Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intraclass correlation among measures related to alcohol use by young adults: estimates, correlates and applications in intervention studies.

OBJECTIVE Alcohol intervention studies that allocate intact social groups to study conditions require adjustment to the usual analytic methods to account for the positive intraclass correlation that exists in such groups. This article presents intraclass correlations for measures related to alcohol use among young adults and discusses the use of those estimates to plan new studies. METHOD Young adults aged 18-20 were selected at random from driver's license lists in each of the 15 communities participating in the Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol project. Respondents were surveyed by telephone to assess their drinking habits and other factors related to alcohol use. Community-level intraclass correlations were computed for those measures, both prior to and after adjustment for person- and community-level covariates. RESULTS The community-level intraclass correlations tend to be small, with larger values for belief and attitude items than for self-reported behaviors. Even so, correlations of this magnitude can have important deleterious effects on the power to detect important treatment effects in an otherwise well-designed and well-executed study. Adjustment for person-level covariates often reduced those correlations, and adjustment for community-level covariates often reduced them substantially. CONCLUSIONS There is measurable variation in measures related to alcohol use among young adults that is attributable to their community of residence. With adjustment for selected person- and community-level covariates, the magnitude of these correlations can be sharply reduced allowing the investigator to plan a more efficient community trial.
Dsl1p, an Essential Protein Required for Membrane Traffic at the Endoplasmic Reticulum/Golgi Interface in Yeast

To identify novel factors required for ER to Golgi transport in yeast we performed a screen for genes that, when mutated, confer a dependence on a dominant mutant form of the ER to Golgi vesicle docking factor Sly1p, termed Sly1‐20p. DSL1, a novel gene isolated in the screen, encodes an essential protein with a predicted molecular mass of 88 kDa. DSL1 is required for transport between the ER and the Golgi because strains bearing mutant alleles of this gene accumulate the pre‐Golgi form of transported proteins at the restrictive temperature. Two strains bearing temperature‐sensitive alleles of DSL1 display distinct phenotypes as observed by electron microscopy at the restrictive temperature; although both strains accumulate ER membrane, one also accumulates vesicles. Interestingly, the inviability of strains bearing several mutant alleles of DSL1 can be suppressed by expression of either Erv14p (a protein required for the movement of a specific protein from the ER to the Golgi), Sec21p (the γ‐subunit of the COPI coat protein complex coatomer), or Sly1‐20p. Because the strongest suppressor is SEC21, we proposed that Dsl1p functions primarily in retrograde Golgi to ER traffic, although it is possible that Dsl1p functions in anterograde traffic as well, perhaps at the docking stage, as suggested by the suppression by SLY1‐20.
On relationship between traditional and knowledge-based clutter covariance estimate

Recently, the knowledge-based clutter covariance estimate methods are developed to improve the convergence rate. In this paper, the relationship between some widely-used knowledge-based methods and the traditional reduced-order methods are established. It is found that the colored loading (CL) is equivalent to the pre-whitened diagonal loading (DL), and the fast maximum likelihood with assumed clutter covariance (FMLACC) is equivalent to the pre-whitened principal component (PC) method. These equivalences suggest that the convergence rate of the CL and FMLACC method will be on the order of twice the effective rank of the pre-whitened clutter covariance matrix. The conclusion is verified by simulations.
Dose-response in radiotherapy for localized prostate cancer: results of the Dutch multicenter randomized phase III trial comparing 68 Gy of radiotherapy with 78 Gy.

PURPOSE To determine whether a dose of 78 Gy improves outcome compared with a conventional dose of 68 Gy for prostate cancer patients treated with three-dimensional conformal radiotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Between June 1997 and February 2003, stage T1b-4 prostate cancer patients were enrolled onto a multicenter randomized trial comparing 68 Gy with 78 Gy. Patients were stratified by institution, age, (neo)adjuvant hormonal therapy (HT), and treatment group. Four treatment groups (with specific radiation volumes) were defined based on the probability of seminal vesicle involvement. The primary end point was freedom from failure (FFF). Failure was defined as clinical failure or biochemical failure, according to the American Society of Therapeutic Radiation Oncology definition. Other end points were freedom from clinical failure (FFCF), overall survival (OS), and toxicity. RESULTS Median follow-up time was 51 months. Of the 669 enrolled patients, 664 were included in the analysis. HT was prescribed for 143 patients. FFF was significantly better in the 78-Gy arm compared with the 68-Gy arm (5-year FFF rate, 64% v 54%, respectively), with an adjusted hazard ratio of 0.74 (P = .02). No significant differences in FFCF or OS were seen between the treatment arms. There was no difference in late genitourinary toxicity of Radiation Therapy Oncology Group and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer grade 2 or more and a slightly higher nonsignificant incidence of late gastrointestinal toxicity of grade 2 or more. CONCLUSION This multicenter randomized trial shows a significantly improved FFF in prostate cancer patients treated with a higher dose of radiotherapy.
Perineal swelling, intermenstrual cycle, and female sexual behavior in bonobos (Pan paniscus)

Many reports have claimed that the duration of the swelling cycle in female bonobos (Pan paniscus) is longer than that of chimpanzees, and that the bonobo maximum swelling phase is markedly prolonged. Field data on intermenstrual intervals (IMIs) in female bonobos are limited and restricted to interswelling intervals (ISIs), which are assumed to reflect the IMI, though a direct comparison between the duration of ISIs and IMIs is still lacking. Reports on bonobo sexual activity as a function of the swelling phase are often contradictory. Moreover, the function of female homosexual interactions (genito‐genital (GG) rubbing) is still debated. This study examines the reliability of the ISI as an approximation of the IMI, and the attractivity of female sexual swellings for other individuals. An analysis of 51 ISI‐IMI pairs showed that ISIs are a fair representation of the reproductive cycle. The cycle length was 35.6±1.1 SE days relying on the ISI, whereas it was 35.0±1.1 SE days considering the IMI. This result is similar to the cycle length reported for chimpanzees. Female homosexual interactions and copulatory rates were higher during maximum tumescence, suggesting that the sexual swelling may be attractive for both males and other females. Furthermore, the GG‐rubbing was performed free of a hierarchical postural imposition, and was not correlated with affinitive interactions. We suggest that GG‐rubbing, which is generally the most frequent female sexual interaction, is a tool for social assessments among females. Am. J. Primatol. 67:333–347, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Appendectomy History is not Related to Parkinson's Disease.

BACKGROUND It has been suggested that appendectomy may modify the emergence of Parkinson's disease (PD) by affecting the retrograde transport of α-synuclein (α-syn) from the gastrointestinal system. OBJECTIVE To explore the possible role of appendectomy on PD. METHODS The retrospective data of the 1625 patients (839 PD, 633 non-α-syn parkinsonism and 153 controls) were compared. Disease specific measures between PD patients with (n = 69) and without (n = 770) appendectomy were also evaluated. RESULTS The prevalence of appendectomy was not significantly lower in the PD group (8.2%) compared to the other groups (8.4% and 7.9%, p = 0.98), and the odds of having PD against other diagnoses (OR) were not significantly different in the appendectomy group (OR = 0.99, p = 0.96). No difference was determined between PD patients with and without appendectomy with respect to the age of disease onset, disease duration and severity. Appendectomy-first symptom interval was not determined to be related with PD diagnosis (hazard ratio = 1.12, p = 0.39) and did not predict disease severity in the PD group (OR = 0.99, p = 0.54). Age of appendectomy (lower or higher than 20) also did not affect future PD diagnosis (Relative Risk = 0.9, p = 0.54) or the disease severity. CONCLUSIONS The results of the study suggest no effect of appendectomy on the emergence and clinical manifestations of PD. The removal of the appendix is possibly not sufficient to suppress the exposure of the brain stem to α-syn via vagal retrograde transport. Further studies are needed to elucidate the role of appendix in PD.
Brief communication: a study of the predictive accuracy of mandibular ramus flexure as a singular morphologic indicator of sex in an archaeological sample.

Loth and Henneberg ([1996] Am J Phys Anthropol 99:473-485) assert that they have discovered a single morphologic indicator of sexual dimorphism in the human mandible that rivals the predictive accuracy of the complete pelvis at 94.2% for all samples (99% for healthy samples). To test the accuracy of their method, mandibles (n = 150) from the Tepe Hissar collection were assessed for the presence or absence of mandibular ramus flexure. These results were then compared to a separate sex assessment based on morphologic indicators from the corresponding skull and innominates (where possible) to yield an overall accuracy of only 78.2%. As a means of independent assessment, the mandibular results were also compared with Krogman's ([1940] Racial Types from Tepe Hessar, Iran, from late fifth to early second millennium, BC. Amsterdam: Koninkliijke Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen) assessment of sex based on craniofacial measurements and morphologic indicators from the skull. This comparison produced an even lower accuracy of 67.2%. Such results question the predictive potential of mandibular ramus flexure as a single indicator of sexual dimorphism and suggest caution when applying this method, especially in the case of fragmentary forensic and fossil remains.
Dual Role of NRSF/REST in Activation and Repression of the Glucocorticoid Response*

Restriction of glutamine synthetase to the nervous system is mainly achieved through the mutual function of the glucocorticoid receptor and the neural restrictive silencing factor, NRSF/REST. Glucocorticoids induce glutamine synthetase expression in neural tissues while NRSF/REST represses the hormonal response in non-neural cells. NRSF/REST is a modular protein that contains two independent repression domains, at the N and C termini of the molecule, and is dominantly expressed in nonneural cells. Neural tissues express however splice variants, REST4/5, which contain the repression domain at the N, but not at the C terminus of the molecule. Here we show that full-length NRSF/REST or its C-terminal domain can inhibit almost completely the induction of gene transcription by glucocorticoids. By contrast, the N-terminal domain not only fails to repress the hormonal response but rather stimulates it markedly. The inductive activity of the N-terminal domain is mediated by hBrm, which is recruited to the promoter only in the concomitant presence of GR. Importantly, a similar inductive activity is also exerted by the splice variant REST4. These findings raise the possibility that NRSF/REST exhibits a dual role in regulation of glutamine synthetase. It represses gene induction in nonneural cells and enhances the hormonal response, via its splice variant, in the nervous system.
Stress cardiovascular MR in routine clinical practice: referral patterns, accuracy, tolerance, safety and incidental findings.

OBJECTIVE The use of stress cardiovascular MR (CMR) to evaluate myocardial ischaemia has increased significantly over recent years. We aimed to assess the indications, incidental findings, tolerance, safety and accuracy of stress CMR in routine clinical practice. METHODS We retrospectively examined all stress CMR studies performed at our tertiary referral centre over a 20-month period. Patients were scanned at 1.5 T, using a standardised protocol with routine imaging for late gadolinium enhancement. Angiograms of patients were assessed by an interventional cardiologist blinded to the CMR data. RESULTS 654 patients were scanned (mean age 65±29 years; 63 inpatients; 9.6%). 14% of patients had incidental extracardiac findings, the commonest being liver or renal cysts (6%) and pulmonary nodules (4%). 639 patients (97.7%) received intravenous adenosine, 10 received intravenous dobutamine and 5 patients had both. Of the 15 patients who received dobutamine, 12 had no side-effects/complications, 2 experienced nausea and 1 chest tightness. Of the 644 patients who received adenosine, 43% experienced minor symptoms, 1% had transient heart block and 0.2% had severe bronchospasm requiring termination of infusion. There were no cases of hospitalisation or myocardial infarction. 241 patients also had coronary angiography. For detecting at least moderate stenosis of ≥50%, sensitivity was 86%, specificity 98% and accuracy 89%. For detecting severe stenoses of ≥70%, sensitivity was 91%, specificity 86% and overall accuracy 90%. These results compare very favourably with previous smaller research studies and meta-analyses. CONCLUSION We conclude that stress CMR, with adenosine as the main stress agent, is well tolerated, safe and accurate in routine clinical practice.
Capacity Maximization in Cognitive Networks: A Stackelberg Game-Theoretic Perspective

Contrary to previous works, we focus on cooperation and competition relationship and the interactive dynamic behavior between multiple primary users (PUs) and secondary users (SUs) in a multiple cognitive interference channel context. Because of different levels of context information perceived by different types of players, e.g. the PUs and the SUs, and unbalanced nature of the spectrum priority among the multi-SUs/Pus in this setting, we investigate capacity maximization using the Stackelberg game modeling approach. Especially, we analyze the multi-leaders and multi-followers case, and further give a one-by-one case for making this model clear. Some conclusions are given via theorems. In addition, we propose the distributed iterative water-&#64257;lling algorithms (IWFA) for pursuing Nash equilibrium solution (NES) and the Stackelberg equilibrium solution (SES) with low implementation complexity after analyzing and deriving the newly formulated game model in detail. Simulations results verify the performance of the proposed approaches in this paper.
ABVD plus subtotal nodal versus involved-field radiotherapy in early-stage Hodgkin's disease: long-term results.

PURPOSE Radiation therapy (RT) alone can cure more than 80% of all patients with pathologic stage IA, IB, and IIA Hodgkin's disease, but some prognostic factors unfavorably affect treatment outcome. Combined-modality approaches improved results compared with RT, but the optimal extent of RT fields when combined with chemotherapy warranted additional evaluation. PATIENTS AND METHODS In February 1990, we activated a prospective trial in patients with early, clinically staged Hodgkin's disease to assess efficacy and tolerability of four cycles of doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine (ABVD) followed by either subtotal nodal plus spleen irradiation (STNI) or involved-field radiotherapy (IFRT). RESULTS Main patient characteristics were fairly well balanced between the two arms. Complete remission was achieved in 100% and in 97% of patients, respectively. The 12-year freedom from progression rates were 93% (95% CI, 83% to 100%) after ABVD and STNI, and 94% (95% CI, 88% to 100%) after ABVD and IFRT, whereas the figures for overall survival were 96% (95% CI, 91% to 100%) and 94% (95% CI, 89% to 100%), respectively. Apart from three patients who developed second malignancies in the STNI arm, treatment-related morbidities were mild. CONCLUSION Present long-term findings suggest that, after four cycles of ABVD, IFRT can achieve a worthwhile outcome. The limited size of our patient sample, however, had no adequate statistical power to test for noninferiority of IFRT versus STNI. Despite this, ABVD followed by IFRT can be considered an effective and safe modality in early Hodgkin's disease with both favorable and unfavorable presentation.
Risk factors for central nervous system involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus.

We investigated risk factors for central nervous system (CNS) involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), in 32 such patients individually matched 1 : 3 to 96 control SLE patients without CNS events. Univariate analysis showed that CNS involvement was significantly associated with the antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) as well as its features: arterial thrombosis, recurrent fetal loss, livedo reticularis and IgG anticardiolipin (aCL) antibodies in high titres. Other potential associations included cutaneous vasculitic lesions, thrombocytopenia, positive ANA, anti-SS-B/La and low serum levels of C(3) and C(4) complement components, while articular manifestations and discoid rash were significantly less common in patients with neuropsychiatric (NP) disease. In multivariate modeling, CNS involvement was strongly associated with cutaneous vasculitic lesions OR 33, 95% CI 1.5-720) and arterial thromboses (OR 13, 95%CI 0.82-220), and negatively related to the presence of articular manifestations (OR 0.015, 95%CI 0.00-0.17) and discoid rash (OR 0.004, 95%CI 0.00-0.35). Associations with APS-related arterial thromboses and vasculitis point to the importance of arterial vascular pathophysiology in the pathogenesis of NP disease in SLE. Patients with articular manifestations and discoid rash are at very low risk of NP events. Patients with an adverse SLE disease profile may require closer observation and may be the target group for studying pre-emptive interventions.
Peak firing rates of rat anterodorsal thalamic head direction cells are higher during faster passive rotations

Head direction cells discharge selectively when the head of the animal is oriented in a specific direction. The goal of this study was to determine how sensory signals arising from passive rotations (e.g., triggered by vestibular stimulation and dynamic visual inputs) influence the responses of anterodorsal thalamic head direction cells in the absence of voluntary movement cues (e.g., motor command, efference copy, and associated kinesthetic signals). Three unrestrained rats consumed water from a reservoir at the center of a circular platform while passively subjected to sinusoidal rotatory oscillations at fast (153 ± 27°/s, sd) and slow (38 ± 15°/s) peak velocities. In 14 anterodorsal thalamic head direction cells, the preferred directions, angular response ranges and baseline firing rates remained stable, but the peak firing rates were, on average, 36% higher during the fast rotations (Wilcoxon matched‐pairs test, p < 0.001; variation range: +11%∼+100%). No cell changed its peak firing rate by less than 10%, while three cells (21%) increased their peak firing rates by more than 50%. The velocity‐dependent increase in peak firing rates was similar for left and right rotations, and the skewness of the directional response curves were not significantly different between left and right turns (Wilcoxon matched‐pairs tests, n = 14, ns). These results show that sensory signals concerning self‐movements modulate the responses of the head direction cells in the absence of active locomotion. Hippocampus 2002;12:481–486. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Coronary artery motion in electron beam tomography.

PURPOSE The purpose of this work was to evaluate coronary artery motion characteristics and determine optimal electron beam tomography (EBT) scan time during the cardiac cycle to image the coronary arteries. METHOD This study evaluated the movement of coronary arteries in 20 EBT cine studies, at rest and during stress, obtained for evaluating coronary artery disease. The proximal, middle, and distal segments of each coronary artery were measured at multiple times during the cardiac cycle. The motion distance (mm) and velocity (mm/s) of each segment of the coronary arteries were then measured to establish the motion that occurs in the x and y axes during different times in the cardiac cycle. RESULTS Coronary artery velocity ranged from 22.4 to 108.6 mm/s. The least motion (and slowest speed) occurred between 30-50 and 40-60% of the R-R interval at rest and stress, respectively. The right coronary artery moved the greatest in the x and y planes (highest speed and spatial change), followed in decreasing order by the circumflex, left main, and left anterior descending arteries. The phase of the cardiac cycle with the greatest coronary artery motion was between 0 and 20% of the R-R interval. CONCLUSION Coronary artery motion varies greatly throughout the cardiac cycle. To minimize cardiac motion during tomographic imaging of the coronary arteries, we recommend 40-50% R-R interval as an electrocardiographic trigger time and avoiding the use of image acquisition times of >100 ms.
Assessment of porosity index of the femoral neck and tibia by 3D ultra‐short echo‐time MRI

To measure the porosity index (PI) by ultrashort echo‐time magnetic resonance imaging (UTE MRI) of the femoral neck and tibia; assess its correlations with age, gender, and body mass index (BMI); and analyze the PI correlations between both sites to assess whether tibial PI can reflect changes of femoral neck PI.
Increased prevalence of colonic polyps and altered lymphocyte subset pattern in the colonic lamina propria in acromegaly

The balance of evidence suggests that acromegaly is a risk factor for colonic neoplasia. We have evaluated the prevalence of colonic polyps in acromegalics from Southern Italy and characterized the lymphocyte subsets in the colonic lamina propria in order to analyze differences in the colonic immunological environment.
Imaging Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Amplicon Vector–Mediated Gene Expression in Human Glioma Spheroids

Vectors derived from herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) have great potential for transducing therapeutic genes into the central nervous system; however, inefficient distribution of vector particles in vivo may limit their therapeutic potential in patients with gliomas. This study was performed to investigate the extent of HSV-1 amplicon vector–mediated gene expression in a three-dimensional glioma model of multicellular spheroids by imaging highly infectious HSV-1 virions expressing green fluorescent protein (HSV-GFP). After infection or microscopy-guided vector injection of glioma spheroids at various spheroid sizes, injection pressures and injection times, the extent of HSV-1 vector–mediated gene expression was investigated via laser scanning microscopy. Infection of spheroids with HSV-GFP demonstrated a maximal depth of vector-mediated GFP expression at 70 to 80 μm. A > 80% transduction efficiency was reached only in small spheroids with a diameter of < 150 μm. Guided vector injection into the spheroids showed transduction efficiencies ranging between < 10 and > 90%. The results demonstrated that vector-mediated gene expression in glioma spheroids was strongly dependent on the mode of vector application—injection pressure and injection time being the most important parameters. The assessment of these vector application parameters in tissue models will contribute to the development of safe and efficient gene therapy protocols for clinical application.