Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
BCSH guideline on the clinical use of apheresis procedures: new changes and future directions

The last BCSH Guideline relating to apheresis was published approximately 17 years ago (BCSH Joint Working Party of the Transfusion and Clinical Haematology Task Forces, 1998). The practice of clinical apheresis has become more widespread in the UK rather than remaining confined to a few highly focused units. Furthermore, such an increase in number and location of procedures has no doubt contributed to the observation that clinical apheresis has evolved into a subspecialty of its own (Weinstein, 2007). This new guideline (Howell et al., 2015) provides insight into the modern practice of clinical apheresis in the UK. The scope of the guideline is different from the now-archived 1998 guideline, in that it includes procedures performed on dialysis equipment (rather than just ‘cell separators’), and it provides specific information about the treatment of commonly encountered diseases that is of practical value for those delivering apheresis services. Topics include thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, sickle cell disease, extracorporeal photopheresis and lipoprotein apheresis. Detailed information is provided on the use of apheresis to collect cellular therapy products which will be especially useful given the trend of increasing allogeneic and autologous stem cell transplants over time, with 37 818 stem cell transplants being recorded with the European Society for Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation (EBMT, 2013). Key changes in the new guideline are summarised in Table 1. Since 1998, there is more evidence on which to base practice and modern, rigorous reviews of the indications for apheresis are available (Cortese et al., 2011; KDIGO Work Group, 2012; Schwartz et al., 2013). American Society for Apheresis (ASFA) guidance is detailed and extensive (Schwartz et al., 2013), taking an evidence-based approach to make recommendations on the indications for apheresis in an ordered list of fact sheets on different disorders. Other organisations have also produced guidelines that take an evidence-based approach to the indications for apheresis, although these are limited to illnesses within neurology (Cortese et al., 2011) and renal medicine (KDIGO Work Group, 2012).
Panic attacks and perception of inspiratory resistive loads in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

RATIONALE Panic attacks are common in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and the prevalence of panic disorder is at least 10 times higher than in the general population. In the current study, we examined resistive load perception in patients with COPD with and without panic attacks. OBJECTIVES We tested competing hypotheses, based on conflicting results of earlier studies, that those patients with COPD with panic attacks or panic disorder would show either heightened or blunted perception of dyspnea as the magnitude of inspiratory resistive loads increased. METHODS We compared 20 patients with COPD with panic attacks or panic disorder, 20 patients without panic, and 20 healthy, age-matched subjects using an inspiratory resistive load-testing protocol. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS We administered a diagnostic interview for panic attacks and panic disorder. We measured perceived dyspnea in response to increasing inspiratory resistive loads (modified Borg scale) and several respiratory variables. Dyspnea ratings increased linearly for all groups as the size of resistive loads increased. No significant differences were found between groups on the respiratory variables. Patients with COPD with panic attacks or panic disorder rated their level of dyspnea significantly higher than did other subjects. CONCLUSIONS Patients with COPD with panic attacks showed heightened sensitivity to inspiratory loads. The result reinforces the influence of psychological factors on symptom perception in this disease.
Desoxypodophyllotoxin, the cytotoxic principle of Callitris columellaris F. Muell.

An alcoholic extract of Callitris columellaris F. Muell was found to show significant inhibitory activity when tested in vitro against cells derived from human carcinoma of the naso-pharynx (KB). Systematic fractionation of the extract led to the isolation and characterization of desoxypodophyllotoxin as the active principle.
Korean Red Ginseng Slows Depletion of CD4 T Cells in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1-Infected Patients

ABSTRACT We have previously showed that long-term intake of Korean red ginseng (KRG) delayed disease progression in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1)-infected patients. In the present study, to investigate whether this slow progression was affected by KRG intake alone or in combination with HLA factor, we analyzed clinical data in 68 HIV-1-infected patients who lived for more than 5 years without antiretroviral therapy. The average KRG intake over 111.9 ± 31.3 months was 4,082 ± 3,928 g, and annual decrease in CD4 T cells was 35.0 ± 28.7/μl. Data analysis showed that there are significant inverse correlations between the HLA prognostic score (0.29 ± 1.19) and annual decrease in CD4 T cells (r = −0.347; P < 0.01) as well as between the amount of KRG intake and annual decrease in CD4 T cells (r = −0.379; P < 0.01). In addition, KRG intake significantly slowed the decrease in CD4 T cells even when influence of HLA class I was statistically eliminated (repeated-measure analysis of variance; P < 0.05). We also observed significant correlation between KRG intake and a decrease in serum-soluble CD8 antigen level (r = 0.62; P < 0.001). In conclusion, these data show that KRG intake independently and significantly affected the slow depletion of CD4 T cells irrespective of HLA class I.
Systematic Review of Peribulbar Anesthesia Versus Sub-Tenon Anesthesia for Cataract Surgery

AbstractCommonly used anesthetic techniques for cataract surgery include peribulbar and sub-Tenon anesthesia. This evidence-based review compares these techniques, with a particular focus on patient comfort, akinesia, and anesthetic complications. A systematic search of the literature revealed that there is a paucity of robust evidence comparing sub-Tenon and peribulbar anesthesia. Based on the best available evidence, there is no significant difference in the efficacy of peribulbar compared with sub-Tenon anesthesia for cataract surgery; however, the potential complications of peribulbar anesthesia are more serious.
Relationship between thermodynamics and dynamics of supercooled liquids.

Diffusivity, a measure for how rapidly a fluid self-mixes, shows an intimate, but seemingly fragmented, connection to thermodynamics. On one hand, the “configurational” contribution to entropy (related to the number of mechanically stable configurations that fluid molecules can adopt) has long been considered key for predicting supercooled liquid dynamics near the glass transition. On the other hand, the excess entropy (relative to ideal gas) provides a robust scaling for the diffusivity of fluids above the freezing point. Here we provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence that excess entropy also captures how supercooling a fluid modifies its diffusivity, suggesting that dynamics, from ideal gas to glass, is related to a single, standard thermodynamic quantity.
Low Level of Regulatory T Cells and Maintenance of Balance Between Regulatory T Cells and TH17 Cells in HIV-1–Infected Elite Controllers

Background:A subgroup of HIV-1-infected individuals, elite controllers, have spontaneous viral control and offer an exceptional opportunity to study virological and immunolocigal factors of possible involvement in control of HIV-1 infection. Methods:The frequencies of Tregs and TH17 cells was evaluated and correlated to markers of disease progression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 3 different groups of individuals infected with HIV-1: treatment-naive viremic individuals, individuals on successful highly active antiretroviral therapy, and elite controllers. In addition, a group of HIV-1-negative individuals were included. Results:We demonstrate that elite controllers have lower levels of Tregs compared with HIV-1-infected viremic individuals, but that the low Treg level does not differ between individuals with HIV-1 control, whether natural or therapy induced. We also show that T-cell activation and proliferation both correlate to the level of Tregs. Finally, the TH17/Treg ratio was similar in Elite Controllers and uninfected controls, whereas in viremic and treated HIV-1-infected individuals, the TH17/Treg ratio was lower compared with uninfected controls. Conclusions:We show that one feature of spontaneous HIV-1 control is a maintained balance between regulatory T cells and TH17 cells.
Bacillus subtilis 168 genetic transformation mediated by outgrowing spores: necessity for cell contact

Transforming activity released in sequential genetic order during the first synchronous cycle of DNA replication during outgrowth of spores of Bacillus subtilis 168 was investigated. A transformation assay was used consisting of outgrowing spores as DNA donors and multiply marked competent cells as recipients. DNA synthesis inhibitors known to stop DNA release were used during and subsequent to DNA transfer to recipient cells. The released DNA sedimented with the outgrowing cells after low-speed centrifugation, and it was discovered that markers released both early and late were resistant to up to 500 microgram of deoxyribonuclease per ml under conditions in which the transforming capacity of purified DNA was eliminated by 5 microgram of the nuclease per ml. Inaccessibility to deoxyribonuclease was increased and maintained during the transformation event while detergents and proteolytic attack did not expose the released chromosome to nuclease action. The results indicate that tight physical contact between outgrowing spores and competent cells is required for transformation in this system.
Influence of Emotions to pitch harmonics parameters of vowel /a/

People's coding and decoding of nonlinguistic speech attributes is usually subconscious with an enhanced psychological element and it brings spontaneousness, more information and beauty of speech act into the speech communication. Therefore, these attributes are extremely important within the human-machine speech communication. Emotions are definitely one of the most important nonlinguistic speech attributes. Each speaker's emotion forms vocal chords and vocal system that is acoustically shown through variations of the speech signal parameters. In this paper, the glottal speech during the pronouncing vowel /a/ has been analyzed. This is done by analyzing structure of pitch harmonics parameters for three emotional states: neutral, anger and speech under stress. The difference between structure pitch harmonics parameters of glottal speech is very informative about speaker's emotional state.
Comparison of three short forms of the Category Test.

The Category Test is a sensitive indicator of general cortical integrity, but requires an extremely long time for impaired subjects to complete. As a result, several authors have proposed abbreviated forms of the test. In this investigation, Study 1 compared three previously published short forms with the long form. Subjects were 100 consecutive adult referrals for neuropsychological assessment. Long-form protocols were rescored to yield the equivalent scores for the short forms. The 120-item short form appeared to be an excellent alternative to the long form. It correlated . 981 with the standard 208-item Category Test, and had a comparatively small standard error of estimate. Study 2 compared the process of problem-solving by 52 additional subjects on this short form with the process on the equivalent items of the rescored protocols used to obtain the correlations. The processes appeared very similar.
An Empirical Investigation of the Effect of Hard and Soft ICT Investment on Innovation Performance of Greek Firms

Firms have been making big investments in information and communication technologies (ICT) in the last twenty years. Therefore the investigation of their effect on various aspects of business performance is necessary. This paper presents an empirical investigation and comparison of the effects of hard and soft ICT investment, and also of four ‘traditional’ innovation drivers (demand expectation, price and non-price competition, market concentration), on the innovation performance of Greek firms. In particular, we examine from this perspective four different types of soft ICT investment in ICT structures, personnel, skills and processes. Our results indicate that while in the innovation averse Greek national context none of the examined traditional innovation drivers have a statistically significant impact on the innovation performance of Greek firms, both hard ICT investment, and three of the examined types of soft ICT investment, have such positive impacts. Our results provide empirical evidence that both hard and soft ICT investment can be strong drivers of innovation, even in such innovation averse contexts, in which the classical innovation drivers do not affect innovation
Space-time coding/decoding with adaptive transmit beamforming in semi-correlated MIMO wireless communication systems

Transmit diversity and space-time coding (STC) technology can achieve an optimal transmission and capacity increment in multi-input multi-output (MIMO) wireless communication systems. However, recent contributions have demonstrated that fading correlations destroy most of their advantages. How to combat the fading correlation is an interesting problem for multiple antenna systems. Extending the concept of transmit beamforming, our research uses multibeam forming correlation characteristics to overcome fading correlation in transmit diversity. Considering the case of having knowledge about the channel at the transmitter side, subspace based decoding is achieved at the receiver. The proposed scheme benefits from adaptive beamforming in achieving STC and obtains diversity gain on the forward link. It also offers an optimum transmission of power, a reduction in interference and an incensement of system capacity. Numerical simulations are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of this structure.
Computer Vision System for Automatic Counting of Planting Microsites Using UAV Imagery

Mechanical site preparation by mounding is often used by the forest industry to provide optimal growth conditions for tree seedlings. Prior to planting, an essential step consists in estimating the number of mounds at each planting block, which serves as planting microsites. This task often requires long and costly field surveys, implying several forestry workers to perform manual counting procedure. This paper addresses the problem of automating the counting process using computer vision and UAV imagery. We present a supervised detection-based counting framework for estimating the number of planting microsites on a mechanically prepared block. The system is trained offline to learn feature representations from semi-automatically annotated images. Mound detection and counting are then performed on multispectral UAV images captured at an altitude of 100 m. Our detection framework proceeds by generating region proposals based on local binary patterns (LBP) features extracted from near-infrared (NIR) patches. A convolutional neural network (CNN) is then used for classifying candidate regions by considering multispectral image data. To train and evaluate the proposed method, we constructed a new dataset by capturing aerial images from different planting blocks. The results demonstrate the efficiency and validity of the proposed method under challenging experimental conditions. The methods and results presented in this paper form a promising cornerstone to develop advanced decision support systems for planning planting operations.
Single-site mutations in the carboxyltransferase domain of plastid acetyl-CoA carboxylase confer resistance to grass-specific herbicides

Grass weed populations resistant to aryloxyphenoxypropionate (APP) and cyclohexanedione herbicides that inhibit acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase; EC 6.4.1.2) represent a major problem for sustainable agriculture. We investigated the molecular basis of resistance to ACCase-inhibiting herbicides for nine wild oat (Avena sterilis ssp. ludoviciana Durieu) populations from the northern grain-growing region of Australia. Five amino acid substitutions in plastid ACCase were correlated with herbicide resistance: Ile-1,781-Leu, Trp-1,999-Cys, Trp-2,027-Cys, Ile-2,041-Asn, and Asp-2,078-Gly (numbered according to the Alopecurus myosuroides plastid ACCase). An allele-specific PCR test was designed to determine the prevalence of these five mutations in wild oat populations suspected of harboring ACCase-related resistance with the result that, in most but not all cases, plant resistance was correlated with one (and only one) of the five mutations. We then showed, using a yeast gene-replacement system, that these single-site mutations also confer herbicide resistance to wheat plastid ACCase: Ile-1,781-Leu and Asp-2,078-Gly confer resistance to APPs and cyclohexanediones, Trp-2,027-Cys and Ile-2,041-Asn confer resistance to APPs, and Trp-1,999-Cys confers resistance only to fenoxaprop. These mutations are very likely to confer resistance to any grass weed species under selection imposed by the extensive agricultural use of the herbicides.
Treatment options for the overactive bladder syndrome

Urgency is the cornerstone symptom of overactive bladder (OAB) syndrome. It affects millions of people worldwide and has considerable effects on society. Most previous studies concentrated on urinary incontinence and it wasn’t until 2002, when the new definition of OAB was published, that interest in this condition began to increase. Unfortunately, the cause of OAB is not clearly established, thus all available treatments are aimed at alleviating symptoms rather than cure. Management is based on making an accurate diagnosis by excluding other pathologies and treating the symptoms conservatively and/or pharmacologically. Treatments are based on the assumption that OAB is due to involuntary detrusor contractions typical of detrusor overactivity. Antimuscarinic agents form the mainstay of medical therapy. There have been many recent developments in antimuscarinic drug therapy for OAB, which have gained more interest, particularly with the introduction of the term ‘bladder selectivity’, and it is hoped that t.
DAViLa - a Domain Adaptable Visual Language

We present a framework where different visual notations may be implemented to suit different domains. The major characteristic of DAViLa is that it provides a domain independent framework to programming, adding components of interest for specific domains. A domain adaptation is achieved through implementation of domain specific components, which are added to the framework. The semantics of the framework is based on Combilog, a compositional programming method for relational programs. In Combilog, programming semantically is composition of sets of tuples.
Effects of passive immunization of ewes against an inhibin-peptide on gonadotropin levels, ovulation rate, and prolificacy.

The experimental objectives were to determine whether injection of semi-purified (sp; ammonium sulfate-precipitated) and highly purified (hp; immunoaffinity-purified) ovine antibody (Ab) against an inhibin-peptide fragment (alpha-IF) before the preovulatory period would 1) stimulate FSH secretion in a dose-response manner, 2) induce an increase in ovulation rate, and 3) affect pregnancy rate and prolificacy (lambs born alive per ewe lambing). During the early breeding season, estrus was synchronized in 30 2-yr-old crossbred ewes through use of progesterone-releasing pessaries (CIDR-G). Two doses (330 and 660 laboratory reference preparation [RP-2] kU) of sp- and hp-alpha-IF-Ab were injected i.m. 48 h before CIDR-G removal (6 ewes per group). Six other ewes received control solution. Plasma alpha-IF-Ab titers peaked at 12 h postinjection. Plasma FSH levels were higher (p < 0.02) in alpha-IF-Ab-treated ewes than in control ewes from 12 to 24 h postimmunization. Magnitudes of FSH increases were similar in ewes administered sp- and hp-alpha-IF-Ab and were greater (p < 0.05) in ewes receiving 660 than in those receiving 330 RP-2 kU. Compared to control values, the higher alpha-IF-Ab dose increased FSH levels by 44 +/- 5% and the lower dose increased the levels by 22 +/- 3%. Plasma LH levels were similar among passively immunized and control sheep. Ovulation rate was increased (p < 0.0005) by alpha-IF-Ab treatment. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Acoustic admittance of organ pipe jets

The admittance of a turbulent jet as the generator in organ flue pipes was investigated experimentally with respect to the relevant parameters, that is, the frequency, the jet efflux velocity, the mouth end‐correction, and the jet tip deflection at the edge. First, an experiment was performed using a jet with a pulsating velocity to drive a pipe to isolate and identify the various drive mechanisms occurring in the jet‐pipe interaction. The two established drive mechanisms, momentum drive and volume drive, were found to be operating, but the relative proportion of momentum drive was greater than expected. Turning then to a typical flue pipe arrangement, as a preliminary experiment, the jet admittance in the pipe was shown to be independent of the jet tip deflection so long as the deflection was less than about 0.7 jet widths. This constant admittance regime was then used to facilitate measurement of the pipe excitation as a function of the three remaining parameters. The admittance magnitude and phase were.
Study of partial discharge radiated electromagnetic wave propagation characteristics in an actual 154 kV model GIS

A method to detect partial discharge (PD) is considered effective for gas insulated switchgear (GIS) insulation diagnostics. In this paper, for a 154 kV model GIS, the influence of the enclosure diameter on PD propagation characteristics was initially investigated using model GIS by varying the enclosure size. Secondly, an experiment was conducted for metallic particles placed in different locations as a source of PD (particle adhering to the center conductor or free metallic particle). Thirdly, an actual PD experiment was conducted in an Lshaped form to study the influence of GIS shape on PD-radiated electromagnetic (EM) waves. In addition, in order to study the experimental results in detail, a simulation using the FD-TD method was conducted for comparison with these experimental results. Following the experiment, the larger the enclosure diameter, the greater the measured amplitude of PD having occurred around the center conductor. In addition, it emerged that, where the particle was close to the center conductor, EM waves propagating due to PD were less likely to be damped compared with the case where particles were placed on the bottom of the enclosure. Furthermore, following the investigation of the propagation characteristics in the L-shaped form, it emerged that, while a high frequency component of frequency exceeding that of the TEM wave component was reflected at the L-shaped part, the TEM wave component passed through almost unaffected by the latter. The propagation of the TEM mode component could be also found via FD-TD analysis.