Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long‐Term Use of Mycophenolate Mofetil is Associated With a Reduction in the Incidence and Risk of Late Rejection

To evaluate the association of long‐term continuous (minimum 1 year) mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) vs. azathioprine (AZA) therapy with the incidence of late acute rejection, we analyzed 47 693 primary renal allograft recipients reported to the United States Renal Data System between 1988 and 1998.
Alkaline phosphatase of mouse teratoma stem cells: immunochemical and structural evidence for its identity as a somatic gene product.

The immunochemical and structural characteristics of the alkaline phosphatase [orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase (alkaline optimum), EC 3.1. 3.1] from mouse teratoma stem cells derived from the OTT-6050 teratoma (ascitic and solid tumors and the F9 and PCC4 cell lines) have been compared to those of the alkaline phosphatases expressed in normal mouse placenta and several adult organs. Crossreactivity of the stem cell alkaline phosphatase with antisera reacting with placental, kidney, liver, and brain alkaline phosphatases indicated that the stem cell enzyme had common antigenic determinants. Structural studies utilizing two-dimensional electrophoresis of the (32)P-labeled alkaline phosphatase subunits showed that the stem cell, placental, and kidney alkaline phosphatases differed only in their sialic acid content and comigrated after removal of terminal sialic acid by neuraminidase digestion. Furthermore, one-dimensional peptide mapping of partial proteolysis fragments from (32)P-labeled enzymes demonstrated identical fragmentation patterns for the stem cell and somatic enzymes. These immunochemical and structural data indicate that the stem cell alkaline phosphatase is the same core enzyme as that produced in the mouse placenta and kidney, with different amounts of terminal sialic acid. The one mouse alkaline phosphatase examined that differed from the other enzymes was the intestinal alkaline phosphatase. This isoenzyme was not immunochemically crossreactive with the other alkaline phosphatases, did not comigrate in two-dimensional electrophoresis after neuraminidase digestion, and did not give identical peptide maps after partial proteolysis.
Tumor antigen presentation by murine epidermal cells.

The ability of epidermal Langerhans cells to present Ag for CD4-dependent immunity is well documented, and it has been hypothesized that Langerhans cells participate in the generation of immunity against incipient epidermal neoplasms by presentation of tumor-associated Ag in situ. This study examined the ability of murine epidermal cells (EC) to present tumor-associated Ag for the induction of in vivo antitumor immunity. Murine epidermal cells were deleted of Thy-1-bearing cells, cultured in 50 U/ml granulocyte-macrophage-CSF for 14 to 18 h, and pulsed with tumor fragments (TF) derived from S1509a-fibrosarcoma cells. These TF-pulsed EC were injected s.c. into syngeneic recipients at weekly intervals for a total of three immunizations and challenged with viable S1509a tumor cells 1 wk after the last immunization. Control animals received TF-pulsed allogeneic EC or EC treated identically but not pulsed with TF. EC that were pulsed with tumor cell fragments were able to induce protective immunity to tumor growth in vivo and to immunize for a significant delayed-type hypersensitivity response to injected tumor cells. The induction of antitumor immunity with TF-pulsed EC was genetically restricted, and culture of EC in granulocyte-macrophage-CSF was required for development of significant immunity. Furthermore, deletion of I-A+ cells by antibody and complement-mediated lysis eliminated the generation of immunity. Thus, I-A+ epidermal cells are capable of presenting S1509a tumor Ag for the generation of protective antitumor immunity in vivo.
Noise compensation methods for hidden Markov model speech recognition in adverse environments

Several noise compensation schemes for speech recognition in impulsive and nonimpulsive noise are considered. The noise compensation schemes are spectral subtraction, HMM-based Wiener (1949) filters, noise-adaptive HMMs, and a front-end impulsive noise removal. The use of the cepstral-time matrix as an improved speech feature set is explored, and the noise compensation methods are extended for use with cepstral-time features. Experimental evaluations, on a spoken digit database, in the presence of ear noise, helicopter noise, and impulsive noise, demonstrate that the noise compensation methods achieve substantial improvement in recognition across a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios. The results also show that the cepstral-time matrix is more robust than a vector of identical size, which is composed of a combination of cepstral and differential cepstral features.
Depressed mood impedes pain treatment response in patients with fibromyalgia.

OBJECTIVE To investigate prognostic factors in the course of the fibromyalgia syndrome (FM) from baseline to post-treatment. METHODS Fifty-seven patients with FM were examined in a randomized intervention study. Pre-treatment variables were entered into linear regression analyses: gender, age, duration of disease, allocation to treatment, pain distribution (based on a patient-made drawing), fatigue, sleep disturbance, and depressed mood (based on visual analog scores), with pain distribution at treatment completion as the dependent variable. RESULTS Depressed mood at baseline was a significant predictor of sustained widespread pain at treatment completion. CONCLUSION The findings indicate a role for depressed mood as a predictive factor for treatment response.
Dual inhibitory effects of the peptide antibiotics leucinostatins on oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria.

The effects of the hydrophobic peptide antibiotics leucinostatins A and B, originally isolated by Arai, T. , Y. Mikami, K. Fukushima, T. Utsumi, and K. Yazawa. (J. Antibiotics (1973) 26: 157-161), on the functions of rat liver mitochondria were examined. At a concentration of 240 nM, these compounds completely inhibited state 3 respiration and ATPase activity that was stimulated by weakly acidic uncouplers. However, at higher concentrations, they induced uncoupling, probably by their protonophoric action. The uncoupling action was potentiated by known phosphoryl transfer inhibitors such as venturicidin, DCCD and oligomycin. The binding site of leucinostatins at lower concentrations was suggested to be located at, or very close to that of venturicidin. The potencies of the two analogues of leucinostatin were almost the same for all their actions. Their effects were very similar to those of the peptide antibiotics A20668's, which have been used as leucinostatins without any chemical and biological confirmation that they are in fact leucinostatins. Thus, the chemical structures of leucinostatins are thought to be analogues to those of the A20668's.
Management of AIDS-related lymphoma

Purpose of review With the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy, the epidemiology of AIDS-lymphoma has changed, and prognosis has improved. Paradigms of therapy have changed. Although the incidence of AIDS-lymphoma has decreased, the incidence of HIV-associated Hodgkin's lymphoma has increased; mechanisms for these changes in epidemiology will be discussed. Recent findings Use of highly active antiretroviral therapy, either concomitantly or immediately after completion of chemotherapy, has resulted in rates of complete remission and survival that are similar to those in HIV-negative patients. The use of rituximab, while initially controversial because of reports of increased risk of infectious death, is associated with improved outcome; the increased risk of infectious death has not been confirmed. The infusional etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin regimen is associated with excellent results. High-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplant is associated with long-term, disease-free survival in approximately 50–80% of patients with relapsed/refractory AIDS-lymphoma. Summary Highly active antiretroviral therapy should be used with chemotherapy. Addition of rituximab is associated with improved response rates, without an increase in infections. Infusional etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin is associated with excellent results among patients with either diffuse large B cell lymphoma or Burkitt's lymphoma. Optimal therapy for patients with HIV–Hodgkin's lymphoma has not yet been defined.
Systematic Risk and the Cost of Equity Capital in the Shipping Industry

This paper investigates systematic risk in global shipping stocks. Although the shipping business with its strong cyclical nature and its high financial as well as operating leverage is perceived as highly risk-laden, prior studies have documented rather low market betas. We analyze whether the estimated systematic risk in shipping stocks is robust to different estimation methods, stock liquidity, and different sampling periods. Using a comprehensive sample of 248 shipping companies, we confirm that systematic risk in shipping stocks is rather moderate on average. However, market beta estimates are quite heterogeneous over the cross-section of firms. We further document strong beta variation over time and show that costs of equity capital in the maritime industry are closely tied to freight rates. Given the magnitude of time variation in estimated costs of capital, our results have important implications for capital budgeting and capital raising decisions of shipping companies in practice.
Distinguishing the monomer to cluster phase transition in concentrated lysozyme solutions by studying the temperature dependence of the short-time dynamics

Recent combined experiments by small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and neutron spin echo (NSE) have demonstrated that dynamic clusters can form in concentrated lysozyme solutions when the right combination of a short-ranged attraction and a long-ranged electrostatic repulsion exists. In this paper, we investigate the temperature effect on the dynamic cluster formation and try to pinpoint the transition concentration from a monomeric protein phase to a cluster phase. Interestingly, even at a relatively high concentration (10% mass fraction), despite the significant change in the SANS patterns that are associated with the change of the short-ranged attraction among proteins, the normalized short-time self-diffusion coefficient is not affected between 5 and 40 °C. This is interpreted as a lack of cluster formation in this condition. However, at larger concentrations such as 17.5% and 22.5% mass fraction, we show that the average hydrodynamic radius increases significantly and causes a large decrease of the normalized self-diffusion coefficient as a result of cluster formation when the temperature is changed from 25 to 5 °C.
On Improving WLAN Medium Access Control via Uniform Transmission Cycle and Performance Analysis

In this paper, we propose a modified backoff mechanism that can be used in conjunction with the existing backoff algorithms for medium access sharing among wireless stations via the CSMA protocol. With a proper design, the resulting scheme can achieve better short-term throughput fairness performance without degradation in the average throughput performance. The main idea of the proposed scheme is to virtually create a transmission cycle for each wireless station. After getting a turn to access the medium, each wireless station is not allowed to start the backoff procedure for its next transmission until it has waited for some additional number of backoff slots. Moreover, the average throughput performance of the proposed scheme is analytically evaluated in this work via the Markov chain approach. The simulation results show that the performance analysis model derived here for the proposed scheme is valid and accurate. In addition, the proposed scheme noticeably improves the short-term throughput fairness performance of the conventional backoff scheme.
Corrosion behaviour of mild steel in aqueous acetic acid solutions containing different amounts of formic acid

The kinetics of mild steel corrosion in 20:0, 19:1, 18:2 and 15:5 (v/v%) aqueous mixture of acetic and formic acids has been investigated by weight loss and potentiostatic polarization techniques. The effects of composition of electrolyte and temperature on the corrosion rate of mild steel have been evaluated. The corrosion rate of mild steel increased linearly with temperature as well as amount of formic acid in the mixture. Anodic polarization curves exhibited active nature over the whole range of potential at each composition and temperature. Addition of sodium acetate to the mixture led to the transition from active to active-passive-transpassive behaviour in the solutions having lower concentration of formic acid. On replacing sodium acetate by sodium formate, and sodium sulphate, no change in the nature of polarization behaviour is observed.
[Evaluation of the aroreira (Schinus terebinthifolius Raddi) in the healing process of surgical incision in the bladder of rats].

PURPOSE To evaluate the hydroalcoholic aroeira extract in the healing process of surgical incisions in the bladder of rats in an experimental comparative study. METHODS Forty male Wistar rats were used. All of them underwent a median abdominal incision, with an 1cm cystotomy, followed by one plain suture with separated stitches of poliglactine 910 5-0. The animals were then divided into two groups of 20 rats each, and named the aroeira group (GA) and the control group (GC). In the first one, 80% hydro-alcoholic plant extract was injected in the peritoneal cavity, in a one dose of 100mg/kg. The second group, a 0.9% saline solution was injected in place of aroeira extract. Each group was divided into two subgroups (SGA and SGC) of 10 animals. According to their scheduled death, they were named subgroups SGA3 and SGC3 when killed in the 3th day after surgery and subgroups SGA7 and SGC7 in the 7th day. The abdominal cavity and the bladder suture were macroscopically evaluated. RESULTS The microscopic analysis of the surgical incision in the bladder was performed by means of the hematoxilin-eosine stain and the trichrome of Masson. The macroscopic analysis showed an infection in the surgical incision in three rats of the SGC group and in one of the SGA, and peritoneal adhesion in the 26 rats belonging nine to SGC and 17 in the SGA. The microscopic evaluation revealed a more severe acute inflammation process in the SGC on the 3th (p=0.045) and in the 7th (0=0.002) days. In the SGA, a more significant collagenization (p=0.001) could be seen, as far as the evidence of vascular neoformation (p=0.002) on the 3rd day. Chronic inflammatory reaction (p=0.006) and a more intense vascular neoformation (p=0.001) were observed in the 7th day. CONCLUSION The hydroalcoholic aroeira extract had a favorable effect in the healing process of cystotomies done in rats.
Estimation, Navigation and Control of Multi-Rotor Drones in an Urban Wind Field

The paper presents an on-board estimation, navigation and control architecture for multi-rotor drones (cid:29)ying in urban environment. It consists of adaptive algorithms to estimate vehicle’s aerodynamic drag coe(cid:30)cients with respect to still air and the urban wind components along the (cid:29)ight trajectory, with guaranteed fast and reliable convergence to the true values; navigation algorithms to generate feasible trajectories between given way-points that take into account the estimated wind; and of control algorithms to track the generated trajectories as long as the vehicle retains su(cid:30)cient number of functioning rotors capable of compensating for the estimated wind. All components of this on-board system are computationally e(cid:27)ective and are intended for a real time implementation. The algorithms were tested in simulations.
Effects of long-term moderate hypercapnia on acid-base balance and growth rate in marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis)

In the context of future scenarios of progressive accumulation of anthropogenic CO2 in marine surface waters, the present study addresses the effects of long-term hypercapnia on a Mediterranean bivalve, Mytilus galloprovincialis. Sea-water pH was lowered to a value of 7.3 by equilibration with elevated CO2 levels. This is close to the maximum pH drop expected in marine sur- face waters during atmospheric CO2 accumulation. Intra- and extracellular acid-base parameters as well as changes in metabolic rate and growth were studied under both normocapnia and hypercap- nia. Long-term hypercapnia caused a permanent reduction in haemolymph pH. To limit the degree of acidosis, mussels increased haemolymph bicarbonate levels, which are derived mainly from the dissolution of shell CaCO3. Intracellular pH in various tissues was at least partly compensated; no deviation from control values occurred during long-term measurements in whole soft-body tissues. The rate of oxygen consumption fell significantly, indicating a lower metabolic rate. In line with pre- vious reports, a close correlation became evident between the reduction in extracellular pH and the reduction in metabolic rate of mussels during hypercapnia. Analysis of frequency histograms of growth rate revealed that hypercapnia caused a slowing of growth, possibly related to the reduction in metabolic rate and the dissolution of shell CaCO3 as a result of extracellular acidosis. In addition, increased nitrogen excretion by hypercapnic mussels indicates the net degradation of protein, thereby contributing to growth reduction. The results obtained in the present study strongly indicate that a reduction in sea-water pH to 7.3 may be fatal for the mussels. They also confirm previous obser- vations that a reduction in sea-water pH below 7.5 is harmful for shelled molluscs.
A new cerebroside from fruits of Ailanthus altissima Swingle

A new cerebroside and three known cycloartan triterpenes were isolated from fruits of Ailanthus altissima Swingle. Their structures were identified as 1-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(2S, 3R, 4E, 9E)-2-(2′R-hydroxyhexadecenoy)-4, 9-octadecadiene-1, 3-diol (1), 9, 19-cyclolanost-23 (Z)-ene-3β, 25-diol (2), cycloart-25-ene-3β, 24R-diol (3), and cycloart-25-ene-3β, 24S-diol (4) by means of chemical and spectroscopic analysis. Compounds 2, 3, and 4 were isolated from genus Ailanthus for the first time. The analgesic activity of 1 was also evaluated.
A 20 Gb/s 82mW one-stage 4:1 multiplexer in 0.13 /spl mu/m CMOS

A completely integrated 4:1 multiplexer for high speed operation and low power consumption in 0.13 /spl mu/m CMOS is presented. The circuit uses a new architecture where four data streams are multiplexed in one stage. Pulses with 25% duty cycle select inputs to appear at the MUX-output. The lower number of gates enables low power design. Relaxed timing conditions are additional benefits of the one-stage MUX topology. The MUX works from DC up to 20 Gb/s and consumes 82 mW.
The Relation Trainer-Personal Development Group from the Perspective of Therapeutic Success and Therapeutic Failure

A therapeutic success is the aim of any therapeutic intervention, but a therapeutic failure is the other side of the same coin. The purpose of this study is to present the activity of a personal development group, composed of 14 participants (psychologists, doctors and a priest) registered for a 2 days course of integrative psychotherapy. The objectives of this study are centred on: the management of the personal development group breaking moment realized by the therapist/trainer; the analysis of the trainer’s personal situation and of some group participants and the brief presentation of the main work methods applied on participants in the repairing of the therapeutic relation and in the counter transfer management. The therapist’s orientation is an integrative one and the demarche realized includes T.A. techniques, role play, Gestalt and family systemic psychotherapy. The conclusions obtained represent landmarks for the future activity within that group and strengthen the therapeutic relation with the group. Keywords—Therapeutic success, therapeutic failure.
Differences in the Effects of Crowding on Size Perception and Grip Scaling in Densely Cluttered 3-D Scenes

Objects rarely appear in isolation in natural scenes. Although many studies have investigated how nearby objects influence perception in cluttered scenes (i.e., crowding), none has studied how nearby objects influence visually guided action. In Experiment 1, we found that participants could scale their grasp to the size of a crowded target even when they could not perceive its size, demonstrating for the first time that neurologically intact participants can use visual information that is not available to conscious report to scale their grasp to real objects in real scenes. In Experiments 2 and 3, we found that changing the eccentricity of the display and the orientation of the flankers had no effect on grasping but strongly affected perception. The differential effects of eccentricity and flanker orientation on perception and grasping show that the known differences in retinotopy between the ventral and dorsal streams are reflected in the way in which people deal with targets in cluttered scenes.
Inverse Regulation of In fl ammation and Mitochondrial Function in Adipose Tissue De fi nes Extreme Insulin Sensitivity in Morbidly Obese Patients

Citation Qatanani, Mohammed, Yejun Tan, Radu Dobrin, Danielle M. Greenawalt, Guanghui Hu, Wenqing Zhao, Jerrold M. Olefsky, Dorothy D. Sears, Lee M. Kaplan, and Daniel M. Kemp. 2013. “Inverse Regulation of Inflammation and Mitochondrial Function in Adipose Tissue Defines Extreme Insulin Sensitivity in Morbidly Obese Patients. ” Diabetes 62 (3): 855-863. doi:10.2337/db12-0399. http://dx.doi. org/10.2337/db12-0399.
Content Validation of the Depressive Symptom Assessment for Older Adults

The goal of this study was to evaluate the content validity of the Depressive Symptom Assessment for Older Adults (DSA), an interviewer-rated instrument designed to comprehensively measure depression in older adults regardless of their cognitive status. Seniors who were not currently depressed but had been either previously depressed or had an older adult family member who was depressed (n = 7) served as content validation experts for this two phased study. In Phase 1 of the content validation process, 19 of the questions had 100% agreement, 20 of the questions had 86% agreement, 13 of the questions had 71% agreement, 5 of the questions had 57% agreement, and 2 of the questions had 43% agreement. In Phase 2 of the content validation process, 42 of the questions had 100% agreement, 11 of the questions had 86% agreement, and 1 of the questions had 71% agreement. The DSA provides mental health nurses with a comprehensive instrument to assess older adults for depression.
Binary partition for itemsets expansion in mining high utility itemsets

High utility itemset mining has recently emerged to address the limitations of frequent itemset mining. It entails relevance measures to reflect both statistical significance and user expectations. Whether breadth-first or depth-first search algorithms are employed, most methods generate new candidates by 1-extension of existing itemsets (i.e., by adding only one item to verified itemsets to generate new potential candidates). As an alternative to 1-extension, we introduce an expansion method based on binary partition. We then define the transaction utility list and key support count and discuss a new pruning strategy. Based on the new itemset expansion method and pruning strategy, we propose an efficient high utility itemset mining algorithm called BPHUI-Mine (Binary Partition-based High Utility Itemsets Mine). Tests on publicly available datasets show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms.