Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
LPS activation is required for migratory activity and antigen presentation by tolerogenic dendritic cells

Autoimmune pathologies are caused by a breakdown in self‐tolerance. Tolerogenic dendritic cells (tolDC) are a promising immunotherapeutic tool for restoring self‐tolerance in an antigen‐specific manner. Studies about tolDC have focused largely on generating stable maturation‐resistant DC, but few have fully addressed questions about the antigen‐presenting and migratory capacities of these cells, prerequisites for successful immunotherapy. Here, we investigated whether human tolDC, generated with dexamethasone and the active form of vitamin D3, maintained their tolerogenic function upon activation with LPS (LPS‐tolDC), while acquiring the ability to present exogenous autoantigen and to migrate in response to the CCR7 ligand CCL19. LPS activation led to important changes in the tolDC phenotype and function. LPS‐tolDC, but not tolDC, expressed the chemokine receptor CCR7 and migrated in response to CCL19. Furthermore, LPS‐tolDC were superior to tolDC in their ability to present type II collagen, a candidate autoantigen in rheumatoid arthritis. tolDC and LPS‐tolDC had low stimulatory capacity for allogeneic, naïve T cells and skewed T cell polarization toward an anti‐inflammatory phenotype, although LPS‐tolDC induced significantly higher levels of IL‐10 production by T cells. Our finding that LPS activation is essential for inducing migratory and antigen‐presenting activity in tolDC is important for optimizing their therapeutic potential.
Mechanisms of fatigue differ after low‐ and high‐force fatiguing contractions in men and women

The magnitude of failure in voluntary drive after fatiguing contractions of different intensities in men and women is not known. The purpose of this study was to compare the time to task failure and voluntary activation of men and women for a sustained isometric contraction performed at a low and high intensity with the elbow flexor muscles. Nine men and nine women sustained an isometric contraction at 20% and 80% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force until task failure during separate sessions. The men had a shorter time to failure than women for the 20% but not the 80% MVC task. Voluntary activation was reduced to similar levels for the men and women at the end of the fatiguing contractions but was reduced less after the 80% MVC task than the 20% MVC contraction. Twitch amplitude was reduced similarly at task failure for both sexes and to similar levels at termination of the 20% and 80% MVC tasks. The rate of change in mean arterial pressure was the main predictor of time to failure for the low‐force sustained contraction. These results suggest that women experienced greater muscle perfusion, less peripheral fatigue, and a longer time to task failure than men during the low‐force fatiguing contraction. However, the low‐force task induced greater central fatigue than the high‐force contraction for both men and women. Thus, low‐force, long‐duration fatiguing contractions can be used in rehabilitation to induce significant fatigue within the central nervous system and potentially greater neural adaptations in men and women. Muscle Nerve, 2007
Combinatorial Profiles of Oligodendrocyte-Selective Classes of Transcriptional Regulators Differentially Modulate Myelin Basic Protein Gene Expression

Recent studies suggest that specific neural basic helix-loop-helix (HLH; i.e., Olig1 and Olig2, Mash1), associated inhibitory HLH (i.e., Id2 and Id4), high-mobility group domain (i.e., Sox10), and homeodomain (i.e., Nkx2.2) transcription factors are involved in oligodendrocyte (OL) lineage specification and progressive stages of maturation including myelination. However, the developmental interplay among these lineage-selective determinants, in a cell- and maturational stage-specific context, has not yet been defined. We show here in vivo and in vitro developmental expression profiles for these distinct classes of transcriptional regulators of OLs. We show that progressive stages of OL lineage maturation are characterized by dynamic changes in the subcellular distribution of these transcription factors and by different permutations of combinatorial transcriptional codes. Transient transfections of these precise combinatorial codes with a luciferase reporter gene driven by the myelin basic protein promoter define how changes in the molecular composition of these transcriptional complexes modulate myelin gene expression. Our overall findings suggest that the dynamic interplay between developmental stage-specific classes of transcriptional activators and associated inhibitory factors orchestrate myelin gene expression during terminal maturation of the mammalian CNS.
Vascular endothelial growth factor prolongs survival in a transgenic mouse model of ALS

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease associated with the death of motor neurons in the spinal cord and brainstem. The cause of ALS is unknown and there is no cure. This study demonstrates, for the first time, that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) delays progression of symptoms and prolongs survival in a Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) transgenic mouse model of ALS. These observations suggest that VEGF or related compounds, might be of value in the treatment of ALS patients. Ann Neurol 2004
Interleukin 6 decreases cell-cell association and increases motility of ductal breast carcinoma cells

Treatment of transformed breast duct epithelial cells with IL-6 produces a unique cellular phenotype characterized by diminished proliferation and increased motility. Human ductal carcinoma cells (T- 47D and ZR-75-1 lines) are typically epithelioid in shape and form compact colonies in culture. Time-lapse cinemicrography shows that some untreated cells can transiently become fusiform or stellate in shape and separate from each other within a colony, but they usually rejoin their neighbors. While IL-6 suppresses the proliferation of these carcinoma cells, the IL-6-treated cells generally become stellate or fusiform and show increased motility. These changes persist as long as the cells are exposed to IL-6. This results in the dispersal of cells within colonies. The effects on cell growth, shape, and motility are reversible upon removal of IL-6. IL-6-treated T-47D cells display diminished adherens-type cell junctions, as indicated by markedly decreased vinculin-containing adhesions and intercellular desmosomal attachments. The effects on ZR-75-1 cell shape, colony number, and DNA synthesis are dependent on IL-6 concentration in the range from 0.15 to 15 ng/ml. Higher concentrations are required in T-47D cells for equivalent effects. Anti-IL-6 immune serum blocks IL-6 action. IL-6 represents a well-characterized molecule that regulates both the proliferation and junction-forming ability of breast ductal carcinoma cells.
Affect of Robot's Competencies on Children's Perception

The focus of the research described in this paper is to explore children's perception of a social robot's learning abilities and behavior in an educational context. With this purpose, we conducted a long-term study with children in a school by adopting the learning-by-teaching learning method. The scenario involves a "learner-agent" (a robot) which seeks help from a child (a teacher) in correcting the shapes of a few letters it writes. Two versions of the robot were built: one where it learns and another where it does not improve over time. The results of the study suggest that children's social relationship with the robot was not affected by the learning abilities of the agent.
Cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex in dogs with congestive heart failure.

It is well accepted that sympathetic tone is elevated in chronic heart failure (HF) and that the cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex is a sympathoexcitatory reflex. There have been no studies designed to examine the role of this reflex in control of sympathetic outflow in the HF state. In this study we tested the hypothesis that cardiac sympathetic afferent reflexes are enhanced in HF and are, therefore, capable of contributing to the increase in sympathetic outflow in this disease state. Ventricular pacing was carried out in 14 dogs until signs of HF were evident. Fourteen sham dogs served as controls. At the time of the acute experiment the dogs were anesthetized with alpha-chloralose. The hemodynamic [arterial pressure and heart rate (HR)] and renal sympathetic nerve activity (RSNA) responses to left ventricular epicardial application of two doses of bradykinin (BK) and capsaicin (Cap) were determined in the sinoaortic-denervated and vagotomized state. The MAP, RSNA, and HR responses to BK were greater in the HF group compared with the sham group. The RSNA response to BK (50 micrograms) in the HF group was significantly increased (34.0 +/- 5.9 vs. 11.5 +/- 4.2%, P < 0.05). The MAP, RSNA, and HR responses to Cap in the HF group were similar to the responses to BK. The RSNA response to Cap in the HF group was significantly increased (29.8 +/- 11.3 vs. 13.8 +/- 2.3% for 10 micrograms, P < 0.05 and 46.5 +/- 10.7 vs. 18.7 +/- 3.1% for 100 micrograms, P < 0.05). The cyclooxygenase blocker indomethacin (5 mg/kg i.v.) attenuated the reflex responses to BK in the HF group. These data suggest that the enhanced cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex to epicardial BK in HF appears to be mediated by altered levels of prostaglandin synthesis. Blockade of cardiac sympathetic afferents with topical lidocaine reduced baseline of RSNA significantly more in the HF state than in the normal state (-24.2 +/- 3.6 vs. -4.3 +/- 4.5%, P < 0.05). We conclude from these data that the cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex is sensitized in the HF state and speculate that this enhanced cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex may contribute to the sustained higher sympathetic tone in chronic HF.
Familial transmission of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adoptees: a Swedish nationwide family study

Objectives Familial clustering of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is well established, but the familial risk of COPD has not been determined among adoptees. The aim was to determine whether the familial transmission of COPD is related to disease in biological and/or adoptive parents. Design Historic cohort study. Participants 80 214 (50% females). Methods The Swedish Multi-Generation Register was used to follow all Swedish-born adoptees born in 1932–2004 (n=80 214) between 1 January 1964 and 31 December 2010 for COPD (n=1978). The risk of COPD was estimated in adoptees with at least one biological parent with COPD but no adoptive parent with COPD (n=162) compared with adoptees without a biological or adoptive parent with COPD. The risk of COPD was also determined in adoptees with at least one adoptive parent but no biological parent with COPD (n=110), and in adoptees with both affected biological and adoptive parents (n=162). Primary outcome measure COPD in adoptees. Results Adoptees with COPD in at least one biological parent but no adoptive parent were more likely to have COPD than adoptees without a biological or adoptive parent with COPD (standardised incidence ratio, SIR=1.98 (95% CI 1.69 to 2.31)). The familial SIR for adoptees with both a biological parent and an adoptive parent with COPD was 1.68 (95% CI 1.39 to 2.00). Adoptees with at least one adoptive parent with COPD but no biological parent with COPD were not at an increased risk of COPD (SIR=1.12 (95% CI 0.92 to 1.35)). Conclusions The findings of the study show that the familial transmission of COPD is associated with COPD in biological but not adoptive parents, suggesting that genetic or early life factors are important in the familial transmission of COPD.
Perceptive Biases in Major Depressive Episode

Introduction Alterations in emotional processing occur during a major depressive episode (MDE), and olfaction and facial expressions have implications in emotional and social interactions. To gain a better understanding of these processes, we characterized the perceptive sensorial biases, potential links, and potential remission after antidepressant treatment of MDE. Methods We recruited 22 patients with acute MDE, both before and after three months of antidepressant treatment, and 41 healthy volunteers matched by age and smoking status. The participants underwent a clinical assessment (Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview, Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Physical and Social Anhedonia scales, Pleasure-Displeasure Scale), an olfactory evaluation (hedonic aspect, familiarity and emotional impact of odors), and a computerized Facial Affect Recognition task. Results MDE was associated with an olfactory bias concerning hedonic and emotional aspects, including negative olfactory alliesthesia (unpleasant odorants perceived as more unpleasant), facial emotion expression recognition (happy facial expressions), and in part olfactory anhedonia (pleasant odorants perceived as less pleasant). In addition, the results revealed that these impairments represent state markers of MDE, suggesting that the patients recovered the same sensory processing as healthy subjects after antidepressant treatment. Discussion This study demonstrated that MDE is associated with negative biases toward olfactory perception and the recognition of facial emotional expressions. The link between these two sensory parameters suggests common underlying processes.
The helicase FBH1 is tightly regulated by PCNA via CRL4(Cdt2)-mediated proteolysis in human cells

During replication, DNA damage can challenge replication fork progression and cell viability. Homologous Recombination (HR) and Translesion Synthesis (TLS) pathways appear as major players involved in the resumption and completion of DNA replication. How both pathways are coordinated in human cells to maintain genome stability is unclear. Numerous helicases are involved in HR regulation. Among them, the helicase FBH1 accumulates at sites of DNA damage and potentially constrains HR via its anti-recombinase activity. However, little is known about its regulation in vivo. Here, we report a mechanism that controls the degradation of FBH1 after DNA damage. Firstly, we found that the sliding clamp Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) is critical for FBH1 recruitment to replication factories or DNA damage sites. We then showed the anti-recombinase activity of FBH1 is partially dependent on its interaction with PCNA. Intriguingly, after its re-localization, FBH1 is targeted for degradation by the Cullin-ring ligase 4-Cdt2 (CRL4Cdt2)–PCNA pathway via a PCNA-interacting peptide (PIP) degron. Importantly, expression of non-degradable FBH1 mutant impairs the recruitment of the TLS polymerase eta to chromatin in UV-irradiated cells. Thus, we propose that after DNA damage, FBH1 might be required to restrict HR and then degraded by the Cdt2–proteasome pathway to facilitate TLS pathway.
Multicamera Calibration from Visible and Mirrored Epipoles

Multicamera rigs are used in a large number of 3D Vision applications, such as 3D modeling, motion capture or telepresence and a robust calibration is of utmost importance in order to achieve a high accuracy results. In many practical configurations the cameras in a rig are arranged in such a way, that they can observe each other, in other words a number of epipoles correspond to the real image points. In this paper we propose a solution for the automatic recovery of the external calibration of a multicamera system by enforcing only simple geometrical constraints, arising from the epipole visibility, without using any calibration object, such as checkerboards, laser pointers or similar. Additionally, we introduce an extension of the method that handles the case of epipoles being visible in the reflection of a planar mirror, which makes the algorithm suitable for the calibration of any multicamera system, irrespective of the number of cameras and their actual mutual visibility, and furthermore we remark that it requires only one or a few images per camera and therefore features a high speed and usability. We produce an evidence of the algorithm effectiveness by presenting a wide set of tests performed on synthetic as well as real datasets and we compare the results with those obtained using a traditional LED-based algorithm. The real datasets have been captured using a multicamera Virtual Reality (VR) rig and a spherical dome configuration for 3D reconstruction.
Impact of Full Rank Principal Component Analysis on Classification Algorithms for Face Recognition

Full rank principal component analysis (FR-PCA) is a special form of principal component analysis (PCA) which retains all nonzero components of PCA. Generally speaking, it is hard to estimate how the accuracy of a classifier will change after data are compressed by PCA. However, this paper reveals an interesting fact that the transformation by FR-PCA does not change the accuracy of many well-known classification algorithms. It predicates that people can safely use FR-PCA as a preprocessing tool to compress high-dimensional data without deteriorating the accuracies of these classifiers. The main contribution of the paper is that it theoretically proves that the transformation by FR-PCA does not change accuracies of the k nearest neighbor, the minimum distance, support vector machine, large margin linear projection, and maximum scatter difference classifiers. In addition, through extensive experimental studies conducted on several benchmark face image databases, this paper demonstrates that FR-PCA can greatly promote the efficiencies of above-mentioned five classification algorithms in appearance-based face recognition.
Guiding Framework for Driver Assessment Using Driving Simulators

1 iDAPT Research, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, Centre for Research on Safe Driving, Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, ON, Canada, Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, United States, 5 Brain and Spinal Cord Rehabilitation Program, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, Canada, 7 Saint Elizabeth Health Care, Toronto, ON, Canada, 8 Baycrest Health Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada, Department of Medicine and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
A FAST LEXICALLY CONSTRAINED VITERBI ALGORITHM FOR ON­ LINE HANDWRITING RECOGNITIO

Most on­line cursive handwriting recognition systems use a lexical constraint to help improve the recognition performance. Traditionally, the vocabulary lexicon is stored in a trie (automaton whose underlying graph is a tree). In this paper, we propose a solution based on a more compact data structure, the directed acyclic word graph (DAWG). We show that our solution is equivalent to the traditional system. Moreover, we propose a number of heuristics to reduce the size of the DAWG and present experimental results demonstrating a significant improvement.
Pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma: Are We Over-scanning Our Patients?

Despite the favorable outcome of most pediatric patients with Hodgkin lymphoma (HL), there is rising concern about risks of carcinogenesis from both diagnostic and therapeutic radiation exposure for patients treated on study protocols. Although previous studies have investigated radiation exposure during treatment, radiation from post-treatment surveillance imaging may also increase the likelihood of secondary malignancies. All diagnostic imaging examinations involving ionizing radiation exposure performed for surveillance following completion of therapy were recorded for 99 consecutive pediatric patients diagnosed with HL from 2000 to 2010. Cumulative radiation dosage from these examinations and the frequency of relapse detection by these examinations were recorded. In the first 2 years following completion of therapy, patients in remission received a median of 11 examinations (range 0–26). Only 13 of 99 patients relapsed, 11 within 5 months of treatment completion. No relapse was detected by 1- or 2-view chest radiographs (n = 38 and 296, respectively), abdomen/pelvis computed tomography (CT) scans (n = 211), or positron emission tomography (PET) scans alone (n = 11). However, 10/391 (2.6%) of chest CT scans, 4/364 (1.1%) of neck CT scans, and 3/47 (6.4%) of PET/CT scans detected relapsed disease. Thus, only 17 scans (1.3%) detected relapse in a total of 1358 scans. Mean radiation dosages were 31.97 mSv for Stage 1, 37.76 mSv for Stage 2, 48.08 mSv for Stage 3, and 51.35 mSv for Stage 4 HL. Approximately 1% of surveillance imaging examinations identified relapsed disease. Given the very low rate of relapse detection by surveillance imaging stipulated by current protocols for pediatric HL patients, the financial burden of the tests themselves, the high cure rate, and risks of second malignancy from ionizing radiation exposure, modification of the surveillance strategy is recommended.
Exploring two spaces with one feature: kernelized multidimensional modeling of visual alphabets

Marginal Alphabets (MEDA) were proposed as an alternative to Bag of Words (BoW) for image representation. They aggregate sets of locally extracted descriptors (LEDs) by using visual alphabets based on the marginal approximation of the LED components. Compared to the exponential complexity of the BoW codebooks, the MEDA model is very efficient because each dimension of the LED is quantized independently. However, MEDA lacks of considering the relations between the LED components, loosing precious information for image representation. In this paper, we design Multi-MEDA, a shift-invariant kernel for MEDA signatures that allows to reintroduce, at a kernel level, the connections between LED components that were broken with the independent quantization. With our approach, we can derive in a polynomial time a multivariate model from the marginal approximations stored in the MEDA vector, without explicitly computing any multidimensional codebook. Results show that the MEDA signature increases its discriminative power when analyzed through the Multi-MEDA kernel evaluation. Moreover, we show that the model generated my the Multi-MEDA-based learning brings complementary information compared to traditional kernels over MEDA and BoW signatures: our experiments on the TRECVID database show that the combination of these approaches brings a substantial improvment compared to BoW-only classification.
Natural Killer (NK) Cell–mediated Cytotoxicity: Differential Use of  TRAIL and Fas Ligand by Immature and Mature Primary Human NK Cells

Mature natural killer (NK) cells use Ca2+-dependent granule exocytosis and release of cytotoxic proteins, Fas ligand (FasL), and membrane-bound or secreted cytokines (tumor necrosis factor [TNF]-α) to induce target cell death. Fas belongs to the TNF receptor family of molecules, containing a conserved intracytoplasmic “death domain” that indirectly activates the caspase enzymatic cascade and ultimately apoptotic mechanisms in numerous cell types. Two additional members of this family, DR4 and DR5, transduce apoptotic signals upon binding soluble TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) that, like FasL, belongs to the growing TNF family of molecules. Here, we report that TRAIL produced or expressed by different populations of primary human NK cells is functional, and represents a marker of differentiation or activation of these, and possibly other, cytotoxic leukocytes. During differentiation NK cells, sequentially and differentially, use distinct members of the TNF family or granule exocytosis to mediate target cell death. Phenotypically immature CD161+/CD56− NK cells mediate TRAIL-dependent but not FasL- or granule release–dependent cytotoxicity, whereas mature CD56+ NK cells mediate the latter two.