Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HEPATIC ALLOTRANSPLANTATION IN THE BABOON: III. The Effects of Immunosuppression and Administration of Donor-Specific Antigen After Transplantation

SUMMARY In a series of 67 orthotopic hepatic allografts in the baboon, 75% of the untreated animals died in the first 2 weeks after transplantation. One untreated animal survived for 36 days. Continued administration of horse antibaboon lymphocyte globulin (ALG) prolonged allograft survival, but this effect was somewhat inferior to that resulting from azathioprine and prednisolone administration, and the addition of ALG to these immunosuppressive drugs did not produce an appreciable additive effect. The administration of semisoluble donor liver extract after transplantation in combination with ALG or ALG and azathioprine did not result in survival data better than those obtained with the immunosuppressive agents alone. Administration of ALG for only 6 days after transplantation, followed by a single injection of 25 X 106 donor bone marrow cells and no further immunosuppression, was superior to the continued use of ALG and was equal to or slightly better than continued azathioprine and prednisolone treatment. Preliminary studies with serial mixed leukocyte cultures and mixed cell agglutination with suspensions of rejecting hepatocytes may indicate a state of “:partial tolerance”: and/or enhancement in animals receiving a limited course of postoperative ALG administration followed by 25 X 106 donor bone marrow cells.
In Defence of British Politics Against the British Political Tradition

This article explores some of the current themes round the perceived crisis in British politics in supposed an age of ‘anti-politics’. Drawing on Bernard Crick's In Defence of Politics, it offers a critique of what is referred to as a dominant British political tradition and in so doing seeks to challenge ‘demand-side’ accounts that ostensibly defend the traditional arena politics of the Westminster system. Instead, it argues that developments around issues such as big data, social media and freedom of information have led to a more open society in recent years. It concludes by suggesting that if traditional political institutions wish to restore a greater degree of legitimacy, they need to ‘do’ or, more particularly, ‘supply’ politics differently, adapting to these changes by seeking out new modes of openness, engagement and accountability.
Changing Understandings of ‘Public’ and ‘Private’ in Higher Education: the United Kingdom Case

Where does higher education in the United Kingdom sit today in terms of the public–private distinction, and what does that distinction mean in the higher education context? This article considers these questions and related issues, noting how the particular example of the United Kingdom compares with other systems internationally. Following a historical exploration of the meaning of 'public', 'private' and other related terms, an examination is undertaken of their currency during the post-war period in the UK higher education system. This is exemplified through an analysis of the two major British higher education reports of the last 50 years – the Robbins Report of 1963 and the Dearing Report of 1997. It is argued that the contemporary UK higher education system could be seen as suffering from the worst of both worlds, trapped between and suffering from the seemingly contrary pressures of privatisation and nationalisation.
Learning profile in routing: comparison between relevance and gradient back-propagation

Compares two learning profile strategies in an information routing task: relevance backpropagation and gradient backpropagation. Gradient backpropagation is a learning approach used in multilayered neural networks in general. The convergence of the gradient backpropagation algorithm is still to be discussed, but we show its convergence in the majority of cases. Relevance backpropagation is a relevance feedback method used in our connectionist model called Mercure. Experiments carried out on Amaryllis documents showed the effectiveness of both methods, with a slight benefit for the relevance backpropagation strategy.
The Politics of “Regulatory Unreasonableness”: Bardach and Kagan's Going by the Book

"The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness" is the subtitle of Eugene Bardach and Robert A. Kagan's volume entitled Going by the Book. ' In 323 pages of text the authors offer 11 chapters grouped in 3 parts. Part 1 is "The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness"; part 2 is "Flexible Enforcement and Its Limits"; part 3 is "Indirect Regulation. " A distinctive feature of this volume is its definition of and consequent focus on regulatory unreasonableness. Regulatory unreasonableness is defined casually (at 58) as "the imposition of uniform regulatory requirements in situations where they do not make sense. " But the authors give a more exact definition earlier in the book: "A regulatory requirement is unreasonable if compliance would not yield the intended benefits . Further, a regulatory requirement is unreasonable if compliance would entail costs that clearly exceed the resulting social benefits. Finally, unreasonableness means cost-ineffectiveness" (at 6). Their summary is apt: "Basically, 'unreasonableness' involves economic inefficiency" (at 6). The authors define two kinds of economically inefficient and thus unreasonable regulatory requirements. These are "'rule-level unreasonableness,' which has to do with aggregate economic inefficiency, and 'site-level unreasonableness,' which has to do with particular encounters between enforcers and the regulated" (at 7). The extended analysis of site-level unreasonableness is a novel focus and especially commends this book. Arguments about the costs and benefits at the level of aggregate effects are, after all, relatively common (as Bardach and Kagan's many references illustrate). On the other hand, this book is to my knowledge the only extended analytical treatment of site-level reactions and frustrations to regulations that as applied are experienced as unreasonable. This has to do, then, with a "mosaic of person-
A Method for Integrating Network-on-Chip Topologies with 3D ICs

Three dimensional integration is a promising approach for reducing the form factor of chips. Scalable Networks on Chips (NoCs) are a necessity to support the communication requirements of such 3D ICs. Mapping of NoC topologies onto the different layers of the 3D stack, while meeting the 3D technology requirements and application power-performance constraints is an important problem. In this paper, we present an algorithm that addresses this issue of performing 3D layer assignment of NoC components. We also integrate the algorithm with an existing NoC interconnect floor planner. Our experiments on many SoC benchmarks show a reduction of 8 - 10% in the NoC power consumption and a 49% reduction in the number of vertical links (and hence, the Through Silicon Vias (TSVs)) when compared to existing approaches.
Comparative Study of Ultrasonographic and Anthropometric Measurements of Regional Adiposity in Metabolic Syndrome.

INTRODUCTION Metabolic syndrome is complex disorder unifying dyslipidemia, insulin resistance and hyper insulinemia. Rising global epidemic of obesity has tremendous impact on metabolic syndrome. Ultrasound is becoming widely utilized modality for measuring the visceral adiposity. AIM To determine the usefulness of ultrasonographic measurements in the estimation of regional adiposity and to compare them with anthropometric measurements and to correlate ultrasonographic measurements of regional adiposity and metabolic syndrome. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare anthropometry and ultrasonography in assessing the regional adiposity in metabolic syndrome. A total of 105 consecutive participants were included in the study after scrutinizing them for various definable factors of metabolic syndrome. Body Mass Index (BMI) of all participants was calculated and their available serological investigations were gathered. Primarily participants were subjected for anthropometric measurements like waist circumference and hip circumference, further waist/hip ratio was calculated. Following which all participants underwent sonological examination and sonographic indices like intraabdominal fat thickness, preperitoneal fat thickness, minimum and maximum subcutaneous fat thicknesses were measured. Abdominal wall fat index was calculated as ratio of maximum preperitoneal fat thickness to minimum subcutaneous fat thickness. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS (Statistical Package Social Science, version-10.0.5) software. A p-value was calculated and values <0.05 were considered as statistically significant. RESULTS Significant correlation was established between the BMI and waist and hip circumferences. Mild positive correlation was obtained between BMI and sonographic indices like IAF, SCF and PPF with Pearson correlation (r) values of 0.324, 0.585 and 0.211 respectively. Anthropometric measurements showed higher r-values (WC- 0.624 and HC- 0.825) than sonographic indices; indicating anthropometry is better in assessing the regional adiposity than the sonography. CONCLUSION Sonography can be considered as one of the reliable imaging modality for assessing the regional adiposity but not as better as waist or hip circumferences.
Sociobiological Control of Plasmid Copy Number in Bacteria

All genes critical for plasmid replication regulation are located on the plasmid rather than on the host chromosome. It is possible therefore that there can be copy-up “cheater” mutants. In spite of this possibility, low copy number plasmids appear to exist stably in host populations. We examined this paradox using a multilevel selection model. Simulations showed that, a slightly higher copy number mutant could out-compete the wild type. Consequently, another mutant with still higher copy number could invade the first invader. However, the realized benefit of increasing intra-host fitness was saturating whereas that of inter-host fitness was exponential. As a result, above a threshold, intra-host selection was overcompensated by inter-host selection and the low copy number wild type plasmid could back invade a very high copy number plasmid. This led to a rock-paper-scissor (RPS) like situation that allowed the coexistence of plasmids with varied copy numbers. Furthermore, another type of cheater that had lost the genes required for conjugation but could hitchhike on a conjugal plasmid, could further reduce the advantage of copy-up mutants. These sociobiological interactions may compliment molecular mechanisms of replication regulation in stabilizing the copy numbers.
The nature of dopamine dysfunction in schizophrenia and what this means for treatment.

CONTEXT Current drug treatments for schizophrenia are inadequate for many patients, and despite 5 decades of drug discovery, all of the treatments rely on the same mechanism: dopamine D(2) receptor blockade. Understanding the pathophysiology of the disorder is thus likely to be critical to the rational development of new treatments for schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE To investigate the nature of the dopaminergic dysfunction in schizophrenia using meta-analysis of in vivo studies. DATA SOURCES The MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO databases were searched for studies from January 1, 1960, to July 1, 2011. STUDY SELECTION A total of 44 studies were identified that compared 618 patients with schizophrenia with 606 controls, using positron emission tomography or single-photon emission computed tomography to measure in vivo striatal dopaminergic function. DATA EXTRACTION Demographic, clinical, and imaging variables were extracted from each study, and effect sizes were determined for the measures of dopaminergic function. Studies were grouped into those of presynaptic function and those of dopamine transporter and receptor availability. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to explore the consistency of effects and the effect of clinical and imaging variables. DATA SYNTHESIS There was a highly significant elevation (P.<001) in presynaptic dopaminergic function in schizophrenia with a large effect size (Cohen d=0.79). There was no evidence of alterations in dopamine transporter availability. There was a small elevation in D(2/3) receptor availability (Cohen d=0.26), but this was not evident in drug-naive patients and was influenced by the imaging approach used. CONCLUSIONS The locus of the largest dopaminergic abnormality in schizophrenia is presynaptic, which affects dopamine synthesis capacity, baseline synaptic dopamine levels, and dopamine release. Current drug treatments, which primarily act at D(2/3) receptors, fail to target these abnormalities. Future drug development should focus on the control of presynaptic dopamine synthesis and release capacity.
SuperSegger: robust image segmentation, analysis and lineage tracking of bacterial cells

Many quantitative cell biology questions require fast yet reliable automated image segmentation to identify and link cells from frame‐to‐frame, and characterize the cell morphology and fluorescence. We present SuperSegger, an automated MATLAB‐based image processing package well‐suited to quantitative analysis of high‐throughput live‐cell fluorescence microscopy of bacterial cells. SuperSegger incorporates machine‐learning algorithms to optimize cellular boundaries and automated error resolution to reliably link cells from frame‐to‐frame. Unlike existing packages, it can reliably segment microcolonies with many cells, facilitating the analysis of cell‐cycle dynamics in bacteria as well as cell‐contact mediated phenomena. This package has a range of built‐in capabilities for characterizing bacterial cells, including the identification of cell division events, mother, daughter and neighbouring cells, and computing statistics on cellular fluorescence, the location and intensity of fluorescent foci. SuperSegger provides a variety of postprocessing data visualization tools for single cell and population level analysis, such as histograms, kymographs, frame mosaics, movies and consensus images. Finally, we demonstrate the power of the package by analyzing lag phase growth with single cell resolution.
Internalizing and Externalizing Behaviors in a Group of Young People with Gender Dysphoria

ABSTRACT The aim of the current paper was to examine externalizing and internalizing behaviors in adolescents with gender dysphoria. One hundred forty-one young people (84 natal females and 57 natal males, M age = 15.13, SD = 1.70) attending the Gender Identity Development Service in London completed the Youth Self Report form at the end of the assessment period (4 to 6 sessions). The main findings indicated that, overall, the adolescents showed significantly more internalizing than externalizing behaviors. Using cutoff points provided by Achenbach and Rescorla (2001), the mean internalizing score fell within the clinical range and the mean externalizing score within the normal range. There was also a significant positive relationship between these two behaviors both in the natal females and the natal males. The natal males presented with significantly more internalizing behaviors than the natal females; however, no significant difference was observed between the genders in terms of the number of externalizing behaviors and total problems. We discuss the implications of these findings with regard to clinical work.
Rendering anti-aliased line segments

Bridging the modeling and rendering gap between the existing triangle and point primitives, we explore the use of line segments as a new primitive to represent and render 3D models. Our main contribution extends the anti-aliasing theory in texture mapping to anti-aliased line segment rendering, and presents an approximation algorithm to render high quality anti-aliased opaque and transparent line segments in 3D models. This antialiasing technique is empirically validated by building a software pipeline to render models of any combination of the three types of modeling primitives: triangles, line segments and points. Our experiment shows that models comprising line segments are generally more efficient and effective for high quality rendering as compared to their corresponding pure point models.
Enhanced Ca2+-Dependent Activation of Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Class II&agr; Isoform-Rho Axis in Blood Vessels of Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Rho-mediated inhibition of myosin light chain (MLC) phosphatase (MLCP), together with Ca2+-dependent MLC kinase activation, constitutes the major signaling mechanisms for vascular smooth muscle contraction. We recently unveiled the involvement of Ca2+-induced, phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K) class II&agr; isoform (PI3K-C2&agr;)–dependent Rho activation and resultant Rho kinase-dependent MLCP suppression in membrane depolarization- and receptor agonist-induced contraction. It is unknown whether Ca2+- and PI3K-C2&agr;–dependent regulation of MLCP is altered in vascular smooth muscle of hypertensive animals and is involved in hypertension. Therefore, we studied the role of the Ca2+-PI3K-C2&agr;-Rho-MLCP pathway in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). PI3K-C2&agr; was readily detected in various vascular beds of Wistar-Kyoto rats and activated by high KCl. High KCl also stimulated vascular Rho activity and phosphorylation of the MLCP regulatory subunit MYPT1 at Thr853 in a PI3K inhibitor wortmannin-sensitive manner. In mesenteric and other vessels of SHRs at the hypertensive but not the prehypertensive stage, the activity of PI3K-C2&agr; but not class I PI3K p110&agr; was elevated with concomitant rises of Rho activity and Thr853-phosphorylation of MYPT1, as compared with normotensive controls. Infusion of the Ca2+ channel antagonist nicardipine reduced blood pressure with suppression of vascular activity of PI3K-C2&agr;-Rho and phosphorylation of MYPT1 in hypertensive SHRs. Infusion of wortmannin lowered blood pressure with inhibition of PI3K-C2&agr;-Rho activities and MYPT1 phosphorylation in hypertensive SHRs. These observations suggest that an increased activity of the Ca2+-PI3K-C2&agr;-Rho signaling pathway with resultant augmented MLCP suppression contributes to hypertension in SHRs. The Ca2+- and PI3K-C2&agr;–dependent Rho stimulation in vascular smooth muscle may be a novel, promising target for treating hypertension.
Loadstar: A Load Shedding Scheme for Classifying Data Streams

We consider the problem of resource allocation in mining multiple data streams. Due to the large volume and the high speed of streaming data, mining algorithms must cope with the effects of system overload. How to realize maximum mining benefits under resource constraints becomes a challenging task. In this paper, we propose a load shedding scheme for classifying multiple data streams. We focus on the following problems: i) how to classify data that are dropped by the load shedding scheme? and ii) how to decide when to drop data from a stream? We introduce a quality of decision (QoD) metric to measure the level of uncertainty in classification when exact feature values of the data are not available because of load shedding. A Markov model is used to predict the distribution of feature values and we make classification decisions using the predicted values and the QoD metric. Thus, resources are allocated among multiple data streams to maximize the quality of classification decisions. Furthermore, our load shedding scheme is able to learn and adapt to changing data characteristics in the data streams. Experiments on both synthetic data and real-life data show that our load shedding scheme is effective in improving the overall accuracy of classification under resource constraints. keywords: data mining, data streams, load shedding, classification, quality of decision, feature prediction, Markov model.
Education Strategies Through Simulation For Training In Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Treatment

Theoretical and reflective study based on scientific literature and critical analysis of authors related to teaching strategies through simulation for training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Current teaching methodologies CPR involve realistic simulation strategies and simulations in virtual environments, but the first method provides the best results, allowing proactivity of individuals in their teaching-learning process and bringing them the experience of a life threatening situation. It is noteworthy that health professionals need to be able to assist a victim in cardiac arrest, but even existing effective teaching methodologies to enable them in this subject, is not fully applicable in the Brazilian context of health education.
Ganglioside Inhibition of Neurite Outgrowth Requires Nogo Receptor Function

Gangliosides are key players in neuronal inhibition, with antibody-mediated clustering of gangliosides blocking neurite outgrowth in cultures and axonal regeneration post injury. In this study we show that the ganglioside GT1b can form a complex with the Nogo-66 receptor NgR1. The interaction is shown by analytical ultracentrifugation sedimentation and is mediated by the sialic acid moiety on GT1b, with mutations in FRG motifs on NgR1 attenuating the interaction. One FRG motif was developed into a cyclic peptide (N-AcCLQKFRGSSC-NH2) antagonist of GT1b, reversing the GT1b antibody inhibition of cerebellar granule cell neurite outgrowth. Interestingly, the peptide also antagonizes neurite outgrowth inhibition mediated by soluble forms of the myelin-associated glycoprotein (MAG). Structure function analysis of the peptide point to the conserved FRG triplet being the minimal functional motif, and mutations within this motif inhibit NgR1 binding to both GT1b and MAG. Finally, using gene ablation, we show that the cerebellar neuron response to GT1b antibodies and soluble MAG is indeed dependent on NgR1 function. The results suggest that gangliosides inhibit neurite outgrowth by interacting with FRG motifs in the NgR1 and that this interaction can also facilitate the binding of MAG to the NgR1. Furthermore, the results point to a rational strategy for developing novel ganglioside antagonists.
A Quantitative Determination of Allocative Efficiency in Broiler Production in Delta State, Nigeria

In order to determine the allocative effi ciency of broiler production enterprises in Delta State, Nigeria, panel data were collected for the period from January 2003 to September 2004, from 96 farmers, using a three – stage selection process. A production function incorporating inputs such as feed expenses, broiler stock size, operating and fi xed costs, with value of matured broilers as output was fi tted to the data. Th e results indicate that the average size of holdings is small, with a mean size of 680; average revenue per farm was N507,774.70 (US$3761.29) while net revenue per broiler was N 127.59 (US$0.95). Costs of feeds, day – old chicks and other capital inputs signifi cantly infl uenced the revenue generated by farmers (P 0.05). However, variable expenses were negatively related to output. Estimates of allocative effi ciency were 24.9, 24.8, – 4.6 and 11.9 for stock size, feed expenses, variable expenses and fixed capital inputs respectively. The implications are that though the farmers are generally and allocatively efficient, they need to increase the quantity of inputs in order to maximize profi ts. Farmers should be supported to expand the size of their holding and make better use of their resources by enhanced access to production credits and onfarm training.