Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
High plasma neurotensin levels in children with Prader–Willi syndrome

Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is an obesity‐related genetic condition, most commonly due to a paternal deletion of the chromosome 15q11‐q13 region. PWS is characterized by growth hormone deficiency, infantile hypotonia and feeding problems, hypogenitalism/hypogonadism, increased pain threshold and thermal instability, decreased gastric motility, and hyperphagia in childhood leading to severe obesity. Neuro‐endocrine peptides are known to influence gastric function and pain sensation which led us to measure a specific peptide that may be involved [i.e., neurotensin (NT)] in PWS and compared with unrelated control siblings. Overnight fasting plasma NT levels were obtained from 23 children with confirmed PWS (age: 8.2 ± 2.0 years; range: 5–11 years) and 18 unaffected, unrelated siblings (age: 8.2 ± 2.3 years; range: 5–11 years) and measured using Multiplex sandwich immunoassays with the Luminex magnetic‐bead based platform. Plasma NT levels were natural log‐transformed and analyzed by ANOVA with adjustments for age, gender, and body mass index (BMI). No difference was found in plasma NT levels for gender, age or BMI or significant correlations seen with age or BMI. Higher plasma NT levels (P < 0.001) were seen in PWS children (mean of 626 ± 238 pg/ml) compared with unaffected, unrelated siblings (mean of 371 ± 236 pg/ml). Plasma levels were also higher in children with maternal disomy 15 (736 ± 182 pg/ml) compared with those having the deletion subtype (548 ± 247 pg/ml, P < 0.04). Although no measures for pain threshold, thermal instability or gastric motility were performed in our study participants, higher plasma NT levels were found in PWS children. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Increased risk of melanoma in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia: systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

An increased risk of melanoma has been variously reported in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), analogous with other immunosuppressed populations. To fully assess this association, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of available evidence from observational cohort studies. All such longitudinal studies of patients diagnosed with CLL that enabled quantitative assessment of the risk of melanoma compared with the general population were eligible. We identified seven studies from a search of all published literature to July 2014 in Medline, Embase and ISI science citation index databases. Data were pooled using a random-effects model. There was an almost four-fold increase in the risk of melanoma in patients with CLL compared with the general population (pooled standardized incidence ratio 3.88 [95% confidence interval (CI) 2.08–7.22]), although significant heterogeneity was evident among studies (I2=96.0%, Phet<0.001). The risk of melanoma was higher for men with CLL (3.41; 95% CI 1.49–7.80) than women (2.61; 95% CI 1.13–6.01). CLL patients are at high risk of developing melanoma and the magnitude of the risk is higher than that found in other immunosuppressed populations. Our findings suggest that patients with CLL, as they are also at a higher risk of developing the more common skin cancers, would benefit from regular skin examinations.
Expression of p53 Protein in Gastric Carcinomas Association with Histologic Type and Prognosis

We searched for p53 protein accumulation in 72 gastric carcinomas. Of the 38 cases of the diffuse type, only four were positive for p53. Of the 34 cases of intestinal type, 24 had p53 protein accumulation. This difference (p < 0.0001) between histological types was present regardless of whether the carcinoma was superficial or infiltrative. Normal epithelial cells and intestinal metaplasia were never positive. No correlation was found between p53 protein accumulation and tumor size, lymph node metastases, age or sex of the patients. Although tumor size, lymph node metastases, and infiltrative character all have prognostic value, p53, either alone or in association with these parameters, does not; p53 mutations seem to play a role in oncogenesis only in the intestinal type of gastric carcinomas; however, p53 protein accumulation has no prognostic value in gastric tumors.
Lung injury in acute pancreatitis.

Most knowledge has been accumulated on the mechanisms involved in the development of distant organ injuries during the course of severe acute pancreatitis. Among the various distant organ dysfunctions, both the development of acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome represent serious complications. In the following paragraphs the pathophysiological mechanisms capable of determining lung injury during the course of acute pancreatitis will be reviewed.
Thiol switches in redox regulation of chloroplasts: balancing redox state, metabolism and oxidative stress

Abstract In photosynthesizing chloroplasts, rapidly changing energy input, intermediate generation of strong reductants as well as oxidants and multiple participating physicochemical processes and pathways, call for efficient regulation. Coupling redox information to protein function via thiol modifications offers a powerful mechanism to activate, down-regulate and coordinate interdependent processes. Efficient thiol switching of target proteins involves the thiol-disulfide redox regulatory network, which is highly elaborated in chloroplasts. This review addresses the features of this network. Its conditional function depends on specificity of reduction and oxidation reactions and pathways, thiol redox buffering, but also formation of heterogeneous milieus by microdomains, metabolite gradients and macromolecular assemblies. One major player is glutathione. Its synthesis and function is under feedback redox control. The number of thiol-controlled processes and involved thiol switched proteins is steadily increasing, e.g., in tetrapyrrole biosynthesis, plastid transcription and plastid translation. Thus chloroplasts utilize an intricate and versatile redox regulatory network for intraorganellar and retrograde communication.
Assembly factors for the membrane arm of human complex I

Significance Mammalian complex I, the largest and most complicated enzyme of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, is an L-shaped assembly of 44 proteins with one arm in the mitochondrial matrix and the orthogonal arm buried in the inner membrane. It is put together from preassembled modules. This investigation concerns the little studied process of the assembly of the membrane arm module from proteins emanating from both nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. We have identified two membrane protein assembly factors C3orf1 and TMEM126B, not found in the mature complex, that help this process by putting together two membrane arm subcomplexes. Defects in the assembly of complex I are increasingly being associated with human pathologies. Mitochondrial respiratory complex I is a product of both the nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. The integration of seven subunits encoded in mitochondrial DNA into the inner membrane, their association with 14 nuclear-encoded membrane subunits, the construction of the extrinsic arm from 23 additional nuclear-encoded proteins, iron–sulfur clusters, and flavin mononucleotide cofactor require the participation of assembly factors. Some are intrinsic to the complex, whereas others participate transiently. The suppression of the expression of the NDUFA11 subunit of complex I disrupted the assembly of the complex, and subcomplexes with masses of 550 and 815 kDa accumulated. Eight of the known extrinsic assembly factors plus a hydrophobic protein, C3orf1, were associated with the subcomplexes. The characteristics of C3orf1, of another assembly factor, TMEM126B, and of NDUFA11 suggest that they all participate in constructing the membrane arm of complex I.
Accuracy of Computed Tomography in Diagnosis of Intra‐abdominal Injuries in Stable Patients With Anterior Abdominal Stab Wounds: A Systematic Review and Meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND Workup for patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) following an anterior abdominal stab wound (AASW) has been debated since the 1960s. Experts agree that patients with peritonitis, evisceration, or hemodynamic instability should undergo immediate laparotomy (LAP); however, workup of stable, asymptomatic or nonperitoneal patients is not clearly defined. OBJECTIVES The objective was to evaluate the accuracy of computed tomography of abdomen and pelvis (CTAP) for diagnosis of intraabdominal injuries requiring therapeutic laparotomy (THER-LAP) in ED patients with AASW. Is a negative CT scan without a period of observation sufficient to safely discharge a hemodynamically stable, asymptomatic AASW patient? METHODS We searched PubMed, Embase, and Scopus from their inception until May 2017 for studies on ED patients with AASW. We defined the reference standard test as LAP for patients who were managed surgically and inpatient observation in those who were managed nonoperatively. In those who underwent LAP, THER-LAP was considered as disease positive. We used the Quality Assessment Tool for Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) to evaluate the risk of bias and assess the applicability of the included studies. We attempted to compute the pooled sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio (LR+), and negative likelihood ratio (LR-) using a random-effects model with MetaDiSc software and calculate testing and treatment thresholds for CT scan applying the Pauker and Kassirer model. RESULTS Seven studies were included encompassing 575 patients. The weighted prevalence of THER-LAP was 34.3% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 30.5%-38.2%). Studies had variable quality and the inclusion criteria were not uniform. The operating characteristics of CT scan were as follows: sensitivity = 50% to 100%, specificity = 39% to 97%, LR+ = 1.0 to 15.7, and LR- = 0.07 to 1.0. The high heterogeneity (I2 > 75%) of the operating characteristics of CT scan prevented pooling of the data and therefore the testing and treatment thresholds could not be estimated. DISCUSSION The articles revealed a high prevalence (8.7%, 95% CI = 6.1%-12.2%) of injuries requiring THER-LAP in patients with a negative CT scan and almost half (47%, 95% CI = 30%-64%) of those injuries involved the small bowel. CONCLUSIONS In stable AASW patients, a negative CT scan alone without an observation period is inadequate to exclude significant intraabdominal injuries.
Changes in cyclic nucleotide levels and dimorphic transition in Candida albicans

The relationship between the levels of cyclic nucleotides and dimorphic transition in Candida albicans was examined. The results showed that cells of this pathogenic fungus contained both cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP) and cyclic guanosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cGMP), the concentration of the latter being about one-tenth that of the former in stationary-phase cells of the yeast form. Our results further indicated that germ tube formation induced by incubation at 40 degrees C followed a rise in cAMP concentration in the cell with no accompanying change in cGMP content. Cysteine, which suppressed germination, also reversed the increase in intracellular cAMP concentration. Dibutyryl cAMP (1 MM) significantly promoted germination in proline medium at temperatures of 32 to 34 degrees C. These results suggested that cAMP was one of the controlling factors in the morphological transition in Candida albicans.
Thorax oncology : a hierarchical segmentation framework incorporating bi-modality PET/CT images specificities and shape constraints to segment tumors and organs at risk

In thoracic oncology, PET and CT imaging are more and more used conjointly, in particular thanks to the development of combined scanners. Radiotherapy planning is usually based on CT images, and requires the segmentation of pathologies, such as tumors and infected lymph nodes, as well as of organs at risk, in order to carefully design the radiation region. In this work, we propose a complete framework to segment thoracic organs using information provided by the dual modality PET/CT images, and a priori knowledge about organ shapes. Segmentations are performed hierarchically in a sequential scheme using a robust variational method. To specifically segment tumors or lymph nodes, the bi-modality imaging PET/CT is exploited, and the PET information is used to constrain the CT segmentation. To segment organs at risk, shape constraints, based on translation and scale invariant Legendre moments, are used. In both cases, quantitative results show the agreement with manual segmentation, and the interest of the proposed approaches. Résumé En imagerie pour l’oncologie du thorax, les images TDM (tomodensitométriques) et les images TEP (tomographie à émission de positons) sont de plus en plus fréquemment utilisées conjointement grâce au développement des machines combinées. De plus, les plans de traitement pour la Acknowledgments: This work was partially funded by the Medicen Pôle de Compétitivité within the Miniara project.
Lycopene and Vitamin E interfere with autocrine/paracrine loops in the Dunning prostate cancer model

Epidemiological studies have consistently associated high intakes of lycopene or vitamin E with a reduced prostate cancer risk. Both compounds were tested in the MatLyLu Dunning prostate cancer model to gain insight into the in vivo action of lycopene and vitamin E. Supplementation for 4 weeks with 200 ppm lycopene, 540 ppm vitamin E, or both led to plasma levels comparable with those in humans. Both compounds also accumulated in tumor tissue. Macroscopic evaluation of the tumors by magnetic resonance imaging showed a significant increase in necrotic area in the vitamin E and the lycopene treatment groups. Microarray analysis of tumor tissues revealed that both compounds regulated local gene expression. Vitamin E reduced androgen signaling without affecting androgen metabolism. Lycopene interfered with local testosterone activation by down‐regulating 5‐α‐reductase and consequently reduced steroid target genes expression (cystatin‐related protein 1 and 2, prostatic spermine binding protein, prostatic steroid binding protein C1, C2 and C3 chain, probasin). In addition, lycopene down‐ regulated prostatic IGF‐I and IL‐6 expression. Based on these findings, we suggest that lycopene and vitamin E contribute to the reduction of prostate cancer by interfering with internal autocrine or paracrine loops of sex steroid hormone and growth factor activation/synthesis and signaling in the prostate.
Handbook of hyper-real religions

Contributors include: Stef Aupers, Eileen Barker, Lauren Bernauer, Douglas E. Cowan, Carol M. Cusack, Markus Davidsen, Martin Geoffroy, Dick Houtman, Massimo Introvigne, Danielle Kirby, Joseph Laycock, Carly Machado, Debbie McCormick, John W. Morehead, Kamaludeen Mohamed Nasir, Alan Nixon, Krzysztof Olechnicki, Adam Possamai, Johan Roeland, Heinz Scheifinger, John Walliss, and Benjamin Zeller.
Detection of Very Early Alzheimer Disease Through Neuroimaging

The goal of neuroimaging in Alzheimer disease (AD) is to find physical changes in the brain that are surrogate markers for the pathologic changes that underlie AD. It is possible to discriminate with considerable accuracy patients without AD (control subjects) from those with mild AD by measures of the medial temporal lobe (e.g., a combined measurement of the temporal horn and the hippocampal formation yielded 100% discrimination). It has also been established that the total brain volume in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is 10– 15% less than in healthy age-matched patients. When applied to individuals, this measure has a discriminatory power of 60–70%. This work, which dates from the early 1990s, has been expanded to determine whether patients with prodromal AD can be distinguished from control subjects based on imaging studies, to achieve the ultimate goal of intervening therapeutically at the earliest possible stage of the disorder. Contemporary research includes assessments of structures other than the hippocampus and the areas immediately adjacent to it, such as the entorhinal cortex. The clinical evaluation tool used in many of these investigations is the Clinical Dementia Rating scale (CDR), which assesses individual subjects according to six categories: memory, orientation, judgment/problemsolving, community affairs, home/hobbies, and personal care. Scores range from 0.0 (normal) to 0.5 (questionable) to 1.0 (mild), to 2.0 (moderate), up to 5.0 (terminal). A direct relationship exists between the CDR “box score” and the 3-year AD conversion rate. CLINICAL DEMENTIA RATING AND CONVERSION TO AD
Does the Proven Benefit of Mammography Extend to Breast Cancer Patients Over Age 70?

Background. Prospective randomized studies show reduced breast cancer mortality among women offered mammographic screening; yet, few women 70 or older were represented in these trials. We examine the impact of mammography on stage at diagnosis of breast cancer, over the years when mammography came into general use, comparing women aged 40 to 69 with those aged 70 and older. Methods. We reviewed the records of 1,001 consecutive patients 40 and older treated for invasive or in situ breast cancer in the surgical practice of one of us (H.S.C.) between 1979 and 1993, comparing trends in mammography use, means of diagnosis, tumor size, axillary node status, and pathology. Results. The proportion of cases diagnosed by mammography increased over time to a comparable degree in both age groups, as did the proportion of Tl and DCIS or microinvasive cancers. This trend toward earlier stage appears entirely due to an increasing use of mammography. Conclusion. The potential benefit of regular mammography to healthy women aged 70 and older may equal that observed in their younger counterparts.
Mycotoxic nephropathy in Bulgarian pigs and chickens : complex aetiology and similarity to Balkan Endemic Nephropathy

S.D. Stoev*, M.F. Dutton, P.B. Njobeh, J.S. Mosonik and P.A. Steenkamp Department of General and Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Trakia University, Students Campus, 6000 Stara Zagora, Bulgaria; Food, Environment and Health Research Group, Faculty of Health Science, University of Johannesburg, Doornfontein 2028, Gauteng, PO Box 17011, South Africa; Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Biosciences, Ardeer Road, Private Bag x2, Modderfontein, 1645, South Africa
Uniform Boundary Controllability of a Semidiscrete 1-D Wave Equation with Vanishing Viscosity

This article deals with the approximation of the boundary control of the linear one-dimensional wave equation. It is known that the high frequency spurious oscillations that the classical methods of finite difference and finite element introduce lead to nonuniform controllability properties (see [J. A. Infante and E. Zuazua, M2AN Math. Model. Numer. Anal., 33 (1999), pp. 407-438]. A space-discrete scheme with an added numerical vanishing viscous term is introduced and analyzed. The extra numerical damping filters out the high numerical frequencies and ensures the convergence of the sequence of discrete controls to a control of the continuous conservative wave equation when the mesh size tends to zero.
Expression of SCUBE2 gene declines in high grade endometrial cancer and associates with expression of steroid hormone receptors and tumor suppressor PTEN

Abstract SCUBE2 (Signal peptide-CUB-epidermal growth factor-like domain-containing 2) gene codes for a cell-surface glycoprotein. In breast cancer, SCUBE2 transcript levels are part of important prognostic and predictive gene signatures and are linked to expression of estrogen receptor α (ERα). To elucidate the role of this gene in endometrial cancer, we compared SCUBE2 expression in malignant and normal endometrial tissue specimens. We then examined its correlation with steroid hormone receptors and PTEN and compared it to SCUBE2 expression in breast cancer samples. Expression of SCUBE2 was found to be decreased in G3 endometrial cancer when compared to postmenopausal endometrium or to G1 tumors (p < 0.05). In postmenopausal endometrium, SCUBE2 transcript levels were more than twice as high as in premenopausal women. In breast cancer, SCUBE2 expression was found to be notably reduced particularly in ERα-negative G3 tumors. Both in endometrial and breast cancer we observed a significant positive correlation of SCUBE2 transcript levels with expression of ERα, PR and PTEN. Our data suggest that SCUBE2, like in breast cancer, associates with ERα and might have a potential as prognostic or predictive marker in endometrial cancer.
Open and closed cortico-subcortical loops : A neuro-computational account of access to consciousness in the distractor-induced blindness paradigm q

http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.concog. 2015.02. 007 1053-8100/ 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. q This article is part of a special issue of this journal on Exploring the Visual (Un)conscious. ⇑ Corresponding author at: Department of Computer Science, Chemnitz University of Technology, Straße der Nationen 62, 09111 Chemnitz, G Fax: +49 371 53125739. E-mail address: fred.hamker@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de (F.H. Hamker). 1 C.E. and H.S. contributed equally.
Australian homeless persons' experiences of social connectedness, isolation and loneliness.

Both loneliness and a lack of social integration are associated with serious physical and psychological health issues. One population highly susceptible to social isolation and loneliness are individuals who are homeless, who also experience high rates of mental disorder and relationship breakdown. Despite this, little research has explored how social networks, isolation and loneliness are experienced for those with a history of homelessness. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were used to get a nuanced understanding of how social networks and isolation are experienced and understood by individuals experiencing homelessness. Sixteen participants who were either homeless (n = 11) or previously homeless (n = 5) in Sydney, Australia, completed one-off interviews that were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants constructed their social networks as being both constrained and enabled by marginalisation. They experienced rejection from the non-homeless: the loss of critical network members, including rejection from family and a lack of companionship, and low quality and precarious relationships within the homeless community. These accounts were best conceptualised through loneliness theory. Participant's accounts signal that the homeless will likely continue feeling isolated if mainstream attitudes towards homelessness remain stigmatising and discriminatory.