Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prospective study on the relation of cigarette smoking with cancer of the liver and stomach in an endemic region.

BACKGROUND Smoking has not been confirmed as a risk factor for cancers of the liver and stomach. The authors examined prospectively the relationship between smoking and these cancers in an endemic region. METHODS The data used were a cohort study on the relationship between lifestyle and health in the region having the highest liver cancer mortality in Japan. Of the cohort members, 4050 males aged > or =40 years were included in the present analysis with a 9-year mean follow-up. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to estimate relative risks (RR) for cancer of the liver, stomach, smoking-related sites and others, while adjusting for age, residence, and alcohol intake. RESULTS By the end of the study period, 59 cases of liver cancer and 53 cases of stomach cancer were identified. Current smokers, compared to subjects who had never smoked, had a threefold risk of liver cancer (RR = 3.3; 95% CI: 1.2-9.5) and a twofold risk of stomach cancer (RR = 2.2; 95% CI: 0.8-5.7). Sub-cohort analysis showed that adjustment for history of chronic liver disease did not attenuate the risk of liver cancer. Light/medium smokers had almost the same risk of these cancers as heavy smokers, while they showed a relatively low risk of smoke-related cancers. CONCLUSIONS The present results indicate that smoking is a risk factor of liver and stomach cancer in a population with a high background risk for these cancers. However, causal inferences should be made cautiously due to a lack of information on known risk factors.
Action-Video-Game Experience Alters the Spatial Resolution of Vision

Playing action video games enhances several different aspects of visual processing; however, the mechanisms underlying this improvement remain unclear. Here we show that playing action video games can alter fundamental characteristics of the visual system, such as the spatial resolution of visual processing across the visual field. To determine the spatial resolution of visual processing, we measured the smallest distance a distractor could be from a target without compromising target identification. This approach exploits the fact that visual processing is hindered as distractors are brought close to the target, a phenomenon known as crowding. Compared with nonplayers, action-video-game players could tolerate smaller target-distractor distances. Thus, the spatial resolution of visual processing is enhanced in this population. Critically, similar effects were observed in non-video-game players who were trained on an action video game; this result verifies a causative relationship between video-game play and augmented spatial resolution.
Emerging clinical applications of computed tomography

X-ray computed tomography (CT) has recently been experiencing remarkable growth as a result of technological advances and new clinical applications. This paper reviews the essential physics of X-ray CT and its major components. Also reviewed are recent promising applications of CT, ie, CT-guided procedures, CT-based thermometry, photon-counting technology, hybrid PET-CT, use of ultrafast-high pitch scanners, and potential use of dual-energy CT for material differentiations. These promising solutions and a better knowledge of their potentialities should allow CT to be used in a safe and effective manner in several clinical applications.
THE 2MASS REDSHIFT SURVEY—DESCRIPTION AND DATA RELEASE

We present the results of the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS), a ten-year project to map the full three-dimensional distribution of galaxies in the nearby universe. The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) was completed in 2003 and its final data products, including an extended source catalog (XSC), are available online. The 2MASS XSC contains nearly a million galaxies with Ks ⩽ 13.5 mag and is essentially complete and mostly unaffected by interstellar extinction and stellar confusion down to a galactic latitude of |b| = 5° for bright galaxies. Near-infrared wavelengths are sensitive to the old stellar populations that dominate galaxy masses, making 2MASS an excellent starting point to study the distribution of matter in the nearby universe. We selected a sample of 44,599 2MASS galaxies with Ks ⩽ 11.75 mag and |b| ⩾ 5° (⩾8° toward the Galactic bulge) as the input catalog for our survey. We obtained spectroscopic observations for 11,000 galaxies and used previously obtained velocities for the remainder of the sample to generate a redshift catalog that is 97.6% complete to well-defined limits and covers 91% of the sky. This provides an unprecedented census of galaxy (baryonic mass) concentrations within 300 Mpc. Earlier versions of our survey have been used in a number of publications that have studied the bulk motion of the Local Group, mapped the density and peculiar velocity fields out to 50 h−1 Mpc, detected galaxy groups, and estimated the values of several cosmological parameters. Additionally, we present morphological types for a nearly complete sub-sample of 20,860 galaxies with Ks ⩽ 11.25 mag and |b| ⩾ 10°.
Medication adherence and achievement of glycaemic targets in ambulatory type 2 diabetic patients

The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of nonadherence to antidiabetic medications in a Malaysian tertiary hospital and its association with patients’ glycaemic outcomes. A cross-sectional study was conducted in the diabetes clinic of a tertiary hospital in Malaysia. Data was collected from patients’ medical records and also via personal interviews of type 2 diabetic patients. Of the 405 respondents recruited, 41.7% (95% CI, 36.946.4%) did not adhere to their antidiabetic medications. Only employment status of the respondents and the types of diabetic treatment were significantly associated with medication nonadherence. All the respondents were on antidiabetic medications, including 49.9% on insulin but only 17.4% (95% CI, 13.7-21.1%) achieved HbA1c of less than 6.5%. Those who were adherent to their antidiabetic medications were significantly more likely to achieve glycaemic control. Pharmacists should educate diabetic patients on the use of their medications and the importance of medication adherence. Such services will bring the healthcare system a step closer to achieving better clinical outcomes in this group of patients.
Effects of Pithecellobium Jiringa Ethanol Extract against Ethanol-Induced Gastric Mucosal Injuries in Sprague-Dawley Rats

Current anti-gastric ulcer agents have side effects, despite the progression and expansion of advances in treatment. This study aimed to investigate the gastroprotective mechanisms of Pithecellobium jiringa ethanol extract against ethanol-induced gastric mucosal ulcers in rats. For this purpose, Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into five groups: Group 1 (normal control) rats were orally administered with vehicle (carboxymethyl cellulose), Group 2 (ulcer control) rats were also orally administered with vehicle. Group 3 (positive control) rats were orally administered with 20 mg/kg omeprazole, Groups 4 and 5 (experimental groups) received ethanol extract of Pithecellobium jiringa ethanol extract at a concentration of 250 and 500 mg/kg, respectively. Sixty minutes later, vehicle was given orally to the normal control group, and absolute ethanol was given orally to the ulcer control, positive control and experimental groups to generate gastric mucosal injury. The rats were sacrificed an hour later. The effect of oral administration of plant extract on ethanol-induced gastric mucosal injury was studied grossly and histology. The level of lipid peroxidation, (malondialdehyde—MDA), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and gastric wall mucus were measured from gastric mucosal homogenate. The ulcer control group exhibited severe gastric mucosal injury, and this finding was also confirmed by histology of gastric mucosa which showed severe damage to the gastric mucosa with edema and leucocyte infiltration of the submucosal layer. Pre-treatment with plant extract significantly reduced the formation of ethanol-induced gastric lesions, and gastric wall mucus was significantly preserved. The study also indicated a significant increase in SOD activity in gastric mucosal homogenate, whereas a significant decrease in MDA was observed. Acute toxicity tests did not show any signs of toxicity and mortality up to 5 g/kg. The ulcer protective effect of this plant may possibly be due to its preservation of gastric wall mucus along with increased SOD activity and reduction of oxidative stress (MDA). The extract is non-toxic, even at relatively high concentrations.
Critical Assessment of Statewide Hospital Pharmaceutical Surge Capabilities for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive Incidents

Abstract Introduction: In recent years, government and hospital disaster planners have recognized the increasing importance of pharmaceutical preparedness for chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNE) events, as well as other public health emergencies. The development of pharmaceutical surge capacity for immediate use before support from the (US) Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) becomes available is integral to strengthening the preparedness of local healthcare networks. Methods: The Pharmaceutical Response Project served as an independent, multidisciplinary collaboration to assess statewide hospital pharmaceutical response capabilities. Surveys of hospital pharmacy directors were conducted to determine pharmaceutical response preparedness to CBRNE threats. Results: All 45 acute care hospitals in Maryland were surveyed, and responses were collected from 80% (36/45). Ninety-two percent (33/36) of hospitals had assessed pharmaceutical inventory with respect to biological agents, 92% (33/36) for chemical agents, and 67% (24/36) for radiological agents. However, only 64% (23/36) of hospitals reported an additional dedicated reserve supply for biological events, 67% (24/36) for chemical events, and 50% (18/36) for radiological events. More than 60% of the hospitals expected to receive assistance from the SNS within ≤48 hours. Conclusions: From a pharmaceutical perspective, hospitals generally remain under-prepared for CBRNE threats and many expect SNS support before it realistically would be available. Collectively, limited antibiotics and other supplies are available to offer prophylaxis or treatment, suggesting that hospitals may have insufficient pharmaceutical surge supplies for a large-scale event. Although most state hospitals are improving pharmaceutical surge capabilities, further efforts are needed.
Exercise is associated with improved asthma control in adults

Global asthma control levels are suboptimal. The influence of regular exercise on asthma control is unclear. We assessed the effects of a 12-week supervised exercise intervention followed by 12 weeks of self-administered exercise on adults with partially controlled asthma (n = 21) and matched controls (n = 15). Assessments were conducted at baseline and week 12 for both the exercise and control group, and again at week 24 for the exercise group. There was a significant treatment effect on asthma control in the exercise group, as measured by the Asthma Control Questionnaire (ACQ), from baseline to week 12, compared with the control group. A clinically significant improvement (0.5 increase in ACQ score) was observed for asthma quality of life and ACQ in the exercise group from baseline to week 12. There was a significant improvement in aerobic fitness from baseline to week 24 in the exercise group. In conclusion, a 12-week supervised exercise intervention led to improvements in asthma control and quality of life in partially controlled asthmatics motivated to exercise. These improvements were maintained, while aerobic fitness and perceived asthma control significantly improved over an additional 12 weeks of self-administered exercise. These findings indicate that a structured exercise intervention can improve asthma control.
Divergent Targets of Candida albicans Biofilm Regulator Bcr1 In Vitro and In Vivo

ABSTRACT Candida albicans is a causative agent of oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC), a biofilm-like infection of the oral mucosa. Biofilm formation depends upon the C. albicans transcription factor Bcr1, and previous studies indicate that Bcr1 is required for OPC in a mouse model of infection. Here we have used a nanoString gene expression measurement platform to elucidate the role of Bcr1 in OPC-related gene expression. We chose for assays a panel of 134 genes that represent a range of morphogenetic and cell cycle functions as well as environmental and stress response pathways. We assayed gene expression in whole infected tongue samples. The results sketch a portrait of C. albicans gene expression in which numerous stress response pathways are activated during OPC. This one set of experiments identifies 64 new genes with significantly altered RNA levels during OPC, thus increasing substantially the number of known genes in this expression class. The bcr1Δ/Δ mutant had a much more limited gene expression defect during OPC infection than previously reported for in vitro growth conditions. Among major functional Bcr1 targets, we observed that ALS3 was Bcr1 dependent in vivo while HWP1 was not. We used null mutants and complemented strains to verify that Bcr1 and Hwp1 are required for OPC infection in this model. The role of Als3 is transient and mild, though significant. Our findings suggest that the versatility of C. albicans as a pathogen may reflect its ability to persist in the face of multiple stresses and underscore that transcriptional circuitry during infection may be distinct from that detailed during in vitro growth.
SIR epidemics on random graphs with a fixed degree sequence

Let Δ > 1 be a fixed positive integer. For \documentclass{article}\usepackage{mathrsfs}\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}\begin{align*}{\textbf{ {z}}} \in \mathbb{R}_+^\Delta\end{align*} \end{document} let Gz be chosen uniformly at random from the collection of graphs on ∥z∥1n vertices that have zin vertices of degree i for i = 1,…,Δ. We determine the likely evolution in continuous time of the SIR model for the spread of an infectious disease on Gz, starting from a single infected node. Either the disease halts after infecting only a small number of nodes, or an epidemic spreads to infect a linear number of nodes. Conditioning on the event that more than a small number of nodes are infected, the epidemic is likely to follow a trajectory given by the solution of an associated system of ordinary differential equations. These results also give the likely number of nodes infected during the course of the epidemic and the likely length in time of the epidemic. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2012
Rosalie Wolf Memorial Lecture: Reconsidering Assumptions Regarding Men as Elder Abuse Perpetrators and as Elder Abuse Victims

From research findings and practice experiences, it is concluded that abuse of older men is especially invisible and underreported, compared to abuse of older women. It is proposed that attention should be directed not to gender, but to those conditions in different countries and cultures leading to abuse of both older men and women, including (but not limited to) economic problems, few alternatives to family care of the elderly, violence, changing characteristics of the family, ageism, and sexism. Advocates for the prevention of elder abuse should work together in combating, reducing, and eliminating the problem of elder abuse of both older men and older women.
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Signatures for Information Hiding and Secure Printing with Electrophotographic Devices

There are a number of applications in which it is desirable to be able to identify the technology, manufacturer, model, or even specific unit that was used to print a given document. Also, it may be desirable to embed additional information in the printed document, such as the date and time that it was printed. In previous work with laser electrophotographic printers , we developed strategies to reduce quasiperiodic banding artifacts that are characteristic of the specific print mechanism. The dominant process-direction spatial frequencies associated with these artifacts are determined by the parameters of the gear train in the print mechanism. Here we take a different view of these artifacts, treating them as a signature of the printer that can be identified by appropriate image analysis techniques. We refer to the characteristics of the native device as its intrinsic signature. By using the same strategies employed earlier to reduce the banding artifacts, we can amplify and modulate the banding to embed additional information, as discussed above. We refer to this as an extrinsic signature. In this paper, we describe our on-going research in this area. We present preliminary results from our effort to identify intrinsic printer signatures for a number of electrophotographic printers that are now on the market.
Measuring the influence of a journal using impact and diffusion factors

Presents the result of the calculated IS! equivalent Impact Factor, Relative Diffusion Factor (RDF), and Journal Diffusion Factor (JDF) for articles published in the Medical Journal of Malaysia (MJM) between the years 2004 and 2008 in both their synchronous and diachronous versions. The publication data are collected from MyAis (Malaysian Abstracting & Indexing system) while the citation data are collected from Google Scholar. The values of the synchronous JDF ranges from 0.057 - 0.14 while the diachronous JDF ranges from 0.46 - 1.98. The high diachronous JDF is explained by a relatively high number of different citing journals against the number of publications. This implies that the results of diachronous JDF is influenced by the numbers of publications and a good comparison may be one of which the subject of analysis have similar number of publications and citations period. The yearly values of the synchronous RDF vary in the range of 0.66 - 1.00 while diachronous RDF ranges from 0.62 - 0.88. The result shows that diachronous RDF is negatively correlated with the number of citations, resulting in a low RDF value for highly cited publication years. What this implies in practice is that the diffusion factors can be calculated for every additional year at any journal level of analysis. This study demonstrates that these indicators are valuable tools that help to show development of journals as it changes through time.
Axiomatisability of free , projective and flat S-acts

We survey the known results characterising those monoids S such that the classes of free, projective or (weakly, strongly) flat S-acts are first order axiomatisable. The conditions on the monoid S that arise are finitary, and intricately related. We examine their inter-connections and illustrate the independence of certain pairs.
Strategies for Obtaining Obsidian in Pre-European Contact Era New Zealand

Archaeological evidence of people's choices regarding how they supply themselves with obsidian through direct access and different types of exchanges gives us insight in to mobility, social networks, and property rights in the distant past. Here we use collections of obsidian artefacts that date to a period of endemic warfare among Maori during New Zealand's Late Period (1500–1769 A.D.) to determine what strategies people engaged in to obtain obsidian, namely (1) collecting raw material directly from a natural source, (2) informal trade and exchange, and (3) formal trade and exchange. These deposits represent a good cross-section of Late Period archaeology, including primary working of raw material at a natural source (Helena Bay), undefended sites where people discarded rubbish and worked obsidian (Bream Head), and a heavily fortified site (Mt. Wellington). We find that most of the obsidian described here was likely obtained directly from natural sources, especially those located on off-shore islands within about 60–70 km of sites. A smaller amount comes from blocks of material transported from an off-shore island a greater distance away, called Mayor Island, in a formal trade and exchange network. This study demonstrates the value of conducting tandem lithic technology and geochemical sourcing studies to understand how people create and maintain social networks during periods of warfare.
Up-Regulation of TGF-β Promotes Tendon-to-Bone Healing after Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction using Bone Marrow-Derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells through the TGF-β/MAPK Signaling Pathway in a New Zealand White Rabbit Model

Background/Aims: This study aimed to explore the role of TGF-β in tendon-to-bone healing after anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction using bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) through the TGF-β/MAPK signaling pathway in a New Zealand white rabbit model. Methods: A total of 72 healthy male New Zealand white rabbits were selected for these experiments. Flow cytometry and immunofluorescence were used to detect the expression of BMSC surface markers, and qRT-PCR was performed to detect TGF-β mRNA expression. The ACL reconstruction model was established with autografts. The rabbits were randomly divided into the following groups: inhibition of TGF-β (inhibition), over-expression of TGF-β (over-expression), empty vector and untreated (n = 18 per group). Hematoxylineosin (HE) staining, toluidine blue staining and Masson trichrome staining were conducted to observe any chondrocyte-like cell growth, and biomechanical tests were used to calculate the maximum load and rigidity. Three-dimensional CT imaging and Western blotting were applied to detect changes in bone tunnel size and bone density and the expression levels of TGF-β/MAPK signaling pathway-related proteins, respectively. Results: CD90 and CD44 were positively expressed, while CD11b was not detected. Compared with the empty vector and untreated groups, TGF-β mRNA expression was significantly decreased in the inhibition group but increased in the over-expression group; the latter group had a larger number of fibroblasts, a tighter tendon-bone interface, an increased number of chondrocyte-like cells and fibrochondrocytes, and more collagen fibers than the inhibition, empty vector and untreated groups. Compared with the empty vector and untreated groups, the maximum load and rigidity; the CT values of bone tunnel and bone tunnel margin; and the protein expression levels of TGF-β, p-ERK1/2, p-p38, p-JNK, c-jun and c-myc were significantly down-regulated in the inhibition group but up-regulated in the over-expression group. Conclusion: Our study indicated that up-regulating TGF-β expression in BMSCs from New Zealand white rabbits could promote tendon-to-bone healing after ACL reconstruction by regulating the TGF-β/MAPK signaling pathway.
Ia antigens in rat kidney, with special reference to their expression in tubular epithelium

The distribution of Ia antigens in rat kidneys has been investigated by an immunoperoxidase technique, using monoclonal antibodies directed at framework determinants on molecules equivalent to gene products of the I-A and I-E/C regions of the mouse major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Antigens mapping to both loci were detected in proximal convoluted tubule epithelium and on scattered dendritic cells in the interstitial connective tissues, glomeruli, and mucosa of the renal pelvis. All other structures were negative. Genetic studies indicate that the levels of expression of Ia molecules from both genetic loci are controlled by non-MHC genes in epithelium, but not on lymphocytes. The subcellular distribution of Ia molecules has been investigated in tubular epithelium and is discussed in relation to their possible functions in epithelia.