Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effects of hormones on urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women

It has been established that the lower urinary tract is sensitive to the effects of estrogen, sharing a common embryological origin with the female genital tract, the urogenital sinus. Urge urinary incontinence is more prevalent after the menopause, and the peak prevalence of stress incontinence occurs around the time of the menopause. Many studies, however, indicate that the prevalence of stress incontinence falls after the menopause. Until recently, estrogen, usually as part of a hormone replacement therapy (HRT) regimen, was used for treatment of urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women. Although its use in the treatment of vaginal atrophy is well established, the effect of HRT on urinary continence is controversial. A number of randomized, placebo-controlled trials have examined the effects of estrogen, or estrogen and progestogen together, in postmenopausal continence and concluded that estrogens should not be used for the treatment of urge or stress incontinence. In this paper, we will review these recent studies and examine the evidence for the effects of estrogen on the postmenopausal urogenital tract.
A New Semiquantitative Method of Quantifying Helicobacter pylori in Antigen Stools

Stool antigen test for Helicobacter pylori, a noninvasive assay, is emerging as a strong competitor to urea breath test (UBT). Nevertheless, although the UBT delta value is a semiquantitative indicator of H. pylori intragastric load, until now the H. pylori stool antigen test has been used only as a qualitative investigation. We report here the results of a study performed with the aim of obtaining a semiquantitative measurement of bacterial amount in stools. We studied 15 patients with dyspepsia using H. pylori positivity at histology, the rapid urease test, UBT, and the H. pylori stool antigen test. The result of this last test was expressed by a numerical value we obtained by applying the principle of “standard points” to the absorbance units at spectrophotometric reading. This measurement was previously validated by testing probe sampling of H. pylori stool antigen with known pure and stool-mixed bacterial amounts. A numerical result for H. pylori stool antigen was correlated to UBT delta for each patient using Pearson's r test. Finally, a Student t test was performed to investigate possible differences in UBT and H. pylori stool antigen test values between anti-CagA–positive and -negative patients. We obtained a curve of saturation with both known amount of pure and stool-mixed bacteria. Pearson's r test showed a significant correlation between UBT delta value and H. pylori stool antigen measurement (r = 0.77;p < 0.001). Urea breath test delta and H. pylori stool antigen test values were significantly higher in anti-CagA–positive patients. Our data suggest that a numerical estimation of H. pylori stool antigen may be feasible. This evaluation, similarly to UBT delta, may represent a semiquantitative determination of bacterial intragastric load.
Macro and Micro Dynamics of Productivity: From Devilish Details to Insights

Firm-level, revenue-based productivity measures are ubiquitous in studies of firm dynamics and aggregate outcomes. One common measure is increasingly interpreted as reflecting “distortions” since in distortions’ absence, equalization of marginal revenue products should yield no dispersion in this measure. Another common but distinct measure is the residual of the firm-level revenue function, which reflects “fundamentals. ” Using micro-level US manufacturing data, we find these alternative measures are highly correlated, exhibit similar dispersion, and have similar relationships with growth and survival. However, the distinction between these alternative measures is critically important for quantitative assessment of the level and decline of allocative efficiency. (JEL D21, D22, D24, G32, L60)
Topographical and laminar organization of subicular projections to the parahippocampal region of the rat

In this study, we analyzed in detail the topographic organization of the subiculoparahippocampal projection in the rat. The anterograde tracers Phaseolus vulgaris leucoagglutinin‐L and biotinylated dextran amine were injected into the subiculum at different septotemporal and transverse levels. Deep layers of the ento‐, peri‐, and postrhinal cortices are the main recipients of subicular projections, but in all cases we noted that a small fraction of the projections also terminates in the superficial layers II and III. Analysis of the fiber patterns in the parahippocampal region revealed a topographic organization, depending on the location of the cells of origin along both the transverse and the septotemporal axes of the subiculum. Projections originating from subicular cells close to CA1, i.e., proximal part of subiculum, terminate exclusively in the lateral entorhinal cortex and in the perirhinal cortex. In contrast, projections from cells closer to the subiculum‐presubiculum border, i.e., distal part of subiculum, terminate in the medial entorhinal cortex and in the postrhinal cortex. In addition, cells in septal portions of the subiculum project to a lateral band of entorhinal cortex parallel to the rhinal sulcus and to peri‐ or postrhinal cortices, whereas cells in more temporal portions project to more medial parts of the entorhinal cortex. These results indicate that subicular projections to the parahippocampal region precisely reciprocate the known inputs from this region to the hippocampal formation. We thus suggest that the reciprocal connectivity between the subiculum and the parahippocampal region is organized as parallel pathways that serve to segregate information flow and thus maintain the identity of processed information. Although this parallel organization is comparable to that of the CA1‐parahippocampal projections, differences exist with respect to the degree of collateralization. J. Comp. Neurol. 455:156–171, 2003. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A New 4-Nitrotoluene Degradation Pathway in aMycobacterium Strain

ABSTRACT Mycobacterium sp. strain HL 4-NT-1, isolated from a mixed soil sample from the Stuttgart area, utilized 4-nitrotoluene as the sole source of nitrogen, carbon, and energy. Under aerobic conditions, resting cells of the Mycobacterium strain metabolized 4-nitrotoluene with concomitant release of small amounts of ammonia; under anaerobic conditions, 4-nitrotoluene was completely converted to 6-amino-m-cresol. 4-Hydroxylaminotoluene was converted to 6-amino-m-cresol by cell extracts and thus could be confirmed as the initial metabolite in the degradative pathway. This enzymatic equivalent to the acid-catalyzed Bamberger rearrangement requires neither cofactors nor oxygen. In the same crucial enzymatic step, the homologous substrate hydroxylaminobenzene was rearranged to 2-aminophenol. Abiotic oxidative dimerization of 6-amino-m-cresol, observed during growth of theMycobacterium strain, yielded a yellow dihydrophenoxazinone. Another yellow metabolite (λmax, 385 nm) was tentatively identified as 2-amino-5-methylmuconic semialdehyde, formed from 6-amino-m-cresol bymeta ring cleavage.
Outcomes of high‐volume bariatric surgery in the public system

Bariatric surgery has not been widely used in the Australian public health system. As obesity is strongly associated with socio‐economic status, excluding its use from the public system will deny many of the most in‐need access to a potentially very effective treatment. Alternatively, with rigorous follow‐up and behavioural change requirements, highly successful outcomes in the private system may not translate to the public system.
Crystal Structure of the Minor Pilin CofB, the Initiator of CFA/III Pilus Assembly in Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli*

Background: The enterotoxigenic E. coli (ETEC) Type IVb pilus systems each possess a single minor pilin. Results: We show that these minor pilins are required for pilus assembly and report the x-ray crystal structure of CofB from the CFA/III pilus. Conclusion: ETEC minor pilins initiate pilus assembly. Significance: The CofB structure has implications for understanding assembly in more complex Type IV pilus systems. Type IV pili are extracellular polymers of the major pilin subunit. These subunits are held together in the pilus filament by hydrophobic interactions among their N-terminal α-helices, which also anchor the pilin subunits in the inner membrane prior to pilus assembly. Type IV pilus assembly involves a conserved group of proteins that span the envelope of Gram-negative bacteria. Among these is a set of minor pilins, so named because they share their hydrophobic N-terminal polymerization/membrane anchor segment with the major pilins but are much less abundant. Minor pilins influence pilus assembly and retraction, but their precise functions are not well defined. The Type IV pilus systems of enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli and Vibrio cholerae are among the simplest of Type IV pilus systems and possess only a single minor pilin. Here we show that the enterotoxigenic E. coli minor pilins CofB and LngB are required for assembly of their respective Type IV pili, CFA/III and Longus. Low levels of the minor pilins are optimal for pilus assembly, and CofB can be detected in the pilus fraction. We solved the 2.0 Å crystal structure of N-terminally truncated CofB, revealing a pilin-like protein with an extended C-terminal region composed of two discrete domains connected by flexible linkers. The C-terminal region is required for CofB to initiate pilus assembly. We propose a model for CofB-initiated pilus assembly with implications for understanding filament growth in more complex Type IV pilus systems as well as the related Type II secretion system.
Digital Integral Terminal Sliding Mode Predictive Control of Piezoelectric-Driven Motion System

This paper presents the design, analysis, and verification of a new output-based digital integral terminal sliding mode predictive control (DITSMPC) scheme, which is dedicated to precision motion control of a piezoelectric-driven positioning system. Unlike existing similar work, the controller is easy to implement because it does not require a hysteresis model and a state observer. Moreover, it is chattering free and is capable of delivering an O(T2) output error. The stability of the control system is demonstrated in theory. It is found that the model predictive control (MPC) enables a further improvement on the tracking accuracy in comparison with the digital integral terminal sliding mode control (DITSMC) schemes. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is confirmed through experimental investigations. Experimental results show that the DITSMPC control is superior to DITSMC and robust DITSMC (RDITSMC) schemes in motion tracking application, which is enabled by a well robustness property in the presence of model disturbances.
Narrowband interference suppression of an MTR-UWB transceiver

A recently proposed multiuser transmitted reference ultra wideband (MTR-UWB) transceiver not only provides much higher data rates than a conventional TR-UWB system, but also enables multiuser communication effectively. This paper further investigates its narrowband interference suppression capability. Effects of different jamming parameters such as the number of jamming tones, jamming power, and data rate ratio of narrowband to UWB signals, are studied. Some insights into trade-offs between suppression of narrowband interfering signals and detection performance are illustrated.
Gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonists increase follicular fluid insulin-like growth factor-I and vascular endothelial growth factor during ovarian stimulation cycles

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) antagonists (GnRH-ant) on follicular fluid (FF) insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) and FF vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) levels. Sixty women undergoing assisted reproduction were randomized and assigned to two different GnRH analog regimens: GnRH agonist (GnRH-a) and GnRH-ant. FF VEGF and FF IGF-I concentrations were significantly increased in the patients treated with GnRH-ant (p < 0.001). In the same patients we observed a statistically significant reduction in serum luteinizing hormone (LH) and estradiol (E2) levels (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05, respectively), FF E2 and FF androstenedione levels (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively), as well as a reduction in the number of pregnancies although this was not statistically significant. In the GnRH-ant group, FF VEGF levels were positively correlated with FF IGF-I levels, and both were negatively correlated with serum LH levels. The increase in FF IGF-I and FF VEGF levels in women treated with GnRH-ant could be explained by a deleterious follicular environment in response to profound suppression of LH and E2 levels.
Cranial MR findings in Wilson's disease

Purpose: to define various cranial Mr appearances in Wilson's disease (WD). Material and Methods: MR examinations of 30 patients (9–44 years old) with WD were retrospectively reviewed. Six patients were asymptomatic siblings. Three other patients had isolated hepatic involvement, one with no symptoms. the remaining 21 patients had neurological involvement, 7 of whom had the mixed form of the disease. Nine patients had hepatic dysfunction, the 3 with isolated hepatic involvement and 6 of the 7 with the mixed form. Results: All symptomatic patients (n=23) had abnormal MR examinations. Atrophy was present in the majority of them. the most frequently involved sites were putamen (18/21) and pons (18/21) in patients with neurological abnormality. the putaminal lesions showed a consistent pattern of symmetric, bilateral, concentric-laminar T2 hyperintensity. Putaminal lesions were lacking in only 3 patients with neurological involvement, all of whom were relatively old and had had the disease for a longer duration. Most of the patients with hepatic dysfunction (8/9) had increased T1 signal intensity in the basal ganglia, particularly in the globus pallidus. Pontine involvement always included the dorsal aspect of the pons, however, in some cases the central portion of pons was also affected but ventrolateral longitudinal fibers were spared. Midbrain (16/21), thalamic (10/21) and caudate nucleus lesions (9/21) were also encountered. in a few patients cortical and subcortical white matter lesions were present with a predilection to the frontal lobe, particularly the precentral region. in one patient, a hemorrhagic focus was identified within the white matter lesion. Conclusion: on T2-weighted images, WD is suggested by: atrophy; putaminal lesions with a pattern of symmetric, bilateral, concentric-laminar T2 hyperintensity; and the involvement of the pars compacta of the substantia nigra, periaqueductal gray matter, the pontine tegmentum and the thalamus. the hepatic component of WD may cause increased T1 signal intensity in basal ganglia. in the adult age group, the basal ganglia lesions may be different from those in the pediatric group; the putaminal lesions may not be present; the globus pallidus and substantia nigra may show increased hypointensity on T2-weighted images. Cortical and subcortical lesions may also be present with a predilection to the frontal lobe.
Friend or Foe? The Media Coverage of Chicago’s Public Housing Transformation

Social movement theory highlights media coverage as a powerful resource for non-institutional actors, but it remains unclear how successful they are in gaining media standing relative to their institutionalized opponents. This study applies Gamson’s concept of media standing to Chicago’s Plan for Transformation, an effort to reform the city’s public housing system. Theory expects institutionalized elites to capture a greater share of coverage, allowing them to frame the rhetoric. I perform a content analysis of 2,151 quotes drawn from 554 articles published in the Chicago Tribune from 1997–2009. Results indicate that bureaucratic actors achieve greater media standing then grassroots counterparts, but neighborhood opposition was not ignored. Negative binomial regression models indicate that coverage of the case was driven by conflict, dialogue, and a need for journalists to balance their stories. Institutionalized actors have an easier time achieving media standing, but the opinions they are allowed to express are limited.
The protection by ischemic preconditioning against myocardial ischemia- and reperfusion‐induced arrhythmias is not mediated by ATP‐sensitive potassium channels in rats

BackgroundSingle or multiple brief periods of myocardial ischemic preconditioning (PC) limits ischemia- and reperfusion-induced arrhythmias. This study tested whether PC protects against ischemia/re-perfusion-induced arrhythmias and. if so, whether the protective effect was mediated by the opening of ATP-sensitive (KATP) channels. MethodsIn protocol 1, the effects of PC (three cycles of 2 minutes of coronary occlusion and 5 minutes of reperfusion) on the development of arrhythmias after a coronary occlusion of 5, 10, or 20 minutes followed by 10 minutes of reperfusion were studied in rats. In protocol 2, solvent or a KATP channel blocker (glyburide [0.64 mg/kg body weight delivered intravenously]) was administered 5 minutes before PC. In a second group, glyburide was administered immediately after PC. In a third group, solvent, glyburide, or a KATP channel opener (pinacidil [0.16 mg/kg delivered intravenously]) was administered 5 minutes before coronary occlusion for 5 minutes without PC. Results:In protocol 1, PC significantly reduced the ischemia-induced ventricular premature beats (VPBs) and ventricular tachycardia (VT), and it abolished ischemia-induced ventricular fibrillation (VF) during 10 or 20 minutes of coronary artery occlusion. PC also significantly reduced reperfusion-induced ventricular arrhythmias after 5 or 10 minutes of coronary artery occlusion; this effect of PC, however, was lost during reperfusion after 20 minutes of coronary occlusion. In protocol 2, PC again produced a marked reduction in reperfusion-induced arrhythmias and abolished the incidence of VPBs during 5 minutes of ischemia as well as the incidence of irreversible VF during reperfusion, whereas glyburide did not block the protective effect of PC on ischemia- and reperfusion-induced arrhythmias. Glyburide administered in non-PC animals did not reduce ischemia- and reperfusion-induced arrhythmias, nor did pinacidil. Conclusions:The protective effect of PC was not attenuated by glyburide. These results suggest that the protective effect of PC in ischemia- and reperfusion-induced arrhythmias is not likely to be related to activation of KATP potassium channels during ischemia in rats.
Video Salient Object Detection Using Spatiotemporal Deep Features

This paper presents a method for detecting salient objects in videos, where temporal information in addition to spatial information is fully taken into account. Following recent reports on the advantage of deep features over conventional handcrafted features, we propose a new set of spatiotemporal deep (STD) features that utilize local and global contexts over frames. We also propose new spatiotemporal conditional random field (STCRF) to compute saliency from STD features. STCRF is our extension of CRF to the temporal domain and describes the relationships among neighboring regions both in a frame and over frames. STCRF leads to temporally consistent saliency maps over frames, contributing to accurate detection of salient objects’ boundaries and noise reduction during detection. Our proposed method first segments an input video into multiple scales and then computes a saliency map at each scale level using STD features with STCRF. The final saliency map is computed by fusing saliency maps at different scale levels. Our experiments, using publicly available benchmark datasets, confirm that the proposed method significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. We also applied our saliency computation to the video object segmentation task, showing that our method outperforms existing video object segmentation methods.
Multilevel Regulation of Abiotic Stress Responses in Plants

The sessile lifestyle of plants requires them to cope with stresses in situ. Plants overcome abiotic stresses by altering structure/morphology, and in some extreme conditions, by compressing the life cycle to survive the stresses in the form of seeds. Genetic and molecular studies have uncovered complex regulatory processes that coordinate stress adaptation and tolerance in plants, which are integrated at various levels. Investigating natural variation in stress responses has provided important insights into the evolutionary processes that shape the integrated regulation of adaptation and tolerance. This review primarily focuses on the current understanding of how transcriptional, post-transcriptional, post-translational, and epigenetic processes along with genetic variation orchestrate stress responses in plants. We also discuss the current and future development of computational tools to identify biologically meaningful factors from high dimensional, genome-scale data and construct the signaling networks consisting of these components.
The mechanism of phosphorylation‐inducible activation of the ETS‐domain transcription factor Elk‐1

Protein phosphorylation represents one of the major mechanisms for transcription factor activation. Here we demonstrate a molecular mechanism by which phosphorylation by mitogen‐activated protein (MAP) kinases leads to changes in transcription factor activity. MAP kinases stimulate DNA binding and transcriptional activation mediated by the mammalian ETS‐domain transcription factor Elk‐1. Phosphorylation of the C‐terminal transcriptional activation domain induces a conformational change in Elk‐1, which accompanies the stimulation of DNA binding. C‐terminal phosphorylation is coupled to activation of DNA binding by the N‐terminal DNA‐binding domain via an additional intermediary domain. Activation of DNA binding is mediated by an allosteric mechanism involving the key phosphoacceptor residues. Together, these results provide a molecular model for how phosphorylation induces changes in Elk‐1 activity.
Financial Inclusion in Ethiopia

This paper analyzes the demand and supply side data to show the status of financial inclusion in Ethiopia. Using a set of survey instruments on demand side and data on supply side of financial inclusion, we first analyzed the demand side survey on account, saving, credit, payment, insurance and financial resilience as well as barriers to financial inclusion. Then, we determined and analyzed the supply side of the financial inclusion such as trends in the number of deposit accounts and loan accounts, branch per capita, branch density, ATMs per capita and ATMs density and the retail payment instruments penetration. The analysis of supply side study covered the data for the period from 2006 to 2015. We find that in Ethiopia 33.86 percent of adults has an account at formal financial institution in the year 2016. They use their account to keep money safe, send and receive payments, and to get credit services and foreign exchange services. Using the data on the supply side of financial inclusion in Ethiopia as of December 2015, we find that the branch per capita and branch density of 5.54 and 3.09 respectively. We find that barriers to financial inclusion such as lack of money, distance, fixed cost, and documentations are important obstacles in Ethiopia.