Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Phenotyping of Leukocytes and Leukocyte-Derived Extracellular Vesicles

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) have a demonstrated involvement in modulating the immune system. It has been proposed that EVs could be used as biomarkers for detection of inflammatory and immunological disorders. Consequently, it is of great interest to investigate EVs in more detail with focus on immunological markers. In this study, five major leukocyte subpopulations and the corresponding leukocyte-derived EVs were phenotyped with focus on selected immunological lineage-specific markers and selected vesicle-related markers. The leukocyte-derived EVs displayed phenotypic differences in the 34 markers investigated. The majority of the lineage-specific markers used for identification of the parent cell types could not be detected on EVs released from monocultures of the associated cell types. In contrast, the vesicular presentation of CD9, CD63, and CD81 correlated to the cell surface expression of these markers, however, with few exceptions. Furthermore, the cellular expression of CD9, CD63, and CD81 varied between leukocytes present in whole blood and cultured leukocytes. In summary, these data demonstrate that the cellular and vesicular presentation of selected lineage-specific and vesicle-related markers may differ, supporting the accumulating observations that sorting of molecular cargo into EVs is tightly controlled.
Political economies and environmental futures for the sharing economy

The sudden rise of the sharing economy has sparked an intense public debate about its definition, its effects and its future regulation. Here, I attempt to provide analytical guidance by defining the sharing economy as the practice that consumers grant each other temporary access to their under-utilized physical assets. Using this definition, the rise of the sharing economy can be understood as occurring at the intersection of three salient economic trends: peer-to-peer exchange, access over ownership and circular business models. I shortly discuss some of the environmental impacts of online sharing platforms and then articulate three possible futures of the sharing economy: a capitalist future cumulating in monopolistic super-platforms allowing for seamless services, a state-led future that shifts taxation from labour to capital and redistributes the gains of sharing from winners to losers, and a citizen-led future based on cooperatively owned platforms under democratic control. The nature and size of the social and environmental impacts are expected to differ greatly in each of the three scenarios. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.
Synthesis, characterization and, swelling behavior of semi‐IPN nanocomposite hydrogels of alginate with poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) crosslinked by nanoclay

pH and temperature responsive nanocomposite hydrogels were synthesized with sodium alginate (NaAlg), N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPA), and nanoclay. The structure, morphology, thermal behavior, and swelling and deswelling behaviors of the hydrogels were studied. The NaAlgm/PNIPA/Clayn hydrogels revealed a highly porous structure in which the pore sizes decreased and the amount of pores increased with increasing the nanoclay content in the hydrogels. PNIPA retained its own characteristics regardless of the amount of NaAlg and nanoclay. The effect of pH and nanoclay content on the swelling and effect of temperature on the deswelling behavior were investigated. The equilibrium swelling ratios of the nanocomposite hydrogels increased with increasing the pH from 2 to 6. The maximum swelling was attained at pH 6. Deswelling increased with increasing the nanoclay content in the hydrogels. The hydrogels were found to be pH and temperature responsive. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43222.
Parkinson’s disease managing reversible neurodegeneration

: Traditionally, the Parkinson’s disease (PD) symptom course has been classified as an irreversible progressive neurodegenerative disease. This paper documents 29 PD and treatment-induced systemic depletion etiologies which cause and/or exacerbate the seven novel primary relative nutritional deficiencies associated with PD. These reversible relative nutritional deficiencies (RNDs) may facilitate and accelerate irreversible progressive neurodegeneration, while other reversible RNDs may induce previously undocumented reversible pseudo-neurodegeneration that is hiding in plain sight since the symptoms are identical to the symptoms being experienced by the PD patient. Documented herein is a novel nutritional approach for reversible processes management which may slow or halt irreversible progressive neurodegenerative disease and correct reversible RNDs whose symptoms are identical to the patient’s PD symptoms. and/or disease progression.
Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breastovarian cancer susceptibility locus

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On Translation-Invariant Matrix Product States and advances in MPS representations of the $W$-state

This work is devoted to the study Translation-Invariant (TI) Matrix Product State (MPS) representations of quantum states with periodic boundary conditions (PBC). We pursue two directions: we introduce new methods for constructing TI MPS representations of a certain class of TI states and study their optimality in terms of their bond dimension. We pay particular attention to the $n$-party $W$-state and construct a TI MPS representation of bond dimension $\left \lfloor \dfrac{n}{2} \right \rfloor +1$ for it. We further study properties of this class and show that we can can always achieve a bond dimension of $n$ for TI MPS representation of states in this class. In the framework of studying optimality of TI MPS representations with PBC, we study the optimal bond dimension $d(\psi)$ for a given state $\psi$. In particular we introduce a deterministic algorithm for the search of $d(\psi)$ for an arbitary state. Using numerical methods, we verify the optimality of our previous construction for the $n$-party $W$-state for small $n$.
graft outcomes following immunosuppressive therapy with different combinations in kidney transplant recipients: a nationwide cohort study

Background: Immunosuppression plays an essential role to overcome immune-related allograft rejection, but it also causes some nephrotoxicity. This study aimed to investigate how the immunosuppressant combinations affect graft outcomes in kidney transplant recipients. Methods: A nationwide population-based cohort study using the Taiwan National Health Insurance Database was conducted. A total of 3,441 kidney transplant recipients who underwent kidney transplantation during the targeted period were included. The effects on graft outcomes contributed by conventional immunosuppressants, including corticosteroid, calcineurin inhibitors, antimetabolite purine antagonists, and mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors, were compared. Results: A total of 423 graft failures developed after the index date. Therapy regimens incorporated with purine antagonists had a comparable reduction of graft failure among four main drug groups regardless of whether they were given as monotherapy or in combination (adjusted hazard ratio: 0.52, 95% confidence interval: 0.42–0.63). Corticosteroid was found to have inferior effects among four groups (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.67, 95% confidence interval: 1.28–2.21). Furthermore, all 15 arrangements of mutually exclusive treatment combinations were analyzed by referencing with corticosteroid monotherapy. As referenced with steroid-based treatment, regimens incorporated with purine antagonists all have superior advantage on graft survival regardless of whether given in monotherapy (65% of graft failure reduced), dual therapy (48%–67% reduced), or quadruple therapy (43% reduced). In all triple therapies, only corticosteroid combined with calcineurin inhibitor and purine antagonist demonstrated superior protection on graft survival (52% of graft failure reduced). Conclusion: The results may recommend several superior regimens for contributing to graft survival, and for supporting a steroid-minimizing strategy in immunosuppression maintenance. pump inhibitor, insulin, hypoglycemic agents, lipid-lowering agents, anticoagulants, aspirin, nitrates, anticonvulsants, and vitamin D. This analysis included patients died within 6 months after kidney transplant surgery, except 24 patients who received trial-related drug and 1 missing in baseline information, giving a total of 3,827 patients. * P , 0.05. Abbreviations:
Computer-Aided Analysis of Syntactic Elaboration of Written Argumentation Across Topics and L1s

Recent advances in computational linguistics and information retrieval have allowed for computationally investigating measures of linguistic elaboration in assessing writing. Together, these advances allowed for the automated analysis of syntactic complexity, text cohesion, and text structure. This study investigates the effect of within-genre topics on syntactic elaboration in argumentative essays written by EFL and ESL college students, contrasted with the essays of NS writers. To this end, this study attempted a quantitative approach to investigate the difference in syntactic complexity in argumentative writing taken from a learner corpus. L2SCA was introduced as a computer-aided analysis to calculate the syntactic complexity of argumentative writing written by students with different L1s. Furthermore, statistical analysis was conducted using the SPSS statistical program. In addition, Examples of text analysis were shown to supplement the weakness of the quantitative approach. Two hundred forty essays extracted from the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English were analyzed using the L2 Syntactic Complexity Analyzer. A two-way repeated measures MANOVA with the topic as a within-subjects variable and L1s as a between-subjects variable was conducted. The interaction effect was found to be significant, particularly at the phrasal complexity level, that is, coordinate phrases per clause. This finding suggests that patterns of topic effects on the three groups’ phrasal coordination are likely to differ across their L1 backgrounds. The analysis, using seven measures covering multiple dimensions of syntactic complexity, revealed significant differences between EFL, ESL writers, and NS writers in using global and local complexities. This study also found a more substantial influence of L1 backgrounds on the syntactic complexity of writing in comparison to writing topics. Regarding simple main effects, all seven complexity indices were significantly affected by L1 backgrounds with large effect sizes, showing the practical meanings. With regard to topic effects, five of the seven complexity indices were significantly influenced.
Geohydrologic Data and Models of Rainier Mesa and Their Implications to Yucca Mountain

The geohydrologic data collected at Rainier Mesa provide the only extensive observations in tunnels presently available on flow and transport in tuff units similar to those of a potential nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. This information can, therefore, be of great value in planning the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) testing in underground drifts at Yucca Mountain. In this paper, we compare the geohydrologic characteristics of tuff units of these two sites and summarize the hydrochemical data indicating the presence of nearly meteoric water in Rainier Mesa tunnels. A simple analytic model is used to evaluate the possibility of propagating transient pulses of water along fractures or faults through the Paintbrush nonwelded tuff unit to reach the tunnel beds below. The results suggest that fast flow could occur without significant mixing between meteoric fracture water and matrix pore water. The implications of these findings on planning for the ESF Calico Hills study at Yucca Mountain are discussed.
Horizontal Gene Transfer

Part 1 Mechanisms of transfer into bacterial and eukaryotes: Looking sideways at the evolution of replicons, Jack A. Heinemann Plasmid specificity and interaction - the similarities and differences between the transfer regions of two compatible plasmids, F. and R100-1, William A. Klimke et al Lateral broad host range gene transfer in nature - how and how much, Abigail A. Salyers et al The role of gene cassettes and integrons in the horizontal transfer of genes in Gram-negative bacteria, Ruth M. Hall Evolution of the selfish Ti plasmid of agrobacterium tumefacients promoting horizontal gene transfer, Clarence I. Kado Arabidopsis ecotypes resistant to crown gall tumorigenesis, Jaesung Nam, Stanton B. Gelvin Evidence for the ancient transfer of Ri-plasmid T-DNA genes between bacteria and plants, Corinne Frundt et al Gene transfer from bacteria to mammalian cells, Patrice Courvalin et al Horizontal gene transfer in the host-parasite system, basidia glauca-parasitella parasitica, J. Wostemeyer et al. Part 2 Bacterial gene transfer in nature: Selective DNA uptake and DNA restriction as barriers to horizontal gene exchange by natural genetic transformation in pseudomonas stutzeri JM300, Michael G. Lorenz et al Transformation in quantic environments, Martin Day Natural genetic transformation of bacteria in soil, Wilfried Wackernagel et al The importance of pseudolysogeny to in situ bacteriophage-host interactions, Robert V. Miller, Steven Ripp Archaeological footprints of horizontal gene transfer - mosaic cell surface proteins in streptococcus and S. pneumonia, Susan K. Hollingshead et al Role of horizontal transfer in bacterial evolution, Jefferey Lawrence, John Roth Evolutionary evidence for recombination among bacteria in nature - escherichia coli, Roger Milkman et al The lysogenic conversion genes of coliphage P2 have unusually high AT content, Richard Calendar et al. Part 3 Eukaryotic mobile elements: Evidence for horizontal transfer of the P transposable element between drosophila species, Jonathan B. Clark, Margaret G. Kidwell Mariner transposons of animals - horizontally jumping genes, Hugh M. Robertson et al Horizontal and vertical transmission of hobo-related sequences between drosophila melanogaster and drosophila simulants, Gail M. Simmons et al The splicing of transposable elements - evolution of a nuclear defense against genomic invaders? Michael D. Purugganam. Part 4 Evidence for ancient transfer: The case for gene transfer between very distantly related organisms, Russell F. Doolittle. (Part contents).
Complex treatment of locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland and secondary primary melanoma

Primary squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland accounts for 0.35% up to 9.8% of all parotid malignancies. In advanced stages, the gold standard is wide excision, lymphadenectomy and postoperative radiotherapy. Furthermore, head and neck cancers have an increased risk of secondary primary tumors development. Case report: A 82-year-old male underwent subtotal parotidectomy with facial nerve preservation for right parotid squamous cell carcinoma, in another department. Due to incomplete resection, 4 months later he presented with locoregional recurrence and cutaneous invasion. The patient underwent total parotidectomy en bloc with facial nerve, part of the external auditory meatus, posterior belly of digastric and part of sternocleidomastoid muscle with modified radical neck dissection, levels I-V. The defect was closed with ipsilateral pectoralis major myocutaneous flap, followed by a temporary lateral tarsorrhaphy after two months. The patient underwent adjuvant radiotherapy. One year after surgery, functional and aesthetic impairment of the facial nerve palsy were corrected: the lower face deficit by an orthodromic temporalis tendon transfer; lagophthalmos by lid loading with gold-weight. Postoperative outcome was satisfactory for the patient, with 3 years of postoperative evolution with no recurrence or metastasis. Concomitantly, the patient developed pT1a secondary primary melanoma on the skin island of the flap, which was excised. Conclusion: Patients with locoregional advanced parotid squamous cell carcinoma can benefit from wide excision with neck dissection and postoperative radiotherapy. When the facial nerve cannot be preserved, facial asymmetry can be improved through reanimation procedures. Secondary primary malignancies require proper treatment concomitantly with index tumor follow-up.
Defining Mixed-Use: Which Land Uses Promote Walking?

Though researchers have explored the general impacts of mixed use development on physical activity, few have examined which specific land uses should be mixed. This study addresses this gap by examining the influence of the presence, intensity and diversity of land uses on utilitarian walking. Built environment data was related to utilitarian walking for individuals (n=251) in Montgomery County, Maryland. For a variety of land uses including banks, bus stops, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, libraries, rail stations, offices, parks, recreation centers, non-fast food restaurants, retail, schools, sports facilities, night uses, physical activity uses and social uses, exposure measures included the distance from participants’ homes to the closest instance of each land use (presence), the number of instances of each land use (intensity), and the number of different land uses present (diversity), all within circles of ½ and ¼ mile radii from participants’ residences. Distances to banks, bus stops, fast food restaurants, grocery stores, rail stations, night uses, physical activity uses, recreational facilities, restaurants, social uses and sports facilities were negatively associated with transportation walking. The intensities of bus stops, grocery stores, offices, and retail stores were positively correlated with utilitarian walking. Furthermore, a dose-response relationship between land use diversity and walking for transport was detected. Results suggest that planners, policymakers and developers can encourage physical activity and promote walking as a travel mode choice through the careful design of mixed-use developments.
Innovation, firm size, productivity and imbalances in the age of de-globalization

presented a paper investigating to what extent wage negotiation set-ups have shaped firms’ responses to the Great Recession. This micro-aggregated cross-country analysis was made possible by the creation of an ad hoc database resulting from merging data on wage bargaining institutions from the Wage Dynamic Network to firm productivity and other relevant firm characteristics from CompNet. Hence, this analysis contributed to the literature by providing a more granular analysis of the interplay between labour market institutions and employment growth. The authors study how firms reacted to the Great Recession in terms of variation in profits, wages
severity of acidosis affects long-term survival in COPD patients with hypoxemia after intensive care unit discharge

Background: Patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with acute respiratory failure (ARF) due to COPD have high mortality and morbidity. Acidosis has several harmful effects on hemodynamics and metabolism, and the current knowledge regarding the relationship between respiratory acidosis severity on the short- and long-term survival of COPD patients is limited. We hypothesized that COPD patients with severe acidosis would have a poorer short- and long-term prognosis compared with COPD patients with mild-to-moderate acidosis. Patients and methods: This retrospective observational cohort study was conducted in a level III respiratory ICU of a tertiary teaching hospital for chest diseases between December 1, 2013, and December 30, 2014. Subject characteristics, comorbidities, ICU parameters, duration of mechanical ventilation, length of ICU stay, ICU mortality, use of domiciliary noninvasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) and long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT), and short- and long-term mortality were recorded. Patients were grouped according to their arterial blood gas (ABG) values during ICU admission: severe acidotic (pH # 7.20) and mild-to-moderate acidotic (pH 7.21–7.35). These groups were compared with the recorded data. The mortality predictors were analyzed by logistic regression test in the ICU and the Cox regression test for long-term mortality predictors. Group group Mild-to-moderate acidotic COPD patients LTOT cumulative survival 63.3%, respectively p Cox regression 2 all heart failure, days stay in the ICU, presence of septic shock, presence of resistant pathogen, use of domiciliary device [LTOT, NIMV]); only statistically significant ( p , 0.05) parameters are shown in the regression analysis.
Does social support affect development of cognitive dysfunction in individuals with diabetes mellitus?

Objectives: To determine cognitive functions and perceived social support (SS) among individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM), and the effects of SS on the development of cognitive dysfunction (CD). Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 121 patients with DM presenting at the Endocrinology Clinic of Cumhuriyet University Health Services Application and Research Hospital, Sivas, Turkey between April and June 2014. Data were collected utilizing the “Patient Assessment Form”, “Standardized Mini Mental State Examination (SMMSE)”, and “Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS)”. Results: The mean score obtained for DM patients from the SMMSE was 21.55±5.7, with 65.3% found to have cognitive impairment. The total mean score of the participants for MSPSS was considered moderate (66.61±14.42). There was a significant positive correlation between cognitive function and SS (r=0.273, p=0.002). It was determined that individuals with CD had low levels of perceived SS, and that insufficient support from families and significant others contributed to the development of CD (p=0.008). Conclusion: In this study, it was determined that the cognitive function of individuals with DM was impaired and would improve as the perception of SS increased, and that perceived SS would affect the development of CD. Therefore, health professionals can contribute to the improvement of cognitive function of individuals with DM by facilitating the use of SS sources.