Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Which patients with hepatitis C develop liver complications?

To identify variables that are independent predictors of adverse outcomes in chronic hepatitis C, we analyzed a cohort of 455 patients followed for a median of 4.7 years. Associations were sought between demographic and behavioral factors, hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype, liver histology and liver tests at entry, and development of liver complications, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), hepatic transplantation and liver‐related death. Independent predictors were identified by multivariate analysis. The following were associated with a significantly higher rate of liver complications: age; birth in Asia, Europe, Mediterranean region, or Egypt; transmission by blood transfusion or sporadic cases; HCV genotypes 1b and 4 (compared with 1/1a); fibrosis stage 3 or 4 (cirrhosis); serum albumin; bilirubin; prothrombin time; and α‐fetoprotein. However, the only independent predictors of liver‐related complications were sporadic transmission (P < .001), advanced fibrosis (P = .004), and low albumin (P < .001). The corresponding independent risk factors for HCC were male gender (P= .07), sporadic transmission (P < .001), and albumin (P < .001); bilirubin (P= .02) was an additional predictor of transplantation or liver‐related death. It is concluded that only patients with advanced hepatic fibrosis or cirrhosis, are at risk of developing hepatic complications of chronic hepatitis C during 5‐year follow‐up. Among such patients, abnormalities in serum albumin, bilirubin, or prothrombin time indicate a high probability of complications. Patients without definite risk factors for HCV (sporadic cases) are at higher risk of complications, possibly because of interaction between older age, duration of infection, country of birth, and HCV genotypes 1b and 4.
Have Got, a Pattern Preserver

T HE 'HAVE GOT' WHICH SUBSTITUTES FOR have has for the past four centuries been performing a valuable function in the English language. It, therefore, should be cleared of the charges of being 'redundant' or 'illogical,' which are frequently made by its critics.1 The use of have got for have in sentences like 'I have got two hands' is evidently a resolution of a conflict between two factors in English: stress and syntax. This theory for the rise of have got is proposed: have got was substituted for have to strengthen the subject + verb construction in the place where, through reduction of stress on have, that construction was not clearly signaled. That place was in utterances like 'I've two hands'; that is, where have occurred in its simple-present form as a 'full' verb but was reduced in stress. Have got for have is first documented clearly in the late sixteenth century: the Oxford English Dictionary under get cites passages from Shakespeare; Jespersen gives quotations from Marlowe and Dekker;2 Rice has slightly earlier but equivocal citations from Sir Thomas More and Latimer.3 The very lack of earlier instances refutes another theory for the rise of the substitution. The substance of that theory, which was presented at least a century ago, in Bartlett's Dictionary of Americanisms, and is still popular, is that, because have was frequently used as an auxiliary, people felt a need for another word to express or emphasize the idea of 'possess. ' That theory simply ignores history: have had been used for many centuries both as an auxiliary and as a full verb meaning 'possess' before the substitution arose. No, it was not the use of have as an auxiliary that brought forth have got. The substitution arose from a change in stress patterns in early Modern English. According to Wyld, 'at least as early as the middle of the fifteenth century vowels in unstressed syllables were shortened, reduced, or confused, very much as in Colloquial English at the present time. '4 For example, the word honorable had primary stress, as today, on the first syllable, but the other vowels were not reduced to schwa until, say, the fifteenth century. Furthermore, by the sixteenth century, there was not only reduction of vowels to schwa within words, but sometimes loss of schwa. For example,
Development and validation of a male specific body checking questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE Body checking may be an important behavioral consequence of body image disturbance. Despite the importance of body checking, few measurements of this construct exist, particularly for males. This study describes the development and validation of the Male Body Checking Questionnaire (MBCQ). METHOD Convergent and divergent validity, factor structure, and reliability were tested in three separate samples of men and women. RESULTS Factor analyses suggested a reliable four-factor structure with evidence of a higher order global checking factor for men, but not women. The MBCQ demonstrated good concurrent and divergent validity. Short-term test-retest reliability was good with high internal consistency across time. DISCUSSION Interpretation of psychometrics and recommendations for subsequent research are discussed. The MBCQ is likely to be an appropriate tool for investigating body image-based pathology in males.
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology Open Access Morphological Evidences Indicate That the Interference of Cimetidine on the Peritubular Components Is Responsible for Detachment and Apoptosis of Sertoli Cells Background

Cimetidine, referred as antiandrogenic agent, has caused alterations in the seminiferous tubules, including alterations in the peritubular tissue and death of myoid cells by apoptosis. Regarding the structural and functional importance of the peritubular tissue for the maintenance of Sertoli cells (SC), we purpose to investigate the SC-basement membrane interface, focusing the morphological features of SC and their interaction with the basement membrane in the affected tubules by cimetidine. Ten animals were distributed into two groups, control (CG) and cimetidine (CmG) which received saline solution and 50 mg of cimetidine per kg of body weight, respectively, for 52 days. The testes were fixed, dehydrated and embedded for analyses under light and transmission electron microscopy. Paraffin sections were submitted to the TUNEL method; sections of testes embedded in glycol methacrylate were submitted to PAS method and stained by H&E for morphological and quantitative analyses of Sertoli Cells. In the CmG, the SC nuclei were positive to the TUNEL method and showed typical morphological alterations of cell death by apoptosis (from early to advanced stages). A significant reduction in the number of Sertoli Cells was probably due to death of these cells by apoptosis. A close relationship between SC nuclear alterations (including a high frequency of dislocated nuclei from the basal portion) and damage in the peritubular tissue was observed. The ultrastructural analysis showed a parallelism between the gradual advancement of apoptotic process in SC and detachment of the anchoring sites (hemidesmosomes) of SC plasma membrane from the lamina densa. The presence of portions of lamina densa underlying the detached hemidesmosomes indicates a continuous deposition of lamina densa, resulting in the thickening of the basal lamina. The results indicate a possible disarrangement of the SC cytoskeleton, including the focal adhesion structure. These alterations are related to SC apoptosis and probably result from disturbs induced by cimetidine on the peritubular tissue. which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Role of high expression levels of CXCR4 in tumor growth, vascularization, and metastasis

Hormone refractory metastatic prostate cancer remains an incurable disease. We found that high expression levels of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 correlated with the presence of metastatic disease in prostate cancer patients. Positive staining for CXCL12, the ligand for CXCR4, was mainly present in the tumor‐associated blood vessels and basal cell hyperplasia. Subcutaneous xenografts of PC3 and 22Rv1 prostate tumors that overexpressed CXCR4 in NOD/SCID mice were two‐ to threefold larger in volume and weight vs. controls. Moreover, blood vessel density, functionality, invasiveness of tumors into the surrounding tissues, and metastasis to the lymph node and lung were significantly increased in these tumors. Neutralizing the interactions of CXCL12/CXCR4 in vivo with CXCR4 specific antibodies inhibited the CXCR4‐dependent tumor growth and vascularization. In vitro, CXCL12 induced the proliferation and VEGF secretion but not migration of PC3 and 22Rv1 cells overexpressing CXCR4. Similar effects of CXCR4 overexpression on tumor growth in vivo were also noted in two breast cancer lines, suggesting that the observed effect of CXCR4 is not unique to prostate tumor cells. Thus high levels of the chemokine receptor CXCR4 induce a more aggressive phenotype in prostate cancer cells and identify CXCR4 as a potential therapeutic target in advanced cases of metastatic prostate cancer.
A New Study of Two Divergence Metrics for Change Detection in Data Streams

Streaming data are dynamic in nature with frequent changes. To detect such changes, most methods measure the difference between the data distributions in a current time window and a reference window. Divergence metrics and density estimation are required to measure the difference between the data distributions. Our study shows that the Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence, the most popular metric for comparing distributions, fails to detect certain changes due to its asymmetric property and its dependence on the variance of the data. We thus consider two metrics for detecting changes in univariate data streams: a symmetric KL-divergence and a divergence metric measuring the intersection area of two distributions. The experimental results show that these two metrics lead to more accurate results in change detection than baseline methods such as Change Finder and using conventional KL-divergence.
BERYLLIUM AND LUNG CANCER: A REANALYSIS OF A NIOSH COHORT MORTALITY STUDY

This analysis is motivated by recent reviews on the carcinogenicity of beryllium by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, and reconsideration by the National Toxicology Program on its classification of the carcinogenicity of beryllium. It reanalyzes data from a 1992 publication of a cohort mortality study conducted by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of workers employed in seven plants producing beryllium in the United States (Ward et al., 1992). That publication reported an increased risk of lung cancer in these workers and concluded that it is most likely due to occupational exposure to beryllium compounds. This present report uses: (1) an adjustment for smoking based on more germane estimates of the association between smoking and mortality from lung cancer; (2) computations of expected lung cancer rates based on alternative comparison populations; and (3) an overall combined estimate of the findings from the individual plants based on meta-analysis. Our findings indicate lower and generally not statistically significant standard mortality ratios that are not compatible with the interpretation of a likely causal association.
Sperm DNA damage in relation to lipid peroxidation following freezing-thawing of boar semen (Short communication)

This study investigated the relationships between lipid peroxidation (LPO) and sperm DNA damage following freezing-thawing of boar semen in different extenders. The comet assay was used to measure the extent of sperm DNA damage in a cryoprotectant-free extender or in cryoprotectant-based extenders after single and repeated freezing and thawing. As well as an analysis of sperm motion characteristics, mitochondrial function, membrane integrity, and lipid peroxidation (LPO) were assessed simultaneously with the measurements of sperm DNA damage. Consistent positive significant correlations were found between sperm DNA damage and LPO after freezing-thawing. Comet assay measurements showed that cryo-induced sperm DNA damage was more marked in the cryoprotectant-free extender, irrespective of freezing cycle. The frequency of sperm cells with damaged DNA increased with repeated freezing and thawing in the cryoprotectant-based extenders. Except for sperm DNA damage, there were no consistent associations between post-thaw sperm LPO and sperm quality characteristics. It could be suggested that the increased LPO of membrane phospholipids is associated with higher susceptibility of boar spermatozoa to cryo-induced DNA damage. Keywords: Comet assay measurements, cryopreservation, extenders, spermatozoa
Reverberation Mapping of High-Luminosity Quasars

Over the past three decades reverberation mapping (RM) has been applied to about 100 AGNs. Their broad line region (BLR) sizes were measured and yielded mass estimates of the black holes in their center. However, very few attempts were carried out for high-luminosity quasars, at luminosities higher than 10$^{46}$ erg/sec in the optical. Most of these attempts failed since RM of such quasars is difficult due to a number of reasons, mostly due to the long time needed to monitor these objects. During the past two decades we carried out a RM campaign on six high-luminosity quasars. This contribution presents some of the final light curves of that RM campaign in which we measured the BLR size in C\,{\sc iv} of three of the objects (S5\,0836+71, SBS\,1116+603, and SBS\,1425+606). We present the C\,{\sc iv} BLR size and luminosity relation over eight orders of magnitude in luminosity, pushing the luminosity limit to its highest point so far.
SibylFS: formal specification and oracle-based testing for POSIX and real-world file systems

Systems depend critically on the behaviour of file systems, but that behaviour differs in many details, both between implementations and between each implementation and the POSIX (and other) prose specifications. Building robust and portable software requires understanding these details and differences, but there is currently no good way to systematically describe, investigate, or test file system behaviour across this complex multi-platform interface. In this paper we show how to characterise the envelope of allowed behaviour of file systems in a form that enables practical and highly discriminating testing. We give a mathematically rigorous model of file system behaviour, SibylFS, that specifies the range of allowed behaviours of a file system for any sequence of the system calls within our scope, and that can be used as a test oracle to decide whether an observed trace is allowed by the model, both for validating the model and for testing file systems against it. SibylFS is modular enough to not only describe POSIX, but also specific Linux, OS X and FreeBSD behaviours. We complement the model with an extensive test suite of over 21 000 tests; this can be run on a target file system and checked in less than 5 minutes, making it usable in practice. Finally, we report experimental results for around 40 configurations of many file systems, identifying many differences and some serious flaws.
Numerical simulations of particulate suspensions via a discretized Boltzmann equation. Part 1. Theoretical foundation

A new and very general technique for simulating solid–fluid suspensions is described; its most important feature is that the computational cost scales linearly with the number of particles. The method combines Newtonian dynamics of the solid particles with a discretized Boltzmann equation for the fluid phase; the many-body hydrodynamic interactions are fully accounted for, both in the creeping-flow regime and at higher Reynolds numbers. Brownian motion of the solid particles arises spontaneously from stochastic fluctuations in the fluid stress tensor, rather than from random forces or displacements applied directly to the particles. In this paper, the theoretical foundations of the technique are laid out, illustrated by simple analytical and numerical examples; in a companion paper (Part 2), extensive numerical tests of the method, for stationary flows, time-dependent flows, and finite-Reynolds-number flows, are reported.
Expression Proteomics Predicts Loss of RXR-γ during Progression of Epithelial Ovarian Cancer

The process of cellular transformation involves cascades of molecular changes that are modulated through altered epigenetic, transcription, post-translational and protein regulatory networks. Thus, identification of transformation-associated protein alterations can provide an insight into major regulatory pathways activated during disease progression. In the present protein expression profiling approach, we identified differential sets of proteins in a two-dimensional gel electrophoresis screen of a serous ovarian adenocarcinoma progression model. Function-based categorization of the proteins exclusively associated with pre-transformed cells identified four cellular processes of which RXR-γ is known to modulate cellular differentiation and apoptosis. We thus probed the functional relevance of RXR-γ expression and signaling in these two pathways during tumor progression. RXR-γ expression was observed to modulate cellular differentiation and apoptosis in steady-state pre-transformed cells. Interestingly, retinoid treatment was found to enhance RXR-γ expression in transformed cells and sensitize them towards apoptosis in vitro, and also reduce growth of xenografts derived from transformed cells. Our findings emphasize that loss of RXR-γ levels appears to provide mechanistic benefits to transformed cells towards the acquisition of resistance to apoptosis hallmark of cancer, while effective retinoid treatment may present a viable approach towards sensitization of tumor cells to apoptosis through induction of RXR-γ expression.
Leadership Succession

Leaders frequently attempt to implement changes when they enter an ongoing organization. Subordinates react to these attempts, either by facilitating implementation or by resisting it. This research examined both implementation tactics and resistance tactics. The first of two studies found that the implementation tactics used by Army leaders are highly similar to those that have been reported previously for civilian leaders, except that training is used as an implementation tactic in the Army but not in civilian organizations. Army subordinates' tactics are similar to, but more limited than, those previously described for civilian subordinates. The second study found that Army leaders' ratings of the various implementation tactics differed as a function of leadership experience and the presence or absence of subordinate resistance to the proposed change. Army subordinates' ratings of tactics for dealing with proposed changes differed as a function of the subordinates' acceptance of or resistance to the proposed change.
Valproic acid–mediated myocardial protection of acute hemorrhagic rat via the BCL-2 pathway

BACKGROUND Hemorrhage is a major cause of morbidity and mortality among trauma patients. The pathophysiologic changes following acute severe hemorrhage and tissue hypoxia lead to an imbalance of protein acetylation. Histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACIs) were reported to restore the acetylation imbalance and serve as potential drugs for treating severe hemorrhage. However, the molecular mechanism of HDACI-mediated cytoprotection remains unclear. In this study, we examined the myocardial protective effects and respective mechanism of the HDACI valproic acid (VPA) administered during hemorrhagic and hypoxic stress in vivo and in vitro. METHODS In vivo, the therapeutic effect of VPA was evaluated in acute severe hemorrhagic rats, and the expressions of BCL-2 signal pathway molecules were observed in rat heart tissues. To explore the molecular mechanism of VPA-mediated myocardial protection, a cobalt chloride (CoCl2)–induced hypoxia model of rat H9c2 cardiomyoblasts was applied to mimic hypoxic injury raised by acute hemorrhage. RESULTS VPA administration significantly improved the 4-hour survival rate of hemorrhagic animals from 55% to 100% and protected H9c2 cells against CoCl2-induced hypoxic injury at a dose of between 12.5 &mgr;M and 100 &mgr;M. Increased expression of BCL-2 messenger RNA was observed following VPA treatment in the heart tissues of hemorrhagic rats (approximately 4.9-fold) and in H9c2 cells that survived CoCl2-induced hypoxia (approximately 4.9-fold). Western blot analysis showed a concomitant increase in BCL-2 protein expression and Akt phosphorylation following VPA treatment. The cytoprotective activity of VPA was diminished by triciribine-mediated inhibition of Akt activation and by silencing of BCL-2 gene expression. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that VPA protects myocardial cells from hemorrhagic and hypoxic stress through the Akt/BCL-2 survival pathway, indicating a potential use of HDACIs for acute severe hemorrhage treatment.
The Identification of Speech in Noise by Cochlear Implant Patients and Normal‐Hearing Listeners Using 6‐Channel Signal Processors

Objective: To compare the recognition of vowels and sentences in noise by cochlear implant patients using a 6‐channel, continuous interleaved sampling (CIS) processor and by normal‐hearing subjects listening to speech processed in the manner of the implant processor and output as six amplitude‐modulated sine waves. Design: Subjects, 11 normal‐hearing listeners and 7 cochlear implant patients, were presented natural vowels produced by men, women, and girls in /hVd/ context and sentences from the Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) lists at +15, +10, and +5 dB signal to noise ratio (SNR) for identification. Stimuli for the normal‐hearing subjects were preprocessed through a simulation of a 6‐channel implant processor and were output as the sum of sinusoids at the center frequencies of the analysis filters. Results: For the multitalker vowels, four of the seven patients achieved scores within +/‐1 standard deviation of the mean for normal‐hearing listeners at +15 and +10 dB SNR. At the +5 dB SNR three patients achieved scores within +/‐1 standard deviation of the mean for the normal‐hearing listeners. For the HINT sentences, four of seven patients achieved scores within +/‐1 standard deviation of the mean for the normal‐hearing listeners at +15 dB and at +10 dB SNR and two achieved scores within that range at +5 dB SNR. Conclusion: Our results extend the range of stimulus conditions, from quiet to modest amounts of noise, in which the CIS strategy allows the best performing patients to extract most, if not all, of the information available to normal‐hearing subjects listening to speech processed into six channels.
Aging Effect on Neurotrophic Activity of Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Clinical efficacy of stem cells for nerve repair is likely to be influenced by issues including donor age and in vitro expansion time. We isolated human mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) from bone marrow of young (16–18 years) and old (67–75 years) donors and analyzed their capacity to differentiate and promote neurite outgrowth from dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons. Treatment of MSC with growth factors (forskolin, basic fibroblast growth factor, platelet derived growth factor-AA and glial growth factor-2) induced protein expression of the glial cell marker S100 in cultures from young but not old donors. MSC expressed various neurotrophic factor mRNA transcripts. Growth factor treatment enhanced the levels of BDNF and VEGF transcripts with corresponding increases in protein release in both donor cell groups. MSC in co-culture with DRG neurons significantly enhanced total neurite length which, in the case of young but not old donors, was further potentiated by treatment of the MSC with the growth factors. Stem cells from young donors maintained their proliferation rate over a time course of 9 weeks whereas those from the old donors showed increased population doubling times. MSC from young donors, differentiated with growth factors after long-term culture, maintained their ability to enhance neurite outgrowth of DRG. Therefore, MSC isolated from young donors are likely to be a favourable cell source for nerve repair.