Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oral Glutamine Ameliorates Chemotherapy-induced Changes of Intestinal Permeability and Does not Interfere with the Antitumor Effect of Chemotherapy in Patients with Breast Cancer: A Prospective Randomized Trial

Aims and Background Sixty patients with breast cancer were randomly assigned to oral glutamine or placebo pre-neoadju-vant chemotherapy (CEF regimen). Methods and Study Design Oral glutamine supplementation was continued for at least 12 days. Patients kept a daily record of diarrhea and stomatitis. The plasma glutamine level, intestinal permeability (lactulose-mannitol test), and tumor size were analyzed. The expression of Ki-67 and PCNA antigens in breast carcinoma was assessed. Results The plasma glutamine level was significantly higher in the glutamine group than in the placebo group (420.39 ± 52.39 mmol/L vs 309.76 ± 42.34 mmoi/L, P <0.05). After one cycle of chemotherapy, the lactulose-mannitol ratio was higher in the placebo group than in the glutamine group (0.0630 ± 0.0091 vs 0.0471 ± 0.0094, P <0.05). No differences were observed in the grades of stomatitis and diarrhea, in the changes in tumor size, and in the expression of Ki-67 and PCNA antigens between the two groups. Conclusions Prophylactic oral glutamine could ameliorate the neoadjuvant chemotherapy-induced increase in intestinal permeability, but had no significant positive clinical effect on stomatitis and diarrhea and did not interfere with the antitumor effect of chemotherapy.
A cross-sectional study to assess knowledge and attitudes related to Basic Life Support among undergraduate medical students in Tamil Nadu, India

__________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction: Basic life support (BLS) with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) provided at the right time greatly improves survival following cardiac arrest. Adequate knowledge and skills related to BLS are essential requisites for medical students. This study aimed to explore the knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to BLS among undergraduate medical students of a medical college in Tamil Nadu, India. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted among 241 undergraduate medical students of a medical college in Tamil Nadu, between May and July 2012, using a pretested, semi-structured questionnaire devised based on American Heart Association Guidelines for BLS and CPR 2010. Results: The mean knowledge score of the participants was 4.55 ± 1.21 out of a possible high score of 6. The level of knowledge and attitudes related to BLS varied depending on the year of study, and this difference was statistically significant (p<0.05). The knowledge score decreased with increasing duration of training. The higher the year of study, the more positive the participants’ attitudes were. Only 12.9% of the participants had ever practised BLS. Twenty-one (21) participants (8.7%) expressed reluctance about performing BLS in a hospital setting, and 57.3% of the participants expressed reluctance about performing BLS in an out-of-hospital setting. Fear of acquiring infection, causing harm to the victim, and lack of confidence were the common causes for participants’ reluctance. Conclusions: The study reveals inadequate knowledge and practices related to BLS among students. The differences in knowledge and attitudes among students, depending on the year of study, point to the need for frequent refresher training and motivation of students.
Incidence of postoperative seizures with and without levetiracetam pretreatment in dogs undergoing portosystemic shunt attenuation.

BACKGROUND In dogs with congenital portosystemic shunts (CPS), postligation seizures can be challenging to treat and often result in mortality. Levetiracetam (LEV) is a novel anticonvulsive drug that is commonly used in humans with seizure disorders who have hepatic comorbidity. OBJECTIVES To compare the incidence of postoperative seizures in dogs that underwent surgical attenuation of an extrahepatic CPS and preoperatively received either LEV or no anticonvulsant medication. ANIMALS A total of 126 dogs undergoing attenuation of an extrahepatic CPS that preoperatively received either LEV or no anticonvulsant medication. METHODS Retrospective case review. Information obtained included signalment, duration of clinical signs, presence of neurologic abnormalities before surgery, preoperative bile acid and ammonia concentrations, diagnostic imaging modality, duration of hospitalization, postoperative complications including seizures, and discharge status. Bayesian Poisson regression was used to estimate the risk of seizures in LEV-treated dogs when compared with untreated dogs. RESULTS Levetiracetam was administered to 33% (42/126) of dogs. No dog treated with LEV experienced postoperative seizures, whereas 5% (4/84) of dogs not treated with LEV experienced postoperative seizures. The relative risk of seizures was significantly (P < .0002) < 1 for the LEV-treated dogs, indicating LEV protection against development of postoperative seizures. No dog that experienced postoperative seizures survived to discharge from the hospital. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE Levetiracetam administered at 20 mg/kg p.o. q8h for a minimum of 24 hours before surgery significantly decreased the risk of postoperative seizures and death in dogs undergoing surgical attenuation of extrahepatic CPS with ameroid ring constrictors.
Movement disorders associated with moyamoya disease: A report of 4 new cases and a review of literatures

The aim of this study was to define the clinical characteristics of patients who developed movement disorders in association with moyamoya disease (MMD). Using PubMed and medical records of our hospital from 1985 to 2008, we searched for patients who developed movement disorders in association with MMD. This study included 38 patients described in previous studies and 4 patients found in the medical records. The onset of movement disorders was thought to be sudden. In 13 patients, the movement disorders were precipitated by hyperventilation or emotional stress. Twenty‐seven of the 42 patients developed chorea, 4 patients developed dystonia, and 4 developed a mixture of both. The movement disorders of the remaining 7 patients were described as dyskinesia. A third of the 42 patients developed bilateral movement disorders, and their mean age was younger than that of those with unilateral movement disorders. In 37 of the 42 patients, brain imaging studies showed ischemic lesions, but the remaining 5 patients showed no parenchymal lesions. Cerebral perfusion studies showed hypoperfusion in the basal ganglia and in the cerebral cortical areas. Most patients improved whether they were treated or not. MMD must be included in the differential diagnosis of the sudden onset of dyskinesias, particularly chorea and focal dystonia. Even in patients with no parenchymal lesion in brain imaging studies, cerebral angiography and cerebral blood perfusion studies must be performed, if they develop a sudden onset or recurrent movement disorders preceded by emotional stress or hyperventilation. © 2010 Movement Disorder Society
An Examination of Known Tuberculosis Risk Factors and their Correlation across the United States

David Young An Examination of Known Tuberculosis Risk Factors and Their Correlation Across the United States (Under the direction of Sheryl Strasser, PhD) Background: Globally tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of mortality. There is scientific evidence of sociodemographic, behavioral and health risk factors associated with TB infection and TB disease. In the United States (US), there is a low endemicity of TB and a goal of TB elimination. Objective: The primary objective of the study was to examine the correlation of TB risk factors at the state level in the US to obtain insights specific to the state of TB in the US. The risk factors examined were diabetes rates, smoking rates, alcohol abuse rates, AIDS rates, foreignborn vs. US-born, poverty as expressed by GINI and per capita income and race/ethnicity. Methods: Secondary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Census Bureau on line databases were used. Simple linear regression, bivariate correlation and multiple linear regression were carried out. Results: Significant correlations were found at the state level between TB disease rates and being non-Hispanic White (r=-0.856, p<0.001), foreign-born (r=0.649, p<0.001), GINI (r=0.588, p<0.001) and AIDS diagnosis rates (r=0.579, p<0.001). No significant associations were found between TB disease rates and diabetes rates, smoking rates and alcohol abuse rates. Conclusion: The focus of the fight against TB in the US should be on minority communities, those populated by the foreign-born and those with high rates of AIDS particularly where a large degree of income inequality is present.
Genome-Wide Association Studies, Field Synopses, and the Development of the Knowledge Base on Genetic Variation and Human Diseases

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have led to a rapid increase in available data on common genetic variants and phenotypes and numerous discoveries of new loci associated with susceptibility to common complex diseases. Integrating the evidence from GWAS and candidate gene studies depends on concerted efforts in data production, online publication, database development, and continuously updated data synthesis. Here the authors summarize current experience and challenges on these fronts, which were discussed at a 2008 multidisciplinary workshop sponsored by the Human Genome Epidemiology Network. Comprehensive field synopses that integrate many reported gene-disease associations have been systematically developed for several fields, including Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, bladder cancer, coronary heart disease, preterm birth, and DNA repair genes in various cancers. The authors summarize insights from these field synopses and discuss remaining unresolved issues—especially in the light of evidence from GWAS, for which they summarize empirical P-value and effect-size data on 223 discovered associations for binary outcomes (142 with P < 10−7). They also present a vision of collaboration that builds reliable cumulative evidence for genetic associations with common complex diseases and a transparent, distributed, authoritative knowledge base on genetic variation and human health. As a next step in the evolution of Human Genome Epidemiology reviews, the authors invite investigators to submit field synopses for possible publication in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Single Qdot-labeled glycosylase molecules use a wedge amino acid to probe for lesions while scanning along DNA

Within the base excision repair (BER) pathway, the DNA N-glycosylases are responsible for locating and removing the majority of oxidative base damages. Endonuclease III (Nth), formamidopyrimidine DNA glycosylase (Fpg) and endonuclease VIII (Nei) are members of two glycosylase families: the helix–hairpin–helix (HhH) superfamily and the Fpg/Nei family. The search mechanisms employed by these two families of glycosylases were examined using a single molecule assay to image quantum dot (Qdot)-labeled glycosylases interacting with YOYO-1 stained λ-DNA molecules suspended between 5 µm silica beads. The HhH and Fpg/Nei families were found to have a similar diffusive search mechanism described as a continuum of motion, in keeping with rotational diffusion along the DNA molecule ranging from slow, sub-diffusive to faster, unrestricted diffusion. The search mechanism for an Fpg variant, F111A, lacking a phenylalanine wedge residue no longer displayed slow, sub-diffusive motion compared to wild type, suggesting that Fpg base interrogation may be accomplished by Phe111 insertion.
Questioning Refugee Camps as Sources of Conflict ∗

A substantial body of research in political science finds that refugees increase the likelihood of conflict within the states that host them. This literature concludes that refugees do so by exacerbating ethnic tensions, intensifying economic competition, and expanding insurgent networks. Related research finds that refugees diffuse regional civil wars. Using precisely geo-referenced data on camps of refugees and internally displaced persons released by the United Nations for this study, we find no support for claims that refugees degrade the security conditions in their host communities. Instead, our analysis suggests that areas of countries that receive refugees tend to become more stable following their arrival. Given current and unprecedented numbers of forcibly displaced persons around the world, our findings should assuage concerns that hosting refugees will generate instability. ∗We thank Lamis Abdelaaty, Aylin Aydin, Alexander Betts, Alexander Bollfrass, David Carter, Benjamin Fifield, Kosuke Imai, Robert Keohane, Kabir Khanna, Jacob Shapiro, Yao-Yuan Yeh and participants of the American Political Science Association’s 2015 Annual Meeting and the International Studies Association’s 2014 Annual Convention for comments on this manuscript. We also thank Tsering Wangyal Shawa for assisting with the processing of geospatially identified data. We are grateful to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for providing the data used in this study as well as to Miguel Centeno and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies for financial support. Zhou acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation (SES–1148900). Finally, we wish to thank Idean Salehyan and Kristian Gleditsch for making their data from their 2006 article available for replication. All errors are ours. †Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. E-mail: ashaver@princeton.edu ‡Department of Politics, Princeton University. E-mail: yz3@princeton.edu
Biology and Preliminary Host Range Assessment of Two Potential Kudzu Biological Control Agents

Abstract Two insect species from China, Gonioctena tredecimmaculata (Jacoby) (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and Ornatalcides (Mesalcidodes) trifidus (Pascoe) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), were studied in quarantine in the United States as potential biological control agents for kudzu, Pueraria montana variety lobata (Willd.) Maesen and S. Almeida. Adults of G. tredecimmaculata were ovoviviparous and reproduced throughout the summer, producing offspring that had an obligate adult diapause. In no-choice tests, adult and larval G. tredecimmaculata rejected most of the plant species tested, but consumed foliage and completed their life cycle on soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) and on a native woodland plant, hog-peanut (Amphicarpaea bracteata L. Fernald), which are in the same subtribe as kudzu (Glycininae). Insects showed similar responses to field- and greenhouse-grown soybean and kudzu foliage, despite measurable differences in leaf traits: field-grown foliage of both plants had greater leaf toughness, higher total carbon content, higher trichome density, and lower water content than greenhouse foliage. O. trifidus adults also rejected most of the plants tested but fed on and severely damaged potted soybean and hog-peanut plants in addition to kudzu. Further tests in China are needed to determine whether these species will accept nontarget host plants under open-field conditions.
Formal sequential equivalence checking of digital systems by symbolic simulation

A new approach to sequential verification of designs at different levels of abstraction by symbolic simulation is proposed. The automatic formal verification tool has been used for equivalence checking of structural descriptions at rt-level and their corresponding behavioral specifications. Gate-level results of a commercial synthesis tool have been compared to specifications at behavioral or structural rt-level. The specification need not be synthesizable nor cycle equivalent to the implementation. In addition, a future application of the method to property verification is proposed. Symbolic simulation is guided along logically consistent paths in the two descriptions to be compared. An open library of different equivalence detection techniques is used in order to find a good compromise between accuracy and speed. Decision diagram (OBDD) based techniques detect corner-cases of equivalence. Graph explosion is avoided by using the results of the other equivalence detection techniques and by representing only small parts of the verification problem by decision diagrams. The cooperation of all techniques as well as good debugging support are made feasible by notifying detected relationships at equivalence classes instead of manipulating symbolic terms.
Cell death of motoneurons in the chick embryo spinal cord. V. Evidence on the role of cell death and neuromuscular function in the formation of specific peripheral connections

Previous reports from this laboratory have shown that the chronic treatment of chick embryos with neuromuscular blocking agents (e.g., curare, alpha-bungarotoxin), during the period of naturally occurring cell death of spinal motoneurons (days 5 to 10), greatly reduces the amount of cell death in this system. The surviving motoneurons continue differentiation and innervate the peripheral musculature. Since cell death has been prevented in these preparations from the earliest stages of limb innervation on day 4 or 5, it was expected that any inappropriate synaptic connections present at that time, or formed later, would be retained as long as the cell and their axons were prevented from regressing. To test this possibility, small injections of horseradish peroxidase were made into specific leg and wing muscles on embryonic day 10 in order to label retrogradely motoneuron pools in the spinal cord. The location of labeled motoneurons was found to be the same in control and experimental embryos. The specific muscles examined included the gastrocnemius, peroneus, adductor, and sartorius in the leg and the biceps, triceps, extensor metacarpi radialis, and flexor carpi ulnaris in the wing. In virtually all cases, there was a greater number of labeled motoneurons in the experimental cases. Despite this difference, the location of motoneuron pools in the rostral-caudal and transverse planes were remarkably similar in control and experimental embryos. Thus, natural cell death in this system is not primarily designed to remove errors in synaptic connectivity. Since a normal pattern of neuromuscular connections was formed in the virtual absence of functional synaptic interactions between motoneurons and their targets, these data do not support the contention that function is involved in the developmental specificity of peripheral connectivity.
How Optimal Is Algebraic Binning Approach : A Case Study of the Turbo-Binning Scheme With Uniform and Nonuniform Sources

This paper investigates the optimality of the binning approach in distributed source coding for both uniform and nonuniform sources. While the algebraic binning scheme is optimal for uniform sources both asymptotically and at finite lengths, it is shown that the optimality holds only asymptotically for nonuniform sources. Highperformance turbo codes are used with the binning scheme on several source distributions to quantify how close they can get to the theoretical limit with relatively large block sizes. For nonuniform sources, optimal code design and variable-length bin-indexes are exploited as a useful extension to the conventional binning scheme. It is shown that the two strategies combined can improve the compression rate by as much as 0.22 bit/symbol for highly biased sources.
The oxygen enhancement ratio and relative biological effectiveness for combined irradiations of Chinese hamster cells by neutrons and gamma-rays.

SummaryThe loss of reproductive capacity of Chinese hamster cells has been studied using 60Co γ-rays and DT neutrons to provide different fractions of the total dose. Survival data were obtained for aerobic and hypoxic cells and r.b. e. and o.e. r. values determined at the 10 per cent survival level. The r.b. e. with respect to 60Co γ-rays was found to vary linearly with the γ-ray percentage of the total dose, whereas the o.e. r. variation was more complex. The implications of these results are discussed with reference to neutron radiotherapy.
Recurrent mutation in SNPs within Y chromosome E3b (E‐M215) haplogroup: A rebuttal

In a previous issue of AJHB, Fernandes et al. (2008. Am J Hum Biol 20:185–190.) describe instances of identity by state at multiple short tandem repeat loci between human Y chromosomes belonging to different E‐M35 sub‐haplogroups. They interpret these findings as evidence for multiple mutational events in at least two loci (M78 and M81). Here, we introduce a novel polymorphic marker (V68), potentially useful to investigate the issue. This marker and sequence data, reported here for the first time, reinforce our previous interpretations on the phylogenetic structure of the E3b haplogroup. We discuss these results in the frame of general approaches to attain robust phylogenetic inferences based on biallelic polymorphism data. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Genotypic characterization of initial acquisition of Streptococcus mutans in American Indian children

Background Severe-early childhood caries (S-ECC) is one of the most common infectious diseases in children and is prevalent in lower socio-economic populations. American Indian children suffer from the highest levels of S-ECC in the United States. Members of the mutans streptococci, Streptococcus mutans, in particular, are key etiologic agents in the development of caries. Children typically acquire S. mutans from their mothers and early acquisition is often associated with higher levels of tooth decay. Methods We have conducted a 5-year birth cohort study with a Northern Plains Tribe to determine the temporality and fidelity of S. mutans transmission from mother to child in addition to the genotypic diversity of S. mutans in this community. Plaque samples were collected from 239 mother/child dyads at regular intervals from birth to 36 months and S. mutans were isolated and genotyped by arbitrarily primed-polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR). Results Here we present preliminary findings from a subset of the cohort. The focus for this paper is on initial acquisition events in the children. We identified 17 unique genotypes in 711 S. mutans isolates in our subset of 40 children, 40 mothers and 14 primary caregivers. Twelve of these genotypes were identified in more than one individual. S. mutans colonization occurred by 16 months in 57.5% of the children and early colonization was associated with higher decayed, missing and filled surface (DMFS) scores (p=0.0007). Children colonized by S. mutans shared a common genotype with their mothers 47.8% of the time. While multiple genotypes were common in adults, only 10% of children harbored multiple genotypes. Conclusion These children acquire S. mutans at an earlier age than the originally described ‘window of infectivity’ and often, but not exclusively, from their mothers. Early acquisition is associated with both the caries status of the children and the mothers.