Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Results of autologous stem cell transplant in multiple myeloma patients with renal failure

Data are presented on 81 multiple myeloma (MM) patients with renal failure (creatinine > 176·8 μmol/l) at the time of autologous stem cell transplantation (auto‐SCT), including 38 patients on dialysis. The median age was 53 years (range: 29–69) and 26% had received more than 12 months of prior chemotherapy. CD34+ cells were mobilized with granulocyte colony‐stimulating factor (G‐CSF) alone (n = 51) or chemotherapy plus G‐CSF (n = 27), yielding medians of 10 and 16 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg respectively (P = 0·003). Sixty patients (27 on dialysis) received melphalan 200 mg/m2 (MEL‐200). Because of excessive toxicity, the subsequent 21 patients (11 on dialysis) received MEL 140 mg/m2 (MEL‐140). Thirty‐one patients (38%) completed tandem auto‐SCT, including 11 on dialysis. Treatment‐related mortality (TRM) was 6% and 13% after the first and second auto‐SCT. Median times to absolute neutrophil count (ANC) > 0·5 × 109/l and to platelets > 50 × 109/l were 11 and 41 d respectively. Non‐haematological toxicities included mucositis, pneumonitis, dysrhythmias and encephalopathy. At a median follow up of 31 months, 30 patients have died. Complete remission (CR) was achieved in 21 patients (26%) after first SCT and 31 patients (38%) after tandem SCT. Two patients discontinued dialysis after SCT. Median durations of complete remission (CR) and overall survival (OS) have not been reached; probabilities of event‐free survival (EFS) and OS at 3 years were 48% and 55% respectively. Dialysis dependence and MEL dose did not affect EFS or OS. Sensitive disease prior to SCT, normal albumin level and younger age were independent prognostic factors for better OS. In conclusion, renal failure had no impact on the quality of stem cell collections and did not affect engraftment. MEL‐140 had an acceptable toxicity and appeared equally effective as MEL‐200. In the setting of renal failure, the role of auto‐SCT early in the disease course and benefits of tandem SCT require further evaluation.
A randomized clinical trial of efficacy and safety of the topical clonidine and capsaicin in the treatment of painful diabetic neuropathy

Background: Incomplete efficiency of oral medications restricts their therapeutic success in pain control of the painful form of the diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN). Use of topical medications because of less systemic side effects is more acceptable. This study aimed to compare the effect of clonidine gel and capsaicin cream in relieving pain associated with DPN. Materials and Methods: This 12-week, randomized, double-blind and parallel-group trial was conducted to compare the efficacy and safety of topical clonidine and capsaicin. Totally, 139 patients with type 2 diabetes with a pain score of at least 4 as assessed by visual analog scale (VAS), were treated for up to 3 months. The endpoint of the study was the reduction in the median pain score from baseline, as assessed by the VAS at the 4 weekly follow-up visits. Results: The intention-to-treat population for the efficacy analysis consists of 69 patients receiving clonidine and 70 patients receiving capsaicin. Both drugs significantly relieved pain at 12 weeks (P < 0.001 for both) but no significant difference in the efficacy between the two treatments was observed (P = 0.931). Dermatologic complications were more common in capsaicin group (P = 0.001). Conclusion: The results of this study showed the comparable efficacy of clonidine gel in comparison with capsaicin cream in the treatment of pain due to DPN with less adverse events. More studies are required to better evaluate the efficacy and safety of this topical compound for relieving pain in DPN.
Sind Innovationen beschäftigungswirksam

Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt Ergebnisse von mikrookonometrischen Untersuchungen vor, die mit Daten des ifo Unternehmenspanels durchgefuhrt wurden und Beschaftigungswirkungen von Produkt- und Prozesinnovationen empirisch belegen. Die Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, das von Produktinnovationen positive Beschaftigungswirkungen ausgehen. Auch bei Prozesinnovationen kann kein Beschaftigungsruckgang festgestellt werden. Zudem ist oftmals eine erfolgreiche Produktinnovation ohne gleichzeitige Prozesinnovation nicht moglich. Der arbeitssparende technische Fortschritt stellt daher nur einen Teilaspekt von Prozesinnovationen dar.
Does mitochondrial dysfunction during antiretroviral therapy in human immunodeficiency virus infection suggest antioxidant supplementation as a beneficial option?

Abstract Over the last few years, a relative decline of the morbidity and mortality of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in industrialised countries has been observed due to the use of a potent combined therapy known as high active antiretroviral therapies (HAARTs). It has led to a decrease of viral load and a quantitative and qualitative improvement of immune function in patients, especially CD4+ T-lymphocyte count, having as a consequence a decrease of infectious complications and a global clinical improvement. Besides the positive effects of HAARTs on immune and metabolic alterations during HIV infection, it has been reported that the commonly used drugs AZT, ddI, and ddC are toxic to hepatocytes. Recent reports continue to point to the mitochondria as targets for toxicity. The prevalence of these symptoms is continued during acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The effects of oxidative stress occurring as a consequence of mitochondrial toxicity may amplify some of the pathophysiological and phenotypic events during infection. Mitochondrial stabilisation and antioxidative strategies are possible new therapeutic aims since the antiretroviral treatment is prolonged with increased longevity from AIDS, which has become a more manageable chronic illness. The aim of the present review article is to summarize the current knowledge about mitochondrial dysfunction during HAART and its consequence for patients with chronic treatment. Oxidative stress may serve as one pathway for cellular damage in AIDS and its treatment. One important future goal is to prevent or attenuate the side effects of HAART so that improved disease management can be achieved.
A Preliminary Investigation of the Role of the Phenylalynine:Tyrosine Ratio in Children With Early and Continuously Treated Phenylketonuria: Toward Identification of “Safe” Levels

Children with early and continuously treated phenylketonuria (ECT-PKU) remain at risk of developing executive function (EF) deficits. There is some evidence that a high phenylalanine to tyrosine ratio (phe:tyr) is more strongly associated with impaired EF development than high phenylalanine alone. This study examined EF in a sample of 11 adolescents against concurrent and historical levels of phenylalanine, phe:tyr, and tyrosine. Lifetime measures of phe:tyr were more strongly associated with EF than phenylalanine-only measures. Children with a lifetime phe:tyr less than 6 demonstrated normal EF, whereas children who had a lifetime phe:tyr above 6, on average, demonstrated clinically impaired EF.
A 2.75 Gb/s CMOS clock recovery circuit with broad capture range

A dual-loop PLL clock-recovery circuit uses a digital search algorithm to increase capture range with no external reference. A 0.25 /spl mu/m CMOS circuit has 350 MHz capture range around 2.7 GHz, and 5.1 ps rms jitter consuming 50 mW from 2.7 V.
Evolutionary analysis and interaction prediction for protein-protein interaction network in geometric space

Prediction of protein-protein interaction (PPI) remains a central task in systems biology. With more PPIs identified, forming PPI networks, it has become feasible and also imperative to study PPIs at the network level, such as evolutionary analysis of the networks, for better understanding of PPI networks and for more accurate prediction of pairwise PPIs by leveraging the information gained at the network level. In this work we developed a novel method that enables us to incorporate evolutionary information into geometric space to improve PPI prediction, which in turn can be used to select and evaluate various evolutionary models. The method is tested with cross-validation using human PPI network and yeast PPI network data. The results show that the accuracy of PPI prediction measured by ROC score is increased by up to 14.6%, as compared to a baseline without using evolutionary information. The results also indicate that our modified evolutionary model DANEOsf—combining a gene duplication/neofunctionalization model and scale-free model—has a better fitness and prediction efficacy for these two PPI networks. The improved PPI prediction performance may suggest that our DANEOsf evolutionary model can uncover the underlying evolutionary mechanism for these two PPI networks better than other tested models. Consequently, of particular importance is that our method offers an effective way to select evolutionary models that best capture the underlying evolutionary mechanisms, evaluating the fitness of evolutionary models from the perspective of PPI prediction on real PPI networks.
Gate Failures Effectively Shape Multiplexing

This paper investigates the behavior of multiplexing (MUX) schemes in combination with the elementary gates. The two schemes under investigation are majority (MAJ) and NAND MUX. The simulation results presented here are for single-electron technology, but could easily be extended to CMOS. The components of the gates have been subjected only to geometric variations. Firstly, the gates and the two MUX schemes are analyzed theoretically. Secondly, simulations using probability transfer matrices (PTM) allow evaluating both MUX schemes at a redundancy factor R = 6. Finally, the gates are compared in terms of their intrinsic probability of failure (with respect to geometric variations), and the two MUX schemes are weighted against the reliability enhancements they are bringing into the system. By comparing the simulation results from PTM with the ones based on (geometric) variations, this study gives deeper insights into the behavior of MUX schemes, and show that the gates play a major role, strongly affecting MUX systems
Glucosamine-induced Insulin Resistance in 3T3-L1 Adipocytes Is Caused by Depletion of Intracellular ATP*

Glucosamine, which enters the hexosamine pathway downstream of the rate-limiting step, has been routinely used to mimic the insulin resistance caused by high glucose and insulin. We investigated the effect of glucosamine on insulin-stimulated glucose transport in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. The Δ-insulin (insulin-stimulated minus basal) value for 2-deoxyglucose uptake was dramatically inhibited with increasing concentrations of glucosamine with an ED50 of 1.95 mm. Subcellular fractionation experiments demonstrated that reduction in insulin-stimulated 2-deoxyglucose uptake by glucosamine was due to an inhibition of translocation of both Glut 1 and Glut 4 from the low density microsomes (LDM) to the plasma membrane. Analysis of the insulin signaling cascade revealed that glucosamine impaired insulin receptor autophosphorylation, insulin receptor substrate (IRS-1) phosphorylation, IRS-1-associated PI 3-kinase activity in the LDM, and AKT-1 activation by insulin. Measurement of intracellular ATP demonstrated that the effects of glucosamine were highly correlated with its ability to reduce ATP levels. Reduction of intracellular ATP using azide inhibited Glut 1 and Glut 4 translocation from the LDM to the plasma membrane, insulin receptor autophosphorylation, and IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation. Additionally, both the reduction in intracellular ATP and the effects on insulin action caused by glucosamine could be prevented by the addition of inosine, which served as an alternative energy source in the medium. We conclude that direct administration of glucosamine can rapidly lower cellular ATP levels and affect insulin action in fat cells by mechanisms independent of increased intracellular UDP-N-acetylhexosamines and that increased metabolism of glucose via the hexosamine pathway may not represent the mechanism of glucose toxicity in fat cells.
Adhesion molecules in endometrial epithelium: tissue integrity and embryo implantation

Cell adhesion in endometrial epithelium is regulated to maintain the continuity and protectiveness of the luminal covering cell layer while permitting interstitial implantation of the embryo during a restricted period of about 4 days. Many apparently normal embryos fail to implant, and epithelial‐embryo adhesion remains a poorly understood phenomenon. After menstruation, epithelial regeneration occurs by epiboly from the basal residues of glands, an activity that requires migration on extracellular matrix as well as cell–cell cohesion. Here we review current knowledge of adhesion molecules in the epithelium.
Production pasture versus exercise and recreation pasture for cows in automatic milking systems

In an automatic milking unit, a daytime grazing system with production pasture (group P) was compared with offering cows a small grass-covered paddock only for exercise and recreation, i.e. exercise pasture (group E). Two experiments (Exp1 and Exp2) were performed during 12 and 5 weeks with 53 cows and 42 cows, respectively. Group P was offered new pasture daily with night-time access to grass silage ad libitum (Exp1) or in restricted amounts (Exp2). Group E was offered exercise pasture and silage ad libitum during 24 (Exp1) or 16 hours (Exp2) daily. In Exp1, group P had significantly (P<0.05) higher daily milk yield (+1.6 kg Energy Corrected Milk) than group E and daily silage intake in groups P and E was 9.8 and 12.2 kg dry matter (DM) per cow, respectively. In Exp2, cows in group P had similar milk yield to cows in group E and daily silage intake was 6.2 and 11.5 kg DM in group P and E, respectively. These results show that it is possible to achieve either higher milk yield (Exp1) or considerably lower intake of supplementary silage (Exp2) on production pasture compared with exercise pasture.
Analysis of feasibility and safety of complete video-assisted thoracoscopic resection of anatomic pulmonary segments under non-intubated anesthesia.

OBJECTIVE To explore the feasibility and safety of complete video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (C-VATS) under non-intubated anesthesia for the resection of anatomic pulmonary segments in the treatment of early lung cancer (T1N0M0), benign lung diseases and lung metastases. METHODS The clinical data of patients undergoing resection of anatomic pulmonary segments using C-VATS under non-intubated anesthesia in the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University from July 2011 to November 2013 were retrospectively analyzed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of this technique. RESULTS The procedures were successfully completed in 15 patients, including four men and eleven women. The average age was 47 [21-74] years. There were ten patients with adenocarcinoma, one with pulmonary metastases, and four with benign lung lesions. The resected sites included: right upper apical segment, two; right lower dorsal segment, one; right lower basal segment, two; left upper lingular segment, three; left upper apical segment, one; left upper anterior apical segment, two; left upper posterior segment, one; left lower basal segment, one; left upper posterior and apical segments, one; and left upper anterior and apical segments plus wedge resection of the posterior segment, one. One case had intraoperative bleeding, which was controlled with thoracoscopic operation and no blood transfusion was required. No thoracotomy or perioperative death was noted. Two patients had postoperative bleeding without the need for blood transfusions, and were cured and discharged. The pathologic stage for all patients with primary lung cancer was IA. After 4-19 months of follow-up, no tumor recurrence and metastasis was found. The overall mean operative length was 166 minutes (range 65-285 minutes), mean blood loss 75 mL (range 5-1,450 mL), mean postoperative chest drainage 294 mL (range 0-1,165 mL), mean chest drainage time 2 days (range 0-5 days), and mean postoperative hospital stay 5 days (range 3-8 days). CONCLUSIONS Complete video-assisted throacoscopic segmentectomy under anesthesia without endotracheal intubation is a safe and feasible technique that can be used to treat a selected group of IA patients with primary lung cancer, lung metastases and benign diseases.
Stat 1 associates with c-kit and is activated in response to stem cell factor

Interaction of stem cell factor (SCF), a haematopoietic growth factor, with the receptor tyrosine kinase c-kit leads to autophosphorylation of c-kit as well as tyrosine phosphorylation of various substrates. Little is known about the role of the JAK}STAT pathway in signal transduction via receptor tyrosine kinases, although this pathway has been well characterized in cytokine receptor signal transduction. We recently found that the Janus kinase Jak2 associates with c-kit and that SCF induces rapid and transient phosphorylation of Jak2. Here we present evidence that SCF activates the transcription factor Stat1. Phosphorylated c-kit co-immunoprecipitates with Stat1 within 1 min of SCF stimulation of the human cell line MO7e. Coprecipitation experiments using glutathione S-transferase fusion
A case of acute kidney injury from crystal nephropathy secondary to pomalidomide and levofloxacin use

Pomalidomide is an analog of thalidomide with immunomodulatory, anti-angiogenic, and anti-neoplastic activity indicated for the treatment of multiple myeloma refractory to at least two prior therapies. The incidence for renal failure was <5% in a single phase II study of pomalidomide and dexamethasone in patients with multiple myeloma that failed both lenalidomide and bortezomib therapy. We report a case suggesting crystal nephropathy as the mechanism for acute kidney injury in pomalidomide and fluoroquinolone use.
Structural and dynamical correlations in PfHGXPRT oligomers: A molecular dynamics simulation study

PfHGXPRT is a key enzyme involved in purine nucleotide salvage pathway of the malarial parasite, Plasmodium falciparum. Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations have been performed on two types of PfHGXPRT dimers (D1 and D3) and its tetramer in their apo and ligand-bound states. A significant event in the catalytic cycle is the dynamics of a gate that provides access for the ligand molecules to the reaction center. The gate is formed by loops II and IV, the former being the most flexible. Large amplitude conformational changes have been observed in active site loop II. Upon complete occupancy of the active site, loop II gets stabilized due to specific interactions between its residues and the ligand molecules. Remote loop, X, is seen to be less fluxional in the D3 dimer than in D1 which is rationalized as due to the greater number of inter-subunit contacts in the former. The presence of ligand molecules in subunits of the tetramer further reduces the flexibility of loop X epitomizing a communication between this region and the active sites in the tetramer. These observations are in accordance with the outcomes of several experimental investigations. Participation of loop X in the oligomerization process has also been discerned. Between the two types of dimers in solution, D1 tetramerizes readily and thus would not be present as free dimers. We conjecture an equilibrium to exist between D3 and the tetramer in solution; upon binding of the ligand molecules to the D3 dimer, this equilibrium shifts toward the tetramer.
Towards High Quality Mobile Services for Senior Citizens in Smart Living Environments

The aging of our society presents a range of challenges to housing providers. With the advanced mobile technologies we are now able to develop quality mobile services to help senior citizens' daily lives in dedicated smart living environments. This paper presents a systematic approach to design and develop mobile services which meet the needs of senior citizens. The quality function deployment (QFD) approach was first adopted to translate quality requirements for mobile services to technical (design) requirements for design purpose. Two most important design requirements were identified in the QFD process and they are the need for emergency service and the need for good tele healthcare provider. An architecture is then proposed to incorporate the two most important design requirements. The concept of wireless information device (WID) is integrated into the architecture to enhance service mobility, personalization and security. The pros and cons of the QFD approach as well as the architecture were discussed and future work is outlined at the end of the paper. This paper contributes to the design and development of high quality mobile services for senior citizens in smart living environments.
Dynamic DC-bus voltage control strategies for a three-phase high power shunt active power filter

Shunt Active Power Filters (SAPF) have been proved to be an effective approach to eliminate harmonic current in power grids. The DC voltage control during dynamic processes is critical for the safe and performance of the SAPF. In this paper, soft startup and impact suppression techniques are proposed to guarantee no voltage overshoots or sags in DC bus during startup and other dynamic processes. Subsequently, a novel controller for DC bus voltage regulation is put forward according to the small signal model based on the instantaneous power balance in AC and DC sides of three-phase SAPF. With good compensation effects, the proposed voltage loop controller has improved dynamic performances greatly compared with traditional PI controllers as loads change. Finally, simulation and experimental results from a 260kVA prototype verify the feasibility of the proposed techniques and control strategies.
Equivalence of Relational Algebra and Relational Calculus Query Languages Having Aggregate Functions

Aggregate functtons m relattonal query languages allow intricate reports to be written. In this paper aggregate functions are precisely defined The definition does not use the notion of "duphcates. " gelattonal algebra and relattonal calculus are extended m a general and natural fashton to include aggregate functions It is shown that the languages so extended have eqmvalent expressive power
5GHz low power CMOS LC VCO for IEEE 802.11a application

A low power CMOS LC Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) with body-biasing and Q-enhancement techniques is presented. This circuit was taped out by TSMC 0.18um 1P6M process. The measurement result of the VCO oscillation frequency range is from 4.92GHz to 5.7GHz, the tuning range of 14.7%. and the dc core current consumption is 1.78mA at a supply voltage of 1.4 V. The measured phase noise is −118dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset at the operation frequency of 4.94GHz. It achieves figure of merit (FOM) is −188.6dBc/Hz.