Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nucleotide sequences of chimpanzee MHC class I alleles: evidence for trans‐species mode of evolution.

To obtain an insight into the evolutionary origin of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I polymorphism, a cDNA library was prepared from a heterozygous chimpanzee cell line expressing MHC class I molecules crossreacting with allele‐specific HLA‐A11 antibodies. The library was screened with human class I locus‐specific DNA probes, and clones encoding both alleles at the A and B loci have been identified and sequenced. In addition, the sequences of two HLA‐A11 subtypes differing by a single nucleotide substitution have been obtained. The comparison of chimpanzee and human sequences revealed a close similarity (up to 98.5%). The chimpanzee A locus alleles showed greatest similarity to the human HLA‐A11/A3 family of alleles, one of them being very close to HLA‐A11. Similarly, segments of the ChLA‐B alleles displayed greatest similarity to certain HLA‐B alleles. The calculated evolutionary branch point for the A11‐like alleles is 7 x 10(6) to 9 x 10(6) years, whereas the other A locus alleles diverged between 12 x 10(6) and 17 x 10(6) years ago. Since the human and chimpanzee lineages separated 5 x 10(6) to 7 x 10(6) years ago, our data support the notion that during evolution, MHC alleles are transmitted from one species to the next.
Postoperative administration of dienogest plus estradiol valerate versus levonorgestrel‐releasing intrauterine device for prevention of pain relapse and disease recurrence in endometriosis patients

In recent years, both dienogest, a fourth‐generation progestin, and levonorgestrel‐releasing intrauterine device have been found to be effective in terms of endometriosis‐related pelvic pain improvement. No data, however, are available about their efficacy in terms of postoperative recurrence prevention in women recently submitted to surgery for endometriosis at every stage. Our objective was to compare two postoperative medical approaches for pain control and reduction of recurrences in patients undergoing surgery for endometriosis.
An uncontrolled phase II study evaluating anti-tumor efficacy and safety of ortataxel (BAY 59-8862) in patients with taxane-resistant non-small cell lung cancer.

7136 Background: Ortataxel is a novel second-generation taxane, with potent growth inhibitory activity against human cell lines that express P-glycoprotein 170. Compared to paclitaxel and docetaxel, it is 20-30 times more potent as a growth inhibitory agent against human breast and colon tumor cell lines expressing P-gp 170. Ortataxel is also active in NSCL tumor xenografts. Based on these preclinical and additional phase I data, this phase II study was initiated to assess the safety and efficacy (response rate) of Ortataxel in patients (pts) with taxane-resistant NSCLC. METHODS Ortataxel was administered IV over 60 min every 3 wks at a dose of 75 mg/m2. Pts with taxane resistant NSCLC, with at least one measurable lesion, ECOG score 0, 1, or 2, adequate hematology and biochemistry, and no more than 2 prior anticancer chemotherapy regimens were eligible. Taxane resistance was defined as PD during treatment (Rx) or within 6 months of Rx with a prior taxane. The protocol was amended to include pts with brain metastases (BM). RESULTS 98 pts were enrolled. Clean data is available for the first 65 pts: 25 F, 40M; median age 60 (38 - 77); ECOG 0/1/2 - 19/37/9 respectively; prior chemo regimens: 0 (0 pt.), 1 (29 pts.), 2 (34 pts.), 3 (2 pts. received Iressa as 3rd regimen). Median number of cycles administered: 2 (1-11). 89% (58) pts received >90% planned dose intensity. Common drug related non-hematological toxicities included: fatigue 25(38%), nausea 19(29%), myalgia 18(27%), sensory neuropathy 17(26%), vomiting 15(23%), constipation 14(21%), diarrhea 11(17%), arthralgia 10(15%), alopecia 9(13%), stomatitis/pharyngitis 9(13%). Hematologic toxicities seen: G 3-4 neutropenia 49%, G3-4 anemia 7%. 4(6%) pts (without BM) had a PR, 25(38%) pts had SD, 31(48%) pts had PD. 5 pts were not evaluable (missing post baseline evaluations due to consent withdrawal in 2 pts and AE's in 3 pts). CONCLUSION Four investigator-confirmed partial responses to Ortataxel were documented in this trial so far. An independent review is underway. The study continues to enroll only pts with BM in order to assess the drug in this subset of patients. [Table: see text].
Effect of n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation in pregnancy on infants’ allergies in first year of life: randomised controlled trial

Objective To determine whether dietary n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) supplementation of pregnant women with a fetus at high risk of allergic disease reduces immunoglobulin E associated eczema or food allergy at 1 year of age. Design Follow-up of infants at high hereditary risk of allergic disease in the Docosahexaenoic Acid to Optimise Mother Infant Outcome (DOMInO) randomised controlled trial. Setting Adelaide, South Australia. Participants 706 infants at high hereditary risk of developing allergic disease whose mothers were participating in the DOMInO trial. Interventions The intervention group (n=368) was randomly allocated to receive fish oil capsules (providing 900 mg of n-3 LCPUFA daily) from 21 weeks’ gestation until birth; the control group (n=338) received matched vegetable oil capsules without n-3 LCPUFA. Main outcome measure Immunoglobulin E associated allergic disease (eczema or food allergy with sensitisation) at 1 year of age. Results No differences were seen in the overall percentage of infants with immunoglobulin E associated allergic disease between the n-3 LCPUFA and control groups (32/368 (9%) v 43/338 (13%); unadjusted relative risk 0.68, 95% confidence interval 0.43 to 1.05, P=0.08; adjusted relative risk 0.70, 0.45 to 1.09, P=0.12), although the percentage of infants diagnosed as having atopic eczema (that is, eczema with associated sensitisation) was lower in the n-3 LCPUFA group (26/368 (7%) v 39/338 (12%); unadjusted relative risk 0.61, 0.38 to 0.98, P=0.04; adjusted relative risk 0.64, 0.40 to 1.02, P=0.06). Fewer infants were sensitised to egg in the n-3 LCPUFA group (34/368 (9%) v 52/338 (15%); unadjusted relative risk 0.61, 0.40 to 0.91, P=0.02; adjusted relative risk 0.62, 0.41 to 0.93, P=0.02), but no difference between groups in immunoglobulin E associated food allergy was seen. Conclusion n-3 LCPUFA supplementation in pregnancy did not reduce the overall incidence of immunoglobulin E associated allergies in the first year of life, although atopic eczema and egg sensitisation were lower. Longer term follow-up is needed to determine if supplementation has an effect on respiratory allergic diseases and aeroallergen sensitisation in childhood. Trial registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12610000735055 (DOMInO trial: ACTRN12605000569606).
Combining Semantic and Prior Polarity for Boosting Twitter Sentiment Analysis

Twitter sentiment analysis offers organizations an ability to monitor public feeling towards the products and events related to them in real time. Most existing researches for Twitter sentiment analysis are focused on the extraction of sentiment feature of lexical and syntactic feature that are expressed explicitly through words, emoticons, exclamation marks etc, although sentiment implicitly expressed via latent contextual semantic relations, dependencies among words in tweets are ignored. In this paper, we introduce distributed representation of sentence that can capture co-occurrence statistics and contextual semantic relations of words in tweets, and represent a tweet via a fixed size feature vector. We used the feature vector as sentence semantic feature for the tweet. We combined semantic feature, prior polarity score feature and n-grams feature as sentiment feature set of tweets, and incorporated the feature set into Support Vector Machines(SVM) model training and predicting sentiment classification label. We used six Twitter datasets in our evaluation and compared the performance against n-grams model baseline. Results show the superior performance of our method in accuracy sentiment classification.
A THz Detector Chip With Printed Circular Cavity as Package and Enhancement of Antenna Gain

A terahertz (THz) detector chip with a low-cost printed circular cavity package is proposed in this article. The chip consists of a differentially fed antenna and a Schottky diode at its terminal. The passive structure of the Schottky diode is modeled into the antenna. To improve its performance, the detectenna (detector + antenna) chip is designed so that it can be mounted on the upper side of a Duroid substrate with a metal strip ring surrounding the chip. The ring is connected to the ground plane on the bottom of the substrate by vias to form a circular cavity. With the so-called circular cavity package, the radiation pattern of the antenna on the chip is not only converted from omnidirectional to unidirectional, but also with its surface wave well suppressed, the directivity of the antenna can increase, and hence improve its sensitivity. With this cavity, the isolation between adjacent elements can also be improved if it is used to build an array. The measured results show that a gain enhancement of 5.4-7.7 dB can be achieved within the operating bandwidth. The maximum sensitivity is 563 V/(W/mm2) and the minimum noise equivalent power density (NEPD) is 1.2(pW/mm2)/(Hz)1/2 at 216 GHz.
Direct Cerebrovasodilatory Effects of Halothane, Isoflurane, and Desflurane during Propofol‐induced Isoelectric Electroencephalogram in Humans

Background The effect of volatile anesthetics on cerebral blood flow depends on the balance between the agent's direct vasodilatory action and the indirect vasoconstrictive action mediated by flow‐metabolism coupling. To compare the intrinsic action of volatile anesthetics, the effect of halothane, isoflurane, and desflurane on flow velocity in the middle cerebral artery during propofol‐induced isoelectricity of the electroencephalogram was examined.
Capacity building in nutrition science: revisiting the curricula for medical professionals

The current nutrition education curricula for students in U.S. medical schools, and schools of other health professions, such as nursing and oral health, do not provide enough opportunity to gain knowledge of the interactions among micro‐ and macronutrients, their role in maintaining optimal body functions, factors that interfere with these interactions, or, importantly, how to integrate this knowledge into medical practice. There is a need to better prepare healthcare professionals for identifying nutrition risk and managing hospitalized patients, especially those with chronic conditions, using an interprofessional, team‐based approach. A major goal of this report is to revisit current nutrition training programs for physicians and other healthcare professionals in order to explore opportunities for providing healthcare providers with the essential tools of preventative and therapeutic nutrition intervention strategies. The issues addressed include whether a consensus exists on how to integrate basic and applied nutrition into the general healthcare professional curriculum, and if so, at which stages of training and at what depth should these integrations occur; how nutrition education is dealt with and achieved throughout all the health professions; and whether current nutrition education models are sufficient. To help address these issues, the report will review current nutrition education practices—their strengths and weaknesses—as well as evaluate promising new initiatives, and offer proposals for new directions for nutrition education training of future generation of medical practitioners.
Analysis of a built-in test architecture for direct-conversion SiGe millimeter-wave receiver frontends

This paper presents an architecture and corresponding analysis of a direct built-in test of integrated millimeter-wave radar receiver frontends. The proposed test is able to evaluate the gain of the device as well as its noise figure. Focus of this work is the prediction of the accuracy of the tested performance parameters during the design of embedded test solutions. The introduced architecture provides an advantage for cost-efficent development of next generation multigigahertz receiver frontends. The proposed test system is theoretically analyzed as well as evaluated in a simulation environment.
Co-designing innovative cropping systems that match biophysical and socio-economic diversity: The DATE approach to Conservation Agriculture in Madagascar, Lao PDR and Cambodia

Abstract Rapid changes in agricultural systems call for profound changes in agricultural research and extension practices. The Diagnosis, Design, Assessment, Training and Extension (DATE) approach was developed and applied to co-design Conservation Agriculture-based cropping systems in contrasted situations. DATE is a multi-scale, multi-stakeholder participatory approach that integrates scientific and local knowledge. It emerged in response to questions raised by and issues encountered in the design of innovative systems. A key feature of this approach is the high input of innovative systems which are often although not exclusively based on conservation agricultural practices. Prototyping of innovative cropping systems (ICSs) largely relies on a conceptual model of soil–plant–macrofauna–microorganism system functioning. By comparing the implementation of the DATE approach and conservation agriculture-based cropping systems in Madagascar, Lao PDR, and Cambodia, we show that: (i) the DATE approach is flexible enough to be adapted to local conditions; (ii) market conditions need to be taken into account in designing agricultural development scenarios; and (iii) the learning process during the transition to conservation agriculture requires time. The DATE approach not only enables the co-design of ICSs with farmers, but also incorporates training and extension dimensions. It feeds back practitioners’ questions to researchers, and provides a renewed and extended source of innovation to farmers.
Swarm stability for high-order linear time-invariant singular multi-agent systems

Swarm-stability and swarm-stabilisation problems for high-order linear time-invariant singular multi-agent systems with directed networks are investigated. First, necessary and sufficient conditions for swarm stability and asymptotic swarm stability are proposed, which are independent of the dimensions of Jordan blocks of the Laplacian matrix of the interaction topology. Then, an approach is given to determine the absolute motion as a whole, and it is shown that the absolute motion is completely determined by initial states if the interaction topology is balanced. Furthermore, an approach is presented to determine gain matrices for asymptotic swarm stabilisation. Moreover, leader-following swarm-stability and swarm-stabilisation problems are investigated. Finally, numerical examples are given to demonstrate theoretical results.
Grid-Based Hole Recovery Mechanism Using Virtual Force in Hybrid WSNs

Sensor nodes are typically empowered with scarce energy resources and limited computing functionality in wireless sensor networks. However, nonuniform random deployment, depletion, and failure of sensor nodes will lead to generating coverage hole in the entire network. These hole problems to occur result in reducing the data transmission performance or in additional power consumption. Consequently, the hole problem is an important factor for the coverage completeness to prolong the network lifetime in wireless sensor networks. We have proposed a hole recovery mechanism based on the grid architecture in hybrid wireless sensor networks. Moreover, virtual force theory is utilized to determine which mobile node should enforce the recovery task. Based on the simulation results, the proposed mechanism is demonstrated to be able to prolong the network lifetime more than 10% with other proposed mechanisms. Otherwise, the proposed mechanism could maintain much more rounds for at least 80% network coverage ratio than other mechanisms.
Properties of C1 and other ventrolateral medullary neurones with hypothalamic projections in the rat

1 This study compared (i) the properties of C1 cells with those of neighbouring non‐C1 neurones that project to the hypothalamus and (ii) the properties of C1 cells that project to the hypothalamus with those of their medullospinal counterparts. 2 Extracellular recordings were made at three rostrocaudal levels of the ventrolateral medulla (VLM) in α‐chloralose‐anaesthetized, artificially ventilated, paralysed rats. Recorded cells were filled with biotinamide. 3 Level I (0‐300 μm behind facial nucleus) contained spontaneously active neurones that were silenced by baro‐ and cardiopulmonary receptor activation and virtually unaffected by nociceptive stimulation (firing rate altered by < 20%). These projected either to the cord (type I; 36/39), or to the hypothalamus (type II; 2/39) but rarely to both (1/39). 4 Level II (600‐800 μm behind facial nucleus) contained (i) type I neurones (n= 3) (ii) type II neurones (n= 11), (iii) neurones that projected to the hypothalamus and were silenced by baro‐ and cardiopulmonary receptor activation but activated by strong nociceptive stimulation (type III, n= 2), (iv) non‐barosensitive cells activated by weak nociceptive stimulation which projected only to the hypothalamus (type IV, n= 9), (v) cells that projected to the hypothalamus and responded to none of the applied stimuli (type V, n= 7) and (vi) neurones activated by elevating blood pressure which projected neither to the cord nor to the hypothalamus (type VI, n= 4). 5 Level III (1400‐1600 μm behind facial motor nucleus) contained all the cell types found at level II except type I. 6 Most of type I and II (17/26) and half of type III cells (4/8) were C1 neurones. Type IV‐V were rarely adrenergic (2/12) and type VI were never adrenergic (0/3). 7 All VLM baroinhibited cells project either to the cord or the hypothalamus and virtually all (21/23) C1 cells receive inhibitory inputs from arterial and cardiopulmonary receptors.
Chattering Free Sliding Mode Control

The chattering problem in sliding mode control is the one of the most common handicaps for applying to real applications. To deal with this problem, the boundary layer approach is widely used. However, this method brings a finite steady state error. Accordingly, we propose a novel sliding mode control without chattering. The proposed sliding mode control removes the chattering phenomenon by replacing a sign function with a continuous function. Also, it is designed to move the state to the sliding surface in finite time without chattering. The proposed control algorithm is derived from the Lyapunov stability theorem. Several simulation results show that the proposed sliding mode controller has non-chattering phenomenon with satisfactory performance
Direct Stimulation of Adult Neural Stem Cells In Vitro and Neurogenesis In Vivo by Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor

Hypoxia as well as global and focal ischemia are strong activators of neurogenesis in the adult mammalian central nervous system. Here we show that the hypoxia‐inducible vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor VEGFR‐2/Flk‐1 are expressed in clonally‐derived adult rat neural stem cells in vitro. VEGF stimulated the expansion of neural stem cells whereas blockade of VEGFR‐2/Flk‐1‐kinase activity reduced neural stem cell expansion. VEGF was also infused into the lateral ventricle to study changes in neurogenesis in the ventricle wall, olfactory bulb and hippocampus. Using a low dose (2.4 ng/d) to avoid endothelial proliferation and changes in vascular permeability, VEGF stimulated adult neurogenesis in vivo. After VEGF infusion, we observed reduced apoptosis but unaltered proliferation suggesting a survival promoting effect of VEGF in neural progenitor cells. Strong expression of VEGFR‐2/Flk‐1 was detected in the ventricle wall adjacent to the choroid plexus, a site of significant VEGF production, which suggests a paracrine function of endogenous VEGF on neural stem cells in vivo. We propose that VEGF acts as a trophic factor for neural stem cells in vitro and for sustained neurogenesis in the adult nervous system. These findings may have implications for the pathogenesis and therapy of neurodegenerative diseases.
Hyperoxia results in increased aerobic metabolism following acute brain injury

Acute brain injury is associated with depressed aerobic metabolism. Below a critical mitochondrial pO2 cytochrome c oxidase, the terminal electron acceptor in the mitochondrial respiratory chain, fails to sustain oxidative phosphorylation. After acute brain injury, this ischaemic threshold might be shifted into apparently normal levels of tissue oxygenation. We investigated the oxygen dependency of aerobic metabolism in 16 acutely brain-injured patients using a 120-min normobaric hyperoxia challenge in the acute phase (24–72 h) post-injury and multimodal neuromonitoring, including transcranial Doppler ultrasound-measured cerebral blood flow velocity, cerebral microdialysis-derived lactate-pyruvate ratio (LPR), brain tissue pO2 (pbrO2), and tissue oxygenation index and cytochrome c oxidase oxidation state (oxCCO) measured using broadband spectroscopy. Increased inspired oxygen resulted in increased pbrO2 [ΔpbrO2 30.9 mmHg p < 0.001], reduced LPR [ΔLPR −3.07 p = 0.015], and increased cytochrome c oxidase (CCO) oxidation (Δ[oxCCO] + 0.32 µM p < 0.001) which persisted on return-to-baseline (Δ[oxCCO] + 0.22 µM, p < 0.01), accompanied by a 7.5% increase in estimated cerebral metabolic rate for oxygen (p = 0.038). Our results are consistent with an improvement in cellular redox state, suggesting oxygen-limited metabolism above recognised ischaemic pbrO2 thresholds. Diffusion limitation or mitochondrial inhibition might explain these findings. Further investigation is warranted to establish optimal oxygenation to sustain aerobic metabolism after acute brain injury.
Leveraging Professional Development to Prepare General and Special Education Teachers to Teach within Response to Intervention Frameworks

This chapter examines the role professional development (PD) plays in preparing teachers to teach within Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks, and how future PD efforts might be leveraged to strengthen the preparation of general and special education teachers to coordinate instruction and teach more effectively within multi-tiered instructional systems. This chapter highlights two PD approaches that directly address these issues. Prime Online and Project InSync are two PD innovations that have specifically addressed how PD can be designed to support general and special education teachers in deepening their shared knowledge and improving their ability to enact coordinated instruction across instructional tiers within RTI frameworks.