Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Identification and characterization of plasma cells in normal human bone marrow by high-resolution flow cytometry.

The low frequency of plasma cells and the lack of specific cell surface markers has been a major obstacle for a detailed characterization of plasma cells in normal human bone marrow. Multiparameter flow cytometry enabled the identification of plasma cells in normal bone marrow aspirates. The plasma cells were located in a unique position in the correlation of forward light scattering, orthogonal light scattering, and immunofluorescent-labeled CD38. The identity of the sorted cell populations was confirmed by microscopic examination of Wright's stained slides and slides stained for cytoplasmic immunoglobulin using polyclonal antibodies reactive with light chains; ie, anti-kappa fluorescein isothiocyanate and anti lambda phycoerythrin (PE). The purity of the sorted plasma cells was greater than 97% (n = 4). The average frequency of plasma cells in normal bone marrow aspirates was low--0.25% of the nucleated cells (n = 7)--but surprisingly consistent between individuals (SD = .05; range 0.14% to 0.30%). A detailed analysis showed two distinct populations of plasma cells: (1) A population relatively smaller by forward light scattering expressed CD22, CD35, and sigE and was identified as early plasma cells (ie, lymphoplasmacytoid), and (2) a population larger by forward light scattering lacked these markers and was identified as mature plasma cells. The antigenic profile of the normal plasma cells was determined in two-color immunofluorescence studies. The expression of cell surface immunoglobulin G (IgG), IgA, IgE, IgD, IgM, and the cell surface antigens CD10, CD11b, CD13, CD11c, CD14, CD15, CD16, CD19, CD22, CD20, CD33, CD35, CD45, and HLA-DR was determined on the plasma cells. A significant heterogeneity in cell surface antigen expression was observed within the plasma cell population. Unexpectedly, myeloid-specific cell surface antigens such as CD33 and CD13 and the early B-cell antigen identified by CD10 were expressed on a proportion of plasma cells. These observations imply that the association of myeloid and early B-cell markers described in multiple myeloma may not be associated with the neoplasia but is a normal phenomenon.
A Leading Indicator of Austrian Exports Based on Truck Mileage

The close correlation between economic activity and freight performance is emphasized in numerous international studies. With regard to Austria, timely information on truck mileage has been available since 2004 when Austria introduced road pricing. In this study, truck road pricing data compiled by the Austrian highway authority (ASFINAG) are analyzed for the first time with respect to their adequacy as a leading indicator for various macroeconomic indicators. The results show that truck mileage is a good leading indicator above all for goods exports. The timely availability provides an information advantage in analyzing economic developments of two to three months relative to the first release of export data by Statistics Austria.
Implementing Virtual Inertia in DFIG-Based Wind Power Generation

Although wind power as a renewable energy is assumed to be an advantageous source of energy, its intermittent nature causes difficulties especially in the islanding mode of operation. Conventional synchronous generators can help to compensate for wind fluctuations, but the slow behavior of such systems may result in stability concerns. Here, the virtual inertia method, which imitates the kinetic inertia of synchronous generator, is used to improve the system dynamic behavior. Since the proposed method focuses on short-term oscillations and incorporates no long-term power regulation, it needs no mass storage device. Thus, the method is economical. To prevent any additional cost, the rotating mass connected to the DFIG shaft or a super-capacitor connected to the DC-link of a back-to-back inverter of a wind power generator could be used. The concept and the proposed control methods are discussed in detail. Eigen-value analysis is used to study how the proposed method improves system stability. The advantages and disadvantages of using DFIG rotating mass or super-capacitor as the virtual inertia source are compared. The proposed approach also shows that while virtual inertia is not incorporated directly in long-term frequency and power regulation, it may enhance the system steady-state behavior indirectly. A time domain simulation is used to verify the results of the analytical studies.
Antifungal Activity of Amphotericin B Cochleates against Candida albicans Infection in a Mouse Model

ABSTRACT Cochleates are lipid-based supramolecular assemblies composed of natural products, negatively charged phospholipid, and a divalent cation. Cochleates can encapsulate amphotericin B (AmB), an important antifungal drug. AmB cochleates (CAMB) have a unique shape and the ability to target AmB to fungi. The minimal inhibitory concentration and the minimum lethal concentration against Candida albicans are similar to that for desoxycholate AmB (DAMB; Fungizone). In vitro, CAMB induced no hemolysis of human red blood cells at concentrations of as high as 500 μg of AmB/ml, and DAMB was highly hemolytic at 10 μg of AmB/ml. CAMB protect ICR mice infected with C. albicans when the agent is administered intraperitoneally at doses of as low as 0.1 mg/kg/day. In a tissue burden study, CAMB, DAMB, and AmBisome (liposomal AmB; LAMB) were effective in the kidneys, but in the spleen CAMB was more potent than DAMB at 1 mg/kg/day and was equivalent to LAMB at 10 mg/kg/day. In summary, CAMB are highly effective in treating murine candidiasis and compare well with AmBisome and AmB.
Exploring the Information Contents of Risk Factors in SEC Form 10-K: A Multi-Label Text Classification Application

This study develops, implements, and evaluates a multi-label text classification algorithm that extracts textual information from the annual reports of all publicly listed USA companies. Specifically, the proposed system can automatically identify 25 types of frequently mentioned risk factors in a section called “Item 1A. Risk Factors” in SEC Form 10-K. The true positive rate on the training set with 3,153 risk factors is 80.65 percent while the false positive rate is 12.67 percent. This system is applied to extract risk factors in 10-Ks of most USA companies from 2006 to 2010. By the first-differencing panel data regression, this study shows that the extracted risk factors, the associated risk factor orderings, and the number of risk factors indeed provide additional explanation power for the target firm’s risk measures, annual stock returns, and key financial ratios.
Addgene, An Open Access Success Story

It has been my honor for the last 4 years to facilitate open reagent sharing with the team at Addgene. Addgene accelerates discovery by facilitating collaboration and the open sharing of ready-to-use research materials between scientists all over the world. Since its founding, Addgene has helped thousands of scientists all over the world collaborate to design and carry out their experiments by creating open access to plasmids and their associated data. The Addgenies are proud to facilitate the success of this sharing community. 1
ATX-101 (Deoxycholic Acid Injection) for Paradoxical Adipose Hyperplasia Secondary to Cryolipolysis.

ATX-101 (deoxycholic acid [DCA] injection; Kythera Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., Westlake Village, CA [an affiliate of Allergan plc, Dublin, Ireland]) has been recently approved for improvement of the appearance of moderate-to-severe convexity or fullness associated with submental fat in adults. Use of this first-in-class drug has not yet been established outside the submental area. In this article, we present a novel application of ATX-101 for improvement in the appearance of abdominal fullness related to paradoxical adipose hyperplasia (PAH) secondary to cryolipolysis. PAH is a rare adverse effect of cryolipolysis in which painless, well-demarcated masses composed of adipocytes, fibrosis and scar tissue develop in the treated areas 3–6months later. The injectable treatments were well tolerated, and the appearance of subcutaneous abdominal adipose hyperplasia was dramatically improved after 3 treatment sessions with ATX-101. This is the first reported case of ATX-101 injections for the reduction of abdominal adipose tissue, demonstrating promising off-label applications for both PAH secondary to cryolipolysis and aesthetic body contouring.
Reproductive Health Outcomes of Insured Adolescent and Adult Women Who Access Oral Levonorgestrel Emergency Contraception

OBJECTIVE: To assess the level of risk for adolescents and women who seek emergency contraception through various clinical routes and the opportunities for improved care provision. METHODS: This study looked at a retrospective cohort to assess contraception and other reproductive health outcomes among adolescents and women aged 15–44 years who accessed oral levonorgestrel emergency contraception through an office visit or the call center at Kaiser Permanente Northern California from 2010 to 2011. RESULTS: Of 21,421 prescriptions, 14,531 (67.8%) were accessed through the call center. In the subsequent 12 months, 12,127 (56.6%) adolescents and women had short-acting contraception (pills, patches, rings, depot medroxyprogesterone) dispensed and 2,264 (10.6%) initiated very effective contraception (intrauterine contraception, implants, sterilization). Initiation of very effective contraception was similar for adolescents and women who accessed it through the call center—1,569 (10.8%) and office visits—695 (10.1%) (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 1.02, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.93–1.13). In the subsequent 6 months, 2,056 (9.6%) adolescents and women became pregnant. Adolescents and women who accessed emergency contraception through the call center were less likely to become pregnant within 3 months of accessing emergency contraception than woman who accessed it through office visits (adjusted OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.72–0.94); however, they were more likely to become pregnant within 4–6 months (adjusted OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.16–1.60). Among adolescents and women who were tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea, 689 (7.8%) and 928 (7.9%) were positive in the 12 months before and after accessing emergency contraception, respectively. CONCLUSION: Protocols to routinely address unmet needs for contraception at every call for emergency contraception and all office visits, including visits with primary care providers, should be investigated. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Speeding up 2D-warping for pose-invariant face recognition

Recently, state-of-the-art recognition accuracies for pose-invariant face recognition have been achieved by using 2D-Warping methods in a nearest-neighbor framework. However, the main drawback of these methods is the high computational complexity. In this paper we address this issue. We use a simple and fast method to get a rough estimate of a 2D-Warping. This estimate can then be used to apply an image dependent warprange on the 2D-Warping algorithm, limit the possible poses or preselect the most likely classes. By this method we are able significantly reduce the runtime of a recently proposed 2D-Warping algorithm without sacrificing recognition accuracy.
Variational Recurrent Neural Networks for Speech Separation

We present a new stochastic learning machine for speech separation based on the variational recurrent neural network (VRNN). This VRNN is constructed from the perspectives of generative stochastic network and variational auto-encoder. The idea is to faithfully characterize the randomness of hidden state of a recurrent neural network through variational learning. The neural parameters under this latent variable model are estimated by maximizing the variational lower bound of log marginal likelihood. An inference network driven by the variational distribution is trained from a set of mixed signals and the associ-ated source targets. A novel supervised VRNN is developed for speech separation. The proposed VRNN provides a stochastic point of view which accommodates the uncertainty in hidden states and facilitates the analysis of model construction. The masking function is further employed in network outputs for speech separation. The beneﬁt of using VRNN is demonstrated by the experiments on monaural speech separation.
Changes in thermotolerance and Hsp70 expression with domestication in Drosophila melanogaster

To examine how the duration of laboratory domestication may affect Drosophila stocks used in studies of thermotolerance, we measured expression of the inducible heat‐shock protein Hsp70 and survival after heat shock in D. melanogaster strains recently collected from nature and maintained in laboratory culture for up to 50 or more generations. After an initial increase in both Hsp70 expression and thermotolerance immediately after transfer to laboratory medium, both traits remained fairly constant over time and variation among strains persisted through laboratory domestication. Furthermore, variation in heat tolerance and Hsp70 expression did not correlate with the length of time populations evolved in the laboratory. Therefore, while environmental variation likely contributed most to early shifts in strain tolerance and Hsp70 expression, other population parameters, for example genetic drift, inbreeding, and selection likely affected these traits little. As long as populations are maintained with large numbers of individuals, the culture of insects in the laboratory may have little effect on the tolerance of different strains to thermal stress.
Antimicrobial Susceptibility and SOS-Dependent Increase in Mutation Frequency Are Impacted by Escherichia coli Topoisomerase I C-Terminal Point Mutation

ABSTRACT Topoisomerase functions are required in all organisms for many vital cellular processes, including transcription elongation. The C terminus domains (CTD) of Escherichia coli topoisomerase I interact directly with RNA polymerase to remove transcription-driven negative supercoiling behind the RNA polymerase complex. This interaction prevents inhibition of transcription elongation from hypernegative supercoiling and R-loop accumulation. The physiological function of bacterial topoisomerase I in transcription is especially important for a rapid network response to an antibiotic challenge. In this study, Escherichia coli with a topA66 single nucleotide deletion mutation, which results in a frameshift in the TopA CTD, was shown to exhibit increased sensitivity to trimethoprim and quinolone antimicrobials. The topoisomerase I-RNA polymerase interaction and the SOS response to the antimicrobial agents were found to be significantly reduced by this topA66 mutation. Consequently, the mutation frequency measured by rifampin selection following SOS induction was diminished in the topA66 mutant. The increased antibiotic sensitivity for the topA66 mutant can be reversed by the expression of recombinant E. coli topoisomerase I but not by the expression of recombinant Mycobacterium tuberculosis topoisomerase I that has a nonhomologous CTD even though the recombinant M. tuberculosis topoisomerase I can restore most of the plasmid DNA linking number deficiency caused by the topA66 mutation. Direct interactions of E. coli topoisomerase I as part of transcription complexes are likely to be required for the rapid network response to an antibiotic challenge. Inhibitors of bacterial topoisomerase I functions and interactions may sensitize pathogens to antibiotic treatment and limit the mutagenic response.
What factors are associated with frequent unhealthy snack-food consumption among Australian secondary-school students?

Abstract Objective To examine demographic and behavioural correlates of unhealthy snack-food consumption among Australian secondary-school students and the association between their perceptions of availability, convenience and intake with consumption. Design Cross-sectional survey of students’ eating, physical activity and sedentary behaviours using validated instruments administered via an online questionnaire. Setting Australian secondary schools across all states/territories. Subjects Secondary-school students aged 12–17 years participating in the 2009–10 National Secondary Students’ Diet and Activity (NaSSDA) survey (n 12 188). Results Approximately one in five students (21 %) reported consuming unhealthy snack foods ≥14 times/week (‘frequent snackers’). After adjusting for all covariates, older students and those with a BMI of ≥25 kg/m2 were less likely to be frequent snackers, while students who reported high fast-food and high sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and those who watched television for >2 h/d were more likely to snack frequently. Furthermore, after adjusting for all covariates and demographic factors, students who agreed that snack foods are usually available at home, convenient to buy and that they eat too many snack foods were more likely to be snacking frequently. Conversely, students who agreed that fruit is a convenient snack were less likely to be frequent snackers. Conclusions Frequent unhealthy snack-food consumption appears to cluster with other poor health behaviours. Perceptions of availability and convenience are factors most readily amenable to change, and findings suggest interventions should focus on decreasing the availability of unhealthy snack foods in the home and promoting healthier options such as fruit as convenient snacks.
Revenue Management for Make-to-Order and Make-to-Stock Systems

With the success of Revenue Management (RM) techniques over the past three decades in various segments of the service industry, many manufacturing firms have started exploring innovative RM technologies to improve their profits. This dissertation studies RM for maketo-order (MTO) and make-to-stock (MTS) systems. We start with a problem faced by a MTO firm that has the ability to reject or accept the order and set prices and lead-times to influence demands. The firm is confronted with the problem to decide, which orders to accept or reject and trade-off the price, lead-time and potential for increased demand against capacity constraints, in order to maximize the total profits in a finite planning horizon with deterministic demands. We develop a mathematical model for this problem. Through numerical analysis, we present insights regarding the benefits of price customization and lead-time flexibilities in various demand scenarios. However, the demands of MTO firms are always hard to be predicted in most situations. We further study the above problem under the stochastic demands, with the objective to maximize the long-run average profit. We model the problem as a Semi-Markov Decision Problem (SMDP) and develop a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm-Q-learning algorithm (QLA), in which a decision agent is assigned to the machine and improves the accuracy of its
The effectiveness of audit committees within Saudi corporations

Recognising the importance of audit committees as a major tool to increase confidence in financial statements, the Minister of Commerce in Saudi Arabia issued a resolution in January 1994 requiring all public companies to mandate the establishment of audit committees. This research seeks to explore the role of audit committees in Saudi Arabia and investigate whether the actual practice among these corporations is consistent with the best practice that was advocated from the recommendations of both academic and professional literatures. The intention was to survey audit committee members, internal auditors and external auditors about the effectiveness of audit committees. The questionnaire was adopted as the main instrument (followed by some interviews) to collect data in Saudi Arabia. There was a concern between the respondents that audit committees have little benefit in achieving what they were expected to do. The resolution of the Ministry of Commerce (1994) did not clearly explain the relationship between audit committees with the external and internal auditors, scope of work to be undertaken, independence, expertise, transparency, and the required qualifications and knowledge for audit committee members. There is an obvious problem with this resolution because it is too brief and there are no explanatory/guidance notes to accompany it. Therefore, a number of steps should be taken to transform the concept from a good idea on paper to a reality in practice. Ministry of Commerce should follow up its concern by issuing further clarification of what corporations must do exactly to implement the resolution.
BIOCHEMICAL EVALUATION OF ANTIDIABETOGENIC PROPERTIES OF SOME COMMONLY USED INDIAN PLANTS ON STREPTOZOTOCIN‐INDUCED DIABETES IN EXPERIMENTAL RATS

1 Diabetes mellitus is a serious metabolic disorder with micro‐ and macrovascular complications that results in significant morbidity and mortality. 2 The aim of the present study was to evaluate the hypoglycaemic efficacy of commonly used traditional Indian plants, such as Murraya koenigii, Mentha piperitae, Ocimum sanctum and Aegle marmelos, in streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced experimental rats. 3 Oral administration of the ethanolic extract of these plants resulted in a significant decrease in the levels of blood glucose, glycosylated haemoglobin and urea, with a concomitant increase in glycogen, haemoglobin and protein, in diabetic rats. Treatment with these plant extracts also resulted in an increase in insulin and C‐peptide levels and glucose tolerance. 4 The decreased activities of carbohydrate‐metabolising enzymes, such as hexokinase, glucose‐6‐phosphate dehydrogenase and glycogen synthase, in diabetic rats were significantly elevated towards near normal in rats treated with extracts of M. koenigii, O. sanctum and A. marmelos; the increased activities of lactate dehydrogenase, fructose‐1,6‐bisphosphatase, glucose‐6‐phosphatase and glycogen phosphorylase in STZ diabetic rats were significantly reduced following treatment with the plant extracts. 5 Elevated specific binding of [125I]‐labelled insulin to the receptor found in diabetic rats was markedly decreased in extract‐treated groups. However, treatment of diabetic rats with M. piperitae did not result in any significant modification in all parameters. 6 Phytochemical screening conducted by us revealed the presence of biologically active ingredients in the ethanolic extracts of M. koenigii, O. sanctum and A. marmelos, which may readily account for the observed hypoglycaemic activity.