Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with methotrexate alone, sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine, or a combination of all three medications.

BACKGROUND Rheumatoid arthritis is a common disease that causes substantial morbidity and mortality. The responses of patients with rheumatoid arthritis to treatment with a single so-called disease-modifying drug, such as methotrexate, are often suboptimal. Despite limited data, many patients are treated with combinations of these drugs. METHODS We enrolled 102 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and poor responses to at least one disease-modifying drug in a two-year, double-blind, randomized study of treatment with methotrexate alone (7.5 to 17.5 mg per week), the combination of sulfasalazine (500 mg twice daily) and hydroxychloroquine (200 mg twice daily), or all three drugs. The dose of methotrexate was adjusted in an attempt to achieve remission in all patients. The primary and point of the study was the successful completion of two years of treatment with 50 percent improvement in composite symptoms of arthritis and no evidence of drug toxicity. RESULTS Fifty of the 102 patients had 50 percent improvement at nine months and maintained at least that degree of improvement for two years without evidence of major drug toxicity. Among them were 24 of 31 patients treated with all three drugs (77 percent), 12 of 36 patients treated with methotrexate alone (33 percent, P < 0.001 for the comparison with the three-drug group), and 14 of 35 patients treated with sulfasalazine and hydroxychloroquine (40 percent), P = 0.003 for the comparison with the three-drug group). Seven patients in the methotrexate group and three patients in each of the other two groups discontinued treatment because of drug toxicity. CONCLUSIONS In patients with rheumatoid arthritis, combination therapy with methotrexate, sulfasalazine, and hydroxychloroquine is more effective than either methotrexate alone or a combination of sulfasalazine, and hydroxychloroquine.
Effect of mutations K97A and E128A on RNA binding and self assembly of papaya mosaic potexvirus coat protein

Papaya mosaic potexvirus (PapMV) coat protein (CP) was expressed (CPΔN5) in Escherichia coli and showed to self assemble into nucleocapsid like particles (NLPs). Twenty per cent of the purified protein was found as NLPs of 50 nm in length and 80% was found as a multimer of 450 kDa (20 subunits) arranged in a disk. Two mutants in the RNA binding domain of the PapMV CP, K97A and E128A showed interesting properties. The proteins of both mutants could be easily purified and CD spectra of these proteins showed secondary and tertiary structures similar to the WT protein. The mutant K97A was unable to self assemble and bind RNA. On the contrary, the mutant E128A showed an improved affinity for RNA and self assembled more efficiently in NLPs. E128A NLPs were longer (150 nm) than the recombinant CPΔN5 and 100% percent of the protein was found as NLPs in bacteria. E128A NLPs were more resistant to digestion by trypsin than the CPΔN5 but were more sensitive to denaturation by heat. We discuss the possible role of K97 and E128 in the assembly of PapMV.
Nark is a nitrite‐extrusion system involved in anaerobic nitrate respiration by Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli can use nitrate as a terminal electron acceptor for anaerobic respiration. A polytopic membrane protein, termed NarK, has been implicated in nitrate uptake and nitrite excretion and is thought to function as a nitrate/nitrite antiporter. The longest‐lived radioactive isotope of nitrogen, 13N‐nitrate (half‐life = 9.96 min) and the nitrite‐sensitive fluorophore N‐(ethoxycarbonylmethyl)‐6‐methoxyquinolinium bromide have now been used to define the function of NarK. At low concentrations of nitrate, NarK mediates the electrogenic excretion of nitrite rather than nitrate/nitrite exchange. This process prevents intracellular accumulation of toxic levels of nitrite and allows further detoxification in the periplasm through the action of nitrite reductase.
Role of &bgr;1 Integrin in Tissue Homing of Neutrophils During Sepsis

ABSTRACT Aberrant activation of neutrophils during sepsis results in the widespread release of proinflammatory mediators, leading to multiorgan system failure and death. However, aberrant activation of neutrophils during sepsis results in the widespread release of harmful inflammatory mediators causing host tissue injuries that can lead to multiorgan system failure and death. One of the pivotal components of neutrophil migration during inflammation is the expression of surface integrins. In this study, we show that administration of a cyclic analog of RGD peptide (Arg-Gly-Asp) significantly reduced the number of tissue-invading neutrophils and the degree of sepsis-induced lethality in mice as compared with control peptide. Second, &bgr;1 integrin (CD29) was highly upregulated on the neutrophils isolated from both septic patients and animals. Finally, conditional genetic ablation of &bgr;1 integrin from granulocytes also improved survival and bacterial clearance in septic animals Thus, our results indicate that expression of &bgr;1 integrin is important for modulating neutrophil trafficking during sepsis and that therapeutics designed against &bgr;1 integrins may be beneficial.
How do Different Sources of the Variance of Consumer Ratings Matter?

To examine the effect of the variance of consumer ratings on product pricing and sales we develop a model which considers goods that are characterized by two types of attributes: experience attributes and experience attributes that were transformed in search attributes by consumer ratings that we call informed search attributes. For pure informed search goods, we find that with increasing variance optimal price increases and demand decreases. For pure experience goods, we find that with increasing variance optimal price and demand decrease. For hybrid goods, when there is low total variance and the average rating and total variance are held constant, optimal price and demand increase with increasing relative share of variance caused by informed search attributes. Via this mechanism, risk averse consumers may prefer higher priced goods with a higher variance. In addition, our model provides a theoretical explanation for the empirically observed j-shaped distribution of consumer ratings.
Transformation-defective v-ski induces MyoD and myogenin expression but not myotube formation

The ski oncogene induces muscle differentiation in otherwise nonmyogenic quail embryo cells (C. Colmenares and E. Stavnezer, Cell 59:293-303, 1989). Here we report that v-ski induces both MyoD and myogenin expression, suggesting that activation of these muscle regulatory genes may be a critical step in ski-induced myogenesis. We also describe a transformation-defective mutant of v-ski (tdM5i) that fails to induce myotube formation, although it induces the expression of many muscle-specific genes, including the MyoD and myogenin genes. Therefore, if activation of MyoD and myogenin expression is a necessary component of the myogenic program triggered by ski, it is clearly insufficient to account for complete muscle differentiation.
Effectiveness of Subway Advertising in Hong Kong Professor

Pedestrians intercepted near the exits of a subway station in downtown Hong Kong were surveyed using a questionnaire and quota sampling in October 2012. The survey sampled 408 residents and tourists aged 16 and above. The awareness of the 16 ads ranged from 18 to 80 percent with an average 43.5 percent. The layouts of the two subway ads received highest awareness were focused and had a clear distinction between foreground and background. Average ad awareness was comparable to that reported in two similar studies of subway ads conducted in the 1990s. Average ad awareness of subway ads was higher than that of outdoor advertising measured using similar methodology in 2010s. Respondents demonstrated positive attitudes toward subway advertising, and reported that subway ads that drew their attention were those with creative ideas, vivid colors, and large-than-life size execution.
Almost all submaximal groups are paracompact and σ-discrete

We prove that any topological group of a non-measurable cardinality is hereditarily paracompact and strongly σ-discrete as soon as it is submaximal. Consequently, such a group is zero-dimensional. Examples of uncountable maximal separable spaces are constructed in ZFC. 0. Introduction. This paper has been motivated by several unsolved problems in general topology and topological algebra. The concepts we are mainly going to deal with are maximality and submaximality of general topological spaces introduced in [He] more than fifty years ago. Recall that a topological space X is called submaximal if every dense subset of X is open. In this paper we consider only submaximal spaces without isolated points, so “submaximal” is to be read “submaximal dense in itself ”. A dense-in-itself space X is called maximal if any strictly stronger topology on X has isolated points. Although it is not evident at first glance, every maximal space is submaximal. Let us mention that all definitions and formulations related to the topic will be given in Section 1 (Notation and terminology) or in the main text. A reader who has not got the hang of the subject can be referred to an excellent paper of van Douwen [vD] which combines detailed and transparent proofs with covering practically everything important in the theory of maximal and submaximal spaces up to the year 1990. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 54H11, 22A05, 54G05.
Jatrophihabitans endophyticus gen. nov., sp. nov., an endophytic actinobacterium isolated from a surface-sterilized stem of Jatropha curcas L.

A short rod-shaped Gram-stain-positive actinobacterium was isolated as an endophyte from the tissues of Jatropha curcas cv. KB27 and was investigated by means of a polyphasic taxonomic approach. An analysis of its 16S rRNA gene sequence indicated that strain S9-650(T) forms an individual line of descent and is related to certain members of the suborder Frankineae, order Actinomycetales (<95 % sequence similarity). Distance-matrix and neighbour-joining analyses set the branching point of the novel isolate between two clades, one being represented by members of the genera Frankia (family Frankiaceae) and Acidothermus (family Acidothermaceae) and the other by members of the genera Geodermatophilus, Blastococcus and Modestobacter (family Geodermatophilaceae). The organism had meso-diaminopimelic acid as the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The acyl type was found to be N-glycolylated. The major menaquinone was MK-9(H4) and the fatty acid profile was characterized by the predominance of iso-C16 : 0, C18 : 1ω9c, anteiso-C17 : 0 and C17 : 1ω8c. The polar lipids comprised diphosphatidylglycerol, an unidentified glycolipid, phospholipids and aminolipids. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 71.2 mol%. The distinct phylogenetic position and the phenotypic markers that clearly separate the novel organism from all other members of the suborder Frankineae indicate that strain S9-650(T) represents a novel species in a new genus, for which the name Jatrophihabitans endophyticus gen. nov., sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain of the type species is S9-650(T) ( = DSM 45627(T) = KACC 16232(T)).
Collaborative evaluation of the Abbott Avantage system for identification of frequently isolated nonfermentative or oxidase-positive gram-negative bacilli

The capability of the Abbott Avantage system to identify 10 species of commonly isolated glucose nonfermentative or oxidase-positive gram-negative bacilli in a 5-h test period was evaluated in a collaborative study. The Avantage nonenteric data base uses 20 biochemical test reactions performed in an expanded Abbott bacterial identification cartridge plus the results of a manual oxidase test. The species included in the Avantage data base are Acinetobacter anitratus, Acinetobacter Iwoffi, Aeromonas hydrophila, Flavobacterium meningosepticum-IIb group, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas cepacia, Pseudomonas fluorescens-putida group, Pseudomonas maltophilia, Pasteurella multocida, and Plesiomonas shigelloides. The collaborative study included the testing of 200 coded challenge strains in all three laboratories and the subsequent testing of an additional group of 100 to 200 clinical isolates recovered independently by each laboratory. Reference identifications for all isolates were determined by conventional biochemical test reactions. The overall accuracy of identification of the coded challenge strains for the three laboratories was 97%, whereas 95% of 437 clinical isolates and selected stock cultures of clinical derivation were identified correctly.
Viral Infections in Renal Transplant Recipients in Belarus

The presented study had its aim in establishing the prevalence and etiological structure of post-transplant viral complications and the kinetics of infection development. Two groups of recipients were examined: Group 1 comprised patients without any clinical signs of infection (n=84) monitored for a year, Group 2 included recipients with a clinical presentation of infection (n=92). 591 blood samples and 446 urine samples from 196 patients (20 donors and 176 renal transplant recipients) were analyzed. All donor-recipient pairs were tested for CMV, EBV, and HSV-1, 2. Latent viral infection reactivation was detected by the presence of viraemia (DNAemia) induced by CMV, EBV, HSV-1, 2, HHV-6, VZV, PVB19, or viruria (DNAuria) induced by BKV. The percentage of Group 1 patients with viral DNA detected amounted to 41.9% for CMV, 30.4% for EBV, 17.4% for BKV, 5.6% for HHV-6, 1.9% for AdV, and 1.7% for PVB19. HSV-1, 2 and VZV infections in this group were not observed. The rate of CMV, EBV, and BKV infection reactivation, determined by the viraemic patients percentage, increased with time and peaked 1, 1.5 and 2 months after transplantation for EBV, BKV, and CMV, respectively. Three to six months after transplantation, the percentage of patients with active CMV, EBV, or BKV infection decreased significantly; and later on, viraemia was only occasional finding in Group 1 patients. Examination of Group 2 patients revealed that the predominant etiological agents of post-transplant viral complications were CMV (24.4%), EBV (18.8%), and BKV (17.6%). The current study is the first complex investigation into the etiological structure and activation kinetics of viral infections in renal transplant recipients in Belarus. The results have major implications for early prevention of potential viral complications and adjustment of the therapy regimens for kidney transplant recipients currently in use.
Lid and Conjunctival Micro Biota During Contact Lens Wear in Children

Purpose. To determine the types of microorganisms and their frequency of isolation on the external ocular surface in children wearing soft contact lenses on a daily wear schedule. Methods. Children aged 8 to 14 years were fitted with commercially available, soft contact lenses which were worn on a daily wear basis. The upper bulbar conjunctiva and the lower lid margins of each eye were swabbed at baseline and then at 6-monthly intervals for 2 years during lens wear. Swabs were processed, cultured and microorganisms identified using standard microbiological techniques. Results. At baseline, 36% of the upper bulbar conjunctivae and 53% of the lower lid margins were contaminated with predominantly gram-positive bacteria. Recovery of samples with positive growth from the upper bulbar conjunctivae decreased during lens wear and ranged from 27 to 14%. The difference was statistically significant at the 12-month visit (14%, p = 0.011). The lower lid margins generally showed similar levels of contamination as at baseline except for less contamination at the 12-month visit (33%) (p = 0.05). Staphylococcus epidermidis and Propionibacterium sp. were the predominant microorganisms isolated from both the sites with and without lens wear. Gram-negative bacteria were infrequent and when isolated, the numbers of colonies were few. Fungus was isolated in a small percent (ranging from 0 to 4.8%) of eyes at various time points. Conclusions. The external ocular surface of children is contaminated with gram-positive bacteria that are resident micro biota. During lens wear, there was a trend for lesser recovery of organisms from the upper bulbar conjunctival samples, but there was no change in the type of microorganisms isolated. At all times, lower lid margins showed consistently greater colonization and is a source of potential contamination of the conjunctival surface.
A Database of Age and Gender Annotated Telephone Speech

This article describes an age-annotated database of German telephone speech. All in all 47 hours of prompted and free text was recorded, uttered by 954 paid participants in a style typical for automated voice services. The participants were selected based on an equal distribution of males and females within four age cluster groups; children, youth, adults and seniors. Within the children, gender is not distinguished, because it doesnt have a strong enough effect on the voice. The textual content was designed to be typical for automated voice services and consists mainly of short commands, single words and numbers. An additional database consists of 659 speakers (368 female and 291 male) that called an automated voice portal server and answered freely on one of the two questions What is your favourite dish?  and What would you take to an island?  (island set, 422 speakers). This data might be used for out-of domain testing. The data will be used to tune an age-detecting automated voice service and might be released to research institutes under controlled conditions as part of an open age and gender detection challenge.
A simple approach to power and sample size calculations in logistic regression and Cox regression models

For a given regression problem it is possible to identify a suitably defined equivalent two‐sample problem such that the power or sample size obtained for the two‐sample problem also applies to the regression problem. For a standard linear regression model the equivalent two‐sample problem is easily identified, but for generalized linear models and for Cox regression models the situation is more complicated. An approximately equivalent two‐sample problem may, however, also be identified here. In particular, we show that for logistic regression and Cox regression models the equivalent two‐sample problem is obtained by selecting two equally sized samples for which the parameters differ by a value equal to the slope times twice the standard deviation of the independent variable and further requiring that the overall expected number of events is unchanged. In a simulation study we examine the validity of this approach to power calculations in logistic regression and Cox regression models. Several different covariate distributions are considered for selected values of the overall response probability and a range of alternatives. For the Cox regression model we consider both constant and non‐constant hazard rates. The results show that in general the approach is remarkably accurate even in relatively small samples. Some discrepancies are, however, found in small samples with few events and a highly skewed covariate distribution. Comparison with results based on alternative methods for logistic regression models with a single continuous covariate indicates that the proposed method is at least as good as its competitors. The method is easy to implement and therefore provides a simple way to extend the range of problems that can be covered by the usual formulas for power and sample size determination. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The impact of instrumental dead‐space in volume‐targeted ventilation of the extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infant

Volume‐targeted ventilation is increasingly used in neonatal ventilation to reduce the risk of volutrauma and inadvertent hyperventilation. However, normative data for appropriate tidal volume (VT) settings are lacking, especially in extremely low birth weight (ELBW) infants in whom the added dead space (DS) of the flow sensor may be important.
The role of interim 18F-FDG PET/CT in predicting early response to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer.

AIM The aim of this study was to prove the diagnostic value of interim 18F-Fluorodeoxyglucose-positron-emission tomography combined with computed tomography (PET/CT) scan for predicting pathological complete response (pCR) compared to other factors in neoadjuvant chemotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Twenty-seven patients with breast cancer were included in this retrospective study. They all underwent scheduled neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Patients underwent PET/CT at baseline, mid-point (interim), and preoperatively (after completion of chemotherapy). The metabolic response was calculated as follows: ΔStandardized uptake value (SUV)(%)=(1st SUV(max)-2nd SUV(max))/1st SUV(max) × 100. RESULTS The change in SUVmax between baseline and interim PET/CT scans was significantly larger than between interim and preoperative PET/CT scan. An optimal cut-off ΔSUV value of 78.3% was proposed for discriminating patients with pCR from those without pCR. Metabolic CR, defined as a change of SUV(max) greater than the cut-off value, can predict pCR according to univariate analysis (p=0.012; Relative risk (RR)=25.3). Furthermore, metabolic CR was the most powerful factor for predicting pCR than other possible factors according to multivariate analysis (p=0.003). CONCLUSION It is possible to use interim (18)F-FDG PET-CT as an effective method to predict early response in patients with breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Aflatoxin B 1 , a hepatocarcinogen in the infant mouse.

Summary Aflatoxin B1 has been administered to newborn and infant C57BL × C3H F1 mice for a further evaluation of its hepatocarcinogenicity in this species. To date, adult animals have been shown to be relatively refractory. One-, 4-, or 7-day-old groups of animals were exposed to either single or limited numbers of i.p. injections of aflatoxin B1. Animals selected at random were sacrificed at 52 and 82 weeks of age. Newborn animals appeared to be more prone to the lethal effect of aflatoxin B1 than did the 4- or 7-day-old infants. Male infants developed hepatomas by 52 weeks of age. At 82 weeks, both tumor incidence and tumor mass increased in all male groups. Seven-day-old treated females developed hepatomas, although at a low incidence rate. Thus, it has been demonstrated that aflatoxin B1 is a potent hepatocarcinogen under the experimental conditions. It has been concluded that the infant age and the male hormonal environment were factors favorable for the inception and expression of liver neoplasia in mice.
Multi-Scale DCT Denoising

DCT denoising is a classic low complexity method built in the JPEG compression norm. Once made translation invariant, this algorithm was still proven to be competitive at the beginning of this century. Since then, it has been outperformed by patch based methods, which are far more complex. This paper proposes a two-step multi-scale version of the algorithm that boosts its performance and reduces its artifacts. The multi-scale strategy decomposes the image in a dyadic DCT pyramid, which keeps noise white at all scales. The single scale denoising is then applied to all scales, thus giving multiple denoised versions of the low frequency coeﬃcients of the denoised image. A “multi-scale fusion” of these multiple estimates avoids the ringing artifacts resulting from the pyramid recomposition. The ﬁnal algorithm attains a good PNSR and much improved visual image quality. It is shown to have a deﬁcit of only 1dB with respect to state of the art algorithms, but its complexity is two orders of magnitude lower