Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peripheral T-cell Lymphoma in Children and Adolescents: A Single-institution Experience

Background: Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is rare in pediatric patients and is associated with worse outcome compared with other pediatric non-Hodgkin lymphomas. We report our institutional experience over a 10-year period. Methods: Patients were identified through the institutional oncology database. Data were abstracted through a detailed retrospective review of patient charts. Those with isolated cutaneous T-cell lymphoma were excluded from this analysis. Results: Thirteen patients were diagnosed with PTCL during the 10-year period. All presented with advanced disease. According to the WHO PTCL classification, 7 patients had PTCL not otherwise specified, 3 had hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma and 3 had T-cell posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease. Six of the patients had previously received or were receiving immunosuppressive therapy at the time of their diagnosis. Patients were treated with various chemotherapeutic regimens, including B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia–like therapy. Patients who had refractory or recurrent disease were changed to alternative therapy. Eight patients underwent stem cell transplantation, 7 allogeneic and 1 autologous. Of the 13 patients, 7 died. Three patients died from disease progression, 3 died from treatment-related mortality, and 1 patient died from cardiac rejection. Six patients (46%) are alive and disease free at a median of 21 months (2 to 79 mo). Conclusions: Children with PTCL have an unfavorable outcome. A standard approach to management of pediatric PTCL needs to be established to improve outcome. Because of the rarity of this condition, this will require collaborative studies.
HIGHLIGHTED TOPIC Regulation of Protein Metabolism in Exercise and Recovery Cellular mechanisms regulating protein synthesis and skeletal muscle hypertrophy in animals

and and maintenance of skeletal mus- cle mass is critical for long-term health and quality of life. Skeletal muscle is a highly adaptable tissue with well-known sensitivities to environmental cues such as growth factors, cytokines, nutrients, and mechanical loading. All of these factors act at the level of the cell and signal through pathways that lead to changes in phenotype through multiple mechanisms. In this review, we discuss the animal and cell culture models used and the signaling mechanisms identiﬁed in understanding regulation of protein synthesis in response to mechanical loading/resistance exercise. Particular emphasis has been placed on 1 ) alterations in mechanical loading and regulation of protein synthesis in both in vivo animal studies and in vitro culture studies and 2 ) upstream mediators regulating mammalian target of rapamycin signaling and protein synthesis during skeletal muscle hypertrophy.
Auxin and the integration of environmental signals into plant root development.

BACKGROUND Auxin is a versatile plant hormone with important roles in many essential physiological processes. In recent years, significant progress has been made towards understanding the roles of this hormone in plant growth and development. Recent evidence also points to a less well-known but equally important role for auxin as a mediator of environmental adaptation in plants. SCOPE This review briefly discusses recent findings on how plants utilize auxin signalling and transport to modify their root system architecture when responding to diverse biotic and abiotic rhizosphere signals, including macro- and micro-nutrient starvation, cold and water stress, soil acidity, pathogenic and beneficial microbes, nematodes and neighbouring plants. Stress-responsive transcription factors and microRNAs that modulate auxin- and environment-mediated root development are also briefly highlighted. CONCLUSIONS The auxin pathway constitutes an essential component of the plant's biotic and abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms. Further understanding of the specific roles that auxin plays in environmental adaptation can ultimately lead to the development of crops better adapted to stressful environments.
Phosphodiesterase-III Inhibitor Prevents Hemorrhagic Transformation Induced by Focal Cerebral Ischemia in Mice Treated with tPA

The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether cilostazol, a phosphodiesterase-III inhibitor and antiplatelet drug, would prevent tPA-associated hemorrhagic transformation. Mice subjected to 6-h middle cerebral artery occlusion were treated with delayed tPA alone at 6 h, with combined tPA plus cilostazol at 6 h, or with vehicle at 6 h. We used multiple imaging (electron microscopy, spectroscopy), histological and neurobehavioral measures to assess the effects of the treatment at 18 h and 7 days after the reperfusion. To further investigate the mechanism of cilostazol to beneficial effect, we also performed an in vitro study with tPA and a phosphodiesterase-III inhibitor in human brain microvascular endothelial cells, pericytes, and astrocytes. Combination therapy with tPA plus cilostazol prevented development of hemorrhagic transformation, reduced brain edema, prevented endothelial injury via reduction MMP-9 activity, and prevented the blood-brain barrier opening by inhibiting decreased claudin-5 expression. These changes significantly reduced the morbidity and mortality at 18 h and 7 days after the reperfusion. Also, the administration of both drugs prevented injury to brain human endothelial cells and human brain pericytes. The present study indicates that a phosphodiesterase-III inhibitor prevents the hemorrhagic transformation induced by focal cerebral ischemia in mice treated with tPA.
The Functional and Histological Basis for Graft‐versus‐Host‐Induced Immunosuppression

The GvH reaction resulting from the injection of parental strain cells into adult F1 hybrids suppresses both cell-mediated and humoral immune responses and is dependent on the donor-host combination and the number of parental cells used to induce the GvH reaction. The early suppression is due, at least in part, to the increased number of macrophages and the activation of suppressor macrophages which act directly on the T-helper cell and perhaps the B-cell as well. The macrophage suppression is associated with an increase in PGE production. The long-term T-cell immunodeficiency is mediated by GvH-induced thymic dysplasia resulting in a block or an arrest in T-cell differentiation and deficient IL-2 production. The B-cell immunodeficiency is associated with both a decrease in B-cell production from lymphoid progenitors and a decrease in CFU-s production. The GvH reaction induces 2 types of thymic lesion, a stress-related effect causing atrophy of the thymic cortex and a cytolytic process causing severe-to-moderate lesions in the thymic medulla as a consequence of injury to medullary epithelial cells and a loss of Hassall's corpuscles (thymic dysplasia). By employing the NK-cell-deficient beige mutation, it was shown that the severe-to-moderate thymic medullary lesions occurred in F1 mice only in those transplant situations in which the donor inoculum was of the +/bg genotype, regardless of the genotype of the recipient. It is proposed that activation of parental T cells may contribute to the early immunosuppressive events; however, the relatively permanent immunosuppression appears to be associated with NK-like effector cells which are capable of causing injury to lymphoid and epithelial tissue, especially epithelium of the thymic medulla. These studies raise the possibility that the GvH reaction may contribute to some T- and B-cell immunodeficiencies observed in the SCID and AIDS syndromes, as well as in patients following bone marrow transplantation.
Use of mesenchymal stem cells to enhance bone formation around revision hip replacements

Tissue engineering approaches to regenerate bone stock in revision total hip replacements could enhance the longevity of the implant and benefit the quality of the patient's life. This study investigated the impaction of allograft with mesenchymal stem cells in an ovine hip hemiarthroplasty model. In total, 10 sheep were divided into two groups with 5 sheep in each group. The groups were: 1) mesenchymal stem cells mixed with allograft; 2) allograft only as a control. Ground reaction force was assessed for limb function and showed that there was no significant difference in the recovery for animals in different groups. The amount of bone regenerated around the hip replacement was assessed using un‐decalcified histology. The results showed that the stem cell group generated significantly more new bone at the implant–allograft interface and within the graft than the control group. The results from this study indicate that the use of stem cells on an allograft scaffold increases bone formation indicating that the use of stem cells for revision hip arthroplasty may be beneficial for patients undergoing revision surgery where the bone stock is compromised. © 2008 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 26:880–885, 2008
Method for Optimizing Energy Consumption using Context Awareness per Application on Mobile Devices

Mobile devices are powered by batteries whose capacities are limited by size, so efficient management of energy becomes a very important issue in such devices. Many solutions have been proposed seeking to extend mobile device's battery life, but there are only a few who takes the user as a decisive and determining factor. Only the user determines how to consume battery's energy. Therefore the proposed application aims to solve this issue by learning about user's context. By analyzing this information, automated actions are performed in order to optimize energy consumption.
Song Practice Promotes Acute Vocal Variability at a Key Stage of Sensorimotor Learning

Background Trial by trial variability during motor learning is a feature encoded by the basal ganglia of both humans and songbirds, and is important for reinforcement of optimal motor patterns, including those that produce speech and birdsong. Given the many parallels between these behaviors, songbirds provide a useful model to investigate neural mechanisms underlying vocal learning. In juvenile and adult male zebra finches, endogenous levels of FoxP2, a molecule critical for language, decrease two hours after morning song onset within area X, part of the basal ganglia-forebrain pathway dedicated to song. In juveniles, experimental ‘knockdown’ of area X FoxP2 results in abnormally variable song in adulthood. These findings motivated our hypothesis that low FoxP2 levels increase vocal variability, enabling vocal motor exploration in normal birds. Methodology/Principal Findings After two hours in either singing or non-singing conditions (previously shown to produce differential area X FoxP2 levels), phonological and sequential features of the subsequent songs were compared across conditions in the same bird. In line with our prediction, analysis of songs sung by 75 day (75d) birds revealed that syllable structure was more variable and sequence stereotypy was reduced following two hours of continuous practice compared to these features following two hours of non-singing. Similar trends in song were observed in these birds at 65d, despite higher overall within-condition variability at this age. Conclusions/Significance Together with previous work, these findings point to the importance of behaviorally-driven acute periods during song learning that allow for both refinement and reinforcement of motor patterns. Future work is aimed at testing the observation that not only does vocal practice influence expression of molecular networks, but that these networks then influence subsequent variability in these skills.
Population-Genetic Influences on Genomic Estimates of the Inbreeding Coefficient: A Global Perspective

Background/Aims: Culturally driven marital practices provide a key instance of an interaction between social and genetic processes in shaping patterns of human genetic variation, producing, for example, increased identity by descent through consanguineous marriage. A commonly used measure to quantify identity by descent in an individual is the inbreeding coefficient, a quantity that reflects not only consanguinity, but also other aspects of kinship in the population to which the individual belongs. Here, in populations worldwide, we examine the relationship between genomic estimates of the inbreeding coefficient and population patterns in genetic variation. Methods: Using genotypes at 645 microsatellites, we compare inbreeding coefficients from 5,043 individuals representing 237 populations worldwide to demographic consanguinity frequency estimates available for 26 populations as well as to other quantities that can illuminate population-genetic influences on inbreeding coefficients. Results: We observe higher inbreeding coefficient estimates in populations and geographic regions with known high levels of consanguinity or genetic isolation and in populations with an increased effect of genetic drift and decreased genetic diversity with increasing distance from Africa. For the small number of populations with specific consanguinity estimates, we find a correlation between inbreeding coefficients and consanguinity frequency (r = 0.349, p = 0.040). Conclusions: The results emphasize the importance of both consanguinity and population-genetic factors in influencing variation in inbreeding coefficients, and they provide insight into factors useful for assessing the effect of consanguinity on genomic patterns in different populations.
An Improved Multi-Image Matching Method in Stereo-Radargrammetry

The new generation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors provides us with an opportunity to match multiple high-resolution SAR images. Moreover, the multiple SAR image matching methods have recently gained a lot of attention due to the fact that they can obtain more accurate, better distributed, and more reliable matches than the stereo matching methods. In this letter, we present an improved multi-image matching method to simultaneously identify matches from multiple SAR amplitude images. The proposed method makes better use of the relationships between the pixels in the deformed correlation window and integrates geometric and radiometric information from multiple SAR images. Experiments on Chinese Academy of Surveying and Mapping Synthetic Aperture Radar (CASMSAR) data sets demonstrate that the improved multi-image matching method is capable of providing more accurate and better distributed matches, as well as offering a better multi-image matching solution in stereo-radargrammetry under the conditions of geometric and radiometric distortions, especially in low-texture areas.
Using the Glaserian Approach in Grounded Studies of Emerging Business Practices

Based on a recently completed major study of an emerging business practice in the area of information systems management, this paper explains and discusses several important aspects of using the “Glaserian” approach to grounded theory. Grounded theory is an effective approach to produce rigorous research that is simultaneously relevant to business and management theory development and to professional practice. The paper presents a research model and delineates a number of characteristics, risks and demands intrinsic to the method, which can help researchers contemplating the use of grounded theory methodology for their studies.
Competition between Spatial and Temporal Factors in Simple Apparent Motion is Modulated by Laterality

When spots are presented successively, apparent motions are perceived. Computationally, motion competition in apparent motion is an ill-posed problem and to reveal the underlying mechanisms is an important issue not only in cognitive science but also in computer vision. Our previous studies by Sugiura et al. (1998) revealed how the spatial and temporal factors counterbalance in motion competition and found that the counterbalancing relation was modulated by the directional condition between the competing motions, that is, whether the two motions were directed to the same or opposite direction. However, it was not clear which caused this effect, the directional difference of the motions or laterality, namely, the difference between bi-hemispheric and mono-hemispheric motion processes. Here, we show that this directional modulation is originated from laterality. This fact suggests that cortico-cortical interaction is responsible for spatiotemporal integration for perception of moving objects in complex environments
Long-Term Antithrombotic Protection by in Vivo Depletion of Platelet Glycoprotein VI in Mice

Coronary artery thrombosis is often initiated by abrupt disruption of the atherosclerotic plaque and activation of platelets on the subendothelial layers in the disrupted plaque. The extracellular matrix protein collagen is the most thrombogenic constituent of the subendothelial layer; therefore, a selective inhibition of the collagen activation pathway in platelets may provide strong antithrombotic protection while preserving other platelet functions. Here we demonstrate that treatment of mice with a monoclonal antibody against the activating platelet collagen receptor glycoprotein VI (GPVI; JAQ1) results in specific depletion of the receptor from circulating platelets and abolished responses of these cells to collagen and collagen-related peptides (CRPs). JAQ1-treated mice were completely protected for at least 2 wk against lethal thromboembolism induced by infusion of a mixture of collagen (0.8 mg/kg) and epinephrine (60 μg/ml). The tail bleeding times in JAQ1-treated mice were only moderately increased compared with control mice probably because the treatment did not affect platelet activation by other agonists such as adenosine diphosphate or phorbol myristate acetate. These results suggest that GPVI might become a target for long-term prophylaxis of ischemic cardiovascular diseases and provide the first evidence that it is possible to specifically deplete an activating glycoprotein receptor from circulating platelets in vivo.
An experimental demonstration that early-life competitive disadvantage accelerates telomere loss

Adverse experiences in early life can exert powerful delayed effects on adult survival and health. Telomere attrition is a potentially important mechanism in such effects. One source of early-life adversity is the stress caused by competitive disadvantage. Although previous avian experiments suggest that competitive disadvantage may accelerate telomere attrition, they do not clearly isolate the effects of competitive disadvantage from other sources of variation. Here, we present data from an experiment in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) that used cross-fostering to expose siblings to divergent early experience. Birds were assigned either to competitive advantage (being larger than their brood competitors) or competitive disadvantage (being smaller than their brood competitors) between days 3 and 12 post-hatching. Disadvantage did not affect weight gain, but it increased telomere attrition, leading to shorter telomere length in disadvantaged birds by day 12. There were no effects of disadvantage on oxidative damage as measured by plasma lipid peroxidation. We thus found strong evidence that early-life competitive disadvantage can accelerate telomere loss. This could lead to faster age-related deterioration and poorer health in later life.
Multi-modal intelligent seizure acquisition (MISA) system — A new approach towards seizure detection based on full body motion measures

Many epilepsy patients cannot call for help during a seizure, because they are unconscious or because of the affection of their motor system or speech function. This can lead to injuries, medical complications and at worst death. An alarm system setting off at seizure onset could help to avoid hazards. Today no reliable alarm systems are available. A Multi-modal Intelligent Seizure Acquisition (MISA) system based on full body motion data seems as a good approach towards detection of epileptic seizures. The system is the first to provide a full body description for epilepsy applications. Three test subjects were used for this pilot project. Each subject simulated 15 seizures and in addition performed some predefined normal activities, during a 4-hour monitoring with electromyography (EMG), accelerometer, magnetometer and gyroscope (AMG), electrocardiography (ECG), electroencephalography (EEG) and audio and video recording. The results showed that a non-subject specific MISA system developed on data from the modalities: accelerometer (ACM), gyroscope and EMG is able to detect 98% of the simulated seizures and at the same time mistakes only 4 of the normal movements for seizures. If the system is individualized (subject specific) it is able to detect all simulated seizures with a maximum of 1 false positive. Based on the results from the simulated seizures and normal movements the MISA system seems to be a promising approach to seizure detection.
A built-in self-repair analyzer (CRESTA) for embedded DRAMs

A new practical built-in self-repair analyzer algorithm for embedded DRAMs (e-DRAM) achieves 100% detection ability of the repairable chips with 1% area penalty of the target 32 Mb embedded DRAM by 4 parallel analyzers. It works at as fast as 500 MHz, well beyond targeted e-DRAMs' maximum operation speed around 200 MHz+.
Studies on microsatellite instability in p16 gene and expression of hMSH2 mRNA in human gastric cancer tissues.

AIM To detect the loss of heterozygosity (LOH) frequency of microsatellite sites D9s171, D9s1604 of p16 gene and expression of hMSH2 mRNA in various differentiated types of gastric cancer, adjacent cancer tissues and normal gastric mucosa. METHODS LOH was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-denaturing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis-silver staining. The expression of hMSH2 mRNA was examined with in situ hybridization. RESULTS The frequency rate of LOH was significantly higher in gastric cancers than that in adjacent cancer tissues (P=0.032). No significant difference was noted among various differentiated types and various clinical stages of gastric cancers. The significantly reduced expression of hMSH2 mRNA positive signal cells exhibited in gastric cancers, in comparison with that in the adjacent cancer tissues and normal gastric mucosa, respectively (P=0.001). No significant difference was noted among various clinical stages of gastric cancers (P>0.05). The difference of positive signal cells in poorly differentiated cancers and those in well and moderately differentiated cancers were significant (P<0.001). CONCLUSION The frequencies of LOH in two microsatellite sites, D9s171 and D9s1604, in p16 genome were associated with development of gastric cancer and no significant correlation was demonstrated between the LOH frequency and the cell differentiated types of tumor cells or clinical stages. There was a positive relationship between the expression of hMSH2 mRNA and the differentiated types of gastric cancer.
SIMS analysis of chromium gettering in crystalline silicon

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to study the gettering of chromium from silicon during solid source phosphorus diffusion. Low dose ion implants are used to introduce chromium into the silicon. SIMS depth profiles from the as‐implanted and the phosphorus‐diffused materials show that the majority of chromium is removed from the silicon during the diffusion of phosphorus to form the p‐n junction. Annealing times of 1 and 5 minutes are shown to be as effective as annealing times of 30 minutes for the removal of the implanted Cr.