Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diffuse large cell lymphoma with discordant bone marrow histology. Clinical features and biological implications

In patients with diffuse large cell lymphoma (LCL), bone marrow involvement at the time of diagnosis is a poor prognostic sign. Since 1980, the authors have encountered 13 patients with LCL who had simultaneous bone marrow involvement by small cleaved cell lymphoma (11 cases) or mixed small and LCL (two cases), a phenomenon known as “discordant” or “divergent” bone marrow histology. The patients ranged in age from 33 to 85 years (median, 61 years) and presented most commonly with Stage III or IV disease, independent of bone marrow involvement. Seventy‐seven percent achieved complete remission (CR) with combination chemotherapy; 50% of these eventually relapsed and died of their disease. One patient died of unrelated causes. No recurrences of low‐grade lymphoma were observed, as judged either by clinical behavior or rebiopsy. The survival of the patients with discordant bone marrow histology was compared with that of patients with LCL with or without bone marrow involvement by LCL. Of the 11 patients with discordant marrow histology followed for a minimum of 2 years, four (36%) are long‐term survivors; this is comparable to the 2‐year survival of patients with LCL without bone marrow involvement (45%). In contrast, 89% of patients with bone marrow biopsy specimens positive for LCL died within 18 months from the time of diagnosis (mean survival, 5.7 months). All diffuse LCL tested were of B‐lineage. The authors attempted to determine whether the presence of discordant bone marrow histologic types indicated an underlying low‐grade B‐cell lymphoma in these patients by evaluating the peripheral blood of the long‐term survivors for the presence of clonal excess. Of the three surviving evaluable patients tested, one had evidence of clonal excess in the peripheral blood. For patients with LCL who have a simultaneous bone marrow biopsy positive for low‐grade lymphoma (discordant marrow histology), survival is no different from that of patients with negative marrows, and markedly better than that for patients with marrows positive for diffuse LCL. The biological significance of discordant bone marrow histology is not clear at this time.
Effector Specificity in Macaque Frontal and Parietal Cortex

Single neurons in the frontal eye fields (FEFs) and lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of macaques are preferentially activated by saccade- versus reach-related processes. fMRI studies focusing on saccade- and reach-specific activity in human cortex, however, provided conflicting evidence for effector specificity. To gain further insights into effector preferences throughout monkey cortex using the same technique as in humans, we performed a mixed block/event-related fMRI experiment in macaques. Within single fMRI runs, monkeys alternated between a visually guided saccade task, a visually guided arm movement task, and a fixation-only task requiring no saccades or arm movements. The detection of a peripheral pop-out go cue initiating the required operant behavior and the identification of a target among distractors was identical in the arm and saccade tasks. We found saccade-related activity in parietal areas V6, V6A, LIP, and caudal intraparietal area and frontal areas FEF, 45a, 45b, and 46. Areas 45 and FEF even showed markedly decreased fMRI activity during arm movements relative to fixation only. Conversely, medial and anterior intraparietal areas (MIP and AIP), and parietal area PEip; somatosensory areas S1 and S2; and (pre)motor areas F1, F3, F5, and F6 showed increased arm movement-related activity. F1, F5, PEip, and somatosensory cortex also showed deactivations during saccades relative to fixation only. Control experiments showed that such deactivations in both operant-specific functional networks did not depend on training history or rapid task switching requiring active suppression of the unpreferred operant behavior. Therefore, although both tasks required divided attention to detect a pop-out go cue and target, two largely segregated and mainly effector-driven cortical networks were activated.
Production of Cell‐Free Xanthan Fermentation Broth by Cell Adsorption on Fibers

Xanthan gum is a microbial polysaccharide widely used in food and oil‐drilling industries. Xanthan gum produced from the current commercial fermentation process usually contains cells and cell debris, which lower the filterability of the xanthan solution and limit its applications. The production of cell‐free xanthan gum fermentation broth is thus desirable. The feasibility of removing cells from the xanthan fermentation broth by cell adsorption to various woven fibrous materials was studied. It was found that both cotton and polyester fibers could be used to adsorb Xanthomonas campestris cells present in the fermentation broth either during batch fermentation or after the fermentation. Almost all cells were removed from the fermentation broth by adsorption to fibers. Cotton terry cloth had rough surfaces and was the preferred material for cell adsorption. Cell adsorption to cotton was faster than to polyester fibers. The adsorption kinetics can be modeled by a first‐order rate equation. The adsorption rate constants were 30–40% higher for cotton than for polyester. Cell adsorption was not efficient in the absence of xanthan gum, suggesting that the exopolysaccharide, xanthan gum, was important for efficient cell adsorption to fibers.
Resident Networks and Corporate Connections: Evidence from World War II Internment Camps

We demonstrate that simply by using the ethnic makeup surrounding a firm’s location, we can predict, on average, which trade links are valuable for firms. Using customs and port authority data on the international shipments of all U.S. publicly-traded firms, we show that firms are significantly more likely to trade with countries that have a large resident population near their firm headquarters. We use the formation of World War II Japanese Internment Camps to isolate exogenous shocks to local ethnic populations, and identify a causal link between local networks and firm trade. Firms that exploit their local networks (strategic traders) see significant increases in future sales growth and profitability, and outperform other importers and exporters by 5%-7% per year in risk-adjusted stock returns. In sum, our results document a surprisingly large impact of immigrants’ economic role as conduits of information for firms in their new countries.
Power spectrum analysis for DNA sequences

Certain biological functions are related to observe periodic behavior in DNA sequences, for example the period-3 behavior in exons. Appropriately, the field of digital signal processing has begun to contribute to the gene identification problem by allowing for discoveries in terms of these periodicities. This work presents known spectral analysis techniques that are applied in a new manner to find DNA sequences that exhibit periodic behavior in the residues. Improvements to the standard DFT power spectrum are shown by intuitively choosing new sequence alphabets. We also illustrate how power spectrums of the warped DFT and the Walsh-Hadamard transform provide useful frequency domain representations for finding such periodic behavior. Examples are given to illustrate the value of the competing techniques and to visually display comparisons.
DNA Barcoding of the Endangered Aquilaria (Thymelaeaceae) and Its Application in Species Authentication of Agarwood Products Traded in the Market

The identification of Aquilaria species from their resinous non-wood product, the agarwood, is challenging as conventional techniques alone are unable to ascertain the species origin. Aquilaria is a highly protected species due to the excessive exploitation of its precious agarwood. Here, we applied the DNA barcoding technique to generate barcode sequences for Aquilaria species and later applied the barcodes to identify the source species of agarwood found in the market. We developed a reference DNA barcode library using eight candidate barcode loci (matK, rbcL, rpoB, rpoC1, psbA-trnH, trnL-trnF, ITS, and ITS2) amplified from 24 leaf accessions of seven Aquilaria species obtained from living trees. Our results indicated that all single barcodes can be easily amplified and sequenced with the selected primers. The combination of trnL-trnF+ITS and trnL-trnF+ITS2 yielded the greatest species resolution using the least number of loci combination, while matK+trnL-trnF+ITS showed potential in detecting the geographical origins of Aquilaria species. We propose trnL-trnF+ITS2 as the best candidate barcode for Aquilaria as ITS2 has a shorter sequence length compared to ITS, which eases PCR amplification especially when using degraded DNA samples such as those extracted from processed agarwood products. A blind test conducted on eight agarwood samples in different forms using the proposed barcode combination proved successful in their identification up to the species level. Such potential of DNA barcoding in identifying the source species of agarwood will contribute to the international timber trade control, by providing an effective method for species identification and product authentication.
The geometry of Niggli reduction: BGAOL -embedding Niggli reduction and analysis of boundaries.

Niggli reduction can be viewed as a series of operations in a six-dimensional space derived from the metric tensor. An implicit embedding of the space of Niggli-reduced cells in a higher-dimensional space to facilitate calculation of distances between cells is described. This distance metric is used to create a program, BGAOL, for Bravais lattice determination. Results from BGAOL are compared with results from other metric based Bravais lattice determination algorithms. This embedding depends on understanding the boundary polytopes of the Niggli-reduced cone N in the six-dimensional space G6. This article describes an investigation of the boundary polytopes of the Niggli-reduced cone N in the six-dimensional space G6 by algebraic analysis and organized random probing of regions near one-, two-, three-, four-, five-, six-, seven- and eightfold boundary polytope intersections. The discussion of valid boundary polytopes is limited to those avoiding the mathematically interesting but crystallographically impossible cases of zero-length cell edges. Combinations of boundary polytopes without a valid intersection in the closure of the Niggli cone or with an intersection that would force a cell edge to zero or without neighboring probe points are eliminated. In all, 216 boundary polytopes are found. There are 15 five-dimensional boundary polytopes of the full G6 Niggli cone N .
Age of onset in familial schizophrenia.

The age of onset of schizophrenia chatacteristically peaks in early adulthood, although spanning at least four decades of life among unrelated individuals, and on average, it peaks a few years earlier in males than females. 1,2 It also has been previously shown that the age of onset, rather than the time of onset, is highly correlated among affected sibling pairs, thus suggesting a genetic determination of the age of on set. There recently have been reports of a curious lack of gender differences in the age of onset when only schizophrenic individuals with a positive family history of schizophrenia (ie, multiplex families) are examined. 4-6 However, L. S. Penrose, in a large cohort of familial mental illness, previously observed that the age of onset for males was lower than for females (mean difference, 3.7 years), with a wider scatter in male ages at first admission than in female and a
N-Terminal Phosphorylation Sites of Herpes Simplex Virus 1 ICP0 Differentially Regulate Its Activities and Enhance Viral Replication

ABSTRACT The herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) infected cell protein 0 (ICP0) is an immediate-early phosphoprotein that transactivates viral gene expression. Evidence suggests that phosphorylation regulates the functions of ICP0, and three regions (termed regions I, II, and III) in the protein are known to be phosphorylated. Mutation of the putative phosphorylation sites within region I, termed Phos 1, which lies in the N-terminal portion of ICP0, impairs the E3 ubiquitin (Ub) ligase and ND10-disrupting activities of ICP0 in cell culture and diminishes viral replication. To identify the specific phosphorylation site(s) or residues responsible for the phenotypes observed with Phos 1, individual residues within region I were mutated to alanine (S224A, T226A, T231A, and T232A) and one double mutant S224A/T226A was constructed. Tissue culture studies demonstrated that the S224A, S224A/T226A, T231A, and T232A mutants were unable to dissociate the cellular protein PML from ND10 and that the S224/T226A mutant was defective in its ability to dissociate the cellular protein Sp100 from ND10. Additionally, the transactivation activity of ICP0 was impaired in the S224A and S224A/T226A mutants. The S224A and S224A/T226A mutant forms were more stable than wild-type ICP0, suggesting that their ability to autoubiquitinate was limited. Moreover, one ICP0 ubiquitination target, USP-7, was also more stable after infection with these two mutants. Lastly, the replication of the S224A and S224A/T226A mutant viruses was reduced in cell culture and in vivo. Overall, our data suggest that specific phosphorylation sites within region I differentially regulate the activities of ICP0, which are required for efficient viral replication.
Ordonnancement dans des cellules robotisées

Ce travail concerne la production cyclique de pieces identiques dans un flow-shop robotise. La Conjecture des 1-cycles, proposee par Sethi et al. , suppose que le taux maximum de production peut etre atteint en repetant un cycle particulier qui produit une seule piece. Cette conjecture simplifie la recherche du meilleur cycle de production. Nous presentons de nouvelles preuves (approche par les graphes et approche algebrique) de la validite de cette conjecture pour des cellules a 2 et 3 machines et nous montrons qu'elle est fausse a partir de 4 machines. Nous delimitons ensuite plus precisement son cadre de validite en imposant des restrictions sur les parametres : distances inter-machines egales ou temps d'usinage egaux. Puis, nous etudions d'autres formes de cellules robotisees en relaxant des contraintes de la cellule robotisee de base. La premiere variante est l'association de l'entree et de la sortie de la cellule. Nous proposons quelques remarques sur la recherche du meilleur cycle de production. La deuxieme variante est le HSP (Hoist Scheduling Problem) : le temps pendant lequel une piece peut rester sur une machine admet une borne superieure. Nous montrons que des proprietes des cellules robotisees ne peuvent pas etre etendues au HSP. La troisieme variante est l'ajout de zones de stockage entre les machines. Nous montrons que la Conjecture des 1-cycles est vraie et nous analysons le gain par rapport a une cellule sans stockage. Enfin, nous supposons que les distances inter-machines sont quelconques. Nous montrons que trouver le meilleur cycle de production d'une piece est un probleme NP-complet. Ce travail a permis de resoudre completement une conjecture ouverte depuis 1989 et de decrire l'influence de la relaxation de certaines contraintes des cellules robotisees sur la recherche du meilleur cycle de production. La principale perspective est, pour les cas ou la conjecture est fausse, de trouver le meilleur cycle de production
The importance of pre-analysis windowing on auditory brainstem response fast Fourier transform analysis

Analysis of auditory brainstem response (ABR) frequency content using fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis has been used to improve ABR sensitivity and specificity as a diagnostic/site of lesion assessment tool, to improve our understanding of ABR components, and to guide ABR stimulus and recording parameter settings. Threatening this success, however, is the literature's poor control of pre-FFT windowing of the ABR prior to ABR FFT analysis. This study examined the significance of using no (NW), vs Blackman (BW), vs modified Blackman (MBW) pre-FFT windows on the FFT analysis of ABRs recorded from normal subjects. Pre-FFT windowing was shown to significantly reduce ( p < 0.00005) ABR FFT magnitudes, but not frequencies, with BW causing greater reductions than MBW. The high significance of these results shows that choice of pre-FFT window is critical in any ABR FFT analysis.
ANATOMIC STUDY OF THE DIAGONAL ARTERIES IN HEARTS OF PIGS

RESUMEN: Debido a la importancia de la arteria diagonal en la vascularizacion del miocardio y a la existencia de caracteristicas semejantes entre el corazon del hombre y del porcino, realizamos un estudio morfometrico de la arteria diagonal en 100 corazones de porcinos. Se inyectaron las arterias coronarias con una solucion de gelatina al 15%, tenida de rojo. Luego, los corazones fueron fijados en solucion de formol al 10%, por un periodo de 10 dias y disecados para visualizacion de la arteria diagonal y comparacion de la altura ventricular. Solo se considero como arteria diagonal al vaso que emergia de la bisectriz del angulo formado por la arteria interventricular anterior y circunfleja. La arteria diagonal estuvo presente en el 20% de los casos. Su longitud vario entre 11,3 mm y 39,5 mm (x 22,4 mm), por lo que se clasifico a la mayoria de ellas (95%), como arterias de corto trayecto en el plano subepicardico. Con relacion a su ramas, se verifico que dicha arteria emitia una rama en el 50% de los casos, 2 ramas en el 45% y 3 ramas en el 5%. Se puede concluir entonces, que en el caso de ausencia de la arteria diagonal, la arteria circunfleja emitiria varias ramas, seguramente para suplir la insuficiente irrigacion del ventriculo izquierdo.
DETECTION OF VIRULENCE GENES IN RARE SEROVARS OF SALMONELLA ISOLATED FROM RIVER GANGES

Water pollution is a major problem in India. Ganga is the most holy river of the country and contributes significantly in Indian economy. Water of river ganga has been polluted seriously in last few years. In the present study few isolates of Salmonella which are not so common in India were isolated from river Ganga were evaluated for the presence of virulence contributing genes. In present study 24 isolates were studied for presence of three major virulence contributing genes ie stn, vir and pef. Out of 24 isolates vir gene was present in 11 isolates, pef was present in 18 isolates and stn was present in 19 isolates. Five isolates were having all three genes. Most of these isolates have exhibited multiple drug resistance. Therefore, there presence in gangetic water can cause serious health problems.
Social Processes Underlying Acculturation: A Study of Drinking Behavior among Immigrant Latinos in the Northeast United States

Study Goals To identify social processes that underlie the relationship of acculturation and heavy drinking behavior among Latinos who have immigrated to the Northeast United States of America (USA). Method Community-based recruitment strategies were used to identify 36 Latinos who reported heavy drinking. Participants were 48% female, 23 to 56 years of age, and were from South or Central America (39%) and the Caribbean (24%). Six focus groups were audiotaped and transcribed. Results Content analyses indicated that the social context of drinking is different in the participants’ countries of origin and in the United States. In Latin America, alcohol consumption was part of everyday living (being with friends and family). Nostalgia and isolation reflected some of the reasons for drinking in the USA. Results suggest that drinking in the Northeastern United States (US) is related to Latinos’ adaptation to a new sociocultural environment. Knowledge of the shifting social contexts of drinking can inform health interventions.
Encephalitis lethargica: part of a spectrum of post-streptococcal autoimmune diseases?

Encephalitis lethargica (EL) was first described by von Economo in 1917, shortly after the start of the 1916–1927 epidemic. The patients, mostly children of either sex, characteristically presented with headache and malaise, lethargy, insomnia, and ophthalmoplegia. Some recovered but the others either died during an acute fulminating disorder or developed, insidiously or after a variable period of time, movement and/or psychiatric disorders including Parkinsonism, oculogyric crises, chorea, myoclonus, mutism, catatonia or behavioural problems. Although linked by many observers to the influenza epidemic, the epidemic of EL began earlier and lasted longer, and flu virus has not been found in archival post‐mortem tissue (e.g. McCall et al ., 2001; Lo and Geddes, 2003). Sporadic cases are still reported, but the acute fulminating form seems to have disappeared, and there have been no further reported epidemics. The paper by Dale and colleagues in this issue of Brain describes 20 patients with a condition presenting with sleep disorder, lethargy, Parkinsonism and neuropsychiatric disorders, including mutism, anxiety, depression, obsessions and compulsions (Dale et al ., 2004). The patients ranged between 2 and 69 years of age, but most were children or teenagers. Although we are not told the time between onset and study by the authors, half of the patients had a monophasic illness, and five have made a good recovery, but the others have continuing problems of movement or neuropsychiatric disorders at a follow‐up period of <2 years. The clinical features, the course of the disease, cerebrospinal fluid and imaging studies, and histology in one case, are similar to those in cases …
Clinical results using the trochanter stabilizing plate (TSP): the modular extension of the dynamic hip screw (DHS) for internal fixation of selected unstable intertrochanteric fractures.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate whether the implantation of the modular trochanter stabilizing plate (TSP) in addition to the dynamic hip screw (DHS) prevents excessive telescoping and limb shortening in four-part and selected three-part trochanteric fractures. DESIGN Prospective clinical study. SETTING The study was conducted at the trauma unit of the Surgical Department of the University of Basel, Switzerland. PATIENTS Forty-six consecutive patients with unstable intertrochanteric fractures were treated with an additional TSP super-imposed on the regular DHS at our institution between July 1991 and July 1993. Five patients died before the first follow-up, one patient was lost to follow-up, and another patient refused follow-up. Thus, thirty-nine patients were followed for at least twelve months (mean 14 months, range 12 to 20 months). INTERVENTION The fractures treated were classified according to the OTA classification, which is based on the AO classification. Seventeen were 31-A2.2, seven were 31-A2.3, and fourteen were 31-A3.3 fractures. RESULTS Lateralization of the greater trochanter was successfully prevented in all fractures. Limited fracture impaction was found in 90 percent (n = 35) of the patients with telescoping of 9.5 millimeters (range 0 to 30 millimeters), resulting in mean limb shortening of 5.37 millimeters (range 0 to 14.9 millimeters). Four patients suffered limb shortening exceeding fifteen millimeters (range 15.6 to 21.3 millimeters). Functional results were excellent and good in 87 percent of patients and fair in 13 percent according to the Salvati-Wilson score. All fractures had healed six months after the operation. Three complications required a secondary procedure: one from not inserting a second screw parallel to the gliding hip screw to prevent rotation of the head-neck fragment ("antirotation screw"), one because of deep infection, and one because of a refracture after premature implant removal. CONCLUSION In unstable pertrochanteric fractures with small or missing lateral cortical buttress, the addition of a TSP to the DHS effectively supports the unstable greater trochanter fragment and can prevent rotation of the head-neck fragment. Excessive fracture impaction and consecutive limb shortening was prevented by this additional implant in 90 percent of these patients.