Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Circulating Human Neonatal Naïve B Cells are Deficient in CD73 Impairing Purine Salvage

Background Extracellular purines, in particular adenosine (Ado) and adenosine-triphosphate, are critical immunoregulatory molecules. Expression and activity of purine ecto-enzymes on B cells in neonatal and adult blood may influence their function and has been incompletely characterized. Methods Mononuclear cells were isolated from human neonatal (cord blood) or adult (peripheral blood) subjects and evaluated directly by flow cytometry for expression of purine ecto-enzymes. Additionally, B cell subsets were isolated from mononuclear cell fractions by fluorescence-activated cell sorting and gene transcription of purine ecto-enzymes (CD39 and CD73), Ado deaminase (ADA1), purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and select purine receptors (A2a) were evaluated by reverse transcription followed by qRT-PCR. Immuno-magnetic-bead isolated naïve B cells were evaluated for enzymatic activity by incubation with radio-labeled purines followed by thin-layer chromatography, and subsequent B cell Ado acquisition was evaluated by liquid scintillation quantitation of radio-labeled Ado uptake. Results Relative to their adult counterparts, neonatal circulating naïve B cells were markedly and selectively deficient in CD73 as observed by gene transcription, surface protein expression, and enzyme activity. Neonatal naïve B cell deficiency of CD73 expression significantly impaired their capacity to acquire extracellular purines for purine salvage. Conclusion Human neonatal circulating naïve B cells are selectively deficient in CD73, impairing extracellular purine acquisition and potentially contributing to impaired B cell responses in early life.
Musicianship and Tone Language Experience Are Associated with Differential Changes in Brain Signal Variability

Musicianship has been associated with auditory processing benefits. It is unclear, however, whether pitch processing experience in nonmusical contexts, namely, speaking a tone language, has comparable associations with auditory processing. Studies comparing the auditory processing of musicians and tone language speakers have shown varying degrees of between-group similarity with regard to perceptual processing benefits and, particularly, nonlinguistic pitch processing. To test whether the auditory abilities honed by musicianship or speaking a tone language differentially impact the neural networks supporting nonlinguistic pitch processing (relative to timbral processing), we employed a novel application of brain signal variability (BSV) analysis. BSV is a metric of information processing capacity and holds great potential for understanding the neural underpinnings of experience-dependent plasticity. Here, we measured BSV in electroencephalograms of musicians, tone language-speaking nonmusicians, and English-speaking nonmusicians (controls) during passive listening of music and speech sound contrasts. Although musicians showed greater BSV across the board, each group showed a unique spatiotemporal distribution in neural network engagement: Controls had greater BSV for speech than music; tone language-speaking nonmusicians showed the opposite effect; musicians showed similar BSV for both domains. Collectively, results suggest that musical and tone language pitch experience differentially affect auditory processing capacity within the cerebral cortex. However, information processing capacity is graded: More experience with pitch is associated with greater BSV when processing this cue. Higher BSV in musicians may suggest increased information integration within the brain networks subserving speech and music, which may be related to their well-documented advantages on a wide variety of speech-related tasks.
Predicting Inter-Data-Center Network Traffic Using Elephant Flow and Sublink Information

With the ever increasing number of large scale Internet applications, inter-data-center (inter-DC) data transfers are becoming more and more common. Traditional inter-DC transfers suffer from both low utilization and congestion, and traffic prediction is an important method to optimize these transfers. Inter-DC traffic is harder to predict than many other types of network traffic because it is dominated by a few large applications. We propose a model that significantly reduces the prediction errors. In our model, we combine wavelet transform with artificial neural network to improve prediction accuracy. Specifically, we explicitly add information of sublink traffic and elephant flows, the least predictable yet dominating traffic in inter-DC network, into our prediction model. To reduce the amount of monitoring overhead for the elephant flow information, we add interpolation to fill in the unknown values in the elephant flows. We demonstrate that we can reduce prediction errors over existing methods by 5%~30%. Our prediction is in production as part of the traffic scheduling system at Baidu, one of the largest Internet companies in China, helping to reduce the peak network bandwidth.
Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activity of the Biologically Synthesized Tellurium Nanorods; A Preliminary In vitro Study.

Background: Recent theranostic (therapeutic or diagnostic) applications of tellurium nanoparticles have attracted a great interest for development of different methods for synthesis of this valuable nanostructure, especially via biological resources. Objectives: In the present study, the antimicrobial and antioxidant effects of the tellurium nanorods (Te NRs) biosynthesized by a bacterial strain Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes strain Te were evaluated. Materials and Methods: The antimicrobial effect of Te NRs and potassium tellurite against different bacterial and fungal pathogens was assessed by microdilution method. Furthermore, the disk diffusion method was used to evaluate the antibacterial effect of the biogenic Te NRs and potassium tellurite against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, alone or in combination with various antibiotics. Also, the biogenic Te NRs were investigated for antioxidant activity using 2, 2-diphenyl- 1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity and reducing power assay. Results: Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of the purified Te NRs showed individual and rod-shaped nanostructure (~22 nm diameter by 185 nm in length). Based on the data obtained from both microdilution and disk diffusion method the K2 TeO3 exhibited a higher antibacterial and antifungal activity compared to the Te NRs. The measured IC50 for the biogenic Te NRs (i.e. DPPH radical scavenging activity) was found to be 24.9 μg. mL-1, while, K 2 TeO3 has represented only 17.6 ± 0.8 % DPPH radical scavenging effect at the concentration of 160 μg. mL-1. The reducing power assay revealed a higher electron-donating activity for Te NRs compared to K2TeO3. Conclusions: Based on the data obtained from both microdilution and disk diffusion method the K2TeO3 exhibited a higher antimicrobial and antifungal activity than Te NRs. Te NRs didn't show the antibacterial effect against the tested bacterial strain: MRSA and showed an inhibitory effect and antibacterial activity of the effective antibiotics. However, more studies should be performed to explore the action mechanism of the produced biogenic Te NRs.
Comorbidity clusters in people with gout: an observational cohort study with linked medical record review

Objective To investigate how comorbid conditions cluster in patients with gout in a UK primary care population. Methods A cross-sectional study was performed using baseline data from a primary-care-based prospective observational cohort of people aged ⩾18 years with gout. Participants with gout were identified through primary care medical records. Factor analysis was performed to obtain distinct clusters of comorbidity variables including obesity, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemia, coronary heart disease, heart failure, chronic kidney disease (CKD) and cancer. Hierarchical cluster analysis of patient observations was also performed to identify homogenous subgroups of patients based on combinations of their comorbidities. Results Four distinct comorbidity clusters (C1-C4) were identified in 1079 participants [mean (s.d.) age 65.5 years (12.5); 909 (84%) male]. Cluster C1 (n = 197, 18%) was the oldest group and had the most frequent attacks of gout; 97% had CKD. Participants in C2 (n = 393, 36%) had isolated gout with few comorbidities but drank alcohol more frequently. In cluster C3 (n = 296, 27%), hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidaemia, coronary heart disease and/or CKD were prevalent, and urate-lowering therapy was prescribed more frequently than in other clusters. All patients in C4 (193, 18%) had hypertension and were more likely to be obese than other clusters. Conclusion Four distinct comorbidity clusters were identified. People with multiple comorbidities were more likely to receive allopurinol. Tailoring of treatments depending on cluster and comorbidities should be considered.
Selectability/Rejectability Measures Approach for Nominal Classiflcation

In this paper, we consider the problem of assigning objects (peoples, projects, decisions, units, options, etc.) characterized by multiple attributes or criteria to predeflned classes characterized by multiple features, conditions or constraints that are functions of object attributes: this is nominal or non ordered classiflcation as opposed to ordinal classiflcation in which case classes are ordered according to some desires of decision maker(s). These problems have retained the attention of a broad community of researchers that have developed methods and algorithms to deal with them because of their applicability in many domains such as social, economics, medical, engineering, . In this paper we will consider a new approach that is based, given an object to be classifled and a class, on the derivation of two measures: the selectability that measures to what extent this object can be considered for inclusion in that class and the rejectability, a degree that measures the extent to which one must avoid including the considered object to the considered class, in the framework of satisflcing game theory. The application of this approach to a real world problem in the domain of banking has shown a real potentiality. c
Comparison of Conventional Ultrasound, Doppler, Elastography and Contrast Enhanced Ultrasonography Parameters with Histopathology Findings in the Differential Diagnosis of Benign and Malignant Thyroid Nodules

Background: Though neck ultrasound is the first line of choice for the screening of thyroid nodules, very few studies have compared the diagnostic performances of both conventional and advanced ultrasound parameters. In this study, we aim to compare various conventional and advanced ultrasound imaging parameters and confirm it with histopathology findings to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid nodules. Methods: One hundred and thirty nine patients with 173 thyroid nodules underwent conventional ultrasonography (cUSG) which included gray-scale parameters, colour Doppler (CD) and power Doppler (PD) followed by elastography and contrast enhanced ultrasonography (CEUSG). Post-USG imaging all patients underwent fine needle aspiration cytology followed by surgery if indicated and histopathological results were obtained. Stata 11.2 statistical software was used for the statistical analysis. Results: Of 173 nodules, 65 were benign and 108 were malignant. cUSG had a sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of 94.4%, 90.4%, 94.4%, 90.4%, and 91.9%, respectively with AUC:0.97. On ROC analysis, the cut-off value for differentiating malignant from benign thyroid nodules on Ueno elasticity scoring was >3; AUC: 0.86 versus >2.2 using elasticity ratio method, AUC: 0.90. CEUSG and elastography had sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV and accuracy of 93.8%, 95.3%, 97.2%, 89.8%, and 94.2%, respectively with AUC:0.98. On combining and ranking, both conventional and advanced cUSG parameters, the significant indicators for malignancy were heterogeneous contrast enhancement, followed by Type-IV/V PD flow patterns, absence of ring enhancement and elasticity ratio >2.2 patterns with the largest AUC:0.994. Conclusions: Conjoint analysis of specific features of thyroid nodules on cUSG, elastography and CEUSG will enhance the diagnostic value in the screening of thyroid nodules.
Modeling early Parkinson's disease pathology with chronic low dose MPTP treatment.

PURPOSE Parkinson's disease (PD) is a movement disorder mainly characterized by progressive neurodegeneration of dopaminergic (DAergic) neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). As yet, unknown molecular changes contribute to the development of PD leading to a great need for in vivo models that herald this disorder. Here we characterize an animal model presenting early PD pathology. METHODS Young, adult C57/BL6 mice were treated for five weeks twice a week with 15 mg/kg 1-methyl-4-phenyl1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) in combination with 250 mg/kg probenecid. During the treatment mice were tested on their dopamine dependent movement skills. The integrity of their nigrostriatal system was examined through immunohistochemical studies. RESULTS During the treatment, mice developed dopamine-dependent movement deficits induced by loss of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) positive nigrostriatal axon terminals. Immunohistochemical study identified astrogliosis and microgliosis in the SN but no decrease of TH immunostaining, demonstrating lack of DAergic neuron degeneration. We also observed formation of α-synuclein inclusion bodies in the SN. CONCLUSIONS The combined features of this MPTP model appear to represent an early neurotoxic cellular stress to the SN neurons bearing a striking resemblance to the early stages of PD neuropathology. This model might prove very useful to investigate early neurodegenerative events in the nigrostriatal DAergic system and to study the effects of potential treatment strategies counteracting the early PD cellular changes.
Food for Thought . . . 3 S – Systematic , Systemic , and Systems Biology and Toxicology

Systematic, systemic, and systems sound very much alike, but they represent three different approaches in the life sciences. Food for Thought . 3S – Systematic, Systemic, and Systems Biology and Toxicology Lena Smirnova 1, Nicole Kleinstreuer 2, Raffaella Corvi 3, Andre Levchenko 4, Suzanne C. Fitzpatrick 5 and Thomas Hartung 1,6 1Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), Baltimore, MD, USA; 2NIH/NIEHS/DNTP/NICEATM, RTP, NC, USA; 3European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), EU Reference Laboratory for Alternatives to Animal Testing (EURL ECVAM), Ispra, (VA), Italy; 4Yale Systems Biology Institute and Biomedical Engineering Department, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; 5Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, College Park, MD, USA; 6CAAT-Europe, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
Trust your Model: Light Field Depth Estimation with Inline Occlusion Handling

We address the problem of depth estimation from light-field images. Our main contribution is a new way to handle occlusions which improves general accuracy and quality of object borders. In contrast to all prior work we work with a model which directly incorporates both depth and occlusion, using a local optimization scheme based on the PatchMatch algorithm. The key benefit of this joint approach is that we utilize all available data, and not erroneously discard valuable information in pre-processing steps. We see the benefit of our approach not only at improved object boundaries, but also at smooth surface reconstruction, where we outperform even methods which focus on good surface regularization. We have evaluated our method on a public light-field dataset, where we achieve state-of-the-art results in nine out of twelve error metrics, with a close tie for the remaining three.
The Active Human Gut Microbiota Differs from the Total Microbiota

The human gut microbiota is considered one of the most fascinating reservoirs of microbial diversity hosting between 400 to 1000 bacterial species distributed among nine phyla with Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes and Actinobacteria representing around of the diversity. One of the most intriguing issues relates to understanding which microbial groups are active players in the maintenance of the microbiota homeostasis. Here, we describe the diversity of active microbial fractions compared with the whole community from raw human fecal samples. We studied four healthy volunteers by 16S rDNA gene pyrosequencing. The fractions were obtained by cell sorting based on bacterial RNA concentration. Bacterial families were observed to appear or disappear on applying a cell sorting method in which flow cytometry was used to evaluate the active cells by pyronin-Y staining of RNA. This method was able to detect active bacteria, indicating that the active players differed from that observed in raw fecal material. Generally, observations showed that in the active fractions, the number of reads related to Bacteroidetes decreased whereas several families from Clostridiales (Firmicutes) were more highly represented. Moreover, a huge number of families appeared as part of the active fraction when cell sorting was applied, indicating reads that are simply statistically hidden by the total reads.
[Predictors of hospital mortality in 186 cases of active infective endocarditis treated in a tertiary medical center (1992-2001)].

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to describe the predictors of hospital mortality found in patients admitted for infective endocarditis (IE) to a cardiovascular surgery ward. Patients and method. Prospective study of 186 patients with IE treated in our hospital between 1992 and 2001. RESULTS One hundred fourteen patients (61.3%) had native valve endocarditis and 72 (38.7%) had prosthetic valve endocarditis (early in 28 patients [up to 12 months after surgery] and late in 44 [later than 12 months]). Blood cultures were positive in 82%. The predominant organism was Streptococcus viridans (36%) in native valve endocarditis and Staphylococcus aureus (33%) in prosthetic valve endocarditis. The hospital mortality was 22.6%. Severe sepsis (4.8%) produced a high mortality rate (88%) and was caused by Staphylococcus aureus in 60%. One hundred nineteen patients (64%) required surgery, 79 (66.4%) of them urgently. Negative blood cultures predicted need for surgery in native valve endocarditis (p < 0.05). The surgical mortality was 21.8% and was related to NYHA III-IV class (p = 0.014) and emergency surgery (p = 0.009) in patients with native valve endocarditis. This last factor also predicted higher surgical mortality in patients with early prosthetic valve endocarditis (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The hospital mortality of this group of patients with infective endocarditis treated in a tertiary medical center was high. The presence of severe sepsis, although infrequent, had a somber prognosis. Severe heart failure in native valve endocarditis and urgent surgery in native and prosthetic valve endocarditis increased surgical mortality.
Multiplexity, Growth Mechanisms and Structural Variety in Scientific Collaboration Networks

A substantial body of literature has recently been concerned with the structure and dynamics of the collaboration networks that underlie the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge. Despite the growing interest in these networks, relatively little emphasis has been placed on two broad areas of investigation: on the one hand, the interplay of the growth mechanisms underpinning the evolution of collaborative arrangements; on the other, the implications that the structure and multiplexity of these arrangements have on knowledge creation and diffusion. The articles in this Special Issue aim to bridge these gaps in the literature and, by embracing a variety of perspectives, contribute towards a better understanding of how collaboration networks originate, function, and evolve. This Introduction offers a theoretical and methodological framework for the articles here included. It begins by discussing problems of measurement of scientific collaboration, and goes on to examine the role that growth mechanisms, structural variety and multiplexity play in shaping the genesis and functioning of collaboration networks. In reviewing current and emerging research themes, the discussion will also identify promising research directions that will stimulate future work on collaboration networks in science and technology.
On the Gaussian MIMO Relay Channel With Full Channel State Information

This paper addresses the problem of source and relay transmit covariance optimization on the Gaussian MIMO relay channel with full channel state information (CSI), i.e., assuming perfect knowledge of all channels. For full-duplex relaying, we show that the cut-set bound on capacity can be computed as the solution of a convex problem, thus providing a tighter bound than previously published. For time division duplex (TDD) relaying, both upper and lower bounds on capacity are derived, and the transmit covariance matrices are optimized for decode-and-forward (DF) strategies with either partial or full decoding at the relay. A generic procedure is introduced to formulate these problems into a standard convex form, and to solve them efficiently. Suboptimum precoders are also proposed which have a specific matrix structure that either leads to a closed-form expression or at least reduces the dimension of the optimization problem. Practical aspects related to transmit power constraints and CSI availability are then discussed. Finally, simulations in a cellular downlink scenario show that the partial DF strategy can achieve a rate very close to capacity for realistic values of the source to relay SNR, and that the rate loss due to suboptimum precoder structures remains small for typical antenna configurations.
From virtual worlds to reality: Moderating and mediating mechanisms between online and offline leadership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore whether online leadership affects offline leadership through a mediation mechanism. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on social presence theory, the authors developed a mediation model of online leadership to offline leadership, and examine the moderating effect of interactivity. Data were collected through an internet questionnaire, with gamers in Taiwan’s leading forum as research targets. After receiving 912 valid questionnaires, the authors used SPSS 21 and AMOS 21 to conduct data analysis to test the model. Findings The results show that online leadership will affect offline leadership. Moreover, game achievements and character identification have partial mediated effects in this model. Finally, interactivity has a moderating effect in this model. Practical implications These findings provide insights for future leadership training effectiveness, training guidelines, game design, and selection of references. Originality/value This research extends the current state of knowledge about the paths to transfer online leadership experiences to office situations through direct influence, game achievement, and character identification.
Fracking in the UK press: Threat dynamics in an unfolding debate

Shale gas is a novel source of fossil fuel which is extracted by induced hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”. This article examines the socio-political dimension of fracking as manifested in the UK press at three key temporal points in the debate on the practice. Three newspaper corpora were analysed qualitatively using Thematic Analysis and Social Representations Theory. Three overarching themes are discussed: “April–May 2011: From Optimism to Scepticism”; “November 2011: (De-)Constructing and Re-Constructing Risk and Danger”; “April 2012: Consolidating Social Representations of Fracking”. In this article, we examine the emergence of and inter-relations between competing social representations, discuss the dynamics of threat positioning and show how threat can be re-construed in order to serve particular socio-political ends in the debate on fracking.