Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Seliciclib (CYC202, R-Roscovitine) on Lymphocyte Alloreactivity and Acute Kidney Allograft Rejection in Rat

Background. T cell stimulation by alloantigens is followed by cell cycle progression, an event that is critically dependent on cyclin-dependent kinases. Methods. We conducted a study to evaluate whether the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor seliciclib affected rat lymph node cells (LNc) activation and proliferation induced by either concanavalin A or allogeneic splenocytes in vitro and studied the mechanisms underlying the suppressive effect. We also investigated the immunosuppressive properties of seliciclib in vivo. Results. Seliciclib completely inhibited in vitro proliferation of LNc and CD8+ T cells, in response to either concanavalin A or allogeneic splenocytes. The percentage of activated LNc was lower in mixed leukocyte reactions (MLR) added with seliciclib than in MLR added with vehicle. The percentages of viable and apoptotic cells at the end of MLR with seliciclib were comparable to those of MLR with vehicle. LNc pre-exposed in MLR to seliciclib did not respond to further stimulation with alloantigens, and neither IL-2 nor IL-15 restored proliferation. These data indicate that the inhibitory effect of seliciclib on T cell alloreactivity is not because of cytotoxic effect but is associated with induction of profound T cell anergy. LNc harvested at the end of the primary MLR with seliciclib did not suppress the proliferation of syngeneic LNc cells toward allogeneic splenocytes, thus excluding that seliciclib induced the formation of regulatory cells. Finally, seliciclib partially prolonged grafted animal survival in a rat model of fully major histocompatibility complex-mismatched kidney transplantation. Conclusions. Altogether these results document that seliciclib regulates lymphocyte reactivity and may exert an immunosuppressive effect in vivo in the setting of transplantation.
Myocardial performance index during rapidly changing loading conditions: impact of different tidal ventilation

Background and objectives: The myocardial performance index is a non‐geometric, heart rate‐independent echocardiography‐derived index of left ventricular performance combining systolic and diastolic function. There is an ongoing debate whether the myocardial performance index is affected by preload or not. Moreover, a systematic evaluation of the effect of changing tidal volume ventilation on the myocardial performance index is still lacking. The aim of our study was to assess whether acute changes in preload and/or different depth of tidal volume ventilation affect the myocardial performance index. Methods: In all, 14 anesthetized pigs (35 ± 2 kg) were studied during changing tidal volumes (VT 5, 10 and 15 mL kg−1) at baseline, after removal of 500 cm3 of blood (haemorrhage) and after retransfusion of shed blood plus additional 500 cm3 6% hydroxyethyl starch (fluid loading). Echocardiographic measurements at each experimental stage included myocardial performance index, left ventricular end‐diastolic area and fractional area change. Central venous pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, cardiac output and stroke volume index were obtained by a pulmonary artery catheter. Global end‐diastolic volume was obtained by transpulmonary thermodilution. Results: Comparing different loading conditions, we found significant changes in cardiac output, stroke volume index, central venous pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, global end diastolic volume and left ventricular end‐diastolic area, indicating clinically relevant changes in preload. In the haemorrhage group, there was a significant reduction in the myocardial performance index (P < 0.05) independent of tidal volume applied and this was reversed after fluid loading. However, myocardial performance index was significantly impaired (P < 0.05) by high tidal volume ventilation (15 mL kg−1), while tidal volumes of 5 and 10 mL kg−1 had no effect. Conclusions: The myocardial performance index is largely dependent on changes in preload. Moreover, high tidal volume ventilation significantly impaired the myocardial performance index.
Approche fonctionnelle générique des méthodes de segmentation d'images

La segmentation d'image est une operation de traitement d'image de bas niveau qui consiste a localiser dans une image les regions (ensembles de pixels) appartenant a une meme structure (objets ou scene images). Cette operation est a la base de nombreuses applications tant en vision industrielle, qu'en imagerie medicale. De nombreuses recherches ont eu lieu dans le passe sur les methodes de segmentation. Il en resulte un tres grand nombre de methodes dont la comparaison, soit en terme de structure soit en terme de performance, est tres difficile. L'objectif de cette these est de proposer une nouvelle vision de la segmentation d'images basee sur un modele fonctionnel (MF) original. Ce modele qui decrit la segmentation en termes de fonctions, se presente sous la forme d'un operateur de segmentation (OS). L'OS est compose de cinq blocs elementaires enchaines au cours d'un processus iteratif qui correspond au processus de segmentation. Ce modele fonctionnel unifie les methodes de segmentation sous un formalisme commun et permet une meilleure comprehension de ces methodes. En effet, la decomposition avec la meme logique de techniques de segmentation (simple ou complexe) a priori totalement differentes a ete obtenue et implantee. Cela a permis de montrer la genericite du modele propose et son utilite pour la structuration, la comparaison et l'implantation logicielle des nombreuses methodes de segmentation. Ces decompositions qui ont conduit a un certain nombre de blocs fonctionnels independants, ont servi a la realisation d'un logiciel modulaire denomme GenSeg. Ce logiciel peut aider a terme a construire de nouvelles techniques de segmentation.
Severe Maternal Morbidity and the Use of Assisted Reproductive Technology in Massachusetts

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether risk of severe maternal morbidity at delivery differed for women who conceived using assisted reproductive technology (ART), those with indicators of subfertility but no ART (“subfertile”), and those who had neither ART nor subfertility (“fertile”). METHODS: This retrospective cohort study was part of the larger Massachusetts Outcomes Study of Assisted Reproductive Technology. To construct the Massachusetts Outcomes Study of Assisted Reproductive Technology database and identify ART deliveries, we linked ART treatment records to birth certificates and maternal and infant hospitalization records occurring in Massachusetts between 2004 and 2010. An algorithm of International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification diagnosis and procedure codes identified severe maternal morbidity. We used logistic generalized estimating equations to estimate odds of severe maternal morbidity associated with fertility status, adjusting for maternal demographic and health factors and gestational age, stratifying on plurality and method of delivery. RESULTS: The prevalence of severe maternal morbidity among this population (n=458,918) was 1.16%. The overall, crude prevalences of severe maternal morbidity among fertile, subfertile, and ART deliveries were 1.09%, 1.44%, and 3.14%, respectively. The most common indicator of severe maternal morbidity was blood transfusion. In multivariable analyses, among singletons, ART was associated with increased odds of severe maternal morbidity compared with both fertile (vaginal: adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.78–2.88; cesarean: adjusted OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.40–1.98, respectively) and subfertile (vaginal: adjusted OR 1.97, 95% CI 1.30–3.00; cesarean: adjusted OR 1.75, 95% CI 1.30–2.35, respectively) deliveries. Among twins, only cesarean ART deliveries had significantly greater severe maternal morbidity compared with cesarean fertile deliveries (adjusted OR 1.48, 95% CI 1.14–1.93). CONCLUSION: Women who conceive through ART may have elevated risk of severe maternal morbidity at delivery, largely indicated by blood transfusion, even when compared with a subfertile population. Further research should elucidate mechanisms underlying this risk.
Expression of heat shock protein-70 by dendritic cells in the arterial intima and its potential significance in atherogenesis.

OBJECTIVE Overexpression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) is an important means of cell protection during physiologic stress such as occurs during atherogenesis. Immune responses are early events in atherosclerosis, with recent studies indicating that both humoral and cellular autoimmune processes in atherogenesis are directed toward HSPs. Dendritic cells are the key cells in the initiation and regulation of immune responses. This study examined whether HSP70 is overexpressed by dendritic cells in atherosclerotic lesions. METHODS Twenty-six carotid artery and 16 aortic specimens obtained at endarterectomy and aortic reconstruction were examined with immunohistochemical techniques. The nature of cells that overexpressed HSP70 was studied in consecutive sections that were double stained with antibodies to HSP70 and cell type-specific markers, including CD1a and fascin (to identify dendritic cells), CD14 (monocytes), CD68 (macrophages), CD3 (T cells), CD15 (mast cells), von Willibrand factor (endothelial cells), and alpha-smooth muscle actin (smooth muscle cells). Staining with HLA-DR and CD1d was used to identify cells involved in antigen presentation. RESULTS In advanced atherosclerotic lesions, several cell types, including monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, and smooth muscle cells, overexpressed HSP70. In contrast, in early atherosclerotic lesions, only dendritic cells overexpressed HSP70. Dendritic cells that overexpressed HSP70 frequently contacted T cells and also expressed HLA-DR. Furthermore, dendritic cells that clustered with T cells expressed CD1d, a unique molecule responsible for presenting lipid antigens. CONCLUSION The results suggest that direct contacts between activated dendritic cells that overexpress HSP70 and T cells might be responsible for T cell activation and might facilitate the presentation of lipid antigens to T cells directly within the arterial wall. In early intimal lesions, HSP70 is overexpressed exclusively by dendritic cells, which suggests that dendritic cells might be involved in the early phases of atherogenesis.
Meetings in a distributed group of experts: Comparing face-to-face, chat and collaborative virtual environments

This paper focuses on Collaborative Virtual Environments, and their potential to support work meetings for geographically distributed experts. The research question concerns the difference between face-to-face-, chat-, and CVE- meetings with regard to efficiency, communication process, problems with the technology, enjoyment and competence development. A small group of experts were observed during their natural work meetings. Six of the groups scheduled meetings were held three times in a chat environment and three times in a CVE. Results suggests that chat and CVE meetings are experienced as more task oriented than face-to-face meetings, and that avatars support turn taking and are enjoyable.
Intra- and inter-species transmission and antigenic difference of Pneumocystis carinii derived from rat and mouse.

Pneumocystis carinii (Pc) derived from nude mice (MPc) and hypercorticonized rats (RPc) was subjected to transmission experiments via intranasal (i.n.) route into athymic nu/nu mice (BALB/c background) and run/rnu rats (Rowett hooded strain) and their euthymic heterozygotes rnu/+ rats. Although all these recipient animals received intensive cortisone treatment, MPc propagated only in nu/nu mice. In contrast, RPc strains from three different sources were transmitted successfully to both rats and mice irrespective of their athymicity. The MPc strain could not be transmitted to the other three rat strains used. When RPc organisms were successively propagated in nu/nu mice they lost their pathogenicity to rats after five passages. An antigenic difference between MPc and RPc was suggested by cross reaction of rabbit-raised antiMPc and antiRPc sera against MPc and RPc organisms. An absorption experiment of the sera with both MPc and RPc revealed cross reactivity as well as specific reactivity. The mouse passaged RPc seemed to change the antigenic characteristic to that of MPc.
Home rehabilitation after hip fracture. A randomized controlled study on balance confidence, physical function and everyday activities

Objective: To investigate whether home rehabilitation can improve balance confidence, physical function and daily activity level compared to conventional care in the early phase after hip fracture. Design: A randomized controlled study. Setting: Geriatric rehabilitation clinic. Subjects: One hundred and two community-dwelling elderly people. Interventions: A geriatric, multiprofessional home rehabilitation programme focused on supported discharge, independence in daily activities, and enhancing physical activity and confidence in performing daily activities was compared with conventional care in which no structured rehabilitation after discharge was included. Main measures: Falls efficacy, degree of dependency and frequency in daily activities, habitual physical activity and basic functional performance. Results: When comparing status one month after discharge with baseline, the home rehabilitation group showed a higher degree of recovery in self-care (P<0.0001), mobility (P = 0.002), locomotion (P = 0.0036) and domestic activities (P = 0.0098), as well as larger increase in balance confidence on stairs (P = 0.0018) and instrumental activities (mean increase home rehabilitation 19.7 and conventional care 7.1, P<0.0001) compared with the conventional care group. At one month, a majority of the home rehabilitation participants (88%) took outdoor walks, compared with less than half (46%) of the conventional care group (P<0.001) and were also more independent in outdoor activities (P = 0.0014). Conclusions: This study indicates that home rehabilitation, focused on supported discharge and enhancing self-efficacy, improves balance confidence, independence and physical activity in community-dwelling older adults in the early phase after hip fracture.
A Framework for Web Services Security Policy Negotiation

In today’s business environment, the use of web services technology is becoming more popular. This growth has been met with an increase of security related attacks, which has caused web services providers to adopt stricter security policies. As not all web service consumers can implement the security requirements of web services providers, they may turn to use the services of other providers. In order to address this problem, this paper introduces a framework for a web services security policy negotiation system that web services consumers and providers can use to negotiate a customised security contract. The framework is defined over current web services technology, to be used by business-to-business (B2B) web services collaborations. The inflexibility of current security policy specification languages for negotiation is overcome, by incorporating human intuitiveness supported by an intelligent negotiation support system.
A single phase active filter as a harmonic compensator

This paper presents the design and implementation of a single-phase parallel active filter for harmonic compensation. The idea of the work is to optimize the processed power by the active single-phase filter restricting the compensation only to harmonic currents without processing the linear reactive one. The linear reactive current can be compensated by capacitors, since this method is extremely widespread and efficient for this type of compensation. It is made a comparison study of processed power by a conventional active power filter compensating the entirely reactive power and another compensating only the harmonic contents. It is presented the control methodology employed, the power circuit design and the results obtained through a 500VA experimental prototype.
Wide Band Circularly Polarized Dielectric Resonator Antenna With Stair-Shaped Slot Excitation

A singly-fed wideband circularly polarized dielectric resonator antenna is proposed in this communication. Antenna structure contains a rectangular and two half split cylindrical dielectric resonators. Multiple orthogonal modes are excited in the antenna structure when excitation is applied through a stair-shaped slot. Measured results show that antenna provides wider 3-dB axial ratio and impedance bandwidths of 41.01% and 49.67%, respectively. Proposed antenna can be utilized in C-band applications.
Comparison of the efficacies of amphotericin B, fluconazole, and itraconazole against a systemic Candida albicans infection in normal and neutropenic mice

We compared the efficacies of the new triazole antifungal drugs fluconazole and itraconazole with that of amphotericin B in vitro and in an animal model of systemic candidiasis in normal and neutropenic mice. Antifungal treatment with fluconazole (2.5 to 20 mg/kg orally twice daily), itraconazole (10 to 40 mg/kg orally twice daily), or amphotericin B (0.1 to 4 mg/kg intraperitoneally once daily) was started 1 day after intravenous injection of 10(4) Candida albicans into normal mice or 10(3) C. albicans into neutropenic mice; the drugs were administered for 2 days. In normal mice the efficacy of treatment, which was assessed on the basis of the number of C. albicans cultured from the kidney, was greater for amphotericin B than for the triazoles. Fluconazole was more potent than itraconazole on the basis of equivalent doses, although itraconazole was more potent on the basis of the amount of free drug that was available. In neutropenic mice amphotericin B was less effective than it was in normal mice, whereas the triazoles were equally effective in normal and neutropenic mice. This was not expected, since in vitro data showed that amphotericin B was highly fungicidal, whereas both fluconazole and itraconazole had only a minimal effect on the growth of C. albicans in vitro.
Robust exponential modeling of audio signals

We present a numerically robust method for modeling audio signals which is based on a exponential data model. This model is a generalization of the classical sinusoidal model in the sense that it allows the amplitude of the sinusoids to evolve exponentially. We show that, using this model, so called attacks can be represented very efficiently and we propose an algorithm for finding the exponentials in a robust way. Moreover, we show that by using a proper segmentation of the input data into variable length segments the signal-to-noise ratio can be drastically improved as compared to a fixed-length analysis.
Distribution of thermophilic marine sulfate reducers in north sea oil field waters and oil reservoirs

The distribution of thermophilic marine sulfate reducers in produced oil reservoir waters from the Gullfaks oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea was investigated by using enrichment cultures and genus-specific fluorescent antibodies produced against the genera Archaeoglobus, Desulfotomaculum, and Thermodesulforhabdus. The thermophilic marine sulfate reducers in this environment could mainly be classified as species belonging to the genera Archaeoglobus and Thermodesulforhabdus. In addition, some unidentified sulfate reducers were present. Culturable thermophilic Desulfotomaculum strains were not detected. Specific strains of thermophilic sulfate reducers inhabited different parts of the oil reservoir. No correlation between the duration of seawater injection and the numbers of thermophilic sulfate reducers in the produced waters was observed. Neither was there any correlation between the concentration of hydrogen sulfide and the numbers of thermophilic sulfate reducers. The results indicate that thermophilic and hyperthermophilic sulfate reducers are indigenous to North Sea oil field reservoirs and that they belong to a deep subterranean biosphere.
Mechanism of Chaperone Function in Small Heat-shock Proteins

To further develop the mechanistic understanding of small heat-shock protein (sHSP) chaperone activity, we investigate the nature of the intermediate states recognized by α-crystallin and the conformations that are stably bound. The model substrates consist of a set of well characterized, destabilized T4 Lysozyme (T4L) mutants that have been shown to differentially bind α-crystallin in a manner that reflects their free-energy of unfolding. A new approach for the detection of complex formation is introduced based on the conformational sensitivity of the fluorescent probe bimane, site-specifically introduced in T4L. Emission spectra of bimane-labeled T4L reveal two distinct patterns of intensity changes upon binding that depend on the molar ratio of α-crystallin to T4L. This directly demonstrates the two-mode nature of the binding process by the α-crystallins. Biphasic binding isotherms, obtained and analyzed over a wide range of T4L concentrations, demonstrate a substantially quenched bimane fluorescence in the low affinity-bound T4L that is similar to the quenching level observed due to denaturant unfolding. Furthermore, the pattern of intensity changes that occur upon binding of a T4L variant, bimane-labeled at an alternative solvent-exposed site, establishes a direct correlation between the quenching level observed in binding and unfolding. The results can be interpreted in terms of a model where α-crystallin binds at least two conformationally distinct non-native states of T4L, one of which is substantially unfolded and is bound with low affinity. A high affinity binding mode to compact states may be relevant to chaperone function in the lens, where protein damage is unlikely to cause global unfolding.
Frugal and reverse innovation - Literature overview and case study insights from a German MNC in India and China

As the world is shifting its attention towards emerging giants like India and China, the big Western multinational companies [MNCs] are trying to get their foothold in this market. Instead of customizing the western world products to local markets, these companies are increasingly developing products from scratch for the local consumers. They are engaging in frugal & reverse innovations, by developing affordable products and solutions with “good enough” functionalities and minimum frills, and later on, introducing them to the developed countries. This paper focuses on how multinational corporations [MNCs] are establishing themselves in the emerging markets and their innovation strategies. The paper initially differentiates between frugal & reverse innovation and goes on to analyze the practices of a German MNC. The paper concludes that end to end localization, core value identification & a healthy portfolio mix of both kinds of innovations is necessary for success in emerging markets.
Plasticity in spinal opioid control of lower urinary tract function in paraplegic cats.

Spinal cord injury disrupts micturition reflexes, which produces morbidity. The contribution of endogenous opioid systems to urinary retention were assessed in chronic spinal cats by administering the opioid receptor antagonist, naloxone (5-500 micrograms kg-1, i.p.), to unanesthetized paraplegic cats while monitoring lower urinary tract function and observing hind limb reflexes. While naloxone had no overt effect in acute spinal cats, in chronic spinal cats naloxone induced the release of large volumes of urine and produced marked hind limb hyper-reflexia. Prominent tachyphylaxis and tolerance to the effects of naloxone were evident. Immunohistochemical studies indicated a marked increase in leucine enkephalin and dynorphin in sacral spinal neurons. Together, these data indicate hyperactivity of the endogenous spinal opioid system following recovery from spinal cord injury and, furthermore, suggest that the spinal neural circuitry may become 'dependent' upon elevated levels of endogenous opioid peptides.