Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An increased number of negative lymph nodes is associated with a higher immune response and longer survival in colon cancer patients

Background The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship among the number of negative lymph nodes (LNs), the local and systemic immune response, and survival in patients with colon cancer. Patients and methods One thousand one hundred and fifty-seven patients with colon cancer who underwent surgery at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center between 2009 and 2014 were included. We examined negative LNs in relation to the local and systemic immune response, including percentage carcinoma, neutrophil and lymphocyte infiltration, Crohn’s-like reaction, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, platelets, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Disease-free survival and overall survival were also examined. We performed subgroup analysis based on the distribution of negative LNs. Results An increased number of negative LNs was associated with greater neutrophil invasion (p=0.001), more lymphocyte invasion (p=0.001), and more Crohn’s-like reaction (p=0.001). No significant correlation was observed between negative LNs and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio. More than 12 negative LNs were associated with increased platelets and CRP levels. A higher number of negative LNs was independently associated with longer disease-free survival in stage I+II patients (p=0.004) and stage III patients (p=0.015), while negative LNs were also independent prognostic factors in stage IV patients (p=0.007). Conclusion Our study suggests that negative LNs are indicators of the immune response and are associated with a better prognosis in patients with colon cancer.
Differences in the Perception of Brand Personality

Background: The process connected to understanding perceived brand personality is discussed as well as how perceived brand personality may be affected by different cultures. Finally, the reader is introduced to the sportswear fashion industry, namely Adidas. The research questions are introduced. Literature Review: The concept of standardisation vs adaptation is introduced, leading to a discussion regarding social media as a form of standardised marketing and how Adidas use it. The concept of culture is addressed with additional information regarding gender identity. Aaker’s dimensions of brand personality are discussed as well as how they are used to measure brand personality. Finally, brand personality’s relationship with brand loyalty as a (leading in to brand equity) and how brand personality may be used to determine brand preference are discussed. Theoretical Framework: The adapted model of how this thesis’s research will be undertaken are presented along with 5 hypotheses that will be tested. Methodology: This thesis follows a quantitative research method, namely the distribution of surveys. Saunder’s Research Onion is used as a guideline for the sections of the methodology. The design of the survey is discussed followed by how the authors will ensure for reliability and validity. Empirical Findings and Discussion: The authors found that national culture and gender identity play a role in shaping perceived brand personality of Adidas. Further findings show that brand preference cannot be determined based on a countries classification as masculine or feminine. Conclusion: A summary of the findings and discussion are presented. This is followed by managerial implications, where the authors attain to the fact that if brands are to continue using standardised messages they must structure it in a way that takes all culture groups into account or alternatively opt for adapted marketing messages. Finally, limitations and future research are presented.
Determination of CEBPA mutations by next generation sequencing in pediatric acute leukemia.

OBJECTIVES The CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein-alpha (CEBPA) is lineage-specific transcription factor in the hematopoietic system. In this study, we aimed on the clinical features and the prognostic significance associated with CEBPA mutations in 30 pediatric patients with acute leukemia. METHODS In addition, the association between found variants and mutations of Ten-Eleven-Translocation 2 (TET2), Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (KRAS), and Casitas B-cell lymphoma (CBL), FLT3 (Fms-Related Tyrosine Kinase), JAK2 (Januse Kinase-2) and Nucleophosmin 1 (NPM1) were analyzed, which are important prognostic risk factors for pediatric acute leukemia patients. The entire CEBPA coding region was screened using the NGS method. RESULTS CEBPA mutations were detected in 16 (53.3 %) of 30 patients. In total, ten distinct of nucleotide changes were identified in 30 patients, including 6 novel and 4 known mutations by sequencing the entire CEBPA gene. We found 6 frame shift mutations, 1 missense mutation, 3 synonymous variants. The most common mutation was the c.487del G resulting p.Glu163Ser in 5 cases. Three patients carried CEBPA double mutations. CONCLUSION The detected variants in this article seemed to be the first screening results of genes studied by NGS in pediatric acute leukemia patients. Our results also showed some degree of association between FLT3-ITD, TET2, KRAS, CBL and CEBPA mutations (Tab. 4, Fig. 1, Ref. 24).
Virulence of Escherichia coli Isolates Obtained from Layer Chickens with Colibacillosis Associated with Pericarditis, Perihepatitis, and Salpingitis in Experimentally Infected Chicks and Embryonated Eggs

SUMMARY To evaluate the virulence of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC) isolates obtained from colibacillosis cases associated with pericarditis, perihepatitis, and salpingitis, the embryo lethality assay and experimental infection model in chicks were used in this study. According to the established criteria based on mortality in the embryo lethality assay for evaluating the virulence of E. coli isolates, 23 of the 26 APEC isolates associated with pericarditis and perihepatitis and 8 of the 20 isolates associated with salpingitis were found to be virulent. Isolate D137, which had been obtained from a case with pericarditis and perihepatitis and had an embryo mortality of 92%, and isolate D445, which had been obtained from a case with pericarditis and perihepatitis and had an embryo mortality of 17%, were used for the experimental infection. Four of the five 11-day-old chickens inoculated through the air sac with isolate D137 died 1 day postinoculation, and the challenge strain was recovered from the air sac, pericardial sac, or liver; however, colibacillosis lesions were found in only one of the five birds postmortem. All five chicks inoculated with isolate D445 survived for 7 days postinoculation and exhibited airsacculitis or pericarditis lesions at 7 days postinoculation; the challenge strain was not recovered from the lesions postmortem. The results obtained in this study suggest that the different APEC isolates tested cause illness in chickens through distinct pathogenesis.
Impaired efferocytosis and neutrophil extracellular trap clearance by macrophages in ARDS

Exaggerated release of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) along with decreased NET clearance and inability to remove apoptotic cells (efferocytosis) may contribute to sustained inflammation in acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Recent studies in experimental models of ARDS have revealed the crosstalk between AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), which may contribute to effectiveness of efferocytosis, thereby reducing inflammation and ARDS severity. We investigated neutrophil and NET clearance by macrophages from control and ARDS patients and examined how bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from control and ARDS patients could affect NET formation and efferocytosis. Metformin (an AMPK activator) and neutralising antibody against HMGB1 were applied to improve efferocytosis and NET clearance. Neutrophils from ARDS patients showed significantly reduced apoptosis. Conversely, NET formation was significantly enhanced in ARDS patients. Exposure of neutrophils to ARDS BAL fluid promoted NET production, while control BAL fluid had no effect. Macrophage engulfment of NETs and apoptotic neutrophils was diminished in ARDS patients. Notably, activation of AMPK in macrophages or neutralisation of HMGB1 in BAL fluid improved efferocytosis and NET clearance. In conclusion, restoration of AMPK activity with metformin or specific neutralisation of HMGB1 in BAL fluid represent promising therapeutic strategies to decrease sustained lung inflammation during ARDS. Restoration of AMPK activation and specific inhibition of HMGB1 could reduce lung inflammation during human ARDS http://ow.ly/bxCj30ktyiZ
PeerReview 4 All algorithm . We establish deterministic approximation guarantees on the fairness of our PeerReview 4 All algorithm in Section 5

We consider the problem of automated assignment of papers to reviewers in conference peer review, with a focus on fairness and statistical accuracy. Our fairness objective is to maximize the review quality of the most disadvantaged paper, in contrast to the commonly used objective of maximizing the total quality over all papers. We design an assignment algorithm based on an incremental max-flow procedure that we prove is near-optimally fair. Our statistical accuracy objective is to ensure correct recovery of the papers that should be accepted. We provide a sharp minimax analysis of the accuracy of the peer-review process for a popular objective-score model as well as for a novel subjective-score model that we propose in the paper. Our analysis proves that our proposed assignment algorithm also leads to a near-optimal statistical accuracy. Finally, we design a novel experiment that allows for an objective comparison of various assignment algorithms, and overcomes the inherent difficulty posed by the absence of a ground truth in experiments on peer-review. The results of this experiment corroborate the theoretical guarantees of our algorithm.
Efficacy of probiotics: clinical and microbial parameters of halitosis

Background & aim. Halitosis is defined as an offensive breath odour of whatever source and therefore may affect a person’s social interactions. Intra-oral halitosis is a result of bacterial activity. Therefore, probiotics may offer an appropriate and biological solution as a part of the therapy of intra-oral halitosis. The aim of this systematic review was to study the effect of the administration of probiotics alone or as an adjunct to other treatments on the level of halitosis as measured by volatile sulphur compound (VSC) levels, organoleptic scores (ORG) or hydrogen sulphide, methyl mercaptan and dimethyl sulphide levels. In addition, the effect of probiotic usage on oral microbial composition was summarised. Methods. The MEDLINE-PubMed and Embase databases were searched up to September 2017 with language restricted to English. Eligible papers were selected according to pre-set criteria; the data was extracted and analysed descriptively. Results. The search resulted in 1104 original research articles and a final six were selected as being eligible including 129 subjects. These studies used different detection methods and combinations thereof to measure halitosis. Five studies were randomised placebo-controlled clinical trials of which two studies reported a significant reduction in ORG between probiotic and placebo groups, and two studies on the basis of total VSC levels. The two studies reporting a significant improvement in ORG did not find an improvement in total VSC levels. Three studies included a microbiological assessment. In these three studies, the probiotic strain was detected at the end of the treatment period, but no detailed data was reported on the abundance of the strain before and after the treatment period. Conclusions. Probiotics may be beneficial in treating intra-oral halitosis. However, due to limited data and the heterogeneity of the studies, the efficacy of probiotics remains unclear. Studies with more subjects and standardised protocols need to be designed.
Slot-like capacity and resource-like coding in a neural model of multiple-item working memory

For the past decade, research on the storage limitations of working memory has been dominated by two fundamentally different hypotheses. On the one hand, the contents of working memory may be stored in a limited number of ‘slots’, each with a fixed resolution. On the other hand, any number of items may be stored, but with decreasing resolution. These two hypotheses have been invaluable in characterizing the computational structure of working memory, but neither provides a complete account of the available experimental data, nor speaks to the neural basis of the limitations it characterizes. To address these shortcomings, we simulated a multiple-item working memory task with a cortical network model, the cellular resolution of which allowed us to quantify the coding fidelity of memoranda as a function of memory load, as measured by the discriminability, regularity and reliability of simulated neural spiking. Our simulations account for a wealth of neural and behavioural data from human and non-human primate studies, and they demonstrate that feedback inhibition not only lowers capacity, but also lowers coding fidelity by all three measures. Because the strength of inhibition scales with the number of items stored by the network, increasing this number progressively lowers fidelity until capacity is reached. As such, the model provides a mechanistic explanation for experimental data showing that working memory precision decreases with increasing memory load before levelling off at capacity. Crucially, the model makes specific, testable predictions for neural activity on multiple-item working memory tasks.
Oculomotor rehabilitation in children with dyslexia

Background: Dyslexia is the most common learning disorder. Visual and oculomotor deficits in dyslexic children have been reported. The purpose of this study was to measure oculomotor parameters and analyze the effect of oculomotor rehabilitation strategies on dyslexia. Methods: Binocular eye movements were recorded by oculomotor subtype of videonystagmography (VNG) testing on 30 children with dyslexia and 20 typical reader children (aged 8–12) in both genders. Dyslexic children were diagnosed with DSM-V scale by experts in reading disorder centers. We studied those children with developmental dyslexia, who had deficits in eye movements recording. Dyslexic children were divided into 2 groups of case and control. Oculomotor rehabilitation (including fixation, saccade, and tracking training) was performed in case group for 1 hour, twice weekly for 8 weeks. Before the intervention, results of oculomotor tests were compared between 3 groups (healthy, case, and control). Then, to analyze the effect of the intervention, results of oculomotor tests were compared between case and control groups in pre- and post- intervention stage. Data were analyzed by independent and paired samples t tests, ANOVA, and repeated measures tests in SPSS v. 21. Results: There were significant differences in oculomotor characteristics of dyslexic children in comparison with those reported in typical children. Oculomotor rehabilitation intervention had a positive effect on improvement of oculomotor responses and eye movements in dyslexic children. Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between dyslexic children and non-dyslexic children in oculomotor skills after the training. Conclusion: Our results showed the positive effects of oculomotor rehabilitation on eye movements. Primary oculomotor assessment in dyslexic children and early use of oculomotor rehabilitation combined with other treatments are highly recommended.
Exosomes derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells improve osteoporosis through promoting osteoblast proliferation via MAPK pathway.

OBJECTIVE Osteoporosis is the most common bone metabolic disease. Exosome exerts a crucial role in the development of multiple diseases. The aim of the study was to investigate the role of exosome derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in osteoporosis and its underlying mechanism. MATERIALS AND METHODS MSCs were first isolated from rat bone marrow. After the surface antigen of MSCs was identified by flow cytometry, MSCs-derived exosomes (MSC-Exo) was extracted. The osteogenic and lipid differentiation abilities of BMSCs were determined by alizarin red staining and oil red staining, respectively. Quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to detect the mRNA expressions of genes. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay was used to detect the viability of hFOB 1.19 cells. Western blot was used to measure expressions of the specific surface markers in exosomes and the MAPK pathway-related proteins in hFOB 1.19 cells. Moreover, cell cycle of hFOB 1.19 was detected by flow cytometry. RESULTS We observed a positive identification of surface antigens in MSCs, which presented good multidirectional differentiation ability. The isolated MSC-Exo exhibited typical morphology and particle size of exosomes, and the detection of specific surface labeled protein was positive under an electron microscope. After co-culture of MSC-Exo and osteoblast cell line hFOB 1.19, we found that MSC-Exo could promote the proliferation of hFOB 1.19 cells. Moreover, mRNA and protein expressions of GLUT3 in cells were increased, and the cell cycle was also promoted. The expressions of related proteins in the MAPK signaling pathway were found to be promoted. Rescue experiments demonstrated that MSC-Exo could promote the growth and cell cycle of hFOB 1.19, which were reversed by p-JNK knockdown. CONCLUSIONS MSC-derived exosomes improve osteoporosis by promoting the proliferation of osteoblasts via MAPK pathway.
The Role of Felt or Enacted Criticism in Parents’ Decision Making in Differing Contexts and Communities: Toward a Formal Grounded Theory

Felt or enacted criticism was identified as a significant influence on White British parents’ decision making during acute childhood illness in a substantive grounded theory “Containing acute childhood illness within family life. ” These parents sought to avoid further criticism, sometimes leading to delayed consultation. Using Glaserian grounded theory principles, we conducted a secondary analysis of data from three studies, to establish the transferability and modifiability of the original theory to other settings and communities in Ireland and England. Felt or enacted criticism was found to operate across the childhood age range, social groups, and settings. Parent’s strategies to avoid criticism reduced contacts with health professionals, access to support and, more worryingly, communication about their child’s health. These findings demonstrate the wider applicability, or “work” in Glaser’s terms, of the concept in the English speaking Western world. Findings indicate the need for nurses to identify and mitigate sources of criticism.
Measles outbreak from February to August 2017 in Messina, Italy.

Introduction Measles continues to be a major public health issue worldwide, with high morbidity and mortality rates. The disease remains endemic in 14 European countries, including Italy where, from 2013 to 2016, over 5,000 cases have been reported. In 2017, many Italian regions, including Sicily, have reported many cases of measles. In this study, we described the latest measles outbreak in the city of Messina, from 1st February to 31st August 2017. Methods We considered all reported measles cases that came to the "Public Health, Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine" Operative Unit of the Messina Provincial Health Agency Prevention Department, which receives all reported cases of measles in the Messina province. Results From 1st February to 31st August 2017, a total of 59 measles cases were reported, of which 44 were confirmed, nine were classified as possible, four were probable and two cases were discarded. Of the 57 possible, probable and confirmed cases, 31 (54%) were males and 26 (46%) were females. Moreover, 54 (95%) had not been previously vaccinated while the remaining cases had documented evidence of one (two cases) or two doses (one case). Genotype B3 was identified in 39/44 cases (88,6%) by the regional reference laboratory in Palermo. Conclusions Despite the development of an effective vaccination, unfortunately measles continues to threaten the lives of millions of children worldwide each year. The suboptimal immunization level in Italy has led to an increase in the transmission of measles with detrimental effects on both public health and ongoing measles elimination efforts.
Effect of High Protein Diet and Probiotic Lactobacillus casei Shirota Supplementation in Aflatoxin B1-Induced Rats

Probiotic Lactobacillus casei Shirota (LcS) is a potential decontaminating agent of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). However, few studies have investigated the influence of diet, especially a high protein (HP) diet, on the binding of AFB1 by probiotics. This research was conducted to determine the effect of HP diet on the ability of LcS to bind AFB1 and reduce aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in AFB1-induced rats. Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups: A (HP only), B (HP + 108 CFU LcS + 25 μg AFB1/kg BW), and C (HP + 25 μg AFB1/kg BW). Levels of AST and ALP were higher in all groups but other liver function's biomarkers were in the normal range, and the liver's histology showed no structural changes. The urea level of rats in group B (10.02 ± 0.73 mmol/l) was significantly lower (p < 0.05) than that of rats in group A (10.82 ± 0.26 mmol/l). The presence of carcinoma in the small intestine and colon was more obvious in group C than in group B. Moreover, rats in group B had significantly (p < 0.05) lower AFM1 concentration (0.39 ± 0.01 ng/ml) than rats in group C (5.22 ± 0.28 ng/ml). Through these findings, LcS supplementation with HP diet alleviated the adverse effects of AFB1 by preventing AFB1 absorption in the small intestine and reducing urinary AFM1.