Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Melanoma Arising in a Large Plaque-type Blue Nevus With Subcutaneous Cellular Nodules

Melanoma may arise in association with and/or simulate the appearance of a cellular blue nevus. The distinction of a cellular blue nevus with atypical features from blue nevus-like melanoma can be difficult. One rare setting, in which one may face this diagnostic challenge, is nodule formation in a large plaque-type blue nevus. We have previously reported 2 patients with cellular blue nevus-like subcutaneous nodules without overt malignant features and indolent clinical behavior. Herein we report a patient who developed malignant melanoma in association with a large plaque-type blue nevus. A 46-year-old woman with a history of “cellular blue nevus” of the breast that developed 7 years earlier during pregnancy had soft tissue nodules at the prior surgical site. She was found to have melanoma associated with a large plaque-type blue nevus, which involved the skin and subcutis of the chest wall and extended into breast parenchyma. Ten years after mastectomy and axillary node dissection with negative lymph nodes, the melanoma recurred as a subcutaneous chest wall nodule. Cytogenetic analysis revealed a number of aberrations, including deletion of 6q and gains of 6p and 8q. The patient then developed visceral metastases, first to the liver, and died of widely metastatic melanoma. In contrast, the cytogenetic findings of a previously reported cellular blue nevus-like nodule in a patient with a large plaque-type blue nevus were normal. That patient is still alive with no evidence of melanoma 16 years after the surgical excision of the subcutaneous cellular blue nevus-like nodule.
Stakeholder perspective on urban transport system service quality

Different transport stakeholders have different needs for transport infrastructure and services. Achieving stakeholder satisfaction implies a total quality management (TQM) that continuously improves service quality. However, few studies have discussed service quality in relation to urban transport systems. This study proposes an instrument based on SERVQUAL for measuring urban transport service quality from a stakeholder perspective. The proposed instrument is developed and tested through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. The gaps between stakeholder expectations and actual received and the gaps associated with stakeholders' expectations and the perceptions of these expectations by professionals are examined. Importance-performance analysis is used to construct a service attribute evaluation map for determining resource allocation to improve service quality. The application is illustrated through an empirical study to discuss the managerial implications in the Taipei metropolitan area. The analytical results reveal the existence of gaps and that stakeholders are more concerned with reliability and safety dimensions.
Predicting Schizophrenic Relapse: A Comparison of Two Measures

A parental environment placing schizophrenic patients at high risk to relapse has been defined by two measures. One assessing expressed emotion (EE) is ‘objective’, but takes a considerable time to administer and requires a highly trained rater. The other involves use of a self-report measure (the Parental Bonding Instrument or PBI) which is acceptable in clinical groups and requires only a brief period for completion. The degree to which the two measures predict the course of schizophrenia in patients discharged to their families is examined in representative studies. Each measure is assessed in terms of its sensitivity, specificity, odds ratio and overall diagnostic power, after calibrating modified PBI cut-off scores against rehospitalisation data. The PBI is a potentially useful clinical aid to predicting relapse in schizophrenic patients who return to the home environment.
Reciprocal Effects of Family Disruption and Crime: A Panel Study of Canadian Municipalities

Using data of Canadian municipalities in 1996 and 2001, this study examined the reciprocal relationships between divorce, single-parenthood, and crime in both time-lag and simultaneous models. In the time-lag model, the reciprocal effects between percent single-parent families and crime were found to be positive and strong, whereas divorce and crime had negative and weaker reciprocal effects. In the simultaneous model, the reciprocal relationship between crime and single-parenthood remained strong, whereas crime had a unidirectional negative effect on divorce. Altogether, these results have revealed three important findings: the relationship between divorce and crime is negative; divorce and single-parenthood have different and opposite relationships with crime; and crime is an important causal factor of these family variables. Therefore, it is important to differentiate the relationships of divorce and single-parenthood with crime. More importantly, the traditional perspective of crime as just an outcome of family disruption may be inadequate, and one should take into consideration the reciprocal effects.
Epidemiology of Invasive Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clones Collected in France in 2006 and 2007

ABSTRACT We conducted a prospective multicenter study of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates, including the first five consecutive clinical isolates, collected between September 2006 and February 2007 in 23 hospitals located throughout France (Fig. 1). The 111 isolates were tested for their antibiotic susceptibility patterns and were extensively characterized by screening for drug resistance and agr alleles, multilocus sequence typing (ST), staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec) typing, spa typing, and PCR profiling of 21 toxin genes. Clones were designated by their ST followed by their SCCmec type (I to VI). The Lyon clone ST8-IV or ST8-IVvariant (n = 77; 69.4%) was widely distributed. Four minor clones were also detected, namely, the “classical” Pediatric clone ST5-IV (n = 9; 8.1%), the “new” Pediatric clone ST5-VI (n = 8; 7.2%), the clone Geraldine ST5-Itruncated (n = 7; 6.3%), and the European clone ST80-IV (n = 4; 3.6%). The six other isolates were related to five rare clones. Relative to that of other European countries, the situation in France is marked by the predominance of a specific major clone and the worrying emergence of minor clones with enhanced virulence and new antibiotic susceptibility profiles.
Tetanus and Botulinum Toxins Inhibit, and Black Widow Spider Venom Stimulates the Release of Methionine‐Enkephalin‐Like Material In Vitro

Abstract: The actions of tetanus toxin, botulinum A toxin, and black widow spider venom on the release of methionine‐enkephalin‐like immunoreactivity have been studied; a particulate fraction prepared from rat striata was used. Depending on the duration of preincubation, tetanus toxin diminished the release evoked by veratri‐dine (50 μM final concentration), and abolished it at final concentrations between 0.1 and 1 μg/ml. Botulinum A toxin was about 10 to 20 times less potent. Heating or pretreatment with antitoxin inactivated the clostridial toxins. The particulate fraction pretreated with V. cholerae neuraminidase retained its toxin sensitivity. Tetanus toxin also depressed the release due to sea anemone toxin II and high K+. Spider venom stimulated the release in a concentration‐dependent manner and required the presence of Ca2+; its effects were depressed by tetanus toxin. These results support the view that both clostridial toxins and spider venom act as broad‐range presynaptic neurotoxins on peptidergic transmitter systems.
CBF, Myb, and Ets Binding Sites Are Important for Activity of the Core I Element of the Murine Retrovirus SL3-3 in T Lymphocytes

ABSTRACT Transcriptional enhancers within the long terminal repeats of murine leukemia viruses are major determinants of the pathogenic properties of these viruses. Mutations were introduced into the adjacent binding sites for three transcription factors within the enhancer of the T-cell-lymphomagenic virus SL3-3. The sites that were tested were, in 5′-to-3′ order, a binding site for core binding factor (CBF) called core II, a binding site for c-Myb, a site that binds members of the Ets family of factors, and a second CBF binding site called core I. Mutation of each site individually reduced transcriptional activity in T lymphocytes. However, mutation of the Myb and core I binding sites had larger effects than mutation of the Ets or core II site. The relative effects on transcription in T cells paralleled the effects of the same mutations on viral lymphomagenicity, consistent with the idea that the role of these sequences in viral lymphomagenicity is indeed to regulate transcription in T cells. Mutations were also introduced simultaneously into multiple sites in the SL3-3 enhancer. The inhibitory effects of these mutations indicated that the transcription factor in T cells that recognizes the core I element of SL3-3, presumably CBF, needed to synergize with one or more factors bound at the upstream sites to function. This was tested further by generating a multimer construct that contained five tandem core I elements linked to a basal long terminal repeat promoter. This construct was inactive in T cells. However, transcriptional activity was detected with a multimer construct in which the transcription factor binding sites upstream of the core were also present. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that CBF requires heterologous transcription factors bound at nearby sites to function in T cells.
An Assay of Selected Serum Amino Acids in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

BACKGROUND Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. In case of insulin resistance, which is typical for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), proteolysis is increased and protein synthesis is decreased; therefore, we can observe changes in the levels of amino acids in diabetics vs. non-diabetics. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to find differences in the levels of selected amino acids between patients with diabetes (type 2) and a control group. MATERIAL AND METHODS Amino acids were derivatized with naphthalene-2,3-dicarboxaldehyde in the presence of potassium cyanide to form fluorescent 1-cyanobenz(f)isoindole product. Amino acids derivatives were measured using a high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. The serum levels of glucose were determined using an automatic biochemistry analyzer, glycated hemoglobin HbA1c was measured by cation exchange chromatography. RESULTS A total of 19 serum amino acids in T2DM patients and non-diabetics were measured. There were 9 amino acids, which were significantly different in these groups (p<0.05). Significantly decreased levels of arginine, asparagine, glycine, serine, threonine and significantly increased levels of alanine, isoleucine, leucine, valine in diabetics were found. CONCLUSIONS Significant difference in metabolism of amino acids between diabetics and non-diabetics were observed. The altered levels of amino acids in diabetic patients could be a suitable predictor of diabetes.
The role of therapeutic drug monitoring and pharmacogenetic testing in the management of HIV infection: a review.

One of the less acknowledged tools in the international guidelines of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) for HIV-1 infection is therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM). Yet anywhere there is a Clinical Pharmacology Unit or other facility for measuring plasma drug concentrations, physicians often measure the plasma levels of antiretrovirals as well as of comedications and find it useful. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of how relevant it is for a clinician to assess individual drug levels. Moreover we wanted to investigate to what extent the field is already assisted by web-based tools (i.e.: drug interaction charts). Finally we tried to look how pharmacogenetics may reduce the need for TDM, and whether this diagnostics is cost-effective. We searched PubMed by “drug interactions and HIV”, “drug level and HIV”, “therapeutic drug monitoring”, and we investigated the Liverpool Drug Interaction website, the DHHS Guidelines website, the UCSF website, and the AETC online Guide for HIV/AIDS Clinical care. Furthermore, we assessed the role that the main national and international guidelines for antiretroviral treatment attributed to TDM and searched for the various clinical subsets in which drug monitoring is particularly relevant. Finally, we suggest that cross-sectional studies of subjects failing therapy or experiencing drug-related adverse events, as well as longitudinal studies of particular conditions, may show the importance of problem-targeted rather than routine TDM.
Study on a fast controlled partition scheme based on improved Dinic max-flow strategy

When power system is subjected to severe disturbances and then will be out of step. The interconnected power grid should be split into several islands to avoid blackout. The controlled islanding is an active control technique based on the information from Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS) to accomplish the islanding task. This paper proposes a fast islanding strategy for large power networks. Firstly, the grid structure is mapped to point sets and edge sets in the graph theory. Secondly, the model is built by adopting the minimum power flow impact as the objective function and considering several constraints which includes generator coherency constraint and connective constraint. Finally, the optimal splitting strategy is searched by the improved Dinic maximum flow algorithm. Simulation results on IEEE 118-bus power system show that the proposed strategy is correct, effective and fast.
Altered Gene Expression in the Schistosome-Transmitting Snail Biomphalaria glabrata following Exposure to Niclosamide, the Active Ingredient in the Widely Used Molluscicide Bayluscide

In view of the call by the World Health Organization (WHO) for elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem by 2025, use of molluscicides in snail control to supplement chemotherapy–based control efforts is likely to increase in the coming years. The mechanisms of action of niclosamide, the active ingredient in the most widely used molluscicides, remain largely unknown. A better understanding of its toxicology at the molecular level will both improve our knowledge of snail biology and may offer valuable insights into the development of better chemical control methods for snails. We used a recently developed Biomphalaria glabrata oligonucleotide microarray (31K features) to investigate the effect of sublethal exposure to niclosamide on the transcriptional responses of the snail B. glabrata relative to untreated snails. Most of the genes highly upregulated following exposure of snails to niclosamide are involved in biotransformation of xenobiotics, including genes encoding cytochrome P450s (CYP), glutathione S-transferases (GST), and drug transporters, notably multi-drug resistance protein (efflux transporter) and solute linked carrier (influx transporter). Niclosamide also induced stress responses. Specifically, six heat shock protein (HSP) genes from three super-families (HSP20, HSP40 and HSP70) were upregulated. Genes encoding ADP-ribosylation factor (ARF), cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) and coatomer, all of which are involved in vesicle trafficking in the Golgi of mammalian cells, were also upregulated. Lastly, a hemoglobin gene was downregulated, suggesting niclosamide may affect oxygen transport. Our results show that snails mount substantial responses to sublethal concentrations of niclosamide, at least some of which appear to be protective. The topic of how niclosamide’s lethality at higher concentrations is determined requires further study. Given that niclosamide has also been used as an anthelmintic drug for decades and has been found to have activity against several types of cancer, our findings may be of relevance in understanding how both parasites and neoplastic cells respond to this compound.
Protein pathway activation mapping reveals molecular networks associated with antiestrogen resistance in breast cancer cell lines

Previously, we have identified a panel of breast cancer antiestrogen resistance (BCAR) genes. Several of these genes have clinical relevance because mRNA or protein levels associate with tamoxifen resistance or tumor aggressiveness. We postulated that changes in activation status of protein signaling networks induced by BCAR genes may provide better insight into the mechanisms underlying antiestrogen resistance. Key signal transduction pathways were analyzed for changes in activation or expression using reverse‐phase protein microarrays probed with 78 antibodies against signaling proteins with known roles in tumorigenesis. We used ZR‐75‐1‐derived cell lines transduced with AKT1, AKT2, BCAR1, BCAR3, BCAR4, EGFR, GRB7, HRAS, HRASv12 or HEF1 and MCF7‐derived cell lines transduced with BCAR3, BCAR4 or EGFR. In the antiestrogen‐resistant cell lines, we observed increased phosphorylation of several pathways involved in cell proliferation and survival. All tamoxifen‐resistant cell lines contained high levels of phosphorylated AKT and its biochemically linked substrates Forkhead box O1/3. The activation of ERBB2, ERBB3 and the downstream modulators focal adhesion kinase and SHC were activated in cells with overexpression of BCAR4. Remarkable differences were observed for the levels of activated AMPK alpha1, cyclins, STAT5, STAT6, ERK1/2 and BCL2. The comparison of the cell signaling networks in estrogen‐dependent and ‐independent cell lines revealed biochemically linked kinase–substrate markers that comprised systemically activated signaling pathways involved in tamoxifen resistance. Our results show that this model provides insights into the molecular and cellular mechanisms of breast cancer progression and antiestrogen resistance. This knowledge may help the development of novel targeted treatments.
Predicting physical activity intentions using a goal perspectives approach: a study of Finnish youth

Physical activity intentions were studied in 12‐ to 16‐year‐old Finnish girls (n= 186) and boys (n= 215). Theoretical predictions were used to establish a model that was then tested separately for each sex using path analysis. Firstly, it was hypothesised that malleable conceptions of the nature of sport ability positively influence enjoyment in physical activity and intentions to participate in physical activity, mediated by a task‐oriented achievement goal independent of variations in perceptions of competence. Secondly, it was hypothesised that fixed conceptions of the nature of ability decrease enjoyment in physical activity and intentions to participate, mediated by an ego‐oriented achievement goal and by perceived competence. The modified models were shown to fit the data. Overall, the results showed that 63% (boys) and 45% (girls) of the variance in intentions was explained by the model. The motivational importance of task orientation and. among the boys, perceived physical competence was confirmed with their direct prediction of intentions.
PROCESSO DE URBANIZAÇÃO DAS CIDADES MÉDIAS NO BRASIL E BAHIA

Este estudo expressa as caracteristicas que envolvem as cidades medias ante seu processo de urbanizacao no Brasil e, especificamente, na Bahia. Para tanto, realizou-se reflexoes sobre a historicidade da urbanizacao nacional, cujo objetivo especifico foi compreender a evolucao desse processo enquanto mecanismo de constituicao das cidades medias. Na sequencia, adentrou-se as caracteristicas de cidades medias e urbanizacao. Sequencialmente, realizou-se reflexoes sobre o processo de urbanizacao da Bahia. Por fim, com o intuito de compreender tal realidade, analisa-se a formacao das cidades medias na Bahia. Enquanto procedimento metodologico o estudo utilizou, de forma articulada, as referencias teoricas sobre o tema, assim como levantamentos de dados realizados por orgaos estatisticos, a exemplo do IBGE e da SEI, os quais permitiram construir as conclusoes dos resultados alcancados.Como resultado, verificou-se, inicialmente, a semelhanca entre a historicidade da formacao das cidades medias, tanto no Brasil, quanto na Bahia. Verificou-se ainda que, dado ao quadro de intensas desigualdades sociais e economicas, a populacao de grande parte dessas cidades vivenciam um quadro de pobreza e degradacao. Nessa perspectiva, tais cidades passam por desafios que vao para alem das suas condicoes atuais de atendimento as demandas da populacao a qual exerce influencia.
Excitonic Nonlinearities of Semiconductor Microcavities in the Nonperturbative Regime.

A microscopic theory for excitonic nonlinearities and light propagation in semiconductor microcavities is applied to study normal-mode coupling (NMC) for varying electron-hole-pair densities. The nonlinear susceptibility of quantum confined excitons is determined from quantum kinetic equations including dephasing due to carrier-carrier and polarization scattering. The predicted disappearing of the normal-mode transmission peaks with negligible change in the NMC splitting agrees well with cw pump-probe measurements on samples showing remarkable splitting-to-linewidth ratios.
Prevalence of Barrett's esophagus in patients with moderate to severe erosive esophagitis.

AIM To investigate the proportion of patients with moderate-severe erosive esophagitis (EE) who will have Barrett's esophagus (BE) after healing of inflammation. METHODS Patients with EE of Los Angeles (LA) class B, C and D who underwent follow-up endoscopy documenting complete mucosal healing. RESULTS A total of 86/169 patients were suspected of having BE (38 before healing and 48 after healing of EE) and, 46/86 eventually had the histological confirmation. At index esophago-gastro-duodenoscopy (EGD), BE was suspected in 38/169 (22%), and ultimately, histologically confirmed in 20 of these. In 11 patients where biopsies were performed in the presence of inflammation, BE was detected in 2 and missed in 5 (including 2 dysplasias). In 131/169 patients (77.5%), BE was not suspected at index EGD. After healing of EE though, 48 patients had suspicion of BE who underwent biopsies, and in 26 of these histology was positive for BE. The length of inflammation had a linear correlation with the length of BE (P = 0.01). Out of multiple variables to predict BE, only the suspicion at index endoscopy was statistically significant (P = 0.01). CONCLUSION BE was seen in 46/169 (27%) patients with EE of LA class B, C and D. The length of EE can predict the length of underlying BE segment. Even when suspected, BE and associated dysplasia can be missed in the presence of inflammation; therefore, repeat evaluation should be considered after complete healing of esophagitis.