Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic utilization of exogenous pyruvate by mutant p53 (R175H) human melanoma cells promotes survival under glucose depletion

Dominant-negative (DN) p53 mutations in the tumor suppressor p53 gene partly contribute to human cancer progression by inactivating the remaining wild type allele. Since tumor cells face glucose and growth factor shortage when growing distant from sites of vascularization, we used genetically-matched human C8161 melanoma harbouring wt p53 or a tumor-associated (DN) mutant p53 (R175H), to investigate whether this mutation influences survival under metabolic stress. Metabolic restriction (18 hours in glucose-free medium plus 2% serum) induced apoptosis-associated PARP cleavage in wt p53 melanoma, even when supplemented with 2.77 mM pyruvate or lactate. Mutant p53 melanoma were resistant to a comparable metabolic restriction, only showing PARP fragmentation when glucose depletion was accompanied by treatment with diphenylene iodonium (DPI), a NADPH oxidase inhibitor of superoxide (O2 *) generation. DPI-mediated apoptosis in mutant p53 cells was counteracted by 2.77 mM glucose or pyruvate, but not by lactate supplementation. Metabolic utilization and survival under glucose depletion was increased by pyruvate in mutant p53 (R175H) cells. Our results show for the first time that melanoma cells harbouring a p53 (R175H) mutation increase: a) survival under glucose depletion, counteracted by NADPH-oxidase modulators like DPI; b) resistance to DPI when supplemented with exogenous pyruvate.
Stress protein (hsp73)‐mediated, TAP‐independent processing of endogenous, truncated SV 40 large T antigen for Db‐restricted peptide presentation

Transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP)‐competent and TAP‐deficient cell lines were transfected with expression plasmids encoding either the wild‐type (wt) large tumor antigen (T‐Ag) of SV40, or a truncated cytoplasmic variant (cT‐Ag) of this viral protein. Stable expression of comparable levels of both forms of the viral protein was observed in different transfectants. The truncated cT‐Ag variant, but not the wtT‐Ag was stably associated with the con‐stitutively expressed, cytosolic heat shock protein (hsp)73 chaperone. Two Db‐binding peptides and one Kb‐binding peptide of T‐Ag were presented to cytotoxic T lymphocyte lines (CTLL) by TAP‐competent transfectants expressing either wtT‐Ag or cT‐Ag. TAP‐deficient transfectants expressing the wtT‐Ag did not present any of these epitopes to CTLL. In contrast, TAP‐deficient transfectants expressing the truncated hsp73‐associated cT‐Ag, presented the two Db‐binding epitopes, but not the Kb‐binding T‐Ag epitope to CTLL. Regurgitation of peptides by transfectants was not detectable. The described data indicate that a pool of post‐Golgi Db molecules is available for 2–3 h in TAP‐deficient transfectants for loading with peptides released during endolysosomal processing of hsp73‐associated, endogenous antigen.
Anxiety and social worries in children with Asperger syndrome.

OBJECTIVE The current study examined anxiety and social worries in a group of children with Asperger syndrome (AS). METHOD Sixty-five children with AS were compared with a clinically anxious sample and a normative sample using parent and child reports. RESULTS Comparisons between clinically anxious children and children with AS showed similar scores on overall anxiety and on six anxiety subscales using child reports. Parent reports revealed higher ratings of overall anxiety and described children with AS experiencing more obsessive-compulsive symptoms and physical injury fears than clinically anxious children. CONCLUSIONS Children with AS without a diagnosis of anxiety, present with more anxiety symptoms than a normal population and with a different profile than a clinically anxious population. Study limitations are identified and considerations for future research presented.
Gelatin-based Hydrogel Degradation and Tissue Interaction in vivo: Insights from Multimodal Preclinical Imaging in Immunocompetent Nude Mice

Hydrogels based on gelatin have evolved as promising multifunctional biomaterials. Gelatin is crosslinked with lysine diisocyanate ethyl ester (LDI) and the molar ratio of gelatin and LDI in the starting material mixture determines elastic properties of the resulting hydrogel. In order to investigate the clinical potential of these biopolymers, hydrogels with different ratios of gelatin and diisocyanate (3-fold (G10_LNCO3) and 8-fold (G10_LNCO8) molar excess of isocyanate groups) were subcutaneously implanted in mice (uni- or bilateral implantation). Degradation and biomaterial-tissue-interaction were investigated in vivo (MRI, optical imaging, PET) and ex vivo (autoradiography, histology, serum analysis). Multimodal imaging revealed that the number of covalent net points correlates well with degradation time, which allows for targeted modification of hydrogels based on properties of the tissue to be replaced. Importantly, the degradation time was also dependent on the number of implants per animal. Despite local mechanisms of tissue remodeling no adverse tissue responses could be observed neither locally nor systemically. Finally, this preclinical investigation in immunocompetent mice clearly demonstrated a complete restoration of the original healthy tissue.
A Communication Competence Approach to Examining Health Care Social Support, Stress, and Job Burnout

Drawing upon Kreps's (1988) Relational Health Communication Competence Model (RHCCM), this study examined the effect of perceived communication competence on perceived stress and subsequently perceived job burnout. In addition, the role of social support satisfaction as a potential mediator between perceived communication competence and perceived stress was explored. The extended RHCCM was proposed and tested in a survey of 221 health care workers from three Veterans Administration hospitals in the United States. The model was tested by structural equation modeling. The results indicated support for the extended model. The implications of the findings for the extended RHCCM are discussed along with limitations of the study and directions for future research.
Potassium metabolism in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis patients

Abstract Background: Hypokalemia is common and may have contributed to the poor clinical outcome in peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. In this study, we made a detailed investigation on the potassium metabolism in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients and tried to find out the possible factors associated with the high prevalence of hypokalemia in PD patients. Methods: A cross-sectional survey in 243 clinically stable CAPD patients was made in our PD center in 2010. Patients were divided into four groups according to whether they were anuric or not and different dialysis regimens. Patients’ demographic data and data on potassium metabolism including dietary potassium intakes, residual renal potassium, and peritoneal dialysis potassium removal were collected. Results: The average potassium intake in our 243 PD patients was 32.1 ± 11.1 mmol/day. The total potassium removal was significantly higher in non-anuric patients as compared to anuric patients (33.2 ± 9.1 vs. 23.0 ± 4.7 mmol/day for 3 exchanges per day and 35.2 ± 8.9 vs. 28.6 ± 6.3 mmol/day for 4 exchanges per day, respectively, p < 0.01) and in anuric patients dialyzed with 4 exchanges per day as compared to anuric patients dialyzed with 3 exchanges per day (28.6 ± 6.3 vs. 23.0 ± 4.7 mmol/L, p < 0.05). Compared to non-anuric patients dialyzed with 3 exchanges per day, serum potassium level was significantly lower (4.1 ± 0.7 vs. 4.5 ± 0.7 mmol/L, p < 0.05) while the prevalence of hypokalemia was significantly higher (22.2% vs. 9.3%, p < 0.05) in non-anuric patients that dialyzed with 4 exchanges per day. There was a strong correlation between renal potassium removal and renal urea Kt/V (R2 linear = 0.645, p < 0.05). In a linear multiregression analysis, dietary potassium intake, intracellular water (ICW) significantly positively predicted serum potassium level while dialysis exchanges, residual renal function (RRF), D/P potassium all significantly negatively predicted serum potassium levels. Conclusions: Our study suggested that if potassium intake was limited in PD patients, we should be aware of the risk of hypokalemia with high doses of PD when patients have good RRF. Our study also suggested that potassium removal in PD patients may not necessarily reflect potassium intake even if serum potassium is normal, the effect of ICW should be considered when evaluating potassium homeostasis.
Transurethral needle ablation versus transurethral resection of the prostate for the treatment of symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia: 5-year results of a prospective, randomized, multicenter clinical trial.

PURPOSE We report the 5-year efficacy and safety of transurethral needle ablation of the prostate (TUNA) compared to transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for the treatment of lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) secondary to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 121 men 50 years or older with LUTS secondary to BPH a minimum of 3 months in duration were enrolled in this prospective, randomized clinical trial at 7 medical centers across the United States. Of the participants 65 (54%) were randomly selected to receive TUNA and 56 (46%) were selected to receive TURP. International Prostate Symptom Score, quality of life, peak urinary flow rate, post-void residual urinary volume, and prostate size and configuration were evaluated before the procedure and then annually for 5 years after the procedure. Adverse events were also recorded throughout the study. RESULTS Improvement from baseline for TUNA and TURP retained statistical significance at each interval for International Prostate Symptom Score, quality of life and peak flow rate. Post-void residual volume was statistically significant at all time points for TURP and at year 5 for TUNA. The TURP group reported 41% retrograde ejaculation, while the TUNA group reported none. The incident of erectile dysfunction, incontinence and stricture formation was also greater in TURP than in TUNA cases with significantly fewer adverse events for TUNA than for TURP. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study demonstrate stable treatment outcomes after 5 years of followup and suggest that TUNA is an attractive treatment option for men with LUTS due to BPH.
Chromosomal localization of the mouse and rat DNA double-strand break repair genes Ku p70 and Ku p80/XRCC5 and their mRNA expression in various mouse tissues.

The Ku p70 and Ku p80/XRCC5 genes are involved in DNA double-strand break repair and V(D)J recombination, and their gene products are the components of the DNA-dependent protein kinase. We have determined the chromosomal locations of the mouse Ku p70 and Ku p80/XRCC5 genes by both in situ hybridization and molecular linkage analysis: the Ku p70 gene was localized to mouse chromosome 15 and rat chromosome 7, and the Ku p80/XRCC5 gene was localized to mouse chromosome 1 and rat chromosome 9. Both genes were mapped to a region of conserved linkage homology among three species, i.e., the mouse, rat, and human. Molecular linkage analysis using interspecific backcross mice revealed that the murine Ku p70 locus was localized 0.7 cM terminal to D15Mit1 and that the murine Ku p80/XRCC5 locus was 0.7 cM proximal to D1Mit46. To determine the size and tissue transcription specificity of the mouse Ku p70 and Ku p80/XRCC5 mRNA, Northern blot analysis was carried out with six mouse tissues. Each tissue expressed one species of the Ku p70 gene transcript with 2.4 kb and one species of the Ku p80/XRCC5 gene transcript with 2.6 kb. In the latter case, however, the brain showed two sizes of transcript, 2.6 and 2.9 kb.
Who does not cut down? Comparing characteristics and drinking motives of drinkers and abstainers during the exam periods

ABSTRACT Objective: Drinking alcohol during the exams can affect academic performance and future career options, but is rarely investigated. Drinking motives, sociodemographics and personality characteristics are investigated in nonabstainers and weekly drinkers during the exams. Participants: 7,181 Belgian university students who anonymously responded to an email invitation to an online survey. Methods: Logistic regressions and mixed design analysis of variance on cross-sectional data. Results: One-third of the students continued drinking during the exams, with 40% drinking weekly. Nonabstainers were mainly men, elder, internally motivated when drinking, and housed with parents or independently. Weekly drinkers were similar, except mainly housed in student apartments or independently. Personality characteristics were nonsignificant. All drinking motives were less pronounced during the exams, with smaller differences for internal motives. Conclusions: Mainly linked to internal drinking motives, drinking during the exams in higher education is underestimated. The characteristics and motives of students doing so can be used in future interventions.
Content of selected metals in muscle of cyprinid fish species from the Nitra River, Slovakia.

OBJECTIVES This study presents a rate of bioaccumulation of some metal concentrations in the muscle of five common cyprinid fish species (gudgeon - Gobio gobio, Europen chub - Leuciscus cephalus, barbel - Barbus barbus, roach - Rutilus rutilus, and nase - Chondrostoma nasus). DESIGN Besides, correlations among selected metals as well as standard length and total weight and order of metal accumulation in the fish muscle were determined. RESULTS Recorded metal concentrations (mg/kg wet weight basis) ranged as follows: Fe 4.23-22.95, Mn 0.10-0.72, Zn 16.26-166.90, Cu 15.39-25.97, Ni 0.00-3.72, Pb 0.00-1.81, and Cd 0.00-0.11. CONCLUSIONS The Slovak permissible limit for Cu (10.0 mg/kg), Ni (0.5 mg/kg), Pb (0.2 mg/kg) and Cd (0.05 mg/kg) defined in the Codex Alimentarius for safe human consumption exceeded in 100%, 12%, 6% and 10% of analyzed samples for Cu, Ni, Pb and Cd respectively. On an average, the order of metal concentrations in the fish muscle was: Zn>Cu>Fe>Mn>Ni>Pb>Cd.
Nosocomial transmission of group B Streptococci in a newborn nursery.

Group B streptococcal colonization of normal newborn infants increased from 22.5% within 20 hours of birth to 65.4% at the time of hospital discharge (P less than .001). In contrast, colonization in mothers did not change significantly between the time of admission to labor and delivery (27.7%) and the time of discharge (31.1%). Epidemiologic data suggested but did not prove that the mode of nosocomial transmission of group B streptococci among infants was cross colonization via personnel contact.
Spontaneous Long-Term Hyperglycemic Rat With Diabetic Complications: Otsuka Long-Evans Tokushima Fatty (OLETF) Strain

A spontaneously diabetic rat with polyuria, polydipsia, and mild obesity was discovered in 1984 in an outbred colony of Long-Evans rats, which had been purchased from Charles River Canada (St. Constant, Quebec, Canada) in 1982. A strain of rats developed from this rat by selective breeding has since been maintained at the Tokushima Research Institute (Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Tokushima, Japan) and named OLETF. The characteristic features of OLETF rats are 1) late onset of hyperglycemia (after 18 wk of age); 2) a chronic course of disease; 3) mild obesity; 4) inheritance by males; 5) hyperplastic foci of pancreatic islets; and 6) renal complication (nodular lesions). Histologically, the changes of pancreatic islets can be classified into three stages: 7) an early stage (6–20 wk of age) of cellular infiltration and degeneration; 2) a hyperplastic stage (20–40 wk of age); and 3) a final stage (at >40 wk of age). These clinical and pathological features of disease in OLETF rats resemble those of human NIDDM.
Neutrophils and Macrophages Cooperate in Host Resistance against Leishmania braziliensis Infection1

Neutrophils play an active role in the control of infections caused by intracellular pathogens such as Leishmania. In the present study, we investigated the effect of neutrophil depletion at the time of Leishmania braziliensis infection of BALB/c mice and how neutrophils interact with the infected macrophage to promote parasite elimination. The in vivo depletion of neutrophils led to a significant increase in parasite load and enhanced the Th1-Th2 immune response in this experimental model of infection. BALB/c mice coinoculated with both parasites and live neutrophils displayed lower parasite burdens at the site of infection and in the draining lymph nodes. In vitro, we observed that live neutrophils significantly reduced the parasite load in L. braziliensis-infected murine macrophages, an effect not observed with Leishmania major. L. braziliensis elimination was dependent on the interaction between neutrophils and macrophages and was associated with TNF-α as well as superoxide production. Furthermore, cooperation between neutrophils and macrophages toward parasite elimination was also observed in experiments performed with L. braziliensis-infected human cells and, importantly, with two other New World Leishmania species. These results indicate that neutrophils play an important and previously unappreciated role in L. braziliensis infection, favoring the induction of a protective immune response.
Data Locality Exploitation in the Decomposition of Regular Domain Problems

The aim of this paper is to study the effect of local memory hierarchy and communication network exploitation on message sending and the influence of this effect on the decomposition of regular applications. In particular, we have considered two different parallel computers, a Cray T3E-900 and an SGI Origin 2000. In both systems, the bandwidth reduction due to non-unit-stride memory access is quite significant and could be more important than the reduction due to contention in the network. These conclusions affect the choice of optimal decompositions for regular domains problems. Thus, although traditional 3D decompositions lead to lower inherent communication-to-computation ratios and could exploit more efficiently the interconnection network, lower dimensional decompositions are found to be more efficient due to the data decomposition effects on the spatial locality of the messages to be communicated. This increasing importance of local optimisations has also been shown using a well-known communication-computation overlapping technique which increases execution time, instead of reducing it as we could expect, due to poor cache memory exploitation.
Factors relating to depressive symptoms among elderly people with chronic vestibular dysfunction.

OBJECTIVE To identify factors relating to depressive symptoms among elderly people with chronic vestibular dysfunction. METHOD This was a cross-sectional study in which 120 elderly people with chronic vestibular dysfunction answered the Geriatric Depression Scale questionnaire. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed (p<0.05 and 95% CI). RESULTS The patients presented a mean score of 12.86 +/- 6.39 points on the Geriatric Depression Scale, and 67 of them (55.8%) scored above the cutoff of 11 points. The predictive model for worsening of depressive symptoms was composed of female gender, memory and concentration disorders, insomnia, hearing disorders, poor sight, nonuse of walking aids and greater emotional impact of dizziness. CONCLUSION Greater numbers of depressive symptoms among elderly people with chronic vestibular disease were related to the presence of memory and concentration disorders, insomnia, hearing disorders, very poor sight, greater emotional impact of dizziness, female gender and nonuse of walking aids.
Exploratory analysis of neuropsychological and neuroanatomical correlates of progressive mild cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease

Background Parkinson's disease with mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) is a heterogeneous entity in terms of cognitive profiles and conversion to dementia. However, the risk factors for ongoing cognitive decline in patients with PD-MCI are not clearly defined. Methods 51 patients with PD-MCI were prospectively followed-up for a minimum of 2 years. Subjects were classified as MCI converters (n=15) or MCI non-converters (n=36) based on whether they were subsequently diagnosed with PD dementia. We explored cognitive profiles and neuroanatomical characteristics of PD-MCI converters using voxel based morphometry (VBM) of grey matter (GM) density and region of interest based volumetric analysis of the substantia innominata (SI). Results PD-MCI converters showed more severe cognitive deficits in frontal executive functions, immediate verbal memory and visual recognition memory compared with PD-MCI non-converters. VBM analysis revealed that PD-MCI converters had significantly lower GM density in the left prefrontal areas, left insular cortex and bilateral caudate nucleus compared with that in PD-MCI non-converters. The mean normalised SI volume was significantly smaller in both PD-MCI converters (1.19±0.35, p<0.001) and PD-MCI non-converters (1.52±0.27, p<0.001) compared with that in controls (1.87±0.19). PD-MCI converters had a significantly smaller normalised SI volume than PD-MCI non-converters (p<0.001). Conclusions Our data show that atrophy in the frontostriatal areas and cholinergic structures, as well as frontal lobe associated cognitive performance, may act as predictors of dementia in PD-MCI patients, suggesting distinctive patterns of cognitive profiles and a neuroanatomical basis for progressive PD-MCI.
LXIII Vestibular Mechanisms in Human Behavior

Aerospace flight has posed important operational problems centering around man's stability in three-dimensional space. These problems have their genesis in the highly artificial flight conditions and in interand intra-individual differences in abilities to cope with them. Spatial disorientation constitutes one such problem, and the flight conditions mainly responsible for that are referrable to the visual and force environments. When visibilty is poor, birds are grounded but man uses symbolic information not only for orientation to earth but also to avoid otherwise invisible objects in space.
Near‐field optics and quantum optics: an assignation arranged by four kinds of photons

In the process of emergence a photon emitted from an atom (or a molecule) is usually no better localized in space than to the near‐field zone of the source. Near‐field optics therefore is of central importance for understanding fundamental statistical aspects related to single‐photon tunnelling, the space–time description of photon dynamics, and the photon position‐operator problem. In the present work an attempt is made to study the microscopic near‐field optical interaction from a quantum statistical point of view. In near‐field quantum electrodynamics (QED) scalar and longitudinal photons always are involved and this makes the covariant formulation of QED attractive also in the low‐energy regime. We show that the Lorenz gauge condition on the global state vector relates to the near‐field electrodynamics of the d‐photons. The gauge photon is shown to be of no importance in near‐field interactions. To understand the role of the lack of photon localizability we finally study near‐field quantum optical correlations in a new so‐called propagator gauge.