Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In utero sensitization in Chagas' disease leads to altered lymphocyte phenotypic patterns in the newborn cord blood mononuclear cells

Neonates are sensitized in utero to maternal circulating antigens and idiotypes that eventually cross the placental barrier. We believe that children born of mothers under long lasting antigenic stimulation, as in a chronic infection, would be affected by these maternal influences and show differences in the phenotypic repertoire of lymphocytes. To test this hyphothesis, we evaluated flow cytometry studies in cord blood mononuclear cells (CBMC) from children born of chagasic mothers without congenital disease, with special attention to T and B cells and expression of activation markers. We have also evaluated the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of these children 6 months after delivery. We show that CBMC of children born of infected mothers have high proliferative responses to antigenic stimulation, significantly lower mean percentages of CD3+ T cells, CD4+ T cells and diminished expression of the costimulatory molecule CD28 in the CD8+ T cell subset. Interestingly, this subpopulation has an increased expression of the MHC class II gene product as evidenced by the expression of HLADR. It is noteworthy that the patterns observed in CBMC T lymphocyte populations of these children closely resemble earlier findings on lymphocytic profiles of chronic chagasic adult patients and those of their mothers. We also show that, 6 months after delivery, some alterations observed at birth are reversed to levels observed in noninfected individuals.
Computational micromechanics for composites with finite boundaries

A semi-analytical approach is presented to solve general boundary value problems (BVPs) that arise in the analysis of composite materials. As an illustration, a rectangular shaped medium that contains elliptical inclusions will be considered. Permissible functions, which satisfy the homogeneous boundary conditions and the continuity conditions at the matrix-inclusion interface, are analytically derived. The eigenfunctions are subsequently derived from the permissible functions using the Galerkin method. The mechanical and physical fields (temperature or elastic deformation), with an arbitrarily given source term, can be expressed as a linear combination of the eigenfunctions. The method is favorably compared with numerical results obtained from the finite element method.
Sequence Skill Acquisition and Off-Line Learning in Normal Aging

It is well known that certain cognitive abilities decline with age. The ability to form certain new declarative memories, particularly memories for facts and events, has been widely shown to decline with advancing age. In contrast, the effects of aging on the ability to form new procedural memories such as skills are less well known, though it appears that older adults are able to acquire some new procedural skills over practice. The current study examines the effects of normal aging on procedural memory more closely by comparing the effects of aging on the encoding or acquisition stage of procedural learning versus its effects on the consolidation, or between-session stage of procedural learning. Twelve older and 14 young participants completed a sequence-learning task (the Serial Reaction Time Task) over a practice session and at a re-test session 24 hours later. Older participants actually demonstrated more sequence skill during acquisition than the young. However, older participants failed to show skill improvement at re-test as the young participants did. Age thus appears to have a differential effect upon procedural learning stages such that older adults' skill acquisition remains relatively intact, in some cases even superior, compared to that of young adults, while their skill consolidation may be poorer than that of young adults. Although the effect of normal aging on procedural consolidation remains unclear, aging may actually enhance skill acquisition on some procedural tasks.
Improvements on Model Predictive Control for a Pulp Mill Process

Abstract This work constitutes a contribution to the previous one presented by Castro and Doyle (2004a). They decided the incorporation of four Model Predictive Control (MPC) for specific parts of the complex chemical Pulp and Paper plant to improve its global dynamic and economic performance. Meanly the authors supported the decision of including MPC based on the RGA information. In this paper, a deep analysis about each MPC implementation is performed so as to test if the used methodology could guide efficiently for adopting this kind of decisions. Initially, the study begins with a systematic procedure for adjusting the key MPC tuning parameters. The economic and dynamic performance indexes are evaluated to demonstrate for which specific cases a real benefit can be achieved. The results presented here were obtained through dynamic simulations using the computational benchmark model of 8200 states for the same scenarios evaluated by Castro and Doyle (2004b).
Project GROPEHaptic displays for scientific visualization

We began in 1967 a project to develop a haptic+display for 6-D force fields of interacting protein molecules. We approached it in four stages: a 2-D system, a 3-D system tested with a simple task, a 6-D system tested with a simple task, and a full 6-D molecular docking system, our initial goal. This paper summarizes the entire project---the four systems, the evaluation experiments, the results, and our observations. The molecular docking system results are new.Our principal conclusions are:• Haptic display as an augmentation to visual display can improve perception and understanding both of force fields and of world models populated with impenetrable objects. • Whereas man-machine systems can outperform computer-only systems by orders of magnitude on some problems, haptic-augmented interactive systems seem to give about a two-fold performance improvement over purely graphical interactive systems. Better technology may give somewhat more, but a ten-fold improvement does not seem to be in the cards. • Chemists using GROPE-III can readily reproduce the true docking positions for drugs whose docking is known (but not to them) and can find very good docks for drugs whose true docks are unknown. The present tool promises to yield new chemistry research results; it is being actively used by research chemists. • The most valuable result from using GROPE-III for drug docking is probably the radically improved situation awareness that serious users report. Chemists say they have a new understanding of the details of the receptor site and its force fields, and of why a particular drug docks well or poorly. • We see various scientific/education applications for haptic displays but believe entertainment, not scientific visualization, will drive and pace the technology. • The hardware-software system technology we have used is barely adequate, and our experience sets priorities for future development. • Some unexpected perceptual phenomena were observed. All of these worked for us, not against us.
Consistency and inconsistency in multispecies population network dynamics of coral reef ecosystems

Different marine species and their larvae have characteristics that can expand or contract their potential dispersal, which can add complexity to the management of species assemblages. Here we used a multi-scale biophysical modeling framework, the Connectivity Modeling System, for the analysis of net- work connectivity for 5 Caribbean coral reef-associ- ated species in order to gauge similarities and dissimi- larities among species as well as among Caribbean regions. We estimated local dispersal and retention to assess regional exchanges, and our results revealed that the population structures of coral and fish are dif- ferent and should thus have dissimilar management requirements in many regions, with some notable ex- ceptions. Populations of Porites astreoides corals ap- pear fragmented, suggesting that loss of adult colonies in any region may significantly impact regional re- cruitment success and connectivity. At the other end of the spectrum, populations of bluehead wrasse Tha- lassoma bifasciatum are highly connected, and re- moval of adults in any single region would not imply future recruitment failure in that region. We suggest using a 'diversity of exogenous settlement' index as a proxy of recolonization potential, which is related to the stability of regional connectivity networks. We demonstrate that resolving multispecies larval trans- port dynamics helps identify regions of both network stability for multi-generational connectivity (e.g. sta- ble larval sources and corridors) pertinent to regional- level management and network inconsistencies among species which are pertinent to the success of local management. FREEEE ACCESSCESS
Rapidly Progressive Dementia

Purpose of Review:This article presents a practical and informative approach to the evaluation of a patient with a rapidly progressive dementia (RPD). Recent Findings:Prion diseases are the prototypical causes of RPD, but reversible causes of RPD might mimic prion disease and should always be considered in a differential diagnosis. Aside from prion diseases, the most common causes of RPD are atypical presentations of other neurodegenerative disorders, curable disorders including autoimmune encephalopathies, as well as some infections, and neoplasms. Numerous recent case reports suggest dural arterial venous fistulas sometimes cause RPDs. Summary:RPDs, in which patients typically develop dementia over weeks to months, require an alternative differential than the slowly progressive dementias that occur over a few years. Because of their rapid decline, patients with RPDs necessitate urgent evaluation and often require an extensive workup, typically with multiple tests being sent or performed concurrently. Jakob-Creutzfeldt disease, perhaps the prototypical RPD, is often the first diagnosis many neurologists consider when treating a patient with rapid cognitive decline. Many conditions other than prion disease, however, including numerous reversible or curable conditions, can present as an RPD. This chapter discusses some of the major etiologies for RPDs and offers an algorithm for diagnosis.
Predictive modeling of lung motion over the entire respiratory cycle using measured pressure-volume data, 4DCT images, and finite-element analysis.

PURPOSE Predicting complex patterns of respiration can benefit the management of the respiratory motion for radiation therapy of lung cancer. The purpose of the present work was to develop a patient-specific, physiologically relevant respiratory motion model which is capable of predicting lung tumor motion over a complete normal breathing cycle. METHODS Currently employed techniques for generating the lung geometry from four-dimensional computed tomography data tend to lose details of mesh topology due to excessive surface smoothening. Some of the existing models apply displacement boundary conditions instead of the intrapleural pressure as the actual motive force for respiration, while others ignore the nonlinearity of lung tissues or the mechanics of pleural sliding. An intermediate nonuniform rational basis spline surface representation is used to avoid multiple geometric smoothing procedures used in the computational mesh preparation. Measured chest pressure-volume relationships are used to simulate pressure loading on the surface of the model for a given lung volume, as in actual breathing. A hyperelastic model, developed from experimental observations, has been used to model the lung tissue material. Pleural sliding on the inside of the ribcage has also been considered. RESULTS The finite-element model has been validated using landmarks from four patient CT data sets over 34 breathing phases. The average differences of end-inspiration in position between the landmarks and those predicted by the model are observed to be 0.450 +/- 0.330 cm for Patient P1, 0.387 +/- 0.169 cm for Patient P2, 0.319 +/- 0.186 cm for Patient P3, and 0.204 +/- 0.102 cm for Patient P4 in the magnitude of error vector, respectively. The average errors of prediction at landmarks over multiple breathing phases in superior-inferior direction are less than 3 mm. CONCLUSIONS The prediction capability of pressure-volume curve driven nonlinear finite-element model is consistent over the entire breathing cycle. The biomechanical parameters in the model are physiologically measurable, so that the results can be extended to other patients and additional neighboring organs affected by respiratory motion.
Dynamic distribution of NuMA and microtubules in human fetal fibroblasts, developing oocytes and somatic cell nuclear transferred embryos.

BACKGROUND The nuclear mitotic apparatus (NuMA) plays a central role in the assembly and maintenance of spindle poles. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) studies on non-human primates have shown that meiotic spindle removal during enucleation causes depletion of NuMA and the minus-end-directed motor protein (HSET) from the ooplasm, and this in turn leads to failure of embryo development. To determine whether NuMA from somatic cells could compensate for NuMA loss during enucleation, the distribution of NuMA and microtubule organization were investigated in human fibroblasts, developing oocytes and SCNT embryos. METHODS Human fetal fibroblasts, oocytes at various maturation stages and human embryos reconstructed by different SCNT methods were analyzed for NuMA and α-tubulin using immunofluorescent confocal microscopy. RESULTS NuMA was detected in interphase nuclei of fibroblasts and oocytes. During mitosis and meiosis, NuMA relocated to the domain surrounding the two spindle poles. During the enucleation process, NuMA was removed along with the meiotic spindle. At 2 h after injection into a donor cell, transitory bipolar spindles were organized and NuMA was detected in the reformed poles. NuMA could be detected spreading uniformly across the nucleoplasm of one pseudo-pronucleus in SCNT embryos but was excluded from the nucleolus. Regardless of the method used for SCNT (enucleation-injection or injection-pronuclei enucleation), NuMA aggregated and relocated to the reformed spindle poles at metaphase of the first mitotic event. At interphase, NuMA relocated throughout the nucleus in developmentally arrested SCNT embryos. CONCLUSIONS Our results show that donor cell nuclei contain NuMA, which might contribute to the maintenance of spindle morphology in SCNT embryos. Normal spindle and NuMA expression were found in human SCNT embryos at different developmental stages.
A group membership service for large-scale grids

In this paper, we propose a decentralized group membership service that can be incorporated into existing grid middleware to make it more reliable. This service includes a flexible failure detector that adapts dynamically to changing network conditions and can be configured with a number of failure recovery strategies. Moreover, it disseminates information about membership changes (new processes, failures, etc.) in a scalable and efficient manner. We conducted a preliminary evaluation of the proposed service by simulating a grid with up to 140 nodes distributed across three domains separated by a wide-area network. This evaluation showed that the proposed service performs well both in the absence and in the presence of process failures.
A soluble tissue factor mutant is a selective anticoagulant and antithrombotic agent.

One approach to developing safer and more efficacious agents for the treatment of thrombotic disease involves the design and testing of inhibitors that block specific steps in the coagulation cascade. We describe here the development of a mutant of human tissue factor (TF) as a specific antagonist of the extrinsic pathway of blood coagulation and the testing of this mutant in a rabbit model of arterial thrombosis. Alanine substitutions of Lys residues 165 and 166 in human TF have been shown previously to diminish the cofactor function of TF in support of factor X (FX) activation catalyzed by factor VIIa (FVIIa). The K165A:K166A mutations have been incorporated into soluble TF (sTF; residues 1-219) to generate the molecule "hTFAA. " hTFAA binds FVIIa with kinetics and affinity equivalent to wild-type sTF, but the hTFAA x FVIIa complex shows a 34-fold reduction in catalytic efficiency for FX activation relative to the activity measured for sTF x FVIIa. hTFAA inhibits the activation of FX catalyzed by the complex formed between FVIIa and relipidated TF(1-243). hTFAA prolongs prothrombin time (PT) determined with human plasma and relipidated TF(1-243) or membrane bound TF, and has no effect on activated partial thromboplastin time, but is 70-fold less potent as an inhibitor of PT with rabbit plasma. The rabbit homologue of this mutant ("rTFAA") was produced and shown to have greater potency with rabbit plasma. Both hTFAA and rTFAA display an antithrombotic effect in a rabbit model of arterial thrombosis with rTFAA giving full efficacy at a lower dose than hTFAA. Compared to heparin doses of equal antithrombotic potential, hTFAA and rTFAA cause less bleeding as judged by measurements of the cuticle bleeding time. These results indicate that TF x FVIIa is a good target for the development of new anticoagulant drugs for the treatment of thrombotic disease.
Identification of Prognostic Biomarkers for Prostate Cancer

Purpose: This paper describes a process for the identification of genes that can report on the aggressiveness of prostate tumors and thereby add to the information provided by current pathologic analysis. Materials and Methods: Expression profiling data from over 100 laser capture microdissection derived samples from nonneoplastic epithelium; Gleason patterns 3, 4, and 5 and node metastasis prostate cancer were used to identify genes at abnormally high levels in only some tumors. These variably overexpressed genes were stratified by their association with aggressive phenotypes and were subsequently filtered to exclude genes with redundant expression patterns. Selected genes were validated in a case-control study in which cases (systemic progression within 5 years) and controls (no systemic progression at 7 years of follow-up) were matched for all clinical and pathologic criteria from time of prostatectomy (n = 175). Both cases and controls, therefore, could have nodal invasion or seminal vesicle involvement at the time of initial treatment. Results: A number of candidate variably overexpressed genes selected for their association with aggressive prostate cancer phenotype were evaluated in the case control study. The most prominent candidates were SSTR1 and genes related to proliferation, including TOP2A. Conclusions: The process described here identified genes that add information not available from current clinical measures and can improve the prognosis of prostate cancer.
Simultaneous Action Recognition and Localization Based on Multi-view Hough Voting

One problem of conventional action recognition is that it requires both human detection and human tracking before recognition. Human pose and motion vary depending on the person's action, and such variances can complicate detection and tracking. To solve this problem, previous work has proposed simultaneous action recognition and localization using Hough voting. In this paper, we present an approach that simultaneously recognizes and localizes human actions from multi-view video sequences based on Hough voting. Multi-view videos have an ability that gives robustness to the changes of human orientation and occlusion. Our proposed approach independently votes for the action labels and positions in each view and integrates them using homographical transformations. We evaluated our approach on the IXMAS dataset and confirmed that it achieved high accuracy in action recognition, localization, and robustness to the changes of human orientation and occlusion. The contribution of this paper is that it enables multi-view action recognition without advance human detection and tracking.
All or none? The dilemma of handling WiFi broadcast traffic in smartphone suspend mode

Smartphones save energy by entering a low power suspend mode (<;20mW) when they are idle. We find that on some smartphones, WiFi broadcast frames interrupt suspend mode and force the phone to switch to active mode (>120mW). As a result, power consumption increases dramatically. To improve energy efficiency, some phones employ a hardware broadcast filter in the WiFi driver. All UDP broadcast frames other than Multicast DNS frames are blocked, thus none is received by upper layer applications. So, we have a dilemma of handling WiFi broadcast traffic during smartphone suspend mode: either receive all of them suffering high power consumption, or receive none of them sacrificing functionalities. In this paper, we propose Software Broadcast Filter (SBF) to address the dilemma. SBF is smarter than the hardware broadcast filter as it only filters out useless broadcast frames and does not impair functionalities of applications. SBF is also more energy efficient than the “receive all” method. Our trace driven evaluation shows that SBF can save up to 52% energy consumption than the “receive all” method.
Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis

Background: The cutaneous presentation of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is very rare and can be highly variable among individuals, which can often lead to a delay in diagnosis. Objective: To discuss a case report and literature review of important clinical indicators, histology, diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment guidelines. Methods: Case report and literature review. Results: Skin biopsies positive for CD1a and/or langerin are diagnostic for LCH. A thorough review of systems, baseline laboratory tests, and imaging studies can determine the extent of LCH. Treatment of cutaneous disease is largely based on case report and small case studies, but baseline treatment should generally begin with oral or topical steroids. When patients have more severe disease that requires a systemic approach, the efficacy of therapy should be assessed 6 weeks into therapy, with subsequent treatment intensification in patients with limited response. Conclusion: Owing to the rarity of this condition, there are no specific guidelines for treatment of LCH, but guidelines put forth by the Histiocyte Society assist in categorization and basic treatment approaches for patients with systemic disease.