Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficacy and safety of iron-chelation therapy with deferoxamine, deferiprone, and deferasirox for the treatment of iron-loaded patients with non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia syndromes

The prevalence rate of thalassemia, which is endemic in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean, exceeds 100,000 live births per year. There are many genetic variants in thalassemia with different pathological severity, ranging from a mild and asymptomatic anemia to life-threatening clinical effects, requiring lifelong treatment, such as regular transfusions in thalassemia major (TM). Some of the thalassemias are non-transfusion-dependent, including many thalassemia intermedia (TI) variants, where iron overload is caused by chronic increase in iron absorption due to ineffective erythropoiesis. Many TI patients receive occasional transfusions. The rate of iron overloading in TI is much slower in comparison to TM patients. Iron toxicity in TI is usually manifested by the age of 30–40 years, and in TM by the age of 10 years. Subcutaneous deferoxamine (DFO), oral deferiprone (L1), and DFO–L1 combinations have been effectively used for more than 20 years for the treatment of iron overload in TM and TI patients, causing a significant reduction in morbidity and mortality. Selected protocols using DFO, L1, and their combination can be designed for personalized chelation therapy in TI, which can effectively and safely remove all the excess toxic iron and prevent cardiac, liver, and other organ damage. Both L1 and DF could also prevent iron absorption. The new oral chelator deferasirox (DFX) increases iron excretion and decreases liver iron in TM and TI. There are drawbacks in the use of DFX in TI, such as limitations related to dose, toxicity, and cost, iron load of the patients, and ineffective removal of excess iron from the heart. Furthermore, DFX appears to increase iron and other toxic metal absorption. Future treatments of TI and related iron-loading conditions could involve the use of the iron-chelating drugs and other drug combinations not only for increasing iron excretion but also for preventing iron absorption.
Phylogenetic Analyses of Armillaria Reveal at Least 15 Phylogenetic Lineages in China, Seven of Which Are Associated with Cultivated Gastrodia elata

Fungal species of Armillaria, which can act as plant pathogens and/or symbionts of the Chinese traditional medicinal herb Gastrodia elata (“Tianma”), are ecologically and economically important and have consequently attracted the attention of mycologists. However, their taxonomy has been highly dependent on morphological characterization and mating tests. In this study, we phylogenetically analyzed Chinese Armillaria samples using the sequences of the internal transcribed spacer region, translation elongation factor-1 alpha gene and beta-tubulin gene. Our data revealed at least 15 phylogenetic lineages of Armillaria from China, of which seven were newly discovered and two were recorded from China for the first time. Fourteen Chinese biological species of Armillaria, which were previously defined based on mating tests, could be assigned to the 15 phylogenetic lineages identified herein. Seven of the 15 phylogenetic lineages were found to be disjunctively distributed in different continents of the Northern Hemisphere, while eight were revealed to be endemic to certain continents. In addition, we found that seven phylogenetic lineages of Armillaria were used for the cultivation of Tianma, only two of which had been recorded to be associated with Tianma previously. We also illustrated that G. elata f. glauca (“Brown Tianma”) and G. elata f. elata (“Red Tianma”), two cultivars of Tianma grown in different regions of China, form symbiotic relationships with different phylogenetic lineages of Armillaria. These findings should aid the development of Tianma cultivation in China.
Cell Motility Is Decreased in Macrophages Activated by Cancer Cell-Conditioned Medium

Macrophages play a role in innate immune responses to various foreign antigens. Many products from primary tumors influence the activation and transmigration of macrophages. Here, we investigated a migration of macrophages stimulated with cancer cell culture-conditioned medium (CM). Macrophage activation by treatment with CM of B16F10 cells were judged by the increase in protein levels of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and cyclooxygenase 2 (COX2). The location where macrophages were at 4 h-incubation with control medium or CM was different from where they were at 5 h-incubation in culture dish. Percentage of superimposed macrophages at every 1 h interval was gradually increased by CM treatment as compared to control. Total coverage of migrated track expressed in coordinates was smaller and total distance of migration was shorter in CM-treated macrophages than that in control. Rac1 activity in CM-treated macrophages was also decreased as compared to that in control. When macrophages were treated with CM in the presence of dexamethasone (Dex), an increase in COX2 protein levels, and a decrease in Rac1 activity and total coverage of migration were reversed. In the meanwhile, biphasic changes were detected by Dex treatment in section distance of migration at each time interval, which was more decreased at early time and then increased at later time. Taken together, data demonstrate that macrophage motility could be reduced in accordance with activation in response to cancer cell products. It suggests that macrophage motility could be a novel marker to monitor cancer-associated inflammatory diseases and the efficacy of anti-inflammatory agents.
Determinants of anti-hepatitis A antibody seroprevalence in 2- to 19-year-olds in the USA using NHANES 2007–2008

SUMMARY The aim of the study was to describe the epidemiology and determinants of anti-hepatitis A seroprevalence in 2- to 19-year-olds in the USA for 2007–2008. This study was conducted in a sample of 2621 individuals aged 2–19 years in the USA using data from National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2007–2008. The overall seroprevalence of anti- hepatitis A virus (HAV) in this population was 39% (95% confidence interval 32·6–45·3). HAV seroprevalence was higher in Mexican Americans than other ethnic groups, in younger persons, and in those who reported previous vaccination compared to those who did not. We concluded that anti-hepatitis A seroprevalence rates are increasing in younger individuals in the USA, indicating a shift of seroprevalence over time due to vaccination status. Findings are consistent with a persistent influx of infection through international travel and migration and highlight the need to discern hepatitis A infection from vaccination status when assessing the effectiveness of vaccination using seroprevalence data.
Anaplasma platys in Dogs, Chile

We conducted a 16S rRNA nested PCR for the genus Ehrlichia and Ehrlichia spp. with blood samples from 30 ill dogs in Chile. Phylogenetic analysis was performed by using groESL gene amplification. We identified Anaplasma platys as 1 of the etiologic agents of canine ehrlichiosis.
Uncertainties in Remote Sensing Reflectance From MODIS-Terra

A validation analysis of remote sensing reflectance (RRS) derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard Terra (MODIS-T) is conducted with field RRS data obtained at three fixed sites equipped with autonomous radiometers in the coastal northern Adriatic Sea and at two locations in the Baltic Sea, and during oceanographic campaigns in the Baltic, Black, and Mediterranean Seas and the English Channel. Validation results show mean relative differences |ψ| between satellite and field RRS values of 10%-13% at 531 and 547 nm and 23%-36% at 667 nm. There are much larger deviations in statistics for shorter wavelengths with large |ψ| and bias values in the Baltic Sea. The root-mean-square differences tend to decrease with wavelength from 0.0011-0.0014 sr-1 at 412 nm to 0.0002-0.0005 sr-1 at 667 nm. Overall, the uncertainties shown for MODIS-T are very consistent with those associated with MODIS onboard Aqua.
Unwanted Pregnancy and Associated Factors among Pregnant Married Women in Hosanna Town, Southern Ethiopia

Of an estimated 210 million pregnancies that occur in the world each year, 38% are unplanned, out of which 22% end in abortion. In Ethiopia, the estimates of unintended pregnancy indicate that it is one of the major reproductive health problems with all its adverse outcomes. Women risk their lives in by seeking illegal abortions following unintended pregnancies. Thus, this study aims to determine the prevalence of unintended pregnancy and associated factors among pregnant married women residing in Hossana, Southern Ethiopia. A community-based cross-sectional study involving both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods was carried out in Hossana from April 02 to 15, 2011. 385 pregnant married women randomly selected from the census were included for the quantitative data and took in-depth interviews for the qualitative. Descriptive, binary and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS version 16. Out of the total pregnancies, 131 (34%) were unintended and 254 (66%) were reported to be intended. A history of previous unintended pregnancy, the husband not wanting to limit family size, a desire for at least two children, the number of pregnancy 3–4 and parity of 5 and above were factors significantly associated with unintended pregnancy. With over one third of pregnancies unintended, having a previous unintended pregnancy, the number of previous pregnancies, and husbands’ disagreement over family size, and the desired number of children are factors that reproductive health programs should aim to focus on to reduce unintended pregnancy.
Subjective responses to initial experience with cocaine: an exploration of the incentive-sensitization theory of drug abuse.

AIMS This study investigated the relationship between positive and negative subjective responses at the time of initial cocaine use with adult cocaine dependence and life-time use rates. Psychostimulant pre-exposure, regular smoking or stimulant treatment before initiation were examined to explore the incentive sensitization theory of addiction. PARTICIPANTS A total of 202 adult participants who had tried cocaine on at least one occasion were studied prospectively from childhood into adulthood. The cocaine-initiated group included 89 who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual version IV (DSM-IV) criteria for attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and 113 age-matched controls. DESIGN Five childhood and three adulthood interviews provided data on ages of initiation into cocaine and life-time use of cocaine from ages 16-40 years. Correlations of each subjective response and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) of cocaine 'liking' and 'wanting' with DSM-III-R cocaine dependence and life-time use provided support for the validity of the measures. ANOVA provided evidence of the effect of psychostimulant pre-exposure on 'liking' and 'wanting'. Logistic regression modeled the prediction of dependence and life-time use with the independent variables of 'liking' and 'wanting', psychostimulant pre-exposure and participant characteristics. RESULTS When cocaine was first tried, 'liking' and 'wanting' were significant predictors of cocaine dependence and life-time use. Mean 'liking' or 'wanting' responses did not differ by participant characteristics. Those who were pre-exposed by regular smoking or stimulant treatment had higher 'liking' and 'wanting' scores; but participants who were pre-exposed by both stimulant treatment and regular smoking reported the lowest liking and the highest wanting responses, consistent with the incentive sensitization theory. Logistic regression showed that the 'liking' and 'wanting' responses increased significantly the odds of DSM-III-R cocaine dependence and life-time use. CONCLUSION In this sample, subjective 'liking' and 'wanting' measured risk for cocaine abuse.
Long-term results of radial head resection following isolated radial head fractures in patients younger than forty years old.

BACKGROUND In the past, radial head resection was the surgical treatment of choice for radial head fractures that could not be internally fixed. More recently, radial head implant arthroplasty has gained popularity for the treatment of isolated radial head fractures. The purpose of the present study was to review the long-term results of radial head resection after radial head fractures not associated with elbow instability in patients younger than forty years of age. METHODS Twenty-six patients younger than forty years of age who had sustained an isolated fracture of the radial head (including six patients who had sustained a Mason type-II fracture and twenty who had sustained a Mason type-III fracture) that had been treated with primary radial head resection were reviewed retrospectively at a minimum of fifteen years (mean, twenty-five years). Outcomes were evaluated according to the Mayo Elbow Performance Score and the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score. Radiographic assessment of osteoarthritic changes and the carrying angle was also performed. RESULTS Twenty-one patients (81%) had no elbow pain, three had mild pain, and two had moderate pain. The mean arc of motion was from 9 degrees to 139 degrees of flexion. All but one patient had a functional arc of motion. The mean pronation was 84 degrees, and the mean supination was 85 degrees. Nineteen elbows had normal strength in comparison with the unaffected side. The mean Mayo Elbow Performance Score was 95 points; the score was classified as good or excellent for twenty-four elbows (92%) and as fair for two. The mean Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score was 6 points. Three patients complained of wrist pain, which was mild in two patients and moderate in one. In four patients, some degree of elbow instability could be detected on physical examination. The mean carrying angle of the involved elbow was significantly greater than that of the uninjured elbow (21 degrees compared with 10 degrees). Radiographic changes of arthritis were considered mild in seventeen elbows and moderate in nine. We could not detect significant differences in functional outcome on the basis of the degree of radiographic change. CONCLUSIONS Radial head resection in young patients with isolated fractures without instability yields long-term satisfactory results in >90% of cases. Osteoarthritic changes are uniformly present but typically are not associated with functional impairment.
A Syntactic Approach to Domain-Specific Automatic Question Generation

Factoid questions are questions that require short fact-based answers. Automatic generation (AQG) of factoid questions from a given text can contribute to educational activities, interactive question answering systems, search engines, and other applications. The goal of our research is to generate factoid source-question-answer triplets based on a specific domain. We propose a four-component pipeline, which obtains as input a training corpus of domain-specific documents, along with a set of declarative sentences from the same domain, and generates as output a set of factoid questions that refer to the source sentences but are slightly different from them, so that a question-answering system or a person can be asked a question that requires a deeper understanding and knowledge than a simple word-matching. Contrary to existing domain-specific AQG systems that utilize the template-based approach to question generation, we propose to transform each source sentence into a set of questions by applying a series of domain-independent rules (a syntactic-based approach). Our pipeline was evaluated in the domain of cyber security using a series of experiments on each component of the pipeline separately and on the end-to-end system. The proposed approach generated a higher percentage of acceptable questions than a prior state-of-the-art AQG system.
Long-term mobile phone use and acoustic neuroma.

778 | www.epidem. com © 2014 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins The authors respond: We thank Lennart Hardell and Michael Carlberg for their comments,1 which gave us the opportunity to expand on our findings. Our study2 was initiated after publication of the Swedish Interphone study,3 which found an increased risk of acoustic neuroma after 10 years of mobile phone use, confined to ipsilateral use, but with uncertainties regarding recall bias when reporting side of phone use, and no association with cordless phones. In the current study, cordless phone use was included as a secondary objective Long-Term Mobile Phone Use and Acoustic Neuroma
On capacity of cognitive radio networks with average interference power constraints

Cognitive radio (CR) has been considered as a promising technology to improve the spectrum utilization. In this paper we analyze the capacity of a CR network with average received interference power constraints. Under the assumptions of uniform node placements and a simple power control scheme, the maximum transmit power of a target CR transmitter is characterized by its cumulative distribution function (CDF). We study two CR scenarios for future applications. The first scenario is called the CR based central access network, which aims at providing broadband access to CR devices. In the second scenario, the so-called CR assisted virtual multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) network, CR is used to improve the access capability of a cellular system. The uplink ergodic channel capacities of both scenarios are derived and analyzed with an emphasis on understanding the impact of numbers of primary users and CR users on the capacity. Numerical and simulation results suggest that the CR based central access network is more suitable for less-populated rural areas where a relatively low density of primary receivers is expected; while the CR assisted virtual MIMO network performs better in urban environments with a dense population of mobile CR users.
Characterisation and Performance of Low-Density Poly Ethylene-Corn Flour Composites

This study aims to investigate the effects of corn flour fillers on the mechanical and thermal properties and surface morphology of low-density polyethylene composites. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and low density polyethylene/corn flour (LDPE/CF) with different loadings of CF (5% ‐ 20% w/w) were prepared in an internal mixer type Z - Blade mixer at 190°C and rotor speed of 50 rpm. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry ( DSC ) and tensile tests were analysed to investigate thermal and mechanical properties. Tensile tests displayed an increase in the tensile strength and modulus with the increase of CF loadings. The results of DMA tests showed significant improvements for the storage modulus and glass transition temperature, T g . The results of TGA indicated that the addition of higher amounts of CF enhanced thermal stability.
Etiology of Inguinal Hernias: A Comprehensive Review

Background The etiology of inguinal hernias remains uncertain even though the lifetime risk of developing an inguinal hernia is 27% for men and 3% for women. The aim was to summarize the evidence on hernia etiology, with focus on differences between lateral and medial hernias. Results Lateral and medial hernias seem to have common as well as different etiologies. A patent processus vaginalis and increased cumulative mechanical exposure are risk factors for lateral hernias. Patients with medial hernias seem to have a more profoundly altered connective tissue architecture and homeostasis compared with patients with lateral hernias. However, connective tissue alteration may play a role in development of both subtypes. Inguinal hernias have a hereditary component with a complex inheritance pattern, and inguinal hernia susceptible genes have been identified that also are involved in connective tissue homeostasis. Conclusion The etiology of lateral and medial hernias are at least partly different, but the final explanations are still lacking on certain areas. Further investigations of inguinal hernia genes may explain the altered connective tissue observed in patients with inguinal hernias. The precise mechanisms why processus vaginalis fails to obliterate in certain patients should also be clarified. Not all patients with a patent processus vaginalis develop a lateral hernia, but increased intraabdominal pressure appears to be a contributing factor.
Decreasing-Rate Pruning Optimizes the Construction of Efficient and Robust Distributed Networks

Robust, efficient, and low-cost networks are advantageous in both biological and engineered systems. During neural network development in the brain, synapses are massively over-produced and then pruned-back over time. This strategy is not commonly used when designing engineered networks, since adding connections that will soon be removed is considered wasteful. Here, we show that for large distributed routing networks, network function is markedly enhanced by hyper-connectivity followed by aggressive pruning and that the global rate of pruning, a developmental parameter not previously studied by experimentalists, plays a critical role in optimizing network structure. We first used high-throughput image analysis techniques to quantify the rate of pruning in the mammalian neocortex across a broad developmental time window and found that the rate is decreasing over time. Based on these results, we analyzed a model of computational routing networks and show using both theoretical analysis and simulations that decreasing rates lead to more robust and efficient networks compared to other rates. We also present an application of this strategy to improve the distributed design of airline networks. Thus, inspiration from neural network formation suggests effective ways to design distributed networks across several domains.
Consumption Risk and the Cost of Equity Capital

We demonstrate, using data for the period 1954-2003, that differences in exposure to consumption risk explains cross sectional differences in average excess returns (cost of equity capital) across the 25 benchmark equity portfolios constructed by Fama and French (1993). We use yearly returns on stocks to take into account well documented within year deterministic seasonal patterns in returns, measurement errors in the consumption data, and possible slow adjustment of consumption to changes in wealth due to habit and prior commitments. Consumption during the fourth quarter is likely to have a larger discretionary component. Further, given the availability of more leisure time during the holiday season and the ending of the tax year in December, investors are more likely to review their asset holdings and make trading decisions during the fourth quarter. We therefore match the growth rate in the fourth quarter consumption from one year to the next with the corresponding calendar year return when computing the latter's exposure to consumption risk. We find strong support for our consumption risk model specification in the data.