Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cutaneous malignancies during treatment with efalizumab and infliximab: When temporal relationship does not mean causality

Abstract Some of the traditional psoriasis therapies, such as PUVA therapy and ciclosporin, have been linked to an increased incidence of non-melanoma skin cancer. More recently, an increased risk of cancer has also been a concern with newly introduced biologic agents. The authors report a case of multiple cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas arising on the lower limbs of a patient receiving efalizumab first and subsequently infliximab following many years of treatment with conventional therapies including PUVA and ciclosporin. Both these previous therapies likely contributed to the development of the skin tumors of this patient. Several case reports have documented that the use of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α inhibitors may be associated with non-melanoma skin cancer, in particular squamous cell carcinoma. However, case reports, although numerous and well documented, do not fulfil the requirements for testing a cause–effect hypothesis. Since data from animal models indicate that TNF inhibition does not increase the incidence of malignancies, additional longer-term studies are necessary to ascertain whether a link exists between anti-TNF-α and non-melanoma skin cancer above that normally observed in psoriasis patients.
Association of the tau haplotype H2 with age at onset and functional alterations of glucose utilization in frontotemporal dementia.

OBJECTIVE The microtubule-associated protein tau gene (MAPT) contains two extended haplotypes, H1 and H2, which have been linked with sporadic tauopathies. However, there is little evidence as to how these haplotypes may influence the clinical features of the disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the MAPT haplotypes in relation to risk for, and functional alterations of glucose metabolism in, patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD). METHOD The authors investigated MAPT haplotypes in 142 individuals with FTD and 292 comparison subjects. Additionally, in a subset of 41 individuals with FTD and 16 comparison subjects, the authors undertook functional [ (18)F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. RESULTS MAPT haplotype distribution did not differ significantly between individuals with FTD and comparison subjects. However, the H2 haplotype was clinically associated with an earlier age at onset of FTD, which presented in a dose-dependent manner. Correspondingly, PET analysis revealed functional differences in glucose utilization patterns between MAPT haplotypes, with H2 carriers having a more pronounced hypometabolism in frontal brain areas than H1 carriers, which could not be accounted for by differences in duration of illness. CONCLUSIONS While the extended MAPT H1 and H2 haplotypes do not appear to confer risk for disease development, the H2 haplotype appears to modify age at onset and functionally shows a more severe decline of glucose utilization in frontal brain areas.
Factors involved in supporting the growth and steroidogenic functions of bovine adrenal cortical cells maintained on extracellular matrix and exposed to a serum‐free medium

Bovine adrenal cortex cells maintained on extracellular matrix (ECM)‐coated dishes will proliferate actively when serum is replaced by HDL (25 μg protein/ml), insulin (10 ng/ml), and FGF (100 ng/ml). The cells have an absolute requirement for HDL in order to survive and grow. The omission of insulin, FGF, or both results in a slower growth rate and lower final cell density of the cultures. A requirement for transferrin (1 μg/ml) becomes apparent only when cells have been grown for at least four generations in the absence of serum.
Root gravitropism

When a plant root is reoriented within the gravity field, it responds by initiating a curvature which eventually results in vertical growth. Gravity sensing occurs primarily in the root tip. It may involve amyloplast sedimentation in the columella cells of the root cap, or the detection of forces exerted by the mass of the protoplast on opposite sides of its cell wall. Gravisensing activates a signal transduction cascade which results in the asymmetric redistribution of auxin and apoplastic Ca2+ across the root tip, with accumulation at the bottom side. The resulting lateral asymmetry in Ca2+ and auxin concentration is probably transmitted to the elongation zone where differential cellular elongation occurs until the tip resumes vertical growth. The Cholodny‐Went theory proposes that gravity‐induced auxin redistribution across a gravistimulated plant organ is responsible for the gravitropic response. However, recent data indicate that the gravity‐induced reorientation is more complex, involving both auxin gradient‐dependent and auxin gradient‐independent events.
A major milestone in the history of Albanian kidney transplant

Abstract: Albania is a young Democracy emerging from under 40 yr of dictatorship. During this era Albanians were subjected to isolation, purges, shortages, repression of civil, political and religious rights. This resulted in the least developed healthcare system in Europe. After the mid 90s, there have been relentless attempts to modernize Albania. Recently an international medical team collaborated with an Albanian team of physicians to perform the first successful renal transplant. With continued cooperation and perseverance developing a transplant program in Albania is within reach.
Violence, Non-Violence: Sartre on Fanon

The article examines Sartre’s highly controversial preface to The Wretched of the Earth. Its aim is to identify what, in the various modes of address, are elements in an economy of violence and what, on the contrary, participates in a process of recognition. The examination of the addressees of the address leads to a correlative transformation of the very notion of the author, commonly equated with the merely singular individual. What is at stake here is to grasp what makes Fanon, as it does any political theorist, not merely an author but also a “movement emerging”. The exploration of discursive regimes also leads to a reflection on what, within the habitual practices of interpellation, participates in a gendered division of the conversation and companionship of struggles.
Diagnostic criteria for complicated grief disorder.

OBJECTIVE Some prolonged and turbulent grief reactions include symptoms that differ from the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder. The authors investigated a new diagnosis that would include these symptoms. METHOD They developed observer-based definitions of 30 symptoms noted clinically in previous longitudinal interviews of bereaved persons and then designed a plan to investigate whether any combination of these would serve as criteria for a possible new diagnosis of complicated grief disorder. Using a structured diagnostic interview, they assessed 70 subjects whose spouses had died. Latent class model analyses and signal detection procedures were used to calibrate the data against global clinical ratings and self-report measures of grief-specific distress. RESULTS Complicated grief disorder was found to be characterized by a smaller set of the assessed symptoms. Subjects elected by an algorithm for these symptoms patterns did not significantly overlap with subjects who received a diagnosis of major depressive disorder. CONCLUSIONS A new diagnosis of complicated grief disorder may be indicated. Its criteria would include the current experience (more than a year after a loss) of intense intrusive thoughts, pangs of severe emotion, distressing yearnings, feeling excessively alone and empty, excessively avoiding tasks reminiscent of the deceased, unusual sleep disturbances, and maladaptive levels of loss of interest in personal activities.
Online vehicle detection using Haar-like, LBP and HOG feature based image classifiers with stereo vision preselection

Environment sensing is an essential property for autonomous cars. With the help of sensors, nearby objects can be detected and localized. Furthermore, the creation of an accurate model of the surroundings is crucial for high-level planning. In this paper, we focus on vehicle detection based on stereo camera images. While stereoscopic computer vision is applied to localize objects in the environment, the objects are then identified by image classifiers. We implemented and evaluated several algorithms from image based pattern recognition in our autonomous car framework, using HOG-, LBP-, and Haar-like features. We will present experimental results using real traffic data with focus on classification accuracy and execution times.
Suicidal Ideation and Attempt among Immigrants in Europe: A Literature Review

The aim of this literature review was to provide an overview of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among immigrants in Europe. Psyc info, Psyc articles and PubMed were used. Prisma flowchart describes selection of articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Seventeen articles were included in the study. Predictors of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt among immigrants in Europe are family conflict, health problems, substance abuse, low educational level and being adopted by a host inhabitant family, financial disadvantages. Female immigrants and second-generation immigrants appeared to be at higher risk than male immigrants with regard to suicidal ideation and suicide attempt.
Compressive sensing of video with weighted sensing and measurement allocation

This paper proposes a compressive sensing of video (CSV) framework that utilizes statistical properties of video signal. The proposed scheme periodically acquires deterministic measurements (i.e., low frequency DCT coefficients) for key frames to improve recovering both key and nonkey frames. In addition, based on temporal correlation among frames, side information is generated for nonkey frames to model their important coefficients and sparsity in transform domain. This information helps better sensing by weighted sensing and measurement allocation. Experimental results show effectiveness of the proposed techniques and their significant improvement compared to prior work.
eHealth Use Among First-Generation Immigrants From Pakistan in the Oslo Area, Norway, With Focus on Diabetes: Survey Protocol

Background A variety of eHealth services are available and commonly used by the general public. eHealth has the potential to engage and empower people with managing their health. The prerequisite is, however, that eHealth services are adapted to the sociocultural heterogeneity of the user base and are available in a language and with contents that fit the users’ preference, skills, and abilities. Pakistani immigrants in the Oslo area, Norway, have a much higher risk of Type-2 diabetes (T2D) than their Norwegian counterparts do. In spite of having access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the Internet, ICT skills in this population are reported to be relatively low. Further, there is insufficient information about their use of and attitudes toward eHealth services, necessitating investigation of this group in particular. Objective This study targets first-generation immigrants from Pakistan living in the Oslo area and examines their use of and attitudes toward eHealth services, specifically: information searches, communication using ICT, and use of ICT for self-management or decision making, all concerning T2D. Methods Due to a high prevalence of low literacy among the target population, we employed questionnaire-based individual interviews. The questionnaire was developed by implementing potentially relevant theoretical constructs (technology acceptance model (TAM) and health belief model (HBM)) as measures. To explore issues around language, culture, and general ICT skills, we also implemented questions that we assume were particularly relevant in the context studied but do not appear in any theoretical frameworks. The questionnaire was revised to reflect results of a pilot study involving 10 participants. We employed culturally sensitive sampling methods to reach informants who could otherwise fail to be included in the survey. Results This paper presents a survey protocol. The data collection is ongoing. The aim is to collect 200 responses in total by March 2016. Conclusions For eHealth to become an influential social innovation, equal access to eHealth services regardless of users’ language, culture, and ICT skills is a prerequisite. Results from this study will be of importance for understanding how people who may not maximally benefit from eHealth services today could be targeted in the future.
Analysis of Skin-Graft Loss Due to Infection: Infection-Related Graft Loss

This prospective study was performed to analyze the causes of infection-related skin-graft loss in a general population of plastic and reconstructive surgery patients. One hundred thirty-two patients who received either full- or split-thickness skin grafts to reconstruct soft-tissue defects were included. The tissue defects were grouped according to the cause as follows: vascular ulcers (9.2%), burns (14.5%), traumatic tissue defects (36.6%), and flap donor-site defects (39.7%). In all cases, the preoperative evaluation indicated an adequate wound-bed preparation. However, graft loss secondary to infection was recorded in 31 patients (23.5%). The microbiological cultures revealed Pseudomonas aeruginosa in 58.1% of the cases (P < 0.05), followed by Staphylococcus aureus, Enterobacter, enterococci, and Acinetobacter; 58.3% of grafts in vascular ulcers, 47.4% of grafts in burns, 16.7% of grafts in traumatic-tissue defects; and 13.5% of grafts in donor-site defects were lost due to infection. Vascular ulcers and burns were more commonly associated with graft losses due to infection than other tissue defects (P < 0.001). No correlation was found between the etiological cause of the defects and the microorganisms cultured. However, Pseudomonas infections were more fulminant and caused an increased reoperation rate 4.2 times (P < 0.05). Full-thickness grafts were more resistant to infection than split-thickness grafts (P<0.05). Graft loss due to infection was also more common in grafts applied to the lower extremities or when performed at multiple sites. In conclusion, 23.7% of skin grafts were lost due to infection in a group of general plastic surgery patients. Infection-related graft loss was more commonly encountered in vascular ulcers and burn wounds, and the most common cause was Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Response to Comments on “Technique Trumps Relevance”

I explain here the disconnect between our discipline's self-image as balancing rigor with relevance with the reality of how we actually conduct our scholarship most of the time. To do so, I account for variation in social scientists' willingness to engage in policy-relevant scholarship over time. My theory is that social science, at least as it has been practiced in the United States since the early twentieth century, has tried to balance two impulses: To be a rigorous science and a relevant social enterprise. The problem is that there are sometimes tensions between these two objectives. First, historically the most useful policy-relevant social science work in the area of national security affairs has been interdisciplinary in nature, and this cuts against the increasingly rigid disciplinary siloes in the modern academy. Second, as sociologist Thomas Gieryn puts it, there is “in science, an unyielding tension between basic and applied research, and between the empirical and theoretical aspects of inquiry. ” During wartime, the tensions between these two impulses have been generally muted, especially among those disciplines of direct relevance to the war effort; in peacetime, they reemerge and there are a variety of powerful institutional incentives within academe to resolve them in favor of a narrow definition of rigor that excludes relevance. My objective is to document how these trends in political science are marginalizing the sub-field of security studies, which has historically sought both scholarly rigor and real-world relevance. — Michael Desch. This essay is followed by responses from Ido Oren, Laura Sjobreg, Helen Louise Turton, Erik Voeten, and Stephen M. Walt. Michael Desch then offers a response to commentators.
Doubly Stochastic Variational Bayes for non-Conjugate Inference

We propose a simple and effective variational inference algorithm based on stochastic optimisation that can be widely applied for Bayesian non-conjugate inference in continuous parameter spaces. This algorithm is based on stochastic approximation and allows for efficient use of gradient information from the model joint density. We demonstrate these properties using illustrative examples as well as in challenging and diverse Bayesian inference problems such as variable selection in logistic regression and fully Bayesian inference over kernel hyperparameters in Gaussian process regression.
Selective Changes in Local Cerebral Glucose Utilization Induced by Phenobarbital in the Rat

Alterations in cerebral metabolic activity were measured after different doses of phenobarbital. Local cerebral glucose utilization was determined in 58 brain regions with the use of the [14C]deoxyglucose technique in 3-month-old Fischer 344 rats, at 1 h after the ip administration of saline or of phenobarbital. Whole brain glucose utilization declined in a dose-related manner by 4%, 13%, 33%, 35%, and 56% after phenobarbital 18, 60, 180, 300, and 600 mg/kg, respectively. The number of regions significantly affected (P < 0.05) increased from 7 to 95% of the regions examined between doses of 18 to 600 mg/kg. Metabolism decreased in all significantly affected regions except the interpeduncular nucleus, where it was increased. In a separate group of rats, the number of falls per 5 min from a constantly rotating cylinder was measured at subanesthetic doses of phenobarbital. Doses of drug that affected performance on the rotating cylinder (18 and 60 mg/kg) reduced glucose utilization in brain regions involved with motor performance, including the red nucleus, vestibular nucleus, substantia nigra, and deep layers of the superior colliculus, whereas cerebral cortical regions were not altered significantly. The results demonstrate that phenobarbital reduces cerebral glucose utilization, in a dose-dependent manner, in most brain regions and affects subcortical regions of the motor system significantly before reducing metabolism in the cerebral cortex.
Blocking of orexin receptors in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus has no effect on the expression of conditioned fear in rats

The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) projects to the central nucleus of the amygdala and recent experimental evidence indicates a role for the PVT in conditioned fear. Furthermore, the PVT contains a high density of orexin receptors and fibers and acute injections of orexin antagonist into the PVT produce anxiolytic effects. The present study was done to determine if administration of a dual orexin receptor antagonist (DORA) in the region of the PVT interferes with the expression of conditioned fear in rats exposed to cued and contextual conditioning paradigms. Infusion of 0.5 μl of the DORA N-biphenyl-2-yl-1-[(1-methyl-1H-benzimidazol-2yl) sulfanyl] acetyl-L-prolinamide at a concentration of 0.1, 1.0, and 10 nmol had no effect on the freezing produced by exposing rats to an auditory cue or the context associated with foot shock. In contrast, the 1.0 and 10 nmol doses were anxiolytic in the social interaction test. The results of the present study do not support a role for orexin receptors in the PVT in the expression of learned fear. The finding that the 1.0 and 10 nmol doses of DORA in the PVT region were anxiolytic in the social interaction test is consistent with other studies indicating a role for orexins in the PVT in anxiety-like behaviors.
Mandibular arch musculature of Anuran tadpoles, with comments on homologies of amphibian jaw muscles

This study analyzes the structure of the mandibular arch musculature in larval, metamorphic, and postmetamorphic anurans of 26 species and makes comparisons with larvae of three caudate and one gymnophione species. Major transformations in early evolution of anuran larvae comprise, for example, the powering of the larval upper jaw cartilages by relocating insertion sites of mandibular arch levators; splitting of some larval muscles into two muscles or muscle heads (m. intermandibularis, m. lev. mand. externus, m. lev. mand. longus); evolution of a muscle invading the lower lip of the oral disk (m. mandibulolabialis), and shift of origin of the internus and longus muscles from dorsal on the cranium to sites on the ventral otic capsule and palatoquadrate, respectively. In all these characters, Ascaphus truei shares the plesiomorphic conditions with caudates. The larva of Xenopus laevis is remarkable because the insertion pattern of three larval mandibular muscles anticipates the postmetamorphic condition of frogs in general and also resembles the caudate condition. Discoglossids, bombinatorids, pelobatids, and neobatrachians are largely similar in their muscle arrangements. The filter‐feeding microhylids, however, have most clearly modified the general neobatrachian pattern. Past conflicts in the interpretation and naming of muscles can be attributed to the implicit or explicit homology assumptions used. In particular, the muscles' relations to the branches of the trigeminal nerve have been the dominant criteria for inferring homology and has led to inconsistencies. This concept is questioned herein. It is observed that the relative position of the ramus mandibularis (V3) is more variable interspecifically in anuran larvae than previously thought. The relations of the nerve branches and muscles in larvae are maintained during metamorphosis. Considering the muscle pattern to be more conserved in interspecific comparisons than the position of the nerve branches results in a new interpretation of muscle homologies and a hypothesis of jaw muscle evolution in amphibians that is more parsimonious than earlier views. A new, simplified terminology for the jaw musculature is proposed that is applicable for larvae and adults. It maximizes information content and reflects the hypothesized homologies of amphibian jaw muscles. J. Morphol. 247:1–33, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Hair Contamination of Sheepdog and Pet Dogs with Toxocara canis Eggs

Background We tried to investigate the hair contamination of pet dogs and farm sheepdog with Toxocara eggs in terms of the different sex and age groups in north-west of Iran (Urmia and its suburbs). Methods Hair samples were collected from a total of 138 pet and farm sheepdogs from November 2008 to June 2009 in Urmia City and the suburb (West Azerbaijan-Iran) and examined for the presence of T. canis eggs. Results T. canis eggs found in 60 samples altogether (pet and shepherd dogs) showed a contamination rate of 36.2%. The number of observed T. canis eggs in each microscope field was varied from 1 to > 400. The age of the dog was found a significant factor to influence the prevalence and intensity of contamination, with 82% of all the eggs recovered from puppies (six months and younger). Additionally, the numbers of eggs in farm sheepdogs were significantly higher than pet dogs (P<0.05). Conclusion This report shows that direct contact with T. canis infected dogs, particularly puppies from shepherd dogs, may pose a serious hazard to human. Besides, as they may harbor a considerable number of eggs on their hair, they can contaminate the soil and the environment.