Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical correlates of human leucocyte antigen (HLA)‐G in systemic sclerosis1

Human leucocyte antigen (HLA)‐G has a tolerogenic function and could play a role in the pathogenesis of immune‐mediated diseases, including systemic sclerosis (SSc). The aim of this study was to evaluate HLA‐G serum expression (sHLA‐G) and the HLA‐G gene 14 base pairs (bp) insertion/deletion (del−/del+) polymorphism in patients with Ssc, to search for possible associations with clinical and laboratory variables. sHLA‐G was measured by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in sera from 77 patients with SSc and 32 healthy donors (HD); the 14 bp del−/del+ polymorphism was evaluated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) genomic DNA. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis identified the HLA‐G cut‐off that best discriminated dichotomized clinical and serological variables, that was subsequently employed to subdivide SSc patients into HLA‐G high (HLA‐G+) and low (HLA‐G−) profile groups. sHLA‐G were not statistically different between SSc patients and HD, nor between distinct SSc autoantibody subsets. Subdividing SSc patients by HLA‐G positivity or negativity yielded significant differences for the modified Rodnan skin score (mRss) (P = 0·032), ‘general’ (P = 0·031) and ‘kidney’ (P = 0·028) Medsger severity scores (MSS) and disease activity index, and especially Δ heart/lung (P = 0·005). A worse ‘general’ MSS (P = 0·002) and Δ heart/lung (P = 0·011) were more frequent in the low sHLA‐G group. These two variables and mRss were associated with sHLA‐G levels at logistic regression analysis. Treatment had no influence on sHLA‐G. Moreover, a higher frequency of scleredema was detected in the del+/del+ than the del‐/del+ group (P = 0.04). These data suggest modulatory effects of sHLA‐G on SSc. Prospective studies are needed to investigate a role in predicting the disease course.
Prognosis after resection for hepatitis B virus-associated intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

AIM To investigate the prognostic factors after resection for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC) and to assess the impact of different extents of lymphadenectomy on patient survival. METHODS A total of 85 patients with HBV-associated ICC who underwent curative resection from January 2005 to December 2006 were analyzed. The patients were classified into groups according to the extent of lymphadenectomy (no lymph node dissection, sampling lymph node dissection and regional lymph node dissection). Clinicopathological characteristics and survival were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS The cumulative 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival rates were found to be 60%, 18%, and 13%, respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that liver cirrhosis (HR = 1.875, 95%CI: 1.197-3.278, P = 0.008) and multiple tumors (HR = 2.653, 95%CI: 1.562-4.508, P < 0.001) were independent prognostic factors for survival. Recurrence occurred in 70 patients. The 1-, 3-, and 5-year disease-free survival rates were 36%, 3% and 0%, respectively. Liver cirrhosis (HR = 1.919, P = 0.012), advanced TNM stage (stage III/IV) (HR = 2.027, P < 0.001), and vascular invasion (HR = 3.779, P = 0.02) were independent prognostic factors for disease-free survival. Patients with regional lymph node dissection demonstrated a similar survival rate to patients with sampling lymph node dissection. Lymphadenectomy did not significantly improve the survival rate of patients with negative lymph node status. CONCLUSION The extent of lymphadenectomy does not seem to have influence on the survival of patients with HBV-associated ICC, and routine lymph node dissection is not recommended, particularly for those without lymph node metastasis.
Visual Processing in Amblyopia: Human Studies

Within the last five years, there have been a number of exciting new advances in our knowledge and understanding of amblyopia. This article reviews recent psychophysical studies of naturally occurring amblyopia in humans. These studies suggest that: 1) There are significant differences in the patterns of visual loss among the clinically defined categories of amblyopes. A key factor in determining the nature of the loss is the presence or absence of binocularity. 2) Dysfunction within the amblyopic visual system first occurs in area V1, and the effects of amblyopia may be amplified downstream. 3) There appears to be substantial neural plasticity in the amblyopic brain beyond the “critical period. ”
Prediction of human rotavirus serotype by nucleotide sequence analysis of the VP7 protein gene

Human rotavirus field isolates were characterized by direct sequence analysis of the gene encoding the serotype-specific major neutralization protein (VP7). Single-stranded RNA transcripts were prepared from virus particles obtained directly from stool specimens or after two or three passages in MA-104 cells. Two regions of the gene (nucleotides 307 through 351 and 670 through 711) which had previously been shown to contain regions of sequence divergence among rotavirus serotypes were sequenced by the dideoxynucleotide method with two different synthetic oligonucleotide primers. The resulting nucleotide sequences were compared with the corresponding sequences from rotaviruses of known serotype (serotype 1, 2, 3, or 4). A total of 25 field isolates and 10 laboratory strains examined by this method exhibited marked sequence identity in both areas of the gene with the corresponding regions of 1 of the 4 reference strains. In addition, the predicted serotype from the sequence analysis correlated in each case with the serotype determined when the rotaviruses were examined by plaque reduction neutralization or reactivity with serotype-specific monoclonal antibodies. These data suggest that as a result of the high degree of sequence conservation observed among rotaviruses of the same serotype, it is possible to predict the serotype of a rotavirus isolate by direct sequence analysis of its VP7 gene.
Plasma ceramide and lysophosphatidylcholine inversely correlate with mortality in sepsis patients Published, JLR Papers in Press, January 16, 2003. DOI 10.1194/jlr.M200401-JLR200

Recent data indicate that ceramide (Cer) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) regulate immune cell functions. Since these bioactive lipids are generated in blood plasma by inflammatory lipases, we hypothesized that they may be involved in the process of acute systemic sepsis. In order to provide support for this hypothesis, we analyzed the plasma levels of Cer and LPC by quantitative tandem mass spectrometry in 102 sepsis patients starting with the day at which the sepsis criteria were fulfilled for the first time, as well as on day 4 and day 11. The values were compared with 56 healthy controls and correlated with sepsis-related mortality within 30 days of study entry. Most Cer species were increased in sepsis patients, while all LPC species were markedly decreased. In addition, we determined the molar ratios with their precursor molecules sphingomyelin (SPM) and phosphatidylcholine (PC), which reflect the enzymatic reactions responsible for their formation. Species-specific as well as total Cer-SPM ratios were increased, whereas LPC-PC ratios were decreased in sepsis patients. The increased Cer-SPM ratios as well as the decreased LPC-PC ratios showed a strong predictive power for sepsis-related mortality. Together with existing data from in vitro experiments and animal models, the results provide the first ex vivo indication for the role of Cer and lysophospholipids in systemic inflammation in humans.
Addressing the Psychological Needs of the Conservatively Treated Breast Cancer Patient: Discussion Paper

Figure 1, Single-item responses on the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist in the CRC Breast Conservation Trial' Introduction The psychological problems experienced by women who undergo mastectomy for breast cancer have been well-documented':", but there is little evidence that breast conservation with radiotherapy prevents psychiatric morbidity. Studies using standardized psychological measures comparing the psychological outcome of lumpectomy with that found in mastectomy! 7 reveal little or no difference between treatment groups. In two studies, however, there was a less negative body image reaction amongst conservatively treated women'':", and another study provided some evidence that women given a choice ofoperation adjusted more readily to their treatment", In the CRC Breast Conservation Trial7, patients randomized to either mastectomy or lumpectomy were interviewed using a modified Present State Examination (PSE)8. Diagnoses of anxiety and depression were made using DSM III criteria • Levels of psychiatric morbidity and sexual dysfunction were high, but not significantly different between treatment groups. Patients also completed a questionnaire, the Rotterdam Symptom ChecklistI 0, and Figure 1shows that the lumpectomy patients appeared more anxious than the mastectomy patients. These data challenge the assumption that breast loss is the primary cause of psychosocial problems post-mastectomy. Many factors contribute to psychiatric morbidity, especially the fear of cancer and its possible recurrence. These fears are shared by all
Ethnicity, self-reported health, discrimination and socio-economic status: a study of Sami and non-Sami Norwegian populations

Objectives. Investigate the association between ethnicity, social factors and self-reported health conditions of Sami and non-Sami Norwegian populations. Study design. Cross-sectional questionnaire. Methods. SAMINOR is a population-based study of health and living conditions that was conducted in 24 municipalities in northern Norway during 2003 and 2004. The present study included 12,265 individuals aged between 36 and 79, whose ethnicity was categorized as Sami (33.1%), Kven (7.8%) and Norwegian majority population (59.1%). Results. Sami respondents reported inferior health conditions in comparison to the Norwegian majority population. The most unsatisfactory conditions were reported by Sami females living outside the defined Sami area (with greater integration and assimilation) (p&0.05). Females typically reported less favourable health conditions than did males. Health inequalities varied by age and were more apparent in persons aged in their mid-50s or above. Across ethnic groups, respondents with the highest education and household income were healthier than others. Furthermore, those reporting to have been frequently discriminated against were more likely to report poorer health than those who did not; the odds ratios (95% CI) was found to be 2.88 (1.92–4.32) for women and 1.61 (1.08-2.42) for men. When discrimination was included in the logistical model, the increased risk of poor self-reported health decreased to non-significance for Sami respondents. The estimated risk decreased further when the socio-economic status was taken into account. Conclusions. The findings of this study suggest that self-reported ethnic discrimination combined with low socio-economic status contributes to inequalities in self-reported health when Sami and Norwegian majority population are compared.
Breastmilk fatty acids in relation to sensitization – the ALADDIN birth cohort

Breastmilk fatty acids (FAs) have been associated with childhood allergic disease. Children of families with an anthroposophic lifestyle have a low prevalence of sensitization compared to reference groups. This study aimed to investigate whether the lower prevalence of sensitization among these children can be explained by the differences in breastmilk FA composition.
Oasis Forts of Legio III Augusta on the Routes to the Fezzan

The two well-preserved Roman fortresses to be described in this paper have been known for many years. They were first brought to European notice by the British-sponsored geographical expeditions of the nineteenth century, when Tripoli was the spring-board for repeated attempts to find a route into Central Africa. Although important discoveries have been made in one of these forts (Bu Ngem) in more recent years, no detailed ground-plans have previously been published. The following notes and illustrations are primarily intended to fill this lacuna in the documentation of the African limes; but it is hoped that they may also serve to increase our knowledge of early third-century trends in Roman military architecture. The European frontiers of the Roman Empire have yielded, and are still yielding, numerous examples of first- and second-century forts, and equally numerous examples of the forts erected during the later-third and early-fourth centuries, when barbarian invasion threatened the whole Roman world.
Rapid, Transient Changes at theenv Locus of Plasma Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Populations during the Emergence of Protease Inhibitor Resistance

ABSTRACT Plasma human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) populations were genetically analyzed at their most variable locus, the envelope gene, during the rapid emergence of resistance to protease inhibitor monotherapy. Plasma virus populations remained genetically constant prior to drug treatment and during the 1 to 2 weeks following initiation of therapy, while viremia fell 10- to 100-fold. Concomitant with rapid plasma viremia rebounds associated with the emergence of drug-resistant virus, marked alterations were then detected at the env locus. Plasma population changes lasted only a few weeks before the reappearance of the pretreatment envelope variants. The emergence of resistance to single protease inhibitors was therefore associated with major but transient changes at a nonselected locus. Selection for resistance to single protease inhibitors thus appears to be more complex than the continued replication of a large, random, and therefore genetically representative sampling of the pretreatment plasma population. The possibility that drug-privileged anatomical sites containing distinct envelope variants and/or a small effective HIV-1 population size account for these results is discussed.
eNOS gene delivery prevents hypertension and reduces renal failure and injury in rats with reduced renal mass.

BACKGROUND Impaired nitric oxide (NO) release in chronic renal failure has been implicated in the pathogenesis of hypertension and the progression of renal insufficiency. We investigated whether gene delivery of the endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) improves NO release and reduces blood pressure and renal failure and injury in rats with reduced renal mass. METHODS Renal failure was induced by renal artery branches ligation. Two weeks later, rats with renal failure were divided into three groups and received an intravenous injection of the vehicle or the adenovirus that expresses eNOS or β-galactosidase (β-gal). Systolic blood pressure, renal parameters and histopathology were assessed at Week 4 after gene delivery. RESULTS At the end of the study, systolic blood pressures, serum creatinine, proteinuria, urinary endothelin-1 (ET-1) excretion and renal cortex ET-1 levels were increased, whereas plasma and urine NO(2)/NO(3) were reduced in renal failure rats as compared to normal controls. Renal injury comprised blood vessel media hypertrophy, focal and segmental glomerular sclerosis, tubular atrophy and interstitial fibrosis. Gene delivery of eNOS, but not β-gal, prevented an increase in systolic blood pressure and proteinuria, and a reduction in plasma and urine NO(2)/NO(3). eNOS gene delivery also reduced a rise in serum creatinine, urinary ET-1 excretion and renal cortex ET-1 levels, and the renal vascular, glomerular and tubular injury. CONCLUSION This study indicates that eNOS gene delivery in rats with renal failure improves NO release, which likely prevents the aggravation of hypertension and slows down the progression of renal failure and injury.
Deep Pyramid Convolutional Neural Networks for Text Categorization

This paper proposes a low-complexity word-level deep convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture for text categorization that can efficiently represent long-range associations in text. In the literature, several deep and complex neural networks have been proposed for this task, assuming availability of relatively large amounts of training data. However, the associated computational complexity increases as the networks go deeper, which poses serious challenges in practical applications. Moreover, it was shown recently that shallow word-level CNNs are more accurate and much faster than the state-of-the-art very deep nets such as character-level CNNs even in the setting of large training data. Motivated by these findings, we carefully studied deepening of word-level CNNs to capture global representations of text, and found a simple network architecture with which the best accuracy can be obtained by increasing the network depth without increasing computational cost by much. We call it deep pyramid CNN. The proposed model with 15 weight layers outperforms the previous best models on six benchmark datasets for sentiment classification and topic categorization.
Inhibition by AICA Riboside of Gluconeogenesis in Isolated Rat Hepatocytes

5-Amino-4-imidazolecarboxamide (AICA) riboside, the nucleoside corresponding to AICA ribotide (AICAR or ZMP), an intermediate of the de novo pathway of purine biosynthesis, was found to exert a dose-dependent inhibition on gluconeogenesis in isolated rat hepatocytes. Production of glucose from lactate-pyruvate mixtures was half-maximally inhibited by ∼100 μM and completely suppressed by 500 μM AICA riboside. AICA riboside also inhibited the production of glucose from all other gluconeogenic precursors investigated, i.e., fructose, dihydroxyacetone, and L-proline. Measurements of intermediates of the glycolytic-gluconeogenic pathway showed that AICA riboside provoked elevations of triose phosphates and fructose-1,6-bisphosphate and decreases in fructose-6-phosphate and glucose-6-phosphate. The effects of AICA riboside persisted when the cells were washed 10 min after its addition but were suppressed by 5-iodotubercidin, an inhibitor of adenosine kinase. AICA riboside provoked a dose-dependent buildup of normally undetectable Z nucleotides. After 20 min of incubation with 500 μM AICA riboside, ZMP, ZTP, and ZDP reached 3, 0.3, and 0.1 μmol/g cells, respectively. Concentrations of ATP were not significantly modified by addition of up to 500 μM AICA riboside when the cells were incubated with lactate-pyruvate but decreased with fructose or dihydroxyacetone. The activity of rat liver fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase was inhibited by ZMP with an apparent Ki of 370 μM. It is concluded that AICA riboside exerts a suppressive effect on gluconeogenesis because it provokes an accumulation of ZMP, which inhibits fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase. Because gluconeogenesis is increased in diabetes, our observations warrant a search for related inhibitors of f ructose-1,6-bisphosphatase, which may have therapeutic potential in this disorder.
Initial and maintenance naltrexone treatment for alcohol dependence using primary care vs specialty care: a nested sequence of 3 randomized trials.

BACKGROUND Naltrexone may improve success in primary care treatment of alcohol dependence (AD). This study tests naltrexone and primary care management (PCM) vs naltrexone and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and tests naltrexone maintenance among patients who respond to an initial course of naltrexone combined with PCM vs CBT. METHODS A nested sequence of 3 randomized trials was conducted. In study 1, 197 subjects with AD participated in a 10-week comparison of PCM and naltrexone (50 mg/d) vs CBT and naltrexone (50 mg/d). In study 2, 53 PCM responders from study 1 continued in a 24-week placebo-controlled study of maintenance naltrexone. In study 3, 60 CBT responders from study 1 continued in a 24-week placebo-controlled study of maintenance naltrexone and CBT. RESULTS Study 1: No difference in the response to treatment; 84.1% (74/88) of the PCM patients and 86.5% (77/89) of the CBT patients avoided persistent heavy drinking. Percentage of days abstinent (PDA) declined over time for PCM vs CBT (P =.03). Study 2: Higher response maintenance for PCM and naltrexone (21/26, 80.8%) vs PCM and placebo (14/27, 51.9%; P =.03) and PDA declined more for the placebo group (P =.02). Study 3: The differences between naltrexone vs placebo on maintenance of response (25/30, 83.3% vs 21/30, 70.0%) or PDA did not reach statistical significance. CONCLUSIONS Naltrexone yielded comparable results during the initial 10 weeks of treatment when combined with PCM or CBT. Maintenance of improvement was enhanced by continued naltrexone treatment in the PCM but not in the CBT arm.
Analysis of Resting-State fMRI Topological Graph Theory Properties in Methamphetamine Drug Users Applying Box-Counting Fractal Dimension

Introduction: Graph theoretical analysis of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data has provided new measures of mapping human brain in vivo. Of all methods to measure the functional connectivity between regions, Linear Correlation (LC) calculation of activity time series of the brain regions as a linear measure is considered the most ubiquitous one. The strength of the dependence obligatory for graph construction and analysis is consistently underestimated by LC, because not all the bivariate distributions, but only the marginals are Gaussian. In a number of studies, Mutual Information (MI) has been employed, as a similarity measure between each two time series of the brain regions, a pure nonlinear measure. Owing to the complex fractal organization of the brain indicating self-similarity, more information on the brain can be revealed by fMRI Fractal Dimension (FD) analysis. Methods: In the present paper, Box-Counting Fractal Dimension (BCFD) is introduced for graph theoretical analysis of fMRI data in 17 methamphetamine drug users and 18 normal controls. Then, BCFD performance was evaluated compared to those of LC and MI methods. Moreover, the global topological graph properties of the brain networks inclusive of global efficiency, clustering coefficient and characteristic path length in addict subjects were investigated too. Results: Compared to normal subjects by using statistical tests (P<0.05), topological graph properties were postulated to be disrupted significantly during the resting-state fMRI. Conclusion: Based on the results, analyzing the graph topological properties (representing the brain networks) based on BCFD is a more reliable method than LC and MI.
Developing librarians as teachers: A study of their pedagogical knowledge

The widespread involvement of librarians in information literacy education has raised concerns about their development as teachers, but there is little research on their acquisition and application of pedagogical knowledge. A questionnaire was used to collect mainly quantitative data about the teaching roles, pedagogical knowledge and professional development of subject librarians in 82 UK higher education institutions. Two expert interviews and a literature review informed the design and contextualized the findings. The survey showed postholders were engaged in a variety of teaching-related activities, regarded as central to their work. Contrary to assumptions, most felt confident about teaching and thought their knowledge sufficient, giving examples of pedagogical theory gained via courses informing their teaching practice. Although on-the-job development was common, the majority had undertaken a short course and/or extended programme. Respondents favoured incorporating a teaching module into initial professional education and providing tailored programmes for librarians with substantial teaching roles.