Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Osteoporosis Screening in Postmenopausal Women 50 to 64 Years Old: Comparison of US Preventive Services Task Force Strategy and Two Traditional Strategies in the Women's Health Initiative

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommends osteoporosis screening for women younger than 65 years whose 10‐year predicted risk of major osteoporotic fracture is ≥9.3%. For identifying screening candidates among women aged 50 to 64 years, it is uncertain how the USPSTF strategy compares with the Osteoporosis Self‐Assessment Tool (OST) and the Simple Calculated Osteoporosis Risk Estimate (SCORE). We examined data (1994 to 2012) from 5165 Women's Health Initiative participants aged 50 to 64 years. For the USPSTF (Fracture Risk Assessment Tool [FRAX] major fracture risk ≥9.3% calculated without bone mineral density [BMD]), OST (score <2), and SCORE (score >7) strategies, we assessed sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) to discriminate between those with and without femoral neck (FN) T‐score ≤−2.5. Sensitivity, specificity, and AUC for identifying FN T‐score ≤−2.5 were 34.1%, 85.8%, and 0.60 for USPSTF (FRAX); 74.0%, 70.8%, and 0.72 for SCORE; and 79.8%, 66.3%, and 0.73 for OST. The USPSTF strategy identified about one‐third of women aged 50 to 64 years with FN T‐scores ≤−2.5. Among women aged 50 to 64 years, the USPSTF strategy was modestly better than chance alone and inferior to conventional SCORE and OST strategies in discriminating between women with and without FN T‐score ≤−2.5. © 2014 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
A Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis of the Cerebellar Deficit Hypothesis of Dyslexia

Recent evidence suggests that the primary source of dysfunction in dyslexia is the cerebellum. To examine the cerebellar deficit hypothesis of dyslexia, 20 children with dyslexia and 20 children without dyslexia were assessed using neuropsychological testing and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging. Results demonstrated that the volumes of both hemispheres and the vermis were not statistically significantly different between groups. However, children without dyslexia demonstrated greater rightward cerebellar hemisphere asymmetry. The relationship between cerebellar morphologic structure and phonological processing was assessed. For children without dyslexia, bilateral hemisphere volume moderately correlated with phonological awareness and phonological short-term memory. Hemisphere asymmetry moderately correlated with rapid naming errors, and the anterior vermis volume moderately correlated with phonological awareness. For children with dyslexia, the only statistically significant correlation was between rapid naming errors and the left hemisphere volume. Evidence suggests that atypical cerebellar morphologic structure may have a role in dyslexia for a subgroup of individuals. Although children with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder did not differ in cerebellar morphologic structure, the anterior vermis volume moderately correlated with inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, while the right hemisphere volume moderately correlated with inattention and hyperactivity. Our findings provide mixed support for the cerebellar deficit hypothesis of dyslexia. Although cerebellar morphologic structure is atypical in some individuals with dyslexia, it is inconsistently related to cognitive or motor dysfunction. In our sample, cerebellar morphologic structure may be related to about one-third of cases of dyslexia. Hence, dyslexia may be best accounted for by a combination of cortical and cerebellar contributions.
High anti-lymphoma activity of bendamustine/mitoxantrone/rituximab in rituximab pretreated relapsed or refractory indolent lymphomas and mantle cell lymphomas. A multicenter phase II study of the German Low Grade Lymphoma Study Group (GLSG)

On the basis of a preceding phase I study, the current trial explored bendamustine in combination with mitoxantrone and rituximab (BMR) in patients with stage III/IV relapsed or refractory indolent lymphomas and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) with or without prior rituximab containing chemo-immunotherapy (R-chemo) treatment. Therapy consisted of bendamustine 90 mg/m2 days 1 + 2, mitoxantrone 10 mg/m2 day 1, rituximab 375 mg/m2 day 8. Treatment was repeated on day 29 for a total of four cycles. Between 3 April and 04 July, 57 patients were recruited from 24 participating institutions, 39% of whom had received prior R-chemo therapy. Median age was 66 years (40 – 83). Lymphoma subtypes were 29 follicular (FL), 18 MCL, and 10 other indolent lymphomas. The overall response rate (ORR) was 89% with 35% CR and 54% PR. ORR in R-chemo pretreated patients was 76% (38% CR, 38% PR). After a median observation time of 27 months (1 – 43), the estimated median progression free survival is 19 months. The 2 year overall survival is 60% for patients with FL and MCL. Treatment related toxicities of grade 3/4 comprised a reversible myelosuppression (10% anemia, 78% leukocytopenia, 46% granulocytopenia, 16% thrombocytopenia). However, unexpected hospitalisations were necessary after 4% of BMR-application only. BMR is a very effective new outpatient immuno-chemotherapy with low toxicity for patients with relapsed/refractory FL, MCL and other indolent lymphomas.
MicroRNA-153 is a prognostic marker and inhibits cell migration and invasion by targeting SNAI1 in human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Human pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive cancer type with early metastasis, which leads to poor prognosis for patients. Mounting evidence suggests that microRNAs (miRNAs) act as critical factors for tumor recurrence and metastasis. miR-153 has been suggested as a novel tumor-associated miRNA, which is involved in tumor metastasis. However, the clinical significance of miR-153 and its role in PDAC remains to be investigated. The aim of the present study was to investigate the expression levels of miR-153 using RT-qPCR in human PDAC cell lines and tissues. A clinical association analysis was performed to investigate the clinical significance of miR-153. The results showed that, the relative expression of miR-153 in PDAC cells was obviously decreased as compared to that in the normal human pancreatic duct epithelial cell line. The mean expression of miR-153 in PDAC tissues was significantly reduced as compared to that in the normal pancreatic tissues. The clinical analysis revealed that a low expression of miR-153 was closely associated with poor prognostic features and shorter long-term survival of PDAC patients. Furthermore, univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that miR-153 was an independent prognostic factor for predicting survival in PDAC patients. In vitro studies demonstrated that the upregulation of miR-153 inhibited migration and invasion in MIAPaCa-2 cells. By contrast, the downregulation of miR-153 increased the number of migrated and invaded AsPC-1 cells. miR-153 inversely regulated SNAI1 abundance in MIAPaCa-2 cells. Notably, SNAI1 was identified as a direct target of miR-153 in PDAC. Furthermore, an inverse correlation between miR-153 and SNAI1 expression was observed in PDAC tissues. In conclusion, the results showed miR-153 is an independent prognostic marker for predicting survival in PDAC patients and inhibits cell migration and invasion by targeting SNAI1.
Perfectionism and adolescent sleep quality: The mediating role of repetitive negative thinking

This study explores the mediating effects of repetitive negative thinking in the relationship between perfectionism and adolescent sleep quality. A sample of 1664 Chinese adolescents with a mean age of 15.0 years was recruited, and they completed four measures relating to perfectionism, sleep quality, worry, and rumination. The results showed that maladaptive perfectionism was positively correlated with poor sleep quality in adolescents, which was mediated by both worry and rumination. However, adaptive perfectionism was not significantly associated with adolescent sleep quality, and this relationship was suppressed by rumination (but not worry). The implications of these results are also discussed.
Climate Change Impacts on Wisconsin’s Wildlife

Wisconsin is world-renowned for its diversity of ecological landscapes and wildlife. As climatic fluctuations intensify, the distribution and abundance of these landscapes and associated wildlife populations will be altered. In the following report, we summarize the main issues regarding climate change impacts and adaptation as these relate to Wisconsin’s wildlife. In the first part, we provide a general review of Wisconsin’s climate and ecosystems, outlining trends in recent and anticipated climate change. The second part provides an overview, based on peer-reviewed research and technical publications, of direct and indirect impacts of climate change on wildlife in Wisconsin. Parts three through five illustrate the impacts of climate change using case studies from three major habitat types in the state (forests, wetlands, and grasslands). This discussion serves to highlight impacts that we anticipate across an array of species. Finally, the last part includes a review of adaptation strategies for wildlife management in an era of global environmental change. Cover photos (top to bottom): Tim Wilder, iStockphoto, Loren Ayers, Gregory Schuurman, and iStockphoto. Climate Change Impacts on Wisconsin’s Wildlife: A Preliminary Assessment Olivia E. LeDee, Suzanne Hagell, Karl Martin, David MacFarland, Michael Meyer, Andrew Paulios, Christine A. Ribic, David Sample, and Timothy Van Deelen Technical Bulletin No. 197 Department of Natural Resources PO Box 7921 Madison, WI 53707
Integrity increasing of damaged steel pipelines using external and internal reinforcing

The integrity management and the lifetime assessment of different engineering structures and structural elements is one of the important technical-economic problems nowadays. The aim of the paper is to present the role of the external and internal reinforcing on the structural integrity of transporting steel pipelines, based on own experimental investigations. On the one hand, external and internal reinforcement technologies were developed using carbon fibre reinforced polymer matrix composite (CFR PMC) and glass fibre reinforced polymer matrix composite (GFR PMC), respectively. On the other hand, known external technology was used for the reinforcing of girth welds. Fatigue and burst tests were performed on large pipeline sections containing natural and artificial metal loss defects, and girth welds including weld defects (passed and not passed quality). Burst tests were executed after fatigue tests, using 20.000 or 100.000 cycles. Different corrosion defects were tested as natural defects, and longitudinal and circumferential gouges as well as holes and through holes were investigated as artificial defects. Both unreinforced and reinforced pipeline sections were examined. The applicability of the hybrid structures (steel + polymer matrix composites) were demonstrated by means of the experimental results and defined safety factor.
Improving Performance in Neural Networks Using a Boosting Algorithm

A boosting algorithm converts a learning machine with error rate less than 50% to one with an arbitrarily low error rate. However, the algorithm discussed here depends on having a large supply of independent training samples. We show how to circumvent this problem and generate an ensemble of learning machines whose performance in optical character recognition problems is dramatically improved over that of a single network. We report the effect of boosting on four databases (all handwritten) consisting of 12,000 digits from segmented ZIP codes from the United State Postal Service (USPS) and the following from the National Institute of Standards and Testing (NIST): 220,000 digits, 45,000 upper case alphas, and 45,000 lower case alphas. We use two performance measures: the raw error rate (no rejects) and the reject rate required to achieve a 1% error rate on the patterns not rejected. Boosting improved performance in some cases by a factor of three.
Selection, Epistasis, and Parent‐of‐Origin Effects on Deleterious Mutations across Environments in Drosophila melanogaster

Understanding the nature of selection against deleterious alleles is central to determining how populations are affected by the constant influx of new mutations. Important progress has been made in estimating basic attributes of the distribution of selection coefficients and gene interaction effects (epistasis). Although most aspects of selection are likely to be context dependent, little is known about the effect of stress on selection and epistasis at the level of individual genes, especially in multicellular organisms. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we measure how selection on 20 mutant alleles is affected by direct and indirect genetic factors across two environments. We find that environmental stress increases selection against individual mutations but reduces selection against combinations of mutations (i.e., epistasis becomes more positive). In addition, we find a high incidence of indirect genetic effects whereby the strength of selection against the alleles carried by offspring is dependent on the genotypes of their parents.
Pharmacokinetics of valproic acid in the elderly.

The kinetics of a single oral dose of sodium valproate was studied in six healthy elderly patients (age 68-89 years) and six young control subjects (age 24-26 years). The profiles of total plasma valproic acid (VPA) concentrations were very similar in the elderly and in the young. Half-lives (15.3 +/- 0.7 s.e. mean in the elderly vs 13.0 +/- 1.0 h in the young), volumes of distribution (0.16 +/- 0.01 l/kg in the elderly vs 0.14 +/- 0.01 l/kg in the young) and clearance (7.5 +/- 0.9 ml h-1 kg-1 in the elderly vs 7.7 +/- 0.6 ml h-1 kg-1 in the young) did not differ significantly between the two groups. Free VPA concentrations were significantly increased in the elderly. The clearance of the free drug (intrinsic clearance) was reduced from 127.0 +/- 12 ml h-1 kg-1 (control value in the young) to 77.7 +/- 5.5 ml h-1 kg-1 (P less than 0.02). Free VPA fraction was 9.5 +/- 0.6% in the elderly and 6.6 +/- 0.5% in the young (P less than 0.02). These findings suggest that the pharmacokinetic alterations of VPA in old age are complex and include at least two separate mechanisms: a decrease in plasma protein binding and a reduction of drug metabolizing capacity resulting in decreased clearance of free drug by the liver.
Bottlenecks and the Maintenance of Minor Genotypes during the Life Cycle of Trypanosoma brucei

African trypanosomes are digenetic parasites that undergo part of their developmental cycle in mammals and part in tsetse flies. We established a novel technique to monitor the population dynamics of Trypanosoma brucei throughout its life cycle while minimising the confounding factors of strain differences or variation in fitness. Clones derived from a single trypanosome were tagged with short synthetic DNA sequences in a non-transcribed region of the genome. Infections were initiated with mixtures of tagged parasites and a combination of polymerase chain reaction and deep sequencing were used to monitor the composition of populations throughout the life cycle. This revealed that a minimum of several hundred parasites survived transmission from a tsetse fly to a mouse, or vice versa, and contributed to the infection in the new host. In contrast, the parasites experienced a pronounced bottleneck during differentiation and migration from the midgut to the salivary glands of tsetse. In two cases a single tag accounted for ≥99% of the population in the glands, although minor tags could be also detected. Minor tags were transmitted to mice together with the dominant tag(s), persisted during a chronic infection, and survived transmission to a new insect host. An important outcome of the bottleneck within the tsetse is that rare variants can be amplified in individual flies and disseminated by them. This is compatible with the epidemic population structure of T. brucei, in which clonal expansion of a few genotypes in a region occurs against a background of frequent recombination between strains.
Functions and regulation of human artemis in double strand break repair

Cells, which lacked the activity of the nuclease Artemis, retained approximately 10% of unrepaired double strand breaks (DSBs) at later timepoints after ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation induced hyperphosphorylation of Artemis mainly by ATM and in ATM deficient cells to a minor extent by DNA PK. After induction of DSBs with modified ends by a high dose of calicheamicin γ1, Artemis was phosphorylated by DNA PK. The type of calicheamicin γ1‐induced DSBs is likely to represent a subclass of DSBs induced by ionizing radiation. DNA PK‐dependent phosphorylation of Artemis after treatment with DSB inducing agents increased the cellular retention of Artemis, maintained its interaction with DNA ends and activated its endonucleolytic activity. The following model is suggested: ATM‐dependent phosphorylation of Artemis after ionizing radiation could prevent DNA PK‐dependent phosphorylation and activation of undesired endonucleolytic activity at DSBs, which do not require endonucleolytic processing by Artemis. The Artemis:DNA PK complex could be involved in the repair of DSBs, which carry modified ends and are refractory to repair by otherwise lesion specific enzymes because of the presence of an inhibitory lesion in the opposite strand. J. Cell. Biochem. 100: 1346–1351, 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Physicochemical, microbiological and sensoryevaluation of yoghurt sold in Makurdi metropolis

The proximate composition, microbiological and sensory properties of 5 different commercial yoghurt, (coded as Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4and Y5 yoghurt) sold in Makurdi metropolis were analyzed. The result of the proximate composition indicated that, the fat, Crude fibre, moisture and carbohydrate contents of the yoghurt samples differs significantly (p 0.05) between the protein content of Y1 yoghurt and Y5 yoghurt, and also between the ash content of Y2 yoghurt and Y4 yoghurt. The result showed that, the total solids content, total solids non-fat content and viscosity of all the samples differed significantly (p 0.05) between the titratable acidity of Y1, Y3 and Y5 yoghurt, but result deferred from that of Y2 and Y4. The microbiological analysis indicated that, Y2 yoghurt had the highest bacterial load of 1.77x104cfu/ml while Y4 yoghurt recorded yeast and mould count of 5.8x102cfu/ml. From the result of the organoleptic analysis, there was a significance difference (p 0.05) between all the yoghurt samples in the texture and overall acceptability.
ATP‐dependent resolution of R‐loops at the ColE1 replication origin by Escherichia coli RecG protein, a Holliday junction‐specific helicase

The RecG protein of Escherichia coli is a DNA helicase that promotes branch migration of the Holliday junctions. We found that overproduction of RecG protein drastically decreased copy numbers of ColE1‐type plasmids, which require R‐loop formation between the template DNA and a primer RNA transcript (RNA II) for the initiation of replication. RecG efficiently inhibited in vitro ColE1 DNA synthesis in a reconstituted system containing RNA polymerase, RNase HI and DNA polymerase I. RecG promoted dissociation of RNA II from the R‐loop in a manner that required ATP hydrolysis. These results suggest that overproduced RecG inhibits the initiation of replication by prematurely resolving the R‐loops formed at the replication origin region of these plasmids with its unique helicase activity. The possibility that RecG regulates the initiation of a unique mode of DNA replication, oriC‐independent constitutive stable DNA replication, by its activity in resolving R‐loops is discussed.
Rotational dynamics of turbulence and Tsallis statistics

The Langevin equation and its adaptations can reproduce accurately key aspects of fluid-particle motions in flows including: ballistic and normal-diffusive transport regimes, Lagrangian velocity autocorrelation functions and i Lagrangian timescales. More recently it has become apparent that trajectory-rotations are als o important dyna mical quantities and that non-zero mean rotations are a ssociated with suppressed rates of turbulent dispersion and os cillatory Lagrangian velocity autocorrelation functions. Here, it is shown that rotations of the Lagrangian velocity vector produced by the simplest a widely used of such models coincide closely with the intense rotations measured in the recent seminal experiment b al. [Nature 421 (2003) 146] and are described precisely by Tsallis st atistics. Model predictions (T sallis distributions) for the rotational statistics of the North Atlantic Ocean (region between 35–43 ◦W and between 36–42 ◦N) are found to be in close agreement with simulation data produced by th e Miami Isopycnic-Coordinate Ocean Model.  2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 02.50. Ga; 02.50. Ey; 05.10. Gg; 05.20. Jj; 47.27. Eq; 47.32. Cc
Changing ischaemic lesion patterns in adult moyamoya disease

Objectives: Ischaemic stroke is a frequent manifestation in patients with adult moyamoya disease (MMD), but the relationship between the lesion pattern and disease severity has rarely been investigated. Methods: Data were collected on a consecutive series of 65 adult patients with MMD who visited our hospital between 1999 and 2006. Among them, 32 patients with first ever ischaemic stroke were included. The ischaemic lesions were categorised by location and compared as follows: (1) cortical versus subcortical involvement and (2) anterior (fronto-temporal) versus posterior (parieto-occipital) involvement. The lesions were also compared by disease severity, as determined by the extent of intracranial artery involvement (Suzuki’s grading method) and by perfusion status visualised on single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Result: Disease severity was significantly greater in patients with cortical involvement than in those with subcortical involvement (Suzuki’s grade 4.17 (0.72) vs 2.70 (0.73); p<0.001). Disease severity was also significantly greater in patients with posterior involvement than in those with anterior involvement (4.50 (0.53) vs 2.83 (0.76); p<0.001). In most of the patients (83.3%) the perfusion defect area shown on SPECT was larger than the ischaemic lesion area shown on MRI. Conclusions: Patients with advanced stage adult MMD tended to have ischaemic lesions involving the cortex and posterior part of the brain and the stroke mechanism in these patients was largely associated with haemodynamic compromise. Our results suggest that the lesion pattern of ischaemic stroke may change along with the extent of arterial involvement.