Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intrahepatic hepatitis C RNA levels do not correlate with degree of liver injury in patients with chronic hepatitis C

The balance between a direct cytopathic effect by hepatitis C virus (HCV) and immune‐mediated injury remains unclear. This report aims to test the following hypotheses: (1) that intrahepatic HCV load would correlate with the degree of liver injury; (2) that interferon alfa (IFN‐α) would decrease intrahepatic HCV‐RNA levels. Liver tissues (n = 56) were obtained from 47 patients with chronic HCV (9 before and after IFN‐α therapy). Total RNA was isolated and quantitated for specific HCV RNA by dot‐blot polymerase chain reaction (DB‐PCR) using a standard curve created from synthetic HCV RNA of known titer to calculate actual RNA levels. A multivariate analysis was undertaken to determine the relationship of intrahepatic HCV‐RNA levels with risk factors, length of HCV exposure, and histological injury scores. The confounding effect of HCV genotype was examined by direct sequencing of the NS5b region. Liver HCV RNA ranged from 102 to 3.1 × 107 molecules per microgram total liver RNA. The multiple regression analysis showed no effect of length of HCV exposure, risk factors, degree of bile duct damage, steatosis, or total Scheuer or Knodell score on RNA levels. No significant confounding effect of HCV genotype on the degree of liver injury was observed. However, genotype 1b had a significantly higher mean intrahepatic HCV‐RNA load compared with the other genotypes detected. In the 9 patients who received IFN‐α, treatment, 7 had no detectable HCV after treatment. This was associated with a significant decrease in intrahepatic HCV‐RNA levels (7.57 ± 2.53 × 105 to 1.82 ± 1.80 × 103 molecules per microgram total liver RNA ± SEM, n = 9, P = .0005). These results do not directly support our hypothesis that increased intrahepatic HCV load is associated with more severe liver injury. Intrahepatic viral load appears to be significantly increased in patients with genotype lb. IFN‐α treatment does significantly lower intrahepatic HCV load.
Predictive Value of Circulating Tumor Cells for Evaluating Short- and Long-Term Efficacy of Chemotherapy for Breast Cancer

Background The present study investigated the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) counts in predicting the short- and long-term efficacy of chemotherapy for breast cancer (BC). Material/Methods Peripheral venous blood was extracted from 187 BC patients. CTCs were measured by flow cytometry. Spearman’s correlation analysis was performed to examine the correlation between the efficacy of chemotherapy and CTC counts. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted to estimate the predictive value of CTC counts. The Kaplan-Meier method was employed to calculate disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Cox regression analysis was used to determine risk factors for prognosis of BC. Results Complete response (CR) + partial response (PR) was achieved by 65.8% of BC patients. After chemotherapy, CTC counts were decreased in both the CR + PR and SD + PD groups. Spearman’s correlation analysis indicated that CTC counts before chemotherapy were positively correlated with clinical response to chemotherapy (r=0.45, P<0.05). For predicting clinical response to chemotherapy, CTC counts yielded an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.958, with sensitivity reaching 96.9% and specificity reaching 85.4%. The Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression analysis indicated that tumor node metastasis (TNM) staging, lymph node metastasis (LNM), ki-67, endocrine therapy, and CTC counts were risk factors for prognosis of BC. Conclusions These findings indicate that BC patients with CTCs ≥8 exhibited poor response to chemotherapy and poor OS. CTC counts can serve as an indicator in predicting short- and long-term efficacy of chemotherapy for BC.
Severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy (Dravet syndrome): Recognition and diagnosis in adults

Establishing an etiologic diagnosis in adults with refractory epilepsy and intellectual disability is challenging. We analyzed the phenotype of 14 adults with severe myoclonic epilepsy of infancy. This phenotype comprised heterogeneous seizure types with nocturnal generalized tonic-clonic seizures predominating, mild to severe intellectual disability, and variable motor abnormalities. The diagnosis was suggested by a characteristic evolution of clinical findings in the first years of life. Ten had mutations in SCN1A and one in GABRG2.
Chemosensory function and food preferences of children with cystic fibrosis

A major problem for patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) is the maintenance of adequate nutrition to maintain normal growth. The hypotheses that poor nutrition could be due to smell and/or taste dysfunction has been pursued in several studies with contradictory results. None, however, investigated whether inadequate nutrition is due to CF patients having different liking for foods compared to healthy children and whether liking can be linked to specific changes in smell or taste function. Here, the relationships between food liking, BMI, and smell and taste function in 42 CF and 42 healthy 5‐ to 18‐year olds is pursued. A three‐choice 16‐item odor identification test and a gustatory identification test involving five concentrations of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty tastes, were used to assess chemosensory function. Food liking was assessed using a 94‐item questionnaire. Patients identified significantly fewer odors than controls (89.8% vs. 95.7% correct; P < 0.001). However, only a few patients were affected and their loss of olfactory function was not substantial and unlikely to affect their liking for foods. Taste identification was similar for the two groups (patients 92.6% vs. controls 94.2% correct). There was no correlation between age and odor identification ability, but taste performance improved with age (r = 0.39, P < 0.05), suggesting cognition was the cause. Patients liked several types of foods and high‐fat foods more than the controls. Both groups had a similar liking for low‐fat foods and both liked high‐fat foods more than low‐fat foods. No significant relationships existed between FEV1 and smell or taste function or liking for foods, the BMI of the groups were similar and there was no relationship between BMI and smell or taste function. The results indicate that the abnormal eating behavior reported for many CF patients is not due to changes in chemosensory function which remains normal in most CF patients at least to 18 years of age. Pediatr. Pulmonol. 2010; 45:807–815. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Experience‐dependent modifications of hippocampal place cell firing

Understanding the empirical rules that regulate alterations of hippocampal firing fields will enhance our understanding of hippocampal function. The current study sought to extend previous research in this area by examining the effect of substituting a new stimulus for a familiar stimulus in a familiar environment. Hippocampal place cells were recorded while rats chased food pellets scattered onto the floor of a cylindrical apparatus with a white cue card affixed to the apparatus wall. Once a place cell had been recorded in the presence of the white card, the white card was replaced by a black card of the same size and shape. The place cell was then recorded in the presence of the black card. Thirty‐six cells were recorded using this procedure. All cells had stable firing fields in the presence of the white card. Both the white and black cards had stimulus control over place cell firing; generally, rotation of either card caused an equal rotation of the firing fields present. When the black card was substituted for the white card, place cells showed time‐variant changes in their spatial firing patterns. The change was such that the spatial firing patterns of the majority of place cells were similar in the presence of the white and black cards during initial black card exposures. During subsequent presentations of the black card, the spatial firing patterns associated with the 2 cards became distinct from each other. Once the differentiation of firing patterns had occurred in a given rat, all place cells subsequently recorded from that rat had different firing patterns in the presence of the white and black cards. The findings are discussed relative to sensory‐, motor‐, attentional‐, and learning‐related interpretations of hippocampal function. It is argued that the time‐variant alteration of place cell firing fields observed following exposure to a novel stimulus in this study reflects an experience‐dependent modification of place cell firing patterns.
The Effect of Glucose on Proteoglycans Produced by Cultured Mesangial Cells

Altered proteoglycan metabolism may play a role in the development of diabetic glomerulopathy. This study was conducted to examine the effects of glucose on the production and physical characteristics of proteoglycans generated by rat mesangial cells in culture. Rat mesangial cells were exposed to elevated glucose media (500 mg/dl) or standard glucose media (200 mg/dl) for 8–10 days, and proteoglycan synthesis was determined using 35S-labeling in conjunction with anion exchange and sizing chromatography. Rat mesangial cells generated predominantly chondroitin/dermatan sulfate proteoglycans, with small amounts of heparan sulfate proteoglycans. High glucose did not alter the number of rat mesangial cells after 24 h or after 8–10 days, compared with cells grown under standard glucose conditions. The total amount of glycosaminoglycan generated and the sizes of the major proteoglycans were not different between cultures grown in standard and elevated glucose medium. Levels of mRNA for the proteoglycan, biglycan (as assessed by Northern blot analysis), also were comparable between the standard and elevated glucose conditions. Exposure to media high in glucose did not change the rate of secretion of proteoglycans from the cell layer to the medium, but did result in a greater quantity of radiolabeled proteoglycan deposited in the extracellular matrix. The cell, extracellular matrix and medium proteoglycans isolated from the elevated glucose cultures, consistently eluted from the anion exchange column at a lower [NaCl] compared with those generated under standard glucose conditions, indicating a loss of anionic charges. We conclude that exposure of rat mesangial cells to media high in glucose results in a greater amount of labeled proteoglycan deposited in the extracellular matrix. These proteoglycans are the same size but have a lower charge density than those generated under standard glucose conditions.
Checklist of British and Irish Hymenoptera - Ceraphronoidea

This checklist comprises parts of the larger checklist of the Hymenoptera of the British Isles; the terms of reference and methodology are explained in Broad (2014). Country level distribution records, as reported here, are mainly taken from the collections of the Natural History Museum, London (NHM), with additional sources cited. The Ceraphronoidea comprises two extant families, the Ceraphronidae and Megaspilidae, represented by 28 and 64 valid species in the British Isles. Representatives of the British families and subfamilies of Ceraphronoidea are shown in Fig. 1​1a,a, ​,c,c, ​,d. Thered. There has been very little recent work on the British and Irish Ceraphronoidea and it is generally a rather neglected group of parasitoids. The genus Dendrocerus is an exception: several species are frequently reared as hyperparasitoids of aphids or from other aphid-associated insects and their taxonomy has been revised (Fergusson 1980). Much remains to be discovered about the biology and taxonomy of ceraphronoids. Whilst at least some megaspilids are known to be ectoparasitoid idiobionts (Haviland 1920), including Dendrocerus, the Ceraphronidae contains ecto- and endoparasitoids; within the same genus (Aphanogmus) some species seem to be endoparasitoids (e.g. Parnell 1963) and others ectoparasitoids (Luhman et al. 1999, Evans et al. 2005), with idiobiosis and koinobiosis both reported in the literature. Whilst hosts of both ceraphronids and megaspilids seem to be centred on Diptera there are many exceptions and the range of hosts of the superfamily spans several orders. Nomenclature here follows Johnson and Musetti (2004) a rather full synonymy is given as there is only a very small body of literature dealing with ceraphronoids in a British context, so most names are unfamiliar to most entomologists. Habitus of representative British Ceraphronoidea (scale bar = 1 mm). Figure 1a. Ceraphronidae: Aphanogmus abdominalis (Thomson) female, ex galls of Dasineura odoratae Stelter (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) on Viola odorata, England, Surrey, Ripley, July 2007, coll. K.M. Harris, det. P. Buhl (BMNH(E)#1022373).
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern in Diabetic Foot Ulcer: A Pilot Study

Background: Diabetic foot infections (DFIs) are major public health problems and knowledge of microbes that cause infections are helpful to determine proper antibiotic therapy. Aims: The aim was to investigate the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of microbes in DFIs. Subjects and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of 6 months at the Department of General Surgery, KMC hospital, Manipal University, Manipal, India. During this period, 108 patients having DFIs admitted in the general surgery wards were tracked from the hospital data management system. These patients′ pus samples were examined as Gram-stained smear and cultured aerobically on blood agar and MacConkey agar plates. Antimicrobial susceptibility test was performed by disc diffusion techniques according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute guidelines. Results: Of the 108 specimens of the diabetic foot lesions, culture showed polymicrobial growth in 44.4% (48/108). Prevalence of Gram-negative organisms (56%, 84/150) was found to be more than Gram-positive organisms (44%, 66/150). However, Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequent pathogen (28%, 42/150). All Gram-positive aerobes were sensitive to doxycycline. All Gram-negative isolates, including extended spectrum beta lactamase producing strains of Proteus mirabilis and Klebsiella oxytoca except Acinetobacter were highly sensitive to amikacin, cefoperazone/sulbactam, and meropenem. Acinetobacter was completely resistant to all the common antibiotics tested. Conclusion: Prevalence showed Gram-negative bacteria was slightly more than Gram-positive bacteria in diabetic foot ulcers. This study recommends doxycycline should be empirical treatment of choice for Gram-positive isolates and amikacin, cefoperazone/sulbactam, and meropenem should be considered for most of the Gram-negatives aerobes.
Correction for Breau et al., A Hox gene controls lateral line cell migration by regulating chemokine receptor expression downstream of Wnt signaling

BIOPHYSICS AND COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY Correction for “Mechanism of E-cadherin dimerization probed by NMR relaxation dispersion,” by Ying Li, Nicole L. Altorelli, Fabiana Bahna, Barry Honig, Lawrence Shapiro, and Arthur G. Palmer III, which appeared in issue 41, October 8, 2013, of Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (110:16462–16467; first published September 25, 2013; 10.1073/pnas.1314303110). The authors note that the second sentence in the Acknowledgments, “This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants GM059273 (to A.G.P.) and GM062270 (to L.S.)” should instead appear as “This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Grants GM059273 (to A.G.P.) and GM062270 (to L.S.) and by National Science Foundation Grant MCB-0918535 (to B.H.). ”
Treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia in children and adolescents: effect of lovastatin. Canadian Lovastatin in Children Study Group.

OBJECTIVE Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), an inherited autosomal dominant disorder of lipoprotein metabolism, is associated with premature atherosclerosis. The recommended pediatric therapy consists of dietary intervention and, when necessary, treatment with bile acid-binding resins. However, compliance has been poor in many children. Therefore, our objectives were to determine the efficacy, safety, and tolerance of the short-term use of lovastatin, a 3-hydroxy 3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitor, in the control of severe FH in a male pediatric population and to evaluate the dose-response relationship. METHODS Sixty-nine male patients with FH 12.9 +/- 2.4 years of age (mean +/- SD) participated in this multicenter, randomized, double-blind trial. After a 4-week placebo period, the patients were allocated to four treatment groups (lovastatin 10, 20, 30, 40 mg/d) for 8 weeks. Plasma lipid and apolipoprotein (Apo) concentrations were measured every 2 weeks. Clinical and laboratory evidence of adverse events was monitored periodically throughout the study. RESULTS All lovastatin doses reduced total cholesterol (-17% to -29%), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (-21% to -36%), and ApoB (-19% to -28%) concentrations. A dose-response relationship was seen, and between-group comparisons showed that results were significantly improved up to a dose of 30 mg/d. We observed a 7% increase in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and a 4% increase in ApoA1 concentrations. The medication was well tolerated by all patients. No serious clinical adverse experience was reported. Lovastatin increased aspartate aminotransferase concentrations, but there was no evidence of a dose-response relationship, and no value exceeded two times the upper limit of normal. No significant change in alanine aminotransferase was observed. Three patients had marked (more than three times the upper limit of normal) asymptomatic elevations in their creatine kinase values, which returned spontaneously to normal, and no action was required regarding the drug.
Synthesis of GDP-L-fucose by the Human FX Protein*

FX is a homodimeric NADP(H)-binding protein of 68 kDa, first identified in human erythrocytes, from which it was purified to homogeneity. Its function has been unrecognized despite partial structural and genetic characterization. Recently, on the basis of partial amino acid sequence, it proved to be the human homolog of the murine protein P35B, a tumor rejection antigen. In order to address the biochemical role of FX, its primary structure was completed by cDNA sequencing. This sequence revealed a significant homology with many proteins from different organisms. Specifically, FX showed a remarkable similarity with a putative Escherichia coli protein, named Yefb, whose gene maps in a region of E. coli chromosome coding for enzymes involved in synthesis and utilization of GDP-D-mannose. Accordingly, a possible role of FX in this metabolism was investigated. The data obtained indicate FX as the enzyme responsible for the last step of the major metabolic pathway resulting in GDP-L-fucose synthesis from GDP-D-mannose in procaryotic and eucaryotic cells. Specifically, purified FX apparently catalyzes a combined epimerase and NADPH-dependent reductase reaction, converting GDP-4-keto-6-D-deoxymannose to GDP-L-fucose. This is the substrate of several fucosyltranferases involved in the correct expression of many glyconjugates, including blood groups and developmental antigens.
Different structures of selected and unselected araB‐lacZ fusions

Formation of araB‐lacZ coding‐sequence fusions is a key adaptive mutation system. Eighty‐four independent araB‐lacZ fusions were sequenced. All fusions carried rearranged MuR linker sequences between the araB and lacZ domains indicating that they arose from the standard intermediate of the well‐characterized Mu DNA rearrangement process, the strand transfer complex (STC). Five non‐standard araB‐lacZ fusions isolated after indirect sib selection had novel structures containing back‐to‐back inverted MuR linkers. The observation that different isolation procedures gave rise to standard and non‐standard fusions indicates that cellular physiology can influence late steps in the multi‐step biochemical sequence leading to araB‐lacZ fusions. Each araB‐lacZ fusion contained two novel DNA junctions. The MuR‐lacZ junctions showed‘hot‐spotting’according to established rules for Mu target selection. The araB‐MuR and MuR‐MuR junctions all involved exchanges at regions of short sequence homology. More extensive homology between MuR and araB sequences indicates potential STC isomerization into a resolvable four‐way structure analogous to a Holliday junction. These results highlight the molecular complexity of araB‐lacZ fusion formation, which may be thought of as a multi‐step cell biological process rather than a unitary biochemical reaction.
Robust Design of CNFET Based Buffered Delay Model and Microwave Pulse Generator

This paper proposes an efficient and robust design of a CNFET based buffered delay circuit. The proposed circuit overcomes several issues of the traditional delay insertion circuits such as low- resolution, device-mismatch and so on. This work also designs a microwave pulse generator circuit using the proposed buffered delay circuit. Microwave pulses of pulse width 9.7 ps can be produced by the pulse generator presented in this paper. Further, variability of delay produced by proposed circuit has been analyzed to prove the immunity against process, voltage and temperature variations. CNFET based circuit proves to be more efficient as compared to its CMOS counterpart in terms of delay variability. The proposed buffered delay circuit also minimizes the effect of rise and fall time of the input signal. The proposed design of buffered delay circuit has been modeled using predictive technology model (PTM) @ 16-nm technology node and verified by simulation results on SPICE.
Dynamic Pricing in the Presence of Strategic Consumers and Oligopolistic Competition

We present a dynamic pricing model for oligopolistic firms selling differentiated perishable goods to multiple finite segments of strategic consumers who are aware that pricing is dynamic and may time their purchases accordingly. This model encompasses strategic behavior by both firms and consumers in a unified stochastic dynamic game in which each firm's objective is to maximize its total expected revenues, and each consumer responds according to a shopping-intensity-allocation consumer choice model. We prove the existence of a unique subgame-perfect equilibrium, provide equilibrium optimality conditions, and prove monotonicity results for special cases. The model provides insights about equilibrium price dynamics under different levels of competition, asymmetry between firms, and multiple market segments with varying properties. We demonstrate that strategic behavior by consumers can have serious impacts on revenues if firms ignore that behavior in their dynamic pricing policies. Moreover, ideal equilibrium responses to consumer strategic behavior can recover only a portion of the lost revenues. A key conclusion is that firms may benefit more from limiting the information available to consumers than from allowing full information and responding to the resulting strategic behavior in an optimal fashion.
Towards Write-Activity-Aware Page Table Management for Non-volatile Main Memories

Non-volatile memories such as phase change memory (PCM) and memristor are being actively studied as an alternative to DRAM-based main memory in embedded systems because of their properties, which include low power consumption and high density. Though PCM is one of the most promising candidates with commercial products available, its adoption has been greatly compromised by limited write endurance. As main memory is one of the most heavily accessed components, it is critical to prolong the lifetime of PCM. In this article, we present write-activity-aware page table management (WAPTM), a simple yet effective page table management scheme for reducing unnecessary writes, by redesigning system software and exploiting write-activity-aware features provided by the hardware. We implemented WAPTM in Google Android based on the ARM architecture and evaluated it with real Android applications. Experimental results show that WAPTM can significantly reduce writes in page tables, proving the feasibility and potential of prolonging the lifetime of PCM-based main memory through reducing writes at the OS level.