Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Widespread detection of PER-1-type extended-spectrum beta-lactamases among nosocomial Acinetobacter and Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates in Turkey: a nationwide multicenter study

We studied the prevalence and molecular epidemiology of PER-1-type beta-lactamases among Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated over a 3-month period in eight university hospitals from distinct regions of Turkey. A total of 72, 92, and 367 Acinetobacter, Klebsiella, and P. aeruginosa isolates were studied, respectively. The presence of blaPER was determined by the colony hybridization method and later confirmed by isoelectric focusing. We detected PER-1-type beta-lactamases in 46% (33/72) of Acinetobacter strains and in 11% (40/367) of P. aeruginosa strains but not in Klebsiella strains. PER-1-type enzyme producers were highly resistant to ceftazidime and gentamicin, intermediately resistant to amikacin, and susceptible or moderately susceptible to imipenem and meropenem. Among PER-1-type-beta-lactamase-positive isolates, five Acinetobacter isolates and six P. aeruginosa isolates from different hospitals were selected for ribosomal DNA fingerprinting with EcoRI and SalI. The EcoRI-digested DNAs were later hybridized with a digoxigenin-labelled PER-1 probe. The ribotypes and the lengths of blaPER-carrying fragments were identical in four Acinetobacter strains. A single isolate (Ac3) harbored a PER gene on a different fragment (approximately 4.2 kbp) than the others (approximately 3.4 kbp) and showed a clearly distinguishable ribotype. Ribotypes of P. aeruginosa strains obtained with EcoRI showed three patterns. Similarly, in Pseudomonas strains two different EcoRI fragments harbored blaPER (approximately 4.2 kbp in five isolates and 3.4 kbp in one isolate). PER-1-type beta-lactamases appear to be restricted to Turkey. However, their clonal diversity and high prevalence indicate a high spreading potential.
The Relationship between Emotional and Esteem Social Support Messages and Health

ABSTRACT The purpose of this investigation is to determine the relative contribution of five types of social support to improved patient health. This analysis suggests that emotional and esteem social support messages are associated with improved patient health as measured by a decrease in average blood glucose levels among diabetic patients. In addition, when two system feature variables, two system use variables, two measures of learning, one measure of self-efficacy, and one measure of affect toward their HCP were added to the baseline model, a third significant factor emerged. Perceptions about learning about diabetes from reading the digital messages sent by their HCP also predicted improved patient health. Cognitive-Emotional Theory of Esteem Support Messages suggests a combination of esteem social support and emotional social support messages enhanced our ability to predict improved patient health by change in patient hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) scores. While a nonrandomized prospective study, this investigation provides support for the notion that provider-patient interaction is related to improved patient health and that both emotional and esteem social support messages play a role in that process. Finally, the study suggests some types of social support are and other types are not associated with improved patient health; this is consistent with the optimal matching hypothesis.
The impact of genetic hypertension on insulin secretion and glucoregulatory control in vivo: studies with the TGR(mRen2)27 transgenic rat

Objective To examine the associations among hypertension, insulin secretion, glucose tolerance and insulin resistance in vivo. Design Glucose tolerance and insulin secretion during an intravenous glucose tolerance test and action of insulin on whole-body glucose kinetics in the post-absorptive state and during hyperinsulinaemia were examined in conscious, unrestrained TGR(mRen2)27 rats and age-matched transgene-negative controls. Methods Glucose tolerance and insulin secretion were examined after intravenous administration of 500 mg glucose/kg body weight. Endogenous glucose production and whole-body glucose disposal were estimated using [3-3H]-glucose during euglycaemic–hyperinsulinaemic clamping. Muscle glucose utilization was estimated using 2-deoxy-[1-3H]-glucose. Results Despite there being higher insulin levels, whole-body glucose turnover was significantly lower in post-absorptive TGR(mRen2)27 rats than it was in transgene-negative controls. This was associated with significant suppression of glucose uptake/phosphorylation by oxidative skeletal muscles. TGR(mRen2)27 rats also exhibited significantly lower blood glucose levels, higher plasma insulin levels and higher rates of disappearance of glucose after intravenous administration of glucose. During hyperinsulinaemia, steady-state glucose infusion rates required to maintain euglycaemia in TGR(mRen2)27 rats were significantly greater, indicating that an increase in whole-body action of insulin had occurred. This was due to significantly greater suppression of endogenous production of glucose: insulin-stimulated glucose disposal rates did not differ significantly between the two groups. Conclusions The results indicate that TGR(mRen2)27 rats have an enhanced and sensitized insulin-secretory response to glucose, together with a greater than normal hepatic action of insulin. Insulin-mediated glucose disposal was not impaired. The results therefore do not support the hypothesis that hypertension plays a primary role in the development of insulin resistance. J Hypertens 16:369–376 © 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.
Learning efficient error correcting output codes for large hierarchical multi-class problems

We describe a new approach for dealing with hierarchical classification with a large number of classes. We build on Error Correcting Output Codes and propose two algorithms that learn compact, binary, low dimensional class codes from a similarity information between classes. This allows building classification algorithms that performs similarly or better than the standard and performing one-vs-all approach, with much lower inference complexity.
Influence of electroencephalography neurofeedback training on episodic memory: A randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind study

The relationships between memory processes and oscillatory electroencephalography (EEG) are well established. Neurofeedback training (NFT) may cause participants to better regulate their brain EEG oscillations. The present study is a double-blind sham-controlled design investigating the effect of NFT on memory. NFT included up-training upper alpha (UA) band, up-training sensory-motor rhythm (SMR) band and sham protocol. Thirty healthy adult volunteers were randomly divided into three treatment groups. NFT sessions (30 min each) took place twice weekly for a total of 10 sessions while memory testing took place pre- and post-training. The results indicate dissociation between SMR and UA NFT and different memory processes. While the SMR protocol resulted in improving automatic, item-specific and familiarity-based processes in memory, the UA protocol resulted in improved strategic and controlled recollection. The implications of the results are discussed.
Central Role of Marinobufagenin in the Pathogenesis of Experimental Uremic Cardiomyopathy

Patients with chronic renal failure develop a “uremic” cardiomyopathy characterized by diastolic dysfunction, cardiac hypertrophy and systemic oxidant stress. Patients with chronic renal failure also are known to have increases in the circulating concentrations of the cardiotonic steroid marinobufagenin. On this background, we hypothesized that elevations in circulating marinobufagenin may be involved in the cardiomyopathy. First, we observed that administration of marinobufagenin (10 μg/kg/day) for 4 weeks caused comparable increases in plasma MBG as partial nephrectomy at 4 weeks. Marinobufagenin infusion caused increases in conscious blood pressure, cardiac weight and the time constant for left ventricular relaxation similar to partial nephrectomy. Decreases in the expression of the cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum ATPase, cardiac fibrosis and systemic oxidant stress were observed with both marinobufagenin infusion and partial nephrectomy. Next, rats were actively immunized against a marinobufagenin bovine serum albumin conjugate or bovine serum albumin control, and partial nephrectomy was subsequently performed. Immunization against marinobufagenin attenuated the cardiac hypertrophy, impairment of diastolic function, cardiac fibrosis and systemic oxidant stress seen with partial nephrectomy without significant effect on conscious blood pressure. These data suggest that the increased concentrations of marinobufagenin are important in the cardiac disease and oxidant stress state seen with renal failure.
DESCRIPTION OF GORDIONUS POROSUS N. SP. AND REDESCRIPTION OF GORDIONUS ONDULATUS (NEMATOMORPHA, PARACHORDODINAE) WITH SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY

Two hairworms from Argentina, Gordionus porosus n. sp. and Gordionus ondulatus (Nematomorpha, Gordioidea), are described and illustrated. The cuticle of both species shows only 1 areolar type. Areoles of G. porosus are polygonal and surrounded by minute bristles and the interareolar groove is wide and with large pores. Gordionus ondulatus is characterized by rectangular or irregular areoles from which margins cuticular elongations project as finger-like structures, giving an undulated appearance. Comparing these species to the remaining American species of Gordionus, G. porosus is close to Gordionus violaceus by virtue of the large number of small bristles surrounding the areoles and can be distinguished by the shape of these bristles and by the arrangement and shape of the areoles. Gordionus ondulatus differs from the other species of the genus by its undulating margins. Giordinus lineatus and Giordinus violaceus have been reported in North America, Giordinus platycephalus in North and Central America, Giordinus capitosulcatus in Central America, and Giordinus prismaticus, G. ondulatus, and G. porosus only in South America.
Recent Development of WFST-Based Speech Recognition Decoder

In this paper we present an overview of the Tokyo Tech Transducer-based Decoder T 3 (pronounced tee-cubed). There is a high level overview of the engine’s design and features which is accompanied by a more detailed description of the features that are unique to our engine. These include the ability to perform acoustic computations on a graphics card and generalized fast on-the-fly composition and optimization algorithms. We describe voice activity detection functionality recently added to the engine and finally results are presented which show the engine achieving very high recognition throughput at a high recognition accuracy.
Influence of KRAS G13D mutations on outcome in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with first-line chemotherapy with or without cetuximab.

3511 Background: Addition of cetuximab (cet) to first-line chemotherapy (CT) was shown to significantly improve clinical benefit in patients (pts) with KRAS wild-type (wt) mCRC. Pts with KRAS codon 12 or 13 mutations are excluded from cet treatment. Studies suggest that not all KRAS mutations are equivalent in their biological effects. We investigated the influence of the KRAS codon 13 mutation G13D on clinical outcome compared with pts with other KRAS tumor mutations or KRAS wt tumors in a pooled analysis of pts from the CRYSTAL and OPUS studies. METHODS Variation of the treatment effect by KRAS mutation status, and the effect of KRAS mutation status within each treatment group for response, progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) was investigated. RESULTS There were 689 pts in each treatment arm: 447 vs 398 pts had KRAS wt tumors, 41 vs 42 pts had KRAS G13D mutant tumors and 201 vs 249 pts had tumors with other KRAS mutations, for the CT and CT+cet arms, respectively. Heterogeneous treatment effects were seen for all endpoints across the mutation types with significant treatment interaction by KRAS mutation status for response (p<0.0001), PFS (p<0.0001) and OS (p=0.0219). Compared with pts with KRAS wt tumors those with G13D mutations had a similar relative treatment effect but at a much lower effect level (Table). CONCLUSIONS These observations suggest a heterogeneous treatment effect according to tumor KRAS mutation status. Pts with KRAS G13D mutant mCRC appear to benefit from the addition of cet to first-line CT. Further prospectively generated clinical investigations are necessary to confirm these data. [Table: see text].
Prospective study of changes in impairments and disabilities after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction.

STUDY DESIGN Single-group, repeated-measures prospective study. OBJECTIVES To analyze changes in impairments and disabilities among patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and to assess the relationships between the impairment and disability outcome measures from 3 months to 2 years following ACL reconstruction. BACKGROUND Outcomes after ACL reconstruction can be categorized as impairments or disabilities. The relationship between impairments and disabilities may be crucial to understanding physical therapy interventions and predicting long-term outcome. METHODS AND MEASURES Sixty patients who had undergone ACL reconstruction participated in the study. Impairment measures were range of motion, pain, knee-joint laxity, and muscle performance using isokinetic muscle tests. Disability measures were the Cincinnati knee score and lower limb performance using the triple-jump and stair-hop tests. Follow-up times were 3 and 6 months and 1 and 2 years after surgery. RESULTS The Cincinnati knee score results show significant improvement 1 year after surgery (84.2 +/- 13.6) compared with 6 months (76.8 +/- 13.7) and 3 months (67.4 +/- 16.3) after surgery. Quadriceps total work (percentage of normal leg) significantly improved 2 years after surgery (92.6 +/- 14.1%) compared with 1 year after surgery (81.6 +/- 16.8%). Between 37 and 75% of the variability in the Cincinnati knee score could be explained by variation in the impairment variables, and quadriceps muscle performance and pain were the most significant predictors of disability. Extension deficit and pain at 3 months were significantly related to the Cincinnati knee score at the 2-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS Up to 2 years may be needed to regain normal quadriceps muscle performance following ACL reconstruction. Pain and quadriceps muscle performance explained most of the variability in the Cincinnati knee score.
Critical Role for CXC Chemokine Ligand 16 (SR-PSOX) in Th1 Response Mediated by NKT Cells1

The transmembrane chemokine CXCL 16 (CXCL16), which is the same molecule as the scavenger receptor that binds phosphatidylserine and oxidized lipoprotein (SR-PSOX), has been shown to mediate chemotaxis and adhesion of CXC chemokine receptor 6-expressing cells such as NKT and activated Th1 cells. We generated SR-PSOX/CXCL16-deficient mice and examined the role of this chemokine in vivo. The mutant mice showed a reduced number of liver NKT cells, and decreased production of IFN-γ and IL-4 by administration of α-galactosylceramide (αGalCer). Of note, the αGalCer-induced production of IFN-γ was more severely impaired than the production of IL-4 in SR-PSOX-deficient mice. In this context, SR-PSOX-deficient mice showed impaired sensitivity to αGalCer-induced anti-tumor effect mediated by IFN-γ from NKT cells. NKT cells from wild-type mice showed impaired production of IFN-γ, but not IL-4, after their culture with αGalCer and APCs from mutant mice. Moreover, Propionibacterium acnes-induced in vivo Th1 responses were severely impaired in SR-PSOX-deficient as well as NKT KO mice. Taken together, SR-PSOX/CXCL16 plays an important role in not only the production of IFN-γ by NKT cells, but also promotion of Th1-inclined immune responses mediated by NKT cells.
Early bone grafting in complete cleft lip and palate cases following maxillofacial orthopedics. I. The method and the skeletal development from seven to thirteen years of age.

The methods of preoperative orthopedics: a "T-traction" procedure for unilateral clefts and a combined premaxillary pressure and expansion procedure for bilateral clefts and of early alveolar bone grafting: the Nordin's "four-flap" technique, are described in detail. The subsequent effects of treatment according to those methods were studied with roentgencephalometric analysis in cleft patients from 7 to 13 years of age. They were divided into two unilateral and one bilateral complete cleft group, all having been early bone grafted. The unilateral groups were composed of one group of 39 children operated on during the period 1960-65 without preoperative "T-traction", and another group, of 46 children, operated on in 1965-72 after preoperative "T-traction". The bilateral group included 19 children operated on 1960-72 after preoperative orthopedics. The same degree of inhibited development of the facial skeleton as found in another Swedish early bone grafted cleft group was not present in our patients. The development of the skeletal profile in our bone grafted cases, especially those in the "T-traction" group, was well within the limits of non-grafted U.S. cases, but differed from non-clefts.
Endothelial cell E- and P-selectin up-regulation in murine contact sensitivity is prolonged by distinct mechanisms occurring in sequence.

The selectins are adhesion molecules that mediate the tethering and rolling of leukocytes on vascular endothelium. Although E-selectin and P-selectin are known to be expressed by endothelial cells (EC) in response to proinflammatory stimuli, their pattern and mechanisms of expression in immune-mediated inflammation remain poorly understood. By quantifying luminal endothelial selectin expression via i.v. administration of radiolabeled mAb, we detected constitutive expression of P-selectin, but not E-selectin, in mouse skin. Both selectins were transiently up-regulated after intradermal TNF-alpha, IL-1alpha, or IL-1beta. In contrast, during a contact sensitivity response to oxazolone, expression of both selectins was prolonged, with distinct peaks at 6 and 48 h. Experiments with P-selectin gene-targeted mice showed that the P-selectin measured was exclusively expressed by EC rather than platelets. The early and late phases of selectin expression in contact sensitivity were differentiated in terms of their requirement for prior sensitization, and the action of IL-1. Whereas the early phase was a nonspecific 'irritant' response to oxazolone, the late phase was Ag specific and was partially IL-1 dependent. Therefore, persistence of both E- and P-selectin expression in vivo can occur as a result of sequential and distinct EC activation processes that appear to be at least partially different from those previously reported as stimulating ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 expression. The further elucidation of mechanisms of EC activation in this model may help determine the relative roles of selectins and ligands for leukocyte integrins in the sequential recruitment of T cells and other leukocyte subsets during ongoing immune-mediated inflammatory responses.
Colonization of Mexican Patients by MultipleHelicobacter pylori Strains with Different vacAand cagA Genotypes

ABSTRACT Helicobacter pylori virulence determinants have not previously been studied in detail in Latin Americans with H. pylori infections. We characterized the vacA(vacuolating cytotoxin gene A) and cagA(cytotoxin-associated gene A) types of more than 400 single-colony isolates from 20 patients in Mexico City. For 17 patients H. pylori strains of two or more different vacAgenotypes were isolated from gastric biopsy specimens, indicating infection with two or more strains of H. pylori. The most frequent vacA genotype was s1b/m1. vacAdiversity was more marked than that described previously, in that isolates from seven patients had untypeable vacA midregions and isolates from nine patients had type s1 signal sequence coding regions which could not be further subtyped. Previously undescribedvacA type s2/m1 strains were found in five patients. All patients were infected with cagA-positive strains, but occasionally, these coexisted with small numbers ofcagA-negative strains. In conclusion, coinfection with multiple H. pylori strains is common in Mexico, andvacA in these strains is genetically more diverse than has been described in other populations.
Obstetric hospitalizations in the United States for women with systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the national occurrence of pregnancies in women with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to compare pregnancy outcomes in these patients with those in women with pregestational diabetes mellitus (DM) and with the general obstetric population. METHODS We studied the 2002 Nationwide Inpatient Sample of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project to estimate the number of obstetric hospitalizations, deliveries, and cesarean deliveries in women with SLE, RA, pregestational DM, and the general obstetric population. Pregnancy outcomes included length of hospital stay, hypertensive disorders including preeclampsia, premature rupture of membranes, and intrauterine growth restriction. RESULTS Of an estimated 4.04 million deliveries, 3,264 occurred in women with SLE, 1,425 in women with RA, and 13,574 in women with pregestational DM. Women with SLE, RA, and pregestational DM had significantly increased rates of hypertensive disorders compared with the general obstetric population (23.2%, 11.1%, 27.4%, and 7.8%, respectively), longer hospital stays, and significantly higher risk of cesarean delivery. Although women with SLE, RA, and pregestational DM were significantly older than women in the general obstetric population, disparities in the risk of adverse outcomes of pregnancy remained statistically significant after adjustment for maternal age. CONCLUSION To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine national data on pregnancy outcomes in women with common rheumatic diseases. As with underlying pregestational DM, women with SLE and RA appear to have a higher age-adjusted risk of adverse outcomes of pregnancy and longer hospital stays than do pregnant women in the general population, and careful antenatal monitoring should be performed.