Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Value of VEGF-C, VEGF-D and VEGFR-3 levels combined with serum TSH in diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE To investigate serum vascular endothelial growth factor-C (VEGF-C), VEGF-D and VEGFR-3 levels in patients with papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC) and analyze their relation with the clinicopathological and thyroid function of the patients. METHODS Serum samples and the data of thyroid function were collected from 55 patients with PTC and 24 with benign thyroid tumor (BT). ELISA was used to detect VEGF-C/D and VEGFR-3 concentration in the serum samples and their relation with the thyroid function was analyzed. RESULTS The VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 levels were significantly higher in PTC group than in BT group (P<0.05), but VEGF-D level was comparable between them (P>0.05). In PTC patients, the elevation of serum VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 levels was associated with an advanced clinical stage (III-IV), elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) level, an age over 45 years, and a tumor diameter exceeding 2 cm (P<0.05 or P<0.01). Patients with lymph node metastasis had significantly higher VEGF-C level but lower VEGF-3 level than those without metastasis regardless of gender. Serum VEGF-D level was higher in PTC patients with lymph node metastasis (P<0.05) and elevated TSH level (P<0.01) without association with the clinical stage, tumor diameter, age, or gender. The area under ROC curve (AUC) of serum VEGF-C, VEGFR-3 and TSH was 0.803, 0.734 and 0.707 respectively (P<0.01), and that of VEGF-D was 0.556 (P>0.05); when combined, serum VEGF-C, VEGFR-3 and TSH showed an AUC of 0.862 (P<0.01). CONCLUSION Detecting serum VEGF-C and VEGFR-3 levels combined with TSH may enhance the early diagnosis rate of papillary thyroid carcinoma.
Breech presentation and the cornual-fundal location of the placenta

Aim To investigate the association of cornual-fundal location of the placenta and breech presentation at term delivery. Methods This study was conducted at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Novi Sad, in 2011. The inclusion criteria were delivery at ≥37 weeks of gestation, singleton gestation, and cornual-fundal location of the placenta determined by ultrasonography at ≥37 weeks of gestation when 3/4 or more of the placenta was in the cornual-fundal region. Results Out of 2750 ultrasound examinations performed, 143 showed cornual-fundal location of the placenta (frequency 5.2%). Eighty six cases had cephalic presentation (60.14%) and 57 (39.86%) had breech presentation. Of the remaining cases with non- cornual-fundal location, 2585 had cephalic presentation and 22 (0.84%) had breech presentation. The difference in the frequency of breech presentation between the cornual-fundal and non-cornual-fundal groups was significant (χ2 = 77.78, P < 0.001). Conclusion Cornual-fundal location of the placenta may be an important clue in resolving the etiology of a number of cases of breech presentation at term delivery.
Mechanisms of substrate selectivity for Bacillus anthracis thymidylate kinase

Bacillus anthracis is well known in connection with biological warfare. The search for new drug targets and antibiotics is highly motivated because of upcoming multiresistant strains. Thymidylate kinase is an ideal target since this enzyme is at the junction of the de novo and salvage synthesis of dTTP, an essential precursor for DNA synthesis. Here the expression and characterization of thymidylate kinase from B. anthracis (Ba‐TMPK) is presented. The enzyme phosphorylated deoxythymidine‐5′‐monophosphate (dTMP) efficiently with K m and V max values of 33 μM and 48 μmol mg−1 min−1, respectively. The efficiency of deoxyuridine‐5′‐monophosphate phosphorylation was ∼10% of that of dTMP. Several dTMP analogs were tested, and D‐FMAUMP (2′‐fluoroarabinosyl‐5‐methyldeoxyuridine‐5′‐monophosphate) was selectively phosphorylated with an efficiency of 172% of that of D‐dTMP, but l‐FMAUMP was a poor substrate as were 5‐fluorodeoxyuridine‐5′‐monophosphate (5FdUMP) and 2′,3′‐dideoxy‐2′,3′‐didehydrothymidine‐5′‐monophosphate (d4TMP). No activity could be detected with 3′‐azidothymidine‐5′‐monophosphate (AZTMP). The corresponding nucleosides known as efficient anticancer and antiviral compounds were also tested, and d‐FMAU was a strong inhibitor with an IC50 value of 10 μM, while other nucleosides—l‐FMAU, dThd, 5‐FdUrd, d4T, and AZT, and 2′‐arabinosylthymidine—were poor inhibitors. A structure model was built for Ba‐TMPK based on the Staphylococcus aureus TMPK structure. Docking with various substrates suggested mechanisms explaining the differences in substrate selectivity of the human and the bacterial TMPKs. These results may serve as a start point for development of new antibacterial agents.
Simulating the impact of emissions of brominated very short lived substances on past stratospheric ozone trends

Bromine from very short lived substances (VSLS), primarily from natural oceanic sources, contributes substantially to the stratospheric bromine loading. This source of stratospheric bromine has so far been ignored in most chemistry climate model calculations of stratospheric ozone trends. Here we present a transient simulation with the chemistry climate model EMAC for the period 1960–2005 including emissions of the five brominated VSLS CHBr3, CH2Br2, CH2BrCl, CHBrCl2, and CHBr2Cl. The emissions lead to a realistic stratospheric bromine loading of about 20 pptv for present‐day conditions. Comparison with a standard model simulation without VSLS shows large differences in modeled ozone in the extratropical lowermost stratosphere and in the troposphere. Differences in ozone maximize in the Antarctic Ozone Hole, resulting in more than 20% less ozone when VSLS are included. Even though the emissions of VSLS are assumed to be constant in time, the model simulation with VSLS included shows a much larger ozone decrease in the lowermost stratosphere during the 1979–1995 period and a faster ozone increase during 1996–2005, in better agreement with observed ozone trends than the standard simulation without VSLS emissions.
Expression of type III collagen correlates with poor prognosis in oral squamous cell carcinoma

AIM The aim of the present study was to evaluate, compare, and correlate the types of collagen fibers seen in different grades of oral cancer. METHODS Thirty cases of histologically-diagnosed, well-, moderately-, and poorly-differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) were retrieved from the archives of the Institute. Collagen was evaluated using picrosirius red stain and immunohistochemical analysis of the antibody to type III collagen. A correlation between these findings and the grade of OSCC was evaluated. RESULTS Collagen fibers showed a change in birefringence ranging from reddish-orange to greenish-yellow in well- to poorly-differentiated oral squamous cell carcinoma. The findings were statistically significant for polarizing colors observed in grades of OSCC (P<.001). Immunohistochemical staining intensity of type III collagen changed from weak to strong as grade increased for OSCC, and was also statistically significant (P<.001). CONCLUSION In the present study, tumor progression reflected a change in collagen present, from type I to type III. Determination of the type of collagen in different grades of OSCC can facilitate therapeutic targeting of molecules responsible for invasion and progression of oral cancer.
Relativistic Quantum Gravity at a Lifshitz Point

We show that the Hořava theory for the completion of General Relativity at UV scales can be interpreted as a gauge fixed Tensor-Vector theory, and it can be extended to an invariant theory under the full group of four-dimensional diffeomorphisms. In this respect, although being fully relativistic, it results to be locally anisotropic in the time-like and space-like directions defined by a family of irrotational observers. We show that this theory propagates generically three degrees of freedom: two of them are related to the four-dimensional diffeomorphism invariant graviton (the metric) and one is related to a propagating scalar mode of the vector. Finally, we note that in the present formulation, matter can be consistently coupled to gravity.
Age-specific olfactory attraction between Western honey bee drones (Apis mellifera) and its chemical basis

During the mating season, drones (males) of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) form congregations numbering thousands high in the air. Virgin queens arrive at these congregations after they have formed and mate on the fly with 15-20 drones. To explain the formation of drone congregations, a drone-produced aggregation pheromone has been proposed many years ago but due to the low accessibility of natural mating sites in bees, its study has progressed slowly. Recently, we used a walking simulator in controlled laboratory conditions to show that drones are indeed attracted by groups of other drones. Since these previous experiments were carried out with drones captured when flying out of the hive, it is currently unclear if this olfactory attraction behaviour is related to the drones’ sexual maturity (usually reached between 9 and 12 days) and may thus be indicative of a possible role in congregation formation, or if it is observed at any age and may represent in-hive aggregation. We thus assessed here the dependency of drone olfactory attraction on their age. First, we performed behavioural experiments in the walking simulator to measure olfactory preferences of drones in three age groups from 2-3 to 12-15 days. Then, we performed chemical analyses in the same age groups to evaluate whether chemical substances produced by the drones may explain age differences in olfactory attraction. We show that honey bee drones are attracted by conspecifics of the same age when they are sexually mature (12-15 days old) but not when they are younger (2-3 and 7-8 days old). In parallel, our data show that drones’ chemical profile changes with age, including its most volatile fraction. These results are discussed in the context of drone mutual attraction both within the hive and at drone congregations.
The nature of cognitive complaints in healthy older adults with and without objective memory decline

Cognitive and memory complaints were assessed in 100 healthy older adults on two occasions over 2.5 years as part of a 6-year study assessing cognition, mood, and general health factors. Diminished memory for names and actions and lapses in concentration were common complaints, regardless of the individuals' actual cognitive status. No change in cognitive complaints occurred over time, even for individuals whose memory had declined over 6 years. Cognitive complaints correlated with anxiety, depression, and general mental health but not with objectively measured memory or cognition, education or age. Complaints did not differ with gender, apolipoprotein E ϵ4 genotype, cardiovascular risk factors, or intake of sedating medications. Thus, cognitive complaints could not differentiate memory-declining older adults from cognitively normal older adults and were more closely associated with mood and general mental health than actual cognitive status, age, or potential risk factors for Alzheimer's disease. Thus, the evaluation of cognitive complaints must be broad and must consider the correspondence of complaints not only to relevant measurable cognitive abilities but also to the affect of the individual.
A Solution to the Stochastic Point Location Problem in Metalevel Nonstationary Environments

This paper reports the first known solution to the stochastic point location (SPL) problem when the environment is nonstationary. The SPL problem involves a general learning problem in which the learning mechanism (which could be a robot, a learning automaton, or, in general, an algorithm) attempts to learn a "parameter," for example, lambda*, within a closed interval. However, unlike the earlier reported results, we consider the scenario when the learning is to be done in a nonstationary setting. For each guess, the environment essentially informs the mechanism, possibly erroneously (i.e., with probability p), which way it should move to reach the unknown point. Unlike the results available in the literature, we consider the fascinating case when the point sought for is itself stochastically moving (which is modeled as follows). The environment communicates with an intermediate entity (referred to as the teacher/oracle) about the point itself, i.e., advising where it should go. The mechanism that searches for the point in turn receives responses from the teacher/oracle, which directs how it should move. Therefore, the point itself, in the overall setting, is moving, i.e., delivering possibly incorrect information about its location to the teacher/oracle. This in turn means that the "environment" is itself nonstationary, which implies that the advice of the teacher/oracle is both uncertain and changing with time - rendering the problem extremely fascinating. The heart of the strategy we propose involves discretizing the space and performing a controlled random walk on this space. Apart from deriving some analytic results about our solution, we also report the simulation results that demonstrate the power of the scheme, and state some potential applications.
T Cells Expressing Chimeric Antigen Receptors Can Cause Anaphylaxis in Humans

Chimeric antigen receptor–expressing T cells (CAR-T cells) represent a promising, novel form of adoptive immunotherapy to overcome tolerance to cancer. Using an intermittent dosing schedule of autologous CAR-T cells electroporated with mRNA encoding a hybrid single chain molecule comprising the extracellular domain of murine monoclonal antibody against human mesothelin and the human transmembrane and cytoplasmic T-cell signaling domains, Maus and colleagues characterized and reported a serious adverse event that occurred in one of four patients receiving repeated modified T-cell infusions, with proposed modifications to address and minimize future adverse occurrence. T cells can be redirected to overcome tolerance to cancer by engineering with integrating vectors to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR). In preclinical models, we have previously shown that transfection of T cells with mRNA coding for a CAR is an alternative strategy that has antitumor efficacy and the potential to evaluate the on-target off-tumor toxicity of new CAR targets safely due to transient mRNA CAR expression. Here, we report the safety observed in four patients treated with autologous T cells that had been electroporated with mRNA coding for a CAR derived from a murine antibody to human mesothelin. Because of the transient nature of CAR expression on the T cells, subjects in the clinical study were given repeated infusions of the CAR-T cells to assess their safety. One subject developed anaphylaxis and cardiac arrest within minutes of completing the third infusion. Although human anti-mouse immunoglobulin (Ig)G antibodies have been known to develop with CAR-transduced T cells, they have been thought to have no adverse clinical consequences. This is the first description of clinical anaphylaxis resulting from CAR-modified T cells, most likely through IgE antibodies specific to the CAR. These results indicate that the potential immunogenicity of CARs derived from murine antibodies may be a safety issue for mRNA CARs, especially when administered using an intermittent dosing schedule. Cancer Immunol Res; 1(1); 26–31. ©2013 AACR.
Dietary factors associated with wheezing and allergic rhinitis in children

The effect of dietary factors on asthma is controversial. This study examined food consumption and the use of fats in relation to wheezing and allergic rhinitis in children. Baseline questionnaire data on individual and family characteristics were recorded by parents of 5,257 children aged 6–7 yrs living in central Italy participating in the International Study on Asthma and Allergies in Childhood study. A total of 4,104 children (78.1%) were reinvestigated after 1 yr using a second parental questionnaire to record occurrence of respiratory symptoms over the intervening 12 months. Consumption of foods rich in antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, animal fats, and food containing omega‐3 fatty acids were investigated using a food-frequency questionnaire. Frequency of use of fats was also evaluated. Wheezing, shortness of breath with wheeze, and symptoms of allergic rhinitis in the past 12 months were considered. Intake of cooked vegetables, tomatoes, and fruit were protective factors for any wheeze in the last 12 months and shortness of breath with wheeze. Consumption of citrus fruit had a protective role for shortness of breath with wheeze. Consumption of bread and margarine was associated with an increased risk of wheeze, while bread and butter was associated with shortness of breath with wheeze. Dietary antioxidants in vegetables may reduce wheezing symptoms in childhood, whereas both butter and margarine may increase the occurrence of such symptoms.
Impact of a cutoff low development on downward transport of ozone in the troposphere

A study of ozone transfer from the stratosphere to the troposphere has been performed during two phases of the evolution of a cutoff low using both ozone vertical profiles and objective analysis of the European Center for Medium range Weather Forecasting to compute potential vorticity distributions and air mass trajectories. Ozone profiles were measured by a ground-based lidar system at the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP)(43°55N, 5°42E) on November 1990. A stratospheric ozone transport into the troposphere has been observed during a tropopause fold which occurred at the beginning of the cutoff low formation. On a timescale of a few days the correlation is rather good between the potential vorticity and the ozone time evolution in the upper part of the tropopause fold, and the ozone to potential vorticity ratio is of the order of 30–40 ppb/PVu (1 PVu = 10−6 K m2 s−1 kg−1) in the tropopause fold. The amount of stratospheric ozone transferred by the folding process is estimated to be 6.5±3.5 1032 molecules d−1, using a trajectory analysis, the potential vorticity distribution along the trajectory path, and temperature radio sounding profiles, in order to estimate the likelihood of the downward transport of ozone. During the erosion phase of the cutoff low, the tropopause definition has been changing, and the stratospheric ozone decrease associated with the cutoff low evolution corresponds to an ozone transport of 4.0±2.0 1032 molecules d−1, which is of the same order of magnitude as the impact of the folding process. The mechanism resulting in the downward flux of ozone can be twofold: a tropopause lifting associated with convective clouds and small-scale turbulent mixing near the jet stream. None of them can be discarded, due to the large uncertainties for their respective influences, when using the data set available for this study.
Use of the norepinephrine transporter as a reporter gene for non‐invasive imaging of genetically modified cells

The norepinephrine transporter (NET) is a high‐affinity transporter for catecholamines. Its expression is almost exclusively restricted to the sympathetic nervous system. In this study we evaluated whether the NET can be used as a reporter gene for non‐invasive imaging of genetically modified cells with radiolabeled probes.
La Mort du Chercheur: How well do students' subjective understandings of affective representations used in self- report align with one another's, and researchers'?

We address empirical methods to assess the reliability and design of affective self-reports. Previous research has shown that students may have subjectively different understandings of the affective state they are reporting [18], particularly among younger students[10]. For example, what one student describes as “extremely frustrating” another might see as only “mildly frustrating. ” Further, what students describe as “frustration” may differ between individuals in terms of valence, and activation. In an effort to address these issues, we use an established visual representation of educationally relevant emotional differences [3, 8, 25]. Students were asked to rate various affective terms and facial expressions on a coordinate axis in terms of valence and activation. In so doing, we hope to begin to measure the variability of affective representations as a measurement tool. Quantifying the extent to which representations of affect may vary provides a measure of measurement error to improve reliability.
Contrasting species and functional beta diversity in montane ant assemblages

Beta diversity describes the variation in species composition between sites and can be used to infer why different species occupy different parts of the globe. It can be viewed in a number of ways. First, it can be partitioned into two distinct patterns: turnover and nestedness. Second, it can be investigated from either a species identity or a functional‐trait point of view. We aim to document for the first time how these two aspects of beta diversity vary in response to a large environmental gradient.
Use of Colonoscopy for Colorectal Cancer Screening: Evidence from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey

Background: The use of colonoscopy as a primary screening tool for colorectal cancer is gaining momentum owing to several studies suggesting superior effectiveness and the recent, favorable decision by Medicare to cover all routine screening colonoscopies. This study documents the use of colonoscopy versus other tests to screen for colorectal cancer. Materials and Methods: Data from the 2000 National Health Interview Survey were analyzed. Fecal occult blood test (FOBT), sigmoidoscopy, and colonoscopy done for any reason and for routine screening only were analyzed for those ≥50 years without previously diagnosed colorectal cancer (n = 12,505). Results: The proportion of the total eligible population receiving any of the recommended tests for all possible reasons and for screening purposes only is 34.6% and 25.1%, respectively. For routine screening purposes, the test most commonly utilized was FOBT (55.6%) followed by colonoscopy (29.1%) and sigmoidoscopy (15.3%). When usage was assessed for all reasons, FOBT was still most commonly utilized (45.8%) followed by colonoscopy (38.7%) and sigmoidoscopy (15.5%). The elderly, non-White males and those with private insurance have a higher probability of receiving colonoscopy than FOBT. Several regional differences exist, including higher probability of undergoing sigmoidoscopy versus colonoscopy in the West. Conclusions: Only one fourth (upper limit one third) of the study population complied with colorectal cancer screening recommendations. Nearly one third of the routine screening tests done in 2000 were colonoscopies. This study provides baseline values that can be used to project future colonoscopy demand and identify potential supply barriers.