Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship between aerobic and anaerobic parameters and functional classification in wheelchair basketball players

Participation in sports for individuals with disabilities continues to gain popularity. In order to provide fair and equitable competition among persons with different disabilities and functional capacity, a separate functional classification system has been devised for each sport. The aims of the present study were to evaluate aerobic and anaerobic performance of wheelchair basketball athletes and verify a correlation with the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation functional classification system. For this, 17 highly trained male Brazilian basketball wheelchair athletes (25.4±4.4 years) from the national team who had taken part in the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games were assessed. These athletes were submitted to cardiopulmonary exercise testing and Wingate‐like 30‐s sprint test using upper limbs. The present study demonstrated that the functional classification score correlated with relative (r=0.90; P<0.0001) and absolute peak power (r=0.50; P=0.0353) and absolute mean power (r=0.93; P<0.0001) obtained from the Wingate‐like 30‐s sprint test and also correlated with absolute O2 peak (r=0.68; P=0.0026) and O2 at ventilatory threshold (r=0.71; P=0.0014), measured on cardiopulmonary exercise testing. Therefore, our findings support the functional classification created to classify athletes' functional capability on the court, which also correlated with aerobic and anaerobic performance parameters of the elite wheelchair basketball players.
A preliminary investigation of nigerian Gmelina arborea and Bambusa vulgaris for pulp and paper production

Two common Nigerian-grown biomasses, gmelina (Gmelina arborea) and bamboo (Bambusaa vulgaris) have been pulped and their fibre characteristics and paper properties examined. The results of their chemical compositions showed some fair similarities. The amount of glucose in the pulps of both biomasses indicated their suitability as lignocellulosic materials for pulping. Their pulp yield ranged between 48,0-54,1%, which fell within the acceptable range for good pulpwoods. The analysis of their fibre dimensions revealed that bamboo fibre has a wider fibre length distribution and higher fine length content. Gmelina and bamboo had weighted mean fibre lengths of 0,93 and 2,07 mm and mean fibre widths of 24,1 and 16,9 µm, respectively. The Runkel ratios of the samples were 0,4 (gmelina) and 0,9 (bamboo): this is indicative of their suitability for paper making. Mechanical properties of handsheets obtained from gmelina compared fairly well with South African pulpwoods (Eucalyptus grandis and Pinus paluta). Bamboo exhibited better tear index values than these woods but with lower sheet density and tensile index. These properties were significantly improved in handsheets obtained from blends of gmelina and bamboo, raising the prospect of producing paper from blends of both raw materials in Nigeria.
Visual Representation and Classification by Learning Group Sparse Deep Stacking Network

Deep stacking networks (DSNs) have been successfully applied in classification tasks. Its architecture builds upon blocks of simplified neural network modules (SNNM). The hidden units are assumed to be independent in the SNNM module. However, this assumption prevents SNNM from learning the local dependencies between hidden units to better capture the information in the input data for the classification task. In addition, the hidden representations of input data in each class can be expectantly split into a group in real-world classification applications. Therefore, we propose two kinds of group sparse SNNM modules by mixing <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$l_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-norm and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$l_{2}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-norm. The first module learns the local dependencies among hidden units by dividing them into non-overlapping groups. The second module splits the representations of samples in different classes into separate groups to cluster the samples in each class. A group sparse DSN (GS-DSN) is constructed by stacking the group sparse SNNM modules. Experimental results further verify that our GS-DSN model outperforms the relevant classification methods. Particularly, GS-DSN achieves the state-of-the-art performance (99.1%) on 15-Scene.
Some observations on the cause and treatment of hare‐lip and cleft palate, based on the treatment of 1041 patients

PerNo. of PerNo. of Percentage Cases centage Cases centage ----25 928 I 32’2 233 I 22’4 Incidence. -About 2 babies in every 100 arrive in this world handicapped by some sort of congenital abnormality. (Malpas, 1937; Coffey and Jessop, 111). 1955. ) The incidence of hare-lip and cleft palate is about I in 600 births. Boys are affected more often than girls, and the ratio is about 3 : 2 (Table I ) .
Masitinib for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a degenerative neurological disorder that is the most common cause of dementia and disability in older patients. Available treatments are symptomatic in nature and are only sufficient to improve the quality of life of AD patients temporarily. A potential strategy, currently under investigation, is to target cell-signaling pathways associated with neurodegeneration, in order to decrease neuroinflammation, excitotoxicity, and to improve cognitive functions. Current review centers on the role of neuroinflammation and the specific contribution of mast cells to AD pathophysiology. The authors look at masitinib therapy and the evidence presented through preclinical and clinical trials. Dual actions of masitinib as an inhibitor of mast cell–glia axis and a Fyn kinase blocker are discussed in the context of AD pathology. Masitinib is in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of malignant melanoma, mastocytosis, multiple myeloma, gastrointestinal cancer and pancreatic cancer. It is also in Phase II/III clinical trials for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and AD. Additional research is warranted to better investigate the potential effects of masitinib in combination with other drugs employed in AD treatment.
Defective mismatch repair as a predictive marker for lack of efficacy of fluorouracil-based adjuvant therapy in colon cancer.

PURPOSE Prior reports have indicated that patients with colon cancer who demonstrate high-level microsatellite instability (MSI-H) or defective DNA mismatch repair (dMMR) have improved survival and receive no benefit from fluorouracil (FU) -based adjuvant therapy compared with patients who have microsatellite-stable or proficient mismatch repair (pMMR) tumors. We examined MMR status as a predictor of adjuvant therapy benefit in patients with stages II and III colon cancer. METHODS MSI assay or immunohistochemistry for MMR proteins were performed on 457 patients who were previously randomly assigned to FU-based therapy (either FU + levamisole or FU + leucovorin; n = 229) versus no postsurgical treatment (n = 228). Data were subsequently pooled with data from a previous analysis. The primary end point was disease-free survival (DFS). RESULTS Overall, 70 (15%) of 457 patients exhibited dMMR. Adjuvant therapy significantly improved DFS (hazard ratio [HR], 0.67; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.93; P = .02) in patients with pMMR tumors. Patients with dMMR tumors receiving FU had no improvement in DFS (HR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.42 to 2.91; P = .85) compared with those randomly assigned to surgery alone. In the pooled data set of 1,027 patients (n = 165 with dMMR), these findings were maintained; in patients with stage II disease and with dMMR tumors, treatment was associated with reduced overall survival (HR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.02 to 8.54; P = .04). CONCLUSION Patient stratification by MMR status may provide a more tailored approach to colon cancer adjuvant therapy. These data support MMR status assessment for patients being considered for FU therapy alone and consideration of MMR status in treatment decision making.
Precision of laboratory methods based on protein solubility in quality control of heat treated feedstuffs

Some of feedstuffs used as raw materials in feed industry contain anti-nutritional factors that negatively influence their quality. One of them is soybean, which is, prior to oil extraction, referred to as full-fat soybean (FFSB). Anti-nutritional factors in raw FFSB can be destroyed by moderate heating, but both over- and under heat processing limits the availability of soybean amino acids. Among laboratory procedures that are available for assessing the degree of FFSB heat treatment, two methods, i.e. Protein dispersibility index (PDI) and protein solubility in potassium hydroxide (PSKOH), are based on protein solubility, which was claimed to be the most reliable indicator of the degree of FFSB heat treatment. This paper presents the results of an inter-laboratory study conducted to establish precision of the PDI and PSKOH methods by determining their reproducibility limits. Five samples of FFSB were heat-treated at temperatures between 110 and 164 °C and analyzed by six laboratories for PDI and PSKOH. Established reproducibility limit for PDI method of 8.87 index units found in this study appeared to be too wide, indicating a low precision of this method. PSKOH method produced very good reproducibility limit of 8.56% and could be recommended as a preferred method for FFSB quality control in feed laboratories.
Efficiency of a phase 1 vaccine for the reduction of vaginal Coxiella burnetii shedding in a clinically affected goat herd.

The main route of human Q fever infections is inhalation of infectious aerosols. The bacterial agent, Coxiella burnetii, is frequently found throughout domestic ruminants. Females constitute potential shedders of C. burnetii through vaginal mucus, faeces and milk. Q fever is also a common cause of abortion, especially in goats. Massive load of bacteria is associated with placentas and aborted foetuses. In experimental conditions, the Coxevac inactivated phase 1 vaccine (CEVA Sante Animale, Libourne, France) was efficient, and dramatically reduced abortion and excretion of bacteria [1]. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the Coxevac vaccination impact on bacterial shedding in goats affected by Q fever in natural conditions.
A comparison of use of a pyrethroid either for house spraying or for bednet treatment against malaria vectors

In an intensely malarious area in north‐east Tanzania, microencapsulated lambdacyhalothrin was used in four villages for treatment of bednets (provided free of charge) and in another four villages the same insecticide was used for house spraying. Another four villages received neither intervention until the end of the trial but were monitored as controls. Bioassays showed prolonged persistence of the insecticidal residues. Light traps and ELISA testing showed reduction of the malaria vector populations and the sporozoite rates, leading to a reduction of about 90% in the entomological inoculation rate as a result of each treatment. Collections of blood fed mosquitoes showed no diversion from biting humans to biting animals. Incidence of re‐infection was measured by weekly monitoring of cohorts of 60 children per village, after clearing pre‐existing infection with chlorproguanil‐dapsone. The vector control was associated with a reduction in probability of re‐infection per child per week by 54–62%, with no significant difference between the two vector control methods. Cross‐sectional surveys for fever, parasitaemia, haemoglobin and weight showed association of high parasitaemia with fever and anaemia and beneficial effects of each intervention in reducing anaemia. However, passive surveillance by resident health assistants showed no evidence for reduced prevalence of fever or parasitaemia. Net treatment consumed only about one sixth as much insecticide as house spraying and it was concluded that the former intervention would work out cheaper and nets were actively demanded by the villagers, whereas spraying was only passively assented to.
B‐Cell Function in Kawasaki Disease and the Effect of High‐Dose Gamma‐Globulin Therapy

We studied in vino B‐cell function in Kawasaki disease (KD). By plaque‐forming assay, IgG‐, IgA‐ and IgM‐secreting cells in the first week of KD were markedly increased, and recovered to a normal level in the second week in many cases. Lymphocyte blast formation with Staphylococcus aureus Cowan I (SAC), a B‐cell‐specific mitogen, was suppressed in the acute phase, and recovered to a nod level in the convalescent phase. By flow cytometry, HLA‐DR‐ and HLA‐DQ‐positive cells were increased in the acute phase of KD. CD3‐and CD4‐positive cells were also decreased. CD8‐positive cells showed no significant change. In five patients, CD4‐positive cells with HLA‐DR positivity neither increased in the acute phase nor changed during the course of illness. From our results, it can be considered that pathogenic microorganisms or toxins activate B cells directly in KD without the association of T cells. We also studied the effect of high‐dose gamma‐globulin therapy on B‐cell function in KD. However, the results indicated that this form of therapy had no significant effect on B‐cell functions.
Evaluation for salt stress tolerance of pepper genotypes to be used as rootstocks

Salinity is a major environmental constraint on crop productivity and grafting can be a sustainable strategy to enhance plant tolerance under adverse growth conditions. Screening different graft combinations under field conditions can be a slow and expensive processes. In this study, plants of 18 genotypes of Capsicum spp. were evaluated during 5 months to select salt tolerant plants to be used as rootstocks in greenhouse under controlled conditions. Their net photosynthetic rate was used as a rapid and sensitive methodology for screening their tolerance to salt stress conditions. The germination potential of some genotypes was also tested under different salinity conditions to see if it would be useful to accelerate the screening process. According to photosynthesis rate, the commercial rootstock ‘Tresor’ and the genotypes ‘Serrano’ (C. annuum), ‘ECU-973’ (C. chinense) and ‘BOL-58’ (C. baccatum) were the most tolerant during this period. Nevertheless, the evaluation of pepper genotypes for salinity tolerance based on the germination performance and chlorophyll fluorescence parameter Fv/Fm ratio were not good indicators of the sensitivity along plant ontogeny. Finally, the selected genotypes as salt-tolerant were validated under field conditions as rootstocks of two interesting pepper cultivars, concluding that using the rootstocks selected by the net photosynthetic rate improved the salt tolerance of the scion in terms of marketable yield and fruit quality.
Erythritol metabolism by Propionibacterium pentosaceum. The over-all reaction sequence.

Abstract Randomly labeled erythritol-14C has been synthesized and incubated with fluoride-poisoned suspensions of dried cells of Propionibacterium pentosaceum. Therefrom labeled glycerol-3-P, glyceric acid-3-P, erythritol-1-P, ribose-5-P, xylulose-5-P, glucose-6-P, fructose-6-P, mannose-6-P, fructose-1,6-di-P, and sedoheptulose-7-P were isolated. Erythritol-14C-1-P accumulated more rapidly than did the other phosphates. Even under conditions in which its dephosphorylation is inhibited it was metabolized to the same products as was erythritol-14C. Also, in short term experiments the addition of unlabeled l-erythritol-1-P to cell preparations actively metabolizing erythritol-14C reduced the amount of label normally found as glyceric acid-3-P. This supports the view that in P. pentosaceum erythritol metabolism proceeds via a series of phosphorylated intermediates, of which l-erythritol-1-P is the primary member. l-Erythritol-1-P can serve as hydrogen donor for the reduction of 2,6-dichloroindophenol in cell-free extracts. Although the product of the oxidation was not isolated, indirect evidence suggests that it is l-erythrulose-1-P and that this compound is the next intermediate in the erythritol fermentation. Labeling dilution experiments indicated that d-erythrose-4-P is not a direct intermediate in the sequence. The formation of labeled formaldehyde in the reaction mixtures lends support to the view that l-erythrulose-1-P, formed from l-erythritol-1-P, undergoes cleavage between the C3 and C4 positions to yield formaldehyde and dihydroxyacetone-P. This cleavage, combined with reactions known to occur in the propionic acid bacteria, provides a source of the labeled C3, C5, C6, and C7 sugar phosphates accumulating in the cell suspensions and an explanation for the substantial quantities of formic acid produced in the fermentation of erythritol.
Effects of exercise on cancer‐related fatigue

Cancer patients frequently suffer from fatigue and loss of physical performance. Several biologic, psychologic, and social factors have been suggested as explanations for the origins of fatigue in this context. In most cases, fatigue has a multifactorial genesis. However, recent studies suggest that fatigue may originate from alterations in the muscular energetic systems caused by cancer and its treatment. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that physical exercise programs help prevent the manifestation and reduce the intensity of cancer‐related fatigue. In this article, actual evidence of the relationship between fatigue and impairment of physical performance in cancer patients and suggestions for new directions for research are discussed. Cancer 2001;92:1689–93. © 2001 American Cancer Society.
Prefrontal function and activation in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE Distinctive patterns of speech and language abnormalities are associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. It is, however, unclear whether the associated patterns of neural activation are diagnosis specific. The authors sought to determine whether there are differences in language-associated prefrontal activation that discriminate bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. METHOD Forty-two outpatients with bipolar I disorder, 27 outpatients with schizophrenia, and 37 healthy comparison subjects were recruited. Differences in blood oxygen level-dependent activity were evaluated using the Hayling Sentence Completion Test and analyzed in Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) 2. Differences in activation were estimated from a sentence completion versus rest contrast and from a contrast of decreasing sentence constraint. Regional activations were related to clinical variables and performance on a set shifting task and evaluated for their ability to differentiate among the three groups. RESULTS Patients with bipolar disorder showed differences in insula and dorsal prefrontal cortex activation, which differentiated them from patients with schizophrenia. Patients with bipolar disorder recruited the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum to a greater extent relative to healthy comparison subjects on the parametric contrast of increasing difficulty. The gradient of ventral striatal and prefrontal activation was significantly associated with reversal errors in bipolar disorder patients. CONCLUSIONS Brain activations during the Hayling task differentiated patients with bipolar disorder from comparison subjects and patients with schizophrenia. Patients with bipolar disorder showed abnormalities in frontostriatal systems associated with performance on a set shifting task. This finding suggests that bipolar disorder patients engaged emotional brain areas more than comparison subjects while performing the Hayling task.
Constitutively unmasked CD 22 on B cells of ST 6 Gai . I knockout mice : novel sialoside probe for murine CD 22

2Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 N. Torrey Pines Rd., MEM-L71, La Jolla, CA 92075, USA; 3Shemyakin Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, ul Miklukho-Makiaya 16/10, 117997 GSP-7, V-437 Moscow, Russian Federation; 4lnstitute of Virology and Immunobiology, University ofWiirzburg, Versbacherstr. 7,97078 Wiirzburg, Germany; and SHHMI Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of California San Diego, CMMW Bldg. , Room 333, 9500 Gilman Dr., 0625, La Jolla. CA 92073, USA
Influence of Dietary Amino Acid Profile on Serum Lipids inHypercholesterolemic Chinese Adults

To investigate the significance of Lys:Arg and Met:Gly ratio on serum lipids concentrations and adiponectin in hypercholesterolemic adults, 24 g of soy isolate protein supplement (SIP) or milk protein supplement (CON) were randomly given to 90 subjects (n=45/group) daily for 8 weeks. The correlation between dietary proteins, Lys :Arg and Met:Gly ratio and the percentage changes in lipids and adiponectin in 90 subjects were examined. The percentage changes in total and LDL cholesterol concentrations were significantly positively correlated with the ratio of dietary vegetable protein/animal protein (VP/AP) (rs=-0.595, P<0.001 and rs=-0.606, P<0.001 respectively). The changes of total and LDL cholesterol concentrations were significantly correlated with dietary Lys:Arg ratio (rs=0.574, P<0.001 and rs=0.582, P<0.001 respectively). The change in adiponectin was negatively correlated with dietary Lys:Arg and Met:Gly ratio (rs=-0.668, P<0.001 and rs=-0.309, P=0.003 respectively) and was positively correlated with the ratio of VP/AP (rs=0.566, P<0.001). Vegetable protein diet with low Lys :Arg ratio may have a favorable effect on serum total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and adiponectin.
Genetic variants within immune-modulating genes influence the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and anti-TNF drug response: a two-stage case–control study

Background Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease that arises as a result of the interaction between genetic and environmental factors. A growing body of research suggests that genetic variants within immune-related genes can influence the risk of developing the disease and affect drug response. Materials and methods To test this hypothesis, we carried out a comprehensive two-stage case–control study in a White population of 1239 White RA patients and 1229 healthy controls to investigate whether 49 single nucleotide polymorphisms within or near 17 immune-related genes modulate the risk of developing RA and antitumor necrosis factor (anti-TNF) drug response. Results Logistic regression analyses showed that carriers of the IL4rs2070874T and IL4rs2243250T and IL8RBrs1126580A alleles or the IL8RBrs2230054C/C genotype had a significantly increased risk of developing RA [odds ratio (OR)=1.37, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.13–1.67, P=0.0016; OR=1.24, 95% CI 1.03–1.49, P=0.020; OR=1.23, 95% CI 1.08–1.41, P=0.002 and OR=1.19, 95% CI 1.04–1.36, P=0.01, respectively]. The association of the IL4 variants was further supported by a meta-analysis including 7150 individuals (P =0.0010), whereas the involvement of the IL8RB locus in determining the susceptibility to RA was also supported by gene–gene interaction analyses that identified significant two-locus and three-locus interaction models including IL8RB variants that act synergistically to increase the risk of the disease (P=0.014 and 0.018). Interestingly, we also found that patients harbouring the IFNGrs2069705C allele showed a significantly better response to anti-TNF drugs than those patients carrying the wild-type allele (P=0.0075). Conclusions Our data suggest that IL4 and IL8RB loci may have a small-effect genetic impact on the risk of developing RA, whereas IFNG might be involved in modulating the response to anti-TNF drugs.