Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Critical role for complement receptor C5aR2 in the pathogenesis of renal ischemia‐reperfusion injury

The complement system, and specifically C5a, is involved in renal ischemia‐reperfusion (IR) injury. The 2 receptors for complement anaphylatoxin C5a (C5aR1 and C5aR2) are expressed on leukocytes as well as on renal epithelium. Extensive evidence shows that C5aR1 inhibition protects kidneys from IR injury; however, the role of C5aR2 in IR injury is less clear as initial studies proposed the hypothesis that C5aR2 functions as a decoy receptor. By Using wild‐type, C5aR1‐/‐, and C5aR2‐/‐ mice in a model of renal IR injury, we found that a deficiency of either of these receptors protected mice from renal IR injury. Surprisingly, C5aR2‐/‐ mice were most protected and had lower creatinine levels and reduced acute tubular necrosis. Next, an in vivo migration study demonstrated that leukocyte chemotaxis was unaffected in C5aR2‐/‐ mice, whereas neutrophil activation was reduced by C5aR2 deficiency. To further investigate the contribution of renal cell‐expressed C5aR2 vs. leukocyte‐expressed C5aR2 to renal IR injury, bone marrow chimeras were created. Our data show that both renal cell‐expressed C5aR2 and leukocyte‐expressed C5aR2 mediate IR‐induced renal dysfunction. These studies reveal the importance of C5aR2 in renal IR injury. They further show that C5aR2 is a functional receptor, rather than a decoy receptor, and may provide a new target for intervention. —Poppelaars, F. , van Werkhoven, M. B. , Kotimaa, J., Veldhuis, Z. J., Ausema, A. , Broeren, S. G. M. , Damman, J., Hempel, J. C. , Leuvenink, H. G. D. , Daha, M. R. , van Son, W. J., van Kooten, C. , van Os, R. P., Hillebrands, J.‐L. , Seelen, M. A. Critical role for complement receptor C5aR2 in the pathogenesis of renal ischemia‐reperfusion injury. FASEB J. 31, 3193–3204 (2017). www.fasebj. org
Three-dimensional imaging of the prostatic urethra--an exciting new tool.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the technique of three-dimensional (3-D) ultrasound imaging of the urethra and its application in both research and clinical practice. PATIENTS AND TECHNIQUE The study involved 23 patients: 10 with benign prostatic hyperplasia, four with urethral strictures, three post-insertion of prostatic stents, one with bladder neck dyssynergia, three post-transurethral resection of the prostate, and two with non-urological conditions. A transrectal ultrasound scan was initially performed to acquire a series of images of the urethra. These images were then reconstructed into a 3-D format. RESULTS The 3-D image of the urethra could be rotated on screen and viewed from any angle. The image could also be sliced at any plane to reveal the sectional view. CONCLUSION This new tool represents a major advance in imaging techniques and promises to provide new knowledge in understanding the hydrodynamics of the lower urinary tract. The precise geometry of the 3-D urethra will also help in the design of new stents.
Heterogeneous leader-follower formation based on kinematic models

This paper proposes a control structure for a heterogeneous leader-follower formation involving an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) - the leader, and an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) - the follower, based on their kinematic models. The control architecture is a centralized one, in which it is possible to get the robots sensory data and to synthesize and deliver the control signals necessary to establish the formation. The experimental platform, the mathematical models of the robots and other structures needed to carry out the cooperative navigation are detailed. The closed-loop system stability is demonstrated and the effectiveness of the proposed methodology is validated through experimental results.
3D printing of aspherical terahertz lenses and diffraction gratings

We present a series of aspherical lenses and diffraction gratings 3D printed for use as optical components in terahertz spectroscopy systems. Commercially available plastics for 3D printing (VisyJet Crystal, Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Plastic and acrylic based polymers) have also been characterized via Terahertz Time Domain Spectroscopy (TDS) and two-color wave photomixing. In addition, characterization has been achieved using synchrotron radiation at the Australian Centre for Synchrotron Science. The lenses were found to have a focal length of (35±2) mm suggesting high spatial resolutions might be achieved. This result agrees with the calculated focal length of 35.5 mm. Control over output maxima and beam splitting of the diffraction gratings is observed with easily made adjustments in the 3D printing design process. A square grating produced was found to be a (78±2)% efficient beam splitter. The blazed grating produced demonstrated an efficiency of (38±1)% in the first order diffraction maxima. These were taken using radiation at 0.28 THz using the two-color wave photomixing system.
HEMATOPOIESIS AND STEM CELLS GATA 2 de fi ciency : a protean disorder of hematopoiesis , lymphatics , and immunity

GATA2 deficiency: a protean disorder of hematopoiesis, lymphatics, and immunity Michael A. Spinner, Lauren A. Sanchez, Amy P. Hsu, Pamela A. Shaw, Christa S. Zerbe, Katherine R. Calvo, Diane C. Arthur, Wenjuan Gu, Christine M. Gould, Carmen C. Brewer, Edward W. Cowen, Alexandra F. Freeman, Kenneth N. Olivier, Gulbu Uzel, Adrian M. Zelazny, Janine R. Daub, Christine D. Spalding, Reginald J. Claypool, Neelam K. Giri, Blanche P. Alter, Emily M. Mace, Jordan S. Orange, Jennifer Cuellar-Rodriguez, Dennis D. Hickstein, and Steven M. Holland
Effects of recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha, recombinant human gamma-interferon, and prostaglandin E on colony formation of human hematopoietic progenitor cells stimulated by natural human pluripotent colony-stimulating factor, pluripoietin alpha, and recombinant erythropoietin in serum

The influences of pure human pluripotent colony-stimulating factor, highly purified pluripoietin alpha, pure recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha, pure recombinant human gamma-interferon, and natural prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) were evaluated on colony formation of multipotential and erythroid progenitor cells in the presence of recombinant erythropoietin and hemin and on colony formation of granulocyte-macrophage progenitors in normal human marrow cultured in the presence or absence of serum. Serum was replaced by bovine serum albumin, iron-saturated transferrin, cholesterol, and calcium chloride. Increasing concentrations of pluripotent colony-stimulating factor and pluripoietin alpha stimulated increasing numbers of colonies from nonadherent low-density T-lymphocyte-depleted cells in the absence and presence of serum. Growth was usually greater in the presence of serum and on a unit basis pluripoietin alpha was more active than pluripotent colony-stimulating factor. Recombinant human tumor necrosis factor alpha and recombinant human gamma-interferon suppressed colony formation colony forming unit-granulocyte-macrophage, burst forming unit-erythroid, and colony forming unit-granulocyte-erythroid-macrophage-megakaryocyte; PGE1 suppressed colony formation by colony-forming unit-granulocyte-macrophage, stimulated colony formation by burst forming unit-erythroid, and had no effects on colony formation by colony forming unit-granulocyte-erythroid-macrophage-megakaryocyte in both serum-containing and serum-free medium. The PGE1 enhancing effects on erythroid colony formation required T-lymphocytes. Thus, results are similar using serum-containing and serum-free cultures of human bone marrow cells and serum-free defined culture medium can be used to study the mechanism of action of purified natural and recombinant growth and suppressor molecules in vitro.
The Spectrum of Children's Palliative Care Needs: a classification framework for children with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions

Objectives This paper examined the potential of a new classification framework, The Spectrum of Children's Palliative Care Needs, to facilitate identification of children with palliative care needs for the purposes of minimum data set collection and population needs assessment. Methods Health and social care professionals (n=50) in a range of paediatric palliative care settings applied The Spectrum to (i) clinical vignettes and (ii) consecutive children on their caseloads. They also provided confidence ratings and written comments about their experiences. Inter-rater reliability, conceptual validity, acceptability, feasibility and sustainability were examined. A subset of professionals (n=9) also participated in semistructured telephone interviews to provide further insight. Results Inter-rater reliability for the vignettes (κ=0.255) was fair. However, professionals were more confident applying The Spectrum to their caseloads, which included children (n=74) with a range of life-limiting/life-threatening conditions. The Spectrum made conceptual sense in relation to these children and was considered to offer a meaningful way to define the eligible population in service mapping. Benefits for clinical work (eg, facilitating patient review, workload management, clinical audit) and research were also identified. However, important threats to reliability were highlighted. Conclusions Preliminary assessment of The Spectrum confirms its potential to promote consistent data set collection in children's palliative care. The results have been used to produce a revised version and user guidelines to address issues raised by participants. However, further research is required to further validate the framework and establish its relevance to families’ self-defined needs.
A Multi-class Support Vector Machine

Support Vector Machines for pattern recognition are addressed to binary classification problems. The problem of multi-class classification is typically solved by the combination of 2-class decision functions using voting scheme methods or decison trees. We present a new multi-class classification SVM for the separable case, called KSVCR. Learning machines operating in a kernel-induced feature space are constructed assigning output +1 or -1 if training patterns belongs to the classes to be separated, and assigning output 0 if patterns have a different label to the formers. This formulation of multi-class classification problem ever assigns a meaningful answer to every input and its architecture is more fault-tolerant than standard methods one.
Activation of phospholipase D by the small GTPase Sar1p is required to support COPII assembly and ER export

The small GTPase Sar1p controls the assembly of the cytosolic COPII coat that mediates export from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Here we demonstrate that phospholipase D (PLD) activation is required to support COPII‐mediated ER export. PLD activity by itself does not lead to the recruitment of COPII to the membranes or ER export. However, PLD activity is required to support Sar1p‐dependent membrane tubulation, the subsequent Sar1p‐dependent recruitment of Sec23/24 and Sec13/31 COPII complexes to ER export sites and ER export. Sar1p recruitment to the membrane is PLD independent, yet activation of Sar1p is required to stimulate PLD activity on ER membranes, thus PLD is temporally regulated to support ER export. Regulated modification of membrane lipid composition is required to support the cooperative interactions that enable selective transport, as we demonstrate here for the mammalian COPII coat.
Interpretation of serum parathyroid hormone concentrations in dialysis patients: what do the KDIGO guidelines change for the clinical laboratory?

Abstract The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) have recently replaced the K/DOQI guidelines to help nephrologists in diagnosing, treating and monitoring chronic kidney disease mineral and bone disorders (CKD-MBD). Here, we comment on the KDIGO recommendations concerning the interpretation of parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations in dialysis patients: “In patients with CKD stage 5D, we suggest maintaining iPTH in the range of approximately two to nine times the upper normal limit of the assay. We suggest that marked changes in PTH concentrations in either direction within this range prompt an initiation or change in therapy to avoid progression to concentrations outside of this range”. Our comments concern the interpretation of PTH in dialysis patients, but also the more global problem of establishing normal values for PTH. Clin Chem Lab Med 2010;48:769–74.
Toward efficient , fast , and versatile running robots based on free vibration

Despite the impressive demonstrations of energy efficient legged robots in the past, there are still a number of challenges remained to compete with legged locomotion of biological systems. In order to optimize energy efficiency of a legged robot, we typically need to sacrifice versatility: our robots have usually limited locomotion speed, lack of behavioral diversity, complex mechanical designs, and limited scalability in terms of weights and sizes [1, 2, 3]. From this perspective, we have been exploring an alternative design strategy of hopping/running robots that are not only simple and efficient, but also capable of exhibiting variations of locomotion behaviors.
Activity‐dependent hyperpolarization and conduction block in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy

Voluntary activity produces activity‐dependent hyperpolarization of the active motor axons. The present study investigated whether this hyperpolarization produces conduction block in chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP). Studies were performed in 10 healthy control subjects, 7 patients with CIDP, and 3 patients with multifocal motor neuropathy. The compound muscle action potential (CMAP) of the abductor pollicis brevis was recorded in response to supramaximal stimuli to the median nerve at the wrist, alternating with measurements of axonal excitability. After a maximal voluntary contraction for 60 seconds, the amplitude of the maximal CMAP was significantly reduced in symptomatic CIDP patients by 40%, but there were only slight changes in the CMAPs of healthy controls, asymptomatic CIDP patients, and multifocal motor neuropathy patients. In symptomatic CIDP patients, the activity‐dependent conduction block paralleled the activity‐dependent hyperpolarization and was presumably precipitated by it. In these patients, the safety margin for impulse conduction was estimated to be about 12%. Activity‐dependent conduction block may be clinically important in chronic demyelinating diseases and can be demonstrated electrophysiologically if testing occurs across pathological sites. Ann Neurol 2000;48:826–832
Design and Analysis of Interleaved Forward Quasi-Resonant Converters with Zero Current Switching

In this paper, interleaved forward quasi-resonant (QR) converters with zero current switching (ZCS) are proposed. Two forward QR converters with ZCS are interleaved controlled to increase output power and also to reduce output-current ripple. The operating principle and the characteristics of the proposed converter are presented. Finally, a laboratory prototype is implemented to verify the performance of the proposed converter. The experimental results show that the switches are turned off with ZCS, the output inductor currents are balanced, and the output current ripple is reduced.
A study of bandwidth-sharing mechanisms in connection-oriented networks

There is an increasing interest in optical connection-oriented networks to support the high-speed and predictable-service requirements of applications used in the scientific research community. Various experimental testbeds have been created. One area of networking research in these testbed projects is dynamic bandwidth sharing because the number of universities and national research laboratories involved in these scientific projects is large enough to make the use of dedicated circuits (leased lines) prohibitively expensive. We propose two new bandwidth-sharing mechanisms, both of which are book-ahead (BA) reservation schemes for high-speed connection-oriented networks. First, we define two types of reservation requests: (i) session-type requests, which specify the required bandwidth and duration, and (ii) data-type requests, which specify the amount of data to be transferred. For session-type requests, we propose two variants: a BA-n scheme, in which a user specifies n acceptable call-initiation time options, and a BA-First scheme, in which a user accepts any call-initiation time. We construct two novel analytical models for these two variants of BA schemes. Using the analytical and simulation models, we show that BA schemes overcome the limitation of the immediate-request (IR) mechanism, making it feasible to support applications even when the per-call bandwidth is large relative to link capacity. Our second book-ahead mechanism called Varying-Bandwidth Delayed Start (VBDS) is for data-type (file transfer) requests. By having applications specify file sizes in their reservation requests, a VBDS scheduler is able to assign a varying-bandwidth allocation for different time ranges instead of a single fixed-rate. Through simulations, we show that this approach improves system performance when compared to fixed-bandwidth schemes significantly. As a complement to the analytical and simulation studies used in the design of our two proposed BA schemes, we undertake an implementation and experimental study of the IR bandwidth-sharing mode in high-speed connection-oriented networks. We deployed a three-node connection-oriented network called CHEETAH, and implemented a software package to support the IR bandwidth-sharing mode in this network. We obtain measurements for end-to-end circuit setup delays and per-switch signaling message processing delays. These measurements are useful for analytical and simulation studies of connection-oriented networks, and in network design and configurations.
Selective vestibular damage in neurosarcoidosis

We report a patient with neurosarcoidosis who developed bilateral benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) of the posterior canals, deafness, and absent responses to conventional caloric and rotational vestibular testing. Additional rotation in the planes of the vertical semicircular canals revealed relative sparing of vertical canal function. This vertical–horizontal canal dissociation explains the presence of BPPV and suggests that the vestibular damage in this patient is secondary to a vasculitic neuropathy.
Web Data Extraction System Based on Label Library

A Web Information Extraction System based on label library is proposed for extracting information from data intensive web pages in this paper. It downloads dynamic web pages based on a knowledge database, changes them to XML documents after a preprocessing, mines data regions by using MDR repeated patterns discovery algorithm, recognizes their structure and extracts data from them through a novel hierarchic pattern recognition and data extraction algorithm based on label library, and stores the data into the knowledge database to support further information extraction. Experiments showed that the system has high precision and is adaptive to web pages in different domains and with different structures.
History, Postcolonialism and Postmodernism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

This paper examines Toni Morrison’s fifth novel, Beloved, which, together with Jazz and Paradise, constitute Morrison’s contribution to the process of re-writing black American history. Postcolonial thought has offered one of the most potent challenges to the notion of the ‘end of history’ posited by postmodernists of both left and right. Focusing principally on Beloved (1987), my paper explores how Toni Morrison insists upon the necessity of a conscious and inevitably painful engagement with the past. Uncovering a dense series of correspondences, drawing upon Christological symbols, numerology, and flower imagery, I argue that the principal character is closely identified with Christ throughout the novel, which in its final part refigures the Passion narrative. As a sacrificed black, female Christ, Beloved becomes a focus for Morrison’s concern with redemption through memory. I wish to briefly explore the debate on history between postmodernism and postcolonialism as it constitutes the framework to Toni Morrison’s deployment of Christological imagery in order to engage with history. If the dawn of postmodernism marked the beginning of a ‘posthistoric’ era which ‘stipulated that the segment of human life had ended for which history had claimed to offer explanation and understanding’ (Breisach 2003 10), this has been uncompromisingly contested by postcolonialism. The postcolonial claim for the unacknowledged role of the non-Western world in the constitution of modernity is emphasized by Edward Said in Culture and Imperialism (1993) as follows:
Acute infarcts cause focal thinning in remote cortex via degeneration of connecting fiber tracts

Objective: To study remote effects distant from acute ischemic infarcts by measuring longitudinal changes of cortical thickness in connected brain regions as well as changes in microstructural integrity in connecting fiber tracts. Methods: Thirty-two patients (mean age 71 years) underwent a standardized protocol including multimodal MRI and clinical assessment both at stroke onset and 6 months after the event. Cortex connected to acute infarcts was identified by probabilistic diffusion tensor tractography starting from the acute lesion. Changes of cortical thickness were measured using the longitudinal stream of FreeSurfer. Microstructural damage in white matter tracts was assessed by changes of mean diffusivity. Results: We found focal cortical thinning specifically in areas connected to acute infarcts (p < 0.001). Thinning was more pronounced in regions showing a high probability of connectivity to infarcts. Microstructural damage in white matter tracts connecting acute infarcts with distant cortex significantly correlated with thickness changes in that region (ρ = −0.39, p = 0.028). There was no indication of an influence of cavitation status or infarct etiology on the observed changes in cortex and white matter. Conclusions: These findings identify secondary degeneration of connected white matter tracts and remote cortex as key features of acute ischemic infarcts. Our observations may have implications for the understanding of structural and functional reorganization after stroke.