Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sentinel lymph node biopsy is not accurate in predicting lymph node status for patients with cervical carcinoma

In a recent article, Marchiolè et al., using serial sections and immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining to examine both sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs) and non-SLNs, attempted to determine whether the SLN is truly the lymph node most likely to harbor metastatic tumor and assessed the “true” histologic false-negative (FN) rate of SLNs in patients with cervical carcinoma. Using the colorimetric method alone, the authors found a high FN rate for SLN biopsy, thereby raising questions regarding the validity of this concept in patients with cervical carcinoma. The FN rate is calculated as the number of procedures with a negative SLN (using hematoxylin and eosin [H&E] staining, multiple sectioning, and IHC analysis) and one or more positive non-SLNs (using “standard” histologic analysis) divided by the number of patients with any positive lymph node. To our knowledge, no consensus exists in cervical carcinoma with regard to an “acceptable” FN rate. Several parameters (including the method of detection, the injection site, the experience of the surgeon, and the use of systematic multiple sectioning and IHC analysis of the SLNs) can influence the FN rate. In the current study, using the colorimetric method alone, the “true” FN rate of the SLN mapping was not clearly reported. Using the “standard” method to evaluate the FN rate (i.e., multiple sectioning and IHC in the SLNs and conventional histologic analysis of non-SLNs [H & E]), we determined that the FN rate of the SLN procedure corresponded to 28.6% (2 of 7 patients), implying that this method of detection is not reliable in patients with cervical carcinoma. This high FN rate is not in keeping with the other studies in which a combined detection method was used. To our knowledge, SLN mapping has been reported in a total of 447 patients with cervical carcinoma in the literature to date. In these series, only 4 FN cases have been reported, for an overall rate of approximately 4%. In the study by Marchiolè et al., the extended analysis of non-SLNs by serial sectioning and IHC allowed for the detection of only 1 micrometastasis in 1 non-SLN, increasing the FN rate to 12.5%. In contrast to Marchiolè et al., we recently reported a study of 18 patients with cervical carcinoma who underwent a laparoscopic SLN procedure using a combined detection method. If the SLN was found to be free of metastasis by both H & E and IHC staining, all non-SLNs also were examined by the combined staining method. In 13 patients, no metastatic SLN involvement was detected by H & E and IHC staining. In these 13 patients, non-SLNs were examined using serial sectioning and IHC, and none was found to be metastatic. This confirms the finding that the SLN procedure appears to reliably predict the metastatic status of the regional lymphatic basin in patients with cervical carcinoma. 1919
Metabolite Profile Changes in Xylem Sap and Leaf Extracts of Strategy I Plants in Response to Iron Deficiency and Resupply

The metabolite profile changes induced by Fe deficiency in leaves and xylem sap of several Strategy I plant species have been characterized. We have confirmed that Fe deficiency causes consistent changes both in the xylem sap and leaf metabolite profiles. The main changes in the xylem sap metabolite profile in response to Fe deficiency include consistent decreases in amino acids, N-related metabolites and carbohydrates, and increases in TCA cycle metabolites. In tomato, Fe resupply causes a transitory flush of xylem sap carboxylates, but within 1 day the metabolite profile of the xylem sap from Fe-deficient plants becomes similar to that of Fe-sufficient controls. The main changes in the metabolite profile of leaf extracts in response to Fe deficiency include consistent increases in amino acids and N-related metabolites, carbohydrates and TCA cycle metabolites. In leaves, selected pairs of amino acids and TCA cycle metabolites show high correlations, with the sign depending of the Fe status. These data suggest that in low photosynthesis, C-starved Fe-deficient plants anaplerotic reactions involving amino acids can be crucial for short-term survival.
Circulation of Dengue virus-1 (DENV-1) serotype in Delhi, during 2010-11 after Dengue virus-3 (DENV-3) predominance: a single centre hospital-based study.

BACKGROUND Delhi, a city in north India, has so far witnessed several reported outbreaks of dengue. Dengue in Delhi from being epidemic is slowly changing towards being endemic and hyper-endemic. Circulating type of the virus is also changing over the years. In the absence of an effective vaccine, dengue prevention to a major extent relies on virological surveillance, and development of effective, locally adapted control programmes. In the present study, we tried to identify the between-year non-epidemic serotype of dengue virus circulating in Delhi, during 2010-11. METHODS Acute-phase samples were collected from the patients attending the Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, New Delhi, India. Dengue diagnosis was done using WHO case definitions. All the samples were subjected to Dengue NS1 Ag ELISA and modified nested RT-PCR. RESULTS A total of 75 acute-phase samples were received, of which 19 (25.3%) were positive for dengue NS1 antigen. Dengue RT-PCR was positive in 14.6% (11/75) samples. All the RT-PCR isolates were of DENV-1 serotype. No case of concomitant infection with more than one serotype was observed. Median age of involvement was 23 yr (range10-86). Maximum number of cases were seen in the age group of 21-30 yr. Male to female ratio was 1.2 : 1. Maximum number of suspected dengue cases (n=79) was seen during September and October. CONCLUSIONS DENV-1 was circulating in Delhi in the year 2010-11 in non-epidemic period following reported predominance of DENV-3 and co-circulation of all dengue serotypes in the epidemic years 2003, 2006 and 2007.
Magnesium deficiency diagnosed by an intravenous loading test.

Magnesium deficiency is common but difficult to diagnose and to assess in clinical practice. The use of a magnesium loading test was therefore evaluated to diagnose magnesium deficiency in 661 hospitalized patients with medical conditions assumed to interfere with magnesium uptake and excretion. Thirty millimoles of magnesium sulphate were administered intravenously during 8 h as a loading test and related to the urinary excretion in the following 24 h. A group of 30 patients without any known predisposition for magnesium deficiency and a group of 27 healthy volunteers served as controls. The mean (with 95% confidence interval) magnesium retention was 4 (-2-10)% in the control group of patients and 3 (-2-8)% in healthy subjects. A significantly higher retention was observed in all the groups of the patients: atrial fibrillation 18 (11-25)%, other arrhythmias 18 (11-24)%, hypertension 27 (20-33)%, coronary artery disease 25 (20-30)%, congestive heart failure 31 (26-37)%, cerebrovascular events 38 (24-51)%, gastrointestinal disorders 22 (14-29)%, diabetes mellitus 16 (9-22)%, and alcoholics 33 (29-36)%. The percentage of patients with a retention greater than mean + 2 SD of the two control groups varied between 22% and 54% among the different patient groups. The mean serum magnesium among the patient groups was similar to the control group of patients, except for the alcoholics, hypertensives and young healthy controls, who had significantly reduced levels. Magnesium retention was significantly correlated to age and renal function, and among the alcoholics negatively correlated to serum magnesium. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Self-reported quality of life after skin cancer in young adults

Abstract Introduction: Skin cancer incidence is increasing in younger adults. Patient satisfaction and quality of life surveys are limited, and more information is needed on the unique perspectives of these younger patients who may be affected differently. We sought to explore how skin cancer has affected quality of life in younger adults. Methods: A self-reported questionnaire was administered to patients with skin cancer aged 20–50 years diagnosed from 2007 to 2008. Quality of life was measured using the Skin Cancer Index (SCI) and Skindex-16 with a transformed scale. Descriptive statistics with standard deviations were calculated. Results: One-hundred sixty-one patients were identified; 62 completed surveys (38.5%), with 47 patients eligible for inclusion. Forty participants (85%) reported having made lifestyle changes since being diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancers, most commonly habitual use of sunscreen (n = 34; 77.3%). Quality of life was most impacted by worries about their skin cancer (Skindex-16 score 24.5 (34.4 standard deviation)), including their future risk of developing further cancers (58.5 (31.8)). Limitations: Limitations include small sample size and possible response bias. Conclusions: There is a modest impact on quality of life in young patients with skin cancer based on the Skindex-16 and SCI. Young skin cancer survivors may benefit from patient counseling, which addresses risk assessment and future risk reduction.
Increasing use of extracorporeal life support in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus sepsis in children*

Background: Pediatric cases of fulminant community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections requiring extracorporeal life support (ECLS) have been reported, but the frequency of ECLS use for severe presentations of staphylococcal disease is unknown. Objective: To describe the frequency and characteristics of children with MRSA infections requiring ECLS using local and international databases. Methods: The reasons for use of ECLS in children 0–18 yrs of age were determined in both the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital medical record system and the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization database during the years 1994–2005. Demographic characteristics, ventilatory management, and measurements of cardiopulmonary status in subjects undergoing ECLS with a pre-ECLS diagnosis of infection with Staphylococcus aureus and MRSA were included. Results: Three subjects with MRSA sepsis requiring ECLS were identified at Vanderbilt since 2000. Before that time, no cases due to MRSA were reported. The three subjects were previously healthy adolescents with severe necrotizing pneumonia associated with skin/soft-tissue infection and two died. A total of 45 patients requiring ECLS for MRSA infection were identified in the International Extracorporeal Life Support Organization database, with nearly half reported in the past 2 yrs (20 of 45 patients). The median age was 2.4 yrs (interquartile range, 0.36–14 yrs), with peaks noted in infancy and adolescence. In Extracorporeal Life Support Organization subjects with MRSA, survival to discharge was highest in infants and young children aged 1–4 yrs (65% and 71%, respectively) and lowest in the age ranges of 5–9 yrs and 13–18 yrs (0% and 31%, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in pre-ECLS ventilatory settings, cardiopulmonary status, or frequency of complications between survivors and nonsurvivors. Conclusions: The use of ECLS for MRSA infection seems to be increasing both locally and internationally. High mortality rates, particularly in older patients, are concerning and highlight the increasing problem with this pathogen.
Tonsillar Syphilis: an Unusual Site of Infection Detected by Treponema pallidum PCR

ABSTRACT With the reemergence of syphilis, it is important that both clinical and public health practitioners recognize the various clinical manifestations of this disease (formerly known as “the great imitator”) and become familiar with the newer diagnostic tests. Here we report the first case of tonsillar syphilis diagnosed by PCR.
Aquaporin 4 as a NH3 Channel*

Ammonia is a biologically potent molecule, and the regulation of ammonia levels in the mammalian body is, therefore, strictly controlled. The molecular paths of ammonia permeation across plasma membranes remain ill-defined, but the structural similarity of water and NH3 has pointed to the aquaporins as putative NH3-permeable pores. Accordingly, a range of aquaporins from mammals, plants, fungi, and protozoans demonstrates ammonia permeability. Aquaporin 4 (AQP4) is highly expressed at perivascular glia end-feet in the mammalian brain and may, with this prominent localization at the blood-brain-interface, participate in the exchange of ammonia, which is required to sustain the glutamate-glutamine cycle. Here we observe that AQP4-expressing Xenopus oocytes display a reflection coefficient <1 for NH4Cl at pH 8.0, at which pH an increased amount of the ammonia occurs in the form of NH3. Taken together with an NH4Cl-mediated intracellular alkalization (or lesser acidification) of AQP4-expressing oocytes, these data suggest that NH3 is able to permeate the pore of AQP4. Exposure to NH4Cl increased the membrane currents to a similar extent in uninjected oocytes and in oocytes expressing AQP4, indicating that the ionic NH4+ did not permeate AQP4. Molecular dynamics simulations revealed partial pore permeation events of NH3 but not of NH4+ and a reduced energy barrier for NH3 permeation through AQP4 compared with that of a cholesterol-containing lipid bilayer, suggesting AQP4 as a favored transmembrane route for NH3. Our data propose that AQP4 belongs to the growing list of NH3-permeable water channels.
Microbial Diversity of Cryptoendolithic Communities from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

ABSTRACT In the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, microorganisms colonize the pore spaces of exposed rocks and are thereby protected from the desiccating environmental conditions on the surface. These cryptoendolithic communities have received attention in microscopy and culture-based studies but have not been examined by molecular approaches. We surveyed the microbial biodiversity of selected cryptoendolithic communities by analyzing clone libraries of rRNA genes amplified from environmental DNA. Over 1,100 individual clones from two types of cryptoendolithic communities, cyanobacterium dominated and lichen dominated, were analyzed. Clones fell into 51 relatedness groups (phylotypes) with ≥98% rRNA sequence identity (46 bacterial and 5 eucaryal). No representatives of Archaea were detected. No phylotypes were shared between the two classes of endolithic communities studied. Clone libraries based on both types of communities were dominated by a relatively small number of phylotypes that, because of their relative abundance, presumably represent the main primary producers in these communities. In the lichen-dominated community, three rRNA sequences, from a fungus, a green alga, and a chloroplast, of the types known to be associated with lichens, accounted for over 70% of the clones. This high abundance confirms the dominance of lichens in this community. In contrast, analysis of the supposedly cyanobacterium-dominated community indicated, in addition to cyanobacteria, at least two unsuspected organisms that, because of their abundance, may play important roles in the community. These included a member of the α subdivision of the Proteobacteria that potentially is capable of aerobic anoxygenic photosynthesis and a distant relative of Deinococcus that defines, along with other Deinococcus-related sequences from Antarctica, a new clade within the Thermus-Deinococcus bacterial phylogenetic division.
Connecting network partitions with location-assisted forwarding nodes in mobile ad hoc environments

A mobile ad hoc network consisting of a set of mobile nodes does not have any infrastructure support or central management. Data packets are routed by the mobile nodes in the network instead of base stations. Due to node mobility or geographical limitations, the ad hoc network topology may be partitioned. Data communication and information availability are thus affected. The disconnection problem makes a critical strike on ad hoc routing protocols because most protocols typically assume that the ad hoc network is always connected. We describe an approach to recovering the disconnected mobile ad hoc networks by deploying forwarding nodes. The forwarding nodes can automatically move to appropriate locations for interconnecting network partitions. The mechanism is distributed and self-organized and can be integrated with other routing protocols. The mechanism has been implemented in the network simulator ns-2. The simulation results show that the algorithm can efficiently improve information availability and recover network partitions.
Autoencoder with recurrent neural networks for video forgery detection

Video forgery detection is becoming an important issue in recent years, because modern editing software provide powerful and easy-to-use tools to manipulate videos. In this paper we propose to perform detection by means of deep learning, with an architecture based on autoencoders and recurrent neural networks. A training phase on a few pristine frames allows the autoencoder to learn an intrinsic model of the source. Then, forged material is singled out as anomalous, as it does not fit the learned model, and is encoded with a large reconstruction error. Recursive networks, implemented with the long short-term memory model, are used to exploit temporal dependencies. Preliminary results on forged videos show the potential of this approach.
Expression Patterns of Protein Kinases Correlate with Gene Architecture and Evolutionary Rates

Background Protein kinase (PK) genes comprise the third largest superfamily that occupy ∼2% of the human genome. They encode regulatory enzymes that control a vast variety of cellular processes through phosphorylation of their protein substrates. Expression of PK genes is subject to complex transcriptional regulation which is not fully understood. Principal Findings Our comparative analysis demonstrates that genomic organization of regulatory PK genes differs from organization of other protein coding genes. PK genes occupy larger genomic loci, have longer introns, spacer regions, and encode larger proteins. The primary transcript length of PK genes, similar to other protein coding genes, inversely correlates with gene expression level and expression breadth, which is likely due to the necessity to reduce metabolic costs of transcription for abundant messages. On average, PK genes evolve slower than other protein coding genes. Breadth of PK expression negatively correlates with rate of non-synonymous substitutions in protein coding regions. This rate is lower for high expression and ubiquitous PKs, relative to low expression PKs, and correlates with divergence in untranslated regions. Conversely, rate of silent mutations is uniform in different PK groups, indicating that differing rates of non-synonymous substitutions reflect variations in selective pressure. Brain and testis employ a considerable number of tissue-specific PKs, indicating high complexity of phosphorylation-dependent regulatory network in these organs. There are considerable differences in genomic organization between PKs up-regulated in the testis and brain. PK genes up-regulated in the highly proliferative testicular tissue are fast evolving and small, with short introns and transcribed regions. In contrast, genes up-regulated in the minimally proliferative nervous tissue carry long introns, extended transcribed regions, and evolve slowly. Conclusions/Significance PK genomic architecture, the size of gene functional domains and evolutionary rates correlate with the pattern of gene expression. Structure and evolutionary divergence of tissue-specific PK genes is related to the proliferative activity of the tissue where these genes are predominantly expressed. Our data provide evidence that physiological requirements for transcription intensity, ubiquitous expression, and tissue-specific regulation shape gene structure and affect rates of evolution.
Imaging of follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma in a rodent model using spectral-based quantitative ultrasound techniques

Although thyroid cancer has relatively good prognosis, the management of this disease is complicated by the large incidence of thyroid nodules in the adult population. Unfortunately, current imaging methods do not provide a sufficient level of accuracy in order to replace biopsy as a tool for diagnosis of thyroid cancer. A relatively recent study suggests that spectral-based quantitative ultrasonic methods may provide a new source of contrast when imaging thyroid nodules. In this study, two parameters (i.e., the effective scatterer diameter (ESD) and the effective acoustic concentration (EAC)) were estimated from a rodent model of follicular variant papillary thyroid carcinoma (FV-PTC) ex vivo. The mean ESD values were 21.5 ± 1.8 μm and 15.9 ± 0.8 μm for normal and diseased thyroids, respectively. Also, the mean EAC values were 52.9 ± 3.4 dB/cm and 62.7 ± 1.6 dB/cm for normal and diseased thyroids, respectively. A nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test revealed statistically significant differences between FV-PTC and normal thyroids using both parameters (p <; 0.05). Therefore, these preliminary results suggest that spectral-based quantitative ultrasound imaging may be useful for the management of thyroid cancer.
Early origins of the metabolic syndrome: role of small size at birth, early postnatal weight gain, and adult IGF-I.

BACKGROUND The relationship between low birth weight and increased risk for metabolic syndrome (MetS) in later life has been frequently described, but mechanisms underlying this association remain unknown. METHODS In 280 young adults of the PROGRAM study, aged 18-24 yr, we investigated associations of birth weight, gain in weight for length during early life, and adult IGF-I sd score (SDS), with number of MetS components (ordinal regression analyses), prevalence of MetS components and MetS (logistic regression analyses), and other metabolic parameters (linear regression analyses). Revised criteria of the National Cholesterol Educational Program (Adult Treatment Panel III) were used to determine components of MetS. The other metabolic parameters were C-reactive protein, insulin sensitivity, trunk fat mass, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. RESULTS More gain in weight for length SDS in the first 3 months of life was significantly associated with an increased number of MetS components [odds ratio (OR) = 1.34], prevalence of low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR = 1.49), prevalence of MetS (OR = 2.51), increased C-reactive protein levels, and lower insulin sensitivity (P = 0.007) at the age of 21 yr. Low birth weight SDS was associated with lower insulin sensitivity (P = 0.036), but low birth weight SDS and adult IGF-I SDS were not significantly associated with any of the MetS components or MetS prevalence at 21 yr. CONCLUSION Our study demonstrates that higher gain in weight for length in the first 3 months of life is associated with a higher prevalence of MetS at 21 yr, whereas low birth weight and low adult IGF-I are not.
QoS-Aware Web Service Selection by a Synthetic Weight

The selection of Web services according to different quality of service (QoS) is one of the most important decision issues for which complex considerations are involved. In many cases, the values for the qualitative QoS criteria are often imprecisely defined or acquired. Moreover, it is also not easy to accurately quantify the weight of each QoS criterion since human judgments including preference are often vague. In this paper, we apply the fundamental principles in the fuzzy set theory and model the decision making problem as fuzzy multiple criteria decision making (FMCDM). The main contribution of this paper is to balance the subjective weight which reflects human rating and objective weight which represents reliability of evaluation criteria to form a synthetic weight. The detailed analysis of the synthetic weight for QoS-aware Web service selection application is also presented.