Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of Vitamin D supplementation in disease activity of systemic lupus erythematosus patients with Vitamin D deficiency: A randomized clinical trial

Background: The aim of this study was to check the effectiveness of Vitamin D supplementation on the disease activity of Vitamin D-deficient systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Materials and Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 45 Vitamin D-deficient SLE patients were studied in two groups, namely interventional and placebo groups. The interventional group patients were treated with Vitamin D (50,000 unit/weekly Vitamin D for 12 weeks and then 50,000 unit/monthly for 3 months) and placebo group patients were only administered the placebo. The level of Vitamin D and the level of disease activity using SLE disease activity index (SLEDAI) were measured before and after intervention period in each group, and for intra- and between-groups comparison, we used t-test and repeated measure ANOVA. Results: A total of 90 patients were enrolled in this study. The mean of Vitamin D was increased significantly after therapy in interventional group (17.36 ± 4.26 ng/ml vs. 37.69 ± 5.92 ng/ml, P < 0.001). The mean of Vitamin D had no significant difference before and after intervention in placebo group (16.78 ± 4.39 ng/ml vs. 16.62 ± 4.61 ng/ml, P = 0.53). The mean of disease activity (SLEDAI) was not different significantly before and after Vitamin D administration in interventional group (3.09 vs. 1.62 ± 1.25, P = 0.39). The mean of disease activity (SLEDAI) was not different significantly before and after intervention in placebo group (3.09 vs. 1.98 ± 2.47, P = 0.42). Conclusion: According to our study, it is suggested that using Vitamin D in patients with SLE could not have better outcomes in this regard. However, there are many unknown environmental or biological factors which are associated with the disease activity of SLE and have not been identified yet.
A unification of the prevalent views on exploitation, exploration, intensification and diversification

Terms such as exploitation, exploration, intensification and diversification are routinely employed in the metaheuristic literature to explain empirical runtime performance. Six prevalent views on exploitation and exploration are identified in the literature, each expressing a different aspect of these notions. The consistency and meaningfulness of these views are substantiated by their deducibility from the proposed novel definitions of exploitation and exploration, based on the hypothetical construct of a probable fitness landscape. This unifies, and thereby clarifies, the terminology and understanding of metaheuristics.
The Search for an Anti-Malarial Drug in the Indigenous Materia Medica

Casalpinia bonducella (N. 0. Leguminosae), commonly known as 1 bonduc nut' or ' fever nut' in English, as ' nata ' or ' natakranja ' in Bengali, and as ' katkaranj ' in Hindi, has long been known to the Hindu and Mohammedan physicians for its medicinal properties. The root, bark, leaves and the seeds have all been used in indigenous medicine, but the seeds or their yellowish-white kernels are generally considered as possessing well-marked anti-periodic properties, and are largely used by practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine in acute and chronic fevers as a substitute for quinine. For this purpose, the seeds or seed kernels are pounded with black pepper, and a dose varying from 5 to 30 grains is administered by mouth. In 1868, the seeds were made official in the Pharmacopoeia of India, a dose of 15 to 30 grains of the powdered seeds being recommended as a safe anti-pyretic, and their use was favourably reported upon by several medical officers. An investigation of the anti-malarial properties of these nuts was therefore undertaken with a view to finding out if there is any action in experimental and clinical malaria.
Risk factors for post-operative pulmonary complications after gastrectomy for gastric cancer.

BACKGROUND Post-operative pulmonary complications (PPCs) negatively affect patients' quality of life and can be life-threatening. Predictors of PPCs have been evaluated in patients who underwent various operations, but few studies have specifically focused on gastrectomy. METHODS We retrospectively studied 1,053 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent radical gastrectomy with lymphadenectomy in our hospital between 1999 and 2011. Post-operative pulmonary complications were defined as conditions such as pneumonia, macroscopic atelectasis, pneumothorax, and acute respiratory distress syndrome that developed within 30 d after surgery. We evaluated the relations between PPCs and pre-operative or intra-operative factors and assessed risk factors for PPCs after gastrectomy. RESULT A total of 49 (4.7%) patients had PPCs. On univariate analysis, PPCs were significantly associated with male gender (p=0.024), predicted vital capacity (VC) (p=0.020), a lower pre-operative serum albumin concentration (p=0.023), open surgery (p=0.007), total gastrectomy (p<0.001), combined resection of another organ (p=0.001), extended operating time (p<0.001), higher operative bleeding volume (p<0.001), intra-operative or post-operative blood transfusion (p=0.009), and pathologic tumor stage (p=0.003). On multivariable analysis, extended operating time (odds ratio [OR], 3.21, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.46-7.07; p=0.004), total gastrectomy (OR, 2.65, 95% CI 1.25-5.59; p=0.011) and predicted VC (OR, 2.42, 95% CI 1.01-5.85; p=0.049) were independent risk factors. These three factors also were independent risk factors for post-operative pneumonia (total gastrectomy OR, 2.64, 95% CI 1.32-5.30; p=0.006); extended operating time OR, 2.54, 95% CI 1.24-5.19; p=0.011; and predicted VC OR, 2.41, 95% CI 1.01-5.75; p=0.048). CONCLUSION Extended operating time, total gastrectomy, and predicted VC were independent predictors of PPCs, particularly pneumonia, in patients with gastric cancer who underwent gastrectomy. In patients with restrictive pulmonary dysfunction who are scheduled to undergo total gastrectomy, reduced lymphadenectomy or the avoidance of combined resection should be considered to shorten the operating time.
Typology of clinical course in bipolar disorder based on 18-month naturalistic follow-up

Background Individual variation in the clinical course of bipolar disorder may have prognostic and therapeutic implications but is poorly reflected in current classifications. We aimed to establish a typology of the individual clinical trajectories based on detailed prospective medium-term follow-up. Method Latent class analysis (LCA) of nine characteristics of clinical course (time depressed, severity of depression, stability of depression, time manic, severity of mania, stability of mania, mixed symptoms, mania-to-depression and depression-to-mania phase switching) derived from life charts prospectively tracking the onsets and offsets of (hypo)manic, depressive, mixed and subsyndromal episodes in a representative sample of 176 patients with bipolar disorder. Results The best-fitting model separated patients with bipolar disorder into large classes of episodic bipolar (47%) and depressive type (32%), moderately sized classes characterized by prolonged hypomanias (10%) and mixed episodes (5%) and five small classes with unusual course characteristics including mania-to-depression and depression-to-mania transitions and chronic mixed affective symptoms. This empirical typology is relatively independent of the distinction between bipolar disorder type I and type II. Lifetime co-morbidity of alcohol use disorders is characteristic of the episodic bipolar course type. Conclusions There is potential for a new typology of clinical course based on medium-term naturalistic follow-up of a representative clinical sample of patients with bipolar disorder. Predictive validity and stability over longer follow-up periods remain to be established.
The algorithmic neuroanatomy of action-outcome learning

Although it is well known that animals can encode the consequences of their actions and can use this information to control action selection and evaluation, it is not known what learning rules control action-outcome (AO) learning. Here we trained participants to encode specific AO associations whilst undergoing functional imaging (fMRI) and used computational modelling to evaluate competing models. This analysis revealed that a Kalman filter, which learned the unique causal effect of each action, best characterized AO learning and found the medial prefrontal cortex differentiated the unique effect of actions from background effects. We subsequently extended these findings to show that mPFC participated in a circuit with parietal cortex and caudate nucleus to segregate distinct contributions to AO learning. The results extend our understanding of goal-directed learning and demonstrate that sensitivity to the causal relationship between actions and outcomes guides goal-directed learning rather than contiguous state-action relations.
Phenotypic Landscape of Saccharomyces cerevisiae during Wine Fermentation: Evidence for Origin-Dependent Metabolic Traits

The species Saccharomyces cerevisiae includes natural strains, clinical isolates, and a large number of strains used in human activities. The aim of this work was to investigate how the adaptation to a broad range of ecological niches may have selectively shaped the yeast metabolic network to generate specific phenotypes. Using 72 S. cerevisiae strains collected from various sources, we provide, for the first time, a population-scale picture of the fermentative metabolic traits found in the S. cerevisiae species under wine making conditions. Considerable phenotypic variation was found suggesting that this yeast employs diverse metabolic strategies to face environmental constraints. Several groups of strains can be distinguished from the entire population on the basis of specific traits. Strains accustomed to growing in the presence of high sugar concentrations, such as wine yeasts and strains obtained from fruits, were able to achieve fermentation, whereas natural yeasts isolated from “poor-sugar” environments, such as oak trees or plants, were not. Commercial wine yeasts clearly appeared as a subset of vineyard isolates, and were mainly differentiated by their fermentative performances as well as their low acetate production. Overall, the emergence of the origin-dependent properties of the strains provides evidence for a phenotypic evolution driven by environmental constraints and/or human selection within S. cerevisiae.
DISTURBANCE INDUCES THE CONTRASTING EVOLUTION OF REINFORCEMENT AND DISPERSIVENESS IS DIRECTED AND RANDOM MOVERS

Abstract Spatial models commonly assume that dispersal rates are constant across individuals and environments and that movement directions are unbiased. These random‐movement assumptions are inadequate to capture the range of dispersal behaviors revealed in diverse case studies. We examine an alternative assumption of directed movement, in which dispersal is a conditional and directional response by individuals to varying environmental conditions. Specifically, we assume individuals bias their movements to climb spatial fitness gradients. We compare the consequences of random and directed movement for local adaptation, the evolution of dispersal, and the reinforcement process. The implications of each movement strategy depend on the nature of environmental disturbance, and we examine the outcomes for undisturbed environments and with uncorrelated and autocorrelated disturbances. Both movement strategies offer advantages over sedentary life histories by allowing colonization of suitable habitats. However, random movement eventually becomes costly in stable environments because it inhibits local adaptation. In contrast, directed movement accelerates local adaptation. In disturbed environments, random movement offers bet‐spreading advantages by distributing offspring across habitats. Despite being a more targeted strategy, an intermediate amount of directed movement provides similar bet‐spreading benefits. These fitness consequences have implications for the evolution of dispersal. Dispersiveness is lost by random movers in undisturbed environments, is maintained in polymorphism with infrequent disturbances, and evolves when disturbances are uncorrelated. Directed movement becomes selectively neutral in the absence of disturbance, evolves when disturbances are autocorrelated, and is maintained in polymorphism with uncorrelated disturbances. Disturbance also determines the outcome of the reinforcement process for each strategy. For example, directed movers show no progress toward reinforcement in undisturbed environments, evolve random mating with uncorrelated disturbances, and can evolve assortative mating in infrequently disturbed environments.
Spelling-to-sound correspondences affect acronym recognition processes

A large body of research has examined the factors that affect the speed with which words are recognized in lexical decision tasks. Nothing has yet been reported concerning the important factors in differentiating acronyms (e.g., BBC, HIV, NASA) from nonwords. It appears that this task poses little problem for skilled readers, in spite of the fact that acronyms have uncommon, even illegal, spellings in English. We used regression techniques to examine the role of a number of lexical and nonlexical variables known to be important in word processing in relation to lexical decision for acronym targets. Findings indicated that acronym recognition is affected by age of acquisition and imageability. In a departure from findings in word recognition, acronym recognition was not affected by frequency. Lexical decision responses for acronyms were also affected by the relationship between spelling and sound—a pattern not usually observed in word recognition. We argue that the complexity of acronym recognition means that the process draws phonological information in addition to semantics.
Role of Toll-Like Receptor 4 in Induction of Cell-Mediated Immunity and Resistance to Brucella abortus Infection in Mice

ABSTRACT Initial host defense to bacterial infection is executed by innate immunity, and therefore the main goal of this study was to examine the contribution of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) during Brucella abortus infection. CHO reporter cell lines transfected with CD14 and TLRs showed that B. abortus triggers both TLR2 and TLR4. In contrast, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and lipid A derived from Brucella rough (R) and smooth (S) strains activate CHO cells only through TLR4. Consistently, macrophages from C3H/HePas mice exposed to R and S strains and their LPS produced higher levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and interleukin-12 compared to C3H/HeJ, a TLR4 mutant mouse. The essential role of TLR4 for induction of proinflammatory cytokines was confirmed with diphosphoryl lipid A from Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Furthermore, to determine the contribution of TLR2 and TLR4 in bacterial clearance, numbers of Brucella were monitored in the spleen of C3H/HeJ, C3H/HePas, TLR2 knockout, and wild-type mice at 1, 3, and 6 weeks following B. abortus infection. Interestingly, murine brucellosis was markedly exacerbated at weeks 3 and 6 after infection in animals that lacked functional TLR4 (C3H/HeJ) compared to C3H/HePas that paralleled the reduced gamma interferon production by this mouse strain. Finally, by mass spectrometry analysis we found dramatic differences on the lipid A profiles of R and S strains. In fact, S lipid A was shown to be more active to trigger TLR4 than R lipid A in CHO cells and more effective in inducing dendritic cell maturation. In conclusion, these results indicate that TLR4 plays a role in resistance to B. abortus infection and that S lipid A has potent adjuvant activity.
In vitro antifungal activity of Cassia alata Linn. flower extract

The aqueous flower extract of Cassia alata Linn. (Family-Caesalpiniaceae) was investigated for antifungal activity by agar diffusion method against three distinct groups of fungi, viz. aflatoxin producing fungi, Aspergillus flavus (NCBT 101) and A. parasiticus (NCBT 128); plant pathogenic fungi, Fusarium oxysporum ( NCBT 156 ) and Helminthosporium oryzae (NCBT 165); and human pathogenic fungi Candida albicans (NCBT 140) and Microsporum audouinni (NCBT 173). Total inhibition (100%) of growth was seen at 10 and 15 mg/ml concentrations for aflatoxin producing fungal strains. Whereas for plant and human pathogenic fungi total inhibition was at 15mg/ml concentration. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of the extract varied from 5.75 to 8.00mg/ml for these fungi. Thus, aqueous flower extract of C. alata can be used as a potential antifungal agent for these three varied groups of fungi.
FOETAL‐MATERNAL TRANSFUSION AND RHESUS SENSITIZATION

LEVINE (1941) suggested that maternal rhesus sensitization depended upon the passage of “a sufficient number” of foetal erythrocytes into the maternal circulation. Since then additional supporting evidence has accumulated. (1) Rhesus antigens have been demonstrated only in red cells (with the possible exception of sperms) and cannot be dissociated from the structure of the cell (Lawler and Shatwell, 1962; Walker and Bailey, 1956). (2) Foetal red cells have frequently been demonstrated in the maternal circulation during normal pregnancies even as early as the 13th week of gestation (Cohen, Zuelzer, Gustafson and Evans, 1964). (3) The risk of maternal rhesus sensitization is increased when there are abnormalities of pregnancy or labour that could lead to disturbance of the chorio-decidual junction (Knox, Murray and Walker, 1961). (4) Foetal-maternal ABO incompatibility protects against rhesus sensitization and, as ABO antibodies do not usually cross the placenta, this suggests that incompatible foetal cells entering the mother are rapidly destroyed or otherwise altered so as to render them antigenic (Finn et al., 1961, 1963). Experiments in male volunteers (Stern et al., 1956; Finn et al., 1961, 1963; Freda et al., 1964; Woodrow et al., 1965) have shown that ABO and rhesus specific antibodies both destroy transfused cells and reduce the risk of sensitization, but it is not established whether the second effect is a consequence of the first. Therefore, it cannot be assumed that the removal of foetal erythrocytes from the maternal circulation will necessarily protect against sensitization. Currently experiments are being carried out to determine whether the injection of rhesus antibody y-globulin to the mother either during pregnancy or shortly after delivery will prevent sensitization to the rhesus antigen. Even if it proved to be effective the implementation of this method on a national scale presents formidable problems. One infant in ten is the rhesus positive infant of an rhesus negative mother, and even allowing for the fact that one fifth are “protected” by reason of ABO heterospecificity there remain 80,000 pregnancies at risk in England and Wales every year. Moreover, the repeated injection of y-globulin with successive pregnancies may carry some danger (Ivanyi et al., 1963). It is therefore important to determine what factors initiate iso-immunization in order that “protection” may be reserved for patients exposed to a particularly high risk or, if the present trials prove inconclusive, will improve the efficiency of new trial designs. It may transpire that the events precipitating sensitization are directly preventable. The present study was therefore undertaken to assess the frequency and quantity of foetalmaternal bleeding in normal pregnancies and in a vaiiety of circumstances which have previously been shown to be associated with rhesus sensitization (Knox, Murray and Walker, 1961). In assessing foetal-maternal bleeding there is also a technical problem. The most convenient method of recognizing foetal cells in the maternal
[Thiopurine methyltransferase activity in inflammatory bowel disease. A study on 7046 Spanish patients].

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Our objective was to assess the activity of thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) in a very large number of Spanish patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), to evaluate the influence of several variables (including azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine) on that activity, and to know the proportion of patients with low TPMT activity and therefore high risk of myelotoxicity when treated with these drugs. PATIENTS AND METHOD TPMT activity in red blood cells (RBCs) was measured by a radiochemical method. The association between several variables and TPMT values was assessed by multiple lineal regression. RESULTS 7046 patients were included (mean age: 37 years; 53% males): 70% with Crohn's disease, 22% with ulcerative colitis, and 8% with indeterminate colitis. Mean TPMT value was 20 (6) U/ml RBCs (minimum 0 and maximum 46). TPMT activity distribution was as follows: low levels (< 5 U/ml), 0.5%; intermediate (5-13.7), 11.1%; and high (> or = 13.8), 88.4%. TPMT values did not follow a normal distribution (p < 0.001). In the univariate study, statistically significant differences (p < 0.001), yet of doubtly clinical significance because its minimal magnitude, were demonstrated in TPMT values depending on age, sex, type of disease, and treatment with azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine. In the multivariate study, the variables associated with TPMT activity were: sex, treatment with 5-aminosalicylates, steroids and azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that 0.5% of the Spanish patients with IBD have low TPMT activity (< 5 U/ml RBCs), a figure similar to that reported in other countries, these patients being at higher risk of myelotoxicity when treated with azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine. The drugs usually prescribed for the treatment of IBD, including 5-aminosalicylates and azathioprine/6-mercaptopurine, do not seem to modify in a clinically relevant manner TPMT activity.
The Theoretical Relationships Among Foreign Direct Investments, Migration and IFRS Adoption

The globalization of the world economy is accompanied by changes in volume and structure of international trade, capital flows and human migration. The paper focuses on theoretical aspects of recent changes in the area of international harmonization of accounting through the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), migration and foreign direct investments with the emphasis on their mutual interdependencies.