Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Feasibility and recent improvement of autologous stem cell transplantation for acute myelocytic leukaemia in patients over 60 years of age: importance of the source of stem cells

A total of 193 patients with acute myelocytic leukaemia (AML) [147 in first complete remission (CR1)], ranging from 60 years to 75 years of age (median 63 years), were autografted between January 1984 and December 1998. The source of stem cells was peripheral blood (PB) in 128 patients, bone marrow in 51 patients and a combination of both in 14 patients. Total body irradiation (TBI) was used in 34 cases. Ninety‐seven per cent of patients had successful engraftment of neutrophils on day 15 (range days 7–71) and of platelets on day 30 (range days 9–894). In patients autografted in CR1, the transplant‐related mortality (TRM) was 15 ± 4%, the relapse incidence (RI) was 58 ± 5%, the leukaemia‐free survival (LFS) was 36 ± 5% and the overall survival was 47 ± 5% at 3 years. The source and dose of stem cells were studied in particular; in patients transplanted in CR1, the RI was 44 ± 11% in those receiving marrow compared with 63 ± 6% in those receiving PB (P = 0·04). Patients autografted in CR1 who received higher granulocyte–macrophage colony‐forming units (CFU‐GM) doses (above the median) had a lower RI (47 ± 11% vs. 79 ± 9%, P = 0·009). There was a significant improvement in patients transplanted after March 1996; for those in CR1, the RI was 41 ± 8% vs. 65 ± 6% (P = 0·01), the LFS was 53 ± 8% vs. 28 ± 5% (P = 0·01) and the overall survival was 72 ± 7% vs. 36 ± 6% (P = 0·02). By multivariate analyses, significant factors for the outcome were the date of transplant with recent improvement and the source of stem cells, with a lower RI for marrow. Autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) is a potential therapeutic approach in patients with AML over 60 years of age; results have improved recently.
Internet of Things application for implementation of smart agriculture system

Over the past few years, there has been significant interest in designing smart agricultural systems. The use of smart farming techniques can enhance the crop yield, while simultaneously generating more output from the same amount of input. But still, most of the farmers are unaware of the latest technologies and practices. In this paper a novel wireless mobile robot based on Internet of Things (IoT) is designed and implemented for performing various operations on the field. This proposed wireless robot is equipped with various sensors for measuring different environmental parameters. It also includes Raspberry Pi 2 model B hardware for executing the whole process. The main features of this novel intelligent wireless robot is that it can execute tasks such as moisture sensing, scaring birds and animals, spraying pesticides, moving forward or backward and switching ON/OFF electric motor. The robot is fitted with a wireless camera to monitor the activities in real time. The proposed wireless mobile robot has been tested in the fields, readings have been monitored and satisfactory results have been observed, which indicate that this system is very much useful for smart agricultural systems.
Optimization of air pollutant monitoring stations with constraints using genetic algorithm

The design of air quality monitoring stations (AQMS) is very important for environmental protection department. The task, however, has been proven to be in the class of nondeterministic polynomial (NP)-hard problem. The powerful search capability of the genetic algorithm (GA) is helpful for selecting optimal monitoring sites. A mathematical programming model based method is proposed, in which environmental, social and economical factors are considered and the GA is used to optimize AQMS. Modelling results indicate that the proposed method outperforms the method of random site of AQMS. The proposed method/framework is also suitable for the design of communication network. For example, the wireless base stations can be well placed by similar method, providing sufficient signal strength for better service with lower cost.
Incidence and diagnosis of active toxoplasma infection among liver transplant recipients in Western Turkey

Toxoplasmosis is a serious and potentially life‐threatening disease in liver transplant recipients while they are immunosuppressed. We report the clinical and laboratory findings related to active toxoplasma infection associated with 40 immunosuppressed liver transplant procedures that took place over a 12‐month period at a major transplant unit in Izmir, Turkey. Twenty‐seven (67.5%) of the 40 transplant recipients were found to be seropositive for toxoplasma infection and therefore at risk of reactivated infection. From the serological status of the donors, which was ascertained in 38 of 40 cases, we identified 3 (7.9%) of 38 transplants to be from a seropositive donor to a seronegative recipient. In 10 (26.3%) of 38 transplants, both the donor and recipient were seronegative, and this excluded toxoplasma as a risk. A comparison of real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and nested PCR was undertaken in combination with a range of serological assays (the Sabin‐Feldman dye test, enzyme immunoassay immunoglobulin M, and immunosorbent agglutination assay immunoglobulin M). Ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid blood samples from 3 of the 30 recipients at risk from toxoplasma were found positive by PCR, but only 1 of these was found positive in both assays. Among the 3 PCR‐positive patients, immunoglobulin M and immunoglobulin G antibody levels increased in only 1 patient. Correlations between symptoms, laboratory findings, and clinical management (use of anti‐toxoplasma therapy) are presented. Our findings suggest that toxoplasma presents a significant risk to our liver transplant population and that PCR is a helpful addition in identifying active infections and hence in informing clinical management decisions. Liver Transpl 14:1526–1532, 2008. © 2008 AASLD.
Transcriptional Analysis of Pseudomonas stutzeri A1501 Associated with Host Rice

Pseudomonas stutzeriA1501, associative and endophytic nitrogen-fixing bacterium showed the capacity of colonization in the rice roots and considered as the good colonizer in the rice plant. The experiment was conducted to study the expression of genes potentiality relevant to the association of nitrogen fixing Pseudomonas stutzeri with host rice and reveal the molecular mechanism by which underlying interaction between bacteria and host rice. The bacteria were shown to be uniformly distributed on the rhizoplane of the root and the density of bacteria was found at the intercellular junction and micro colony developed on the surface of the epidermal cells and on the cellular junctions. Root exudates of rice were the major components of carbon and energy sources for bacteria. RT-PCR analyses of pilK, metE, rpoN and fdhE genes expression of P. stutzeri A1501 were performed at positive and negative (control) conditions. After 1 h, it was found that pilK, metE and rpoN transcription were increased 5.7, 6.4 and 3.4-fold, respectively, whereas in the fdhE gene has no expression. Consequently, after 4 h pilk, fdhE, metE and rpoN were decreased -1.9, -4.4, -0.2 and -0.8-fold, respectively. The gene pilK, expression was up-regulation after 1 h and down-regulation after 4 h that has twitching motility to convey the bacterial cell to point of attachment in to host plant. The gene expressions of the bacteria, pilK, metE, rpoN and fdhE were up- and down-regulated during the influence of root exudates which regulated the colonization of bacteria during plant-microbe interaction.
The Proteasome Ubiquitin Receptor hRpn13 and Its Interacting Deubiquitinating Enzyme Uch37 Are Required for Proper Cell Cycle Progression*

Recently, we reported that bisbenzylidine piperidone RA190 adducts to Cys-88 of the proteasome ubiquitin receptor hRpn13, triggering accumulation of ubiquitinated proteins and endoplasmic reticulum stress-related apoptosis in various cancer cell lines. hRpn13 contains an N-terminal pleckstrin-like receptor for ubiquitin domain that binds ubiquitin and docks it into the proteasome as well as a C-terminal deubiquitinase adaptor (DEUBAD) domain that binds the deubiquitinating enzyme Uch37. Here we report that hRpn13 and Uch37 are required for proper cell cycle progression and that their protein knockdown leads to stalling at G0/G1. Moreover, serum-starved cells display reduced hRpn13 and Uch37 protein levels with hallmarks of G0/G1 stalling and recovery to their steady-state protein levels following release from nutrient deprivation. Interestingly, loss of hRpn13 correlates with a small but statistically significant reduction in Uch37 protein levels, suggesting that hRpn13 interaction may stabilize this deubiquitinating enzyme in human cells. We also find that RA190 treatment leads to a loss of S phase, suggesting a block of DNA replication, and G2 arrest by using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Uch37 deprivation further indicated a reduction of DNA replication and G0/G1 stalling. Overall, this work implicates hRpn13 and Uch37 in cell cycle progression, providing a rationale for their function in cellular proliferation and for the apoptotic effect of the hRpn13-targeting molecule RA190.
Data driven prognostics for predicting remaining useful life of IGBT

Power electronic devices such IGBT (Integrated Gate Bipolar Transistor) are used in wide range of applications such as automotive, aerospace and telecommunications. The ability to predict degradation of power electronic components can minimise the risk of their failure while in operation. Research in this area aims to develop prognostics strategies for predicting degradation behaviour, failure modes and mechanisms, and remaining useful life of these electronic components. In this paper, data driven prognostics approaches based on Neural Network (NN) and Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) models are developed and used to predict the degradation of an IGBT device. IGBT life data under thermal overstress load condition with square signal gate voltage bias, available from NASA prognostics data repository, is used to demonstrate the proposed data-driven prognostics strategy. The monitored collector-emitter voltage is used to identify the pattern and duration of different phases in the applied voltage load. The NN and ANFIS models are trained with a subset of the test data to predict remaining useful life (RUL) of the IGBT device under varying load test profiles. The predictive capability and performance of the models is observed and analysed.
Progress in the Development of Immunotherapy of Cancer Using Ex Vivo-Generated Dendritic Cells Expressing Multiple Tumor Antigen Epitopes

Immunotherapy with tumor-associated antigen-pulsed, ex vivo-generated dendritic cells (DCs) is a promising approach for the treatment of cancer that has shown efficacy in animal models and is now being tested in the clinic. The majority of studies performed to date make use of a single tumor-associated epitope. However, because of the high rate of mutation in tumor cells allowing for loss of expression of a single antigen, it is likely that use of multiple antigenic epitopes will induce a broader, longer-lasting, and effective tumor-specific immune response. Multiple vehicles for loading DCs with multiple antigenic epitopes are under investigation to determine the most effective method for vaccination, with many of these methods showing promise. These loading methods, as well as other critical considerations for making DC vaccination as efficacious as possible, are discussed in this article.
Flattery will get you everywhere

We are all vain, we all like the sound of our own voice, and we all believe our own foolish views. Flattery is petrol to the flames of our egos. Our vanity betrays us, making us uncritical, unquestioning, and overconfident. And flattery is big pharma’s instrument of manipulation. Money, praise, and attention are used to produce pharma’s so called independent medical experts. Likewise, honours, titles, gongs, and gifts are mere superficial seductions, leading to that scourge of academia: deference. Regrettably, the more doctors crave these trapping …
Terpenes in propylene glycol as skin-penetration enhancers: permeation and partition of haloperidol, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry.

The respective alcoholic terpenes carvacrol, linalool, and alpha-terpineol were used at 5% w/v in propylene glycol (PG) to increase the in vitro permeation of haloperidol (HP) through human skin. The possible enhancement mechanism was then elucidated with HP-stratum corneum (SC) binding studies, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and differential scanning calorimetry. The greatest increase in the permeation of HP was achieved with linalool followed by carvacrol and terpineol. HP permeation with linalool was predicted to reach a therapeutic plasma concentration and therapeutic daily-permeated amounts. Carvacrol increased lag time, which was attributed to slow redistribution of the enhancer within SC. Carvacrol increased the partition of the drug to the pulverized SC. Pure PG extracted lipids from SC but less than that achieved by the terpenes in PG. Terpenes extracted lipids to a similar extent. An increase in bilayer cohesion in the remaining lipids present in the SC could be attributed to the alignment of terpenes within the lipid bilayer. The higher permeation with linalool was attributed to its molecular orientation within the lipid bilayer. Terpenes showed different rates of SC dehydration but did not change the percentages of secondary structures of keratin.
Identification of a Basic Glycoprotein Induced by Ethylene in Primary Leaves of Azuki Bean as a Cationic Peroxidase

Ethylene causes the accumulation of seven different proteins (each designated AZxx according to its molecular mass, xx in kD) in excised primary leaves of azuki bean (Vigna angularis) (F. Ishige, H. Mori, K. Yamazaki, H. Imaseki [1991] Plant Cell Physiol 32:681–690). A complementary DNA encoding an ethylene-induced basic glycoprotein, AZ42, from azuki bean was cloned and its complete nucleotide sequence was determined. Characterization of the cDNA was accomplished by monitoring expression of an immunoreactive protein in Escherichia coli that harbored the cDNA and by the identification of a partial amino acid sequence that was the same as that determined from the purified protein. An open reading frame (1071 base pairs) in the cDNA encoded a protein of 357 amino acids with a molecular mass of 39.3 kD. The amino acid sequence contained three regions that are highly conserved among peroxidases from eight different plants. Purified AZ42 exhibited peroxidase activity. The basic glycoprotein induced by ethylene was identified as a cationic isozyme of peroxidase. The corresponding mRNA was not present in leaves that had not been treated with ethylene, but it appeared after 1 h of treatment with ethylene and its level increased for the next 15 h. Accumulation of the mRNA was also induced after wounding or treatment with salicylate. The wound-induced increase in the level of the mRNA was suppressed by 2,5-norbornadiene, but the salicylate-induced increase was not.
Further studies on the influence of the intraocular pressure on aqueous humor dynamics in cynomolgus monkeys

13 '1-albumin was used to determine the rate of bulk outflow from the anterior chamber in one eye and 1ZS I-albumin was used in the other. In 16 eyes at a spontaneous intraocular pressure of 8.0 ± 0.7 mm. Hg, uveoscleral flow was 0.63 ± 0.08 nL per minute and flow by fast, vascular routes was 0.53 ± 0.07 fiL per minute. When the intraocular pressure was lowered to 2 or 4 mm. Hg by letting aqueous flow into a reservoir, drainage of anterior chamber fluid into the blood by way of fast routes stopped almost completely. At 2 mm. Hg the bulk flow into the uveoscleral routes was reduced by an average of 63 per cent, but at 4 mm. Hg uveoscleral flow was normal in 4 of 5 eyes. Adjusting the intraocular pressure from the spontaneous level to 35 mm. Hg by inflow from a reservoir gave an average outflow into the general circulation that was 12.0 ± 2.3 pL per minute higher than in the control eyes. Uveoscleral flow was not raised significantly. Pseudofacility was 0.055 ± 0.013 fiL per minute per millimeter Hg. In dead eyes uveoscleral flow appeared to be pressure sensitive in a wider pressure range than in living eyes. It is concluded that in cynomolgus monkeys aqueous humor passes out through the conventional vascular routes into the episcleral veins and passes out through uveoscleral routes that drain its high molecular components into the suprachoroid and the episcleral tissues. However, pinocytosis, in the uveal blood vessels} plays little role for bulk drainage of aqueous humor. In living cynomolgus eyes, within the range 8 to 35 mm. Hg, the intraocular pressure (IOP) is determined by the recipient venous pressure (Pv), the net rate of aqueous humor formation (Fn), the rate of aqueous outflow by uveoscleral routes (Fu), and the gross facility of outflow Co according to IOP = PB + (Fn - Fu)/(Cg - 0.06).
Feature Line Based Building Detection and Reconstruction from Oblique Airborne Imagery

In this paper, a feature line based method for building detection and reconstruction from oblique airborne imagery is presented. With the development of Multi-View Stereo technology, increasing photogrammetric softwares are provided to generate textured meshes from oblique airborne imagery. However, errors in image matching and mesh segmentation lead to the low geometrical accuracy of building models, especially at building boundaries. To simplify massive meshes and construct accurate 3D building models, we integrate multi-view images and meshes by using feature lines, in which contour lines are used for building detection and straight skeleton for building reconstruction. Firstly, through the contour clustering method, buildings can be quickly and robustly detected from meshes. Then, a feature preserving mesh segmentation method is applied to accurately extract 3D straight skeleton from meshes. Finally, straight feature lines derived from multi-view images are used to rectify inaccurate parts of 3D straight skeleton of buildings. Therefore, low quality model can be refined by the accuracy improvement of mesh feature lines and rectification with feature lines of multi-view images. The test dataset in Zurich is provided by ISPRS/EuroSDR initiative Benchmark on High Density Image Matching for DSM Computation. The experiments reveal that the proposed method can obtain convincing and high quality 3D building models from oblique airborne imagery.
Review of Shape and Texture Feature Extraction Techniques for Fruits

Fruits grading has been updated from traditional ways and perform automatic grading. All the task of assembling of object done manually in India today. Shape and texture are important visual features of an image, which helps, in automated fruit grading. Using Digital image processing, one can fulfill many kind of tasks like object shape, size and color detection and other feature extraction etc. Using image processing, we can detect shape of objects as well as we can extract texture of objects. In this paper various algorithms of shape detection and texture feature extraction are explained and conclusions are provided for best algorithm. Merits and demerits of algorithms and methods are also provided. Index Terms Image Processing, Fruits, Shape, Texture.
Interconnecting distributed virtual worlds using Metabots: performance evaluation against the traditional client‐server model

Virtual Worlds evolution is breaking the barriers of virtual isolation, thus allowing users to participate in geographically dispersed and culturally diverse places. At the same time, mobile agents have been established as a solid programming method for heterogeneous networking and computing environments. Our work focuses on the definition of a distributed Virtual World reference platform for enhanced users' experience. Towards interconnecting virtual worlds with mobile agents, we have further enriched the concept of a human‐like appearance avatar. We propose two distributed virtual world architectures, namely loose and tight. In parallel, we present a relevant implementation scheme along with experimental results that prove the performance enhancements achieved against the classic client/server model. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Investigating the Thermodynamic Performances of TO-Based Metamaterial Tunable Cells with an Entropy Generation Approach

Active control of heat flux can be realized with transformation optics (TO) thermal metamaterials. Recently, a new class of metamaterial tunable cells has been proposed, aiming to significantly reduce the difficulty of fabrication and to flexibly switch functions by employing several cells assembled on related positions following the TO design. However, owing to the integration and rotation of materials in tunable cells, they might lead to extra thermal losses as compared with the previous continuum design. This paper focuses on investigating the thermodynamic properties of tunable cells under related design parameters. The universal expression for the local entropy generation rate in such metamaterial systems is obtained considering the influence of rotation. A series of contrast schemes are established to describe the thermodynamic process and thermal energy distributions from the viewpoint of entropy analysis. Moreover, effects of design parameters on thermal dissipations and system irreversibility are investigated. In conclusion, more thermal dissipations and stronger thermodynamic processes occur in a system with larger conductivity ratios and rotation angles. This paper presents a detailed description of the thermodynamic properties of metamaterial tunable cells and provides reference for selecting appropriate design parameters on related positions to fabricate more efficient and energy-economical switchable TO devices.
ABA-Based Answer Set Justification

We propose a method for justifying why a literal is or is not contained in an answer set of a logic program. This method makes use of argumentation theory, more precisely of stable AssumptionBased Argumentation (ABA) extensions. Given that a logic program can be translated into an ABA framework, we use the structure of ABA arguments and attacks between them for the justification of literals with respect to an answer set.
10M-Core Scalable Fully-Implicit Solver for Nonhydrostatic Atmospheric Dynamics

An ultra-scalable fully-implicit solver is developed for stiff time-dependent problems arising from the hyperbolic conservation laws in nonhydrostatic atmospheric dynamics. In the solver, we propose a highly efficient hybrid domain-decomposed multigrid preconditioner that can greatly accelerate the convergence rate at the extreme scale. For solving the overlapped subdomain problems, a geometry-based pipelined incomplete LU factorization method is designed to further exploit the on-chip fine-grained concurrency. We perform systematic optimizations on different hardware levels to achieve best utilization of the heterogeneous computing units and substantial reduction of data movement cost. The fully-implicit solver successfully scales to the entire system of the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer with over 10.5M heterogeneous cores, sustaining an aggregate performance of 7.95 PFLOPS in double-precision, and enables fast and accurate atmospheric simulations at the 488-m horizontal resolution (over 770 billion unknowns) with 0.07 simulated-years-per-day. This is, to our knowledge, the largest fully-implicit simulation to date.