Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Allograft Recipients with Donor-Specific Transfusion and Anti-CD154 Antibody Leads to Deletion of Alloreactive CD8+ T Cells and Prolonged Graft Survival in a CTLA4-Dependent Manner1

A two-element protocol consisting of one donor-specific transfusion (DST) plus a brief course of anti-CD154 mAb greatly prolongs the survival of murine islet, skin, and cardiac allografts. To study the mechanism of allograft survival, we determined the fate of tracer populations of alloreactive transgenic CD8+ T cells in a normal microenvironment. We observed that DST plus anti-CD154 mAb prolonged allograft survival and deleted alloreactive transgenic CD8+ T cells. Neither component alone did so. Skin allograft survival was also prolonged in normal recipients treated with anti-CD154 mAb plus a depleting anti-CD8 mAb and in C57BL/6-CD8 knockout mice treated with anti-CD154 mAb monotherapy. We conclude that, in the presence of anti-CD154 mAb, DST leads to an allotolerant state, in part by deleting alloreactive CD8+ T cells. Consistent with this conclusion, blockade of CTLA4, which is known to abrogate the effects of DST and anti-CD154 mAb, prevented the deletion of alloreactive transgenic CD8+ T cells. These results document for the first time that peripheral deletion of alloantigen-specific CD8+ T cells is an important mechanism through which allograft survival can be prolonged by costimulatory blockade. We propose a unifying mechanism to explain allograft prolongation by DST and blockade of costimulation.
Local Bias of Investors in Sweden

Using a large set of Swedish data at the individual and institutional investor level this paper studies local bias among investors. In relation to existing research the paper expects that the investor groups defined in this paper in Sweden are prone to local bias and that the results are persistent during the studied periods. The paper performs the empirical analysis on panel data that include information of the investors and their holdings. Evidence from the different local bias measurements suggests that even though investors choose remote companies as well as local ones, they invest larger amount of their capital in local companies. Also, common for all the measurements, local bias is stronger for individual investors from Stockholm than for institutions from Stockholm. These results suggest that local bias changes significantly across investor groups and time: between the years of 2000 and 2007 in Sweden.
Sport fan satisfaction with the Kansas State Athletic Department’s social media content

The college sports industry is seeing a change in its marketing strategies with the rise of the popularity of social media. Facebook and Twitter are the two most common social networking sites used by intercollegiate athletic departments. Not only are these outlets used to foster two-way communication with fans, but they are also used as advertising and public relations tools. The purpose of this study is to compare the Kansas State University of Intercollegiate Athletics’ social media objectives and content with the level of satisfaction among representatives of the K-State fan base. Is the athletic department producing the social media content that their fans want to see? In order to gain a better understanding of the nature of the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with various staff members in the K-State Department of Intercollegiate Athletics to determine the social media objectives and to gather their opinions on the content. From there, two focus groups were conducted to ascertain the level of satisfaction among K-State fans with the current content. One group consisted of students while the other group contained K-State alumni. Findings showed that fans were pleased with certain aspects (i.e. score updates on @kstategameday, conciseness of Twitter, videos, etc.) but wanted to see more of other items such as K-State trivia, behind the scenes footage and more on studentathletes. The information gathered was then used to provide suggestions for future social media strategies within the K-State Athletics Department. The recommendations will help to enhance communication with fans and satisfy their social media needs as they relate to K-State Sports.
A Set Associative Cache Architecture

Traditional set associative caches have fixed number of sets with fixed number of ways in each set. This paper proposes a new set associative architecture. The mapping of an address to a set is expanded to a subset of the number of sets by XOR'ing the address with 0, 1, 2, 4. (number of sets/2). The line is placed in any of the available ways in this mapping. If the cache is full, the cache is like a traditional set associative cache. The number of ways that a line can be placed in a partially filled cache is increased by this mapping. The algorithm is simulated on SPEC 2K benchmarks. An average decrease of 13% in average memory access time is observed. The average memory access time for 256.bzip2 shows degradation. The consumption of energy increases as a function of the cache size.
A Clinical Protocol Demonstrating Rapid, Safe, and Effective Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D status has importance in the prevention and treatment of many malignancies. Patients with breast, colon, and lung malignancies with higher vitamin D status at the onset of treatment have an improved prognosis compared with those patients with a lower vitamin D status. Methods to improve vitamin D status are often unreliable and take time, often months, to be successful. A method that improves and normalizes the vitamin D status safely, quickly (within 1-2 weeks), and reliably is described herein. The use of this method will allow testing of the hypothesis that improving the vitamin D status of patients with various malignancies before treatment is initiated will improve their outcome.
Aestheticizing language: metapragmatic distance and unequal Englishes in Hong Kong

Abstract While scholars in World Englishes have long acknowledged the inherent equality of varieties of Englishes spoken within and across different nations, unequal relations across Englishes persist through various means. One such way, as discussed in this article, is through the aestheticization of language, which we define as a process in which individuals evaluate a language resource or usage as aesthetically appealing on the basis of its stylistic, grammatical, or phonological ‘appearance. ’ This study, based on classroom ethnography in Hong Kong, demonstrates that language aestheticization is an ideological commitment that sustains a speaker’s metapragmatic distance from English. Our analysis shows how aesthetic evaluations of language represent, and can exacerbate, social and linguistic inequalities. These findings contribute to current understandings of World Englishes in Asian contexts, in that metapragmatic distance is reflective of a complex interplay of ideology and access to dominant language resources.
Interactive Modeling of Plants

We present a rule-based approach combined with traditional geometric modelling techniques that allows easy generation of many branching objects including flowers, bushes, trees, and even nonbotanical objects. A set of components describing structural and geometrical elements of plants maps to a graph that forms the description of a specific plant and generates the geometry. Users get immediate feedback on what they've created-geometrical parameters, tropisms, and free-form deformations can control the overall shape of a plant. We demonstrate that our method handles the complexity of most real plants.
Metagenomic Analysis of Cucumber RNA from East Timor Reveals an Aphid lethal paralysis virus Genome

ABSTRACT We present here the first complete genomic Aphid lethal paralysis virus (ALPV) sequence isolated from cucumber plant RNA from East Timor. We compare it with two complete ALPV genome sequences from China, and one each from Israel, South Africa, and the United States. It most closely resembled the Chinese isolate LGH genome.
Spline interpolation with genetic algorithms

A general framework is set up for the application of genetic algorithms in curve design. Then, within this scheme, the problem of spline interpolation-a frequently used method for representing complex geometrical shapes in CAD/CAM systems-is dealt with. While the method itself is simple and robust, it suffers from the drawback that some parameters must be given that are needed for the mathematical description but are not closely related to the geometrical input data of the object. The authors suggest taking a genetic approach to define the above parameters. The resulting curve minimizes a nonlinear functional which simulates the shape of an elastic bar.
URBAN AND HOUSING ECONOMICS: Residential Mobility and Unemployment of African Immigrants in France: A Calibration Approach.

We build and calibrate a model of simultaneous transitions on the housing and the labor market in order to account for the residual unemployment gap between African immigrants and non-immigrants in France. Our framework allows us to distinguish between the impact of ethnic-specific geographic preferences and ethnic-specific barriers to these two markets. The labor market accounts for about 85% of the residual unemployment gap, whereas the housing market accounts for about 75% of the ethnic differences in geographic location. Geographic preferences do not substantially impact the unemployment gap and account for about 25% of differences in residential location.
Coordinated voltage control in MV and LV distribution networks with inverter-interfaced users

In the last years there has been a progressive growing of distributed generators connected to the LV distribution networks, leading to possible depletion of power quality levels. For this reason, standards and grid codes are under revision and several studies have been conducted investigating the possibilities offered by grid connected inverter-interfaced generators to participate to network voltage regulation and unbalance correction. In this paper a control strategy is proposed applicable to a DMS coordinating the MV network regulation, applied through a novel adaptive regulation area criterion, with local LV network controllers which, in turn, coordinate the downstream inverter-interfaced generators. The aim is to demonstrate the benefits coming from a correct coordination of the distributed LV resources with the DMS located at the primary substation.
Millimeter-wave cavity-backed patch-slot dipole for circularly polarized radiation

A novel millimeter-wave antenna for circularly polarized (CP) radiation is presented. The proposed antenna is composed of a patch dipole and a slot dipole, and it is realized by a plated through hole printed technique on a microwave substrate. Simulations show that the antenna can present a bandwidth from 55.8 to 65.3 GHz for a reflection coefficient (S11) ≤ -10 dB as well as for an axial ratio (AR) ≤ 3dB, and the 9.6 dBi average gain is achieved. This design yields good directional radiation patterns and low fabrication cost. Studies on several critical parameters are performed for practical designs.
Working Class Women and Retirement

This study explored retirement and the work life experiences of working-class women. Ninety-nine black and Caucasian women ranging in age from 66 to 84 were administered a telephone questionnaire assessing why they retired, and why they returned to work after retirement. Most compelling among the findings from this research were low earnings status and its lasting effects on psychological, physical, social, and economic well-being during retirement. Furthermore, occupations segregated by sex were associated with discrimination and low pay. A work life spent in sex segregated jobs, along with discrimination, left most of the working-class women with an economically insecure retirement. This resulted in women returning to the work force after retirement to supplement their income.
Temporal Authorization Bases: From Specification to Integration

In this paper we present a powerful authorization mechanism which provides support for: (1) periodic authorizations (both positive and negative), that is, authorizations that hold only in specific periods of time; (2) user-defined deductive temporal rules, by which new authorizations can be derived from those explicitly specified; (3) a hierarchical organization of subjects and objects, supporting a more adequate representation of their semantics. From the authorizations explicitly specified, additional authorizations are automatically derived by the system based on those hierarchies. The resulting model is therefore very flexible in terms of the kinds of protection requirements that it can represent. The flexibility provided to the users requires a non trivial underlying formal model where temporal constraints, derivation rules and object and subject hierarchies can be represented. In particular, when inheritance and derivation rules are used simultaneously, there is need for conditions ensuring that the authorization base is free from ambiguities. In this paper, we introduce a notion of safeness , and prove that it guarantees the absence of ambiguities and inconsistencies in the specification. Moreover, we define an efficient algorithm for computing authorizations from safe specifications. Finally, we provide a methodology for supporting temporal authorizations in heterogeneous, distributed systems.
Failure to detect nelfinavir in the cerebrospinal fluid of HIV-1--infected patients with and without AIDS dementia complex.

OBJECTIVE To assess the penetration of the HIV-1 protease inhibitor, nelfinavir, into cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). DESIGN Nelfinavir, a commonly used HIV-1 protease inhibitor (PI), is highly effective for reducing plasma viral load. It is deployed clinically in combination with other antiretroviral agents, including nucleoside and nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs and NNRTIs). Despite its potency based on plasma HIV-1 RNA results, its effectiveness in reducing HIV-1 RNA levels (i.e., viral load) in the central nervous system (CNS) is less certain. We sampled the CSF as a surrogate for brain because this fluid also is separated from the blood by a barrier to free diffusion, the blood-CSF barrier (BCB), which shares properties with the blood-brain barrier (BBB). These studies of nelfinavir CSF pharmacokinetics exploited the multiple CSF samples derived from individual study subjects who were enrolled in studies the primary objective of which was to compare viral kinetics in CSF and blood in response to antiviral therapy. METHODS Six study subjects, four with and two without AIDS dementia complex, underwent multiple lumbar punctures (LP). Intervals of CSF sampling after drug dosing were varied (from 0.48 hours to 10.3 hours after nelfinavir administration) to quantitate nelfinavir concentrations throughout the steady-state dosing interval. In four study subjects, CSF sampling was accompanied by assessment of nelfinavir levels in plasma before and after LP, whereas in the other two subjects, a single plasma sample was obtained before or after the LP. In total, 25 CSF samples were analyzed. Nelfinavir concentrations in CSF and plasma were determined using an high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method with a limit of quantitation of 25 and 50 ng/ml, respectively. RESULTS Plasma concentrations before and after LP averaged 2420+/-1365 ng/ml and 2528+/-1132 ng/ml, respectively. Nelfinavir was not detected in any of the CSF samples and levels >25 ng/ml were not present in the CSF. Thus, standard therapy with nelfinavir does not result in CSF drug concentrations at or exceeding the IC95 level for most HIV-1 isolates. However, study subjects with high CSF viral loads experienced a marked reduction in the context of the combination-drug regimen including nelfinavir with two subjects showing a comparable CSF response with that in plasma. CONCLUSIONS Nelfinavir does not appreciably penetrate into the CSF. The clinical importance of this observation is not certain, in that in four study subjects who initiated nelfinavir in combination with other antiretroviral therapy, a comparable degree of viral suppression was obtained in both the CSF and the blood when sampled 4 weeks or later after initiating therapy.
IFRS Subjectivity: the other side of the coin

The study shows the benefits of more discretion and less guidance in IFRS by presenting an arbitrariness and subjectivity index. The measurement of discretion proposed is based on a scale of values which improves the accuracy of information on measurements, allowing stakeholders to understand independently the level of subjectivity inherent in any accounting items. The study illustrates the matrix format statement, in which retrospective and dynamic accounting results, based on historical cost and fair value are combined, associated with an “accounting discretion view”. By highlighting the degree of accounting discretion, this approach provides users with a clear and realistic vision in which accounting choices or estimates can be credible signals of a firm’s financial performance. Regulators and users of accounting information have to accept a limited subjectivity in pursuit of more informative financial reporting because results seem to suggest that discretion, in spite of all the opportunities to manipulate reported outcomes and mislead users, appears to add value: reasonable and legal management decision making and reporting tend to achieve stable and predictable financial results.
Twenty-five years of tuberculosis in a French university hospital: a laboratory perspective.

OBJECTIVE To determine the impact of recent changes in the epidemiology of tuberculosis in France and other industrialised countries on the primary trends of tuberculosis case rates in a French university hospital. DESIGN Descriptive study of all 4549 culture-positive tuberculosis cases hospitalised at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital between 1972 and 1996. RESULTS From 1972, there was a decline of 5% per year in the tuberculosis case rate, which levelled off in 1983. The proportion of tuberculosis patients who were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive increased from 2% in 1983 to 28% in 1990, and thereafter remained stable. The proportion of foreign-born tuberculosis patients also increased, from 40% in 1972 to 55% in 1985. These two changes affected drug resistance patterns. Drug resistance was more common among foreign-born than among French-born patients, whether previously treated or not. Resistance to rifampicin and multidrug resistance among previously untreated patients was highly related to HIV co-infection. Extrapulmonary sites of tuberculosis were more often smear-positive in HIV-positive than in non-HIV-positive patients (22.8% vs 12.6%), and bacteraemia was diagnosed almost exclusively in HIV-positive patients. CONCLUSION The changes in clinical and bacteriological tuberculosis patterns at the hospital level over the last 25 years have paralleled those observed at national and international level in industrialised countries, including a slowing in the decrease in the case rate, due in part to the HIV epidemic, a higher proportion of foreign-born patients and an increase in drug resistance.
Interpersonal Coordination: Methods, Achievements, and Challenges

Research regarding interpersonal coordination can be traced back to the early 1960s when video recording began to be utilized in communication studies. Since then, technological advances have extended the range of techniques that can be used to accurately study interactional phenomena. Although such a diversity of methods contributes to the improvement of knowledge concerning interpersonal coordination, it has become increasingly difficult to maintain a comprehensive view of the field. In the present article, we review the main capture methods by describing their major findings, levels of description and limitations. We group them into three categories: video analysis, motion tracking, and psychophysiological and neurophysiological techniques. Revised evidence suggests that interpersonal coordination encompasses a family of morphological and temporal synchronies at different levels and that it is closely related to the construction and maintenance of a common social and affective space. We conclude by arguing that future research should address methodological challenges to advance the understanding of coordination phenomena.
Abstracting of Legal Cases: The Potential of Clustering Based on the Selection of Representative Objects

The SALOMON project automatically summarizes Belgian criminal cases in order to improve access to the large number of existing and future court decisions. SALOMON extracts text units from the case text to form a case summary. Such a case summary facilitates the rapid determination of the relevance of the case or may be employed in text search. An important part of the research concerns the development of techniques for automatic recognition of representative text paragraphs (or sentences) in texts of unrestricted domains. These techniques are employed to eliminate redundant material in the case texts, and to identify informative text paragraphs which are relevant to include in the case An evaluation of a test set of 700 criminal cases demonstrates that the algorithms have an application potential for automatic indexing, abstracting, and text linking.
Fulminant hepatitis associated with hepatitis A virus superinfection in patients with chronic hepatitis C

There have been conflicting reports of the clinical outcome of acute hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. A prospective study evaluated 432 patients with chronic hepatitis C (183 with cirrhosis) over a 7‐year period. Of the 17 patients with concurrent HAV infection, seven developed fulminant hepatitis and six died. None of these patients had cirrhosis; however, the HLA phenotype (A1; B8:DR3) appeared to be a significant factor in the development of fulminant hepatitis. Patients with this phenotype had high titres of antinuclear antibodies, antismooth muscle antibodies and antiasialoglycoprotein‐receptor antibodies, possibly reflecting the induction of autoimmune hepatitis in this group. The high frequency of fulminant hepatitis in patients with HAV/HCV coinfection contrasts with other surveys, although a large Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) survey demonstrated that HAV infection in patients with pre‐existing chronic liver disease (CLD) is associated with increased mortality. It is likely that CLD has some importance as an underlying factor in the development of fulminant hepatitis following HAV infection. Further prospective studies are needed to clarify this issue.
The Method of Vehicle Ontology Building Based on Decision Tree

There are a variety of methods about domain ontology building, one of which is namely skeleton law, it provides a full process of ontology building and methodology frame, it is the most reference in all methods. This paper introduces firstly skeleton law, and then points out its advantages and disadvantages. The purpose of this paper achieves a specific way to build domain ontology. The method in this paper makes use of correlative technology of Data Warehouse and Data Mining, which is mainly technology of Decision Tree. The method which is used to build ontology provides with good virtues as follow: the steps are simple and cleared, it produces a good classification, it can produce a good predictability and make if easy to carry out documentation.