Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Eotaxin-induced eosinophil migration in the peritoneal cavity of ovalbumin-sensitized mice: mechanism of action.

Cell accumulation in response to i.p. administration of the C-C chemokine, eotaxin, was studied in vivo. OVA-sensitized mice, exhibiting blood eosinophilia, had greater eosinophil (Eø) accumulation in response to 500 ng of eotaxin at 6 h (vehicle-injected, 3.0 +/- 0.5 x 10(5); eotaxin-injected, 8.6 +/- 1.0 x 10(5)) than nonsensitized, eotaxin-injected mice (2.5 +/- 0.4 x 10(5)). A nonspecific neutrophil migration was observed in both vehicle- and eotaxin-injected cavities. The number of intact mast cells in the peritoneal lavages after eotaxin injection was significantly lower than that in vehicle-injected animals (0.8 +/- 0.3 x 10(4) vs 2.8 +/-0.6 x 10(4), respectively). When endogenous peritoneal mast cells were depleted with compound 48/80 before eotaxin administration, there was a 51% reduction in Eø accumulation. This suggests an important role for endogenous mast cells in mediating the actions of eotaxin. The potential role of mast cell mediators in the actions of eotaxin was also investigated. Pretreatment with histamine-H1 or serotonin antagonists reduced Eø migration in response to eotaxin by 50 to 65%. Further, following pretreatment with a specific mAb against TNF-alpha, only nonspecific neutrophil influx was attenuated. Using neutralizing mAbs, Eø migration was found to be dependent on the adhesion molecules P- and E-selectin and CD11b. Eø accumulation was also sensitive to dexamethasone, with doses as low as 0.2 mg/kg inducing 100% inhibition. This study provides useful insight into the mechanisms of action of eotaxin.
Thin-section CT findings in Pseudomonas aeruginosa pulmonary infection.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess clinical and pulmonary thin-section CT findings in patients with acute Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) pulmonary infection. METHODS We retrospectively identified 44 patients with acute PA pneumonia who had undergone chest thin-section CT examinations between January 2004 and December 2010. We excluded nine patients with concurrent infections. The final study group comprised 35 patients (21 males, 14 females; age range 30-89 years, mean age 66.9 years) with PA pneumonia. The patients' clinical findings were assessed. Parenchymal abnormalities, enlarged lymph nodes and pleural effusion were evaluated on thin-section CT. RESULTS Underlying diseases included malignancy (n=13), a smoking habit (n=11) and cardiac disease (n=8). CT scans of all patients revealed abnormal findings, including ground-glass opacity (n=34), bronchial wall thickening (n=31), consolidation (n=23) and cavities (n=5). Pleural effusion was found in 15 patients. CONCLUSION PA pulmonary infection was observed in patients with underlying diseases such as malignancy or a smoking habit. The CT findings in patients with PA consisted mainly of ground-glass attenuation and bronchial wall thickening. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE The CT findings consisted mainly of ground-glass attenuation, bronchial wall thickening and cavities. These findings in patients with an underlying disease such as malignancy or a smoking habit may be suggestive of pneumonia caused by PA infection.
Physiological and Psychological Effects of Alpha and Emg Feedback Training with College Drug Users a Pilot Study*

Twenty-four volunteer college students who were regular drug users were randomly allocated to three training groups of equal size: alpha feedback, EMG feedback and a joked control group. The subjects were unaware of which feedback condition they received and were asked to practise at home during a six-month follow-up period in order to achieve a relaxed state similar to that experienced during training. No group was successful in retaining gains made in their alpha levels during each session, but the EMG group significantly reduced their muscular activity during training and retained the improvement during follow-up. The alpha and joked groups did not greatly improve their EMG during training but at follow-up achieved the same levels as the EMG group. There was evidence to suggest that a reduction in drug use among light and medium users was maintained during follow-up. Significant and lasting improvements were made by each group in the duration and quality of their sleep and anxiety levels were reduced.
Ultrasonography and Optical Low-Coherence Interferometry Compared in the Chicken Eye

Purpose. To compare ocular biometry [anterior chamber depth (ACD), lens thickness (LT), vitreous chamber depth (VCD), and axial length (AL)] using A-scan ultrasonography and optical low-coherence interferometry (OLCI) in the chicken eye. Methods. Two-week-old chicks (n = 42) were measured. Bland-Altman plots and repeatability and correlation analyses were calculated for both methods. Results. There was a high correlation between both methods for ACD (r = 0.6144, p < 0.0001), VCD (r = 0.9595, p < 0.0001), and AL (r = 0.9290, p < 0.0001) but not for LT (r = 0.1604, p = 0.144). Measurements by OLCI were more consistent (smaller coefficients of variation and higher intraclass correlation). Bland-Altman plots showed that ultrasound provided larger values for LT, VCD, and AL but not for ACD [differences between ultrasound and OLCI (mean ± SD): ACD = −0.11 ± 0.12 mm; LT = 0.10 ± 0.09 mm; VCD = 0.25 ± 0.08 mm; AL = 0.50 ± 0.16 mm]. Conclusions. A high correlation between both techniques was found for three of the four parameters (ACD, VCD, and AL). However, as the absolute values were different, both techniques cannot replace each other mainly because (1) one is non-contact and the other contact and can induce a minor indentation of the cornea and (2) each device uses different types of waves that cross the ocular interfaces differently. While consistency and repeatability were better by OLCI, a disadvantage is that, different from humans, it can only be used in anesthetized chicks.
Dental caries prevalence and treatment needs among 12- and 15- Year old schoolchildren in Shimla city, Himachal Pradesh, India.

CONTEXT Dental caries is one of the commonest oral diseases in children. Despite this fact, not many studies have been done on this issue among school children in Shimla. AIM To assess the prevalence of dental caries and treatment needs among schoolchildren aged 12 years and 15 years in Shimla city, Himachal Pradesh, India. With this study we also aimed to establish reliable baseline data. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. MATERIALS AND MATERIALS This study was conducted among 12 - and 15 - year old schoolchildren in Shimla city, Himachal Pradesh-India. A sample of 1011 schoolchildren was selected by a two-stage cluster sampling method. Clinical recording of dental caries, was done according to WHO diagnostic criteria (1997). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS The statistical tests used were the t- test, and the Chi-square test. RESULTS The prevalence of dental caries was 32.6% and 42.2% at 12 years and 15 years respectively. At 12 years of age, the mean Decayed Missing Filled Teeth was 0.62 ± 1.42 and it was 1.06 ± 2.93 at 15 years of age. Females had higher level of caries than males at both the ages. Dental caries was higher in children from government schools as compared to those from private schools. The 'decayed' component was the biggest contributor to the DMFT index. The highest treatment need at both ages was one surface restoration. CONCLUSION The caries experience of 12- and 15- year-old children was low compared to WHO - 'recommended' values. Effective oral health promotion strategies need to be implemented to further improve the dental health of school children in Shimla city.
Characterization of degrees of freedom versus receivers backhaul load in K-user interference channel

We consider a K-user Interference Channel where each transmitter is interested in conveying a message to its corresponding receiver. In addition, we assume a fully connected noiseless backhaul network through which receivers can collaborate and help each other recover their desired messages. In this paper, we fully characterize the trade-off between the rate in wireless link (per user) in terms of degrees of freedom (DoF) versus backhaul load (per user) for large values of K. In particular, we characterize the optimal trade-off for all values of K, where K is an even number. For odd values of K, we characterize the trade-off within a gap of 2(k − 1)/k(k + 1), which goes to zero as K increases. For achievability we use time-sharing between two corner points: (i) using interference alignment for the case where backhaul load is zero, and (ii) collecting a quantized version of all the received signals at one of the receivers to jointly decode the messages, for the case where DoF of one per user is desired. For the converse, we develop a new outer-bound based on the results from two-user multiple antenna interference channel with limited backhaul cooperation. Recently, it was shown that for the case of three-user interference channel, the optimal trade-off is achieved by some sort of alignment in the backhaul messaging, known as Cooperation Alignment. Our result shows that unlike the gain of interference alignment, the gain of cooperation alignment does not scale with the number of users K.
Clinical phenotypes of Korean patients with Behcet disease according to gender, age at onset, and HLA-B51

Background/Aims The clinical manifestations of Behcet disease (BD) have been reported to differ according to country, region, and race. Gender, onset age, and human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-B51 have also been known as the factors that influence the clinical features of BD. The aim of this study is to investigate the clinical phenotypes of Korean patients who visited the rheumatology clinic with BD with respect to gender, onset age, and HLA-B51. Methods Total 193 Korean patients (129 females and 64 males) fulfilling the international criteria for BD were retrospectively assessed. Results The mean age at disease onset and disease duration of the BD patients were 32.2 ± 11.1 and 14.2 ± 9.3 years, retrospectively. Females suffered more frequently from genital ulcers (90.7% vs. 75.0%, p < 0.01), peripheral arthritis (67.4% vs. 43.8%, p < 0.01), and inf lammatory low back pain (38.8% vs. 23.4%, p = 0.03) than males, while skin involvement was more frequent in males than in females (90.6% vs. 75.2%, p = 0.01). The patients with late onset of BD (> 40 years) suffered from neurologic involvement (15.9% vs. 4.2%, p = 0.007) more frequently than those with early onset of BD. The patients with HLA-B51 showed earlier onset of disease than without HLA-B51 (28.3 ± 11.4 years vs. 33.8±11.6 years, p = 0.02) and the neurologic and gastrointestinal involvements were more frequent in the patients without HLA-B51 than with HLA-B51 (17.2% vs. 2.5%, p = 0.02 and 20.7% vs. 2.5%, p = 0.01, respectively). Conclusions The clinical phenotypes in Korean patients with BD may be influenced by gender, onset age and HLA-B51.
Success in the Academic Labour Market for Economics - The German Experience

Based on CV information of tenured professors and post-doc researchers in the field of economics at German universities we construct a unique data set. This data set contains detailed information on the career path and on personal characteristics of individuals. Using this data we analyse the determinants of success in the academic labour market. Our notion of success is the (conditional) probability of becoming tenured, i.e. the hazard rate. Estimating a Cox (1972) regression model, we show that the primal determinants of the hazard rate are the publication record and time dummies which control for the decade in which tenure was received. The latter result implies that Germany witnessed a huge structural change in the academic labour within the last 30 years. Aus Lebenslaufdaten von bereits berufenen Professoren und promovierten Nachwuchswissenschaftlern an deutschen Universitaten im Bereich Volkswirtschaftslehre haben wir einen einzigartigen Datensatz konstruiert. Dieser Datensatz enthalt detaillierte Informationen uber den (akademischen) Erwerbsverlauf der beobachteten Individuen, sowie zusatzliche individuelle Charakteristika. Unter Verwendung dieser Daten untersuchen wir die Determinanten fur den Erfolg im akademischen Arbeitsmarkt, wobei wir Erfolg uber die bedingte Wahrscheinlichkeit (Hazard Rate) fur die Berufung auf eine Lebenszeitprofessur messen. Unter Verwendung eines Regressionsmodells nach Cox (1972) konnen wir zeigen, dass die individuelle Publikationsleistung, sowie Zeitdummies fur das Jahrzehnt der Berufung signifikanten Einfluss auf die Hazard Rate ausuben. Dabei deutet insbesondere das zuletzt genannte Ergebnis auf einen starken strukturellen Wandel im deutschen akademischen Arbeitsmarkt innerhalb der letzten 30 Jahre hin.
Pasteurella multocida type A as the primary agent of pneumonia and septicaemia in pigs 1

Oliveira Filho J.X. , Morés M.A.Z. , Rebelatto R. , Agnol A.M.D. , Plieski C.L. A. , Klein C.S. , Barcellos D.E. S.N. & Morés N. 2000. Pasteurella multocida type A as the primary agent of pneumonia and septicaemia in pigs. Pesquisa Veterinária Brasileira 00(0):00-00. Embrapa Suínos e Aves, Rodovia BR-153 Km 110, Cx. Postal 21, Distrito de Tamanduá, Concórdia, SC 89700-000, Brazil. E-mail: nelson.mores@embrapa.br In order to understand better the pathological aspects and spread of Pasteurella multocida type A as the primary cause of pneumonia in pigs, was made an experiment with intranasal inoculation of different concentrations of inocula [Group (G1): 108 Colony Forming Units (CFU)/ml; G2: 107 CFU/ml; G3: 106 CFU/ml and G4: 105 CFU/ml], using two pigs per group. The pigs were obtained from a high health status herd. Pigs were monitored clinically for 4 days and subsequently necropsied. All pigs had clinical signs and lesions associated with respiratory disease. Dyspnoea and hyperthermia were the main clinical signs observed. Suppurative cranioventral bronchopneumonia, in some cases associated with necrosuppurative pleuropneumonia, fibrinous pericarditis and pleuritic, were the most frequent types of lesion found. The disease evolved with septicaemia, characterized by septic infarctions in the liver and spleen, with the detection of P. multocida type A. In this study, P. multocida type A strain #11246 was the primary agent of fibrinous pleuritis and suppurative cranioventral bronchopneumonia, pericarditis and septicaemia in the pigs. All concentrations of inoculum used (105-108 CFU/ml) were able to produce clinical and pathological changes of pneumonia, pleuritis, pericarditis and septicemia in challenged animals.
Assisting American Indian Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Cope with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Lessons from Vietnam Veterans and the Writings of Jim Northrup

Our country is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and, as has been the case throughout the history of the United States, American Indians have answered the call and are serving bravely in our armed forces. As in years past, we also have a cadre of American Indian veterans returning from the battlefield, scarred and wounded in body, heart, and mind. Of course, scientists and social scientists will be investigating ways they can assist these heroic men and women. Scholars in American Indian studies who work in the humanities should no less consider how they can apply their research and analytical skills to the same task. This paper, then, is a call for scholars to engage in a sustained, interdisciplinary conversation about practical suggestions for relieving the suffering of our American Indian warriors.
The association between cannabis abuse and dependence and childhood physical and sexual abuse: evidence from an offspring of twins design.

AIM This study examines the association between childhood physical abuse (CPA) and sexual abuse (CSA) and the development of cannabis abuse and dependence among adolescents and young adults while controlling for genetic and environmental risk factors. DESIGN To control for familial risk differences related to paternal drug dependence that might confound the relationship between CSA and CPA and cannabis abuse/dependence, we created four groups based on father's and uncle's substance use dependence (SUD) status reflecting different degrees of genetic and environmental risks to offspring: (i) high genetic, high environmental risk; (ii) high genetic, low environmental risk; (iii) medium genetic, low environmental risk; and (iv) low genetic, low environmental risk. PARTICIPANTS Adolescent and young adult offspring of monozygotic and dizygotic US military veteran twin fathers (n = 819). MEASUREMENTS Data on CPA and CSA, DSM-IV offspring cannabis abuse/dependence, other SUD and psychopathology and maternal and paternal SUD and psychopathology were collected via semi-structured telephone interview. FINDINGS Twenty-three per cent of the offspring sample met life-time criteria for cannabis abuse/dependence and 8.55% and 12.82% reported CSA and CPA, respectively. Offspring exposed to CSA, but not CPA, were at significantly greater risk of developing cannabis abuse/dependence compared to those who had not experienced CSA (hazard ratio = 2.16; 95% confidence interval = 1.48-3.16) after controlling for genetic and familial environmental risk and offspring gender, alcohol abuse and dependence and conduct disorder. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that there are effects of CSA on development of cannabis abuse/dependence in addition to the genetic and familial environmental risk imparted by having a drug-dependent father.
An Update on New Vaccines for Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most common and deadly communicable diseases in the world, infecting approximately one-third of the total human race. The number of drug-resistant TB cases are increasing. The spectrum of resistance varies from single to multidrug and from multidrug to total drug resistance varieties. Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is also responsible for the recent re-emergence of tuberculosis infection worldwide. When drugs are becoming ineffective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, there is a need to focus more on preventive strategies. Though Bacillus Calmette? Gu? rin (BCG) vaccine is efficient in preventing miliary and meningeal tuberculosis in children, it is not effective against pulmonary tuberculosis. For prevention of pulmonary tuberculosis, development of new vaccines is the need of time. Several new vaccines are under clinical trials either to replace old BCG or act as a booster for the current BCG vaccine. New vaccines include live Mycobacterial vaccines, its subunit, live vector-based vaccines and killed whole or fragmented vaccines. This review recaps the status of development of pre-clinical tuberculosis vaccines.
Evaluations of the effectiveness of a web-based graduate epidemiology course

An online epidemiology course was developed, implemented, and evaluated for graduate nursing students through the collaborative efforts of nursing faculty and information, education, and instructional design staff of the library at a health sciences university. This epidemiology course is a core curriculum course for graduate nursing students. The course was piloted with 14 students (one student in Romania); the initial online offering ran concurrently with a traditional classroom section. Extensive evaluation data were collected and analyzed to compare the effectiveness of the classroom and distance-learning formats. Areas of evaluation included objective measures, such as midterm and final examination scores and content analysis comparisons, as well as subjective ratings by the students of time commitments, course objectives, technical aspects of the web-based course, areas of satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and self-confidence regarding epidemiology and computer skills. Recommendations for course development, implementation, and evaluation for similar distance-learning courses will be included.
Fast variation method for elastic strip calculation

A new, fast, variation method (FVM) for determining an elastic strip response to stresses arbitrarily distributed on the flat side of the strip is proposed. The remaining surface of the strip may have an arbitrary form, and it is free of stresses. The FVM, as well as the wellknown finite element method, starts with the variational principle. However, it does not use the meshing of the strip. A comparison of FVM results with the exact analytical solution in the special case of shear stresses and a rectangular strip demonstrates an excellent agreement.
A Densely Interconnected Genome-Wide Network of MicroRNAs and Oncogenic Pathways Revealed Using Gene Expression Signatures

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important components of cellular signaling pathways, acting either as pathway regulators or pathway targets. Currently, only a limited number of miRNAs have been functionally linked to specific signaling pathways. Here, we explored if gene expression signatures could be used to represent miRNA activities and integrated with genomic signatures of oncogenic pathway activity to identify connections between miRNAs and oncogenic pathways on a high-throughput, genome-wide scale. Mapping >300 gene expression signatures to >700 primary tumor profiles, we constructed a genome-wide miRNA–pathway network predicting the associations of 276 human miRNAs to 26 oncogenic pathways. The miRNA–pathway network confirmed a host of previously reported miRNA/pathway associations and uncovered several novel associations that were subsequently experimentally validated. Globally, the miRNA–pathway network demonstrates a small-world, but not scale-free, organization characterized by multiple distinct, tightly knit modules each exhibiting a high density of connections. However, unlike genetic or metabolic networks typified by only a few highly connected nodes (“hubs”), most nodes in the miRNA–pathway network are highly connected. Sequence-based computational analysis confirmed that highly-interconnected miRNAs are likely to be regulated by common pathways to target similar sets of downstream genes, suggesting a pervasive and high level of functional redundancy among coexpressed miRNAs. We conclude that gene expression signatures can be used as surrogates of miRNA activity. Our strategy facilitates the task of discovering novel miRNA–pathway connections, since gene expression data for multiple normal and disease conditions are abundantly available.