Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spontaneous mammary carcinomas fail to induce an immune response in syngeneic FVBN202 neu transgenic mice

FVBN202 mice, which are transgenic for the rat neu gene, spontaneously develop mammary carcinomas between 6 and 7 months of age. We investigated whether these spontaneous tumors (spontaneous breast carcinoma cells, SBCC) could elicit an immune response in naive 6‐ to 8‐week‐old FVBN202 transgenic and FVBN nontransgenic mice. After s.c. injection of SBCC, the recently activated T cells, which were identified by their reduced expression of CD62L (L‐selectin), were isolated from the draining lymph nodes, expanded with anti‐CD3 and IL‐2, and their cytokine response to tumor cells in vitro was analyzed. Tumor‐vaccine draining lymph node lymphocytes (TVDLN) from transgenic mice failed to make IFN‐γ in response to the tumor cells. However, TVDLN from the nontransgenic mice exhibited a tumor‐specific IFN‐γ response against the SBCC. This indicates that the SBCC are immunogenic. The lack of response in transgenic mice could not be attributed to cytokine immune deviation or T‐cell signaling defects. Although transgenic mice were tolerant to their own tumors, their immune competence was established by their ability to respond in an allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction, to reject an allogeneic breast carcinoma cell line, and to produce a tumor‐specific IFN‐γ response against a syngeneic cancer cell line. This transgenic mouse model provides the opportunity to investigate the immune response against a primary tumor cell culture rather than cell lines or clones and should prove useful for developing immunotherapies that overcome tolerance to self‐tumor antigens. Int. J. Cancer 87:688–694, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Signaling pathways of PDZ2 domain: A molecular dynamics interaction correlation analysis

PDZ domains are found in many signaling proteins. One of their functions is to provide scaffolds for forming membrane‐associated protein complexes by binding to the carboxyl termini of their partners. PDZ domains are thought also to play a signal transduction role by propagating the information that binding has occurred to remote sites. In this study, a molecular dynamics (MD) simulation‐based approach, referred to as an interaction correlation analysis, is applied to the PDZ2 domain to identify the possible signal transduction pathways. A residue correlation matrix is constructed from the interaction energy correlations between all residue pairs obtained from the MD simulations. Two continuous interaction pathways, starting at the ligand binding pocket, are identified by a hierarchical clustering analysis of the residue correlation matrix. One pathway is mainly localized at the N‐terminal side of helix α1 and the adjacent C‐terminus of loop β1‐β2. The other pathway is perpendicular to the central β‐sheet and extends toward the side of PDZ2 domain opposite to the ligand binding pocket. The results complement previous studies based on multiple sequence analysis, NMR, and MD simulations. Importantly, they reveal the energetic origin of the long‐range coupling. The PDZ2 results, as well as the earlier rhodopsin analysis, show that the interaction correlation analysis is a robust approach for determining pathways of intramolecular signal transduction. Proteins 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Amino Acid Profile of Escaped Feed Protein After Rumen Incubation and Their Intestinal Digestibility

The crude protein content and amino acid profile of seven feedstuffs (linseed meal, maize gluten meal, rapeseed meal, rapeseed meal protected, soybean meal, fullfat soybean extruded and sunflower meal) were determined before and after ruminal incubation for 16h in three bulls with large rumen cannulas. The intestinal disappearance of amino acids was measured using mobile bag technique. Ruminal incubation affected amino acid profile of all experimental feedstuffs. Crude protein degradation varied from 29.3% for maize gluten meal to 86.4% for rapeseed meal. A tendency towards increased disappearance was observed for glutamic acid, histidine, lysine and proline and decreased disappearance for branched-chain amino acids. The intestinal crude protein digestibility was higher than >80%, except rapeseed meal (66.4%) and sunflower meal (77.8%). The least digestible individual amino acids were methionine and isoleucine in rapeseed meal, histidine and methionine in rapeseed meal protected and arginine in sunflower meal. In general, the lowest amino acid digestibilities were found in feedstuffs with the highest fibre content. The feedstuffs show that they have different potential for supplying of limiting amino acids. Of particular value are the feedstuffs with low crude protein degradability in the rumen and high intestinal digestibility of amino acids.
Influence of Environmental Policy and Market Forces on Coal-fired Power Plants : Evidence on the Dutch Market over 2006-2014

Many governments aim to reduce the dependence on coal-fired generation to decrease carbon emissions. At the same time power markets have been created leaving the actual decisions concerning electricity production to power firms. This paper analyzes the interaction between environmental policies and policies to foster energy markets. Using hourly plant-level data on the Dutch power market over 2006-2014, we find that the dispatch of fossil-fuel power plants is strongly influenced by relative fuel prices, despite the existence of several environmental policy measures. Coal-fired power plants have become more important in the Dutch market since 2006, not only in share of total production, but also as provider of flexibility. Examining the short-term dispatch decisions and the past volatility in relative fuel prices, a CO2 price above approximately 40 euro/ton is required to provide robust incentives for power producers to dispatch a gas-fired plant instead of a coal-fired plant. We conclude that internalizing the external (CO2) costs by raising the CO2 price is the appropriate measure to align the principles of a market-based power industry and the wish to implement effective climate-policy measures at relatively low costs.
The Structural Imaging Characteristics and Its Clinical Relevance in Patients with Cerebral Venous Thrombosis—A Retrospective Analysis from One Single Center in China

Background Few studies have investigated structural imaging findings of cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT) in China. The structural imaging [head computed tomography (CT) and routine brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)] can assess any parenchymal lesion secondary to the venous thrombosis and reveal direct signs of intraluminal thrombus. In recent years, many patients can be diagnosed with CVT more rapidly and directly by structural imaging. The aim of the present study is to determine the performance of structural imaging in the diagnosis and outcome of CVT in a large cohort single center of Chinese patients. Methods We evaluated consecutive patients admitted to our hospital with CVT receiving structural imaging from 1991 to 2015. A neuroradiologist, blinded to clinical data, independently reviewed the structural imaging, including head CT and routine MRI for parenchymal lesions and signs of dural venous sinus thrombosis, as well as the MRV/DSA findings. The Clinical and laboratory data were reviewed and recorded for further analysis. Results 117 patients were included in this study, 68 (58.1%) were females. Parenchymal lesions were identified in 56.4% (66/117) of the patients on structural imaging, including focal edema in 30.8%, hemorrhage in 19.7%, and brain swelling in 4.3% of the patients. Patients with parenchymal lesions presented with more often seizures (P < 0.001) and less often headache (P = 0.049). Intraluminal thrombus within the sinuses or veins on structural imaging was found in 28.2% (33/117) of the patients. Patients with both intraluminal thrombus and parenchymal lesions on structural imaging had more acute onset (P = 0.01) and present more consciousness disturbance (P = 0.007). Conclusion Intracranial lesions on structural imaging are frequently found in patients with CVT. Patients with parenchymal lesions on structural imaging, especially with intraluminal thrombus simultaneously, tend to have a severe clinical picture and might lead to a devastating or fatal outcome. Structural imaging may help on early diagnosis and predict the poor outcome of CVT.
Effect of potential remineralizing agents on acid softened enamel.

PURPOSE To assess whether pastes containing casein phosphopeptide-amorphous calcium phosphate (CPP-ACP) and calcium sodium phosphosilicate (CSP) protect acid softened enamel against further erosive episodes. METHODS Enamel slabs of bovine teeth with preformed erosion-like lesions were randomly assigned to five treatment groups (n = 15): A) CPP-ACP (MI Paste, GC America); B) CPP-ACP+Fluoride (CPP-ACP+F, MI Plus Paste, GC America); C) CSP (Tooth Revitalizing Paste, Oravive); D) fluoridated dentifrice (FD, Sensodyne Cool Gel, GSK); E) control (CO, unexposed to any product). Paste treatments (1:3 slurry in deionized water or undiluted product in the case of the CPP-ACP formulae) were performed between five cycles of alternating erosive challenge (0.3% citric acid, pH = 3.2) and remineralization in artificial saliva. Specimens were analyzed by Knoop surface microhardness (SMH). RESULTS ANOVA indicated a significant (P< 0.0001) difference among the SMH values attained by acid softened enamel following the exposure to the pastes interspersed with erosion-remineralization cycles. Tukey's test ascertained that SMH values observed for the CPP-ACP+F and CSP groups did not differ from that of FD group, which were significantly higher than that found for the CO group. Specimens treated with CPP-ACP did not differ from any of the other groups.
Developmental mechanisms underlying pathology of arteries.

This review tries to provide a general, and very speculative, view of growth control mechanisms that may be common to the development of blood vessels and to pathological processes including cell proliferation. From a developmental point of view, vascular growth is most likely to include local autocrine or paracrine mechanisms that permit the two cells of the vessel wall to grow, organize into the characteristic tubular and layered structures of the vessel wall, and eventually achieve a return to quiescence. The "real" mechanisms controlling growth in vivo are difficult to ascertain from studies in culture. For example, a large list of angiogenesis molecules must be able to generate endothelial replication, but in culture many of these molecules are inhibitory for each endothelial replication. Similarly, in culture, we have a long list of smooth muscle mitogens, but none of these have as of yet been proven to control smooth muscle growth in vivo. Endothelial growth control has been attributed to the presence of membrane molecules able to inhibit endothelial replication and to the actions of soluble growth factors and their receptors. Unfortunately for the former hypothesis we still lack specific molecules with the properties of contact inhibition of replication. The data discussed here, however, suggest that modulation of expression or function of cell-cell adhesive molecules could be critical both to morphogenic changes and to mitogenesis by release of cells from cell-cell contact. Moreover, our data and data from other laboratories suggest that angiogenic factors, including the HBGFs and TGF-beta, may function in angiogenesis by altering cell-cell and cell-cell substrate interactions rather than via a primary effect on cell replication. This view of angiogenesis is consistent with the absence of a mitogenic effect of some angiogenic factors. Although endothelial cell replication is obviously necessary to angiogenesis, the lack of mitogenic effect of some factors suggests a need for a more general explanation of the actions of angiogenic factors. Endothelial injury may be interrelated with smooth muscle growth. The simplest possibility is that a failure of the endothelial cell barrier function, due either to denudation or an increase in adhesivity for leukocytes, would permit access of platelets or leukocytes to the vessel wall. These extrinsic cells, in turn, would stimulate smooth muscle cell replication by release of growth factors. The second possibility is that the endothelial cell may itself release growth factors into the vessel wall. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Health‐related anxiety and the effect of open‐access endoscopy in US patients with dyspepsia

Background : The role of endoscopy in dyspepsia is the subject of debate. The detection of lesions is infrequent, but patients may benefit from the knowledge that the examination is normal. We sought to determine the prevalence of health‐related anxiety in dyspeptic patients referred for open‐access endoscopy and to investigate the effect of endoscopy on health‐related anxiety.
When the Future's Uncertain and the End is Near - Assessing the Impact of Oil Price Shocks on Regime Survival

This thesis will assess the impact of oil price shocks on regime survival. A large body of research into the inner workings of the «rentier states» finds oil dependency to cause political decay, low economic growth, and unstable regime configurations. Other studies find economic di culties and crises to be a clear determinant for regime failure. The combined insights from these two fields of study suggest that oil price shocks should exert a negative e ect on regime survival for oil producing
Focus on communication: increasing the opportunity for successful staff-patient interactions.

OBJECTIVES This study reports on a pilot study examining the feasibility of a Patient-Centred Communication Intervention. Aims of this study include: assessing the implementation of the communication care plans; identifying staff perceptions of the intervention; exploring changes in patients' perceptions of care and psychosocial functioning; and exploring changes in nurses' knowledge of and attitude towards communication with patients. BACKGROUND More than 50% of stroke survivors have speech and language impairments. Many nurses lack the specialized skills to effectively communicate with patients and therefore have difficulties understanding the patients' needs. DESIGN A one-group pre- post-test design supplemented with a focus group session with nursing staff was used. The intervention consisted of developing individualized communication plans; attending at a workshop; and implementing a system to support nurses when using the plans. The plans were used over a 2-month period. Focus groups were held with seven nurses. RESULTS The pilot study demonstrated feasibility. There was an excellent response rate and nurses adhered to the intervention. CONCLUSION The Patient-Centred Communication Intervention is feasible and has demonstrated potential for a larger-scale study. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Providing tailored approaches to communication-enhancement education may be necessary for changes in practice to occur.
Sex with stitches: assessing the resumption of sexual activity during the postcircumcision wound-healing period

Objectives:This study uses observational data collected as part of Zambia's male circumcision program to measure sexual behavior in the postsurgical healing period and to model its influence on HIV transmission for men and their partners. Design/methods:From August to October 2010, 248 men about to undergo male circumcision were recruited to participate. Interviews were conducted at baseline and 6 weeks after circumcision, the recommended period of sexual abstinence for complete wound healing. Logistic and Poisson regression models were used to assess risk factors for early resumption of sex. A static-network deterministic transmission model was constructed to assess the impact of the program given early resumption of sex. Results:Twenty-four percent of circumcised men reported resuming sex prior to 6 weeks after surgery. Of men having sex, 46% had sex in the first 3 weeks, 82% reported at least one unprotected sex act, and 37% reported sex with two or more partners. The model estimates that of the 61 000 men circumcised in 1 year, early resumption of sex leads to 69 extra HIV infections (32 among men, 37 among women), but it estimates a net effect of 230 fewer HIV infections in 1 year, predominantly among men. Conclusion:Prevalence of risky sexual behavior during wound healing is high and more likely among those reporting risky sexual behaviors at baseline. Nonetheless, the net effect of the male circumcision intervention is beneficial. The impact on women, however, is very sensitive to the prevalence of early resumption of sex.
Assessing the Risk of Oral Cancer associated with Gutka and Other Smokeless Tobacco Products: A Case-control Study.

INTRODUCTION Tobacco and tobacco-related products have been attributed to be causative factors for oral cancer. Newer, chewable, and commercially available smokeless tobacco (ST) products, such as gutka pose further threat in this direction. The aim of the study was to evaluate the risk of oral cancer associated with gutka and other ST products. MATERIALS AND METHODS A case-control study of 134 cases and 134 controls, over a period of 6 months (July-December 2014), was carried out at the Baqai University, Karachi, Pakistan. An interview-based questionnaire was used to collect data on sociodemographic characteristics, oral hygiene practices and type, duration, and frequency of use of tobacco-related products. Data were analyzed using the Pearson's chi-square (χ2) test with the level of significance set as p < 0.05. RESULTS Gutka showed the highest odds ratio toward developing oral cancer ratio among all the tobacco-related products [odds ratio (OR) 5.54; 95% CI 2.83-10.83; p < 0.001)]. Participants who consumed other ST products also showed 2 to 4 times higher odds ratio of developing oral cancer than compared to those who did not consume these products. CONCLUSION The study provided strong evidence that gutka and other ST products are independent risk factors for oral cancer. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE This study highlights the strong association of different types of ST and oral cancer. This results in identification of high-risk groups for targeted screening for potential oral cancer lesions.
The Fetal Urinoma Revisited

The fetal urinoma is a rare but important diagnosis, as it indicates substantial underlying obstruction with implications for the functionality of the affected kidney. This case series describes a single center's experience with the diagnosis and management of fetal urinomas. All 25 cases were diagnosed or referred to our medical center over an 11‐year period. Most cases were secondary to either posterior urethral valves or ureteropelvic junction obstruction. Fetal interventions, including percutaneous drainage of the urinoma and cystoscopic alleviation of bladder outlet obstruction, were performed in 4 cases.
Topotecan and cyclophosphamide in patients with refractory or relapsed Ewing tumors

The prognosis of Ewing tumor (ET) patients has significantly improved to cure rates approximating 70%. The prognosis in relapse, however, is poor. Promising response rates have recently been reported for the combination of topotecan (TOPO) and cyclophosphamide (CYC) encouraging wider application of this combination in patients with relapsed ETs. This report summarizes the experience of patients treated with TOPO/CYC for recurrent or refractory disease within the German ET trials.
Drosophila fragile X mental retardation protein developmentally regulates activity-dependent axon pruning

Fragile X Syndrome (FraX) is a broad-spectrum neurological disorder with symptoms ranging from hyperexcitability to mental retardation and autism. Loss of the fragile X mental retardation 1 (fmr1) gene product, the mRNA-binding translational regulator FMRP, causes structural over-elaboration of dendritic and axonal processes, as well as functional alterations in synaptic plasticity at maturity. It is unclear, however, whether FraX is primarily a disease of development, a disease of plasticity or both: a distinction that is vital for engineering intervention strategies. To address this crucial issue, we have used the Drosophila FraX model to investigate the developmental function of Drosophila FMRP (dFMRP). dFMRP expression and regulation of chickadee/profilin coincides with a transient window of late brain development. During this time, dFMRP is positively regulated by sensory input activity, and is required to limit axon growth and for efficient activity-dependent pruning of axon branches in the Mushroom Body learning/memory center. These results demonstrate that dFMRP has a primary role in activity-dependent neural circuit refinement during late brain development.
The GDB Human Genome Database Anno 1997

The value of the Genome Database (GDB) for the human genome research community has been greatly increased since the release of version 6. 0 last year. Thanks to the introduction of significant technical improvements, GDB has seen dramatic growth in the type and volume of information stored in the database. This article summarizes the types of data that are now available in the Genome Database, demonstrates how the database is interconnected with other biomedical resources on the World Wide Web, discusses how researchers can contribute new or updated information to the database, and describes our current efforts as well as planned improvements for the future.
SVR_CAF: An integrated score function for detecting native protein structures among decoys

An accurate score function for detecting the most native‐like models among a huge number of decoy sets is essential to the protein structure prediction. In this work, we developed a novel integrated score function (SVR_CAF) to discriminate native structures from decoys, as well as to rank near‐native structures and select best decoys when native structures are absent. SVR_CAF is a machine learning score, which incorporates the contact energy based score (CE_score), amino acid network based score (AAN_score), and the fast Fourier transform based score (FFT_score). The score function was evaluated with four decoy sets for its discriminative ability and it shows higher overall performance than the state‐of‐the‐art score functions. Proteins 2014; 82:556–564. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.