Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary chemotherapy with gemcitabine, liposomal doxorubicin and docetaxel in patients with locally advanced breast cancer: results of a phase I trial

The primary objective was to determine the optimal doses for gemcitabine (prolonged infusion), liposomal doxorubicin (Myocet) and docetaxel as primary (neoadjuvant) chemotherapy for locally advanced breast cancer. Secondary objectives included evaluation of the safety and efficacy of the regimen. Patients (n=19) with histologically confirmed stage II or III breast cancer were treated with liposomal doxorubicin (50–60 mg/m2) and docetaxel (60–75 mg/m2) on day 1, and gemcitabine as 4-h infusion (350–400 mg/m2) on day 4. Treatment was repeated every 3 weeks for a maximum of 6 cycles. The maximum tolerated doses were gemcitabine 350 mg/m2, liposomal doxorubicin 60 mg/m2 and docetaxel 75 mg/m2. Dose-limiting toxicities were stomatitis, diarrhea and infection. The predominant hematologic toxicity was mild-to-moderate myelosuppression with grade 3/4 neutropenia in 20% of cycles. Non-hematologic toxicity was generally mild, with no grade 4 toxicities being observed. Predominant non-hematologic toxicity was stomatitis, which occurred in 95% of patients. Grade 3 toxicities were reported for stomatitis, nausea, diarrhea, infection and constipation. No cases of cardiac, renal, pulmonary or neurotoxicity were observed. The clinical response rate was 83% and histologically confirmed, clinically complete remissions occurred in two patients (11%). We conclude that the combination of gemcitabine (prolonged infusion), liposomal doxorubicin and docetaxel is safe and highly effective in patients with locally advanced breast cancer as defined by maximum tolerated doses. The evaluated schedule is suitable for phase II studies.
Glaucoma Subtypes in Ethiopian Clinic Patients

Background:Until population-based data become available in Ethiopia, hospital-based studies may reflect the distribution of the subtypes of glaucoma in certain parts of the country. Purpose:The main aim of this study was to determine the subtypes of glaucoma in Jimma University Hospital, Ethiopia. Methods:A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted in Jimma University Hospital from April 1, 2007 to March 30, 2008. The study population consisted of 335 consecutive new and follow-up patients with glaucoma diagnosed based on strict objective criteria. Results:The mean (SD) age of the study patients was 57.0 (12.7) years (range, 8 to 90 y). The male to female ratio was 2.7:1. The 2 most common subtypes of glaucoma found were exfoliation glaucoma (35.2%) and primary open angle glaucoma (32.8%). Primary angle closure glaucoma was diagnosed in 18.5% of patients. Conclusions:The finding of exfoliation glaucoma as the most common subtype of glaucoma in the present clinic-based study is interesting. Such observation has never been reported from anywhere in Africa. We recommend community-based surveys to define the real distribution of the glaucoma subtypes in Ethiopia.
Isolation and characterization of a novel population of progenitor cells from unmanipulated rat liver

Widespread use of liver transplantation in the treatment of hepatic diseases is restricted by the limited availability of donated organs. One potential solution to this problem would be isolation and propagation of liver progenitor cells or stem cells. Here, we report on the isolation of a novel progenitor cell population from unmanipulated (that is, no prior exposure to chemicals and no injury) adult rat liver. Rat liver cells were cultured following a protocol developed in our laboratory to generate a unique progenitor cell population called liver‐derived progenitor cells (LDPCs). LDPCs were analyzed by fluorescence‐activated cell sorting, real‐time polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), immunostaining and microarray gene expression. LDPCs were also differentiated into hepatocytes and biliary epithelium in vitro and examined for mature hepatic markers and urea and albumin production. These analyses showed that, LDPCs expressed stem cell markers such as cluster domain (CD)45, CD34, c‐kit, and Thy 1, similar to hematopoietic stem cells, as well as endodermal/hepatic markers such as hepatocyte nuclear factor (HNF)3β, hematopoietically‐expressed homeobox gene‐1, c‐met, and transthyretin. LDPCs were negative for OV‐6, cytokeratins (CKs), albumin, and HNF1α. The microarray gene expression profile demonstrated that they showed some similarities to known liver progenitor/stem cells such as oval cells. In addition, LDPCs differentiated into functional hepatocytes in vitro as shown by albumin expression and urea production. In conclusion, LDPCs are a population of unique liver progenitors that can be generated from unmanipulated adult liver, which makes them potentially useful for clinical applications, especially for cell transplantation in the treatment of liver diseases. Liver Transpl 14:333–345, 2008. © 2008 AASLD.
Effect of ciprofloxacin on the accumulation of interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and nitrite from a human endothelial cell model of sepsis.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of the quinolone antibiotic ciprofloxacin, on interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and nitrite production by human endothelial cells. DESIGN Controlled cell culture experiments examining the immunomodulatory effects of an antibiotic. SETTING University research laboratory attached to a large teaching hospital. SUBJECTS A human endothelial cell line. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Cells were incubated with tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-1beta in the presence of a range of ciprofloxacin concentrations. Interleukin-6, interleukin-8, and nitrite concentrations were measured in culture supernatants after 24 hrs using enzyme immunoassay. Ciprofloxacin decreased interleukin-6 accumulation (p = .001). Interleukin-8 was decreased at lower ciprofloxacin concentrations (p = .017) but was increased at 100 microg/mL (p = .0039). Ciprofloxacin had no effect on nitrite accumulation (p = .38). CONCLUSIONS Ciprofloxacin differentially modulates interleukin-6 and interleukin-8 expression. The response to infection is coordinated by a cascade of cytokines and other mediators. The widespread use of ciprofloxacin in patients with severe infections is likely to result in alterations in local concentrations of cytokines. Selective control of cytokine concentrations by antibacterial agents will clearly have important therapeutic implications and may be a future research consideration in antibiotic drug design.
Periodontal status and pathogenic bacteria after gastric bypass: a cohort study.

AIM The aim this study was to evaluate the influence of gastric bypass surgery (GBS) on periodontal disease and quantify the periodontopathogenic bacteria in patients undergoing this surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS This prospective study was composed of 50 patients who underwent bariatric surgery and the data collection was performed in three periods pre-operative, 6 (6M) and 12 months (12 M) postoperative. The oral clinical examination to assess periodontal disease; gingival fluid sample collection for quantification of the periodontopathogenic bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis, Tannerella forsythia, Treponema denticola, and Prevotella intermedia using q-PCR; body mass index (BMI) and for collection of the individual's health-related data from medical files. RESULTS There was a significant reduction in serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and glucose levels after surgery. The mean probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) increased significantly in the postoperative period of 6 months (p = 0.001). In the same period, the amount of P. gingivalis increased (p = 0.028) and the other bacteria decreased slightly (p > 0.050). In the presence of P. gingivalis, T. forsythia, T. denticola and P. intermedia, a poor periodontal condition was observed. CONCLUSION The periodontal disease increased in severity and P. gingivalis increased after GBS. A systemic inflammation resolution due to bariatric surgery in obese subjects does not seem to affect the course of periodontal disease.
So Similar and Yet so Different: A Comparative Analysis of a Firm's Cost and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training in Austria and Switzerland

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare a firm’s net cost and post-apprenticeship benefits of providing apprenticeship training in Austria and Switzerland: two countries with many similarities but some critical institutional differences. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on detailed workplace data with information on the costs and benefits of apprenticeship training, as well as on hiring costs for skilled workers from the external labour market. The authors use nearest-neighbour matching models to compare Austrian firms with similar Swiss firms based on observable characteristics. Findings On average, a Swiss firm generates an annual net benefit of €3,400 from training an apprentice, whereas a firm in Austria incurs net costs of €4,200. The impetus for this difference is largely a higher relative apprentice pay in Austria. However, compared with Swiss firms, Austrian firms generate a higher post-training return by retaining a higher share of apprentices and savings on future hiring costs. Practical implications The authors demonstrate that apprenticeship systems can exist under different institutional environments. For countries currently in the process of establishing or expanding apprenticeship systems, the comparative analysis clearly shows that policymakers should consider more than just one country’s particular apprenticeship model. Originality/value The authors provide a first comparative analysis between two apprenticeship countries that empirically assesses a firm’s costs and benefits of training during an apprenticeship programme and also provides a monetary value of a particular type of post-training benefits that firms can generate by retaining former apprentices as skilled workers (i.e. savings in future hiring costs for skilled workers).
Entrepreneurs’ Mental Health and Well-Being: A Review and Research Agenda

Interest in entrepreneurs’ mental health and well-being (MWB) is growing in recognition of the role of MWB in entrepreneurs’ decision making, motivation, and action. Yet relevant knowledge is dispersed across disciplines, which makes what we currently understand about entrepreneurs’ MWB unclear. In this systematic review I integrate insights from 144 empirical studies. These studies show that research is focused on three research questions: (1) Do different types of entrepreneurs differ in their MWB? What are the (2) antecedents and (3) consequences of entrepreneurs’ MWB? The review systematizes evidence on known antecedents and consequences of entrepreneurs’ MWB but also reveals overlooked and undertheorized sources and outcomes of entrepreneurs’ MWB. The review provides a mapping and framework that advance research on entrepreneurs’ MWB and help to position entrepreneurs’ MWB more centrally in management and entrepreneurship research. It calls for researchers to go beyond applying models developed for employees to understand entrepreneurs. Instead, the findings point the way to developing a dedicated theory of entrepreneurial work and MWB that is dynamic, socialized, and open to considering context and acknowledges variability and fluidity across entrepreneurs’ life domains, as well as the centrality of work for entrepreneurs’ identity.
Moderate physical activity and its relationship to select measures of a healthy diet.

CONTEXT In rural communities, physical activity may influence and predict nutritional behaviors. PURPOSE The purpose of this investigation was to determine if an individual's stage of participation in moderate physical activity was related to select measures of a healthy diet. METHODS Data were collected using a mail-in survey from a random sample conducted in the rural/frontier communities of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. A total of 6 communities, 2 from each state, were surveyed with approximately 575 surveys sent to each community. The response rate was 51.5%. FINDINGS Regression analysis revealed that there was a significant difference (P < 05) in select measures of a healthy diet between those in the maintenance stage of moderate levels of physical activity (physically active for 6 months or more) and those in precontemplation (not currently active and with no intention of starting), contemplation (not currently active but considering starting within the next 6 months), and preparation (not currently active but taking steps to become active within the next 30 days). Those in maintenance had a healthier diet. Additionally, women, older people, those with at least some college education, and those who were employed had healthier diets. CONCLUSIONS These results lend preliminary support to the idea that moderate physical activity could act as a gateway behavior, a behavior that, if adopted, could lead to the adoption of other healthy behaviors. However, additional research is needed to confirm the nature, if any, of this relationship.
Price Fairness in the Era of the Sharing Economy

The meaning of price fairness in the sharing economy is examined in four experiments. The results suggest that the sharing economy evokes communal norms that make customers more sensitive to the unfairness of demand-based pricing. Specifically, the four studies demonstrate that (a) framing demand-based pricing as a surcharge is perceived as less fair than framing it as a foregone discount when used by a family on Airbnb but not when used by a hotel on Expedia or a hotel on Airbnb; (b) the effect of host (family vs. hotel) on the perceived fairness of surcharges is diminished when the surcharge is justified with an exchange good (free wifi service) but not when it is justified by a communal good (free cooking instruction); (c) the interaction of host by type of extra good on perceived price fairness is mediated by the activation of communal (vs. exchange) norms; and (d) the host-by-framing interaction has similar effects on booking intention as it does on perceived price fairness.
Tolerance to Cyclosporin A-Induced Autologous Graft-Versus-Host Disease Is Mediated by a CD4+CD25+ Subset of Recent Thymic Emigrants1

Our previous studies revealed that both the autoeffector and immunoregulatory T cells in cyclosporin A (CSA)-induced autologous graft-vs-host disease are recent thymic emigrants (RTEs). The autoeffector cells appear in and are released from the thymus during the first week of CSA treatment, whereas the immunoregulatory thymocytes appear during the second week but are not released until several days after cessation of CSA treatment. In the present study, the antigenic phenotypes of these functional T cell subsets were determined by immunomagnetic separation and flow immunocytometric analysis. During CSA wk 1, the autoeffector T cells in both the thymus and lymph node (LN) expressed a CD4+8+ double-positive (DP) phenotype, after which those in the LN became CD8 single positive (SP). Timed thymectomy experiments confirmed that the CD8-SP autoeffector T cells in LN originated from these DP RTEs. During CSA wk 2, the immunoregulatory thymocytes also displayed a DP phenotype. However, they were not exported to the periphery until several days after CSA treatment had been interrupted and they had acquired a CD4-SP phenotype. In LN, these immunoregulatory RTEs expressed the CD25+ marker characteristic of anergic/suppressor T cells. Cell separation and mixing experiments demonstrated that the autoeffector T cells persist in LN after cessation of CSA treatment, but their activity is not detectable in the presence of recently exported CD4+ T cells. Hence, the results indicate that tolerance to CSA-induced autologous graft-vs-host disease is actively mediated by CD25+CD4+ RTEs that suppress the function of CD8 autoeffector T cells.
Genetics and Virulence Association of the Shigella flexneri Sit Iron Transport System

ABSTRACT The sit-encoded iron transport system is present within pathogenicity islands in all Shigella spp. and some pathogenic Escherichia coli strains. The islands contain numerous insertion elements and sequences with homology to bacteriophage genes. The Shigella flexneri sit genes can be lost as a result of deletion within the island. The formation of deletions was dependent upon RecA and occurred at relatively high frequency. This suggests that the sit region is inherently unstable, yet sit genes are maintained in all of the clinical isolates tested. Characterization of the sitABCD genes in S. flexneri indicates that they encode a ferrous iron transport system, although the genes are induced aerobically. The sit genes provide a competitive advantage to S. flexneri growing within epithelial cells, and a sitA mutant is outcompeted by the wild type in cultured epithelial cells. The Sit system is also required for virulence in a mouse lung model. The sitA mutant was able to infect the mice and induce a protective immune response but was avirulent compared to its wild-type parent strain.
Robust bifurcation analysis based on the Nyquist stability criterion

In this paper, we propose a novel method for robust bifurcation analysis of systems with dynamic uncertainties. First, we formulate a robust bifurcation analysis problem for parameter-dependent systems with norm-bounded uncertainties. Next, to solve this problem, we define a new concept of robust hyperbolicity of an equilibrium that for any uncertainty an uncertain linear system has no neutral pole and the number of unstable poles is constant. A necessary and sufficient condition for the robust hyperbolicity is derived from the Nyquist stability criterion. On the basis of the condition, we propose a method for identifying the region that consists of all potential bifurcation boundaries. Finally, robustness of a gene-metabolic oscillator with dynamic uncertainties is investigated by using the proposed method.
Genetic Variation of the Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycan Gene (Perlecan Gene): Association With Urinary Albumin Excretion in IDDM Patients

Both in patients with IDDM (1) and in healthy control subjects (2,3), increased urinary albumin excretion rate (AER) is associated with high relative morbidity and mortality. In IDDM patients, genetic susceptibility factors are most likely contributing to an increased AER (4,5) resulting in a cumulative incidence of nephropathy (AER >300 mg/24 h) of -30% (6). So far, candidate genes, proposed as susceptibility markers linked to abnormal albuminuria, have been identified because of the knowledge of pathophysiological events related to diabetic nephropathy. Heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG, i.e., Perlecan) constitutes an integrated part of the glomerular basement membrane. It consists of a central core protein to which anionie sulfated polysaccharide chains (heparan sulfate [HS]) are linked (7), thus contributing to the negative charge of the glomerular filtration barrier and thereby indirectly to the composition of the glomerular filtration product (8,9). In IDDM patients, it has been demonstrated that increased AER is reduced by the administration of heparin (10) most likely because of a stimulating effect on the HS synthesis (11).
What is New? The Role of Asymmetry and Breaks in Oil Price–Output Growth Volatility Nexus

This study examines the role of asymmetry and breaks in oil price&#8211;output growth volatility nexus. A representative of 10 countries was selected from net oil&#8208;exporting and&#8208;importing economies for the period 1986&#8211;2017. It is hypothesised that countries respond differently to changes in oil price. To prove this point, we use the recent nonlinear ARDL of Shin et&#160;al. ([Shin, Y., 2014]), based on the framework of the dynamic common correlated effect of the heterogeneous panel of Chudik and Pesaran ([Chudik, A., 2015]), to decompose oil price into positive and negative partial sums. Our results show that without accounting for breaks, asymmetry only matters for net oil exporters in both short&#8208; and long run. However, accounting for breaks expanded the importance of asymmetry to net oil importers (in the short run). These results are robust to changes in the measures of oil price and growth volatility.
Office-Based Treatment of Laryngeal Papillomatosis with Percutaneous Injection of Cidofovir

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to report our experience with office-based treatment of severe laryngeal papillomatosis with percutaneous injection of cidofovir in a case series of 5 patients. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: We conducted a retrospective review of a case series in a tertiary academic care voice disorders clinic. Adult patients with papillomas of the vocal cords and anterior commissure received percutaneous injection using a point-touch technique. Clinical improvement or remission of the papillomatosis was noted. RESULTS: Before initiation of office treatments, patients required direct laryngoscopy and CO2 laser ablation of papillomas on average every 2.8 months. There were no complications related to the injection technique. During a treatment period of 7 to 16 months (mean 12 months), a significant reduction in the volume of papillomatosis was achieved in all patients. One patient received 2 treatments and another received 1 treatment in the operating room for final clearance of papillomas. CONCLUSION: Office-based treatment of adult patients with anterior laryngeal papillomatosis using percutaneous injection of cidofovir reduces the need for repeated direct laryngoscopy and laser ablation under general anesthesia. SIGNIFICANCE: Percutaneous injection treatment with cidofovir is a useful adjunct to direct laryngoscopy and laser ablation in the treatment of laryngeal papillomatosis.
Midsole Material-Related Force Control During Heel–Toe Running

The impact maximum and rearfoot eversion have been used as indicators of load on internal structures in running. The midsole hardness of a typical running shoe was varied systematically to determine the relationship between external ground reaction force (GRF), in-shoe force, and kinematic variables. Eight subjects were tested during overground running at 4 m/s. Rearfoot movement as well as in-shoe forces and external GRF varied nonsystematically with midsole hardness. Kinematic parameters such as knee flexion and foot velocity at touch-down (TD), also varied nonsystematically with altered midsole hardness. Results demonstrate that considerable variations of in-shoe loading occur that were not depicted by external GRF measurements alone. Individuals apparently use different strategies of mechanical and neuromuscular adaptation in response to footwear modifications. In conclusion, shoe design effects on impact forces or other factors relating to injuries depend on the individual and therefore cannot be generalized.