Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Histopathologic Characteristics of Human Intestine Allograft Acute Rejection in Patients Pretreated with Thymoglobulin or Alemtuzumab

BACKGROUND:We report herein the histopathologic characteristics of human intestine allograft acute rejection in a consecutive series of 48 patients receiving small bowel transplantations and treated with a preconditioning protocol between July 4, 2001 and January 31, 2004.METHODS:Recipient pretreatment was with an IV infusion of 5–10 mg/kg thymoglobulin or 30–60 mg of alemtuzumab (Campath 1H) over several hours prior to revascularization. Postoperative treatment was limited to tacrolimus (target 12-h trough level 10–15 ng/mL) unless additional drugs were needed to treat breakthrough rejection.RESULTS:A total of 3,497 biopsies of the allograft jejunum and/or ileum were obtained. A recently validated histological grading schema was prospectively utilized to grade acute rejection. A total of 116 acute rejection episodes were diagnosed (48 indeterminate, 36 mild, 11 moderate, and 21 severe). Several unique histopathologic features of allograft acute rejection were observed in the pretreated patients. First, scattered lamina propria neutrophilic inflammation often precedes the onset of acute rejection. Second, acute rejection is often associated with more prominent eosinophils in lamina propria or eosinophilic cryptitis. Third, certain acute rejection episodes are characterized by absence of crypts with intact surface villous epithelium. Finally, the mucosal damage associated with moderate or severe acute rejection can completely recover after additional immunosuppressive treatment.CONCLUSION:This study describes several characteristic histopathologic features of allograft small bowel acute rejection associated with thymoglobulin or alemtuzumab preconditioning. Recognition of these unique histopathologic features will enable accurate diagnosis and ensure successful weaning of immunosuppressive drugs.
Task-Aware Interrupt Controller: Priority Space Unification in Real-Time Systems

In the development of real-time systems, predictability is often hindered by technological factors which break the timing abstractions offered by real time operating systems (RTOSs); namely, the priority space separation between threads and interrupts induces the rate-monotonic problem. Software approaches have tackled this issue, attempting to unify the priority space with varying degrees of success. We present a hardware approach to the problem: unifying the priority space at the interrupt handling subsystem, predictability is greatly enhanced with minimum software modifications. Our solution provides the interrupt controller with awareness of the currently running task's priority making the solution independent of the used operating system. We show how our approach is minimally intrusive at hardware architecture level and provides benefits beyond the capabilities of previous approaches. Our technique shows a 0.05% run-time overhead if no interrupts occur, and run-time reduction proportional to interrupt rate for rates higher than 5 per s, for a interrupt workload around 0.07 ms.
Détermination expérimentale des coefficients d'échange thermique en mode de convection naturelle - Application à une machine électrique intégrée dans son environnement

Cet article propose d'evaluer la precision des correlations analytiques classiques de convection naturelle vers l'exterieur d'une machine totalement fermee et non ventilee en comparant les flux sortants par rapport aux pertes internes totales mesurees. En decomposant la machine en des geometries connues (cylindre, plaque,.), des correlations analytiques et empiriques sont appliquees pour l'evaluation des coefficients de transfert thermique par convection naturelle. L'estimation des flux externes sortants de la machine est etablie par rapport aux temperatures experimentales et les coefficients de convection calcules analytiquement. Cet article montre alors, en se basant sur une etude experimentale, les limites du calcul analytique des coefficients de convection.
EvaBio platform for the evaluation biometric system: Application to the optimization of the enrollment process for fingerprints devices

Nowadays, when someone wants to make a payment with a smartcard, the user has to enter a pin code to be identified. Only biometrics is able to authenticate a user; yet biometric information is sensitive. To ensure the security and privacy of biometric data, OCC (On-Card-Comparison) has been proposed. This approach consists in storing biometric data in a secure zone on a smartcard and computing the verification decision in a Secure Element (SE). The purpose of this paper is to propose an evaluation platform for testing biometric systems such as the analysis of performance and security on biometric OCC. Based on two examples, we illustrate its different uses in an operational context. The first example focus on the “Quality module” which allows to choose the enrollment by considering the fingerprint quality with one proposed metric. The second one addresses the minutiae reduction of the fingerprint template when the number of minutiae is higher than expected by the OCC.
Single-Case Experimental Designs to Evaluate Novel Technology-Based Health Interventions

Technology-based interventions to promote health are expanding rapidly. Assessing the preliminary efficacy of these interventions can be achieved by employing single-case experiments (sometimes referred to as n-of-1 studies). Although single-case experiments are often misunderstood, they offer excellent solutions to address the challenges associated with testing new technology-based interventions. This paper provides an introduction to single-case techniques and highlights advances in developing and evaluating single-case experiments, which help ensure that treatment outcomes are reliable, replicable, and generalizable. These advances include quality control standards, heuristics to guide visual analysis of time-series data, effect size calculations, and statistical analyses. They also include experimental designs to isolate the active elements in a treatment package and to assess the mechanisms of behavior change. The paper concludes with a discussion of issues related to the generality of findings derived from single-case research and how generality can be established through replication and through analysis of behavioral mechanisms.
Performance Evaluation of WMN-GA System in Node Placement in WMNs for Different Distributions of Mesh Clients and Different Selection and Mutation Operators

Admir BAROLLI, Shinji SAKAMOTO, Tetsuya ODA, Evjola SPAHO, Makoto IKEDA, Leonard BAROLLI Logos University, Rr. Dritan Hoxha, Tirana, Albania Graduate School of Engineering, Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT) 3-30-1 Wajiro-Higashi, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka 811-0295, Japan Department of Electronics and Telecommunication, Polytechnic University of Tirana Mother Tereza Square, Nr. 4, Tirana, Albania Department of Information and Communication Engineering Fukuoka Institute of Technology (FIT) 3-30-1 Wajiro-Higashi, Higashi-Ku, Fukuoka 811-0295, Japan e-mail: admir.barolli@gmail.com, shinji.t. sakamoto@gmail.com, oda.tetsuya. fit@gmail.com, evjolaspaho@hotmail.com, makoto.ikd@acm.org, barolli@fit.ac. jp
A 60-GHz rectenna for monolithic wireless sensor tags

This paper presents the design of a 60-GHz rectenna with an on-chip antenna and rectifier in 65nm CMOS technology. The rectenna is often the bottleneck in realizing a fully-integrated monolithic wireless sensor tag. In this paper, problems of the mm-wave rectifier are discussed, and the self-threshold voltage modulation method is proposed for better sensitivity and efficiency. Based on this discussion, the design of a 60 GHz rectenna is provided. The designed on-chip antenna has 2 dBi gain at 60 GHz. The designed rectifier reaches 4.4% efficiency with 7 dBm input power with a 1.5 kΩ load in simulation.
Developing a Common Language for Tumor Response to Immunotherapy: Immune-Related Response Criteria Using Unidimensional Measurements

Purpose: Immune-related response criteria (irRC) was developed to adequately assess tumor response to immunotherapy. The irRC are based on bidimensional measurements, as opposed to unidimensional measurements defined by Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors, which has been widely used in solid tumors. We aimed to compare response assessment by bidimensional versus unidimensional irRC in patients with advanced melanoma treated with ipilimumab. Experimental Design: Fifty-seven patients with advanced melanoma treated with ipilimumab in a phase II, expanded access trial were studied. Bidimensional tumor measurement records prospectively conducted during the trial were reviewed to generate a second set of measurements using unidimensional, longest diameter measurements. The percent changes of measurements at follow-up, best overall response, and time-to-progression (TTP) were compared between bidimensional and unidimensional irRC. Interobserver variability for bidimensional and unidimensional measurements was assessed in 25 randomly selected patients. Results: The percent changes at follow-up scans were highly concordant between the 2 criteria (Spearman r: 0.953–0.965, first to fourth follow-up). The best immune-related response was highly concordant between the 2 criteria (κw = 0.881). TTP was similar between the bidimensional and unidimensional assessments (progression-free at 6 months: 70% vs. 81%, respectively). The unidimensional measurements were more reproducible than bidimensional measurements, with the 95% limits of agreement of (−16.1%, 5.8%) versus (−31.3%, 19.7%), respectively. Conclusion: irRC using the unidimensional measurements provided highly concordant response assessment compared with the bidimensional irRC, with less measurement variability. The use of unidimensional irRC is proposed to assess response to immunotherapy in solid tumors, given its simplicity, higher reproducibility, and high concordance with the bidimensional irRC. Clin Cancer Res; 19(14); 3936–43. ©2013 AACR.
One-step Unconditionally Stable FDTD method and its numerical dispersion analysis

The proposed two-dimensional one-step unconditionally stable finite-difference time-domain algorithm (one-step US-FDTD) is an implicit numerical scheme with second-order accuracy in both time and space. The method is performed using only one procedure, but not two sub-updating procedures. We analytically and numerically verified the algorithm is also unconditionally stable and free of the constraint of the Courant stability condition. The dispersion relation is derived and the dispersion error as algorithm's time step size and wave propagation angle are investigated. It shows despite the proposed method dispersion error slightly larger than the conventional FDTD, but it is quite simple updating procedure maintaining the same accuracy to the conventional ADI-FDTD.
The Voronoi diagram of three arbitrary lines in R3

In this paper we study the Voronoi diagram of lines in R3 . The Voronoi diagram of three lines in general position was studied in [8]. In this paper we complete this work by presenting a complete characterization of the Voronoi diagram of three arbitrary lines in R3 . As in the general case, we prove that the arcs of trisectors are always monotonic in some direction and we show how to separate the connected components and to sort points along each arc of a trisector using only rational linear semi-algebraic tests. These results are important for the robust computation of the Voronoi diagram of polyhedra.
Engineered Deafness Reveals That Mouse Courtship Vocalizations Do Not Require Auditory Experience

Auditory experience during development is necessary for normal language acquisition in humans. Although songbirds, some cetaceans, and maybe bats may also be vocal learners, vocal learning has yet to be well established for a laboratory mammal. Mice are potentially an excellent model organism for studying mechanisms underlying vocal communication. Mice vocalize in different social contexts, yet whether they learn their vocalizations remains unresolved. To address this question, we compared ultrasonic courtship vocalizations emitted by chronically deaf and normal hearing adult male mice. We deafened CBA/CaJ male mice, engineered to express diphtheria toxin (DT) receptors in hair cells, by systemic injection of DT at postnatal day 2 (P2). By P9, almost all inner hair cells were absent and by P16 all inner and outer hair cells were absent in DTR mice. These mice did not show any auditory brainstem responses as adults. Wild-type littermates, also treated with DT at P2, had normal hair cells and normal auditory brainstem responses. We compared the temporal structure of vocalization bouts, the types of vocalizations, the patterns of syllables, and the acoustic features of each syllable type emitted by hearing and deaf males in the presence of a female. We found that almost all of the vocalization features we examined were similar in hearing and deaf animals. These findings indicate that mice do not need auditory experience during development to produce normal ultrasonic vocalizations in adulthood. We conclude that mouse courtship vocalizations are not acquired through auditory feedback-dependent learning.
Analyzing attack resilience of an advanced meter infrastructure reference model

Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is a key component of the concept of smart power grids. Although several functional/logical reference models of AMI exist, they are not suited for automated analysis of properties such as cyber security. This paper briefly presents a reference model of AMI that follows a tested and even commercially adopted formalism allowing automated analysis of cyber security. Finally, this paper presents an example cyber security analysis, and discusses its results.
The behavior of four neurological mutants of Drosophila.

INGLE gene changes offer an efficient and attractive way to study the genetic control of behavior. Drosophila, with its numerous technical advantages, would seem to provide a fruitful approach in working out the complexities of neurological control. The four neurological mutants discovered serendipitously and described in this report present just such an opportunity. The phenotype common to all four is a rapid shaking of the legs following etherization. Because the mutants appeared, among the progeny of four different males of the original thirty treated, they represent four independent mutational events. Subsequent study has disclosed that three separate gene loci are involved, all on the X-chromosome. This shaking phenotype has been described previously in D. melanogaster by CATSCH (1944) who localized the dominant gene at 58 on the X-chromosome and named the mutant, Shaker, because of its resemblance to the sex-linked dominant in D. funebris (LUERS 1936). Since then three other occurrences of the Shaker phenotype in D. melanogaster have been reported, ( NOVITSKI 1949; FAHMY and FAHMY 1959) all produced by a gene change at the original Shaker locus. To our knowledge, however, these stocks no longer exist nor were the studies carried beyond the description of the phenotype and the localization of the gene.
Finding feasible mold parting directions using graphics hardware

We present new programmable graphics hardware accelerated algorithms to test the castability of geometric parts and assist with part redesign. These algorithms efficiently identify and graphically display undercuts and minimum and insufficient draft angles. Their running times grow only linearly with respect to the number of facets in the solid model, making them efficient subroutines for our algorithms that test whether a tessellated CAD model can be manufactured in a two-part mold. We have developed and implemented two such algorithms to choose candidate directions to test for castability using accessibility analysis and Gauss maps. The efficiency of these algorithms lies in that they identify groups of candidate directions such that if any one direction in the group is not castable, none are, or if any one is castable, all are. We examine trade-offs between the algorithms' speed, accuracy, and whether they guarantee that a castable direction will be found for a part if one exists.
Water Quality on the Tsunami Impacted Irrigation Area of Krueng Geupu in Aceh Besar District

Abstract. The Irrigation Area of Krueng Geupu which located at Layaeun Village, Leupung Sub District, Aceh Besar District, was terribly hit by the 2004 tsunami. The water source for irrigation used to derived from Krueng Geupu (Geupu River), which could irrigate the whole irrigation area of 191.35 ha. The water quality in this irrigation area had several parameters that fulfilled the water quality standard established by the Government’s Rule No. 82 in 2001. Parameters which had been analyzed in laboratory were physical and chemical parameters. Physics parameters were temperature, total dissolved suspension (TDS), turbidity, and electrical conductivity (EC), whereas chemical parameters were ferrum (fe), hardness, pH, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Both parameters showed a significant differences during wet and dry seasons. The tsunami caused the sea water intrusion in soils or land nearby the sea. The results showed that the value of sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) was exceeding the maximum limit established by the Government’s Rule. These results indicated the irrigation water was in poor condition because it had a high level of natrium due to tsunami. The irrigation system in this area had several damages which cause the inefficiency in distributing irrigation water to paddy field. Keywords : water quality, the irrigation area, Krueng Geupu, tsunami, Sodium Adsorption Ratio (SAR)
Haloperidol in palliative care

Haloperidol is one of 20 ‘essential’ medications in palliative care. Its use is widespread in palliative care patients. The pharmacology of haloperidol is complex and the extent and severity of some of its adverse effects, particularly extrapyramidal adverse effects (EPS), may be related to the route of administration. Indications for the use of haloperidol in palliative care are nausea and vomiting and delirium. Adverse effects include EPS and QT prolongation. Sedation is not a common adverse effect of haloperidol. It is important that palliative care practitioners have a comprehensive understanding of the indications, doses, adverse effects and pharmacology of haloperidol. This review is intended to address these issues.
Complement Effectors of Inflammation in Cystic Fibrosis Lung Fluid Correlate with Clinical Measures of Disease

In cystic fibrosis (CF), lung damage is mediated by a cycle of obstruction, infection, and inflammation. Here we explored complement inflammatory effectors in CF lung fluid. In this study soluble fractions (sols) from sputum samples of 15 CF patients were assayed for complement effectors and analyzed with clinical measurements. The pro-inflammatory peptide C5a was increased 4.8-fold (P = 0.04) in CF sols compared with controls. Incubation of CF sols with P. aeruginosa or S. aureus increased C5a concentration 2.3-fold (P = 0.02). A peptide inhibitor of complement C1 (PIC1) completely blocked the increase in C5a concentration from P. aeruginosa in CF sol in vitro (P = 0.001). C5a concentration in CF sol correlated inversely with body mass index (BMI) percentile in children (r = -0.77, P = 0.04). C3a, which has anti-inflammatory effects, correlated positively with FEV1% predicted (rs = 0.63, P = 0.02). These results suggest that complement effectors may significantly impact inflammation in CF lung fluid.
Pharmacodynamic and pharmacokinetic study of chronic low-dose metronomic cyclophosphamide therapy in mice

Prolonged, frequently administered low-dose metronomic chemotherapy (LDM) is being explored (pre)clinically as a promising antiangiogenic antitumor strategy. Although appealing because of a favorable side effect profile and mostly oral dosing, LDM involves new challenges different from conventional maximum tolerated dose chemotherapy. These include possible altered pharmacokinetic characteristics due to long-term drug exposure potentially resulting in acquired resistance and increased risk of unfavorable drug interactions. We therefore compared the antitumor and antivascular effects of LDM cyclophosphamide (CPA) given to mice that had been pretreated with either LDM CPA or normal saline, obtained blood 4-hydroxy-CPA (activated CPA) concentrations using either gas chromatography/mass spectrometry or liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry in mice treated with LDM CPA, and measured hepatic and intratumoral activity of enzymes involved in the biotransformation of CPA and many other drugs [i.e., cytochrome P450 3A4 (CYP3A4) and aldehyde dehydrogenase]. Exposure of mice to LDM CPA for ≥8 weeks did not compromise subsequent activity of LDM CPA therapy, and biologically active 4-hydroxy-CPA levels were maintained during long-term LDM CPA administration. Whereas the effects on CYP3A4 were complex, aldehyde dehydrogenase activity was not affected. In summary, our findings suggest that acquired resistance to LDM CPA is unlikely accounted for by altered CPA biotransformation. In the absence of reliable pharmacodynamic surrogate markers, pharmacokinetic parameters might become helpful to individualize/optimize LDM CPA therapy. LDM CPA-associated changes of CYP3A4 activity point to a potential risk of unfavorable drug interactions when compounds that are metabolized by CYP3A4 are coadministered with LDM CPA. [Mol Cancer Ther 2007;6(8):2280–9]
Neck circumference to thyromental distance ratio: a new predictor of difficult intubation in obese patients.

BACKGROUND This study was performed to assess whether intubation is more difficult in obese patients and to assess the ability of a new index: the ratio of the neck circumference to thyromental distance (NC/TM), to predict difficult intubation in obese patients. METHODS The incidence of difficult tracheal intubation in 123 obese (BMI≥27.5 kg m(-2)) and 125 non-obese patients was compared. Difficult intubation was determined using the intubation difficulty scale (IDS≥5). The NC/TM ratio was calculated and its ability to predict difficult intubation in obese patients was compared with that of established predictors including high BMI, the Mallampati score, the Wilson score, NC, width of mouth opening, sternomental distance, TM, and a previous history of difficult intubation. RESULTS Difficult intubation was more frequent in obese patients than in non-obese patients (13.8% vs 4.8%; P=0.016). Multivariate analysis revealed that the Mallampati score, the Wilson score, and NC/TM independently predicted difficult intubation in obese patients. Among these three indices, NC/TM showed the highest sensitivity and a negative predictive value, and largest area under the curve on an ROC curve. CONCLUSIONS Difficult intubation was more common in obese patients and the NC/TM was a better method for predicting difficult intubation than other established indices.