Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Trends in Prescription Drug Use Among Adults in the United States From 1999-2012.

IMPORTANCE It is important to document patterns of prescription drug use to inform both clinical practice and research. OBJECTIVE To evaluate trends in prescription drug use among adults living in the United States. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Temporal trends in prescription drug use were evaluated using nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Participants included 37,959 noninstitutionalized US adults, aged 20 years and older. Seven NHANES cycles were included (1999-2000 to 2011-2012), and the sample size per cycle ranged from 4861 to 6212. EXPOSURES Calendar year, as represented by continuous NHANES cycle. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Within each NHANES cycle, use of prescription drugs in the prior 30 days was assessed overall and by drug class. Temporal trends across cycles were evaluated. Analyses were weighted to represent the US adult population. RESULTS Results indicate an increase in overall use of prescription drugs among US adults between 1999-2000 and 2011-2012 with an estimated 51% of US adults reporting use of any prescription drugs in 1999-2000 and an estimated 59% reporting use of any prescription drugs in 2011-2012 (difference, 8% [95% CI, 3.8%-12%]; P for trend <.001). The prevalence of polypharmacy (use of ≥5 prescription drugs) increased from an estimated 8.2% in 1999-2000 to 15% in 2011-2012 (difference, 6.6% [95% CI, 4.4%-8.2%]; P for trend <.001). These trends remained statistically significant with age adjustment. Among the 18 drug classes used by more than 2.5% of the population at any point over the study period, the prevalence of use increased in 11 drug classes including antihyperlipidemic agents, antidepressants, prescription proton-pump inhibitors, and muscle relaxants. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this nationally representative survey, significant increases in overall prescription drug use and polypharmacy were observed. These increases persisted after accounting for changes in the age distribution of the population. The prevalence of prescription drug use increased in the majority of, but not all, drug classes.
Illicit drug abuse in second-generation immigrants: a register study in a national cohort of Swedish residents

Aims: This study investigates ethnic and socioeconomic risk factors for hospital admissions related to illicit drug abuse in second-generation immigrants in Sweden. Method: Cox analyses of proportional hazards were used to estimate the relative risk of sociodemographic covariates in analyses of register data on hospital admissions because of illicit drug abuse during 1990 - 99. The study population was a national cohort of 1.25 million residents (aged 10 - 30 years). Results: Second-generation immigrants had two- to three fold higher age and sex-adjusted relative risks (RRs) for hospital admissions because of illicit drug use compared with the Swedish majority population with a limited variation between different ethnic groups. The RRs decreased greatly after the model was adjusted for socioeconomic indicators of the childhood household. Intercountry adoptees had the highest risk for hospital admission related to illicit drug abuse of all study groups after adjustment for sociodemographic variables (RR 2.8). Conclusions: Second-generation immigrants are at particular risk for illicit drug abuse in Sweden. Adverse socioeconomic living conditions are very important in explaining this high risk.
Combined assessment of reflow and collateral blood flow by myocardial contrast echocardiography after acute reperfused myocardial infarction

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the combined assessment of reflow and collateral blood flow by myocardial contrast echocardiography after myocardial infarction. DESIGN Myocardial contrast echocardiography was performed in patients with acute myocardial infarction shortly after successful coronary reperfusion (TIMI 3 patency) by direct angioplasty. Collateral flow was assessed before coronary angioplasty, and contrast reflow was evaluated 15 minutes after reperfusion. The presence of contractile reserve was assessed by low dose dobutamine echocardiography (5 to 15 μg/kg/min) at (mean (SD)) 3 (2) days after myocardial infarction. Recovery of segmental function (myocardial viability) was evaluated by resting echocardiography at a two month follow up. The study was prospective. PATIENTS 35 consecutive patients referred for acute transmural myocardial infarction. RESULTS Contrast reflow was observed in 20 patients (57%) and collateral flow in 14 (40%). Contrast reflow and collateral contrast flow were both correlated with reversible dysfunction on initial dobutamine echocardiography and at follow up (p < 0.05). The presence of reflow or collateral flow on myocardial contrast echocardiography was a highly sensitive (100%) but weakly specific (60%) indicator of segmental dysfunction recovery. Simultaneous presence of contrast reflow and collateral flow was more specific of reversible dysfunction than reflow alone (90% v 60%). CONCLUSIONS Combined assessment of reflow and collateral blood flow enhanced the sensitivity of myocardial contrast echocardiography in predicting myocardial viability after acute, reperfused myocardial infarction. The simultaneous presence of reflow and collateral blood flow was highly specific of recovery of segmental dysfunction.
Identification of ethanolamine in rat and gerbil brain tissue extracts by NMR spectroscopy

Some NMR resonances which have previously been observed but not identified in mammalian brain tissue extracts have been shown to arise from ethanolamine. This conclusion is drawn from a systematic study of the perchloric acid extracts of rodent brain tissue in which several NMR experiments were used to assign the peaks unambiguously. The extraction procedure used in this work gave samples with highly reproducible spectra, and ethanolamine was observed in all our extract samples. A localized increase in the concentration of ethanolamine was seen in the spectra of extracts produced from a cerebral infarct induced by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery in the rat.
Mad1 kinetochore recruitment by Mps1-mediated phosphorylation of Bub1 signals the spindle checkpoint

The mitotic spindle checkpoint ensures accurate chromosome segregation and genomic integrity. Understanding the regulation of checkpoint protein Mad1 recruitment to the kinetochore has been an outstanding question in the field. Here, London and Biggins show that Bub1 is a receptor for Mad1, and the Bub1–Mad1 interaction at kinetochores is driven by Mps1-mediated phosphorylation of Bub1. This work reveals a long-sought mechanism that determines kinetochore activation of the spindle checkpoint.
Effect of a Moderate Fish Intake on Haemostatic Parameters in Healthy Males

Summary This article describes the results of a dietary intervention study performed in three different centers. In the study the effect of a diet enriched with fish on the coagulation tendency of blood was investigated. Two groups of 40 volunteers were given a dietary supplement consisting of 135 g of canned mackerel or meat paste (control) for a 6 weeks period. Compliance, monitored by measuring the urinary excretion of lithium, added to the supplements, was about 80%. Before, during and at the end of the experimental period a number of hemostatic parameters, reflecting the coagulation tendency of blood and the procoagulant activity of monocytes, were measured. The fish supplement did not cause a significant effect on the prothrombin time and on the levels of factor VII, activated factor VII, antithrombin III, von Willebrand factor, fibrinogen, plasminogen and a2-antiplasmin. A slight but transient prolongation in the activated partial thromboplastin time was observed as well as a significant increase in the factor X level, which became more pronounced with prolongation of the experimental period; no activated factor X was found. A tendency towards a stimulation of monocyte procoagulant activity was noticed.
Head size at birth in neonates with transposition of great arteries and hypoplastic left heart syndrome.

OBJECTIVE Appropriate fetal brain growth depends upon the cerebral blood flow (CBF). Different congenital heart defects (CHDs), due to the difference in anatomy and physiology, alter the intrauterine CBF. Thus, variable brain growth is expected in different CHDs that is reflected by variability in the head circumference (HC) at birth. The present study was carried out to compare the HC of babies born with transposition of great arteries (TGA) and hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) in comparison to normal control. METHODS The data on the HC of neonates with TGA and HLHS were extracted from the computer database then compared with the control group. During the period from January 1996 to December 2003, a total of 7396 neonates were admitted, out of which 639 (8.6%) were admitted with the diagnosis of the CHD. After correcting for gestational age and non-availability of HC measurements, 236 infants were excluded. Out of the remaining 403 term appropriate for gestational age (AGA) infants, 46 had TGA while 28 had HLHS. The control group comprised of a total of 74 term AGA infants. RESULTS The mean HC for the control group was noted to be 34.4 +/- 1.7 centimeters (cms), 33.7 +/- 1.5 cms for TGA while it was 32.9 +/- 1.3 cms for HLHS. The head size at birth for newborn with HLHS was significantly smaller than the TGA (p=0.03) and control group (p=0.001). Similarly, HC of TGA group was significantly smaller than the control group (p=0.02). CONCLUSION The newborns with TGA and HLHS are found to have significantly small head size at birth. The clinical significance of this finding with respect to the neurodevelopmental outcome and value of early antenatal intervention to repair these defects remains to be evaluated in further studies.
Introduction of agriculture and its effects on women's oral health

This study explores the dynamic relationship between the introduction of agriculture and its effects on women's oral health by testing the hypothesis that female reproductive physiology contributes to an oral environment more susceptible to chronic oral disease and that, in a population undergoing the foraging to farming transition, females will exhibit a higher prevalence of oral pathology than males. This is tested by comparing the presence, location, and severity of caries lesions and antemortem tooth loss across groups of reproductive aged and postreproductive females (n = 71) against corresponding groups of males (n = 71) in an Early Agricultural period (1600 B.C.–A.D. 200) skeletal sample from northwest Mexico. Caries rates did not differ by sex across age groups in the sample; however, females were found to exhibit significantly more antemortem tooth loss than males (P > 0.01). Differences were initially minimal but increased by age cohort until postreproductive females experienced a considerable amount of tooth loss, during a life stage when the accumulation of bodily insults likely contributed to dental exfoliation. Higher caries rates in females are often cited as the result of gender differences and dietary disparities in agricultural communities. In an early farming community, with diets being relatively equal, women were found to experience similar caries expression but greater tooth loss. We believe this differential pattern of oral pathology provides new evidence in support of theinterpretation that women's oral health is impacted by effects relating to reproductive biology. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Response of Land Surface Phenology to Variation in Tree Cover during Green-Up and Senescence Periods in the Semi-Arid Savanna of Southern Africa

Understanding the spatio-temporal dynamics of land surface phenology is important to understanding changes in landscape ecological processes of semi-arid savannas in Southern Africa. The aim of the study was to determine the influence of variation in tree cover percentage on land surface phenological response in the semi-arid savanna of Southern Africa. Various land surface phenological metrics for the green-up and senescing periods of the vegetation were retrieved from leaf index area (LAI) seasonal time series (2001 to 2015) maps for a study region in South Africa. Tree cover (%) data for 100 randomly selected polygons grouped into three tree cover classes, low ( 40%, n = 34), were used to determine the influence of varying tree cover (%) on the phenological metrics by means of the t-test. The differences in the means between tree cover classes were statistically significant (t-test p < 0.05) for the senescence period metrics but not for the green-up period metrics. The categorical data results were supported by regression results involving tree cover and the various phenological metrics, where tree cover (%) explained 40% of the variance in day of the year at end of growing season compared to 3% for the start of the growing season. An analysis of the impact of rainfall on the land surface phenological metrics showed that rainfall influences the green-up period metrics but not the senescence period metrics. Quantifying the contribution of tree cover to the day of the year at end of growing season could be important in the assessment of the spatial variability of a savanna ecological process such as the risk of fire spread with time.
Tagging Patient Notes With ICD-9 Codes

There is substantial growth in the amount of medical/data being generated in hospitals. With over 96% adoption rate[1], Electronic Medical/Health Records are used to store most of this medical data. If harnessed correctly, this medium provides a very convenient platform for secondary data analysis of these records to improve medical and patient care. One crucial feature of the information stored in these systems are ICD9-diagnosis codes, which are used for billing purposes and integration to other databases. These codes are assigned to medical text and require expert annotators with experience and training. In this paper we formulate this problem as a multi-label classification problem and propose a deep learning framework to classify the ICD-9 codes a patient is assigned at the end of a visit. We demonstrate that a simple LSTM model with a single layer of non-linearity can learn to classify patient notes with their corresponding ICD-9 labels moderately well.
Solvent denaturation and stabilization of globular proteins.

Statistical thermodynamic theory has recently been developed to account for the stabilities of globular proteins. Here we extend that work to predict the effects of solvents on protein stability. Folding is assumed to be driven by solvophobic interactions and opposed by conformational entropy. The solvent dependence of the solvophobic interactions is taken from transfer experiments of Nozaki and Tanford on amino acids into aqueous solutions of urea or guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl). On the basis of the assumption of two pathways involving collapse and formation of a core, the theory predicts that increasing denaturant should lead to a two-state denaturation transition (i.e., there is a stable state along each path separated by a free energy barrier). The denaturation midpoint is predicted to occur at higher concentrations of urea than of GuHCl. At neutral pH, the radius of the solvent-denatured state should be much smaller than for a random-flight chain and increase with either denaturant concentration or number of polar residues in the chain. A question of interest is whether free energies of folding should depend linearly on denaturant, as is often assumed. The free energy is predicted to be linear for urea but to have some small curvature for GuHCl. Predicted slopes and exposed areas of the unfolded states are found to be in generally good agreement with experiments. We also discuss stabilizing solvents and compare thermal with solvent denaturation.
An audit of outcome of treatment in acromegaly.

In order to determine whether acromegaly is still associated with increased mortality, a hospital case note review of all patients with acromegaly followed up in Stoke-on-Trent since 1967 was carried out. Of 79 subjects identified, 51 are alive and being monitored and 28 have died. Mortality was compared to the general population by life table analysis. Secretion of growth hormone was assessed and compared in dead and alive patients. The effect of diabetes, hypertension, and growth hormone secretion on long-term outcome was assessed. Acromegaly is still associated with increased mortality, with an overall ratio of observed to expected deaths equal to 2.68 (95% C.I. 1.8-3.9; p < 0.001), but the survival of 31 (39%) patients whose growth hormone level had been reduced to below 5 mU/l was equal to that of the general population (O/E = 1.42; 95% C.I. 0.46-3.31: p > 0.05). The dead patients had had significantly higher growth hormone levels than those still alive, but mortality did not appear to be influenced by diabetes or hypertension. The cause of death was vascular in 57% of cases. Growth hormone hypersecretion is still associated with excess mortality in acromegaly. The present study suggests that the therapeutic objective should be to lower average daytime growth hormone levels to less than 5 mU/l. There is need for a large study to compare different modes of treatment in terms of their effect on growth hormone secretion and on long-term outcome.
Effect of Dianex, a herbal formulation on experimentally induced diabetes mellitus

Dianex, a polyherbal formulation consisting of the aqueous extracts of Gymnema sylvestre, Eugenia jambolana, Momordica charantia Azadirachta indica, Cassia auriculata, Aegle marmelose, Withania somnifera and Curcuma longa was screened for hypoglycemic activity in normal and streptozotocin induced diabetic mice. Dianex was administered in different doses of 100–500 mg/kg/day orally in acute (6 h) and long‐term (6 weeks) studies. Blood glucose levels were checked 2–6 h after treatment in acute studies and every 2 weeks in long‐term studies. Body weight was recorded on the first and final day of the treatment in the long‐term studies with diabetic mice. After 6 weeks, high‐density lipoprotein, triglycerides, total cholesterol, alanine transaminase (ALT), aspertate transaminase (AST), urea and creatinine were estimated in serum of the diabetic mice. Glycogen and total protein levels were estimated in the liver. Also, the liver and pancreas was subjected to histological examination. Oral glucose tolerance and in vitro free radical scavenging activity was also studied.
Regulated Antigen Expression in Live RecombinantSalmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Strongly Affects Colonization Capabilities and Specific CD4+-T-Cell Responses

ABSTRACT Regulated antigen expression can influence the immunogenicity of live recombinant Salmonella vaccines, but a rational optimization has remained difficult since important aspects of this effect are incompletely understood. Here, attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium SL3261 strains expressing the model antigen GFP_OVA were used to quantify in vivo antigen levels by flow cytometry and to simultaneously follow the crucial early steps of antigen-specific T-cell responses in mice that are transgenic for a T-cell receptor recognizing ovalbumin. Among seven tested promoters,PpagC has the highest activity in murine tissues combined with low in vitro expression, whereasPtac has a comparable in vivo and a very high in vitro activity. Both SL3261 (pPpagCGFP_OVA) and SL3261 (pPtacGFP_OVA) cells can induce potent ovalbumin-specific cellular immune responses following oral administration, but doses almost 1,000-fold lower are sufficient for the in vivo-inducible construct SL3261 (pPpagCGFP_OVA) compared to SL3261 (pPtacGFP_OVA). This efficacy difference is largely explained by impaired early colonization capabilities of SL3261 (pPtacGFP_OVA) cells. Based on the findings of this study, appropriate in vivo expression levels for any given antigen can be rationally selected from the increasing set of promoters with defined properties. This will allow the improvement of recombinantSalmonella vaccines against a wide range of pathogens.
Anti‐apoptotic effects of curcumin on photosensitized human epidermal carcinoma A431 cells

Photodynamic treatment (PDT) can elicit a diverse range of cellular responses, including apoptotic cell death. Previously, we showed that PDT stimulates caspase‐3 activation and subsequent cleavage and activation of p21‐activated kinase 2 (PAK2) in human epidermal carcinoma A431 cells. Curcumin, the yellow pigment of Curcuma longa, is known to have anti‐oxidant and anti‐inflammatory properties. In the present study, using Rose Bengal (RB) as the photosensitizer, we investigated the effect of curcumin on PDT‐induced apoptotic events in human epidermal carcinoma A431 cells. We report that curcumin prevented PDT‐induced JNK activation, mitochondrial release of cytochrome c, caspase‐3 activation, and cleavage of PAK2. Using the cell permeable dye DCF‐DA as an indicator of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, we found that both curcumin and ROS scavengers (i.e., l‐histidine, a‐tocopherol, mannitol) abolished PDT‐stimulated intracellular oxidative stress. Moreover, all these PDT‐induced apoptotic changes in cells could be blocked by singlet oxygen scavengers (i.e., l‐histidine, a‐tocopherol), but were not affected by the hydroxyl radical scavenger mannitol. In addition, we found that SP600125, a JNK‐specific inhibitor, reduced PDT‐induced JNK activation as well as caspase‐3 activation, indicating that JNK activity is required for PDT‐induced caspase activation. Collectively, these results demonstrate that singlet oxygen triggers JNK activation, cytochrome c release, caspase activation and subsequent apoptotic biochemical changes during PDT and show that curcumin is a potent inhibitor for this process. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Detection of bla(NDM-4) in Escherichia coli from hospital sewage.

New Delhi metallo-b-lactamase (NDM-1) has been identified as a novel class of carbapenemase found in Enterobacteriaceae, first isolated from a Swedish patient of Indian origin (Kumarasamy et al., 2010; Yong et al., 2009). Later, many reports on the emerging trends of NDM-1 from different part of the world have been published (Khan & Nordmann, 2012a, b). Moreover, new variants of NDM-1 have also been identified from different countries (Cuzon et al., 2013; Göttig et al., 2013). Here we report the finding of an NDM-4producing Escherichia coli in the sewage of an Indian hospital. NDM-4 differs by a single amino acid substitution (Met154Leu) from NDM-1. Kinetic data showed that NDM-4 hydrolysed imipenem more than did NDM-1 [kcat/KM (mMs) ratio for NDM-4/NDM-1 for imipenem was 2.20]. Further, the MICs of imipenem and ertapenem were also found to be higher for Escherichia coli expressing NDM-4 than that expressing NDM-1, suggesting that the Leu154 residue is involved in the higher carbapenemase activity (Nordmann et al., 2012).