Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementation of a health-related quality of life questionnaire for children and adolescents with celiac disease.

INTRODUCTION Measuring health-related quality of life inpatients with celiac disease allows a comprehensive approach. OBJECTIVE To assess the implementation and sensitivity to change of the Argentine version of the CDDUX disease-specific questionnaire to measure health-related quality of life in children and adolescents. METHODS Descriptive, observational, longitudinal and prospective study. Participants were 8 to 18 year old children and adolescents with celiac disease, their parents or legal guardians and their gastroenterologists. The CDDUX questionnaire was used to assess health-related quality of life, and sensitivity to change was evaluated using the variation in the score obtained on two different occasions and a scale of change perception from the patient's and his/her parent's standpoint. The questionnaire implementation was appraised using a strength and weakness form completed by patients, parents and gastroenterologists. RESULTS The first interview was conducted among 118 child/parent dyads who completed the CDDUX and recorded their experience; 102 completed the questionnaire on two occasions. Total scores were higher the second time (p = 0.009 and 0.003, respectively). There was consistency between the perception of change expressed by the child/adolescent and the father/ mother, and the difference in the CDDUX score obtained at different consultations (p < 0.001). Standardized effect size: 0.52 for children/adolescents, and 0.45 for parents. A 64% agreement was observed among the opinions of children/ adolescents and their parent'´ opinion (kappa 0.20), and a 51% agreement was found among them and their gastroenterologists (kappa 0.10) in terms of change between consultations (better, the same, or worse). Gastroenterologists also recorded their experience with the CDDUX. They agreed that it was satisfactory and useful. CONCLUSIONS The CDDUX questionnaire demonstrated test-retest stability and sensitivity to change. Different opinions were obtained regarding change in children/adolescents health-related quality of life, with a better agreement among children/adolescents and their parents than among them and their physicians. The CDDUX questionnaire has been accepted by children/adolescents, their parents and gastroenterologists.
Transcriptome modulation during host shift is driven by secondary metabolites in desert Drosophila

High‐throughput transcriptome studies are breaking new ground to investigate the responses that organisms deploy in alternative environments. Nevertheless, much remains to be understood about the genetic basis of host plant adaptation. Here, we investigate genome‐wide expression in the fly Drosophila buzzatii raised in different conditions. This species uses decaying tissues of cactus of the genus Opuntia as primary rearing substrate and secondarily, the necrotic tissues of the columnar cactus Trichocereus terscheckii. The latter constitutes a harmful host, rich in mescaline and other related phenylethylamine alkaloids. We assessed the transcriptomic responses of larvae reared in Opuntia sulphurea and T. terscheckii, with and without the addition of alkaloids extracted from the latter. Whole‐genome expression profiles were massively modulated by the rearing environment, mainly by the presence of T. terscheckii alkaloids. Differentially expressed genes were mainly related to detoxification, oxidation–reduction and stress response; however, we also found genes involved in development and neurobiological processes. In conclusion, our study contributes new data onto the role of transcriptional plasticity in response to alternative rearing environments.
Egg Consumption and Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Korean Adults: Results from the Health Examinees Study

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as a cluster of metabolic alterations such as abdominal obesity, dyslipidemias, elevated fasting glucose, and hypertension. Studies on the association between egg consumption and MetS are limited and inconsistent. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted to examine the association of egg consumption with MetS among Korean adults aged 40–69 years. A total of 130,420 subjects (43,682 men and 86,738 women) from the Health Examinees Study were selected for the final analysis. Egg consumption was estimated using a validated 106-item food frequency questionnaire. MetS was defined using the National Cholesterol Education Program, Adult Treatment Panel III. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify the association of egg consumption with MetS via odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) after adjusting for potential variables. Among 130,420 subjects, 34,039 (26.1%) people had MetS. Consumption of more than 7 eggs/week was associated with a lower odds of MetS risk compared to those who consumed less than one egg/week in women (OR: 0.77, 95%CI: 0.70–0.84, p trend < 0.0001). Higher egg consumption was inversely associated with the MetS components: elevated waist circumference (OR: 0.80, 0.75–0.86), elevated triglyceride (OR: 0.78, 0.72–0.85), reduced high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (OR: 0.82, 0.77–0.88), elevated blood pressure (OR: 0.86, 0.80–0.92), and elevated fasting glucose (OR: 0.94, 0.83–0.99) in women; reduced HDL-C (OR: 0.89, 0.80–1.00) in men. Our results suggest that higher egg consumption may be associated with a reduction in the odds for MetS and all five metabolic components in women, and the risk of reduced HDL-C in men.
A method for assembling a project-specific software process definition

A software process definition embodies a complex interaction of development and management activities, products, tools and metrics. Establishing an initial process definition for any organization is a difficult and time-consuming effort. Modifying the initial definition also represents an intense effort that requires a well-defined process of organizational coordination and communication. Organizations could reduce much of the cost associated with the modification of a software process if the initial definition included a viable planning method for tailoring a generic process to each project rather than forcing the project to fit a standard process. This paper is based on a planning method that has evolved within TASC; it describes the steps required to create a tailored process definition for specific projects based on the generic process definition.
Toward the Storage Metabolome: Profiling the Barley Vacuole1[W][OA]

While recent years have witnessed dramatic advances in our capacity to identify and quantify an ever-increasing number of plant metabolites, our understanding of how metabolism is spatially regulated is still far from complete. In an attempt to partially address this question, we studied the storage metabolome of the barley (Hordeum vulgare) vacuole. For this purpose, we used highly purified vacuoles isolated by silicon oil centrifugation and compared their metabolome with that found in the mesophyll protoplast from which they were derived. Using a combination of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and Fourier transform-mass spectrometry, we were able to detect 59 (primary) metabolites for which we know the exact chemical structure and a further 200 (secondary) metabolites for which we have strong predicted chemical formulae. Taken together, these metabolites comprise amino acids, organic acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, shikimate pathway intermediates, vitamins, phenylpropanoids, and flavonoids. Of the 259 putative metabolites, some 12 were found exclusively in the vacuole and 34 were found exclusively in the protoplast, while 213 were common in both samples. When analyzed on a quantitative basis, however, there is even more variance, with more than 60 of these compounds being present above the detection limit of our protocols. The combined data were also analyzed with respect to the tonoplast proteome in an attempt to infer specificities of the transporter proteins embedded in this membrane. Following comparison with recent observations made using nonaqueous fractionation of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), we discuss these data in the context of current models of metabolic compartmentation in plants.
Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Evolutionary developmental biology is the study of evolutionary change (called phylogeny) as it is revealed through the embryological development of individual organisms (called ontogeny). On this approach, the understanding of ontogeny contributes to our understanding of phylogeny, and vice versa. Evolutionary thinkers of the nineteenth century almost all held what may be called the core doctrine of evolutionary developmental biology: that in order to achieve a modification in the adult form, evolution must modify the embryological processes responsible for that form, so that an understanding of evolution requires an understanding of development.
Axonal mRNA in Uninjured and Regenerating Cortical Mammalian Axons

Using a novel microfluidic chamber that allows the isolation of axons without contamination by nonaxonal material, we have for the first time purified mRNA from naive, matured CNS axons, and identified the presence of >300 mRNA transcripts. We demonstrate that the transcripts are axonal in nature, and that many of the transcripts present in uninjured CNS axons overlap with those previously identified in PNS injury-conditioned DRG axons. The axonal transcripts detected in matured cortical axons are enriched for protein translational machinery, transport, cytoskeletal components, and mitochondrial maintenance. We next investigated how the axonal mRNA pool changes after axotomy, revealing that numerous gene transcripts related to intracellular transport, mitochondria and the cytoskeleton show decreased localization 2 d after injury. In contrast, gene transcripts related to axonal targeting and synaptic function show increased localization in regenerating cortical axons, suggesting that there is an increased capacity for axonal outgrowth and targeting, and increased support for synapse formation and presynaptic function in regenerating CNS axons after injury. Our data demonstrate that CNS axons contain many mRNA species of diverse functions, and suggest that, like invertebrate and PNS axons, CNS axons synthesize proteins locally, maintaining a degree of autonomy from the cell body.
A Decay Chain Spin Analysis for SUSY and UED at the LHC

In this thesis we concentrate on the determination of the spin of an intermediate particle by using a decay chain. In SUSY the gluino is especially interesting for searches at the LHC, since it is a Majorana fermion which can produce like-sign dileptons in the final state. In UED the like-sign dilepton signature could occur as well from the decay of a bosonic KK-gluon. As we will show, angular distributions of the outgoing b-jets in SUSY and UED differ due to the different coupling structures. The effect from the different boosts of gluino and heavy gluon is shown to be much smaller. The hadronic UED cross section for KK-gluon KK-quark collisions is calculated in leading order and compared to the gluino squark collision in SUSY. The analytically given partonic cross sections are compared at the threshold.
An experimental study into the acousto-mechanical effects of invading the cochlea

The active and nonlinear mechanical processing of sound that takes place in the mammalian cochlea is fundamental to our sense of hearing. We have investigated the effects of opening the cochlea in order to make experimental observations of this processing. Using an optically transparent window that permits laser interferometric access to the apical turn of the guinea-pig cochlea, we show that the acousto-mechanical transfer functions of the sealed (i.e. near intact) cochlea are considerably simpler than those of the unsealed cochlea. Comparison of our results with those of others suggests that most previous investigations of apical cochlear mechanics have been made under unsealed conditions, and are therefore likely to have misrepresented the filtering of low-frequency sounds in the cochlea. The mechanical filtering that is apparent in the apical turns of sealed cochleae also differs from the filtering seen in individual auditory nerve fibres with similar characteristic frequencies. As previous studies have shown the neural and mechanical tuning of the basal cochlea to be almost identical, we conclude that the strategies used to process low frequency sounds in the apical turns of the cochlea might differ fundamentally from those used to process high frequency sounds in the basal turns.
Defensive traits exhibit an evolutionary trade‐off and drive diversification in ants

Evolutionary biologists have long predicted that evolutionary trade‐offs among traits should constrain morphological divergence and species diversification. However, this prediction has yet to be tested in a broad evolutionary context in many diverse clades, including ants. Here, we reconstruct an expanded ant phylogeny representing 82% of ant genera, compile a new family‐wide trait database, and conduct various trait‐based analyses to show that defensive traits in ants do exhibit an evolutionary trade‐off. In particular, the use of a functional sting negatively correlates with a suite of other defensive traits including spines, large eye size, and large colony size. Furthermore, we find that several of the defensive traits that trade off with a sting are also positively correlated with each other and drive increased diversification, further suggesting that these traits form a defensive suite. Our results support the hypothesis that trade‐offs in defensive traits significantly constrain trait evolution and influence species diversification in ants.
Acute myeloid leukaemia M0: haematological, immunophenotypic and cytogenetic characteristics and their prognostic significance: an analysis in 241 patients

Haematological, immunophenotypic and cytogenetic characteristics were analysed in 241 patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) M0, including 58 children. Children < 3 years and adults between 60 and 70 years of age were most frequently affected. Immunophenotyping showed a heterogeneous phenotype. Anti‐myeloperoxidase was positive in about half of the patients. Cytogenetic data were available from 129 (54%) patients. A normal karyotype was found in only 24%. Most of the abnormalities were unbalanced and the chromosomes 5, 7, 8 and 11 were the most frequently affected. Survival data were available from 152 treated patients (63%). The median overall survival for all patients was 10 months, 20 months for children (n = 36), 10 months for the young adult group (n = 50) and 7 months for the elderly patients (n = 66) (P = 0·09). Karyotype was not a prognostic factor influencing survival. AML M0 shows the immunological characteristics of early progenitor cells, but the expression of the different markers and cytogenetic abnormalities is heterogeneous. The prognosis is poor compared with other de novo AML and similar to that of AML with multilineage dysplasia or AML following myelodysplastic syndromes.
Empirical Studies in Discourse

Computational theories of discourse are concerned with the context-based interpretation or generation of discourse phenomena in text and dialogue. In the past, research in this area focused on specifying the mechanisms underlying particular discourse phenomena; the models proposed were often motivated by a few constructed examples. While this approach led to many theoretical advances, models developed in this manner are difficult to evaluate because it is hard to tell whether they generalize beyond the particular examples used to motivate them. Recently however the field has turned to issues of robustness and the coverage of theories of particular phenomena with respect to specific types of data. This new empirical focus is supported by several recent advances: an increasing theoretical consensus on discourse models; a large amount of online dialogue and textual corpora available; and improvements in component technologies and tools for building and testing discourse and dialogue testbeds. This means that it is now possible to determine how representative particular discourse phenomena are, how frequently they occur, whether they are related to other phenomena, what percentage of the cases a particular model covers, the inherent difficulty of the problem, and how well an algorithm for processing or generating the phenomena should perform to be considered a good model. This issue brings together a collection of papers illustrating recent approaches to empirical research in discourse generation and interpretation. Section 2 gives a general overview of empirical studies in discourse and describes an empirical research strategy that leads from empirical findings to general theories. Section 3 discusses how each article exemplifies the empirical research strategy and how empirical methods have been employed in each research project.
White Beam Microdiffraction and Dislocations Gradients (Chapter 79)

Dislocations are lines of irregularity in the structure of a solid analogous to the bumps in a badly laid carpet. Like these bumps they can be easily moved, and they provide the most important mechanism by which the solid can be deformed. They also have a strong influence on crystal growth and on the electronic properties of semiconductors.
Nitric oxide-producing CD11b 1Ly-6G(Gr-1)1CD31(ER-MP12) 1 cells in the spleen of cyclophosphamide–treated mice: implications for T-cell responses in immunosuppressed mice

During recovery from intensive chemotherapy with cyclophosphamide (CTX), mice suffer a severe but transitory impairment in spleen cell proliferation to T-cell mitogens (Con A or anti-CD3 plus IL-2). Although CTX treatment reduced spleen T-cell cellularity, this cannot fully account for T-cell unresponsiveness. The results showed that CTX induces the colonization of spleen by an immature myeloid CD11b1Ly-6G1CD311 population. Its presence closely correlated with the maximum inhibition of T-cell proliferation. Moreover, this suppressive activity was dependent on nitric oxide (NO) production in cultures since (1) higher amounts of nitric oxide and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) mRNA were produced in CTX spleen cells (CTX-SC) than in control splenocyte cultures and (2) NOS inhibitors greatly improved the proliferation of T lymphocytes. Nitric oxide production and suppressive activity were also dependent on endogenous interferong (IFN-g) production since anti–IFNg abrogated both effects. Finally, iNOS protein expression was restricted to a heterogeneous population of CD31 1 cells in which CD11b1Ly-6G1 cells were required to suppress T-cell proliferation. These results indicated that CTX might also cause immunosuppression by a mechanism involving the presence of immature myeloid cells with suppressor activity. This may have implications in clinical praxis since inappropriate immunotherapies in patients treated with intensive chemotherapy could lead to deleterious T-cell responses. (Blood. 2000;95:212-220)
Experimental characterization and quadratic programming-based control of brushless-motors

A new torque control strategy for brushless motors is presented, which results in minimum torque ripple and copper losses. The motor model assumes linear magnetics, but contains a current limit which can delimit the onset of magnetic saturation, or be the motor amplifier current limit, whichever is reached first. The control problem is formulated and solved as a quadratic programming problem with equality and inequality constraints to find the nonlinear mapping from desired torque and position to the motor's phase currents. The optimal solution is found in closed form using the Kuhn-Tucker theorem. The solution shows that, unlike the conventional commutation with a fixed current-position waveform, the waveforms of the proposed controller vary in order to respect the current limitation in one phase by boosting the current in the other phases. This increases the maximum torque capability of the motor - in our particular system by 20% - compared to fixed waveform commutation. Experimental data from our brushless direct-drive motor demonstrates that the controller produces virtually ripple-free torque and enhances remarkably the tracking accuracy of the motion controller.
Immunogenicity of DNA Vaccines Encoding Simian Immunodeficiency Virus Antigen Targeted to Dendritic Cells in Rhesus Macaques

Background Targeting antigens encoded by DNA vaccines to dendritic cells (DCs) in the presence of adjuvants enhances their immunogenicity and efficacy in mice. Methodology/Principal Findings To explore the immunogenicity of this approach in non-human primates, we generated a single chain antibody to the antigen uptake receptor DEC-205 expressed on rhesus macaque DCs. DNA vaccines encoding this single chain antibody fused to the SIV capsid protein were delivered to six monkeys each by either intramuscular electroporation or conventional intramuscular injection co-injected or not with poly ICLC, a stabilized poly I: C analogue, as adjuvant. Antibodies to capsid were induced by the DC-targeting and non-targeting control DNA delivered by electroporation while conventional DNA immunization at a 10-fold higher dose of DNA failed to induce detectable humoral immune responses. Substantial cellular immune responses were also observed after DNA electroporation of both DNAs, but stronger responses were induced by the non-targeting vaccine. Conventional immunization with the DC-targeting DNA at a 10-fold higher dose did not give rise to substantial cellular immune responses, neither when co-injected with poly ICLC. Conclusions/Significance The study confirms the potent immunogenicity of DNA vaccines delivered by electroporation. Targeting the DNA via a single chain antibody to DEC-205 expressed by DCs, however, does not improve the immunogenicity of the antigens in non-human primates.
The Mechanism of the Calorigenic Action of Thyroid Hormone

In an earlier study, we proposed that thyroid hormone stimulation of energy utilization by the Na+ pump mediates the calorigenic response. In this study, the effects of triiodothyronine (T3) on total oxygen consumption (Q OO2), the ouabain-sensitive oxygen consumption [Q OO2(t)], and NaK-ATPase in liver, kidney, and cerebrum were measured. In liver, ∼90% of the increase in Q OO2 produced by T3 in either thyroidectomized or euthyroid rats was attributable to the increase in Q OO2(t). In kidney, the increase in Q OO2(t) accounted for 29% of the increase in Q OO2 in thyroidectomized and 46% of the increase in Q OO2 in euthyroid rats. There was no demonstrable effect of T3 in euthyroid rats on Q OO2 or Q OO2(t) of cerebral slices. The effects of T3 on NaK-ATPase activity in homogenates were as follows: In liver +81% from euthyroid rats and +54% from hypothyroid rats. In kidney, +21% from euthyroid rats and +69% from hypothyroid rats. T3 in euthyroid rats produced no significant changes in NaK-ATPase or Mg-ATPase activity of cerebral homogenates. Liver plasma membrane fractions showed a 69% increase in NaK-ATPase and no significant changes in either Mg-ATPase or 5'-nucleotidase activities after T3 injection. These results indicate that thyroid hormones stimulate NaK-ATPase activity differentially. This effect may account, at least in part, for the calorigenic effects of these hormones.