Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Double trouble (McArdle's disease and myasthenia gravis): How can exercise help?

We report a 29‐year‐old patient with McArdle's disease and myasthenia gravis. She had been debilitated with McArdle's disease since childhood (with marked rhabdomyolysis) and was obese. Myasthenia gravis was diagnosed at 24 years of age. After 3 months of aerobic exercise training, her exercise capacity increased significantly and she regained the ability to live independently. We conclude that even patients with profound neuromuscular diseases may benefit from carefully prescribed exercise training. Muscle Nerve, 2006
Chemotherapy‐induced, age‐related changes in antischistosome antibody responses

Humoral responses directed against Schistosoma mansoni soluble egg antigen were studied in Zimbabwean children before and after treatment with either praziquantel (PZQ) or oxamniquine (OXAM). Treated children showed a significant increase in the proportion producing IgE and IgG3 and in mean levels of IgE, IgM, IgG3 six weeks post‐treatment. At 18 weeks post‐treatment, the proportion of treated children producing IgA, IgE, and IgG3 increased while the proportion producing IgG1 and IgG4 decreased. Mean levels of IgA, IgE, and IgG3 were higher than pre‐treatment levels while levels of IgG1, IgG4 and IgM were lower. Statistical analyses showed that the magnitude of change in levels of IgE, IgM and IgG3 at 6 weeks post‐treatment and of IgE, IgG3 and IgG4 at 18 weeks post‐treatment was significantly greater in treated compared to untreated children, and there were no significant differences in immune responses between children treated with praziquantel and those treated with oxamniquine. The magnitude of change in IgE at 6 and 18 weeks, IgM at 6 weeks and IgG3 at 18 weeks post‐treatment were significantly associated with age in treated but not in untreated children, with the change being greater in younger children. This suggests that treatment induced a change in the age‐antibody relationship for these isotypes, and that the age‐antibody relationship is not robust to chemotherapy. Pre‐treatment infection levels were significantly associated (positive correlation) with the magnitude of change for IgE and IgG3 at 18 weeks post‐treatment. Taken together, these results indicate that the age‐antibody relationship observed in these children is due, at least in part, to cumulative host experience of parasite antigens and not host age alone.
Can emotions influence level-1 visual perspective taking?

Emotions and perspective-taking are ubiquitous in our daily social interactions, but little is known about the relation between the two. This study examined whether and how emotions can influence even the most basic forms of perspective-taking. Experiment 1 showed that guilt made participants more other-centered in a simple visual perspective-taking task while anger tended to make them more self-centered. These two emotions had, however, no effect on the ability to handle conflicting perspectives. Since the guilt induction method used in Experiment 1 also induced feelings of self-incompetence and shame, Experiment 2 aimed at isolating the effects of these concomitant feelings. Self-incompetence/shame reduced participants’ ability to handle conflicting perspectives but did not influence attention allocation. In sum, these results highlight that emotions can affect even the simplest form of perspective-taking and that such influence can be brought about by the modulation of different cognitive mechanisms.
Anti-inflammatory activity of Urera baccifera (Urticaceae) in Sprague-Dawley rats.

On a preliminary test, anti-inflammatory and analgesic dose-related activities on rats were observed for the aqueous fraction of Urera baccifera; this extract was bioassay-guided fractionated and the final aqueous fraction was used according the ethnobotanical use. Carrageenan-induced edema (n = 6), was used as an assay in the fractionating process. The anti-inflammatory and antinociceptive properties of the final aqueous fraction were studied using in vivo models. For the anti-inflammatory activity rat paw edema (n = 6), pleurisy induced by carrageenan (n = 6) and ear edema induced by topical croton oil (n = 6) models were used, and tail-flick test (n = 6), abdominal constrictions induced by acetic acid (n = 6), and formalin test (n = 6), were used for the antinociceptive activity. The tests performed showed an inhibition effect on leukocyte migration, and a reduction on pleural exudate, as well as dose-dependant peripheral analgesic activity, at a range of 25-100 mg/kg i.p. The final aqueous fraction contains most of the anti-inflammatory activity of the plant U. baccifera. A possible mechanism of action is discussed and based on the results we conclude that this plant has a potential for both anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity at the clinical level.
Cetuximab prolongs survival in patients with locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of head and neck: A phase III study of high dose radiation therapy with or without cetuximab.

5507 Background: The majority of head and neck cancers overexpress the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which is associated with aggressive tumor behavior and poor clinical outcome. Preclinical in vitro and in vivo model systems demonstrate radiosensitization following molecular inhibition of EGFR signaling. Promising phase I/II clinical results were achieved when radiation was combined with the EGFR blocking antibody, cetuximab, in patients with locoregionally advanced squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the head and neck (H&N). This phase III international trial was designed to examine the impact of combining cetuximab with high dose radiation on locoregional disease control and survival in patients with locally advanced H&N cancer. METHODS Patients with locoregionally advanced SCC of the oropharynx, hypopharynx or larynx with measurable disease were eligible to enroll. Patients were stratified by Karnofsky score 60-80 vs. 90-100, node positive vs. negative, T1-3 vs. T4, radiation fractionation regimen (once-a-day vs. twice-a-day vs. concomitant boost), and were randomized to receive either radiation alone for 6-7 weeks, or radiation plus weekly cetuximab. Following completion of treatment, patients were followed by physical examination and radiographic imaging every 4 months for 2 years, and then every 6 months up to 5 years. RESULTS From 04/99 to 03/02, 424 patients were randomized on this trial in the USA (61%), Europe (28%), and other countries. Median age was 57; 80% were male; 69% had KPS 90-100; 60% had oropharyngeal, 25% laryngeal, and 15% hypopharyngeal primary tumors. The two treatment arms were well balanced with regard to patient characteristics and stratification factors. The two arms were also well balanced with respect to radiation dose and fractions received, use of post-radiotherapy neck dissection, and secondary cancer therapy. Minimum and median durations of follow-up were 24 and 38 months, respectively. Median survival times, two and three-year survival rates derive from Kaplan-Meier estimates. Survival and selected safety results are as follows: [Figure: see text] The overall toxicity profile was dominated by classic known effects of high dose H&N radiation, although some additional toxicity was attributed to cetuximab. Locoregional control assessment is ongoing. CONCLUSIONS The addition of cetuximab to high dose radiation in patients with locoregionally advanced SCC of H&N demonstrated a statistically significant prolongation in overall survival. This clinical benefit was achieved with minimal enhancement in the overall toxicity profile associated with curative-intent radiation therapy. These results corroborate the promising preclinical and earlier phase clinical results supporting the use of EGFR blockade in combination with radiation for advanced SCC of H&N. Furthermore, this combination treatment should be explored in other common epithelial malignancies demonstrating EGFR overexpression. [Table: see text].
[Multicenter controlled study on abdominal acupuncture for treatment of nerve root type cervical spondylosis].

OBJECTIVE To observe the therapeutic effect of abdominal acupuncture on nerve root cervical spondylosis. METHODS Three hundred cases were randomly assigned to a treatment group and a traction control group. The treatment group were treated with abdominal acupuncture at an acupoint prescription, i.e. Zhongwan (CV 12), Guanyuan (CV 4) and others were selected. The control group were treated with suspended traction by a cervical vertebral extraction belt at pillow-jaw sitting position. The short-term and long-term therapeutic effects were observed at the end of therapeutic course and 90 days after the end of treatment, respectively. RESULTS The total short-term and the long-term therapeutic effects were 97.3% and 92.7% in the treatment group, and 82.0% and 82.0% in the control group, respectively, with significant differences between the two groups (P < 0.01). CONCLUSION Abdominal acupuncture has better short-term and long-term therapeutic effects with short therapeutic course.
Association of upper gastrointestinal lesions with addictions.

The association of upper gastrointestinal (G.I.) lesions with various addictions was studied in 383 consecutive patients endoscoped over a year. Of the total, 179 (47%) had no addictions and 204 (53%) were addicted to either cigarette smoking (70%), tobacco chewing with pan (23%), pan alone (5%) or alcohol (2%). Overall, 78% cases with and 59% without addictions had an upper G.I. lesion on endoscopy (P < 0.001). Duodenal ulcer was commonest lesion in all types of addiction.
Single‐dose, placebo‐controlled, randomized study of AMG 785, a sclerostin monoclonal antibody

Sclerostin, an osteocyte‐secreted protein, negatively regulates osteoblasts and inhibits bone formation. In this first‐in‐human study, a sclerostin monoclonal antibody (AMG 785) was administered to healthy men and postmenopausal women. In this phase I, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled, ascending, single‐dose study, 72 healthy subjects received AMG 785 or placebo (3:1) subcutaneously (0.1, 0.3, 1, 3, 5, or 10 mg/kg) or intravenously (1 or 5 mg/kg). Depending on dose, subjects were followed for up to 85 days. The effects of AMG 785 on safety and tolerability (primary objectives) and pharmacokinetics, bone turnover markers, and bone mineral density (secondary objectives) were evaluated. AMG 785 generally was well tolerated. One treatment‐related serious adverse event of nonspecific hepatitis was reported and was resolved. No deaths or study discontinuations occurred. AMG 785 pharmacokinetics were nonlinear with dose. Dose‐related increases in the bone‐formation markers procollagen type 1 N‐propeptide (P1NP), bone‐specific alkaline phosphatase (BAP), and osteocalcin were observed, along with a dose‐related decrease in the bone‐resorption marker serum C‐telopeptide (sCTx), resulting in a large anabolic window. In addition, statistically significant increases in bone mineral density of up to 5.3% at the lumbar spine and 2.8% at the total hip compared with placebo were observed on day 85. Six subjects in the higher‐dose groups developed anti‐AMG 785 antibodies, 2 of which were neutralizing, with no discernible effect on the pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics. In summary, single doses of AMG 785 generally were well tolerated, and the data support further clinical investigation of sclerostin inhibition as a potential therapeutic strategy for conditions that could benefit from increased bone formation. © 2011 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
The clinical significance of fluid collections in acute pancreatitis.

Computed tomography (CT) displays fluid collections in patients with acute pancreatitis as well defined intra- or extrapancreatic homogeneous areas with low attenuation numbers. We followed, prospectively, the clinical courses of 128 patients who had CT during an episode of acute pancreatitis, to determine the natural history and clinical significance of any fluid collections that developed. Fluid collections were found in 48 (37%) of the 128 patients with pancreatitis. Thirty-eight developed in the 86 (44%) patients with alcoholic pancreatitis, five in the 33 (15%) with biliary pancreatitis and five in the nine (55%) with other causes of pancreatitis (excluding chronic pancreatitis, trauma, or malignancy). On clinical follow-up of the 48 patients with fluid collections, 21 patients required operation; two died before an operation was done and 25 did not require operation. Operations were done to treat pseudocysts (14), abscess (5), and necrosis (3). One patient had an operation for a pseudocyst and an abscess. All 14 patients requiring operation for pseudocyst had collections greater than 7 cm and 13 of these patients had alcoholic pancreatitis. Of the 25 patients not requiring operation, five were lost to follow-up, and 19 of the 20 who had spontaneous resolution of their fluid collection(s) had collections less than 6 cm in diameter. The eight patients who required operative pancreatic debridement for abscess or necrosis had multiple small fluid collections. In summary, fluid collections were found in one-third of patients with acute pancreatitis and were often associated with the development of local complications. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
How Do We Recognize Recent Sexual Abuse in Children Less than 10 Years of Age? What Is the Role of Paediatric Wards? Experience in a French Paediatric Hospital

A diagnosis of sexual abuse in children is being made increasingly in France and in all Western countries. Sexual abuses in France represent a third of all cases of maltreatment 1. In children less than 10 years of age, discovery of the circumstances varies according to the situations experienced by the adolescents. Stories can involve silence or a revelation by indirect signs or consequences of abuses. To approach this diagnosis, we will successively address three aspects: the usual circumstances of the revelation or evocation of this diagnosis, a speech and behavioral side, and a clinical examination and its difficulties.
Submersion in Children : Prognostic Indicators on PICU Admission

Determining the mortality markers for drowning victims admitted to intensive care is essential in guiding medical treatment and defining prognosis. Objective: Describe the epidemiological profile and identify adverse outcomes markers in submersion accident victims on admission in intensive care unit. Methods: Records of 0-13yo drowning victims admitted to PICU at two university hospitals in the metropolitan area of Campinas, state of São Paulo, Brazil, between 2005-2013 were reviewed, regarding age, gender, month of occurrence, place of drowning, child’s swimming ability, safety equipment use and adult supervision. At intensive care admission, systolic blood pressure, Glasgow Coma Scale and laboratory data (electrolyte, urea/creatinine, aminotransferases, blood gas analysis) were recorded. Patients were divided into ‘deceased’ and ‘surviving’ groups. Data was analyzed by SAS software, v9.4, adopting the 5% significance level. Results: The study included 42 patients (23 male), most under 3yo, with the accident occurring in swimming pools without safety equipment or adult supervision. Compared to the surviving group, the deceased group had lower serum pH (p=0.0001) and higher values of serum potassium (p=0.0293), serum creatinine (p=0.0042) and hepatic enzymes AST (p=0.0018) and ALT (p=0.0061). In logistic regression analysis, the presence of mydriasis (OR=33.3) and high serum potassium on admission (OR=3.17) were identified as death-associated factors. Conclusion: Most patients admitted to PICU after submersion accidents were below 3 years of age, with the accidents having occurred in swimming pools and without adult supervision. On hospital admission, the presence of mydriasis and high serum potassium were identified as associated factors for death.
Deep Learning for Tomato Diseases: Classification and Symptoms Visualization

ABSTRACT Several studies have invested in machine learning classifiers to protect plants from diseases by processing leaf images. Most of the proposed classifiers are trained and evaluated with small datasets, focusing on the extraction of hand-crafted features from image to classify the leaves. In this study, we have used a large dataset compared to the state-of-the art. Here, the dataset contains 14,828 images of tomato leaves infected with nine diseases. To train our classifier, we have introduced the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) as a learning algorithm. One of the biggest advantages of CNN is the automatic extraction of features by processing directly the raw images. To analyze the proposed deep model, we have used visualization methods to understand symptoms and to localize disease regions in leaf. The obtained results are encouraging, reaching 99.18% of accuracy, which ourperforms dramatically shallow models, and they can be used as a practical tool for farmers to protect tomato against disease.
NASCArrays: a repository for microarray data generated by NASC's transcriptomics service

NASC operates an Affymetrix 'GeneChip' (microarray) service for the Arabidopsis thaliana community. All data produced by the service are publicly available through our microarray data base 'NASCArrays' published at http://affymetrix. arabidopsis.info. The data are accessible through text searching and a series of data mining tools. All data are annotated with sample preparation details, and the original Affymetrix data are available for download. The database aims to be MIAME supportive and provide a coordinated resource for re searchers interested in the transcriptome of Arabidopsis. Using this database, data produced will be shared with other databases worldwide.
NTP-CERHR Expert Panel Report on the reproductive and developmental toxicity of amphetamine and methamphetamine.

Mari Golub, Lucio Costa, Kevin Crofton, Deborah Frank, Peter Fried, Beth Gladen Rogene Henderson, Erica Liebelt, Shari Lusskin, Sue Marty, Andrew Rowland John Scialli and Mary Vore California Environment Protection Agency, Sacramento, California University of Washington, Seattle, Washington U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, Michigan University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico Phoenix, Arizona University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky
A Theoretical Study of the Thermodynamics of Microbial Growth Using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and a Different Free Energy Equation

Microbial growth is a biological process that has been previously treated as a chemical reaction operating in accord with the Gibbs free energy equation, ΔG=ΔH-TΔS. The heat of yeast growth was the first to be measured, in 1856, by direct calorimetry of a large wine vat. Until then there was a tendency for biologists to continue with the old notion that the energy change accompanying the growth of microorganisms was reflected in the amount of heat that was produced during this process. The application of chemical thermodynamics to systems involving microbial growth did not occur until much later. The full application of the Gibbs equation to microbial growth did not take place until the experimental measurement of yeast cell entropy was made in 1997. Further investigations then showed that the quantity of thermal energy for solid substances represented by TS was twice that of the quantity of thermal energy represented by Qab that is experimentally necessary to raise T of a substance from 0/K to T/K. Since there can only be one value for this, the use of the equation ΔX=ΔH-ΔQab was investigated with respect to microbial growth, and is described in this review.
Control of multiple autoantibodies linked with a lupus nephritis susceptibility locus in New Zealand black mice.

An NZB locus on distal chromosome 1 has been linked to murine lupus nephritis in backcross analyses of New Zealand mice. This locus, designated Nba2 for New Zealand Black autoimmunity 2, was found to colocalize in both (NZB x SM/J)F1 x NZW and (B6.H2z x NZB)F1 x NZB backcrosses, and was most likely situated between 92 and 97 cM from the centromere. This region of mouse chromosome 1 encodes several candidate genes, including the low affinity Fc gamma receptor genes. Both backcrosses were examined by interval mapping for quantitative trait loci linked with autoantibody and total Ig production. Nba2 was linked with elevated serum levels of multiple autoantibodies, including a variety of antinuclear Abs (anti-dsDNA, anti-chromatin and anti-histone) and autoantibodies to gp70, in both backcrosses. Nba2 was also linked (or showed a trend for linkage) with hypergammaglobulinemia and IgG1, IgG2a, and/or IgG3 levels in each backcross. In the (B6.H2z x NZB)F1 x NZB backcross, MHC was an additional genetic contribution that interacted with Nba2 in the production of autoantibodies and the development of nephritis. Together, these data provide new insight into the nature of one important genetic contribution to murine lupus and suggest that Nba2 may act as an immune response gene that influences Ag-driven B cell responses to self and possibly to exogenous Ags.
Kidney remote ischemic preconditioning as a novel strategy to explore the accurate protective mechanisms underlying remote ischemic preconditioning

Introduction This study reports a novel strategy for investigating the key factors responsible for the protective effect of remote ischemic preconditioning (RIPC) against renal ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury, which remains the leading cause of the acute kidney injury that increase the morbidity and mortality in patients with renal impairment. Methods The renal blood flow of the right kidneys in kidney remote ischemic preconditioning (KRIPC) group was occluded for 20 min. After 48 h, the renal blood flow of the left kidneys of both KRIPC and IPC groups was occluded for 30 min, and mice were dissected after 7 days of the last surgery. Blood samples were analyzed by an animal blood counter. The levels of creatinine, urea nitrogen, lipid peroxidation, nitric oxide (NO), and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) were estimated in the plasma of mice. Kidney slices were stained with 2% triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) to estimate the renal infarction. Results Unlike KRIPC group, data from IPC group revealed a massive reduction in neutrophils count, a significant increase in creatinine, urea nitrogen, and HDLs levels, and an increase in the renal infarction compared with control group. Conclusion This is the first study demonstrating KRIPC as a novel and applicable model with the goal of defining the accurate protective mechanisms underlying RIPC against IR injury.