Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A simple test of one minute heart rate variability during deep breathing for evaluation of sympatovagal imbalance in hyperthyroidism.

BACKGROUND Heart rate variability is a sensitive marker of cardiac sympathetic activity. OBJECTIVES To determine whether long-term hyperthyroidism induced by thyroxine suppressive therapy affects HRV. METHODS Nineteen patients treated with suppressive doses of thyroxin for thyroid cancer and 19 age-matched controls were enrolled. Thyroid function tests and 1 minute HRV were performed on all subjects and the results were compared between the groups. The 1 minute HRV was analyzed during deep breathing and defined as the difference in beats/minute between the shortest and the longest heart rate interval measured by eletrocardiographic recording during six cycles of deep breathing. RESULTS One minute HRV during deep breathing was significantly lower among thyroxine-treated patients compared to healthy controls (25.6 +/- 10.5 vs. 34.3 +/- 12.6 beats/min, P < 0.05). There were no significant differences in mean, maximal and minimal heart rate between the groups. CONCLUSIONS Thyroxine therapy administered for epithelial thyroid cancer resulted in subclinical hyperthyroidism and significantly decreased HRV due to autonomic dysfunction rather than basic elevated heart rate.
Functional analysis of Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus RTA in an RTA-depressed cell line.

OBJECTIVE The viral transcriptional activator encoded by Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) open reading frame 50 (RTA) is expressed in the immediate-early phase of reactivation. We isolated an RTA-depressed cell line, BLS50-4, by subcloning from the KSHV-infected cell line, BCBL-1. RESULTS In addition to RTA, induction of some lytic gene expressions was also remarkably reduced in BLS50-4 cells, but that of the K8.1 and ORF65 gene expressions was not. Both the replication of the KSHV genome and the release of KSHV DNA into the medium were greatly reduced. Transfection of RTA into BLS50-4 cells restored the expression of K9 (vIRF) and ORF59, but not K8.1. CONCLUSIONS Thus, we showed that expression of late genes was not directly controlled by RTA, unlike the other groups concluded. We also showed that, by isolating the RTA-depressed cell line, the RTA protein had a critical role in viral DNA replication and the expression of several lytic genes.
A repertoire of differentially expressed transcription factors that offers insight into mechanisms of human cytotrophoblast differentiation.

During human placental development, specialized cells allocated to the extraembryonic lineage (cytotrophoblasts) invade the uterus, anchoring the conceptus to the decidua and tapping a supply of maternal blood. This unusual behavior requires cytotrophoblasts to assume highly specialized characteristics; some are commonly associated with tumor cells, while others are typical of endothelia. Here we investigated the transcriptional mechanisms that control cytotrophoblast differentiation/invasion. Specifically, we examined the cells' expression of a number of transcription factors, at the RNA level, as they differentiated along the invasive pathway in vitro. Since basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins play important roles in murine trophoblast differentiation, we first examined their expression by cytotrophoblasts. As in murine placental development, expression of the human homologue of Mash-2 was confined to progenitor cells. But expression of Hand-1, which promotes differentiation of murine trophoblast giant cells, was not detected. We also found that cytotrophoblasts upregulated the expression of bHLH/PAS factors that function in adaptive responses to hypoxia, including hEPAS-1, which is expressed primarily in endothelial cells. Quite unexpectedly, we discovered that cytotrophoblasts express high levels of mRNA encoding the human homologue of the Drosophila neuronal fate gene, glial cells missing-1 (gcm-1). We also found evidence of crosstalk between the bHLH and GCM-1 regulatory networks. Together, these results offer insights into the transcriptional mechanisms that govern cytotrophoblast differentiation/invasion. Interestingly, these mechanisms suggest analogies with those that govern differentiation of murine stem cells allocated to both the intra- and extraembryonic lineages.
Simultaneous detection and quantification of minimal residual disease in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia using real‐time polymerase chain reaction

A number of prospective studies have indicated the clinical utility of measuring minimal residual disease (MRD) in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and have highlighted the need for improved methodology for quantification of residual disease. We describe a novel real‐time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) strategy for MRD analysis based on the exonuclease activity of Taq polymerase to cleave a fluorescently labelled probe. Using a consensus probe designed to the framework 2 region of the IgH gene, together with leukaemia‐specific primers, the utility of this technique for simultaneous detection and quantification of MRD was demonstrated in samples from six ALL patients. This technique provides a rapid quantitative assay for determining MRD levels which lends itself to the routine monitoring of minimal residual leukaemia.
Representing the Patient's Therapeutic History in Medical Records and in Guideline Recommendations for Chronic Diseases Using a Unique Model

Computer-interpretable guidelines (CIGs) are more likely to affect the clinician's behavior when they deliver patient-specific and just-in-time clinical advice. CIGs must take into account the data stored in the patient's electronic medical records (EMR). For chronic diseases, the outcome of past and ongoing treatments (therapeutic history) is used in the clinical guidelines. We propose a model for the conceptualization of therapeutic history, facilitating data sharing between EMRs and CIGs and the representation of therapeutic history and recommended treatments in clinical guidelines.Based on medical literature review and an existing treatment model, a core structure is first defined taking into account drug and non-drug treatment components and treatment type (e.g. bitherapy). These elements together with additional concepts obtained by analyzing a sample guideline relating to diabetes, are then organized into an object-oriented model, using UML formalism.We show how this model can be used to store the patient's therapeutic history in the EMR, together with other attributes such as treatment efficacy and tolerance. We also explain how this model can efficiently code guidelines therapeutic rules.We evaluated this model, using additional guidelines hypercholesterolemia and asthma. We found it capable for representing guideline recommendations in several domains of chronic diseases.
A new approach of image encryption using 3D chaotic map to enhance security of multimedia component

Multimedia data contains text, audio, video, graphic, images and with the increasing use of multimedia data over internet, here comes a demand of secure multimedia data. Image encryption differs from other multimedia components encryption due to some intrinsic features, such as bulk data capacity and high correlation among pixels the earlier encryption techniques such as AES, DES etc. are not suitable for practical applications. The combination of chaotic theory and cryptography forms an important field of information security. The latest trend in image encryption is chaos based for some unique characteristics such as the sensitivity to initial conditions, non-periodicity, non-convergence, and control parameters. There are a lot of image encryption algorithms based on chaotic maps have been proposed some of them are time consuming and complex some have little key space. In this paper we proposed a non-linier 3D chaos based simple encryption technique where for the first time 3D chaos is used for position permutation and value transformation technique. We get average entropy of encrypted image 7.99, NPCR of 99.6% and UACI of 33.5%. We tabulate correlation coefficient value both horizontal and vertical position for cipher and original image and compare performance of our method with some existing methods. We also discuss about different types of attack, key sensitivity, and key space of our proposed approach.
Supply Uncertainty of Institutional Bond Investors and the Leverage of the Firm ∗

We examine the effects of the capital supply uncertainty (CSU) of institutional bond investors (e.g., mutual funds and insurance companies) on the leverage of the firm using a novel dataset. We find that the withdrawal risk (or instability) of the firm’s bond investor base (as measured by (i) the average portfolio turnover of investors holding the firm’s bonds, or (ii) the prevalence of mutual funds among the firm’s bondholders as opposed to insurance companies) has a negative and significant effect on the leverage of the firm. The CSU also has a negative and significant effect on the firm’s probability of issuing bonds, and a positive and significant effect on the firm’s probability of issuing equity and borrowing from banks. These results are robust to controlling for the potential endogeneity of CSU. Taken together, the findings suggest that the capital supply uncertainty arising from institutional investors’ withdrawal risk significantly affects the firm’s capital structure. JEL classification: G1, G2
Lateral spread response elicited by double stimulation in patients with hemifacial spasm

In patients with hemifacial spasm (HFS), a lateral spread response (or abnormal muscle response) is recorded from facial muscles after facial nerve stimulation. The origin of this response is not completely understood. We studied the lateral spread responses elicited by double stimulation in 12 patients with HFS during microvascular decompression. The response was recorded from the mentalis muscle by electrical stimulation of the temporal branch of the facial nerve or from the orbicularis oculi muscles by stimulation of the marginal mandibular branch. The interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of double stimulation ranged from 0.5 to 7.0 ms. R1 was defined as the response elicited by the first stimulus, and R2 as the response elicited by the second stimulus. R1 had a constant latency and amplitude regardless of the ISI, whereas R2 appeared after a fixed refractory period without facilitation or depression in a recovery curve of latency and amplitude. From these findings, we consider that the lateral spread response is due to cross‐transmission of facial nerve fibers at the site of vascular compression rather than arising from facial nerve motor neurons. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Muscle Nerve 25: 000–000, 2002
Changes in the Late Task‐Related Brain Potentials during Adolescence a

The long-latency, task-related potentials recorded from adults have been the subject of intensive study for the last decade (cf. Donchin et al., 1978), but little research effort has been devoted to the investigation of these waveforms in children (cf. Karrer, 1978; Klorman et al., 1978). It is well known that both the speed and efficiency of cognitive processing improves with age (e.g., Chi, 1976; Bruner et al., 1966; Flavell, 1977). Since it has been repeatedly and forcefully demonstrated that the endogenous ERPs reflect the speed (e.g. , Friedman et al., 3978b; Kutas and Donchin, 1978; Kutas et al., 1977; Ritter et al., 1972; 1979) and the complexity of cognitive processing (e.g. , Donchin et al., 1973; Poon et al., 1974; Ruchkin et al., 1980a,b), these waveforms should show marked changes with the increments in cognitive skill that occur throughout childhood and adolescence. If changes in the task-related ERP components do parallel cognitive development, it would deepen our understanding of the cognitive components of the ERP, provided that the nature of the developmental changes in cognitive processing can be specified. Evidence to date suggests that ERP morphology similar to that in adults appears by the age of seven (Courchesne, 1978; Goodin et al., 1978; Kurtzberg et al., 1978) and becomes more adult-like through adolescence (Friedman et al. 1978a,b; Courchesne, 1978; Daruna et al., 1979; Karrer et al., 1979). These investigations have shown that the major difference between the adult and the child is in the latency and not in the morphology of components reflecting cognitive processing (e.g., Courchesne, 1978; Goodin et al., 1978; Shelburne, 1973), and indicate that children take longer than adults to process task-relevant stimuli. A major exception is Courchesne’s results ( 1978) showing frontally preponderant, very long-latency negative-positive complexes (Nc:410 ms; Pc:900 rns) in children, but N2-P3 complexes in response to novel (uncategorizable) visual stimuli in adults, suggesting that the children and adults differed in the way in which they processed these novel, infrequent events. A longer latency waveform, slow wave (SW), which overlaps with and extends beyond P3oo (cf. N. Squires et al., 1975), has not been studied from a developmental perspective. I n view of the recent findings which suggest that S W reflects the need for “further processing” (Ruchkin and Sutton, 1983), and the long latency and duration of
Increased caudate dopamine D2 receptor availability as a genetic marker for schizophrenia.

CONTEXT Schizophrenia has a heritability of about 80%, but the detailed molecular genetic basis of the disorder has remained elusive. Relative hyperfunction of the subcortical dopamine system has been previously suggested to be one of the key pathophysiologic mechanisms in schizophrenic psychosis. OBJECTIVE To examine the contributions of genetic vulnerability for schizophrenia to the dopamine system in the human brain. DESIGN Population-based twin cohort study. SETTING Finland. PARTICIPANTS Six monozygotic and 5 dizygotic unaffected co-twins of patients with schizophrenia were ascertained, along with 4 monozygotic and 3 dizygotic healthy control twins with no family history of psychotic disorders. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Striatal dopamine D(2) receptor availability estimated with positron emission tomographic imaging and carbon 11 ((11)C)-labeled raclopride, and performance on neuropsychological tests sensitive to frontal lobe functioning and to schizophrenia vulnerability. RESULTS Unaffected monozygotic co-twins had increased caudate D(2) density compared with unaffected dizygotic co-twins and healthy control twins. Higher D(2) receptor binding in caudate was associated with a poor performance on cognitive tasks related to schizophrenia vulnerability in the whole sample. CONCLUSIONS The caudate dopamine D(2) receptor up-regulation is related to genetic risk for schizophrenia. Higher dopamine D(2) receptor density in caudate is also associated with poorer performance on cognitive tasks involving corticostriatal pathways. This finding suggests that caudate dopamine dysregulation is also a trait phenomenon related to psychosis vulnerability. This pattern of results provides a theoretical rationale for early pharmacologic intervention approaches using dopamine D(2) receptor blocking drugs.
Correlations Between Somatic Cells Count and Milk Composition with Regard to the Season

SUMMARY On four farms with 1100 cows of Black-and-White breed the correlations between somatic cell count (SCC) in milk and milk composition in different seasons of the year were studied. Three-year data from AP milk recording were analysed (years 2000 to 2002), which meant 29,298 samples of milk. Milk fat, proteins and lactose were determined using Milco-Scan while somatic cells were determined with Fossomatic 90. The three-year average content of fat was 4.16 % (CV=18.75 %), 3.41 % (CV=12.02 %) of proteins, and 4.58 % (CV=5.68 %) of lactose. SCC averaged to 499.2 x 10 3 / ml milk. The threeyear average showed a statistically significant (p≤ 0.0001) positive correlation between LSCC and fat content (0.130) and protein content (0.240), and a statistically highly significant negative correlation between LSCC and lactose content (-0.423) and daily milk production (-0.286). In special seasons of the year the correlations for fat (0.177), proteins (0.287) and amount of milk (0.327) were the highest in spring, while (-0.461) in autumn for lactose; all of them were statistically highly significant. The milk composition was in a statistically highly significant correlation with SCC in milk and year season.
GEANT4 for breast dosimetry: parameters optimization study

Mean glandular dose (MGD) is the main dosimetric quantity in mammography. MGD evaluation is obtained by multiplying the entrance skin air kerma (ESAK) by normalized glandular dose (DgN) coefficients. While ESAK is an empirical quantity, DgN coefficients can only be estimated with Monte Carlo (MC) methods. Thus, a MC parameters benchmark is needed for effectively evaluating DgN coefficients. GEANT4 is a MC toolkit suitable for medical purposes that offers to the users several computational choices. In this work we investigate the GEANT4 performances testing the main PhysicsLists for medical applications. Four electromagnetic PhysicsLists were implemented: the linear attenuation coefficients were calculated for breast glandularity 0%, 50%, 100% in the energetic range 8–50 keV and DgN coefficients were evaluated. The results were compared with published data. Fit equations for the estimation of the G-factor parameter, introduced by the literature for converting the dose delivered in the heterogeneous medium to that in the glandular tissue, are proposed and the application of this parameter interaction-by-interaction or retrospectively is discussed. G4EmLivermorePhysicsList shows the best agreement for the linear attenuation coefficients both with theoretical values and published data. Moreover, excellent correlation factor (0.99$ ? >r2>0.99 ? >) is found for the DgN coefficients with the literature. The final goal of this study is to identify, for the first time, a benchmark of parameters that could be useful for future breast dosimetry studies with GEANT4.
In vivo activation of JAK2/STAT‐3 pathway during angiogenesis induced by GM‐CSF

Besides the regulation of hematopoiesis, granulocyte‐macrophage colony‐stimulating factor (GM‐CSF) induces the expression of a functional program in cultured endothelial cells (ECs) related to angiogenesis and to the their survival in bone marrow microenvironment. ECs express the specific GM‐CSF receptor that signals through the recruitment and the activation of Janus kinase (JAK)2 (Soldi et al., Blood 89, 863–872, 1987). We now report that GM‐CSF in vivo induces angiogenesis and activates JAK‐2 and signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT)‐3. This cytokine has an angiogenetic activity in chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) without recruitment of inflammatory cells and induces vessel sprouting from chicken aorta rings. When added to CAM, subnanomolar concentrations of GM‐CSF cause a rapid phosphorylation in tyrosine residues of JAK‐2 persisting at least for 10 min. Furthermore, we show that signal transducers and activators of transcription (STAT)‐3, but not STAT‐5, also are phosphorylated for 30 min after GM‐CSF stimulation. AG‐490, a JAK‐2 inhibitor, reduced in a dose‐dependent manner the angiogenic effect of GM‐CSF in CAM. These findings provide the first evidence that the JAK‐2/STAT‐3 pathway is activated in vivo and participates in vessel formation triggered by GM‐CSF.
Aging Process on Spectrally Determined Spontaneous Baroreflex Sensitivity: A 5-Year Prospective Study

The interindividual age-related decrease in baroreflex sensitivity (BRS) was reported in many cross-sectional studies. However, the long-term intraindividual decrease in BRS has never been confirmed by longitudinal studies. Data obtained from a 5-year prospective study designed to assess the 5-year stress effects on blood pressure (BP) provided the opportunity to assess longitudinal aging process on spectrally determined BRS (S-BRS) using the cross spectral analysis. This analysis was carried out in 205 men aged between 18 and 50 years who had 2 valid beat to beat BP recordings (Finapress) at a mean 5-year interval. At inclusion and at end of follow-up, S-BRS was significantly correlated with age (r=−0.50, P<0.001, r=−0.33, P<0.001 respectively). Interestingly, the slopes and the intercepts were not significantly different at a 5-year interval. This result is in favor of the good reproducibility of S-BRS. The attenuation with age of S-BRS was calculated at 3.6% a year. This decrease was slightly higher than the one obtained with the baseline data (2.3% per year). This longitudinal study provided, for the first time, an estimate of the slope of the age-related physiological S-BRS decrease in a mid-aged healthy male population. Our findings reinforce the interest of evaluating spontaneous BRS reported to predict hypertension and cardiovascular events in various populations.
Performance of multiuser detection in multirate DS-CDMA systems

The performance of multirate direct-sequence code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems is considered. We compare two multirate schemes: variable spreading length (VSL-CDMA) and multicode (MC-CDMA). The performance in terms of asymptotic multiuser efficiency (AME) and near-far resistance (NFR) for various detectors are evaluated. Analytical and numerical results demonstrate that in multirate systems, MC-CDMA has a similar performance to that of VSL-CDMA employing low-rate detection in terms of multirate AME (MAME) and multirate NFR (MNFR). A lower bound for the optimal MNFR is also obtained and is shown to be that of the linear decorrelator in multirate systems. Thus, this implies that the decorrelator is no longer optimal in the sense of MNFR.
Characterization of adipose tissue-derived cells isolated with the Celution system.

BACKGROUND The therapeutic potential of using stem cells is tremendous. Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have now been isolated in various tissues including bone marrow (BM), muscle, skin and adipose tissue. Among them, adipose tissue could be one of the most suitable cell sources for cell therapy, because of its easy accessibility, minimal morbidity and abundance of stem cells. The large numbers of stem cells in adipose tissue means that clinically relevant stem cell numbers could be extracted from the tissue, potentially eliminating the need for in vitro expansion. To utilize these characteristics of adipose tissue fully, Cytori Therapeutics Inc. has developed a closed system called Celution to isolate and concentrate stem cells and regenerative cells automatically from adipose tissue. METHODS Adipose tissue-derived cells were isolated using the Celution system. The output from the Celution was characterized using multicolor FACS analysis with CD31, CD34, CD45, CD90, CD105 and CD146. The multidifferentiation potential of the cells was analyzed using adipogenic and osteogenic media. RESULTS Our results showed that cells from the Celution are composed of heterogeneous cell populations including adipose-derived stem cells (ASC) (CD31- CD34+ CD45- CD90+ CD105- CD146-), endothelial (progenitor) cells (CD31+ CD34+ CD45- CD90+ CD105- CD146+) and vascular smooth muscle cells (CD31- CD34+ CD45- CD90+ CD105- CD146+). We also confirmed the output contains cells able to differentiate into adipogenic and osteogenic phenotypes. Our results show that cells isolated with the Celution and manually are equivalent. DISCUSSION Cells from adipose tissue can be processed by Celution within the time frame of a single surgical procedure. This system could provide a 'real-time' treatment setting that is cost-effective and safe.