Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of loading on the organization of the collagen fibril network in juvenile equine articular cartilage

We investigated the effects of exercise‐induced loading on the collagen network of equine articular cartilage. Collagen fibril architecture at a site (1) subjected to intermittent high‐intensity loading was compared with that of an adjacent site (2) sustaining continuous low‐level load. From horses exposed to forced exercise (CONDEX group) or not (PASTEX group), the spatial parallelism of fibrils and the orientation angle between fibrils and the surface at depths 9 µm apart through cartilage from surface to tidemark were determined using polarized light microscopy, and expressed as parallelism index (PI) and orientation index (OI). PI was significantly higher in site 2 than 1 in CONDEX and PASTEX groups. PI was significantly higher in forced exercised horses at site 2 but not site 1. OI was significantly greater (more perpendicular to the surface) in the superficial and deep cartilage of site 2 than 1 in both CONDEX and PASTEX groups. Superficial zone OI was higher in exercised horses at site 1 but not at site 2. Exercise increased collagen parallelism and affected orientation. The site differences in OI indicate that Benninghoff's classic predominantly perpendicular arcades appear not to be a consistent architectural feature, but adapt to local forces sustained. © 2009 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res
Loss of Embryonic MET Signaling Alters Profiles of Hippocampal Interneurons

Hippocampal interneurons arise in the ventral forebrain and migrate dorsally in response to cues, including hepatocyte growth factor/scatter factor which signals via its receptor MET. Examination of the hippocampus in adult mice in which MET had been inactivated in the embryonic proliferative zones showed an increase in parvalbumin-expressing cells in the dentate gyrus, but a loss of these cells in the CA3 region. An overall loss of calretinin-expressing cells was seen throughout the hippocampus. A similar CA3 deficit of parvalbumin and calretinin cells was observed when MET was eliminated only in postmitotic cells. These data suggest that MET is required for the proper hippocampal development, and embryonic perturbations lead to long-term anatomical defects with possible learning and memory dysfunction.
Infected Median Sternotomy Wound Successful Treatment by Muscle Flaps

The purpose of this paper is to present the experience at Emory University Hospital with the infected median sternotomy wound and to offer a treatment plan for those patients recalcitrant to the usual therapy of debridement and closed catheter irrigation with antimicrobial agents. When standard treatment fails, we proceed not only with the necessary thorough debridement to convert the wound to a relatively clean one but also concomitant closure by pectoralis major muscle flaps to completely obliterate dead space. Transposition flaps of rectus abdominus muscle or omentum are used when necessary to complete the closure. In the initial phase of this study, there were 3,239 patients who underwent open heart procedures through a median sternotomy approach in the years 1975 through 1978. In the 50 patients who had wound infections (1.54%), there were nine deaths. Three were thought to be unrelated to the sternal wound infection, four patients ruptured the ventricle or aortz, two patients died of generalized sepsis. Of these 50 patients, 22 responded to simple drainage; 28 had involvement of the mediastinum (0.86%). Of the 28 patients, 25 had debridement and closed mediastinal irrigation by catheter. Fourteen of these 25 did not respond. In these failing patients, 12 were treated by further debridement and closure by muscle flaps. Nine of these 12 were rescued. In the past nine months, an additional 1,052 patients had an open heart procedure. Of these, 11 had a median sternotomy infection. There have been no deaths in this latter group of patients, most of whom were treated by the muscle flap procedure. In addition to the improvement in mortality, morbidity has-been reduced substantially. This procedure provides for a rational approach that we have found to permit salvage of a high percentage of patients who failed conventional closed irrigation techniques.
High-dose exogenous iron following cecal ligation and puncture increases mortality rate in mice and is associated with an increase in gut epithelial and splenic apoptosis*

Objectives:Despite having dysregulated iron metabolism, critically ill patients may receive exogenous iron for the treatment of anemia. Iron is associated with increased tissue apoptosis and may facilitate bacterial growth. We hypothesized that exogenous iron administration given after the onset of sepsis would lead to increased mortality rate. To discriminate between elevated cell death and bacterial overgrowth as potential mediators of mortality, we examined gut epithelial and lymphocyte apoptosis and systemic bacterial counts in animals given iron supplementation after the onset of sepsis. Design:Prospective, randomized, controlled study. Setting:Animal laboratory in a university medical center. Subjects:Male C57BL/6 mice, 6–10 wks old. Interventions:C57BL/6 mice were subjected to cecal ligation and puncture (CLP), a well-accepted model of intra-abdominal sepsis, followed by daily subcutaneous injections of either 1 mL of iron dextran (5 mg/mL) or 0.9% NaCl for a total of five doses. Animals (n = 78) were followed for survival for 8 days. Separate cohorts (n = 76) were killed 24 or 48 hrs after cecal ligation and puncture or sham laparotomy and were assayed for gut epithelial and splenic apoptosis as well as for quantitative blood cultures. Measurements and Main Results:Eight-day survival was 7% in animals that received iron and 26% in mice that received 0.9% NaCl (p < .005). Iron supplementation after cecal ligation and puncture increased apoptosis by both active caspase 3 and hematoxylin and eosin staining in both the intestinal epithelium and spleen at 24 hrs (p < .05). Iron supplementation after sham laparotomy did not cause mortality or elevated apoptosis. Quantitative blood cultures revealed no detectable differences between septic animals that received iron and those that received 0.9% NaCl. Conclusions:High-dose iron supplementation with iron dextran after the onset of sepsis significantly increases mortality rate in this animal model. Iron-induced mortality may be mediated by an increase in gut epithelial and splenic apoptosis, whereas severity of bacteremia does not appear to play a causative role.
Cytomegalovirus infection in AIDS presenting as a rectal mass

1. Poupon RE, Poupon R, Balkau B, et al. Ursodiol for the longterm treatment of primary biliary cirrhosis. N Engl J Med 1994;330:1342–7. 2. Markus BH, Dickson ER, Grambsch PM, et al. Efficacy of transplantation in patients with primary biliary cirrhosis. N Engl J Med 1989;320:1709–13. 3. Schulzeck P, Bojanovski M, Jochim A, et al. Comparison between simvastatin and bezafibrate in effect on plasma lipoproteins in primary hypercholestelaemia. Lancet 1988;19: 611–3. 4. Scheuer P. Primary biliary cirrhosis. Proc R Soc Med 1967;60: 1257–60. 5. Christensen E, Altman DG, Neuberger J, et al. Updating prognosis in primary biliary cirrhosis using a time-dependent Cox regression model. Gastroenterology 1993;105:1865–76.
A Series-Tuned Inductive-Power-Transfer Pickup With a Controllable AC-Voltage Output

This paper presents a new type of series ac-processing pickup used in inductive-power-transfer applications. The proposed pickup uses an ac switch operating under zero-current-switching conditions in series with a resonant network to produce a controllable ac voltage source suitable for driving incandescent lights. When a rectifier is cascaded onto this pickup, it can also produce a precisely controlled dc voltage. This topology eliminates the need to use an extra buck converter after the traditional series pickup for controlling the output load voltage to a desired value, which may be different from the induced voltage of the pickup. Furthermore, this pickup has the ability to control the inductor current directly, and hence, eliminate the transient inrush current at startup for the series-tuned resonant tank. The circuit is analytically analyzed and the maximum efficiency for a 1.2-kW prototype is measured to be 93%.
Health Effects of Flooding in Rural Bangladesh

Background: There is little information available on nontraumatic health risks as the result of floods, and on the factors that determine vulnerability to them (especially in low-income settings). We estimated the pattern of mortality, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infection following the 2004 floods in rural Bangladesh. Methods: We conducted controlled interrupted time-series analysis of adverse health outcomes, from 2001 to 2007, in a cohort of 211,000 residents of the Matlab region classified as flooded or nonflooded in 2004. Ratios of mortality, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infection rates in flooded compared with nonflooded areas were calculated by week for mortality and diarrhea, and by month for acute respiratory infection. We controlled for baseline differences as well as normal seasonal patterns in the flooded and nonflooded areas. Variations in flood-related health risks were examined by age, income level, drinking-water source, latrine type, and service area. Results: After fully controlling for pre-flood rate differences and for seasonality, there was no clear evidence of excesses in mortality or diarrhea risk during or after flooding. For acute respiratory infection, we found no evidence of excess risk during the flood itself but a moderate increase in risk during the 6 months after the flood (relative risk = 1.25 [95% confidence interval = 1.06–1.47]) and the subsequent 18 months. Conclusions: We found little evidence of increased risk of diarrhea or mortality following the floods, but evidence of a moderate elevation in risk of acute respiratory infection during the 2 years after flooding. The discrepancies between our results and the apparent excesses for mortality and diarrhea reported in other situations, using less- controlled estimates, emphasize the importance of stringent confounder control.
Fast-ion-induced erosion of leucine as a function of the electronic stopping power.

The fast-heavy-ion-induced neutral yield of intact molecules of the amino acid leucine has been determined as a function of the electronic stopping power, dE/dX. The experimental procedure is based on a collector method. The neutral yield varies approximately as (dE/dX)/sup 3/. A comparison of the neutral yield to the positive and negative ion-yield dependencies on stopping power, which are weaker, reflects the different mechanisms involved in ionization and desorption.
Specific sonographic features of placenta accreta: tissue interface disruption on gray‐scale imaging and evidence of vessels crossing interface‐ disruption sites on Doppler imaging

The antenatal detection rate of placenta accreta (a collective term for accreta, increta and percreta) on ultrasound varies in the literature, ranging from 33% (4/12)1 to 100% (5/5)2. Similarly, the gray-scale sonographic diagnostic criteria are diverse (placental lacunae, absence of the retroplacental clear zone and interruption of posterior bladder wall–uterine interface), with the sensitivity of individual criteria ranging from 7% to 93%3. With the use of color and/or power Doppler, the reported sensitivity and specificity of antenatal diagnosis increase to 82.4–100% and 92–96.8%, respectively2,4,5. We have reported the sonographic signs of tissue interface disruption on gray-scale imaging and those of vessels crossing interface-disruption sites on Doppler imaging6 (Figure 1). These signs correspond with the histological findings of placenta accreta. In this retrospective analysis, we examined the performance of these signs in the diagnosis of placenta accreta. From our departmental ultrasound database, 41 patients were identified who had been referred for the exclusion of placenta accreta in 2004–2005. Five patients were lost to follow-up and were excluded from the analysis. Gray-scale imaging was performed in all of the remaining 36 patients and Doppler (color and/or power) was perfomed in 30, using ATL HDI 5000 or iU22 ultrasound machines (Philips, Bothell, WA, USA). Doppler was not performed if on gray-scale imaging there was clear
Evaluation of a mechanistic lactation model using cow, goat and sheep data

SUMMARY A mechanistic lactation model, based on a theory of mammary cell proliferation and cell death, was studied and compared to the equation of Wood (1967). Lactation curves of British Holstein Friesian cows (176 curves), Spanish Churra sheep (40 curves) and Spanish Murciano–Granadina goats (30 curves) were used for model evaluation. Both models were fitted in their original form using non-linear least squares estimation. The parameters were compared among species and among parity groups within species. In general, both models provided highly significant fits to lactation data and described the data accurately. The mechanistic model performed well against Wood's 1967 equation (hereafter referred to as Wood's equation), resulting in smaller residual mean square values in more than two-thirds of the datasets investigated, and producing parameter estimates that allowed appropriate comparisons and noticeable trends attributed to shape. Using Akaike or Bayesian information criteria, goodness-of-fit with the mechanistic model was superior to that with Wood's equation for the cow lactation curves, with no significant differences between models when fitted to goat or sheep lactation curves. The rate parameters of the mechanistic model, representing specific proliferation rate of mammary secretory cells at parturition, decay associated with reduction in cell proliferation capacity with time and specific death rate of mammary secretory cells, were smaller for primiparous than for multiparous cows. Greater lactation persistency of cows compared to goats and sheep, and decrease in persistency with parity, were shown to be represented by different values of the specific secretory cell death rate parameter in the mechanistic model. The plausible biological interpretation and fitting properties of the mechanistic model enable it to be used in complex models of whole-cow digestion and metabolism and as a tool in selection programmes and by dairy producers for management decisions.
A Blended Learning Module in Statistics for Computer Science and Engineering Students Revisited

Teaching a statistics course for undergraduate computer science students can be very challenging: As statistics teachers we are usually faced with problems ranging from a complete disinterest in the subject to lack of basic knowledge in mathematics and anxiety for failing the exam, since statistics has the reputation of having high failure rates. In our case, we additionally struggle with difficulties in the timing of the lectures as well as often occurring absence of the students due to spare-time jobs or a long traveling time to the university. This paper reveals how these issues can be addressed by the introduction of a blended learning module in statistics. In the following, we describe an e-learning development process used to implement time- and location-independent learning in statistics. The study focuses on a six-step-approach for developing the blended learning module. In addition, the teaching framework for the blended module is presented, including suggestions for increasing the interest in learning the course. Furthermore, the first experimental in-class usage, including evaluation of the students’ expectations, has been completed and the outcome is discussed.
ELECTROMYOGRAPHY IN MUSCULAR DYSTROPHIES DIFFERENTIATION BETWEEN DYSTROPHIES

In a recent issue of this journal (Kugelberg, 1947) the electrical activity of voluntary muscle was studied in various forms of muscular dystrophies and lesions of the lower motor neurone, with special regard to differentiation between them. The electromyographic differential diagnosis between muscular dystrophies and atrophies was formerly based on the finding of Buchthal and Clemmesen (1941) that '' single discharge" on maximal voluntary contraction was not observed in genuine myopathy, even in extremely severe cases. In neurogenic lesions, on the other hand, "single discharge" occurred even when the weakness was moderate. Tlhe observation that a decrease in the number of spikes relatively to the muscular power exerted occurs much later in myopathies than in neurogenic lesions, was conifirmed (Kugelberg, 1947). " Single discharge," however, was regularly observed even in myopathy, provided that thechanges were sufficiently advanced. As no diminution in the number of spikes could be observed in mild cases of myogenic and neurogenic paresis, and as both may show " single discharge" when the weakness is extreme, the need of more specific signs of myopathy in the electromyogram became acute. Moreover, it is always unsatisfactory in intermediate degrees of weakness to diagnose the case as myopathy, on the ground that " nothing abnormal can be seen. " 'A positive symptom of myopathy was found, however, in the occurrence of action potentials of short duration (1 to 2 msecs.). They increase in relative number according as the weakness advances. As regards the material examined, the action potentials observed in the myogenic " single discharge" were invariably of this type. Thus a reliable differential diagnosis could -be made in all but the mildest degrees of weakness, being more and more easily determinable as the weakness advanced. It had been assumed that the characteristic rapid spikes in myopathies were produced by a shortening of the duration of-the normal spikes; this and the other changes being accounted for by a process which, more or less diffusely, gradually reduces the number of fibres composing the different motor units until at length they are completely put out of action. TQ test this view, and further to establish the electromyographic picture in muscular dystrophies as well as to differentiate it from diseases of the lower motor neurone, changes in the form of the action potentials have been studied, and measurements of their duration have been made, as reported in this paper. The significance of such measurements can be evaluated quantitatively, as the form and duration of the action potentials in the normal muscle have now been defined (Petersen and Kugelberg, 1949) with the same technique as adopted in the present investigation.
The levantine war-records of Ramesses III : changing attitudes, past, present and future

Este articulo comienza con un recorrido historiografico del tratamiento de las supuestas campanas belicas de Ramses III en el Levante. Inevitablemente esto implica preguntarse sobre los llamados “Pueblos del mar”. Ha habido cambios extraordinarios en las actitudes en torno a los registros de guerra de Ramses III a lo largo del ultimo siglo y antes—aqui brevemente resenadas y reevaluadas. Sus listas de toponimos levantinos tambien presentan problemas de interpretacion. Ofrecemos un acercamiento a su analisis, mas sistematico, concentrandonos en la “Gran lista asiatica” del templo de Medinet Habu y sus paralelos con la lista de Ramses II. Exploramos una interpretacion intermedia entre las visiones “minimalista” y “maximalista” de la extension de la campana de Ramses III. Esto nos lleva a algunas nuevas identificaciones que iluminan no solamente la geografia de la campana de Ramses III sino tambien su datacion
12-year trends in occupational class differences in short sickness absence among young women

Aims: Socioeconomic differences in sickness absence are well established among middle-aged employees but poorly known among younger employees, in particular for shorter spells. We examined trends in occupational class differences in short sickness absence among young women. Methods: The data were obtained from the registers of the City of Helsinki, Finland, and included female employees aged 18–34 years from 2002 to 2013. Self-certified (1–3 days) sickness absence spells were examined. Occupational class was classified into four hierarchical categories. Joinpoint regression models were used to identify major changes in sickness absence trends. Results: Short sickness absence increased until 2008, after which it decreased in all occupational classes except manual workers. Differences in sickness absence between occupational classes remained over time. Routine non-manuals had the highest amount of short sickness absence, while managers and professionals had the smallest amount. Manual workers had somewhat less short sickness absence than routine non-manuals and semi-professionals. Conclusions: The socioeconomic differences in short sickness absence were clear among young women but not fully consistent as routine non-manuals tended to have more sickness absence than manual workers. Preventive measures are needed to narrow socioeconomic differences in young women’s sickness absence especially among routine non-manuals.
Induction and development of increased ion absorption in corn root tissue.

Washing excised or intact primary roots of corn (Zea mays L., WF9 x M14) in aerated distilled water or dilute salt solutions for 2 hours induced doubling of the rate of accumulation of various nutrient ions and solutes. This response to washing depended upon aerobic metabolism, but involved no increase in aerobic respiration. Excision of root tissue was not required as the effect could be obtained with intact root systems. Increased phosphate absorption followed after a lag period of 30 to 40 minutes and continued for 6 hours before leveling off at about 3.5 times the initial rate. Chloramphenicol was not inhibitory to the development of increased absorption, while inhibitors of RNA and protein synthesis were. Auxins and kinetin were also inhibitory, but so was the antiauxin, 2,4,6-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid.Kinetic analyses of phosphate and potassium ((86)Rb) absorption showed no change in apparent Michaelis constant. Electron microscopic examination and analysis for membrane protein and lipid-phosphate content after washing showed no proliferation of membrane or other changes in cell structure and composition. It appears that washing augments or activates existing membrane transport mechanisms by processes involving protein synthesis.
Spatial variations at different observational scales and the seasonal distributions of stream macroalgae in a Brazilian subtropical region

We examined the relationships between environmental variations in lotic ecosystems with the seasonal dynamics of macroalgae communities at different spatial scales: drainage basin of two rivers (Rio das Pedras and Rio Marrecas), shading (open and shaded stream segments), mesohabitat (riffles and pools), and microhabitats. Data collections were made on a monthly basis between January and December/2007. A total of 16 taxa were encountered (13 species and 3 vegetative groups). All of the biotic parameters (richness, abundance, diversity, equitability, and dominance) were found to be highly variable at all of the spatial scales evaluated. On the other hand, abiotic variables demonstrated differences only at mesohabitat (in terms of current velocity) and shaded habitat (in terms of irradiance) scales. The seasonality of the macroalgae community structure was strongly influenced by microhabitat variables (current velocity, substrate H', and irradiance), demonstrating their importance over time and at different scales. Regional variables (temperature, oxygen saturation, specific conductance, pH, and turbidity) were found to have little influence on the temporal dynamics of the macroalgae communities evaluated.