2,646 research outputs found
Evaluation of the Jim Joseph Foundation Education Initiative Year 3 Report
Launched in 2010, the Jim Joseph Foundation Education Initiative supports programs at three flagship Jewish institutions of higher education: Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS), and Yeshiva University (YU). As part of this initiative, HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU designed and piloted new programs, enhanced existing programs, and provided financial assistance to additional programs.American Institutes for Research (AIR) is conducting an independent evaluation of the Jim Joseph Foundation Education Initiative. This report is the third in a series of five annual reports that describe progress toward accomplishing the goals of the Education Initiative
Alloantibody assays and outcome of platelet transfusions
In this thesis we deal with two aspects of alloantibody assays: (i) test characteristics
and (ii) performance of tests in different patient populations. The first part of this
thesis focuses on the technical aspects of antibody detection guided by the following
questions:
1. Is a technique using standardized antigens (ELIHLA) as sensitive as techniques
using panel cells (LCT, LIFT, PIFT) and are the results of these 4 different
techniques related?
2. Are the results of a technique that detects IgG bound to transfused platelets in vivo
(IVBI-PIFT) related to those of an in vitro technique using panel cells ( crossmatchPIFT)
or using standardized platelet antigens (ELIHLA)?
3. Is binding of IgG to transfused platelets in vivo related to poor platelet recovery?
4. Can the visual scoring method of the IVBI-PIFT reliably be objectivated by a
mathematical method of histogram subtraction?
The second part of the thesis deals with the predictive value of alloantibody tests on
platelet recovery of random platelet transfusions in a non-selected patient population
and of HLA-matched platelet transfusions in a heavely selected patient population. In
some of the studies non-immunological factors jeopardizing the survival of platelets
were taking into account too. These value of alloantibody assays were studied by the
following questions:
1. What is the prevalence of immune and non-immune causes of platelet transfusion
failures in a non-selected patient population?
2. Which alloantibody tests and what non-immune causes are best related to platelet
transfusion failures in a non-selected patient population
Acute renal cortex necrosis caused by arterial thrombosis during treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia
Efficient Moment-Based Inference of Admixture Parameters and Sources of Gene Flow
The recent explosion in available genetic data has led to significant advances in understanding the demographic histories of and relationships among human populations. It is still a challenge, however, to infer reliable parameter values for complicated models involving many populations. Here, we present MixMapper, an efficient, interactive method for constructing phylogenetic trees including admixture events using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotype data. MixMapper implements a novel two-phase approach to admixture inference using moment statistics, first building an unadmixed scaffold tree and then adding admixed populations by solving systems of equations that express allele frequency divergences in terms of mixture parameters. Importantly, all features of the model, including topology, sources of gene flow, branch lengths, and mixture proportions, are optimized automatically from the data and include estimates of statistical uncertainty. MixMapper also uses a new method to express branch lengths in easily interpretable drift units. We apply MixMapper to recently published data for Human Genome Diversity Cell Line Panel individuals genotyped on a SNP array designed especially for use in population genetics studies, obtaining confident results for 30 populations, 20 of them admixed. Notably, we confirm a signal of ancient admixture in European populations—including previously undetected admixture in Sardinians and Basques—involving a proportion of 20–40% ancient northern Eurasian ancestry
Lignin biosynthesis in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.): its response to waterlogging and association with hormonal levels
Phylogenetic relationships of wheat C3H and CCoAOMT genes with the homologs from other species. Phylogenetic trees of C3H (A) and CCoAOMT (B) were generated based on nucleic acid sequence similarity of wheat genes with 15 C3H and 19 CCoAOMT genes, respectively, of other monocot and dicot species identified from the NCBI nucleotide database [39] using MEGA program [41], and the trees were inferred using Maximum Likelihood method based on the Tamura-nei model. The percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test of 500 replicates is shown next to the branches. â, wheat candidate gene; â˛, genes from dicot species other than Arabidopsis; *, wheat sequence used for the analysis. (PDF 175 kb
Two patients with acute thrombocytopenia following gold administration and five-year follow-up
Thrombocytopenia is a well-known side effect following intramuscular gold
therapy in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Thrombocytopenia may occur
at any time and it can be irreversible and sometimes fatal despite
cytotoxic or immunosuppressive therapy. We describe two patients who
presented with haemorrhagic diathesis on the day after the administration
of aurothioglucose. The thrombocytopenia in these patients was caused by
aurothioglucose-induced antibody-mediated platelet destruction. Both
patients made an uneventful recovery and the platelet count returned to
normal within severa
A Cloud-Oriented Cross-Domain Security Architecture
The Monterey Security Architecture addresses the need to share high-value data across multiple domains of different classification levels while enforcing information flow
policies. The architecture allows users with different security authorizations to securely collaborate and exchange information using commodity computers and familiar commercial client software that generally lack the prerequisite assurance and functional security protections. MYSEA seeks to meet two compelling requirements, often assumed to be at odds: enforcing critical, mandatory security policies, and allowing access and collaboration in a familiar work environment. Recent additions to the MYSEA design expand the architecture to support a cloud of cross-domain services, hosted within
a federation of multilevel secure (MLS) MYSEA servers. The MYSEA cloud supports single-sign on, service replication, and
network-layer quality of security service. This new cross domain, distributed architecture follows the consumption and delivery model for cloud services, while maintaining the federated control model necessary to support and protect cross domain collaboration within the enterprise. The resulting architecture shows the feasibility of high-assurance, cross-domain services hosted within a community cloud suitable for interagency, or joint, collaboration. This paper summarizes the MYSEA architecture and discusses MYSEA's approach to provide an MLS-constrained cloud computing environment.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited
Brain Model State Space Reconstruction Using an LSTM Neural Network
Objective
Kalman filtering has previously been applied to track neural model states and
parameters, particularly at the scale relevant to EEG. However, this approach
lacks a reliable method to determine the initial filter conditions and assumes
that the distribution of states remains Gaussian. This study presents an
alternative, data-driven method to track the states and parameters of neural
mass models (NMMs) from EEG recordings using deep learning techniques,
specifically an LSTM neural network.
Approach
An LSTM filter was trained on simulated EEG data generated by a neural mass
model using a wide range of parameters. With an appropriately customised loss
function, the LSTM filter can learn the behaviour of NMMs. As a result, it can
output the state vector and parameters of NMMs given observation data as the
input.
Main Results
Test results using simulated data yielded correlations with R squared of
around 0.99 and verified that the method is robust to noise and can be more
accurate than a nonlinear Kalman filter when the initial conditions of the
Kalman filter are not accurate. As an example of real-world application, the
LSTM filter was also applied to real EEG data that included epileptic seizures,
and revealed changes in connectivity strength parameters at the beginnings of
seizures.
Significance
Tracking the state vector and parameters of mathematical brain models is of
great importance in the area of brain modelling, monitoring, imaging and
control. This approach has no need to specify the initial state vector and
parameters, which is very difficult to do in practice because many of the
variables being estimated cannot be measured directly in physiological
experiments. This method may be applied using any neural mass model and,
therefore, provides a general, novel, efficient approach to estimate brain
model variables that are often difficult to measure
Prognostic impact of low muscle mass and low muscle density in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
Low muscle mass (LMM) and low muscle density (LMD) are increasingly recognized as prognostic factors for survival in different malignancies. This study determined the association of LMM and LMD with survival in DLBCL (diffuse large B-cell lymphoma) patients. CT-based measurement of muscle was performed in 164 DLBCL patients prior to chemo-immunotherapy. Z-scores adjusted for gender, age, and body mass index were derived from a healthy reference population. LMM or LMD were defined as a Z-score below −1 and were related to OS and PFS. The co-existence of both LMM and LMD was observed in 13% of the DLBCL patients and was significantly associated with shorter OS and PFS. Also, these patients more often did not complete the planned treatment. The combination of LMM and LMD is an independent prognosti
Survival continues to increase in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: a population-based analysis among 20 468 patients diagnosed in the Netherlands between 1989 and 2016
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