Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Initial Characterization of the Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase Modifier Subunit Gclm(−/−) Knockout Mouse

Glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL) is the rate-limiting enzyme in the GSH biosynthesis pathway. In higher eukaryotes, this enzyme is a heterodimer comprising a catalytic subunit (GCLC) and a modifier subunit (GCLM), which change the catalytic characteristics of the holoenzyme. To define the cellular function of GCLM, we disrupted the mouse Gclm gene to create a null allele. Gclm(−/−) mice are viable and fertile and have no overt phenotype. In liver, lung, pancreas, erythrocytes, and plasma, however, GSH levels in Gclm(−/−) mice were 9–16% of that in Gclm(+/+) littermates. Cysteine levels inGclm(−/−) mice were 9, 35, and 40% of that inGclm(+/+) mice in kidney, pancreas, and plasma, respectively, but remained unchanged in the liver and erythrocytes. Comparing the hepatic GCL holoenzyme with GCLC in the genetic absence of GCLM, we found the latter had an ∼2-fold increase inK m for glutamate and a dramatically enhanced sensitivity to GSH inhibition. The major decrease in GSH, combined with diminished GCL activity, rendered Gclm(−/−) fetal fibroblasts strikingly more sensitive to chemical oxidants such as H2O2. We conclude that theGclm(−/−) mouse represents a model of chronic GSH depletion that will be very useful in evaluating the role of the GCLM subunit and GSH in numerous pathophysiological conditions as well as in environmental toxicity associated with oxidant insult.
Differing Incidences of Relevant Hypotension with Combined Spinal-Epidural Anesthesia and Spinal Anesthesia

In this investigation we assessed whether patients receiving spinal anesthesia (SPA) as part of combined spinal-epidural anesthesia (CSE) more often experience relevant hypotension than patients receiving SPA alone. From January 1, 1997, until August 5, 2000, electronic anesthesia records from 1596 patients having received SPA and 1023 patients having received CSE for elective surgery were collected by using a computerized anesthesia record-keeping system. Relevant hypotension was defined as a decrease of mean arterial blood pressure of more than 30% within a 10-min interval and a therapeutic action of the attending anesthesiologist within 20 min after onset. Electronic patient charts were reviewed by using logistic regression with a forward stepwise algorithm to identify independent risk factors that were associated with an increased incidence of hypotension after CSE. Univariate analysis was performed to assess differences in biometric data and relevant risk factors for hypotension between the two procedures. The incidence of relevant hypotension was more frequent with CSE than with SPA alone (10.9% versus 5.0%;P < 0.001). In the multivariate analysis, arterial hypertension (odds ratio, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.21–2.78) and sensory block height >T6 (odds ratio, 2.81; 95% confidence interval, 1.88–4.22) were found to be factors associated with hypotension in the CSE group. Compared with patients receiving SPA alone, patients undergoing CSE had a significantly more frequent prevalence of arterial hypertension and higher sensory block levels (P < 0.01) despite smaller amounts of local anesthetics. In this study, patients receiving CSE had an increased risk for relevant hypotension as compared with patients with SPA alone. Part of this effect seems to be due to the procedure alone and not only because this population is at higher risk.
The molecular evidence of Babesia microti infection in small mammals collected in Slovenia

In Europe, the zoonotic cycle of Babesia microti has not been determined so far. Recently, B. microti was detected in Ixodes ricinus ticks in Slovenia by using molecular methods. In order to investigate the mammalian hosts of B. microti in Slovenia we collected 261 small mammals representing 11 species. They were tested for the presence of babesial parasites with a PCR assay based on the nuclear small subunit rRNA gene (nss-rDNA). The bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) and yellow-necked mouse (Apodemus flavicollis) were infected with B. microti. The prevalence rate was 15·9% for C. glareolus and 11·8% for A. flavicollis. Nucleotide sequences of amplified portions of B. microti nss-rDNA from C. glareolus and A. flavicollis were indistinguishable from each other and identical with those previously described in I. ricinus ticks collected in Slovenia. The results of this study represent molecular evidence of B. microti in small mammals in Europe.
Frequency of ABH Secretors / Non Secretors and Its Clinical Significance : A Cross Sectional Study in Gwalior

The ABO blood group and secretor status of individuals is inherited independently. ABO blood group antigens are inherited by A, B & H genes and gene responsible for secretor state is Se (Se/Se & Se/se) gene. If recessive gene se/se is inherited person is non secretor. These group specific substances, ABH may be detected in most body fluid as soluble form in secretors except cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). One of the richest and most available source is saliva. Secretor status of a person can be quite useful to determine certain doubtful cases of ABO blood grouping and also has clinical significance. A total number of 1001 blood donors were randomly registered and studied for secretor/ non-secretor status in the present study. From the study, we conclude that secretors are more prevalent in our region (72.4%) and probable frequency Se and se gene was . 475 and . 525 while frequency of SeSe, Sese and sese allele genes was . 226, . 498 and . 276 respectively. Secretors have an added degree of protection against the environment, particularly with respect to microorganisms and lectins. Non secretors are more prone to different varieties of auto-immune diseases and TTIs infections. Alcoholism has been associated with the Non-secretor blood type. Secretor status of an individual is also helpful to identify weaker variants of ABO group.
Ordinal regression by a gravitational model in the field of educational data mining

Educational data mining (EDM) is a research area where the goal is to develop data mining methods to examine data critically from educational environments. Traditionally, EDM has addressed the following problems: clustering, classification, regression, anomaly detection and association rule mining. In this paper, the ordinal regression (OR) paradigm, is introduced in the field of EDM. The goal of OR problems is the classification of items in an ordinal scale. For instance, the prediction of students' performance in categories (where the different grades could be ordered according to A ≻ B ≻ C ≻ D) is a classical example of an OR problem. The EDM community has not yet explored this paradigm (despite the importance of these problems in the field of EDM). Furthermore, an amenable and interpretable OR model based on the concept of gravitation is proposed. The model is an extension of a recently proposed gravitational model that tackles imbalanced nominal classification problems. The model is carefully adapted to the ordinal scenario and validated with four EDM datasets. The results obtained were compared with state‐of‐the‐art OR algorithms and nominal classification ones. The proposed models can be used to better understand the learning–teaching process in higher education environments.
Case study involving use of injectable poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) for acne scars

This report describes a novel use of injectable poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA; Sculptra®) for the correction of acne scars in an adult patient. The patient, a 60-year-old white woman, had previously been treated for acne scars with CO2 laser resurfacing, dermabrasion and trichloroacetic acid peels, as well as collagen, calcium hydroxylapatite and hyaluronic acid dermal fillers. These treatment approaches did not provide satisfactory improvement of the patient's acne scars. The latest course of therapy consisted of seven treatment sessions during which injectable PLLA was administered serially into individual scars and depressions in the patient's nasolabial folds, mid-cheeks and chin. Six months after the seventh treatment session, the patient noted an observable improvement in her acne scars. She received touch-up injections 14 months after her seventh treatment. Injectable PLLA was well tolerated, with only minimal swelling for 24–72 hours post-treatment and bruising at injection sites lasting 5–7 days. Given the well-recognized difficulty in treating acne scars, the results of this case suggest that injectable PLLA may provide an improved treatment modality for resolving acne scars.
CYP3A and P‐Glycoprotein Activity Induction With St. John's Wort in Healthy Volunteers From 6 Ethnic Populations

I has been reported that St. John’s Wort (SJW) may have inducing effects on the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, specifically the CYP3A4 isoform (CYP3A4) and the intestinal P-glycoprotein (Pgp) efflux membrane transporter. This may have profound implications on patients taking medications that are substrates for Pgp and/or CYP3A4. Ethnic difference is an important factor to determine drug metabolism and response. Varying results have been reported in studies evaluating ethnic differences in the pharmacokinetic disposition of Pgp/CYP3A4 substrates and suggest that these differences may be attributed to ethnically associated differences in intestinal Pgp and CYP3A4 activity. Fexofenadine and midazolam have been widely used as probes for intestinal and hepatic Pgp transporter and CYP3A enzyme activities in human interaction studies. In vivo studies examining SJW induction on CYP3A4 and Pgp substrates’ pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters and its relationship among various ethnic groups have not been examined extensively. The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether any differences in the inducibility of Pgp and CYP3A by SJW are present among 6 ethnic groups in healthy volunteers using fexofenadine and midazolam as probes.
Knowledge sharing in Wiki communities: An empirical study

Purpose – Prior research indicates that the success of a virtual community relies on its ability to allow community members to share knowledge interactively. Wiki applications are web‐based hypertext applications that facilitate collaborative authoring, and have been widely adopted by virtual communities to facilitate knowledge sharing and accumulation. Nevertheless very few studies have empirically investigated the dynamics of how these applications contribute to the development and continuity of virtual communities by enhancing the knowledge sharing intentions of community members. This paper aims to address these issues.Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical model was developed to explain and predict the knowledge sharing intentions of virtual community members. Survey data collected from 232 wiki community members were examined using structural equation modelling to verify the theoretical model.Findings – The research results confirm the positive influence of the use of wiki applications on knowl.
Chapter 1 Statehouses , Schoolhouses , and the Impact of Hispanic Immigrant Inflows on Public Education Finance

This dissertation consists of three chapters with a central theme on Hispanic inflows and public goods provision. The first paper investigates how Hispanic immigrant inflows affect K-12 public education finance in the US. I first document the long-run trend of mean household income and average number of children per household for Hispanic immigrant households relative to native households. An accounting calculation suggests that the tax price of per-pupil spending increases by 7% from 1970 to 2010 due to Hispanic immigrant inflows. Using the historical pattern of immigrant settlements as a source of exogenous variation, I quantify the causal impact of immigrant inflows on public education spending. I find that an increase of ten percentage points in the share of Hispanic immigrant children in the child population decreases per-pupil current spending by 13%, equivalent to about $1,300 per student when evaluated at the 2010 mean spending level. In addition, I find that Hispanic immigrant inflows largely reduce the demand for redistribution on education spending from the state government. A ten-percentage point increase in a state’s population of Hispanic immigrant children causes per-pupil state spending to decrease by 30%. The second chapter investigates how the adoption of the Systematic Alien Verification of Entitlement (SAVE) program affects Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participation by immigrant adults and US-born children in immigrant-headed households. Comparing SNAP participation before and after the adoption of the SAVE program, I do not find a statistically significant decrease in the SNAP participation among non-citizen adults following the adoption of the SAVE program. In contrast, the SAVE adoption has a sizable negative impact on the SNAP participation by US-born children in immigrant households, both for the participation rate (a 14% decrease) and the total number of participants (an 8% decrease) in a household. The results suggest that SAVE not only is ineffective in deterring unqualified immigrant applicants but also reduces take-up among qualified US-born children. The last chapter studies the driving forces of state anti-illegal immigration legislation passed since 2005, focusing on a district’s demographic structure. To accomplish this, I compile a novel dataset of legislative-district-level characteristics and match these data to votes on individual bills from each state’s house of representatives and senate. I show that districts with a more established immigrant population and a higher fraction of African Americans tend to vote against anti-illegal immigration legislation. In contrast to the previous findings, however, districts with a large fraction of Hispanic population tend to vote for anti-illegal immigration legislation.
A Rare Case of Hypodontia in Kawasaki Disease: Review of the Literature and Case Report

Kawasaki disease (KD) is a rare idiopathic infantile multi-organ vasculitis of medium-sized arteries that predominantly affects children younger than the age of 5 years. Besides the persistent fever of 5 or more days and among the typical criteria for the diagnosis of KD, a dentist may encounter oral manifestations such as “strawberry tongue”, red or dry fissured lip and oropharyngeal erythema. If left untreated, the disease may have fatal prognosis due to the involvement of vital organs. Hypodontia belongs to the most common congenital anomalies in humans. Genetic studies suggest both genetic and environmental etiology toward this anomaly. It is frequently associated with other oral anomalies and altered craniofacial growth. Different health problems have been observed in patients with hypodontia. In the literature, the finding of hypodontia in KD is very rare. This article aims to report a case of a Caucasian 8 year-old boy with hypodontia, who was treated in the age of 7 months for KD. A short review of the literature regarding the two conditions is presented.
Factors influencing outcome after orthopedic trauma.

BACKGROUND Some recent studies have suggested that certain types of orthopedic trauma result in ongoing disability and that factors other than injury severity or location may influence outcome. This study aimed to evaluate outcome 12 months and 2 years after severe orthopedic trauma, as measured on the Short Form (SF)-36 Health Survey, relative to a control group, to examine change over time and to examine which demographic, injury-related and psychological factors are associated with persisting disability. METHODS One hundred thirteen orthopedic trauma patients, recruited during rehabilitation, and 61 demographically similar uninjured controls were followed up at 1 and 2 years postinjury. Measures included the SF-36 Health Survey, Symptom Checklist-90-R, Brief Pain Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scales, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist-Specific. RESULTS Results indicated presence of significant ongoing disability in all SF-36 physical and mental health domains, significant ongoing psychologic adjustment problems, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and pain, with little or no improvement between 1 and 2 years postinjury. The presence of ongoing pain, anxiety, depression or PTSD symptoms were the strongest predictors of outcome on most variables, with older age also contributing to negative outcomes. Injury severity and type did not predict outcome, although those with lower limb fractures had greater pain and poorer physical outcomes that those with fractures in other locations. CONCLUSIONS This study has highlighted pain and PTSD symptoms as frequent and disabling factors after othropedic trauma. There is clearly a need to focus on alleviating these problems as part of the rehabilitation process.
Epidemiology and sites of involvement of invasive fungal infections in patients with haematological malignancies: a 20‐year autopsy study

Autopsy studies remain an essential tool for understanding the patterns of fungal disease not detected ante mortem with current diagnostic approaches. We collected data concerning the microbiological trends, patient clinical characteristics and sites of involvement for invasive fungal infections (IFIs) identified at autopsy in a single large cancer treatment centre over a 20‐year period (1989–2008). The autopsy rate and IFI prevalence both declined significantly during the study period. The prevalence of Aspergillus spp. decreased significantly from the first 15 years of the study (from 0.12 to 0.14 cases per 100 autopsies to 0.07 in 2004–2008; P = 0.04), with only Mucorales accounting for a greater proportion of IFIs over the duration of the study period (0.06 to 0.2 cases per 100 autopsies, P = 0.04). After 2003, moulds accounted for the majority of infections identified at autopsy in the spleen, kidney, heart and gastrointestinal tract. Despite a trend of decreasing prevalence from 1989 to 2004, invasive candidiasis increased in prevalence during later periods 2004–2008 (0.02–0.05 per 100 autopsies) with decreasing kidney, heart and spleen involvement. Despite a declining autopsy rate, these data suggest a decreasing prevalence overall of IFIs with changing patterns of dissemination in patients with haematological malignancies.
3 MJ/750 kVA SMES System for Improving Power Quality

The purpose of this study is to develop a superconducting magnet energy storage system (SMES), which protects sensitive loads on the power system, when an interruption or voltage sag occurs. Industries have many sensitive machines, and keeping the power in a good condition is very important for nonmilitary machines also. Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) has developed a 3 MJ/750 kVA SMES system to improve power quality in sensitive electric loads. It consists of an IGBT based power converter, NbTi mixed matrix Rutherford cable superconducting magnet, and a cryostat with HTS current leads. The operating current of the 3 MJ SMES magnet was 1000 A. The SMES system is tested under short time power interrupt to verify the feasibility of the SMES system as a 750 kVA power converter
Extraction and quantification of daidzein and genistein in food.

A simple analytical method has been developed for routine quantification of a broad range of concentrations of the isoflavones daidzein and genistein in food. The synthetic glucosides daidzin and genistin were used as internal standards, combined with each food prior to extraction. The recovery of the aglycones daidzein and genistein from these internal standards were used to ensure the completeness of the extraction and aid quantification of isoflavones from the food. Hydrolytic enzymes from Aspergillus niger were used, in aqueous buffer, to liberate daidzein and genistein from their respective glycosides. The aglycone isoflavones were partitioned from the aqueous buffer into ethyl acetate. After evaporation of the ethyl acetate under nitrogen, the isoflavones were derivatized with N-tert-(butyldimethylsilyl)-N-methyltrifluoroacetamide and quantified by comparison with authentic synthetic standards using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry in selected ion mode. The isoflavone content of a stock soy flour was determined, using 36 separate assays, to be 1.05 mg daidzein and 1.11 mg genistein per gram of freeze-dried food, and the interassay coefficient of variation was 2.7 and 4.7, respectively.
PREVALENCE OF PSYCHIATRIC DISORDERS IN THE ELDERLY IN EDMONTON

Prevalence rates (six month and lifetime) for a random sample (N=358) of the eldery living at home, are compared to the rates for a sample (N=3,258) of the whole adult popultion of Edmonton and found to be generally lower in the elderly, except for cognitive impairment. These household resident results are similar to those reported from the United States using similar methods. A sample (N = 199) of the elderly living in institutions was found to have a very high overall prevalence of illness, mostly consisting of cognitive impairment (69%). It is estimated that over half of all cases of cognitive impairment live in institutions. This has considerable implications for the programs in institutions for the elderly, and also the need for institutions in the future, unless alternate means of care can be developed.
Angiotensin II type 1 receptor autoantibody as a novel regulator of aldosterone independent of preeclampsia

Background: Preeclamptic women and their infants have significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Abnormal aldosterone signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia, and the presence of agonistic autoantibodies against the angiotensin II type 1 receptor (AT1-AA) during disease has been observed. The role of AT1-AA in aldosterone generation with or without disease and the long-term impact of AT1-AA circulation in blood remain unclear. Method: We therefore assessed circulating AT1-AA and aldosterone levels in 76 patients with preeclampsia (35 severe and 41 mild), 26 patients with gestational hypertension, and 50 normotensive healthy pregnant women. Results: First, the correlation of AT1-AA levels was confirmed for preeclamptic patients. We report here that all AT1-AA-positive hypertensive pregnant women exhibited decreased aldosterone levels, and early-onset preeclampsia patients with high proteinuria showed an inverse correlation of aldosterone levels with AT1-AA. To study this effect in more detail, we confirmed that AT1-AA decreased aldosterone levels in pregnant rats and then demonstrated that aldosterone levels decreased in response to the chronic administration of AT1-AA into nonpregnant rats. Conclusion: These results suggested that AT1-AA regulates levels of aldosterone, which was tested with cell culture studies, revealing that activation of AT1 receptors by AT1-AA directly led to abnormal aldosterone generation in a time and dose-dependent manner. We present here a mechanism for regulation of aldosterone production: AT1-AA activates AT1 receptors on adrenocortical cells independent of pregnancy, in a time and dose-dependent manner.
Improving resolution by the higher-order microscope imaging system with thermal light

The resolution properties of the higher-order ghost imaging with thermal light source are investigated. In a multi-arm microscope imaging scheme with thermal light, we compare the resolution of the images obtained by the higher-order correlation with that by the lower-order correlation, and show that the resolution of the images can be enhanced with an increasing number of the reference arms. The effects from the aperture of the reference lens are also discussed.