Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Outcomes of Surgical Atrial Fibrillation Ablation: The Port Access Approach vs. Median Sternotomy

Background The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical and rhythm outcomes of atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation through a port access approach compared with sternotomy in patients with AF associated with mitral valve diseases. Materials and Methods From February 2006 through December 2009, 135 patients underwent biatrial AF ablation with a mitral operation via either a port-access approach (n=78, minimally invasive cardiac surgery [MICS] group) or a conventional sternotomy (n=57, sternotomy group). To adjust for the differences in the two groups' baseline characteristics, a propensity score analysis was performed. Results After adjustment, there were no significant differences in the two groups' baseline profiles. The cardiopulmonary bypass time was significantly longer (p=0.045) in the MICS group (176.0±49.5 minutes) than the sternotomy group (150.0±51.9 minutes). There were no significant differences (p=0.31) in the two groups' rate of reoperation for bleeding (MICS=6 vs. sternotomy= 2, p=0.47) or the requirement for permanent pacing (MICS=1 vs. sternotomy=3). The major event-free survival rates at two years were 87.4±8.1% in the MICS group and 89.6±5.8% in the sternotomy group (p=0.92). Freedom from late AF at 2 years was 86.8±6.2% in the MICS group and 85.0±6.9% in the sternotomy group (p=0.86). Conclusion Both the port-access approach and sternotomy showed tolerable clinical outcomes following biatrial AF ablation with mitral valve surgery.
Two-year prognosis after residential treatment for patients with alcohol dependence: three chief guidelines for sobriety in Japan

Background In Japan, the three chief traditional guidelines for sobriety (3CGS) are regular medical checkups, participation in self-help groups, and pharmacotherapy with antidipsotropics. However, the official record of the origins of 3CGS is not clear. The aim of this current study was to assess 3CGS by an examination of the prognosis of patients with alcohol dependence 2 years after their discharge from a residential treatment program. Subjects and methods The association between subjects’ abstinence from alcohol and their regular medical checkups, participation in self-help groups, and treatment with antidipsotropics were prospectively examined. Two years after discharge, the relationship between the 3CGS compliance and abstinence rates was investigated as the primary outcome. In addition, the following were examined as secondary outcomes: the time taken till the first drink after discharge, whether the participants were readmitted to residential treatment, the number of days to readmission, the number of heavy drinking days, and recovery. Results A total of 98 patients participated. The perfect and partial abstinence rates for patients who followed all the principles of 3CGS were significantly higher than those for patients who followed no guidelines (P<0.05 and P<0.01, respectively). The perfect abstinence rates for patients who had continued attending checkup sessions (P<0.001) and who were taking antidipsotropics (P<0.05) were significantly higher than those for patients who did not follow these components of 3CGS. However, the perfect abstinence rates were not higher for patients who had continued to participate in self-help groups. In addition, the perfect abstinence rate was statistically associated with regular medical checkups (adjusted odds ratio =5.33, 95% confidence interval =1.35–21.0) and participation in self-help groups (adjusted odds ratio =3.79, 95% confidence interval =1.17–12.3). Conclusion This study, reports the effectiveness of 3CGS for the first time. The recovery rate of alcoholics 2 years after discharge from residential treatment was examined. However, due to the chronic nature of alcoholism, further studies are required to investigate the efficacy of 3CGS beyond 2 years.
Evidence for apoptosis, MMP-1, MMP-3 and TIMP-2 expression and their effect on the mechanical and biochemical properties of fresh viable knee medial meniscal allografts and autografts in the rabbit

Introduction The study sought evidence for apoptosis, the expression of MMP-1, MMP-3 and TIMP-2 and their effect on the mechanical and biochemical properties of rabbit fresh knee medial meniscal grafts in a 6-month follow-up. Material and methods Forty white male New Zealand rabbits were chosen for the study. The medial meniscus was excised from 28 animals and stored under tissue culture conditions for 2 weeks, following which 14 of them were implanted as autografts and 14 as allografts. When the animals were euthanized, 20 menisci were used for immunohistochemical examinations. Apoptosis (TUNEL method) and MMP-1, MMP-3 and TIMP-2 immunoexpression were estimated semiquantitatively. The other 20 menisci were subjected to biochemical analysis and their degree of elasticity was evaluated. Results An increased level of apoptosis (p <0.05) was observed both in allografts (1.57 ±0.98) and autografts (0.86 ±0.69); no statistical differences existed between them. An increased level of metalloproteinases and TIMP-2 expression was observed only in the allografts (p < 0.05). The highest decrease of degree of elasticity and the most significant changes in biochemical composition were observed in allografts (p < 0.05). Conclusions The studies confirmed the existence of excessive apoptosis in both kinds of fresh viable medial meniscal implants: auto- and allografts. Our results suggest that apoptosis and increased MMP-1 and MMP-3 expression have an adverse effect on the biological properties of implants. The results of experimental studies on humans indicate the need to devise a method of apoptosis inhibition in transplanted menisci to improve long-term results.
Revisiting the benefits of higher education

The economic returns of higher education (HE) in terms of enhanced earnings are well established. The wider set of ‘non-economic benefits’ in the areas of health, generic skills and citizenship are less widely recognised. In an earlier report, we presented preliminary findings on the wider benefits, drawing on data collected at age 33 from the National Child Development Study (based on a cohort born in 1958). This report updates the earlier conclusions through new findings from a more extensive analysis involving both the 1958 cohort and the more recent 1970 British Cohort Study cohort (based on a cohort born in 1970). The current analysis incorporates more recent data collected in both cohorts in 2000 and at an older age (1958 cohort). We report findings in five major areas. First, we examine the mobility of graduates. To what extent do some parts of the country gain and lose graduates and graduate types of occupation at the expense of others? We then report findings on the ‘marginal returns’ to higher education in four domains of life: health, labour market, citizenship and values, and parenting.
The association between firm‐specific characteristics and disclosure

Purpose – The main thrust of this paper is to assess the level of disclosure in the annual reports of non‐financial Saudi firms and to empirically investigate the hypothesized impact of several firm characteristics on the extent of voluntary disclosure.Design/methodology/approach – A disclosure checklist consisting of 20 voluntary items was developed to assess the level of disclosure in the 2003 annual reports of 40 firms, forming approximately 56 percent of the total firms incorporated in Saudi Arabia. The association between the level of disclosure and some firm characteristics was examined using multiple linear regression analysis.Findings – The results show that the mean of the disclosure index was lower than average. Also, it was found that firm size was significantly positively associated with the level of disclosure. The remaining variables, however, were found to be insignificant in explaining the variation of voluntary disclosure.Research limitations/implications – There are, however, several lim.
From the Cover: Leber congenital amaurosis linked to AIPL1: A mouse model reveals destabilization of cGMP phosphodiesterase

Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) has the earliest onset and is the most severe form of inherited retinopathy in humans. LCA is genetically heterogeneous and is generally inherited in an autosomal recessive fashion. LCA is characterized by complete blindness and the near absence of electrical responses to light within 1 year of birth. LCA has been linked to mutations in the gene encoding Aipl1 (1–3). The vast majority of these mutations in Aipl1 are linked to LCA, but a few C-terminal mutations are linked to two other retinal diseases, cone–rod dystrophy and juvenile retinitis pigmentosa (3). AIPL1 is expressed only in retina and pineal gland (1). In adult mouse retina, it is found within the outer plexiform layer and the inner segments of photoreceptors; in humans, AIPL1 is expressed in both developing rods and cones and mature rods (4, 5). Two possibilities for the essential role for AIPL1 in retina have been proposed (4). The first is that AIPL1 enhances an essential farnesylation reaction. Farnesylation is a specific type of prenylation, the addition of a farnesyl or geranylgeranyl residue to specific proteins. Several retinal proteins, cGMP phosphodiesterase (PDE), transducin, and rhodopsin (Rho) kinase (RK) are known to be farnesylated (6–9). Prenylation of retinal proteins is required for maintenance of retinal cytoarchitecture and photoreceptor structure. Inhibition of prenylation causes degeneration of photoreceptor outer segments (10). Prenylation also greatly enhances the stability of cGMP PDE, a protein essential for photoreceptor survival (11). Prenylation of PDE is also necessary for its membrane association (11). These studies suggest that AIPL1 is necessary for the maintenance of photoreceptors. The second possible essential role for AIPL1 is the control of photoreceptor proliferation and or differentiation. AIPL1 interacts with Nedd8-ultimate buster 1 (NUB1), a ubiquitously expressed protein thought to play an important role in regulating cell cycle progression (12). Based on the NUB1 interaction, early expression of AIPL1 in human retina, and the severity of AIPL1 mutations linked to LCA, it has been proposed that AIPL1 is essential for the initial development of photoreceptors (5). To understand at the molecular level why a deficiency of AIPL1 causes LCA, we disrupted the Aipl1 gene in mice. In Aipl1 deficient mice, the initial development of photoreceptors proceeds normally. However, once outer segments begin to develop, photoreceptors undergo rapid and severe degeneration. In agreement with the characteristics of LCA, retinas from mice lacking AIPL1 produce no electrical responses to light. The biochemical basis for the rapid retinal degeneration appears to be destabilization of cGMP PDE.
DsUniPi: An SVM-based Approach for Sentiment Analysis of Figurative Language on Twitter

The DsUniPi team participated in the SemEval 2015 Task#11: Sentiment Analysis of Figurative Language in Twitter. The proposed approach employs syntactical and morphological features, which indicate sentiment polarity in both figurative and non-figurative tweets. These features were combined with others that indicate presence of figurative language in order to predict a fine-grained sentiment score. The method is supervised and makes use of structured knowledge resources, such as SentiWordNet sentiment lexicon for assigning sentiment score to words and WordNet for calculating word similarity. We have experimented with different classification algorithms (Naive Bayes, Decision trees, and SVM), and the best results were achieved by an SVM classifier with linear kernel.
The Impact of the Fusarium Toxin Deoxynivalenol (DON) on Poultry

Deoxynivalenol (DON), a trichothecene, is prevalent worldwide in crops used for food and feed production. The presence of mycotoxins in poultry feeds is a significant factor for financial losses to animal industries. Although DON is one of the least acutely toxic trichothecenes, it should be treated as an important food safety issue because it is a common contaminant of grains. Special care must be taken in so-called “Fusarium years”. As poultry is regarded to be less sensitive to DON compared to other species it is suspected to divert the infected cereal batches to poultry feeding. This review focuses on the ability of DON to induce toxicologic and immunotoxic effects in chickens. Chickens and laying hens respond to increasing dietary DON concentrations with a reduction in productivity only at high levels above 5mg/kg but there is no clear evidence of a dose-response relationship. The main effect at low dietary concentrations appears to be a reduction in food consumption (anorexia), while higher doses induce severe reduction in weight and impaired resistance to infection, particularly bacterial infection. One important aspect of DON toxicity is injury to the gastrointestinal tract. DON has an influence intestinal morphology of chickens, especially in the duodenum and jejunum, as evidenced by shorter and thinner villi. Additionally, DON decreased the intestinal nutrients absorption (glucose and amino acid) in the chicken small intestine in vivo and In vitro. The capacity of DON to alter normal immune function has been of particular interest. There is extensive evidence that DON impairs the immune function in broiler and Leghorn chicks. DON induced changes in the haematopoietic system of chicks and altered the mitogen-induced proliferation of lymphocytes. The feeding of DON contaminated grains decreases serum antibody titers against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) in laying hens and broilers. Other effects include superinduction of cytokine production by T helper cells (In vitro) and activation of T cells to produce a proinflammatory cytokine. To what extent the elevation of cytokines contributes to metabolic effects such as decreased feed intake remains to be established. Further toxicological studies on the impact of DON in the immune system and gastrointestinal tract of poultry are warranted.
Electrostatic correlations: from plasma to biology

Electrostatic correlations play an important role in physics, chemistry and biology. In plasmas they result in thermodynamic instability similar to the liquid–gas phase transition of simple molecular fluids. For charged colloidal suspensions the electrostatic correlations are responsible for screening and colloidal charge renormalization. In aqueous solutions containing multivalent counterions they can lead to charge inversion and flocculation. In biological systems the correlations account for the organization of cytoskeleton and the compaction of genetic material. In spite of their ubiquity, the true importance of electrostatic correlations has come to be fully appreciated only quite recently. In this paper, we will review the thermodynamic consequences of electrostatic correlations in a variety of systems ranging from classical plasmas to molecular biology.
Beta-Catenin and Epithelial Tumors: A Study Based on 374 Oropharyngeal Cancers

Introduction. Although altered regulation of the Wnt pathway via beta-catenin is a frequent event in several human cancers, its potential implications in oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC/OPSCC) are largely unexplored. Work purpose was to define association between beta-catenin expression and clinical-pathological parameters in 374 OSCCs/OP-SCCs by immunohistochemistry (IHC). Materials and Methods. Association between IHC detected patterns of protein expression and clinical-pathological parameters was assessed by statistical analysis and survival rates by Kaplan-Meier curves. Beta-catenin expression was also investigated in OSCC cell lines by Real-Time PCR. An additional analysis of the DNA content was performed on 22 representative OSCCs/OPSCCs by DNA-image-cytometric analysis. Results and Discussion. All carcinomas exhibited significant alterations of beta-catenin expression (P < 0.05). Beta-catenin protein was mainly detected in the cytoplasm of cancerous cells and only focal nuclear positivity was observed. Higher cytoplasmic expression correlated significantly with poor histological differentiation, advanced stage, and worst patient outcome (P < 0.05). By Real-Time PCR significant increase of beta-catenin mRNA was detected in OSCC cell lines and in 45% of surgical specimens. DNA ploidy study demonstrated high levels of aneuploidy in beta-catenin overexpressing carcinomas. Conclusions. This is the largest study reporting significant association between beta-catenin expression and clinical-pathological factors in patients with OSCCs/OPSCCs.
Prepration & Analysis For Some Mechanical Property Of Aluminium Based Metal Matrix Composite Reinforced With Sic & Fly Ash Er

The paper deals with the fabrication of aluminium based metal matrix composite and then characterized their mechanical properties such as hardness, toughness and tensile strength. In the present study a modest attempt has been made to develop aluminium based silicon carbide particulate MMCs with an objective to develop a conventional low cast method of producing MMCs and to obtain homogeneous dispersion of ceramic material. To achieve this objective stir casting technique has been adopted. Aluminium 6061 (97.06% C.P) and SiC, Fly Ash has been chosen as matrix and reinforcement material respectively. Experiment has been conducted by varying weight fraction of SiC (2.5%, 5%, 7.5%, 10%) while keeping all other parameters constant. The result indicated that the developed method is quite successful and there is an increase in the value of tensile strength, hardness and toughness with increase in weight percentage of SiC.
A new micro biological cell injection system

Recently, many instruments and systems related on the biological technology have been developed. Particularly, various researches for biological cell injection have been carried out. Generally, excessive contact force occurring when an end-effector and a biological cell contact might make a damage on the cell. Unfortunately, the excessive force could easily destroy the membrane and tissue of the cell. In order to overcome the problem, we have proposed a new injection system for biological cell manipulation. The proposed micro injection system can measure force in bio cell injection. Moreover it can transmit a measured force to operator by haptic device. In this research, we developed a micro end-effector for measurement of the injection force and a haptic device for transmission of bio cell injection force. Consequently, the proposed injection system could safely manipulate the biological cells without any damage. This paper presents the introduction of our new injection system and the design concept of the new micro end-effector and the haptic device. Through a series of experiments the proposed injection system shows the possibility of application for precision manipulation of the biological cell such as DNA.
The problem group? Psychological wellbeing of unmarried people living alone in the Republic of Korea

Background: The number of unmarried one-person households has increased rapidly among young adults living in the Republic of Korea since 2000. How this rise in solo living is related to psychological wellbeing is of importance to both individuals and society as a whole. Objective: This study examined how living alone is related to psychological wellbeing and how this association differs across attitudes toward marriage among young adults aged 25-39. Methods: We relied on repeated cross-sectional data from the Korea Social Survey (2010 and 2012) to compare unmarried solo residents to both unmarried and married individuals living with family members. Psychological wellbeing was measured in terms of life satisfaction and suicidal ideation over the past twelve months. Results: In general, unmarried solo residents experienced greater life satisfaction than did unmarried family coresidents. Of those with a positive attitude toward marriage, unmarried solo residents had lower life satisfaction than did married family coresidents. For those with a non-positive attitude toward marriage, however, there was no difference in the level of life satisfaction between unmarried solo residents and married family coresidents. Suicidal ideation did not differ by living arrangement. Conclusions: Unmarried solo living does not necessarily relate to lower psychological wellbeing among young adults in Korea. Life stage and attitudes toward marriage should be considered when examining the association between living arrangements and psychological wellbeing.
OMV – Ontology Metadata Vocabulary

Ontologies have seen quite an enormous development and application in many domains within the last years, especially in the context of the next web generation, the Semantic Web. Besides the work of countless researchers across the world, industry starts developing ontologies to support their daily operative business. Currently, most ontologies exist in pure form without any additional information, e.g. missing domain specific or application related information, such as provided by Dublin Core for text documents, denoting the difficulty for academia and industry to identify, find and apply – basically meaning to reuse – ontologies effectively and efficiently. Our contribution consists of a proposal for a metadata standard, so called Ontology Metadata Vocabulary (OMV) which is based on discussions and agreement in the EU IST thematic network of excellence Knowledge Web. OMV is available for download at http://ontoware.org/projects/omv. The current version 0.7 has been validated as OWL Lite by the WonderWeb OWL Ontology Validator (see http://phoebus.cs.man.ac.uk:9999/OWL/Validator).
Journal Section: Development/plasticity/repair

Title: Dendritic spine dynamics regulate the long-term stability of synaptic plasticity Abbreviated title: Dendritic spines stabilize synaptic plasticity Abstract Long-term synaptic plasticity requires postsynaptic influx of Ca 2+ and is accompanied by changes in dendritic spine size. Unless Ca 2+ influx mechanisms and spine volume scale proportionally, these changes in spine size will modify spine Ca 2+ concentrations obtained during subsequent synaptic activation. We show that a disproportionate relationship between Ca 2+ influx and spine volume fundamentally alters synaptic stability. If Ca 2+ influx is under-compensated, then strong synapses are stabilized and synaptic strength distributions have a single peak. In contrast, over-compensation of Ca 2+ influx leads to binary, persistent synaptic strengths with double-peaked distributions. Biophysical simulations predict that CA1 pyramidal neuron spines are under-compensating. This unifies experimental findings that weak synapses are more plastic than strong synapses, that synaptic strengths are unimodally distributed, and that potentiation saturates for a given stimulus strength. We conclude that structural plasticity provides a simple, local, and general mechanism that allows dendritic spines to foster both rapid memory formation and persistent memory storage.