Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
How Different Conceptions of Risk Are Used in the Organ Market Debate

The success of kidney and liver transplantation is hindered by a shortage of organs available for transplantation. Although currently illegal in nearly all parts of the world, a living ‘donor’ or ‘vendor’ kidney market has been proposed as a means to reduce or even end this shortage. Physician members of the American Society of Transplantation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease were surveyed regarding organ markets for both living kidney and living liver transplantation. The survey queried respondents about their attitudes toward directed living donation, nondirected living donation, the potential legalization of living donor organ markets and the reasons for their support or opposition to organ markets. Partial or completed surveys were returned by 346 of 697 eligible respondents (50%). While virtually all supported or strongly supported directed living donation (98% and 95% for kidney and liver lobes, respectively), the vast majority disagreed or strongly disagreed with the legalization of living donor organ markets (80% for kidneys and 90% for liver lobes). Both those who support and those who oppose a legalized living donor organ market rate risk to the donor among the most important factors to justify their position.
Replication Protein A Physically Interacts with the Bloom's Syndrome Protein and Stimulates Its Helicase Activity*

Bloom's syndrome is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by genomic instability and predisposition to cancer. BLM, the gene defective in Bloom's syndrome, encodes a 159-kDa protein possessing DNA-stimulated ATPase and ATP-dependent DNA helicase activities. We have examined mechanistic aspects of the catalytic functions of purified recombinant BLM protein. Through analyzing the effects of different lengths of DNA cofactor on ATPase activity, we provide evidence to suggest that BLM translocates along single-stranded DNA in a processive manner. The helicase reaction catalyzed by BLM protein was examined as a function of duplex DNA length. We show that BLM catalyzes unwinding of short DNA duplexes (≤71 base pairs (bp)) but is severely compromised on longer DNA duplexes (≥259-bp). The presence of the human single-stranded DNA-binding protein (human replication protein A (hRPA)) stimulates the BLM unwinding reaction on the 259-bp partial duplex DNA substrate. Heterologous single-stranded DNA-binding proteins fail to stimulate similarly the helicase activity of BLM protein. This is the first demonstration of a functional interaction between BLM and another protein. Consistent with a functional interaction between hRPA and the BLM helicase, we demonstrate a direct physical interaction between the two proteins mediated by the 70-kDa subunit of RPA. The interactions between BLM and hRPA suggest that the two proteins function togetherin vivo to unwind DNA duplexes during replication, recombination, or repair.
Platelet Transfusion

The use of platelet transfusions has risen considerably in the last few years and predictions for future requirements are continually increasing, linked particularly with intensive new therapeutic regimes associated with prolonged periods of bone marrow aplasia (1). For example, at the North London Blood Transfusion Centre, serving a population of approximately 3.5 million, the number of annual platelet donations has increased from 30,000 in 1975, to 75,000 in 1985 and 154,000 in 1994. Increasing clinical demands have led to changes in methods of collection processing and storage by the blood transfusion services, more sophisticated monitoring of in vitro viability, defined indications and protocols for clinical use and more careful assessment of benefit and risk to the individual patient (2,3).
The prevalence and significance of oestrogen receptor (ER) positivity in breast cancer at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Jamaica.

OBJECTIVE To identify the prevalence of oestrogen receptor (ER) positivity, and determine the relationship of ER status with patient and tumour characteristics, in patients with breast cancer SUBJECTS AND METHODS A retrospective review was conducted regarding the prevalence and clinical significance of ER in patients with breast cancer at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI). Oestrogen receptor status results of 243 patients treated at UHWI were collected for the period January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2009. One hundred and ninety-nine were available for review. RESULTS Oestrogen receptor status was positive in 125 (63%) and negative in 74 (37%) patients. Mean age at diagnosis was 52.6 +/- 13.0 years for the ER positive group and 58.5 +/- 14.23 years for the ER negative group. Postmenopausal women accounted for 55.2% and 64.9% of the ER positive and negative groups, respectively. Mean BMI was 28.0 kg/m2 and 29.6 kg/m2 for the ER positive and negative groups, respectively. Menarche occurred mainly between ages 12 and 13 years for both groups. Mean age at 1st parity was 23.4 years for the ER positive and 21.4 years for the ER negative group with median parity of two for both groups. The most prevalent risk factors were oral contraceptive pill (OCP) use (24.3% for the ER positive group, 17.1% for the ER negative group), family history of breast cancer (12.0%; 13.4%) and previous smoking (8.4%; 6.9%). Tumour node metastasis (TNM) stage was Stage II in most cases (46%; 49%). Infiltrating ductal histology was most common (81.5%; 87.7%). Her 2/ neu status was negative for most patients (91.3%; 91.5%). Most patients were disease free (77.6%; 70.0%) after an average follow-up period of 3.5 years. More persons in the ER negative group had locoregional recurrence (8%) and metastases (22%). CONCLUSIONS Oestrogen receptor positive cohort was more prevalent. The ER negative group was older (p = 0.003).
Self-Heating in Small Mesa Structures Made of Intrinsic Josephson Junctions in BSCCO

We present detailed numerical analysis on the temperature rise due to self-heating for a small mesa in interlayer tunneling spectroscopy based on the thermal diffusion equation using temperature dependent specific heat and thermal conductivity data. In the analysis, a BSCCO square mesa typically 10 mum wide and 15 nm thick with the -axis resistivity of 10 Omegacm is in close contact with the 350 nm Au electrode layer on the top. It is found that when a quasiparticle current of 20 mA is injected, which is a typical value at the superconducting gap voltage, the temperature rise due to self-heating is 3.8 K at 60 ns from the pulse rise and 4.6 K at 500 ns when the base temperature is 10 K. When the current is 50 mA, the temperature rise is 18 K at 60 ns and 22 K at 500 ns, indicating a significant heating near the edge of the voltage range, where the pseudogap is observed in short-pulse tunneling experiments.
Prioritized Tri-Packets Probes for Available Bandwidth Measurement

Estimation of available bandwidth plays a very significant role in route selection, load balancing and network security. This paper presents a novel technique for the available bandwidth measurement, which sends tri-packets probes to measure the utilization of the link. In contrast to the previous methods, the middle one packet in a tri-packets-probe is prioritized to measure both the output time gap and waiting time of the probe and improve the accuracy of the utilization measurement. The experiment results validate the new method and show that it is also sensitive to the variance of traffic
Dendritic Cell-Specific Intercellular Adhesion Molecule 3-Grabbing Nonintegrin Mediates Binding and Internalization of Aspergillus fumigatus Conidia by Dendritic Cells and Macrophages1

Aspergillus fumigatus is responsible for a large percentage of nosocomial opportunistic fungal infections in immunocompromised hosts, especially during cytotoxic chemotherapy and after bone marrow transplantation, and is currently a major direct cause of death in leukemia patients. Dendritic cell-specific ICAM-3-grabbing nonintegrin (DC-SIGN) is a type II C-type lectin that functions as an adhesion receptor and is used by viral and bacterial pathogens to gain access to human DC. We report that DC-SIGN specifically interacts with clinical isolates of A. fumigatus. DC-SIGN-dependent binding of A. fumigatus conidia can be demonstrated with stable transfectants and monocyte-derived DC and is inhibited by anti-DC-SIGN Abs. Binding and internalization of A. fumigatus conidia correlates with DC-SIGN cell surface expression levels and is abolished in the presence of A. funigatus-derived cell wall galactomannans. The clinical relevance of this interaction is emphasized by the presence of DC-SIGN in lung DC and alveolar macrophages, and further illustrated by the DC-SIGN-dependent attachment of A. fumigatus conidia to the cell membrane of IL-4-treated monocyte-derived macrophages. Our results suggest the involvement of DC-SIGN in the initial stages of pulmonary infection as well as in fungal spreading during invasive aspergillosis.
Neurotrophin‐3 regulates mast cell functions in neonatal mouse skin

Abstract: Nerve growth factor (NGF) has long been recognized as an important mast cell (MC) growth factor. To explore whether other neurotrophins (NTs) of the NGF family, which are widely expressed in mouse skin, affect the numbers and/or functions of MCs we examined the effects of NT‐3 on neonatal skin MCs. We demonstrate that TrkC, the high affinity NT‐3 receptor, is expressed by virtually all neonatal skin MCs in C57BL/6 mice, which indicates that MCs can respond to NT‐3. Skin of neonatal and early postnatal NT‐3‐overexpressing mice (promoter: K14) displayed significantly and up to twofold increased numbers of MCs during the first 20 days after birth, as compared to wild‐type mice. To check whether this increase in MC numbers in NT‐3 transgenic mice reflects a higher rate of proliferation, we performed immunohistochemistry, which revealed that only 1–2% of all skin MCs both in NT‐3‐overexpressing and in wild‐type controls showed Ki‐67‐positive nuclei, suggesting that the observed differences in the number of MCs do not reflect a higher rate of MC proliferation. Additionally, we show that the effect of NT‐3 on the number of MCs is most likely to be stem cell factor (SCF)‐independent, because NT‐3 significantly downregulates secretion of SCF‐protein in cultured dermal fibroblasts, as assessed by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay. Numbers of skin MCs in neonatal TrkC‐deficient mice were found to be modestly reduced, as compared to wild‐type mice, indicating that NT‐3 can modulate the number of MCs directly via TrkC, although TrkC does not seem to be essential for the number of basal MCs. To further analyze the effects of NT‐3 on MCs, we stimulated skin organ culture of early postnatal C57BL/6 mouse skin with 5–50 ng/ml NT‐3, which induced a significant increase in MC degranulation, as visualized by Giemsa staining. However, stimulation of isolated neonatal dermal skin MCs with NT‐3 in vitro failed to result in MC activation, as measured by serotonin release. Our data suggest a role for NT‐3 in the maturation of MCs, such as a TrkC‐mediated stimulation of the differentiation of pre‐existing, less mature MCs and/or by enhancing the migration of circulating MC precursors into the skin.
Immunohistochemical Evaluation of Vascular Urinary Bladder Tumors from Cows with Enzootic Hematuria

Fifty-six endothelial-derived urinary bladder tumor samples collected from 26 animals with bovine enzootic hematuria were selected for immunohistochemical studies. Expression of factor VHI-related antigen (FVIIIra), CD31, muscle-specific actin, uroplakin III (UPIII), and the cell cycle-related proteins cyclin Dl and p53 was evaluated in hemangiomas, “hemangioendotheliomas” (a vascular tumor that histologically is intermediate in appearance between a hemangioma and a conventional hemangiosarcoma), and hemangiosarcomas. Although CD31 expression was seen in all endothelial tumors tested, FVIIIra was not expressed in poorly differentiated endothelial tumor cells from solid areas or in 7 muscle-invasive hemangiosarcomas. Cyclin Dl overexpression was seen in 53% of hemangiomas, 82% of hemangioendotheliomas, and 95% of hemangiosarcomas. P53 immunoreac-tivity was only seen in muscle-invasive hemangiosarcomas. The UPIII staining pattern, normally very intense on the apical aspect and cytoplasm of superficial urothelial cells, was altered in the urothelium in an estimated 25% of hemangiomas, most hemangioendotheliomas, and most hemangiosarcomas. In conclusion, CD31 is a better marker than FVIIIra in the characterization of bovine endothelial tumors. The cell cycle regulatory pathways involving cyclin Dl and p53 seem to be impaired in endothelial urinary bladder tumors, p53 immunoreactivity positively correlating with enhanced invasion.
H∞ gain-scheduling control for 2-D stochastic nonlinear systems: The F-M case

This paper is concerned with the H∞ control problem for two-dimensional (2-D) stochastic systems with randomly occurring nonlinearity. The randomly occurring nonlinearity is modeled by using a Bernoulli random variable with known occurrence probability, which can characterize the phenomenon that the nonlinear disturbance may occur in a probabilistic way. Our attention is focused on the design of a probability-dependent gain-scheduling controller such that both the globally asymptotical stability in the mean-square sense and the H∞ performance of the closed-loop 2-D system can be simultaneously guaranteed. Instead of the rigid gains of the traditional controller, the structure of the constructed 2-D controller is of a special form which depends on the time-varying probability of the randomly occurrence nonlinearity. By constructing a energy-like quadratic function, sufficient conditions are established to ensure the desired performance requirements. The obtained matrix inequalities can be readily solved by using the Matlab Toolbox. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to show the feasibility and usefulness of the developed gain-scheduling control scheme.
Correlating Multiallelic Copy Number Polymorphisms with Disease Susceptibility

The human genome contains a significant amount of sequence variation, from single nucleotide polymorphisms to large stretches of DNA that may be present in a range of different copies between individuals. Several such regions are variable in >1% of the population (referred to as copy number polymorphisms or CNPs), and many studies have looked for associations between the copy number of genes within multiallelic CNPs and disease susceptibility. Associations have indeed been described for several genes, including the β‐defensins (DEFB4, DEFB103, DEFB104), chemokine ligand 3 like 1 (CCL3L1), Fc gamma receptor 3B (FCGR3B), and complement component C4 (C4). However, follow‐up replication in independent cohorts has failed to reproduce a number of these associations. It is clear that replicated associations such as those between C4 and systemic lupus erythematosus, and β‐defensin and psoriasis, have used robust genotyping methodologies. Technical issues associated with genotyping sequences of high identity may therefore account for failure to replicate other associations. Here, we compare and contrast the most popular approaches that have been used to genotype CNPs, describe how they have been applied in different situations, and discuss potential reasons for the difficulty in reproducibly linking multiallelic CNPs to complex diseases.
European Perspectives on Healthy Aging in Women

SUMMARY Using data from the 1994 European Community Household Panel, we compare active life expectancy differentials at age 65 years between women and men in 12 European countries. We seek to explain the extent to which differences are a reflection of gender differentials in life expectancy at 65 years or reflect differences in active life expectancy earlier in life. Considerable variation in the gender differentials in both total and active life expectancies at age 65 years exist within Europe, with some countries experiencing 20% lower life expectancy at age 65 years for men compared to women. Some evidence was found to suggest that gender differentials in active life expectancy may continue from younger ages through to later life.
Reactive navigation algorithm for wheeled mobile robots under non-holonomic constraints

This paper presents a reactive navigation algorithm for wheeled mobile robots in an unknown environment populated by obstacles. The presented approach incorporates the dimensions and shape of the robot to determine the set of all possible collision-free steering angles. The steering angle that falls in the widest gap and is dosest to the target is selected. The next stage in the algorithm takes into account the non-holonomic constraints of differentially steered robots by computing circular trajectories with adaptive radius of curvature. Actual experimental tests on a real mobile robot are presented. The results demonstrate the algorithm capabilities of driving a mobile robot safely through different obstacles arrangements.
Lambda Calculus with Types

This handbook with exercises reveals in formalisms, hitherto mainly used for hardware and software design and verification, unexpected mathematical beauty. The lambda calculus forms a prototype universal programming language, which in its untyped version is related to Lisp, and was treated in the first author's classic The Lambda Calculus (1984). The formalism has since been extended with types and used in functional programming (Haskell, Clean) and proof assistants (Coq, Isabelle, HOL), used in designing and verifying IT products and mathematical proofs. In this book, the authors focus on three classes of typing for lambda terms: simple types, recursive types and intersection types. It is in these three formalisms of terms and types that the unexpected mathematical beauty is revealed. The treatment is authoritative and comprehensive, complemented by an exhaustive bibliography, and numerous exercises are provided to deepen the readers' understanding and increase their confidence using types.
A new criterion for second order cyclostationary blind source separation

In this paper, we propose a new blind separation criterion for second order cyclostationary sources with known and different cyclic frequencies. The method results from the spectral analysis; it is based on the use of the second order cyclostationary characteristics of the source signals. The theoretical results are presented and proved. The computer simulations show a good performance of the proposed method in comparison with Sobi, CycloSobi and Jade algorithms.
Discontinuing Medication in Epileptic Children: A Study of Risk Factors Related to Recurrence

Summary: We studied 70 children who had experienced at least two seizures before age 12 years, excluding febrile seizures, neonatal seizures, or seizures occurring during a metabolic, or infectious insult to the central nervous system (CNS) and who had been seizure free for at least 2 years. Twenty children (28.5%) experienced a recurrence, 75% during antiepileptic (AED) drug discontinuation or <6 months after discontinuation. Risk factors statistically related to seizure recurrence were >10 seizures before seizure control, an abnormal EEG in the year before AED discontinuation, presence of focal neurologic signs and/or mental retardation, and presence of a mixed seizure pattern. Fourteen children (70%) with recurrence had two or more risk factors, whereas 36 (72%) without recurrence had no risk factor or only one. We conclude that a selected group of epileptic children who remain seizure‐free for a period of at least 2 years can have AEDs discontinued based on presence or absence of risk factors.
Term Paper : Stochastic Gradient Descent , Weighted Sampling , and the Randomized Kaczmarz Algorithm

In this paper, we mainly study the convergence properties of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) as described in Needell et al. [2]. The function to be minimized with SGD is assumed to be strongly convex. Also, its gradients are assumed to be Lipschitz continuous. First, we discuss the superior bound on convergence (of standard SGD) obtained by Needell et al. [2] as opposed to the previous work of Bach and Moulines [1]. Then, we show that this bound can be further improved if SGD is performed with importance (weighted) sampling instead of uniform sampling. Finally, we study two applications: Logistic Regression and Kaczmarz Algorithm and demonstrate faster convergence obtained from SGD with weighted (or partially weighted) sampling. 1 Stochastic Gradient Descent In stochastic gradient descent (SGD), we minimize a function F (w) using stochastic gradients in the update rule at each step. The stochastic gradients g are such that their expectation is the gradient of F (w), E[g] = ∇F (w). Now, if F (w) = Ei∼D[fi(w)], then we have g = ∇fi(w). The update rule then is as follows, wk+1 = wk − γ∇fik(w), (1) where γ is the step size and ik is drawn i.i. d from some distribution D. In this paper, we will study the convergence of SGD on the function F , with the following assumptions 1. Each fi is continuously differentiable and the gradient of fi has a Lipschitz constant Li, i.e. ‖∇fi(w1)−∇fi(w2)‖2 ≤ Li‖w1 − w2‖2 2. F is strongly convex with parameter μ, i.e. F (w1) ≥ F (w2) +∇F (w2) (w1 − w2) + μ2 ‖w1 − w2‖ 2 2, or equivalently (w1 − w2) (∇F (w1)−∇F (w2)) ≥ μ‖w1 − w2‖2
A novel inverter topology for compact EV and HEV drive systems

This paper describes a new modular inverter topology suitable for compact drive systems in electric road vehicles. The topology is based on dc-side cascading of three-phase two-level inverter bridges, each feeding a set of three-phase windings of a motor. This topology is compared by calculation to the known modular high-frequency (MHF) converter, and is found to have similar losses and semiconductor expenditure requirements. Simulations verify the dynamic and static properties of the converter in a realistic application.
HIV risk behaviour correlates among injecting drug users in Greek prisons.

AIMS To identify the correlates of injecting drug use within prison. DESIGN A national cross-sectional study, participation being voluntary and anonymous. SETTING Ten Greek prisons. PARTICIPANTS A representative sample of 1000 male inmates; 861 questionnaires were completed and analysed. MEASUREMENT A self-report questionnaire for demographics, penal history, drug use and sharing injecting equipment. FINDINGS Two hundred and ninety inmates (33.7%) reported injecting drugs at some time in their lives, of whom 174 (60%) had injected while imprisoned. Among those who had injected while imprisoned, 145 (83%) had shared equipment while incarcerated. Logistic regression analysis suggested that total time in prison, previous drug conviction, being a convict (as opposed to on remand) and having multiple female sexual partners 1 year before incarceration were significant HIV risk behaviour correlates. For every year of imprisonment, the risk of injection in prison increased by about 17% [OR = 1.17 (95% CI: 1.07-1.27)]. Inmates with a previous drug-related conviction were about twice as likely to inject within prison [OR = 1.97 (95% CI: 1.16-3.33)]. Finally, convicted inmates were marginally significantly more prone to inject in prison [OR = 1.58 (95% CI: 0.92-2.74)]. CONCLUSIONS Variables related to the inmates' prison career influence HIV risk behaviours within prison. There is a need to assist IDUs in reducing the likelihood of high-risk behaviour by considering factors such as frequency of incarceration, length of time incarcerated and availability of detoxification programmes within prison.