Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prehospital intubation in severe thoracic trauma without respiratory insufficiency: a matched-pair analysis based on the Trauma Registry of the German Trauma Society.

OBJECTIVE On the basis of the data of a multicenter study, the impact of prehospital intubation and ventilation in the therapy of severe thoracic trauma without manifest respiratory insufficiency was analyzed. METHODS Data were collected prospectively in the Trauma Registry of the German Trauma Society. In a matched-pair analysis, patients with severe thoracic trauma (Abbreviated Injury Scale score of 4) with and without prehospital intubation were compared. Patients were paired with respect to age, injury severity, and prognosis (according to the TRISS method). RESULTS From a total of 3,814 patients, two groups (with/without prehospital intubation) of 44 matched patients each with comparable average age (36 vs. 36 years), Injury Severity Score (29 vs. 29), and TRISS (95.2 vs. 95.3) were identified. No patient was unconscious at the scene (all Glasgow Coma Scale scores > or = 8) or presented with severe respiratory insufficiency (all > or = 10 breaths/min). Time between injury and hospital admission was significantly longer (73 minutes; p < 0.05) in the group with prehospital intubation compared with the nonintubated group (47 minutes). Furthermore, fluid requirements in the prehospital period were significantly higher in the intubated patients (3,000 mL vs. 1,000 mL). In the prehospital intubation group, the number of patients with mass transfusion (9 vs. 4) as well as with emergency operations (10 vs. 4) were not significantly different from the nonintubated group. The prehospital intubation group showed a similar incidence of lung failure (17 vs. 14), kidney failure (6 vs. 2), and circulation failure (13 vs. 5). Except for two of the primarily nonintubated patients, all were intubated during their stay in the emergency room or on the intensive care unit. Days of ventilation (median, 7 days) as well as the length of stay on the ICU (median, 11 days) were comparable in both groups. Mortality in the prehospital intubation group was not significantly different between groups (six vs. two deceased). CONCLUSION Prognosis with respect to organ failure, treatment time, and mortality is not adversely affected in the German trauma system, if patients with severe thoracic trauma without manifest respiratory insufficiency and without other indications for intubation are not treated with prehospital intubation.
Posthemorrhagic Ventricular Dilation in the Neonate: Development and Characterization of a Rat Model

Intraventricular hemorrhage is a common complication of prematurity. Posthemorrhagic ventricular dilation (PHVD) has a high rate of disability and no safe and effective treatment. Its pathogenesis is poorly understood, largely because of the lack of a satisfactory animal model. We have developed a model of neonatal PHVD in the rat. Seven-day-old (P7) Wistar rat pups were given 80-μl injections of citrated rat blood or artificial cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into alternate lateral ventricles on P7 and P8. Intracranial pressure was monitored and increased briefly by over 8-fold. Some rats received further 10-μl intraventricular injections of India ink on P21. Animals were weighed daily and simple neurologic tests performed. On P21 (or P22 if India ink had been injected), the rats were perfusion-fixed and blocks processed for paraffin histology. Sixty-five percent of pups injected with blood and 50% injected with artificial CSF developed dilated lateral ventricles, with patchy loss of ependyma, marked astrocytic gliosis, and rarefaction of periventricular white matter. India ink injection revealed slow transit of CSF from the dilated lateral ventricles but eventual passage into the subarachnoid space. Pups that had received intraventricular injections but did not develop ventricular dilation nonetheless had lighter brains than littermate controls (p < 0.001). Body weights were not significantly different from controls. Hydrocephalic animals had reduced motor performance as assessed by a grip traction test (p = 0.0002). This model is well suited to studying the pathogenesis of PHVD.
Recent progress and challenges in the discovery of new neuraminidase inhibitors

Introduction: At present, the key public health concern is to define the way in which the next influenza pandemic should be controlled. While influenza vaccines are available, their effectiveness could be significantly reduced if new strains differ significantly from those of the vaccines. Therefore, antiviral drugs play an important role in the prevention and management of influenza. The influenza neuraminidase (NA), a surface-glycoprotein enzyme involved in releasing the virus from the host cell, has been considered as an essential therapeutic target for treatment and prophylaxis of influenza infection. It is a highly conserved feature of the active site across all influenza A and B viruses and is of particular interest because compounds NA inhibitors (NAIs) can be cross-reactive against multiple types and subtypes of influenza. Currently, there are two NAI drugs which are licensed worldwide: oseltamivir and zanamivir, and two more drugs which have received recent approval in Japan: peramivir and laninamivir. Sudden changes in NAI susceptibility have stressed the urgent need in searching for novel inhibitors. Areas covered: In this review, a potential pitfall in NA-based assays and the progress in the chemical synthesis of all patented NAIs from February 2006 to July 2012 are discussed. Expert opinion: Both NA enzyme inhibition and X-ray crystallography data have suggested that the strategy of designing NAIs binding to the highly conserved region of NA can lead to inhibitors that are effective against all influenza NA subtypes. A number of new synthetic entries having unique structural frameworks that were designed based on computational study of X-ray structures of NA. They strongly exhibited the activity of NA in the low nanomolar range such as phosphonate congeners of zanamivir and oseltarmivir. Screening strategies based on the chemical diversity of natural products have revealed that flavonoids are the most prominent scaffolds possessing NA inhibitory activity. However, these substituted phenyl-benzopyrane compounds have been reported to exert a considerable quenching effect, causing false-positive results in the commonly used method of enzyme-based NA inhibition assays, and thus, reliability of the flavonoid-based NAIs reported in the literature.
A Role for Estrogen-related Receptor α in the Control of Mitochondrial Fatty Acid β-Oxidation during Brown Adipocyte Differentiation*

Little is known about the factors involved in the brown adipocyte gene regulatory program. In contrast to the white adipocyte, the brown adipocyte is characterized by abundant mitochondria and high level expression of mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation enzymes. Previous studies in transgenic mice have shown that the brown adipose-enriched expression of a key β-oxidation enzyme, medium chain acyl-coenzyme A dehydrogenase (MCAD), requires cis-acting elements located within the proximal promoter region of the MCAD gene. The levels of mRNA encoding MCAD and several other β-oxidation cycle enzymes were coordinately induced during differentiation of brown adipocytes in culture. Expression of transgenes comprised of MCAD gene promoter fragments fused to chloramphenicol acetyltransferase reporters in differentiating brown adipocytes revealed that a known nuclear receptor response element (NRRE-1) was required for the transcriptional induction of the MCAD gene during brown adipocyte differentiation. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays and antibody recognition studies identified distinct brown adipocyte differentiation stage-specific, NRRE-1-protein complexes; the orphan nuclear receptors, chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factors I and II, were identified as major the NRRE-1 binding proteins in the pre-adipocyte, whereas the estrogen-related receptor α (ERRα) bound NRRE-1 in extracts prepared from differentiated brown adipocytes. DNA binding studies performed with a series of NRRE-1 mutant probes indicated that ERRα was capable of binding two distinct sites within NRRE-1, each of which conform to the known ERRα monomeric binding consensus. The expression of ERRα paralleled NRRE-1 binding activities and MCAD expression during brown adipocyte differentiation, cardiac development, and among a variety of adult mouse tissues. These results identify a new class of ERRα target genes and implicate ERRα and chicken ovalbumin upstream promoter transcription factor in the control of a pivotal metabolic pathway during brown adipocyte differentiation.
Nif Phenotype of Azotobacter vinelandii UW97

We have identified the molecular basis for the nitrogenase negative phenotype exhibited by Azotobacter vinelandii UW97. This strain was initially isolated following nitrosoguanidine mutagenesis. Recently, it was shown that this strain lacks the Fe protein activity, which results in the synthesis of a FeMo cofactor-deficient apodinitrogenase. Activation of this apodinitrogenase requires the addition of both MgATP and wild-type Fe protein to the crude extracts made from A. vinelandii UW97 (Allen, R. M., Homer, M. J., Chatterjee, R., Ludden, P. W., Roberts, G. P., and Shah, V. K.(1993) J. Biol. Chem. 268 23670-23674). Earlier, we proposed the sequence of events in the MoFe protein assembly based on the biochemical and spectroscopic analysis of the purified apodinitrogenase from A. vinelandii DJ54 (Gavini, N., Ma, L., Watt, G., and Burgess, B. K.(1994) Biochemistry 33, 11842-11849). Taken together, these results imply that the assembly process of apodinitrogenase is arrested at the same step in both of these strains. Since A. vinelandii DJ54 is a ΔnifH strain, this strain is not useful in identifying the features of the Fe protein involved in the MoFe protein assembly. Here, we report a systematic analysis of an A. vinelandii UW97 mutant and show that, unlike A. vinelandii DJ54, the nifH gene of A. vinelandii UW97 has no deletion in either coding sequence or the surrounding sequences. The specific mutation responsible for the Nif phenotype of A. vinelandii UW97 is the substitution of a non-conserved serine at position 44 of the Fe protein by a phenylalanine as shown by DNA sequencing. Furthermore, oligonucleotide site-directed mutagenesis was employed to confirm that the Nif phenotype in A. vinelandii UW97 is exclusively due to the substitution of the Fe protein residue serine 44 by phenylalanine. By contrast, replacing Ser-44 with alanine did not affect the Nif phenotype of A. vinelandii. Therefore, it seems that the Nif phenotype of A. vinelandii UW97 is caused by a general structural disturbance of the Fe protein due to the presence of the bulky phenylalanine at position 44.
Components of the peptidoglycan‐recycling pathway modulate invasion and intracellular survival of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium

β‐Lactam resistance in enteric bacteria is frequently caused by mutations in ampD encoding a cytosolic N‐acetylmuramyl‐ l‐alanine amidase. Such mutants are blocked in murein (peptidoglycan) recycling and accumulate cytoplasmic muropeptides that interact with the transcriptional activator ampR, which de‐represses β‐lactamase expression. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, an extensively studied enteric pathogen, was used to show that mutations in ampD decreased the ability of S. typhimurium to enter a macrophage derived cell line and made the bacteria more potent as inducers of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), as compared with the wild‐type. ampG mutants, defective in the transport of recycled muropeptides across the cytoplasmic membrane, behaved essentially as the wild‐type in invasion assays and in activation of iNOS. As ampD mutants also have reduced in vivo fitness in a murine model, we suggest that the cytoplasmic accumulation of muropeptides affects the virulence of the ampD mutants.
Oral progestogen‐only contraception may protect against loss of bone mass in breast‐feeding women

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES A worldwide trend towards increasing life expectancy has meant that osteoporosis is emerging as an important public health problem. The loss of bone mineral density and its restoration in association with a premenopausal but physiological hypo‐oestrogenic state may serve as an important model for research into the pathogenesis and prevention of osteoporosis. With this in mind we have undertaken a longitudinal study of changes in bone mineral density over one year in women after childbirth.
Modelling associations between time‐to‐event responses in pilot cancer clinical trials using a Plackett–Dale model

This work was motivated by the need to find surrogate endpoints for survival of patients in oncology studies. The goal of this article is to determine associations between five time‐to‐event outcomes coming from three clinical trials for non‐small cell lung cancer. To this end, we propose to use the multivariate Dale model for time‐to‐event data introduced by Tibaldi et al. (Stat. Med. 2003). We fit the model to these data, using a pseudo‐likelihood approach to estimate the model parameters.
On ultra-wideband antenna miniaturization involving efficiency and matching constraints

In this paper, size reduction of antenna structures taking reflection response and total efficiency into account has been investigated. In order to find available design trade-offs concerning the antenna footprint, its wideband matching, and efficiency, numerical optimization has been employed. Appropriate formulation of the objective function permits identification of the designs that exhibit the minimum possible footprint while maintaining the maximum in-band reflection and average efficiency within the prescribed thresholds. For the sake of demonstration, a specific case study of a UWB monopole is considered. A set of designs generated using the proposed approach provides a designer with a comprehensive knowledge about the capabilities of a given antenna topology and facilitates a decision making process driven by a particular application and performance requirements.
A Cross-Sectional Analysis of the Roll-off Vote in New York State, 1948-1974

In 1954, 3 percent of a sample of New York State voters who went to the polls failed to vote for nongubernatorial state posts. By 1974, that figure had risen to 8 percent. Four percent of the same voters did not cast votes for county officials in 1954; in 1974, the corresponding figure exceeded 8 percent. The noncompletion rate in the period from 1948 to 1974 for county judge elections varied from as low as 1.2 percent in one township to as high as 28.6 in another. Studies dealing with ballot noncompletion, or the "roll-off' vote as it has been called, proceed from three distinct perspectives. The first of these prevailed in the first half of the twentieth century and attributed the roll-off to "voter fatigue. " These studies were oriented toward electoral reform at a time when ballots had become extremely long, thus encouraging noncompletion. Most of them examined state referenda and initiatives.1 The second perspective, as presented in the works of Rusk2 and Walker,3 is closely related to the voter-fatigue view of noncompletion. Specifically, roll-off is seen as the result of changes in the ballot from the party-column to the office-block form. In the party-column form, the voter may pull one lever or check one box at the top of his chosen party's column and have his vote cast for the party candidate for each post on the slate. On the office-block ballot, the voter must make a separate mark for each office, even if he wishes to follow the party line. The argument of Rusk and Walker that roll-off is a function of the ballot form came as a critque of a seminal article by Walter Dean Burnham, "The Changing Shape of the American Political Universe. " 4 Burnham had argued that the increasing roll-off rates over the past hundred
One monoclonal antibody to human thyrotropin (TSH) receptor agonist of TSH hormone stimulates the proliferation of human thyroid cells.

The question of thyroid cell growth induction by monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) to human thyrotropin receptor (hTSH-R), which stimulate increases in cAMP thyroid cells, is under debate and their implication in Graves' disease (GD) is controversial. In order to address this issue, we used characterized reagents, i.e., mAbs to hTSH-R, and cloned human thyroid hybridoma cells (GEJ). Cell counting on Days 1, 2, and 3 after addition of mAb and Northern blot analysis of mRNA specific for the c-fos oncogene were used to assess the proliferation of the thyroid cells. MAbs to hTSH-R, obtained by immunization of DBA/1 mice with affinity-purified hTSH-R, were added to GEJ cells in concentrations varying from 0.66 to 660 nM. Their effects on GEJ cell growth were compared to those of human TSH, of hLH, and of control mAb. Cell counting and evaluation of GEJ c-fos transcripts showed that mAbs to hTSH-R induce significant GEJ cell growth, whereas they were ineffective on the control cell line. Among them, one mAb, 34A, exhibited an impressive activity on thyroid cell growth and induced cAMP production comparable to that induced by bovine or human TSH. Our data demonstrate the existence of immunoglobulin which stimulates thyroid growth and elevates cAMP. The higher the cAMP production, the greater the thyroid cell proliferation. Furthermore, the data suggest a possible role for agonistic anti-hTSH-R autoantibodies in the immunopathogenesis of GD.
Progression of diabetic retinopathy after phacoemulsification in diabetic patients: a three-year analysis.

BACKGROUND This retrospective study was conducted to analyze the progression rates of diabetic retinopathy (DR) after phacoemulsification in diabetic patients and to determine whether phacoemulsification causes the progression of DR. METHODS The medical charts of diabetic patients who had undergone cataract surgery using phacoemulsification techniques during a 3-year period and had completed 3 years of follow-up were retrospectively reviewed. Data were collected to evaluate the visual outcomes and progression of DR postoperatively. The retinopathy progression rates of operated and nonoperated eyes were compared. RESULTS Thirty-seven diabetic patients were enrolled. Binocular cataract surgeries were performed in 14 patients. Monocular cataract surgeries were performed in the remaining 23 patients whose nonoperated fellow eyes served as the control group. The postoperative retinopathy progression rates of eyes with preoperative mild to moderate nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy (NPDR) were significantly greater than eyes without preoperative retinopathy whether at postoperative 1 year or postoperative 3 years. No statistical significance was found for the rate of retinopathy progression between operated and nonoperated eyes at 1 year and 3 years postoperatively. Of 51 operated eyes, 33 (64.7%) achieved an uncorrected visual acuity of 20/40 at 1 year postoperatively, and 47 (92.1%) had improvement of visual acuity of more than two lines. CONCLUSION Uncomplicated phocoemulsificaton had no significant influence on the postoperative progression of DR. Patients with preoperative NPDR had greater chances to show postoperative retinopathy progression. The majority of diabetic patients who had no DR or had mild to moderate NPDR achieved visual improvement after phacoemulsification.
Relationships of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 proteins with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: We performed this meta-analysis in order to collect all the relevant studies to clarify the correlations of matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase-1 (TIMP-1) with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Materials and Methods: After a literature search in electronic databases, pertinent case-control studies investigating the correlations of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 protein expressions within a COPD setting were enrolled based on our strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. We used key words such as “chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” “COPD” or “COAD” or “chronic obstructive airway disease” and “matrix metalloproteinases” or “MMPs” to make a searching strategy in this study. STATA software (version 12.0, Stata Corporation, College Station, TX, USA) was utilized for statistical analysis. Results: A total of 20 studies were enrolled into this meta-analysis including 923 COPD patients and 641 healthy controls. The findings of this meta-analysis revealed that serum expression levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 protein in COPD patients were higher than those of healthy controls (MMP-9: SMD = 1.44, 95%CI = 0.85 ~ 2.04, P < 0.001; TIMP-1: SMD = 3.53, 95% CI = 2.31 ~ 4.75, P < 0.001). Subgroup analysis based on ethnicity revealed that both Caucasians and Asian COPD patients exhibited higher MMP-9 and TIMP-1 serum protein levels than healthy controls (MMP-9: SMD = 0.81, 95%CI = 0.15~1.48, P = 0.016; TIMP-1: SMD = 4.43, 95%CI = 1.98 ~ 6.87, P = 0.016) and in Caucasians (MMP-9: SMD = 2.30, 95%CI = 1.21 ~ 3.38, P < 0.001; TIMP-1: SMD = 2.86, 95%CI = 1.47 ~ 4.24, P < 0.001). Conclusion: The result of this meta-analysis indicates that elevated levels of MMP-9 and TIMP-1 proteins may be correlated with the pathogenesis of COPD, and the two proteins may represent important biological markers for the early diagnosis of COPD.
DNA restriction digest and ribosomal RNA gene patterns of Campylobacter jejuni: a comparison with bio-, sero-, and bacteriophage-types of United Kingdom outbreak strains

SUMMARY DNA restriction endonuclease (Hae III and Hind III) total digest and 16S and 23S ribosomal (r)RNA gene patterns (ribopatterns) were determined for 18 isolates of Campylobacter jejuni from three separate outbreaks of diarrhoea in the north of England. Strains were also characterized by biotyping, serotyping and phage typing. Comparisons of the DNA patterns by visual and numerical methods revealed five distinct strain groupings with clear differences between isolates from different outbreaks as well as some heterogeneity between strains within the community outbreak and one of the school outbreaks. An excellent correlation was observed between the genomic DNA fingerprints data and the Preston bacteriophage group, both of which gave better discrimination than biotyping and serotyping alone or in combination. Only one phage group (PG 37) was not confirmed by the DNA data. DNA fingerprints therefore provide additional information of value in studying the epidemiology of outbreaks of C. jejuni.
Laparoscopic resection for colorectal polyps: a single institution experience

Background: Endoscopic polypectomy, although routinely used for the treatment of colorectal polyps, may be limited by polyp size, location and histology. Laparoscopic resection for malignant polyps and polyps not amenable to endoscopic removal has the advantage of adequate disease clearance as well as the short‐term benefits of laparoscopic surgery. This study evaluates the outcomes of such an approach.