Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Synergy between Cigarette Smoking and Human Papillomavirus Type 16 in Cervical Cancer In situ Development

Background: A majority of studies have implicated the involvement of cigarette smoking in cervical cancer development, although its mechanism of action remains unclear. We conducted a large population-based case-control study to address the potential interaction between smoking and human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) in development of cervical cancer in situ (CIS). Methods: Information on risk factors for CIS was collected via interview, and archival cervical smears were tested for HPV-16 DNA presence in cases (n = 375) and controls (n = 363). Adjusted odds ratios (OR) for the effects of smoking, HPV-16 presence/absence, and load at first smear (taken, on average, 9 years before diagnosis) were calculated. Results: The risk for CIS among current smokers who were HPV-16 positive at time of first smear was >14-fold [adjusted OR, 14.4; confidence interval (95% CI), 5.6-36.8] compared with HPV-16-negative current smokers. In contrast, the risk for CIS among HPV-16-positive nonsmokers was only 6-fold (adjusted OR, 5.6; 95% CI, 2.7-11.5), compared with HPV-16-negative nonsmokers. HPV-16-positive smokers with high viral load at time of first smear exhibited a high risk for CIS (adjusted OR, 27.0; 95% CI, 6.5-114.2) compared with HPV-16-negative smokers. Within nonsmokers, however, high HPV-16 load contributed only a 6-fold increased risk compared with HPV-16-negative nonsmokers (adjusted OR, 5.9; 95% CI, 2.4-14.6). Interaction was observed (P = 0.03) between duration of smoking and HPV-16 presence in CIS development. Conclusion: Results suggest a synergistic effect between smoking and both HPV-16 status and HPV-16 viral load, which may occur almost a decade before CIS detection. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(11):2141–7)
Adsorption uptake of Philippine natural zeolite for Zn2+ ions in aqueous solution

The Philippine natural zeolite (PNZ) was characterized and subjected to Zn2+ adsorption tests in aqueous solutions to determine its adsorption uptake and to understand its adsorption behaviour. The PNZ was characterized using XRD, SEM, BET-analysis and TG-DTA. XRD showed significant peaks indexed to natural mordenite-type zeolite along with other natural zeolites and minerals. SEM micrographs revealed a rough and corrugated surface morphology of the sample. BET physisorption analysis showed a surface area of 222.63 m2/g. From the analytical tests report given by the supplier, the Si/Al ratio (SAR) was computed to be equal to 4.29 based on the silica and alumina content of the PNZ. Adsorption kinetic and thermodynamic studies were done to determine the adsorption mechanism and adsorption capacity of PNZ for Zn2+ ions in aqueous solution. From the adsorption kinetic curve, the PNZ attained chemical equilibrium after 50 min. Pseudo-second-order kinetic model was the most applicable kinetic model providing the highest correlation with the data. Langmuir model better described the adsorption isotherm of the PNZ than Freundlich model. The theoretical maximum cation exchange capacity of PNZ was computed as 27.17 mg Zn2+/g according to the Langmuir model.
The pill and breast cancer: why the uncertainty?

Klim McPherson and James Owen Drife discussed possible reasons for the apparent discrepancies between recent studies of oral contraceptive (OC) use and breast cancer and called for further information from them. They suggested that the reasons might include geographical differences in the rate at which OCs came to be widely used. If as they suggested the greatest hazard was likely to be observed in women who used OCs before their 1st pregnancy and the effect occurred only after a latent period of some 15 years an increased risk now might be found only in those countries in which the use of OCs by young women first became common. In support of this suggestion it has been claimed that the lack of an increased risk in the US is due to the fact that the use of OCs by young women became common in that country about 5 years later than in Britain. Yet no such difference can account for the failure to find an increased risk in New Zealand. In both countries the data were obtained in the same way using the information provided by control subjects in large case-control studies. Clearly use of OCs before the 1st pregnancy had been more extensive and began earlier in New Zealand than in Britain. McPherson and Drife also suggested that the usual analysis of relative risks by time since the 1st use of OCs as presented in the September 20th paper of these researchers might not be sufficient to show latent effect. The data were reanalyzed using the method recommended by McPherson et al. i.e. involving successive calculation of relative risks excluding exposure within increasingly long periods before the date of diagnosis (or the corresponding date for controls). The relative risks associated with OC use for 4 years or longer before the 1st pregnancy were 0.60 considering all such use up to the time of diagnosis 0.65 excluding such use within 5 years of diagnosis 0.44 excluding such use within 10 years of diagnosis and 0.43 excluding such use within 15 years of diagnosis. These relative risks were adjusted by logistic regression for age age at menarche age at 1st pregnancy history of benign breast disease family history of breast cancer and ethnic group. There was no hint of a latent adverse effect. It is too early to predict whether a latent effect will emerge more than 15 years after prolonged use of the pill at younger ages but latency does not seem to be a plausible explanation for the results of recent studies. The report from Scandinavia suggested a possible association of risk with the total duration of OC use and that previous studies might have included insufficient numbers of very long-term users.
Effects of Resistance Training in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-analysis

CONTEXT: Although physiologic benefits of resistance training for children and adolescents have been well documented, the impact of age and maturity on trainability of muscle strength remains poorly understood. OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of resistance training in different age groups and maturity levels. METHODS: We searched electronic bibliographic databases, key journals, and reference lists of reviews, book chapters, and articles. Two independent reviewers evaluated the effects of resistance training on muscle strength for prepubertal and postpubertal healthy children and adolescents (younger than 18 years) by using the results of randomized and nonrandomized controlled trials. Assessments of muscle endurance and motor performance tests (eg, vertical jump) were excluded. The influence of continuous and categorical moderator variables was assessed by meta-regression and subgroup analyses, respectively. RESULTS: The overall weighted effect size of 1.12 (95% confidence interval: 0.9–1.3) was significantly greater than 0 (P < .01). Subgroup analyses revealed “maturity” to be a significant categorical moderator variable (z = 2.50; P = .01) and positive correlation coefficients were found for the continuous variables “duration” (r = 0.28; P = .02) and “frequency” (r = 0.26; P = .03). CONCLUSIONS: The results of our analysis indicate that the ability to gain muscular strength seems to increase with age and maturational status, but there is no noticeable boost during puberty. Furthermore, study duration and the number of performed sets were found to have a positive impact on the outcome.
Identification of Success and Failure Factors of Two Agile Software Development Teams in an Open Source Organization

Agile Software Development Methods and Free/Libre Open Source Development have been two embracing movements in the software industry for more than a decade. However, little is known about the composition of both while today a variety of studies provide us with key characteristics of each one. The study extracts the similarities and differences of both topics by means of an extensive literature review focusing on teams as research unit. Furthermore this study investigates two agile software development teams in an open source organization based on an explorative research design. The focus is on the empirical identi¿cation of success and failure in the application of agile methods in teams with open source background, structure and characteristics and in comparison with the literature ¿ndings. This study is still in progress, however ¿rst results as well as the methodology will be presented hereafter.
Interpreting excess mortality in a prevention trial for older adults.

BACKGROUND In a randomized trial evaluating preventive services for older adults excess mortality was observed in the treatment group. We examined four explanations: unbalance of baseline characteristics, unintended effects of the intervention, consequence of an autonomy intervention (including increased number of living wills in the treatment group), and chance. We focus here on the effects of the autonomy intervention. METHODS Preparation of living wills in the treatment and control groups was compared both at baseline and follow-up. A linear predictor of mortality was used to identify participants at high risk of dying. Charts of these 200 participants were reviewed for evidence of serious medical events and resuscitation decisions. Rates of life-sustaining treatment were compared between treatment and controls using logistic regression. RESULTS More living wills (65%) were noted for the treatment group than control group (47%) at follow-up. Thirty-six per cent of participants were identified as having a serious medical event; of these, participants in the treatment group were over twice as likely not to receive life-sustaining treatment. CONCLUSIONS Advance directives contributed to excess deaths, indicating the success of the autonomy intervention.
Cellular and Humoral Systemic and Mucosal Immune Responses Stimulated by an Oral Polybacterial Immunomodulator in Patients with Chronic Urinary Tract Infections

An oral polybacterial immunomodulator Urostim (U), composed of killed cells and their lysates from E. coli expressing type 1 and P-pili, E. coli Re mutant, P. mirabilis, K. pneumoniae and E. faecalis was created for immunoprophylaxis and immunotherapy of urinary tract infections (UTIs). In experimental animal models, the stimulating effect of U on lymphocyte functional activity, macrophage phagocytosis and antibody producing cells, was established. In this study the immuno-modulating effects of U on the proliferating capacity and ultrastructural morphologic changes of lymphocytes, cytokine production and specific systemic humoral and mucosal immune responses in patients with UTIs have been evaluated. Patients enrolled in the study, received orally 50 mg U daily for a period of three months. On days 0,30 and 90 a quantitative analysis was performed on lymphoproliferative responses to polyclonal mitogens, IL-2 and the specific antigen U, the production of specific serum and saliva IgA, IgM and IgG antibodies to all components of U and the concentration of pro-inflammatory cytokines. There was significant improvement of non-specific and specific lymphoproliferative responses on days 30 and 90 after the onset of treatment with U, confirmed by electron-microscopic studies. The highest concentrations of serum proinflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were registered at baseline followed by a decrease until the end of the observation period. This finding correlates with the gradual decrease of immune activation as measured by the spontaneous lymphocyte proliferation. Data from the production of specific antibacterial antibodies in serum and saliva show two types of reactions. The first type was registered in patients with low pre-treatment levels in whom the concentration of specific antibodies increased on days 30 and 90. The second type of reaction was observed in patients with high pre-treatment levels, which dropped on day 30 and were usually followed by an increase at the end of the study. These results provide evidence for the immuno-modulating effect of U. Our data show that the oral administration of the polybacterial immunomodulator Urostim stimulates adequate cellular and humoral systemic and mucosal immune responses in patients with chronic UTIs.
The Microbiological and Clinical Characteristics of Invasive Salmonella in Gallbladders from Cholecystectomy Patients in Kathmandu, Nepal

Gallbladder carriage of invasive Salmonella is considered fundamental in sustaining typhoid fever transmission. Bile and tissue was obtained from 1,377 individuals undergoing cholecystectomy in Kathmandu to investigate the prevalence, characteristics and relevance of invasive Salmonella in the gallbladder in an endemic area. Twenty percent of bile samples contained a Gram-negative organism, with Salmonella Typhi and Salmonella Paratyphi A isolated from 24 and 22 individuals, respectively. Gallbladders that contained Salmonella were more likely to show evidence of acute inflammation with extensive neutrophil infiltrate than those without Salmonella, corresponding with higher neutrophil and lower lymphocyte counts in the blood of Salmonella positive individuals. Antimicrobial resistance in the invasive Salmonella isolates was limited, indicating that gallbladder colonization is unlikely to be driven by antimicrobial resistance. The overall role of invasive Salmonella carriage in the gallbladder is not understood; here we show that 3.5% of individuals undergoing cholecystectomy in this setting have a high concentration of antimicrobial sensitive, invasive Salmonella in their bile. We predict that such individuals will become increasingly important if current transmission mechanisms are disturbed; prospectively identifying these individuals is, therefore, paramount for rapid local and regional elimination.
Clinical features and therapeutic outcomes of 65 patients with acromegaly at Tokyo Women's Medical University.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to survey the clinical characteristics, complications, and therapeutic outcome in patients with acromegaly. PATIENTS AND METHODS The clinical features of 65 patients with acromegaly (31 males, 34 females; mean age: 50+/-2 yr.) who were admitted to Tokyo Women's Medical University between 1990 and 1999 were analyzed retrospectively from medical records. RESULTS The retrospective analysis revealed that the diagnosis of acromegaly was preceded by approximately 8.1+/-1.1 years of signs and symptoms of the disease. Forty-six of the 65 patients (71%) had macroadenomas, 16 (25%) had microadenomas, and the remaining three had empty sella. The rate of biochemical cure or remission was 81% for microadenoma (13/16), 64% for macroadenoma without extrasellar extension (9/14), and 13% for macroadenoma with cavernous sinus extension (2/15). Eighteen (28%) patients had impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) and 32 (49%) had diabetes mellitus (DM). After treatment for acromegaly, glucose metabolism was analyzed again in 38 patients, and it improved in 26 patients with IGT or DM. Twenty-five of 65 patients (38%) had hypertension. Of 26 patients who underwent barium enema or colonoscopy, 10 had colonic polyps and 4 had colon cancer. CONCLUSION This study suggests that long-term excessive growth hormone (GH) secretion causes many complications. Therefore, awareness of the early symptoms and signs of acromegaly and long-term careful management of complications, along with therapy to reduce serum GH/insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I levels, are important for patients with acromegaly.
Estimating 3D Gaze Directions Using Unlabeled Eye Images via Synthetic Iris Appearance Fitting

Estimating three-dimensional (3D) human eye gaze by capturing a single eye image without active illumination is challenging. Although the elliptical iris shape provides a useful cue, existing methods face difficulties in ellipse fitting due to unreliable iris contour detection. These methods may fail frequently especially with low resolution eye images. In this paper, we propose a synthetic iris appearance fitting (SIAF) method that is model-driven to compute 3D gaze direction from iris shape. Instead of fitting an ellipse based on exactly detected iris contour, our method first synthesizes a set of physically possible iris appearances and then optimizes inside this synthetic space to find the best solution to explain the captured eye image. In this way, the solution is highly constrained and guaranteed to be physically feasible. In addition, the proposed advanced image analysis techniques also help the SIAF method be robust to the unreliable iris contour detection. Furthermore, with multiple eye images, we propose a SIAF-joint method that can further reduce the gaze error by half, and it also resolves the binary ambiguity which is inevitable in conventional methods based on simple ellipse fitting.
Power Consumption and Joint Signal Processing in Fiber-Optical Communication

The power consumption of coherent fiber-optical communication systems is becoming increasingly important, for both environmental and economic reasons. The data traffic on the Internet is increasing at a faster pace than that at which optical network equipment is becoming more energy efficient, which means that the overall power consumption of the Internet is increasing. In addition, wasted energy leads to higher costs for network operators, through increased electricity expenses but also because the heat generated in the equipment limits how closely it can be packed. This thesis includes both power consumption modelling and trade-off studies, as well as investigations of novel schemes for joint signal processing that may lead to an improved energy efficiency and increased performance in future systems. The power consumption modelling part includes a model of optical amplifier power consumption, which is connected to a performance model based on the Gaussian-noise model. Using these models, the trade-offs between amplifier power consumption and the choice of modulation format and forward-error-correction (FEC) scheme can be analyzed. Furthermore, the power consumption for a coherent link with minimal digital signal processing (DSP) is studied as well. In the second part we investigate joint signal processing for phase-coherent superchannel systems based on optical frequency combs or multicore fiber. We find that the phase-coherence of optical frequency comb lines enables joint carrier recovery, which can increase performance and reduce the power consumption of the digital signal processing. The possible power consumption savings are quantified for a blind phase search method for phase tracking. Finally, we quantify the performance of joint carrier recovery for wavelength division multiplexed multicore fiber transmission in presence of nonlinear interference and inter-core skew.
Increased DNA double-strand breaks and enhanced apoptosis in patients with lupus nephritis

Objective DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) lead to mutations, genomic instability and apoptotic death, whereas accumulation of apoptotic cells results in excessive autoantigen presentation and autoantibody formation. We aimed to measure DSB levels in lupus nephritis, a severe complication of the prototypic systemic autoimmune disease. Methods The intrinsic DNA damage and the apoptosis induction/DSB levels were evaluated in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of six patients and 10 healthy controls following exposure to genotoxic agents (melphalan, cisplatin) ex vivo. DSBs were assessed using immunofluorescence quantification of γH2AX foci and comet assay. Results Intrinsic DNA damage was increased in lupus versus control cells in both assays (Olive Tail Moment units of 15.8 ± 2.3 versus 3.0 ± 1.4 in comet, p < 0.01; % γH2AX-positive cells: 13.6 ± 1.8 versus 4.6 ± 0.9, p < 0.01, respectively). Melphalan or cisplatin doses as low as 9.9 ± 4.8 or 29.8 ± 8.3 µg/ml, respectively, were sufficient to induce apoptosis in lupus cells; control cells required doses of 32.3 ± 7.7 and 67.7 ± 5.5 µg/ml, respectively. Drug-induced DSB levels were increased in lupus versus control cells, with the area under the curve (AUC) for melphalan-induced DSBs being 3050 ± 610 (% γH2AX-positive staining cells) × (drug dose) in patients and 1580 ± 350 in controls (p < 0.05); the corresponding values for cisplatin-induced AUC were 13900 ± 1800 for lupus and 4500 ± 750 for controls (p < 0.01). Interestingly, within either lupus patients or controls examined, the accumulation of DSBs correlated with apoptosis degrees (all p < 0.01). Results in lupus cells were not associated with individual disease activity level or treatment modalities at the time of the study. Conclusion These findings suggest a novel mechanism by which increased accumulation of DSBs may render cells more sensitive to apoptosis, thus contributing to the induction of systemic autoimmunity.
Traffic Sign Recognition

Traffic sign recognition is a difficult task if aim is at detecting and recognizing signs in images captured from unfavorable environments. Co mplex background, weather, shadow, and other lighting-related problems may make it difficult to detect and recognize signs in the rural as well as the urban areas. Two major problems exist in the whole detection process. Road signs are frequently occluded partially by other vehicles. Many objects are present in traffic scenes which make the sign detection hard (pedestrians, other vehicles, buildings and billboards may confuse the detection system by patterns similar to that of road signs). Color informat ion fro m traffic scene images is affected by varying illu mination caused by weather conditions, time (day night) and shadowing (buildings)
Characterization of Detergent-Insoluble Proteins in ALS Indicates a Causal Link between Nitrative Stress and Aggregation in Pathogenesis

Background Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and fatal motor neuron disease, and protein aggregation has been proposed as a possible pathogenetic mechanism. However, the aggregate protein constituents are poorly characterized so knowledge on the role of aggregation in pathogenesis is limited. Methodology/Principal Findings We carried out a proteomic analysis of the protein composition of the insoluble fraction, as a model of protein aggregates, from familial ALS (fALS) mouse model at different disease stages. We identified several proteins enriched in the detergent-insoluble fraction already at a preclinical stage, including intermediate filaments, chaperones and mitochondrial proteins. Aconitase, HSC70 and cyclophilin A were also significantly enriched in the insoluble fraction of spinal cords of ALS patients. Moreover, we found that the majority of proteins in mice and HSP90 in patients were tyrosine-nitrated. We therefore investigated the role of nitrative stress in aggregate formation in fALS-like murine motor neuron-neuroblastoma (NSC-34) cell lines. By inhibiting nitric oxide synthesis the amount of insoluble proteins, particularly aconitase, HSC70, cyclophilin A and SOD1 can be substantially reduced. Conclusion/Significance Analysis of the insoluble fractions from cellular/mouse models and human tissues revealed novel aggregation-prone proteins and suggests that nitrative stress contribute to protein aggregate formation in ALS.