Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Morphological and clinical risk factors for posterior communicating artery aneurysm rupture.

OBJECT Recent studies have shown that posterior circulation aneurysms, specifically posterior communicating artery (PCoA) aneurysms, are more likely to rupture than other aneurysms. To date, few studies have investigated the factors contributing to PCoA aneurysm rupture. The authors aimed to identify morphological and clinical characteristics predisposing to PCoA aneurysm rupture. METHODS The authors retrospectively reviewed 134 consecutive patients with PCoA aneurysms managed at their facility between July 2003 and December 2012. The authors divided patients into groups of those with aneurysmal rupture (n = 39) and without aneurysmal rupture (n = 95) and compared morphological and clinical characteristics. Morphological characteristics were mainly evaluated by 3D CT angiography and included diameter of arteries (anterior cerebral artery, middle cerebral artery, and internal carotid artery), size of the aneurysm, dome-to-neck ratio, neck direction of the aneurysmal dome around the PCoA (medial, lateral, superior, inferior, and posterior), aneurysm bleb formation, whether the PCoA was fetal type, and the existence of other intracranial unruptured aneurysm(s). RESULTS Patients with ruptured PCoA aneurysms were significantly younger (a higher proportion were < 60 years of age) and a significantly higher proportion of patients with ruptured PCoA aneurysms showed a lateral direction of the aneurysmal dome around the PCoA, had bleb formation, and the aneurysm was > 7 mm in diameter and/or the dome-to-neck ratio was > 2.0. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed age < 60 years (OR 4.3, p = 0.011), history of hypertension (OR 5.1, p = 0.008), lateral direction of the aneurysmal dome around the PCoA (OR 6.7, p = 0.0001), and bleb formation (OR 11, p < 0.0001) to be significantly associated with PCoA aneurysm rupture. CONCLUSIONS The present results demonstrated that lateral projection of a PCoA aneurysm may be related to rupture.
Reflections on the 2013 Decade Award—“Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited” Ten Years Later

This article reflects on our 2003 article, “Exploitation, Exploration, and Process Management: The Productivity Dilemma Revisited,” which received the Academy of Management Review’s Best Article Award in 2003 and Decade Award in 2013. We consider the context within which we wrote the original article, with particular reference to the theoretical, empirical, and managerial problems salient at that time, and comment on the likely reasons the article has had a sustained influence in the field. Looking forward, we first ask whether the paradoxes and inconsistencies we discussed are still fundamental organizational challenges, and then go further to consider ways the domain of innovation itself has changed. We suggest that because of fundamental shifts in communication and information processing costs and the increasing modularity of products and services, the nature and locus of innovation have changed over the past decade. These secular trends have profound implications for our theories of innovation and org.
Fibrosarcoma: a review and update

Adult fibrosarcoma, defined by the World Health Organization as a ‘malignant neoplasm composed of fibroblasts with variable collagen production and, in classical cases, a “herringbone” architecture’, is a very rare soft tissue sarcoma. Once considered the most common adult sarcoma, the incidence of adult fibrosarcoma has declined dramatically over the past several decades. This is due to (i) evolution in the classification of soft tissue tumours (ii) recognition of clinically, morphologically and genetically distinctive subtypes of fibrosarcoma and (iii) increased understanding of the many other mesenchymal and non‐mesenchymal tumours that may mimic fibrosarcoma. This review article will summarize the current state of our knowledge about strictly defined adult fibrosarcoma and discuss important entities in its differential diagnosis, including various fibrosarcoma variants, monophasic synovial sarcoma and other potential mesenchymal and non‐mesenchymal mimics.
INCREASED SUSCEPTIBILITY TO LIVER INJURY AFTER HEMORRHAGIC SHOCK IN RATS CHRONICALLY FED ETHANOL: ROLE OF NUCLEAR FACTOR-κB, INTERLEUKIN-6, AND GRANULOCYTE COLONY-STIMULATING FACTOR

Chronic ethanol use preceding severe trauma and hemorrhagic shock (HS) is associated with an increased incidence of multiorgan failure (MOF) and death; however, the molecular basis for this increased susceptibility is unknown. We previously demonstrated that production of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), mediated by nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB), each make essential contributions to organ injury and inflammation in a rodent model of controlled HS, and we proposed in this study to examine the hypothesis that the increased susceptibility to MOF after shock/trauma in the setting of chronic ethanol use is due to an exaggerated activation of NF-κB and production of these proinflammatory cytokines. We observed increased HS-induced liver injury 4 h after resuscitation in rats fed the ethanol-containing Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet for 8 weeks compared with rats fed the control liquid diet (3-fold increase in serum alanine aminotransferase [ALT], P = 0.008, and 2-fold increase in focal liver necrosis, P = 0.005). The increased liver injury in the ethanol-fed HS rats was accompanied by a 70% increase in liver NF-κB activation (P < 0.05), a 3- to 5-fold increase in hepatocyte and Kupffer cell production of IL-6 and G-CSF (P < 0.05 for each), and a 2-fold increase in neutrophil infiltration (P < 0.005) compared with the control diet-fed HS rats. Thus, increased susceptibility to HS-induced liver injury in the setting of chronic ethanol use may be mediated, at least in part, by increased NF-κB activation resulting in increased local production of IL-6 and G-CSF and increased infiltration of neutrophils, which can damage liver cells directly and contribute to impaired sinusoidal blood flow.
Validation of the Literacy Independent Cognitive Assessment

ABSTRACT Background: Low education and illiteracy are associated with an increased risk of dementia. This study aimed to develop a neuropsychological test battery applicable to both illiterate and literate elderly and to assess its reliability and validity for a diagnosis of dementia. Methods: We developed the Literacy Independent Cognitive Assessment (LICA), which consists of 13 subtests assessing memory, language, visuoconstruction, executive function, attention and calculation. We investigated its reliability and validity on 152 patients with dementia, 66 with mild cognitive impairment and 639 normal controls. Results: The subtests were found to be applicable to most of the illiterate normal controls (97.3%) and were found to have high inter-rater reliabilities (r = 0.85–1.00, p < 0.001) and moderate to high test-retest reliabilities (r = 0.50–0.86, p < 0.001). The LICA performed well in discriminating participants across Clinical Dementia Rating stages and showed excellent internal consistency and good concurrent validity with the Korean Mini-mental State Examination in both literate and illiterate participants. The area under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic was 0.985 in each of the two literacy groups. Sensitivity and specificity of the LICA to make a diagnosis of dementia was 91.9% and 91.8% at the cutoff point of 186.0 in the literate subjects and 96.2% and 91.1% at the cutoff point of 154.5 in the illiterate subjects. The battery was factored into two separate factors consisting of verbal memory tests and tests for other cognitive domains. Conclusion: The LICA is a valid and reliable instrument for a diagnosis of dementia in both illiterate and literate elderly.
Stress as a Modulator of Motor System Function and Pathology

Stress is one of the most significant influences on behaviour and performance. The classical account is that stress mainly affects functions of the limbic system, such as learning, memory and emotion. Recent evidence, however, suggests that stress also modulates motor system function and influences the pathology of movement disorders. Most parts of the motor system show the presence of glucocorticoid receptors that render their circuits susceptible to the influence of stress hormones. Stress and glucocorticoids have been shown to modulate temporal and spatial aspects of motor performance. Skilled movements seem to be most prone to stress-induced disturbances, but locomotion and posture can also be affected. Stress can modulate movement through activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and via stress-associated emotional changes. The dopaminergic system seems to play a central role in mediating the effects of stress on motor function. This route might also account for the finding that stress influences the pathology of dopamine-related diseases of the motor system, such as Parkinson's disease. Clinical observations have indicated that stress might lead to the onset of Parkinsonian symptoms or accelerate their progression. Glucocorticoids are modulators of neuronal plasticity, thus determining the degree of structural and functional compensation of the damaged motor system. This may particularly affect slowly progressive neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease. That stress represents a significant modulator of motor system function in both the healthy and the damaged brain should be recognized when developing future therapies for neurodegenerative diseases.
The dexamethasone suppression test in normal control subjects: comparison of two assays and effect of age.

he authors used competitive protein binding assay and radioimmunoassay to measure cortisol levels in 38 normal control subjects three times before and three times after administration of 1 mg of dexamethasone. They found significant interassay differences at 11:00 p.m. before dexamethasone and at all three postdexamethasone times. Analysis of variance revealed significant overall positive relationships between age and cortisol levels measured by both techniques. Age correlated significantly with postdexamethasone cortisol levels measured by radioimmunoassay but not when measured by competitive protein binding assay. Clinicians should obtain data from their laboratories as to appropriate cutoffs for cortisol suppression on the specific assay used.
Development of an Environmental Relative Moldiness Index for US Homes

Objective: The objective of this study was to establish a national relative moldiness index for homes in the United States. Methods: As part of the Housing and Urban Development's American Healthy Homes Survey, dust samples were collected by vacuuming 2 m2 in the bedrooms plus 2 m2 in the living rooms from a nationally representative 1096 homes in the United States using the Mitest sampler. Five milligrams of sieved (300 &mgr;m pore, nylon mesh) dust was analyzed by mold-specific quantitative polymerase chain reaction for the 36 indicator species in 1096 samples. Results: On the basis of this standardized national sampling and analysis, an “Environmental Relative Moldiness Index” was created with values ranging from about −10 to 20 or above (lowest to highest). Conclusions: The Environmental Relative Moldiness Index scale may be useful for home mold-burden estimates in epidemiological studies.
A real-time distributed computer system for coordinated-motion control of two industrial robots

The design of a distributed computer system for coordinated-motion control of two industrial robots is discussed. The control mechanism for the coordinated-motion control has a hierarchical nature. For hierarchically related computational tasks, a tree-structured multicomputer system is selected as the architecture of the distributed computer system (DCS). The emphasis of the work is on the design of a distributed operating system (DOS) called REKCOR, which stands for REal-time Kernel for Coordinating Robots. It provides transparent operations to the users, and maintains the flexibility and modularity of the system. The successful design of REKCOR is verified by a practical experiment, in which the distributed computer system controls two industrial robots to successfully execute a coordinated-motion.
Erythrocyte Membrane Phospholipid Composition as a Biomarker of Dietary Fat

Background/Aims: In a cross-sectional study, we investigated the relationship between erythrocyte membrane phospholipid fatty acid composition and dietary fat; we also investigated roles of menopausal status, age, body mass index (BMI) and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) in interindividual variation of the biomarker. Methods: Study participants were 204 women, aged 39–65 years, drawn from the ORDET cohort and selected as controls in a study of breast cancer. Membrane composition was assessed using capillary gas chromatography. Dietary fat composition was evaluated using a food frequency questionnaire. Results: In pre- and postmenopausal women, erythrocyte membrane phospholipid levels of linoleic acid, oleic acid, and mono-unsaturated fatty acids were significantly associated with corresponding dietary measures (partial correlation coefficients: 0.23 and 0.39; 0.45 and 0.47; 0.40 and 0.48; respectively, in pre- and postmenopausal women). Among postmenopausal women, membrane poly-unsaturated fatty acids were correlated with the corresponding dietary measure (r = 0.39, p < 0.001). Membrane eicosapentanoic and docosahexanoic acid levels were significantly correlated with intake of fish/shell fish : r = 0.21 and r = 0.43 (premenopausal), and r = 0.41 and r = 0.44 (postmenopausal). Age, BMI and WHR had independent effects on membrane lipid composition. Age was associated with delta-6 desaturase activity in postmenopausal women (r = 0.25, p < 0.05). BMI was negatively associated with delta-9 desaturase activity in both pre- and postmenopausal women (r = –0.29, p = 0.01 and r = –0.22, p < 0.01, respectively). WHR was negatively associated with delta-5 desaturase activity in pre-menopausal women (r = –024, p < 0.05). Conclusions: Erythrocyte membrane levels of some specific fatty acids can be used as biomarkers of these fatty acids as proportions of dietary fat.
Coamorphous atorvastatin calcium to improve its physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties.

PURPOSE Atorvastatin calcium (ATC) is classified as class II (low solubility and high permeability) compound according to the biopharmaceutical classification system. The amorphous form of ATC possesses higher solubility, dissolution rate, and bioavailability than its crystalline form. Coamorphous drug system is a new and emerging method to prepare stable amorphous forms, in this case leading to the improved stability of ATC in dissolution medium. METHODS In this study, coamorphous form of ATC and nicotinamide (ATC-NIC) was prepared from solvent evaporation method and characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). The intrinsic dissolution rate and solubility of ATC-NIC were determined along with plasma concentrations of ATC using HPLC after oral dosing in rats. RESULTS The crystalline ATC was converted to coamorphous form revealing a molecular interaction between ATC and NIC. The intrinsic dissolution rate, solubility and plasma concentration of coamorphous ATC-NIC are higher than those of crystalline ATC. ATC-NIC coamorphous system showed greater solution stability than those reported in the literature for amorphous ATC. CONCLUSIONS Coamorphous ATC-NIC has improved physicochemical and pharmacokinetic properties as compared to ATC. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.
Is the Prefrontal Cortex Important For Fluid Intelligence? A Neuropsychological Study Using Matrix Reasoning

Patients with prefrontal damage and severe defects in decision making and emotional regulation often have a remarkable absence of intellectual impairment, as measured by conventional IQ tests such as the WAIS/WAIS-R. This enigma might be explained by shortcomings in the tests, which tend to emphasize measures of “crystallized” (e.g., vocabulary, fund of information) more than “fluid” (e.g., novel problem solving) intelligence. The WAIS-III added the Matrix Reasoning subtest to enhance measurement of fluid reasoning. In a set of four studies, we investigated Matrix Reasoning performances in 80 patients with damage to various sectors of the prefrontal cortex, and contrasted these with the performances of 80 demographically matched patients with damage outside the frontal lobes. The results failed to support the hypothesis that prefrontal damage would disproportionately impair fluid intelligence, and every prefrontal subgroup we studied (dorsolateral, ventromedial, dorsolateral + ventromedial) had Matrix Reasoning scores (as well as IQ scores more generally) that were indistinguishable from those of the brain-damaged comparison groups. Our findings do not support a connection between fluid intelligence and the frontal lobes, although a viable alternative interpretation is that the Matrix Reasoning subtest lacks construct validity as a measure of fluid intelligence.
Adaptive backstepping control with integral action for PWM buck DC-DC converters

Abstract This paper develops a novel control methodology for voltage regulation and implementation of a buck DC‐DC converter using a digital signal processor (DSP). Such a converter is modeled as a linear averaged state‐space system model with an adjustable load. An adaptive backstepping voltage regulator is presented based on the measurements of an output voltage and a capacitor current. An approximate averaged circuit model is derived in order to show that the fast and stable mode of the capacitor current can be ignored and the buck DC‐DC converter can be well approximated by the averaged circuit model. With the approximate averaged model, an adaptive backstepping control with integral action is proposed to regulate a stand‐alone buck DC‐DC converter. This proposed control method has been verified by computer simulation and implemented utilizing a stand‐alone digital signal processor (DSP) TMS320C542 from Texas Instruments. Experimental results show that the proposed control method is capable of giving satisfactory voltage regulation performance under a wide range of input voltage variations and load changes.
CIRCULATING CYTOKINES AND GASTRIN LEVELS IN ASYMPTOMATIC SUBJECTS INFECTED BY HELICOBACTER PYLORI (H. PYLORI)

The pathophysiology of hypergastrinemia in H. pylori infection has been largely investigated and different reports clearly show that the infected antrum has a marked inflammatory response with a suggestive local production of cytokines. Notwithstanding, a few data are available on the circulating levels of cytokines and gastrin in the asymptomatic people carrying H. pylori infection. Thus, aim of the study was to evaluate circulating proinflammatory cytokines [Interleukin (IL)-8, Interleukin (IL)-10, Interferon (IFN)-γ, and Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF)-α] and gastrin levels in H. pylori positive asymptomatic subjects vs. H. pylori negative ones. To this end, thirty healthy volunteers with no digestive symptoms or systemic disease were enrolled and H. pylori infection was identified by a 13C-urea breath test. Plasma levels of gastrin were determined using the RIA kit whereas IL-8, TNF-α, IL-10, and IFN-γ levels in serum were measured with a solid-phase ELISA. Fifteen infected people showed significantly higher gastrin and TNF-α levels than uninfected subjects. On the contrary, IL-8 levels were significantly higher in the uninfected subjects than in H. pylori positive ones (P < 0.0422). IFN-γ and IL-10 circulating levels were not affected by H. pylori presence, being not significantly different in the two groups.
Does IL‐22 protect against liver fibrosis in hepatitis C virus infection?

Author names in bold designate shared co-first authorship. *C.E. M. , M.J.E. and V.N. S. contributed equally to this study and are joint first authors. [Correction added October 22, 2015, after first online publication: this note was missing from original version. ] Copyright VC 2015 by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/hep.27851 Potential conflict of interest: Nothing to report.
Pharmacotherapy of gastrointestinal stromal tumours

Gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are a relatively rare, but well characterised clinical entity. This tumour is defined by a predominantly spindle-cell morphology and its pathobiology by the presence of Kit (receptor tyrosine kinase). The majority of GIST have a gain of function mutation in an exon hot spot that leads to constitutive activation of Kit, promoting proliferation and anti-apoptotic signalling. Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec™, Glivec®, Novartis) is a specific inhibitor of Kit kinase activation and in Phase II clinical trials, it has proven to be remarkably effective in heavily pre-treated patients with advanced GIST. Molecular determinants of response and resistance are the subject of ongoing investigations. Additionally, clinical trials are underway to explore the use of imatinib mesylate in the adjuvant setting. These initial evaluations with imatinib mesylate provide proof of concept for hypothesis driven, rational drug design of selective signal transduction inhibitors in the management of solid tumour malignancies.
Object‐location memory in schizophrenia: Interference of symbolic threatening content

Introduction. Monitoring environmental stimuli for their emotional relevance is inherently associated with spatial processing. In schizophrenia, deficits in spatial working memory on one hand, and abnormal emotion processing on the other, have been documented, but these have not been related to each other. In the present study, we investigated whether a specific aspect of spatial memory (i.e., object‐location memory), is impaired in patients with schizophrenia. Moreover, we hypothesised that symbolic threatening content of objects would interfere with spatial processing in patients with schizophrenia but not in healthy controls. Methods. Spatial memory for symbolic pictorial stimuli was assessed in 40 patients with schizophrenia compared to 41 healthy matched control participants using an object‐relocation task. Results. Patients with schizophrenia performed worse in relocating objects, independent of overall intellectual ability. More specifically, patients were particularly worse in the relocation of objects with a symbolic threatening content. Conclusions. These results suggest that a threatening semantic emotional content of schematic stimuli can interfere with spatial processing in schizophrenia. We hypothesise that a disproportional influence of the amygdala on other brain areas, such as the hippocampus, might underlie this specific emotional interference.