Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Preliminary Study on Bacteriological Infections of Surgical Wounds

Surgical wound infections, better termed as Surgical Site Infections, are common and cannot be completely eliminated. But a reduction in the infection rate could have significant benefits like reduction in the postoperative morbidity and mortality, wastage of health care resources and finances. The general causes for increased predisposition to wound infections are pre-existing illness, prolonged operating time, the wound class and wound contamination. Technical problems with the operation, particularly bleeding, the amount of devitalized tissue generated, and the need for drains within the wound determine the risk of infection along with patient's general metabolic status which includes obesity and diabetes. Rigorous wound surveillance, a technically perfect operation along with the judicious use of prophylactic antibiotics would greatly aid in attaining minimum wound infection in any type of surgery.
GH16 and GH81 family β‐(1,3)‐glucanases in Aspergillus fumigatus are essential for conidial cell wall morphogenesis

The fungal cell wall is a rigid structure because of fibrillar and branched β‐(1,3)‐glucan linked to chitin. Softening of the cell wall is an essential phenomenon during fungal morphogenesis, wherein rigid cell wall structures are cleaved by glycosylhydrolases. During the search for glycosylhydrolases acting on β‐(1,3)‐glucan, we identified seven genes in the Aspergillus fumigatus genome coding for potential endo‐β‐(1,3)‐glucanase. ENG1 (previously characterized and named ENGL1, Mouyna et al., ), belongs to the Glycoside‐Hydrolase 81 (GH81) family, while ENG2 to ENG7, to GH16 family. ENG1 and four GH16 genes (ENG2–5) were expressed in the resting conidia as well as during germination, suggesting an essential role during A. fumigatus morphogenesis. Here, we report the effect of sequential deletion of AfENG2–5 (GH16) followed by AfENG1 (GH81) deletion in the Δeng2,3,4,5 mutant. The Δeng1,2,3,4,5 mutant showed conidial defects, with linear chains of conidia unable to separate while the germination rate was not affected. These results show, for the first time in a filamentous fungus, that endo β‐(1,3)‐glucanases are essential for proper conidial cell wall assembly and thus segregation of conidia during conidiation.
Follow-up of patients with functional bowel symptoms treated with a low FODMAP diet.

AIM To investigate patient-reported outcomes from, and adherence to, a low FODMAP diet among patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. METHODS Consecutive patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and co-existing IBS fulfilling the ROME III criteria, who previously attended an outpatient clinic for low FODMAP diet (LFD) dietary management and assessment by a gastroenterologist, were invited to participate in a retrospective questionnaire analysis. The questionnaires were sent and returned by regular mail and gathered information on recall of dietary treatment, efficacy, symptoms, adherence, satisfaction, change in disease course and stool type, and quality of life. Before study enrolment all patients had to sign an informed written consent. RESULTS One hundred and eighty patients were included, 131 (73%) IBS and 49 (27%) IBD patients. Median age was 43 years (range: 18-85) and 147 (82%) were females. Median follow-up time was 16 mo (range: 2-80). Eighty-six percent reported either partial (54%) or full (32%) efficacy with greatest improvement of bloating (82%) and abdominal pain (71%). The proportion of patients with full efficacy tended to be greater in the IBD group than in the IBS group (42% vs 29%, P = 0.08). There was a significant reduction in patients with a chronic continuous disease course in both the IBS group (25%, P < 0.001) and IBD group (23%, P = 0.002) along with a significant increase in patients with a mild indolent disease course of 37% (P < 0.001) and 23% (P = 0.002), respectively. The proportion of patients having normal stools increased with 41% in the IBS group (P < 0.001) and 66% in the IBD group (P < 0.001). One-third of patients adhered to the diet and high adherence was associated with longer duration of dietary course (P < 0.001). Satisfaction with dietary management was seen in 83 (70%) IBS patients and 24 (55%) IBD patients. Eighty-four percent of patients lived on a modified LFD, where some foods rich in FODMAPs were reintroduced, and 16% followed the LFD by the book without deviations. Wheat, dairy products, and onions were the foods most often not reintroduced by patients. CONCLUSION These data suggest that a diet low in FODMAPs is an efficacious treatment solution in the management of functional bowel symptoms for IBS and IBD patients.
Genetic differentiation in populations of the cestode Bothriocephalus acheilognathi (Cestoda, Pseudophyllidea) as revealed by eight microsatellite markers

The genetic structure of populations of the fish cestode, Bothriocephalus acheilognathi collected from Bailianhe Reservoir (BLH), Changshou (CSH) and Liangzi (LZH) Lakes was investigated by using 8 microsatellite loci. A total of 108 adult worms were genotyped at each of the 8 loci. For the 3 populations, the mean number of alleles per locus ranged from 2·38 to 5·5, and the mean expected heterozygosity ranged from 0·432 to 0·559. The average polymorphic information content (PIC) was from 0·384 to 0·492. The significant Fis values indicated non-random mating within LZH and BLH populations. On the other hand, when samples were further classified into subpopulations at the level of host fish species, no or little heterozygote deficiency was detected at most loci, showing that cross-fertilization, predominantly, but not exclusively, must have occurred within the subpopulations. Microsatellite markers also revealed an unexpected high level of genetic differentiation, as measured by Rst and Nm values or by δu2 genetic distance among subpopulations from different hosts. Factors influencing the population genetic structure and the parasite host specificity are discussed.
The Course and Outcome in Depressive Illness

Summary One hundred and nine out of one hundred and twenty-two cases of endogenous depression were followed-up after their index diagnosis 3–13 years earlier. No recurrence occurred in 28 cases. Forty-two cases turned out to be bipolar and 21 remained unipolar. Manic episodes outnumbered the depressive ones. The change of polarity from depression to mania occurred within three years after the initial depression, though in others the shift occurred between three years and twelve years. The number of episodes of depression before the onset of mania varied from 1 to 3. While the onset of depression before the age of 40 years predisposed to recurrences, there was risk of chronicity in those patients who developed the illness after 40.
Puestow Procedure for the Management of Pediatric Chronic Pancreatitis

Abstract Objective Recurrent pancreatitis significantly impacts childhood development and quality of life. Our goal was to evaluate the efficacy of the Puestow procedure. Materials and Methods After obtaining the Institutional Review Board approval, we reviewed the charts of all patients who underwent lateral pancreaticojejunostomy from January 1999 to January 2014. Statistical analysis was performed using paired Student's t-test and Fisher's exact test as appropriate. Results During the 15-year study period, 13 patients underwent a lateral pancreaticojejunostomy for chronic pancreatitis. The most common causes of pancreatitis were hereditary (n = 5) or obstructive (n = 5); pancreas divisum (n = 2), one iatrogenic stricture, one idiopathic stricture, and one unresectable pancreatic head mass); two patients had idiopathic disease, and one case was drug-induced. Six patients had failed management with endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography and pancreatic duct stenting. Preoperatively, the median body mass index (BMI) percentile-for-age was 61.0% (range 11.0–99.0%). Median age at operation was 12.8 years (range 7.7–16.7). There were no deaths, four patients developed postoperative ileus, and one patient developed an intra-abdominal abscess, which resolved with antibiotics. Median postoperative length of stay was 7 days (range 5–15). Two patients were lost to follow-up; median follow-up for the remaining 12 patients was 35.5 months (range 4.9–131.2). Four patients were readmitted within 90 days: three due to abdominal pain which were not recurrences of pancreatitis, and one due to complications of chemotherapy. Postoperatively, there was no change in the average BMI percentile-for-age (p = 0.64). Seven patients reported resolution or significant improvement in their abdominal pain symptoms at the time of last follow-up. Patients with obstructive causes of pancreatitis were not more likely to experience relief than those with nonobstructive causes (42.9 vs. 80.0%, p = 0.29). Conclusion In our experience, lateral pancreaticojejunostomy results in durable improvement or resolution of abdominal pain symptoms in nearly 60% of patients with chronic pancreatitis regardless of etiology.
Vitamin A Improves Hyperglycemia and Glucose-Intolerance through Regulation of Intracellular Signaling Pathways and Glycogen Synthesis in WNIN/GR-Ob Obese Rat Model

Vitamin A and its metabolites modulate insulin resistance and regulate stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1), which are also known to affect insulin resistance. Here, we tested, whether vitamin A-mediated changes in insulin resistance markers are associated with SCD1 regulation or not. For this purpose, 30-week old male lean and glucose-intolerant obese rats of WNIN/GR-Ob strain were given either a stock or vitamin A-enriched diet, i.e. 2.6 mg or 129 mg vitamin A/kg diet, for 14 weeks. Compared to the stock diet, vitamin A-enriched diet feeding improved hyperglycemia and glucose-clearance rate in obese rats and no such changes were seen in lean rats receiving identical diets. These changes were corroborated with concomitant increase in circulatory insulin and glycogen levels of liver and muscle (whose insulin signaling pathway genes were up-regulated) in obese rats. Further, the observed increase in muscle glycogen content in these obese rats could be explained by increased levels of the active form of glycogen synthase, the key regulator of glycogen synthesis pathway, possibly inactivated through increased phosphorylation of its upstream inhibitor, glycogen synthase kinase. However, the unaltered hepatic SCD1 protein expression (despite decreased mRNA level) and increased muscle-SCD1 expression (both at gene and protein levels) suggest that vitamin A-mediated changes on glucose metabolism are not associated with SCD1 regulation. Chronic consumption of vitamin A-enriched diet improved hyperglycemia and glucose-intolerance, possibly, through the regulation of intracellular signaling and glycogen synthesis pathways of muscle and liver, but not associated with SCD1.
N ew Approaches to Functional Process D iscovery in H PV 16-Associated Cervical Cancer Cells by Gene O ntology

Human papillomaviruses (HPV-16 and -18) infection has been commonly identified in cervical carcinomas (1). Generally, after a high-risk HPV infection, the E6 and E7 oncoproteins are consistently expressed, and essential for the immortalization and transformation of human squamous epithelial cells (2,3). Although a number of cervical cancer-related genes and cellular processes have been studied, many of the molecular events involved in the cervical cancer pathway are still unclear, as a gene can be involved in multiple independently regulated cancer-specific pathways. Moreover, many studies on cervical cancer lack physiological relevance because those were performed by using the small number of genes and established only in cell lines. While it is becoming increasingly clear that there are wide variations in the efficiency of cancer therapy among different cell types, there is still relatively little known regarding the mechanism by which genes or gene complexes are directly cancer-specific. Here, to quantitatively understand the possible multiple relationships between differentially expressed profiles of a gene and the cervical cancer-specific pathway, the annotation project, directed by the Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium (http://www.geneontology.org), was used (4). Despite the significance of functional analysis in cancer research, the GO analysis has not been widely used in carcinogenesis, mainly due to its complexity and rapidly evolving property. With the GO analysis, the regulated genes are organized into three separated ontologies comprised of; biological process, cellular component and molecular function, and defines a set of well-defined terms and relationships by which the role of a particular gene, gene product or gene-product group can be interpreted. Thus, an advanced strategy for the identification of preferential tumor-specific pathways would be needed by using the GO analysis. As of March 12, 2003, GO contained 6959 processes, 5339 functions and 1199 component terms, with a N ew Approaches to Functional Process D iscovery in H PV 16-Associated Cervical Cancer Cells by Gene O ntology
Pressure and Activity-related Allodynia in Delayed-onset Muscle Pain

ObjectivesMuscle pain from different activities was tested with the muscle pain expected to vary in ways that may clarify mechanisms of activity-induced exacerbation of myofascial pain. MethodsParticipants [N=20; 45% women; 23 y old (SD=2.09)] consented to participate in a 6 session protocol. Bilateral muscle pain ratings and pressure pain thresholds (PPTs) were collected before and for 4 days after lengthening (ie, eccentric) muscle contractions were completed with the nondominant elbow flexors to induce delayed-onset muscle pain. The muscle pain ratings were collected with the arms in several conditions (eg, resting, moving, and contracting in a static position) and PPTs were collected with the arms. ResultsIn the ipsilateral arm, muscle pain ratings at rest and during activity significantly increased whereas PPTs significantly decreased after the eccentrics (&eegr;2s=0.17 to 0.54). The greatest increases in pain occurred during arm extension without applied load, in which there was more stretching but less force than isometrics. In the contralateral arm, neither muscle pain nor PPTs changed from baseline. DiscussionThese results resemble earlier electrophysiology studies showing differential sensitization across stimuli and support that increased depth of information about aggravating activities from clinical patients is needed.
Seasonal and tissue age influences on endophytic fungi of Pinus tabulaeformis (Pinaceae) in the Dongling Mountains, Beijing.

Endophytic fungi associated with Pinus tabulaeformis Carr. were investigated in the Dongling Mountains of Beijing. A total of 16,200 tissue segments of P. tabulaeformis from four sample collections were processed, and 10,659 fungal isolates were recovered. The overall colonization and isolation rates of endophytic fungi from high to low were spring > winter > autumn > summer and in different tissues were bark > needle > xylem, irrespective of sampling seasons. The colonization rates of endophytic fungi of needles increased with age in the four sample collections. There were no significant differences of the colonization rates of endophytic fungi among 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old bark and xylem, except for significantly lower colonization rates in 1-year-old bark than in 2- and 3-year-old bark in summer. A similar trend of the isolation rates of endophytic fungi occurred. A total of 24 fungal taxa were recorded, of these five taxa Alternaria alternata, Leptostroma sp. , Pestalotiopsis besseyi, Phoma lingam, and Phomopsis archeri, were consistently isolated as the common fungi in each sample collection. Our results suggest that some fungi show a certain degree of tissue recurrence or specificity, and the composition of endophytic assemblages is not conspicuously influenced by the seasonal factor.
Relationship between vibrotactile detection threshold in the Pacinian channel and complex mechanical modulus of the human glabrous skin

The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between the psychophysical vibrotactile thresholds of the Pacinian (P) channel and the mechanical properties of the skin at the fingertip. Seven healthy adult subjects (age: 23–30) participated in the study. The mechanical stimuli were 250-Hz sinusoidal bursts and applied with cylindrical contactor probes of radii 1, 2, and 3.5 mm on three locations at the fingertip. The duration of each burst was 0.5 s (rise and fall time: 50 ms). The subjects performed a two-interval forced-choice task while the stimulus levels changed for tracking the threshold at 75% probability of detection. There were significant main effects of contactor radius and location (two-way ANOVA, values of p < 0.001). The thresholds decreased as the contactor radius increased (i.e., spatial summation effect) at all locations. The thresholds were lowest near the whorl at the fingertip. Additionally, we measured the mechanical impedance (specifically, the storage and loss moduli) at the contact locations. The storage moduli did not change with the contactor location, but the loss moduli were lowest near the whorl. While the loss moduli decreased, the storage moduli increased (e.g., more springiness) as the contactor radius increased. There was moderate and barely significant correlation between the absolute thresholds and the storage moduli (r = 0.650, p = 0.058). However, the correlation between the absolute thresholds and the loss moduli was high and very significant (r = 0.951, p < 0.001). The results suggest that skin mechanics may be important for locally shaping psychophysical detection thresholds, which would otherwise be expected to be constant due to uniform Pacinian innervention density at the fingertip.
Safety profile of 3 months' therapy with alfuzosin in 13,389 patients suffering from benign prostatic hypertrophy.

The safety profile of alfuzosin, a selective alpha 1-adrenergic antagonist, was assessed in a total of 13,389 patients (mean age 66.9 +/- 8.5 years) with symptomatic benign prostatic hypertrophy in two open, noncontrolled, multicentre, post-marketing surveillance studies, both conducted in France. Alfuzosin was prescribed at the recommended dose of 2.5 mg t.i. d. , according to the current labelling recommendations, for a 3-month period. Clinical safety was assessed using spontaneous reporting of adverse events leading to discontinuation of treatment. Overall, 89.7% of the patients completed the treatment period. Drop outs were recorded in 10.3% of patients: 3.7% for intolerance; 1.5% for resolution of urinary symptoms; 2.1% for lack of efficacy, and 3.0% for loss to follow-up, noncompliance, and miscellaneous reasons. Two thirds of the adverse events leading to discontinuation were vasodilatory and occurred in 2.7% of the patients: vertigo/dizziness (1.4%); malaise (0.6%); hypotension (0.4%), and headache (0.4%). Other adverse events (predominantly gastrointestinal disorders) were recorded in < 1.2% of the patients. Three quarters of the adverse events occurred during the first week of therapy. As expected, adverse events were more frequent in the elderly (aged over 75 years) and in patients taking cardiovascular drugs or with concomitant cardiovascular disease. Overall, alfuzosin was very well tolerated and the adverse event profile was consistent with the cumulative experience of the drug. No unexpected or serious adverse events considered to be related to alfuzosin were recorded. Particular care must be taken when prescribing for very elderly patients and/or those with concomitant cardiovascular disease for which they are receiving therapy.
The Continuum of Physiological Impairment during Treadmill Walking in Patients with Mild-to-Moderate COPD: Patient Characterization Phase of a Randomized Clinical Trial

Background To have a better understanding of the mechanisms of exercise limitation in mild-to-moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), we compared detailed respiratory physiology in patients with COPD and healthy age- and sex-matched controls. Methods Data were collected during the pre-treatment, patient characterization phase of a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, crossover study. Patients with COPD met Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 1 or 2 spirometric criteria, were symptomatic, and had evidence of gas trapping during exercise. All participants completed pulmonary function and symptom-limited incremental treadmill exercise tests. Results Chronic activity-related dyspnea measured by Baseline Dyspnea Index was similarly increased in patients with GOLD 1 (n = 41) and 2 (n = 63) COPD compared with controls (n = 104). Plethysmographic lung volumes were increased and lung diffusing capacity was decreased in both GOLD groups. Peak oxygen uptake and work rate were reduced in both GOLD groups compared with controls (p<0.001). Submaximal ventilation, dyspnea, and leg discomfort ratings were higher for a given work rate in both GOLD groups compared with controls. Resting inspiratory capacity, peak ventilation, and tidal volume were reduced in patients with GOLD 2 COPD compared with patients with GOLD 1 COPD and controls (p<0.001). Conclusions Lower exercise tolerance in patients with GOLD 1 and 2 COPD compared with controls was explained by greater mechanical abnormalities, greater ventilatory requirements, and increased subjective discomfort. Lower resting inspiratory capacity in patients with GOLD 2 COPD was associated with greater mechanical constraints and lower peak ventilation compared with patients with GOLD 1 COPD and controls. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01072396
Proportional switching in FIFO networks

We consider a family of discrete time multihop switched queueing networks where each packet moves along a fixed route. In this setting, BackPressure is the canonical choice of scheduling policy; this policy has the virtues of possessing a maximal stability region and not requiring explicit knowledge of traffic arrival rates. BackPressure has certain structural weaknesses because implementation requires information about each route, and queueing delays can grow super-linearly with route length. For large networks, where packets over many routes are processed by a queue, or where packets over a route are processed by many queues, these limitations can be prohibitive. In this article, we introduce a scheduling policy for FIFO networks, the Proportional Scheduler, which is based on the proportional fairness criterion. We show that, like BackPressure, the Proportional Scheduler has a maximal stability region and does not require explicit knowledge of traffic arrival rates. The Proportional Scheduler has the advantage that information about the network's route structure is not required for scheduling, which substantially improves the policy's performance for large networks. For instance, packets can be routed with only next-hop information and new nodes can be added to the network with only knowledge of the scheduling constraints.
International Trade and Economic Growth: Evidence from Singapore

International Trade and Economic Growth: Evidence from Singapore Clarence Jun Khiang Tan One of the frequently cited, though hotly contested, determinants of economic growth is exposure to international trade. This study focusses on Singapore, a country with high per capita GDP growth rates and high trade exposure to explore the relationship between these two variables. I use a cross-country dataset to gain initial insight into the trade-growth relation, then use Singapore time series data covering the period 1965 2009 to look at how Singapore’s trade exposure has contributed to its economic growth. I find some support that trade exposure has led to increased growth for Singapore. Other important determinants of growth include educational expenditure, inflation, and technological progress.