Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum Osteoprotegerin Is a Potential Biomarker of Insulin Resistance in Chinese Postmenopausal Women with Prediabetes and Type 2 Diabetes

The aim of this study is to investigate the circulating OPG levels in postmenopausal women with diabetes and prediabetes and explore the relationships between serum OPG and insulin resistance. A total of 271 unrelated Chinese postmenopausal women were recruited in this study. The subjects were divided into type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) group (n = 93), impaired glucose regulation (IGR) (n = 90), and normal glucose regulation group (NGR) (n = 88), according to different glucose regulation categories. Serum OPG levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The serum OPG concentration in NGR group, 151.00 ± 45.72 pg/mL, was significantly lower than that in IGR group (169.28 ± 64.91 pg/mL) (p = 0.031) and T2DM group (183.20 ± 56.53 pg/mL) (p < 0.01), respectively. In multiple linear regression analysis, HOMA-IR, age, 2hPG, AST, ALP, and eGFR were found to be independent predictors of OPG. Increased serum OPG levels (OR = 1.009, p = 0.006) may be a risk factor for insulin resistance. The present study suggests that OPG might be implicated in the pathogenesis of diabetes and is a potential biomarker of insulin resistance in subjects with diabetes and prediabetes.
Story Proof: The Science Behind the Startling Power of Story

Like Stephen Krashen's important work in The Power of Reading, Story Proof collects and analyzes the research that validates the importance of story, story reading, and storytelling to the brain development and education of children and adults. Accomplished researcher and storyteller Kendall Haven, establishes the need for understanding the research findings in neural psychology and brain development and the value of a common definition of story if one is to fully grasp the importance and necessity of story to the development of the human mind. To support his case, he reviews a wealth of research from storytellers, teachers, and others who have experienced the power of story firsthand. The author has collected anecdotal experiences from over 100 performing storytellers and from 1,800 story practitioners (mostly teachers) who have made extensive use of stories. He has read more than 150 qualitative and quantitative research studies that discuss the effectiveness of stories and/or storytelling for one or more specific applications (education, organizational management, knowledge management, medical and narrative therapy, etc.). Forty of these studies were literature reviews and comparative studies including analysis of over 1,000 studies and descriptive articles. He has also gathered research evidence from his own story performances for total audiences of over 4 million and from conducting story writing workshops with 200,000 students and 40,000 teachers.
Capacity and Error Exponents of Stationary Point Processes under Random Additive Displacements

Consider a real-valued discrete-time stationary and ergodic stochastic process, called the noise process. For each dimension n, we can choose a stationary point process in ℝ n and a translation invariant tessellation of ℝ n . Each point is randomly displaced, with a displacement vector being a section of length n of the noise process, independent from point to point. The aim is to find a point process and a tessellation that minimizes the probability of decoding error, defined as the probability that the displaced version of the typical point does not belong to the cell of this point. We consider the Shannon regime, in which the dimension n tends to ∞, while the logarithm of the intensity of the point processes, normalized by dimension, tends to a constant. We first show that this problem exhibits a sharp threshold: if the sum of the asymptotic normalized logarithmic intensity and of the differential entropy rate of the noise process is positive, then the probability of error tends to 1 with n for all point processes and all tessellations. If it is negative then there exist point processes and tessellations for which this probability tends to 0. The error exponent function, which denotes how quickly the probability of error goes to 0 in n, is then derived using large deviations theory. If the entropy spectrum of the noise satisfies a large deviations principle, then, below the threshold, the error probability goes exponentially fast to 0 with an exponent that is given in closed form in terms of the rate function of the noise entropy spectrum. This is obtained for two classes of point processes: the Poisson process and a Matérn hard-core point process. New lower bounds on error exponents are derived from this for Shannon's additive noise channel in the high signal-to-noise ratio limit that hold for all stationary and ergodic noises with the above properties and that match the best known bounds in the white Gaussian noise case.
Utilizing Tumor Hypoxia to Enhance Oncolytic Viral Therapy in Colorectal Metastases

Objective:To determine the effects of hypoxia-induced ribonucleotide reductase (RR) production on herpes oncolytic viral therapy. Summary Background Data:Hypoxia is a common tumor condition correlated with therapeutic resistance and metastases. Attenuated viruses offer a unique cancer treatment by specifically infecting and lysing tumor cells. G207 is an oncolytic herpes virus deficient in RR, a rate-limiting enzyme for viral replication. Methods:A multimerized hypoxia-responsive enhancer was constructed (10xHRE) and functionally tested by luciferase assay. 10xHRE was cloned upstream of UL39, the gene encoding the large subunit of RR (10xHRE-UL39). CT26 murine colorectal cancer cells were transfected with 10xHRE-UL39, incubated in hypoxia (1% O2) or normoxia (21% O2), and infected with G207 for cytotoxicity assays. CT26 liver metastases, with or without 10xHRE-UL39, were created in syngeneic Balb/C mice (n = 40). Livers were treated with G207 or saline. Tumors were assessed and stained immunohistochemically for G207. Results:10xHRE increased luciferase expression 33-fold in hypoxia versus controls (P < 0.001). In normoxia, 10xHRE-UL39 transfection did not improve G207 cytotoxicity. In hypoxia, G207 cytotoxicity increased 87% with 10xHRE-UL39 transfection versus nontransfected cells (P < 0.001). CT26 were resistant to G207 alone. Combining 10xHRE-UL39 with G207 resulted in a 66% decrease in tumor weights (P < 0.0001) and a 65% reduction in tumor nodules (P < 0.0001) versus G207 monotherapy. 10xHRE-UL39-transfected tumors demonstrated greater viral staining. Conclusions:Hypoxia-driven RR production significantly enhances viral cytotoxicity in vitro and reduces tumor burden in vivo. G207 combined with RR under hypoxic control is a promising treatment for colorectal cancer, which would otherwise be resistant to oncolytic herpes virus alone.
Postural Stability and Balance Training Program in Hemiparetic Stroke Patients

Abstract Aim: To compare limits of stability (LOS) between stroke patients and control group and to evaluate the effects of balance training program on hemiplegic stroke patients. Setting: Balance clinic, physical medicine and rehabilitation hospital, Kuwait. Materials and Methods: A total of 36 ambulatory hemiplegic stroke patients and 34 age-matched healthy individuals as control group were recruited in this study. All patients and healthy individuals were evaluated by the LOS test. Results: There were a significant increased RT (sec), a significant decreased MVL (deg/sec), a significant decreased EPE (%), a significant decreased MXE (%) and a significant decreased directional control(DCL) (%) in stroke patients compared to control group (p < 0.01). Moreover, a significant decreased RT, a significant increased MVL (deg/sec), a significant increased EPE (%) and a significant increased MXE(%) after training compared to results before training in stroke patients (p < 0.01). However, no significant difference of DCL (%) after training compared to results before training in stroke patients (p >0.05). Conclusion: There were significantly worse in parameters of LOS test in stroke patients. Moreover, significant enhancement of some parameters of LOS test after training in stroke patients was found.
Treatment Results in the Different Surgery of Intradural Extramedullary Tumor of 122 Cases

Study Design A retrospective study of intradural extramedullary tumor. Objective To compare the treatment results in the different surgeries of spinal intradural extramedullary tumor. Methods The study retrospectively reviewed 122 patients. The minimally invasive surgery (MIS) group was divided into Group A (hemilaminectomy + tumor microscopic excision) and Group B (laminectomy + tumor microscopic excision + pedicle screw fixation). Meanwhile, the non-MIS group was divided into Group C (hemilaminectomy + tumor excision), Group D (laminectomy + tumor excision), and Group E (laminectomy + tumor excision + pedicle screw fixation). In order to study postoperative spinal stability, we simultaneously divided all of the subjects into three categories, namely Group HE: hemilaminectomy + tumor excision; Group LE: laminectomy + tumor excision; and Group LEPSF: laminectomy + tumor excision + pedicle screw fixation. Results The MIS group exhibited fewer postoperative complications (p<0.05), better short-term clinical efficacy (p<0.05) and less non-surgical cost (p<0.05) than in non-MIS group. The rate of postoperative spinal instability in hemilaminectomy was lower than in laminectomy in a single spinal segment (p<0.05). The rate of postoperative spinal instability in laminectomy + pedicle screw fixation was lower than in hemilaminectomy and laminectomy in two or more spinal segments (p<0.05). Conclusion In the case of appropriate surgical indications, minimally invasive surgery for intradural extramedullary tumor is a useful method that can successfully produce good clinical results and reduce non-surgical cost. In addition, pedicle screw fixation helps avoid spinal postoperative instability.
Unified registration framework for cumulative dose assessment in cervical cancer across external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy

Dose accumulation across External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT) and Brachytherapy (BT) treatment fractions in cervical cancer is extremely challenging due to structural dissimilarities and large inter-fractional anatomic deformations between the EBRT and BT images. The brachytherapy applicator and the bladder balloon, present only in the BT images, introduce missing structural correspondences for the underlying registration problem. Complex anatomical deformations caused by the applicator and the balloon, different rectum and bladder filling and tumor shrinkage compound the registration difficulties. Conventional free-form registration methods struggle to handle such topological differences. In this paper, we propose a registration pipeline that first transforms the original images to their distance maps based on segmentations of critical organs and then performs non-linear registration of the distance maps. The resulting dense deformation field is then used to transform the original anatomical image. The registration accuracy is evaluated on 27 image pairs from stage 2B-4A cervical cancer patients. The algorithm reaches a Hausdorff distance of close to 0:5 mm for the uterus, 2:2 mm for the bladder and 1:7 mm for the rectum when applied to (EBRT,BT) pairs, taken at time points more than three months apart. This generalized model-free framework can be used to register any combination of EBRT and BT images as opposed to methods in the literature that are tuned for either only (BT,BT) pair, or only (EBRT,EBRT) pair or only (BT,EBRT) pair. A unified framework for 3D dose accumulation across multiple EBRT and BT fractions is proposed to facilitate adaptive personalized radiation therapy.
Genetic alterations of the tumour suppressor gene regions 3p, 11p, 13q, 17p, and 17q in human breast carcinomas

Fifty‐nine primary breast carcinomas and 11 metastases were examined to identify genetic alterations in the tumour suppressor gene regions 3p, 11p, 13q, 17p, and 17q. Loss of heterozygosity (LOH) was frequently observed on chromosome arms 17p (p144D6 lost in 75%, pYNZ22.1 in 55%, and TP53 in 48% of the primary tumours), 13q (RBI lost in 40% of the primary tumours), and 17q (pRMU3 lost in 35%, pTHH59 in 29%, and NM23HI in 26% of the primary tumours). Loss of all the markers except p144D6 was observed even more frequently in the metastases. Pairwise comparisons for concordance of allele losses on 17p indicated that there might be two genes on 17p implicated in breast cancer development; the TP53 gene and a gene located close to the p144D6 and pYNZ22.1 markers. LOH of the RBI gene was associated with LOH of pYNZ22.1 and p144D6, but not with LOH of TP53. LOH of RBI and TP53 was associated with occurrence of ductal carcinomas, RBI and p144D6 losses with tumour size, and p144D6 losses with positive node status as well. LOH of TP53 and the three 17q markers NM23HI, pTHH59, and pRMU3 was most frequently observed in tumours from postmenopausal women. p144D6 losses occurred most frequently in progesterone receptor‐negative tumours, whereas pTHH59 losses occurred most frequently in oestrogen receptor‐negative tumours. LOH of the investigated loci was not associated with ERBB2 protooncogene amplification, with positive family history of breast cancer, or with survival.
Refinement, Reliability, and Validity of the Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control

Purpose: The Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control (SATCo) provides a systematic method of assessing discrete levels of trunk control in children with motor disabilities. This study refined the assessment method and examined reliability and validity of the SATCo. Methods: After refining guidelines, 102 video recordings of the SATCo were made of 8 infants with typical development followed longitudinally from 3 to 9 months of age and 24 children with neuromotor disability with a mean age of 10 years 4 months. Eight researchers independently scored recordings. Results: Intraclass correlation coefficient values for interrater reliability were more than 0.84 and 0.98 across all data sets and all aspects of control. Tests of concurrent validity with the Alberta Infant Motor Scales resulted in coefficients ranging from 0.86 to 0.88. Conclusion: The SATCo is a reliable and valid measure allowing clinicians greater specificity in assessing trunk control.
Family, Self, and Human Development Across Cultures: Theory and Applications

Preface. Foreword. Introduction. Part 1. Human Development, Self, and Family in Cultural Context. Development in Context. Socialization for Competence. Culture, Self, and Individualism-Collectivism. Value of Children and the Family. Parenting and the Development of the Autonomous-Related Self. Part 2. Implications for Social Issues and Applications. Induced Change: The Role of Psychology. Intervention: Early Enrichment. The Turkish Early Enrichment Project (TEEP). Immigration and Acculturation. Search for Integration and Policy Implications.
Sustained Negative BOLD Response in Human fMRI Finger Tapping Task

In this work, we investigated the sustained negative blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response (sNBR) using functional magnetic resonance imaging during a finger tapping task. We observed that the sNBR for this task was more extensive than has previously been reported. The cortical regions involved in sNBR are divided into the following three groups: frontal, somatosensory and occipital. By investigating the spatial structure, area, amplitude, and dynamics of the sNBR in comparison with those of its positive BOLD response (PBR) counterpart, we made the following observations. First, among the three groups, the somatosensory group contained the greatest number of activated voxels and the fewest deactivated voxels. In addition, the amplitude of the sNBR in this group was the smallest among the three groups. Second, the onset and peak time of the sNBR are both larger than those of the PBR, whereas the falling edge time of the sNBR is less than that of the PBR. Third, the long distance between most sNBR foci and their corresponding PBR foci makes it unlikely that they share the same blood supply artery. Fourth, the couplings between the sNBR and its PBR counterpart are distinct among different regions and thus should be investigated separately. These findings imply that the origin of most sNBR foci in the finger-tapping task is much more likely to be neuronal activity suppression rather than “blood steal. ”
On being stoned : a psychological study of marijuana intoxication

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Spontaneous Closure of Ventricular Septal Defect

or require no treatment at all. Spontaneous closure of the ventricular septal defect was first mentioned in 1918 by French1 in a paper entitled "The Possibility of a Loud Congenital Heart Murmur Disappearing When a Child Grows up". The first documented case of diminution in size of the defect (proved by cardiac catheterization) was published by Azevedo et al.2 in 1958. In 1960 Evans, Rowe and Keith8 first presented evidence that spontaneous closure of a ventricular septal defect may be a frequent occurrence and can be demonstrated by cardiac catheterization. Since then there have been published at least 30 papers dealing with this topic. The object of our investigation was to deter¬ mine the frequency of spontaneous closure that may be expected and to attempt to recognize which cases are likely to fall into this category.
Cytokine Induction by Streptococcus mutans and Pulpal Pathogenesis

ABSTRACT Chronic pulpal inflammation under caries appears to be elicited by bacterial antigens that diffuse into the pulp through dentinal tubules. This prompted the hypothesis that cytokines elicited by antigens fromStreptococcus mutans, which frequently dominates shallow lesions, could play a major role in eliciting the initial T-cell response in the pulp. To test this, we examined the ability of S. mutans to stimulate T cells and elicit cytokines and usedLactobacillus casei, which often predominates in deep carious lesions where B cells and plasma cells predominate, as a control. In addition, the presence of cytokines in the pulp was analyzed at the mRNA level. S. mutans elicited potent gamma interferon (IFN-γ) responses in peripheral blood mononuclear cell cultures and reduced the CD4/CD8 ratio by promoting CD8+ T cells. Multiple inflammatory cytokine mRNAs (IFN-γ, interleukin 4 [IL-4], and IL-10) were detected in human dental pulp. A higher prevalence of IFN-γ (67%) than IL-4 (19%) or IL-10 (29%) was obtained in shallow caries, suggesting a type 1 cytokine mechanism in early pulpitis where S. mutanspredominates. In contrast, in deep caries no differences in cytokine frequency were observed. Furthermore, the presence of IFN-γ in the pulp correlated with the presence of S. mutans. The extraordinary induction of type 1 cytokines and the preferential activation of CD8+ T cells by S. mutans offers an explanation for the etiology of the CD8+ T-cell-dominant lesion in early pulpitis and suggests that S. mutans may have a major impact on the initial lesion and pulpal pathology.
Transcript Analysis and Regulative Events during Flower Development in Olive (Olea europaea L.)

The identification and characterization of transcripts involved in flower organ development, plant reproduction and metabolism represent key steps in plant phenotypic and physiological pathways, and may generate high-quality transcript variants useful for the development of functional markers. This study was aimed at obtaining an extensive characterization of the olive flower transcripts, by providing sound information on the candidate MADS-box genes related to the ABC model of flower development and on the putative genetic and molecular determinants of ovary abortion and pollen-pistil interaction. The overall sequence data, obtained by pyrosequencing of four cDNA libraries from flowers at different developmental stages of three olive varieties with distinct reproductive features (Leccino, Frantoio and Dolce Agogia), included approximately 465,000 ESTs, which gave rise to more than 14,600 contigs and approximately 92,000 singletons. As many as 56,700 unigenes were successfully annotated and provided gene ontology insights into the structural organization and putative molecular function of sequenced transcripts and deduced proteins in the context of their corresponding biological processes. Differentially expressed genes with potential regulatory roles in biosynthetic pathways and metabolic networks during flower development were identified. The gene expression studies allowed us to select the candidate genes that play well-known molecular functions in a number of biosynthetic pathways and specific biological processes that affect olive reproduction. A sound understanding of gene functions and regulatory networks that characterize the olive flower is provided.
Central chorioretinopathy associated with topical use of minoxidil 2% for treatment of baldness

Purpose: Minoxidil is one of the drugs approved for the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. This article presents a case of central serous chorioretinopathy after application of topical minoxidil solution. Methods: We examined a 37-year-old man who complained of a positive relative scotoma, metamorphopsia and impaired dark adaptation involving the right eye. The patient reported an 8 month history of daily topical use but denied previous treatment with other drugs. Dilated fundus examination of right eye revealed central swelling located over the macula. Optical coherence tomography showed the presence of subretinal fluid. Fluorescein angiography disclosed one focal hyperfluorescent spot in the foveal area with minimal pigmentary changes limitated to that area. The patient was diagnosed with central serous chorioretinopathy (CSC) potentially related to an 8 month topical minoxidil solution administration. One month after the drug was discontinued, normal findings were found upon reexamination. The patient reported no previous episode of CSC. Conclusion: Major systemic side effects from topical solution of minoxidil are rare. To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of a central serous chorioretinopathy associated with long-term use of this drug.
Balance Control Analysis as a Method for Screening and Identifying Balance Deficits

Abstract: We propose a two‐step clinical evaluation procedure to identify the possible etiology and laterality of a balance deficit. Step 1 employs a minimum clinical test battery, developed in our labs, to screen for the balance deficit by examining changes to trunk sway for standard clinical stance and gait tests. Step 2 characterizes pathophysiological components in balance corrections, as well as deficits brought about by aging, using biomechanical and electromyographic (EMG) responses to multidirectional stance perturbations. This is best accomplished by delivering stance perturbations to patients standing on a support surface that is tipped in four directions: forwards to the left and right, and backwards to the left and right. This review provides an overview of the two procedures and proposes for the screening procedure a minimum clinical test battery with a score, termed the balance control index (BCI).