Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparability of Self-Collected Vaginal Swabs and Physician-Collected Cervical Swabs for Detection of Human Papillomavirus Infections in Rakai, Uganda

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA testing between self-administered vaginal swabs and physician-administered cervical swabs in women from rural Rakai District, Uganda. Study Design: Between 2002 and 2003, women from a population-based cohort participated in an HPV study. Women collected self-administered vaginal swabs and were also offered a pelvic examination, which included physician-collected cervical samples. Methods: Hybrid-capture 2 was used to determine carcinogenic HPV status. Polymerase chain reaction was used to determine HPV genotypes. Unweighted &kgr; statistics were used to determine agreement. Results: Compliance with self-collected swabs was ≥86%; however, only 51% accepted a pelvic examination. Carcinogenic HPV prevalence was 19% in self-collected and 19% in physician-collected samples. Agreement among paired observations was 92% with a &kgr; of 0.75. Kappa between self- and physician-collected samples was similar in HIV strata (k = 0.71 and 0.75 for HIV-positive and HIV-negative, respectively). Discussion: In this community-based setting, detection of carcinogenic HPV was comparable among self- and physician-administered samples. Self-collection is a feasible and accurate means of obtaining HPV samples from women in resource-poor settings or persons reluctant to undergo a pelvic examination.
Experimental charge density in the transition metal complex Mn(2)(CO)(10): a comparative study.

An accurate experimental charge density study at 100 K of Mn(2)(CO)(10) [bis(pentacarbonylmanganese)(Mn-Mn)] has been undertaken. A comparison with previously reported structural determinations reveals no evidence for significant Mn-Mn bond lengthening between 100 and 296 K. The nature of the metal-metal and metal-ligand atom interactions has been studied by topological analysis using the Atoms in Molecules (AIM) approach of Bader [(1990), Atoms in Molecules: a Quantum Theory.Oxford: Clarendon Press]. An analysis of the density rho(r), the Laplacian of the density nabla (2)rho(r(b)) and the total energy densities H(r(b)) at the bond critical points is used to classify all the chemical bonds as covalent in nature. The results are compared qualitatively and quantitatively with previous charge density studies on this molecule and DFT calculations at the 6-311+G* B3LYP level. The topological properties of the theoretical and experimental densities are in close agreement.
Associations between vitamin D, disease activity, and clinical response to therapy in rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVES Vitamin D deficiency is a potential risk factor for autoimmunity. Prior studies of the association between vitamin D levels and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) disease activity have yielded conflicting results. METHODS Serum 25(OH)vitamin D levels were measured at baseline in 499 participants with active RA, ages 18-85 years, enrolled in a randomised clinical trial of golimumab (Go-Before Trial). Subjects were methotrexate and biologic therapy naïve. Multivariable linear regression was used to assess associations between vitamin D levels and disease activity scores (DAS28), van der Heijde-Sharp (vdHS) erosion scores, and serum inflammatory markers. Generalised estimating equations were used to evaluate the associations between vitamin D status and the response to therapy over 52 weeks, using the DAS28 and ACR response. RESULTS Forty-eight percent of participants were vitamin D deficient, defined as serum 25(OH)vitamin D <20 ng/mL. Deficiency was not associated with greater DAS28 (β-0.021 [95% CI -0.22, 0.18]), adjusted for age, race, sex, BMI, disease duration and glomerular filtration rate. Vitamin D deficiency was not associated with baseline vdHS scores or inflammatory markers in adjusted or unadjusted models. There was no association between baseline vitamin D deficiency and change in DAS28 (β = -0.024 [-0.30, 0.25]), proportion meeting ACR response (OR 0.82 [0.56, 1.20]), or radiographic progression at 52 weeks (OR 0.91 [0.59-1.40]). CONCLUSIONS Vitamin D levels were not associated with RA disease activity, inflammatory markers, or vdHS scores at baseline. Furthermore, there was no association between baseline vitamin D level and response to therapy or radiographic progression.
Clomipramine, a better reference drug for panic/agoraphobia. I. Effectiveness comparison with imipramine

An 8-week, double-blind, flexible-dose trial comparing low doses of clomipramine (mean=50 mg) with moderate doses of imipramine (mean=113.8 mg and propanteline (active placebo), was carried out in 60 out-patients with panic disorder with or without agoraphobia. Efficacy evaluation included global, anxiety and depression rating scales, and the determination of rates of relapse over up to 10 weeks of single-blind placebo follow-up. Both tricyclics were significantly more effective than propanteline, but clomipramine tended to act faster and more consistently than imipramine on most measures. Given the degree of blindness achieved and the significantly lower doses of clomipramine, this seems a better reference drug than imipramine for clinical trials in panic/agoraphobia.
The effects of habitat fragmentation via forestry plantation establishment on spatial genotypic structure in the small marsupial carnivore, Antechinus agilis

Dispersal is an important influence on species’ distributions, patch colonization and population persistence in fragmented habitat. We studied the impacts of habitat fragmentation resulting from establishment of an exotic pine plantation on dispersal of the marsupial carnivore, Antechinus agilis. We applied spatial analyses of individual multilocus microsatellite genotypes and mitochondrial haplotypes to study patterns of gene flow in fragmented habitat and natural habitat ‘control’ areas, and how this is affected by the spatial dispersion of habitat patches, the presence of corridors and a ‘mainland’ source of migrants. Spatial analysis of molecular variance and partial Mantel tests confirmed the absence of cryptic barriers to gene flow in continuous habitat, which if present would confound the comparison of genetic structures in fragmented vs. unfragmented habitats. Spatial genotypic structure suggested that although dispersal was male‐biased in both habitat types, fragmentation restricted dispersal of males more than that of females and the degree of restriction of male dispersal was dependent on the geographical isolation of the patch. The scale of positive genotypic structure in fragmented habitat was restricted to the two closest patches for females and the three closest patches for males. Our results provide evidence for significantly increased gene flow through habitat corridors relative to that across the matrix and for significantly lower gene flow between ‘mainland’ unfragmented habitat and habitat patches relative to that within either habitat type, suggesting a behavioural barrier to crossing habitat interfaces.
The kinetic mechanism of bacterial ribosome recycling

Abstract Bacterial ribosome recycling requires breakdown of the post-termination complex (PoTC), comprising a messenger RNA (mRNA) and an uncharged transfer RNA (tRNA) cognate to the terminal mRNA codon bound to the 70S ribosome. The translation factors, elongation factor G and ribosome recycling factor, are known to be required for recycling, but there is controversy concerning whether these factors act primarily to effect the release of mRNA and tRNA from the ribosome, with the splitting of the ribosome into subunits being somewhat dispensable, or whether their main function is to catalyze the splitting reaction, which necessarily precedes mRNA and tRNA release. Here, we utilize three assays directly measuring the rates of mRNA and tRNA release and of ribosome splitting in several model PoTCs. Our results largely reconcile these previously held views. We demonstrate that, in the absence of an upstream Shine–Dalgarno (SD) sequence, PoTC breakdown proceeds in the order: mRNA release followed by tRNA release and then by 70S splitting. By contrast, in the presence of an SD sequence all three processes proceed with identical apparent rates, with the splitting step likely being rate-determining. Our results are consistent with ribosome profiling results demonstrating the influence of upstream SD-like sequences on ribosome occupancy at or just before the mRNA stop codon.
Quality of Care and Interhospital Collaboration: A Study of Patient Transfers in Italy

Objectives:We examine the dynamics of patient-sharing relations within an Italian regional community of 35 hospitals serving approximately 1,300,000 people. We test whether interorganizational relations provide individual patients access to higher quality providers of care. Research Design and Methods:We reconstruct the complete temporal sequence of the 3461 consecutive interhospital patient-sharing events observed between each pair of hospitals in the community during 2005–2008. We distinguish between transfers occurring between and within different medical specialties. We estimate newly derived models for relational event sequences that allow us to control for the most common forms of network-like dependencies that are known to characterize collaborative relations between hospitals. We use 45-day risk-adjusted readmission rate as a proxy for hospital quality. Results:After controls (eg, geographical distance, size, and the existence of prior collaborative relations), we find that patients flow from less to more capable hospitals. We show that this result holds for patient being shared both between as well as within medical specialties. Nonetheless there are strong and persistent other organizational and relational effects driving transfers. Conclusions:Decentralized patient-sharing decisions taken by the 35 hospitals give rise to a system of collaborative interorganizational arrangements that allow the patient to access hospitals delivering a higher quality of care. This result is relevant for health care policy because it suggests that collaborative relations between hospitals may produce desirable outcomes both for individual patients, and for regional health care systems.
Experiments on coreference resolution for Indonesian language with lexical and shallow syntactic features

We built Indonesian coreference resolution that solves not only pronoun referenced to proper noun, but also proper noun to proper noun and pronoun to pronoun. The differences with the available Indonesian coreference resolution lay on the problem scope and features. We conducted experiments using various features (lexical and shallow syntactic features) such as appositive feature, nearest candidate feature, direct sentence feature, previous and next word feature, and a lexical feature of first person. We also modified the method to build the training set by selecting the negative examples by cross pairing every single markable that appear between antecedent and anaphor. Compared with two available methods to build the training set, we conducted experiments using C45 algorithm. Using 200 news sentences, the best experiment achieved 71.6% F-Measure score.
Dydrogesterone and norethisterone regulate expression of lipoprotein lipase and hormone‐sensitive lipase in human subcutaneous abdominal adipocytes

Aim: In premenopausal women, hyperandrogenicity is associated with central obesity and an increased cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dydrogesterone (DYD) (a non‐androgenic progestogen) and norethisterone (NET) (an androgenic progestogen) on lipoprotein lipase (LPL), hormone‐sensitive lipase (HSL) and glycerol release in adipocytes isolated from subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue.
Accelerated Transformation by Polyoma Virus in Rat Embryo Cells Infected with Rauscher Leukemia Virus 1

Summary Transformation of the established cell lines of Rauscher leukemia virus (RLV)-infected and uninfected rat embryo cells by polyoma virus is reported. Transformation was evidenced by morphological changes and presence of polyoma “T” antigens by means of complement-fixation test and fluorescent antibody staining technique. Increased transformation efficiency of polyoma virus was observed in rat embryo cells infected with RLV.
Orbital blowout fractures — the influence of age on surgical outcome

Abstract We report the frequency of troublesome diplopia in 17 patients (11 patients ≤ 21 years) who underwent surgical repair of traumatic orbital blowout fractures. Thirteen patients had primary surgery performed within 21 days of injury, 2 patients at 4 and 6 weeks and 2 cases at 6 and 24 months. The latter continues to complain of diplopia. Contrary to previous studies, we found that young patients were no more likely to suffer from symptomatic post‐operative residual diplopia than their adult counterparts.
Prospective randomized study of the benefits of preoperative corticosteroid administration on hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury and cytokine response in patients undergoing hepatic resection.

BACKGROUND Hepatic injury secondary to warm ischemia and reperfusion (I/R) remains an important clinical issue following liver surgery. The aim of this prospective, randomized study was to determine whether steroid administration may reduce liver injury and improve short-term outcome. PATIENTS AND METHODS Forty-three patients undergoing liver resection were randomized to a steroid group or a control group. Patients in the steroid group received 500 mg of methylprednisolone preoperatively. Serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), total bilirubin, anti-thrombin III (AT-III), prothrombin time (PT), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) were compared between the two groups. Length of stay and type and number of complications were recorded. RESULTS Postoperative serum levels of ALT, AST, total bilirubin, and inflammatory cytokines were significantly lower in the steroid group than in controls. The postoperative level of AT-III in the control group was significantly lower than in the steroid group (ANOVA p < 0.01). The incidence of postoperative complications in the control group tended to be significantly higher than that in the steroid group. CONCLUSION These results suggest that steroid pretreatment represents a potentially important biologic modifier of I/R injury and may contribute to maintenance of coagulant/anticoagulant homeostasis.
Variation in IH, IIR, and ILEAK between acutely isolated adult rat dorsal root ganglion neurons of different size.

1. The distribution of IH, IIR, and ILEAK was studied in different diameter rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neuron cell bodies (neurons). DRG neurons were studied in three diameter ranges: small (19-27 microns), medium (33-37 microns), and large (44-54 microns). IH was defined as a slowly activating inward current evoked by hyperpolarizing voltage steps from a holding potential (HP) of -60 mV, and blocked by 1 mM Cs2+ but not 1 mM Ba2+. Inward rectifier current (IIR) was defined as a rapidly activating current evoked by hyperpolarizations from HP -60 mV, which rectified inwardly around the reversal potential for potassium (EK), and was completely blocked by 100 microM Ba2+. ILEAK was defined as an outward resting current at HP -60 mV, which did not rectify and was blocked by 100 microM Ba2+ but not by 2 mM Cs+. 2. IH was observed in 23 of 23 large, 11 of 12 medium, and in 9 of 20 small diameter DRG neurons tested. Peak IH normalized to membrane surface area was significantly greater in large than in medium or small diameter DRG neurons expressing IH. All neurons exhibiting IH under voltage clamp conditions had short duration action potentials and exhibited time-dependent rectification under current clamp conditions, properties similar to A-type DRG neurons. The 11 small diameter neurons not expressing IH had long duration action potentials and did not exhibit time-dependent rectification, properties similar to C-type DRG neurons. 3. IIR was detected in 18 of 22 medium diameter neurons tested. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Links between fertility regulation and the schooling and autonomy of women in Bangladesh.

This book chapter provides an analysis of whether or not womens exposure to formal schooling enhances their autonomy in domestic decision making as measured by freedom of movement outside the household and participation in domestic and reproductive decisions. The analysis assesses the effects of schooling and autonomy on contraceptive usage. Data were obtained from the 1989 Bangladesh Fertility Survey among a nationally representative sample of ever married women aged 15-49 years. A principle components analysis is performed for four domestic decision making realms and eight mobility items. The decision making and mobility items were reasonably independent of each other and of schooling and socioeconomic status. The dependent variables are: current use of modern reversible method; sterilized for contraceptive purposes; use of a traditional method; and use of no method. Findings indicate that there was an increase in self-reported mobility and decision making scores for every increase in educational level from none to primary educated to secondary or higher educated. Maternal education was a strong predictor in the multinomial logistic regression of both autonomy measures after controlling for urban-rural residence region age and socioeconomic status. Schooling had a large and statistically significant effect on traditional and modern reversible contraceptive use. Schooling was not statistically significantly related to sterilization. More educated women were less likely to be sterilized. Under 50% of the influence of schooling on the use of modern reversible contraception was related to factors associated with schooling. After controls for schooling residence and other factors there was a highly statistically significant difference between highly mobile women and less autonomous women. The link between domestic decision making and modern contraception was almost as strong as for mobility. The impact of autonomy on sterilization was "less decisive. "
Induction of Acute Lung Injury after Intranasal Administration of Toxin Botulinum A Complex

The inhalation of aerozolized botulinum toxin may represent a potential significant hazard to both military and civilian personnel. Since the lung is the primary target organ for inhaled toxin, the investigation reported herein was conducted to examine lung function in mice exposed to botulinum toxin A complex by intranasal route. Data includes lethality, symptomatology, measurement of respiratory function (minute ventilation, respiratory frequency, and tidal volume), and histopathology of the lungs. The clinical signs of intoxication are similar to those observed in foodborne botulism. Plethysmography revealed severe impairment of all respiratory parameters tested from 7 hours postexposure. Severe lung lesions, possibly secondary to the intoxication, were observed in mice who survived 14 days after the toxin challenge. These included intra-alveolar hemorrhage and interstitial edema. Mice immunized by the pentavalent (ABCDE) toxoid were protected against the neurotoxin (4 LD50) as revealed by the decrease of lethality and severity of nervous signs of intoxication, but not against histopathological changes in the lungs. These effects are nonspecific and require further experiments in order to specify the relationships between the pathology and the inflammatory process in the lung due to mediators such as cytokines, and possibly permanent physiological sequelae.
Comparing the compliance to a short schedule of subcutaneous immunotherapy and to sublingual immunotherapy during three years of treatment.

BACKGROUND Allergen immunotherapy (AIT) in its two forms of subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) and sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) is an effective treatment of respiratory allergy, but is particularly concerned by the issue of compliance. OBJECTIVE We aimed a real-life study at evaluating the compliance to SLIT and to SCIT administered by a short-course of four injections during a 3-year period of observation. METHODS A group of 145 patients (79 males, 66 females, age ranging from 14 to 69 years), suffering from pollen-induced rhino-conjunctivitis with or without asthma, were included in the study. Following adequate education on AIT and according to patient's preference, 72 patients chose to be treated with short-course SCIT and 73 chose to be treated with SLIT. The latter was performed by allergen extracts from different manufacturers according to the suggested schedules. RESULTS The rate of withdrawal was as follows: after one year, 15.6% for SCIT and 33.4 for SLIT; after two years, 25.6% for SCIT and 44.8% for SLIT; after three years, 26.7 for SCIT and 46% for SLIT. There was no significant difference in the rate of withdrawal between males and females. Regarding the safety, no systemic reaction requiring medical treatment was observed either in SCIT or SLIT group. CONCLUSION The findings of this study confirm that involving the patient in the choice of the route of administration is associated to a satisfactory compliance to AIT. In particular, more than 70% of patients treated with a short schedule of SCIT completed the three-years course of treatment that is recommended for AIT, while this goal was reached by 54% of SLIT treated patients.
Risk Factors for Venous Thromboembolism in Patients with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

Prevention and treatment of venous thromboembolism are gaining attention in the lay and medical communities because of an increase in frequency, cost, and risk factors. Evidence shows that patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) have multiple risk factors and a 2–10‐fold increased risk for venous thromboembolism compared with the general population. A higher rate of venous thromboembolism also occurs in patients with HIV who are younger than 50 years (3.31% vs 0.53% in age‐matched healthy controls, p<0.0001), have a CD4+ cell count less than 200 cells/mm3, or have a diagnosis of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Both protein S and C deficiencies—disorders that may predispose individuals to thrombotic disease—are considered risk factors; in addition, the use of protease inhibitors and the presence of active opportunistic infections or antiphospholipid antibodies may be associated with venous thromboembolism. It is imperative that all risk factors for venous thromboembolism be identified and incorporated into medical decision making for high‐risk patients, including those with HIV. The classification and mechanism of these risk factors are not well understood. Long‐term, prospective studies assessing the factors associated with venous thromboembolism in patients with HIV are needed. Risk stratification systems or screening tools, as well as effective preventive measures, must be developed.