Recently, a simple method for the extraction of lipids from wet biomass using liquefied dimethyl ether (DME) without drying, cell disruption, or heating was proposed. Here, the versatility of this method was evaluated for labyrinthula Aurantiochytrium limacinum (A. limacinum). The liquefied DME was passed through the extractor that filled by A. limacinum at different time intervals. The extraction of lipids from A. limacinum of moisture-rich microorganism was successfully achieved, the yield of lipid was 46.1 wt% of the dry weight of the sample. In comparison, the yields of lipid were 21.3 wt%, 43.6 wt% and 50.7 wt% when supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO 2 ), hexane-Soxhlet and Bligh-Dyer (BD) extraction methods were applied as extractants, respectively. However, the drying and cell-disruption process were required in SCCO 2 , hexane-Soxhlet, and BD extraction methods.
Dissociation in Psychiatric Disorders: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Using the Dissociative Experiences Scale.

OBJECTIVE Dissociation is a complex, ubiquitous construct in psychopathology. Symptoms of dissociation are present in a variety of mental disorders and have been connected to higher burden of illness and poorer treatment response, and not only in disorders with high levels of dissociation. This meta-analysis offers a systematic and evidence-based study of the prevalence and distribution of dissociation, as assessed by the Dissociative Experiences Scale, within different categories of mental disorders, and it updates an earlier meta-analysis. METHOD More than 1,900 original publications were screened, and 216 were included in the meta-analysis, comprising 15,219 individuals in 19 diagnostic categories. RESULTS The largest mean dissociation scores were found in dissociative disorders (mean scores >35), followed by posttraumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder, and conversion disorder (mean scores >25). Somatic symptom disorder, substance-related and addictive disorders, feeding and eating disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder, OCD, and most affective disorders also showed mean dissociation scores >15. Bipolar disorders yielded the lowest dissociation scores (mean score, 14.8). CONCLUSIONS The findings underline the importance of careful psychopathological assessment of dissociative symptoms in the entire range of mental disorders.
The culture of ITIL: Values and implementation challenges

ABSTRACT The article reports on Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) implementation in Maersk Oil. We analyze the values embedded in ITIL, compare them to Maersk Oil’s organizational culture, identify implementation challenges, and discuss how to manage these. The contribution of the article is as follows: (1) it identifies the values underlying ITIL, (2) discusses how to overcome cultural incongruence through business process implementation, and (3) highlights implications for managers trying to improve processes through the use of quality management standards and process models.
A New Mapping Approach between XML Schemas in a P2P Environment

Mapping, is an important operation for processes assuring the interoperability of information systems especially for applications such as exchange, integration and transformation of data. However, the problem of mapping arises when the number of information schemas is important. In this paper, we propose a large-scale mapping methodology structured in two different phases (matching and mapping), which aims to optimize the mapping discovery through a pre-processing phase based on Techniques for analysis, linguistic processing of elements of schemas and data extraction.
Chemogenetic Excitation of Accumbens-Projecting Infralimbic Cortical Neurons Blocks Toluene-Induced Conditioned Place Preference

Abuse rates for inhalants among adolescents continue to be high, yet preclinical models for studying mechanisms underlying inhalant abuse remain limited. Our laboratory has previously shown that, in male rats, an acute binge-like exposure to toluene vapor that mimics human solvent abuse modifies the intrinsic excitability of mPFC pyramidal neurons projecting to the NAc. These changes showed region (infralimbic; IL vs prelimbic; PRL), layer (shallow; 2/3 vs deep; 5/6), target (core vs shell), and age (adolescent vs adult) dependent differences (Wayman and Woodward, 2017). To expand these findings using reward-based models that may better mimic human drug abuse, we used whole-cell electrophysiology and drug receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs to examine changes in neuronal function and behavior in rats showing a conditioned place preference (CPP) to toluene. Repeated pairings of adolescent rats to binge concentrations of toluene vapor previously shown to enhance dopamine release in reward-sensitive areas of the brain produced CPP that persisted for 7 but not 30 d. Toluene-induced CPP was associated with increased excitability of IL5/6 mPFC neurons projecting to the core of the NAc and reduced excitability of those projecting to the NAc shell. No changes in PRL-NAc-projecting neurons were found in toluene-CPP rats. Chemogenetic reversal of the toluene-induced decrease in IL5/6-NAc shell neurons blocked the expression of toluene-induced CPP while manipulating IL5/6-NAc core neuron activity had no effect. These data reveal that alterations in selective mPFC-NAc pathways are required for expression of toluene-induced CPP. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Disturbed physiology of pyramidal neurons projecting from the mPFC to the NAc has been shown to have different roles in drug-seeking behaviors for a number of drugs (e.g., methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol, heroin). Here, we report that rats repeatedly exposed to the volatile organic solvent toluene, a member of the class of abused inhalants often used for intoxicating purposes by adolescents, induces a preference for the drug-paired environment that is accompanied by altered physiology of a specific population of NAc-projecting mPFC neurons. Chemogenetic correction of this deficit before testing prevented expression of drug preference. Overall, these findings highlight the importance of corticolimbic circuitry in mediating the rewarding properties of abused inhalants.
Data-driven process decomposition and robust online distributed modelling for large-scale processes

ABSTRACT With the increasing attention of networked control, system decomposition and distributed models show significant importance in the implementation of model-based control strategy. In this paper, a data-driven system decomposition and online distributed subsystem modelling algorithm was proposed for large-scale chemical processes. The key controlled variables are first partitioned by affinity propagation clustering algorithm into several clusters. Each cluster can be regarded as a subsystem. Then the inputs of each subsystem are selected by offline canonical correlation analysis between all process variables and its controlled variables. Process decomposition is then realised after the screening of input and output variables. When the system decomposition is finished, the online subsystem modelling can be carried out by recursively block-wise renewing the samples. The proposed algorithm was applied in the Tennessee Eastman process and the validity was verified.