Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MiR-16 Induced the Suppression of Cell Apoptosis While Promote Proliferation in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background/Aims: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNAs that regulate cell proliferation and functions by interfering with the translation of target mRNAs. Altered expression of miRNA is known to induce various human malignancies, but little is known about the role of miRNAs in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). Methods: RT-PCR and Western blot were used to examine the expression of miRNAs and candidate genes in 40 pairs of squamous cell carcinoma of human. MiR-16 mimics and inhibitor were transfected in human TE-1 and Eca-109 cells before detecting the cell migration, proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle. The regulation mechanism was confirmed by luciferase reporter assay. Caspase-3 and 9 were detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. Results: Aberrant increased level of miR-16 was detected in the ESCC tissues compared with the corresponding adjacent tumor tissues. MiR-16 could inhibit cell apoptosis while promote cell proliferation by down-regulating RECK and SOX6 in TE-1 and Eca-109 cell lines through binding the 3'UTR of both RECK and SOX6 mRNA. Conclusions: Aberrant expression level of miR-16 could suppress cell apoptosis while promote growth by regulating RECK and SOX6 which play important roles in the pathogenesis of ESCC.
Investment Contracts in Transmission Assets

The need for investment in the improvement and expansion of the electric transmission grid has not been met in the new competitive environment. Investment in transmission assets poses demanding challenges: multiplicity of players, market imperfections, among others. The integration of financial instruments poses also an additional level of complication, because investors wish to ensure steady long-term returns and to withstand short-term market volatility. This paper presents a specific contract as an example of model for valuation of transmission assets. The model is applied to the IEEE 14-bus RTS showing the approach capabilities as a decision-aid tool for transmission investors.
Neuropsychological correlates of manganese exposure: A meta-analysis

The hypothesized effect of recurrent low-dose manganese (Mn) exposure on neuropsychological function is controversial because of inconsistent findings across three decades of research. We conducted a meta-analysis on 41 variables from nineteen neuropsychological studies of Mn-exposed workers. The results showed: Large effect size (ES) for biological markers of Mn and lead levels; thirteen of 26 neurocognitive measures showing a small average ES; only one of 26 tasks showed a moderate ES; and small to medium ES for confounding/competing variables such as education and aptitude. Tasks with the highest ES included clerical substitution tasks, digit span, tapping endurance, and Swedish Performance Evaluation System “Additions” reaction time, but none exceeded the ES for education or aptitude. The mean ES of dose-response relationships was zero. The data did not support a theory of preclinical (“early”) neuromotor or cognitive dysfunction. Overall, the pooled data are more consistent with covariate effect than toxic effect, insofar as the pooled exposure group showed demographics less favorable to neuropsychological performance than the pooled referent groups. Future consideration of demographic and biological covariates is necessary before inferring subtle toxin-induced brain damage because neuropsychological tests are nonspecific.
Academic Benchmarks for Otolaryngology Leaders

Objective: This study aimed to characterize current benchmarks for academic otolaryngologists serving in positions of leadership and identify factors potentially associated with promotion to these positions. Methods: Information regarding chairs (or division chiefs), vice chairs, and residency program directors was obtained from faculty listings and organized by degree(s) obtained, academic rank, fellowship training status, sex, and experience. Research productivity was characterized by (a) successful procurement of active grants from the National Institutes of Health and prior grants from the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Centralized Otolaryngology Research Efforts program and (b) scholarly impact, as measured by the h-index. Results: Chairs had the greatest amount of experience (32.4 years) and were the least likely to have multiple degrees, with 75.8% having an MD degree only. Program directors were the most likely to be fellowship trained (84.8%). Women represented 16% of program directors, 3% of chairs, and no vice chairs. Chairs had the highest scholarly impact (as measured by the h-index) and the greatest external grant funding. Conclusion: This analysis characterizes the current picture of leadership in academic otolaryngology. Chairs, when compared to their vice chair and program director counterparts, had more experience and greater research impact. Women were poorly represented among all academic leadership positions.
Carnitine‐Induced Effects on Cardiac and Peripheral Hemodynamics

MZNITINE ( p hydroxy y trimethylC aminobutyric acid) is a naturally ocrurring amino acid found in all living tissue, with the highest endogenous levels present in the adrenal glands and in skeletal and cardiac muscle. 'S2 Previous reports have demonstrated a variety of beneficial cardiac effects of exogenous carnitine in the experimental animal heart and in man: a protective effect against palytoxinand diphtheria-induced myoeardial toxicity in the cardiac dysrhythrnias6 and certain myocardial ischemic changes in the dog,6*7 and an improved stress tolerance of the ischemic myocardium in man.8 This study was undertaken to determine, in the normal dcg, the dose-related effects of carnitine infusion on cardiac, pulmonary, and systemic hemodynamics.
Comparison of four DNA-based methods for strain delineation of Candida lusitaniae

Four methods for the accurate delineation of epidemiologically related and unrelated strains of Candida lusitaniae were compared. Three pulsed-field electrophoretic methods, including two contour-clamped homogeneous field gel electrophoresis methods (EKP-1 and EKP-2) yielding electrophoretic karyotype patterns of intact chromosomal DNA and a method in which the chromosomal DNA was macrodigested with the endonuclease SfiI prior to pulsed-field electrophoresis (MDP), and a random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) assay were evaluated. A selected panel of 21 well-characterized isolated representing 13 strains of C. lusitaniae, including 7 epidemiologically related isolates of one strain (group I-A), 3 epidemiologically related isolates of another strain (group I-B), and 11 epidemiologically unrelated isolates (group II), were tested. All isolates were coded and tested in a blinded manner. All seven group I-A isolates were confirmed to be a single strain by the EKP-1 and MDP methods, and the three group I-B isolates were shown to be a single strain by the EKP-1, EKP-2, MDP, and RAPD methods. Subtle differences were noted with two of the group I-A isolates by the EKP-2 method, whereas three of these isolates were different by the RAPD method. Each group II isolate had distinct patterns by all four methods. These data support the fact that the three pulsed-field electrophoretic methods and the RAPD method can be used to delineate strains of C. lusitaniae. The EKP-1, EKP-2, and MDP gave results that correlated with the epidemiologic characteristics of the isolates tested in the study, whereas the RAPD method was perhaps too sensitive in detecting DNA changes for epidemiologic studies.
Non-attendance at the colorectal clinic: a prospective audit.

INTRODUCTION Non-attendance in the out-patient department has financial costs for the NHS and clinical implications to the non-attender and those awaiting an appointment. The aim of this audit was to quantify the percentage of non-attenders at colorectal clinics in a UK teaching hospital, assess which factors affected attendance, establish why individuals fail to attend and to implement appropriate change. PATIENTS AND METHODS The number of 'did-not-attend' patients was recorded initially for 686 appointments. Non-attenders were contacted by post or telephone to ask why this was so. The study was then repeated following telephone reminders to 391 patients due to attend clinic. The 'did-not-attend' rates in the two limbs of the completed audit cycle were then compared. RESULTS The initial study revealed a 'did-not-attend' rate of 21%, with significantly more males than females failing to attend (males, 28.6%; females, 16.9%; P = 0.001). The 'did-not-attend' rate was not significantly affected by the day of the week, time of appointment or by the weather. There were 51.7% responses to either the postal or telephone questionnaire regarding non-attendance. Of these, 27.7% did not receive an appointment letter or received it after the appointment. Hospital administration problems were cited as accounting for 34.2% of 'did-not-attends'. In the post-intervention limb, 87 patients (22%) replied to the reminder telephone call, of whom 9 (10%) cancelled their appointment and 78 (90%) confirmed that they would attend. The 'did-not-attend' rate fell to 19.7% although this was not a significant reduction. CONCLUSIONS Telephoning patients before their appointments is labour intensive and did not significantly improve the 'did-not-attend' rate. Although hospital administration errors account for a significant number of the 'did-not-attends', patients also have a responsibility to notify the hospital if they are unable to attend.
Evaluation of the BioFire FilmArray Respiratory Panel and the GenMark eSensor Respiratory Viral Panel on Lower Respiratory Tract Specimens

ABSTRACT We evaluated the performance characteristics of the FilmArray respiratory panel and the eSensor respiratory viral panel on clinical and spiked lower respiratory tract specimens (LRTS). The overall agreement between the two methods was 89.5% (51/57). The lower limit of detection of both assays for all targets in LRTS was comparable to that for nasopharyngeal swab specimens.
Academic Entitlement and Academic Performance in Graduating Pharmacy Students

Objectives. To determine a measurable definition of academic entitlement, measure academic entitlement in graduating doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students, and compare the academic performance between students identified as more or less academically entitled. Methods. Graduating students at a private health sciences institution were asked to complete an electronic survey instrument that included demographic data, academic performance, and 2 validated academic entitlement instruments. Results. One hundred forty-one of 243 students completed the survey instrument. Fourteen (10%) students scored greater than the median total points possible on 1 or both of the academic entitlement instruments and were categorized as more academically entitled. Less academically entitled students required fewer reassessments and less remediation than more academically entitled students. The highest scoring academic entitlement items related to student perception of what professors should do for them. Conclusion. Graduating pharmacy students with lower levels of academic entitlement were more academically successful than more academically entitled students. Moving from an expert opinion approach to evidence-based decision-making in the area of academic entitlement will allow pharmacy educators to identify interventions that will decrease academic entitlement and increase academic success in pharmacy students.
Electromyography characterization of stretch responses in hemiparetic stroke patients and their relationship with the Modified Ashworth Scale

Objectives: To determine the validity of the Modified Ashworth Scale as a measure of spasticity by determining its relationship to surface electromyography activity and contracture. Design: A controlled study of hemiparetic stroke patients with spasticity. Setting: A physiotherapy department in a secondary care hospital. Subjects: Thirty-one stroke patients and 20 healthy volunteers. Main measures: The resistance to passive movement around the knee and ankle of the affected and unaffected legs was rated using the Modified Ashworth Scale. Passive range of movement was measured with a goniometer. Surface electromyography recordings of four lower limb muscles were taken during passive stretches of the knee and ankle. Results: Hemiparetic patients produced surface electromyography responses to stretch that were of greater amplitude (unaffected limbs: mean = 25.82 mV (43.85), affected limbs: mean = 24.77 mV (35.46)) than those of healthy volunteers (mean = 15.85 (29.96)). The affected muscles of hemiparetic patients were more likely to produce surface electromyography responses to stretch of a sustained duration (45% of cases) compared with unaffected limbs (24% of cases) and those of healthy volunteers (16% of cases). The Modified Ashworth Scale showed a positive correlation with the magnitude (p < 0.05) and duration (p < 0.001) of the surface electromyography response. High scores on the Modified Ashworth Scale were associated with contracture (p < 0.001). Contracted muscles produced significantly greater surface electromyography reflex responses compared with noncontracted muscles (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The Modified Ashworth Scale reflects spasticity in terms of surface electromyography stretch responses produced by passive movement, but the relationship of spasticity to contracture remains unclear.
Rural home health care workers' attitudes toward the elderly: a replication study.

We collected data from 548 rural home health care workers in Southern Illinois in 1990 to replicate a study conducted in 1988 designed to identify and assess the attitudes of those workers toward the elderly and their elderly clients. Subjects were asked to respond to a fifteen item, self-report questionnaire. Reliability of the scale was estimated at . 79, using Cronbach's alpha. Readability was estimated at the sixth-grade reading level as measured by the SMOG Readability Formula. Chi-square statistics were used to determine whether there were any differences between the 1988 and 1990 data sets, with a significance level of . 003, using the Bonferroni correction procedures. Results were similar for both the 1988 and 1990 data sets. For example, whereas 31.8% of the 1988 respondents agreed with the statement: "most of my clients are pretty much the same," 30.5% of the 1990 respondents agreed. The findings from this study indicate that attitudes toward the elderly among this population of home health care workers have remained relatively consistent over this two year period.
Monocular Vision for Long‐term Micro Aerial Vehicle State Estimation: A Compendium

The recent technological advances in Micro Aerial Vehicles (MAVs) have triggered great interest in the robotics community, as their deployability in missions of surveillance and reconnaissance has now become a realistic prospect. The state of the art, however, still lacks solutions that can work for a long duration in large, unknown, and GPS‐denied environments. Here, we present our visual pipeline and MAV state‐estimation framework, which uses feeds from a monocular camera and an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to achieve real‐time and onboard autonomous flight in general and realistic scenarios. The challenge lies in dealing with the power and weight restrictions onboard a MAV while providing the robustness necessary in real and long‐term missions. This article provides a concise summary of our work on achieving the first onboard vision‐based power‐on‐and‐go system for autonomous MAV flights. We discuss our insights on the lessons learned throughout the different stages of this research, from the conception of the idea to the thorough theoretical analysis of the proposed framework and, finally, the real‐world implementation and deployment. Looking into the onboard estimation of monocular visual odometry, the sensor fusion strategy, the state estimation and self‐calibration of the system, and finally some implementation issues, the reader is guided through the different modules comprising our framework. The validity and power of this framework are illustrated via a comprehensive set of experiments in a large outdoor mission, demonstrating successful operation over flights of more than 360 m trajectory and 70 m altitude change.
Sexual dimorphism among bovine embryos in their ability to make the transition to expanded blastocyst and in the expression of the signaling molecule IFN-τ

IFN-τ is a secretory product of trophectoderm of cattle, sheep, and their relatives and is expressed for a few days in early pregnancy after the blastocyst first forms. It serves to alert the mother that she is pregnant. A delayed or less than robust IFN-τ signal is a likely cause of embryonic loss. Here we have determined whether blastocyst production of IFN-τ, which is encoded by a cluster of genes on chromosome 9, differs between the sexes in cattle, as assessed by culture of in vitro-derived embryos on two different media, one complex (tissue culture medium 199 supplemented with serum) with coculture support, the other relatively simple (synthetic oviductal fluid plus albumin). With both media, female blastocysts produced approximately double the amount of IFN-τ as males, regardless of such variables as oocyte batch, blastocyst quality, hatching, and length of time in culture. However, in either tissue culture medium 199, which contains 5.5 mM d-glucose, or in synthetic oviductal fluid, in the presence but not in the absence of added glucose, significantly fewer female than male embryos were able to progress from the morula/early blastocyst stage to more advanced stages of development. It is possible that the differences between male and female embryos both in their production of IFN-τ and in their ability to progress in development in glucose-rich media are manifestations of phenomena that occur in vivo and provide plasticity in embryo selection during early pregnancy.
Superior Conjunction of Pioneer 6

Spectrograms of the radio signals from Pioneer 6 were taken as the spacecraft was occulted by the sun. The spectral bandwidths increased slowly at first, then very rapidly at 1 degree from the sun. In addition, six solar "events" produced marked increases of bandwidth lasting for several hours. The received signal power seemed unaffected by the solar corona.
Cigarette Smoke Promotes Eosinophilic Inflammation, Airway Remodeling, and Nasal Polyps in a Murine Polyp Model

Background Exposure to cigarette smoking (CS) is a major risk factor for airway inflammation. However, little is known about the effects of CS exposure on eosinophilic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (ERSwNPs). Histopathological and molecular studies were performed to investigate its effects using a murine model of ERSwNPs. Methods Mice were assigned to one of the following four groups (n = 8 for each group): control group, CS exposure (CS group), ERSwNP (ERS group), and ERSwNPs exposed to CS (ERS + CS group). Histopathological changes were investigated using various stains, including hematoxylin and eosin for inflammation and polyp-like lesions, Sirius red for eosinophils, toluidine blue for mast cells, Alcian blue for goblet cells, and Masson's trichrome stain for collagen fibers. mRNA expression of cytokines from nasal mucosae was measured. Serum I and systemic cytokine levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) 1-alpha was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. Results The ERS + CS group showed more severe symptoms, increased the number of polyp-like lesions filtration of eosinophils, goblet cell hyperplasia, and subepithelial fibrosis, compared with the ERS group. Additionally, mRNA expressions of IL-4 and IL-17A were up-regulated in ERS + CS group and higher levels of IL-4, IL-6, IL-17A, and interferon gamma from splenocytes were observed significantly in the ERS + CS group compared with the ERS group. In the ERSwNP murine model, exposure to CS enhanced the expression of VEGF and HIF-1-alpha in nasal epithelial cells. Conclusion Chronic exposure to CS aggravated eosinophilic inflammation and promoted airway remodeling and nasal polyp formation in a murine model of ERSwNPs. The underlying mechanism might involve up-regulated expression of VEGF and HIF-1-alpha.
Cognitive Development role for executive functions in explanatory understanding f the physical world

Are executive functions needed only for the expression of an already present understanding of the physical world or they are needed for the construction of that understanding? We addressed this question in the context of Hood’s (1995) tubes task. When asked to find a ball dropped down an opaque curved tube, 2and 3-year-olds search directly below the place where they have seen the ball dropped, rather than at the bottom of the tube into which the ball was dropped. Instructions about the role of the tubes, but not visual feedback about the correct location of the ball, help children improve on this task. We found that children who scored higher on specific EF measures and on performance IQ showed greater improvement on the tubes task after receiving instructions about the role of the tubes than did children with lower EFs and performance IQ. These results suggest that EFs are needed for the construction of new explanatory understanding of the physical world. © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Validation of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale in Arab patients

The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered to psychiatric outpatients with various diagnoses to assess its validity. The study was also designed to find out whether HADS can differentiate between diagnostic groups based on depression and anxiety symptoms. HADS was able to discriminate patients from controls at a sensitivity of 79% and specificity of 87%. HADS was much less sensitive, specific and diagnostically accurate in identifying anxiety and depressive disorders in the experimental group at a cut‐off point of 13 and 10 respectively for both conditions. Possible psychological, social and psychiatric reasons for the results are discussed.
Hope Lives in the Heart: Refugee & Immigrant Children’s Perceptions of Hope and Hope Engendering Sources during Early Years of Adjustment

Children’s adjustment to resettlement countries is vitally important to future outcomes, yet little attention is given to the role of hope in this process. This research focused on expressions of hope in 10 refugee and immigrant children during early years of resettlement. Using case study methods that employed arts-based data collection, categories were constructed from participants’ visual images and associated narratives. Hope in newcomer children was conceptualized as a dynamic enduring trait that is intimately linked to each child’s life context. Further, three hope engendering sources were identified that facilitated an emotional connection to others, to self, and to the environment.