Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Blood glucose self-monitoring among patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 in family medicine practice].

INTRODUCTION Good knowledge of diabetic patients about their disease is often not related with good glycemic control. The aim of this study was to determine the level of application of acquired knowledge about diabetes in recognizing and resolving hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic conditions in patients who did or did not do blood glucose self-monitoring as well as the impact of self-monitoring on HbA1c during education of patients with diabetes type 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS There were 91 patients with the type 2 diabetes who completed six months education about their disease in four family medicine practices in Tuzla Canton during the period from March to September 2005. The patients who did or did not do self-monitoring with glucometer were interviewed on knowledge about recognizing and resolving hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia by family physician and HbA1c was assessed at the beginning of the education, 3 months after reading the brochure (passive education) and additional 3 months of group (intensive) education. RESULTS Out of 91 interviewed patients, there were 29 who did self-monitoring by glucometer at the beginning of the education, 30 patients during the passive education and 34 after the intensive education. At the beginning of education, regardless of doing self-monitoring, the patients were less able to recognize and resolve hypoglycemia and even less hyperglycemia. At the end of education, their knowledge was better at both recognizing and resolving hypoglycemia (P=0.01) as well as at recognizing (P=0.01) and resolving hyperglycemia (P=0.001). In the patients who did self-monitoring the average value of the HbA1c did not improve significantly (P=0.44) compared to those who did not practice self-monitoring (P=0.10) during education. CONCLUSION Only one third of patients with type 2 diabetes had done self monitoring with glucometer and although their knowledge about hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia was improved during education, these patients did not have improved significant values of the HbA1c compared to patients who had not done self-monitoring.
Foreign-Born Emigration From The United States: 1960 To 1970

This paper presents estimates of emigration of foreign-born persons by age and sex for 1960 to 1970, based on 1960 and 1970 census counts of the foreign-born population, adjusted life table survival rates, and annual statistics on alien immigration published by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The effects of nativity bias are discussed. It is estimated that approximately 1,140,000 foreign-born persons emigrated between 1960 and 1970, of which 663,000, or 58 percent, were women and 477,000 were men. Almost one-quarter of the foreign-born emigrants were women 25–44 years of age in 1970. About 175,000 foreign-born persons 65 years and over in 1970 emigrated during the decade. The most significant finding, that more than one million foreign-born persons left the United States between 1960 and 1970, has important implications for U.S. immigration policy and for net immigration data used to estimate the population of the United States.
Detection and Quantification of Insertion/Deletion Variations by Allele-Specific Real-Time PCR: Application for Genotyping and Chimerism Analysis

Abstract The DNAbased quantitative analysis of genetic chimerism is becoming increasingly more important for molecular biology in general and molecular medicine in particular. Useful genomic targets for these analyses are polymorphic sequences, but here the problem of a reliable quantification with high dynamic range is not yet satisfactorily solved. To this end we have combined the allelespecific amplification with a realtime PCRbased quantification for rapid allelotyping and chimerism analysis. The sequence variations are discriminated by the 3end of the allelespecific primer. Amplification is monitored by SYBRGreen I fluorescence. We demonstrate the efficiency of this method for two clinically relevant targets: (i) the 10 bp insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter of the factor VIIc (FVIIc) gene and (ii) the 4G/5G single nucleotide polymorphism in the promoter of the plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) gene. Both polymorphisms are associated with clinical risk factors. Allelotyping results were in complete agreement with those obtained by reference methods. Mixed chimeric DNA samples could be quantified reliably with a dynamic range of 1:3000 for an easy target (FVIIc) and of 1:64 for a difficult target (PAI-1). Our protocol is particularly useful for rapid, reliable and inexpensive genotyping and quantitative chimerism analysis without requiring expensive fluorophor dye labelled probes.
Generation of Reactive Oxygen Species in Helium–Oxygen Radio-Frequency Discharges at Atmospheric Pressure

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated in atmospheric plasmas are believed to play an important role in plasma medicine and related areas. In this paper, we explored a fluid model to investigate the production and destruction of ROS in atmospheric radio-frequency (RF) discharges with helium-oxygen mixture as working gas; to speed up the computation, only 17 species and 48 reactions are considered in plasmas. At a given applied voltage, the variations of ROS depending on the oxygen admixture are discussed and the key reactions related to the generation of ROS are further confirmed. Through increasing the applied voltage, the evolution of ROS based on the simulation results are also given. The simulation data agree well with the experimental measurements.
Synchrophasor Measurement With Polynomial Phase-Locked-Loop Taylor–Fourier Filters

Synchrophasor estimation research has recently shifted emphasis from the phasor to the frequency and rate of change of frequency estimation problem. The main concern now is to achieve finer dynamic spectral analysis from the power system signals. This paper proposes the use of the Taylor-Fourier filters to reduce the error of the whole set of estimated parameters. This reduction is attained by exploiting their capability to match the phase pattern of the signal from one estimation to the next. By being endowed with their own phase follower, they are able to point their basis vectors toward the given signal, providing the best possible estimates from the nearest available subspace. The adaptive filters, provided with their own polynomial phase-locked loop, follow the instantaneous frequency of the given signal. Since most of the signals stipulated in the synchrophasor standard are defined by Taylor polynomials, the performance of this family of filters is remarkable, for durations from two cycles. They obtain estimates with zero error in the full set of parameters, when the test signal is in the focused Taylor-Fourier subspace. Very small estimation errors can be obtained for signal to noise ratios greater than 50 dB. Harmonic interference can also be constrained, but with higher computational cost.
The Survival of a Temperate vtx Bacteriophage and an Anti‐Verocytotoxigenic Escherichia coli O157 Lytic Phage in Water and Soil Samples

Verocytotoxigenic (vtx) Escherichia coli (VTEC) are zoonotic foodborne pathogens with the vtx operon encoded by lambdoid bacteriophage (phage). Despite much research on the host bacteria, similar data on the persistence of verocytotoxin converting phage and the ecological niches where transduction occurs are lacking and novel VTEC of important public health significance, have and continue to emerge. This study investigated the survival of a temperate vtx bacteriophage (24B::kanamycinR) in water (raw farm, pasteurized farm, laboratory tap and autoclaved purified water) and soil (sandy loam and loam soil). It also examined the persistence of an anti‐VTEC lytic phage (e11/2) in the same matrices as this may be one option for controlling the emergence of novel VTEC, especially in farm ecological niches where other control options, such as chemical, heat or high pressure treatments, are not feasible. Samples inoculated with 24B::kanamycinR and e11/2 bacteriophage (8 log10 pfu/ml or pfu/g) separately were incubated at 4°C and 14°C, representative Irish Winter and Summer temperatures, respectively, and tested every 2 days for 40 days. The transduction of 24B::kanamycinR was also continuously assessed. Both phages survived with reductions observed, regardless of matrix or storage temperature. Moreover, 24B::kanamycinR was able to transduce its host E. coli strain. It was therefore concluded that aquatic and soil environments on farms may serve as a vtx phage reservoir and transduction point but anti‐VTEC phage is a possible biocontrol option.
The Ability of Two Listeria monocytogenes Vaccines Targeting Human Papillomavirus-16 E7 to Induce an Antitumor Response Correlates with Myeloid Dendritic Cell Function

Previous work from our laboratory has shown that Lm-LLO-E7 induces complete regression of ∼75% of established TC-1 tumors, whereas Lm-E7 only slows the growth of such tumors. In this study, we examine the effects of Lm-LLO-E7 vs Lm-E7 on APCs. We hypothesize that the difference in antitumor efficacy of the two vaccines is due to the ability of each of these vectors to render immature dendritic cells (DCs) effective APCs in terms of MHC class II or costimulatory molecule expression. We also examine the ability of these vectors to stimulate cytokine production by DCs. Both vectors induced IL-12 and TNF-α, but only Lm-LLO-E7 induced IL-2 production by DCs. Lm-LLO-E7 also induced significantly higher levels of MHC class II molecules, CD40, and B7 costimulatory molecules (CD86, B7-H1, and B7-DC) on DCs than Lm-E7. Interestingly, a shift of CD11c+ cells from CD86low to CD86high is observed post-Lm-LLO-E7 infection. A similar shift is also observed for B7-H1 and B7-DC molecules. Moreover, Lm-LLO-E7, but not Lm-E7-pulsed DCs, stimulate naive T cell proliferation. These results indicate that Lm-LLO-E7 is more effective than Lm-E7 at inducing DC maturation. This effect is independent of the E7 Ag, because Lm-LLO-NP, and a mixture of Lm-LLO-NP and Lm-E7 induce the same changes in DC phenotype as Lm-LLO-E7. Taken together, the changes in DC expression correlate well with the differences in antitumor efficacy between these two vaccines.
Alterations in the functional anatomy of working memory in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

OBJECTIVE The authors used a functional neuroimaging study with a working memory probe to investigate the pathophysiology of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Their goal was to compare regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes related to working memory in adults with and without ADHD. METHOD Using [(15)O]H(2)O positron emission tomography (PET) studies, the authors compared the sites of neural activation related to working memory in six adult men diagnosed with ADHD and six healthy men without ADHD who were matched in age and general intelligence. RESULTS Task-related changes in rCBF in the men without ADHD were more prominent in the frontal and temporal regions, but rCBF changes in men with ADHD were more widespread and primarily located in the occipital regions. CONCLUSIONS These data suggest the use of compensatory mental and neural strategies by subjects with ADHD in response to a disrupted ability to inhibit attention to nonrelevant stimuli and the use of internalized speech to guide behavior.
Integration of wind farm into power system using VSC-HVDC transmission system

In this work, wind farm with VSC-HVDC connected to the grid are developed including wind side grid converter, grid side converter, DC cable and the emulated circuit control model. During fault in the AC grid DC link voltage increases rapidly and this would cause the HVDC link to trip for over voltage. To solve this problem, the location of the AC fault can be transferred to the wind farm side by reducing the voltage at the wind farm side HVDC converter terminal. This method is called the emulated short-circuiting of the wind farm side HVDC controller. To validate the models and conclusions, PSCAD/EMTDC is used. The simulation results show that the DC voltage level on HVDC line is maintained constant by using the proposed emulated short circuit control model.
Study on underwriting network and its role in IPO underpricing

This paper investigates how characteristics of underwriting network affect IPO underpricing. We use social network analysis to capture underwriter centrality with a sample of 1381 IPOs in China. Underwriting network presents the core-periphery model with a small network density. Using empirical tests, the results show that book managers having many peer partners, occupying advantageous intermediary positions and maintaining relations with core members are associated with high underpricing. The network effect is different from the underwriter reputation and not necessary for firms listed on GEM.
Rapamycin induces human acute promyelocytic leukemia cell HL-60 autophagic apoptosis.

OBJECTIVE We aimed at investigating the effects of rapamycin on apoptosis and autophagy of human acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line HL-60, and to preliminarily explore the mechanism of extra medullary infiltration of leukemia cells with human acute promyelocytic leukemia cell line HL-60 as the object of study, providing a theoretical basis for the clinical treatment of leukemia. MATERIALS AND METHODS After HL-60 cells were cultured in vitro, the effect of rapamycin on proliferation ability of HL-60 cells was determined by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) method, the cell apoptosis ratio was detected by flow cytometer, the change of autophagy after HL-60 cells acted by rapamycin was tested by monodansylcadaverine (MDC) fluorescence staining, the mRNA expression of autophagy-related molecule was detected by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and the expressions of apoptosis-related protein and autophagy-related protein were determined by Western blotting (WB). RESULTS HL-60 cell proliferation could be significantly inhibited by rapamycin (80 μg/mL-640 μg/mL), which was in a dose-dependent manner. HL-60 cell apoptosis ratio and apoptosis-related protein expression were distinctly improved by rapamycin. Cell autophagy level, mRNA expression of autophagy-related molecule and autophagy-related protein expression were remarkably induced by rapamycin. CONCLUSIONS Rapamycin can induce HL-60 cell apoptosis, which is produced mainly by inducing cell autophagy.
Transport of Liposome Encapsulated Drugs in Voxelized Computational Model of Human Brain Tumors

There are many obstacles in the transport of chemotherapeutic drugs to tumor cells that lead to irregular and non-uniform uptake of drugs inside tumors. The study of these transport problems will help with accurate prediction of drug transport and optimizing treatment strategy. To this end, liposome mediated drug delivery has emerged as an excellent anticancer therapy due to its ability to deliver drugs at site of action and reducing the chances of side effects to the healthy tissues. In this paper, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model based on realistic vasculature of human brain tumor is presented. This model utilizes dynamic contrast enhanced-magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) data to account for heterogeneity in tumor vasculature. Porosity of the interstitial space inside the tumor and normal tissue is determined voxel-wise by processing the DCE-MRI images by general tracer kinetic model (GTKM). The CFD model is applied to predict transport of two different types of liposomes (stealth and conventional) in tumors. The amount of accumulated liposomes is compared with accumulated free drug (doxorubicin) in the interstitial space. Simulation results indicate that stealth liposomes accumulate more and remain for longer periods of time in tumors as compared with conventional liposomes and free drug. The present model provides us a qualitative and quantitative examination on the transport and deposition of liposomes as well as free drugs in actual human brain tumors.
Antibodies as a model system for comparative model refinement

Predicting the conformations of loops is a critical aspect of protein comparative (homology) modeling. Despite considerable advances in developing loop prediction algorithms, refining loops in homology models remains challenging. In this work, we use antibodies as a model system to investigate strategies for more robustly predicting loop conformations when the protein model contains errors in the conformations of side chains and protein backbone surrounding the loop in question. Specifically, our test system consists of partial models of antibodies in which the “scaffold” (i.e., the portion other than the complementarity determining region, CDR, loops) retains native backbone conformation, whereas the CDR loops are predicted using a combination of knowledge‐based modeling (H1, H2, L1, L2, and L3) and ab initio loop prediction (H3). H3 is the most variable of the CDRs. Using a previously published method, a test set of 10 shorter H3 loops (5–7 residues) are predicted to an average backbone (NCαCO) RMSD of 2.7 Å while 11 longer loops (8–9 residues) are predicted to 5.1 Å, thus recapitulating the difficulties in refining loops in models. By contrast, in control calculations predicting the same loops in crystal structures, the same method reconstructs the loops to an average of 0.5 and 1.4 Å for the shorter and longer loops, respectively. We modify the loop prediction method to improve the ability to sample near‐native loop conformations in the models, primarily by reducing the sensitivity of the sampling to the loop surroundings, and allowing the other CDR loops to optimize with the H3 loop. The new method improves the average accuracy significantly to 1.3 Å RMSD and 3.1 Å RMSD for the shorter and longer loops, respectively. Finally, we present results predicting 8–10 residue loops within complete comparative models of five nonantibody proteins. While anecdotal, these mixed, full‐model results suggest our approach is a promising step toward more accurately predicting loops in homology models. Furthermore, while significant challenges remain, our method is a potentially useful tool for predicting antibody structures based on a known Fv scaffold. Proteins 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Salicylic Acid Affects Swimming , Twitching and Swarming Motility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa , resulting in Decreased Biofilm Formation

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that causes nosocomial infections in part due to its ability to colonize many biotic and abiotic surfaces. These persistent infections are difficult to treat due to a large repertoire of virulence factors, and the ability of the organism to form biofilms. It has previously been observed that biofilm formation in several bacterial species can be attenuated by the addition of salicylic acid (SA), through an unknown mechanism. As cell motility of twitching, swimming, and swarming are proven instrumental in biofilm formation, we investigated whether or not salicylic acid affected the motility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Motility assays conducted on wild-type strains (PAO1, PA14), flagella (PAO1 fliC, PA14 fliC) and type IV pili (PAO1 pilB, PA14 pilB) mutants, showed that sub-inhibitory concentrations of 25 and 50 mM salicylic acid significantly decreased bacterial swarming motility. These findings correlated with significant decrease in biofilm formation when incubated with salicylic acid (SA) concentrations of 10mM and higher. Since bacterial motility necessary for proper biofilm formation was impaired in a concentration-dependent manner, these data suggest that the suppressive effect of salicylic acid on flagella-related motility led to the previously observed reductions in biofilm formation. Twitching and swimming motility showed less inhibitory results than swarming motility, due to a lack of consistent replicates across three biological repeats. Twitching motility assays showed significant decreases at 50mM SA and swimming motility assays showed significant decreases at 25 and 50 mM SA for all strains tested except for PAO1 pilB. However, further studies are needed to confirm the effect and mode of action of salicylic acid on flagella and type IV pili gene expression or functionality.
On the lexical semantics of property concepts nouns in Basaá 1

This paper considers the link between lexical category and lexical semantics, examining variation in the category of property concept (PC) words (Dixon, 1982; Thompson, 1989)—words introducing the descriptive content in translational equivalents of sentences whose main predicate is an adjective in languages with large open classes of them. Francez and Koontz-Garboden (2015) conjecture that nominal PC words might only have mass-type denotation (conceived in the spirit of Link 1983), as diagnosed by possession in predication (e.g., Kim has beauty/#Kim is beauty). In Basaá, a class of PCs nominals we call substance nouns trigger possession in predication, while a class we call adjectival nouns do not, thereby falsifying Francez and Koontz-Garboden’s conjecture. We offer several diagnostics that confirm the substance denotation for the substance nouns, and an individual-characterizing denotation for the adjectival nouns, speculating on whether such nouns have a degree semantics, and whether they represent a crosslinguistically rare category or not.
Lattice models, packing density, and Boltzmann‐like distribution of cavities in proteins

A model reproducing the experimental Boltzmann‐like distribution of empty cavity sizes in proteins is introduced. Proteins are represented by lattices of different dimensionalities, corresponding to different numbers of nearest neighbor contacts. Small cavities emerge and join into larger ones in a random process that can be related to random mutations. Simulations of cavity creation are performed under the constraint of a limiting total packing density. Cavities sufficiently large (20 Å3 or more), that they might accommodate at least one additional methyl group produced by a mutation, are counted and compared to the distribution of cavities according to their sizes from protein statistics. The distributions calculated with this very simple model within a realistic range of packing densities are in good agreement with the empirical cavity distribution. The results suggest that the Boltzmann‐like distribution of cavities in proteins might be affected by a mechanism controlled by limiting packing density and maximum allowed protein destabilization. This supports an earlier suggestion that the agreement between the free energies of cavity formation from the mutational experiments and from the statistics of the empty cavity distribution in X‐ray protein structures is nonfortuitous. A possible relation of the suggested model to the Boltzmann hypothesis is discussed. Proteins 2005. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.