Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iodide induced lymphocytic thyroiditis in the BB/W rat: evidence of direct toxic effects of iodide on thyroid subcellular structure.

A high dietary iodine intake accelerates the development of lymphocytic thyroiditis (LT) in the BB/W rat. Our previous studies have defined the temporal sequence of the immunological events triggered by excess iodide intake in these animals. It was still not clear, however, whether these observed immunological changes were a direct effect on immune effector cells, or whether they represented a secondary response to a toxic effect of iodine on thyroid tissue. In the present study, the effect of excessive iodine intake on the subcellular structure of the BB/W rat thyroid gland, particularly, whether iodide had a toxic effect independent of its immune response has been examined. BB/W rats were exposed, prenatally through maternal drinking water, to excessive iodide at two doses (Moderate 3 x 10(-6) M iodide/l; High 3 x 10(-3) M iodide/l); a third group of BB/W rats was given tap water; till 12 weeks postnatal age. Two groups of Wistar rats received high dose iodide water or tap water for the same period of time and served as controls. Thyroid gland ultrastructure was determined by electron microscopic (EM) examination. Thyroid 125I uptake and perchlorate discharge tests were also performed in separate experiments. We found that thyroid glands of non-iodine supplemented Wistar rats were morphlogically normal under EM. There were no overt changes in the iodide treated Wistar rats. By contrast, iodide treated BB/W rats exhibited marked accumulation of secondary lysosomes and lipid droplets; markedly swollen and disrupted mitochondria and extreme dilatation of rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Interactions Between Imprinting Effects in the Mouse

Mice with uniparental partial or complete disomies for any one of 11 identified chromosomes show abnormal phenotypes. The abnormalities, or imprinting effects, can be attributable to an incorrect dosage of maternal or paternal copies of imprinted gene(s) located within the regions involved. Here we show that combinations of partial disomies may result in interactions between imprinting effects that seemingly independently affect fetal and/or placental growth in different ways or modify neonatal and postnatal imprinting effects. Candidate genes within the regions have been identified. The findings are generally in accord with the “conflict hypothesis” for the evolution of genomic imprinting but do not clearly demonstrate common growth axes within which imprinted genes may interact. Instead, it would seem that any gene that represses or limits embryonic/fetal growth to the advantage of the mother—by any developmental means—will have been subject to evolutionary selection for paternal allele repression. Likewise, any gene that favors embryonic/fetal development at consequent cost to the mother—by any developmental means—will have faced selection for maternal allele repression. The classical Igf2-Igf2r axis may therefore be unique. The findings involve reinterpretation of older imprinting data and consequently revision of the mouse imprinting map.
Multicenter Analysis of Kidney Preservation

Background. Kidney preservation is an integral part of clinical kidney transplantation. Changes in the use of preservation methods and storage solutions, ischemic preservation times, and the relationship between ischemia time and human leukocyte antigen (HLA) match have not been extensively studied in recent years. Methods. The Collaborative Transplant Study database was used to analyze effects of kidney preservation methods and times. Graft survival and death-censored functional survival were used as endpoints. In all, 91,674 transplants from deceased donors were analyzed using univariate and multivariate methods. Results. Cold storage accounted for more than 95% of kidney preservations from 1990–2005. Increasing ischemia up to 18 hr was not detrimental for graft outcome, whereas the risk of graft failure rose with ischemia 19–24 hr to relative risk (RR) 1.09, 25–36 hr to RR 1.16, and >36 hr to RR 1.30 (P<0.001). As compared to other preservation solutions, University of Wisconsin (UW) solution was associated with significantly better outcome when ischemia exceeded 24 hr. Short ischemia did not eliminate the effect of HLA matching. Kidneys from young or old donors were affected by prolonged ischemia to similar degrees. Pulsatile machine perfusion was not superior to cold storage. Conclusion. Kidneys from deceased donors should ideally be transplanted within 18 hr. Within the 18-hr window, the time of ischemia has no significant influence on graft survival. UW solution should be used if preservation for longer periods is envisioned. HLA matching improves graft survival regardless of length of ischemia.
Suppression of the human vestibulo-ocular reflex by visual fixation or forced convergence in the dark, with a model interpretation

Six normal humans experienced yaw axis steps of velocity at 120°/s in the dark. During the post-rotary period, subjects either had a null-task (do nothing); an ocular motor task (forced convergence: crossing the eyes); or a visual task (fixating a head-stationary target against a background of 10° light/dark bars). Tasks started at 3 s post-rotation, and lasted either 2, 5, 10, or 15 s. Ocular motor and visual tasks were tested on different days. Five repetitions of each task duration were recorded for each subject. A mean VOR gain of 0.52 was observed, which did not vary with experimental conditions. Both convergence and fixation markedly suppressed nystagmus; in fact, the VORs obtained with the two different tasks are superficially similar in appearance. However, mean null-task time-constants were 9.4 s for convergence days, but 8.4 s for fixation days, and there was a small but significant reduction in overall null-task VOR amplitude on fixation days. Also, post-convergence slow-phase velocities were slightly enhanced, while post-fixation velocities were significantly reduced. The time-constant of velocity storage was found to be 10.1 s for convergence responses and 8.2 s for fixation responses. These differences can be understood in terms of modifications in central velocity storage during visual fixation which do not occur with convergence. The mean fixation data were analyzed in the context of a VOR model well-established for monkey data. With appropriate choice of parameters, this model accurately reproduces most features of the human data. An estimate for the human cupula time-constant of 3.3 s is obtained. Compared with the monkey, fixation suppression is greater and post-fixation velocity reduction less. Retinal slip alone accounts well for this; “velocity dumping” by an integrator shunt must be slight if present at all. The model correctly represents the post-fixation VOR for all durations of fixation.
Medium-Scale Forestland Grabbing in the Southwestern Highlands of Ethiopia : Impacts on Local Livelihoods and Forest Conservation

Tropical forest provides a crucial portion of sustenance in many rural communities, although it is increasingly under pressure from appropriations of various scales. This study investigated the impacts of medium-scale forestland grabbing on local livelihoods and forest conservation in the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Data were generated through interviews, discussions and document review. The results indicate that state transfer of part of the forestland since the late 1990s to investors for coffee production created in situ displacement- a situation where farmers remained in place but had fully or partially lost access to forest- that disrupted farmers’ livelihoods and caused conflicts between them and the investors. Court cases about the appropriated land and related imprisonment, inflicted financial and opportunity costs on farmers. Farmers considered the livelihood opportunities created by the companies insufficient to compensate for loss of forest access. Companies’ technology transfers to farmers and contributions to foreign currency earnings from coffee exports have not yet materialized. Forest conservation efforts have been negatively affected by deforestation caused by conversion to coffee plantations and by farmers’ efforts to secure rights to forestland by more intensive use. The medium-scale forestland grabbing has been detrimental to farmers’ livelihoods and forest conservation in a way that recalls criticism of large- and mega-scale land grabbing since 2007–2008. The overall failure to achieve the objectives of transferring forestland to investors highlights a critical need to shift institutional supports to smallholders’ informal forest access and management practices for better development and conservation outcomes.
Metaphor Use and Health Literacy: A Pilot Study of Strategies to Explain Randomization in Cancer Clinical Trials

Patients often have difficulty understanding what randomization is and why it is needed in Phase III clinical trials. Physicians commonly report using metaphorical language to convey the role of chance in being assignment to treatment; however, the effectiveness of this strategy as an educational tool has not been explored. Guided by W. McGuire's (1972) information-processing model, the purpose of this pilot study was to explore effects of metaphors to explain randomization on message acceptance and behavioral intention to participate in a Phase III clinical trial among a sample of low-income, rural women (N = 64). Participants were randomly assigned to watch a video that explained randomization using 1 of 3 message strategies: a low-literacy definition, standard metaphor (i.e., flip of a coin), or a culturally derived metaphor (i.e., sex of a baby). The influence of attention on behavioral intentions to participate in clinical trials was partially moderated by message strategy. Under conditions of low attention, participants in the culturally derived metaphor condition experienced significantly higher intentions to participate in clinical trials compared with participants in the standard metaphor condition. However, as attention increased, differences in intentions among the conditions diminished. Having a positive affective response to the randomization message was a strong, positive predictor of behavioral intentions to participate in clinical trials. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
The process of clinical trials: a model for successful clinical trial participation.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To present barriers and strategies related to successful clinical trial participation and integrate them into a model for successful trial participation. DATA SOURCES The proposed model was developed based on a literature review related to clinical trial participation, review of empirical studies related to clinical trials, and experiences with subject participation. DATA SYNTHESIS Successful clinical trial participation depends on study design, participant factors, issues related to ethnic diversity, the informed consent process, and physician factors. CONCLUSIONS Clinical trial participation is critical for all disciplines. However, nurses either are researchers or co-investigators with physicians on clinical trials, and it is critical for them to understand specific barriers and success strategies for patient participation. Future studies need to be conducted related to participation in nursing clinical trial research. These study results will facilitate successful nursing clinical trials. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE This model can be used in implementation of clinical trials across disciplines prior to and during enrollment of patients into studies.
New treatment strategies for HIV-positive cancer patients undergoing antiblastic chemotherapy

ABSTRACT Introduction: The introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) into clinical practice has dramatically changed the outcome of HIV-infected patients by prolonging their survival. The increase in life expectancy has led to an increased risk of non-AIDS-related mortality and morbidity, including cardiovascular diseases, neurocognitive diseases, neuroendocrine dysfunctions and cancer. Areas covered: The GICAT (Italian Cooperation Group on AIDS and Tumors) has demonstrated that patients who receive a multidisciplinary approach with the combination of anticancer agents (AC) and HAART can achieve better responses and survival rates than patients who receive AC alone. The first obstacle for the oncologist to plan treatment for cancer HIV-patients is the preliminary evaluation of drug-drug interactions between AC and HAART. Recent progress in pharmacogenomics could provide a new approach for personalized treatments. The rationale of this review is to summarize the existing data on the impact of HAART on the clinical management of cancer patients with HIV/AIDS and DDIs between antiretrovirals and AC. In addition, to maximize the efficacy of both concomitant therapy and to minimize the risk of DDIs, a currently useful list of pharmacogenomic markers of key metabolic enzymes is provided. Expert opinion: In this scenario, the importance of cooperation between oncologists and other health specialists (i.e., infectivologists, pharmacists, genetics and lab specialists) must not be underestimated in the management of these patients with the aim of planning an individual treatment strategy.
Water policy interventions for food security in Afghanistan

Abstract Afghanistan is a headwater state that contributes supplies to several countries in Central and South Asia. However, despite being a water source, it faces the challenge of establishing its own storage infrastructure and water-sharing methods to protect its food security. This article investigates impacts on the Afghan agricultural sector resulting from enhanced reservoir storage capacity and better-performing water-sharing methods. An integrated systems analysis is formulated to analyze the economic performance of both interventions. Results reveal that both interventions show the highest capacity to improve food security in conditions where water supply shows the greatest natural fluctuations.
Absence Epilepsies

Summary: Individuals fulfilling diagnostic criteria for childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) and juvenile absence epilepsy (JAE) were selected from a large group of patients who were born between 1945 and 1973 and had presented with absence seizures (AS). Updated data allowed an analysis of 52 patients with CAE and of 62 patients with JAE aged ≥20 years. In CAE, complete control was achieved in 90% of patients (95%, AS only; 77%, AS + generalized tonic‐clonic seizures, GTCS). Only 16% of patients with an onset <9 years had developed GTCS. In JAE, complete control was achieved in 37% of patients (47%, AS; 37%, GTCS). These figures support the validity of the International Classification of Epilepsy (ICE). Stricter diagnostic criteria are discussed.
A Fast Sphere Decoding Algorithm for Rank Deficient MIMO Systems

The problem of rank deficient multiple input multiple out (MIMO) systems arises when the number of transmit antennas M is greater than number of receive antennas N or when the channel gains are strongly correlated. Most of the optimal algorithms that deal with uncoded rank-deficient (underdetermined) V-BLAST MIMO systems (e.g. Damen ,Meraim and Belfiore) suffer from high complexity and large processing time. Recently, some new optimal algorithms were introduced with low complexity for small constellations like 4-QAM yet they still suffer from very high complexity and processing time with large constellations like the 16 QAM. In order to reduce the complexity and the processing time of the decoding algorithms, some suboptimal algorithms were introduced. One of the most efficient suboptimal solutions for this problem is based on the Minimum mean square error decision-feedback equalizer (MMSE-DFE) followed by either sphere decoder or fano decoder. The performance of these algorithms is shown to be a fraction of dB from the maximum likelihood decoders while offering outstanding reduction in complexity compared to the most efficient ML algorithms (e.g. Cui and Tellambura algorithm). These suboptimal algorithms employ a two stage approach. In the first stage, the channel is pre-processed to transform the original decoding problem into a simpler form which facilitates the search decoding step. The second stage is basically the application of the sphere decoding search algorithm in the case of MMSE-DFE sphere decoding step or Fano decoder in the case of MMSE-DFE Fano decoder. In this study, various algorithms which deal with rank deficient MIMO systems such as Damen,Meraim and Belfiore algorithm ,Dayal and Varansi algorithm, and Cui and Tellambura algorithm are discussed and compared. Moreover, the MMSE-DFE sphere decoding algorithm and MMSE-DFE fano decoding algorithm are applied on uncoded V-BLAST rank deficient MIMO systems. The optimality
An investigation of the trade-off between the count level and image quality in myocardial perfusion SPECT using simulated images: the effects of statistical noise and object variability on defect detectability

Quantum noise as well as anatomic and uptake variability in patient populations limits observer performance on a defect detection task in myocardial perfusion SPECT (MPS). The goal of this study was to investigate the relative importance of these two effects by varying acquisition time, which determines the count level, and assessing the change in performance on a myocardial perfusion (MP) defect detection task using both mathematical and human observers. We generated ten sets of projections of a simulated patient population with count levels ranging from 1/128 to around 15 times a typical clinical count level to simulate different levels of quantum noise. For the simulated population we modeled variations in patient, heart and defect size, heart orientation and shape, defect location, organ uptake ratio, etc. The projection data were reconstructed using the OS-EM algorithm with no compensation or with attenuation, detector response and scatter compensation (ADS). The images were then post-filtered and reoriented to generate short-axis slices. A channelized Hotelling observer (CHO) was applied to the short-axis images, and the area under the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve (AUC) was computed. For each noise level and reconstruction method, we optimized the number of iterations and cutoff frequencies of the Butterworth filter to maximize the AUC. Using the images obtained with the optimal iteration and cutoff frequency and ADS compensation, we performed human observer studies for four count levels to validate the CHO results. Both CHO and human observer studies demonstrated that observer performance was dependent on the relative magnitude of the quantum noise and the patient variation. When the count level was high, the patient variation dominated, and the AUC increased very slowly with changes in the count level for the same level of anatomic variability. When the count level was low, however, quantum noise dominated, and changes in the count level resulted in large changes in the AUC. This behavior agreed with a theoretical expression for the AUC as a function of quantum and anatomical noise levels. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of the tradeoff between anatomical and quantum noise in determining observer performance. For myocardial perfusion imaging, it indicates that, at current clinical count levels, there is some room to reduce acquisition time or injected activity without substantially degrading performance on myocardial perfusion defect detection.
Resident physicians' acceptance of pharmacy students' pharmacotherapy recommendations during an ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experience.

OBJECTIVE To compare the acceptance rates of written versus verbal pharmacotherapy recommendations made by pharmacy students on an ambulatory care advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE). METHODS Fourth-year pharmacy students made written and verbal pharmacotherapy recommendations to resident physicians in an internal medicine clinic at an urban, teaching hospital over a 10-month period. The types of recommendations and outcomes of the interventions were recorded using a data collection form to determine differences in acceptance rates for written versus verbal recommendations. The recommendation types and corresponding acceptance rates were also compared. RESULTS Of 542 pharmacotherapy recommendations made by 14 APPE students during the 10-month study period, 65.1% were written and 34.9% were verbal. Of the 189 verbal recommendations, 97.9% were accepted, compared with 83.6% of written recommendations (p < 0.0001). The most frequent types of recommendations and overall rates of acceptance were dosage change (87.0%), laboratory monitoring (85.8%), and medication initiation based on evidence-based medicine guidelines (79.3%). CONCLUSION Verbal pharmacotherapy recommendations made by pharmacy students were accepted by resident physicians at a significantly higher rate than written recommendations in an outpatient internal medicine clinic.
Financial Regulation and Shadow Banking: A Small-Scale DSGE Perspective

This paper estimates a small-scale DSGE model of the US economy with interacting traditional and shadow banks. We find that shadow banks amplify the transmission of structural shocks by helping escape constraints from traditional intermediaries. We show how this leakage toward shadow entities reduces the ability of macro-prudential policies targeting traditional credit to reduce economic volatility. A counterfactual experiment suggests that a countercyclical capital buffer, if applied only to traditional banks, would have in fact amplified the boom-bust cycle associated with the financial crisis of 2007-2008. On the other hand, a broader regulation scheme targeting both traditional and shadow credit would have helped stabilize the economy.
Neurochemical-clinical correlates in Huntington's disease--applications of brain banking techniques.

Our present understanding of the neuronal abnormalities of Huntington's disease (HD) owes everything to the post mortem study of brain tissue from patients with this disorder. HD was one of the first brain disorders to be studied after systematic brain banking, and it is now well defined in terms of its histological and neurotransmitter pathology. Having established the neurotransmitter systems that are particularly affected in HD (and which include striatal and pallidal GABAergic pathways), it has proven possible to assess post-mortem neurochemistry in the light of pre-mortem clinical information to identify some of the neurotransmitter correlates of the individual motor, behavioural and cognitive symptoms seen in the disease. Thus a further loss of pallidal GABA is associated with a diminution of chorea in HD, while the dementia that occurs in the great majority of cases is related to amino acid transmitter losses in the caudate, but not the cortex. The neurochemical pattern of neuronal loss in the brain in HD has also indicated the possible mechanism for the pathogenesis of the disease: excitotoxic damage via the glutamate/NMDA receptor. Banked brain tissue has also provided the means for the search for abnormal concentrations of biochemical toxins that might bring about this damage. One such endogenous neurotoxin, the tryptophan metabolite quinolinic acid, was found to be unchanged in HD, although another little-studied, but toxic, tryptophan metabolite, 3-hydroxykynurenine, was found to be increased in HD brain samples. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)