Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Platelet Activation in Alzheimer’s Disease

Platelets are small cellular fragments derived from megakaryocytes and circulate in the bloodstream at 250.000-400.000/μl. Platelets are responsible for hemostasis, but are also involved in thrombosis, inflammation and tissue repair. More importantly, recent evidence suggests a role for circulating platelets in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Actually, platelets express and contain high amounts of amyloid precursor protein, APP (isoform 751 and 770).
A fusidic acid-resistant clone of Staphylococcus aureus associated with impetigo bullosa is spreading in Norway.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the possibility that the increased prevalence of fusidic acid-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Norway is caused by clonal spread. METHODS Fusidic acid-resistant and -susceptible clinical isolates of S. aureus from patients with skin infections in the Norwegian county of Telemark and fusidic acid-resistant isolates from other parts of Scandinavia were compared. MICs of fusidic acid for bacterial isolates and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns were investigated. Prevalence data for fusidic acid-resistant S. aureus for the period 1992-2001 were obtained. RESULTS The prevalence of fusidic acid resistance in S. aureus increased from 1992 to 2001. Eighty per cent of the resistant isolates investigated shared an identical PFGE pattern. The same pattern was found in fusidic acid-resistant isolates from other parts of Scandinavia. Fusidic acid-resistant S. aureus was typically found in impetigo bullosa-like skin disease in children mostly in the summer months. CONCLUSIONS Fusidic acid resistance among S. aureus is increasing in Norway and is predominantly caused by one clone of S. aureus. The clone may spread further to other countries, and dissemination may be facilitated by extensive use of topical fusidic acid.
On the faultline : the politics of AIDS policy in contemporary South Africa

While President Mbeki’s statements questioning conventional views on the causes of AIDS may have seemed bizarre to many, these statements have a much clearer logic when seen as part of an ongoing struggle between various players in South Africa. Not withstanding the joint action around the court challenge to affordable drug prices by the pharmaceutical industry (in March 2001), the AIDS policy process in South Africa has been marked by very public disagreement and almost complete non-accommodation between senior African National Congress (ANC) politicians and a range of non-governmental actors in South Africa. In a cycle established by early criticism of the new government by non-governmental AIDS players, public debate on AIDS has been dominated by a series of responses and counter-responses in which actors have competed to set the agenda for AIDS in South Africa. Many of the presidential and ministerial state interventions on AIDS can be seen as countering the attempts by activist and scienti c communities to in uence the policy terrain, despite the historical af liation of the latter to the mass democratic movement of the pre-1994 period. The prominence of AIDS in this country has been as much about con ict between the politicians and other actors as about the growing realization that millions of young people in South Africa are infected with HIV and may die in the next ten years.
THE LANGUAGE‐IMPAIRED CHILD: LINGUISTIC OR COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT?

An appropriate response to the question posed in the title of this paper might be a resounding “Both! ” However, the conclusions that might be drawn from such a response do not lead to any clarification of the state of the language-impaired child. One might assume from this response that the distinctions and/or similarities between the terms linguistic and cognitive have been clearly defined and described, and that in every instance of a fully described language impairment, a cognitive impairment, also fully described, exists as well. This is not the case. Language impairment usually appears in conjunction with certain conditions of developmental impairment. Children who are mentally retarded, brain damaged, or both, or who are suspected of having brain damage, do not develop language at a rate or in a manner similar to their normally developing peers. It might be hypothesized that blind children, as well, may display differences in language development because of delay in development of sensorimotor schema,’ whereas deaf children do not display them in the acquisition of sign language.2 These developmental differences have been attributed to either delay in cognitive development and therefore a delay in language development, or to specific problems in organizing, analyzing, storing, and retrieving both linguistic and nonlinguistic information. These differing opinions appear to stem from varying interpretations of what is meant by cognitive and linguistic development and from varying interpretation of sequential events. We will examine these presumptions by 1) reviewing what is meant by early linguistic and cognitive development and the relations proposed between these developments, and 2) reviewing the findings of some studies concerning the linguistic behavior and intellectual development of children who are not developing language normally. Finally, the implications of these findings for the content of remedial programs designed to aid the “communicatively disordered” child will be discussed.
The Welfare Gains of Age Related Optimal Income Taxation

Using a calibrated overlapping generations model we quantify the welfare gains of an age dependent income tax. Agents face uncertainty regarding future abilities and can by saving transfer consumption across periods. The welfare gain of switching from an age-independent to an age-dependent nonlinear tax amounts in our benchmark model to around three percent of GDP. The gains are particularly high when there are restrictions on debt policy. The gains of using a nonlinear - as opposed to a linear tax are even larger. Surprisingly, it is of secondary importance to optimally choose the tax on interest income.
The Modernization of Kabbalah: A Case Study

There is no time like the present for calling attention to the emergence of a new field of scholarship, that of the modernization of Kabbalah, which is in turn part of a wider reconsideration of the modern Jewish world taking place in recent years, especially amongst younger scholars. These convergent developments open diverse possibilities for profound change in the agenda of Jewish Studies as such. I wish to offer a textual case study, that of a kabbalist operating within the Italian Enlightenment, in order to propose a reevaluation of the place of modern Kabbalah within Jewish Studies, as part of a wider revision of traditional orientations of the field. These new theoretical and methodological horizons can best be appreciated through an introductory overview of the fate of the modern in the history of Jewish Studies in the twentieth century. This overview joins recent moves towards writing such a history [such as volume 74 (2009) of Zion, the organ of the Israel Historical Society, on the history of Jewish historical studies in Israel]. The classical paradigm of twentieth century Jewish studies, as exemplified in the work of luminaries such as Isaac Baer, Julius Guttmann, Saul Lieberman, Shlomo Pines, Gershom Scholem, Ephraim Urbach and Harry Wolfson, was founded on intensive study of texts ranging from later antiquity to the medieval period. The only one of the above to dedicate a significant degree of inquiry to the modern period was of course Gershom Scholem. Yet, the latter deeply believed in the primacy of origins in scholarly investigation and devoted only one book-length study to the modern period: Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah, 1626-1676. Precisely through this exquisitely researched exception, which was limited to half a century (as its title demonstrates), we can see how central sabbateanism and especially one figure, Sabbetai Tsevi, were for Scholem’s understanding of modernity. As a result, from Scholem’s time onwards, numerous giants of Jewish modernity, such as R. Yonathan Eybeschutz, R. Moshe
Memory in patients with cerebellar degeneration

Eleven patients with relatively selective cerebellar degeneration and 11 normal control subjects underwent a comprehensive neurologic and neuropsychological examination. The neuropsychological tests assessed general intellectual ability, different aspects of memory (effortful, automatic, and implicit memory processes), speed of information processing, and verbal fluency (using both category and letter fluency tasks). The results indicated that cerebellar patients were significantly impaired only on tasks requiring the use of executive functions, such as the initiation/perseveration subtest of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale or the fluency tests, and on memory measures requiring greater processing effort. They performed normally on automatic and implicit measures of memory. Performance on the effortful memory and executive measures was not associated with neurologic variables or mood state. After controlling for the initiation/perseveration deficit, the effortful memory scores of the cerebellar patients were no longer different from those of controls. The present study suggests that memory in patients with relatively pure cerebellar dysfunction is only partially compromised and that the impairment is secondary to a deficit in executive functions.
Is performance on the Wechsler test of adult reading affected by traumatic brain injury?

OBJECTIVES The validity of the National Adult Reading Test (NART) as a predictor of premorbid IQ when used with patients who have sustained a traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been questioned in recent years. This study examined whether performance on the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading (WTAR) is similarly affected by TBI in the first year after an injury. DESIGN AND METHOD The WTAR scores of participants who had sustained a mild TBI (N=82), moderate TBI (N=73), severe TBI (N=61) or an orthopaedic injury (N=95) were compared (cross-sectional study). A subset of 21 mild TBI, 31 moderate TBI, 26 severe TBI and 21 control group participants were additionally reassessed 6 months later to assess the impact of recovery on WTAR scores (longitudinal study). RESULTS The severe TBI group had significantly lower scores on the WTAR than the mild TBI, moderate TBI and control groups in the cross-sectional study, despite being matched demographically. The findings from the longitudinal study revealed a significant group difference and a small improvement in performance over time but the interaction between group and time was not significant, suggesting that the improvements in WTAR performance over time were not restricted to more severely injured individuals whose performance was temporarily suppressed. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that reading performance may be affected by severe TBI and that the WTAR may underestimate premorbid IQ when used in this context, which may cause clinicians to underestimate the cognitive deficits experienced by these patients.
Regulation of the aroH operon of Escherichia coli by the tryptophan repressor

Regulation of expression of aroH, the structural gene for the tryptophan-sensitive 3-deoxy-D-arabinoheptulosonic acid-7-phosphate synthetase, by the tryptophan repressor and its corepressor, L-tryptophan, was studied in vivo by using aroH-lacZ fusions. Protein and operon fusions were constructed on multicopy plasmids and subsequently crossed in single copy to the bacterial chromosome via the specialized transducing bacteriophage lambda RZ5. Analysis of the resulting lysogens demonstrated that aroH-lacZ expression in a trpR mutant strain varied four- to fivefold relative to an isogenic trpR+ strain under fully repressing conditions. In trpR+ strains containing either fusion, a modest (ca. 50%) change in activity was seen in response to the addition of L-tryptophan to the culture medium. These data demonstrate that aroH gene expression is only moderately regulated by the tryptophan repressor and that this regulation is at the level of transcription. Addition of L-phenylalanine, L-tyrosine, or Casamino Acids (Difco Laboratories, Detroit, Mich.) to the cell culture medium resulted in a tryptophan repressor-dependent derepression of aroH expression. We believe that this effect is caused by L-tryptophan limitation as a result of repression and feedback inhibition of the tyrosine- and phenylalanine-specific 3-deoxy-D-arabinoheptulosonic acid-7-phosphate synthetase isoenzymes. Derepression of aroH expression by the L-tryptophan analogs, 3-beta-indoleacrylic acid and indole-3-propionic acid, is also documented.
The Key Predictors of Success in University in France: What Are the Contributing Factors and Possible New Directions in Educational Research?

In France, the university has been experiencing a major crisis for several decades in the form of a high rate of student failure, particularly during the licence , or first cycle of studies. This prolonged crisis has led educational researchers to focus on the predictors of student failure in University. This paper reviews the existing literature on both student failure and success in University in the French context. We first conduct a thorough analysis of the various factors explaining failure rates, and then explore in more depth the factors explaining student success, which have thus far been under-researched in France. We identify several types of predicators, including individual-level factors, which have been the focus of extensive research in France over the past number of years, and contextual factors, such as professors’ teaching practices, which constitute a relatively novel focus in French educational research.
Perceived workload and work outcomes among computer professionals

This research examined the effects of workload on three work outcomes – work exhaustion, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Data collected from a questionnaire survey were used to test the relationships proposed in this research. The results showed that (a) workload was positively related to work exhaustion and job satisfaction; (b) work exhaustion was positively related to turnover intention and negatively related to job satisfaction, and (c) job satisfaction was negatively related to turnover intention. These results indicate that workload affects turnover intention in different ways, depending on the mediating effects of work exhaustion and job satisfaction. The paper discussed the implications of the effects of workload on computer professionals.
Dihydrofolate reductase as a therapeutic target

The folate antagonists are an important class of therapeutic compounds, as evidenced by their use as antiinfective, antineoplastic, and antiinflammatory drugs. Thus far, all of the clinically useful drugs of this class have been inhibitors of dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), a key enzyme in the synthesis of thymidylate, and therefore, of DNA. The basis of the antiinfective selectivity of these compounds is clear; the antifolates trimethoprim and pyrimethamine are potent inhibitors of bacterial and protozoal DHFRs, respectively, but are only weak inhibitors of mammalian DHFRs. These species‐selective agents apparently exploit the differences in the active site regions of the parasite and host enzymes. Methotrexate is the DHFR inhibitor used most often in a clinical setting as an anticancer drug and as an antiinflammatory and immunosuppressive agent. Considerable progress has been made recently in understanding the biochemical basis for the selectivity of this drug and the biochemical mechanism (or mechanisms) responsible for the development of resistance to treatment with the drug. This understanding has led to a new generation of DHFR inhibitors that are now in clinical trials. — Schweitzer, B. I. ; Dicker, A. D. ; Bertino, J. R. Dihydrofolate reductase as a therapeutic target. FASEB J. 4: 2441‐2452; 1990.
Acute diverticulitis of the cecum and ascending colon: the value of thin-section helical CT findings in excluding colonic carcinoma.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to assess the value of characteristic thin-section helical CT findings of acute diverticulitis involving the cecum and ascending colon in excluding colonic carcinoma. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thin-section helical CT scans (5-mm collimation) of 19 consecutive patients with proven diverticulitis and 21 consecutive patients with surgically proven carcinoma involving the cecum and ascending colon were reviewed retrospectively. Two radiologists independently analyzed these parameters: degree of pericolic infiltration, mesenteric fluid, vascular engorgement, arrowhead-shaped wall thickening, air-filled diverticula, inflamed diverticula, and preserved enhancement pattern of involved colonic wall. Inter-observer agreement was assessed with a kappa statistical analysis, and the features that most distinguished diverticulitis from colonic carcinoma were selected with a stepwise logistic-regression analysis. RESULTS The two CT findings of right-sided colonic diverticulitis that most distinguished it from colonic carcinoma were inflamed diverticula and the preservation of an enhancement pattern of the involved colonic wall. Excellent interobserver agreement (kappa > 0.60) was obtained for both findings. Inflamed diverticula (kappa = 0.80) had a mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy for diverticulitis of 86.8%, 92.9%, and 90.0%, respectively, in differentiating right-sided colonic diverticulitis from colonic carcinoma. Preserved wall enhancement pattern (kappa = 0.70) had a mean sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy of 89.5%, 95.3%, and 92.5%, respectively. CONCLUSION On thin-section helical CT, an inflamed diverticula and a preserved enhancement pattern of the thickened colonic wall were the two most statistically significant CT findings of acute diverticulitis involving the cecum and ascending colon that distinguished diverticulitis from colonic carcinoma.
Clinical and Radiological Considerations for Incorporating Computed Tomographic Colonography into Colorectal Cancer Screening Programs

Colorectal cancer is the third most common type of cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. Clinical evidence amassed over the last several decades indicates that routine screening, compared to no screening, detects the disease at an earlier stage, and reduces the incidence of colorectal cancer by interrupting the adenoma-to-carcinoma sequence in colon polyps through colonoscopy-guided polypectomy and thus reduces mortality. Guidelines for screening include fecal occult blood testing, sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy and – most recently – computed tomographic colonography. This review discusses each modality and the current recommendations and state of the art for colorectal cancer screening. Properly implemented in a multi-modality disease prevention and screening setting, computed tomographic colonography provides an appealing alternative to traditional optical colonoscopy for screening in populations unwilling or unable to undergo colonoscopy, thus potentially increasing screening rates and reducing colorectal cancer incidence and mortality.
Do Adolescents with T1DM Differ from Their Peers in Health, Eating Habits and Social Support?

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyse differences in health, eating habits and social support in adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in comparison to peers with another long-term illness or without any medical condition. METHODS We used self-reported data from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study collected in 2014 among Slovak adolescents as well as data from adolescents with T1DM collected in outpatient settings (11 to 15 years old, N=8,910, 50.3% of boys). Logistic regression models and general linear models were used to analyse differences between adolescents with T1DM and their peers with and without long-term illness in self-rated health, life satisfaction, health complaints, regular breakfast, sweets and soft drink consumption, and perceived support from family, teachers and classmates. RESULTS Adolescents with T1DM reported worse self-rated health and suffer from more health complaints, but they have lower chance of having breakfast irregularly in comparison to their peers with another long-term illness or without any medical condition. Moreover, compared with their peers, adolescents with T1DM perceived stronger support from teachers and classmates, but weaker support from their family. We did not confirm any differences in life satisfaction, sweets and soft drink consumption between adolescents with T1DM and their peers. CONCLUSIONS Adolescents with T1DM reported more regular eating habits, no difference in life satisfaction and more social support outside the family in comparison to their peers. However, their worse self-rated health, more health complaints and weaker support from family should be considered in interventions targeting psychosocial adjustment of adolescents with T1DM.
Honey prevents hepatic damage induced by obstruction of the common bile duct.

AIM To examine the possible effects of honey supplementation on hepatic damage due to obstruction of the common bile duct in an experimental rat model. METHODS The study was performed with 30 male rats divided into three groups: a sham group, an obstructive jaundice group, and an obstructive jaundice plus honey group. At the end of the study period, the animals were sacrificed, and levels of nitric oxide (NO), and NO synthase (NOS) activities were measured in liver tissues, and levels of adenosine deaminase (ADA) and alanine transaminase (ALT) activities were measured in serum. RESULTS Blood ALT and ADA activities were significantly elevated in the jaundice group as compared to those of the sham group. In the obstructive jaundice plus honey group, blood ALT and ADA activities were significantly decreased as compared to those of the jaundice group. In erythrocytes and liver tissues, NO levels were found to be significantly higher in the obstructive jaundice plus honey group compared to those of the sham group. Additionally, NO levels were found to be significantly higher in liver tissues from the animals in the obstructive jaundice plus honey group than those of the jaundice group. CONCLUSION Honey was found to be beneficial in the prevention of hepatic damage due to obstruction of the common bile duct.
Surgical Site Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Pattern.

BACKGROUND Post-operative surgical site infections (SSIs) are among the leading cause of morbidity and increased medical expense. The aim of this study is to isolate identify and study antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of microorganism from surgical wound of admitted patients. METHODS This retrospective study was carried at the Microbiology Laboratory of Bharatpur hospital, Nepal, from May 2015 to October 2015. The pus samples were cultured and antibiotic susceptibility determined in vitro by Kirby Bauer's disc diffusion method following clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) 2014 recommendation. RESULTS Of the total 250 samples, 194 (77.6%) showed bacterial growth. Staphylococcus aureus was 47.4% and Escherichia coli 20.60 %. Of 194 isolates 39.2% were multi drug resistant. Amikacin was sensitive in 93.1% of Gram positive isolates and 81.8% of gram negative isolates. CONCLUSIONS Bacterial growth is common in surgical site. Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were multidrug resistant. Grampositive and gram negative isolates were commonly sensitive to Amikacin.