Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cyclodextrin-induced hemolysis and shape changes of human erythrocytes in vitro.

Cyclodextrins (CyDs) at higher concentrations were found to cause hemolysis of human erythrocytes in the order of beta- greater than alpha- greater than gamma-CyD in isotonic solution. Biphasic effects of CyDs were observed for the osmotic and heat-induced hemolysis; i.e. the protection at relatively low CyD concentrations and stimulation at higher CyD concentrations. From the scanning electron microscopic observations, CyDs induced shape changes of membrane internalization type on erythrocytes. CyDs caused the release of cholesterol from erythrocyte membrane in the order of beta- greater than gamma- greater than alpha-CyD. These results clearly indicate that CyD-induced hemolysis is probably a secondary event resulting from the membrane disruption which elicited the removal of membrane components from erythrocytes.
Hepatic expression of ANG2 RNA in metastatic colorectal cancer

We examined the RNA content of the gene encoding angiopoietin (Ang)‐2, a modifier of angiogenesis, in hepatic metastases of colorectal cancer (CRC) to explore the role of this protein in neovascularization of metastatic foci. Metastatic CRC exhibited notable blood flow and tumor vessel formation at tumor frontiers. Reverse‐transcription polymerase chain reaction assays indicated that the ANG2 RNA content was greater in metastatic CRC than in primary CRC. Investigation of metastatic foci using laser capture microdissection revealed that the RNA content of ANG2, but not ANG1, increased from the bordering liver region to the periphery of the metastatic disease, and also from the periphery to the intermediate portion of the metastatic lesion; immunohistochemical analysis confirmed that there was a corresponding gradual increase in Ang‐2 protein expression. Tie‐2, a receptor for angiopoietins, was preferentially expressed in the bordering liver region rather than in metastatic CRC. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) also exhibited an expression pattern similar to that of Ang‐2, and there was a significant correlation between the RNA content of ANG2 and that of VEGF in dissected samples (P = .002). Western blot analysis suggested that expression of Ang‐1, Ang‐2, Tie‐2, and VEGF may be regulated at a transcriptional level. The increase in ANG2 RNA content from the peripheral portion of the tumor to the intermediate portion, coinciding with the decrease in recruitment of periendothelial supporting cells around the vascular endothelial cells, suggests that Ang‐2 may play a role in the immaturity of tumor vessels. In conclusion, the current study suggests that Ang‐2 and VEGF may cooperate to enhance the formation of new blood vessels in metastases of CRC to the liver. (HEPATOLOGY 2004;39:528–539.)
Host immune response to a common cell-surface antigen in human sarcomas.

Abstract Cytotoxic antibody was demonstrated in the serums of four patients with sarcoma against their own autologous sarcoma cells in tissue culture. The presence of a common cell-surface antigen in human sarcomas was suggested by the finding that 70 per cent (58 of 83) of serums from patients with different histologic types of sarcomas were cytotoxic to an osteosarcoma cell line, whereas in serums from patients with other types of neoplasms cytotoxic antibody was no more frequent than in normal blood-donor serums. Further cross-reactivity studies revealed the common sarcoma antigen on tissue-culture cells from four different human sarcomas. Immunization of patients with sarcoma with their own irradiated sarcoma cells induced an increased immune response to this common sarcoma antigen, with a rising titer of cytotoxic antibody.
Amniotic Fluid Oestriol Concentration During the Last Trimester of Pregnancy: I Normal Pregnancy

Abstract. The concentration of oestriol in the amniotic fluid during the last trimester of normal pregnancy was studied. by transabdominal amniocentesis in 98 pregnant women 144 samples of amniotic fluid were collected. Only women with uncomplicated pregnancies, giving birth to normal infants at term, were included. the results and conclusions were as follows: 1) a calculation of mean levels and upper and lower 95 % probabiliy limits was done for each gestational week in the last trimester. 2) Based on this a smooth curve, indicating the normal concentration area of amniotic fluid oestriol, was drawn. 3) the amniotic fluid oestriol concentration showed little variation before the 33rd gestational week (mean 86‐145 μg/l). During the subsequent period the concentration increased to a mean between 559‐881 μg/l and a lower limit between 294 and 464 μg/l at term (38—< 42 weeks). 4) Between the amniotic fluid oestriol concentration and the urinary oestriol excretion there was a highly significant correlation. Likewise, serial analyses of amniotic fluid and urinary oestriol showed the same increasing tendency during gestation. 5) Between the amniotic fluid oestriol concentration on the one hand and the infant's birth weight or sex or the weight of the placenta on the other hand there was no significant correlation. 6) Our method is suitable for clinical use, and on the basis of the normal concentration area described we intend to judge the clinical significance of the amniotic fluid oestriol assay as a measure of foetal well‐being.
Cigarette smoking and asthma symptom severity among adult asthmatics.

Contrary to what would be expected, smoking habits of asthmatics do not differ from those of the general population: approximately 30% of asthmatic patients smoke cigarettes. Although the relationship between smoking and the incidence of asthma has been well explored, little attention has been paid to documenting the relationship between smoking and asthma symptoms among adults with asthma. The objective of this study was to assess the association of cigarette smoking with asthma symptom severity. The present report is of a cross-sectional study of 225 asthmatics, aged 20-54 years, from six general practice clinics in East Anglia, U.K. The outcome measures are overall asthma symptom score (range 6.3-28) and three asthma symptom domains: respiratory (range 1.3-8), daily activity interference (range 2-8), and physical activity interference (range 3-12), generated from the sum of ordinal responses to questions on asthma symptom severity. Of the sample, 27.0% were current and 22.1% were former smokers. Current smokers more frequently had bothersome asthma symptoms than nonsmokers in both unadjusted analyses and analyses controlling for age, gender, recent visits to the general practitioner for asthma, and asthma medication use (p = 0.06). Respiratory symptoms (p = 0.03) and symptoms that affect daily activities (p = 0.03) were more strongly associated with smoking than symptoms that affect physical activities (p = 0.62). Our data suggest that smoking hastens asthma progression or affects disease control. Increased frequency of symptoms may be an indicator for potential morbidity among asthmatics, especially those who smoke cigarettes. The hazards associated with smoking among asthmatics need to be more clearly emphasized by physicians and public health officials in order to convince people with asthma who smoke to stop.
Brown Adipose Tissue in a Newborn

A premature infant boy of 35 weeks and 4 days weighing 2605 g was found to have bilateral supraclavicular masses at 13 days of life. He had persistent pulmonary hypertension of the newborn and thrombocytopenia. Delivery was by cesarean section for nonreassuring fetal status, and Apgar scores were 5 at 1 minute and 8 at 5 minutes. Initial radiographs of the chest demonstrated abnormal supraclavicular fullness bilaterally (Figure ​(Figure11), and soft tissue neck sonography demonstrated hyperechoic masses involving the supraclavicular region bilaterally with internal vascular flow and hyperechoic bands. Differential considerations included lipoma, lipofibroma, hemangioma, and lymphangioma. Figure 1 Chest radiograph demonstrates supraclavicular and axillary “fullness” and fatty density (arrows). Computed tomography (CT) of the chest and neck were subsequently performed to evaluate the masses for the presence of fat (Figure ​(Figure22). Hypodense masses were demonstrated within the axilla, supraclavicular fossa, and lower neck bilaterally. Peripheral nodular enhancement was present within the axillae. Differential considerations included mixed venolymphatic malformation, hemangioma, and lympho-proliferative disorder. There was no evidence of lymphadenopathy within the chest or neck. Figure 2 CT of the chest demonstrates bilateral fat density (arrows) with nodular enhancement (arrowheads) in the axilla and along the lateral chest. Subsequent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the chest demonstrated symmetric and confluent soft tissue extending from the neck inferiorly to the chest (Figure ​(Figure33). This soft tissue demonstrated intermediate signal intensity and was homogeneously isointense to muscle on T1-weighted images. This tissue was homogeneously hyperintense to muscle and hypointense to fat on T2-weighted images. Figure 3 MRI images of the chest and neck. (a) Coronal T2-weighted image demonstrates a bilateral symmetric supraclavicular and axillary confluent mass (arrows). (b) Axial T1-weighted image demonstrates bilateral symmetric intermediate signal intensity mass at . What is the most likely diagnosis? DIAGNOSIS: Brown adipose tissue (BAT).
Inhibition of Fas/Fas ligand signaling improves septic survival: differential effects on macrophage apoptotic and functional capacity

Signaling through the Fas/Fas ligand (FasL) pathway plays a central role in immune‐cell response and function; however, under certain pathological conditions such as sepsis, it may contribute to the animal's or patient's morbidity and mortality. To determine the contribution of FasL to mortality, we conducted survival studies by blocking Fas/FasL with Fas receptor fusion protein (FasFP) in vivo. C3H/HeN mice received FasFP or the saline vehicle (veh) immediately (0 h) or delayed (12 h), after sepsis induced by cecal ligation and puncture (CLP). Subsequently, we examined the effect of FasFP treatment (12 h post‐CLP) on macrophage apoptosis and functional capacities. Peritoneal and splenic macrophages and Kupffer cells from sham‐veh‐, CLP‐veh‐, sham‐FasFP‐, or CLP‐FasFP‐treated mice were harvested 24 h after CLP and stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for 24 h. The results indicate that only delayed (12 h) but not 0 h administration of FasFP demonstrated a significant increase in survival. The ability of all macrophage populations to release interleukin (IL)‐6 was significantly depressed, and IL‐10 release was augmented after CLP. FasFP treatment attenuated the increased IL‐10 release in Kupffer cells. However, althogh enhanced susceptibility to LPS‐induced apoptosis could be suppressed in CLP mouse Kupffer cells by FasFP, FasFP did not change the peritoneal or splenic macrophage response. Furthermore, FasFP attenuated the elevated plasma levels of liver enzymes after sepsis. These data indicate that in vivo inhibition of Fas/FasL signaling has tissue‐specific effects on the induction of macrophage apoptosis, functional changes, and liver damage, which may contribute to the host's ability to ward off a septic challenge.
Relative frequency of malaria pigment-carrying monocytes of nonimmune and semi-immune patients from flow cytometric depolarized side scatter.

BACKGROUND Recently, it was observed that malaria can be detected by performing automated complete blood count analysis including depolarization measurement of scattered laser light. To explain large discrepancies in sensitivity and specificity observed in semi-immune and nonimmune malaria patients, we determined the relative frequencies of malaria pigment-carrying monocytes (PCM) by flow cytometric measurements combined with rare event analysis. METHODS An experimental cell-sorting unit utilizing argon, krypton, and helium-neon lasers measured the relative frequencies of leukocytes of malaria patients. Single white blood cells showing high intensity in their depolarized side scatter were sorted for subsequent microscopic analysis. RESULTS From microscopic inspection of sorted cells, we identified malaria PCM as a distinct cluster in scatter diagrams that is well separated from normal leukocytes. For nonimmune patients, the average relative frequency of PCM is 1.5 x 10(-4) (median), for semi-immune patients 8.8 x 10(-4), and for malaria-negative persons 4.4 x 10(-6). Results derived from depolarized side scatter at 488, 633, or 647 nm agree well. Furthermore, malaria pigment-carrying neutrophilic granulocytes were identified microscopically after sorting. We discuss briefly how pigment-carrying neutrophils might be differentiated from normal leukocytes and PCM by using flow cytometry and measuring depolarized side scatter at two wavelengths. CONCLUSION Our results confirm the feasibility of malaria detection by flow cytometry for semi-immune patients and extend malaria detection to nonimmune patients with low frequencies of PCM. High sensitivity and specificity for malaria detection were obtained.
Efficient virtual interface architecture (VIA) support for the IBM SP switch-connected NT clusters

The IBM SP Switch-Connected NT cluster is one the newest clustering platforms available. In this paper, we discuss an experimental implementation of the Virtual Interface Architecture for this platform. We discuss different design issues involved in this implementation. In particular, we explain how the virtual-to-physical address translation can be implemented efficiently with a minimum Network Interface Card (NIC) memory requirement. We show how caching the VIA descriptors on the NIC can reduce the communication latency. We also present an efficient scheme for implementing the VIA door bells without any hardware support. A comprehensive performance evaluation study of the implementation is provided. The performance of the implemented VIA surpasses that of other existing software implementations of the VIA and is comparable to that of a hardware VIA implementation. The peak measured bandwidth for our system is observed to be 101.4 MBytes/s and the one-way latency for short messages is 18.2 microseconds. It is to be noted that the VIA implementation presented in this paper is not a part of any IBM product and no assumptions should be made regarding its availability as a product in the future.
Towards Development of A mass Trapping Device for Mexican Fruit Fly Anastrepha ludens (Diptera: Tephritidae) Control

ABSTRACT The use of simple and economic traps with long lasting lure dispensers is key for implementation of mass trapping strategies against pestiferous fruit flies. Simplicity, cost, ease of assembly, storage and transportation were considered during evaluation of a folding conical trap for mass trapping the Mexican fruit fly, Anastrepha ludens. The application of deltamethrin to the lid of the trap resulted in a cost-effective treatment, which helped retain flies in dry traps for at least 10 wk. However, the conical trap design and the diam, type and disposition of entry-holes, negatively affected performance of the trap under laboratory conditions. High numbers of flies could escape the trap over a short period of time after their release into its interior, although most of them died after escaping because of the delayed effect of exposure to deltamethrin. Under field conditions, no significant differences were observed between orange and yellow traps in capturing either A. ludens or lacewings. In contrast, the folding conical trap model was significantly more efficient in capturing Mexican fruit flies when baited with CeraTrap® lure than when baited either with the conventional hydrolyzed protein or with BioLure®. CeraTrap® lure was also significantly more attractive to beneficial lacewings than the other 2 lures. These results indicated that additional studies on fly population suppression under field conditions will be necessary before deciding to use the folding conical trap as part of a mass trapping strategy to control the Mexican fruit fly.
Effect of P‐6 acupressure on prevention of nausea and vomiting after epidural morphine for post‐Cesarean section pain relief

Background: Nausea and vomiting are important side effects following administration of epidural morphine for post‐Cesarean section pain relief. Stimulation of the P‐6 (Neiguan) acupoint is a traditional Chinese acupuncture modality used for antiemetic purpose; it has been found to be effective. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antiemetic effect of P‐6 acupressure in parturients given epidural morphine for post‐Cesarean section pain relief.
Neuromagnetic beta oscillation changes during motor imagery and motor execution of skilled movements

We showed the differences in brain activities during motor imagery and motor execution when performing single skilled movements using magnetoencephalography. The tasks included finger tapping and chopstick usage with the dominant or nondominant hand. Chopstick usage with the nondominant hand was an unfamiliar task and required higher skill. Neuromagnetic data were processed by fast Fourier transformation, and &bgr; band event-related synchronization was evaluated. Beta oscillation changes were observed in the right and left sensorimotor cortices during both tasks; however, the ipsilateral changes were smaller during motor imagery than during motor execution. These results suggest that motor imagery of skilled movement tasks causes a smaller neuronal burden in the sensorimotor cortex.
Households Willingness to Pay for Improved Waste Management In Silchar Municipal Area: A Case Study In Cachar District, Assam.

This paper investigates the willingness to pay for an improved waste management in Silchar municipal area under Cachar district in Assam. On an average, 63% of the households are willing to pay for improved waste management. It is therefore apparent that Silchar residents in general regard waste management as an environmental service as they are willing to pay for its provision. An open ended contingent valuation method was used to elicit households' willingness to pay for waste management. We used a multiple regression model to establish the determinants of willingness to pay. The multiple regression estimates revealed that those with a higher expenditure (proxy of income) are willing to pay for an improved waste management. This finding corroborates the environmental economic theory which assumes that the demand for an improved environmental quality increases with income. More aware the person the more they are willing to pay for improved waste management. Larger families are willing to pay for an improved provision of waste management services. Also, educated people are more willing to pay for improvement. Also the presence of working woman in the family does influence the willingness to pay.
The multiview limitation of target classification by broadband echo analysis

In this paper we will present a classification technique based on the analysis of target resonances. We use a set of bio-inspired pulses derived from research on broadband signals used by bottlenose dolphins performing target detection and identification tasks. These synthetic signals are composed of high and low frequency chirps centred above and below 70 kHz. The pulses cover a similar range of frequency to those used by dolphins. A benefit of the two component system is that applying small changes to the chirp rates allows us to focus the energy of the signal on certain frequency bands. In traditional imagery, the echo is usually match filtered in order to improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and localisation of responses in the intensity image. The aim here is to analyse the detailed frequency content of the echo to provide more information on target properties. Because man made objects often have a regular shape, the resonance effects will be large in comparison with an unstructured object such as rock. According to the resonance scattering theory (RST) the resonance peaks will be more pronounced for values of ka in the range 10:50, where k = 2pif/c is the wavenumber and a is some key target dimension. Classification is based on the analysis of the positions of the main peaks and notches within the target echo spectra. The localisation of these extrema provides the classifier input. Experiments have been performed using several objects ensonified by six different bio-inspired signals. Many of these features are consistent through the several signals used and through multiple look angles within a aplusmn10deg range, testing the ability of the system to recognise targets centred off the main beam axis. We will show the degradation of these features far from the broadside angle. Focusing our discussion on cylindrical shells, the theoretical limit angle of the reliability of these features will be given. However we will see that these features can be recovered using bistatic approach. A different model of backscattering for finite cylinders will be given for angles far from broadside.
AN ANALYSIS OF INTRA‐ VERSUS EXTRACELLULAR POTENTIAL CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVITY OF SINGLE SPINAL MOTONEURONS *

The potential field due to activity of a single spinal motoneuron was first investigated by Fatt. ’ Different results were obtained by Freygang and Frank2 who recorded simultaneously intraand extracellular potential changes from the cell soma. The interpretations of the extracellular currents proposed by the above authors do not agree with the hypothesis of spike propagation in spinal motoneurons first suggested by Araki and Otani3 and further elaborated by Fuortes et a1.4 and Coombs et al.6*R According to this hypothesis the first component of the action potential recorded intracellularly from the soma of spinal motoneurons (the IS or A spike) results from activity of the initial segment, while the subsequent invasion of the soma membrane, and possibly of some portion of the dendrites, causes the SD or B spike. This hypothesis is consistent with the results of recent voltage clamp experiments on spinal motoneurons of cat (T. Araki and C. A. Terzuolo, in preparation). In these experiments the membrane whose activity causes the SD spike was localized within the soma-dendrite complex. However, i t was not possible to determine which portion of this complex is active when the SD spike is recorded. Therefore the problem of spike propagation in spinal motoneurons was re-examined by recording simultaneously intraand extracellular potential changes from different regions of the cell membrane.
An audit of root canal treatment performed by undergraduate students.

AIM The objective of this study was to audit the quality of root canal treatment performed by undergraduate students on adult patients. METHODOLOGY All root canal treatment completed by first and second clinical year undergraduates over a 12-month period were included in the study. The availability and readability of pretreatment, diagnostic length, try-in point and postoperative radiographs were noted for each case. All readable postoperative radiographs of primary treatments were examined for quality of the root filling, categorized as complete, incomplete apical, incomplete apical and lateral or not assessable. The distance from the radiographic apex of the root to the apical extent of each root filling was measured to 0.1 mm precision. RESULTS Undergraduates performed primary treatment on 157 teeth. A postoperative radiograph was available in 97% of cases. A try-in point radiograph was unavailable in one-fifth of cases. Twenty-seven teeth (13%) were categorized as satisfactory in terms of both radiographic quality and distance of the root filling from the radiographic apex. CONCLUSIONS Overall, the technical quality of root canal treatment completed by undergraduate students was poor.