Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Downregulation of osteopontin contributes to metastasis suppression by breast cancer metastasis suppressor 1

Breast cancer metastasis suppressor 1 (BRMS1) inhibits the ability of multiple human and murine cancer cell lines to metastasize to lymph nodes, bones and lungs. Comparison of mRNA expression in metastatic MDA‐MB‐435 human carcinoma cells (435) and metastasis‐suppressed BRMS1 transfectants (435/BRMS1) showed a marked (>90%) reduction of osteopontin (OPN) mRNA and protein expression in BRMS1‐overexpressing cells. OPN expression is associated with disease progression in patients, with higher levels of OPN produced by cancer cells associated with poorer patient survival. Furthermore, OPN has been suggested to promote survival of cancer cells in response to stress, although the mechanisms by which this may occur remain poorly understood. This study tested the hypothesis that re‐expression of OPN in metastasis‐suppressed 435/BRMS1 cells would reverse metastasis suppression and confer protection from stress‐induced apoptosis. A stable pooled population of OPN overexpressing 435/BRMS1 cells was created (435/BRMS1/OPN). OPN re‐expression did not affect in vitro cell growth rates; however, increased anchorage independent growth/survival and protection from hypoxia‐induced apoptosis was observed (p < 0.05). In vivo, OPN re‐expression in BRMS1 transfected cells did not affect in vivo primary tumor growth but did increase the incidence of spontaneous metastasis to lymph nodes and lungs in mice. These novel findings suggest that OPN downregulation by BRMS1 may be responsible, at least in part, for BRMS1‐mediated metastasis suppression by sensitizing cancer cells to stress induced apoptosis. These studies clarify one mechanism by which BRMS1 can suppress metastasis. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparison of Haematologial and Biochemical indices in healthy and Monogenean infected Common Carp, Cyprinus carpio

The present investigation was carried out to compare the haematological and biochemical parameters in healthy and Monogenean infected Cyprinus carpio. The haematological analysis showed significant reduction (P<0.01) in RBC, haemoglobin, haematocrit (PCV) and lymphocyte in monogenean infected fishes, whereas total leucocyte count (TLC), neutrophils, eosinophils and monocytes significantly increased (P<0.01 and P<0.05) in infected test fish. The biochemical analysis showed significant reduction (P<0.01) in bilirubin content and blood glucose, SGOT and SGPT were significantly increased in the same test fish.
Impact of intradialytic exercise on arterial compliance and B‐type natriuretic peptide levels in hemodialysis patients

Cardiovascular (CV) disease is the most common cause of mortality in end‐stage kidney disease (ESKD), and arterial stiffness, measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV), is an independent predictor of all‐cause and CV mortality. B‐type natriuretic peptide (BNP) levels are high in patients with CV disease and ESKD, and increases in BNP may also be a marker of CV risk. Regular exercise has many benefits on quality of life and physical strength and may also improve CV risk, but few studies have addressed the impact of exercise on CV risk in ESKD. We performed a prospective cross‐over trial in 19 hemodialysis (HD) patients to assess the impact of regular exercise on surrogate markers of CV risk‐arterial compliance and BNP levels. Exercise involved the use of a bicycle ergometer for minimum 30 min at each HD session for 3 months, with a 1‐month washout period. Group A (n=9) exercised for the first 3 months only, while group B (n=10) performed no intradialytic exercise initially and exercised for 3 months at cross‐over (month 4). Pulse wave velocity was performed using a SphygmoCor device, with concurrent measurements of BNP and other serum markers, at the commencement of the study, at 3 months, and on completion. The mean PWV (A: 10.4±3.1 m/s, B: 9.8±3.8 at baseline) showed a trend toward improvement with exercise (A: 8.7±2.7, p=0.07), and no significant change without (B: 10.5±3.6, p=0.31). After cross‐over, there was an increase in PWV in group A with cessation of exercise (9.75±2.4, p=0.01 vs. 3 months) and an improvement in group B with exercise (9.33±2.3, p=0.11 vs. 3 months). When comparing PWV after 3 months of exercise vs. 3 months of no exercise (paired t test), there was a significant difference in favor of exercise (9.04±0.59 vs. 10.16±0.74, p=0.008). The mean BNP levels following 3 months of exercise were also lower than those after 3 months of no exercise (504.4±101.2 vs. 809.4±196.1[N<100], p=0.047). There was an overall improvement in PWV, and to a lesser extent BNP levels, with 3 months of intradialytic exercise compared with no exercise, suggesting that regular exercise in ESKD may be associated with improvements in arterial compliance and a reduction in CV risk.
Dyspnea sensation and chemical control of breathing in adult twins.

To examine possible genetic influence on the sensation of dyspnea and on load compensation, we conducted a twin study using healthy adult pairs (10 monozygotes, MZ, and 9 dizygotes, DZ). The ventilatory response to progressive hypercapnia (HCVR) was examined under three different conditions: hyperoxia (PETO2 > 150 mm Hg), hypoxia (PETO2 maintained at 50 to 55 mm Hg), and hyperoxia with an inspiratory flow-resistive load (17 mm H2O/L/s), with simultaneous assessment of the dyspnea sensation by visual analog scale (VAS). Although the VDZ/VMZ ratio (VMZ and VDZ are within-pair variances in MZ and DZ, respectively) for the slope value of the minute ventilation-PETCO2 regression line was not different from 1 in hyperoxia either with or without an inspiratory load, it was significantly larger than 1 in hypoxia (F = 5.17, p < 0.05), suggesting that a genetic influence on HCVR existed only in the presence of hypoxia. During 3% CO2 inhalation, the VDZ/VMZ ratio for the tidal volume (VT) was larger than 1 in hyperoxic HCVR with loading (F = 7.89, p < 0.01), and that for respiratory frequency (f) was larger than 1 only in hypoxic HCVR (F = 3.59, p < 0.05). At a PETCO2 of 55 mm Hg, the VT ratio was larger than 1 under all conditions (F = 5.91, p < 0.05; F = 6.99, p < 0.05; F = 3.75, p < 0.05; respectively), and the f ratio was significantly larger than 1 again only in hypoxic HCVR (F = 3.48, p < 0.05). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
An observational cohort study on pre-operative investigations and referrals: How far are we following recommendations?

Background and Aims: Pre-operative investigations are often required to supplement information for risk stratification and assessing reserve for undergoing surgery. Although there are evidence-based recommendations for which investigations should be done, clinical practice varies. The present study aimed to assess the pre-operative investigations and referral practices and compare it with the standard guidelines. Methods: The present observational study was carried out during 2014-2015 in a teaching institute after the approval from Institute Ethical Committee. A designated anaesthesiologist collected data from the completed pre-anaesthetic check-up (PAC) sheets. Investigations already done, asked by anaesthesiologists as well as referral services sought were noted and compared with an adapted master table prepared from standard recommendations and guidelines. Data were expressed in frequencies, percentage and statistically analysed using INSTAT software (GraphPad Prism software Inc., La Zolla, USA). Results: Seventy-five out of 352 patients (42.67% male, 57.33% female; American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I to III) were included in this study. Nearly, all patients attended PAC with at least 5 investigations done. Of them, 89.33% were subjected to at least one unnecessary investigation and 91.67% of the referral services were not required which lead to 3.5 ( SD ±1.64) days loss. Anaesthesiologist-ordered testing was more focused than surgeons. Conclusion: More than two-third of pre-operative investigations and referral services are unnecessary. Anaesthesiologists are relatively more rational in ordering pre-operative tests yet; a lot can be done to rationalise the practice as well as reducing healthcare cost.
On the Effective Use of Pretraining for Natural Language Inference

Neural networks have excelled at many NLP tasks, but there remain open questions about the performance of pretrained distributed word representations and their interaction with weight initialization and other hyperparameters. We address these questions empirically using attention-based sequence-to-sequence models for natural language inference (NLI). Specifically, we compare three types of embeddings: random, pretrained (GloVe, word2vec), and retrofitted (pretrained plus WordNet information). We show that pretrained embeddings outperform both random and retrofitted ones in a large NLI corpus. Further experiments on more controlled data sets shed light on the contexts for which retrofitted embeddings can be useful. We also explore two principled approaches to initializing the rest of the model parameters, Gaussian and orthogonal, showing that the latter yields gains of up to 2.9% in the NLI task.
Validation the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14sp) for adults in Spain.

OBJECTIVES The oral health-related quality of life indicators are increasingly used to measure the impact of oral conditions on quality of life to complement clinical data in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. One of the most internationally spread indicators is the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-14), but it has still never been applied in Spain. The aim of this study was to validate the OHIP-14 for use among adults in Spain. STUDY DESIGN A cross-sectional study was performed in Granada (Spain). A consecutive sample (n=270) of the Regional Government staff visiting the Employment Risk Prevention Centre for a routine medical check-up participated in this study. All participants self-completed the piloted OHIP-14sp and were examined according to World Health Organization methodology for caries, periodontal disease and prosthesis. Reliability analyses and validity tests were carried out to evaluate the psychometric properties of the OHIP-14sp by using two different methods of total scoring (i.e. the Additive and the Simple Count). RESULTS The reliability coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) of the OHIP-14sp was above the recommended 0.7 threshold and considered excellent (alpha: 0.89). Some subjective factors (perceived dental treatment need, complaints about mouth and self-rated oral satisfaction) were strongly associated with both total scoring methods of the OHIP-14sp, supporting the criterion, construct and convergent validity. Moreover the impact levels were mainly influenced by caries data, e.g., number of teeth requiring extraction (r = 0.21; p<0.01) and number of decayed visible teeth (between premolars) (r = 0.17; p<0.01). The prevalence of impacts was 80.7% using the occasional or more frequently threshold. The most prevalently affected OHIP domains were "psychological discomfort" (53.7%), "functional limitation" (51.1%) and "physical pain" (42.2%). CONCLUSIONS The OHIP-14sp is a precise, valid and reliable instrument for assessing oral health-related quality of life among adult population in Spain.
ERP Systems Implementation: a Knowledge-focused Perspective

The growing number of firms adopting ERP systems demonstrates the increasing dependency of organizations on new information and communication technology to improve the efficiency and quality of their decision-making. Because the appropriation of such complex technologies is difficult, it is important to understand the processes involved in successful implementation. By focusing on processes of knowledge sharing and knowledge integration, this study explores the dynamics of ERP implementation and appropriation based on the empirical findings from two case studies. The research findings highlight the need for firms to take into account the impact of ERP systems on supplier relationships, to ensure that there is clearly defined information and project ownership to overcome user resistance (which may be due to lack of commitment or time), and to obtain the continuous support from top management. The research extends previous studies of technology implementation and appropriation, and supports the employment of a knowledge-focused perspective as an effective lens with which to explore the dynamics of technology implementation.
Localization of microfilaments during oocyte maturation of golden hamster

The localization and changes in microfilaments (MF) during golden hamster oocyte maturation were examined by an immunofluorescein method and confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). We also studied the relationship between the changes in MF and oocyte nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation. During in vivo maturation, generalized submembranous MF were found initially which gradually became more prominent at the site of the first polar body extrusion. However, 43.7% of the in vitro matured metaphase 2 stage oocytes lacked the submembranous MF structure. This fact may partly account for the low fertilization rate of in vitro matured oocytes. MF were not found in the folicular oocytes cultured in cytochalasin‐D‐containing medium, and metaphase‐like chromosomes were located at the center of the oocyte and first polar body extrusion did not occur. Twenty‐five percent of the oocytes, which were arrested at meiosis by hypoxanthine, synthesized submembranous MF structure although the nuclear stage of these oocytes was germinal vesicle. These facts suggest that MF plays a role in nuclear behavior but there are some differences in the changes taking place within the nucleus and MF. MF may play a role in oocyte cytoplasmic maturation although the details of this have yet to be established. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Multiple Attempters of Suicide Presenting at an Emergency Department

As part of a study involving seven hundred and forty-seven (747) consecutive cases of self-injury presenting at the emergency department of an inner city hospital, data pertaining to a multiple attempt group of ninety-nine subjects were compared with the data pertaining to first attempters. All subjects were rated on Beck's Lethality Scales, Intent Scale and Hopelessness Scale. In addition, a standard interview was conducted to provide psychosocial information. Of the total suicide attempt population, 14% can be considered chronic. The multiple attempters were found to show more chronicity in their symptomatology, poorer coping histories, a positive family history of suicidal behaviour and a positive history of alcohol and drug abuse, all at a statistically significant level compared with first-time attempters. The multiple attempters also tend to show higher lethality and depression ratings, less impulsiveness and are significantly more often admitted to the in-patient unit following the attempt, than first attempters. Their intent scores were significantly related to their sense of hopelessness, which may be a reflection of their basic feelings of inadequacy. It was concluded that the multiple or “chronic” attempter differed sufficiently from the first-time attempter to warrant special intervention strategies.
Legacies of recent environmental change in the benthic communities of Lake Joyce, a perennially ice‐covered Antarctic lake

Many Antarctic lakes provide habitat for extensive microbial mats that respond on various timescales to environmental change. Lake Joyce contains calcifying microbialites and provides a natural laboratory to constrain how environmental changes influence microbialite development. In Lake Joyce, depth‐specific distributions of calcitic microbialites, organic carbon, photosynthetic pigments and photosynthetic potential cannot be explained by current growth conditions, but are a legacy of a 7‐m lake level rise between 1973 and 2009. In the well‐illuminated margins of the lake, photosynthetically active benthic communities colonised surfaces submerged for just a few years. However, observed increases in accumulated organic material with depth from 5 to 20 m (2–40 mg ash‐free dry weight cm−2) and the presence of decimetre‐scale calcite microbialites at 20–22 m depth, apparently related to in situ photosynthetic growth, are inconsistent with the current distributions of irradiance, photosynthetic pigments and mat photosynthetic potential (as revealed by pulse‐amplitude‐modulated fluorometry). The microbialites appeared photosynthetically active in 1986 and 1997, but were outside the depth zone where significant phototrophic growth was possible and were weakly photosynthetically competent in 2009. These complex microbial structures have persisted after growth has ceased, demonstrating how fluctuating environmental conditions and the hysteresis between environmental change, biological response and microbialite development can be important factors to consider when interpreting modern, and by inference ancient, microbially mediated structures.
Embryo outcome in Y‐chromosome microdeleted infertile males after ICSI

A prospective study involving 118 infertile Japanese couples to assess the embryo outcomes in both azoospermic and oligoasthenoteratoazoospermic (OAT) patients with Y‐chromosome microdeletion. The men were divided into two groups; azoospermia (n = 27), and OAT, sperm concentration <5 × 106/ml (n = 91). They were investigated for Y‐chromosome microdeletions by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of the Y‐chromosome‐specific sequence tag site (STS). The embryo outcomes of patients found to have Y‐microdeletion were determined. The frequency of microdeletion was 8.8% (9) and two had microdeletions distal to DAZ. The mean fertilization rate and the cleavage rate in the eight cycles of both azoospermic and oligospermic patients were 59.3 and 87.5%, respectively. The percentages of grade 1 & 2 embryos, ≥6 cells embryos, and blastocyts were 51.7, 65.6, and 45.3%, respectively. Three pregnancies resulted from the eight cycles (37.5%). Conclusion: in Y‐chromosome microdeletion cycles in which sperm cells were available for intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), embryo outcome was comparable to conventional IVF. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 68: 176–181, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Assessment of instantaneous cardiovascular dynamics from video plethysmography

Although there is growing interest in estimating cardiovascular information using contactless video plethysmography (VP), an in-depth validation of time-varying, nonlinear dynamics of the related pulse rate variability is still missing. In this study we estimate the heartbeat through VP and standard ECG, and employ inhomogeneous point-process nonlinear models to assess instantaneous heart rate variability measures defined in the time, frequency, and bispectral domains. Experimental data were gathered from 60 young healthy subjects (age: 24±3 years) undergoing postural changes (rest-to-stand maneuver). Video recordings are processed using our recently proposed method based on zero-phase component analysis. Results show that, at a group level, there is an overall agreement between linear and nonlinear indices computed from ECG and VP during resting state conditions. However, significant differences are found, especially in the bispectral domain, when considering data gathered while standing. Although significant differences exist between cardiovascular estimates from VP and ECG, results can be considered very promising as instantaneous sympatho-vagal changes were correctly identified. More research is indeed needed to improve on the precise estimation of nonlinear sympatho-vagal interactions.
A Comparison Between Comprehensive System and an Early Version of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System Administration With Outpatient Children and Adolescents

For many years, the effects of variability in the length of Rorschach records has been debated, and a new administration procedure aimed at reducing the proportion of short and long records has recently been introduced. Using an outpatient sample of children and adolescents, this study explored the impact of an early version of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R–PAS) administration, on the central tendencies of Rorschach variables. Specifically, the mean values of 51 variables in 142 Comprehensive System versus 99 R–PAS collected records were compared with each other. Results found comparable mean values across CS and R–PAS administration methods for the variables that guide interpretation with children and adolescents. Both methods produced a comparable number of long (> 27 responses) records. The only relevant difference that emerged is that the early R–PAS administration version yielded significantly fewer short (14–16 responses) records and lower variability in the number of responses.
Preferences for Aggressive End-of-life Care and Their Determinants Among Taiwanese Terminally Ill Cancer Patients

Background: Studies on factors influencing preferences for aggressive end-of-life (EOL) care have focused predominantly on preferred goals of EOL and seldom comprehensively incorporate patients’ predisposing, enabling, and need factors into their analyses. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the determinants of preferences for a wide range of aggressive EOL care from the aforementioned factors. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted using a convenience sample of 2329 terminally ill cancer patients recruited from 23 hospitals throughout Taiwan. Results: Among these Taiwanese terminally ill cancer patients, 8.2% preferred prolonging life as their goal for EOL care. When combining those who wanted and those who were undecided as wanting that specific treatment, 27.9% preferred cardiopulmonary resuscitation when their life was in danger, and 36.0%, 27.3%, 24.3%, and 26.7% preferred to receive care at intensive care unit, cardiac massage, intubation, and mechanical ventilation support, respectively. Those at risk of preferring aggressive EOL care were men, younger than 45 years, married, diagnosed within 6 months, and with comorbidity and their physician had not accurately disclosed their prognosis or discussed EOL care issues to/with them. Conclusions: Few Taiwanese terminally ill cancer patients preferred to prolong life as their goal for EOL care, cardiopulmonary resuscitation when their life was in danger, and life-sustaining treatments at EOL. Preferences for aggressive EOL care are determined by patients’ predisposing, enabling, and need factors. Implications for Practice: Terminally ill cancer patients at risk of preferring aggressive EOL care should receive interventions to help them appropriately weigh the burdens and benefits of such aggressive treatments.