Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diversity among Helicobacter pylori isolates

I welcome the well-explained guest commentary on pulsedfield gel electrophoresis (PFGE) for bacterial strain typing by Tenover and colleagues (7). It is highly rewarding to those of us who have made the point over the past few years that PFGE is useful for bacterial strain typing (3, 5, 10) that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now heartily endorses this view. However, I should like to bring readers’ attention to one particularly unusual bacterial species (Helicobacter pylori) which is not mentioned in the review. This bacterium is associated with the development of gastritis and gastric ulcers (9). The genome patterns of this bacterium have been shown to be so diverse by PFGE that almost no two strains from different patients appear related (6). In contrast, strains from the same patient from sequential antral biopsy specimens (4) or from different parts of the patient’s stomach have been judged identical by PFGE (6). All H. pylori strains would fit into the ‘‘different’’ category described by Tenover et al. or possibly a ‘‘vastly different’’ category. I would be interested to know whether other readers have had experience with bacteria whose genomes are as diverse as that of H. pylori. So far the reason for the enormous genomic diversity is not understood, although it is related to restriction and modification which could change restriction sites (8), point mutations in certain genes (1), and different positions of genes on H. pylori maps within the approximate 1.7-kb genome (2). On another point, although Campylobacter coli is an important cause of gastroenteritis, it is not mentioned in Table 3, although there are good data to show that both SalI and SmaI restriction endonucleases are useful for strain differentiation (10; also see reference 48 from reference 7).
Aesthetic Effect of Silicone Gel on Surgical Scars in Asians

Background: Scars on exposed areas are a major concern among Asian populations because of their conspicuousness. Size, color, or whether the scar is hypopigmented or hyperpigmented matters little. Silicone gel is well known for the prevention and induction of better maturation of hypertrophic and keloid scars. However, its aesthetic effect on normal surgical scars has not been considered. Methods: Clinical evaluation of scars was performed in 40 patients. All the 40 patients underwent clean and minor surgery of the exposed area, such as scar revision, by 1 plastic surgeon. Twenty of the 40 patients did not apply any adjunctive material for scar management and were grouped as the control. The other 20 patients applied a silicone gel sheet for 12 hours a day for 3 months. Three assessment criteria, pigmentation, vascularity, and height, were evaluated by photographic assessment of the scars at 2 weeks, 1 month, and 3 months postoperatively and scored by 3 plastic surgeons. The Wilcoxon rank sum test was used to verify any significant differences in the previously mentioned 3 parameters between the 2 groups and parameter scores at each follow-up period. Results: Two patients were excluded from the study because of the development of rashes on the areas covered by the silicone gel sheet. There was no statistical significance between the groups at postoperative 2 weeks and 1 month in pigmentation and redness. For evaluation of height, there was statistical significance (P = 0.024) at postoperative 1 month. However, there were statistically significant differences in all the assessment criteria at postoperative 3 months between the groups: pigmentation, P = 0.0002; vascularity, P = 0.0002; and height, P < 0.0001. Conclusions: The silicone gel sheet has a favorable aesthetical effect for normally created surgical scars in the Asians. Its application can reduce the conspicuousness of scars more rapidly than without.
Get a Job! Active Labour Market Policies and Persons with Disabilities in Danish and European Union Policy

Increasing the overall level of employment is a goal of the Europe 2020 strategy and Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs) have become a key tool used by the European Union and its Member States with a view to increasing employment. This article examines the use of ALMPs, with a special focus on their use with regard to persons with disabilities. The employment rate of persons with disabilities is significantly below that of persons without disabilities, and ALMPs have been seen as a way of addressing the high levels of unemployment experienced by this group. The article explores what ALMPs mean in the context of persons with disabilities and takes Denmark as a case study to explore the use of a particular set of ALMPs to promote the employment of persons with disabilities. Denmark is of particular interest because it has undertaken significant reforms of its labour market policy in recent years and placed a particular emphasis on ALMPs, including with regard to persons with disabilities. The article examines ALMPs in general as well as ALMPs which can be directed at persons with disabilities. The article provides an overview of ALMPs in Denmark which target persons with disabilities, with a special focus on the latest reform to the Danish wage subsidy system directed at workers with a disability. The article examines evidence on the effectiveness of ALMPs and assesses the effect the Danish ALMPs reforms have had on persons with disabilities and the benefits and risks that such policies entail.
Treatment of invasive or metastatic thymoma: Report of eleven cases

The clinical presentation and therapeutic modalities of 11 patients with invasive or metastatic thymoma are presented. Two patients had myasthenia gravis, and five had extrathoracic metastases. Survival exceeded five years in five patients, and four patients remain free of recurrence between 2.1 and 9.0 years after diagnosis. Surgery, with an attempt at complete resection, is the first step of therapy. A second thoracotomy for local relapse or attempt at curative resection was carried out in four patients. Radiotherapy to the mediastinum and/or metastatic sites was given to ten patients with doses ranging from 3600–6000 rads (median = 4500 rads) in the nine nonmyasthenic patients. Inclusion of supraclavicular fossae in the radiotherapy field is recommended because it was a site of relapse in two patients. Systemic therapies were given to eight patients. Objective responses were seen with two of various chemo‐therapeutic regimens. A combination of bleomycin, Adriamycin, cisplatin, and prednisone (“BAPP”) produced a partial remission in two of five patients, during 12 and 4 months, respectively. Two of three patients responded to maytansine as a single agent after failure of other agents. Immunotherapy with intravenous Corynebacterium parvum or intradermal Methanol‐Extraction Residue of bacillus Calmette‐Guérin (MER‐BCG) was ineffective in one patient each. The importance of combined modalities in the management of the disease is emphasized.
The effects of mirror confrontation on self-estimation of body dimensions in anorexia nervosa, bulimia and two control groups

Synopsis Using an apparatus which provides a continuous horizontal slit of light of variable length, self-estimations of 4 body widths were carried out before and after a mirror confrontation procedure on 4 groups of young female subjects – anorexic, bulimic, emotionally disturbed and normal. The results confirm that anorexic subjects overestimate body size, although in this study the hip diameter was frequently underestimated. Bulimic and emotionally disturbed subjects overestimate to much the same degree as anorexics, whereas normal subjects are remarkably accurate with the exception of the head width. Mirror confrontation resulted in reduced estimations in the majority of subjects, but significant differences were found in the degree to which this occurred in the 4 groups; anorexic subjects showed the greatest change and normal subjects the least. This relative instability of the anorexic subject's body image cannot be explained simply on the basis of a self-correcting experience, as many estimations which were initially below actual width were even lower on re-testing. In the anorexic and bulimic groups a significant correlation was found between the degree of overestimation after mirror confrontation and progress in treatment, as measured on a specially devised rating scale. Possible explanations for these findings and their diagnostic and prognostic implications are discussed.
Openness and Structural Labour Market Reforms: Counterfactuals for Lithuania

This paper deals with the macroeconomic responses to labour market reforms; something of utmost importance in times of monetary policy reaching its limits to affect real economy. We shed more light on the plausible macroeconomic reactions to the ex ante (planned but not implemented yet) reforms in the labour market, taking a currently proposed Social Model in Lithuania as an example. Not only contributing to the current debate on the efficacy of announced structural reforms, we also add to the literature on policy evaluation by assessing reforms from a global perspective. Omission of an international dimension could lead to seriously biased results on policy effects for any open and small economy. Taking trade connectivity and openness into account, we demonstrate macroeconomic reactions to shocks in unemployment benefits, active labour market policies, and tax wedge on the reforming economy. We contrast the results with the approach when global interdependencies are ignored - still a standard practice. Using a satellite model for the intermediate trade, we link the global framework with the sectoral extensive margin, which changes some of the initial findings. A discussion on counterfactuals, which use both cross-sectional and temporal dimensions to tackle anticipation effects, is also presented.
Early rehabilitation service utilization patterns in young children with developmental delays.

OBJECTIVE There is a growing demand for interdisciplinary rehabilitation services for children with developmental disabilities, however, information is lacking on service utilization patterns. This study describes the type, frequency and location of initial rehabilitation services provided to young children recently diagnosed with a developmental delay. METHODS A telephone survey was conducted on a consecutive cohort of children referred to subspecialists for the first investigation of their delay. RESULTS Out of 129 respondents, only 30 (23%) did not receive any rehabilitation services within the first 6 months following medical evaluation, and 61 (47%) received two or more services. Services were provided most frequently in the hospital setting, especially for occupational or physical therapy (73-80%). Services were less often rendered in a rehabilitation centre (5-13%) or in the community (< 10%). Services were provided privately for a subset, particularly for speech language pathology and psychology (34% and 30% respectively). Interventions were typically given weekly or bi-weekly. Children receiving physical therapy were significantly younger whereas children referred to speech language pathology were older than the age of our cohort at intake. Overall, parents' educational level did not influence services received with the exception of private services, which were more likely to occur in children of fathers with university education. CONCLUSIONS The findings would suggest that long waiting times and lack of resources may limit access to comprehensive services, particularly in community settings. Service utilization patterns were not consistent within types of developmental disability, suggesting that formal and co-ordinated interdisciplinary programmes are not in place for this population of interest.
Map location of homologous regions between Marek's disease virus and herpesvirus of turkey and the absence of detectable homology in the putative tumor-inducing gene

The DNA region having homology between Marek's disease virus and herpesvirus of turkey was assigned to the restriction map of Marek's disease virus by Southern blot hybridization. Under moderate conditions at the level of 15% mismatching, homology was found to be distributed throughout the Marek's disease virus genome. The long inverted-repeat regions (TRL and IRL), which are considered to play a significant role in tumorigenicity, did not show any homology to herpesvirus of turkey DNA.
Endothelium-independent Vasorelaxant Effect of Puerarin on Rat Thoracic Aorta

To investigate the vasorelaxant effect of puerarin, tension was recorded from rat thoracic aortic rings. Puerarin completely relaxed the contractions induced by phenylephrine (PE) in a concentration-dependent manner in endothelium-intact and endothelium-denuded rat aorta, while had no effect on those preconstricted by a high concentration of potassium chloride (60 mM). Also, puerarin had no effects on the transient contraction elicited by PE or caffeine in Ca2+- free medium. The relaxant effect of puerarin was significantly inhibited by pretreatment of endothelium-denuded aorta with potassium channel antagonists tetraethylammonium and 4-aminopyridine, but not glibenclamide. These results indicate that puerarin induces an endothelium-independent relaxation in rat aortic rings. The mechanisms may involve the reduction in Ca2+influx through the non-voltage-sensitive calcium channels and the activation of the potassium channels (voltage-activated K+channels and large conductance Ca2+-activated K+channels, but not ATP-sensitive K+channels).
Effects of Financial Crises on Productivity, Capital and Employment

We examine the hypothesis that capacity can be permanently damaged by financial, particularly banking, crises. A model which allows a financial crisis to have both a short-run effect on the growth rate of labor productivity and a long-run effect on its level is estimated on 61 countries over 1954–2010. A banking crisis as defined by Reinhart and Rogoff reduces the long-run level of GDP per worker, and also that of capital per worker, by on average 1.1 percent, for each year that the crisis lasts; it also reduces the TFP level by 0.8%. The long run, negative effect on the level of GDP per capita, 1.8 percent, is substantially larger. So there is also a hit to employment. The effects on labor productivity, capital and TFP are larger in developing than in developed countries; the opposite is the case for employment.
Extended survival and re-hospitalisation among paediatric patients requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for primary cardiac dysfunction

Abstract Background Although survival to hospital discharge among children requiring extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for medical and surgical cardio-circulatory failure has been reported in international registries, extended survival and re-hospitalisation rates have not been well described in the literature. Material and methods This is a single-institution, retrospective review of all paediatric patients receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for primary cardiac dysfunction over a 5-year period. Results A total of 74 extracorporeal membrane oxygenation runs in 68 patients were identified, with a median follow-up of 5.4 years from hospital discharge. Overall, 66% of patients were decannulated alive and 25 patients (37%) survived to discharge. There were three late deaths at 5 months, 20 months, and 6.8 years from discharge. Of the hospital survivors, 88% required re-hospitalisation, with 63% of re-admissions for cardiac indications. The median number of hospitalisations per patient per year was 0.62, with the first re-admission occurring at a mean time of 9 months after discharge from the index hospitalisation. In all, 38% of patients required further cardiac surgery. Conclusions Extended survival rates for paediatric hospital survivors of cardiac extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for medical and post-surgical indications are encouraging. However, re-hospitalisation within the first year following hospital discharge is common, and many patients require further cardiac surgery. Although re-admission hospital mortality is low, longer-term follow-up of quality-of-life indicators is required.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Mutations Have the Greatest Destabilizing Effect on the Apo- and Reduced Form of SOD1, Leading to Unfolding and Oxidative Aggregation*

Mutant forms of Cu,Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) that cause familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) exhibit toxicity that promotes the death of motor neurons. Proposals for the toxic properties typically involve aberrant catalytic activities or protein aggregation. The striking thermodynamic stability of mature forms of the ALS mutant SOD1 (Tm >70 °C) is not typical of protein aggregation models that involve unfolding. Over 44 states of the polypeptide are possible, depending upon metal occupancy, disulfide status, and oligomeric state; however, it is not clear which forms might be responsible for toxicity. Recently the intramolecular disulfide has been shown to be required for SOD1 activity, leading us to examine these states of several disease-causing SOD1 mutants. We find that ALS mutations have the greatest effect on the most immature form of SOD1, destabilizing the metal-free and disulfide-reduced polypeptide to the point that it is unfolded at physiological temperatures (Tm < 37 °C). We also find that immature states of ALS mutant (but not wild type) proteins readily form oligomers at physiological concentrations. Furthermore, these oligomers are more susceptible to mild oxidative stress, which promotes incorrect disulfide cross-links between conserved cysteines and drives aggregation. Thus it is the earliest disulfide-reduced polypeptides in the SOD1 assembly pathway that are most destabilized with respect to unfolding and oxidative aggregation by ALS-causing mutations.
Perceived Fall Risk and Functional Decline: Gender Differences in Patient's Willingness to Discuss Fall Risk, Fall History, or to Have a Home Safety Evaluation

The CDC reports that among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury-related death and rates of fall-related fractures among older women are twice those of men. We set out to 1) determine patient perceptions (analyzed by gender) about their perceived fall risk compared to their actual risk for functional decline and death and 2) to report their comfort level in discussing their fall history or a home safety plan with their provider. Elders who presented to the Emergency Department (ED†) were surveyed. The survey included demographics, the Falls Efficacy Scale (FES) and the Vulnerable Elders Survey (VES); both validated surveys measuring fall concern and functional decline. Females had higher FES scores (mean 12.3, SD 5.9) than males (mean 9.7, SD 5.9 p = .007) in the 146 surveys analyzed. Females were more likely to report an increased fear of falling, and almost three times more likely to have a VES score of 3 or greater than males (OR = 2.86, 95% CI: 1.17-7.00, p = .02). A strong correlation was observed between FES and VES scores (r = 0.80, p < .001). No difference in correlation was observed between males and females, p = . 26. Participants (77 percent) reported they would be comfortable discussing their fall risk with a provider; there was no difference between genders (p = .57). In this study, irrespective of gender, there appears to be a high association between subjects’ perceived fall risk and risk for functional decline and death. The majority of patients are likely willing to discuss their fall risk with their provider. These findings may suggest a meaningful opportunity for fall risk mitigation in this setting.
Differential immunostaining of various types of breast carcinomas for growth hormone‐releasing hormone receptor – Apocrine epithelium and carcinomas emerging as uniformly positive

Different classes of breast cancers were explored for their positivity for growth hormone‐releasing hormone receptors (GHRH‐R) in this pilot study, as no systematic evaluation of such tumors has been performed to date. Seventy‐two small primary breast carcinomas were evaluated for GHRH‐R expression by immunohistochemistry using a polyclonal antibody and a cutoff value of 10% staining. GHRH‐R positivity was detected in 58% of all cases, 20/23 (87%) of invasive lobular carcinomas (ILC) and 22/46 (48%) of invasive ductal carcinomas (IDC). GHRH‐R positivity was more frequent in grade 2 tumors (86%), as compared to grade 1 (18%) or grade 3 (47%) cancers. GHRH‐R expression was not associated with mitotic scores, the Ki‐67 labeling indices or nodal status. IDCs with casting‐type calcifications on the mammogram showed positivity for GHRH‐R in 9/12 (75%) cases. Most importantly, apocrine epithelium, and all 10 apocrine carcinomas added later to the study were GHRH‐R‐positive. These preliminary results suggest a greater than average GHRH‐R expression in ILCs and IDCs associated with casting‐type calcifications on the mammogram. Apocrine carcinomas seem uniformly positive for GHRH‐R. Whether these findings could indicate a potential role of GHRH‐antagonists in targeted treatment of these types of breast cancer requires further studies.
Factors affecting commitment and satisfaction of project managers in the construction industry

Construction project managers normally need develop their professional knowledge and practical skills in construction technologies and management on the basis of long term work experience. Their organizational commitment and job satisfaction level significantly influence their performance attitudes and job achievements. Keeping construction project managers highly committed to and satisfied with the employed companies is extremely vital to employed construction companies but is really difficulty due to the non-attractive job circumstances. This research investigates the major demographic variables that affect the organizational commitment and job satisfaction of project managers in the construction industry. Based on an empirical study, the statistical results indicate that some demographical variables play a substantial role in construction project managers' organizational commitment and job satisfaction. With this knowledge, construction organizations can draw up operational strategies to retain their project managers.
Differential expression of heparan sulfate 6‐O‐sulfotransferase isoforms in the mouse embryo suggests distinctive roles during organogenesis

Heparan sulfate (HS) interactions with secreted morphogens such as fibroblast growth factors, hedgehogs, and Wnts are essential for embryonic development. Formation of biologically relevant HS structures is a result of the coordinated action of various biosynthetic enzymes. HS 6‐O‐sulfotransferases (6OST) catalyze the transfer of sulfate groups to the 6‐O position of glucosamine residues in HS. Three 6OST isoforms have been described in the mouse; however, little is known about their role in generating specific HS protein‐binding sequences, expression pattern, and function in vivo. To gain insights into the distribution of these isoforms and their potential role in development, we mapped 6OST1–3 gene expression during mouse organogenesis. We report dynamic expression of these isoforms with striking differences in tissue distribution in many developing organs. We show that 6OST transcripts are differentially expressed in several sites where heparin‐binding growth factors are critical for development. 6OST1 is predominantly transcribed in epithelial and neural‐derived tissues, whereas 6OST2 is more mesenchymal. 6OST3 appears at later stages and in a more restricted manner. The patterns reported here strongly suggest that the HS structures modified by these enzymes have different roles in growth factor‐induced developmental processes. Developmental Dynamics 231:782–794, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.