Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evidence for telomerase involvement in the angiogenesis of astrocytic tumors: expression of human telomerase reverse transcriptase messenger RNA by vascular endothelial cells.

OBJECT Evidence from recent in vitro studies indicates that reactivation of telomerase, the enzyme that synthesizes the telomere ends of chromosomes, is a crucial event in the unlimited clonal expansion of endothelial cells that precedes the neoplastic conversion of these cells. It is known that high-grade gliomas express telomerase and that, in these neoplasms, proliferating endothelial cells may undergo transformational changes with development of sarcomatous components within the primitive tumor. To assess whether telomerase is involved in the endothelial cell proliferation that characterizes brain tumor angiogenesis, the authors investigated at the single-cell level the expression of messenger (m)RNA for the human telomerase catalytic subunit human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) by vascular cells of astrocytic tumors. METHODS The in situ hybridization (ISH) method was performed by processing histological sections with specific riboprobes for hTERT and for c-myc, an oncogene that is known to upregulate hTERT. Results of the ISH studies were compared with proliferative activity, as estimated by Ki-67 immunostaining. The expression of hTERT mRNA by vascular endothelial cells was related to the histological grade of the tumor because it was detected in five (29%) of 17 low-grade astrocytomas, nine (56%) of 16 anaplastic astrocytomas, and 19 (100%) of 19 glioblastomas multiforme (GBMs). Expression of c-myc mRNA was strictly correlated with that of hTERT mRNA. In low-grade astrocytomas and anaplastic astrocytomas, a dissociation was noted between hTERT mRNA expression and the proliferation rate of endothelial cells. Conversely, GBMs displayed a significant correlation between the level of hTERT mRNA expression and endothelial cell proliferation. Data from an in vitro assay in which human umbilical vein endothelial cells were stimulated to proliferate by adding vascular endothelial growth factor and an ISH study of newly formed vessels surrounding brain infarcts confirmed that expression of hTERT mRNA does not merely reflect the proliferative status of endothelial cells but represents a specific feature of brain tumor neovascularization. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study are consistent with a role of telomerase in the angiogenesis of astrocytic tumors. Expression of hTERT mRNA by tumor vascular cells is an early event during the progression of astrocytic tumors, which precedes endothelial cell proliferation and may represent a first sign of dedifferentiation. Other than elucidating the mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis, these results encourage research on antitelomerase drugs for the treatment of malignant gliomas.
Use of celecoxib immediately post marketing in Canada: acute or chronic pain?

OBJECTIVES The diffusion of innovations theory suggests that early users of innovations influence others. This study was undertaken to apply the diffusion of innovations theory to the prescribing of celecoxib and to determine if prescriber and patient characteristics differed amongst early use of celecoxib for acute pain versus chronic musculoskeletal conditions. METHODS Using Manitobaâs population-based prescription and health care databases, diffusion time from market availability to first prescription for celecoxib was determined for each prescriber. The diffusion of prescribing curves for celecoxib in acute pain versus chronic musculoskeletal conditions were compared. Separately for acute and chronic conditions, the likelihood of being an early or late prescriber or user of celecoxib was determined according to physician factors (specialty and place of training) and patient demographics. This multivariate analysis was completed using polytomous logistic regression, with majority prescribers as the reference. RESULTS The use of celecoxib for chronic musculoskeletal conditions demonstrated faster diffusion than for acute pain. The majority of early use of celecoxib was for chronic conditions; however 36% of first prescriptions were for acute pain, including the treatment of back pain and injuries. Early prescribers of celecoxib for acute pain were more likely than majority prescribers to be general practitioners (OR = 2.24, 95%CI: 1.53-3.29) and have hospital affiliations (OR=1.54, 95%CI: 1.04-2.27). Early users of celecoxib for chronic conditions were less likely to be low income (OR=0.56, 95%CI: 0.35-0.91). CONCLUSIONS Immediately after market release in Canada, celecoxib was commonly prescribed for the treatment of acute pain; these prescriptions were associated with general practitioners and hospital affiliation status.
Electrocorticographic dissociation of alpha and beta rhythmic activity in the human sensorimotor system

This study uses electrocorticography in humans to assess how alpha- and beta-band rhythms modulate excitability of the sensorimotor cortex during movement selection, as indexed through a psychophysically-controlled movement imagery task. Both rhythms displayed effector-specific modulations, tracked spectral markers of action potentials in the local neuronal population, and showed spatially systematic phase relationships (traveling waves). Yet, alpha- and beta-band rhythms differed in their anatomical and functional properties, were weakly correlated, and traveled along opposite directions across the sensorimotor cortex. Increased alpha-band power in the somatosensory cortex ipsilateral to the selected arm was associated with spatially-unspecific inhibition. Decreased beta-band power over contralateral motor cortex was associated with a focal shift from relative inhibition to excitation. These observations indicate the relevance of both inhibition and disinhibition mechanisms for precise spatiotemporal coordination of neuronal populations during movement selection. Those mechanisms are implemented through the substantially different neurophysiological properties of sensorimotor alpha- and beta-band rhythms.
Bradyzoite-Specific Surface Antigen SRS9 Plays a Role in Maintaining Toxoplasma gondii Persistence in the Brain and in Host Control of Parasite Replication in the Intestine

ABSTRACT Toxoplasma gondii is a ubiquitous parasite that persists for the life of a healthy mammalian host. A latent, chronic infection can reactivate upon immunosuppression and cause life-threatening diseases, such as encephalitis. A key to the pathogenesis is the parasite's interconversion between the tachyzoite (in acute infection) and bradyzoite (in chronic infection) stages. This developmental switch is marked by differential expression of numerous, closely related surface proteins belonging to the SRS (SAG1-related sequence) superfamily. To probe the functions of bradyzoite-specific SRSs, we created a bioluminescent strain lacking the expression of SRS9, one of the most abundant SRSs of the bradyzoite stage. Imaging of mice intraperitoneally infected with tachyzoites revealed that during an acute infection, wild-type and Δsrs9 strains replicated at similar rates, disseminated systemically following similar kinetics, and initially yielded similar brain cyst numbers. However, during a chronic infection, Δsrs9 cyst loads substantially decreased compared to those of the wild type, suggesting that SRS9 plays a role in maintaining parasite persistence in the brain. In oral infection with bradyzoite cysts, the Δsrs9 strain showed oral infectivity and dissemination patterns indistinguishable from those of the wild type. When chronically infected mice were treated with the immunosuppressant dexamethasone, however, the Δsrs9 strain reactivated in the intestinal tissue after only 8 to 9 days, versus 2 weeks for the wild-type strain. Thus, SRS9 appears to play an important role in both persistence in the brain and reactivation in the intestine. Possible mechanisms for this are discussed.
Discharge characteristics of motor units during long‐duration contractions

What is the central question of this study? How long can humans sustain motor unit discharge during a voluntary contraction? What is the main finding and its importance? Human motor units can discharge action potentials for a longer time during a voluntary contraction than can be achieved by intracellular or extracellular current injection of motor neurons with in vivo and in vitro animal preparations. These recordings comprise a previously unexplored range of durations for human motor unit recordings during a continuously sustained isometric recording.
Single-molecule diffusion measurements of H-Ras at the plasma membrane of live cells reveal microdomain localization upon activation

Recent studies show that the partitioning of the small GTPase H-Ras in different types of membrane microdomains is dependent on guanosine 5′-triphosphate (GTP)-loading of H-Ras. Detailed knowledge about the in vivo dynamics of this phenomenon is limited. In this report, the effect of the activation of H-Ras on its microdomain localization was studied by single-molecule fluorescence microscopy. Individual human H-Ras molecules fused to the enhanced yellow fluorescent protein (eYFP) were imaged in the dorsal plasma membrane of live mouse cells and their diffusion behavior was analyzed. The diffusion of a constitutively inactive (S17N) and constitutively active (G12V) mutant of H-Ras was compared. Detailed analysis revealed that for both mutants a major, fast-diffusing population and a minor, slow-diffusing population were present. The slow-diffusing fraction of the active mutant was confined to 200 nm domains, which were not observed for the inactive mutant. In line with these results we observed that the slow-diffusing fraction of wild-type H-Ras became confined to 200 nm domains upon insulin-induced activation of wild-type H-Ras. This activation-dependent localization of H-Ras to 200 nm domains, for the first time directly detected in live cells, supports the proposed relationship between H-Ras microdomain localization and activation.
Identity Among Barbadian University Students and Their Attitudes to Migrant Labor

The social, political, and linguistic situations in Barbados specifically and the Englishofficial West Indies generally are marked by the legacy of hundreds of years of colonial rule. Labor flows from poorer countries like Guyana to richer ones like Barbados calcify regional economic hierarchies that replaced regional colonial offices. Regional economic institutions like the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as described by their Mission and Core Values, were created in part to “affirm the collective identity and facilitate social cohesion of the people of the Community” to enable the new intraregional, no longer colonial, market to take advantage of regional labor (CARICOM Secretariat and Williams, 2014, p. 8-11). Regional cohesion in the Caribbean is a recent concept and a so-called postcolonial solution informed by a colonial past and present. Studying language attitudes that Barbadians have towards speakers from groups in the region, derived from semantic differential surveys and qualitative interviews conducted at the multinational campus of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill in Barbados, allows for an understanding of how Barbadian university students reflect on language as a marker of regional vs. national identity and the role of labor migration in the contemporary Caribbean. Further, perceived language attitudes may corroborate narratives of social anxiety surrounding labor migration in Barbados.
Effect of N‐nitrosodimethylamine on inducible nitric oxide synthase expression and production of nitric oxide by neutrophils and mononuclear cells: the role of JNK signalling pathway

Ratajczak‐Wrona W, Jablonska E, Garley M, Jablonski J, Radziwon P. Effect of N‐nitrosodimethylamine on inducible nitric oxide synthase expression and production of nitric oxide by neutrophils and mononuclear cells: the role of JNK signalling pathway, APMIS 2011; 119: 431–41.
Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Via Nasogastric Tube for Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection in Pediatric Patients

ABSTRACT Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a safe and effective therapy for adults with recurrent Clostridium difficile colitis, but data regarding FMT in children are limited and focus on colonoscopic administration of FMT. We present 10 consecutive children who received FMT via nasogastric tube for treatment of recurrent C difficile infection. Median age was 5.4 years, and 30% were receiving simultaneous immunosuppression. Median follow-up was 44 days, and 90% of patients resolved their C difficile infection; one patient relapsed 2 months later after receiving antibiotics. FMT via nasogastric tube appears safe, well tolerated, and effective in treating pediatric recurrent C difficile colitis.
Phenotype-genotype correlations in a series of wolfram syndrome families.

OBJECTIVE Wolfram syndrome is an extremely rare autosomal-recessive disorder that predisposes the development of type 1 diabetes in association with progressive optic atrophy. The genetic basis of this disease has been shown to be due to mutations in the WFS1 gene. The WFS1 gene encodes a novel transmembrane protein called wolframin, which recent evidence suggests may serve as a novel endoplasmic reticulum calcium channel in pancreatic beta-cells and neurons. Genotype-phenotype correlations in this syndrome are becoming apparent and may help in explaining some of the variable characteristics observed in this disease. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In this report, we have studied 13 patients with Wolfram syndrome from nine families to further define the relationship between mutation site and type with specific disease characteristics. RESULTS A severe phenotype was seen in patients with mutations in exon 4 and with a large deletion encompassing most of exon 8. In total, nine novel mutations were identified as well as three new silent polymorphisms. CONCLUSIONS Similar to all other mutation reports, most causative changes identified in the WFS1 gene occurred in exon 8, and only one was identified outside this region in exon 4.
A framework to support managerial activities using office information systems

A broad discussion is presented of the problems and issues involved in the development of integrated office systems to support higher-level tasks of managers. The authors provide conceptual integration by establishing a framework for the office activities of managers. They discuss the technological integration of disparate office systems through architecture and design of an integrated office information system (IOIS). The IOIS described was developed from the integration of four IOISs at the University of Arizona: the integrated spreadsheet-based inferencing systems (ISBIS); Plexsys planning software (Plexware); the Resource Management Expert (RME); and an intelligent mail system (AIMAIL). <<ETX>>
Modeling of the structure of the Haemophilus influenzae heme‐binding protein suggests a mode of heme interaction

The structure and function of the periplasmic heme‐binding protein HbpA of Haemophilus influenzae were investigated. This protein is involved in the import of heme into the bacteria through the inner membrane, and thus is a key element of the organism's ability to survive in blood. A high degree of sequence similarity between HbpA and the dipeptide‐binding protein of Escherichia coli is suggested to be the result of a functional relationship. An HbpA model built using the dipeptide‐binding protein suggests a mode of heme binding that is distinct from those known in proteins of the human host. These results provide a starting point for rational drug design.
An adult with childhood medical trauma treated with psychoanalytic psychotherapy and EMDR: a case study.

PROBLEM Adverse childhood experiences have been found to be a strong predictor of emotional and physical problems in adulthood. However, the long-term sequelae for children who have suffered critical illness and exposure to invasive medical procedures are less well documented. METHODS This is a case study of an adult client who sought treatment for depression and attention deficit disorder. The psychotherapy treatment is discussed and the use of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) is described targeting a memory of a medical trauma resulting from a tonsillectomy when the client was 8 years old. CONCLUSIONS Significant healing outcomes were attained as a result of the therapy, i.e., decreased depression, less hypervigilance, and increased ability to concentrate, which resulted in the discontinuation of medication for depression and ADHD as well as significant improvement in overall functioning.
Hyperglycemia and Mortality Among Patients With Coronary Artery Disease

OBJECTIVE Known diabetes is an independent predictor for mortality in coronary artery disease (CAD) patients; however, whether other glucose abnormalities are associated with death risk in CAD patients is unclear. The goal of this study was to examine the association between different glucose states and the risks of all-cause and cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality among CAD patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS The study cohort included 1,726 CAD patients who were 40–85 years of age in the Guangdong Coronary Artery Disease Cohort. Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to estimate the association of baseline glucose status with risk of mortality. RESULTS During a median follow-up of 3.1 years, 129 deaths were recorded, 109 of which were due to CVD. The multivariable-adjusted (age; sex; education; marriage; leisure-time physical activity; smoking; alcohol drinking; BMI; systolic blood pressure; total and HDL cholesterol; glomerular filtration rate; type, severity, duration, and treatment of CAD; history of heart failure; and use of antihypertensive, cholesterol-lowering, and antiplatelet drugs) hazard ratios in normoglycemia, impaired glucose regulation (IGR), newly diagnosed diabetes, and known diabetes were 1.00, 1.58 (95% CI 0.90–2.77), 2.41 (1.42–4.11), and 2.29 (1.36–3.84) for all-cause mortality and 1.00, 1.89 (1.01–3.54), 2.74 (1.50–5.01), and 2.73 (1.52–4.91) for CVD mortality. Assessing fasting plasma glucose only, impaired fasting glucose and newly diagnosed and known diabetes were also associated with increased risks of all-cause and CVD mortality compared with normoglycemia. CONCLUSIONS CAD patients with IGR, newly diagnosed diabetes, and known diabetes have increased risk of CVD mortality.
Comparison of anchorage capacity between implant and headgear during anterior segment retraction.

OBJECTIVE To compare the anchorage effects of the implants and the headgear for patients with anterior teeth retraction in terms of incisor retraction, anchorage loss, inclination of maxillary incisors, positional change of maxillary basal bone, and treatment duration. MATERIALS AND METHODS An electronic search for relative randomized controlled trials (RCTs) prospective and retrospective controlled trials was done through the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), PubMed, Embase, Medline, and CNKI, regardless of language of study. Study selection, methodological quality assessment, and data extraction were performed by two reviewers independently. Meta-analysis was performed when possible; otherwise descriptive assessment was done. RESULTS The search yielded 35 articles, of which eight met the inclusion criteria and were categorized into five groups according to types of intervention. For the midpalatal implant, the anchorage loss was much less than for the headgear group, with insignificant differences in terms of anterior teeth retraction, maxillary incisor inclination, positional change of basal bone, and treatment duration. For the mini-implant, greater anterior teeth retraction and less anchorage loss were demonstrated, with inconsistent results for the other measures. For the onplant, less anchorage loss was noted, with insignificant differences for the other measures. CONCLUSIONS The skeletal anchorage of the midpalatal implant, mini-implant, and onplant offer better alternatives to headgear, with less anchorage loss and more anterior teeth retraction. There were inconsistent results from the included studies in terms of maxillary incisor inclination, positional change of maxillary basal bone, and treatment duration. More qualified RCTs are required to provide clear recommendations.
Rectal electrolyte transport and mucosal permeability in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.

Abstract The inflamed rectal stump of 11 patients who had undergone complete colectomy for proximal inflammatory bowel disease was perfused in situ with isotonic sodium chloride solutions or isotonic mixtures of saline, potassium, and bicarbonate. The results were compared with the findings in 6 healthy subjects. Unidirectional fluxes of sodium and the net fluxes of sodium, chloride, potassium, bicarbonate, and water were determined in both groups, whereas estimations of the diffusional permeability coefficient of urea, fructose, 51 Cr-EDTA (ethylene diaminetetra-acetic acid), 57 Co-vitamin B 12 , and 125 I-PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone) were made in the patients only. The mean absorptive capacity for sodium, chloride, and water was significantly increased in the group of patients, but the electrolyte transfer in one patient, who was in complete remission, did not seem to be different from that of control subjects. The pattern of electrolyte transport in inflammatory bowel disease was the same as that found in the normal rectum and colon. Thus, net water transport was dependent on net sodium absorption, while the bicarbonate secretion balanced the chloride ions absorbed in excess of sodium. Potassium was secreted into the rectal lumen, even when the luminal concentration exceeded that of blood. The mucosa-to-serosa flux of sodium was significantly reduced, but a decreased sodium flux ratio found in patients with active disease was, however, above all due to an increased serosa-to-mucosa flux of sodium suggesting that the defective absorption might be primarily due to the fact that sodium already "pumped" leaks out into the gut lumen. The concept of increased permeability of the epithelium in active disease is supported by the findings of a relatively constant relationship between the diffusional permeability coefficients of the named uncharged hydrophilic solutes and their respective free diffusion coefficients in water.
Inverted Residuals and Linear Bottlenecks: Mobile Networks for Classification, Detection and Segmentation

In this paper we describe a new mobile architecture, MobileNetV2, that improves the state of the art performance of mobile models on multiple tasks and benchmarks as well as across a spectrum of different model sizes. We also describe efficient ways of applying these mobile models to object detection in a novel framework we call SSDLite. Additionally, we demonstrate how to build mobile semantic segmentation models through a reduced form of DeepLabv3 which we call Mobile DeepLabv3. The MobileNetV2 architecture is based on an inverted residual structure where the input and output of the residual block are thin bottleneck layers opposite to traditional residual models which use expanded representations in the input an MobileNetV2 uses lightweight depthwise convolutions to filter features in the intermediate expansion layer. Additionally, we find that it is important to remove non-linearities in the narrow layers in order to maintain representational power. We demonstrate that this improves performance and provide an intuition that led to this design. Finally, our approach allows decoupling of the input/output domains from the expressiveness of the transformation, which provides a convenient framework for further analysis. We measure our performance on Imagenet classification, COCO object detection, VOC image segmentation. We evaluate the trade-offs between accuracy, and number of operations measured by multiply-adds (MAdd), as well as the number of parameters