Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Commutation ou extinction de l'expression du BCR et impact sur la cellule B

Lors de la reconnaissance de leur antigene specifique, les lymphocytes B vont s’activer et interagir avec les autres cellules des organes lymphoides secondaires (cellules folliculaires dendritiques, lymphocytes T, …) pour former un centre germinatif ou le locus IgH va etre remanie afin d’accroitre l’affinite des immunoglobulines pour l’antigene (grâce a l’hypermutation somatique des regions variables (SHM) et de decliner l’activite effectrice des anticorps selon plusieurs types de fonction grâce a la commutation de classe des regions constantes ou « switch u CSR», afin d’eliminer selon diverses strategies l’antigene . Ces deux mecanismes sont inities par l’Activation Induced Deaminase (AID) qui cible l’ADN au niveau des cytosines pour les changer en uracile, aboutissant a des cassures simple brin ou double brin lorsque que les mesappariements sont proches les uns des autres.Il a ete montre qu’AID est capable de cibler la region regulatrice en 3’ du locus IgH au niveau de regions LS, action qui aboutit a la deletion complete des genes C du locus, a la perte de l’expression du BCR et a la mort cellulaire lors de la recombinaison suicide du locus (LSR). Dans notre etude, nous avons realise un modele knock-in du gene Cμ humain en aval de la derniere region LS dans le but de sauver les cellules B realisant la LSR sur les dernieres regions LS par l’expression d’un BCR humanise (modele LSR-μKI). Notre modele indique que l’insertion du gene Cμ humain en aval de l’element hs4 de la 3’RRpermet en effet de remplacer certaines recombinaisons LSR par un switch vers l’expression d’IgM humanisee », et module en outre qualitativement certains aspects de la reponse immunitaire humorale. Notre modele « rapporteur » de la LSR suggere aussi que l’evenement de LSR est un phenomene regule qui augmente avec l’activation B. L’etude ex vivo de cellules B issues du modele suggere que la LSR est possible lors d’une reponse T independante comme T dependante. Elle se montre aussi inductible par les ligands TLR4 mais non TLR9. L’etude du repertoire des IgM humaines indique une utilisation biaisee des familles de VH, avec notamment sur utilisation de la famille VH5murine, suggerant donc que l’incidence de la LSR varie avec la structure des regions variables du BCR et pourrait donc etre dependante de l’affinite contre des antigenes/ligands qui restent a caracteriser.
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) for chronic low-back pain.

BACKGROUND Chronic low-back pain (LBP) affects a significant proportion of the population. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was introduced more than 30 years ago as an adjunct to the pharmacological management of pain. However, despite its widespread use, the usefulness of TENS in chronic LBP is still controversial. OBJECTIVES The aim of this systematic review was to determine the effectiveness of TENS in the management of chronic LBP. SEARCH STRATEGY We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (Issue 2, 2005), MEDLINE, EMBASE and PEDro up to April 1, 2005. SELECTION CRITERIA Only randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) evaluating the effect of TENS on chronic LBP were included. Abstracts were excluded unless further data could be obtained from the authors. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two reviewers independently selected trials and extracted data using predetermined forms. Heterogeneity was tested with Cochrane's Q test. A fixed effect model was used throughout for calculating continuous variables, except where heterogeneity existed, in which case, a random effects model was used. Results are presented as weighted mean differences (WMD) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), where the difference between the treated and control groups was weighted by the inverse of the variance. Standardized mean differences (SMD) were calculated by dividing the difference between the treated and control by the baseline variance. SMD were used when different scales were used to measure the same concept. Dichotomous outcomes were analyzed with odds ratios. MAIN RESULTS The only two RCTs (175 patients) meeting eligibility criteria differed in study design, methodological quality, inclusion and exclusion criteria, type and method of TENS application, treatment schedule, co-interventions and final outcomes. In one RCT, TENS produced significantly greater pain relief than the placebo control. However, in the other RCT, no statistically significant differences between treatment and control groups were shown for multiple outcome measures. Pre-planned subgroup analyses, intended to examine the impact of different stimulation parameters, sites of TENS application, treatment durations and baseline patient characteristics were not possible due to the small number of included trials. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS There is inconsistent evidence to support the use of TENS as a single treatment in the management of chronic LBP. Larger, multi-center, randomized controlled trials are needed to better assess the true effectiveness of TENS. Special attention should be given to the risks and benefits of long-term use, which more appropriately addresses the realities of managing chronic low-back pain.
Toward a Better Understanding of Gait Changes With Age and Disablement: Neuromuscular Adaptation

MCGIBBON, C. A. Toward a better understanding of gait changes with age and disablement: Neuromuscular adaptation. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 102–108, 2003. Gait changes in the elderly, such as reduced step length and walking speed, are well documented but not well understood. This review explores the hypothesis that neuromuscular adaptations are a response to age-related impairments and play a key role in causing gait changes in the elderly, and that different neuromuscular adaptations may exist depending on the impairment and presence of comorbidities, such as knee arthritis.
Children's Productivity in the English Past Tense: The Role of Frequency, Phonology, and Neighborhood Structure

The productive use of English past tense morphology in school-aged children (N= 74; 3 years, 8 months to 13 years, 5 months) is explored using on elicited production task. Errors represented 20% of the responses overall. Virtually all of the children demonstrated productivity with regular (e.g., good) and irregular patterns (zero-marking, e.g., sit + sit; vowel-change, e.g., ride -+ rid). Overall frequency of errors decreased with age, yet the tendency for certain types of irregularizations increased in the older groups. Analyses across items indicated that all error types were predicted by combinations of item frequency, phonological chamcteristics of stems and past tense forms, and aspects of phonological past tense “neighborhoods. ” Contrary to “hybrid” or dual-mechanism models incorporating a phonologically-insensitive default mechanism (e.g., Prasada & Pinker, 1993), these results suggest that children’s productivity with regular and irregular patterns is consistent with a phonologically-based constraint satisfaction system similar to that implemented in connectionist models (Daugherty & Seidenberg, 1992; Plunkett 81 Marchman, 1991,1993).
The Expansion of G11.2–0.3, a Radio Composite Supernova Remnant

We compare recent observations of the supernova remnant G11.2-0.3 taken with the Very Large Array (VLA) during 2001-2002 with images from VLA archives (1984-1985) to detect and measure the amount of expansion that has occurred during 17 years. The bright, circular outer shell shows a mean expansion of 0.71% ± 0.15% and 0.50% ± 0.17%, from 20 and 6 cm data, respectively, which corresponds to a rate of 0. ″057 ± 0. ″012 yr-1 at 20 cm and 0. ″040 ± 0. ″013 yr-1 at 6 cm. From this result, we estimate the age of the remnant to be roughly between 960 and 3400 yr old, according to theoretical models of supernova evolution. This is highly inconsistent with the 24,000 yr characteristic age of PSR J1811-1925, located at the remnant's center, but rather is consistent with the time that has passed since the observation of the historical supernova of A.D. 386. We also predict that G11.2-0.3 is currently in a pre-Sedov evolutionary state and set constraints on the distance to the remnant based on Chandra X-ray spectral results.
The state of Illinois obstetric hemorrhage project: pre-project and post-training examination scores

Abstract Objective: The Illinois Department of Public Health mandated that all clinicians who provide care to obstetric patients participate in the Illinois Obstetric Hemorrhage Project. The aim of the current report is to describe change in knowledge among providers engaged in the project, as assessed by pre- and post-tests. Methods: The project, implemented 2008 to 2010, included four components: a written 25-item multiple-choice examination (pre-test), a didactic lecture, skill stations (for teaching blood loss estimation), and a simulation drill and debriefing. Participants completed a post-test 6 months later. Pre- and post-test examination scores were compared. Results: Data from 95 hospitals are included in this analysis (9456 paired test results). The proportion of participants who scored ≥88% correct answers increased from 10.9% on the pre-test to 49.1% on the post-test (p < 0.0001). Registered nurses made greater improvements in test scores than anesthesia and obstetric providers (p < 0.0001). Conclusions: The Illinois Obstetric Hemorrhage Project was successful in improving knowledge of obstetric hemorrhage in a large number of providers with different expertise and experience levels. Further long-term study is essential to determine whether the skills acquired during the Project contribute to improved obstetric hemorrhage outcomes for the women of Illinois.
Identification of Plant Precursor miRNAs using Structural Robustness and Secondary Structures Features

This work presents an identification tool for plant precursor miRNAs (pre-miRNAs) using structural robustness and derivative features which can improve performance in discriminating the plant pre-miRNAs from pseudo pre-miRNAs. The classification models were trained with plant pre-miRNAs and pseudo hairpins datasets from PlantMiRNAPred web site. The top 20 features were selected from four groups of features including sequence-based features, secondary structure features, base-pair features and a self-containment index score. In particular, the self-containment index score was found to be the highest informative feature among the 20 selected features. Ten-fold cross validation was applied to choose a classifier algorithm with the highest performance being among Support Vector Machine, Random Forest, Decision Tree, Naïve Bayes, K-nearest neighbor, Back-propagation Neural Network, Ripper and RBF network based on the ROC area and accuracy. The results demonstrated that the Random Forest model using 20 selected features achieved 97% accuracy and 94% sensitivity in test sets to discriminating real plant pre-miRNAs from others.
Blanket and flank sucking in Doberman Pinschers.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate blanket and flank sucking and any association with pica in Doberman Pinschers. DESIGN Survey and case-control study. ANIMALS 153 Doberman Pinschers (77 dogs with blanket or flank sucking and 76 unaffected dogs). PROCEDURES Owners of Doberman Pinschers with blanket sucking, flank sucking, or both were surveyed regarding the age of onset, triggers, frequency, duration, interruptability, and associated medical and behavioral consequences. A putative association of blanket sucking and flank sucking with pica was examined by comparison of affected dogs with unaffected dogs. RESULTS Apart from the difference in the object of oral activity between blanket and flank suckers, age of onset was the only variable that differed between dogs with the 2 conditions. Dogs with blanket or flank sucking had a higher prevalence of pica than the unaffected population. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Blanket and flank sucking are apparently related conditions that can occur with sufficient intensity to cause medical sequelae. These nonnutritive suckling behaviors share similarities with other canine compulsive disorders and are associated with pica. Veterinarians should advise owners that flank and blanket sucking are abnormal, potentially harmful behaviors in dogs. Treatment should be considered for severely affected dogs or when flank or blanket sucking is associated with medical problems.
Characterization of Two DNA Double-stranded Break Repair-deficient Cell Lines That Express Inactive DNA-dependent Protein Kinase Catalytic Subunits*

The DNA-dependent protein kinase (DNA-PK) is a trimeric enzyme consisting of a 460-kDa catalytic subunit (DNA-PKcs) and a heterodimeric regulatory complex called Ku, which is comprised of 70 (Ku70) and 86 (Ku80) kDa subunits. Mutations that affect the expression of the catalytic or Ku80 subunits of DNA-PK disrupt both V(D)J recombination and DNA double-stranded break repair pathways. In this report, we show that two previously uncharacterized rodent cell lines that are defective in DNA double-stranded break repair express catalytically inactive DNA-PK. The DNA-PKcs from the DNA double-stranded break repair mutant cell lines IRS-20 and SX-9 assembles on double-stranded DNA but fails to function as a protein kinase. In addition to the kinase defect, the abundance of the DNA-PKcs from both of these cell lines is reduced relative to wild-type controls. These results suggest that the DNA-PKcs gene from each of these cell lines contains mutations that inactivate the enzymatic activity and the expression or stability of the gene product. These data further strengthen the hypothesis that DNA-PK-mediated protein phosphorylation is a necessary component of the DNA double-stranded break repair pathway.
Cell identification using image analysis: A literature survey

Recent advances in microcopy and improvements in image processing algorithms have allowed the development of computer-assisted analytical approaches in cell identification. Several applications could be mentioned in this field: cellular phenotype identification, disease detection and treatment, identifying virus entry in cells and virus classification; these applications could help to complement the opinion of medical experts. Although many surveys have been presented in medical image analysis, they focus mainly in tissues and organs and none of the surveys about image cells consider an analysis following the stages in the typical image processing: segmentation, feature extraction and classification. The goal of this study is to provide comprehensive and critical analyses about the trends in each stage of cell image processing. In this paper we present a literature survey about cell identification using different image processing techniques.
Morphoquantitative Study of Rattus norvegicus Submucosal Plexus by Different Neuronal Evidentiation Histochemical Techniques

Enteric nervous plexuses have been the object of several studies, specially the myenteric plexus whose studies describe its organization, functions and alterations. On the other hand, the submucosal plexus has been less studied and still n eds descriptive studies. To analyze morphologically and quantitatively submucosal neurons of the jejunum of 90-day-old healthy rats using different techniques for neuronal staining as a way to provide normality data to compare with future experimental studies. Whol e mount preparations of the jejunum were submitted to Giemsa, NADH-diaphorase and NADPH-diaphorase techniques to stain the total neuron al population, more metabolically active subpopulation and subpopulation of nitrergic neurons, respectively. Neurons of the submuc osal plexus of adult rats are mainly organized in ganglia with varied sized and shapes. Giemsa technique stained 243.93 ± 7.68 neurons per mm2. Regarding the total population stained by Giemsa, NADHdiaphorase positive (139.09 ± 11.14/mm2) neurons represented 57 % and NADPH-diaphorase positive (18.17 ± 0.28/mm2) represented 7.5 %. The area of the cell body was bigger in nitrergic neurons (412.29 ± 150.22) than in the ones stained by Giemsa (254.71 ± 63.32) and NADH-diaphorase positive (243.98 ± 123.82).
Object-oriented change detection based on weighted polarimetric scattering differences on POLSAR images

For wide application of change detection with SAR imagery, current processing technologies and methods are mostly based on pixels. It is difficult for pixel-based technologies to utilize spatial characteristics of images and topological relations of objects. Object-oriented technology takes objects as processing unit, which takes advantage of the shape and texture information of image. It can greatly improve the efficiency and reliability of change detection. Recently, with the development of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR), more backscattering features on different polarization state can be available for usage of object-oriented change detection study. In this paper, the object-oriented strategy will be employed. Considering the fact that the different target or target's state behaves different backscattering characteristics dependent on polarization state, an object-oriented change detection method that based on weighted polarimetric scattering difference of PolSAR images is proposed. The method operates on the objects generated by generalized statistical region merging (GSRM) segmentation processing. The merit of GSRM method is that image segmentation is executed on polarimetric coherence matrix, which takes full advantages of polarimetric backscattering features. And then, the measurement of polarimetric scattering difference is constructed by combining the correlation of covariance matrix and the difference of scattering power. Through analysing the effects of the covariance matrix correlation and the scattering echo power difference on the polarimetric scattering difference, the weighted method is used to balance the influences caused by the two parts, so that more reasonable weights can be chosen to decrease the false alarm rate. The effectiveness of the algorithm that proposed in this letter is tested by detection of the growth of crops with two different temporal radarsat-2 fully PolSAR data. First, objects are produced by GSRM algorithm based on the coherent matrix in the pre-processing. Then, the corresponding patches are extracted in two temporal images to measure the differences of objects. To detect changes of patches, a difference map is created by means of weighted polarization scattering difference. Finally, the result of change detection can be obtained by threshold determining. The experiments show that this approach is feasible and effective, and a reasonable choice of weights can improve the detection accuracy significantly.
A 2D-mapping strategy based on line segment extraction

This paper presents a strategy for a 2D-map building process for indoor environments. The strategy is conformed by two main processes: a line extraction phase based on a modified version of the Incremental algorithm, followed by a merging phase that grouped the extracted lines which represents the same real structure. This strategy is oriented for a sensory system configuration conformed by a set of range sensors. No a priori knowledge about the shape, or the number of the structures of the environment is necessary. The resulting map is a line-based representation in a global reference, without being necessary a previous construction of a local representation of the environment. The implemented algorithm is tested in both, simulated and real environments, with a robot platform equipped with a sensory system composed by 24 ultrasonic sensors in a ring configuration. Results show the viability of the proposed strategy.
Atomic polarization relaxation time measurement of Rb filled hypocycloidal core shape Kagome HC-PCF

We measured atomic polarization relaxation-time in PDMS coated and uncoated rubidium-loaded hypocycloidal-core Kagome HC-PCF. The measured relaxation-times of 32μs and 24μs in PDMS coated and uncoated fibers are longer two-orders-of-magnitude than the wall-collision-limited relaxation time.
Single-Donor Islet Transplantation and Long-term Insulin Independence in Select Patients With Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Background Islet transplantation is a recognized treatment option for select patients with type I diabetes mellitus. However, islet infusions from multiple donors are often required to achieve insulin independence. Ideally, insulin independence would be achieved routinely with only a single donor. Identification of factors associated with insulin independence after single-donor islet transplantation may help to select recipient-donor combinations with the highest probability of success. Methods Subjects undergoing islet transplantation at a single center (Edmonton, Canada) between March 1999 and August 2013 were included. Recipient, donor, and transplant characteristics were collected and compared between recipients who became insulin independent after one islet transplantation and those who did not. Results Thirty-one patients achieved insulin independence after a single-donor islet transplantation, and 149 did not. Long-term insulin-free survival was not different between the groups. Factors significantly associated with single-donor success included recipient age, insulin requirement at baseline, donor weight, donor body mass index, islet transplant mass, and peritransplant heparin and insulin administration. On multivariate analysis, pretransplantation daily insulin requirements, the use of peritransplantation heparin and insulin infusions, and islet transplant mass remained significant. Conclusion We have identified clinically relevant differences defining the achievement of insulin independence after single-donor transplantation. Based on these differences, a preoperative insulin requirement of less than 0.6 U/kg per day and receiving more than 5,646 islet equivalents (IEQ)/kg have a sensitivity of 84% and 71% and specificity of 50% and 50%, respectively, for insulin independence after single-donor islet transplantation. With ideal patient selection, this finding could potentially increase single-donor transplantation success and may be especially relevant for presensitized subjects or those who may subsequently require renal replacement.
Effects of Experimental Manipulations of Salinity and Maturation Status on the Physiological Condition and Mortality of Homing Adult Sockeye Salmon Held in a Laboratory

Relatively little is known about the physiological response and mortality consequences of the return of anadromous fish to freshwater (FW). We explored the consequences of the return to FW by collecting maturing sockeye salmon from the marine waters off the mouth of the Fraser River and holding ∼50 sockeye in each of five treatments: saltwater (SW; salinity = 28 ppt), iso‐osmotic water (ISO; 13 ppt), FW (0 ppt), SW + gonadotropin‐releasing hormone (SW + GnRH), and FW + GnRH. Exogenous GnRH treatments were intended to accelerate maturation. Results demonstrate that gill Na+,K+ ATPase activity, sex steroid concentrations, and cortisol levels were highly responsive to experimental manipulations and followed predicted trajectories (i.e., FW + GnRH sockeye were the most mature and FW adapted). There were few among‐treatment differences in hematocrit and plasma concentrations of lactate, glucose, Na+, Cl−, and plasma osmolality among sockeye that survived to the end of treatments, indicating that sockeye rigorously maintain internal homeostatic conditions while alive. There were large among‐treatment differences in mortality (SW + GnRH > SW > FW + GnRH > FW = ISO ), and each treatment experienced a notable increase in mortality rate around the fifth day of treatment. Our results indicate that salinity represented a modestly larger challenge to the experimental sockeye than did the artificially accelerated sexual maturation. Our results also suggest that maturing sockeye either successfully acclimate to FW within 5 d of exposure or perish. These findings are consistent with the predictions of the theory of anadromy, in suggesting that the return of adults to FW can be physiologically challenging and can represent a period of significant natural mortality.