Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diabetes, fasting blood glucose and age-related cataract: the Blue Mountains Eye Study

AIMS. To examine the relationship between diabetes and the presence of cortical, nuclear and posterior subcapsular (PSC) cataract in a defined older population, while controlling for known cataract risk factors. METHODS. Slit-lamp and retroillumination lens photographs were taken on 3654 participants attending the population-based Blue Mountains Eye Study during 1992-94. Masked grading of the photographs was performed using the Wisconsin Cataract Grading System. RESULTS. 217 subjects (5.9% of the population) had previously diagnosed diabetes and 66 (1.8%) had diabetes diagnosed from fasting blood glucose measurements. Cortical cataract, PSC and past cataract surgery were associated with known diabetes in age-sex adjusted models. However, only PSC (odds ratio (OR) 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-3.1) and past cataract surgery (OR 2.5, CI 1.5-4.2) remained statistically significantly associated with diabetes after further adjustment for other known cataract risk factors. Increasing therapy, as an index of diabetes severity (oral or insulin treatment, compared to treatment by diet alone), was associated with a markedly increased risk of PSC (OR 5.4). CONCLUSIONS. These findings support previous research showing that diabetes has a harmful effect on the lens. The markedly increased risk for PSC may also have been reflected in the association found between diabetes and past cataract surgery. Contrary to findings from the Beaver Dam Eye Study, we found only a weak association with cortical cataract, which was not statistically significant after adjusting for other known cataract risk factors.
The gut microbiome restores intrinsic and extrinsic nerve function in germ‐free mice accompanied by changes in calbindin

The microbiome is essential for normal myenteric intrinsic primary afferent neuron (IPAN) excitability. These neurons control gut motility and modulate gut–brain signaling by exciting extrinsic afferent fibers innervating the enteric nervous system via an IPAN to extrinsic fiber sensory synapse. We investigated effects of germ‐free (GF) status and conventionalization on extrinsic sensory fiber discharge in the mesenteric nerve bundle and IPAN electrophysiology, and compared these findings with those from specific pathogen‐free (SPF) mice. As we have previously shown that the IPAN calcium‐dependent slow afterhyperpolarization (sAHP) is enhanced in GF mice, we also examined the expression of the calcium‐binding protein calbindin in these neurons in these different animal groups.
Information technology in SMEs private healthcare

This research intents to study Information Technology (IT) utilization and business strategy at small, medium and enterprise (SMEs) private clinics in Malaysia. The research includes investigating the SMEs private clinics staff literacy level, IT utilization, their perception towards computerized system and their type of business strategy. Surveys have been conducted at 120 SMEs private clinics around Perak. The objective of this paper is to report on the research progress which briefly covers descriptive data analysis and result from data collection. Generally, most of SMEs private clinics have computer with internet access installed in their clinics but utilization is limited to their personal used only. It is also found that very small number of the SMEs having paperless system
Punding and dyskinesias

The presence of punding in Parkinson's disease (PD) has been associated with inappropriate excessive use of dopaminergic medication but its relation to the severity of dyskinesias is not known. Through the use of clinical examination and medical chart review, the presence of punding and the severity of interdose dyskinesias were evaluated by two different observers. Punding was associated with more frequent interventions to reduce dyskinesias and with greater dyskinesia severity. We suggest the neural systems mediating the expression of dyskinesias and punding might overlap and that punding should be looked for systematically in PD patients presenting with disabling severe dyskinesias. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society
A Theory of Classroom Assessment and Teacher Practice in Mathematics.

The theoretical and practice-based framework is presented for a study that explored the effect of teachers' use of alternative assessment on their mathematics teaching.A model for the impact of alternative assessment on teacher knowledge and classroom teaching processes is proposed, building on work by E. Fennema and M. L. Franke (1992) and P. L. Peterson (1988). A research study to test the model is described, including a description of the coursework provided and a discussion of the methodology and data sources. Subjects were 17 female teachers and 1 male teacher (4 African Americans and 14 Whites) in grades 4 through 10. In addition to data from observations of teachers, results from informal data are presented, including class notes, teacher-made tests, and summaries written by the teachers describing assessment strategies. These data, along with those from observations and student reports, provide evidence that knowledge and use of alternative assessments did help mathematics teachers change their teaching strategies to reflect approaches shown by research to result in higher order thinking. One table gives a sample course syllabus, and one figure illustrates teacher concepts. (Authot/SLD) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educationai Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or orgarnatron originating it Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality Points of view or optnions stated in this docu. ment do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy "PERMIbe,ON TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
Transcriptome of Atoh7 retinal progenitor cells identifies new Atoh7‐dependent regulatory genes for retinal ganglion cell formation

The bHLH transcription factor ATOH7 (Math5) is essential for establishing retinal ganglion cell (RGC) fate. However, Atoh7‐expressing retinal progenitor cells (RPCs) can give rise to all retinal cell types, suggesting that other factors are involved in specifying RGCs. The basis by which a subpopulation of Atoh7‐expressing RPCs commits to an RGC fate remains uncertain but is of critical importance to retinal development since RGCs are the earliest cell type to differentiate. To better understand the regulatory mechanisms leading to cell‐fate specification, a binary genetic system was generated to specifically label Atoh7‐expressing cells with green fluorescent protein (GFP). Fluorescence‐activated cell sorting (FACS)‐purified GFP+ and GFP− cells were profiled by RNA‐seq. Here, we identify 1497 transcripts that were differentially expressed between the two RPC populations. Pathway analysis revealed diminished growth factor signaling in Atoh7‐expressing RPCs, indicating that these cells had exited the cell cycle. In contrast, axon guidance signals were enriched, suggesting that axons of Atoh7‐expressing RPCs were already making synaptic connections. Notably, many genes enriched in Atoh7‐expressing RPCs encoded transcriptional regulators, and several were direct targets of ATOH7, including, and unexpectedly, Ebf3 and Eya2. We present evidence for a Pax6‐Atoh7‐Eya2 pathway that acts downstream of Atoh7 but upstream of differentiation factor Pou4f2. EYA2 is a protein phosphatase involved in protein–protein interactions and posttranslational regulation. These properties, along with Eya2 as an early target gene of ATOH7, suggest that EYA2 functions in RGC specification. Our results expand current knowledge of the regulatory networks operating in Atoh7‐expressing RPCs and offer new directions for exploring the earliest aspects of retinogenesis. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 74: 1123–1140, 2014
Dioecy in Plants – Is It an Important Factor for Phytochemists to Consider?

Abstract Plants with separate male and female flowers are termed dioecious. Dioecy is not rare, yet is a characteristic that could potentially impact the phytochemical and subsequent pharmacological properties of a species. This is a brief insight which highlights why the sex of the plant might be an important factor to consider for researchers within phytochemistry related fields.
Environmental risk factors for breast cancer among African‐American women

There are few unequivocably established environmental carcinogens for breast cancer in women. Nevertheless, environmental factors are believed to explain much of the international variation in breast cancer risk and possibly differences among racial/ethnic groups. Along with lifestyle, some adverse exposures may be higher in minority racial/ethnic groups and in underserved populations that experience higher ambient contamination. Associations have been found between environmental agents and breast cancer in subgroups of women who can be identified by common susceptibility traits as well as by timing of exposures at certain milestones of reproductive life. Susceptibility can be defined by social, environmental, and genetic modalities–factors that may predominate in certain racial/ethnic groups but that also transcend racial/ethnic boundaries. For example, genes involved in transcription and estrogen metabolism have rapid variants that are more prevalent among African‐Americans, yet risk accompanying metabolic changes from these genes will prevail in all racial/ethnic groups. Lack of reliable exposure assessment remains a principal obstacle to elucidating the role of environmental exposures in breast cancer. Resources must be identified and consolidated that will enable scientists to improve exposure assessment and to assemble studies of sufficient size to address questions regarding exposure, susceptibility, and vulnerability factors in breast cancer. Breast cancer studies should be expanded to examine combinations of chemicals as well as competing or complementary exposures such as endogenous hormones, dietary intake, and behavioral factors. Cancer 2003;97(1 Suppl):289–310. © 2003 American Cancer Society.
Convenient, clean, and efficient?: the experiential costs of everyday automation

Automation permeates everyday life in the disguise of fully-automated coffee makers, dishwashers, or self-driving cars. While being convenient, such automation may have detrimental effects on the experience gained through the (semi-)automated activity. This paper argues to be more sensitive to the experiential costs of everyday automation. To this end, it provides an in-depth quantitative and qualitative comparison of a more automated and a more manual way of brewing coffee. Brewing coffee manually was more positive and more need fulfilling. This was due to the more intense experience of competence and stimulation. Automation focused people on the outcome. The process became meaningless, degraded to "waiting time. " Overall, the experience became "flat", significantly less meaningful and enjoyable, but also less demanding. Automation turned a potentially experience-rich activity into something less satisfactory for the sake of convenience. Since we believe that technology should make everyday activities experientially richer rather than "designing them away," we discuss the emerging challenges for an experiential design of everyday automation.
Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems ( PACIS ) 2015 Investigating the Formation of Information Security Climate Perceptions with Social Network Analysis : A Research Proposal

Over the past years, a large amount of studies has advanced knowledge that explains how individuals react to information security cues and why they are motivated to perform secure practices. Nevertheless, those studies predominantly set their focus on the adoption of secure practices at an individual level; therefore they were unable to analyse such adoption at the higher level. As a consequence, the formation and dissemination processes of information security perceptions were overlooked despite their importance. Understanding those processes would inform methods to distribute effectively desirable information security perceptions within the workplace, while potentially explaining why in some cases implementation of information security measures was not successful at changing the employees’ beliefs and behaviours. The first part of this paper reviews the concept of information security climate that emerge from the individual’s interactions with the work environment, which has been under researched and investigated inconsistently. The second part begins with discussing the influence mechanisms that could disseminate information security climate perceptions, then suggests the adoption of social network analysis techniques to analyse those mechanisms. As a result, the paper forwards an integrated framework about information security climate perceptions, as well as proposes a research agenda for future investigations on how those perceptions could be formed and disseminated within the workplace.
Airborne dual-Doppler observations of an intense frontal system approaching the Pacific Northwest Coast

Airborne Doppler radar data, collected off the Pacific Northwest coast by a NOAA WP-3D Orion aircraft over an 8-h period on 8 December 1993 during the Coastal Observations and Simulations with Topography experiment, reveal the mesoscale structure of an intense frontal system while it was well offshore and as it approached within 20 km of the Oregon coastline. During the offshore stage, a portion of the narrow coldfrontal rainband was characterized by deep convective cores. Pseudo-dual-Doppler analyses characterize the kinematic and precipitation structure of the deep convection. Pseudo-dual-Doppler analyses describe the subsequent evolution of the narrow cold-frontal rainband as it approached to within 20 km of the Oregon coast. Deformation of the frontal zone appeared to cause the dissipation of one of three precipitation cores contained within the dual-Doppler area. The precipitation cores and the strong convergence zone associated with the front conformed to some degree to the shape of the coastline near Cape Blanco, Oregon, as the front neared the coast. Changes in the prefrontal flow that occurred as the front approached the coast were qualitatively consistent with theoretical and numerical studies of upstream orographic influence. Comparison of pseudo-dual-Doppler-derived velocity profiles with idealized numerical model calculations suggests that the nearshore evolution of the frontal rainband was significantly affected by an upstream influence of the coastal orography.
Adoptive transfer of tumor cytotoxic macrophages generated in vitro from circulating blood monocytes: a new approach to cancer immunotherapy.

Cells of the macrophage lineage are considered to be of special importance in the defense of the host against tumor development and spread. Immunotherapeutic strategies to stimulate macrophage (MAC) tumor cytotoxicity make use of activating compounds such as gamma-interferon which are given systemically. However, there are several lines of evidence that in malignant disease the generation of cytotoxic effector MACs is impaired. Both defective cell maturation and loss of responsiveness to activation are described. Here, a first clinical phase I trial of adoptive immunotherapy in cancer patients using autologous MACs generated in vitro from blood monocytes (MOs) is reported. Mononuclear cells were isolated by cytapheresis and density centrifugation and cultured in hydrophobic Teflon bags for 7 days with 2% autologous serum and recombinant human gamma-interferon being present for the last 18 h. Cytotoxic MO-derived MACs were then purified by countercurrent elutriation and reinfused into the patient. A total of 72 therapies have been performed with patients being treated i.v. (n = 8) and i.p. (n = 7). In vitro generated MACs proved to be mature as judged by the expression of maturation-associated surface molecules (MAX antigens, CD16, CD51, CD71), were cytotoxic to U937 tumor cells, and were efficient secretory cells. Cell dose escalation was performed in the first patients beginning with 10(8) MACs to finally infuse the total number of cells recovered from one single cycle of isolation and culture. MAC yield varied from 1 to 17 x 10(8) representing 13-79% of MOs initially seeded. Adoptive MAc transfer was well tolerated. Side effects observed were low-grade fever (less than 38.5 degrees C), induction of the coagulation cascade, and abdominal discomfort after i.p. application. The procoagulant activity of MAC autografts was cell dose dependent and demonstrated by detection of circulating fibrin monomers and thrombin-antithrombin complexes. Biological responses observed included elevated serum neopterin levels and the appearance of interleukin-6 in sera and ascitic fluids. Indication of a possible therapeutic effect was only observed in i.p.-treated patients and consisted of disappearance of malignant ascites in 2 of 7 patients.
In-line metrology capability for epitaxial multi-stack SiGe layers

This paper describes a study performed to evaluate inline metrology techniques for the monitoring of multiple SiGe layers in a manufacturing environment. Comparative measurements between High Resolution X-Ray Diffraction (HRXRD), X-Ray Reflectometry (XRR) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) optical technique were carried out on a specifically-design wafer set. Strength and drawback of each technique are presented. An innovative approach of combining techniques for such application is explored and the results confirm the benefit of this strategy.
Self‐care management of heart failure: practical recommendations from the Patient Care Committee of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology

Guidelines on heart failure (HF) stress the importance of lifestyle advice, although there is little evidence that such recommendations improve symptoms or prognosis. Patients experience symptoms of different intensities which impair their daily activities and reduce the quality‐of‐life. To cope with their clinical condition, many patients seek advice about lifestyle and self‐management strategies when in contact with medical care providers, particularly specialized HF services. Self‐care management is an important part of HF treatment, thus health professionals working with patients with HF have recognized the need for more specific recommendations on lifestyle advice. The present paper summarizes the available evidence, promotes self‐care management, and aims to provide practical advice for health professionals delivering care to HF patients. It also defines avenues of research to optimize self‐care strategies in a number of key areas to derive further benefits.
Vitamin D in colorectal, breast, prostate and lung cancer: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND Many studies have demonstrated the relationship between vitamin D and cancer of many different sites, including of the breast, colorectum, prostate and lung. Most epidemiological studies have assessed the effects of dietary intake only, although endogenous production after sun exposure is the main source of vitamin D. The aim of our pilot study was to study serum levels of vitamin D in general population and in patients with different type of cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS The control group consisted of 214 healthy individuals. Pathological groups of patients included 170 patients with different cancer types (28 patients with prostate cancer, 43 patients with breast cancer, 49 patients with colorectal cancer and 50 patients with lung cancer). All of the patients were enrolled in the early clinical stage of cancer up to clinical stage III. Advanced stages were not included into the study. Vitamin D serum levels were measured using ECLIA Roche method. RESULTS All the results for serum vitamin D from pathological groups were significantly lower compared to the levels of the control group. All the cancer types had a high incidence rate of very low serum levels of vitamin D. Lung cancer had the highest incidence rate of very low vitamin D serum levels. CONCLUSION We found a high incidence of hypovitaminosis D in cancer patients compared to a healthy control group among a Czech population. This incidence rate is higher in comparison to data found in literature from the other parts of the world. Based on the data from this study, a large epidemiological study monitoring vitamin D serum levels in the healthy population and in cancer patients in the Czech Republic has been already proposed.
Cardiocytic apoptosis and capillary endothelial swellingas morphological evidence of myocardial ischemia in ventricular biopsies from patients with angina and normal coronary arteriograms

BackgroundThe cause of chest pain in patients with normal coronary arteriograms (CAG) remains poorly understood. Methods and resultsLeft ventricular endomyocardial biopsies from 11 anginal patients with normal CAG and normal left ventriculograms and from seven anginal patients with coronary stenosis were studied by light and electron microscopy. Biopsies from seven non-anginal patients (non-ischemic electrocardiogram abnormalities but no evident heart or systemic diseases) served as controls. In anginal patients with normal CAG, both cardiocytic diameter (17.2 ± 5.5 μm) and interstitial space percentage area (37.6 ± 14.9%) were significantly larger than those (13.7 ± 0.9 μm, 14.9 ± 2.9%) in control participants. Some cardiocytic nuclei (1.9% of 2000 randomly selected nuclei) exhibited DNA degradation by in-situ nick-end labeling. Electron microscopy revealed cardiocytic nuclei with distinct apoptotic ultrastructures (2.8% of 200 nuclei), phagocytic degradation of cardiocytic cytoplasm, and capillary endothelial swelling (7.1% of 200 capillary transverse sections). No significant infiltration of inflammatory cells was seen. In anginal patients with coronary narrowing (cardiocytic diameter, 16.8 ± 1.1 μm; interstitial space, 20.1 ± 5.8%; DNA degraded nuclei, 1.3%), there were however no apoptotic cardiocytic nuclei or cytoplasm and less capillary endothelial swelling (1.6%) in ultrastructure. ConclusionsIn biopsies from anginal patients with normal CAG, the presence of cardiocytic hypertrophy and replacement fibrosis are both abnormal. Cardiocytic apoptosis and capillary endothelial swelling, found by others as characteristic of experimental myocardial reperfusion injury, are evident. This supports the possibility of myocardial transient ischemia and reperfusion injury in patients with angina and normal CAG.
The in vitro proliferation of lymphocytes from patients with hypogammaglobulinaemia.

The 5-day cultures from eight patients with primary hypogammaglobulinaemia and from ten normal subjects were compared with regard to the proliferation response to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA), staphylococcal filtrate, streptolysin O and various antigens. No difference was observed between the response of lymphocytes from normal and hypogammaglobulinaemic subjects. A marked proliferation response to at least one antigen was observed in at least five of the eight patients with hypogammaglobulinaemia.