Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbial Risk Markers for Childhood Caries in Pediatricians’ Offices

Dental caries in pre-school children has significant public health and health disparity implications. To determine microbial risk markers for this infection, this study aimed to compare the microbiota of children with early childhood caries with that of caries-free children. Plaque samples from incisors, molars, and the tongue from 195 children attending pediatricians’ offices were assayed by 74 DNA probes and by PCR to Streptococcus mutans. Caries-associated factors included visible plaque, child age, race, and snacking habits. Species were detected more frequently from tooth than tongue samples. Lactobacillus gasseri (p < 0.01), Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus vaginalis, and S. mutans with Streptococcus sobrinus (all p < 0.05) were positively associated with caries. By multifactorial analysis, the probiotic Lactobacillus acidophilus was negatively associated with caries. Prevotella nigrescens was the only species (p < 0.05) significantly associated with caries by the ‘false discovery’ rate. Analysis of the data suggests that selected Lactobacillus species, in addition to mutans streptococci, are risk markers for early childhood caries.
Chronic Estradiol Administration In Vivo Promotes the Proinflammatory Response of Macrophages to TLR4 Activation: Involvement of the Phosphatidylinositol 3-Kinase Pathway1

Short-term exposure to 17β-estradiol (E2) in vitro has been reported to decrease the production of proinflammatory cytokines by LPS-activated macrophages through estrogen receptor α (ERα)-dependent activation of the PI3K pathway. In the present study, we confirm that in vitro exposure of mouse peritoneal macrophages to E2 enhanced Akt phosphorylation and slightly decreased LPS-induced cytokine production. In striking contrast, we show that chronic administration of E2 to ovariectomized mice markedly increases the expression of IL-1β, IL-6, IL-12p40, and inducible NO synthase by resident peritoneal macrophages in response to LPS ex vivo. These results clearly indicate that short-term E2 treatment in vitro does not predict the long-term effect of estrogens in vivo on peritoneal macrophage functions. We show that this in vivo proinflammatory effect of E2 was mediated through ERα. Although the expression of components of the LPS-recognition complex remained unchanged, we provided evidences for alterations of the TLR4 signaling pathway in macrophages from E2-treated mice. Indeed, E2 treatment resulted in the inhibition of PI3K activity and Akt phosphorylation in LPS-activated macrophages, whereas NF-κB p65 transcriptional activity was concomitantly increased. Incubation of macrophages with the PI3K inhibitor wortmanin enhanced proinflammatory cytokine gene expression in response to TLR4 activation, and abolishes the difference between cells from placebo- or E2-treated mice, demonstrating the pivotal role of the PI3K/Akt pathway. We conclude that the macrophage activation status is enhanced in vivo by E2 through ERα and, at least in part, by the down-modulation of the PI3K/Akt pathway, thereby alleviating this negative regulator of TLR4-signaling.
Histopathologic Characterization and Shedding Dynamics of Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) Intravenously Infected with a H6N2 Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenza Virus

SUMMARY. Guineafowl of different ages were inoculated intravenously with a H6N2 wild waterfowl–origin low pathogenicity avian influenza virus (LPAIV). No clinical disease was observed. The infected birds had atrophy of the spleen, thymus, and cloacal bursa when compared with the noninfected control groups. The central and peripheral lymphoid tissues presented either lymphoproliferative or degenerative lesions that increased in intensity from 14 to 21 days postinoculation (DPI). Lymphoid depletion was present in the bursa, thymic lobes, and spleen T-dependent zone. In contrast, lymphoid proliferation was observed in liver, pancreas, and spleen B-dependent zone. Bronchus associated lymphoid tissue hyperplasia was observed in the lungs of the birds at 14 and 21 DPI. The virus was detected by virus isolation and reverse transcription PCR from both oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs with higher isolation rates from the latter. Most birds from the LPAIV inoculated groups shed virus up to 7 DPI. The virus was infrequently isolated from lung, kidney, liver, bursa, or spleen of infected birds until 14 DPI and from two samples (kidney and spleen, 1-yr-old birds) at 21 DPI. These data indicate that the wild bird–origin LPAIV used in this study caused pantropic infection in guineafowl when inoculated intravenously.
Learning Hierarchical Features for Visual Object Tracking With Recursive Neural Networks

Recently, deep learning has achieved very promising results in visual object tracking. Deep neural networks in existing tracking methods require a lot of training data to learn a large number of parameters. However, training data is not sufficient for visual object tracking as annotations of a target object are only available in the first frame of a test sequence. In this paper, we propose to learn hierarchical features for visual object tracking by using tree structure based Recursive Neural Networks (RNN), which have a relatively small number of parameters compared to other deep neural networks (e.g. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN)) due to all basic modules in RNN share only one set of parameters. Experimental results demonstrate that our feature learning algorithm can significantly improve tracking performance on benchmark datasets.
At Work in School: Part-time Employment Among Second-Level Students

School and teachers have expressed concern about the number of students who have a paid job while at school. However, little is known about the nature of employment among second-level students in Ireland. How many students work? What are their motivations for working? What kinds of jobs do they do? What do they spend their incomes on? What effects does working part-time have on their exam performance? Does working part-time help young people get a job after they leave school? AT WORK IN SCHOOL draws on surveys of second-level students and of school leavers to answer these questions. It explores the nature of student employment and its impact on a range of student outcomes, including school drop-out, exam performance, participation in higher education and early labour market careers. It highlights key policy issues which are of relevance not only to schools and employers but to students and their parents.
Naming and Categorization in Healthy Participants: Crowded Domains and Blurred Effects of Gender

Abstract The study of category-specific effects has produced compelling insights into the structure, organization and functioning of cognitive processes. According to some accounts, the greater intra-category structural similarity for living things (LT) contributes to faster access to superordinate pictorial information, making LT easier to classify than structurally dissimilar items (i.e., nonliving things: NLT). Conversely, LT would be harder to name than NLT, as they must compete with within-domain structurally similar items in order to be properly discriminated. Additionally, it has been reported that men perform better with NLT than women, whereas women surpass men with LT but the reasons for this remain unclear. In the current study, we explored both the visual crowding hypothesis and the effects of gender by testing the performance of 40 healthy participants in classification and naming tasks. Analyses revealed that LT were classified significantly faster than NLT (η p 2 = .11), but named significantly slower (η p 2 = .25). Interestingly, the same results persisted after removing atypical categories that are known to distort the interpretation of data from the analyses. Moreover, we did not find the expected effects of gender. Men were more accurate than women naming NLT (η p 2 = .13), and women did not surpass men in any task.
Quantitation of integrated proviral DNA in viral reservoirs

Purpose of reviewIntegrated HIV DNA can give rise to infectious virus, and therefore may be a surrogate of reservoir size. How this form reflects the amount of replication competent virus in vivo remains to be established. This review highlights the technical hurdles involved in measuring integrated HIV DNA, progress toward overcoming these hurdles by repetitive sampling and recent important in-vivo findings monitoring this HIV DNA intermediate. Recent findingsThe dynamics of integration levels after antiretroviral therapy may provide clues to how reservoirs accumulate over time and why early intervention may be beneficial. Recent studies including a multilab collaboration showed that integrated HIV DNA correlate with several viral DNA intermediates including replication competent virus as measured by a quantitative coculture assay. Because this assay performs robustly over a large dynamic range and is reproducible, it may be useful for detecting small changes in reservoir size in trials that target reservoirs as suggested by a recent trial with interferon-&agr;. SummaryIntegrated HIV DNA provides an important surrogate for reservoir size and may be useful in trials that target HIV reservoirs. By performing large replicates (repetitive sampling), it is possible to provide more robust estimates and to detect small changes that other assays may overlook. This in turn is critical for evaluating eradication therapies that may have modest but important effects.
Tourism services: facing the challenge of new tourist profiles

Purpose This paper sought to examine the pertinent literature to identify trends that lead to the emergence of new tourist profiles. The study simultaneously focused on analysing the implications of these new tourist segments for service providers. In a time characterised by constant and accelerated change, the tourism market environment must be systematically and proactively monitored to define more carefully adjusted marketing strategies. Design/methodology/approach The paper examined the academic, institutional and trade literature to provide an overview of the main trends and profiles of the main market segments. Findings The most relevant segments identified and profiled are the seniors and millennials. The importance of this two generational segments for tourism derives from their large dimensions and strong interest in travelling. Empirical evidence has been found that the senior segment comprises two distinct sub-segments: “younger at heart” and “older at heart”. Therefore, seniors cannot be targeted as a homogeneous segment. Regarding the millennials, they are considered digital natives, who look for authentic experiences and see themselves as travellers rather than tourists. They are expected to be the largest market segment by 2020. The implications of each segment profile for service providers are discussed. Originality/value The profiling of the two most important tourist segments allows managers to design more effective marketing-mix strategies to implement along the different stages of the tourism consumption process, which include the pre-travel, during-travel and post-travel phases.
How Can Synergism of Traditional Medicines Benefit from Network Pharmacology?

Many prescriptions of traditional medicines (TMs), whose efficacy has been tested in clinical practice, have great therapeutic value and represent an excellent resource for drug discovery. Research into single compounds of TMs, such as artemisinin from Artemisia annua L. , has achieved great success; however, it has become evident that a TM prescription (which frequently contains various herbs or other components) has a synergistic effect in effecting a cure or reducing toxicity. Network pharmacology targets biological networks and analyzes the links among drugs, targets, and diseases in those networks. Comprehensive, systematic research into network pharmacology is consistent with the perspective of holisticity, which is a main characteristic of many TMs. By means of network pharmacology, research has demonstrated that many a TM show a synergistic effect by acting at different levels on multiple targets and pathways. This approach effectively bridges the gap between modern medicine and TM, and it greatly facilitates studies into the synergistic actions of TMs. There are different kinds of synergistic effects with TMs, such as synergy among herbs, effective parts, and pure compounds; however, for various reasons, new drug discovery should at present focus on synergy among pure compounds.
Employee involvement, public service motivation, and perceived organizational performance: testing a new model

Limited research has been conducted to explore the mechanisms through which employee involvement affects organizational performance. This article furthers the research on the mechanisms by testing a new causal model based on the theoretical framework of high-involvement work systems. Based on data collected from a sample of civil servants in China, we used structural equation modeling to find that the direct effect of involvement practices on organizational performance is positive and statistically significant. However, the indirect path mediated by job satisfaction and organizational commitment are not statistically significant. In addition, we found that public service motivation exerts a positive and direct effect on organizational performance. PSM is more prominent than job commitment or satisfaction in motivating public employees to work towards organizational goals and to work harder. Points for practitioners Public managers should pay more attention to involving employees in management, which will not only improve organizational performance but also increase employees’ job satisfaction and affective commitment. Involvement can take a variety of forms such as sharing information with subordinates, providing performance evaluation feedback, and involving employees in decision-making.
Suicide risk varies by subtype of affective disorder

A cohort study of mortality was conducted in which 4022 patients with affective disorder who were treated during 1976‐1985 in a mental institution or community clinic operated by the province of Alberta, Canada, were followed to the end of 1985. Vital status was determined by record linkage to the Statistics Canada Mortality Data Base. There were 326 deaths altogether, 96 from suicide. The standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for all causes of death combined was 2.3, and for suicide the SMR was 26.0. The SMR was also elevated for mental, circulatory and respiratory disorders, but not for neoplasms. The principal objective of the study was to determine whether there was a gradient of increasing mortality risk across the following diagnostic subgroups: manic disorder, bipolar affective disorder and major depressive disorder. A trend was found for suicide but not for all causes of death combined. The pattern of risk persisted after adjustment for the covariates sex, age and marital status in a Cox regression analysis.
Production Costs, Inefficiency, and Source Water Quality: A Stochastic Cost Frontier Analysis of Canadian Water Utilities

This analysis employs a stochastic cost frontier to estimate relationships between source water quality, production costs, and cost efficiency in Canadian municipal water treatment facilities. Data for the analysis are obtained primarily from a census of water providers that contains detailed information on operational costs, source water quality, and treatment technologies. Results show water quality, as measured by turbidity, is a significant determinant of production costs. The estimated elasticity for turbidity is 0.1, with a 95% confidence interval of 0.06 to 0.14. We find no significant differences in cost efficiency across regions, treatment technologies, output, or turbidity levels. (JEL D24, Q53)
Genetic Analysis of Capsular Polysaccharide Synthesis Gene Clusters from All Serotypes of Streptococcus suis: Potential Mechanisms for Generation of Capsular Variation

ABSTRACT Streptococcus suis strains are classified into 35 serotypes on the basis of the antigenicity of their capsular polysaccharides (CPs). CP synthesis genes are known to be clustered on the chromosome (cps gene cluster). The entire cps gene clusters of S. suis have so far been sequenced in 15 serotypes and found to be located between orfZ and aroA. In this study, to provide comprehensive information about S. suis CPs, we sequenced the entire cps gene clusters of the remaining serotypes and analyzed the complete set of S. suis cps gene clusters. Among the 35 cps gene clusters, 22 were located between orfZ and aroA, whereas the other 13 were flanked by other gene(s) on the chromosomes, and the chromosomal locus was classified into five patterns. By clustering analysis, the predicted products of cps genes found in the 35 serotypes were assigned into 291 homology groups, and all serotypes possessed a serotype-specific gene, except for serotypes 1, 2, 1/2, and 14. Because of the presence of genes encoding flippase (wzx) and polymerase (wzy), CPs of all serotypes were thought to be synthesized by the Wzx/Wzy pathway. Our data also implied the possibility of the transfer of the entire or partial cps gene clusters among S. suis strains, as well as the influence of spontaneous mutations in a single gene or a few genes on the antigenicity of some serotypes. Accumulation of these gene transfers and small-scale mutations may have generated the antigenic diversity of S. suis CPs.
Tumour suppressor gene TP53 mutations in atypical vascular lesions of breast skin following radiotherapy

Santi R, Cetica V, Franchi A, Pepi M, Cesinaro A M, Miracco C, Paglierani M, De Giorgi V, Delfino C, Difonzo E M, Pimpinelli N, Bianchi S, Sardi I, Santucci M & Massi D (2011) Histopathology58, 455–466 Tumour suppressor gene TP53 mutations in atypical vascular lesions of breast skin following radiotherapy
Adipose tissue distribution and female carcinomas. A 12-year follow-up of participants in the population study of women in Gothenburg, Sweden.

A longitudinal population study of 1462 women, aged 38-60 years, was carried out in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1968-69. In univariate analysis anthropometric variables indicating centrally localized adipose tissue (waist circumference, the ratio of waist to hip circumference and the subscapular skinfold) showed significant age-standardized positive associations with the occurrence (prevalence + incidence data) of endometrial carcinoma. Incidence data suggested that measurements of centrally localized adipose tissue might be of predictive value for this malignancy as well as for ovarian carcinoma. In contrast, measurements of generalized obesity (body weight or body mass index) or peripherally localized adipose tissue (triceps skinfold) showed no associations to these malignancies. No relationship was observed between the anthropometric variables studied and breast carcinoma. The association observed between endometrial and ovarian carcinomas with central adipose tissue did, however, not remain in multivariate analysis when generalized obesity was taken into account. Centrally localized adipose tissue is known to be associated with endocrine abberations including irregular ovulation and menstruation, re-emphasizing the importance of endocrine factors for the pathogenesis of endometrial and ovarian carcinomas. No positive association was found between development of the carcinomas and initial measurements of blood glucose, serum lipids or blood pressure, found to be elevated in cross-sectional studies. An increase in these variables therefore probably are parallel phenomena rather than predictors. The women with endometrial or breast carcinomas smoked more than the remaining women. Although the number of end-points observed was limited these results suggest that measurements of adipose tissue distribution might be a valuable addition to the predictors of endometrial and ovarian carcinomas. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Effect of Copy Number Variants on Outcomes for Infants With Single Ventricle Heart Defects

Background—Human genomes harbor copy number variants (CNVs), which are regions of DNA gains or losses. Although pathogenic CNVs are associated with congenital heart disease (CHD), their effect on clinical outcomes is unknown. This study sought to determine whether pathogenic CNVs among infants with single ventricle physiology were associated with inferior neurocognitive and somatic growth outcomes. Methods and Results—Genomic DNAs from 223 subjects of 2 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute–sponsored randomized clinical trials in infants with single ventricle CHD and 270 controls from The Cancer Genome Atlas project were analyzed for rare CNVs >300 kb using array comparative genomic hybridization. Neurocognitive and growth outcomes at 14 months from the CHD trials were compared among subjects with and without pathogenic CNVs. Putatively pathogenic CNVs, comprising 25 duplications and 6 deletions, had a prevalence of 13.9%, significantly greater than the 4.4% rate of such CNVs among controls. CNVs associated with genomic disorders were found in 13 cases but not in controls. Several CNVs likely to be causative of single ventricle CHD were observed, including aberrations altering the dosage of GATA4, MYH11, and GJA5. Subjects with pathogenic CNVs had worse linear growth, and those with CNVs associated with known genomic disorders had the poorest neurocognitive and growth outcomes. A minority of children with pathogenic CNVs were noted to be dysmorphic on clinical genetics examination. Conclusions—Pathogenic CNVs seem to contribute to the cause of single ventricle forms of CHD in ≥10% of cases and are clinically subtle but adversely affect outcomes in children harboring them.
Cervical priming in the first trimester: morphological and biochemical effects of misoprostol and isosorbide mononitrate

Objective. To evaluate morphological changes and inflammatory events in the uterine cervix following presurgical treatment with the prostaglandin analogue misoprostol or the nitric oxide donor isosorbide mononitrate (IMN). Design. Experimental study. Settings. Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden. Population of sample. Primigravid women (n = 32) scheduled for surgical termination of first trimester pregnancy, treated vaginally overnight with either misoprostol (200 μg), IMN (40 mg) or no treatment (controls). Methods. Before evacuation, cervical biopsies were obtained with the use of a Tru‐Cut® biopsy needle. Morphology was studied by electron microscopy. For assessment of inflammatory events the expression of the matrix metalloproteinases MMP‐1 and MMP‐9 was estimated by immunohistochemistry and interleukin IL‐8 was quantified by ELISA. Results. Misoprostol induced splitting and disorganization of the collagen fibres. Compared to specimens from women who had received no treatment, the granular endoplasmatic reticulum appeared enriched and dilated and the nuclear chromatin was clearly dispersed. Similar changes of a lesser degree were observed in specimens obtained from IMN‐treated women. Staining intensity for MMP‐1 and MMP‐9 was more evident in specimens obtained from IMN‐treated women compared to women who had received treatment with misoprostol or no treatment. The levels of IL‐8 were higher following treatment with misoprostol compared to IMN and controls. Conclusion. The study demonstrates that misoprostol as well as IMN induces morphological changes and inflammatory events of the cervix. Changes of the collagen network were more pronounced in samples obtained from women treated with misoprostol compared to IMN.