Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intake of Key Chronic Disease–Related Nutrients among Baby Boomers

Objectives The dietary habits of baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) undoubtedly will have a substantial impact on their future health; however, dietary information regarding the intake of key chronic disease–related nutrients is lacking for this generation. The objective of this study was to compare the dietary intake of key chronic disease–related nutrients of the baby boomer generation with the previous generation of middle-aged adults. Methods National cross-sectional study comparison analyzing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) including NHANES III (1988–1994) and the NHANES for 2007–2010, focused on adult respondents ages 46 to 64 years who were not institutionalized at the time of each survey. The two cohorts were compared with regard to dietary intake of key nutritional components. The main outcome measures were intake of total calories, sodium, cholesterol, fat, fruits, vegetables, vitamin C, water, and fiber. Results The baby boomers’ average daily intake of nutrients exceeded that of the previous generation of middle-aged adults for total calories (2118/1999), total fat (82/76 g), sodium (3513/3291 mg), and cholesterol (294/262 g; all P < 0.001). The intake of vitamin C (105/89 g), water (1208/1001 g), and vegetables (199/229 g) was less than that of the previous generation (P < 0.001), and the dietary intake of fruit and fiber was unchanged. In regression analyses, dietary changes remained significant after controlling for age, race, sex, and socioeconomic status (all P < 0.01). Conclusions The study findings document higher dietary intake of key chronic disease–related nutrients along with reduced vegetable intake among baby boomers compared with the previous generation of middle-aged adults. These findings are indicative of a diet that may contribute to increased rates of chronic disease among individuals in this age group.
Is goal planning in rehabilitation effective? A systematic review

Objective: To determine the evidence regarding the effectiveness of goal planning in clinical rehabilitation. Design: Systematic review. Method: MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, AMED, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, American College of Physicians (ACP) Journal Club, and the Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE) were searched for randomized controlled trials on the therapeutic effectiveness of goal planning in the rehabilitation of adults with acquired disability. Studies were categorized by patient population and the clinical context of the study. Data were analysed using best-research synthesis, based on methodological quality determined by Physiotherapy Evidence Database (PEDro) scale scores. Results: Nineteen studies were included in this review. Study populations in these papers included patients with neurological disorders, psychiatric disorders, musculoskeletal disorders, cardiovascular disorders, respiratory disorders and dietary/endocrine disorders. Six studies investigated the immediate effects of goal planning on patient behaviour. Thirteen studies investigated the effects of goal planning in the context of a rehabilitation programme lasting more than one week. Some limited evidence was identified that goal planning can influence patient adherence to treatment regimes and strong evidence that prescribed, specific, challenging goals can improve immediate patient performance in some specific clinical contexts. However, evidence regarding how these effects translated to improved outcomes following rehabilitation programmes was inconsistent. Conclusions: This review identified that while some studies demonstrated positive effects associated with goal planning in local contexts, the best available empirical evidence regarding the generalizable effectiveness of goal planning was inconsistent and compromised by methodological limitations.
Persistence of Masking Responses to Light in Mice Lacking Rods and Cones

Overt rhythms of locomotor behavior are a result of two complementary processes. The first mechanism is the synchronization of an endogenous clock, which in turn directs the animal to be active in the day or the night; this is called entrainment. The second mechanism involves an acute response to light, which inhibits or promotes activity, depending on whether the species is nocturnal or diurnal; this is called masking (Aschoff, 1960; review in Mrosovsky, 1999). The fact that masking can occur in hamsters with lesions of the SCN (Redlin and Mrosovsky, 1999) and in mice lacking cryptochromes (van der Horst et al., 1999; Vitaterna et al., 1999), that is, in animals lacking any persistent circadian rhythm to be entrained, is further evidence that entrainment and masking are behaviorally and physiologically different responses to light. Although masking may be of considerable importance in influencing the amplitude of overt rhythms, it has received much less study than has entrainment. Indeed, the main concern of rhythms researchers has been to exclude masking as much as possible from their experiments. At the receptor level at least, however, masking and entrainment may have considerable commonalities, in that they are both spared in retinally degenerate (rd/rd) mutant mice (Foster et al., 1991; Mrosovsky, 1994). Eventually, rd/rd mice come to lose all their rods, and many cones degenerate secondarily (CarterDawson et al., 1978; Foster et al., 1991). Nevertheless, a few cones remain, and it is possible that such residual cones might be enough to mediate responses to light. This has been ruled out for phase shifting, which has been shown to persist even in mice genetically modified to lack both rods and cones (Freedman et al., 1999). The current experiment was undertaken to determine if masking was also spared in such rodless coneless mice.
H∞ controller reduction for general nonlinear sampled-data systems

This paper is concerned with the problems of designing reduced-order H/sup /spl infin// controllers for nonaffine nonlinear continuous-time systems with sampled measurements. We propose sufficient conditions for the existence of such reduced-order H/sup /spl infin// controllers using the concepts of dissipativity and differential game. These conditions are expressed in terms of the solutions of two Hamilton-Jacobi inequalities which comprising a standard Hamilton-Jacobi inequality and a differential Hamilton-Jacobi inequality with jumps. When these conditions hold, we also give a state-space formulae for such reduced-order controllers.
Bagging-Adaboost Ensemble with Genetic Algorithm Post Optimization for Object Detection

We propose a novel learning algorithm, called Bagging-Adaboost ensemble algorithm with genetic algorithm post optimization, for object detection that uses local shape-based feature. The feature is motivated by the scheme that use the chamfer distance as a shape comparison measure. It can be calculated very quickly using a look-up table. Random sampling boosting algorithm is used to select a discriminative edge shape features set from a over-complete dictionary of features and form an object detector. Genetic Algorithm post optimization procedure is used to remove based classifiers which cause higher error rates. The resulting classifier consists of fewer base classifiers yet achieves better generalization performance. To demonstrate our method we trained a system to detect pedestrians in complex natural scenes. Experimental results show that our system can extremely rapidly detect objects with high detection rate. The result is very competitive with other published object detection schemes. The learning techniques can be extended to detect other objects.
Carrier rate of zidovudine-resistant HIV-1: the impact of failing therapy on transmission of resistant strains

ObjectiveBecause maintenance of treatment success in HIV-1 infection requires viruses to remain therapy sensitive in drug-naive seropositive persons, we looked at the primary infections caused by drug-resistant HIV-1 over time. Furthermore, to study the coverage rate of therapy and therapy failure in relation to the transmission of resistant viruses a mathematical model was developed. DesignThe reverse transcriptase and protease genes of viruses were analysed in newly infected people in the period 1990–1998 in the Amsterdam Cohort Study on HIV infection and AIDS in homosexual men. MethodsThe mathematical model was based on the coverage of drug regimens selecting zidovudine (ZDV) resistance, the lag time in which resistance is gained or lost, the death rate of people infected with resistant virus, and the replacement of resistance-selecting regimens by more potent treatments that substantially reduce viral load and mortality. ResultsOf 43 individuals with a primary HIV-infection, three (7%) harboured ZDV-resistant viruses. The first of the ZDV-resistant strains was transmitted in 1995, the last two in 1996. The build-up of ZDV resistance was described by the mathematical model indicating that the equilibrium level of resistance due to treatment depends only on the treatment rate and the outflow rate of patients with resistance virus. ConclusionsOur model indicates that the frequency of viral resistance in a population is determined largely by the number of individuals on insufficient or failing therapy and is influenced only modestly by secondary transmission of ZDV-resistant strains.
Promoting Positive Youth Development Through Organized After‐School Activities: Taking a Closer Look at Participation of Ethnic Minority Youth

Youth participation in organized after-school activities provides opportunities for positive growth and development. Unfortunately, ethnic minority youth, especially those living in low-income communities, par- ticipate in these activities at lower rates and less consis- tently than nonminority youth. This article reviews the research on the academic, psychological, and behavioral outcomes of participation in organized activities for African American and Latino youth. Second, it highlights individual and contextual factors associated with these youth's initial and ongoing participation. It concludes by outlining the gaps in the literature on ethnic minority youth and articulates areas that require additional theory and research. KEYWORDS—extracurricular activities; after-school pro- grams; ethnic minority youth
Qualitative and quantitative studies on mixed homologous chicken thymus cell cultures.

The proliferative interaction of mixed homologous chicken thymus cells was studied in a serum-free culture system using thymus cell populations from thymus glands that had been experimentally manipulated to yield varying proportions of lymphocytes from the medulla and cortex of the gland. It could be demonstrated that the proliferative responsiveness of thymus cells to immuno-genetically different cells resided with the lymphocyte population located in the medulla of the thymus. The capability of medullary thymus cells to participate in a mixed lymphocyte interaction (MLI) was found to be nearly equal to that of splenic lymphocytes. The in vitro survival of medullary thymus cells was markedly superior to cortical thymus cells. Kinetic studies with medullary thymus cells revealed that the proliferative response in the MLI was initiated during the first 24–40 hr culture period and generally reached its peak 4 days after culture initiation. It could be demonstrated that responding cells were capable of several repeated divisions. In addition, previously nondividing cells entered the reaction for the first time up to the 3rd and possibly 4th day after culture initiation. Calculations revealed that 0·7–1·9% of the original viable thymus cell population participated in the response. It was also calculated that peripheral blood lymphocytes contaminating the thymus cell populations of both cell donors contributed less than 1% to the total number of responding thymus cells. When the response of mixed homologous thymus cells was compared in a chemically defined and serum containing medium, striking differences in the time course and magnitude of the reaction were seen. It could be shown that the viability and proliferation of thymus cells was adversely affected by serum and markedly enhanced by insulin supplementation to a chemically defined medium.
Surface-exposed protein antigens of the gonococcal outer membrane

Whole, 125I-labeled gonococci (GC) were incubated with rabbit sera against whole GC. After washing, the [125I]GC were lysed in detergent, and radioiodinated antigen-antibody complexes were immunoprecipitated by protein A-Sepharose. Several GC outer membrane proteins, including proteins I, II, and III, could be identified in immunoprecipitates obtained with these antisera. In many immunoprecipitates, a 44K protein was present. Reactivity of antisera toward protein II could be demonstrated, and some rabbit sera contained very prominent apparent antibody activity toward this protein. Proteins I and III were found in similar ratios in immunoprecipitates, suggesting that they form heteropolymers in GC outer membranes. Qualitative and quantitative difference in antibody reactivity and specificity could be demonstrated with serially obtained sera from rabbits immunized with whole GC. The use of viable or Formalin-fixed heat-killed staphylococci yielded "non-immunological" precipitation of 125I-labeled GC constituents; this occurred with staphylococci regardless of whether they contained protein A.
An Empirical Study of the Relationships Between CO2 Emissions, Economic Growth and Openness

This paper investigates the existence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and its causal relationships with economic growth and openness by using time series data (1971-2006) from China (an emerging market), Korea (a newly industrialized country), and Japan (a developed country). The sample countries span a whole range of development stages from industrialized to newly industrialized and emerging market economies. The environmental consequences according to openness and economic growth do not show uniform results across the countries. Depending on the national characteristics, the estimated EKC show different temporal patterns. China shows an N-shaped curve while Japan has a U-shaped curve. Such dissimilarities are also found in the relationship between CO2 emissions and openness. In the case of Korea and Japan it represents an inverted U-shaped curve, while China shows a U-shaped curve. We also analyze the dynamic relationships between the variables by adopting a vector auto regression or a vector error correction model. These models through the impulse response functions allow for analysis of the causal variable's influence on the dynamic response of emission variables and it adopts a variance decomposition to explain the magnitude of the forecast error variance determined by the shocks to each of the causal variables over time. Results show evidence of large heterogeneity among the countries and variables impacts.
Gerodermia osteodysplastica in a Bedouin sibship: further delineation of the syndrome

We report a Bedouin family with gerodermia osteodysplasiea in which there are two affected female siblings. They have a prematurely aged face with loose and wrinkled skin, joint laxity/dislocation, and osteoporosis. Unusual traits that nave not been previously reported in association with gerodermia osteodysplastica were ear anomalies and an abnormal EEG.
Regional myocardial radial velocities estimation from cine MR images Study of a patient-related coefficient effect

Assessment of left ventricular function is crucial for the diagnosis of ischemic heart diseases. A previously developed method to estimate mean time of contraction and radial velocity from cine Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Images (CMRI) is applied on a data base of 45 subjects including 9 normal and 12 patients with heart failure with myocardial infarction, 12 patients with heart failure without myocardial infarction and 12 hypertrophic patients. A major limitation of this method is related to the radial velocity parameter that was poorly estimated. In this paper, an improvement of the estimate of this velocity parameter is presented by introducing a patient related coefficient. The introduced coefficient has shown great improvement of this parameter estimation as from 30% to 75 % for the hypertrophic patients, 41% to 73% for the heart failure without infarction, 49% to 84% for the heart failure with infarction and from 34% to 80% for normal subjects.
Lack of Absent in Melanoma 2 (AIM2) expression in tumor cells is closely associated with poor survival in colorectal cancer patients

Functional studies on colorectal cancer cells indicated a protective role of the interferon‐inducible dsDNA sensor Absent in Melanoma 2 (AIM2) in cancer progression. Given that a high mutation rate and lack of AIM2 expression was previously detected in a subset of colorectal cancers, we here investigated the association of AIM2 expression in tumor cells and patient prognosis (5‐year follow‐up). A tissue microarray analysis of 476 matched tissue pairs (colorectal tumor and adjacent normal colon epithelium) was performed by two independent observers. Samples from 62 patients were excluded because of missing follow‐up information or due to neo‐adjuvant therapy before tissue sampling. Out of the remaining 414 tissue pairs, 279 (67.4%) displayed reduced AIM2 expression in cancer cells when compared to epithelial cells of their normal counterpart. Thirty‐eight patients (9.18%) had completely lost AIM2 expression in tumor cells. After adjustment for sex, age, cancer stage, tumor site, tumor grade and chemotherapy, complete lack of AIM2 expression was associated with an up to 3‐fold increase in overall mortality (HR = 2.40; 95% CI = 1.44–3.99) and disease specific mortality (HR = 3.14; 95% CI = 1.75–5.65) in comparison to AIM2‐positive tumor samples. Our results demonstrate that lack of AIM2 expression is closely associated with poor outcome in colorectal cancer. The data thus strongly substantiate a protective role of AIM2 against progression of colorectal tumors. Further studies are required to assess whether lack of AIM2 expression may be used as a biomarker for the identification of colorectal cancer patients with poor prognosis.
T cell responses of normal individuals towards recombinant protein antigens of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Recombinant β‐galactosidase fusion proteins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis were purified by affinity chromatography and used for stimulation of unselected T lymphocytes freshly isolated from healthy individuals. It was found that the 12kDa, 19‐kDa, 65‐kDa and 71‐kDa recombinant (r) proteins tested stimulated T cells from healthy individuals in an antigen‐specific way. These data demonstrate that it is feasible to screen purified r‐proteins with unselected T cell populations. The existence of T cells with reactivity to these antigens in healthy individuals suggests T cell activation independent from clinical disease and hence that these proteins are not indicative for active tuberculosis.
The Influence of Microencapsulation with a Modified Chitosan (Water Soluble) on β-Galactosidase Activity

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibility of producing microparticles containing β-galactosidase, using a modified chitosan (water soluble) as encapsulating agent. β-galactosidase microparticles were prepared by a spray-drying method and were characterized in terms of particle size, surface morphology, zeta potential, and stability over a storage period of six months. Microparticles were also analyzed by FTIR spectroscopy and thermogravimetry techniques. Structural analysis of the surface of the particles was performed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM results show that the obtained microparticles have an average diameter smaller than 3.5 µm and a regular shape. The β-galactosidase activity decreases when microencapsulated. The parameters Km and Vmax of the Michaelis-Menten equation were calculated for the different experimental conditions. The optimal pH ranges from 6.4 to 7.2, approximately, depending on the enzyme concentration in the microcapsule. After six months of storage, the enzyme activity presents a small decrease, although no significant differences in the appearance, color, and particle size distribution were identified.
End-Stage Renal Failure and National Resources: The Brazilian Experience

Brazil is the fifth largest and the fifth most populous nation in the world. Its economy rivals Mexico as the strongest in Latin America and ranks among the 15 largest economies in the world. Despite these achievements, a substantial fraction of the Brazilian population still lives in poverty, and many still have limited access to medical assistance. There are currently about 380 patients on hemodialysis per million populations (pmp), approximately one third of the U.S. prevalence, suggesting that a large fraction of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients are not diagnosed and treated properly. In Brazil, access to renal replacement therapy (RRT), including renal transplantation, is universal, and the corresponding costs, including those of medications (immunosuppressors and treatment of ESRD complications), are covered by the Brazilian government. However, given the continuous growth of the ESRD population and of the costs incurred by RRT, the efficacy and reach of this system may be severely limited in years to come. In the current struggle against the ESRD epidemics, the Brazilian medical community and health authorities face a triple challenge: to limit the incidence of renal disease, slow or detain the progression of established chronic nephropathies, and ensure that access to quality RRT remains granted to all those who, despite all efforts, reach ESRD.
Cloning, Expression, and Characterization of the Superantigen Streptococcal Pyrogenic Exotoxin G from Streptococcus dysgalactiae

ABSTRACT We identified seven novel variants of streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin G (SPEGG), a superantigen, in Streptococcus dysgalactiae subsp. dysgalactiae or equisimilis isolates from clinical cases of infection in humans and animals. Phylogenetic analysis of the SPEGG variants indicated two clades in the dendrogram: one composed of variants derived from the bacteria isolated from the humans and the other composed of variants from the bacteria isolated from the animals. Bovine peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were stimulated effectively by recombinant SPEGGs (rSPEGGs) expressed in Escherichia coli, while human PBMCs were not stimulated well by any of the rSPEGGs tested. SPEGGs selectively stimulated bovine T cells bearing Vβ1,10 and Vβ4. Bovine serum showed reactivity to the rSPEGG proteins. These results indicated that SPEGGs have properties as superantigens, and it is likely that SPEGGs play a pathogenic role in animals.
Clinical implications of the tumor necrosis factor family in benign and malignant hematologic disorders

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF), originally identified as a factor produced in the serum of endotoxin‐injected animals, is a cytokine that mediates tumor necrosis. To date, 20 different members of the TNF superfamily and 21 different receptors have been identified. All ligands of the TNF superfamily have been found to activate transcription factor NF‐κB and c‐Jun kinase. Members of this family have diverse biologic effects, including induction of apoptosis, promotion of cell survival, and regulation of the immune system. The current review focuses on four members that play important roles in regulating hematopoietic cells and are involved in the pathogenesis of several hematologic malignancies. The potential therapeutic use of these members also is discussed. Cancer 2003;98:458–67. © 2003 American Cancer Society.