Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Osteonecrosis of the jaw and bisphosphonates: A comparison with white phosphorus, radium, and osteopetrosis

Introduction. Recent reports of bisphosphonate-associated jaw osteonecrosis are reminiscent of earlier incidents in which a comparable syndrome was caused by occupational exposure to white phosphorus or radium. Osteonecrosis of the jaw is also caused by an inherited disease: osteopetrosis. This review analyzes the biomedical and social aspects of these four situations associated with jaw osteonecrosis. Results. Clinical evidence is contradictory but suggests aminobisphosphonates cause rare cases of jaw necrosis. In addition to jaw problems, generalized skeletal defects characterize osteopetrosis and exposure to phosphorus or radium and there is evidence of decreased bone resorption in these conditions and with bisphosphonate therapy. Conclusion. Bisphosphonate-induced jaw necrosis appears to be an on-target toxicity as the same mechanism, inhibition bone resorption, probably underlies both the therapeutic and adverse effects. Since bisphosphonates are retained for long periods by bone the theoretical potential for skeletal toxicity is increased by using higher doses of potent aminobisphosphonates administered less frequently.
Monitoring of Triazine and Phenylurea Herbicides in the Surface Waters of Greece

A large-scale study was implemented to monitor triazine and phenylurea herbicides in the main surface water bodies of continental Greece from October 1998 to September 1999. Samples from 10 rivers and 7 lakes were analyzed for the presence of five triazine (atrazine, cyanazine, prometryne, simazine, terbuthylazine) and five phenylurea (chlorotoluron, diuron, linuron, metobromuron, monolinuron) herbicides. The samples were extracted with C18 cartridges and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography–diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). The most frequently detected herbicides were atrazine, followed by prometryne, cyanazine, and simazine. The concentrations of the compounds were generally low (< 0.78 μ g/L) and are not considered harmful for the freshwater ecosystem. Most of the positive samples were taken from the water bodies of northern Greece where agricultural activity is more intense.
No longer just a pretty face: fashion magazines' depictions of ideal female beauty from 1959 to 1999.

OBJECTIVE The print media's depiction of the ideal of feminine beauty as presented to American women was examined for the years 1959-1999. METHOD Trends were investigated through an analysis of cover models appearing on the four most popular American fashion magazines. RESULTS Body size for fashion models decreased significantly during the 1980s and 1990s. There was also a dramatic increase in the frequency with which the media depicted the entire bodies of the models from the 1960s to the 1990s. DISCUSSION Both the increasingly thin images and the striking increase in full-body portrayals suggest an increase in the value placed by American society on a thin ideal for women, a change that is concurrent with the increase in disturbed eating patterns among American women.
The Learning Disabled Label as a Biasing Factor in the Visual Motor Performance of Normal Children

That the application of disability labels to children can affect their performance has been widely claimed by labeling critics but not clearly demonstrated. The present investigation addresses the question of whether the application of the specific label “learning disabilities” could affect the complex visual-motor integration performance of normal fourth-graders. Student experimenters individually trained and tested eight children who had been randomly selected and labeled either learning disabled or normal. Each child's performance was scored subjectively by the student experimenter and objectively by an event recorder. Results indicated that girls represented to experimenters as learning disabled performed significantly lower on a task of complex visual-motor integration than girls represented as normal. The performance of boys was not significantly affected. Expectancy effects were shown not to be a product of observer bias or recording error and were found in general and specific performance measures.
Abiotic Stress Diagnosis via Laser Induced Chlorophyll Fluorescence Analysis in Plants for Biofuel

In the past few decades there has been a widespread scientific and technological interest in laser-induced remote techniques to monitor the status of terrestrial vegetation (Svanberg, 1995). The most employed nowadays are those which exploit the fluorescence emission from the plant leaves generated in the photosynthesis process. The fluorescence of terrestrial vegetation consists almost exclusively of the fluorescence of leaves, which account for the largest surface of plants above ground. A small part of the absorbed light energy in the photosynthesis process is lost during the migration from the pigment antenna to the reaction centers and are dissipated by a number of non-photochemical processes, including heat, and re-emission of a small but easily detectable amount (2-5% in vivo) of the absorbed radiation. This re-emission occurs at longer wavelengths in the red and far-red spectral regions and is termed as Chlorophyll Fluorescence (ChlF) (Shreiber, 1983; Backer & Bradbury, 1981). Chlorophyll fluorescence represents an intrinsic signal emitted by plants that can be employed to monitor their physiological state including changes of the photosynthetic apparatus, developmental processes of leaves, state of health, stress events, stress tolerance, and also to detect diseases or nutrient deficiency of plants. In particular, the application of laser induced chlorophyll fluorescence spectroscopy has drawn much attention recently owing to the non-invasive and nondestructive nature of the technique (Svanberg, 1995; Lang & Lichtenthaler, 1991; Chappelle et al., 1984). The technique can be applied for chlorophyll level monitoring in basic photosynthesis research, agriculture, horticulture, and forestry. Abiotic stress (water deficit, salinity, heat, heavy metals soil contamination, intense light, etc) affects significantly crop growth and yield in agricultural areas all over the world. Thus, it is imperative to study their effect upon the crops and discriminate among abiotic stresses using new noninvasive and nondestructive remote sensing precision diagnostic techniques. These procedures allow one to employ intervention measures that will prevent damage to the crop and will not provoke economical losses. Our aim here, is to exploit laserinduced fluorescence signatures from plants to evaluate the effect of abiotic stresses (water
Expression of intracellular filament, collagen, and collagenase genes in diabetic and normal skin after injury

Reports have shown differences in gene expression in the skin of diabetic and normal mice both at baseline and after injury. Cluster analysis identified distinct expression patterns within intermediate filaments and extracellular proteins. This report addresses the effect of diabetes and injury on the expression of keratin‐associated proteins, keratin complexes, procollagen, and collagenase (matrix metalloproteinase; MMP) genes. At baseline keratin‐associated proteins and keratin complexes gene expression was increased in diabetic mice. After surgery, the level of expression for keratin‐associated proteins and keratin complexes genes decreased in diabetic mice, but did not change in normal mice. If the expression of a procollagen gene differed between diabetic and normal mice, the expression was lower in diabetic mice. Procollagen gene expression was elevated after skin excision compared with noninjured skin. At baseline, the level of MMP and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase gene expression was comparable between mouse strains. With injury, the expression of several MMP genes was increased in both mouse strains, but to higher levels in diabetic mice. At day 7, the level of MMP‐9 activity in granulation tissue was elevated. This alteration may contribute to delayed healing in diabetic mice. Therefore, differences in gene expression exist between mouse strains and can assist in understanding of physiological manifestations, including delayed healing, in diabetic mice.
AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)

With smart phones being deployed widely, interactive in-store Mobile Shopping Assistant (MSA) systems can be considered as an effective way for assisting in-store shopping and can become potentially the pervasive personalized services that both consumers and merchant can trust. However, few studies have focused on investigating the adoption of in-store MSA. Therefore, this study examined the consumers’ attitude and acceptance toward in-store MSA services under the framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM). The findings imply that attitude, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, environmental variables, perceived quality of the MSA system, social influence, and user satisfaction are some determinant factors. In addition, significant differences exist between female and male consumers.
Cover signal specific steganalysis: the impact of training on the example of two selected audio steganalysis approaches

The main goals of this paper are to show the impact of the basic assumptions for the cover channel characteristics as well as the impact of different training/testing set generation strategies on the statistical detectability of exemplary chosen audio hiding approaches known from steganography and watermarking. Here we have selected exemplary five steganography algorithms and four watermarking algorithms. The channel characteristics for two different chosen audio cover channels (an application specific exemplary scenario of VoIP steganography and universal audio steganography) are formalised and their impact on decisions in the steganalysis process, especially on the strategies applied for training/ testing set generation, are shown. Following the assumptions on the cover channel characteristics either cover dependent or cover independent training and testing can be performed, using either correlated or non-correlated training and test sets. In comparison to previous work, additional frequency domain features are introduced for steganalysis and the performance (in terms of classification accuracy) of Bayesian classifiers and multinomial logistic regression models is compared with the results of SVM classification. We show that the newly implemented frequency domain features increase the classification accuracy achieved in SVM classification. Furthermore it is shown on the example of VoIP steganalysis that channel character specific evaluation performs better than tests without focus on a specific channel (i.e. universal steganalysis). A comparison of test results for cover dependent and independent training and testing shows that the latter performs better for all nine algorithms evaluated here and the used SVM based classifier.
Rotavirus : Approaches to Vaccination

Rotavirus infection is the most common cause of severe diarrhea disease in infants and young children worldwide and continues to have a major global impact on childhood morbidity and mortality. Vaccination is the only control measure likely to have a significant impact on the incidence of severe dehydrating rotavirus disease. In 1999, a highly efficacious rotavirus vaccine licensed in the United States, Rota Shield, was withdrawn from the market after 14 months because of its drawbacks. Two new live, oral, attenuated rotavirus vaccines were licensed in 2006: the pentavalent bovine-human reassortant vaccine (Rota Teq) and the monovalent human rotavirus vaccine (Rotarix). Both vaccines have demonstrated very good safety and efficacy profiles in large clinical trials in western industrialized countries and in Latin America. Careful surveillance has not revealed any increased risk of intussusception in the vaccinated groups with either vaccine. The new rotavirus vaccines are now introduced for routine use in a number of industrialized and developing countries. These new safe and effective rotavirus vaccines offer the best hope of reducing the toll of acute rotavirus gastroenteritis in both developed and developing countries.
Comparative use of dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) in different animal species

Dimethyl sulphoxide has a variety of biological effects that have made it the subject of numerous pharmacological studies. The first dimethyl sulphoxide therapeutic indication approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1978 was for intravesical instillation in cases of interstitial cystitis. Since then, due to its distinctive properties, it has been the subject of studies in several areas. This review describes indications, adverse effects and contraindications, as takes a critical approach to the main articles addressing the clinical use of dimethyl sulphoxide.
Functional and anatomical evidence for different dopamine dynamics in the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens in slices of rat brain

The characteristics of dopamine (DA) uptake and release were compared in the core and shell of the nucleus accumbens (NAc). DA release was elicited from rat brain slices by local electrical stimulation, and its extracellular concentration was monitored with fast‐scan cyclic voltammetry using Nafion‐coated, carbon‐fiber microelectrodes. The voltammetric results show that the values of DA release and uptake in the shell NAc are approximately one‐third of those measured in the core region, and DA uptake in the shell was less sensitive than the core to inhibition by either cocaine or nomifensine. The density of [3H]mazindol binding sites in the NAc was examined by autoradiography and the shell was found to have an average of half the number of DA uptake sites measured in the core region. This combination of anatomical and functional results shows that DA neurotransmission in the shell NAc is distinct from that in the core region. These data are consistent with the view that multiple functional forms of the DA transporter, exhibiting disparate kinetics and pharmacology, exist in different brain regions that exhibit disparate kinetics and pharmacology. Different forms of the transporter, combined with different release kinetics and auto‐ and heteroreceptor activity, give a vast range of possibilities for regional variation in DA neurotransmission. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Prediction of anemia on unenhanced computed tomography of the thorax.

OBJECTIVE To determine if anemia can be predicted on unenhanced computed tomography (CT) of the thorax. METHODS Hemoglobin and hematocrit levels were obtained within 24 hours of the unenhanced CT scan of the thorax of 200 patients. Anemia was defined as a hemoglobin level less than 140 g/L for men and less than 120 g/L for women. Regions of interest were placed on the left ventricular cavity, aorta and the interventricular septum if visualized. The attenuation of the interventricular septum and left ventricular cavity were correlated with the presence or absence of anemia. RESULTS When the interventricular septum was not visualized, for every 1 Hounsfield unit (HU) increase in left ventricular attenuation, hemoglobin increased by 0.435 g/L (SE = 0.253, p < 0.001). Failure to visualize the interventricular septum did not exclude the presence of anemia in either sex. When the interventricular septum was visualized, 100% of males and 89% of females met the criteria for the diagnosis of anemia. The prediction of anemia by visualization of the interventricular septum alone yielded a sensitivity of 75.4% and a specificity of 90.3%, with 80% of patients correctly predicted. The multiple regression analysis model yielded a sensitivity of 94.2% and a specificity of 67.7%, with 86% of patients correctly predicted. CONCLUSION The diagnosis of anemia should be suggested whenever the interventricular septum is visualized on unenhanced CT.
The efficacy of the embryo transfer catheter in IVF and ICSI is operator-dependent: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND Embryo transfer is a crucial step in the IVF process. Most randomized prospective studies comparing transfer catheters have demonstrated significantly higher pregnancy rates with soft versus firm catheters, but none have taken the operator effect into account. Our aim was to perform a prospective randomized clinical trial comparing two catheters and to study interactions between catheters and operators. METHODS A prospective randomized trial comparing the Cook K-SOFT-5100 and Frydman classical catheters 4.5 was performed. Three experienced operators participated in the trial, using a fixed distance transfer protocol. Primary end-point was clinical pregnancy rate, secondary end-points were rates of difficult transfer and of catheter failure. Patients were randomized by a computer program prior to embryo transfer. RESULTS A total of 1446 embryo transfers were performed in 1155 women undergoing IVF or ICSI treatment. A total of 723 cycles were randomized to the Cook catheter and 723 cycles to the Frydman catheter. Following intention-to-treat analysis, the adjusted odds ratio of clinical pregnancy between for the Cook versus the Frydman catheter was 1.11 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.89-1.38]. Odds ratios of clinical pregnancy between the Cook and Frydman catheters for the three operators were respectively 1.19 (95% CI 0.84-1.69), 2.35 (95% CI 1.40-3.95) and 0.69 (95% CI 0.48-0.99). CONCLUSIONS Variation in pregnancy rates between embryo transfer catheters depends on variation between operators. Results from randomized clinical trials comparing embryo transfer catheters should not be generalized, because inconsistent conclusions may be unavoidable on the account of different proportions of cycles with transfers by each type of operator. The study was registered at clinicaltrials.gov. NCT00766714.
Regulation of the proliferation of primary rat hepatocytes by eicosanoids

DNA synthesis in primary adult rat hepatocyte cultures was promoted by epidermal growth factor (EGF), arachidonic acid, and prostaglandins E2 and F2α (PGE2 and PGF2α). Growth promotion by EGF was blocked by 0.1 mM indomethacin and 1 mM aspirin, without affecting cell viability. If verapamil was present in the medium when EGF was added, the growth response was inhibited. Hepatocytes stimulated by EGF or arachidonic acid released PGE2 and PGF2α into the culture medium. This was diminished if 0.1 mM indomethacin was also in the medium. The importance of autocrine regulation of hepatocyte growth by prostaglandins is discussed.
Optimal memory organization for scalable texture codecs in MPEG-4

This paper addresses the problem of minimizing memory size and memory accesses in multiresolution texture coding architectures for discrete cosine transform (DCT) and wavelet-based schemes used, for example, in virtual-world walk-throughs or facial animation scenes of an MPEG-4 system. The problem of minimizing the memory cost is important since memory accesses, memory bandwidth limitations, and in general the correct handling of the data flows have become the true critical issues in designing high-speed and low-power video-processing architectures and in efficiently using multimedia processors. For instance, the straightforward implementation of a multiresolution texture codec typically needs an extra memory buffer of the same size as the image to be encoded/decoded. We propose a new calculation schedule that reduces this buffer memory size with up to two orders of magnitude, while still ensuring a number of external (off-chip) memory accesses that is very close to the theoretical minimum. The analysis is generic and is therefore useful for both wavelet and multiresolution DCT codecs.
A ticket to the gut for thymic T cells

The intestinal epithelium is colonised by, among other cells, normal T helper and cytotoxic T cells which obtain their antigen experience in the gut associated lymphatics after migration from the thymus. New evidence suggests a CD8 positive T cell that directly migrates to the intestinal epithelium increasing the role of the thymus in shaping intestinal immunity
Carotid body chemoreceptor activity in the new‐born lamb

1. Tidal volume, carotid artery oxygen tension (Pa,O2) and blood pressure and chemoreceptor activity in the sinus nerve have been continuously measured and recorded in nine lambs anaesthetized with pentobarbitone sodium, and varying in age from some minutes after birth to 5 days after birth.
Enkephalinergic Markers in Substantia Nigra and Caudate Nucleus from Parkinsonian Subjects

Abstract: Marked reductions in opiate receptor binding (−42%), “enkephalinase” activity (−39%), and Met5‐enkephalin levels (−72%) accompanied the well‐established dopamine depletion in the substantia nigra pars compacta of Parkinsonian subjects. In contrast, enkephalinergic markers were not significantly modified in caudate nucleus.
Effective Combination Therapy for Invasive Pneumococcal Pneumonia with Ampicillin and Intravenous Immunoglobulins in a Mouse Model

ABSTRACT Intranasal immunotherapy for Streptococcus pneumoniaeinvasive pneumonia with polyvalent immunoglobulins (IVIG) was effective in mice against pneumonia but failed to prevent bacteremia. The combination of subcurative doses of IVIG and of ampicillin was fully protective. Such an approach, successfully applied in the preantibiotic era, offers new perspectives for modern therapies.
An enhancement of coronary blood flow in a fetus with supraventricular tachycardia

Modern obstetric ultrasound has allowed a detailed evaluation of many fetal small arteries in both normal and abnormal conditions. Recently, a study of a very tiny fetal coronary artery has been proved possible when the imaging condition is optimal (Baschat et al., 1997). An augmentation of fetal coronary blood flow reflecting an attempt to compensate for an increase in oxygen demand by means of autoregulation process has been demonstrated with Doppler ultrasound in both acute and chronic fetal stress conditions such as acute fetomaternal hemorrhage, fetal ductal constriction, and intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) (Baschat et al., 2003). We present herein the first case of coronary blood flow enhancement in a fetus with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) demonstrated with Doppler ultrasound. The evidence of the enhancement of blood flow disappeared when the fetal heart rate was eventually converted to normal sinus rhythm with maternal ingestion of flecainide. A 26-year-old pregnant woman, gravida 1, was referred to our high-risk pregnancy clinic at 29 weeks’ gestation for a rapid fetal heart rate detected at prenatal clinic. Our sonographic examination revealed a fetal biometry consistent with gestational age. No structural anomaly was noted. Fetal echocardiography demonstrated a normal cardiac anatomy. A rapid heart rate of 220–240 bpm with 1-to-1 atrioventricular conduction was noted in M-mode. Color Doppler ultrasound clearly demonstrated a holosystolic tricuspid regurgitation and a prominent coronary blood flow (Figure 1a). Spectral Doppler showed an increased inferior vena cava (IVC) reversed flow at atrial contraction and an intact ductus venosus waveform. A biphasic coronary waveform with a diastolic peak flow of 45.5 cm/s was noted (Figure 1b). Fetal SVT was diagnosed and the fetus was initially treated with maternal ingestion of digoxin. The fetal heart rate resisted converting to sinus rhythm after 5 days when maternal digitalis level reached the therapeutic range of 1.2 ng/mL.Treatment was then switched