Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The elimination of heterologous serum proteins and associated antibody responses in guinea pigs and rats.

The rate of elimination of I* protein antigens was used as a method of observing immune responses in guinea pigs and rats when single, spaced injections of antigens (7.5 mg/kg) were administered. Animals exhibiting immune responses eliminated the labelled antigens at accelerated, immune rates similar to those described in rabbits. Also, the relationship of the rapid, immune elimination of antigen to the subsequent appearance of antibody was similar to that seen in the rabbit. However, the immune responses to soluble protein antigens in guinea pigs had longer induction periods and slower immune elimination of antigen than in rabbits. The slower immune elimination of antigen in guinea pigs than in rabbits was presumably the result of a slower appearance of antibody in guinea pigs since antigen-antibody complexes once formed were rapidly eliminated. In guinea pigs injected with I*BSA and I*RSA, circulating antigen-antibody complexes could only be demonstrated during the phase of rapid, immune antigen elimination. On the basis of observations in the guinea pig and rat, there is no apparent correlation between the type of protein antigen and the rate of nonimmune elimination or the length of the induction period prior to antibody synthesis. Determination of the rates of elimination of antigen was found to be as sensitive a method of testing for an immune response to BGG, HGG, and RGG in guinea pigs as was anaphylaxis.
Efficacy of pegylated interferon alpha-2b for the treatment of chronic delta hepatitis in a patient co-infected with HIV.

A 26-year-old woman from Cameroon, infected with HIV-1, was referred to our unit for the exploration of liver function test abnormalities. In October 2001, she had been treated for one year with zidovudine, didanosine and efavirenz. On admission, immunovirological markers showed a CD4 cell count of 350 cells/ml and an undetectable HIV-RNA level. Liver function tests were as follows: alanine aminotransferase 68 IU/l (normal 0– 53), aspartate aminotransferase 69 IU/l (normal 0–36), bilirubinemia 6 mmol/l (normal 1–17), g-glutamyl transferase 41 IU/l (normal 10–32) and alkaline phosphatase 50 IU/l (normal 23–85). Albuminemia was 40 g/l (normal 35–45). The prothrombin time had increased to 17.5 s (normal 12.4; 42%), V factor was at 50%. Liver ultrasound showed a normal liver without hepatic dysmorphology. Serology for hepatitis C was negative, and hepatitis C virus RNA was undetectable using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. Hepatitis B surface (HBs) antigen was positive. Hepatitis B e antigen was negative, and anti-hepatitis B e antibody was positive. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA was present at a high level (higher than 10 copies/ml, Roche COBAS Amplicor monitor; Roche Diagnostics, Pleasanton, California, USA). Anti-hepatitis D virus (HDV) antibodies were positive (enzyme immunoassay Sorin total antibodies), and HDV RNA using a reverse transcriptase PCR assay (threshold of detection 1000 copies/ml) was also positive, leading to the diagnosis of chronic hepatitis D. A liver biopsy showed a precirrhotic stage, classified A3F3 according to the metavir score. The patient was first treated with lamivudine at 100 mg per day. Lamivudine was associated with zidovudine and efavirenz, and didanosine was discontinued. After 3 months of lamivudine treatment, HBV DNA was undetectable using a branched DNA assay (threshold of detection 0.7 10 eq.genome/ml). PCR HDV was still positive. The prothrombin time improved to 16.5 s (normal 12.4; 60%), allowing us to start a treatment using pegylated IFN a-2b, at the regimen of 1.5 mg/kg a week administered subcutaneously. This treatment was stopped after 18 months even though HBs antigen was still positive, as a result of the increase in severe asthenia. At the end of pegylated IFN treatment, HBV DNA and HDV RNA were both undetectable using PCR assays. Liver function tests were normal and prothrombin time was 14.3 s (normal 12.4; 74%). During the pegylated IFN treatment, the CD4 cell count dropped to 270 cells/ml, as did the white blood cell count to 2100. The HIV-RNA level was still undetectable. No anaemia or thrombopenia were observed. Thirty-eight weeks after the end of treatment, HBV DNA and HDV RNA were still undetectable using PCR assays. The CD4 cell count went up again to 412 cells/ml (34.5%). However, no HBs seroconversion was observed during the follow-up.
Description of Lockheed Martin’s NLToolset as Applied to MUC-7 (AATM7)

The NLToolset has been used to build a variety of information extraction applications, ranging from military message traffic to newswire accounts of corporate activity. AATM7 is an acronym for As Applied To MUC-7. AATM7 was not tailored specifically for MUC-7, but rather represents the NLToolset in a state of flux, as TIPSTER experimentation and the delivery of a real-world application were taking place, simultaneously. This contrast in domains proved beneficial for our real-world applications, perhaps to the detriment of the MUC-7 system, which had to compete for developers. NLToolset applications are delivered under the Windows NT, as well as the UNIX Solaris operating system.
Energy Harvesting Wireless Communications With Energy Cooperation Between Transmitter and Receiver

Energy harvesting is an increasingly attractive source of power for wireless communications devices. In this paper, we consider a point-to-point (P2P) wireless communications system, where both the practical transmitter and receiver, whose hardware circuits consume non-zero power when active, are powered solely by the energy harvested from external sources. An energy cooperation save-then-transmit (EC-ST) scheme is proposed: both the transmitter and receiver go into sleep mode to save energy for a proportion of time while their passive energy harvester units collect energy for later operations, and then become active to communicate for the remaining time proportion (referred to as the active-ratio), during which energy is allowed to flow between the transmitter and receiver. We first consider additive white Gaussian noise one-way channels with two-way energy transfer under a deterministic energy arrival rate. In this case, the optimal active-ratio and the energy cooperation power are obtained in closed form to achieve the maximum throughput. Next, for Rayleigh block fading channels with a stochastic energy arrival rate, we find the optimal energy cooperation power for minimizing the outage probability. Finally, numerical and simulation results are presented to validate the analytical findings.
Recurrence risks for germinal mosaics.

A germinal mosaic is an individual with two or more genetically different types of germ cells. The most obvious cause of germinal mosaicism is the occurrence of a mutation during the development of the germ cells, but it can also come about in other ways, such as by somatic crossing over, and it occurs regularly in allophenic mice [1]. Germinal mosaicism has not yet been conclusively demonstrated to occur in man, although somatic mosaicism is well known [2]. The apparent absence of germinal mosaicism in human families is possibly spurious, however. Germinal mosaicism is difficult to prove in the most favorable of cases. When a gene is incompletely penetrant or when it is so common that illegitimacy cannot be ruled out, then a critical demonstration of germinal mosaicism is well-nigh impossible. Germinal mosaicism has been described in two laboratory mammals, the guinea pig [3] and the mouse [4], and it is well known in Drosophila melanogaster (e.g. [5-10]). Thus it appears logical to attribute the lack of examples of germinal mosaicism in man to the technical difficulties discussed above rather than to the nonoccurrence of premeiotic mutation in human gonads. Considering all the uncertainties involved, it is remarkable that Reed and Falls [11] have been able to find several pedigrees which are suggestive of the presence of germinal mosaicism. Their own case concerned the dominant gene which produces congenital aniridia, and although their detailed examination of the people in the pedigree led them to reject this hypothesis, their search of the literature revealed pedigrees of ectrodactyly [12], of neurofibromatosis [13], and of retinoblastoma [14] which could be interpreted as involving germinal mosaicism. Haldane [15] has suggested that either Queen Victoria or her father, Edward, Duke of Kent, might have been a germinal mosaic for hemophilia. In no individual case has germinal mosaicism been critically demonstrated. Nevertheless, the present growth and expansion of genetic-counseling clinics may lead to the discovery of some cases in which gonadal mosaicism is diagnosed. An estimation of recurrence risks then becomes a problem of prime importance. This paper presents approximate recurrence risks for families in which one of the parents is known to be a germinal mosaic for a newly mutant dominant gene or for a chromosomal aberration. The models of gonad development are oversimplified, but
BOOK REVIEW

The first edition of this book, published in 1998, was well received by biostatisticians in both pharmaceutical industry and medical research institutes because of its balanced presentation of statistical concepts and clinical issues. The authors maintained this presentation style in the second edition. Since the publication of the first edition, a number of books have been published on design and analysis of clinical trials (Massaro, 2001). Another significant event that happened around that time is the introduction of International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines and their implication for design and analysis of clinical trials. In the meantime, the most commonly used software used for analysis of clinical trials have been updated also with recent developments in statistical methodology. All these efforts encouraged practicing biostatisticians to apply alternative analysis approaches to their clinical trial data. Hence, a revised edition of this book was timely and warranted. In the second edition, the authors have updated regulatory requirements/guides for clinical trials and regulatory submission of data to health authorities, added three new chapters, and covered additional new concepts and methodologies. The following topics were added to the second edition: clinical significance, reproducibility and generalizability, group sequential design, superiority trials, equivalence/noninferiority trials, dose response trials, bridging studies, vaccine clinical trials, and use of genomic information for evaluation of efficacy. The authors did not cover the Bayesian approach to clinical trial evaluation and decision-making process. The book now consists of 15 chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the concepts of clinical trials and gives an overview of the US Food and Drug Administration, its regulatory processes and requirements for clinical trials and new drug applications. The ICH guidelines are listed and European Economic Community (EEC) requirements for protocol and clinical study reports are given. ICH guidelines and their application are also discussed in other chapters when relevant. Chapter 1 will be very useful for the new statisticians working in the pharmaceutical industry. Chapter 2 provides basic statistical concepts in clinical trials where the authors introduce sample, population, estimation, standard deviation, standard error, uncertainty and probability, bias and variability, confounding and interactions, hypotheses and p-values, and reproducibility and generalizability. For example, in this chapter the authors have given the correct and clear interpretation of
Peroxidation of a Specific Tryptophan of Metmyoglobin by Hydrogen Peroxide*

Globin-centered radicals at tyrosine and tryptophan residues and a peroxyl radical at an unknown location have been reported previously as products of the reaction of metmyoglobin with hydrogen peroxide. The peroxyl radical is shown here to be localized on tryptophan through the use of recombinant sperm whale myoglobin labeled with 13C at the indole ring C-3. Peroxyl radical formation was not prevented by site-directed mutations that replaced all three tyrosines, the distal histidine, or tryptophan 7 with non-oxidizable residues. In contrast, mutation of tryptophan 14 prevents peroxyl radical formation, implicating tryptophan 14 as the specific site of the peroxidation.
Severely suppressed bone turnover and atypical skeletal fragility.

CONTEXT Since their introduction into clinical medicine, bisphosphonates have revolutionized clinical osteoporosis care. Ironically, in rare circumstances, long-term, combined anti-remodeling therapy may be associated with skeletal harm. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION We report atypical skeletal fragility in three subjects after long-term, combined anti-remodeling therapy. EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS Three subjects experienced spontaneous or minimal-trauma chalk-stick type metadiaphyseal femoral fractures while on long-term bisphosphonate therapy. The fracture location, type, bilaterality, prodromal pain, and delayed healing were atypical for uncomplicated postmenopausal osteoporosis. All three subjects had concomitant circumstances (endogenous estrogen) or medications (glucocorticoids, hormone replacement therapy, and raloxifene) that likely suppressed bone remodeling beyond the effect of the bisphosphonate alone. Biochemical markers of bone turnover were very low or in the low premenopausal range. Double tetracycline-labeled bone biopsy showed very low activation frequency in one subject and limited single tetracycline label in a second consistent with severely suppressed bone turnover (SSBT). These three cases resemble previous descriptions of SSBT. CONCLUSION Atypical skeletal fragility may signify SSBT in the setting of long-term, combined anti-remodeling therapy. We speculate that osteoclast tolerance for pharmacological suppression may vary among individual patients and that in some cases combined anti-remodeling therapy may result in skeletal harm.
A Recurrent Self-Evolving Interval Type-2 Fuzzy Neural Network for Dynamic System Processing

This paper proposes a recurrent self-evolving interval type-2 fuzzy neural network (RSEIT2FNN) for dynamic system processing. An RSEIT2FNN incorporates type-2 fuzzy sets in a recurrent neural fuzzy system in order to increase the noise resistance of a system. The antecedent parts in each recurrent fuzzy rule in the RSEIT2FNN are interval type-2 fuzzy sets, and the consequent part is of the Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) type with interval weights. The antecedent part of RSEIT2FNN forms a local internal feedback loop by feeding the rule firing strength of each rule back to itself. The TSK-type consequent part is a linear model of exogenous inputs. The RSEIT2FNN initially contains no rules; all rules are learned online via structure and parameter learning. The structure learning uses online type-2 fuzzy clustering. For the parameter learning, the consequent part parameters are tuned by a rule-ordered Kalman filter algorithm to improve learning performance. The antecedent type-2 fuzzy sets and internal feedback loop weights are learned by a gradient descent algorithm. The RSEIT2FNN is applied to simulations of dynamic system identifications and chaotic signal prediction under both noise-free and noisy conditions. Comparisons with type-1 recurrent fuzzy neural networks validate the performance of the RSEIT2FNN.
Dendritic systems in drug delivery applications

The design of well-defined particulate carrier systems with controlled size, shapes and physicochemical characteristics is becoming a focal point in the field of biomedicine and drug delivery. Dendrimers are one of the emerging technologies of recent times and have served as a unique platform to achieve the development as novel drug delivery scaffolds. Dendrimers may be engineered to meet the specific needs of biologically active agents, which can either be encapsulated within dendrimers or chemically attached to these units. The large number of active functional groups on the surface of dendrimers allows them to be meticulously tailored and to act as nano-scaffolds or nano-containers of various categories of drugs. The architecture of modified dendrimers has posed a challenge to drug delivery, in particular with respect to their in vivo metabolic fate. The drug delivery applications of dendrimers presented in this article provide an insight of their potential and substantiate the major roles for the future of these nanoconstructs.
CXCL12 Induces Tyrosine Phosphorylation of Cortactin, Which Plays a Role in CXC Chemokine Receptor 4-mediated Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase Activation and Chemotaxis*

CXC chemokine receptor 4 (CXCR4) plays a role in the development of immune and central nervous systems as well as in cancer growth and metastasis. CXCR4-initiated signaling cascades leading to cell proliferation and chemotaxis are critical for these functions. The present study demonstrated that stimulation of CXCR4 by its ligand, CXCL12, induced transient translocation of cortactin from endosomal compartments to the cell periphery where it colocalized with CXCR4 followed by internalization of CXCR4 together with cortactin into endosomes. Cortactin was co-immunoprecipitated with CXCR4 in response to CXCL12 treatment in a time-dependent manner. Ligand stimulation induced phosphorylation of cortactin at tyrosine 421, and the phosphorylation was both c-Src- and dynamin-dependent. Cortactin overexpression promoted CXCR4 internalization and recycling. However, overexpression of a cortactin mutant in which tyrosine 421 was replaced with alanine (cortactin-Y421A) or knockdown of cortactin with RNA interference (RNAi) reduced CXCR4 internalization in response to CXCL12. CXCR4-mediated activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 was significantly prolonged by overexpression of wild-type cortactin but not by the cortactin-Y421A mutant and was inhibited by cortactin knockdown with RNAi. Moreover, CXCL12-induced chemotaxis was enhanced by cortactin overexpression, reduced by overexpression of the cortactin-Y421A mutant, and blocked by cortactin knockdown with RNAi. These data provide strong evidence for an important role of cortactin in CXCR4 signaling and trafficking as well in the receptor-mediated cell migration.
Two methods for peak RF power minimization of multiple inversion‐band pulses

Two novel methods to minimize peak RF power for high order longitudinal Hadamard encoding are described and demonstrated experimentally. The first method uses the fact that the choice of a reference phase in an inversion process does not affect the final frequency response. In this method, the different single inversion‐band pulses are added together, each with a different reference phase. For a proper phase choice, minimization of the peak RF power is obtained. Scaling laws are defined allowing the use of a given phase‐set in multiple cases. In the second method, single inversion‐band pulses are added together, each partially shifted in time. This results in a significant reduction in peak power with only a moderate increase in pulse length. Theoretical conditions outlining the optimal addition order are defined. Experimental results verify the theoretical conditions and demonstrate that the frequency response is not affected by the peak power minimization process. With the new low peak RF power, longitudinal Hadamard encoding of 8TH (or 16TH) order can be performed in any clinical setting.
A Systematic Review of Interventions for Elder Abuse

The purpose of this study was to use rigorous systematic review methods to summarize the effectiveness of interventions for elder abuse. Only eight studies met our inclusion criteria. Evidence regarding the recurrence of abuse following intervention was limited, but the interventions for which this outcome was reported failed to reduce, and may have even increased, the likelihood of recurrence. Elder abuse interventions had no significant effect on case resolution and at-risk caregiver outcomes, and had mixed results regarding professional knowledge and behavior related to elder abuse. The included studies had important methodological limitations that limit our ability to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of these interventions.
Applications of the PowerGlove in healthy aging and Parkinson ’ s disease

The hand is important in many daily life activities. During aging, quality of fine motor control of hand and fingers is decreasing. Also motor symptoms of the hand are important to define for instance the neurological state of a Parkinson’s disease patient. Although objective and reliable measurement of hand and finger dynamics is of interest, current measurement systems are limited. This paper describes the application of the PowerGlove, a new measurement system based on miniature inertial and magnetic sensors, to study the finger interdependency in healthy elderly and objectively quantify hand motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. Results of pilot experiments in young healthy subjects are shown to evaluate the feasibility of the applications. Keywords-component: healthy aging, Parkinson’s disease, hand kinematics, inertial movement sensing, instrumented glove
The effect of husbands’ and wives’ fertility preferences on the likelihood of a subsequent pregnancy, Bangladesh 1998–2003

Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data from 3,052 rural Bangladeshi couples, we investigated the influence of husbands’ and wives’ fertility preferences on the likelihood of a subsequent pregnancy in the period 1998–2003. Although reproductive behaviour is relatively consistent with fertility preferences, 17 per cent of couples who reported they did not want more children in 1998 had a subsequent pregnancy by 2003. Wives in this setting appear to be more pronatalist than those in other less developed countries. Moreover, wives’ rather than husbands’ fertility preferences appear to have dominated over the 5-year study period. As expected, the incidence of pregnancy decreased over the study period for most couples, but increased among couples in which only the husband wanted more children. This finding suggests that wives who disagree with their husbands about having more children are either less likely to prevent pregnancy through consistent use of contraception or acquiesce to their husbands’ desire for more children.
The human health effects of DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and PCBS (polychlorinated biphenyls) and an overview of organochlorines in public health.

Organochlorines are a diverse group of persistent synthetic compounds, some of which are detectable in nearly everyone. Many organochlorines are endocrine disruptors or carcinogens in experimental assays. p,p'-DDE (dichlorodiphenyl-dichloroethene) and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) comprise the bulk of organochlorine residues in human tissues. We reviewed relevant human data cited in the 1991-1995 Medline database and elsewhere. High-level exposure to selected organochlorines appears to cause abnormalities of liver function, skin (chloracne), and the nervous system. Of more general interest, however, is evidence suggesting insidious effects of background exposure. Of particular concern is the finding of neonatal hypotonia or hyporeflexia in relation to PCB exposure. The epidemiologic data reviewed, considered in isolation, provide no convincing evidence that organochlorines cause a large excess number of cancers. A recent risk assessment that considered animal data, however, gives a cancer risk estimate for background exposure to dioxin and dioxin-like compounds (e.g. some PCBs) with an upper bound in the range of 10(-4) per year.