Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Autoimmunity and the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (TID) is an autoimmune genetic disease with unidentified environmental agents affecting its pathogenesis. Susceptibility is determined by the interaction of MHC and non-MHC genes in the thymus, primarily by the IDDM1 locus, which is extremely polymorphic and thus generates multitudes of predisposing and protective haplotypes for binding self-peptides. By presenting these peptide antigens to immature T-cells for activation and selection, most autoreactive cells will be deleted, but inefficient presentation and subsequent deficiencies of non-MHC genes allow some cells to escape to the periphery and to be eliminated by anergy or regulatory T-cells. T-cell dysregulation to a Th1 response with secretion of inflammatory cytokines promotes a self-perpetuating autoimmune cascade leading to overt disease unless blocked by suppressive cytokines from Th2-type cells. Since autoantibodies reflect target-cell destruction, early insulin autoantibodies may be transient due to benign insulitis induced by insulin or proinsulin. Multiple autoantibodies denote epitope spreading to cryptic autoantigens, likely involving posttranslational variants. Thus, the resulting T1D development requires coordinated abnormal variations, and this requirement limits its occurrence to a small minority of susceptible individuals.
Regulation of CD44 in the Regenerating Mouse Facial Motor Nucleus

CD44 is a cell adhesion molecule which plays an important role in cell movement and adhesion, e.g. in lymphocyte homing and tumour metastasis. Here we studied the expression of CD44 mRNA and protein immunoreactivity in the facial nucleus after nerve injury and during the ensuing regeneration. Transection of the facial nerve led to a strong up‐regulation of CD44, peaking 4 days after injury on the motoneurons of the axotomized facial nucleus. Use of the polymerase chain reaction confirmed the de novo expression of CD44 and detected only the standard haematopoietic CD44 isoform. Western blotting also detected the 76 kDa protein subtype, in line with the predicted size of the haematopoietic CD44 variant. At the ultrastructural level, CD44 immunoreactivity was restricted to the surface of the neuronal perikarya, their dendrites and axons. It was not seen in the adjacent activated astrocytes, microglia or vascular endothelia. This study shows strong up‐regulation of the cell adhesion molecule CD44 on the regenerating rnotoneurons in the axotomized facial nucleus. These data suggest that CD44 may play a role in neurite outgrowth, in synaptic stripping or in the adhesion of activated glial cells to the perikaryal surface of the axotomized motoneurons.
Neuropeptide Regulation of Mucosal Immunity

In this chapter, we discuss in detail our investigations on the potential for neuropeptide regulation of tnucosal immunity. This includes both in vitro and in vivo studies involving substance P (SP), somatostatin (SOM) and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). We have examined the effects of these neuropeptides on lymphocyte proliferation and immunoglobulin synthesis, and on mast cell degranulation. We also present evidence that nerve growth factor (NGE) may be an important molecule in regulating both lymphocytes and mast cells in mucosal tissues. The majority of our studies have involved the gastrointestinal tract and we shall use this organ to illustrate the basic concepts and our hypotheses. It is recognized that not everyone reading this paper will be familiar with the mucosal immune system, nor the potential sources of neuropeptides within mucosae. Accordingly, we have included a brief overview of these areas, with reference to review articles for further information. The reader should note that there is extensive literature on the involvement of other neuropeptides in immune regulation; however, it is not our intention to review this work in detail. Other chapters in this volume present considerable evidence for the extensive interplay of the immune and nervous systems and there is inevitably some overlap between these contributions and our own studies. The reader is referred to the extensive bibliographies throughout this volume for additional useful references.
Effect of Telmisartan on Angiotensin II‐Mediated Collagen Gel Contraction by Adult Rat Cardiac Fibroblasts

&NA; The possible contributions of the angiotensin receptor subtypes 1 and 2 on the angiotensin II‐induced collagen gel contraction by adult rat cardiac fibroblasts were studied using the specific angiotensin receptor type 1 and 2 antagonists telmisartan and P‐186, respectively. Cardiac fibroblasts (from normal male adult rats) from passage 2 were cultured to confluency and added to a hydrated collagen gel, with or without angiotensin II, angiotensin II plus telmisartan, or angiotensin II plus P‐186 in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium containing 5% fetal bovine serum for 1, 2, or 3 days. Control gels containing adult rat cardiac fibroblasts showed a significant amount of contraction after 3 days of incubation, causing a contraction to 67.9 ± 7.1% of the area after 1 day. Angiotensin II (10‐7 M) stimulated (p ≤ 0.05) the contraction of collagen mediated by cardiac fibroblasts after 1, 2, or 3 days. Telmisartan (10‐7 M) completely blocked the angiotensin II‐induced collagen contraction by cardiac fibroblasts. P‐186 (10‐7 M) had no effect on the angiotensin II‐induced collagen contraction by cardiac fibroblasts. Addition of telmisartan and P‐186 alone did not affect the collagen gel contraction by cardiac fibroblasts. Our data demonstrate that the effects of angiotensin II on the collagen gel contraction by adult rat cardiac fibroblasts are angiotensin II type 1 receptor mediated because they were abolished by the specific angiotensin II type 1 receptor antagonist telmisartan but not by the specific angiotensin II type 2 receptor antagonist P‐186.
P2Y2 Purinergic and M3 Muscarinic Acetylcholine Receptors Activate Different Phospholipase C-β Isoforms That Are Uniquely Susceptible to Protein Kinase C-dependent Phosphorylation and Inactivation*

Activation of phospholipase C-β (PLC-β) by G protein-coupled receptors typically results in rapid but transient second messenger generation. Although PLC-β deactivation may contribute to the transient nature of this response, the mechanisms governing PLC-β deactivation are poorly characterized. We investigated the involvement of protein kinase C (PKC) in the termination of PLC-β activation induced by endogenous P2Y2 purinergic receptors and transfected M3 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChR) in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Activation of P2Y2 receptors causes Gαq/11 to associate with PLC-β3, whereas M3mAChR activation causes Gαq/11 to associate with both PLC-β1 and PLC-β3 in these cells. Phosphorylation of PLC-β3, but not PLC-β1, is induced by activating either P2Y2receptors or M3 mAChR. We demonstrate that PKC rather than protein kinase A mediates the G protein-coupled receptor-induced phosphorylation of PLC-β3. The PKC-mediated phosphorylation of PLC-β3 diminishes the interaction of Gαq/11 with PLC-β3, thereby contributing to the termination PLC-β3 activity. These findings indicate that the distinct temporal profiles of PLC activation by P2Y2 receptors and mAChR may arise from the differential activation of PLC-β1 and PLC-β3 by the receptors, coupled with a selective PKC-mediated negative feedback mechanism that targets PLC-β3 but not PLC-β1.
Recent advances in all-epitaxial growth and properties of orientation-patterned gallium arsenide (OP-GaAs)

We report on all-epitaxial growth of large diameter (3-inch), large aperture (≫1.5mm thick), low-loss (≪0.005cm<sup>−1</sup>) QPM GaAs. 2-µm-laser-pumped OPO performance was comparable to that of ZnGeP<inf>2</inf>.
A New Parallel Algorithm of Adaptive QPSO to Solve Constrained Optimization Problems

Parallel and adaptability are introduced in the algorithm of quantum-behaved PSO in this paper, which is named PAQPSO and used to solve the CO problem. The PAQPSO outperforms QPSO and AQPSO in global search ability and local search ability, because the parallel and adaptive method is more approximate to the learning process of social organism with high-level swarm intelligence and can make the population evolve persistently. We adopt a non-stationary multi-stage assignment penalty in solving constrained problem to improve the convergence and gain more accurate results. This approach is tested on several accredited benchmark functions and the experiment results show much advantage of PAQPSO to AQPSO, QPSO and the traditional PSO (Particle Swarm Optimization). And the running time is also decreased in proximity linear.
Remnants of the Early Solar System Water Enriched in Heavy Oxygen Isotopes

Oxygen isotopic composition of our solar system is believed to have resulted from mixing of two isotopically distinct nebular reservoirs, 16O-rich and 17,18O-rich relative to Earth. The nature and composition of the 17,18O-rich reservoir are poorly constrained. We report an in situ discovery of a chemically and isotopically unique material distributed ubiquitously in fine-grained matrix of a primitive carbonaceous chondrite Acfer 094. This material formed by oxidation of Fe,Ni-metal and sulfides by water either in the solar nebula or on a planetesimal. Oxygen isotopic composition of this material indicates that the water was highly enriched in 17O and 18O (δ17,18OSMOW = +180‰ per mil), providing the first evidence for an extremely 17,18O-rich reservoir in the early solar system.
The impact of agglomeration on city technological innovativeness — Empirical study based on the prefecture-level cities' panel data of China

The impact of industrial agglomeration externalities on technological innovativeness attracts more and more people's attention. From the perspective of agglomeration externalities, this paper selects 229 prefecture-level cities' panel data of 29 provinces from 2006 to 2008 as samples, calculates the specialization index and diversification index of these cities and analyzes their characteristics. Through theoretical analysis and empirical research this paper studies the interaction mechanism and corresponding contribution of specialization and diversification externalities to cities' technological innovativeness. The results show that: first, for the whole country, the specialized industrial structure has a positive impact on cities' technological innovativeness, the diversified industrial structure negatively affects it; second, for both coastal cities and large cities, the the diversified industrial structure favors city technological innovativeness, for midwestern cities, especially small ones, the specialized industrial structure is conducive to innovation; Third, increasing the investment in education, enhancing the absorption of the international technologyspilloverss, promoting local economic development are all helpful to technological in-novativeness.
Seroepidemiology of HCV-HIV coinfection in Tunisia.

AIM To determine the prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C virus (HCV) in a cohort of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus 1 (HIV-1) and to compare risk factors. METHODS Multicenter retrospective study from infectious diseases department in Tunisia. We examined sera from HIV patients followed in these centers. Diagnosis of HCV infection was based on third generation enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. RESULTS 362 HIV-1 patients were included in the study. The mean age was 35,5 years. 272 patients (75.13%) were male. Sexual transmission of HIV was the main risk factor (56.3%). 144 patients (39.7%) had antibodies against HCV, mainly in patients with history of intravenous drug abuse (78.4%). Quantitative evaluation of hepatitis C virus RNA was done only in 3 patients. CONCLUSION HCV-HIV coinfection in tunisian patients occurs frequently, due to the same ways of transmission. More studies are needed to focus on sexual transmission of hepatitis C virus in order to prevent such infections rather than interferon-based therapies.
Ecology of Spotted Flapshell Turtle, Lissemys punctata (Lacepede, 1788) in Bangladesh

Spotted flapshell turtle, Lissemys punctata was found in all types of habitats of Bangladesh. Of the 9 categories of habitats studied, the highest number (17.42%) of the turtle species was found in marshland followed by puddles (17.26%), agriculture fields (17.12%), streams (12.1%), canals (10.54%), tanks (10.39%), derelict ponds (9.18%) and domestic ponds (6.08%). Most of the time the turtle was found in burrowing condition (55.83%), rarely it was observed in feeding (7.2%) condition. The turtle seem to have a considerably higher tolerant in all types of environment, so it may be possible to set-up turtle farm commercially in Bangladesh. Key words : Spotted flapshell turtle, ecology, habitat preference, behavioral patterns. doi: 10.3126/eco.v15i0. 1943 ECOPRINT 15: 59-67, 2008
A 16-year follow-up on a juvenile macromastic patient

The need for persons to undergo surgery becomes necessary in persons with breast hypertrophy . This study was carried out on a patient with juvenile macromastia sixteen (16) years after surgical treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi, Ghana. The patient answered a questionnaire which included her pre- and post-surgery experience, her reproductive life, as well as improvement in psychological and physiological well being. After surgery, she no longer experienced any psychological complication; she now has a good self-esteem and has developed a positive self image. However, physical examination showed a distortion in her left breast. Her quality of life encompassing her physiological and psychological experiences have positively improved after surgery and she is very satisfied with her current state even though there is an obvious deformity in her left breast.
LiJAR: A System for Job Application Redistribution towards Efficient Career Marketplace

Online professional social networks such as LinkedIn serve as a marketplace, wherein job seekers can find right career opportunities and job providers can reach out to potential candidates. LinkedIn's job recommendations product is a key vehicle for efficient matching between potential candidates and job postings. However, we have observed in practice that a subset of job postings receive too many applications (due to several reasons such as the popularity of the company, nature of the job, etc.), while some other job postings receive too few applications. Both cases can result in job poster dissatisfaction and may lead to discontinuation of the associated job posting contracts. At the same time, if too many job seekers compete for the same job posting, each job seeker's chance of getting this job will be reduced. In the long term, this reduces the chance of users finding jobs that they really like on the site. Therefore, it becomes beneficial for the job recommendation system to consider values provided to both job seekers as well as job posters in the marketplace. In this paper, we propose the job application redistribution problem, with the goal of ensuring that job postings do not receive too many or too few applications, while still providing job recommendations to users with the same level of relevance. We present a dynamic forecasting model to estimate the expected number of applications at the job expiration date, and algorithms to either promote or penalize jobs based on the output of the forecasting model. We also describe the system design and architecture for LiJAR, LinkedIn's Job Applications Forecasting and Redistribution system, which we have implemented and deployed in production. We perform extensive evaluation of LiJAR through both offline and online A/B testing experiments. Our production deployment of this system as part of LinkedIn's job recommendation engine has resulted in significant increase in the engagement of users for underserved jobs (6.5%) without affecting the user engagement in terms of the total number of job applications, thereby addressing the needs of job seekers as well as job providers simultaneously.
Causes of childhood blindness in east Africa: results in 491 pupils attending 17 schools for the blind in Malawi, Kenya and Uganda.

Pupils attending 12 schools for the blind in Malawi, 3 schools in Kenya and 2 schools in Uganda were examined to determine the causes of severe visual impairment or blindness (visual acuity in the better eye of less than 6/60). A total of 491 pupils aged 3-22 years was examined. Visual acuity was measured in each eye using a Snellen E chart. The anatomical site of abnormality and underlying cause of visual loss were determined by clinical examination for each eye, and for the child. Information was recorded on a standard reporting form (the WHO/PBL Eye Examination Record for Children with Blindness and Low Vision). Data were analysed for those aged less than 16 years using a database which accompanies the form. Preventable and treatable causes were identified. 260 pupils aged 5-20 years were examined in Malawi, 163 pupils aged 3-19 years were examined in Kenya and 68 pupils aged 6-22 years were examined in Uganda. Of the 491 students included in the study 309 (62.9%) were blind (BL) and 69 (14.1%) were severely visually impaired (SVI). 244 were aged less than 16 years and had SVI/BL. In these 244 children 35.2% of visual loss was due to corneal pathology, 13.5% was due to cataract and 14.8% to diseases of the retina. Corneal pathology, attributed to vitamin A deficiency and measles infection in the majority, was responsible for proportionally more SVI/BL in students in Malawi than in Uganda or Kenya. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Radiation emitted by a resonantly driven hydrogen atom.

The spectrum of scattered radiation was computed for an electron, bound initially in the 2s-state of a hydrogen atom, and driven resonantly by the sinusoidal field of a moderately intense linearly polarized laser. A numerical solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger was performed for the duration of a several femtosecond laser pulse. The radiation which emerged from this transient state was characterized by the spectrum of the autocorrelation function of the electronic acceleration. Copious radiation, near the second harmonic, was emitted prior to ionization.
Colonoscopy detects significantly more flat adenomas than 3-tesla magnetic resonance colonography: a pilot trial

Background and study aims: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide, and several efforts have been made to reduce its occurrence or severity. Although colonoscopy is considered the gold standard in CRC prevention, it has its disadvantages: missed lesions, bleeding, and perforation. Furthermore, a high number of patients undergo this procedure even though no polyps are detected. Therefore, an initial screening examination may be warranted. Our aim was to compare the adenoma detection rate of magnetic resonance colonography (MRC) with that of optical colonoscopy. Patients and methods: A total of 25 patients with an intermediate risk for CRC (17 men, 8 women; mean age 57.6, standard deviation 11) underwent MRC with a 3.0-tesla magnet, followed by colonoscopy. The endoscopist was initially blinded to the results of MRC and unblinded immediately after examining the distal rectum. Following endoscopic excision, the size, anatomical localization, and appearance of all polyps were described according to the Paris classification. Results: A total of 93 lesions were detected during colonoscopy. These included a malignant infiltration of the transverse colon due to gastric cancer in 1 patient, 28 adenomas in 10 patients, 19 hyperplastic polyps in 9 patients, and 45 non-neoplastic lesions. In 5 patients, no lesion was detected. MRC detected significantly fewer lesions: 1 adenoma (P = 0.001) and 1 hyperplastic polyp (P = 0.004). The malignant infiltration was seen with both modalities. Of the 28 adenomas, 23 (82 %) were 5 mm or smaller; only 4 adenomas 10 mm or larger (14 %) were detected. Conclusion: MRC does not detect adenomas sufficiently independently of the location of the lesion. Even advanced lesions were missed. Therefore, colonoscopy should still be considered the current gold standard, even for diagnostic purposes.
Estudio comparativo del contenido de presentaciones personalizadas de usuario

El estudio del comportamiento del usuario es un mecanismo que permite obtener algunas caracteristicas sobre el mismo (preferencias, nivel de conocimiento, etc). En ocasiones, esta informacion es utilizada para inferir nuevas caracteristicas que ayuden a unirlo a grupos de usuarios con un comportamiento similar (utilizando metodos probabilisticos, sistemas basados en reglas). La mayor parte de estos sistemas se basan en el analisis del contenido de la informacion visualizada. Los sistemas de recomendacion se basan en estudios de este tipo para proponer nuevos items de informacion a presentar al usuario. En este trabajo se presenta un enfoque diferente en el que se estudia no el contenido de la informacion, sino los distintos elementos de informacion que aparecen en la interfaz, asi como la ubicacion de los mismos. Para ello se comparan las interfaces personalizadas por los usuarios que acceden a una biblioteca de cuadros de arte. Partiendo de esta comparacion, se pretende encontrar similitudes entre los distintos usuarios a partir de sus interfaces. Palabras clave: interfaces personalizadas, adaptacion presentacion, comportamiento usuario
Analysis of the Vibration Magnitude of an Induction Motor With Different Numbers of Broken Bars

This paper presents an analytical equation that relates the number of broken bars in the rotor of an induction machine to the vibrations of its stator. The relation is given in terms of both amplitudes and frequencies and is validated by numerical and experimental investigations. The amplitude of vibrations of some frequency components is shown to increase quadratically with the number of broken bars when the motor is operated at rated load. The frequency components of interest are in the range of two to four times the value of the supply frequency, which simplifies the implementation with relatively low-cost instrumentation. The main focus and innovation of this paper is on the derivation of the analytical equations and their verification with numerical analysis, and the comparison of both results to the experimental measurements.
Apoptosis: a clinically useful measure of antiretroviral drug toxicity?

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has improved life expectancy with HIV infection, but long-term toxicities associated with these medications are now a major global disease burden. There is a clear need to develop useful methods for monitoring patients on antiretroviral drugs for early signs of toxicity. Assays with predictive utility – allowing therapy to be changed before serious end organ damage occurs – would be ideal. Attempts to develop biochemical methods of monitoring ART toxicity have concentrated on the mitochondrial toxicity of nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors and have not generally lead to assays with widespread clinical applications. For example, plasma lactate and peripheral blood measurements of mitochondrial DNA associate with exposure to potentially toxic nucleoside analogue reverse transcriptase inhibitors but have not reliably predicted clinical toxicity. Better assays are needed, including markers of toxicity from additional drug classes. Apoptosis may be a potential marker of ART toxicity. Increased apoptosis has been demonstrated both in vitro and in vivo in association with various antiretroviral drug classes and a range of clinical toxicities. However, quantifying apoptosis on biopsy specimens of tissue (such as adipose tissue) is impractical for patient monitoring. Novel assays have been described that can quantify apoptosis using minute tissue samples and initial results from clinical samples suggest peripheral blood may have utility in predicting ART toxicities. The limitations and potential of such techniques for monitoring patients for drug side effects will be discussed.