Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Post‐transplantation lymphoproliferative disease in pediatric kidney transplant recipients—early success does not mean the battle is over!

Post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disease (PTLD) is one of the most serious complications of kidney transplant (KT) and entails the vast majority (86%) of malignancies of pediatric KT recipients. The estimated 5-year incidence in this population is 1–2% [1–3]. PTLD results from the necessary post-transplantation immunosuppression (IS) protocol that targets prevention of graft rejection but impairs defense against certain infectious triggers, specifically EBV, for which pediatric KT recipients are mostly immunologically na€ıve [2–4]. Significantly malignancy is responsible for 11.5–15% of all mortality cases in this young population [1,2,4,5]. Kanzelmeyer et al. [6] described their center’s experience with pediatric KT recipients followed for 3 years after PTLD diagnosis. Their goal was to evaluate their structured PTLD protocol: Ped-PTLD-2005, which was previously described [2]. In the current report, PTLD therapy, consisted mainly of CNI withdrawal (in 10/12 patients), mTOR introduction (in 9/12) and rituximab administration (9/12). Chemotherapy was administered to only two of 12 patients of their cohort: one with non-EBV-PTLD and another with Hodgkin lymphoma. The main outcomes examined were PTLD course and graft survival during at least 3 years follow-up. The results reported are remarkable, with 100% patient survival. This exceeds the considerably lower survival rates of 64–83% [2–5,7], and even the recently reported 87.4% survival rate after PTLD diagnosis [8]. The high rate of patient survival in Kanzelmeyer et al.’s cohort [6] is even more noteworthy in light of the diagnosis of the high grade monomorphic PTLD, which was detected in more than half of their patients (7/12). This PTLD type is less frequently reported in pediatric patients and has a worse prognosis [4,7,9]. However, the EBV-driven PTLD type (found in 11/12 of the presented cohort) and the early onset of malignancy (first post-transplantation year in 7/12) are known to associate with better prognosis [3,4,10], as is the timely introduction of Rituximab. The latter likely has an important role in modulation of this mainly B-cell dysregulation-induced tumor [2–4]. Also of note is the high rate of PTLD remission achieved with the adopted protocol in Kanzelmeyer et al.’s cohort. The high rate of graft preservation observed in 10 of the 12 patients in the described cohort, during at least 3 years post-PTLD diagnosis and treatment [6], is also of note. The rate was actually 100%, as during this period, the three graft losses were due to the basal disease: two aHUS at a time when eculizumab was not available and
Women’s preferences for alternative financial incentive schemes for breastfeeding: A discrete choice experiment

Background Increasing breastfeeding rates have been associated with reductions in disease in babies and mothers as well as in related costs. ‘Nourishing Start for Health (NoSH)’, a financial incentive scheme has been proposed as a potentially effective way to increase both the number of mothers breastfeeding and duration of breastfeeding. Aims To establish women’s relative preferences for different aspects of a financial incentive scheme for breastfeeding and to identify importance of scheme characteristics on probability on participation in an incentive scheme. Methods A discrete choice experiment (DCE) obtained information on alternative specifications of the NoSH scheme designed to promote continued breastfeeding duration until at least 6 weeks after birth. Four attributes framed alternative scheme designs: value of the incentive; minimum breastfeeding duration required to receive incentive; method of verifying breastfeeding; type of incentive. Three versions of the DCE questionnaire, each containing 8 different choice sets, provided 24 choice sets for analysis. The questionnaire was mailed to 2,531 women in the South Yorkshire Cohort (SYC) aged 16–45 years in IMD quintiles 3–5. The analytic approach considered conditional and mixed effects logistic models to account for preference heterogeneity that may be associated with a variation in effects mediated by respondents’ characteristics. Results 564 women completed the questionnaire and a response rate of 22% was achieved. Most of the included attributes were found to affect utility and therefore the probability to participate in the incentive scheme. Higher rewards were preferred, although the type of incentive significantly affected women’s preferences on average. We found evidence for preference heterogeneity based on individual characteristics that mediated preferences for an incentive scheme.Conclusions Although participants’ opinion in our sample was mixed, financial incentives for breastfeeding may be an acceptable and effective instrument to change behaviour. However, individual characteristics could mediate the effect and should therefore be considered when developing and targeting future interventions.
Potent Antiedematous and Protective Effects of Ciprofloxacin in Pulmonary Ricinosis

ABSTRACT The plant toxin ricin is considered a biological threat agent of concern and is most toxic when inhaled. Pulmonary exposure to a lethal dose of ricin can be redressed by treatment with antiricin antibodies; however, late antitoxin intervention is of limited efficacy. This limitation is associated with overt lung damage, clinically manifested as severe pulmonary inflammation, which develops over time. Increased evidence indicates that ciprofloxacin, a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent, possesses immunomodulatory properties. Here we demonstrate that while antiricin antibody administration at late hours after intranasal exposure to ricin confers limited protection to mice, highly efficient protection can be achieved by adding ciprofloxacin to the antibody treatment. We further demonstrate that parameters associated with lung injury, in particular, pulmonary proinflammatory cytokine production, neutrophil migration, and edema, are sharply reduced in ricin-intoxicated mice that were treated with ciprofloxacin. The presented data highlight the potential clinical application of ciprofloxacin as a beneficial immunomodulatory agent in the course of ricin intoxication.
aPKC is a key polarity determinant in coordinating the function of three distinct cell polarities during collective migration

ABSTRACT Apical-basal polarity is a hallmark of epithelia and needs to be remodeled when epithelial cells undergo morphogenetic cell movements. Here, we analyze border cells in the Drosophila ovary to address how apical-basal polarity is remodeled and turned into front-back and inside-outside as well as apical-basal polarities, during collective migration. We find that the Crumbs (Crb) complex is required for the generation of the three distinct but interconnected cell polarities of border cells. Specifically, the Crb complex, together with the Par complex and the endocytic recycling machinery, ensures the strict distribution of two distinct populations of aPKC at the inside apical junction and near the outside lateral membrane. Interestingly, aPKC distributed near the outside lateral membrane interacts with Sif and promotes Rac-induced protrusions, whereas alteration of the aPKC distribution pattern changes the pattern of protrusion formation, leading to disruption of all three polarities. Therefore, we demonstrate that aPKC, spatially controlled by the Crb complex, is a key polarity molecule coordinating the generation of three distinct but interconnected cell polarities during collective migration. Summary: The Crb complex, Par complex and the endocytic recycling machinery ensure a polarized distribution of aPKC required for actin-based protrusion formation during remodeling of border cell polarity in the Drosophila ovary.
Chicken embryo lethality assay for determining the lethal dose and virulence of Enterococcus faecalis

ABSTRACT Enterococcus faecalis is the major pathogen found in field cases of amyloid arthropathy in chickens. Given the need for a better understanding of the virulence mechanisms of the causative strains, the embryo lethality assay (ELA) is proposed in the present study as a model to evaluate the virulence of E. faecalis strains, specifically the pathogenic avian strain K923/96, which was previously related with amyloid arthropathy. Hence, 0.2 ml of five doses of the cited strain (from 2.5 to 2500 colony-forming units (CFU) per ml) were inoculated into the allantoic cavity of 10-day-old embryos. The embryo mortality rate (EMR) was determined by daily candling of the eggs over a period of seven days and based on this information the median lethal dose (LD50) was calculated. The ELA was repeated four times on a sample of 3443 eggs. The infectious dose showed a significant effect on the EMR. The EMR with the doses of 2.5, 5, 25, 250 and 2500 CFU/ml was 43%, 45%, 63%, 90% and 93%, respectively. The estimated dose at LD50 was 6.6 CFU/ml. As expected, the higher the infectious dose, the greater the EMR and the lower the embryo survival time. The highest EMR was recorded after three and four days post-inoculation in all doses. In conclusion, these results can be used as a basis for further researches on the E. faecalis virulence. In order to corroborate its model capacity to predict the virulence of this bacterium, more ELAs with different E. faecalis strains are required.
Molluscum Contagiosum Virus Transcriptome in Abortively Infected Cultured Cells and a Human Skin Lesion

ABSTRACT Molluscum contagiosum virus (MOCV), the only circulating human-specific poxvirus, has a worldwide distribution and causes benign skin lesions that may persist for months in young children and severe infections in immunosuppressed adults. Studies of MOCV are restricted by the lack of an efficient animal model or a cell culture replication system. We used next-generation sequencing to analyze and compare polyadenylated RNAs from abortive MOCV infections of several cell lines and a human skin lesion. Viral RNAs were detected for 14 days after MOCV infection of cultured cells; however, there was little change in the RNA species during this time and a similar pattern occurred in the presence of an inhibitor of protein synthesis, indicating a block preventing postreplicative gene expression. Moreover, a considerable number of MOCV RNAs mapped to homologs of orthopoxvirus early genes, but few did so to homologs of intermediate or late genes. The RNAs made during in vitro infections represent a subset of RNAs detected in human skin lesions which mapped to homologs of numerous postreplicative as well as early orthopoxvirus genes. Transfection experiments using fluorescent protein and luciferase reporters demonstrated that vaccinia virus recognized MOCV intermediate and late promoters, indicating similar gene regulation. The specific recognition of the intermediate promoter in MOCV-infected cells provided evidence for the synthesis of intermediate transcription factors, which are products of early genes, but not for late transcription factors. Transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) and reporter gene assays may be useful for testing engineered cell lines and conditions that ultimately could provide an in vitro replication system. IMPORTANCE The inability to propagate molluscum contagiosum virus, which causes benign skin lesions in young children and more extensive infections in immunosuppressed adults, has constrained our understanding of the biology of this human-specific virus. In the present study, we characterized the RNAs synthesized in abortively infected cultured cells and a human skin lesion by next-generation sequencing. These studies provided an initial transcription map of the MOCV genome, suggested temporal regulation of gene expression, and indicated that the in vitro replication block occurs prior to intermediate and late gene expression. RNA-seq and reporter assays, as described here, may help to further evaluate MOCV gene expression and define conditions that could enable MOCV replication in vitro.
Coexisting antistatic and water-repellent properties of polyester fabric

It is desirable for textiles to prevent static charges and to repel water. This work used nano-silver antistatic finish and fluorine water-repellent finish in order to determine whether it is possible for antistatic and water-repellent properties to coexist on a single sample of polyester fabric. The antistatic and water-repellent fabric finishes were each tested singly first; both finishes were combined in each of three treatments, namely the one-bath, two-bath A, and two-bath B treatments. The antistatic and the water-repellent properties of the finished fabrics were evaluated by FTTS—FA—009 and AATCC 22 spray rating standards. The nano-silver and fluorochemical finishes individually showed high performance properties on polyester fabric. It was found that the order of the finishing processes has a significant effect on the antistatic and water-repellent properties of polyester fabric. The two-bath B process treated polyester fabric, first with 5 wt% nano-silver antistat and then with 3 wt% fluorine water-repellent. After 10 washings, the fabric finished with the two-bath B process was certified to FTTS—FA—009 A grade for its antistatic properties; it was certified to AATCC 22 spray rating 90 grade for its water-repellent qualities.
Enhanced Chemical Reactivity of Pristine Graphene Interacting Strongly with a Substrate: Chemisorbed Carbon Monoxide on Graphene/Nickel(1 1 1)

Graphene is usually considered a chemically inert material. Theoretical studies of CO adsorption on free‐standing graphene predict quite low adsorption energies (<0.1 eV). However, we show here by vibrational spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy that the nondissociative chemisorption of CO occurs at cold, pristine graphene grown on Ni(1 1 1). The CO adlayer remains stable up to 125 K, although some coverage survives flashes to 225 K. This unexpected result is explained qualitatively by the modification of the density of states close to the Fermi energy induced by the relatively strong graphene–substrate interaction. The value of the adsorption energy allows us to estimate an equilibrium coverage of the order of 0.1 monolayers at 10 mbar pressure, which thus paves the way for the use of graphene as a catalytically active support under realistic conditions.
Iron: Isolating Network-based CPU in Container Environments

Containers are quickly increasing in popularity as the mechanism to deploy computation in the cloud. In order to provide consistent and reliable performance, cloud providers must ensure containers cannot adversely interfere with one another. Because containers share the same underlying OS, it is more challenging to provide isolation in a container-based framework than a traditional VMbased framework. And while many schemes can isolate CPU, memory, disk, or network bandwidth in multi-tenant environments, less attention has been paid to how the time spent processing network traffic affects isolation on the host server. This paper shows computational overhead associated with the network stack can break isolation in container-based environments. Specifically, a container with heavy network traffic can decrease the computation available to other containers sharing the same server. We propose a scheme, called Iron, that accounts for the time spent in the networking stack on behalf of a container and ensures this processing cannot adversely impact colocated containers through novel enforcement mechanisms. Our results show Iron effectively provides isolation under realistic and adversarial conditions, limiting interferencebased slowdowns as high as 6× to less than 5%.
Prevalence and predictors of pulmonary hypertension in elderly patients with isolated diastolic heart failure.

BACKGROUND Despite the growing recognition that pulmonary hypertension can develop in diastolic heart failure; its clinical significance remains poorly defined. AIM We sought to explore the prevalence and predictors of pulmonary hypertension in elderly patients with isolated diastolic heart failure. METHODS We enrolled 100 consecutive elderly patients with isolated diastolic heart failure. All patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography to measure the pulmonary artery systolic pressure, diastolic function indices (mitral E peak deceleration time, isovolumetric relaxation time, early mitral annular diastolic velocity), left atrial diameter and left ventricular mass index. Pulmonary hypertension was defined as pulmonary artery systolic pressure > or = 37 mm Hg. We classified patients into two groups: one with diastolic heart failure and concomitant pulmonary hypertension, and one with diastolic heart failure but without concomitant pulmonary hypertension. RESULTS The mean age of the whole series was 65.4 + or - 5.4 years, 49 (49%) being female. Patients with pulmonary hypertension (20% of the whole series) were more often females, hypertensive, more likely to have atrial fibrillation, pulmonary congestion symptoms, larger left atrial diameter, lower early mitral annular diastolic velocity, lower left ventricular ejection fraction, and more likely to have mitral regurgitation (p < 0.05 for all). Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified female gender, atrial fibrillation, and early mitral annular diastolic velocity (e') as the independent predictors of the presence of pulmonary hypertension. CONCLUSIONS Pulmonary hypertension is fairly prevalent in elderly patients with diastolic heart failure. Female gender, atrial fibrillation, and early mitral annular diastolic velocity (e') were the independent predictors of the presence of pulmonary hypertension in this patient group.
Household exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood acute leukaemia

Objectives: To investigate the relation between childhood acute leukaemia and household exposure to pesticides. Methods: The study included 280 incident cases of acute leukaemia and 288 controls frequency matched on gender, age, hospital, and ethnic origin. The data were obtained from standardised face to face interviews of the mothers with detailed questions on parental occupational history, home and garden insecticide use, and insecticidal treatment of pediculosis. Odds ratios were estimated using unconditional regression models including the stratification variables parental socioeconomic status and housing characteristics. Results: Acute leukaemia was observed to be significantly associated with maternal home insecticide use during pregnancy (OR = 1.8, 95% CI 1.2 to 2.8) and during childhood (OR = 1.7, 95% CI 1.1 to 2.4), with garden insecticide use (OR = 2.4, 95% CI 1.3 to 4.3), and fungicide use (OR = 2.5, 95% CI 1.0 to 6.2) during childhood. Insecticidal shampoo treatment of pediculosis was also associated with childhood acute leukaemia (OR = 1.9, 95% CI 1.2 to 3.3). Conclusion: The results reported herein support the hypothesis that various types of insecticide exposure may be a risk factor for childhood acute leukaemia. The observed association with insecticidal shampoo treatment of pediculosis, which has never been investigated before, requires further study.
Neurological soft signs significantly differentiate schizophrenia patients from healthy controls

Objective Neurological soft signs (NSS) are a group of minor non-localisable neurological abnormalities found more often in patients with schizophrenia. The aim of the current study was to test for the effect of gender, age, parental age, age at onset and clinical symptomatology on NSS. Material and methods The study sample included 133 patients suffering from schizophrenia according to DSM-IV-TR (77 males and 56 females; aged 33.55±11.22 years old) and 122 normal controls (66 males and 56 females; aged 32.89±9.91 years old). The assessment included the Neurological Evaluation Scale (NES), and a number of scales assessing the clinical symptoms and adverse effects especially extrapyramidal. The statistical analysis included exploratory t-test, simple linear regression analysis, analysis of covariance and the calculation of correlation coefficients. Results The results of the current study confirm that NSS are more frequent in patients with schizophrenia in comparison with normal controls (Wilks=0.622, p<0.0001), but do not support an effect of gender, age, age at onset, paternal or maternal age, education, medication status or clinical subtype of schizophrenia on NES scores. Discussion Overall these results suggest that NSS constitute an independent (from the rest of symptoms), core (present in the vast majority of patients) and trait (unrelated to age and probably to the stage of schizophrenia) symptom of schizophrenia which could be of value in the clinical assessment and research of schizophrenia. Overall these results are not in full accord with the literature, but they could serve to fill in gaps and inconsistencies observed so far.
Rollabout: a wireless design tool

Deployment of wireless LANs includes two main design issues: selection of access point locations and access point frequency assignments. Properly solving these issues normally involves a trial and error process, and can be very time consuming. The Rollabout design tool partially automates this process, making it quicker and more efficient. When pushed around on a rolling cart, the system collects data from access points and automatically creates a coverage map. With Rollabout, data collection is much faster, and a much larger set of data can be captured. Furthermore, the design tool predicts the coverage changes that result when access points are moved to different locations. It also can produce an optimal set of frequency assignments for any set of access point locations and corresponding coverage areas.
Effects of Second Phase Dispersions on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties in MgO/SiC Nanocomposites

MgO/SiC nanocomposites were investigated to understand better the effect of second phase dispersion on the mechanical properties, especially at high temperatures. The striking finding in the present system is that the fracture strength of MgO was improved significantly up to high temperatures as well as at room temperature by incorporating SiC into MgO. These significant improvements of high temperaturemechanical properties were contributed to the prohibition of plastic deformation due to the dispersion of nanometer-size second phase particles. The relationships between mechanical properties and SiC additions are discussed. The microstructure was investigated by transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy.
Sublingual spray drug delivery of ketorolac-loaded chitosan nanoparticles

Abstract Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate ketorolac (KT) systemic absolute bioavailability after sublingual (SL) administration in vivo to conscious rabbits. Furthermore, the study investigated the potential use of chitosan nanoparticles as a delivery system to enhance the systemic bioavailability of KT following SL administration. Methods: Ketorolac-loaded chitosan nanoparticles were prepared through ionotropic gelation of chitosan with tripolyphosphate anions. The KT-nanoparticles were administered SL as a spray to rabbits and KT plasma concentration at predetermined time points was compared to SL spray administration of KT in solution. The concentrations of KT in plasma were analyzed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography mass spectroscopy (UPLC/MS). Results: KT-loaded chitosan nanoparticles significantly (p < .05) enhanced systemic absorption with 97% absolute bioavailability as compared to 70% after SL administration of KT solution. Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that SL absorption of KT illustrated flip-flop kinetics with prolonged persistence in the body compared to intravenous administration. Formulation of KT as chitosan nanoparticles has increased its systemic bioavailability after SL spray administration. The new delivery system could be an attractive approach for the delivery of KT.