Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of viral pneumonia: The need for viral testing in all patients hospitalized for nursing home‐acquired pneumonia

Community‐acquired pneumonia (CAP) is presumed to be bacterial in origin and empirical antibiotics are almost always given on admission. However, early detection of viral infection is also very important for hospital infection control and timely use of antiviral agents. The present study aimed to compare patients with viral and bacterial pneumonia, and identify independent predictors of viral pneumonia.
Synthesis and biological analysis of new curcumin analogues bearing an enhanced potential for the medicinal treatment of cancer

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a dietary phytochemical with low toxicity that exhibits growth-suppressive activity against a variety of cancer cells and possesses certain chemopreventive properties. Curcumin has already been the subject of several clinical trials for use as a treatment in human cancers. Synthetic chemical modifications of curcumin have been studied intensively in an attempt to find a molecule with similar but enhanced properties of curcumin. In this study, a series of novel curcumin analogues were synthesized and screened for anticancer activity. New analogues that exhibit growth-suppressive activity 30 times that of curcumin and other commonly used anticancer drugs were identified. Structurally, the new analogues are symmetrical 1,5-diarylpentadienone whose aromatic rings possess an alkoxy substitution at each of the positions 3 and 5. Analysis of the effects of the analogues on the expression of cancer-related genes usually affected by curcumin indicated that some induced the down-regulation of β-catenin, Ki-ras, cyclin D1, c-Myc, and ErbB-2 at as low as one eighth the concentration at which curcumin normally has an effect. The analogues, however, exhibited neither harmful nor growth-suppressive effects on normal hepatocytes where oncogene products are not activated. They also exhibited no toxicities in vivo that they may provide effective alternative therapies for the prevention and treatment of some human cancers. [Mol Cancer Ther 2006;5(10):2563–71]
Occupational Exposure to Pesticides With Occupational Sun Exposure Increases the Risk for Cutaneous Melanoma

Objective: The objective of the study was to examine the association between occupational exposure to pesticides and cutaneous melanoma, controlling for all possible confounders. Methods: A pooled analysis of two case–control studies was conducted in two different geographic areas (Italy and Brazil). Detailed pesticides exposure histories were obtained. Results: Ever use of any pesticide was associated with a high risk of cutaneous melanoma (odds ratio 2.58; 95% confidence interval 1.18–5.65) in particular exposure to herbicides (glyphosate) and fungicides (mancozeb, maneb), after controlling for confounding factors. When subjects were exposed to both pesticides and occupational sun exposure, the risk increased even more (odds ratio 4.68; 95% confidence interval 1.29–17.0). Conclusions: The study suggests an augmented risk of cutaneous melanoma among subjects with exposure to pesticides, in particular among those exposed to occupational sun exposure.
Asymmetric Dimethylarginine in Adult Falciparum Malaria: Relationships With Disease Severity, Antimalarial Treatment, Hemolysis, and Inflammation

Asymmetric Dimethylarginine (ADMA) and arginine bioavailability are reduced acutely in adult falciparum malaria. ADMA increases following commencement of antimalarial therapy, is associated with arginine and haemolysis, and likely contributes to reduced nitric oxide bioavailability in severe falciparum malaria.
CR3 and Dectin-1 Collaborate in Macrophage Cytokine Response through Association on Lipid Rafts and Activation of Syk-JNK-AP-1 Pathway

Collaboration between heterogeneous pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) leading to synergistic coordination of immune response is important for the host to fight against invading pathogens. Although complement receptor 3 (CR3) and Dectin-1 are major PRRs to detect fungi, crosstalk between these two receptors in antifungal immunity is largely undefined. Here we took advantage of Histoplasma capsulatum which is known to interact with both CR3 and Dectin-1 and specific particulate ligands to study the collaboration of CR3 and Dectin-1 in macrophage cytokine response. By employing Micro-Western Array (MWA), genetic approach, and pharmacological inhibitors, we demonstrated that CR3 and Dectin-1 act collaboratively to trigger macrophage TNF and IL-6 response through signaling integration at Syk kinase, allowing subsequent enhanced activation of Syk-JNK-AP-1 pathway. Upon engagement, CR3 and Dectin-1 colocalize and form clusters on lipid raft microdomains which serve as a platform facilitating their cooperation in signaling activation and cytokine production. Furthermore, in vivo studies showed that CR3 and Dectin-1 cooperatively participate in host defense against disseminated histoplasmosis and instruct adaptive immune response. Taken together, our findings define the mechanism of receptor crosstalk between CR3 and Dectin-1 and demonstrate the importance of their collaboration in host defense against fungal infection.
Emerging bicycle tourism and the theory of planned behavior

ABSTRACT In this study, we investigated the process of travelers’ decision formation for bicycle touring as a form of sustainable tourism activity. We extended the theory of planned behavior (TPB), using personal norm and past behavior as predictors and the attractiveness of unsustainable alternatives as a moderator. Results of the modeling comparison showed that our extended TPB model was superior to the original TPB in predicting intention. Our results from the structural analysis revealed that the hypothesized paths linking attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, personal norm, and intention were supported; and personal norm significantly mediated the impact of subjective norm on intention. Moreover, our proposition that bicycle travelers’ decision-making process would differ based on their level of the attractiveness of unsustainable alternatives was generally supported. Overall, our results help us clearly understand the role of volitional and non-volitional processes, personal norm, past behavior, and the attractiveness of unsustainable alternatives in explaining the intention formation of bike traveling.
Sortase C-Mediated Anchoring of BasI to the Cell Wall Envelope of Bacillus anthracis

ABSTRACT Vegetative forms of Bacillus anthracis replicate in tissues of an infected host and precipitate lethal anthrax disease. Upon host death, bacilli form dormant spores that contaminate the environment, thereby gaining entry into new hosts where spores germinate and once again replicate as vegetative forms. We show here that sortase C, an enzyme that is required for the formation of infectious spores, anchors BasI polypeptide to the envelope of predivisional sporulating bacilli. BasI anchoring to the cell wall requires the active site cysteine of sortase C and an LPNTA motif sorting signal at the C-terminal end of the BasI precursor. The LPNTA motif of BasI is cleaved between the threonine (T) and the alanine (A) residue; the C-terminal carboxyl group of threonine is subsequently amide linked to the side chain amino group of diaminopimelic acid within the wall peptides of B. anthracis peptidoglycan.
Hearing a child's voice in divorce: A judge's experience

This dissertation’s goal was to describe the experiences of California Family Court judges incorporating the 2012 Elkin’s Task Force recommendations, specifically Family Code section 3042. These recommendations have the potential to give the children of divorce a voice in the process of determining their future timeshare with their parents. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with family court judges that delved into their personal decision making process on whether and how they chose to interview children, what the judges listened for, and how and if this information was used to decide on the child’s visitation and custody schedule. Through the study of the transcripts, themes presented that were studied for their applicability to answering the main research question: how judges discerned the need to include children in the decision making process of visitation schedules, and how they proceeded with the gathering of information from these children. The data collected was able to answer this question related to how judges choose to interact with minors in the family law courtrooms. The electronic version of this dissertation is available free at Ohiolink ETD Center, www.ohiolink. edu/etd.
Expression of a Chimeric Antigen Receptor in Multiple Leukocyte Lineages in Transgenic Mice

Genetically modified CD8+ T lymphocytes have shown significant anti-tumor effects in the adoptive immunotherapy of cancer, with recent studies highlighting a potential role for a combination of other immune subsets to enhance these results. However, limitations in present genetic modification techniques impose difficulties in our ability to fully explore the potential of various T cell subsets and assess the potential of other leukocytes armed with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). To address this issue, we generated a transgenic mouse model using a pan-hematopoietic promoter (vav) to drive the expression of a CAR specific for a tumor antigen. Here we present a characterization of the immune cell compartment in two unique vav-CAR transgenic mice models, Founder 9 (F9) and Founder 38 (F38). We demonstrate the vav promoter is indeed capable of driving the expression of a CAR in cells from both myeloid and lymphoid lineage, however the highest level of expression was observed in T lymphocytes from F38 mice. Lymphoid organs in vav-CAR mice were smaller and had reduced cell numbers compared to the wild type (WT) controls. Furthermore, the immune composition of F9 mice differed greatly with a significant reduction in lymphocytes found in the thymus, lymph node and spleen of these mice. To gain insight into the altered immune phenotype of F9 mice, we determined the chromosomal integration site of the transgene in both mouse strains using whole genome sequencing (WGS). We demonstrated that compared to the 7 copies found in F38 mice, F9 mice harbored almost 270 copies. These novel vav-CAR models provide a ready source of CAR expressing myeloid and lymphoid cells and will aid in facilitating future experiments to delineate the role for other leukocytes for adoptive immunotherapy against cancer.
The Signature of the Moving Body: Agency and Embodied Education Ideologies of Dance Teachers.

Through an ethnographic study of dance teachers in Israel, this article calls attention to the teaching body as an active social agent and introduces the concept of body signature. It examines the bodily comportment of three dance teachers, arguing for embodied education ideologies, and the ability of teachers to maneuver within these concepts and reshape them. The article provides a valuable lens through which to explore the dynamics of educating bodies and their sociocultural contexts.
Estimation of the Whitefly Bemisia tabaci Genome Size Based on k-mer and Flow Cytometric Analyses

Whiteflies of the Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) cryptic species complex are among the most important agricultural insect pests in the world. These phloem-feeding insects can colonize over 1000 species of plants worldwide and inflict severe economic losses to crops, mainly through the transmission of pathogenic viruses. Surprisingly, there is very little genomic information about whiteflies. As a starting point to genome sequencing, we report a new estimation of the genome size of the B. tabaci B biotype or Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1) population. Using an isogenic whitefly colony with over 6500 haploid male individuals for genomic DNA, three paired-end genomic libraries with insert sizes of ~300 bp, 500 bp and 1 Kb were constructed and sequenced on an Illumina HiSeq 2500 system. A total of ~50 billion base pairs of sequences were obtained from each library. K-mer analysis using these sequences revealed that the genome size of the whitefly was ~682.3 Mb. In addition, the flow cytometric analysis estimated the haploid genome size of the whitefly to be ~690 Mb. Considering the congruency between both estimation methods, we predict the haploid genome size of B. tabaci MEAM1 to be ~680–690 Mb. Our data provide a baseline for ongoing efforts to assemble and annotate the B. tabaci genome.
Mining the Temporal Statistics of Query Terms for Searching Social Media Posts

There is an emerging consensus that time is an important indicator of relevance for searching streams of social media posts. In a process similar to pseudo-relevance feedback, the distribution of document timestamps from the results of an initial query can be leveraged to infer the distribution of relevant documents, for example, using kernel density estimation. In this paper, we explore an alternative approach to mining relevance signals directly from the temporal statistics of query terms in the collection, without the need to perform an initial retrieval. We propose two approaches: a linear ranking model that combines features derived from temporal collection statistics of query terms and a regression-based method that attempts to directly predict the distribution of relevant documents from query term statistics. Experiments on standard tweet test collections show that our proposed methods significantly outperform competitive baselines. Furthermore, studies of different feature combinations show the extent to which different types of temporal signals impact retrieval effectiveness.
Lack of specificity of endoglin expression for tumor blood vessels

A monoclonal antibody (MAb; A11) has been raised following mouse immunization with cultured human microvascular endothelial cells. The MAb showed a strong positivity within tumor vessels in glioblastoma and breast carcinoma samples, and the distribution was consistent with antigen association with vascular endothelial cells. A purification procedure of the antigen was developed starting from DG‐RSV‐LT‐2, an immortalized human endothelial cell line. Molecular mass, N‐terminal sequence of the purified antigen and localization on endothelial cell surface allowed identification with human endoglin (CD105). Flow cytometry analysis of a group of normal and transformed cell lines showed that, besides endothelial cells and myelocytic leukemia cells already shown to be positive, fetal fibroblasts, choriocarcinoma, fibrosarcoma and rhabdomyosarcoma cell lines were also positive for this antigen. Immunohistochemic analysis of several normal adult tissues revealed a more extensive presence of the antigen in normal vessels compared to that described with previously characterized antibodies. In fact, even though the staining was weaker than in tumor tissues, all tissues were found to be positive, at least in microvessels, except for normal breast. Moreover, in some tissues (glands and reproductive tract) a positive reaction was observed in the stroma. Since endoglin has been proposed as a possible target for antiangiogenic therapy in tumor patients and our data demonstrate a sizable amount of endoglin in normal vessels and stroma, its clinical use should be carefully reevaluated. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Lobeline and Reduction of Cigarette Smoking

An empirical and logical analysis of research employing lobeline sulfate in reducing cigarette smoking raises serious doubts as to the utility of this chemical “nicotine substitute. ” An experiment is also described in which predominantly college-aged volunteers desiring to stop smoking were given either specially prepared troches containing 0.5 mg. lobeline or placebos in a double-blind design. Neither during treatment nor during an immediately following post-treatment period did the drug achieve greater gains than the placebo. Correlational and other analyses of psychological data suggest that the local throat irritation commonly regarded as a side-effect of lobeline lozenges actually plays a central role in discouraging smoking in those persons motivated to continue sucking the lozenges. Suggestions are also offered as to procedures that might prove useful in maintaining treatment gains, whether drug-produced or part of the familiar placebo effect.
The effect of allergen-specific immunotherapy on offspring.

BACKGROUND The incidence of allergic diseases has increased worldwide. Thus, there is a need for effective primary prevention of allergies. OBJECTIVE The aim of the present study was to examine how allergen-specific immunotherapy (ASIT) affects the development of allergies in the generation of children whose parents were subjected to this method of treatment. METHODS A total of 194 children with at least one parent with allergy subjected to ASIT were enrolled. These patients were compared with control individuals without ASIT. Their risk of allergy, based on medical history, examination, allergy skin-prick tests, serum total immunoglobulin E and specific immunoglobulin E concentrations was assessed. RESULTS The children of parents subjected to immunotherapy showed significantly reduced clinical symptoms of allergic disease. The odds ratios (OR) of any allergic disease and asthma were significantly lower in children with one or both parents with allergy after ASIT compared with the children with parents with allergy and without ASIT: OR 0.73 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59-0.86) versus OR 1.85 (95% CI, 1.73-2.2) for any allergic disease and OR 0.63 (95% CI, 0.53-0.79) versus OR 1.36 (95% CI, 1.22-1.67) for asthma. CONCLUSION The phenomenon of reducing the risk of allergies in children whose parents were desensitized might be important in the primary prevention of allergies.
Intraoperative Positive Fluid Balance Improves Tissue Diffusion of Ceftizoxime

Aim of Study: To demonstrate that administration of fluids and the consequent improvement of fluid balance during a surgical procedure can modify the tissue diffusion of ceftizoxime. Methods: Twenty-eight patients (30–79 years) undergoing major abdominal surgery of the colon were administered ceftizoxime 30 mg/kg i.v. at induction of anesthesia. A sample of arterial blood was taken before administration of the drug (t₀) and then again at the time of vascular occlusion of the colon segment to be removed (t1). A sample of the segment of removed colon was taken. The patients were divided into two groups on the basis of the fluid balance between t₀ and t1: group A (n = 17) with a fluid balance <1,000 ml and group B (n = 11) with a fluid balance >1,000 ml. The parameters evaluated in each group were: weight, height and age of the patients, serum and tissue antibiotic concentration, percent ratio of serum and tissue concentration, time elapsed between t₀ and t1, volume of administered fluids between t₀ and t1, diuresis and hourly diuresis between t₀ and t1 and body fluid distribution, obtained using a bioelectrical impedance analyzer. The mean results obtained in the two groups were then compared using Student’s t test. Results: The balance of fluids calculated up to t1 was 675 ± 308 ml for group A and 1,411 ± 405 ml for group B (p < 0.01). The means of the recorded values that showed statistically significant differences were: mean percent concentration ratio (43.6 ± 8.4 vs. 84 ± 16%; p < 0.05), concentration in the colonic segment (16.3 ± 7.9 vs. 37.2 ± 25.9 mg/ml; p < 0.05), urinary volume gathered up to t1 (538 ± 557 vs. 169 ± 104 ml; p < 0.05), hourly urinary volume up to t1 (311.1 ± 296 vs. 97.6 ± 77.9 ml/h; p < 0.05), percent variation of resistance (95.1 ± 5.1 vs. 89.7 ± 8.6; p < 0.05). The other means did not show any significant statistical differences. Conclusions: A higher tissue water level seems to facilitate the penetration of the antibiotic into the tissue according to the pharmacokinetic characteristics of ceftizoxime: high amount of free drug (not bound to plasma proteins) and high hydrosolubility.
A Nation-Wide Study on the Percentage of Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Patients Who Earn Minimum Wage or Above.

OBJECTIVE Although it is undisputable that patients with severe mental illness have impaired ability to work, the extent of this is unclear. This is a nation-wide, cross-sectional survey of patients who have been hospitalized with severe mental illness earning minimum wage or above. METHOD Data from the Israeli Psychiatric Hospitalization Case Registry were linked with nation-wide data from the National Insurance Institute (the equivalent of US Social Security) on personal income. Hospitalization data were obtained on all consecutive admissions to any psychiatric hospital in the country between 1990-2008 with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, other nonaffective psychotic disorders, or bipolar disorder (N = 35 673). Earning minimum wage or more was defined as earning at least 1000 USD/month, which was equivalent to minimum wage in Israel in December 2010. RESULTS The percentages of patients with only 1 admission who were earning minimum wage or above in December 2010 were as follows: 10.6% of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia; 21.6% of patients with a diagnosis of nonaffective psychotic disorders; and 24.2% of patients with bipolar disorder. The percentages of patients with multiple admissions who were earning minimum wage or above were as follows: 5.8% of patients with schizophrenia; 11.2% of patients with nonaffective psychotic disorders; and 19.9% of patients with bipolar disorder. CONCLUSIONS Despite potential confounders, the results indicate that patients with schizophrenia, nonaffective psychotic disorders, or bipolar disorder have a poor employment outcome, even if they have only been admitted once. These results emphasize the importance of improving interventions to re-integrate these individuals into the work force.
Laser microbeam study of a rotary motor in termite flagellates. Evidence that the axostyle complex generates torque

A rotary motor in a termite flagellate continually turns the anterior part of the cell (head) in a clockwise direction. Previous descriptive observations implicated the noncontractile axostyle, which runs through the cell like a drive shaft, in the motile mechanism. This study demonstrates directly that the axostyle complex generates torque, and describes serval of its dynamic properties. By laser microbeam irradiation, the axostyle is broken into an anterior segment attached to the cell's head, and a posterior segment which projects caudally as a thin spike, or axostylar projection. Before lasing, both head and axostylar projection rotate at the same speed. After breaking the axostyle, the rotation velocity of the head decreases, depending on the length of the anterior segment. Head speed is not a linear function of axostyle length, however. In contrast, the rotation velocity of the axostylar projection always increases about 1.5 times after lasing, regardless of the length of the posterior segment. Turning the head is thus a load on the axostylar rotary motor, but the speed of the posterior segment represents the free-running motor. A third, middle segment of the axostyle, not connected to the head or axostylar projection, can also rotate independently. No ultrastructural differences were found along the length of the axostyle complex, except at the very anterior end; lenth-velocity data suggest that this region may not be able to generate torque. An electric model of the axostylar rotary motor is presented to help understand the length-velocity data.