Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conversion of Der p 23, a New Major House Dust Mite Allergen, into a Hypoallergenic Vaccine

Der p 23, a new, major house dust mite (HDM) allergen that is recognized by >70% of HDM-allergic patients, has high allergenic activity and, therefore, must be considered an important component for HDM-specific immunotherapy. We constructed and characterized a hypoallergenic Der p 23 vaccine for HDM immunotherapy. Three nonallergenic peptides from the C-terminal IgE epitope-containing part of Der p 23 (P4, P5) and P6, a mutant peptide containing serines instead of cysteines, were identified. Peptides were fused to the hepatitis B virus–derived PreS domain as recombinant fusion proteins (i.e., PreS-2XP4P5 and PreS-4XP6) that were expressed in Escherichia coli and purified to homogeneity. Compared with Der p 23, PreS-2XP4P5 and PreS-4XP6 showed no relevant IgE reactivity and exhibited considerably reduced allergenic activity in basophil activation tests using blood from HDM-allergic patients. Upon immunization of rabbits, only PreS-2XP4P5 induced high levels of Der p 23–specific IgG Abs that inhibited binding of patients’ IgE to Der p 23, comparable to IgG Abs induced with Der p 23, whereas Abs induced with PreS-4XP6 had only low blocking capacity. Additionally, IgG Abs induced with PreS-2XP4P5 inhibited Der p 23–induced basophil activation comparable to IgG Abs induced with Der p 23. Compared with Der p 23, PreS-2XP4P5 induced lower T cell proliferation but higher levels of the tolerogenic cytokine IL-10 and the Th1 cytokine IFN-γ in PBMCs from HDM-allergic patients, indicating an immunomodulatory capacity of the fusion protein. Therefore, PreS-2XP4P5 represents a promising candidate for immunotherapy of HDM-allergic patients.
The relation of pneumothorax and other air leaks to mortality in the acute respiratory distress syndrome.

BACKGROUND In patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome, pneumothorax and other air leaks - any extrusion of air outside the tracheobronchial tree - have been attributed to high ventilatory pressures or volumes and linked to increased mortality. METHODS We analyzed data from a prospective trial of aerosolized synthetic surfactant in 725 patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome induced by sepsis. We compared the ventilatory pressures and volumes in the patients without any air leaks (the highest values during the five-day study) with the pressures and volumes in those with pneumothorax or with any air leaks (the highest values during the 16- and 24-hour periods before the complication developed). RESULTS Fifty patients (6.9 percent) had pneumothorax and 77 (10.6 percent) had pneumothorax or other air leaks. There were no significant differences between patients with air leaks and those without air leaks in any pressure or volume examined. Overall mortality at 30 days was 40.0 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 36.4 to 43.6); among the patients with pneumothorax, it was 46.0 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 32.2 to 59.8), and among those without pneumothorax, it was 39.3 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 35.6 to 43.0; P=0.35). The mortality rate was 45.5 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 34.4 to 56.6) in the group with any air leaks and 39.0 percent (95 percent confidence interval, 35.3 to 42.8) in the group without air leaks (P=0.28). CONCLUSIONS In patients with sepsis-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome who were receiving mechanical ventilation with conventional pressures and volumes, there were no significant correlations between high ventilatory pressures or volumes and the development of pneumothorax or other air leaks. Pneumothorax or other air leaks were not associated with a significantly increased mortality rate.
Contact allergy and depigmentation from alstroemeria

Alstroemeria plants have increased in popularity in recent years, but surprisingly few of contact allergy have been reported. Observations of combined sensitivity between Alstroemeria and Tulipa have given support to the assumption that they contain identical sensitizing agents. A patient working as a gardener developed a dermatitis from Alstroemeria. Patch tests with Alstroemeria were positive, but patch tests with Tulipa were negative. 2 months after test application, the patient showed depigmented areas at the test sites and at the sites of a previous dermatitis. The depigmented test areas remained unchanged at least a year after lest application Whether the depigmentation was due to some unique character of the molecular structure of the unknown Alstroemeria allergen, or to a unique biological characteristic of the patient, remains to be determined.
Development of a robust method for an online P300 Speller Brain Computer Interface

This research presents a robust method for P300 component recognition and classification in EEG signals for a P300 Speller Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). The multiresolution wavelet decomposition technique was used for feature extraction. The feature selection was done using an improved t-test method. For feature classification the Quadratic Discriminant Analysis was employed. No any particular specification is previously assumed in the proposed algorithm and all the constants of the system are optimized to generate the highest accuracy on a validation set. The method is first verified in offline experiments on “BCI competition 2003” data set IIb and data recorded by Emotiv Neuroheadset and the results are among the highest previously reported but using a few features from limited number of channels. This method is robust and does not require high computational power. Therefore, it was next implemented in an online P300 speller BCI and tested on four healthy subjects using Emotiv neuroheadset.
Reducing impact of degradation on analog circuits by chopper stabilization and autozeroing

This paper shows that chopper stabilization and autozeroing, commonly used to eliminate offset and low frequency noise, can also significantly reduce the effects of transistor degradation caused by hot carrier and BTI stress in analog circuits. An open loop amplifier circuit designed in a 32nm high-κ, metal gate technology is investigated by circuit simulation and sensitivity analysis. This analysis was conducted using DC stress which can cause high offset for asymmetric input signals. Aging due to negative and positive bias temperature instability, conducting and non-conducting hot carrier injection is taken into consideration. The aging contributions of these effects on the individual transistors in the circuit and on the amplifier offset are evaluated and a drastic reduction of the output offset is obtained by chopping and autozeroing.
Disulfide Bond Formation Is Not Required for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin Subunit Association

To study the influence of disulfide bridge formation on the assembly of the subunits of human chorionic gonadotropin in JEG-3 choriocarcinoma cells, dithiothreitol (DTT) was used to create a reducing milieu in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER)in vivo. In the presence of 5 mm DTT during pulse-chase experiments all of the β-subunit precursors observed in unperturbed cells (pβ0, pβ1, pβ2, and β*) collapsed into the pβ0 form. The reducing milieu of the ER was reoxidized in less than 5 min after removal of DTT from the medium. DTT markedly increased the half-life of the pβ0 precursor from 8.8 to 65.2 min. Under reoxidation conditions, the β-subunit precursors folded back from pβ0 in less than 5 min. In unperturbed JEG-3 cells, the α-subunit was present in both fully glycosylated and monoglycosylated precursor (pre-α) forms. The attachment of the second N-linked glycan residue of the α-subunit was accelerated in the presence of DTT, and consequently pre-α-subunit was missing from the DTT-treated cultures. The formation of αβ-dimers appeared to be at least partially independent of the oxidation state in the ER. The αβ-dimer was present under conditions in which disulfide bridge formation was prevented by exposure to 5 mm DTT before and during the pulse period. This clearly suggests that the human chorionic gonadotropin subunits may acquire association-competent conformations even when no disulfide bridge formation has taken place.
The Differences in Level of Interleukin 6 in Lower Limb Orthopedic Surgery with General Anesthesia Technique Compared with Regional Anesthesia Combined Spinal Epidural Block Technique

: Background: Trauma and surgery caused tissues damage and these will trigger local and systemic inflammation as a defense mechanism and adaptation to injury. Assessment the level of interleukin 6(IL-6) as an acute phase cytokine is expected to be used as a marker of inflammation caused by the surgery.Anesthesia technique also attenuatesthe inflammatory response. Objective: to find a best anesthesia technique to minimize the inflammatory response in patient with lower limb bone’s fracture undergoing orthopedic surgery in Operating Theater of Sanglah General Hospital, Denpasar, Bali.Methods:This is anobservational study, the observation conducted from August to October 2016 in Operating Theatre of Sanglah Hospital. The study involved 28 patients who eligible with a total population sampling technique. Divided into 2 groups; 14 patients received general anesthesia (GA) and 14 patients received regional anesthesia combined spinal epidural block(RA) for the surgery. IL-6 is obtained from peripheral blood before anesthesia conducted and 24 hours after the surgery. Results:Patients received RA had a lower level of IL-6 compared to patients received GA 24 hours after surgery. Conclusion:Regional anesthesia combined spinal epidural block has a better effect of reducing inflammatory response caused by surgery compared to general anesthesia.
Management of Graves’ orbitopathy in Latin America: an international questionnaire study compared with Europe

Context Management of Graves’ orbitopathy (GO) and dysthyroid optic neuropathy (DON) continues to be challenging. Other surveys have been successful in elucidating trends in GO management. Knowledge of current practice by members of the Latin American Thyroid Society (LATS) who manage patients with GO was targeted by distribution of a questionnaire. We compared our results with a previously reported European Thyroid Association (ETA) survey.
Phase Retrieval , What ’ s New ?

Comments from the Editors Jennifer Erway & Stefan M. Wild . 1 Articles Phase Retrieval, What’s New? D. Russell Luke . 1 An Introduction to Nonnegative Matrix Factorization Nicolas Gillis . 6 Bulletin Book Announcements . 16 Chair’s Column Juan Meza . 16
Transcutaneous oxygen and CO2 as early warning of tissue hypoxia and hemodynamic shock in critically ill emergency patients

Background Although cardiac and pulmonary function can be measured precisely, evaluation of tissue perfusion remains elusive because it usually is inferred from subjective symptoms and imprecise signs of shock. The latter are indirect criteria used to assess the overall circulatory status as well as tissue perfusion but are not direct quantitative measures of perfusion. However, noninvasive transcutaneous oxygen (PtcO2) and carbon dioxide (PtcCO2) tensions, which directly measure skin oxygenation and CO2 retention, may be used to objectively evaluate skin oxygenation and perfusion in emergency patients beginning with resuscitation immediately after hospital admission. Objective This study was a preliminary evaluation of tissue oxygenation and perfusion by objective PtcO2 and PtcCO2 patterns in severely injured surviving and nonsurviving patients; specifically, the aim was to describe time patterns that may be used as early warning signs of circulatory dysfunction and death. Design Prospective descriptive study of a consecutive series of severely injured emergency patients. Setting University-affiliated Level I trauma center and intensive care unit. Patients and Methods Forty-eight consecutive severely injured patients were prospectively monitored by PtcO2 and PtcCO2 sensors immediately after emergency admission. Results Compared with survivors, patients who died had significantly lower PtcO2 and higher PtcCO2 values beginning with the early stage of resuscitation. All patients who maintained PtcO2 >150 torr (19.99 kPa) throughout monitoring survived. Periods of PtcO2 <50 torr (6.66 kPa) for >60 mins or PtcCO2 >60 torr (8.00 kPa) for >30 mins were associated with 90% mortality and 100% morbidity. Conclusion PtcO2 and PtcCO2 monitoring continuously evaluate tissue perfusion and serve as early warning in critically injured patients during resuscitation immediately after hospital admission.
An adverse effect of the ventral prostate secretion on hamster epididymal spermatozoa.

The motility and metabolism ofhamster epididymal spermatozoa in the presence of secretions from the ventral prostate gland have been studied. The aerobic metabolism and motility of hamster epididymal spermatozoa were depressed by a factor of large molecular size which could be partially but not completely destroyed by heating, even at 90\s=deg\C for 10 min. Treatment of the ventral prostate secretion with EDTA had no effect on this factor, indicating that its activity is not dependent on divalent cations. The presence of 0\m=. \01to 0\m=. \1% cysteine had no visible effect on the activity of this factor, suggesting that sulphydryl binding is also not involved. Its adverse effect on spermatozoa could not be neutralized by the secretion ofother accessory glands. Hamster epididymal spermatozoa were more sensitive to the hamster ventral prostate secretion than mouse and rat epididymal spermatozoa and the ventral prostate secretions of the mouse and rat appeared to have no adverse effect on their epididymal spermatozoa.
Automatic Boundary Detection of Wall Motion in Two-dimensional Echocardiography Images

Problem statement: Medical image analysis is a particularly difficult problem because the inherent characteristics of these images, including low contrast, speckle noise, signal dropouts and complex anatomical structures. An accurate analysis of wall motion in Two-dimensional echocardiography images is “important clinical diagnosis parameter for many cardiovascular diseases”. A challenge most researchers faced is how to speed up the clinical decisions and reduce human error of estimating accurately the true wall movements boundaries if can be done automatically will be a useful tool for assessing these diseases qualitatively and quantitatively. Approach: The proposed method involves three stages: First, the pre-processing stage for image contrast enhancement to reduce speckle-noise and to highlight certain features of interest (i.e., myocardial tissue). In the second stage, we applied the segmentation process using thresholding technique by considering a mean value of pixels intensity as a threshold value to distinct image features (e.g., Background and object). After thresholding implementation, the two most common mathematical morphology operators ‘erosion’ and ‘dilation’ are applied to improve the efficiency of the wall boundary detection process. Finally, Robert’s operator is used as edge detector to identify the wall boundaries. Results: For accuracy measurement, the experimental results of the proposed method are compared to that obtained from medical QLab system qualitatively and quantitatively. Conclusion: The results showed that our proposed method is reliable and its performance accuracy percentages are 50% more acceptable and 42% better than QLab system results.
Implementation of Chua's circuit with UGCs

A new implementation of Chua's circuit employing unity-gain cells (UGC) as the active building blocks to emulate the behavior of the nonlinear resistor (NR) and the grounded inductor is introduced. The breakpoints and slopes associated to the NR as well as the numeric value of the inductor can be adjusted by the control resistors. The proposed circuit is suitable for implementation with the commercially available integrated circuit (IC) AD844AN from Analog Devices. Hspice simulations and experimental results are included, showing close agreement with theoretical conclusions.
A computationally efficient multimode antenna selection algorithm for MIMO V-BLAST systems

Multimode antenna selection (MAS), the technique of jointly selecting both the number of spatial streams and antenna subsets at the transmitter, is a promising scheme for improving the performance of spatial multiplexing MIMO systems. In this paper, we investigate the problem of multimode antenna selection for the Vertical Bell Laboratories Layered Space-Time (V-BLAST) system with a goal to minimize the system's error rate. As the error rate of a communications system varies dramatically with the transceiver architecture, the optimal MAS algorithm for V-BLAST should explicitly take the ordered-successive interference cancellation (OSIC) detection structure into account. A computationally efficient MAS algorithm is therefore proposed to exploit the recursive structure of mean-square-error matrices between consecutive OSIC detection stages and achieve near optimal error rate performance with significantly lower complexity as verified by the computer simulations.
ALLOGENEIC CANINE BONE MARROW TRANSPLANTATION FOLLOWING CYCLOPHOSPHAMIDE

Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation following a lethal dose of cyclophosphamide was studied in 20 donor-recipient pairs of dogs. Eighteen of these were littermate pairs matched with four canine histocompatibility typing sera, and two were pairs of unrelated mismatched dogs. Ten dogs died in the 1st week from infection, bleeding, and nonhemopoietic drug toxicity. Their survival was too short to evaluate the success or failure of the marrow graft. Evidence for allogeneic bone marrow engraftment was demonstrated in 8 of the 10 recipients that lived beyond 7 days. Five of the dogs with marrow engraftment died within 36 days, 1 with evidence of graft-versus-host disease, 1 with pneumonia, and 3 after rejection of the marrow graft. Three of the 8 dogs with marrow grafts became long-term chimeras. Two are alive 350 and 450 days after transplantation. Peripheral blood, bone marrow, and lymph nodes in these 2 dogs showed a mixed population of host and donor cells. One additional dog survived over 8 months with evidence of a persistent change to donor red cell type and with prolonged survival of a skin graft from the marrow donor. In addition, this dog developed an isoantibody against the former host red cell type. It was concluded that persistent hemopoietic chimerism can be obtained in outbred animals following a lethal dose of cyclophosphamide.
GenoType MTBDRsl for Molecular Detection of Second-Line-Drug and Ethambutol Resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis Strains and Clinical Samples

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to evaluate the GenoType MTBDRsl assay (Hain Lifescience GmbH, Nehren, Germany) for its ability to detect resistance to fluoroquinolones (FLQ), injectable second-line antibiotics [kanamycin (KM) and capreomycin (CM)], and ethambutol (EMB) in Mycobacterium tuberculosis clinical strains and directly in clinical samples. A total of 34 clinical strains were characterized with the Bactec 460 TB system. Fifty-four clinical samples from 16 patients (5 were smear negative and 49 were smear positive) were also tested directly. The corresponding isolates of the clinical specimens were also analyzed with the Bactec 460TB. When there was a discrepancy between assays, pyrosequencing was performed. The overall rates of concordance of the MTBDRsl and the Bactec 460TB for the detection of FLQ, KM/CM, and EMB susceptibility in clinical strains were 72.4% (21/29), 88.8% (24/27), and 67.6% (23/34), whereas for clinical samples, rates were 86.5% (45/52), 92.3% (48/52), and 56% (28/50), respectively. In conclusion, the GenoType MTBDRsl assay may be a useful tool for making early decisions regarding KM/CM susceptibility and to a lesser extent regarding FLQ and EMB susceptibility. The test is able to detect mutations in both clinical strains and samples with a short turnaround time. However, for correct management of patients with extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, results must be confirmed by a phenotypical method.
Klüver-Bucy-Syndrom nach Herpes-simplex-Enzephalitis

Zusammenfassung Wir berichten über eine 18-jährige Frau, die als Spätkomplikation einer Herpes-simplex-Enzephalitis ein Klüver-Bucy-Syndrom entwickelte, das unter einer Carbamazepinbehandlung teilweise remittierte.
A call to cellular & humoral arms: Enlisting cognate T cell help to develop broad-spectrum vaccines against influenza A

Influenza A is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. In the United States alone influenza kills 30,000 to 50,000 people in a non-epidemic year and significantly more in an acute epidemic. An emerging pandemic influenza virus, such as H5N1, could have a devastating economic and social impact. The Surgeon General estimates that at least 43 million Americans, especially those younger than 1 and older than 60, are at risk of death from influenza. Antigenically distinct influenza virus strains emerge regularly, mandating changes in influenza vaccine antigenic composition. Consequently, the immunity engendered by the conventional influenza vaccines is relevant only for a short time. However, by incorporating conserved influenza T cell epitopes, it may be possible to develop more immunogenic, broader-spectrum vaccines that may be efficacious over a longer period. This review summarizes the critical components of effective influenza vaccines, a rational vaccine design approach, and the pertinent influenza immunology.
A Computer Simulated Biopsy Marking System for Gastroscopy

In this paper, we propose a computer simulated biopsy marking (CSBM) system for gastroscopy physicians. The purpose of the study is to solve two problems: how to mark suspicious areas for follow-ups without hurting stomach, and how to cut down time spent on gastroscopy. By constructing a three-dimensional (3D) virtual stomach model and using a tracking device, the position of gastroscope is shown in multi-view: in triplanar views, in global stomach model views, and in virtual gastroscopy view. In this way, physicians are guided to overcome disorientation so that the time spent on gastroscopy is cut down. By using a tracking device, the positions of suspicious areas are marked virtually in the 3D virtual stomach model. In this way, it will not hurt patients' stomach.
Just a hypothesis: a reply to Hanski

Hanski's critique of the habitat amount hypothesis (Hanski, 2015, Journal of Biogeography, 42, 989–993) does not actually constitute a test of the hypothesis, but rather a series of arguments for why he suspects that it is not correct. But the habitat amount hypothesis is exactly that – a hypothesis. It will remain ‘just’ a hypothesis until it has been rigorously tested against empirical data. To facilitate such testing, in Fahrig (2013, Journal of Biogeography, 40, 1649–1663) I presented specific, testable predictions of the hypothesis. Here, I reiterate the main tests needed, in the hope that some readers will be encouraged to carry them out. I appreciate this opportunity to emphasize that the habitat amount hypothesis needs to be tested against empirical data, and I look forward to seeing the results of such tests.