Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Prevention of Major Bile Duct Injures in Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy: The Experience With 13,000 Patients in a Single Center

Major bile duct injury (MBDI) is one of the most serious complications associated with laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC). This study reports our experience in preventing MBDI during LC. Between September 1991 and August 2004, 13,000 cases of LC were performed at Kunming General Hospital. Systemic strategies, including selection of proper patients for LC based on the surgeons' experience, dissection techniques in Calot's triangle, selective use of laparoscopic ultrasonography, and indication of conversion to an open approach were developed and introduced to avoid MBDI. In our series, the overall incidence of MBDI was 0.085%, 0.60% (3 of 500) over the first period from September 1991 to September 1992, 0.17% (5 of 3000) over the second period from October 1992 to September 1996, and 0.03% (3 of 9500) over the third period from October 1996 to August 2004. The MBDI included transection of the common bile duct (CBD) due to mistaking CBD for cystic duct (n=6), cautery injury (n=3), laceration of the CBD at the junction of cystic duct and CBD (n=1), and clip partially of common hepatic duct due to blind hemostasis (n=1). The incidence of MBDI in our institution is acceptable. We believe the system strategies are effective to avoid MBDI in LC. LC is a safe procedure with an incidence of biliary injury comparable with that for open cholecystectomy.
Alpha-Agarases Define a New Family of Glycoside Hydrolases, Distinct from Beta-Agarase Families

ABSTRACT The gene encoding the α-agarase from “Alteromonas agarilytica” (proposed name) has been cloned and sequenced. The gene product (154 kDa) is unrelated to β-agarases and instead belongs to a new family of glycoside hydrolases (GH96). The α-agarase also displays a complex modularity, with the presence of five thrombospondin type 3 repeats and three carbohydrate-binding modules.
Noradrenergic transmission in the central medial thalamic nucleus modulates the electroencephalographic activity and emergence from propofol anesthesia in rats

At present, the mechanisms by which general anesthetics causing loss of consciousness remain unclear. The central medial thalamic nucleus (CMT) is a rarely studied component of the midline thalamic complex, which is deemed to be a part of the nonspecific arousal system. Although the CMT participates in modulating arousal and receives excitatory noradrenergic projections from locus coeruleus, it remains unknown whether the noradrenergic pathway in the CMT takes part in modulating the arousal system. Therefore, we hypothesized that noradrenergic transmission in the CMT is involved in modulating induction and emergence of propofol anesthesia. First, we infused norepinephrine (NE) into the CMT to observe the role of CMT noradrenergic pathway in modulating the anesthetic state induced by propofol. The results showed that microinjection of NE into the CMT accelerated emergence from propofol anesthesia, but had no impact on the induction of or sensitivity to propofol anesthesia in rats. In addition, infusion of NE into the CMT caused electroencephalography changes in the prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. Finally, we used a whole‐cell patch clamp to examine the effects of NE on neuronal excitability and GABAergic transmission in the CMT. In the CMT slices, propofol suppressed neuronal excitability and enhanced GABAergic transmission, while application of NE partly reversed these effects. These findings support the hypothesis that the CMT noradrenergic pathway plays an important role in modulating the emergence from general anesthesia.
Long‐Term Results for IncobotulinumtoxinA in the Treatment of Glabellar Frown Lines

BACKGROUND IncobotulinumtoxinA has been approved for treatment of glabellar frown lines (GFL) in the United States, all major European markets, South Korea, and Argentina and in Russia and Mexico for the treatment of mimic wrinkles and hyperkinetic facial lines, respectively. OBJECTIVES Prospective, 2‐year, open‐label, multicenter, repeat‐dose, Phase III trial investigating the safety and efficacy of incobotulinumtoxinA for the treatment of GFL. METHODS Subjects with moderate or severe GFL on the Facial Wrinkle Scale (FWS), enrolled from previous trials, were treated with 20 U of incobotulinumtoxinA per cycle (up to eight treatment cycles, treatment interval at least 85 days). Efficacy was measured according to the investigator‐assessed percentage of responders on the FWS (subjects with a score of 0 or 1) at rest and maximum frown on Day 30 of each cycle, subject assessments, and onset and duration of treatment effect. RESULTS In 796 subjects, 77% to 88% were responders at rest, and 79% to 90% were responders at maximum frown. Onset was rapid; subjects reported effects in the first few days after treatment. No new tolerability or safety concerns were reported. CONCLUSIONS IncobotulinumtoxinA injections were well tolerated and resulted in efficacy in the treatment of GFL for up to 2 years.
TLSF: a new dynamic memory allocator for real-time systems

Dynamic storage allocation (DSA) algorithms play an important role in the modern software engineering paradigms and techniques (such as object oriented programming). Using DSA increases the flexibility and functionalities of applications. There exists a large number of references to this particular issue in the literature. However, the use of DSA has been considered a source of indeterminism in the real-time domain, due to the unconstrained response time of DSA algorithms and the fragmentation problem. Nowadays, real-time applications require more flexibility: the ability to adjust system configuration in response to workload changes and application reconfiguration. This aspect adds value to the definition and implementation of dynamic storage allocation algorithms. Considering these reasons, DSA algorithms with a bounded and acceptable timing behaviour must be developed to be used by real-time operating systems (RTOSs). In this paper a DSA algorithm called two-level segregated fit memory allocator (TLSF), developed specifically to be used by RTOS, is introduced. The TLSF algorithm provides explicit allocation and deallocation of memory blocks with a temporal cost /spl Theta/(1).
Assisting Parents and In-Laws: Gender, Type of Assistance, and Couples' Employment

We use 1995 MIDUS data (n = 2,085) to assess whether the gender gap in help persists across different types of help (unpaid task assistance, emotional support, financial assistance) to parents and in-laws. We also examine whether joint employment patterns influence levels of help. Persistent gender differences are identified in levels of emotional support to parents and in-laws: Women spend more time than men giving this help. There are no gender differences in levels of unpaid task assistance or financial assistance to parents or in-laws. Individuals in single-earner couples, however, provide greater levels of unpaid task assistance to in-laws and financial assistance to parents than individuals in dual-earner couples. Furthermore, financial assistance to parents is positively linked to work hours.
Moving Beyond Achievement Data

The Student Orientation to School Questionnaire (SOS-Q) is a multidimensional student-centered assessment tool for measuring psychosocial facilitators of student engagement. The SOS-Q is based in research on the self-system models of motivation and direct student input on perceived supports and barriers for high school completion. The current study examined internal measurement properties (factor structure and reliability) of the upper-elementary and high school versions of the SOS-Q in two samples of Grade 4 (N = 615) and Grades 7 and 9 (N = 1,356) students, as an important step in the process of scale development and validation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (EFAs and CFAs) converged on a stable and reliable measurement structure for both versions of the scale, with common factors related to safe and caring school, peer relationships, self-confidence, external and internal resilience, and for the high school version only—perceived utility of school and extracurricular activities. Results are discussed in terms of incorporating the SOS-Q into comprehensive school assessment systems that go beyond the academic achievement and behavioral data and that can have important policy and program implications.
Molecular basis for the high-affinity binding and stabilization of firefly luciferase by PTC124

Firefly luciferase (FLuc), an ATP-dependent bioluminescent reporter enzyme, is broadly used in chemical biology and drug discovery assays. PTC124 (Ataluren; (3-[5-(2-fluorophenyl)-1,2,4-oxadiazol-3-yl]benzoic acid) discovered in an FLuc-based assay targeting nonsense codon suppression, is an unusually potent FLuc-inhibitor. Paradoxically, PTC124 and related analogs increase cellular FLuc activity levels by posttranslational stabilization. In this study, we show that FLuc inhibition and stabilization is the result of an inhibitory product formed during the FLuc-catalyzed reaction between its natural substrate, ATP, and PTC124. A 2.0 Å cocrystal structure revealed the inhibitor to be the acyl-AMP mixed-anhydride adduct PTC124-AMP, which was subsequently synthesized and shown to be a high-affinity multisubstrate adduct inhibitor (MAI; KD = 120 pM) of FLuc. Biochemical assays, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, and near-attack conformer modeling demonstrate that formation of this novel MAI is absolutely dependent upon the precise positioning and reactivity of a key meta-carboxylate of PTC124 within the FLuc active site. We also demonstrate that the inhibitory activity of PTC124-AMP is relieved by free coenzyme A, a component present at high concentrations in luciferase detection reagents used for cell-based assays. This explains why PTC124 can appear to increase, instead of inhibit, FLuc activity in cell-based reporter gene assays. To our knowledge, this is an unusual example in which the “off-target” effect of a small molecule is mediated by an MAI mechanism.
Trichomonas vaginalis homolog of macrophage migration inhibitory factor induces prostate cell growth, invasiveness, and inflammatory responses

Significance Prostate cancer is the most common nonskin cancer in America and the fifth most common cancer worldwide. Inflammation is implicated in the initiation and progression of prostate cancer; however, sources of inflammation remain unidentified. Trichomonas vaginalis is a prevalent parasite that infects prostate epithelium and is associated with an increase in aggressive prostate cancer. Here, we demonstrate that a secreted T. vaginalis protein homologous to human macrophage migration inhibitory factor elicits antibodies in infected individuals, increases prostate cell proliferation and invasiveness, and induces cellular pathways linked to inflammation. This study demonstrates that a specific parasite-derived protein can mimic its human homolog to increase inflammation and cell proliferation, which, in turn, may result in the promotion and progression of prostate cancer. The human-infective parasite Trichomonas vaginalis causes the most prevalent nonviral sexually transmitted infection worldwide. Infections in men may result in colonization of the prostate and are correlated with increased risk of aggressive prostate cancer. We have found that T. vaginalis secretes a protein, T. vaginalis macrophage migration inhibitory factor (TvMIF), that is 47% similar to human macrophage migration inhibitory factor (HuMIF), a proinflammatory cytokine. Because HuMIF is reported to be elevated in prostate cancer and inflammation plays an important role in the initiation and progression of cancers, we have explored a role for TvMIF in prostate cancer. Here, we show that TvMIF has tautomerase activity, inhibits macrophage migration, and is proinflammatory. We also demonstrate that TvMIF binds the human CD74 MIF receptor with high affinity, comparable to that of HuMIF, which triggers activation of ERK, Akt, and Bcl-2–associated death promoter phosphorylation at a physiologically relevant concentration (1 ng/mL, 80 pM). TvMIF increases the in vitro growth and invasion through Matrigel of benign and prostate cancer cells. Sera from patients infected with T. vaginalis are reactive to TvMIF, especially in males. The presence of anti-TvMIF antibodies indicates that TvMIF is released by the parasite and elicits host immune responses during infection. Together, these data indicate that chronic T. vaginalis infections may result in TvMIF-driven inflammation and cell proliferation, thus triggering pathways that contribute to the promotion and progression of prostate cancer.
Immunoregulatory and effector activities in human cutaneous and mucosal Leishmaniasis: Understanding mechanisms of pathology

Individuals infected with Leishmania braziliensis may develop the relatively benign localized cutaneous (CL) form or the mucosal (ML) form of the disease, which represents a more severe and mutilating variation. Interaction between parasite and host cells, as well as the genetic background of the host, are important determinants of the immune response, which is critical in determining disease outcome. Our studies over the years have been designed to determine the immunoregulatory and effector functions that culminate in the formation of lesions in CL and ML disease and how these host response factors may be better understood for design of novel therapies and prophylaxis. By studying the immune response from CL and ML patients in both the peripheral blood and in situ, we have learned much concerning the dynamics of the host–pathogen interaction that leads to the development of CL and ML. We used multiparameter flow cytometry to study the immunoregulatory profiles of the peripheral blood leukocytes, as well as laser scanning confocal microscopy to examine in situ several aspects of the local response, including the intensity of the inflammatory infiltrate, the cellular composition, inflammatory and anti‐inflammatory cytokine expression, and the expression of the effector cytotoxic molecule, granzyme A, in lesions from CL and ML patients. Moreover, the application of correlative analysis between these immunological parameters has helped shed light on disease progression in CL and ML. These findings are reviewed within the context of understanding cellular and molecular mechanisms associated with the development of pathology in these diseases through a comparative analysis of the clinical forms, CL and ML, as well as of studies derived from peripheral blood and lesions. Drug Dev Res 72:430–436, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Math Male , Me Female , Therefore Math Me

College students, especially women, demonstrated negativity toward math and science relative to arts and language on implicit measures. Group membership (being female), group identity (self female), and gender stereotypes (math male) were related to attitudes and identification with mathematics. Stronger implicit math male stereotypes corresponded with more negative implicit and explicit math attitudes for women but more positive attitudes for men. Associating the self with female and math with male made it difficult for women, even women who had selected math-intensive majors, to associate math with the self. These results point to the opportunities and constraints on personal preferences that derive from membership in social groups.
Distributed Subgradient Methods for Convex Optimization Over Random Networks

We consider the problem of cooperatively minimizing the sum of convex functions, where the functions represent local objective functions of the agents. We assume that each agent has information about his local function, and communicate with the other agents over a time-varying network topology. For this problem, we propose a distributed subgradient method that uses averaging algorithms for locally sharing information among the agents. In contrast to previous works on multi-agent optimization that make worst-case assumptions about the connectivity of the agents (such as bounded communication intervals between nodes), we assume that links fail according to a given stochastic process. Under the assumption that the link failures are independent and identically distributed over time (possibly correlated across links), we provide almost sure convergence results for our subgradient algorithm.
Effects of Cariporide and Losartan on Hypertrophy, Calcium Transients, Contractility, and Gene Expression in Congestive Heart Failure

Background—The purpose of this study was to compare long-term effects of cariporide with those of losartan in postinfarction heart failure. Methods and Results—Female Sprague-Dawley rats with large myocardial infarctions and sham controls were randomized to losartan, cariporide, or placebo after 7 days and treated for 49 days. Cardiac function was assessed by echocardiography and measurement of left ventricular pressures, and gene expression was assessed by competitive reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction. Cell dimensions, shortening, and relaxation were determined by videomicroscopy and calcium transients by fura 2. Losartan reduced postinfarction systolic and diastolic left ventricular dilation (by 24% and 31%, respectively), left and right ventricular weight (by 22% and 26%, respectively), and cardiomyocyte hypertrophy length and width (by 62% and 54%, respectively). Induction of myocardial atrial natriuretic peptide decreased 66%. Cariporide did not affect postinfarction hypertrophy or atrial natriuretic peptide. Losartan and cariporide respectively improved reduced cellular contractility (55% and 30%) and reduced elevated systolic (86% and 27%) and diastolic (49% and 43%) calcium. Losartan and cariporide respectively reduced prolonged time to 50% relaxation (66% and 25%) and time to 50% calcium reduction (55% and 53%). Conclusions—Losartan and cariporide improve cardiomyocyte contractility and calcium regulation in chronic heart failure. Losartan has salutary effects on postinfarction remodeling and gene expression, whereas cariporide is neutral.
Identification of BRCA1/2 Founder Mutations in Southern Chinese Breast Cancer Patients Using Gene Sequencing and High Resolution DNA Melting Analysis

Background Ethnic variations in breast cancer epidemiology and genetics have necessitated investigation of the spectra of BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations in different populations. Knowledge of BRCA mutations in Chinese populations is still largely unknown. We conducted a multi-center study to characterize the spectra of BRCA mutations in Chinese breast and ovarian cancer patients from Southern China. Methodology/Principal Findings A total of 651 clinically high-risk breast and/or ovarian cancer patients were recruited from the Hong Kong Hereditary Breast Cancer Family Registry from 2007 to 2011. Comprehensive BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation screening was performed using bi-directional sequencing of all coding exons of BRCA1 and BRCA2. Sequencing results were confirmed by in-house developed full high resolution DNA melting (HRM) analysis. Among the 451 probands analyzed, 69 (15.3%) deleterious BRCA mutations were identified, comprising 29 in BRCA1 and 40 in BRCA2. The four recurrent BRCA1 mutations (c.470_471delCT, c.3342_3345delAGAA, c.5406+1_5406+3delGTA and c.981_982delAT) accounted for 34.5% (10/29) of all BRCA1 mutations in this cohort. The four recurrent BRCA2 mutations (c.2808_2811delACAA, c.3109C>T, c.7436_7805del370 and c.9097_9098insA) accounted for 40% (16/40) of all BRCA2 mutations. Haplotype analysis was performed to confirm 1 BRCA1 and 3 BRCA2 mutations are putative founder mutations. Rapid HRM mutation screening for a panel of the founder mutations were developed and validated. Conclusion In this study, our findings suggest that BRCA mutations account for a substantial proportion of hereditary breast/ovarian cancer in Southern Chinese population. Knowing the spectrum and frequency of the founder mutations in this population will assist in the development of a cost-effective rapid screening assay, which in turn facilitates genetic counseling and testing for the purpose of cancer risk assessment.
Blogging Practices: An Analytical Framework

This article proposes a general model to analyze and compare different uses of the blog format. Based on ideas from sociological structuration theory, as well as on existing blog research, it argues that individual usage episodes are framed by three structural dimensions of rules, relations, and code, which in turn are constantly (re)produced in social action. As a result, “communities of blogging practices” emerge-that is, groups of people who share certain routines and expectations about the use of blogs as a tool for information, identity, and relationship management. This analytical framework can be the basis for systematic comparative and longitudinal studies that will further understanding of similarities and differences in blogging practices.
The rhetoric and reality of partnership working

This article presents an analysis of the policy rhetoric of partnership and the reality of the process of partnership working using data from a qualitative case study of a sub‐regional partnership. The purpose of the partnership is to widen participation in post‐16 learning in the Black Country, a part of the Midlands in England. Data collected through observation of partnership meetings, in‐depth interviews with members of the Partnership Board and documentary analysis provide a rich insight into the work of the partnership and the processes that have shaped its lifecycle. The findings reveal that at one level of analysis, partnership can be interpreted as a pragmatic response to New Labour's policy initiatives in the post‐16 sector of education and training but this reading of the data does not explain the ability of the case study partnership to sustain itself over a period of over five years. A deeper analysis of the stages in the lifecycle of the partnership indicates that shared goals underpinned by mutual values and trust amongst key people in the partnership constitute the ‘social glue’ that hold organizations and individuals together to provide the basis of effective and sustained partnership working.
Beyond the Rhetoric: Trends in the Relative Value of Teaching and Research in Faculty Salaries

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, among all faculty activities research consistently showed publishing and other forms of scholarly productivity as the strongest positive predictors of faculty pay. Classroom teaching was consistently negatively related to pay. Now more than a decade after a host of institutional and state policies enacted to enhance the value of teaching, this paper examines changes in the monetary value of classroom teaching and publishing during the past five years. Results show that spending more time on teaching still means lower pay. Scholarly productivity remains the strongest behavioral predictor of pay although its importance may be stabilizing or slightly decreasing.