Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Conservation surgery for breast cancer as the preferred choice: a prospective analysis.

PURPOSE To describe the proportion of women who anticipate having breast-conserving surgery (BCS) versus modified radical mastectomy (MRM), the factors they considered when making treatment choices, the degree to which they perceived they had participated in and had control of the treatment decision, and to explore factors associated with type of planned surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS Prospective cohort study conducted among patients attending a tertiary care hospital in Alberta, Canada from 1992 to 1995. Participants had a first diagnosis of localized unilateral breast cancer, and were, in the opinions of their surgeons, candidates for either BCS or MRM. RESULTS Of 157 participants, 71.3% anticipated having BCS and 28.7% anticipated MRM. Referents perceived to play an important role in decision making included self, doctor, and significant other. The two top-ranked items perceived to have influenced treatment choice were doctor's advice and possibility of complete cure. Most women (60%) participated in treatment choice to the degree that they preferred, but only 13.6% received their preferred amount of information. The type of planned surgery was predicted by surgeon, contribution of doctor to choice of treatment, importance of breasts to sexuality, self-efficacy, and concerns about cancer recurrence from a multivariable logistic regression model. CONCLUSION Both patient and surgeon factors are important predictors of type of planned surgery. There is a gap between women's preferences and actual experiences with regard to information provided and patient participation in treatment choices, with women's desire for more information about their treatment being most prevalent.
Outcome after surgical or conservative management of cerebral cavernous malformations

Objective: There have been few comparative studies of microsurgical excision vs conservative management of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) and none of them has reliably demonstrated a statistically and clinically significant difference. Methods: We conducted a prospective, population-based study to identify and independently validate definite CCM diagnoses first made in 1999–2003 in Scottish adult residents. We used multiple sources of prospective follow-up to assess adults' dependence and to identify and independently validate outcome events. We used univariate and multivariable survival analyses to test the influence of CCM excision on outcome, adjusted for prognostic factors and baseline imbalances. Results: Of 134 adults, 25 underwent CCM excision; these adults were younger (34 vs 43 years at diagnosis, p = 0.004) and more likely to present with symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage or focal neurologic deficit than adults managed conservatively (48% vs 26%; odds ratio 2.7, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1–6.5). During 5 years of follow-up, CCM excision was associated with a deterioration to an Oxford Handicap Scale score 2–6 sustained over at least 2 successive years (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 2.2, 95% CI 1.1–4.3) and the occurrence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage or new focal neurologic deficit (adjusted HR 3.6, 95% CI 1.3–10.0). Conclusions: CCM excision was associated with worse outcomes over 5 years compared to conservative management. Long-term follow-up will determine whether this difference is sustained over patients' lifetimes. Meanwhile, a randomized controlled trial appears justified. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class III evidence that CCM excision worsens short-term disability scores and increases the risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and new focal neurologic deficits.
The Age-Dependence of Personal Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields of Wireless Communications in Indoor Environments

The ever-growing usage of new information and communication technology devices by different age groups is followed with public concerns of exposure induced biological effects. The aim of this paper is to assess and compare personal exposure levels to electromagnetic fields of wireless communications for different age groups, including children, under the same exposure conditions. Assessment of personal exposure of the following age groups: 08-15, 16-20, 21-35 and 36-60 years old is conducted with sophisticated tri-axial E-field frequency selective personal exposure meters, enabling measurements of electric field strength in 14 pre-defined frequency bands in the range of 80 MHz-6 GHz. Participants are selected to be with similar social conditions and occupation, including children, students and administrative employees. The measurements were conducted in typical residential environments collecting 161 280 measurement samples. The mean value of power density of different wireless technologies is presented for each age-group, including the contribute of specific wireless technology to the total personal exposure. The highest personal exposure values per frequency band for all age groups are in GSM and Wi-Fi 2G. The results show a difference in mean power density levels between different age groups for the same exposure environment. Ultimately, all measured values were far below international safety guidelines and exposure limits.
Mechanism for the Abnormal Energetics of Pressure‐Induced Hypertrophy of Cat Myocardium

Depressed myocardial contractility with paradoxically increased oxygen consumption has been demonstrated in previous studies of pressure overload hypertrophy. To determine whether altered mitochondrial respiration participates in the abnormal energetics of this muscle, right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH) was produced in 12 cats by pulmonary artery banding. A polarographic muscle bath was used to study eight control and eight RVH papillary muscles, and the respiration of mitochondria isolated from these right ventricles was characterized. RVH muscles demonstrated depressed force-velocity and length-tension curves. The myocardial oxygen consumption per gram of peak active tension was increased from 0.65 ± 0.05 nliters/mg beat−1 (control) to 1.10±0.07 nliters/mg beat−1 (RVH) (P<0.001). Abnormal mitochondrial respiration was shown by an increase in the rate of state 4 oxygen consumption from 12.5±0.8 natoms/mg min−1 (control) to 19.9±0.8 natoms/mg min−1 (RVH) (P < 0.001). The altered oxygen cost of active isometric tension in the RVH muscles was linearly correlated with the altered rate of mitochondrial state 4 oxygen consumption (r = 0.91). Ruthenium red, a compound that blocks mitochondrial calcium uptake, reduced the rate of RVH state 4 oxygen consumption to the control level. The present study suggests a mechanism for the abnormal myocardial oxygen consumption in pressure overload hypertrophy and relates it to nonphosphorylating mitochondrial respiration linked to calcium transport.
The Great Sumatra-Andaman Earthquake of 26 December 2004

The two largest earthquakes of the past 40 years ruptured a 1600-kilometer-long portion of the fault boundary between the Indo-Australian and southeastern Eurasian plates on 26 December 2004 [seismic moment magnitude (Mw) = 9.1 to 9.3] and 28 March 2005 (Mw = 8.6). The first event generated a tsunami that caused more than 283,000 deaths. Fault slip of up to 15 meters occurred near Banda Aceh, Sumatra, but to the north, along the Nicobar and Andaman Islands, rapid slip was much smaller. Tsunami and geodetic observations indicate that additional slow slip occurred in the north over a time scale of 50 minutes or longer.
OTIMIZAÇÃO DA OXIGENAÇÃO DE EFLUENTES DOMÉSTICOS POR MEIO DA VARIAÇÃO DAS CONFIGURAÇÕES DE OPERAÇÃO DE AERADORES DE FLUXO DESCENDENTE

A presenca de oxigenio e fundamental para a realizacao de determinados processos biologicos de tratamento de efluentes domesticos e industriais. O oxigenio dissolvido pode ser obtido por meio de aeradores ou difusores que terao como principal funcao manter a quantidade necessaria e especifica para o tratamento de determinada concentracao de materia orgânica. O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi determinar a melhor configuracao de operacao de um aerador de fluxo descendente modelo AFD5 da empresa Lindner Techno Systems. Utilizou-se uma potencia de 5cv e um ângulo de inclinacao de 62o; foram testados tres diâmetros de helice (165, 180 e 190 mm) e tres velocidades de rotacao por minuto (1000, 1750 e 2500 RPM). Os testes foram realizados na Lagoa B da Estacao de Tratamento de Efluentes Domesticos do Servico Autonomo Municipal de Agua e Esgoto (SAMAE) de Campos Novos, SC. Considerando-se a concentracao inicial de oxigenio dissolvido do meio de aproximadamente 5,85 ppm, no intervalo de 15 minutos de teste de cada helice com sua respectiva rotacao de aerador, concluiu-se que as melhores condicoes de operacao foram obtidas com a helice de 190 mm, com a rotacao de 1750 RPM. Palavras-chave: Tratamento de biologico. Esgotos domesticos. Aerador fluxo descendente.
Mountain biking injuries requiring trauma center admission: a 10-year regional trauma system experience.

BACKGROUND Mountain biking has become an increasingly popular recreational and competitive sport with increasingly recognized risks. The purpose of this study was to review a population based approach to serious injuries requiring trauma center admission related to mountain biking, identify trends and develop directions for related injury prevention programs. METHODS Three trauma centers in the Greater Vancouver area exclusively serve a major mountain bike park and the North Shore Mountains biking trails. The Trauma Registries and the patient charts were reviewed for mountain bike injuries from 1992 to 2002. The data were analyzed according to demographics, distribution, and severity of injuries, and need for operative intervention. Findings were reviewed with injury prevention experts and regional and national mountain-biking stakeholders to provide direction to injury prevention programs. RESULTS A total of 1,037 patients were identified as having bicycling-related injuries. Of these, 399 patients sustained 1,092 injuries while mountain biking. There was a threefold increase in the incidence of mountain biking injuries over a 10-year period. Young males were most commonly affected. Orthopedic injuries were most common (46.5%) followed by head (12.2%), spine (12%), chest (10.3%), facial (10.2%), abdominal (5.4%), genitourinary (2.2%), and neck injuries (1%). High operative rate was observed: 38% of injuries and 66% of patients required surgery. One patient died from his injuries. Injury prevention programs were developed and successfully engaged the target population. CONCLUSION Mountain biking is a growing cause of serious injuries. Young males are principally at risk and serious injuries result from intended activity and despite protective equipment. Injury prevention programs were developed to address these concerns.
Understanding Risk for Reading Difficulties in Children With Language Impairment.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to retrospectively examine the preschool language and early literacy skills of kindergarten good and poor readers, and to determine the extent to which these skills predict reading status. Method Participants were 136 children with language impairment enrolled in early childhood special education classrooms. On the basis of performance on a word recognition task given in kindergarten, children were classified as either good or poor readers. Comparisons were made across these 2 groups on a number of language and early literacy measures administered in preschool, and logistic regression was used to determine the best predictors of kindergarten reading status. Results Twenty-seven percent of the sample met criterion for poor reading in kindergarten. These children differed from good readers on most of the skills measured in preschool. The best predictors of kindergarten reading status were oral language, alphabet knowledge, and print concept knowledge. Presence of comorbid disabilities was not a significant predictor. Classification accuracy was good overall. Conclusion Results suggest that risk of reading difficulty for children with language impairment can be reliably estimated in preschool, prior to the onset of formal reading instruction. Measures of both language and early literacy skills are important for identifying which children are likely to develop later reading difficulties.
Segregation of European Corn Borer, Ostrinia nubilalis, Aminopeptidase 1, Cadherin, and Bre5-Like Alleles, from a Colony Resistant to Bacillus thuringiensis Cry1Ab Toxins, are not Associated with F2 Larval Weights when Fed a Diet Containing Cry1Ab

Abstract Protein receptors may be required for activated Bacillus thuringiensis Cry toxins (Cry1Ab) to bind midgut epithelium prior to pore formation. Single nucleotide polymorphism markers from two Ostrinia nubilalis Hübner (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) midgut peptide receptors, cadherin (OnCad), aminopeptidase N 1 (OnAPN1), and OnBre5 (Onb3GalT5; a &bgr;-1,3-galactosyltransferase family 5 member) were used to examine segregation in F2 families derived from paired matings of Cry1Ab-resistant females and Cry1Ab-susceptible males. Genotypic frequencies for these markers did not deviate from Mendelian expectations. Analysis of F2 larvae indicate the segregation of single nucleotide pores in OnAPN1, OnBre5 (Onb3GalT5), and OnCad marker loci were independent of the segregation of logio weights of larvae feeding on Cry1Ab diet.
Acceleratory match-play demands of a Super Rugby team over a competitive season

Abstract The match-play demands of rugby union have increased over time, and these demands should be quantified so as to provide a basis for optimal player loading during training. The primary aim of this article was to quantify accelerations, decelerations, impacts and aggregated body demands during the first half of match-play in a Super Rugby team. The secondary aim was to determine whether these characteristics are position-specific. Thirty-three players were monitored for 14 matches using global positioning system units with inbuilt microtechnology. Players were grouped according to positional roles and data were analysed for those who completed the entire duration of the first half of a given match. Forwards sustained more (d = 0.44) high-intensity impacts and greater (d = 0.26) aggregated body demands, while backs had more moderate (d = 0.55) and heavy accelerations (d = 0.76), and moderate (d = 0.23) and heavy decelerations (d = 0.54). These differences suggest that conditioning and recovery strategies should reflect the physical demands placed on players in different playing positions. Forwards should be conditioned with a focus on impacts and require longer recovery for the same duration of playing time, whereas conditioning for backs should emphasise rapid accelerations and decelerations.
Exenatide: a GLP-1 receptor agonist as novel therapy for Type 2 diabetes mellitus

Exenatide is a glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor agonist, which has recently received FDA approval in the US for the treatment of Type 2 diabetes. Exenatide is an incretin mimetic that improves glycaemic control in patients with diabetes through acute mechanisms, such as glucose-dependent stimulation of insulin secretion, suppression of inappropriate glucagon secretion and slowing of gastric emptying, as well as chronic mechanisms that include enhancement of β-cell mass in rodent studies and weight loss and inhibition of food intake in humans. This article reviews the mechanisms of exenatide action, as well as its efficacy in the treatment of Type 2 diabetes.
Synergistic stimulation of gamma‐glutamyl transpeptidase and alkaline phosphatase activities by retinoic acid and astroglial factors in immortalized rat brain microvessel endothelial cells

The immortalized rat brain microvessel endothelial cell line RBE4 was used to investigate the in vitro regulation of two blood‐brain barrier specific enzymes, gamma‐glutamyl transpeptidase (GTP) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). The effects of bFGF, astroglial factors, and retinoic acid (a cell differentiation agent) on GTP and ALP activities were separately or simultaneously studied in order to define optimal culture conditions for induction of these two specific enzymes of the blood‐brain barrier. In the present study, a phenotypically distinct subpopulation of endothelial cells has been shown to develop from confluent cobblestone monolayers of RBE4 immortalized cerebral endothelial cells. These distinct cells were present within multicellular aggregates and specifically exhibited GTP and ALP activities. Addition of bFGF, astroglial factors, or retinoic acid induced the formation of these three‐dimensional structures and in consequence an increase in GTP and ALP activities. For retinoic acid and astroglial factors, this increase could also be explained by the stimulation of either GTP or ALP expression in the phenotypically distinct positive cells associated with aggregates. Simultaneous treatment with retinoic acid and astroglial factors had a synergistic effect on GTP and ALP expression and thus may allow these distinct cells to evolve toward a more differentiated state. Since such results were also obtained with physiological concentrations of retinoic acid, we suggest that addition of this agent might contribute to greater differentiation of cells in in vitro blood‐brain barrier models where endothelial cells are cocultured with astrocytes. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Targeted suppression of E‐cadherin gene expression in bovine preimplantation embryo by RNA interference technology using double‐stranded RNA

RNA interference (RNAi) has become acknowledged as an effective and useful tool to study gene function in diverse groups of cells. We aimed to suppress the expression of the E‐cadherin gene during in vitro development of bovine preimplantation embryos using RNAi approach. In this experiment the effect of microinjection of E‐cadherin and Oct‐4 (as control) double‐stranded (ds) RNA on the mRNA and protein expression level of the target E‐cadherin gene was investigated. For this, a 496 bp long bovine E‐cadherin and 341 bp long Oct‐4 dsRNA sample were prepared using in vitro transcription. In vitro produced bovine zygotes were categorized into four treatment groups including those injected with E‐cadherin dsRNA, Oct‐4 dsRNA, RNase‐free water, and uninjected controls. While the injection of E‐cadherin dsRNA resulted in the reduction of E‐cadherin mRNA and protein levels at the morula and blastocyst stage, the transcript and protein product remained unaffected in the Oct‐4 dsRNA, water injected and uninjected control groups. The relative abundance of E‐cadherin mRNA in the E‐cadherin dsRNA injected morula stage embryos was reduced by 80% compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The Western blot analysis also showed a significant decrease in the E‐cadherin protein (119 kDa) in E‐cadherin dsRNA injected embryos compared to the other three groups. Microinjection of E‐cadherin dsRNA has resulted only 22% blastocyst rate compared to 38%–40% in water injected and uninjected controls. In conclusion, our results indicated the suppression of E‐cadherin mRNA and protein has resulted in lower blastocyst rate and the RNAi technology is a promising approach to study the function of genes in early bovine embryogenesis. Mol. Reprod. Dev. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An Effective Multirestart Deterministic Annealing Metaheuristic for the Fleet Size and Mix Vehicle-Routing Problem with Time Windows

This paper presents a new deterministic annealing metaheuristic for the fleet size and mix vehicle-routing problem with time windows. The objective is to service, at minimal total cost, a set of customers within their time windows by a heterogeneous capacitated vehicle fleet. First, we motivate and define the problem. We then give a mathematical formulation of the most studied variant in the literature in the form of a mixed-integer linear program. We also suggest an industrially relevant, alternative definition that leads to a linear mixed-integer formulation. The suggested metaheuristic solution method solves both problem variants and comprises three phases. In Phase 1, high-quality initial solutions are generated by means of a savings-based heuristic that combines diversification strategies with learning mechanisms. In Phase 2, an attempt is made to reduce the number of routes in the initial solution with a new local search procedure. In Phase 3, the solution from Phase 2 is further improved by a set of four local search operators that are embedded in a deterministic annealing framework to guide the improvement process. Some new implementation strategies are also suggested for efficient time window feasibility checks. Extensive computational experiments on the 168 benchmark instances have shown that the suggested method outperforms the previously published results and found 167 best-known solutions. Experimental results are also given for the new problem variant.
Regulation of expression of the Pasteurella haemolytica leukotoxin determinant

The Pasteurella haemolytica leukotoxin determinant is composed of four contiguous genes encoded on the same DNA strand and denoted lktCABD, in the order of their genetic organization. To gain a better understanding of the expression and regulation of the leukotoxin, the transcripts and promoters of the lkt determinant were mapped. Northern (RNA) blot analysis revealed two sets of transcripts. One set was 3.7 and 3.4 kilobases long, encoded lktCA, and comprised approximately 90% of the transcripts, whereas the other set was 7.4 and 7.1 kilobases long and encoded lktCABD. Two promoters were present, and each had features similar to the Escherichia coli consensus promoter sequences. Both promoters were located upstream from lktC; they were separated by 258 base pairs, as mapped by primer extension analysis. These results suggest a mechanism of expression similar to that of the related E. coli hemolysin. Transcription initiated upstream from lktC at either promoter and continued through lktC and lktA to a rho-independent transcriptional termination signal in the lktA-lktB intercistronic region. This signal attenuated expression by terminating 90% of transcription to generate the 3.7- and 3.4-kilobase lktCA transcripts. The remaining readthrough transcription generated full-length 7.4- and 7.1-kilobase lktCABD transcripts. Expression of the leukotoxin was greatly reduced by growth at 30 degrees C, pH 6.5, and Fe2+ limitation. These conditions also modulated the expression of a number of other secreted proteins, which suggests that all of these secreted proteins are controlled by the same regulatory mechanism.