Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
UDP-galactose 4′ epimerase (GALE) is essential for development of Drosophila melanogaster

SUMMARY UDP-galactose 4′ epimerase (GALE) catalyzes the interconversion of UDP-galactose and UDP-glucose in the final step of the Leloir pathway; human GALE (hGALE) also interconverts UDP-N-acetylgalactosamine and UDP-N-acetylglucosamine. GALE therefore plays key roles in the metabolism of dietary galactose, in the production of endogenous galactose, and in maintaining the ratios of key substrates for glycoprotein and glycolipid biosynthesis. Partial impairment of hGALE results in the potentially lethal disorder epimerase-deficiency galactosemia. We report here the generation and initial characterization of a first whole-animal model of GALE deficiency using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Our results confirm that GALE function is essential in developing animals; Drosophila lacking GALE die as embryos but are rescued by the expression of a human GALE transgene. Larvae in which GALE has been conditionally knocked down die within days of GALE loss. Conditional knockdown and transgene expression studies further demonstrate that GALE expression in the gut primordium and Malpighian tubules is both necessary and sufficient for survival. Finally, like patients with generalized epimerase deficiency galactosemia, Drosophila with partial GALE loss survive in the absence of galactose but succumb in development if exposed to dietary galactose. These data establish the utility of the fly model of GALE deficiency and set the stage for future studies to define the mechanism(s) and modifiers of outcome in epimerase deficiency galactosemia.
Soluble EphB4 inhibition of PDGF-induced RPE migration in vitro.

PURPOSE EphB4 receptor (EphB4) and its ligand (EphrinB2) play an important role in the regulation of cell adhesion, growth, and migration. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of EphB4 blockade by soluble EphB4 (sEphB4) on retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cell migration and proliferation, induced by platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF), and to establish its relevance to proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). METHODS The expression of EphB4 and EphrinB2 in early-passage human RPE cells and in human PVR membranes was evaluated by confocal microscopy. The effect of sEphB4 (0.1-3 microg/mL) on PDGF (20 ng/mL)-induced RPE migration and proliferation was evaluated using a modified Boyden chamber assay and an MTT assay, respectively. Attachment to basement membrane matrix and fibronectin was assayed by MTT. Phosphorylation of FAK and p42/44 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) in retinal pigment epithelium was determined by Western blot analysis after exposure to sEphB4. The effect of sEphB4 on the phosphorylation of EphB4/EphrinB2 was demonstrated with the use of immunoprecipitation assays. RESULTS EphrinB2 and EphB4 were expressed on human RPE cells in vitro and in cells within human PVR membranes. sEphB4 blocked EphB4 and EphrinB2 phosphorylation in RPE cells in vitro. sEphB4 reduced RPE migration in response to PDGF stimulation (P < 0.01). Similarly, sEphB4 inhibited RPE attachment and proliferation in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). PDGF-induced phosphorylation of FAK and MAPK was inhibited by sEphB4. CONCLUSIONS EphB4 and EphrinB2 are expressed in RPE cells and PVR membranes. sEphB4 inhibits PDGF-induced RPE cell attachment, proliferation, and migration. This effect may result from the inhibition of FAK and MAPK phosphorylation.
How do doctors in different countries manage the same patient? Results of a factorial experiment.

OBJECTIVE To determine the relative contributions of: (1) patient attributes; (2) provider characteristics; and (3) health care systems to health care disparities in the management of coronary heart disease (CHD) and depression. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Primary experimental data were collected in 2001-2 from 256 randomly sampled primary care providers in the U.S. (Massachusetts) and the U.K. (Surrey, Southeast London, and the West Midlands). STUDY DESIGN Two factorial experiments were conducted in which physicians were shown, in random order, two clinically authentic videotapes of "patients" presenting with symptoms strongly suggestive of CHD and depression. "Patient" characteristics (age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status [SES]) were systematically varied, permitting estimation of unconfounded main effects and the interaction of patient, provider, and system-level influences. DATA COLLECTION/DATA EXTRACTION METHODS: Analysis of variance was used to measure provider decision-making outcomes, including diagnosis, information seeking, test ordering, prescribing behavior, lifestyle recommendations, and referrals/follow-ups. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS There is a high level of consistency in decision making for CHD and depression between the U.S. and the U.K. Most physicians in both countries correctly identified conditions depicted in the vignettes, although U.S. doctors engage in more information seeking, are more likely to prescribe medications, and are more certain of their diagnoses than their U.K. counterparts. The absence of any national differences in test ordering is consistent for both of the medical conditions depicted. U.K. physicians, however, were more likely than U.S. physicians to make lifestyle recommendations for CHD and to refer those patients to other providers. CONCLUSIONS Substantively, these findings point to the importance of patient and provider characteristics in understanding between-country differences in clinical decision making. Methodologically, our use of a factorial experiment highlights the potential of these methods for health services research-especially the estimation of the influence of patient attributes, provider characteristics, and between-country differences in the quality of medical care.
NBA Endgame: Do Salaries Matter?

This paper estimates the association between salary dispersion and the probability that an NBA team leading two minutes before the end of a playoff game won the game. Economic theory indicates the a priori relationship is ambiguous and the existing empirical literature finds mixed results as to the direction of the relationship. We use game-level data from the 2012 and 2013 NBA playoffs and allow the association to be nonlinear. Overall, our results indicate there may be U-shaped relationship between salary dispersion and win probabilities; however, the point estimates individually and jointly are not statistically significant. Thus, we conclude there is no evidence in our sample that salary dispersion and NBA win probabilities are related.
Characterization of an Antibody to the Human Melatonin mt1 Receptor

Melatonin acts via high affinity, G‐protein coupled, seven transmembrane domain receptors. To precisely localize these receptors, antibodies were raised in chickens against a 15 amino acid fragment at the intracellular C‐terminal region of the human melatonin receptor subtype mt1 (DSSNDVADRVKWKPS, mt1338−352). A chimeric form of the receptor with a hydrophilic Flag peptide (DYKDDDDK) in sequence with the extracellular N‐terminus (Flag‐mt1) was generated by polymerase chain reaction and expressed in mammalian cell lines. An IgY antibody (Y31), which gave high antibody titres by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay, was used to localize Flag‐mt1 in stably transfected cells by immunofluoresence. Flag‐mt1 localization with Y31 was identical to that obtained with the M5 antibody directed against the Flag epitope and was mainly localized to the Golgi apparatus with some staining at the cell surface. No staining was seen in untransfected cells with either antibody. Y31 staining was abolished using antibody preabsorbed with peptide antigen. Y31 immunofluorescence in fetal human kidney sections was restricted to nephrogenic regions and matched that of 2‐(125I)iodomelatonin binding and mt1 gene expression by in situ hybridization. Y31 was used to immunoprecipitate biotinylated membrane proteins from Flag‐mt1 stably transfected and untransfected CHO cells. Western blotting of immunoprecipitated proteins revealed two major bands specific to stably transfected cells, one at 63 kDa and one at 86 kDa. The first band almost certainly corresponds to the glycosylated form of Flag‐mt1 and the second band to receptor dimers. Thus, Y31 antibody is suitable for use in detecting the human mt1 receptor subtype in tissues and in transfected cells.
Hematogenous metastasis of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma originating from skeletal muscle in a young dog

An 8-month-old, intact male Golden Retriever with a history of left forelimb lameness for 2 months was presented to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of Konkuk University (Seoul, Korea). Results of a physical examination revealed a mass in the left axillary region. A thoracic radiography showed an osteolytic lesion in the scapula and the presence of a soft tissue density from the thoracic wall to the scapula. A computerized tomography revealed a mass invading into the scapula, and small nodules in the lung that suggested metastasis. At necropsy, a pale-yellow, irregular, firm, 8 × 10 × 5 cm mass extended from axillary region and destroyed the scapular. In addition, small nodules were noted in the lung. On microscopic examination, the mass consisted of round-to-oval cells, with eccentrically located hyperchromatic nuclei and eosinophilic cytoplasm in fibromyxoid stroma. Tumor cells were observed in blood vessels in the primary mass. Tumor cells strongly expressed vimentin, desmin, and myoglobin. In phosphotungstic acid-hematoxylin staining, cross-striations were detected in rhabdomyoblasts. In periodic acid-Schiff reaction, only a few cells were detected. The diagnosis was primary rhabdomyosarcoma of the appendicular muscle of a young dog. The tumor presumably originated in the skeletal muscle of the limb, invaded into the adjacent scapular bone, and metastasized to the lung.
Sexual and Other Axis I Diagnoses of 60 Males Arrested for Crimes Against Children Involving the Internet

ABSTRACT Objective: This study was conducted to describe Axis I sexual diagnoses of 60 males arrested for possession of child pornography obtained via the Internet and/or attempting to meet children via the Internet. Methods: Data was obtained from a chart review of evaluations conducted on 60 males referred for a psychosexual evaluation following an arrest for possession of child pornography and/or attempting to meet children. All crimes involved use of the Internet. Information obtained from the chart review was entered into SAS. All diagnoses were made according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision. Simple descriptive statistics were computed and cross tabulations were tested for significance using χ2 or Fisher's Exact test. Results: Of the total sample, 40% had at least one paraphilia. Thirty-one percent had a diagnosis of pedophilia and 18% of a paraphilia not otherwise specified (NOS). Thirty-three percent had a sexual disorder NOS, characterized by hypersexuality. Seventy percent of the total sample had an Axis I disorder that antedated and was judged to be contributory to the behavior leading to their arrest. Conclusions: This sample of men arrested for committing crimes against children and adolescents via the Internet has a high incidence of lifetime sexual and other psychopathology.
Buffaloes and Draught Power

Draught animals still do much of the work on farms in developing countries, as well as being used for transportation. Despite the efforts made by governments to promote mechanization, tractors are not a realistic alternative for the average small farmer. Animals such as the buffalo have been used for centuries without causing any air or water pollution or soil compaction; they are an integral part of a sustainable agriculture, producing milk, meat and manure without any external cash inputs, and they buffer the farmer against crop failure and provide companionship. Draught animal power on small farms is not a backward way of farming but it needs support from research and development agencies if it is to develop its full potential.
Sleep Microarchitecture in Childhood and Adolescent Depression: Temporal Coherence

Previous work has indicated that low temporal coherence of ultradian sleep EEG rhythms is characteristic of depressed patients and women in particular. It may also be evident in depressed children and adolescents, although most published studies are limited in sample size. The present study evaluated temporal coherence of sleep EEG rhythms in 173 children and adolescents 8–17 years of age, including 97 who met criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD) and were symptomatic but unmedicated at the time of study and 76 healthy controls. Temporal coherence of all-night sleep EEG rhythms was evaluated on the second of two nights in the laboratory. Data were coded for diagnostic group, gender and age and subjected to MANOVAs. Temporal coherence was significantly lower in adolescents with MDD, compared to healthy controls. Findings were most robust for coherence between left and right beta and between delta and beta in both hemispheres. Both gender and age strongly influenced between-group differences, with the lowest temporal coherence among MDD girls, even in those under 13 years of age. In conclusion, early onset depression is associated with a reduction in synchronization of sleep EEG rhythms that shows a differential maturational course in boys and girls.
Mechanisms of Rejection and Prolongation of Vascularized Organ Allografts

Since the ftrst comprehensive description of skin graft rejection (Medawar 1944), much effort has been expended to clarify and define the remarkably complex and intricate host immunological responses called into play against foreign tissues. Knowledge has increased progressively in the past several years, especially with characterization of lymphocyte subsets and their influence upon one another. However, much of these data has been derived through experiments performed in vitro; the actual immunological events happening within a host stimulated by a histo-incompatibte graft, or those events occurring within the rejecting graft itself, remain poorly understood. In addition, although earlier dogma concerning the host responses were garnered primarily from skin allograft models, it has become increasingly clear that reactions to skin grafts are different from those toward organ grafts. During recent years, we have examined various cellular and humoral mechanisms occurring during acute rejection in unmodified animals as well as in tissues surviving for prolonged periods in immunologically manipulated hosts. The purpose of this review is to summarize some of the work done in our laboratories on particular aspects of host responses to vascularized organ allografts, primarily the heterotopic cardiac allograft transplanted between inbred strains of rats, but also failed human kidney grafts. Not only is the nature and function of cells accumulating within these allografts stressed, but the systemic nature of the immunologica! responses against a graft described by defining events occurring concomitantly in recipient iymphoid tissues. Because
Romania: From Institutional to Personal Political Conflict. Mainstream Political Discourse on the Eve of the Refugee Crisis

The article sheds light on the political conflict triggered in Romania by the refugee crisis. In spite of Romania not being amongst the preferred destinations of the refugees, its voice within the European debate was by no means marginal. Nor was the topic peripheral in the discourse of Romanian mainstream political parties, which – surprisingly enough – sometimes had staggering opposite views on the issue. Our study taps into the communication patterns of both the media and the politicians representing mainstream political parties, as we aim to understand the political conflict on the issue. Our analysis suggests that political actors did not always respect their ideological views and that their attitudes on the quota system proposed by the European Commission were strategically linked to an agenda not directly related to the refugee crisis.
Role of Chromosome 3q26 Gain in Predicting Progression of Cervical Dysplasia

Objective This study aimed to determine whether 3q26 gain can predict which low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSILs) and atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUSs) will progress to higher-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL). Methods Liquid cytology specimens of LSIL and ASCUS from 73 women were examined using fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for the detection of 3q26 gain. All women underwent colposcopy and biopsy at the initial visit and 40 of them with histology showing cervical intraepithelial neoplasia 1 (CIN 1) or human papillomavirus infection (koilocytosis) were included in the study. They were reevaluated with liquid cytology, colposcopy, and biopsy after a median follow-up of 17.5 months. Results A total of 40 cases were analyzed (31 LSILs and 9 ASCUSs). Of these cases, 8 (20%; 6 LSILs and 2 ASCUSs) were positive and 32 (80%) were negative for 3q26 gain according to FISH. Three of the 8 positive women (38%) progressed to HSIL/CIN 2 or worse, whereas none of the 32 negative women did so. 3q26 gain could predict progression with a negative predictive value of 100% (95% confidence interval, 89.1%–100%). In addition, women positive for 3q26 gain had a significantly lower regression rate compared with negative women (P = 0.009). Conclusions In this first prospective study, 3q26 gain in LSIL/ASCUS cytology exhibited an impressive negative predictive value for progression to HSIL/CIN 2 or worse. Thus, 3q26 gain may be useful in stratifying patients’ risk for progression and possibly alter management and reduce cost of follow-up.
Effects of magnetic stray fields from a 7 Tesla MRI scanner on neurocognition: a double-blind randomised crossover study

Objective This study characterises neurocognitive domains that are affected by movement-induced time-varying magnetic fields (TVMF) within a static magnetic stray field (SMF) of a 7 Tesla (T) MRI scanner. Methods Using a double-blind randomised crossover design, 31 healthy volunteers were tested in a sham (0 T), low (0.5 T) and high (1.0 T) SMF exposure condition. Standardised head movements were made before every neurocognitive task to induce TVMF. Results Of the six tested neurocognitive domains, we demonstrated that attention and concentration were negatively affected when exposed to TVMF within an SMF (varying from 5.0% to 21.1% per Tesla exposure, p<0.05), particular in situations were high working memory performance was required. In addition, visuospatial orientation was affected after exposure (46.7% per Tesla exposure, p=0.05). Conclusion Neurocognitive functioning is modulated when exposed to movement-induced TVMF within an SMF of a 7 T MRI scanner. Domains that were affected include attention/concentration and visuospatial orientation. Further studies are needed to better understand the mechanisms and possible practical safety and health implications of these acute neurocognitive effects.
Body weight-for-height relationships predict mortality in maintenance hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND Protein-energy malnutrition is a strong predictor of mortality in maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients. This association has generally been described for serum chemistry measures of protein-energy malnutrition. We hypothesized that body weight-for-height relationships also predict survival in MHD patients. METHODS During the last three months of 1993, data were obtained on 12,965 men and women concerning clinical characteristics (height, postdialysis weight, age, gender, race, and presence or absence of diabetes mellitus) and laboratory measurements (predialysis serum albumin, creatinine and cholesterol, and the urea reduction ratio). Patient survival during the next 12 months was evaluated retrospectively. RESULTS In comparison to values for normal Americans determined from the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey II data, weight-for-height relationships tended to be slightly lower than normal in African American men and women and Caucasian men undergoing MHD and were normal or slightly greater in the taller Caucasian women. In both men and women, the mortality rate decreased progressively as the patients' weight-for-height increased. MHD patients who weighed more than normal had the lowest mortality rates. After adjustment for clinical characteristics and laboratory measurements, the inverse relationship between mortality rates and weight-for-height percentiles was still highly significant for patients within the lower 50th percentile of body weight-for-height. Serum albumin correlated directly with weight-for-height in patients in the lower 50th percentile of weight-for-height. Serum creatinine and cholesterol correlated directly with weight-for-height in the entire population of men and women. In contrast, the urea reduction ratio was inversely correlated with weight-for-height. CONCLUSIONS These data indicate that weight-for-height is a strong predictor of 12-month mortality in male and female MHD patients. Multivariate analyses indicate that body weight-for-height is an independent predictor of higher mortality in those patients who are in the lower 50th percentile for this measurement.
Freezing transitions and extreme values: random matrix theory, and disordered landscapes

We argue that the freezing transition scenario, previously conjectured to occur in the statistical mechanics of 1/f-noise random energy models, governs, after reinterpretation, the value distribution of the maximum of the modulus of the characteristic polynomials pN(θ) of large N×N random unitary (circular unitary ensemble) matrices UN; i.e. the extreme value statistics of pN(θ) when . In addition, we argue that it leads to multi-fractal-like behaviour in the total length μN(x) of the intervals in which |pN(θ)|>Nx,x>0, in the same limit. We speculate that our results extend to the large values taken by the Riemann zeta function ζ(s) over stretches of the critical line of given constant length and present the results of numerical computations of the large values of ). Our main purpose is to draw attention to the unexpected connections between these different extreme value problems.
Asymmetric exchange rate effect on money demand under open economy in case of India

The study tries to explore the asymmetric relationship between money demand and exchange rate in case of India. The period of study is April 2004 to November 2015. For money demand both narrow (M1) as well as broad (M3) monetary aggregates have been used. In this paper, it is shown that failure to find a significant relationship between the exchange rate and the demand for money could stem from the assumption of linear dynamic adjustment process among the variables. With the help of non-linear ARDL it is found that rupee appreciation and rupee depreciation have an asymmetric effect on the demand for money in India both in the short run and the long run. The results showed that the coefficient of positive partial sum (Ln EX+) which represents rupee appreciation is significant and negative, while for negative partial sum (LnEX-) the coefficient is positive and significant The combined implication of the results is that exchange rate movement effects demand for money through the wealth effect not through the mechanism of change in expectations.