Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Occupational dermatoses among Polish private farmers, 1991-1999.

BACKGROUND Little is known about work-related skin diseases among Polish self-employed farmers. In the National Register of Occupational Diseases, private farmers are placed in one category together with other agricultural workers, despite fundamental differences in compensation legislation and separate insurance institutions. The Agricultural Social Insurance Fund reports only on numbers of compensated cases. The aim of this study was to create reliable statistics on occupational dermatoses among private farmers. METHODS All cases of work-related skin diseases diagnosed from 1991 to 1999 were included in the statistics. Compensation records of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund were analyzed for diagnoses, causative factors, and health impairment of the skin. RESULTS The first occupational dermatosis was registered in 1992. Until the end of 1999, there were 101 cases (63 women and 38 men). The incidence rose from 0.006/10000/year in 1992 to 0.189/10000/year in 1999. Allergic contact dermatitis was the most common diagnosis (86%), followed by infectious skin diseases (10%), irritant contact dermatitis (3%), and urticaria (2%). The most frequently identified causative factors were plant dusts (38%), animal allergens (36%), metals (29%), pesticides (18%), and rubber chemicals (15%). The median impairment due to skin disease was 20% (range 2-36%). CONCLUSIONS Since the introduction of workers' compensation, the numbers of occupational dermatoses diagnosed in Polish private farmers have increased rapidly. However, compared to countries with a longer experience in this field, these figures remain low, probably due to low detection of these diseases.
External and Extreme Capsular Stroke: Clinical, Topographical and Etiological Patterns

Background and Purpose: To characterize clinically acute external (EcC) and extreme capsular (ExC) strokes in 9 patients with first-ever acute stroke. Methods: Nine patients with a lesion limited to the EcC-ExC region proven by diffusion-weighted imaging included in our registry, corresponding to 0.3% of 3,600 patients with ischemic stroke, were studied. Results: We found three main groups of clinical manifestations: (1) motor deficits in all patients (4 with faciobrachial, 2 with faciobrachiocrural, and 1 with brachiocrural, crural and facial paresis each); (2) hypesthesia in 3 patients with partial distribution concerning light touching without involvement of other sensory modalities; (3) transient speech disturbance at stroke onset in 1 patient and dysarthria in 2 patients. Small artery disease in 4 patients and artery-to-artery embolism in 3 patients probably from atherosclerotic carotid artery were the main stroke mechanism. Conclusions: Strokes restricted to the EcC-ExC region may present with complete or partial motor syndromes and dysarthria as prominent clinical presentations, but also fou rire prodromique and transient speech arrest as prodromal signs. The main etiology of stroke were microangiopathy and artery-to-artery embolism, even though no obvious cause was found in 1 patient. The prognosis was good in almost all patients.
Biotransformation of the Fungal Toxin Fomannoxin by Conifer Cell Cultures

Fomannoxin [(+/-)-5-Formyl-2-isopropenyl-2,3-dihydrobenzofurane] is a phytotoxic secondary metabolite, which is produced by the forest pathogenic basidiomycete Heterobasidion annosum during the infection process. Fomannoxin shows growth-inhibiting effects on callus and suspension cultures of conifer cells. By investigating the interaction of the phytotoxin with Pinus sylvestris cells a detoxification of fomannoxin was detected, presumably as a defense reaction of the plant cells. Undifferentiated green cell lines of Pinus sylvestris were used as target cells. To provide rac-fomannoxin as a substrate a simple method for the chemical synthesis was developed. It was found that the aromatic aldehyde group is reduced by the plant cells producing the non-toxic fomannoxin alcohol which was isolated and identified by spectroscopy. After longer incubation times, also fomannoxin acid-beta-glucoside could be isolated as another detoxification metabolite. For comparison this glucoside was also synthesized.
Apoyo a la autonomia y ejercicio físico en el tiempo de recreo

Este trabajo de investigacion se ha centrado en analizar como el estilo interpersonal del docente durante el desarrollo de juegos y actividades en el tiempo de recreo puede afectar a determinadas variables motivacionales, afectivas y comportamentales en ninos de quinto y sexto de primaria. Tras dos estudios experimentales se confirma que el apoyo a la autonomia mejora la fuerza y resistencia, los niveles de ejercicio fisico, la motivacion autodeterminada y la intencion de practicar ejercicio fisico en un futuro.
Clinical use of B-mode and color-Doppler ultrasonography to evaluate preovulatory follicle status in mares

This review will focus on the main findings of studies that used B-mode and color-Doppler ultrasonography during the preovulatory period to evaluate the morphological and blood flow/perfusion changes of the preovulatory follicle in mares. The topics to be addressed herein will be: B-mode ultrasonographic characteristics of the preovulatory follicle; blood flow and perfusion changes of the follicle wall; signs of impending ovulation; prediction of impending ovulation; types of preovulatory follicle outcomes such as ovulation, septated evacuation, hemorrhagic anovulatory follicle, atresia; vascularity of the preovulatory follicle versus fertility; and relationships between preovulatory follicle and corpus luteum blood flow in mares.
MMP-9-Dependent Serum-Borne Bioactivity Caused by Multiwalled Carbon Nanotube Exposure Induces Vascular Dysfunction via the CD36 Scavenger Receptor.

Inhalation of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) causes systemic effects including vascular inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, and acute phase protein expression. MWCNTs translocate only minimally beyond the lungs, thus cardiovascular effects thereof may be caused by generation of secondary biomolecular factors from MWCNT-pulmonary interactions that spill over into the systemic circulation. Therefore, we hypothesized that induced matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) is a generator of factors that, in turn, drive vascular effects through ligand-receptor interactions with the multiligand pattern recognition receptor, CD36. To test this, wildtype (WT; C57BL/6) and MMP-9(-/-)mice were exposed to varying doses (10 or 40 µg) of MWCNTs via oropharyngeal aspiration and serum was collected at 4 and 24 h postexposure. Endothelial cells treated with serum from MWCNT-exposed WT mice exhibited significantly reduced nitric oxide (NO) generation, as measured by electron paramagnetic resonance, an effect that was independent of NO scavenging. Serum from MWCNT-exposed WT mice inhibited acetylcholine (ACh)-mediated relaxation of aortic rings at both time points. Absence of CD36 on the aortic rings (obtained from CD36-deficient mice) abolished the serum-induced impairment of vasorelaxation. MWCNT exposure induced MMP-9 protein levels in both bronchoalveolar lavage and whole lung lysates. Serum from MMP-9(-/-)mice exposed to MWCNT did not diminish the magnitude of vasorelaxation in naïve WT aortic rings, although a modest right shift of the ACh dose-response curve was observed in both MWCNT dose groups relative to controls. In conclusion, pulmonary exposure to MWCNT leads to elevated MMP-9 levels and MMP-9-dependent generation of circulating bioactive factors that promote endothelial dysfunction and decreased NO bioavailability via interaction with vascular CD36.
Low-Cost IP Core Test Using Multiple-Mode Loading Scan Chain and Scan Chain Clusters

A fixing-shifting encoding (FSE) method is proposed to reduce test cost of IP cores. The FSE method reduces test cost by supporting multiple-mode loading test data, i.e., parallel loading, left-direction, and right-direction serial loading for each test slice data. Furthermore, the FSE that utilizes only two test channels can support a large number of internal scan chains and achieve further reduction in test cost by combining with scan chain clustering method. As a non-intrusive and automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) independent solution, the approach is applicable to IP core testing because it requires neither redesign of the core under test (CUT) nor running any additional ATPG for the encoding procedure. In addition, the decoder has low hardware overhead, and its design is independent of the CUT. Experimental results for some large ISCAS 89 benchmarks and an industry ASIC design have proven the efficiency of the proposed approach
RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN DRINKING PROBLEMS AND DRINKING LOCATIONS AMONG CONVICTED DRINKING DRIVERS

This study examines relationships between drinking problems and the frequency of drinking in eight types of places within a sample of convicted drinking drivers. Drinking problems were measured by two instruments, the Mortimer-Filkins Questionnaire (MFQ) and the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) Core Questionnaire. Data were collected from convicted drinking drivers who were ordered by the court to attend the Mississippi Alcohol Safety Education Program (MASEP). Both the MFQ and the AUDIT were found to be more strongly related to the frequency of drinking in moving automobiles than to the frequency of drinking in any other type of place. This suggests that drinking drivers with severe drinking problems are more likely to drink in moving automobiles than are those with less severe problems. The strong linkage between severe alcohol problems and drinking in automobiles has important implications with respect to highway safety.
Camelysin Is a Novel Surface Metalloproteinase from Bacillus cereus

ABSTRACT Bacillus cereus frequently causes food poisoning or nosocomial diseases. Vegetative cells express the novel surface metalloproteinase camelysin (casein-cleaving metalloproteinase) during exponential growth on complex, peptide-rich media. Camelysin is strongly bound to the cell surface and can be solubilized only by detergents or butanol. Camelysin spontaneously migrates from the surface of intact bacterial cells to preformed liposomes. The complete sequence of the camelysin-encoding gene, calY, was determined by reverse PCR on the basis of the N-terminal sequence and some internal tryptic cleavage peptides. The calY gene codes for a polypeptide of 21.569 kDa with a putative signal peptide of 27 amino acids (2.513 kDa) preceding the mature protein (19.056 kDa). Although the predicted amino acid sequence of CalY does not exhibit a typical metalloprotease consensus sequence, high-pressure liquid chromatography-purified camelysin contains one zinc ion per protein molecule. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-time-of-flight mass spectrometry and tryptic peptide mass fingerprinting confirmed the identity of this zinc-binding protein as CalY. Disruption of the calY gene results in a strong decrease in the cell-bound proteolytic activity on various substrates.
Determinants of mortality in Pinus banksiana (Pinaceae) stands during an ice storm and its effect on stand spatial structure1

Abstract. Ice storms are a major source of tree mortality in some regions of the eastern North American deciduous forest, but are rare in the boreal forest. As climate changes, ice storms are predicted to be more common in the boreal forest, creating new challenges for forest management. In 2012, an ice storm damaged Pinus banksiana (Lamb.) stands throughout southeast Manitoba, Canada. We assessed damage in a 98- and a 32-yr-old stand. In both stands, half the trees broke near the base of the crown. Trees with a deeper crown were more likely to break in the young stand and less likely to break in the old stand. In the young stand taller trees were also more likely to break. There was no relationship between tree diameter and the probability of a tree breaking in either stand. Tree mortality increased the bare area around surviving trees by 52% and 119% in the young and old stands, respectively. This resulted in a 42% increase in canopy openness in the old stand but did not alter the pattern of spatial distribution of trees. Before the storm, trees in the young stand showed a dispersed distribution, indicative of density-dependent mortality. This dispersion was lost after the storm and suggests that, along with selection of shorter trees, ice storms reorganize the structure of forests undergoing self-thinning.
Impaired Mucosal Barrier Function in the Small Intestine of the Cystic Fibrosis Mouse

Objectives: The intestinal mucosal barrier protects the body from the large numbers of microbes that inhabit the intestines and the molecules they release. Intestinal barrier function is impaired in humans with cystic fibrosis (CF), including reduced activity of the lipopolysaccharide-detoxifying enzyme intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP) and increased permeability. The objective of this study was to determine the suitability of using the CF mouse to investigate intestinal barrier function, and whether interventions that are beneficial for the CF mouse intestinal phenotype (antibiotics or laxative), would improve barrier function. Also tested were the effects of exogenous IAP administration. Materials and Methods: The Cftrtm1UNC mouse was used. IAP expression (encoded by the murine Akp3 gene) was measured by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and enzyme activity. Intestinal permeability was assessed by measuring rhodamine-dextran plasma levels following gavage. Results: CF mice had 40% Akp3 mRNA expression and 30% IAP enzyme activity, as compared with wild-type mice. Oral antibiotics and laxative treatments normalized Akp3 expression and IAP enzyme activity in the CF intestine. CF mice had a 5-fold greater transfer of rhodamine-dextran from gut lumen to blood. Antibiotic and laxative treatments reduced intestinal permeability in CF mice. Administration of exogenous purified IAP to CF mice reduced intestinal permeability to wild-type levels and reduced small intestinal bacterial overgrowth by >80%. Conclusions: The CF mouse intestine has impaired mucosal barrier function, similar to human CF. Interventions that improve other aspects of the CF intestinal phenotype (antibiotics and laxative) also increase IAP activity and decrease intestinal permeability in CF mice. Exogenous IAP improve permeability and strongly reduce bacterial overgrowth in CF mice, suggesting this may be a useful therapy for CF.
Visual Hallucinations Related to Angiotensin‐Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Use: Case Reports and Review

Four patients experienced visual hallucinations that appear to have been precipitated by lisinopril. Other cases of visual hallucinations have been reported with other angiotensin‐converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Older patients, particularly those with a history of either dementia or mild cognitive impairment, may be at higher risk. Hallucinations resolved within 1 to 30 days after cessation of ACE inhibitors. Development of visual hallucinations after initiation of ACE inhibitors should prompt discontinuation of therapy. Visual hallucinations have been reported in one case involving an ARB. Visual hallucinations have not been associated with direct renin inhibitors. Consideration should be given to use of alternative, unrelated antihypertensive drug classes.
Falls Suffered by Elderly People From the Perspective of Health Care Personnel: A Qualitative Study

An exploratory interpretative study was carried out to recognize the factors regarded by health care professionals as potential obstacles to the evaluation, prevention, and documentation of falls in persons above 65 years of age. Focus groups and questionnaires were carried out. Audio recordings were made, and these were subsequently transcribed and analyzed in accordance with the Bardin’s thematic content analysis. Four focus groups of four persons were set up, and 16 questionnaires were returned. Four thematic categories were obtained. The analysis showed a lack of data in records of falls, perhaps for reasons of overwork, lack of motivation, awareness, or consistency in the registration systems in use. Health care professionals document two types of fall, depending on the elderly person’s ability to carry out everyday tasks. There is not a rigorous and systematic approach for recording falls. Perspectives from health care professionals could help in analyzing the causes of falls and suggesting comprehensive preventive measures.
Polynomial model approach for resynchronization analysis of cell-cycle gene expression data

MOTIVATION Identification of genes expressed in a cell-cycle-specific periodical manner is of great interest to understand cyclic systems which play a critical role in many biological processes. However, identification of cell-cycle regulated genes by raw microarray gene expression data directly is complicated by the factor of synchronization loss, thus remains a challenging problem. Decomposing the expression measurements and extracting synchronized expression will allow to better represent the single-cell behavior and improve the accuracy in identifying periodically expressed genes. RESULTS In this paper, we propose a resynchronization-based algorithm for identifying cell-cycle-related genes. We introduce a synchronization loss model by modeling the gene expression measurements as a superposition of different cell populations growing at different rates. The underlying expression profile is then reconstructed through resynchronization and is further fitted to the measurements in order to identify periodically expressed genes. Results from both simulations and real microarray data show that the proposed scheme is promising for identifying cyclic genes and revealing underlying gene expression profiles. AVAILABILITY Contact the authors. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION Supplementary data are available at: http://dsplab.eng.umd.edu/~genomics/syn/
Induction of systemic acquired disease resistance in plants by chemicals.

Plants defend themselves from pathogen infection through a wide variety of mechanisms that can be either local or systemic, constitutive or inducible (32, 70, 108, 109). In most cases, the extent to which these various systems affect disease progression is poorly understood, and is an area of extensive biochem­ ical and genetic research. One particular inducible systemic response, known as systemic acquired resistance (SAR), has become a subject of increasing inquiry. SAR is a b road, physiological immunity that results from infection with a necrogenic pathogen. In addition, certain natural and synthetic chemical compounds can trigger similar plant responses. This chapter reviews the liter­ ature on chemicals that apparently act by stimulating the natural defense response in the plant. To put this information in context, we first describe what is known at present about the occurrence of SAR in various species, and our current concept of pathogen-induced SAR. Other recent reviews related to biologically induced SAR and signal transduction complement our discussion (40, 73, 84, 99, 108)
Relationship between growth and illness, enteropathogens and dietary intakes in the first 2 years of life: findings from the MAL-ED birth cohort study

Background Dietary and illness factors affect risk of growth faltering; the role of enteropathogens is less clear. As part of the Etiology, Risk Factors and Interactions of Enteric Infections and Malnutrition and the Consequences for Child Health and Development (MAL-ED) study, we quantify the effects of enteropathogen infection, diarrhoea and diet on child growth. Methods Newborns were enrolled and followed until 24 months. Length and weight were assessed monthly. Illnesses and breastfeeding practices were documented biweekly; from 9 to 24 months, non-breast milk intakes were quantified monthly. Routinely collected non-diarrhoeal stools were analysed for a broad array of enteropathogens. A linear piecewise spline model was used to quantify associations of each factor with growth velocity in seven of eight MAL-ED sites; cumulative effects on attained size at 24 months were estimated for mean, low (10th percentile) and high (90th percentile) exposure levels. Additionally, the six most prevalent enteropathogens were evaluated for their effects on growth. Results Diarrhoea did not have a statistically significant effect on growth. Children with high enteropathogen exposure were estimated to be 1.21±0.33 cm (p<0.001; 0.39 length for age (LAZ)) shorter and 0.08±0.15 kg (p=0.60; 0.08 weight-for-age (WAZ)) lighter at 24 months, on average, than children with low exposure. Campylobacter and enteroaggregativeEscherichia coli detections were associated with deficits of 0.83±0.33 and 0.85±0.31 cm in length (p=0.011 and 0.001) and 0.22±0.15 and 0.09±0.14 kg in weight (p=0.14 and 0.52), respectively. Children with low energy intakes and protein density were estimated to be 1.39±0.33 cm (p<0.001; 0.42 LAZ) shorter and 0.81±0.15 kg (p<0.001; 0.65 WAZ) lighter at 24 months than those with high intakes. Conclusions Reducing enteropathogen burden and improving energy and protein density of complementary foods could reduce stunting.
Fast hierarchical noniterative registration algorithm

This note describes a fast algorithm for registering pairs of images from a time sequence of images. The algorithm solves a linear regression problem based on a linearization of the image matching equation, to obtain the registration coefficients. The problem of ill‐posedness caused by differentiation of a noisy image sampled on a finite lattice is solved by means of a patch algorithm. The algorithm uses an integrated form of the linearized displacement equation. Registration is simultaneously carried out on a set of computationally fast prefilters providing three downsampled bandpass images for each input image. The filters are multilevel and permit an efficient and versatile hierarchical registration procedure. Downsampling the images before registration significantly reduces computation time. As a final step, registration is repeated using full‐size images. Results for two‐dimensional (2D) images using a six‐parameter affine registration transformation and a 12‐parameter second‐order polynomial transformation indicate the method is 2.5 times faster (12.7 s/256 × 256 image pair) than a previous iterative method (28 s/pair) and, like the previous method, is robust to noise. The method may easily be generalized to 3D image registration and more general transformations, and is well‐suited to parallel processing. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol 10, 242–257, 1999
Ultrasonic study of hepatic and splenic traumatic lesions.

Traumatic lesions involving the parenchyma of liver and spleen give heterogeneous echo patterns on sonograms. Associated haematomas appear as sonolucent or sonotransparent areas. Subcapsular haematomas appear as peripheral sonolucent or sonotransparent areas. High resolution sectorial real-time ultrasound demonstrates such abnormalities. When examining for splenic or hepatic lesions, associated lesions such as renal contusion, juxta-renal or retroperitoneal haematoma and haemoperitoneum are sought. Haemoperitoneum may be shown in Morrison's pouch, in the vicinity of the spleen (moon-crescent sign) and also in the sac of Douglas. None of the abnormalities is entirely specific for trauma. However, the sensitivity of ultrasound in the evaluation of trauma is sufficient to render other diagnostic procedures such as C.T. and angiography only rarely necessary.