Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
HBV‐DNA levels predict overall mortality in HIV/HBV coinfected individuals

The coinfection of Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has been associated with increased death rates. However, the relevant research has mostly relied on serologic HBV testing [HBV surface antigen (HBsAg)]. The aim of this work was to explore the relationship of HBV viraemia with overall mortality among HIV/HBV coinfected individuals. The analysis included 1,609 HIV seropositives of a previously described cohort (1984–2003) with limited exposure to tenofovir (12%) and a median follow‐up of approximately 5 years. Those with persistent expression of HBsAg were further tested for HBV‐DNA. The data were analyzed using Poisson regression models. Totally, 101 participants were chronic carriers of HBsAg (6.28%). Of these, 81 were tested for HBV‐DNA. The median HBV‐DNA levels were 3.81 log (base‐10) International Units (IU)/ml. A third (31%) of those tested for HBV‐DNA had received tenofovir. Before developing acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), the adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) for all‐cause mortality of coinfected patients with HBV viraemia above the median value versus the HIV monoinfected group was 3.44 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.05–11.27]. Multivariable regressions in the coinfected group only (n = 81) showed that one log‐10 increase in HBV‐DNA levels was associated with an elevated risk for death (IRR: 1.24, 95%CI: 1.03–1.49). HBV‐DNA levels predict overall mortality in the setting of HIV/HBV coinfection, especially during the period before developing AIDS, and could thus help prioritize needs and determine the frequency of medical monitoring. J. Med. Virol. 88:466–473, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Assessment of subclinical atherosclerosis by carotid intima media thickness: technical issues

Carotid intima-media thickness assessed by ultrasonography of carotid arteries is a safe, non-expensive, feasible and accurate method for detecting early signs of atherosclerosis and carotid intima-media thickness and change in carotid intima-media thickness over time reflect cardiovascular disease risk. Technical aspects impact on the measurement, variability and interpretation of carotid intima-media thickness. These include device aspects, inter- and intra-sonographer variability and the ultrasound protocol used. The mean common carotid intima-media thickness and the mean maximum common carotid intima-media thickness are the most widely used carotid intima-media thickness measurements. Common carotid intima-media thickness values of around 0.5 mm are considered ‘normal’ in young adults. Values are higher in men than in women, in African–Americans than Caucasians and increase with age. Carotid intima-media thickness values at or above the 75th percentile of a reference population indicate increased cardiovascular risk. Guidelines differ in their recommendations for the use of carotid intima-media thickness measurements for risk assessment in primary prevention because evidence suggesting that it improves upon conventional risk scores is inconsistent. Carotid intima-media thickness is frequently used in clinical trials as a surrogate endpoint for cardiovascular events on the assumption that regression or slowed progression of carotid intima-media thickness, induced by cardiovascular risk interventions, reflects a reduction in cardiovascular events. However, further data are required to confirm this linear relationship. No international guidelines exist on the use of carotid intima-media thickness as a research tool. Quality control in acquisition, measurement and interpretation of carotid intima-media thickness are important considerations and the carotid intima-media thickness protocol used should be determined by the research question under investigation.
A large scale study of European mobile search behaviour

Recent evidence suggests that mobile search is becoming an increasingly important way for mobile users to gain access to online information, especially as off-portal content continues to grow rapidly. In this paper we study the characteristics of mobile search by analysing approximately 6 million individual search requests generated by over 260,000 individual mobile searchers over a 7-day period during 2006. We analyse the patterns of queries used by mobile searchers and focus on key characteristics such as the clickthru rates of mobile searches in order to understand, for the first time, just how well mobile search engines are responding to user queries. Moreover, we compare our results to a number of recent mobile studies and highlight some of the key differences between mobile search and traditional Web search behaviours.
Clinicians’ information habits, patients’ knowledge of diagnoses and etiological concepts in four different clinical samples

A total of 230 psychiatric inpatients and their physicians in charge took part in semistandardized interviews. Patients suffering from schizophrenia received information less frequently and less comprehensively than other patients. The label of schizophrenia was often paraphrased or not communicated at all; patients knew their diagnosis less exactly than other subgroups. Asked to indicate the most important cause of their disorder, neurotics tended to name their living conditions (60%), and addicts preferred to blame themselves (73%). Only 26% of the patients with affective disorders or schizophrenia accepted the idea of their disorders as diseases in a medical sense, whereas the psychiatrists favored a biological concept in more than 90% of the cases. The findings stress the need to improve communication between patients and psychiatrists as regards information on illness and treatment.
Impact of kanamycin on melanogenesis and antioxidant enzymes activity in melanocytes—an in vitro study

Aminoglycosides, broad spectrum aminoglycoside antibiotics, are used in various infections therapy due to their good antimicrobial characteristics. However, their adverse effects such as nephrotoxicity and auditory ototoxicity, as well as some toxic effects directed to pigmented tissues, complicate the use of these agents. This study was undertaken to investigate the effect of aminoglycoside antibiotic—kanamycin on viability, melanogenesis and antioxidant enzymes activity in cultured human normal melanocytes (HEMa‐LP). It has been demonstrated that kanamycin induces concentration‐dependent loss in melanocytes viability. The value of EC50 was found to be ∼6.0 mM. Kanamycin suppressed melanin biosynthesis: antibiotic was shown to inhibit cellular tyrosinase activity and to reduce melanin content in normal human melanocytes. Significant changes in the cellular antioxidant enzymes: SOD, CAT and GPx were stated in melanocytes exposed to kanamycin. Moreover, it was observed that kanamycin caused depletion of antioxidant defense sytem. It is concluded that the inhibitory effect of kanamycin on melanogenesis and not sufficient antioxidant defense mechanism in melanocytes in vitro may explain the potential mechanisms of undesirable side effects of this drug directed to pigmented tissues in vivo. J. Cell. Biochem. 114: 2746–2752, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Aberrant microRNA expression in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a devastating disease with a complex biology, and in spite of improved survivability by novel treatment strategies over the last decade, MM is still incurable by current therapy. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non‐coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression at a post‐transcriptional level. More than half of all protein coding genes are estimated to be controlled by miRNAs, and their expression is frequently deregulated in many diseases, including cancer. Recent studies have reported aberrant miRNA expression patterns in MM, and the function of individual miRNAs in MM has been investigated in detail in cell culture and animal models. Here, we review the current knowledge on the role of miRNAs in MM pathogenesis and discuss their potential as prognostic biomarkers and targets for treatment.
Hypothalamic hamartoma: Epileptogenesis beyond the lesion?

The discovery of intrinsic epileptogenicity of the hypothalamic hamartoma (HH) marked a new area in understanding the associated clinical syndrome, often manifesting as progressive epileptic encephalopathy. However, therapeutic procedures targeting the HH proved to be inefficient to cure seizures in up to 50% of cases, whereas in cases with partial improvement, the electroclinical patterns of persisting seizures suggest an involvement of distant cortical regions. The concept of kindling‐like secondary epileptogenesis has been suggested as a possible underlying mechanism. Yet the role of the hypothalamic lesion in the pathophysiology of the syndrome remains debatable. In the Strasbourg‐Kork series, the best outcomes were obtained when the duration of epilepsy before endoscopic HH surgery did not exceed 10 years. In two patients with HH ablation followed at a later time by a temporal lobectomy, only this second surgical step allowed complete seizure freedom. These findings suggest the existence of an independent, third stage of secondary epileptogenesis in human. In the Grenoble series, stereotactic intracerebral recordings (stereo electroencephalography [SEEG]) of five HH cases demonstrated that gelastic/dacrystic seizures were correlated with discharges within the HH, whereas other seizure types were related to discharges affecting cortical regions, which sometimes seemed to be triggered by HH. In the Marseille series, two cases explored by SEEG provided evidence of extended epileptogenicity outside the limits of the HH, forming complex epileptogenic networks, with HH still triggering clusters of neocortical seizures in the first, but not obligatory involved in spontaneous seizures in the second case. Taken together, our data argue for the existence of dynamic ictal network organization, with possible “kindling‐like” relationships between the HH and the neocortex or widespread epileptogenesis. Despite the existence of secondary epileptogenesis, the epileptogenic zone could still be limited to the hamartoma, for which early surgical treatment should be pragmatically considered as a first surgical step.
The influence of the microflora of the alimentary tract on protein digestion in the chick

1. The course of digestion of freeze-dried and heat-damaged egg albumen labelled with 14C in all its constituent amino acids was compared in germ-free and conventional chicks. The albumen was given at a level of 10% in a test meal containing 28% protein. Samples of digesta were taken 5 h later and analysed for 14C and nitrogenous constituents. 2. After administration of unheated albumen, 11% of the 14C remained in the germ-free gut, compared with 23% in the conventional gut. The poorer digestibility of the heat-damaged albumen was shown by recovery of 42 and 47% of the 14C from the gut of germ-free and conventional birds respectively. 3. With both diets there was a higher 14C: nitrogen ratio in the contents of the lower gut of conventional birds. Most of the N remaining in the gut was composed of protein or the hydrolysis products of protein, the amounts of which tended to be higher in the germ-free environment; urea and uric acid formed only a small proportion of the total N. There was less urea and more uric acid in the lower gut and excreta of conventional chicks. 4. It was concluded that microbial activity did little to increase the availability of protein to the chick. However, its effect on the nitrogenous material in the lower part of the alimentary tract might result in low recovery of N in the faeces and thus lead to erroneously high estimates of protein quality in tests with conventional chicks.
Habitat and nesting of Le Conte's Sparrows in the northern tallgrass prairie

Abstract Little is known about the breeding biology of the Le Conte's Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteii), probably because of its secretive nature. We provide new information on several aspects of Le Conte's Sparrow breeding biology, including rates of nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and potential factors affecting breeding densities and nesting success of the species. Our study was conducted in the tallgrass prairie of northwestern Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota during 1998–2002. Breeding densities varied among years, but this variation was not clearly linked to climatic patterns. Vegetation had some influence on densities of Le Conte's Sparrows; densities were highest in grasslands with moderate amounts of bare ground. Prairie patch size and the percentage of shrubs and trees in the landscape had no recognizable influence on density. Nesting success was highly variable among sites and years and increased slightly with distance from trees. Rates of nest parasitism were low (1 of 50 nests parasitized), and clutch sizes were similar to those of other studies of Le Conte's Sparrows.
Galois theory of iterated endomorphisms

Given an abelian algebraic group A over a global field F, α ∈ A(F), and a prime ℓ, the set of all preimages of α under some iterate of [ℓ] generates an extension of F that contains all ℓ‐power torsion points as well as a Kummer‐type extension. We analyze the Galois group of this extension, and for several classes of A we give a simple characterization of when the Galois group is as large as possible up to constraints imposed by the endomorphism ring or the Weil pairing. This Galois group encodes information about the density of primes p in the ring of integers of F such that the order of (α mod p) is prime to ℓ. We compute this density in the general case for several classes of A, including elliptic curves and one‐dimensional tori. For example, if F is a number field, A/F is an elliptic curve with surjective 2‐adic representation and α ∈ A(F) with α ∉ 2A(F(A[4])), then the density of p with (α mod p) having odd order is 11/21.
The fallopian tube of the sheep. II. The influence of progesterone and oestrogen on the secretory activities of the fallopian tube.

Secretion of fluid by the fallopian tubes was examined in normal ewes during their sexually active period and in ovariectomized ewes which were treated with progesterone and oestradiol benzoate. The normal ewes showed a cyclical variation in fluid secretion with a peak output of 0·98 ml/day in oestrus dropping to 0·37 ml/day in dioestrus. In ovariectomized animals oestradiol benzoate produced a cyclical variation similar to that seen in the normal ewe. The effect of progesterone was to shorten the response to oestrogen from 6 to 4 days. Progesterone given alone did not raise fluid secretion above that observed in untreated ovariectomized ewes.
Dynamics based control of vertically articulated manipulators

The relationship between tracking accuracy and the model used in dynamics-based control of a vertically articulated manipulator has been experimentally evaluated. High gear ratios reduce the payload sensitivity and computational complexity of the system dynamics but do not eliminate the performance enhancement from accurate compensation of dominant dynamics. Robot controllers must compensate for changes in dominant drive system, link, and payload dynamics to achieve high speed trajectory tracking accuracy. Feedforward dynamic compensation reduced the peak trajectory tracking errors of an independent-joint PD (proportional differential) controller by a factor of three. Knowledge of payload mass and centroid allowed feedforward dynamic compensation to overcome the disturbances produced by unmodeled payload dynamics. The combination of high sample rates, constant PD gains, and adaptive feedforward dynamic compensation produces a control algorithm with excellent payload independent, peak, and final error. <<ETX>>
Urinary excretion of N‐nitrosamino acids and nitrate by inhabitants of high‐ and low‐risk areas for stomach cancer in Poland

Urine samples were collected from 96 inhabitants of a high‐risk rural area and a low‐risk urban area for stomach cancer in Poland, according to the following protocol: (1) when they were undosed; (2) after ingestion of proline 3 times a day; and (3) after ingestion of proline together with vitamin C 3 times a day. The samples were analyzed for N‐nitrosamino acids and nitrates, as indices of exposure to preformed and endog‐enously formed N‐nitrosamines. The median values of N‐nitrosoproline (NPRO) and N‐nitrosothiazolidine 4‐carboxylic acid (NTCA) excreted in the urine of undosed subjects were not different between the two areas; but N‐nitrososarcosine and 3‐(N‐nitroso‐N‐methylamino)propionic acid levels were 3‐ to 4‐fold higher in subjects of the high‐risk area. After intake of proline, the NPRO level increased (p < 0.02) only in subjects in the high‐risk area; intake of vitamin C tended to inhibit this increase in NPRO and lowered the levels of other nitrosamino acids. The urinary level of nitrates was 1.4‐fold, but significantly higher among subjects in the high‐risk area than among those in the low‐risk area; nitrate levels were not correlated with the amounts of cured meat or types of vegetables consumed. Urinary nitrate levels and excretion of NPRO, NTCA and the sum of all nitrosamino acids analyzed showed positive, though modest, correlations. These results indicate a higher potential for endogenous nitrosamine formation, possibly by intragastric nitrosation among subjects in the high‐risk rural area.
Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy; evidence of different prognosis in various patient subgroups.

BACKGROUND As there are no prospective randomised trials about percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) insertion, the medical staff and caregivers encounter great difficulty in deciding when and if to perform this procedure. OBJECTIVE To explore which variables are associated with increased mortality after PEG insertion. DESIGN Prospective observational study. SETTING Gastroenterological unit of a 500-bed community hospital. SUBJECTS All patients over the age of 50 years referred for PEG insertion between January 1992 and December 2002. METHODS Patients were studied for their indication for PEG insertion as well as their main medical problems, and demographic details and medical records were reviewed yearly until mortality. RESULTS 674 patients were enrolled (mean age 80.1 years, 42% men). The median survival was worst in diabetic patients (128 days, P <0.05), patients referred from hospital (161 days, P <0.01) and patients over the age of 80 years with dementia (171 days, P <0.001). The best median survival was found among demented patients under the age of 80 (467 days, P <0.05) and women under the age of 80 referred from nursing homes (780 days, P <0.01). CONCLUSIONS The outcome after PEG insertion is variable, with survival of over a year in many of the patients. These data are important for the medical staff, the patients and their caregivers when deciding about PEG placement.
The Human Proteinase-activated Receptor-3 (PAR-3) Gene

Proteolytically activated receptors (PARs) represent an emerging subset of seven transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors that mediate cell activation events by receptor cleavage at distinct scissile bonds located within receptor amino termini. Differential genomic blotting using a yeast artificial chromosome known to contain the PAR-1 and PAR-2 genes identified the PAR-3 gene within a PAR gene cluster spanning ∼100 kilobases at 5q13. The PAR-3 gene is relatively small (∼12 kilobases); and, like the PAR-1 and PAR-2 genes, it displays a two-exon structure, with the majority of the coding sequence and the proteolytic cleavage site contained within the larger second exon. Sequence analysis of the 5′-flanking region demonstrates that the promoter is TATA-less, similar to that seen with PAR-1, with the identification of nucleic acid motifs potentially involved in transcriptional gene regulation, including AP-1, GATA, and octameric sequences. PAR-3 transcripts were apparent in human vascular endothelial cells, although at considerably lower levels than those of PAR-1 and not significantly modulated by the endothelial cell stimulus tumor necrosis factor-α. Likewise, although PAR-3 mRNA was evident in human platelets, receptor cell surface expression was modest (∼10%) compared with that of PAR-1. Thus, although PAR-3 is postulated to represent a second thrombin receptor, its modest endothelial cell and platelet expression suggest that PAR-3 activation by α-thrombin is less relevant for physiological responses in these mature cells. Rather, given its disparately greater expression in megakaryocytes (and megakaryocyte-like human erythroleukemia cells), a regulatory role in cellular development (by protease activation) could be postulated.
Galactomannan Antigen Testing for Diagnosis of Invasive Aspergillosis in Pediatric Hematology Patients.

OBJECTIVE Invasive aspergillosis (IA) can cause significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised children. The galactomannan (GM) enzyme immunoassay (EIA) has been shown in adult studies to be a useful adjunct in diagnosing IA. Data on this assay in children are limited by small sample sizes and conflicting results; false-positive assays were a concern in historical studies. We sought to evaluate the GM EIA in a large cohort of children who received intensive chemotherapy and/or hematopoietic stem cell transplant. A focus was placed on evaluating the assay specificity, and the potential of measuring GM antigen in urine. METHODS A multicenter prospective observational study in children with anticipated prolonged neutropenia was performed. Serum specimens were collected twice weekly, and urine was collected once weekly during neutropenic periods. Operating characteristics were calculated using the GM EIA optical density index cutoffs of 0.5 and 1.0 for both serum and urine specimens. RESULTS At least one serum or urine specimen was tested from 198 patients. Ten patients had one or more repeatedly positive serum specimens, while 37 patients had one or more repeatedly positive urine specimens. The specificity of serum and urine testing was 95% and 80%, respectively. Although the urine test resulted in a higher false positivity rate, it successfully identified the only case of probable IA. CONCLUSIONS Data suggest that the serum GM EIA does not provide frequent false-positive results as previously reported. Screening for galactomannan, or a related antigen in urine, needs to be further evaluated as it may be amenable to development of surveillance strategies.
A novel soft microgripper using divided-electrode type flexible ER valves

For maintenance microrobots for small diameter pipes in power plants and so on, a novel microgripper using divided-electrode type flexible electro-rheological valves (DE-FERVs) was proposed and developed. Each bendable finger consisted of the DE-FERV and a hydraulic rubber actuator and was several millimeters long. The DE-FERV had an axially divided parallel plate electrode pairs in a flexible tube. Each parallel plate electrode pair controlled the electro-rheological fluid (ERF) flow by changing the viscosity with the electric field. The DE-FERV had both high flexibility and sufficient pressure control range. The hydraulic rubber actuator had plural integrated walls inside to restrict its radial expansion and axially extended by the inner pressure controlled by the DE-FERV. A finger large model was fabricated and experimentally characterized. Then, a gripper having two fingers was constructed and the object handling was demonstrated.