Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cell Therapy Transplant Canada (CTTC) Consensus-Based Guideline 2024 for Management and Treatment of Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease and Future Directions for Development

This is a consensus-based Canadian guideline whose primary purpose is to standardize and facilitate the management of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD) across the country. Creating uniform healthcare guidance in Canada is a challenge for a number of reasons including the differences in healthcare authority structure, funding and access to healthcare resources between provinces and territories, as well as the geographic size. These differences can lead to variable and unequal access to effective therapies for GvHD. This document will provide comprehensive and practical guidance that can be applied across Canada by healthcare professionals caring for patients with cGvHD. Hopefully, this guideline, based on input from GvHD treaters across the country, will aid in standardizing cGvHD care and facilitate access to much-needed novel therapies. This consensus paper aims to discuss the optimal approach to the initial assessment of cGvHD, review the severity scoring and global grading system, discuss systemic and topical treatments, as well as supportive therapies, and propose a therapeutic algorithm for frontline and subsequent lines of cGvHD treatment in adults and pediatric patients. Finally, we will make suggestions about the future direction of cGvHD treatment development such as (1) a mode-of-action-based cGvHD drug selection, according to the pathogenesis of cGvHD, (2) a combination strategy with the introduction of newer targeted drugs, (3) a steroid-free regimen, particularly for front line therapy for cGvHD treatment, and (4) a pre-emptive approach which can prevent the progression of cGvHD in high-risk patients destined to develop severe and highly morbid forms of cGvHD.
Étude des transferts de chaleur dans un canal vertical differentiellement chauffé : application aux enveloppes photovoltaïques thermiques

Ce travail traite de l’integration des modules photovoltaiques (PV) au bâti. Leur rendement est fortement dependant du niveau de temperature d’ou une integration par adjonction d’une lame d’air permettant un rafraichissement passif. La configuration etudiee est une double-peau photovoltaique-thermique ou l’ecoulement de convection naturelle se developpe sous l’effet d’une repartition periodique des sollicitations thermiques imposees en flux sur les deux parois du canal. La realisation d’une cellule experimentale permet d’etudier l’effet d’un chauffage alterne sur les transferts de chaleur. Les mesures de temperature parietale et l’evaluation des echanges convectifs montrent que la periodicite des sources permet de reduire leur echauffement par rapport a une integration continue. Ces resultats, confirmes par l’etude numerique menee a l’aide d’un code RANS, conduisent a des tendances interessantes mais restant a approfondir sur la disposition de composants PV en facade des double-peaux
Modeling parameter and context dependencies in online architecture-level performance models

Modern service-oriented enterprise systems have increasingly complex and dynamic loosely-coupled architectures that often exhibit poor performance and resource efficiency and have high operating costs. This is due to the inability to predict at run-time the effect of dynamic changes in the system environment and adapt the system configuration accordingly. Architecture-level performance models provide a powerful tool for performance prediction, however, current approaches to modeling the execution context of software components are not suitable for use at run-time. In this paper, we analyze the typical online performance prediction scenarios and propose a novel performance meta-model for expressing and resolving parameter and context dependencies, specifically designed for use in online scenarios. We motivate and validate our approach in the context of a realistic and representative online performance prediction scenario based on the SPECjEnterprise2010 standard benchmark.
Achieving benefits with business analytics systems: an evolutionary process perspective

Previous research has demonstrated that business analytics systems create value and provide competitive advantage for organisations. We argue that organisational and dynamic capabilities, enabled by business analytics systems, can explain how value is created, sustained and renewed. An evolutionary, process-oriented theoretical framework describes how dynamic and organisational capabilities interact over time to create value. The framework is then used to explain how business analytics systems provided value and competitive advantage in a longitudinal case study of a large financial institution. Several critical success factors for the use of business analytics are identified and implications are discussed.
Microscopic and infrared spectroscopic comparison of the underwater adhesives produced by germlings of the brown seaweed species Durvillaea antarctica and Hormosira banksii

Adhesives from marine organisms are often the source of inspiration for the development of glues able to create durable bonds in wet environments. In this work, we investigated the adhesive secretions produced by germlings of two large seaweed species from the South Pacific, Durvillaea antarctica, also named ‘the strongest kelp in the word’, and its close relative Hormosira banksii. The comparative analysis was based on optical and scanning electron microscopy imaging as well as Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and principal component analysis (PCA). For both species, the egg surface presents peripheral vesicles which are released soon after fertilization to discharge a primary adhesive. This is characterized by peaks representative of carbohydrate molecules. A secondary protein-based adhesive is then secreted in the early developmental stages of the germlings. Energy dispersive X-ray, FTIR and PCA indicate that D. antarctica secretions also contain sulfated moieties, and become cross-linked with time, both conferring strong adhesive and cohesive properties. On the other hand, H. banksii secretions are complemented by the putative adhesive phlorotannins, and are characterized by a simple mechanism in which all constituents are released with the same rate and with no apparent cross-linking. It is also noted that the release of adhesive materials appears to be faster and more copious in D. antarctica than in H. banksii. Overall, this study highlights that both quantity and quality of the adhesives matter in explaining the superior attachment ability of D. antarctica.
Dorsal–Ventral Gradient for Neuronal Plasticity in the Embryonic Spinal Cord

Within the developing Xenopus spinal cord, voltage-gated potassium (Kv) channel genes display different expression patterns, many of which occur in opposing dorsal–ventral gradients. Regional differences in Kv gene expression would predict different patterns of potassium current (IKv) regulation. However, during the first 24 h of postmitotic differentiation, all primary spinal neurons undergo a temporally coordinated upregulation of IKv density that shortens the duration of the action potential. Here, we tested whether spinal neurons demonstrate regional differences in IKv regulation subsequent to action potential maturation. We show that two types of neurons, I and II, can be identified in culture on the basis of biophysical and pharmacological properties of IKv and different firing patterns. Chronic increases in extracellular potassium, a signature of high neuronal activity, do not alter excitability properties of either neuron type. However, elevating extracellular potassium acutely after the period of action potential maturation leads to different changes in membrane properties of the two types of neurons. IKv of type I neurons gains sensitivity to the blocker XE991, whereas type II neurons increase IKv density and fire fewer action potentials. Moreover, by recording from neurons in vivo, we found that primary spinal neurons can be identified as either type I or type II. Type I neurons predominate in dorsal regions, whereas type II neurons localize to ventral regions. The findings reveal a dorsal–ventral gradient for IKv regulation and a novel form of neuronal plasticity in spinal cord neurons.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Traditionally, the diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy has been based on the presence of unexplained ventricular hypertrophy. Increasingly, however, a substantial proportion of idiopathic cardiomyopathies have been characterised at metabolic, genetic and molecular levels, which inevitably has resulted in a blurring of the borders of primary and secondary cardiomyopathy. The varied aetiology of cardiac hypertrophy in children necessitates a more extensive search for a cause than is customary in adults.
Software Self-Healing Using Collaborative Application Communities

Software monocultures are usually considered dangerous because their size and uniformity represent the potential for costly and widespread damage. The emerging concept of collaborative security provides the opportunity to re-examine the utility of software monoculture by exploiting the homogeneity and scale that typically define large software monocultures. Monoculture can be leveraged to improve an application’s overall security and reliability. We introduce and explore the concept of Application Communities: collections of large numbers of independent instances of the same application. Members of an application community share the burden of monitoring for flaws and attacks, and notify the rest of the community when such are detected. Appropriate mitigation mechanisms are then deployed against the newly discovered fault. We explore the concept of an application community and determine its feasibility through analytical modeling and a prototype implementation focusing on software faults and vulnerabilities. Specifically, we identify a set of parameters that define application communities and explore the tradeoffs between the minimal size of an application community, the marginal overhead imposed on each member, and the speed with which new faults are detected and isolated. We demonstrate the feasibility of the scheme using Selective Transactional EMulation (STEM) as both the monitoring and remediation mechanism for low-level software faults, and provide some preliminary experimental results using the Apache web server as the protected application. Our experiments show that ACs are practical and feasible for current applications: an AC of 15,000 members can collaboratively monitor Apache for new faults and immunize all members against them with only a 6% performance degradation for each member.
Effects of glucagon-like peptide-1(7-36)amide on antro-pyloro-duodenal motility in the interdigestive state and with duodenal lipid perfusion in humans

BACKGROUND Glucagon-like peptide-1(7-36)amide (GLP-1) is a gut hormone released postprandially. Synthetic GLP-1 strongly inhibits gastric emptying in healthy subjects and in patients with diabetes mellitus. AIMS To investigate the effects of GLP-1 on antro-pyloro-duodenal motility in humans. METHODS Eleven healthy male volunteers were studied on two separate days. On the interdigestive study day, a basal period was followed by a 60 minute period of saline infusion and two further 60 minute periods of intravenous infusion of GLP-1 0.4 and 1.2 pmol/kg/min to achieve postprandial and supraphysiological plasma levels, respectively. On the postprandial study day, the same infusions were coadministered with intraduodenal lipid perfusion at 2.5 ml/min (2.5 kcal/min) followed by another 60 minutes of recording after cessation of GLP-1. Antro-pyloro-duodenal motility was measured by perfusion manometry. RESULTS GLP-1 significantly inhibited the number and amplitudes of antral and duodenal contractions in the interdigestive state and after administration of duodenal lipid. It abolished interdigestive antral wave propagation. In the interdigestive state, GLP-1 dose dependently increased pyloric tone and significantly stimulated isolated pyloric pressure waves (IPPW). Pyloric tone increased with duodenal lipid, and this was further enhanced by GLP-1. GLP-1 transiently restored the initial IPPW response to duodenal lipid which had declined with lipid perfusion. Plasma levels of pancreatic polypeptide were dose dependently diminished by GLP-1 with and without duodenal lipid. CONCLUSIONS GLP-1 inhibited antro-duodenal contractility and stimulated the tonic and phasic motility of the pylorus. These effects probably mediate delayed gastric emptying. Inhibition of efferent vagal activity may be an important mechanism. As postprandial plasma levels of GLP-1 are sufficient to appreciably affect motility, we believe that endogenous GLP-1 is a physiological regulator of motor activity in the antro-pyloro-duodenal region.
Climatic response of Picea glauca seedlings in a forest-prairie ecotone of western Canada

We examined radial and height growth-climate relationships of juvenile white spruce in three contrasting microenvironments within a prairie-forest ecotone of western Canada. The three microenvironments were (1) the understory of mature trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) groves, (2) the understory of mature white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) tree islands, and (3) the open prairie outside the influence of mature trees. Interannual patterns in radial and height growth from each of the three environments were related to the regional climate (temperature and precipitation). The growth-climate relationships identified indicated that growth of juvenile white spruce was conditioned primarily by direct moisture stress during the wettest month of the year, namely June precipitation in the current growing season (t). The growth of juvenile white spruce also responded secondarily to moisture stress indirectly induced by high temperatures in June (t). The results support the general understanding that the southern limit of conifer species in western Canada is controlled mainly by moisture stress either directly by low precipitation or indirectly due to temperature-induced drought stress. RésuméNous avons examiné les relations climat-croissance radiale et croissance en hauteur de jeunes Picea glauca dans trois microenvironnements contrastés de l’écotone prairie—forêt de l’ouest du Canada. Les trois microenvironnements étaient : (1) un sous-bois de bosquets de trembles matures (Populus tremuloïdes Michx.), (2) un sous-bois d’îlots de Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) matures et (3) la prairie ouverte en dehors de l’influence des arbres. Les patrons interannuels de croissance radiale et de croissance en hauteur de chacun des trois environnements ont été reliés au climat régional (température et précipitations). Les relations croissance—climat qui ont été identifiées indiquent que la croissance des jeunes Picea glauca était essentiellement conditionnée directement par un stress de sécheresse pendant le mois le plus humide de l’année, c’est-à-dire les précipitations du mois de juin de l’année de croissance en cours (t). La croissance des jeunes Picea glauca a aussi secondairement répondu au stress hydrique indirectement induit par les fortes températures de juin (t). Les résultats confortent l’interprétation générale de la limite sud des conifères dans l’ouest du Canada, qui est principalement contrôlée par la sécheresse induite directement par les faibles précipitations ou indirectement par les températures élevées.
The efficacy and safety of neubotulinumtoxinA for the treatment of forehead horizontal lines in Asians – A clinical, prospective, interventional, split‐face study

Abstract Background: Botulinum toxin injections are widely sought after in the field of medical aesthetics, offering consumers a variety of brand choices. Two commonly available botulinum toxin products, onabotulinumtoxinA and neubotulinumtoxinA, are featured in numerous clinics, leading many to question whether there are discernible differences in results, given their varying price ranges. Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of neubotulinumtoxinA for the treatment of forehead horizontal lines. Methods A 12‐week prospective, single‐centre, interventional split‐face study was conducted, including 30 subjects. These enrolled subjects received a single treatment session, with neubotulinumtoxinA applied to the left side of the forehead and onabotulinumtoxinA to the right side. A superficial injection was performed in all individuals, where the product was injected subdermally in the frontalis muscle. Evaluation was conducted at baseline, 7 days, 14, days and 4, 8, and 12 weeks after treatment, both when the eyebrows were at maximum lift and in a resting position. Treatment efficacy was assessed by two physicians and self‐assessed by the patients, using the Fitzpatrick Wrinkle Classification system. Adverse events were documented to evaluate safety. Results The study found no statistically significant difference in the efficacy of neubotulinum and onabotulinum for treating forehead wrinkles, as indicated by p‐values above 0.05 for both static and dynamic conditions. No safety and adverse events were observed in both formulations. Conclusion This study has demonstrated that neither formulation is inferior to each other in the treatment of forehead horizontal lines.
Invasional 'meltdown' on an oceanic island

Islands can serve as model systems for understanding how biological invasions affect community structure and ecosystem function. Here we show invasion by the alien crazy ant Anoplolepis gracilipes causes a rapid, catastrophic shift in the rain forest ecosystem of a tropical oceanic island, affecting at least three trophic levels. In invaded areas, crazy ants extirpate the red land crab, the dominant endemic consumer on the forest floor. In doing so, crazy ants indirectly release seedling recruitment, enhance species richness of seedlings, and slow litter breakdown. In the forest canopy, new associations between this invasive ant and honeydew-secreting scale insects accelerate and diversify impacts. Sustained high densities of foraging ants on canopy trees result in high population densities of hostgeneralist scale insects and growth of sooty moulds, leading to canopy dieback and even deaths of canopy trees. The indirect fallout from the displacement of a native keystone species by an ant invader, itself abetted by introduced/cryptogenic mutualists, produces synergism in impacts to precipitate invasional meltdown in this system.
Support Substructures: Support-Induced Part-Level Structural Representation

In this work we explore a support-induced structural organization of object parts. We introduce the concept of support substructures, which are special subsets of object parts with support and stability. A bottom-up approach is proposed to identify such substructures in a support relation graph. We apply the derived high-level substructures to part-based shape reshuffling between models, resulting in nontrivial functionally plausible model variations that are difficult to achieve with symmetry-induced substructures by the state-of-the-art methods. We also show how to automatically or interactively turn a single input model to new functionally plausible shapes by structure rearrangement and synthesis, enabled by support substructures. To the best of our knowledge no single existing method has been designed for all these applications.
Functional Characterization of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus ORF45 byBacterial Artificial Chromosome-Based Mutagenesis

ABSTRACT Open reading frame 45 (ORF45) of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) encodes an immediate-early protein. This protein is also present in virions as a tegument protein. ORF45 protein interacts with interferon regulatory factor 7 (IRF-7) and inhibits virus-induced type I interferon production by blocking activation of IRF-7. To define further the function of ORF45 and the mechanism underlying its action, we constructed an ORF45-null recombinant virus genome (BAC-stop45) by using a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) system. Stable 293T cells carrying the BAC36 (wild type) and BAC-stop45 genomes were generated. When monolayers of 293T BAC36 and 293T BAC-stop45 cells were induced with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate and sodium butyrate, no significant difference was found between them in overall viral gene expression and lytic DNA replication, but induced 293T BAC-stop45 cells released 10-fold fewer virions to the medium than did 293T BAC36 cells. When ORF45-null virus was used to infect cells, lower infectivity was observed than for wild-type BAC36. These results suggest that KSHV ORF45 plays roles in both early and late stages of viral infection, probably in viral ingress and egress.
Assessment of Patient Safety in a Low-Resource Health Care System: Proposal for a Multimethod Study.

BACKGROUND The high prevalence of adverse events (AEs) globally in health care delivery has led to the establishment of many guidelines to enhance patient safety. However, patient safety is a relatively nascent concept in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health systems are already overburdened and underresourced. This is why it is imperative to study the nuances of patient safety from a local perspective to advocate for the judicious use of scarce public health resources. OBJECTIVE This study aims to assess the status of patient safety in a health care system within a low-resource setting, using a multipronged, multimethod approach of standardized methodologies adapted to the local setting. METHODS We propose purposive sampling to include a representative mix of public and private, rural and urban, and tertiary and secondary care hospitals, preferably those ascribed to the same hospital quality standards. Six different approaches will be considered at these hospitals including (1) focus group discussions on the status quo of patient safety, (2) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture, (3) Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, (4) estimation of incidence of AEs identified by patients, (5) estimation of incidence of AEs via medical record review, and (6) assessment against the World Health Organization's Patient Safety Friendly Hospital Framework via thorough reviews of existing hospital protocols and in-person surveys of the facility. RESULTS The abovementioned studies collectively are expected to yield significant quantifiable information on patient safety conditions in a wide range of hospitals operating within LMICs. CONCLUSIONS A multidimensional approach is imperative to holistically assess the patient safety situation, especially in LMICs. Our low-budget, non-resource-intensive research proposal can serve as a benchmark to conduct similar studies in other health care settings within LMICs. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID) PRR1-10.2196/50532.