Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Functional Role of NRF2 in Cervical Carcinogenesis

Nuclear factor erythroid-2-related factor 2 (NFE2L2) is a transcription factor associated with resistance to chemotherapy and increased tumor growth. NRF2 is repressed by the inhibitor Keap1. The Keap1-NRF2 pathway is dysfunctional in multiple tumor types. Among Uighur women, the incidence of cervical squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) was associated with elevated nuclear expression of NRF2 and decreased cytoplasmic expression of Keap1. Up-regulation of nuclear NRF2 was significantly associated with reduced cytoplasmic Keap1 expression. NRF2 positivity and Keap1 negativity were frequently associated with more advanced tumors (i.e., higher histological grade, lymph node involvement, and higher tumor stages) (p<0.05 for all). Methylated CpG islands in the Keap1 gene promoter in cervical cancer tissue were identified using MassARRAY. Moreover, promoter hypermethylation of this gene was significantly associated with decreased protein expression and increased nuclear NRF2 expression in cervical cancer tissues. Overexpression and knockdown of NRF2 in CSCC cell lines showed that NRF2 promotes proliferation, inhibits apoptosis, and enhances migration and invasion. These studies support the concept that epigenetic changes regulate expression of Keap1 in cervical cancer tissues. The association of NRF2 expression with aggressive tumor behavior suggests that NRF2 may be a marker of poor prognosis in patients with cervical cancer.
Risk of cancer in patients with inflammatory bowel disease and venous thromboembolism: A nationwide cohort study

Background: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) may be a harbinger of cancer. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is known to increase the risk of VTE, but it is unclear whether VTE in IBD patients is also a marker for occult cancer. We assessed the risk of cancer after VTE in IBD patients. Methods: We conducted a population‐based cohort study by linking Danish medical registries during 1978–2008. We calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) by comparing observed cancer incidence after VTE in IBD patients with that expected based on national cancer incidence in the Danish population. Results: A total of 895 IBD patients with VTE were followed for a total of 5290 person‐years. During the first year of follow‐up, 28 (3.1%) patients were diagnosed with cancer, corresponding to an SIR of 3.2 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.2, 4.7). Patients with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease had similar relative risks (SIR = 3.1 [95% CI: 1.9, 4.9] and SIR = 3.5 [95% CI: 1.7, 6.3], respectively). In IBD patients <55 years the SIR was 5.7 (95% CI: 2.3, 11.8) and in patients ≥55 years the SIR was 2.8 (95% CI: 1.8, 4.3). During the second and subsequent years of follow‐up 61 cancers were diagnosed (SIR = 1.2 [95% CI: 0.92, 1.6]). Conclusions: In patients with IBD a VTE event is not only a consequence of their disease, but might also be a marker of occult cancer. We suggest that IBD patients with VTE should follow the same diagnostic work‐up guidelines as non‐IBD VTE patients. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2012)
Iron oxyhydroxide aerogels and xerogels by hydrolysis of FeCl3 · 6 H2O in organic media: Early stages

Formation of iron oxyhydroxide aerogel and xerogel by hydrolysis of FeCl3 ∙ 6 H2O was studied in organic media using water available solely from the starting iron salt. Ethylene glycol (EGLY), dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and dimethyl formamide (DMFA) solvents were used. Products were analysed with specific surface area and TEM measurements. Early stages of hydrolysis and progress of gelation were followed by Mössbauer spectroscopy of frozen reaction mixtures. Presence of transient species and increase of the probability of the Mössbauer effect was observed in the early phase (0 – 60 min). Hydrolysis and gelation were the faster in EGLY, proceeded with medium rate in DMSO and were the slowest in DMFA.
USE OF INCINERATED SEWAGE SLUDGE ASH IN CEMENT MORTARS : CASE STUDY IN CROATIA

Original scientific paper In the paper an experimental research has been carried out regarding the possibility for the use of incinerated sewage sludge ash (ISSA) in the production of cement mortars with partial cement replacement. Different mixtures of cement mortar have been investigated, with comparison of its basic characteristics with and without certain amounts of added ISSA that was incinerated at the temperature of 800 °C. Additionally, the influence of the additives (metakaolin and silicon dust) was also investigated with the purpose to improve the physical characteristics of mortars. Altogether 177 specimens of cement mortar were investigated, with 9 different mixtures. In this research the sewage sludge from the Zagreb wastewater treatment plant was used. Results have shown satisfying physical and mechanical characteristics of mortars with added ISSA (workability, setting time, flexural and compressive strength) which brings to conclusion that use of ISSA in production of cement mortars seems possible and justified.
Crystal Structure of the Human Cytosolic Sialidase Neu2

Gangliosides play key roles in cell differentiation, cell-cell interactions, and transmembrane signaling. Sialidases hydrolyze sialic acids to produce asialo compounds, which is the first step of degradation processes of glycoproteins and gangliosides. Sialidase involvement has been implicated in some lysosomal storage disorders such as sialidosis and galactosialidosis. Neu2 is a recently identified human cytosolic sialidase. Here we report the first high resolution x-ray structures of mammalian sialidase, human Neu2, in its apo form and in complex with an inhibitor, 2-deoxy-2,3-dehydro-N-acetylneuraminic acid (DANA). The structure shows the canonical six-blade β-propeller observed in viral and bacterial sialidases with its active site in a shallow crevice. In the complex structure, the inhibitor lies in the catalytic crevice surrounded by ten amino acids. In particular, the arginine triad, conserved among sialidases, aids in the proper positioning of the carboxylate group of DANA within the active site region. The tyrosine residue, Tyr334, conserved among mammalian and bacterial sialidases as well as in viral neuraminidases, facilitates the enzymatic reaction by stabilizing a putative carbonium ion in the transition state. The loops containing Glu111 and the catalytic aspartate Asp46 are disordered in the apo form but upon binding of DANA become ordered to adopt two short α-helices to cover the inhibitor, illustrating the dynamic nature of substrate recognition. The N-acetyl and glycerol moieties of DANA are recognized by Neu2 residues not shared by bacterial sialidases and viral neuraminidases, which can be regarded as a key structural difference for potential drug design against bacteria, influenza, and other viruses.
Liver transplantation in Central Europe

Introduction Transplant hepatologists convened in Warsaw on 20-21 November 2015 at a meeting of the Initiative Group for Central European Hepatologic Collaboration to exchange their experience in liver transplantation in their respective countries. Material and methods The description is based on narration of individual country representatives, supplemented by data from additional queries, and from publicly accessible sources. Results Liver transplantation programs were launched, in the Czech Republic in 1983, in Poland in 1990 (paediatric) followed by the adult program 1994; the first liver transplant in Hungary was performed in 1995, with Slovakia launching its liver transplantation program in 2008. Currently, there are 2 centres for liver transplantation in Slovakia, 1 centre in Hungary, 6 centres in Poland, and 2 centres in the Czech Republic. The rates of liver transplantation correspond to the number of cadaveric donations being the highest in the Czech Republic (15.8 per million population) and the lowest in Slovakia (4.2 per million population) (2014 data). Live donation is utilized systematically in Poland. Indications vary from country to country, but the 3 most frequent ones include hepatitis C and B cirrhosis, alcoholic cirrhosis, and cholestatic liver disorders. There is a growing incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma among adult liver transplant recipients. Biliary atresia and hereditary diseases are the most frequent indications among children. Hungary became a member of Eurotransplant, other countries are not a part of any international organization for organ sharing. Conclusions Despite some differences, liver transplant programs seem to be compatible honouring the same values and principles universal to liver transplant programs in most parts of the world.
The role of the subfornical organ in angiotensin II–salt hypertension in the rat

Hypertension caused by chronic infusion of angiotensin II (Ang II) in experimental animals is dependent, in part, on increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. This chronic sympathoexcitatory response is amplified by a high‐salt diet, suggesting an interaction of circulating Ang II and dietary salt on sympathetic regulatory pathways in the brain. The present study tested the hypothesis that the subfornical organ (SFO), a forebrain circumventricular organ known to be activated by circulating Ang II, is crucial to the pathogenesis of hypertension induced by chronic Ang II administration in rats on a high‐salt diet (Ang II–salt model). Rats were randomly selected to undergo either subfornical organ lesion (SFOx) or sham surgery (Sham) and then placed on a high‐salt (2% NaCl) diet. One week later, rats were instrumented for radiotelemetric measurement of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) and placed in metabolic cages to measure sodium and water balance. Baseline MAP was slightly (but not statistically) lower in SFOx compared with Sham rats during the 5 day control period. During the subsequent 10 days of Ang II administration, MAP was statistically lower in SFOx rats. However, when MAP responses to Ang II were analysed by comparing the change from the 5 day baseline period, only on the fifth day of Ang II was MAP significantly different between groups. There were no differences between groups for water or sodium balance throughout the protocol. We conclude that, although the SFO is required for the complete expression of Ang II–salt hypertension in the rat, other brain sites are also involved.
The role of Cl− in the regulation of ion and liquid transport in the intact alveolus during β‐adrenergic stimulation

• What is the central question of this study? The co‐ordinated regulation of ion transport across the pulmonary epithelium determines the volume of the thin liquid layer lining the normal lung. However, the integrated homeostasis of the liquid transport physiology of the intact alveolus remains elusive. • What is the main finding and its importance? Using a whole‐lung preparation, we explored the mechanism of the β‐agonist‐mediated upregulation of Na+ and alveolar liquid clearance, leading to resolution of pulmonary oedema. We demonstated the functional presence of secretory rather than absorptive Cl− channels, which implies that this upregulation is mediated via a direct effect on Na+ conductance and not through transepithelial Cl− absorption and an increased driving force for Na+.
Reading in recent ELT coursebooks

This paper presents an analysis of the reading component in a representative sample of ELT coursebooks for intermediate level and above, published in the last ten years. It examines the way those coursebooks reflect current theories on foreign language reading in their treatment of the reading skill. Based on the instructional implications of interactive models of reading, the analysis focuses on the attempts to develop both lower-level processing skills and higher-level comprehension and reasoning skills in EFL learners. From this analysis, it is concluded that, in general, the coursebooks seem to reflect current interactive views on reading, although they differ in the number and type of activities included, and are deficient in various ways. This implies that EFL teachers need to supplement deficient reading activities to help learners become efficient readers.
The Musical Self-Concept of Chinese Music Students

The relationship between self-concept and societal settings has been widely investigated in several Western and Asian countries, with respect to the academic self-concept in an educational environment. Although the musical self-concept is highly relevant to musical development and performance, there is a lack of research exploring how the musical self-concept evolves in different cultural settings and societies. In particular, there have been no enquiries yet in the Chinese music education environment. This study’s goal was the characterization of musical self-concept types among music students at a University in Beijing, China. The Musical Self-Concept Inquiry—including ability, emotional, physical, cognitive, and social facets—was used to assess the students’ musical self-concepts (N = 97). The data analysis led to three significantly distinct clusters and corresponding musical self-concept types. The types were especially distinct, in the students’ perception of their musical ambitions and abilities; their movement, rhythm and dancing affinity; and the spiritual and social aspects of music. The professional aims and perspectives, and the aspects of the students’ sociodemographic background also differed between the clusters. This study is one of the first research endeavors addressing musical self-concepts in China. The empirical identification of the self-concept types offers a basis for future research on the connections between education, the development of musical achievement, and the musical self-concept in societal settings with differing understandings of the self.
Performance on a measure of category fluency in cognitively impaired elderly

ABSTRACT Measures of verbal fluency are widely used in the assessment of cognitive functioning of the elderly. However, limited research has evaluated patterns (across specific timed intervals) of performance on tasks of language fluency in different forms of dementia. The current study investigated semantic fluency in 488 elderly individuals (249 with Alzheimer's dementia, 97 Vascular dementia, 97 Mild Cognitive Impairment and 45 cognitively intact) across 15-second intervals in an animal naming task using retrospective chart review. Normal controls produced significantly more exemplars and AD patients produced fewer animal names than the other groups. After the first 15- second time interval, the demented groups produced significantly fewer exemplars than the non-demented. At the end of 30 seconds it was possible to differentiate normal aging from MCI who no longer differed from the VaD group. Overall, it appears that the greatest and most clinically meaningful differences between the diagnostic groups were detected in the first three 15-second intervals. The present findings support the use of time intervals and total scores on tasks of verbal fluency in clinical settings and for research purposes.
Studying COPD in African-Americans: Better Late than Never

In this month’s issue of the Journal of COPD, Criner and colleagues publish the results of the first ever randomized placebocontrolled trial of a COPD treatment (inhaled tiotropium) performed exclusively in African-Americans (1). Regardless of the results, the Journal, authors, and indeed the sponsor of the study should be congratulated. Despite the increasing impact of COPD among African-Americans (2) and evidence that they may be more susceptible to tobacco smoke than Caucasians (3–5); no prior study has examined the effects of a COPD treatment in this subpopulation. The importance of race as a determinant of pharmacologic benefit has been documented in hypertension (6) and congestive heart failure (7, 8) and a similar phenomenon may exist in asthma (9–11). Examination of this issue in patients with COPD is long overdue. COPD is currently the fourth-leading cause of death in the United States and mortality continues to increase, more so in African Americans than in Caucasians (2). Although this phenomenon has been attributed to changing smoking habits over time, some have argued that African-Americans may be more susceptible to tobacco smoke than Caucasians (3–5). Chatila has shown that despite comparable lung function, African-Americans presenting for lung transplant evaluation were younger and had smoked less than their white counterparts (3, 4). We have found similar data across the spectrum of COPD severity (5) and indeed the patients enrolled in the Criner study were younger and had fewer pack-years of smoking than the predominantly Caucasian population enrolled in the pivotal placebo-controlled trials of tiotropium (12). The explanation for this phenomenon has not been elucidated, though
Impact of the phononic structure design on the reduction of thermal conductivity

Energy conversation is an important aspect of the today’s technology, and one of the main directions of the research in this field is the thermoelectricity. However, modern thermoelectric devices have rather limited efficiency due to the lack of materials with high electrical and low thermal conductivities at the same time. Recently, a number of works demonstrated that periodic arrays of holes can affect the propagation of phonons in the material, and decrease the value of thermal conductivity as compared to the bulk material. This reduction is often attributed to the appearance of the band gap and the flattering of the bands in phonon dispersion curves at very low temperatures. In the present work, we theoretically investigate the impact of the phononic crystal membrane design on the phononic effect. We demonstrate that the total power, which can be thermally transported through the photonic structure, decreases as the period to thickness ratio is increased. This finding is in agreement with recent experimental data measured at low temperature [1] and explained by the reduction of group velocity and density of states. On the other hand, we find that radius to period ratio impacts the thermally transported power much less, despite its high impact on the size of the phononic bandgap. However, at higher temperatures the impact of phononic effect plays a less important role as compared to the incoherent scattering processes, for which exactly the opposite period dependence is expected. Therefore, we predict the existence of an optimal design of the phononic structures, with the lowest thermal conductivity.
PCR diagnosis of tick-borne pathogens in Maharashtra state, India indicates fitness cost associated with carrier infections is greater for crossbreed than native cattle breeds

Tick-borne pathogens (TBP) are responsible for significant economic losses to cattle production, globally. This is particularly true in countries like India where TBP constrain rearing of high yielding Bos taurus, as they show susceptibility to acute tick borne disease (TBD), most notably tropical theileriosis caused by Theileria annulata. This has led to a programme of cross breeding Bos taurus (Holstein-Friesian or Jersey) with native Bos indicus (numerous) breeds to generate cattle that are more resistant to disease. However, the cost to fitness of subclinical carrier infection in crossbreeds relative to native breeds is unknown, but could represent a significant hidden economic cost. In this study, a total of 1052 bovine blood samples, together with associated data on host type, sex and body score, were collected from apparently healthy animals in four different agro-climatic zones of Maharashtra state. Samples were screened by PCR for detection of five major TBPs: T. annulata, T. orientalis, B. bigemina, B. bovis and Anaplasma spp. The results demonstrated that single and co-infection with TBP are common, and although differences in pathogen spp. prevalence across the climatic zones were detected, simplistic regression models predicted that host type, sex and location are all likely to impact on prevalence of TBP. In order to remove issues with autocorrelation between variables, a subset of the dataset was modelled to assess any impact of TBP infection on body score of crossbreed versus native breed cattle (breed type). The model showed significant association between infection with TBP (particularly apicomplexan parasites) and poorer body condition for crossbreed animals. These findings indicate potential cost of TBP carrier infection on crossbreed productivity. Thus, there is a case for development of strategies for targeted breeding to combine productivity traits with disease resistance, or to prevent transmission of TBP in India for economic benefit.
Adaptive Joint Learning of Compositional and Non-Compositional Phrase Embeddings

We present a novel method for jointly learning compositional and non-compositional phrase embeddings by adaptively weighting both types of embeddings using a compositionality scoring function. The scoring function is used to quantify the level of compositionality of each phrase, and the parameters of the function are jointly optimized with the objective for learning phrase embeddings. In experiments, we apply the adaptive joint learning method to the task of learning embeddings of transitive verb phrases, and show that the compositionality scores have strong correlation with human ratings for verb-object compositionality, substantially outperforming the previous state of the art. Moreover, our embeddings improve upon the previous best model on a transitive verb disambiguation task. We also show that a simple ensemble technique further improves the results for both tasks.
Dating Violence Among High School Students in Southeastern North Carolina

Adolescents are a high-risk group for dating violence. Using the Youth Risk Behavior Survey data, this study examined the associations among dating violence (including physical dating violence [PDV] and sexual dating violence [SDV]) and selected health risk behaviors among 375 and 372 high school students, in 2005 and 2007, respectively, in southeastern North Carolina. The findings indicate PDV increased slightly from 2005 (11.6%) to 2007 (12.5%), while SDV remained approximately the same (10.4% in 2005 and 10.3% in 2007). PDV was strongly associated with SDV among high school students in 2005 and 2007. Significant associations also exist among dating violence and sexual behavior, substance use, violence, psychological health, and unhealthy weight control. School nurses should be actively involved in promoting healthy lifestyles and healthy choices among high school students through interdisciplinary efforts with parents, teachers, school districts, and communities.
The fate of monocytes in atherosclerosis

Summary. Monocytes are the primary inflammatory cell type that infiltrates early atherosclerotic plaques. Their recruitment into plaques drives disease progression. Disease interventions that target monocytes could act at several points: alteration in the phenotype of circulating monocyte subpopulations; reduced recruitment of monocytes into plaques; alterations in the survival of monocyte‐derived cells in atherosclerosis; and promotion of migratory egress from plaques to bring about resolution of the plaque inflammatory response. All of these points of intervention will be briefly discussed in this article.