Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combining Flow and Mass Cytometry in the Search for Biomarkers in Chronic Graft-versus-Host Disease

Chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD) is a debilitating complication arising in around half of all patients treated with an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Even though treatment of severe cGVHD has improved during recent years, it remains one of the main causes of morbidity and mortality in affected patients. Biomarkers in blood that could aid in the diagnosis and classification of cGVHD severity are needed for the development of novel treatment strategies that can alleviate symptoms and reduce the need for painful and sometimes complicated tissue biopsies. Methods that comprehensively profile complex biological systems such as the immune system can reveal unanticipated markers when used with the appropriate methods of data analysis. Here, we used mass cytometry, flow cytometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and multiplex assays to systematically profile immune cell populations in 68 patients with varying grades of cGVHD. We identified multiple subpopulations across T, B, and NK-cell lineages that distinguished patients with cGVHD from those without cGVHD and which were associated in varying ways with severity of cGVHD. Specifically, initial flow cytometry demonstrated that patients with more severe cGVHD had lower mucosal-associated T cell frequencies, with a concomitant higher level of CD38 expression on T cells. Mass cytometry could identify unique subpopulations specific for cGVHD severity albeit with some seemingly conflicting results. For instance, patients with severe cGVHD had an increased frequency of activated B cells compared to patients with moderate cGVHD while activated B cells were found at a reduced frequency in patients with mild cGVHD compared to patients without cGVHD. Moreover, results indicate it may be possible to validate mass cytometry results with clinically viable, smaller flow cytometry panels. Finally, no differences in levels of blood soluble markers could be identified, with the exception for the semi-soluble combined marker B-cell activating factor/B cell ratio, which was increased in patients with mild cGVHD compared to patients without cGVHD. These findings suggest that interdependencies between such perturbed subpopulations of cells play a role in cGVHD pathogenesis and can serve as future diagnostic and therapeutic targets.
Efficient Real-Time Multicast Video Streaming Using Network Processors

 Streaming Real-time video to multiple heterogeneous clients is largely constrained by the available bandwidth. We propose an efficient method to solve the problem of real-time video streaming over heterogeneous networks to heterogeneous clients by using network processors. We use multicast transmission to save a large portion of the available bandwidth. We perform rate shaping by selective frame reject to adapt the system to the current state of the network by means of a feedback control mechanism. We use hierarchical encoding schemes to facilitate easy adaptation of the video content at the routers to suit the display capabilities of the various clients. The solution also fits seamlessly into the existing Internet architecture. The multicast routers alone keep track of vital information about the network traffic levels and clients’ display capabilities. We used a Network processor (IXP 2400) to implement the solution effectively due to its inherent support for network processing tasks, flexibility, speed, and parallelism, all of which is needed for efficiently solving the problem on hand.
Lyme disease--a new disease in southern Africa?

Lyme disease is a recently-described zoonotic disease occurring widely in the U.S.A. , Europe and Asia. The causative organism, Borrelia burgdorferi, is transmitted predominantly by ticks of the genus Ixodes and infects a wide host range. The infection in humans causes the human disease syndrome erythema chronicum migrans resulting in arthritis, neurological symptoms and/or cardiac abnormalities. Similar clinical signs have been described in domestic animals. The status of Lyme disease in southern Africa is presently unknown but preliminary evidence indicates that the disease may occur in humans in the Republic of South Africa. The abundance of hosts and tick vectors would favour the establishment of the infection in Africa.
Design and implementation of multi-dimensional flexible antena-like hair motivated by ‘Aho-Hair’ in Japanese anime cartoons: Internal state expressions beyond design limitations

Recent research in psychology argue the importance of “context” in emotion perception. According to these recent studies, facial expressions do not possess discrete emotional meanings; rather the meaning depends on the social situation of how and when the expressions are used. These research results imply that the emotion expressivity depends on the appropriate combination of context and expression, and not the distinctiveness of the expressions themselves. Therefore, it is inferable that relying on facial expressions may not be essential. Instead, when appropriate pairs of context and expression are applied, emotional internal states perhaps emerge. This paper first discusses how facial expressions of robots limit their head design, and can be hardware costly. Then, the paper proposes a way of expressing context-based emotions as an alternative to facial expressions. The paper introduces the mechanical structure for applying a specific non-facial contextual expression. The expression was originated from Japanese animation, and the mechanism was applied to a real desktop size humanoid robot. Finally, an experiment on whether the contextual expression is capable of linking humanoid motions and its emotional internal states was conducted under a sound-context condition. Although the results are limited in cultural aspects, this paper presents the possibilities of future robotic interface for emotion-expressive and interactive humanoid robots.
Syntactic patterns in scientific sublanguages: A study of four disciplines

A sample of 2032 sentences from the literature of four subject disciplines was analyzed to uncover regularities and significant differences among them in their use of various syntactic features. Among those features analyzed, which are necessary parts of a well formed sentence, it was found that the two disciplines representing the social sciences rarely differ significantly from each other, and the same is true of the two hard science disciplines. However, when hard and social sciences are compared, the differences are often significant. Among syntactic features which are not necessary to a sentence, the social science disciplines still show few significant differences, but the two hard science disciplines show many more significant differences. A variety of syntactic regularities is also noted.
Functions of reminiscence and mental health in later life

This study examines the extent to which various forms of reminiscence predict life satisfaction and psychiatric distress with and without control for the contribution of personality traits (n = 420). Among older adults, reminiscences to revive old problems and to fill a void of stimulation were associated with lower life satisfaction and greater psychiatric distress. Reminiscence to maintain connection with a departed person also predicted psychiatric distress. In contrast, reminiscences for death preparation and to foster conversation were linked with higher life satisfaction. Based on our proposed model of the functions of reminiscence, discussion focuses on adaptive and non-adaptive uses of reminiscence in later life.
Early sexual initiation and subsequent sex-related risks among urban minority youth: the reach for health study.

CONTEXT Since the 1980s, the age at which U.S. teenagers, especially minority youth, begin having sex has decreased. There is limited information on the relationship between early sexual initiation and subsequent risky sexual behaviors. METHODS A sample of 1,287 urban minority adolescents completed three surveys in seventh and eighth grade, and 970 completed a follow-up in 10th grade. Logistic regression was used to test the effects of timing of initiation on 10th-grade sexual behaviors and risks, adjusting for gender, ethnicity and age. RESULTS At baseline, 31% of males and 8% of females reported sexual initiation; by the 10th grade, these figures were 66% and 52%, respectively. Recent intercourse among males increased from 20% at baseline to 39% in eighth grade; 54% reported recent sex and 6% had made a partner pregnant by 10th grade. Among females, recent intercourse tripled from baseline to eighth grade (5% to 15%); 42% reported recent sex and 12% had been pregnant by grade 10. Early initiators had an increased likelihood of having had multiple sex partners, been involved in a pregnancy, forced a partner to have sex, had frequent intercourse and had sex while drunk or high. There were significant gender differences for all outcomes except frequency of intercourse and being drunk or high during sex. CONCLUSIONS Minority adolescents who initiate sexual activity early engage in behaviors that place them at high risk for negative health outcomes. It is important to involve parents and schools in prevention efforts that address sexual initiation in early adolescence and that target youth who continue to place themselves and their partners at risk.
[Pharmacoeconomic aspects of macitentan in the therapy of pulmonary arterial hypertension].

AIM To provide a pharmacoeconomic estimate of macitentan versus bosentan in therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). SUBJECT AND METHODS An analysis was carried out on the basis of a social perspective for patients, whose mean age was 50 years. A budget impact analysis was performed without discounting; with the time horizon of the study being 5 years. Assessing the cost- effectiveness of endothelin receptor antagonists used a Markov model based on the meta-analysis of clinical trials. The cost of bosentan was calculated from the 2016 registered prices with VAT. That of macitentan was estimated from the expected price of 170,000 rubles per 10-mg dose pack #28 if the drug is included in the List of Essential Medicines with VAT. The cost of sildenafil and iloprost was consistent with the January-to-November 2016 auctio. RESULTS At cost-effectiveness assessment costs and outcomes were both discounted at an annual rate of 3,5%. RESULTS After 5 years of therapy with macitentan in patients with baseline Functional Class (FC) II PAH, the proportion of patients with FC I-II was shown to be 2.6% more than that during therapy with bosentan (20.1 and 17.5%, respectively), and that of the died patients was 1.5% lower (69.5 and 71%, respectively). In baseline FC III PAH following 5 years, the proportion of patients with FC III PAH on initial macitentan treatment was 1% more than that on bosentan therapy (8.1 and 7.1%, respectively), and that of the died patients was 0.5% lower (87.2, and 87.7%, respectively). The cost-effectiveness analysis shows that therapy with macitentan versus bosentan not only causes some increase in life expectancy in terms of quality of life (by 0.414 and 0.230 QALYs in FC II and III PAH, respectively), but also results in a small cost decrease in FC II and III PAH (by 11,000 and 16,000 rubles per patient, respectively). Thus, macitentan is a dominant alternative versus bosentan. The budget impact analysis indicates that when bosentan is replaced with macitentan, the reduction in health care costs in the Russian Federation will amount to 1.9 million rubles over 5 years, and in all budgetary costs will be 14.7 million rubles. CONCLUSION Treatment with macitentan in patients with FC II-III PAH is more cost-effective than that with bosentan and does not require an increase in budget costs.
Lighting a path to pigmentation: mechanisms of MITF induction by UV

While sunlight is important for life, ultraviolet radiation (UVR) can have harmful and mutagenic effects. This duality is particularly relevant to human skin, in which UVR both participates in evolutionarily important photochemical reactions yet may act as a potential carcinogen. UVR can upregulate production of melanin, the “tanning response” that serves a photoprotective function. This genetic program is centrally tuned by the transcription factor MITF, a master regulator of melanogenesis and melanocyte function. In this review, we discuss the myriad consequences of UV exposure for skin homeostasis, highlighting the diverse pathways activated by this ultraviolet radiation.
Peritoneal Submesothelial Stromal Cells Support Hematopoiesis and Differentiate into Osteogenic and Adipogenic Cell Lineages

The peritoneum is a thin membrane that covers most of the abdominal organs, composed of a monolayer of mesothelial cells and subjacent submesothelial loose connective tissue. Cells from the peritoneal wall are correlated with peritoneal fibrosis and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition. However, the distinct involvement of mesothelial or submesothelial cells in such phenomena is still not clear. Here, we propose a new strategy to obtain stromal cells from anterior peritoneal wall explant cultures. These cells migrated from peritoneal tissues and proliferated in vitro for 4 weeks as adherent fibroblast-like cells. Optical and electronic microscopy analyses of the fragments revealed a significant submesothelial disorganization. The obtained cells were characterized as cytokeratin- vimentin+ laminin+ α-smooth muscle actin+, suggesting a connective tissue origin. Moreover, at the third passage, these stromal cells were CD90+CD73+CD29+Flk-1+CD45-, a phenotype normally attributed to cells of mesenchymal origin. These cells were able to support hematopoiesis, expressing genes involved in myelopoiesis (SCF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-7 and CXCL-12), and differentiated into osteogenic and adipogenic cell lineages. The methodology demonstrated in this work can be considered an excellent experimental model to understand the physiology of the peritoneal wall in healthy and pathological processes. Moreover, this work shows for the first time that submesothelial stromal cells have properties similar to those of mesenchymal cells from other origins.
Distribution of prospective glutamatergic, glycinergic, and GABAergic neurons in embryonic and larval zebrafish

Zebrafish are an excellent model for studies of the functional organization of neuronal circuits, but little is known regarding the transmitter phenotypes of the neurons in their nervous system. We examined the distribution in spinal cord and hindbrain of neurons expressing markers of transmitter phenotype, including the vesicular glutamate transporter (VGLUT) genes for glutamatergic neurons, the neuronal glycine transporter (GLYT2) for glycinergic neurons, and glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65/67) for GABAergic neurons. All three markers were expressed in a large domain in the dorsal two‐thirds of spinal cord, with additional, more ventral expression domains for VGLUT2 and GAD/GABA. In the large dorsal domain, dual in situ staining showed that GLYT2‐positive cells were intermingled with VGLUT2 cells, with no dual‐stained neurons. Many of the neurons in the dorsal expression domain that were positive for GABA markers at embryonic stages were also positive for GLYT2, suggesting that the cells might use both GABA and glycine, at least early in their development. The intermingling of neurons expressing inhibitory and excitatory markers in spinal cord contrasted markedly with the organization in hindbrain, where neurons expressing a particular marker were clustered together to form stripes that were visible running from rostral to caudal in horizontal sections and from dorsomedial to ventrolateral in cross sections. Dual labeling showed that the stripes of neurons labeled with one transmitter marker alternated with stripes of cells labeled for the other transmitter phenotypes. The differences in the distribution of excitatory and inhibitory neurons in spinal cord versus hindbrain may be tied to differences in their patterns of development and functional organization. J. Comp. Neurol. 480:1–18, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Identification of Supply Models of Manufacturer and Retailer Oligopoly Pricing

Economics Letters 90 (2006) 132 – 140 www.elsevier. com/locate/econbase Identification of supply models of retailer and manufacturer oligopoly pricing B Sofia Villas-Boas a, T , Rebecca Hellerstein b a University of California at Berkeley, 226 Giannini Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-3310 California, USA b Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY, USA Received 19 October 2004; received in revised form 22 May 2005; accepted 12 July 2005 Available online 26 September 2005 Abstract We present sufficient conditions for data on an industry’s product prices, quantities, and input prices to identify retailers’ and manufacturers’ vertical supply model. Identification requires nonlinear demand for homogeneous products and multi-product firms with non-constant markups for differentiated products. D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Identification; Oligopoly; Vertical relationships JEL classification: L13; L22 1. Introduction A number of recent studies have introduced retailers into structural econometric models of sequential vertical-pricing games (Mortimer, 2004; Sudhir, 2001; Villas-Boas and Zhao, 2005; Villas-Boas, 2005), relaxing the conventional assumption that manufacturers set prices and that retailers act as neutral pass-through intermediaries (Bresnahan, 1982; Nevo, 1998). In traditional structural econometric models, the model of firms’ pricing behavior is identified via the estimation B The views in this note are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York or of the Federal Reserve System. T Corresponding author. Tel. : +1 510 643 6359; fax: +1 510 643 8911. E-mail address: sberto@are.berkeley. edu (S. Villas-Boas). 0165-1765/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.econlet. 2005.07. 017
40 Gb/s Multifunction Optical Format Conversion Module With Wavelength Multicast Capability Using Nondegenerate Four-Wave Mixing in a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

A 40 Gb/s multifunction optical format conversion module based on nondegenerate four-wave mixing (ND-FWM) arising in a single semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is proposed and demonstrated. It has the ability to achieve NRZ-OOK/DPSK/DQPSK to CSRZ-OOK/DPSK/DQPSK, RZ-OOK/DPSK/DQPSK to CSRZ-OOK/DPSK/DQPSK, and CSRZ-OOK/DPSK/DQPSK to RZ-OOK/DPSK/DQPSK format conversions. A comprehensive dynamic model to investigate twelve FWM-related waves in SOA is presented. Using this model, the proposed module with multiple format conversions is numerically investigated. We find that the SOA based scheme can be used for high-speed all-optical multifunction format conversion, because one of the FWM participators also serves as an assist light to accelerate SOA gain recovery. Meanwhile three identical converted signals with different wavelengths can be obtained simultaneously for all-optical wavelength multicast application. Finally, the bit-error-rate (BER) measurements of some 10 Gb/s operations are demonstrated in order to further verify the proposed multifunction format conversion module. The power penalty is measured to be less than 1 dB at the BER level of 10-9.
The promotory effect of growth hormone on the developmental competence of in vitro matured bovine oocytes is due to improved cytoplasmic maturation

In a previous study we have shown that the addition of growth hormone (GH) during in vitro maturation accelerates nuclear maturation, induces cumulus expansion, and promotes subsequent cleavage and embryonic development. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the promotory effect of GH on subsequent cleavage and blastocyst formation is due to an improved fertilization and whether this effect is caused by an improved cytoplasmic maturation of the oocyte. Therefore, bovine cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) were cultured for 22 hours in M199 supplemented with 100 ng/ml bovine GH (NIH‐GH‐B18). Subsequently the COCs were fertilized in vitro. Cultures without GH served as controls. To verify whether the promoted fertilization is caused by the effect of GH on cumulus expansion or oocyte maturation, cumulus cells were removed from the oocytes after in vitro maturation (IVM) and denuded MII oocytes were selected and fertilized in vitro. Both IVM and in vitro fertilization (IVF) were performed at 39°C in a humidified atmosphere with 5% CO2 in air. At 18 hours after the onset of fertilization, the nuclear stage of the oocytes was assessed using 4,6‐diamino‐2‐phenylindole (DAPI) staining. Oocytes with either an metaphase I (MI) or MII nuclear stage and without penetrated sperm head were considered unfertilized; oocytes with two pronuclei, zygotes, and cleaved embryos were considered normally fertilized; and oocytes with more than two pronuclei were considered polyspermic. To evaluate cytoplasmic maturation, the distribution of cortical granules 22 hours after the onset of IVM, and sperm aster formation 8 hours after the onset of fertilization were assessed. In addition, to assess the sperm‐binding capacity, COCs were fertilized in vitro, and 1 hour after the onset of fertilization the number of spermatozoa bound to the oocytes was counted. The addition of GH during IVM significantly (P < 0.001) enhanced the proportion of normal fertilized oocytes. Removal of the cumulus cells prior to fertilization and selection of the MII oocytes did not eliminate the positive effect of GH on fertilization. No effect of GH on the sperm‐binding capacity of the oocyte was observed. In addition, GH supplementation during IVM significantly (P < 0.001) enhanced the migration of cortical granules and sperm aster formation. It can be concluded that the promotory effect of GH on the developmental competence of the oocyte is due to a higher fertilization rate as a consequence of an improved cytoplasmic maturation. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 49:444–453, 1998. © 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Does the Acquisition System of Property Taxation Increase Neighborhood Social Capital?

Acquisition systems of property taxation can lead individuals who just bought a home to pay five times more property taxes than neighbors who own comparable homes (Nordlinger v. Hahn). These large inequities seem to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled such inequities constitutional, because they serve the legitimate state interest of encouraging neighborhood preservation. In this paper we examine whether acquisition systems of property taxation increase neighborhood specific social capital investments; specifically, whether they increase the likelihood that parents put their elementary school children in public school and carpool. We find no evidence in support of this hypothesis. On the contrary, we find that households that benefit from lower taxes are less likely to send their children to public elementary schools and to carpool.
High ecological validity and accurate stimulus control in VR-based psychological experiments

Virtual Reality (VR) has become a useful tool in psychological therapy, rehabilitation, and basic research. It provides the therapist or scientist with high ecological validity and complete control over multimodal stimuli and the virtual environment. To build lifelike virtual environments, commercial software or game engines are often used. On the other hand, many psychological experiments require an accurate timing of presented stimuli and user reactions, which is not easily obtained by modern hard- and software systems. In this work, we present a VR software for psychological experiments which combines modern computer graphics and Virtual Reality techniques with accurate stimulus and event control. We describe the system features and possibilities for VRbased experiment generation and propose approaches for precise stimulus and event timing. These approaches are evaluated for achievable accuracy in stimulus control and performance monitoring within typical virtual environments.