Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Closing in on Chlamydia and its intracellular bag of tricks.

The genus Chlamydia encompasses a unique class of obligate intracellular bacteria, which cause infections in a wide range of animals and contribute to prevalent sexually transmitted, ocular and respiratory tract infectious diseases in humans. Consequences of chronic disease, to which Chlamydia owes most of its notoriety, include female infertility, blindness, arthritis and possibly coronary heart disease. In contrast to its pathogenic prominence, relatively little is known about the molecular mechanisms of Chlamydia infection, owing mostly to its unique intracellular developmental life style and resistance to genetic manipulation. Recent genomic information, however, in combination with new findings on the molecular and cell biology of infection, have allowed new insights into the biology of these unique organisms. The emerging picture is that of a micro-organism exploiting and subverting host signalling and trafficking pathways to its own developmental and pathogenic ends. To do so, the bacteria express a contact-dependent type III secretion (TTS) pathway, similar to that found in many other bacterial pathogens. Here, we suggest that Chlamydia TTS promotes bacterial survival and growth upon translocation of signals across the Chlamydia vacuole membrane. We hypothesize that these signals may be responsible for a range of activities, including inhibition of phagolysosome fusion, upregulation of transporters, and diversion of nutrients and constituent molecules from normal eukaryotic trafficking pathways. We further propose that inactivation of TTS upon loss of contact may provide a simple signal for the bacteria to irreversibly engage in late differentiation.
Physiological cell death in endocrine‐dependent tissues: an ovarian perspective

For a long time, cell death was considered by many biomedical investigators to be an unfavourable process. In the past several years, however, a series of landmark observations has established that normal embryonic development and post-natal tissue homeostasis are events dependent upon a precisely coordinated balance between cell proliferation and cell death. A disruption in normal cell death, resulting in either abnormally fewer or greater numbers of cells, is now believed to lead to several pathophysiological conditions, including tumorigenesis, neurodegeneration and autoimmunity. In this brief review, we will underscore the significance of physiological cell death, most often referred to as programmed cell death or apoptosis, in endocrine-dependent tissues using the ovary as a model system for key points of discussion. It is our goal to identify fundamental similarities in the mechanisms by which apoptosis in such tissues is accomplished, to integrate our understanding of the occurrence of apoptosis with normal and abnormal tissue development or function, and to offer testable hypotheses for future experimentation.
Therapeutic Options to Modulate Barrier Defects in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

In inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), epithelial barrier function is impaired contributing to diarrhea by a leak flux mechanism and perpetuating inflammation by an increased luminal antigen uptake. This barrier of the intestinal epithelium is composed of the apical enterocyte membrane and the epithelial tight junction (TJ) and can be affected by TJ alterations, induction of epithelial apoptoses and appearance of gross lesions like erosions or ulcers as well as by accelerated transcytotic antigen uptake. TJ strands are reduced in Crohn’s disease (CD) and strand breaks appear. Several of the 24 claudins are concerned in CD as e.g. claudin-2, -5 and -8. The epithelial apoptotic rate has also been shown to be elevated causing focal lesions. As far as regulation is concerned, Th1 cytokines like TNF-α and interferon-γ are important for CD, while Th2 responses are dominated by interleukin (IL)-13 and TNF-α in ulcerative colitis (UC). IL-13 does stimulate epithelial apoptosis as well as upregulates claudin-2 in UC. Together with an IL-13-dependent restitution arrest, this may explain why ulcer lesions are seen already early in UC but only in advanced stages of CD. Luminal antigen uptake occurs via TJ discontinuities, epithelial gross lesions and endocytotically. Therapeutically, anti-inflammatory remedies as e.g. TNF-α antibodies are most effective in improving active IBD and in parallel repairing barrier function. Again, this is assumed to be due to reduced cytokine release in active IBD, as a result of immune cell apoptosis. However, other agents can also directly affect barrier function. Glutamine is discussed as a candidate for barrier therapy but has never been shown to have a direct barrier influence in CD, although it is an important metabolic fuel for enterocytes and has been shown to preserve barrier functions in laboratory models. Also, probiotics and TGF-β and have beneficial effects in models, but no data exist on barrier repair in IBD. In contrast, zinc has been shown to improve barrier function in CD, although the inherent mechanisms are unknown. Finally, food components can strengthen the epithelial barrier as for example the flavonoid quercetin which has been shown to upregulate claudin-4 within the epithelial TJ.
Occurrence of childhood encephalitis: a population‐based study

The occurrence of childhood encephalitis was evaluated in a population-based study in an area with no arboviral infections. Ninety-five children were treated for encephalitis during 1973 to 1987, giving an annual incidence of 8.8/ 100 000 children younger than 16 years of age (95% confidence interval, 6.7 to 10.1). Based on virologic and serologic studies the most common etiologic agents were varicella (24 cases), mumps (8), herpes simplex (7) and measles (4). The etiology remained unknown in 37 children. No cases of encephalitis caused by mumps, measles or rubella were found in the population after 1982, when vaccination against these viruses was introduced.
Allometric relationships of cell numbers and size in the mammalian lung.

Allometric studies have shown that lung volume, alveolar surface area, and diffusing capacity increase proportionally with body weight across a broad range of mammalian species. Changes in the number of cells and in average cell size and surface areas with increasing body weight have not been defined. We speculated that cell size is determined more by cell function than by species and body weight. To test this hypothesis, nine species ranging in size from shrew (2 to 3 g) to horse (510 kg) were studied. Random sites from the distal alveolar region of each species were analyzed using morphometric techniques. Six to 10 nuclei from each of the major classes of parenchymal lung cells were three-dimensionally reconstructed to determine their average diameter, volume, and surface area. To calculate the cell density, nuclear profiles were counted using electron microscopy. The number of cells per lung increased with body mass and lung volume with a slope of 1.01 (r2 = 0.99). The lung is unique among organs in the diversity and function of individual cell types, such as mechanical, sensory, secretory, transporting, and circulating cells. Excluding the circulatory cells, the lung has greater than 60 different cell types, making it an ideal organ for examining the varieties in cell characteristics across different species. Up to 6-fold differences in size were found between different lung cell types within a single species; however, for cells having secretory functions, such as type II cells, there was no detectable change in cell size with increasing lung surface area or body mass. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Cerebral Oxygen Saturation in Children With Congenital Heart Disease and Chronic Hypoxemia

BACKGROUND: Increased hemoglobin (Hb) concentration accompanying hypoxemia is a compensatory response to maintain tissue oxygen delivery. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is used clinically to detect abnormalities in the balance of cerebral tissue oxygen delivery and consumption, including in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Although NIRS-measured cerebral tissue O2 saturation (ScO2) correlates with arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2), jugular bulb O2 saturation (SjbO2), and Hb, little data exist on the interplay between these factors and cerebral O2 extraction (COE). This study investigated the associations of ScO2 and &Dgr;SaO2−ScO2 with SaO2 and Hb and verified the normal range of ScO2 in children with CHD. METHODS: Children undergoing cardiac catheterization for CHD were enrolled in a calibration and validation study of the FORE-SIGHT NIRS monitor. Two pairs of simultaneous arterial and jugular bulb samples were drawn for co-oximetry, calculation of a reference ScO2 (REF CX), and estimation of COE. Pearson correlation and linear regression were used to determine relationships between O2 saturation parameters and Hb. Data were also analyzed according to diagnostic group defined as acyanotic (SaO2 ≥ 90%) and cyanotic (SaO2 < 90%). RESULTS: Of 65 children studied, acceptable jugular bulb samples (SjbO2 absolute difference between samples ⩽10%) were obtained in 57 (88%). The &Dgr;SaO2−SjbO2, &Dgr;SaO2−ScO2, and &Dgr;SaO2−REF CX were positively correlated with SaO2 and negatively correlated with Hb (all P < .001). Although by diagnostic group ScO2 differed statistically (P = .002), values in the cyanotic patients were within the range considered normal (69% ± 6%). COE estimated by the difference between arterial and jugular bulb O2 content (&Dgr;CaO2−CjbO2, mL O2/100 mL) was not different for cyanotic and acyanotic patients (P = .10), but estimates using &Dgr;SaO2−SjbO2, &Dgr;SaO2−ScO2, or &Dgr;SaO2−ScO2/SaO2 were significantly different between the cyanotic and acyanotic children (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Children with adequately compensated chronic hypoxemia appear to have ScO2 values within the normal range. The &Dgr;SaO2−ScO2 is inversely related to Hb, with the implication that in the presence of reduced Hb, particularly if coupled with a decreased cardiac output, the ScO2 can fall to values associated with brain injury in laboratory studies.
The impact of concussion on cardiac autonomic function: A systematic review

Abstract Primary objective: To evaluate the evidence regarding the effect of concussion on cardiac autonomic function (CAF). Inclusion criteria: Original research; available in English; included participants with concussion or mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and a comparison group; included measures of heart rate (HR) and/or heart rate variability (HRV) as outcomes. Studies of humans (greater than 6 years old) and animals were included. Critical appraisal tools: The Downs and Black (DB) criteria and Structured Effectiveness Quality Evaluation Scale (SEQES). Results: Nine full-length articles and four abstracts were identified. There is conflicting evidence regarding CAF at rest following concussion. There is evidence of elevated HR and reduced HRV with low-intensity, steady-state exercise up to 10 days following concussion. There was no significant difference in HRV during isometric handgrip testing or HR while performing cognitive tasks following concussion. The validity of current literature is limited by small sample sizes, lack of female or paediatric participants, methodological heterogeneity and lack of follow-up. Conclusions: While there is some evidence to suggest CAF is altered during physical activity following concussion, methodological limitations highlight the need for further research. Understanding the effect of concussion on CAF will contribute to the development of more comprehensive concussion management strategies.
Fault detection and isolation for redundant aircraft sensors

A method for failure detection and isolation for redundant aircraft sensors is presented. The outputs of the concerned sensors are involved in the computation of flight law controls, and the objective is to eliminate any perturbation before propagation in the control loop when selecting a unique flight parameter among a set (generally 3) of redundant measurements. The particular case of an oscillatory failure is investigated. The proposed method allows an accurate fault detection and isolation of erroneous sensor and computes a consolidated parameter based on the fusion of data from remaining valid sensors. The benefits of the presented method are to enhance the data fusion process with FDI techniques which improves the performance of the fusion when only few sources (less than three) are valid.
Pediatric drug safety surveillance in Italian pharmacovigilance network: an overview of adverse drug reactions in the years 2001 – 2012

Objective: To describe the characteristics of pediatric adverse drug reactions (ADRs) reported in Italian spontaneous reporting database. Methods: Reports of suspected ADRs related to children and adolescents were extracted from 2001 – 2012. After exclusion of duplicates, vaccines and reports containing missing age data, the report characteristics were investigated in terms of implicated drug and adverse drug event across different age-categories. Results: Among 123,129 selected reports, 8338 (6.8%) concerned pediatrics. Of these, 52.2% involved male patients compared to 47.5% female up to the age of 11. After the age of 11 this statistic reversed. 39.4% of pediatric reports were serious and of these, 75.2% required hospitalization mainly in very young children. Most of reports were issued by hospital physicians (61.9%), followed by pharmacists (10.1%), while reports from family pediatricians accounted for 8.1%. The most frequently implicated drug categories were anti-infectives for systemic use (44.9%), drugs for the nervous system (15.6%), and anti-inflammatory drugs (10.2%). The most frequently suspected compounds differed between children and adults and reports for the same drug were likely to be more serious in adults than in children. Conclusions: This ADR reporting system reflects real safety concerns for drugs used in children and emphasizes the need for stratifying analyses by age-subgroup to increase the sensitivity of signal detection procedure.
BAFF Is Increased in Renal Transplant Patients Following Treatment with Alemtuzumab

Alemtuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that depletes T and B cells and is used as induction therapy for renal transplant recipients. Without long‐term calcineurin inhibitor (CNI) therapy, alemtuzumab‐treated patients have a propensity to develop alloantibody and may undergo antibody‐mediated rejection (AMR). In pursuit of a mechanistic explanation, we analyzed peripheral B cells and serum of these patients for BAFF (Blys) and BAFF‐R, factors known to be integral for B‐cell activation, survival, and homeostasis. Serum BAFF levels of 22/24 alemtuzumab‐treated patients were above normal range, with average levels of 1967 pg/mL compared to 775 pg/mL in healthy controls (p = 0.006). BAFF remained elevated 2 years posttransplant in 78% of these patients. BAFF‐R on CD19+ B cells was significantly downregulated, suggesting ligand/receptor engagement. BAFF mRNA expression was increased 2–7‐fold in CD14+ cells of depleted patients, possibly linking monocytes to the BAFF dysregulation. Addition of recombinant BAFF to mixed lymphocyte cultures increased B‐cell activation to alloantigen, as measured by CD25 and CD69 coexpression on CD19+ cells. Of note, addition of sirolimus (SRL) augmented BAFF‐enhanced B‐cell activation whereas CNIs blocked it. These data suggest associations between BAFF/BAFF‐R and AMR in alemtuzumab‐treated patients.
Adrenaline administration during cardiopulmonary resuscitation: poor adherence to clinical guidelines

Background: Adrenaline does not appear to improve the outcome after cardiac arrest in clinical trials in spite of beneficial effects in experimental studies. The objective of this study was to determine whether adrenaline was administered in accordance with advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) guidelines during adult cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
Fathers’ and sons’ reports of fathers’ affectionate communication: Implications of a naïve theory of affection

According to Robey, Cohen, and Epstein (1988), children may hold a naïve theory of affection, whereby they believe that their parents’ affection for them is a finite resource for which they must compete against their siblings. Parents, conversely, are unlikely to view their own affection in the same way. Although research on naïve theories is often conducted with youngsters, we speculated that even adult children may perceive that they compete with their siblings for their parents’ affection, and we tested the naïve theory of affection in a study of 115 dyads of adult men and their adult sons. As hypothesized, the sons’ numbers of brothers and sisters were associated inversely with sons’ reports of how much affection they received from their fathers but were unrelated to fathers’ reports. Fathers’ and sons’ reports of fathers’ affection were also linearly related to each other, but fathers reported being more affectionate with their sons than their sons reported them being. Results suggest that naïve theorizing about parental affection is not limited to young children but continues to affect familial experience in adulthood.
Diabetes Mellitus in Pregnancy and Periconceptional Genetic Counseling

Gestational diabetes constitutes 90% of all pregnant diabetic patients, whereas insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) together account for the remaining 10%. Diabetes is considered a heterogeneous disease with a continuous spectrum between IDDM and NIDDM. It is believed that gestational diabetes is also a heterogeneous disorder representing, at least in part, patients who are destined to develop in later life either IDDM or NIDDM. Studies in identical twins have shown clear-cut differences in the genetic inheritance of IDDM and NIDDM. Nearly 100% of identical twins were found to be concordant for NIDDM; whereas in IDDM the concordance rate ranges between 20 and 50%. This concordant pattern indicates a higher genetic contribution in NIDDM than IDDM. Furthermore, IDDM is an HLA-linked disorder, and NIDDM is not. The exact mechanism of inheritance of IDDM and NIDDM is not known; therefore the information used in genetic counseling is based on empirical risk estimates. Recent information demonstrates that IDDM is transmitted less frequently to the offspring of diabetic mothers than diabetic fathers (1.3% versus 6%). The estimated risk of recurrence of IDDM to offsprings with one already affected sibling and unaffected parents is 5 to 6%. Additionally, the empirical risk of NIDDM first-degree relatives developing diabetes is much higher than the observed in IDDM relatives, 15% for first-degree relatives and 60 to 75% when both parents have NIDDM. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Extendibility of NiPt Silicide Contacts for CMOS Technology Demonstrated to the 22-nm Node

This paper shows ultra-low contact resistivities with standard NiPt silicide process that can reach below 10<sup>-8</sup> Omega-cm<sup>2</sup> for both n<sup>+</sup> and p<sup>+</sup> Si and demonstrates that NiPt silicide can fulfill CMOS technology requirements down to the ITRS 22 nm node.
The Effect of Pediatric Orthopaedic Experience on Interobserver and Intraobserver Reliability of the Herring Lateral Pillar Classification of Perthes Disease

An analysis was done of the effect of surgeons' pediatric orthopaedic experience on the classification of Perthes disease according to the lateral pillar classification described by Herring. Five observers with varied pediatric orthopaedic experience reviewed anteroposterior (AP) pelvis radiographs of 33 patients in the fragmentation phase of Perthes disease and classified each case on three separate occasions at least 24 hours apart. Frog-leg lateral-view radiographs taken at the same time were also classified using the same criteria based on the femoral head anterior column. Kappa statistics showed good agreement for intra-and interobserver reliability of classification for both AP and frog lateral radiographs. There were no statistically significant variations among the reviewers. Twenty-four percent of the cases had a classification one grade worse on the lateral radiograph compared to the AP view. The lateral pillar classification provides a reproducible radiographic technique for Perthes disease characterization independent of pediatric orthopaedic experience.
What Makes Customers Brand Loyal : A Study on Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan

Recent studies focused on loyalty concept in services sector. Brand loyalty is receiving great deal of attention in telecommunication sector. So there is a need of introducing comprehensive brand loyalty model. This study attempts to provide a broad view of brand loyalty by proposing a model and testing its potential antecedents. The antecedents included in the research are service quality, satisfaction, trust and commitment.A pilot and main study was conducted to test the hypotheses. A sample of 475 customers of cellular network providers was selected. The results depict that in mobile phone network market, service quality is considered as most important factor of brand loyalty. An indirect positive relationship of service quality and satisfaction to brand loyalty has also been affirmed. As customer retention is critical for strategists in dynamic world of telecommunication sector. So it is important for operators to devise well-structured customer loyalty programs for protecting the customers’ base line.
Notes on a Catastrophe: A Feedback Analysis of Snowball Earth

Abstract The language of feedbacks is ubiquitous in contemporary earth sciences, and the framework of feedback analysis is a powerful tool for diagnosing the relative strengths of the myriad mutual interactions that occur in complex dynamical systems. The ice albedo feedback is widely taught as the classic example of a climate feedback. Moreover, its potential to initiate a collapse to a completely glaciated snowball earth is widely taught as the classic example of a climate “tipping point. ” A feedback analysis of the snowball earth phenomenon in simple, zonal mean energy balance models clearly reveals the physics of the snowball instability and its dependence on climate parameters. The analysis can also be used to illustrate some fundamental properties of climate feedbacks: how feedback strength changes as a function of mean climate state; how small changes in individual feedbacks can cause large changes in the system sensitivity; and last, how the strength and even the sign of the feedback is dependent .