Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dendritic cells of myeloid lineage: the masterminds behind acute allograft rejection

Purpose of reviewAdvances in surgery, patient management, and pharmacologic immunosuppression have reduced the incidence of acute allograft rejection. However, generation of therapies to promote donor-specific immunosuppression with minimal side-effects has proved to be a difficult task. To some extent, this is because of our limited knowledge on how Ag-presenting cells (APCs) like dendritic cells initiate and maintain the antidonor response in vivo. Herein, we link the classic concepts on the role of donor's dendritic cells as passenger leukocytes with the state-of-the-art findings in the field. Recent findingsNumerous studies are starting to unveil the plethora of mediators and interactions with leukocytes that trigger maturation of donor's dendritic cells in the grafts. The concept that donor's dendritic cells migrate from the grafts to secondary lymphoid organs to prime T cells has been challenged in murine models of lung or intestine transplantation, in which T cells can also be primed in the allograft. Increasing evidence suggests that recipient's dendritic cells present donor's intact major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules in lymphoid organs and that they infiltrate the grafts. SummaryA more complete understanding of the role of dendritic cells in allosensitization will help to develop better dendritic cell-based therapies to achieve the final goal of promoting donor-specific immunosuppression.
Intravenous urography‐virtual cystoscopy is a better preliminary examination than air virtual cystoscopy

To describe a new technique of virtual cystoscopy (VC, used previously but with catheterization to drain residual urine and insufflation with air or carbon dioxide) with no invasive catheterization, used in parallel with intravenous urography (IVU), as conventional cystoscopy is an invasive but essential examination, and VC with multislice computed tomography (CT) was introduced to make preliminary examinations noninvasive.
Training Word Sense Embeddings With Lexicon-based Regularization

We propose to improve word sense embeddings by enriching an automatic corpus-based method with lexicographic data. Information from a lexicon is introduced into the learning algorithm’s objective function through a regularizer. The incorporation of lexicographic data yields embeddings that are able to reflect expert-defined word senses, while retaining the robustness, high quality, and coverage of automatic corpus-based methods. These properties are observed in a manual inspection of the semantic clusters that different degrees of regularizer strength create in the vector space. Moreover, we evaluate the sense embeddings in two downstream applications: word sense disambiguation and semantic frame prediction, where they outperform simpler approaches. Our results show that a corpus-based model balanced with lexicographic data learns better representations and improve their performance in downstream tasks.
Cost analysis of the treatment of acute childhood lymphocytic leukaemia according to Nordic protocols

Some attempts have been made to reduce the costs incurred in the therapy of leukaemia, but no studies are available regarding costs of the entire treatment in children with acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL). We analysed all the direct costs of treatment of 11 children with ALL diagnosed and treated in Kuopio University Hospital. The follow‐up continued from diagnosis until the end of treatment for each patient. Patient treatment on the ward lasted for 84‐210 d and in the outpatient clinic for 24‐66 d, depending on the risk group. From 11‐54 of the inpatient days were required for the treatment of infections. Total mean cost of the entire treatment was US $103 250 (US $55 196‐166 039) per patient, 53% of which were basic hospital costs and 47% patient‐specific costs. Laboratory tests and radiology accounted for 18% of all direct costs and cytostatic drugs for 13%, but blood products accounted for only 4% of the total. Infections were the most important extra cause of costs, accounting for 18% of the mean total costs per patient.
Multi-target tracking using joint probabilistic data association

The Probabilistic Data Association (PDA) method, which is based on computing the posterior probability of each candidate measurement found in a validation gate, assumes that only one real target is present and all other measurements are Poisson-distributed clutter. In this paper, some new theoretical results are presented on the Joint Probabilistic Data Association (JPDA) algorithm, in which joint posterior probabilities are computed for multiple targets in Poisson clutter. The algorithm is applied to a passive sonar tracking problem wlth multiple sensors and targets, in which a target is not fully observable from a single sensor. Targets are modeled with four geographic states, two or more acoustic states, and realistic (i.e. low) probabilities of detection at each sample time. Simulation results are presented for two heavily interfering targets; these illustrate the dramatic improvements obtained by computing joint probabilities.
PSK optical homodyne detection using external cavity laser diodes in Costas loop

5-Gb/s optical PSK (phase-shift keying) homodyne detection experiments are discussed. In these experiments, the optical carrier is recovered by a Costas optical phase-locked loop using a multielectrode local oscillator (DFB) laser diode at 1.55 mu m with a flat FM response. Although the beat linewidth of 80 kHz is broad compared to the loops in other phase-locked loop (PLL) experiments, phase locking with Costas loop is confirmed at 5 Gb/s by increasing the loop natural frequency. The receiver sensitivity is -42.2 dBm or 93 photon/bit for a 2/sup 7/-1 pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) in front of a 90 degrees hydride. <<ETX>>
Immune responses against Marek's disease virus

Abstract It is more than a century since Marek's disease (MD) was first reported in chickens and since then there have been concerted efforts to better understand this disease, its causative agent and various approaches for control of this disease. Recently, there have been several outbreaks of the disease in various regions, due to the evolving nature of MD virus (MDV), which necessitates the implementation of improved prophylactic approaches. It is therefore essential to better understand the interactions between chickens and the virus. The chicken immune system is directly involved in controlling the entry and the spread of the virus. It employs two distinct but interrelated mechanisms to tackle viral invasion. Innate defense mechanisms comprise secretion of soluble factors as well as cells such as macrophages and natural killer cells as the first line of defense. These innate responses provide the adaptive arm of the immune system including antibody- and cell-mediated immune responses to be tailored more specifically against MDV. In addition to the immune system, genetic and epigenetic mechanisms contribute to the outcome of MDV infection in chickens. This review discusses our current understanding of immune responses elicited against MDV and genetic factors that contribute to the nature of the response.
The use of the tumour necrosis factor antagonist infliximab in heart transplant recipients: two case reports

Inflammatory cytokines, such as tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), have been implicated in the pathophysiology of heart failure, leading to the hypothesis that TNF inhibition might improve the symptoms of patients with moderate-to-severe cardiac symptoms. Recent data from the Anti-TNF Therapy Against Congestive Heart failure (ATTACH) pilot study, however, suggested that infliximab, a chimeric monoclonal antibody against TNF-α, not only failed to produce clinical benefits, but given at higher doses (10 mg/kg) was associated with a worsening of cardiac symptoms. Conversely, two large-scale trials, RECOVER and RENAISSANCE, examined the effects of infliximab and etanercept in over 2000 patients with heart failure, finding no …
Developing a Competency‐Based Educational Structure within Clinical and Translational Science

In the emerging field of clinical and translational science (CTS), where researchers use both basic and clinical science research methodologies to move discoveries to clinical practice, establishing standards of competence is essential for preparing physician–scientists for the profession and for defining the field. The diversity of skills needed to execute quality research within the field of CTS has heightened the importance of an educational process that requires learners to demonstrate competence. Particularly within the more applied clinical science disciplines where there is a multi‐ or interdisciplinary approach to conducting research, defining and articulating the unique role and associated competencies of a physician–scientist is necessary. This paper describes a systematic process for developing a competency‐based educational framework within a CTS graduate program at one institution.
A 65nm CMOS 282μW 915MHz direct conversion receiver front-end

This paper presents an inductorless ultra-low power radio receiver front-end intended for applications such as sensor networks and medical implants. It consists of low noise amplifier, quadrature mixer, and a frequency divider for the generation of quadrature local oscillator signals. The power consumption is just 282μW from a 0.9V supply when it operates in the 915 MHz ISM band It achieves a total gain of 30dB and a noise figure below 9dB. Manufactured in 65nm CMOS, the active area is 0.016mm2. In a 200Ω environment it achieves a −17dB S11 without any external matching network.
Myrsinoic acid B inhibits the production of hydrogen sulfide by periodontal pathogens in vitro

Recently, we reported that myrsinoic acid B purified from Myrsine seguinii inhibited methyl mercaptan (CH3SH) production by Fusobacterium nucleatum JCM8532. Since hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is the main component of physiological halitosis, while CH3SH is involved in pathological oral halitosis, the objective of this study is to determine whether myrsinoic acid B inhibits H2S production by oral microorganisms. F. nucleatum, Porphyromonas gingivalis and Treponema denticola were incubated with myrsinoic acid B and a substrate such as l-cysteine or l-methionine. H2S or CH3SH concentration in the headspace air, was determined using a gas chromatograph. The concentration of myrsinoic acid B inhibiting 50% (IC50) of H2S production by F. nucleatum was 0.142 µg ml−1, and the IC50 of P. gingivalis and T. denticola were 2.71 µg ml−1 and 28.9 µg ml−1, respectively. The presence of pyruvate, a by-product of H2S production, was determined. The IC50 values of myrsinoic acid B for pyruvate production were 22.9 µg ml−1 for F. nucleatum, 87.7 µg ml−1 for P. gingivalis and 165 µg ml−1 for T. denticola. We concluded that myrsinoic acid B inhibited the production of both H2S and pyruvate by periodontal pathogens.
Assessment of Spectral and Temporal Resolution in Cochlear Implant Users Using Psychoacoustic Discrimination and Speech Cue Categorization

Objectives: This study was conducted to measure auditory perception by cochlear implant users in the spectral and temporal domains, using tests of either categorization (using speech-based cues) or discrimination (using conventional psychoacoustic tests). The authors hypothesized that traditional nonlinguistic tests assessing spectral and temporal auditory resolution would correspond to speech-based measures assessing specific aspects of phonetic categorization assumed to depend on spectral and temporal auditory resolution. The authors further hypothesized that speech-based categorization performance would ultimately be a superior predictor of speech recognition performance, because of the fundamental nature of speech recognition as categorization. Design: Nineteen cochlear implant listeners and 10 listeners with normal hearing participated in a suite of tasks that included spectral ripple discrimination, temporal modulation detection, and syllable categorization, which was split into a spectral cue-based task (targeting the /ba/–/da/ contrast) and a timing cue-based task (targeting the /b/–/p/ and /d/–/t/ contrasts). Speech sounds were manipulated to contain specific spectral or temporal modulations (formant transitions or voice onset time, respectively) that could be categorized. Categorization responses were quantified using logistic regression to assess perceptual sensitivity to acoustic phonetic cues. Word recognition testing was also conducted for cochlear implant listeners. Results: Cochlear implant users were generally less successful at utilizing both spectral and temporal cues for categorization compared with listeners with normal hearing. For the cochlear implant listener group, spectral ripple discrimination was significantly correlated with the categorization of formant transitions; both were correlated with better word recognition. Temporal modulation detection using 100- and 10-Hz-modulated noise was not correlated either with the cochlear implant subjects’ categorization of voice onset time or with word recognition. Word recognition was correlated more closely with categorization of the controlled speech cues than with performance on the psychophysical discrimination tasks. Conclusions: When evaluating people with cochlear implants, controlled speech-based stimuli are feasible to use in tests of auditory cue categorization, to complement traditional measures of auditory discrimination. Stimuli based on specific speech cues correspond to counterpart nonlinguistic measures of discrimination, but potentially show better correspondence with speech perception more generally. The ubiquity of the spectral (formant transition) and temporal (voice onset time) stimulus dimensions across languages highlights the potential to use this testing approach even in cases where English is not the native language.
Morphological and Behavioral Evidence of Batesian Mimicry in Nestlings of a Lowland Amazonian Bird

Because predation is the main cause of avian nest failure, selection should favor strategies that reduce the probability of nest predation. We describe apparent Batesian mimicry in the morphology and behavior of a Laniocera hypopyrra nestling. On hatching, the nestling had a distinctive bright orange color and modified feathers all over its body, and 6 days after hatching, it started to move its head very slowly from side to side (in a “caterpillar” movement) when disturbed. These traits gave it a resemblance to a hairy, aposematic caterpillar. This species has a long nestling period for its size (20 days), perhaps due to slow provisioning rates (about one feeding per hour). We argue that the slow growth rate, combined with high nest predation, favors the evolution of antipredation mechanisms such as the unique morphological and behavioral characteristics of L. hypopyrra nestlings.
Organohalogen contaminants and reproductive hormones in incubating glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) from the Norwegian Arctic

Organohalogen contaminants detected globally in avian wildlife, including populations from the Arctic, have been related to various reproductive hormone potencies, and altered hormonal balance and functions. Besides legacy organochlorine (OC) substances, that is, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and OC pesticides and by‐products, endocrine‐disruptive properties have been defined for chemicals of new and emerging environmental concern, such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and metabolically derived products like methylsulfonyl (MeSO2)‐ and hydroxyl (OH)‐PCBs. We investigated the relationships between plasma concentrations of selected legacy OCs, PBDEs, and MeSO2‐ and OH‐PCB metabolites and the circulating reproductive hormones testosterone (T), 17β‐estradiol (E2), and progesterone (P4) in incubating male and female glaucous gulls (Larus hyperboreus) from the Norwegian Arctic. Principal component and regression analyses demonstrated that P4 levels in male glaucous gulls were associated positively with variations of sum (∑) PCB, dichloro‐diphenyl‐trichloroethane (∑DDT), chlordane (∑CHL), and ∑PBDE concentrations, which were the most recalcitrant organohalogens determined in glaucous gulls. No such relationship was found for female glaucous gulls as well as between concentrations of any of the selected organohalogens and levels of T for both sexes. The E2 was not detected in any plasma samples. Present results were highly suggestive that exposure to high organohalogen concentrations in glaucous gulls, particularly the most persistent compound classes, may have the potential to interfere with steroidogenesis and impinge on circulating P4 homeostasis. Because significant effects were found in males exclusively, it cannot be completely ruled out that male glaucous gulls are more sensitive than females to organohalogen‐mediated alteration of P4 synthesis and breakdown.
Nonlinear Model Predictive Control of a Depollution Bioprocess

This paper deals with the design of a nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) scheme for the regulation of the acetate concentration in a biomethanation process - wastewater biodegradation with production of methane gas that takes place inside a Continuous Stirred Tank Bioreactor. The NMPC control structure is based on the nonlinear model of the process whose parameters are identified using the distributions method. Minimization of the cost function is realised using the Levenberg- Marquardt numerical optimisation method. Some simulation results are given to illustrate the efficiency of the proposed control strategy.
Implementation of dynamic switching between one-to-many download methods

We discuss that dynamic switching between one-to-many download methods offers considerable performance advantages for one-to-many downloads; furthermore, we infer that the merging of unicast and multicast/broadcast approaches into a single transport protocol provides technical benefits for dynamic switching. Based on these observations, we present ongoing work on the implementation of our protocol for dynamic switching between one-to-many download methods. We introduce some of the finer solutions for the protocol, discuss its use of parity, and we highlight its realization within a Linux framework. Simulation shows the protocol to be an exciting and feasible solution for end-to-end downloads to large receiver sets, while analysis of the utilized coding technique shows it to be useful for downloads to wireless/mobile terminals.
Neuregulin Expression in PNS Neurons: Isoforms and Regulation by Target Interactions

Neuregulins have several important functions in the development of the peripheral nervous system, acting on both developing Schwann cells and muscle fibers. To determine whether these factors are also important for peripheral nerve regeneration, we have analyzed neuregulin expression in motor and sensory neurons by Northern blots and in situ hybridization. The results of this analysis show that the predominant neuregulin isoform expressed in these neurons is a novel transmembrane splice variant. After axotomy, there is a rapid decline in neuregulin expression in both motor and sensory neurons, but following reinnervation of target tissues, neuregulin expression returns to near normal levels. These results indicate that the normal expression of neuregulins in these neurons is maintained by the interactions with target tissues.
Does Auditory-Motor Learning of Speech Transfer from the CV Syllable to the CVCV Word?

Speech is often described as a sequence of units associating linguistic, sensory and motor representations. Is the connection between these representations preferentially maintained at a specific level in terms of a linguistic unit? In the present study, we contrasted the possibility of a link at the level of the syllable (CV) and the word (CVCV). We modified the production of the syllable /be/ in French speakers using an auditory-motor adaptation paradigm that consists of altering the speakers' auditory feedback. After stopping the perturbation, we studied to what extent this modification would transfer to the production of the disyllabic word /bebe/ and compared it to the after-effect on /be/. The results show that changes in /be/ transfer partially to /bebe/. The partial influence of the somatosensory and motor representations associated with the syllable on the production of the disyllabic word suggests that both units may contribute to the specification of the motor goals in speech sequences. In addition, the transfer occurs to a larger extent in the first syllable of /bebe/ than in the second one. It raises new questions about a possible interaction between the transfer of auditory-motor learning and serial control processes.
Frequency of Bicycle Commuting: Internet-Based Survey Analysis

An ordered-response model is used in this research to evaluate the factors that affect frequency of bicycle use for a person's commute to and from work. Data used were gathered during an original survey effort conducted over the Internet in 2002. Empirical results are presented, and policy implications of these results for urban planning are discussed. In addition, deterrents and facilitators of bicycle commuting as reported by respondents in the survey are descriptively analyzed. Several findings from this research contribute to the state of the knowledge in bicycle commuting. First, the availability of showers or clothing lockers at the work place does not appear to inspire bicycle commuters to commute by bicycle more frequently. Second, using a bicycle for nonwork trip purposes increases an individual's frequency of commuting by bicycle to work. Other important results indicate that nonbicycle commuters either have misconceptions about the dangers of bicycling or else they lack convenient, safe route options for bicycling to work. Practitioners can use the ordered-response model to estimate an individual bicycle commuter's frequency of commuting by bicycle. The results can also help practitioners estimate the effects on nonmotorized mode share of programs that compete for funds to provide bicycling safety education, bicycle parking, and promotion of bicycling.
HCV infection and the incidence of CKD.

BACKGROUND The risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection upon incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the presence of traditional risk factors and renal-modifying therapy is not well known. STUDY DESIGN National cohort study. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS HCV-infected and -uninfected veterans in ERCHIVES (Electronically Retrieved Cohort of HCV Infected Veterans) in 2001-2006. PREDICTOR HCV infection. OUTCOMES Incident CKD stages 3-5. RESULTS We identified 18,002 patients with HCV infection and 25,137 controls with estimated glomerular filtration rate >60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) at baseline. HCV-infected patients had a lower prevalence of several CKD risk factors, including diabetes (22.9% vs 26.6%), hypertension (52.4% vs 60.8%), and dyslipidemia (39.3% vs 73.9%; P < 0.001). HCV infection was associated with a higher risk of developing CKD stages 3-5 (HR, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.23-1.37). Increasing age, hypertension, and diabetes were associated with significantly higher risks of developing CKD in HCV-infected patients and controls. Decompensated liver disease was a strong predictor of CKD in HCV-infected patients (HR, 3.37; 95% CI, 3.10-3.66) and HCV-uninfected controls (HR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.84-2.25). In Kaplan-Meier analysis, HCV-infected persons had a shorter time to CKD. LIMITATIONS Lack of proteinuria data; small number of women. CONCLUSIONS HCV infection is associated with higher risk and shorter time to CKD despite having a lower prevalence of many CKD risk factors. HCV-infected persons should have targeted monitoring for the development and progression of CKD.