Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of whole body x-irradiation of mice on immunity to tetanus toxoid. II. The delayed immune response to injections of tetanus toxoid.

Summary The immune response to subcutaneous injections of tetanus toxoid of whole body x-irradiated mice tested by challenge with 10 MLD of tetanus toxin was found to be delayed rather than inhibited. No significant difference in the immune response was detectable in those groups of animals immunized before or after exposure to x-radiation. The length of the delay was dependent on the dose of x-rays to which the mice were exposed. The higher the x-ray dose, the longer was the delay in the immune response. Mice exposed to whole body x-irradiation were significantly more susceptible to tetanus toxin than non-irradiated mice.
Dose-dependent effects of perindopril on blood pressure and small-artery structure.

Long-term treatment of young spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors has a persistent effect on blood pressure when treatment is withdrawn. The aim of the present study was to determine whether this effect could be mediated by the effect of treatment on resistance-artery structure. We determined the dose dependence of ACE-inhibitor therapy on blood pressure and small-artery structure during treatment and on the recovery of blood pressure when treatment was withdrawn. SHR (40 per group) were treated from age 4 to 24 weeks with one of three doses of perindopril (0.4, 0.8, or 1.5 mg/kg per day). Control groups were untreated SHR and Wistar-Kyoto rats. At 24 weeks, treatment was stopped and small arteries were taken from half of the rats from the mesenteric, femoral, cerebral, and coronary vascular beds for morphological and functional measurements. The blood pressure of the other half of the rats was followed until 36 weeks of age. During treatment, perindopril caused a dose-dependent reduction in blood pressure and in the media-lumen ratio and media area of the small arteries, whereas there was a dose-dependent increase in lumen diameter. The effect of treatment on the structure of arteries from the different vascular beds was homogeneous. Compared with values from Wistar-Kyoto rats, blood pressure normalization in SHR was not associated with full normalization of structure. After withdrawal of treatment, there was an inverse relation between perindopril dose and the persistent effect. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
ATG16L1 governs placental infection risk and preterm birth in mice and women

The placenta is a barrier against maternal-fetal transmission of pathogens. Placental infections can cause several adverse pregnancy outcomes, including preterm birth (PTB). Yet, we have limited knowledge regarding the mechanisms the placenta uses to control infections. Here, we show that autophagy, a cellular recycling pathway important for host defense against pathogens, and the autophagy gene Atg16L1 play a key role in placental defense and are negatively associated with PTB in pregnant women. First, we demonstrate that placentas from women who delivered preterm exhibit reduced autophagy activity and are associated with higher infection indicators. Second, we identify the cellular location of the autophagy activity as being in syncytial trophoblasts. Third, we demonstrate that higher levels of autophagy and ATG16L1 in human trophoblasts were associated with increased resistance to infection. Accordingly, loss of autophagy or ATG16L1 impaired trophoblast antibacterial defenses. Fourth, we show that Atg16l1-deficient mice gave birth prematurely upon an inflammatory stimulus and their placentas were significantly less able to withstand infection. Finally, global induction of autophagy in both mouse placentas and human trophoblasts increased infection resistance. Our study has significant implications for understanding the etiology of placental infections and prematurity and developing strategies to mitigate placental infection–induced PTB.
A Protein Secretion Pathway Critical for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Virulence Is Conserved and Functional in Mycobacterium smegmatis

ABSTRACT The Snm protein secretion system is a critical determinant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis virulence. However, genes encoding components of this pathway are conserved among all mycobacteria, including the nonpathogenic saprophyte Mycobacterium smegmatis. We show that the Snm system is operational in M. smegmatis and that secretion of its homologous ESAT-6 and CFP-10 substrates is regulated by growth conditions. Importantly, we show that Snm secretion in M. smegmatis requires genes that are homologous to those required for secretion in M. tuberculosis. Using a gene knockout strategy in M. smegmatis, we have also discovered four new gene products that are essential for Snm secretion, including the serine protease mycosin 1. Despite the evolutionary distance between M. smegmatis and M. tuberculosis, the M. smegmatis Snm system can secrete the M. tuberculosis ESAT-6 and CFP-10 proteins, suggesting that substrate recognition is also conserved between the two species. M. smegmatis, therefore, represents a powerful system to study the multicomponent Snm secretory machine and to understand the role of this conserved system in mycobacterial biology.
A study of the acute and chronic changes in ventilatory capacity of workers in Lancashire cotton mills

Berry, G. , McKerrow, C. B. , Molyneux, M. K. B. , Rossiter, C. E. , and Tombleson, J. B. L. (1973). Brit. J. industr. Med.,30, 25-36. A study of the acute and chronic changes in ventilatory capacity of workers in Lancashire cotton mills. A prospective study of workers in 14 cotton and two man-made fibre spinning mills in Lancashire was carried out over a three-year period. A questionnaire on respiratory symptoms was completed at the start of the survey and again two years later. Up to six measurements of ventilatory capacity were made at six-monthly intervals. From these measurements the rate at which the forced expiratory volume (FEV1) was declining (annual decline in FEV) was evaluated for 595 subjects. Six of the mills were visited on Mondays and in 199 operatives the ventilatory capacity was measured at both the beginning and end of the shift to evaluate its acute fall during work (Monday fall in FEV). The mean annual decline in FEV for cotton workers was 54 ml/year and it was only 32 ml/year for workers in the man-made fibre mills but this lower value was attributable almost entirely to one of the two mills. For the jobs near the carding engines the annual decline was 22 ml/year higher than for speed-frame tenters. The annual decline for cigarette smokers was 19 ml/year greater than for non- and ex-smokers. The annual decline in FEV was not found to be related to symptoms of byssinosis or bronchitis, nor to present dust levels, bioactivity of the dust or air pollution, although the expected effect attributable to byssinosis turned out to be less than that which the survey was designed to detect. The mean Monday fall in FEV was higher in cotton mills than in man-made fibre mills among those without symptoms of byssinosis and was correlated with present dust levels. For those with symptoms of byssinosis an increased Monday fall was found only in those processing coarse cotton. For those subjects who completed the respiratory questionnaire on two occasions the chronic and acute changes in FEV were examined in relation to the change in symptoms of byssinosis. No association was found for annual decline in FEV but the Monday fall in FEV was greater for those who developed byssinosis during the survey than for those who remained free of symptoms, and was less for those who lost their symptoms than for those who retained them.
Strong Linkage of El Niño–Southern Oscillation to the Polar Cold Air Mass in the Northern Hemisphere

The total hemispheric polar cold air mass (PCAM) amount below a threshold potential temperature is conserved under an adiabatic condition and is a good indicator of polar warming. While the long‐term PCAM trends have been investigated, the cause of its interannual variability remains uncertain. Here we find that the El Niño–Southern Oscillation has a strong impact on the total northern hemispheric PCAM amount below a potential temperature of 280 K. The correlation coefficient between the Niño‐3.4 and the total PCAM reaches −0.66 over 36 recent winters. During El Niño, the PCAM decreases significantly because of the shorter PCAM residence time at high latitudes. The Aleutian Low intensifies and effectively transfers the PCAM from North America to the North Pacific, causing a significant decrease in the PCAM amount over the northern part of North America and a strengthening of cold air outflows over the central North Pacific. The PCAM coming to the warm ocean disappears rapidly and results in the imbalance of the hemispheric PCAM. This study reveals a notable influence of the tropical forcing on the variability of polar climate.
Korean Treebank Transformation for Parser Training

Korean is a morphologically rich language in which grammatical functions are marked by inflections and affixes, and they can indicate grammatical relations such as subject, object, predicate, etc. A Korean sentence could be thought as a sequence of eojeols. An eo- jeol is a word or its variant word form ag- glutinated with grammatical affixes, and eo- jeols are separated by white space as in En- glish written texts. Korean treebanks (Choi et al., 1994; Han et al., 2002; Korean Lan- guage Institute, 2012) use eojeol as their fun- damental unit of analysis, thus representing an eojeol as a prepreterminal phrase inside the constituent tree. This eojeol-based an- notating schema introduces various complex- ity to train the parser, for example an en- tity represented by a sequence of nouns will be annotated as two or more different noun phrases, depending on the number of spaces used. In this paper, we propose methods to transform eojeol-based Korean treebanks into entity-based Korean treebanks. The methods are applied to Sejong treebank, which is the largest constituent treebank in Korean, and the transformed treebank is used to train and test various probabilistic CFG parsers. The experi- mental result shows that the proposed transfor- mation methods reduce ambiguity in the train- ing corpus, increasing the overall F1 score up to about 9 %.
Perioperative complications in patients treated with posterior cervical fusion and bilateral cages

Context: Posterior cervical cages have recently become available as an alternative to lateral mass fixation in patients undergoing cervical spine surgery. Aims: The purpose of this study was to quantify the perioperative complications associated with cervical decompression and fusion in patients treated with a posterior cervical fusion (PCF) and bilateral cages. Settings and Design: A retrospective, multicenter review of prospectively collected data was performed at 11 US centers. Subjects and Methods: The charts of 89 consecutive patients with cervical radiculopathy treated surgically at one level with PCF and cages were reviewed. Three cohorts of patients were included standalone primary PCF with cages, circumferential surgery, and patients with postanterior cervical discectomy and fusion pseudarthrosis. Follow-up evaluation included clinical status and pain scale (visual analog scale). Statistical Analysis Used: The Wilcoxon test was used to test the differences for the data. The P level of 0.05 was considered significant. Results: The mean follow-up interval was 7 months (range: 62 weeks - 2 years). The overall postsurgery complication rate was 4.3%. There were two patients with neurological complications (C5 palsy, spinal cord irritation). Two patients had postoperative complications after discharge including one with atrial fibrillation and one with a parietal stroke. After accounting for relatedness to the PCF, the overall complication rate was 3.4%. The average (median) hospital stay for all three groups was 29 h. Conclusions: The results of our study show that PCF with cages can be considered a safe alternative for patients undergoing cervical spine surgery. The procedure has a favorable overall complication profile, short length of stay, and negligible blood loss.
Scaling of phytoplankton photosynthesis and cell size in the ocean

We have determined the scaling relationship between photosynthesis rate and cell size in natural phytoplankton assemblages of contrasting marine environments. We found that phytoplankton photosynthesis in the ocean does not scale as the L‐power of cell size, but scales approximately isometrically with cell size, indicating that a single model cannot predict the metabolism‐size relationship in all photosynthetic organisms. The scaling relationship between cellular chlorophyll a content and cell size is also isometric. Taxonomical changes along the size spectrum may explain the deviation of phytoplankton photosynthesis from the general allometric rule. The size scaling exponent for photosynthesis is significantly higher (1.14) in coastal productive waters than in the oligotrophic open ocean (0.96), which provides a physiological basis to explain the dominance of larger cells in nutrient‐rich environments. The size scaling exponent for phytoplankton abundance is significantly less negative in coastal productive waters (–0.90) than in the oligotrophic open ocean (–1.25). The observed size scaling relationships imply that carbon fixation per unit volume decreases with cell size in oligotrophic waters, whereas the opposite occurs in productive ones. By controlling the metabolism‐size scaling relationship, nutrient supply plays a major role in determining community size structure and the energy flow through the pelagic ecosystem.
Cadena: an integrated development, analysis, and verification environment for component-based systems

The use of component models such as Enterprise Java Beans and the CORBA Component Model (CCM) in application development is expanding rapidly. Even in real-time safety/mission-critical domains, component-based development is beginning to take hold as a mechanism for incorporating non-functional aspects such as real-time, quality-of-service, and distribution. To form an effective basis for development of such systems, we believe that support for reasoning about correctness properties of component-based designs is essential. In this paper, we present Cadena - an integrated environment for building and modeling CCM systems. Cadena provides facilities for defining component types using CCM IDL, specifying dependency information and transition System semantics for these types, assembling systems from CCM components, visualizing various dependence relationships between components, specifying and verifying correctness properties of models of CCM systems derived from CCM IDL, component assembly information, and Cadena specifications, and producing CORBA stubs and skeletons implemented in Java. We are applying Cadena to avionics applications built using Boeing's Bold Stroke framework.
The Determinants of Credit Default Swap Premia

Abstract Variables that in theory determine credit spreads have limited explanatory power in existing empirical work on corporate bond data. We investigate the linear relationship between theoretical determinants of default risk and default swap spreads. We find that estimated coefficients for a minimal set of theoretical determinants of default risk are consistent with theory and are significant statistically and economically. Volatility and leverage have substantial explanatory power in univariate and multivariate regressions. A principal component analysis of residuals and spreads indicates limited evidence for a residual common factor, confirming that the theoretical variables explain a significant amount of the variation in the data.
Mechanisms Underlying Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Kinin B1 Receptor Up-Regulation in the Pig Iris Sphincter in Vitro

Kinin B1 receptors are known to be highly induced after inflammatory stimuli in several biological systems. We report that incubation of pig iris sphincter with lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli caused a marked and time-related up-regulation of B1, accompanied by a reduction of B2 receptor-mediated contractile responses. The up-regulation of B1 receptors by lipopolysaccharide stimulation was decreased by the inhibitors of protein synthesis, cycloheximide and actinomycin D, and by dexamethasone and the nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) inhibitor pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (PDTC). In addition, lipopolysaccharide-induced up-regulation of B1 receptors in the pig iris sphincter was significantly reduced by the p38 inhibitor 4-(4-fluorophenyl)-2-(4-methylsulfinylphenyl)-5-(4-pyridyl)1H-imidazole (SB203580) and to a lesser extent by the extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 (ERK1/2) blocker 2′-amino-3′-methoxyflavone (PD98059). Molecular biology experiments demonstrated that in vitro incubation with lipopolysaccharide resulted in a time-dependent and remarkable activation of NF-κB and of p38 and ERK1/2 mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases, in pig iris sphincter preparations. While attempting to verify how MAP kinases are part of the B1 receptor-activated signaling transduction pathways, we observed that PD98059 was able to markedly reduce the contraction induced by B1 receptor activation in lipopolysaccharide-pretreated pig iris sphincter muscle but that this response was only partially decreased by SB203580. Our results extend the previous evidence on the mechanisms underlying the B1 receptor upregulation processes and demonstrate for the first time how this takes place in an ocular tissue, the pig iris sphincter. It is therefore possible to define B1 receptors as therapeutic targets for the treatment of infectious and inflammatory alterations of the eye.
AN EMPIRICAL EVALUATION OF SENTENCE PROCESSING MODELS: CENTER EMBEDDINGS IN HINDI

Data from Hindi center-embedding constructions (CECs) are used to evaluate three sentence processing models: Joshi’s Embedded Pushdown Automaton (EPDA), Gibson’s Syntactic Prediction Locality Theory (SPLT), and Lewis’ Interference and Confusability Theory (ICT). The SPLT and ICT (but not the EPDA) are found to correctly predict several processing facts about Hindi. However, the experimental results also reveal a problem for these two current, wide-coverage theories: neither model appears to be able to account for differences in reading time observed at noun phrases in Hindi CECs. A sentence processing model is proposed in an accompanying article (see (Vasishth & Kruij 2001) in this volume) that can in principle be integrated with the ICT to provide a unified account of processing di culty in the languages investigated.
Prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in Italy: the Chiavari study

OBJECTIVE To ascertain the prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in an Italian general population. METHODS The study was performed in the years 1991–92 in Chiavari, a small town located on the Ligurian coast, and involved 4456 subjects aged 16 years or more from four general practices. The subjects received a postal questionnaire developed to detect patients with current or past inflammatory joint diseases. The age and sex distribution of the sample were similar to those of the Italian population from the 1992 census. Patients reporting a history of joint swelling in at least a pair of symmetrical joints were reviewed by a rheumatologist. The clinical records of non-responders and responders who failed to attend the clinic were also reviewed. RESULTS 3294 of 4456 (73.9%) subjects answered to the questionnaire. The mean (SD) age of the 3294 responders was 48.3 (19.3) years; 53.7% of them were female. Swelling in at least two symmetrical joints was reported by 230 subjects (7%). Among them, 11 patients fulfilling the 1987 ARA criteria for RA were identified. The prevalence of RA was 0.33% (95% CI 0.13, 0.53) in the general population, 0.13% (95% CI 0, 0.31) in men, and 0.51% (95% CI 0.18, 0.84) in women. CONCLUSIONS These data are consistent with the results of three earlier studies published in the fifties in the Italian literature and confirm that the prevalence of RA is low in Italy and has remained unchanged in the last 40 years.
The treatment of ameloblastoma based on pathologic and anatomic principles

A number of important factors must be considered in planning the treatment of ameloblastoma. It is essential to distinguish among the three clinical types of ameloblastoma—the intraosseous solid or multicystic lesion, the well‐circumscribed unicystic type, and the rare peripheral (extraosseous) ameloblastoma—because they require different forms of treatment. Unicystic ameloblastomas in which the tumor extends into the lumen of the cyst or involves only the cystic lining can be expected to be removed completely by enucleation. This approach, however, is inadequate if the tumor has invaded the periphery of the fibrous connective tissue wall. Ameloblastomas may invade the intertrabecular spaces of cancellous bone but do not invade compact bone, although they may erode it. Ameloblastomas in the posterior part of the maxilla should be treated more extensively than similar lesions in the mandible because of the proximity of the posterior maxilla to vital structures and the difficulty in treating any recurrences. This article discusses the treatment of ameloblastoma based on these pathologic and anatomic considerations and includes brief discussions of the role of cautery, cryotherapy, and radiotherapy.
Incidence and predictive factors of clinically relevant bile leakage in the modern era of liver resections.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the incidence, the impact on survival and the predictive factors of bile leakage (BL) in a recent large monocentric series of liver resections performed in a referral tertiary care centre. BACKGROUND Previous reports dealing with bile leakage (BL) after liver resection are rare and have displayed conflicting results regarding incidence, impact on follow-up and predictive factors. METHODS A retrospective review of the records of 912 patients who underwent a total of 1001 consecutive liver resections without biliary reconstruction, performed between January 2005 and May 2011. BL was defined by the presence of bile in the abdominal drains, a radiologically or surgically drained bilioma or biliary peritonitis. BL severity was established according to the Clavien-Dindo classification. Fifty-eight pre-, per- and post-resection variables were analysed and the independent BL predictive factors were identified using logistic regression. RESULTS The incidence of BL was 8%. Clavien-Dindo I-II, IIIa, IIIb or IV rates were 29%, 35%, 32.5% and 2.5%, respectively. BL did not increase in-hospital mortality (2.5% versus 2.9%, P = 1.0), but doubled the median duration of hospital stay (16 versus 9 days, P < 0.001) and increased 1-year mortality (11% versus 5%, P = 0.03). Multivariate analysis identified that pre-operative bevacizumab [odds ratio (OR) = 2.9, confidence interval (CI) 95% = 1.58-5.41] P = 0.001], a major hepatectomy [OR = 2.6 (CI 95% = 1.48-4.76) P = 0.001], a two-stage hepatectomy [OR = 2.5 (CI 95% = 1.17-5.52) P = 0.018], the selective clamping technique [OR = 2.6 (CI 95% = 1.03-6.78) P = 0.042], R1 or R2 resection [OR = 2.6 (CI 95% = 1.52-4.64) P = 0.001] and the absence of a methylene blue test [OR = 2.6 (IC 95% = 1.43-4.65) P = 0.002] were independent risk factors of BL. CONCLUSION BL remains frequent after liver resection. It has a dramatic impact on patient survival and care costs. Its incidence could be reduced by avoiding the pre-operative use of bevacizumab, avoiding selective clamping and performing a blue dye test in all resections.
Evolution of the immune system in humans from infancy to old age

This article reviews the development of the immune response through neonatal, infant and adult life, including pregnancy, ending with the decline in old age. A picture emerges of a child born with an immature, innate and adaptive immune system, which matures and acquires memory as he or she grows. It then goes into decline in old age. These changes are considered alongside the risks of different types of infection, autoimmune disease and malignancy.