Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cytoarchitectural Variations in the Ovary , Oviduct and Uterus Following Intra-Gastric Gavages of Abrus precatorius Linn in Albino Rats

In developing countries, herbal medicines have continued to remain significant and readily patronized. Numerous plants have been used historically to reduce fertility and modern scientific research has confirmed antifertility effect in som of the herbs tested. To investigate the effects of Abrus precatorius (AP) on the histology of the ovary, oviduct and uterus of female Sprague-Dawley (S-D) rat. A total of 40, 6–8 week old 4-day cycling female S-D rats were used. They were divided into the treatment, control a nd reversibility groups. The treatment and reversibility groups were fed oral AP seed extract (50 mg/kg b.w) for 32 days. A fraction of the rats in reversibility group was treated with distilled water for another 32 days. The control group were used to compare events in th other groups. At the end of the experimental durations animals were sacrificed under light chloroform anesthesia. Their ovaries, uter i nd oviducts harvested for microscopic studies. Comparing the control histological sections to the treated groups: the ovaries show ed decreased size, large follicular distension and extensive stromal necrosis with compromised cellularity. The uterine tubes revealed appre ciable mucosal reduction. The uteri exhibited reduction in the layer of endometrial thickness. On the other hand sections in reversal exp rimental rats were comparable to control. The rats treated with AP seed extract at dose 50 mg/kg b.w induced reversible alterations in ovaries, uterine and uteri in S-D.
Clinical Study of Melatonin in Untreatable Advanced Cancer Patients

It is known that the pineal gland has some antitumor activity. Melatonin, its most important hormone, has been shown to inhibit tumor growth in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, some investigations have demonstrated an altered melatonin secretion in cancer patients. Despite these interesting data, clinical trials have never been carried out to evaluate the effects of melatonin on human neoplasms. The aim of this study was to draw some preliminary conclusions on melatonin therapy in advanced human neoplasms. Nineteen patients suffering from advanced solid tumors, which did not respond to standard therapies, entered the study. Performance status (PS) was 20 or less in 9 cases, and more than 20 in the other 10. Melatonin was given intramuscularly at a daily dose of 20 mg at 3.00 p.m. , followed by a maintenance period with lower doses in patients who had a remission, a stabilization of disease or an improvement in PS. Among patients with a PS higher than 20, a partial response was achieved in one case with cancer of the pancreas; moreover, 5 of 10 had stable disease, but the other 4 cases had a progression; an evident improvement of PS was obtained in 6 of the 10 cases. In contrast, among patients with a very poor PS, 7 of 9 died within the first 2 months of therapy. This preliminary study would suggest that melatonin may be of some value in treating cancer patients in whom standard antitumor therapies have failed, particularly in improving their PS and quality of life.
U.S. Retail and Wholesale Inventory Performance from 1981 to 2004

This paper examines the inventories of publicly traded U.S. retail and wholesale companies between 1981 and 2004. First, we document that inventory holdings have been reduced. The median of wholesale inventory holding periods was reduced from 73 days to 49 days. Retail inventory did not start to decline until about 1995. Second, we document that firms with abnormally high inventories have abnormally poor long-term stock returns. Third, we illustrate these effects for the cases of Wal-Mart, 7-Eleven (Japan), and some related firms.
FLYWAY-SCALE VARIATION IN PLASMA TRIGLYCERIDE LEVELS AS AN INDEX OF REFUELING RATE IN SPRING-MIGRATING WESTERN SANDPIPERS (CALIDRIS MAURI)

Abstract We combined radiotelemetry, plasma metabolite analyses, and macro-invertebrate prey sampling to investigate variation in putative fattening rates (estimated as plasma triglyceride levels) at the flyway scale in Western Sandpipers (Calidris mauri) migrating between Punta Banda, Mexico (31°N), and Hartney Bay, Alaska (60°N), a distance of 4,240 km. Birds were caught at a wintering site (San Francisco Bay) and eight stopover sites along this Pacific Flyway. Body mass was higher in females than in males at six sites, but variation was not correlated with latitude for either sex, and the relationship of change in mass by date within sites was uninformative with regard to possible latitudinal variation in fattening rates. At San Francisco Bay, triglyceride levels were higher in the spring than in the winter. Mean plasma triglyceride varied among stopover sites, and there was a significant linear trend of increasing triglyceride levels with latitude as birds migrated north. At San Francisco Bay, length of stay was negatively related to triglyceride levels. However, plasma triglyceride levels at wintering or initial stopover sites (San Francisco and Punta Banda) did not predict individual variation in subsequent rates of travel during migration. We found no significant relationship between triglyceride levels and prey biomass at different stopover sites, which suggests that the latitudinal pattern is not explained by latitudinal changes in food availability. Rather, we suggest that differences in physiology of migratory birds at southern versus northern stopover sites or behavioral differences may allow birds to sustain higher fattening rates closer to the breeding grounds. Variación a la Escala de Corredores de Vuelo en los Niveles de Triglicéridos Plasmáticos como un Índice de la Tasa de Reabastecimiento durante la Migración de Primavera en Calidris mauri
The function of heat-shock proteins in stress tolerance: degradation and reactivation of damaged proteins.

T URNOVER OF AB ERR ANT PROT EINS IN E. COLI . 445 The Lon Protease . 446 DnaK. DnaJ. GrpE. GroEL and GroES . 447 The Clp Protease . 448 The DegP Protease . 452
Evaluation of risk factors for lung tumour induction in rats exposed to either NpO 2 or PuO 2 aerosols

Purpose : To compare the incidence of each lung tumour type after inhalation exposure of rats to either NpO 2 or industrial PuO 2 aerosols, which have a similar size. Materials and methods : Male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed once and followed during their whole life span. At the end of their life, the whole lungs were fixed, embedded and cut into thin sections for histological analysis. The presence of tumours was evaluated on three distinct levels of the lobes for phenotype determination to establish dose-effect relationships. Results : In the range of lung doses studied (0.05 to more than 50 Gy), the general trend was an increased frequency of all types of tumours after inhalation exposure to neptunium compared with plutonium. The linearity of the lower part of the dose-effect relationships for all malignant lung tumours leads to the conclusion that NpO 2 is 3.3-fold more carcinogenic than PuO 2. Conclusions : According to a linear extrapolation of the data on malignant lung tumour incidence collected among all studies reported on actinide oxide carcinogenesis, the risk of lung tumour appears to vary over a factor of about 10 depending on the nature and/or size of the aerosol. This variation has to be taken into account for a realistic assessment of tumour risk.
BRCA1/2 testing: uptake, phenocopies, and strategies to improve detection rates in initially negative families

Fischer C, Engel C, Sutter C, Zachariae S, Schmutzler R, Meindl A, Heidemann S, Grimm T, Goecke TO, Debatin I, Horn D, Wieacker P, Gadzicki D, Becker K, Schäfer D, Stock F, Voigtländer T, on behalf of the German Consortium for Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer. BRCA1/2 testing: uptake, phenocopies, and strategies to improve detection rates in initially negative families.
Role of Exercise in the Central Regulation of Energy Homeostasis and in the Prevention of Obesity

Many of the small percentage of previously obese humans who successfully maintain weight loss report high levels of physical activity, suggesting a role for exercise in the maintenance of their lower body weights. The rat model of diet-induced obesity (DIO) has been particularly useful, since it shares several common characteristics with human obesity and, unlike the human condition, allows a thorough investigation of the effects of exercise on the central pathways which regulate energy homeostasis. In rats with DIO, voluntary wheel running selectively reduces adiposity without causing a compensatory increase in energy intake. These effects are likely mediated by signals generated by the exercising body such as interleukin-6, fatty acids, and heat which feed back on the brain to regulate central neuropeptide systems involved in the regulation of energy homeostasis. While exercise provides temporary reductions in obesity in adult rats, early postweaning exercise reduces adiposity in high-fat-fed DIO rats long after exercise is terminated. This suggests that early-onset exercise may permanently alter the development of the central pathways which regulate energy homeostasis. Therefore, identification of exercise-induced central and peripheral factors and elucidation of their interactions with central modulatory pathways may aid in the identification of new targets for the pharmacological treatment of human obesity.
Treatment of mice with human recombinant interleukin-2 augments resistance to the facultative intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes

The effects of exogenously administered human recombinant IL-2 (hrIL-2) on resistance to Listeria monocytogenes infection were examined. Intravenous injection of hrIL-2 significantly enhanced antibacterial resistance in both BDF1 and C3H/HeJ mice. The beneficial effect of hrIL-2 was observed with as little as 0.6 micrograms per mouse, whereas optimum protection occurred at 6 micrograms per mouse, hrIL-2 was equally protective when administered concomitant with the listeriae or up to 24 h prior to infection; it had little effect if given after the bacterial challenge. Kinetic experiments indicated that both the peak bacterial burden and the time lag before L. monocytogenes began to be cleared from the spleen and liver were reduced in hrIL-2-treated mice as compared with control mice. Histopathological examination of spleens and livers confirmed that hrIL-2-treated Listeria-infected mice experienced considerably less damage to these organs than did control mice. Spleen cells from Listeria-infected mice exhibited depressed levels of mitogen-induced proliferation coincident with the peak bacterial burden in the spleen and liver and during the subsequent recovery from the infection. Administration of hrIL-2 to uninfected mice had no effect on spleen cell proliferation in response to mitogens in vitro, nor did hrIL-2 treatment restore normal levels of splenocyte proliferative responses to Listeria-infected mice. In addition, hrIL-2 treatment resulted in attenuated levels of serum colony-stimulating activity in infected mice as compared with control infected mice. Coadministration of both hrIL-2 and human recombinant interleukin-1 alpha at various dose and time combinations had no detectable additive or synergistic effect. Although these data do not suggest an obvious mechanism of action, they clearly demonstrate that hrIL-2 can augment host defense against the facultative intracellular pathogen L. monocytogenes.
Validation of the 3-day rule for stool bacterial tests in Japan.

OBJECTIVE Stool cultures are expensive and time consuming, and the positive rate of enteric pathogens in cases of nosocomial diarrhea is low. The 3-day rule, whereby clinicians order a Clostridium difficile (CD) toxin test rather than a stool culture for inpatients developing diarrhea >3 days after admission, has been well studied in Western countries. The present study sought to validate the 3-day rule in an acute care hospital setting in Japan. METHODS Stool bacterial and CD toxin test results for adult patients hospitalized in an acute care hospital in 2008 were retrospectively analyzed. Specimens collected after an initial positive test were excluded. The positive rate and cost-effectiveness of the tests were compared among three patient groups. PATIENTS The adult patients were divided into three groups for comparison: outpatients, patients hospitalized for ≤3 days and patients hospitalized for ≥4 days. RESULTS Over the 12-month period, 1,597 stool cultures were obtained from 992 patients, and 880 CD toxin tests were performed in 529 patients. In the outpatient, inpatient ≤3 days and inpatient ≥4 days groups, the rate of positive stool cultures was 14.2%, 3.6% and 1.3% and that of positive CD toxin tests was 1.9%, 7.1% and 8.5%, respectively. The medical costs required to obtain one positive result were 9,181, 36,075 and 103,600 JPY and 43,200, 11,333 and 9,410 JPY, respectively. CONCLUSION The 3-day rule was validated for the first time in a setting other than a Western country. Our results revealed that the "3-day rule" is also useful and cost-effective in Japan.
The Impact of New Product Introductions on the Market Value of Firms

Although many mechanisms exist for the evaluation of new products, none have specifically examined the role that financial markets can play in measuring the impact of new products on firms. Using traditional event-study methodology, the present research provides a financial market-based analysis of the impact of new product introductions on the market value of firms. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.
Biomechanical Control of Knee Alignment Some Insights From a New Paradigm

A chondral growth force response curve suggests how longitudinal bone growth at growth plates responds to compression loads. Between zero load and some limit, increasing loads increase growth. Above that limit, further increases in compression can decrease growth, and large enough compression loads can stop it. In the valgus-varus sense, in a child's knee these responses would tend to make its growth plates and the joint align perpendicularly to the time-averaged compression loads on them and tend to correct small malalignments but make large malalignments become worse. Combined with effects of the regional acceleratory phenomenon, in children these responses can also explain some cases of postfracture knee valgus and its subsequent spontaneous correction.
Coupling Genotyping and Computational Modeling in Prediction of Anti-epileptic Drugs that cause Stevens Johnson Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis for Carrier of HLA-B*15:02.

PURPOSE The importance of HLA-B*15:02 genotyping to avoid carbamazepine induced SJS/TEN and molecular modeling to predict the role of HLA-B*15:0 and AEDs induced SJS/TEN are investigated. METHODS DNA was extracted from eighty-six patients. The patients were genotyped by AS-PCR. Computational modeling of the HLA-B*15:02 followed by docking studies were performed to screen 26 AEDs that may induce ADR among HLA-B*15:02 carriers. RESULTS Odd ratio for CBZ induced SJS/TEN and HLA-B*15:02 was 609.0 (95% CI: 23-15873; p=0.0002). Molecular modeling studies showed that acetazolamide, ethosuxiamide, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine, phenobarbital, phenytoin, primidone and sodium-valproate may induce ADR in HLA-B*15:02 carriers alike CBZ. Conclusion. We confirmed HLA-B*15:02 as a predictor of SJS/TEN and recommend pre-screening. Computational prediction of DIHR is useful in personalized medicine.
Clinical outcomes and prognostic factors in patients with tuberculous destroyed lung.

OBJECTIVE To characterise the prognosis and identify factors contributing to mortality in patients with tuberculous destroyed lung (TDL). DESIGN Following a retrospective review of clinical data and radiographic findings, 169 patients with TDL were enrolled in this study. All patients were graded on a 4-point scale (field score 1-4) based on the extent of destroyed lung parenchyma on chest radiography. RESULTS The mean patient age was 64 years (range 33-90); 103 (61%) were male. The median number of hospitalisations was 1 (range 0-11) during follow-up, with a mean duration of 31 months (range 0-172). Pneumonia developed in 96 patients (57%), while 50 patients (30%) developed acute respiratory failure requiring mechanical ventilation, 37 (22%) haemoptysis, 24 (14%) spontaneous pneumothorax and 22 (13%) reactivation of tuberculosis. Overall mortality was 28% (47/169), with a median survival of 39 months (range 0-176) after diagnosis. TDL-related mortality was 19% (32/169), and a field score ≥ 3 was the only independent predictor of shorter survival based on a Cox proportional hazards model (HR 3.520, 95%CI 1.51-8.20, P = 0.004). CONCLUSION TDL has a poor prognosis, particularly in patients with more extensive lung destruction.
Association of Insulin-Related Serum Factors with Colorectal Polyp Number and Type in Adult Males

Background: Dysregulated insulin signaling is thought to contribute to cancer risk. Methods: To determine if insulin-related serum factors are associated with colon polyps, 126 asymptomatic men (48–65 years) were recruited at colonoscopy. Blood was collected. Odds ratios were determined using polytomous logistic regression for polyp number and type. Results: Males with serum C-peptide concentration >3.3 ng/mL were 3.8 times more likely to have an adenoma relative to no polyp than those with C-peptide ≤1.8 ng/mL. As C-peptide tertile increased, an individual was 2 times more likely to have an adenoma (P = 0.01) than no polyp. There were no associations between insulin-like growth factor or its binding proteins with polyp number or type. Males with soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) concentration >120.4 pg/mL were 0.25 times less likely to have ≥3 polyps relative to no polyps compared with males with sRAGE ≤94.5 pg/mL. For each increase in sRAGE tertile, a man was 0.5 times less likely to have ≥3 polyps than no polyps (P = 0.03). Compared with males with a serum vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) concentration ≤104.7 pg/mL, males with a serum VEGF concentration >184.2 pg/mL were 3.4 times more likely to have ≥3 polyps relative to no polyps. As the VEGF tertile increased, a man was 1.9 times more likely to have ≥3 polyps than no polyps (P = 0.049). Conclusions: Serum concentrations of C-peptide, sRAGE, and VEGF may indicate which men could benefit most from colonoscopy. Impact: Identification of biomarkers could reduce medical costs through the elimination of colonoscopies on low-risk individuals. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 23(9); 1843–51. ©2014 AACR.
Antithrombotic therapy after transcatheter aortic valve implantation: a new piece of the still unresolved puzzle.

The 2017 marks the 40 th anniversary of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), but also the 15 th anniversary for transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) (1). For more than 50 years, surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) has been the standard of care for patients with severe symptomatic aortic stenosis, improving outcomes and prolonging the lives of these patients. In 1990s the transcatheter delivery of a bioprosthetic aortic valve was conceptualized and largely tested in animals.
Selective Vector Perturbation Precoding and Peak to Average Power Ratio Reduction for OFDM Systems

High peak to average power ratio (PAPR) is a serious drawback for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) system as it reduces the efficiency of high-power amplifiers commonly used in the transmitter and causes spectral spillage. OFDM transmissions are also sensitive to frequency selective fading channels which can severely attenuate certain parts of the signal making it much more vulnerable to additive noise. This paper proposes an effective precoding technique with the dual ability to both reduce PAPR and condition the OFDM signal against frequency selective fading channels. It will be demonstrated that by advisedly creating diversity among the subcarriers of one OFDM symbol, and exploiting it with a dirty- paper-coding (DPC) approach, excellent bit-error-rate (BER) performance is achieved without reducing transmission rate. Low PAPR factor can also be obtained through a proper selection of diversity matrix that distributes the power of each modulated symbol over the OFDM block. Simulation results show that the proposed technique has not only better BER performance than the ordinary channel inversion but also similar PAPR reduction ability to the selective mapping (SLM) technique.
Hybrid Spectral Micro-CT: System Design, Implementation, and Preliminary Results

Spectral CT has proven an important development in biomedical imaging, and there have been several publications in the past years demonstrating its merits in pre-clinical and clinical applications. In 2012, Xu reported that near-term implementation of spectral micro-CT could be enhanced by a hybrid architecture: a narrow-beam spectral “interior” imaging chain integrated with a traditional wide-beam “global” imaging chain. This hybrid integration coupled with compressive sensing (CS)-based interior tomography demonstrated promising results for improved contrast resolution, and decreased system cost and radiation dose. The motivation for the current study is implementation and evaluation of the hybrid architecture with a first-of-its-kind hybrid spectral micro-CT system. Preliminary results confirm improvements in both contrast and spatial resolution. This technology is shown to merit further investigation and potential application in future spectral CT scanner design.
High‐dose glucocorticoids improve renal failure reversibility in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma

One-fifth of the newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients present with renal failure (RF) [1-3]. Glucocorticoids (GCs) may improve RF in MM by (1) rapid reduction of paraprotein production, (2) lessening inflammation and fibrosis in renal parenchyma, and (3) decreasing serum calcium level. We hypothesized that lower dose GCs may be less effective in restoring renal function and retrospectively compared the RF reversibility between the newly diagnosed MM patients who were treated with GCs equivalent to ≥160 mg DX over 4 days (high-dose GC group, n = 16) versus those who were treated with <160 mg (low-dose/no GC group, n = 8). There was no difference in age, baseline calcium, and creatinine levels between the two groups. Renal function was restored in seven patients in the high-dose GC group (44%) and in none of the patients in the low-dose/no GC group (P = 0.026). The only other factor found to impact the RF reversibility was the delay of GC initiation. Four and 1 patients developed a severe infection in the high- and low-dose/no GC groups, respectively. The use of higher dose GCs in the newly diagnosed MM patients who present with RF increases the likelihood of renal function restoration.
A simulation study of hardware-oriented DSM approaches

Representative hardware implementations of the distributed shared memory (DSM) concept are comparatively evaluated in this study-two NUMA (Dash and SCI) and two COMA (KSR1 and DDM) architectures. Analysis was oriented towards the comparison of approaches, rather than their implementations. For that purpose, a hierarchical two-level cluster-based system with a uniform bus-based cluster structure on the first level is assumed. The DSM mechanisms of four approaches were simulated on the second level. A simulation methodology based on synthetic address traces was applied. The comparison was carried out for a large variety and a broad range of system-oriented, application-oriented and technology-oriented parameters. The results have shown the somewhat better efficiency of COMA protocols (because of the dynamic migration of responsibility for shared data) and the large impact of the available interconnection network bandwidth on system scalability (an almost linear speedup is achieved with ring-based systems). <<ETX>>