Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Colocalization of Antigen-Specific B and T Cells within Ectopic Lymphoid Tissue following Immunization with Exogenous Antigen1

Chronic inflammation promotes the formation of ectopic lymphoid tissue morphologically resembling secondary lymphoid tissues, though it is unclear whether this is a location where Ag-specific immune responses develop or merely a site of lymphocyte accumulation. Ectopic lymphoid tissue formation is associated with many humoral autoimmune diseases, including lupus induced by tetramethylpecadentane in mice. We examined whether an immune response to 4-hydroxy-3-nitrophenyl acetyl-keyhole limpet hemocyanin (NP-KLH) and NP-OVA develops within ectopic lymphoid tissue (“lipogranulomas”) induced by tetramethylpecadentane in C57BL/6 mice. Following primary immunization, NP-specific B cells bearing V186.2 and related heavy chains as well as λ-light chains accumulated within ectopic lymphoid tissue. The number of anti-NP-secreting B cells in the ectopic lymphoid tissue was greatly enhanced by immunization with NP-KLH. Remarkably, the H chain sequences isolated from individual lipogranulomas from these mice were diverse before immunization, whereas individual lipogranulomas from single immunized mice had unique oligo- or monoclonal populations of presumptive NP-specific B cells. H chain CDR sequences bore numerous replacement mutations, consistent with an Ag-driven and T cell-mediated response. In mice adoptively transferred with OT-II or DO11 T cells, there was a striking accumulation of OVA-specific T cells in lipogranulomas after s.c. immunization with NP-OVA. The selective colocalization of proliferating, Ag-specific T and B lymphocytes in lipogranulomas from tetramethylpecadentane-treated mice undergoing primary immunization implicates ectopic lymphoid tissue as a site where Ag-specific humoral immune responses can develop. This has implications for understanding the strong association of humoral autoimmunity with lymphoid neogenesis, which may be associated with deficient censoring of autoreactive cells.
Total knee replacement following repeated cycles of intra-articular sodium hyaluronate (500-730 Kda) in failed conservative treatment of knee osteoarthritis: a 54-month follow-up.

BACKGROUND Treatment with repeated cycles of Intra-Articular Sodium Hyaluronate (IA-HA), from previous study, can improve symptoms and delay surgical interventions in knee osteoarthritis patients who failed conservative treatment within minimum 2-years follow-up. This is a continued study to follow-up responded patients in the mentioned study whether continuing treatment with IA-HA could prolong time to surgery until the end of follow-up. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence of total knee replacement (TKR) in patients receiving repeated cycles of IA-HA during a 54-month follow-up period. MATERIAL AND METHOD This was a prospective cohort study with 54-month follow-up period. All patients received at least a single course of 3-weekly injections of IA-HA (500-730 Kilodalton, Hyalgan). Patients who well responded to the treatment were recommended to repeat the administration of a 3-weekly injections every 6-12 months based on their symptoms. The incidence of TKR and time was recorded. Time to event analysis using Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed. RESULTS 183 patients were recruited during March 2001 and March 2004 and followed-up until October 2008. Patients were classified into three groups according to Ahlback radiological grading system. 46 patients were in group 1 (Ahlback grade I-II), 70 patients were in group 2 (Ahlback grade III-IV) and 67 patients were in group 3 (Ahlback grade V). The incidence of TKR was 28.4% with a mean time to TKR of 15.4 months (0.7-51.7 months). For the rest of patients who had no TKR during study period (80.4%, 64.3% and 73.1% for group 1, 2, and 3 respectively), their mean follow-up time was 45.6 months (19.0-53.1 months). Mean survival time was 42.1 months (95% CI = 39.4-44.9 months). CONCLUSION The repeated cycles of intra-articular sodium hyaluronate treatment in delay time to TKR in patients with knee osteoarthritis which failed conservative treatment was found efficacious during a 54-month follow-up period.
Comparison between realistic and spherical approaches in EEG forward modelling

Abstract In electroencephalography (EEG) a valid conductor model of the head (forward model) is necessary for predicting measurable scalp voltages from intra-cranial current distributions. All inverse models, capable of inferring the spatial distribution of the neural sources generating measurable electrical and magnetic signals outside the brain are normally formulated in terms of a pre-estimated forward model, which implies considering one (or more) current dipole(s) inside the head and computing the electrical potentials generated at the electrode sites on the scalp surface. Therefore, the accuracy of the forward model strongly affects the reliability of the source reconstruction process independently of the specific inverse model. So far, it is as yet unclear which brain regions are more sensitive to the choice of different model geometry, from both quantitative and qualitative points of view. In this paper, we compare the finite difference method-based realistic model with the four-layers sensor-fitted spherical model using simulated cortical sources in the MNI152 standard space. We focused on the investigation of the spatial variation of the lead fields produced by simulated cortical sources which were placed on the reconstructed mesh of the neocortex along the surface electrodes of a 62-channel configuration. This comparison is carried out by evaluating a point spread function all over the brain cortex, with the aim of finding the lead fields mismatch between realistic and spherical geometry. Realistic geometry turns out to be a relevant factor of improvement which is particularly important when considering sources placed in the temporal or in the occipital cortex. In these situations, using a realistic head model will allow a better spatial discrimination of neural sources when compared to the spherical model.
Automotive radar antenna application using balanced composite right/left-handed metamaterials

The automotive antenna application using balanced composite right-left handed (CRLH) metamaterials is overviewed in this paper. The theoretical design issue for the CRLH leaky-wave antenna (LWA) design is digested focusing on the balanced CRLH LWA, and an application example of the CRLH LWA for automotive radar antennas with monochromatic beam steering functionality is presented
Evaluation of Rotor Speed Stability Margin of a Constant Speed Wind Turbine Generator

Many developing countries like India have installed large number of constant speed wind turbine generators (WTGs) as they are robust and economical. Most of the countries have their own grid codes (rules and regulations) to integrate WTGs into the utility grid. One of the primary grid code for WTGs is low voltage ride through (LVRT) capability. The regulations of grid integration are likely to make LVRT requirements mandatory for WTGs with high penetration level. To demonstrate LVRT capability, a WTG has to remain connected to the grid at a specific low voltage and for a specific duration. Generally, a constant speed WTG does not satisfy LVRT requirements. This is because during a nearby fault, the rotor accelerates to a very high speed, and hence the WTG becomes unstable. This phenomenon is referred to as rotor speed instability. To satisfy LVRT requirements, the rotor speed stability margin of a constant speed WTG has to be improved. One of the methods to meet the LVRT requirements is by providing additional reactive power support which can improve the terminal voltage during a disturbance. This, in turn, will increase the electromagnetic torque and hence, the rotor acceleration can be reduced. This paper presents an evaluation of rotor speed stability margin to obtain critical slip and critical clearing time of a constant speed wind turbine generator. For this analysis, analytical formulae have been presented to determine the exact amount of additional reactive power support required to meet the LVRT capabilities.
Las decisiones de los inversionistas a través del lente de la economía del comportamiento

La teoría económica tradicional postula que las personas son racionales. Esto implica que las personas toman decisiones para maximizar sus funciones de utilidad, y que para hacer esto han evaluado de forma completa y correcta sus preferencias y limitaciones. La economía del comportamiento reconoce que esto no es siempre verdad; que a veces no existe suficiente información. En este artículo, examino algunos de los efectos de la economía del comportamiento (que vienen en gran parte de la psicología cognitiva) en la toma de decisiones por los inversionistas en las bolsas de valores.
Protecting Endangered Languages: The Case of Irish

This article reviews the Irish experience of plurilingual aspiration from three perspectives. It first relates the case for preserving and learning the Irish language to Ireland’s cultural development as an independent nation, as distinct from its struggles for political freedom and economic self-determination. It next considers the broader context of the value of learning or knowing a second language. It then considers Irish secondary schoolgoers’ critical attitudes to the learning of Irish and to government policy on the learning of the Irish language. It concludes that it is wrong to consider global vehicular languages such as English and cultural languages such as Irish as competing for single-language dominance. Instead, there should be an early initiation into multiple language systems, deepening people’s linguistic diversity and plurilingual competence. This should be combined with a content-based integrated approach concentrating on cultural value, history, and literature. Languages should be seen as vectors of continuity and of connection with a specific identity, a specific past and a specific place. Ultimately, as English becomes increasingly and even exclusively vehicular, 'non-global’ languages like Irish will be valued as embodying community and relational values, and as channels serving people's inter-communication, connectedness and development – at deeper levels than the physical, political and economic.
ERP integration in a healthcare environment: a case study

Purpose – Aims at providing a classification of the ERP integration concept in a healthcare organization and at presenting a real world example of process integration using SAP R/3.Design/methodology/approach – Research is based on a case study involving in‐depth semi‐structured interviews with key stakeholders and action research conducted in the hospital during the ERP implementation period.Findings – Findings suggest that an apparently simple software implementation of an ordering process can have a considerable impact on stakeholders in a complex environment operating ERP software. Organizational change issues, implementation and integration issues of SAP R/3 with other non‐SAP systems and SCM considerations are discussed.Originality/value – Analyzes enterprise integration concept specifically in a healthcare environment and describes a real world process integration solution (missing from the literature) achieved by using SAP R/3 software.
Ultrastructural changes in the rabbit liver induced by carbamate insecticide bendiocarb

Carbamates (CB) are used as insecticides and some of them have been registered as human drugs. The mechanism of CB poisoning involves reversible inhibition of acetylcholine esterase. In the present study, we investigated changes in liver ultrastructure in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) which were administered bendiocarb for 3, 10, 20, and 30 days. Rabbits in all experimental groups received capsules of bendiocarb (96% Bendiocarb, Bayer, Germany) per os daily at a dose of 5 mg/kg of body weight, and after day 11 received the same dose every 48 h. The observed changes were only moderate, focal, and the effect on the liver was not uniform. On the third day of the experiment, injured hepatocytes had dilated bile capillaries with reduced microvilli. There were no visible alterations in the intercellular contacts. Nuclei of these cells were irregular in shape. Many hepatocytes showed considerable increase in the number of peroxisomes. On day 10 of the experiment, the number of peroxisomes was reduced. Other changes, such as dilated rough endoplasmic reticulum and proliferation of smooth endoplasmic reticulum were observed on day 20. The number of lipid droplets in hepatocytes gradually increased. Usually they were present in low numbers, but on day 30 of the experiment their number increased significantly. They coalesced and formed a single lipid droplet which changed the shape of the nuclei. The results presented in this study indicate that both short and long-term administration of bendiocarb affects the liver ultrastructure. At the same time we also observed rapid onset of regeneration of the damaged tissue through activation of hepatocytes and oval cells.
Selective reduction of AKR1C2 in prostate cancer and its role in DHT metabolism

As androgens play an essential role in prostate cancer, we sought to develop a real‐time PCR to characterize mRNA expression profiles of human members of the Aldo‐Keto Reductase (AKR) 1C gene family, as well as of 5α‐steroid reductase Type II (SRD5A2) in prostate cancer samples. Functional activity and regulation of AKR1C2, a 3α‐hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (HSD) type III, was also assessed in prostate cancer cell lines.
Occupational Shortage and Labor Market Adjustments: A Theory of Islands

Human Resources officers report occupational shortage to be the main cause of unfilled vacancies. Yet, it is not clear whether these are empty complaints or actually lead to effective wage and employment adjustments over time. By crossing data from the UK Employer Skill Survey with the UK Labor Force Survey, we show that shortage only leads to wage and employment adjustments for non-routine occupations in England, while no such adjustment occurs for routine occupations. This result is robust to several empirical specifications and varying levels of aggregation. Moreover, firms facing routine occupation shortage are more likely to outsource these vacancies, instead of raising wages or increasing recruitment intensity. In all, these results are consistent with the phenomenon of job polarization and the secular decline of the routine sector. To explore the likely mechanisms at play, we construct a stylized model of search and matching, where labor market islands are characterized by location and occupation types. We demonstrate how, when faced with local labor market shocks, wages in the skill-intensive non-routine sector increase more in response to shortage, thereby raising employment and mitigating the initial shortage, at the expense of the routine sector.
Familial patterns in birth characteristics: impact on individual and population risks.

BACKGROUND Familial patterns in reproductive outcome have been suggested previously, but few studies have comprehensively evaluated both length of gestation and types of growth retardation. METHODS Information on intrauterine period and birth characteristics for a cohort of Swedish women born 1955-1972 was linked with information on these women's own reproductive experiences during 1973-1990. Familial trends in preterm deliveries, small-for-gestational age (SGA) births and two types of growth retardation were evaluated for mothers relative to their own birth characteristics (n = 4746), relative to their older sisters' deliveries (n = 2931) and among consecutive deliveries of the mothers (n = 14,209). Adjusted relative risks (RR) were calculated from logistic regression analyses. RESULTS Mothers who had themselves been preterm at birth were not at increased risk of any of the outcomes studied. Mothers who had themselves been SGA at birth had an almost 50% higher risk (NS) of giving birth to either a preterm or an SGA infant than had mothers who had not been SGA at birth. Mothers tended to repeat the same patterns in subsequent deliveries: RR was 3.7 for a second preterm delivery given a previous one and 7.8 for a second SGA delivery given a previous one. Among SGA siblings, chronic growth retardation was more often repeated than was acute growth retardation. Mothers with an older sister who had given birth to a preterm infant had an 80% higher risk of giving birth to a preterm infant. CONCLUSIONS Familial trends in gestational age and body proportions at birth were demonstrated; however, the relatively small population attributable risk per cents in Sweden are discussed.
Towards an Infrastructure for Understanding and Interlinking Knowledge Co-Creation in European research

This paper describes the initial development of an infrastructure for understanding and visualising knowledge co-creation in European research. Datasets containing information about projects, publications and patents are enhanced with semantic information enabling indicators to be generated, that are used to inform users about the state of art in the research area and new trends. This helps to resolve the problem of increasing complexity and multidisciplinarity of emerging scientific and technological research. Ontologies and Semantic Web techniques play a central role in mapping between topics, data, and user queries so that information can be enhanced, interlinked and aggregated.
Identification of two novel mammalian genes establishes a subfamily of KH-domain RNA-binding proteins.

We have identified two novel human genes encoding proteins with a high level of sequence identity to two previously characterized RNA-binding proteins, alphaCP-1 and alphaCP-2. Both of these novel genes, alphaCP-3 and alphaCP-4, are predicted to encode proteins with triplicated KH domains. The number and organization of the KH domains, their sequences, and the sequences of the contiguous regions are conserved among all four alphaCP proteins. The common evolutionary origin of these proteins is substantiated by conservation of exon-intron organization in the corresponding genes. The map positions of alphaCP-1 and alphaCP-2 (previously reported) and those of alphaCP-3 and alphaCP-4 (present report) reveal that the four alphaCP loci are dispersed in the human genome; alphaCP-3 and alphaCP-4 mapped to 21q22.3 and 3p21, and the respective mouse orthologues mapped to syntenic regions of the mouse genome, 10B5 and 9F1-F2, respectively. Two additional loci in the human genome were identified as alphaCP-2 processed pseudogenes (PCBP2P1, 21q22.3, and PCBP2P2, 8q21-q22). Although the overall levels of alphaCP-3 and alphaCP-4 mRNAs are substantially lower than those of alphaCP-1 and alphaCP-2, transcripts of alphaCP-3 and alphaCP-4 were found in all mouse tissues tested. These data establish a new subfamily of genes predicted to encode closely related KH-containing RNA-binding proteins with potential functions in posttranscriptional controls.
Pattern of Lymph Node Metastasis Spread in Pancreatic Cancer

Objectives: We aimed to clarify the detailed pattern of lymph node (LN) metastasis spread in patients with pancreatic cancer. Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 429 patients who underwent pancreatectomy with extended lymphadenectomy for pancreatic cancer. The prognostic implications of LN metastasis were evaluated, and the position, frequency, and association with other clinicopathologic factors were investigated. Results: Lymph node metastasis was confirmed pathologically in 289 patients (67.4%). The prognosis of patients with LN metastasis was significantly poorer than that of patients without LN metastasis (P < 0.001). Distant LN metastasis occurred frequently, regardless of the tumor site. Patients classified with T1 or T2 only had regional LN metastasis, whereas there was a high rate of distant LN metastasis, including the para-aortic LNs, in patients with T3 or higher-stage tumors. Para-aortic LN metastasis was significantly associated with arterial and perineural invasion (P = 0.006 and P < 0.001, respectively). Lymph node metastasis in the hepatic portal region was a strong predictor of para-aortic LN metastasis in pancreatic head cancer. Conclusions: Pancreatic cancer frequently metastasized to distant LNs via a complex pathway and developed into systemic disease. Aggressive multimodality therapy, including neoadjuvant therapy, is essential to improve the long-term survival of patients at substantial risk of distant LN metastasis.
Interventions for helping patients to follow prescriptions for medications.

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND Efforts to assist patients with adherence to prescribed, self-administered medications might improve the benefits and efficiency of health care. OBJECTIVES OBJECTIVE To update an ongoing review summarising the results of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of interventions to help patients follow prescriptions for medications, focusing on trials that measured both adherence and clinical outcomes. SEARCH STRATEGY Computerised searches to July 1998 in MEDLINE, CINAHL, The Cochrane Library, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (IPA), PsychInfo, Sociofile, and HSTAR; bibliographies in articles on patient adherence; articles in the reviewers' personal collections; and contact with authors. SELECTION CRITERIA Articles were selected if they reported an unconfounded RCT of an intervention to improve adherence with prescribed medications, measuring both medication adherence and treatment outcome, with at least 80% follow-up of each group studied and, for long-term treatments, at least six months follow-up for studies with positive initial findings. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Information on study design features, interventions and controls, and findings were extracted by one reviewer (PM) and a research assistant and confirmed by two of the other reviewers. The studies were too disparate to warrant meta-analysis. MAIN RESULTS For short-term treatments, one study, of counselling and written information, showed an effect on adherence and clinical outcome. Ten of 19 interventions for long-term treatments reported in 17 RCTs were associated with improvements in adherence, but only nine interventions led to improvements in treatment outcomes. Almost all of the interventions that were effective for long-term care were complex, including combinations of more convenient care, information, counselling, reminders, self-monitoring, reinforcement, family therapy, and other forms of additional supervision or attention. Even the most effective interventions did not lead to large improvements in adherence and treatment outcomes. Two studies showed that telling patients about adverse effects of treatment did not affect their adherence. REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS The full benefits of medications cannot be realised at currently achievable levels of adherence. Current methods of improving adherence for chronic health problems are mostly complex and not very effective. More studies of innovative approaches to assist patients to follow medication prescriptions are needed.