Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Obesity-related glomerulopathy: body mass index and proteinuria.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Obesity-related glomerulopathy (ORG) is an increasing cause of end-stage renal disease, but evidence concerning the effects of treatments is rather limited. This study was aimed at exploring the renoprotective effects of weight loss on patients with ORG. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A total of 63 patients with renal biopsy-proven ORG had food and exercise intervention in the physician-supervised weight loss program and were divided into three groups on the basis of the percentage of weight change from baseline to follow-up: significant weight loss (>3% reduction in body mass index [BMI]), stable weight, or significant weight gain (>3% increase). Metabolic parameters and renal lesions were evaluated regularly for 2 years. RESULTS After 6 months, 27 patients lost weight by 8.29 +/- 4.00%, with a mean decrease in proteinuria of 35.3%, whereas 24 months later, 27 patients achieved a 9.20 +/- 3.78% reduction in BMI and a 51.33% reduction in urine protein secretion. The levels of serum triglyceride, serum uric acid, and BP were also decreased. Contrarily, in patients with increased BMI, urine protein was increased by 28.78%. Correlation analysis showed proteinuria was associated with BMI, serum triglyceride, and uric acid, and multivariate regression analysis indicated the changes in BMI were the only predictor of proteinuria (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Weight loss intervention benefited remission of proteinuria in patients with ORG, whose function could not be replaced by conventional pharmacotherapy.
Prognostic Significance of Frontal QRS-T Angle in Patients with Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy

Background:Current risk stratification of idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) lacks sufficient sensitivity and specificity. The objective of this study was to investigate the predictive role of frontal QRS-T angles in IDC. Methods:A prospective study with 509 IDC patients was performed from February 2008 to December 2013 in the Affiliated Drum Tower Hospital, Nanjing University School of Medicine. Baseline values and changes in QRS-T angles were recorded. Follow-up was conducted every 6 months. Analyses by Cox Proportional Hazards model were performed to evaluate the association between QRS-T angle and outcomes. The primary outcome of interest was all-cause mortality. Results:During a median follow-up of 34 months, 90 of 316 patients with QRS-T angles >90° died compared to 31 of 193 patients with QRS-T angles ⩽90° (hazard ratio [HR] =2.4, P < 0.001). Cardiac death was more prevalent in patients with a wide QRS-T angle (HR = 2.4, P < 0.001), similar to heart failure rehospitalization (HR = 2.5, P < 0.001). After adjustment for potential prognostic factors, the QRS-T angle was independently associated with all-cause mortality (HR = 2.5, P < 0.05), cardiac mortality (HR = 1.9, P < 0. 05), and heart failure rehospitalization (HR = 2.3, P < 0.01). Optimized therapy significantly narrowed the frontal QRS-T angle (100.9 ± 53.4° vs. 107.2 ± 54.4°, P < 0.001). The frontal QRS-T angle correlated well with established risk factors, such as left ventricular ejection fraction, brain natriuretic peptide, and New York Heart Association functional class. Conclusions:The frontal QRS-T angle is a powerful predictor of all-cause mortality, cardiac mortality, and worsening heart failure in IDC patients, independent of well-established prognostic factors. Optimized therapy significantly narrows the QRS-T angle, which might be an indicator of medication compliance, but this requires further investigation.
Clostridium difficile toxin A induces the release of neutrophil chemotactic factors from rat peritoneal macrophages: role of interleukin-1beta, tumor necrosis factor alpha, and leukotrienes

Clostridium difficile produces a potent enterotoxin and cytotoxin, toxins A and B, respectively, which appear to be responsible for pseudomenbranous colitis and antibiotic-associated diarrhea. In the present study we explored the neutrophil migration evoked by toxin A in the peritoneal cavities and subcutaneous air pouches of rats and examined the role of macrophages and their inflammatory mediators in this process. Toxin A causes a significant dose-dependent neutrophil influx into the peritoneal cavity, with a maximal response at 0.1 microg/ml and at 4 h. The depletion of macrophages by peritoneal washing prevents the toxin A-induced neutrophil migration into the peritoneal cavity. In contrast, an increase in macrophages induced by peritoneal injection of thioglycolate amplifies this toxin effect on neutrophil migration. Furthermore, the injection of supernatants from toxin A-stimulated macrophages into the rat peritoneal cavity causes significant neutrophil migration. Pretreatment of rats with BWA4C, nordihydroguaiaretic acid, mepacrine, or dexamethasone inhibits the neutrophil migration evoked by toxin A in the peritoneal cavities. However, pretreatment with the cyclooxygenase inhibitor indomethacin or the platelet-activating factor antagonist BN52021 fails to alter toxin A-induced neutrophil migration. Toxin A was also injected into air pouches of normal rats or rats pretreated with anti-interleukin-1beta (anti-IL-1beta) or anti-tumor necrosis factor alpha (anti-TNF-alpha) antibodies. Anti-TNF-alpha or anti-IL-1beta antibodies significantly reduce the neutrophil migration induced by toxin A. These data suggest that neutrophil migration evoked by toxin A is in part dependent on macrophage-derived cytokines, such as TNF-alpha and IL-1beta, and leukotrienes. These mediators may help to explain the intense inflammatory colitis caused by C. dificile toxin A in an experimental animal model of this disease.
Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center (HIT): Initial clinical experience in the first 80 patients

Abstract The Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center (HIT) started clinical operation in November 2009. In this report we present the first 80 patients treated with proton and carbon ion radiotherapy and describe patient selection, treatment planning and daily treatment for different indications. Patients and methods. Between November 15, 2009 and April 15, 2010, 80 patients were treated at the Heidelberg Ion Therapy Center (HIT) with carbon ion and proton radiotherapy. Main treated indications consisted of skull base chordoma (n = 9) and chondrosarcoma (n = 18), malignant salivary gland tumors (n=29), chordomas of the sacrum (n = 5), low grade glioma (n=3), primary and recurrent malignant astrocytoma and glioblastoma (n=7) and well as osteosarcoma (n = 3). Of these patients, four pediatric patients aged under 18 years were treated. Results. All patients were treated using the intensity-modulated rasterscanning technique. Seventy six patients were treated with carbon ions (95%), and four patients were treated with protons. In all patients x-ray imaging was performed prior to each fraction. Treatment concepts were based on the initial experiences with carbon ion therapy at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) including carbon-only treatments and carbon-boost treatments with photon-IMRT. The average time per fraction in the treatment room per patient was 29 minutes; for irradiation only, the mean time including all patients was 16 minutes. Position verification was performed prior to every treatment fraction with orthogonal x-ray imaging. Conclusion. Particle therapy could be included successfully into the clinical routine at the Department of Radiation Oncology in Heidelberg. Numerous clinical trials will subsequently be initiated to precisely define the role of proton and carbon ion radiotherapy in radiation oncology.
Latent Inhibition, Context Specificity, and Context Familiarity

In two appetitive licking experiments, thirsty rats were pre-exposed to two stimuli prior to conditioning sessions in which one or both of these stimuli were paired with water. Consistent with other results, latent inhibition was disrupted when conditioning took place in a context different from that in which stimulus pre-exposure had occurred. But in animals given prior exposure to the context of stimulus pre-exposure before the start of stimulus pre-exposure, substantial and equivalent latent inhibition was evident whether or not there was a change of context between stimulus pre-exposure and conditioning. These results are discussed in terms of current theories of latent inhibition.
Theory analysis of harmonic current generation and harmonic current extraction of three-phase grid-connected inverter

Theory of the harmonic current generation of three-phase grid-connected inverter under unbalanced grid conditions is analyzed in detail in this paper. Based on the characteristic of three-phase currents, the structure of three adaptive notch filter(ANF) cells collaborating with fast positive and negative sequence decomposition(FPNSD) cell is proposed, which employs for the extraction of harmonic current. The main function of this harmonic current extraction method is to provide harmonic current for voltage regulation and power control of inverter. Moreover, this method is capable of extracting a selective order of harmonic where elimination of certain harmonic is of concern. The performance and analysis of the proposed structure in this study are verified through experimental cases.
Powellsnakes II: a fast Bayesian approach to discrete object detection in multi-frequency astronomical data sets

Powellsnakes (PwS; Carvalho et al. 2009) is a Bayesian algorithm for detecting compact objects embedded in a diffuse background, and was selected and successfully employed by the Planck consortium (Planck Collaboration 2011, a) in the production of its first public deliverable: the Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (Planck Collaboration 2011, b) (ERCSC). We present the critical foundations and main directions of further development of PwS, which extend it in terms of formal correctness and the optimal use of all the available information in a consistent unified framework, where no dist inction is made between point sources (unresolved objects), SZ clusters, single or multi -channel detection. An emphasis is placed on the necessity of a multi-frequency, multi-model detection algorithm in order to achieve optimality.
Wrist rehabilitation exoskeleton robot based on pneumatic soft actuators

The aim of this paper is to describe the design of a soft, wearable splint for wrist joint rehabilitation, based on pneumatic soft actuators. The extensor bending and the contraction types of pneumatic soft actuators have been adopted in this study. These actuators are shown to be appropriate by examining their characteristics. The main contributions of this study are developing a safe, lightweight, soft and small actuator for direct human interaction, designing a novel single portable wearable soft robot capable of performing all wrist rehabilitation movements, and using low-cost materials to create the device. Three modes of rehabilitation exercises in the exoskeleton are involved: Flexion/Extension, Radial/Ulnar deviation, and circular movements.
Integrin alpha6beta4 as a suppressor and a predictive marker for peritoneal dissemination in human gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Because alterations of integrin expression in cancers contribute to cancer cell biology, we analyzed the association between the potential for peritoneal dissemination and integrin expression. METHODS The dissemination potential of 10 human gastric cancer cell lines in mice with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) was compared with the expression of various integrins. The relationship between integrin expression and peritoneal dissemination was also investigated in surgically resected gastric cancer cases. RESULTS The level of integrin beta4 subunit expression was inversely correlated with dissemination potential. Introduction of a full-length complementary DNA (cDNA) for beta4 subunit into cancer cells showing negligible beta4 subunit expression markedly suppressed peritoneal dissemination and inhibition of endogenous integrin alpha6beta4 by introduction of a cytoplasmic domain-deleted beta4 subunit cDNA into cells showing high expression of beta4 subunit promoted peritoneal dissemination. Apoptosis, which was histologically evident in peritoneal nodules of SCID mice, was induced in the cells with high beta4 subunit expression by attachment to laminin and stimulation with growth factors in vitro. An immunohistochemical study of specimens from 120 cases of primary gastric cancer showed that patients with beta4 subunit-positive tumors exhibited peritoneal dissemination only infrequently (P < 0.0001) and had a better outcome (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that integrin alpha6beta4 is both a suppressor and a predictive marker for peritoneal dissemination in gastric cancer.
The Involvement of Ca2+/Calmodulin-Dependent Protein Kinase in Memory Formation in Day-Old Chicks

Day-old chicks trained on a single trial passive avoidance learning task showed a significant increase, relative to untrained controls, in activity of the Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase (CaMK) in the particulate fraction from tissues from the intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale region of the forebrain. The increased kinase activity was observed within 10 min following training and persisted for at least 70 min posttraining. Amnesia for the task was induced by micromolar concentrations of the specific CAMK II antagonist, KN-62, administered into the neostriatal/hyperstriatal region of the forebrain. The effect of KN-62 was lateralized. In the right hemisphere, KN-62 induced amnesia only when injected within 2. 5 min following training, with memory loss evident by 5 min posttraining. In contrast, in the left hemisphere amnesia was induced by KN-62 administered as late as 5 min posttraining, with onset of amnesia occurring after 10 min posttraining. The findings were interpreted within the context of a three-stage model of memory formation.
High-frequency switching in Candida strains isolated from vaginitis patients

High-frequency switching and strain variability at the site of infection was assessed in 11 patients with acute Candida albicans vaginitis. By cloning cells directly from the site of infection, it was demonstrated that 4 of the 11 isolates contained multiple-switch phenotypes at the site of infection and that 9 of the 11 isolates were in a high-frequency mode of switching (10(-2) to 10(-3)). Isolates could be separated into four general categories of switching repertoires. To demonstrate that multiple phenotypes at the site of a single infection represented the same strain, EcoRI digests of total cell DNA were separated on agarose gels, and Southern hybridization patterns with two cloned midrepeat sequences were compared.
Increased Resistance to Apoptosis in Cells Overexpressing Thymosin Beta Four: A Role for Focal Adhesion Kinase pp125FAK

Loss of adherence to substrate can, by itself, induce apoptosis (anoikis) in epithelial cells, but does not do so in fibroblasts. To test the idea that adherence transmits signals that inhibit apoptosis even in fibroblasts, we took advantage of the greatly increased adherence to the substratum observed in NIH3T3 cell lines that overexpress thymosin beta four. We treated overexpressing (OE) and vector control lines with either ultraviolet light (UV) or tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα). When the cells were on a substratum, the more adherent OE cells were 2-fold more resistant to apoptosis induced by either treatment than vector controls. In contrast, when the cells were treated with either agent while in suspension, the difference in resistance between OE cells and vector controls was lost. Thus the increased resistance to apoptosis was dependent on adherence. There was no difference in the content of bcl-2 in the OE cells vs the controls. A connection between ppl25 FAK and resistance to apoptosis has been previously shown in primary cultures of fibroblasts. The Tβ4 overexpressing cells have ∼ 1.4× more pp125 FAK than the controls, and the kinase is ∼2-fold more phosphorylated in adherent OE cells than in the vector controls. The phosphorylation of pp125 FAK decreased strikingly when the cells were put into suspension. In addition, twice as much paxillin associated with pp125 FAK in OE adherent cells as in vector controls, but this difference was also lost in suspended cells. Our results support the concept of an adherence dependent ppl25 FAK-paxillin signalling pathway in fibroblasts that inhibits damage-induced apoptosis.
The turn of the sword: length increases male swimming costs in swordtails

Sexual selection via female mate choice can result in the evolution of elaborate male traits that incur substantial costs for males. Despite increased interest in how female mating preferences contribute to the evolution of male traits, few studies have directly quantified the locomotor costs of such traits. A sexually selected trait that could affect movement costs is the sword exhibited by male swordtail fishes: while longer swords may increase male mating success, they could negatively affect the hydrodynamic aspects of swimming activities. Here, we examine the energetic costs of the sword in Xiphophorus montezumae by experimentally manipulating sword length and measuring male aerobic metabolism during two types of activity, routine swimming and courtship swimming. Direct measurements of oxygen consumption indicate that males with longer swords expend more energy than males with shortened swords during both types of swimming. In addition, the sword increases the cost of male courtship. Thus, while sexual selection via female choice favours long swords, males with longer swords experience higher metabolic costs during swimming, suggesting that sexual and natural selection have opposing effects on sword evolution. This study demonstrates a hydrodynamic cost of a sexually selected trait. In addition, this study discriminates between the cost of a sexually selected trait used in courtship and other courtship costs.
University ranking prediction system by analyzing influential global performance indicators

In this research, we present a technique of developing university ranking prediction system by analyzing global university performance indicators. Here, we consider standardized dataset of Times higher education world university rankings. Firstly, we perform country wise university ranking data analysis to observe the variation of performance indicators to find out the top influential features. To build the proposed prediction model, we split the ranking dataset into training and test data. Then, based on score of previous years we generate predicted score for each influential feature using our proposed outlier detection and rank score calculation algorithm. Later on, all the universities are ranked globally based on the predicted total score. Then, we evaluate the prediction system accuracy based on ROC curve, recall, number of matched rank against rank deviation. Finally it is justified that our proposed university ranking prediction system is well suited to assess the upcoming global university ranking.
Bayesian formulation of DSD retrieval algorithm for dual-polarized X-band weather radar network

Raindrop size distribution (DSD) retrieval algorithm for a weather radar network consisting of X-band dual-polarization weather radars is proposed. This algorithm is based on a DSD retrieval method for a single-radar (SRR), which is elaborated in our paper of the SRR, “RAINDROP SIZE DISTRIBUTION (DSD) RETRIEVAL FOR X-BAND DUAL-POLARIZATION RADAR” in this conference. The SRR outputs an ML solution of the two DSD parameters of the normalized Gamma DSD, Nw and D0. The proposed algorithm calculates posterior probability of the DSD profile with the use of a prior probability, and then, the posterior probabilities on different polar coordinates are integrated to that on a common Cartesian grid by Bayesian theorem. An example of the numerical simulation shows that the fluctuated DSD profiles of the SRRs are improved to less fluctuated DSD profiles on a common Cartesian grid with spatially homogeneous quality.
Single MHC-Peptide Complex Allo-MHC-Restricted T Cells Specific for a Ex Vivo Characterization of

Alloreactive T cells are thought to be a potentially rich source of high-avidity T cells with therapeutic potential since tolerance to self-Ags is restricted to self-MHC recognition. Given the particularly high frequency of alloreactive T cells in the peripheral immune system, we used numerous MHC class I multimers to directly visualize and isolate viral and tumor Ag-speciﬁc alloreactive CD8 T cells. In fact, all but one speciﬁcities screened were undetectable in ex vivo labeling. In this study, we report the occurrence of CD8 T cells speciﬁcally labeled with allo-HLA-A*0201/Melan-A/MART-1 26–35 multimers at frequencies that are in the range of 10 (cid:1) 4 CD8 T cells and are thus detectable ex vivo by ﬂow cytometry. We report the thymic generation and shaping of tumor Ag-speciﬁc, alloreactive T cells as well as their fate once seeded in the periphery. We show that these cells resemble their counterparts in HLA-A*0201-positive individuals, based on their structural and functional attributes. The Journal of Immunology, 2006, 176: 2330–2336.
Simultaneous Liver–Kidney Allocation Policy: A Proposal to Optimize Appropriate Utilization of Scarce Resources

The introduction of the Mayo End‐Stage Liver Disease score into the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) deceased donor liver allocation policy in 2002 has led to a significant increase in the number of simultaneous liver–kidney transplants in the United States. Despite multiple attempts, clinical science has not been able to reliably predict which liver candidates with renal insufficiency will recover renal function or need a concurrent kidney transplant. The problem facing the transplant community is that currently there are almost no medical criteria for candidacy for simultaneous liver–kidney allocation in the United States, and this lack of standardized rules and medical eligibility criteria for kidney allocation with a liver is counter to OPTN's Final Rule. Moreover, almost 50% of simultaneous liver–kidney organs come from a donor with a kidney donor profile index of ≤0.35. The kidneys from these donors could otherwise be allocated to pediatric recipients, young adults or prior organ donors. This paper presents the new OPTN and United Network of Organ Sharing simultaneous liver–kidney allocation policy, provides the supporting evidence and explains the rationale on which the policy was based.