Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adult stem cells for acute lung injury: Remaining questions and concerns

Acute lung injury (ALI) or acute respiratory distress syndrome remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. The pathophysiology of ALI involves complex interactions between the inciting event, such as pneumonia, sepsis or aspiration, and the host immune response resulting in lung protein permeability, impaired resolution of pulmonary oedema, an intense inflammatory response in the injured alveolus and hypoxemia. In multiple preclinical studies, adult stem cells have been shown to be therapeutic due to both the ability to mitigate injury and inflammation through paracrine mechanisms and perhaps to regenerate tissue by virtue of their multi‐potency. These characteristics have stimulated intensive research efforts to explore the possibility of using stem or progenitor cells for the treatment of lung injury. A variety of stem or progenitor cells have been isolated, characterized and tested experimentally in preclinical animal models of ALI. However, questions remain concerning the optimal dose, route and the adult stem or progenitor cell to use. Here, the current mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effect of stem cells in ALI as well as the questions that will arise as clinical trials for ALI are planned are reviewed.
Visual contrast sensitivity deficits in Bohemian children.

Visual contrast sensitivity (VCS) tests have been used successfully in medical diagnosis and subclinical neurotoxicity detection. This paper reports VCS measurements in three studies of children in the Czech Republic. Study 1 compared children in standard schools and schools for the learning disabled. Studies 2 and 3 compared children in Teplice, an area in which soft-brown coal combustion produced high levels of pollutants (e.g. Hg, As, SO2, NOx, and aromatic hydrocarbons), with children in areas of low air pollution, Znojmo and/or Prachatice. It was hypothesized that in utero exposure to the combustion products disrupted neurological development (Sram, 1991). The VCS test (Stereo Optical Co.) consisted of circular fields containing sinusoidal gratings at 5 spatial frequencies (1.5-18 cycles/degree) and various levels of contrast. Subjects indicated orientation of the gratings by pointing left, up, or right. Visual acuity and VCS were measured in each eye of 74 children in Study 1,327 second-grade children in Study 2, and 426 fourth-grade children in Study 3. Hair samples were collected in Studies 2 and 3 analyzed for Hg and As content. Children attending schools for the learning disabled scored significantly lower than controls on VCS, whereas visual acuity was normal. The deficit was greatest at mid- to high spatial frequency. In Study 2, significant VCS deficits were seen in exposed second-grade children at low to mid-spatial frequency, even though visual acuity was slightly above control level. Regression analyses showed that VCS had no relationship to As, but a significant negative correlation with hair Hg was observed in the exposed district. However, current Hg levels were higher in Prachatice. VCS deficits were not observed in the fourth-grade students of Teplice in Study 3. The results of Study 1 indicated that behavioral VCS testing in field studies is practical in young, non-English speaking children, and suggested that vision may be compromised in learning-disabled children. Studies 2 and 3 indicated that at these levels, current Hg body-burdens are poor predictors of VCS. If the VCS deficits seen in Study 2 were related to prenatal exposures, the results of Study 3 suggest that they represent a developmental delay. A longitudinal-study design is needed to address this issue.
A prediction method of spatiotemporal series based on support vector regression model

In this paper, a series of spatiotemporal data is analyzed by a regression method based on the theory of support vector machine (SVM). The support vector regression (SVR) model is used to predict the remote sensing data sets effectively. Firstly, we studied how to build a SVR model for spatiotemporal series prediction, and studied the problems of the test data processing, model parameters selection and kernel function construction. Secondly, the kernel functions used in previous studies were extended, and a new method for constructing spatiotemporal kernel function is proposed by using the mixed kernel function through comparative analysis for different kernel functions and model parameters. Finally, the obtained model is tested by using remote sensing evaluation data of eco-environmental vulnerability. The predicted results were compared with that obtained by using other classic kernel functions. It shows that the model proposed in this paper is more accurate to other classical models. Meanwhile it also can be found that the data of longer the time range is calculated, the better accuracy the prediction effect.
Multicellular Redox Regulation in an Early‐Evolving Animal Treated with Glutathione

Redox signaling has emerged as a unifying theme in many seemingly disparate disciplines. Such signaling has been widely studied in bacteria and eukaryotic organelles and is often mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS). In this context, reduced glutathione (GSH) acts as an important intracellular antioxidant, diminishing ROS and potentially affecting redox signaling. Complementing this cell‐level perspective, colonial hydroids can be a useful model for understanding organism‐level redox signaling. These simple, early‐evolving animals consist of feeding polyps connected by tubelike stolons. Colonies treated exogenously with GSH or reduced glutathione ethyl ester (GEE) were expected to show a morphological change to sheetlike growth typical of low levels of ROS. Contrary to expectations, diminished stolon branching and polyp initiation was observed. Such runnerlike growth is associated with higher levels of ROS, and surprisingly, such higher levels were found in GSH‐ and GEE‐treated colonies. Further investigations show that GSH triggered a feeding response in hydroid polyps, increasing oxygen uptake but at the same time relaxing mitochondrion‐rich contractile regions at the base of polyps. Diminished gastrovascular flow and increased emissions of mitochondrial ROS also correlated with the observed runnerlike growth. In contrast to cell‐level, “bottom‐up” views of redox signaling, here the phenotype may arise from a “top‐down” interaction of mitochondrion‐rich regions and organism‐level physiology. Such multicellular redox regulation may commonly occur in other animals as well.
The impact of early monitored management on survival in hospitalized adult Ugandan patients with severe sepsis: A prospective intervention study*

&NA;In sub-Saharan Africa, sepsis is an important cause of mortality. Optimal sepsis management including fluid resuscitation, early antibiotic administration, and patient monitoring is limited by lack of supplies and skilled health workers. Objective:To evaluate whether early, monitored sepsis management provided by a study medical officer can improve survival among patients with severe sepsis admitted to two public hospitals in Uganda. Design, Setting, and Patients:A prospective before and after study of an intervention cohort (n = 426) with severe sepsis receiving early, monitored sepsis management compared to an observation cohort (n = 245) of similarly ill patients with severe sepsis receiving standard management after admission to the medical wards of two Ugandan hospitals. Intervention:Early sepsis management provided by a dedicated study medical officer comprising fluid resuscitation, early antibiotics, and regular monitoring in the first 6 hrs of hospitalization. Measurements:Kaplan-Meier survival and unadjusted and adjusted Cox proportional hazards analysis were used to compare the effect of early, monitored sepsis management on 30-day mortality between the intervention cohort (enrolled May 2008 to May 2009) and observation cohort (enrolled July 2006 to November 2006). Results:The majority (86%) of patients in both cohorts were human immuno-deficiency virus-infected. Median fluid volume provided in the first 6 hrs of hospitalization was higher in intervention than observation cohort patients (3000 mL vs. 500 mL, p < .001) and a greater proportion of intervention cohort patients received antibacterial therapy in <1 hr (67% vs. 30.4%, p < .001). Mortality at 30 days was significantly lower in the intervention cohort compared to the observation cohort (33.0% vs. 45.7%, log-rank p = .005). After adjustment for potential confounders, the hazard of 30-day mortality was 26% less in the intervention cohort compared to the observation cohort (adjusted hazards ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval 0.55–0.98). Mortality among the 13% of intervention patients who developed signs of respiratory distress was associated with baseline illness severity rather than fluid volume administered. Conclusion:Early, monitored management of severely septic patients in Uganda improves survival and is feasible and safe even in a busy public referral hospital.
Dynamic Interactions between Intermediate Neurogenic Progenitors and Radial Glia in Embryonic Mouse Neocortex: Potential Role in Dll1-Notch Signaling

The mammalian neocortical progenitor cell niche is composed of a diverse repertoire of neuroepithelial cells, radial glia (RG), and intermediate neurogenic progenitors (INPs). Previously, live-cell imaging experiments have proved crucial in identifying these distinct progenitor populations, especially INPs, which amplify neural output by undergoing additional rounds of proliferation before differentiating into new neurons. INPs also provide feedback to the RG pool by serving as a source of Delta-like 1 (Dll1), a key ligand for activating Notch signaling in neighboring cells, a well-known mechanism for maintaining RG identity. While much is known about Dll1-Notch signaling at the molecular level, little is known about how this cell–cell contact dependent feedback is transmitted at the cellular level. To investigate how RG and INPs might interact to convey Notch signals, we used high-resolution live-cell multiphoton microscopy (MPM) to directly observe cellular interactions and dynamics, in conjunction with Notch-pathway specific reporters in the neocortical neural stem cell niche in organotypic brain slices from embryonic mice. We found that INPs and RG interact via dynamic and transient elongate processes, some apparently long-range (extending from the subventricular zone to the ventricular zone), and some short-range (filopodia-like). Gene expression profiling of RG and INPs revealed further progenitor cell diversification, including different subpopulations of Hes1+ and/or Hes5+ RG, and Dll1+ and/or Dll3+ INPs. Thus, the embryonic progenitor niche includes a network of dynamic cell–cell interactions, using different combinations of Notch signaling molecules to maintain and likely diversify progenitor pools.
COMPARISON OF MOSQUITO TRAPPING METHOD EFFICACY FOR WEST NILE VIRUS SURVEILLANCE IN NEW MEXICO

ABSTRACT As part of the West Nile virus surveillance program for the state of New Mexico, 13 sites along the Rio Grande River were sampled for mosquitoes during spring and summer 2003. We evaluated 3 different trapping procedures for their effectiveness at capturing selected species of mosquitoes. The 3 methods used were a dry ice-baited Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) light trap set 1.5 m above the ground (standard method), a CDC light trap suspended within the forest canopy, and a gravid trap set on the ground. Thirteen sites were sampled for 10 1-night periods biweekly from May through September. The relative numbers of captured Culex tarsalis, Cx. salinarius, Cx. quinquefasciatus, and Aedes vexans as well as the numbers of total recorded captures of all species were compared for each trapping method. Significant differences were observed for each species by location and by trapping method. Culex tarsalis was most commonly caught in canopy or standard CDC traps, especially in cottonwood bosque. Culex salinarius was found most frequently in association with marshy water, and was most often caught in gravid or standard light traps. Culex quinque-fasciatus was captured almost exclusively in gravid traps within urban areas. Aedes vexans was primarily sampled in standard CDC light traps and found most frequently in wooded areas near floodplains. With the exception of Cx. quinquefasciatus, no species was collected significantly more frequently in gravid or canopy traps than in the standard CDC light trap. Our findings do not support altering the methods currently used in New Mexico, namely, the use of 1.5-m CDC light traps and gravid traps. An increased use of gravid traps seems to be warranted in monitoring urban vector populations (specifically Cx. quinquefasciatus and Cx. salinarius) that may be involved in human transmission.
Dual-Band Circularly Polarized Shared-Aperture Array for $C$ -/ $X$ -Band Satellite Communications

A novel method of achieving a single-feed circularly polarized (CP) microstrip antenna with both broad impedance bandwidth and axial ratio (AR) bandwidth is presented. The CP characteristics are generated by employing a resonator to excite the two orthogonal modes of the patch via two coupling paths and the required 90° phase difference is achieved by using the different orders of the two paths. The presented method, instead of conventional methods that power dividers and phase delay lines are usually required, not only significantly enhances the bandwidths of the antenna but also results in a compact feed, reduced loss and high gain. Based on this method, a dual-band shared-aperture CP array antenna is implemented for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band satellite communications. The antenna aperture includes a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2 \times 2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> array at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band and a <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$4 \times 4$ </tex-math></inline-formula> array at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band. To accommodate the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band elements into the same aperture while achieving a good isolation between them, the <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band circular patches are etched at the four corners. The measured results agree well with the simulations, showing a wide impedance bandwidth of 21% and 21.2% at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band, respectively. The <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band 3 dB AR bandwidths are 13.2% and 12.8%. The array also exhibits a high aperture efficiency of over 55%, low sidelobe (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band: −12.5 dB and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band: −15 dB), and high gain (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band: 14.5 dBic and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$X$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-band: 17.5 dBic).
Enhanced Inter-Sub-Band Interference Suppression for Universal Filtered Multi-Carrier Transmission

As one of the 5G physical-layer technique candidates, universal filtered multi-carrier (UFMC) supports sliced spectrum communication by filtering a series of subcarriers. The filter design greatly affects the inter-sub-band interference in UFMC and hence is crucial to the overall system performance. Here we first propose a novel UFMC scheme, namely UFMC-AIC, which incorporates active interference cancellation (AIC) into UFMC to considerably reduce the inter-sub-band interference. Then we propose a modified version of UFMC-AIC which optimizes the weighting factors of the interference cancellation subcarriers (ICSs) under a total power constraint. Simulation results show that the modified UFMC-AIC scheme can achieve higher transmission rate and better BER performance than the conventional UFMC either for AWGN channel or for Rayleigh channel. Moreover, we validate that our proposal can significantly reduce the filter design requirements.
[Excess mortality and prolongation of stay due to bloodstream infections caused by multiresistant pathogens in Germany].

BACKGROUND Multiresistant pathogens cause substantial excess mortality and prolongation of hospital stay. However, until now there are no reliable estimates for Germany. METHOD Based on data of three recent publications from Europe and current German data on bloodstream infections because of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) and extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL) producing E. coli we calculated the number of patients dying from bloodstream infections because of MRSA- instead of methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) or ESBL-producing E. coli instead of non-ESBL E. coli. RESULTS About 421 patients died in 2010 because they suffered from MRSA bloodstream infection instead of MSSA bloodstream infection. Excess mortality for bloodstream infections because ESBL-producing E. coli instead of non-ESBL E. coli was about 256 cases. Considering that bloodstream infections with other multiresistant pathogens also lead to higher mortality, between 800 to 1000 deaths can be expected because of the resistant variant of the pathogens. In addition, bloodstream infections with multiresistant pathogens lead to more than 12000 additional days in hospital in Germany. CONCLUSION Although this article does not include the burden of other healthcare-associated infections due to multiresistant pathogens the data for bloodstream infections alone demonstrate substantial excess burden and costs.
The Leishmania tarentolae Spliced Leader Contains Determinants for Association with Polysomes*

In kinetoplastids, every nuclear-derived mRNA contains an identical 39-nucleotide (nt) spliced leader at its 5′-terminus. The spliced leader is derived from substrate spliced leader RNA and joined to pre-mRNA by trans-splicing, thus providing mature mRNAs with an m7G cap and additional methylations referred to as cap 4. It was shown previously that mutations spanning nucleotides 10–39 of the spliced leader did not affect substrate spliced leader RNA transcription or trans-splicing in Leishmania tarentolae (Saito, R. M., Elgort, M. G., and Campbell, D. A. (1994) EMBO J. 13, 5460–5469). In this study we examined these sequences for a possible role in translation by assaying the association of mRNAs, which possess mutated spliced leaders, with polysomes. For the nt 28–39 mutated spliced leaders, both the substrate spliced leader RNA and the spliced leader demonstrated a wild-type methylation pattern; spliced nt 28–39 mRNA was found in polysomes. Thus, the nt 28–39 region conserved primary sequence is not a determinant of polysome association. An undermethylated cap 4 structure was present on substrate and mRNA spliced leaders in nt 20–29 mutated exons; nt 20–29 mRNA was not present in polysomes. A differential pattern of cap 4 methylation was seen between the nt 10–19 substrate spliced leader RNA and the nt 10–19 spliced leaders found in the poly(A)+ population of RNA; the nt 10–19 mRNA was not seen in polysomes. Undermethylated spliced leaders did not associate efficiently with polysomes, suggesting a requirement for the cap 4 and/or primary sequence of the spliced leader in translation. This is the first report demonstrating that the spliced leader contains critical structural or sequence determinants for association with polysomes and, hence, translation.
The opinion‐policy nexus in Europe and the role of political institutions

A strong link between citizen preferences and public policy is one of the key goals and criteria of democratic governance. Yet, our knowledge about the extent to which public policies on specific issues are in line with citizen preferences in Europe is limited. This article reports on the first study of the link between public opinion and public policy that covers a large and diverse sample of concrete public policy issues in 31 European democracies. The findings demonstrate a strong positive relationship and a substantial degree of congruence between public opinion and the state of public policy. Also examined is whether political institutions, including electoral systems and the horizontal and vertical division of powers, influence the opinion‐policy link. The evidence for such effects is very limited, which suggests that the same institutions might affect policy representation in countervailing ways through different mechanisms.
An Introduction to Household Economic Instability and Social Policy

This special issue of Social Service Review presents original research on the determinants and consequences of economic instability, with a focus on the interplay between instability and social policy. To frame that discussion, we define economic instability as repeated changes in employment, income, or financial well-being over time, particularly changes that are not intentional, predictable, or part of upward mobility. We also present a conceptual framework for how instability occurs in multiple domains of family life and how social policy has the potential to both buffer and exacerbate instability in employment and family structure. The articles in the volume engage many of these domains, including employment and program instability, and multiple areas of social policy, including workplace regulations and child-care subsidies. They also point to paths for future research, which we summarize in the final section of this introduction.
The BMP/CHORDIN antagonism controls sensory pigment cell specification and differentiation in the ascidian embryo.

We have investigated the role of the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) pathway during neural tissue formation in the ascidian embryo. The orthologue of the BMP antagonist, chordin, was isolated from the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi. While both the expression pattern and the phenotype observed by overexpressing chordin or BMPb (the dpp-subclass BMP) do not suggest a role for these factors in neural induction, BMP/CHORDIN antagonism was found to affect neural patterning. Overexpression of BMPb induced ectopic sensory pigment cells in the brain lineages that do not normally form pigment cells and suppressed pressure organ formation within the brain. Reciprocally, overexpressing chordin suppressed pigment cell formation and induced ectopic pressure organ. We show that pigment cell formation occurs in three steps. (1) During cleavage stages ectodermal cells are neuralized by a vegetal signal that can be substituted by bFGF. (2) At the early gastrula stage, BMPb secreted from the lateral nerve cord blastomeres induces those neuralized blastomeres in close proximity to adopt a pigment cell fate. (3) At the tailbud stage, among these pigment cell precursors, BMPb induces the differentiation of specifically the anterior type of pigment cell, the otolith; while posteriorly, CHORDIN suppresses BMP activity and allows ocellus differentiation.