Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High-sensitivity C reactive protein as a predictor of inhospital mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease at an emergency department: a retrospective cohort study

Objective We investigated whether serum high-sensitivity C reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels measured in an emergency department (ED) are associated with inhospital mortality in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Design A retrospective cohort study. Setting ED of a teaching hospital in Japan. Participants 12 211 patients with CVD aged ≥18 years who presented to the ED by an ambulance between 1 February 2006 and 30 September 2014 were evaluated. Main outcome measures Inhospital mortality. Results 1156 patients had died. The inhospital mortality increased significantly with the hs-CRP levels (<3.0 mg/L: 7.0%, 95% CI 6.4 to 7.6; 3.1–5.4 mg/L: 9.6%, 95% CI 7.9 to 11.3: 5.5–11.5 mg/L: 11.2%, 95% CI 9.4 to 13.0; 11.6–33.2 mg/L: 12.3%, 95% CI 10.5 to 14.1 and ≥33.3 mg/L: 19.9%, 95% CI 17.6 to 22.2). The age-adjusted and sex-adjusted HR for total mortality was increased significantly in the three ≥5.5 mg/L groups compared with the <3.0 mg/L group (5.5–11.5 mg/L: HR=1.32, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.60, p=0.005; 11.6–33.2 mg/L: HR=1.38, 95% CI 1.14 to 1.65, p=0.001 and ≥33.3 mg/L: HR=2.15, 95% CI 1.84 to 2.51, p<0.001). Similar findings were observed for the CVD subtypes of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, cerebral infarction and intracerebral haemorrhage. This association remained unchanged even after adjustment for age, sex and white cell count and withstood Bonferroni adjustment for multiple testing. When the causes of death were divided into primary CVD and non-CVD deaths, the association between initial hs-CRP levels and mortality remained significant, but the influence of hs-CRP levels was greater in non-CVD deaths than CVD deaths. The percentage of non-CVD deaths increased with hs-CRP levels; among the patients with hs-CRP levels ≥33.3 mg/L, non-CVD deaths accounted for 37.5% of total deaths. Conclusion Our findings suggest that increased hs-CRP is a significant risk factor for inhospital mortality among patients with CVD in an ED. Particular attention should be given to our finding that non-CVD death is a major cause of death among patients with CVD with higher hs-CRP levels.
Emerging Chlamydial Infections

Chlamydiae are important intracellular bacterial pathogens of vertebrates. In the last years, novel members of this group have been discovered: Parachlamydia acanthamoebae and Simkania negevensis seems to be emerging respiratory human pathogens, while Waddlia chondrophila might be a new agent of bovine abortion. Various species have been showed to infect also the herpetofauna and fishes, and some novel chlamydiae are endosymbionts of arthropods. In addition, molecular studies evidenced a huge diversity of chlamydiae from both environmental and clinical samples, most of such a diversity could be formed by novel lineages of chlamydiae. Experimental studies showed that free-living amoebae may support multiplication of various chlamydiae, then could play an important role as reservoir/vector of chlamydial infections. Here we reviewed literature data concerning chlamydial infections, with a particular emphasis on the novely described chlamydial organisms.
A randomized, phase II, biomarker-selected study comparing erlotinib to erlotinib intercalated with chemotherapy in first-line therapy for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE Erlotinib prolongs survival in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We report the results of a randomized, phase II study of erlotinib alone or intercalated with chemotherapy (CT + erlotinib) in chemotherapy-naïve patients with advanced NSCLC who were positive for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) protein expression and/or with high EGFR gene copy number. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 143 patients were randomly assigned to either erlotinib 150 mg daily orally until disease progression (PD) occurred or to chemotherapy with paclitaxel 200 mg/m(2) intravenously (IV) and carboplatin dosed by creatinine clearance (AUC 6) IV on day 1 intercalated with erlotinib 150 mg orally on days 2 through 15 every 3 weeks for four cycles followed by erlotinib 150 mg orally until PD occurred (CT + erlotinib). The primary end point was 6-month progression-free survival (PFS); secondary end points included response rate, PFS, and survival. EGFR, KRAS mutation, EGFR fluorescent in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry, and E-cadherin and vimentin protein levels were also assessed. RESULTS Six-month PFS rates were 26% and 31% for the two arms (CT + erlotinib and erlotinib alone, respectively). Both were less than the historical control of 45% (P = .001 and P = .011, respectively). Median PFS times were 4.57 and 2.69 months, respectively. Patients with tumors harboring EGFR activating mutations fared better on erlotinib alone (median PFS, 18.2 months v 4.9 months for CT + erlotinib). CONCLUSION The feasibility of a multicenter biomarker-driven study was demonstrated, but neither treatment arms exceeded historical controls. This study does not support combined chemotherapy and erlotinib in first-line treatment of EGFR-selected advanced NSCLC, and the patients with tumors harboring EGFR mutations had a better outcome on erlotinib alone.
Influence of Growth Phase on Adhesion Kinetics of Escherichia coli D21g

ABSTRACT The influence of bacterial growth stage and the evolution of surface macromolecules on cell adhesion have been examined by using a mutant of Escherichia coli K-12. To better understand the adhesion kinetics of bacteria in the mid-exponential and stationary growth phases under flow conditions, deposition experiments were conducted in a well-controlled radial stagnation point flow (RSPF) system. Complementary cell characterization techniques were conducted in combination with the RSPF experiments to evaluate the hydrophobicity, electrophoretic mobility, size, and titratable surface charge of the cells in the two growth phases considered. It was observed that cells in stationary phase were notably more adhesive than those in mid-exponential phase. This behavior is attributed to the high degree of local charge heterogeneity on the outer membranes of stationary-phase cells, which results in decreased electrostatic repulsion between the cells and a quartz surface. The mid-exponential-phase cells, on the other hand, have a more uniform charge distribution on the outer membrane, resulting in greater electrostatic repulsion and, subsequently, less adhesion. Our results suggest that the macromolecules responsible for this phenomenon are outer membrane-bound proteins and lipopolysaccharide-associated functional groups.
KRISIS EKONOMI KRISIS POLITIK DUNIA DAN IHSG

The global economic crisis of 2008-2010 had an impact on the global economic slowdown. Plus the political crisis in the countries of the Middle East region called the Arab Spring had become the center of world attention, because it also lowers economic conditions and corporate America and in other developing countries. By using daily data price of crude oil, the price of gold and exchange rates as well Rp. /USD IDX Composite Index from the year 2010 - 2012, tested the impact of crude oil prices, global gold prices on the Stock Exchange Composite Index. The result was at the time of global economic and political crisis in oil prices and the world gold price positively affects JCI opposed to when normal conditions. When the economic crisis plus the political crisis that led to the oil price increases, the share price (CSPI) on the Stock Exchange also increased. Funds drawn investors from investing in the United States and other developing countries is invested in Indonesia so that stock prices rise along with oil prices and gold prices. While the exchange rate negatively affects Rp. /USD JCI Stock Exchange, as a stronger rupiah lead JCI Stock Exchange also increased
Some specific clinical features differentiate multiple system atrophy (striatonigral variety) from Parkinson's disease.

OBJECTIVE The clinical recognition of multiple system atrophy (MSA) in patients presenting with parkinsonian signs is difficult. We attempted to verify the predictive value of some pointers that are used in clinical practice. DESIGN Sixteen consecutive patients with pathologically confirmed MSA who presented with a parkinsonian syndrome over an 8-year period were studied retrospectively, and their clinical features were analyzed in detail. SETTING Parkinson's Disease Society, Brain Tissue Bank, Institute of Neurology, London, England. PATIENTS Sixteen patients with pathologically proven MSA who presented with parkinsonian syndrome in the first 3 years since disease onset. METHODS Clinical features that were analyzed included the rapidity of disease progression, the relative symmetry of symptom onset, the presence or absence of tremor at initial presentation, the therapeutic response to levodopa and the associated presence of autonomic dysfunction. Fourteen of the 16 patients also had a computed tomographic scan of the brain performed. The frequency of selected items in MSA was compared with that found in 20 pathologically confirmed cases of Parkinson's disease and 16 pathologically confirmed cases of progressive supranuclear palsy (Steele-Richardson-Olszewski disease). RESULTS It was found that a probability scale based on five selected items discriminated MSA with a pure parkinsonian presentation from Parkinson's disease, but not from progressive supranuclear palsy. Patients affected by the latter disorder, however, commonly presented with additional clinical features (supranuclear vertical down-gaze palsy, axial dystonia, and cognitive impairment), which helped to differentiate it from MSA.
The polygenic profile of Russian football players

Abstract Research concerned with predictors of talent in football has highlighted a number of potentially important and partially inherited measures such as body size, anaerobic power, aerobic capacity, agility, psychological profile, game intelligence and susceptibility to injuries. Genotyping for performance-associated DNA polymorphisms at an early age could be useful in predicting later success in football. The aim of the study was to investigate individually and in combination the association of common gene polymorphisms with football player’s status. A total of 246 Russian football players and 872 controls were genotyped for 8 gene polymorphisms, which were previously reported to be associated with athlete status. Four alleles (ACE D, ACTN3 Arg577, PPARA rs4253778 C and UCP2 55Val) were first identified, showing discrete associations with football player’s status. Next, we determined the total genotype score (TGS, from the accumulated combination of the 4 polymorphisms, with a maximum value of 100 for the theoretically optimal polygenic score) in athletes and controls. The mean TGS was significantly higher in football players (52.0 (17.6) vs. 41.3 (15.5); P < 0.0001) than in controls. These data suggest that the likelihood of becoming a football player depends on the carriage of a high number of “favourable” gene variants.
Impulse control disorders and attention deficit disorder in pathological gamblers.

Little systematic research has been done on psychiatric comorbidity of pathological gambling, an impulse control disorder. This report describes the occurrence of attention deficit disorder and impulse control disorders in 40 pathological gamblers in treatment for gambling problems and 64 controls. Diagnoses were made by structured interviews which utilized operationalized diagnostic criteria. An impulse control disorder other than pathological gambling was noted in 35% of the pathological gamblers, compared to 3% of the controls (p < .001). Compulsive buying (p < .001) and compulsive sexual behavior (p < .05) were significantly higher in pathological gamblers than controls. A strong association was seen among pathological gambling, attention deficit, and other impulse control disorders. Attention deficit disorder was seen in 20% of the pathological gamblers. Rates of impulse control disorders did not differ by gender. Implications of these high rates of comorbidity are discussed.
A fuzzy based very low bit rate speech coding with high accuracy

According to the U.S. Federal Standard coder for 2400 bps, a data frame containing 54 bits of encoded signals are transmitted every 22.5 (ms). In each frame, 25 bits encode the spectral features (10 Line Spectrum Frequencies (LSF)). This paper describes a method to reduce the transmission rate while preserving most of the quality and intelligibility. The performance of the proposed coder is at about 780 bits/sec ( = 6 bits/frame × 130 frames/sec). In transmitter, we apply an algorithm to convert speech in to phonetic segments, and then these segments are bifurcated in to the voiced and unvoiced segments. Because of the fact that the spelling time of unvoiced phonetics is short, one cannot distinguish who is pronouncing them, either a male or a female. Literatures in this context show that in most cases, the aforementioned observation is admitted. Therefore, for high accuracy speech transmission, voiced phonetics are more important than unvoiced ones. Hence, a Voiced/Unvoiced decomposition system is proposed. Furthermore, in order to cluster voice segments, fuzzy clustering is applied, in which the proper number of voice segments is determined by a means of statistical method called “Elbow”. Depending on the transmission rate, two different strategies can be utilized. In the first strategy, unvoiced segments of speech can be transmitted by the use of Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) for high quality (MOS=4.5). As a second, unvoiced segments of speech can be recognized and then transmitted for lower quality (MOS=3) and under 100 bits/sec.
Evaluation of Time Series Distance Functions in the Task of Detecting Remote Phenology Patterns

Phenology is the study of periodic natural phenomena and their relationship to climate. Usually, phenology studies consider the identification of patterns on temporal data. In those studies, several phenological change patterns are often encoded in time series for analysis and knowledge extraction. In this paper, we evaluate the effectiveness of several time series similarity functions in the task of classifying time series related to phonological phenomena characterized by near-surface vegetation indices extracted from images. In addition, we performed a correlation analysis to identify potential candidates for combination.
Cytoarchitecture of the tectum mesencephali in two types of siluroid teleosts

The cytoarchitecture of the tectum mesencephali in the siluroid teleosts Bagrus and Ictalurus was studied by means of the Golgi method. These animals are known to have a restricted visual system and it seemed important to study whether this fact would affect the existence or the shape of the main neuron types which have been described for highly visual teleosts. It had been shown for a variety of teleosts that the retinotectal axons and terminals occupy almost exclusively the stratum opticum and the stratum fibrosum et griseum superficiale. The thickness of these strata in Bagrus and Ictalurus was found to be reduced. However, the main types of especially the vertically oriented neurons, such as the pyramidal, fusiform, large pyriform and periventricular neurons which have been described for highly visual species of teleosts, were also found in Bagrus and Ictalurus. Although their shape was somewhat distorted, these neurons, nevertheless, showed processes distributed to the same tectal layers as in highly visual teleosts and are accessible to horizontally distributed fiber systems such as marginal, telencephalotectal and commissural tectal fibers, as well as the retinotectal fibers. Nonvisual inputs appear to be considerably involved in the maintenance of the main neuron types in the siluroid tectum. For example, the pyramidal neuron's apical dendritic tree, which receives the excitatory input from the marginal fibers, is as well developed in siluroids as in highly visual teleosts.
Functional analysis of an isolated fos promoter element with AP-1 site homology reveals cell type-specific transcriptional properties

A DNA element located at positions -295 to -289 of the c-fos promoter (FAP site) is highly homologous to a consensus 12-O-tetradecanoyl phorbol-13-acetate-responsive element (TRE) and to a cyclic AMP (cAMP)-responsive element (CRE). We found that an oligonucleotide containing the FAP element was a transcription regulator which was distinct from both the TRE and CRE. When cloned in multiple copies in front of a reporter gene in HeLa cells, the FAP oligonucleotide was a powerful constitutive activator sequence. Conversely, in the same cells, reporter plasmids containing multiple copies of the TRE of the human metallothionein gene required phorbol esters for their induction. In PC12 cells, the FAP oligonucleotide was cAMP responsive. Its activity was mediated through a cAMP-dependent protein kinase II and did not rely on ongoing protein synthesis for activation. Adenovirus E1a proteins activated viral promoters through ATF (activation transcription factor) consensus binding sequences identical to the CRE. However, E1a repressed the FAP oligonucleotide-associated transcriptional activity in HeLa cells. In PC12 cells, E1a neither transactivated nor transrepressed the basal and cAMP-stimulated FAP activity. In contrast, the CRE of the human c-fos promoter located at -60 was weakly induced by cAMP and E1a in both HeLa and PC12 cells. We suggest that the FAP oligonucleotide acts through a factor(s) distinct from those employed by the TRE and CRE and that the FAP-associated protein factor(s) may differ in HeLa and PC12 cells in expression or posttranslational regulation.
CD74: A New Candidate Target for the Immunotherapy of B-Cell Neoplasms

CD74 is an integral membrane protein that functions as a MHC class II chaperone. Moreover, it has recently been shown to have a role as an accessory-signaling molecule and has been implicated in malignant B-cell proliferation and survival. These biological functions combined with expression of CD74 on malignant B cells and limited expression on normal tissues implicate CD74 as a potential therapeutic target. The anti-CD74 monoclonal antibody LL1 has been humanized (hLL1 milatuzumab or IMMU-115) and can provide the basis for novel therapeutic approaches to B-cell malignancies, particularly because this antibody shows rapid internalization into CD74+ malignant cells. This article reviews the preclinical evaluations of LL1, its humanized form, and isotope, drug, and toxin conjugates. These studies show that unconjugated hLL1 and conjugates of hLL1 constructs with radioisotopes, doxorubicin, and frog RNase have high antitumor activity in non–Hodgkin's lymphoma and multiple myeloma in vitro and in tumor xenograft models. Single-dose studies of hLL1 in monkeys showed no adverse effects but did decrease circulating B and T lymphocytes and natural killer cells. When evaluated in combination with rituximab, either equivalent or improved efficacy, compared with either antibody alone, was observed. CD74 is a new candidate target for the immunotherapy of neoplasms expressing this antigen, which can be exploited using either a naked antibody or conjugated to isotopes, drugs, or toxins.
An Overview of Statistical Approaches for Adaptive Designs and Design Modifications

With adaptive design methods for clinical trials, design elements such as sample size or further interim sample sizes may be changed during the course of the trial depending on all previously collected data. The focus of the overview is on group sequential approaches where the types of adaptations need not be specified in advance. An overview of the different statistical approaches for adaptive design methods proposed in the literature is given, relations between these methods are described and some perspectives of application and for future research are discussed. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)
Training Participation and Gender: Analyzing Individual Barriers Across Different Welfare State Regimes

Lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important in today’s societies. Individuals need to develop their skills through training in order to be successfully integrated in the labor market. We use data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to investigate gender differences in training across 12 countries. We analyze participation and perceived barriers to training for women in comparison with men and control for family structure and employment. As institutional framework, we use four different welfare state regimes to show how policies can affect the decision to participate. Our results show that different welfare regimes have an impact on the extent adults take part in training and on their perceived barriers. In all countries except Belgium and the Nordic states, men are more likely to participate in training. However, this inequality disappears once controlling for further individual characteristics. Our research provides insights why adults are deterred from engaging in training.
Cigarette smoking and adult leukemia. A meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Increasing evidence suggests that certain forms of adult leukemia may be related to cigarette smoking. METHODS To evaluate the association between cigarette smoking and adult leukemia, we conducted a meta-analysis of available studies. Data were identified through an English-language MEDLINE search for the period 1970 through 1992 and through our knowledge of ongoing and unpublished studies. Among the studies identified, the meta-analysis included seven prospective studies and eight case-control studies. The US Surgeon General's criteria were used to assess the evidence for causality. RESULTS A positive association between smoking and certain histologic types of leukemia was found in both prospective and case-control studies. The summary smoking-related risk derived from prospective studies (relative risk, 1.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.3 to 1.4) was greater than that based on case-control data (relative risk, 1.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.0 to 1.2). Prospective data suggested an elevated risk of myeloid leukemia associated with cigarette smoking (relative risk, 1.4; 95% confidence interval, 1.2 to 1.6). Pooled case-control data showed increased smoking-associated risk for acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (relative risk, 1.3; 95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 1.5). Risk of leukemia increased according to the number of cigarettes smoked per day. Population-attributable risk calculations suggested that approximately 14% of all US leukemia cases (including 17% of myeloid and 14% of acute nonlymphocytic leukemias) may be due to cigarette smoking. CONCLUSIONS The consistency, temporality, and biologic plausibility of this relationship augment our findings, which support a causal relationship between cigarette smoking and certain forms of adult leukemia. Further studies are needed to examine risk among women, dose-response effects, and variation in risk by histologic type.