Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of survival, safety, and efficacy after transarterial chemoembolization and radioembolization of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage B-C hepatocellular cancer patients

AimThis study aimed to compare the overall survival (OS) times, long-term complications, and recurrence rates of chemoembolization and radioembolization for Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) stage B-C hepatocellular cancer patients. Materials and methodsThis retrospective study included 80 BCLC stage B-C hepatocellular cancer patients who received chemoembolization (group 1) or radioembolization (group 2). The OS times, long-term complications, and disease recurrence rates of the two groups were compared. The prognostic role of sex, age, presence of underlying chronic liver disease, BCLC stage, dimension and number of liver lesions, tumor load, and presence of extrahepatic disease were also analyzed for each group. ResultsEach group included 40 (67 men, 13 women, mean age: 41.9±21.9 years) patients. During the follow-up period, 22 patients died in group 2 and 30 patients died in group 1. The overall mean survival of the entire patient group was calculated to be 37.31±3.94 months [95% confidence interval (CI), 30.46–44.1 months], with 30.63±3.68 months (95% CI, 23.42–37.84 months) for group 1 and 39.24±4.62 months (95% CI, 30.18–48.29 months) for group 2 (P=0.014). The 1- and 2-year survival rates were 72 versus 74% and 47 versus 59% for groups 2 and 1, respectively. There was no significant difference between the chronic complication (P=0.32) and disease recurrence (P=0.65) rates of the groups. Whereas the dimension of the largest lesion was the most significant predictor (P=0.01) in group 2, female sex (P=0.008), dimension of the largest lesion (P=0.03), and BCLC stage (P=0.01) were significant in group 1. ConclusionAlthough chemoembolization and radioembolization for BCLC Stage B-C patients have similar levels of safety and efficacy, they differ in OS. In this retrospective study, patients undergoing radioembolization had a longer survival rate.
Cannabinoid CB2 receptors are expressed by perivascular microglial cells in the human brain: An immunohistochemical study

Two types of cannabinoid receptors have been characterized so far, CB1 and CB2. While CB1 receptors are present both in the CNS and in the periphery, CB2 receptors showed an almost exclusive distribution within the immune system. We now report that CB2 receptors are present in a specific microglial cell type of the human cerebellum. Thus, we have performed immunohistochemical analysis of tissue sections of white matter areas of the human cerebellum and detected the presence of CB2 receptors in perivascular microglial cells. These findings match with the well‐known immunomodulatory role of CB2 receptors and open new perspectives on the possible role that these receptors may play in pathophysiological events. Synapse 53:208–213, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Nectar production and pollen yield of Echium vulgare L. in the climatic conditions of Lublin.

In Poland common viper’s bugloss (E. vulgare L.) is the most common species. E. vulgare belongs to medicinal, ornamental and bee plants, since it is a source of nectar and pollen forage. These flowers are frequently visited by bumblebees and honey bees. Flowering specimens of common viper’s bugloss were collected in the area of Lublin. Flowers and their parts were observed using stereoscopic microscopy. The micromorphology of the nectary at the initial stage of nectar secretion was observed in a scanning electron microscope. The rate of nectar production and pollen yield of the plants were determined as well as insects visiting flowers of this species were identified. The nectary, located at the base of the ovary, was found to be fused with its lower part. Nectar is secreted through numerous stomata located in the epidermis of the nectary. Nectar secretion, which starts at the bud stage, lasts throughout the flower life (3–4 days). Over this period, one flower of common viper’s bugloss produces 2.14 mg of nectar with high sugar concentration (48%). Sugar yield of its flowers is on average 9.8 mg/10 flowers. The flowers start to shed pollen at bud break and release the largest amount of pollen during late morning hours. The weight of pollen produced by 10 flowers is 5.4 mg. The present study shows that the flowers of E. vulgare are a very good source of nectar and pollen forage.
TP53 Mutations in Human Cancer: Database Reassessment and Prospects for the Next Decade

More than 50% of human tumors carry TP53 gene mutations and in consequence more than 45,000 somatic and germline mutations have been gathered in the UMD TP53 database (http://p53.fr). Analyses of these mutations have been invaluable for bettering our knowledge on the structure–function relationships within the TP53 protein and the high degree of heterogeneity of the various TP53 mutants in human cancer. In this review, we discuss how with the release of the sequences of thousands of tumor genomes issued from high‐throughput sequencing, the description of novel TP53 mutants is now reaching a plateau indicating that we are close to the full set of mutants that target the elusive tumor‐suppressive activity of this protein. We performed an extensive and thorough analysis of the TP53 mutation database, focusing particularly on specific sets of mutations that were overlooked in the past because of their low frequencies, for example, synonymous mutations, splice mutations, or mutations‐targeting residues subject to posttranslational modifications. We also discuss the evolution of the statistical methods used to differentiate TP53 passenger mutations and artifactual data from true mutations, a process vital to the release of an accurate TP53 mutation database that will in turn be an invaluable tool for both clinicians and researchers.
Pharmacokinetics of Rifampin in Peruvian Tuberculosis Patients with and without Comorbid Diabetes or HIV

ABSTRACT For drug-compliant patients, poor responses to tuberculosis (TB) treatment might be attributable to subtherapeutic drug concentrations. An impaired absorption of rifampin was previously reported for patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) or HIV. The objectives of this study were to determine whether TB drug pharmacokinetics differed in Peruvian TB patients with DM or HIV. In this cross-sectional study, TB patients, recruited from health centers in Lima, Peru, had blood samples taken at 2 and 6 h after directly observed TB drug ingestion, to determine plasma concentrations of rifampin. Of 105 patients, 50 had TB without a comorbidity, 26 had coexistent DM, and 29 had coexistent HIV. Unexpectedly, the overall median 2- and 6-h levels of rifampin were 1.6 and 3.2 mg/liter, respectively, and the time to the peak concentration was 6 h (slow absorber) instead of 2 h (fast absorber) for 61 patients (62.2%). The geometric mean peak concentration of drug in serum (Cmax) was significantly higher in fast absorbers than in slow absorbers (5.0 versus 3.8 mg/liter; P = 0.05). The rifampin Cmax was significantly lower in male patients than in female patients (3.3 versus 6.3 mg/liter; P < 0.001). Neither slow nor fast absorbers with comorbidities (DM or HIV) had significantly different Cmax results compared to those of TB patients without comorbidities. An analysis of variance regression analysis showed that female gender (P < 0.001) and the time to maximum concentration of drug in serum (Tmax) at 2 h (P = 0.012) were independently correlated with increased exposure to rifampin. Most of this Peruvian study population exhibited rifampin pharmacokinetics different from those conventionally reported, with delayed absorption and low plasma concentrations, independent of the presence of an HIV or DM comorbidity.
Modeling censored-in-the-middle condom use data

Abstract Many HIV prevention programs seek to reduce the risk of infection through increases in condom use. Condom use is often expressed as a proportion: the number of sexual contacts in which a condom is used divided by the total number of sexual contacts. The distribution of this proportion has several undesirable characteristics—the principal one is bimodality. Bimodality results from excessive numbers of 0% and 100% responses, creating distributions that are censored-in-the-middle. The purpose of this paper is to show how censored condom use data can be usefully modeled using Tobit regression. Tobit regression first transforms observed variable scores into latent variable scores, scores on an unobserved, hypothetical condom use variable, and then the latent variable scores are modeled using one or more explanatory variables. Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse Cooperative Agreement for HIV/AIDS Community-Based Outreach/Intervention Research program for frequency of condom use and number of drug injecting sex partners were used to illustrate the method. We found that for every additional drug injecting sex partner, the probability of using condoms decreased by approximately 1%.
Early Failure Rates of Arterovenous Fistulas for Hemodialysis: Evaluation of Six-Year Activity

Maintenance and complications of vascular access (VA) for hemodialysis (HD) represent the leading cause of morbidity and health care cost among end stage renal disease population. To define the reasons for the use of a particular VA at the beginning of replacement treatment, we prospectively evaluated the early failure rate and survival of arterovenous fistula (AVF) in 183 patients. These patients had high prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and co-morbid conditions, and began HD in our renal unit from the 1st of January 1995. As a part of this study the present analysis focuses on potential predictors of early failure of the first AVF (within the first 7 days after the operation). Overall, 279 AVF were prepared: 193 at the wrist and 86 at the upper arm, including 11 prosthetic grafts; 150 patients (82%) were given a distal AVF in the first operation. Our conservative policy resulted in a relatively high prevalence of native AVF in use among our prevalent HD patients (84.3%). Early failure of the first VA was 10.4%. Multivariate analysis showed that this event was neither significantly associated with all traditional risk factors and co-morbids tested, nor with the operating surgeon. We conclude that in this prospectively studied cohort, the high rate of native AVF created in order to preserve the vascular bed, though associated with a high early failure rate unaffected by traditional cardiovascular risk factors, resulted in a low proportion of permanent catheters and arterovenous grafts in use among prevalent HD patients.
Local Management of a Global Commons? The Case of Climate Standard Development in the Swedish Food Sector

Focusing on climate change, this article discusses possibilities of a local approach to complex global environmental problems. Due to failures of markets and international politics as strategies to govern the atmosphere, an alternative approach could be voluntary initiatives in which the complexity of the global common-pool resource (CPR) is reduced. Assessing such an approach through a case study of food standard development in Sweden, the outcome is two-sided. By means of scientific explanations and stakeholder dialogue, standards were produced, but attentiveness to CPR management diminished as focus turned towards producer interests and efficiency increasing measures. Although the climate issue was promoted, the outcome was far from the needed change and illustrates difficulties to deviate from prevailing priorities. In order to balance local interests and power with global and intertemporal values, and reach absolute emission cuts, change in norms and governance on every level would be needed.
Effect of An Audience on Learning a Novel Motor Skill

The purpose of this study was to assess effects of an audience on learning a novel motor skill. Subjects (N = 64) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions and administered 15 30-sec. trials with 30-sec. intertrial periods on a pursuit rotor task on two different days. Comparison of Time-on-Targer performance between conditions indicated that the No Audience condition had significantly higher performance than the Audience condition in Session 1. Comparison of Absolute Retention and Final Retention scores among the four experimental conditions in Session 2 after 48 hr. yielded no significant differences attributable to the presence of an audience, thus supporting the hypothesis that an audience would have no effect on learning.
Relationship between number of breast cancer operations performed and 5-year survival after treatment for early-stage breast cancer.

OBJECTIVES We examined the association between number of breast cancer operations performed in a hospital (hospital volume) and all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality using a national database and statistical methods appropriate for clustering and reducing confounding. METHODS In a retrospective cohort study, we linked Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results tumor registry data with Medicare claims data. The cohort included 11225 Medicare patients who had undergone surgery for early-stage breast cancer from 1994 to 1996 in 457 different hospitals. Primary outcomes were all-cause and breast cancer-specific survival rates at a mean follow-up time of 62.5 months. RESULTS In comparison with treatment in a low-volume hospital, treatment in a high-volume hospital was associated with hazard ratios of 0.83 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.75, 0.92) for all-cause mortality and 0.80 (CI=0.66, 0.97) for breast cancer-specific mortality. CONCLUSIONS An association between the volume of breast cancer operations performed in a hospital and 5-year survival rates was observed for both all-cause and breast cancer-specific mortality. Further work investigating the aspects of hospital volume that contribute to increased survival is warranted.
Complement Activation and Histamine Release following Administration of Roentgen Contrast Media

Anaphylactoid reactions following administration of roentgen contrast media (CM) have occasionally been described. In this investigation, blood samples from nonallergic human volunteers were exposed to the CM iodixanol (Visipaque), iohexol (Omnipaque), ioxaglate (Hexabrix) and metrizoate (Isopaque 350). The degree of activation of the complement cascade and the amount of free histamine in the samples were estimated. By using a hemolytic assay, a dose-independent complement consumption was detected when salt-free dilutions of the CM were added to human serum. Very little complement consumption was detectable when the concentrations of salts in the CM solutions were adjusted toward normal plasma concentrations, indicating that the lack of salts in the CM formulations was responsible for causing the consumption of complement rather than the CM molecules themselves. By using an ELISA assay for determination of the terminal complement complex (TCC), no increase in TCC level was detected following the addition of iodixanol to human serum. The results indicate that iodixanol does not activate the complement cascade when added to human serum, and that it is unlikely that anaphylactoid reactions observed in man after CM administration are caused by CM-induced anaphylatoxins. No histamine release was observed following the addition of ioxaglate, metrizoate, iohexol or iodixanol to blood from nonallergic individuals.
Extending feature usage: a study of the post-adoption of electronic medical records

Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) posits that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) and Perceived Usefulness (PU) influence the ‘intention to use’. The Post-Acceptance Model (PAM) posits that continued use is influenced by prior experience. In order to study the factors that influence how professionals use complex systems, we create a tentative research model that builds on PAM and TAM. Specifically we include PEOU and the construct ‘Professional Association Guidance’. We postulate that feature usage is enhanced when professional associations influence PU by highlighting additional benefits. We explore the theory in the context of post-adoption use of Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) by primary care physicians in Ontario. The methodology can be extended to other professional environments and we suggest directions for future research.
Title Comprehensive Evaluation of Selected Methods for Assessing HumanBody

The present study investigated the validity, reliability, objectivity, and practicability of methods with skinfold caliper (SF), ultrasound (US), bioelectrical impedance (BI), and sulfur hexafluoride (SHD) using identical subjects, and evaluated comprehensive usefulness by comparing selected methods or equations. In examining validity, underwater weighing (UW) was employed to obtain the criterion of validity. The subjects were healthy Japanese, 16 males and 15 females, aged 18 to 32 years. The prediction equation developed by Nakadomo et al. (1990b) was considered to be suitable for BI. With respect to the validity, BI and SHD assessing total body when estimating body composition would be more valid than those assessing partial subcutaneous skinfold thickness. A comprehensive evaluation through an examination with respect to the validity, reliability, objectivity, and practicability suggests that the BI could be the best method to assess human body composition in vivo. (Appl Human Sci, 18 (2): 43-51, 1999)
Chemotherapy for Non-metastatic High-grade Osteosarcoma of Extremity — Is Neoadjuvant Better than Adjuvant?

The addition of adjuvant or neoadjuvant chemotherapy to surgery revolutionises the treatment of high-grade non-metastatic osteosarcoma of the extremities. Overall 5-year survival of more than 50% to 60% is now a realistic achievable goal. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy possesses the theoretical advantages of optimising surgical results, providing early treatment of micrometastases, allowing histological assessment of chemotherapy, and customising postoperative chemotherapy. In this paper, the literature is reviewed to explore the existence of any comparative benefit of neoadjuvant over adjuvant chemotherapy for this disease entity.
A generalized estimating equations approach for analysis of the impact of new technology on a trawl fishery

The article describes a generalized estimating equations approach that was used to investigate the impact of technology on vessel performance in a trawl fishery during 1988-96, while accounting for spatial and temporal correlations in the catch-effort data. Robust estimation of parameters in the presence of several levels of clustering depended more on the choice of cluster definition than on the choice of correlation structure within the cluster. Models with smaller cluster sizes produced stable results, while models with larger cluster sizes, that may have had complex within-cluster correlation structures and that had within-cluster covariates, produced estimates sensitive to the correlation structure. The preferred model arising from this dataset assumed that catches from a vessel were correlated in the same years and the same areas, but independent in different years and areas. The model that assumed catches from a vessel were correlated in all years and areas, equivalent to a random effects term for vessel, produced spurious results. This was an unexpected finding that highlighted the need to adopt a systematic strategy for modelling. The article proposes a modelling strategy of selecting the best cluster definition first, and the working correlation structure (within clusters) second. The article discusses the selection and interpretation of the model in the light of background knowledge of the data and utility of the model, and the potential for this modelling approach to apply in similar statistical situations.
Comorbidity of substance abuse and schizophrenia: the role of pre-morbid adjustment

SYNOPSIS Co-morbid substance use and abuse is common in schizophrenic patients, and the role of substance abuse in initiating and maintaining psychosis has important definitional and aetiological implications. We investigated the issue in a cohort of 131 schizophrenic patients. We found non-users (N = 67) were similar to pathological users (N = 64) in current symptomatology and clinical history. The pathological users did, however, have better pre-morbid adjustment levels. Only alcohol use and to some extent cannabis use contributed to this effect; use of stimulants or hallucinogens did not. These results indicate the importance of evaluating the various types of substance used when attempting to explore the significance of co-morbidity. The results also suggest that co-morbidity of substance abuse and schizophrenia may be explained by a common factor antecedent to both: better pre-morbid adjustment. A two-stage model is proposed to explain these findings: increased sociability increases exposure to opportunities of substance use in a subset of patients; subsequent onset of psychotic illness accelerates the use to a pathological level as the individual attempts to cope with the stress of the developing mental illness.
Amoxicillin May Cause Molar Incisor Hypomineralization

The etiology of molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is unclear. Our hypothesis was that certain antibiotics cause MIH. We examined 141 schoolchildren for MIH and, from their medical files, recorded the use of antibiotics under the age of 4 yrs. MIH was found in 16.3% of children. MIH was more common among those children who had taken, during the first year of life, amoxicillin (OR = 2.06; 95% CI, 1.01–4.17) or the rarely prescribed erythromycin (OR = 4.14; 95% CI, 1.05–16.4), compared with children who had not received treatment. Mouse E18 teeth were cultured for 10 days with/without amoxicillin at concentrations of 100 μg/mL–4 mg/mL. Amoxicillin increased enamel but not dentin thickness. An altered pattern of amelogenesis may have interfered with mineralization. We conclude that the early use of amoxicillin is among the causative factors of MIH.
The influence of continuing professional development portfolio records on pharmacy practice

Objectives The aim of this study was to undertake an in‐depth investigation of the influence of continuing professional development (CPD) portfolios on pharmacy practice in the hospital setting. The objectives were to explore the views of pharmacists regarding the contribution of CPD records to professional practice and examine the influence of time and experience on pharmacists' views of recording professional practice.
Laparoscopic‐assisted Vecchietti procedure for creation of a neovagina: an analysis of five cases

The aim of this study was to review the functional and psychological outcomes of subjects with vaginal aplasia undergoing a laparoscopic creation of a neovagina (Vecchietti procedure). A semi‐structured telephone interview was undertaken of five consecutive subjects who underwent the procedure in the preceding three years. Information was obtained with regard to the operation, immediate post‐operative period, complications experienced, sexual function and improvements in general and psychological well‐being.