Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Deoxycholyltaurine rescues human colon cancer cells from apoptosis by activating EGFR‐dependent PI3K/Akt signaling

Recent studies indicate that secondary bile acids promote colon cancer cell proliferation but their role in maintaining cell survival has not been explored. We found that deoxycholyltaurine (DCT) markedly attenuated both unstimulated and TNF‐α‐stimulated programmed cell death in colon cancer cells by a phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase (PI3K)‐dependent mechanism. To examine the role of bile acids and PI3K signaling in maintaining colon cancer cell survival, we explored the role of signaling downstream of bile acid‐induced activation of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in regulating both apoptosis and proliferation of HT‐29 and H508 human colon cancer cells. DCT caused dose‐ and time‐dependent Akt (Ser473) phosphorylation, a commonly used marker of activated PI3K/Akt signaling. Both EGFR kinase and PI3K inhibitors attenuated DCT‐induced Akt phosphorylation and Akt activation, as demonstrated by reduced phosphorylation of a GSK‐3‐paramyosin substrate. Transfection of HT‐29 cells with kinase‐dead EGFR (K721M) reduced DCT‐induced Akt phosphorylation. In HT‐29 cells, EGFR and PI3K inhibitors as well as transfection with dominant negative AKT attenuated DCT‐induced cell proliferation. DCT‐induced PI3K/Akt activation resulted in downstream phosphorylation of GSK‐3 (Ser21/9) and BAD (Ser136), and nuclear translocation (activation) of NF‐κB, thereby confirming that DCT‐induced activation of PI3K/Akt signaling regulates both proproliferative and prosurvival signals. Collectively, these results indicate that DCT‐induced activation of post‐EGFR PI3K/Akt signaling stimulates both colon cancer cell survival and proliferation. J. Cell. Physiol. 215: 538–549, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A posteriori-derived dietary patterns and retinal vessel caliber in an elderly population.

PURPOSE To examine the association between a posteriori-derived dietary patterns (DP) and retinal vessel caliber in an elderly population. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 288 elderly adults (>65 years) who participated in the European Eye study (EUREYE) Northern Irish cohort. DP were extracted using principal component analysis from completed food frequency questionnaires. Semi-automated computer grading was used to determine the mean retinal vessel diameters (central retinal arteriole equivalent [CRAE] and central retinal venule equivalent [CRVE]) from digitized visual field one images using a standard measurement protocol. RESULTS THREE MAJOR DP WERE IDENTIFIED IN THIS POPULATION, WHICH ACCOUNTED FOR 21% OF THE TOTAL VARIANCE: a "healthy" pattern with high factor loadings for oily fish, fruits and vegetables, and olive oil; an "unhealthy" pattern with high factor loadings for red and processed meat, refined grains, eggs, butter, sugar and sweets; and a "snack and beverage" pattern with high factor loading for pizza, nuts, and coffee. Multivariable linear regression analysis indicated no significant association between major identified DP and mean CRAE or CRVE in all models. CONCLUSIONS This is the first study to investigate associations between a posteriori-derived DP and retinal vessel caliber. There was no evidence of a relationship between extracted DP and retinal vessel measurements in this population. However, it is possible that potentially important relationships exist between single nutrients or foods and vessel diameters that cannot be identified using a DP approach. Further studies to examine the role of dietary factors in the microcirculation are required.
Radiotherapy in the management of primary malignancies of the hard palate

Primary malignancies of the hard palate are rare. Only 66 cases have been seen at the University of Virginia Hospital in the 43 years from 1932 through March 1975. These have been reviewed with regard to age, sex, race, histology and clinical presentation. There was 32 squamous cell carcinomas, 25 salivary gland tumors and 9 nonepithelial malignancies. The nonepithelial malignancies were a diverse group and are not considered further. The results of treatment for the squamous cell carcinoma group and salivary gland tumors have been analyzed by stage and mode of therapy. Although no great improvement in the results of surgery or combined therapy have been observed over the years in the squamous cell carcinoma group, there has been a dramatic improvement in the results of treatment with radiation therapy from the orthovoltage era to the super‐voltage era. Primary control with radiation therapy for the squamous cell carcinoma group was 2/5 (40%) in the orthovoltage era and 7/7 (100%) in the supervoltage era. Surgery would appear to be the appropriate treatment for salivary gland tumors with possibly a place for combined therapy. Radiation therapy proved useful in salvaging certain surgical failures. The time of appearance of local recurrence following initial therapy, the incidence of distant metastases and second primary tumors were analyzed and are presented.
Recent progress in molecular diagnosis of sleeping sickness

This article will review the most recent progress in the molecular diagnosis of sleeping sickness and its potential role in patient management and disease control. While PCR remains restricted to research and reference laboratories, promising alternative molecular platforms have emerged over the last few years. Several loop-mediated isothermal amplification assays have been developed for detection and identification of the parasite with reported high analytical sensitivity and specificity. Simplified loop-mediated isothermal amplification formats have been designed and are undergoing evaluation studies in the field. Accurate diagnosis based on specific detection of the parasite’s ribosomal RNA has been made possible by the isothermal nucleic acid sequence-based amplification and by direct hybridization with fluorescent detection probes. In addition to the technological progress, the authors also discuss the diagnostic performance of molecular tests in the most recent clinical evaluation studies and briefly present some viewpoints for the near future.
Incidence of and impact of medications on colectomy in newly diagnosed ulcerative colitis in the era of biologics

Background: The cumulative incidence of colectomy and the impact of 5‐aminosalicylates (5‐ASA), azathioprine, and antitumor necrosis factor (TNF) treatment on the long‐term need for surgery are unknown in ulcerative colitis (UC) in the era of biologics. Methods: This was an observational study of a referral center cohort. The cumulative incidence of UC‐related colectomy was estimated using the Kaplan–Meier method. Independent predictors of surgery were identified using Cox proportional hazards regression with propensity scores adjustment. The electronic charts of 151 incident cases of UC from Nancy University Hospital, France, diagnosed between 2000 and 2008, were reviewed through January 2010. Results: The median follow‐up time per patient was 58 months. Twenty‐one (14%) underwent surgery. The cumulative probabilities of colectomy were respectively 1.3% and 13.5% at 1 and 5 years from the time of diagnosis. The probability of receiving oral mesalamine at 5 years was 68.1%. The corresponding figures were 48.9% for azathioprine and 29.0% for infliximab. For corticosteroids, methotrexate, and cyclosporin these figures were 75%, 8.8%, and 11.5%, respectively. Using multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis after propensity score adjustment, previous use of cyclosporin was the only independent predictor for colectomy (hazard ratio = 4.41; 95% confidence interval 1.75–1.13). Conclusions: About one‐tenth of patients still require colectomy for UC at 5 years in the era of biologics. Oral 5‐ASA, azathioprine, and anti‐TNF therapy are not associated with a reduced need for colectomy. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2012)
Development, characterization, and evaluation of sunscreen cream containing solid lipid nanoparticles of silymarin

Most of the sunscreen formulations mainly contain chemicals or synthetic molecules. Nowadays, researchers are mainly focussing on herbal formulations due to toxicity of the synthetic molecules. Silymarin is a natural flavonoids having excellent antioxidant properties. Solid lipid nanoparticles are novel drug carriers which improve the drug stability and tolerance effect and also enhance the permeation effect.
The Application of Deep Convolutional Denoising Autoencoder for Optical Character Recognition Preprocessing

The process of converting physical documents into digital texts generally requires a scanner tool to obtain high-quality document images. These high quality images will be read by OCR software to get digital text results. The weakness of this method is that OCR software requires a high quality document with low blur noise and no parallax in the image to have high accuracy. We developed an application to increase the document image quality with the help of Deep Convolutional Denoising Autoencoder, afterwards read by the OCR application. The final product of this program is a digital text converted from a document image which has been taken from a smartphone. There is an increase in accuracy using this application by 26.68% in a blurred image compare to standard Tesseract OCR and outperformed Simple OCR in average accuracy testing.
Learning from experience: privacy and the secondary use of data in health research

Health services research must continually address the question: Under what conditions may data not collected specifically for research, such as primary medical data, be re-used for research without compromising the privacy of the data-subjects? For secondary use of data in research there are basically three options. Option A: Use personal data with consent or other assent from the data-subjects. To make this both fairer and more practical, in many circumstances broader construals of consent, or permission or approval, need to be explored and instituted. Option B: Anonymise the data, then use them. For many studies, this is the most practical and desirable option. The craft of anonymisation, including reversible anonymisation, or key-coding, needs to be developed and more fully supported under law. Option C: Use personal data without explicit consent, under a public interest mandate. Whether and how the data should be anonymised will depend on the situation. Public health mandates and protections deserve to be clarified, strengthened and extended for a variety of surveillance, registration, clinical audit, health services research and other types of investigation. Safeguards are an integral part of the research promise to the public, offer crucial reassurance and should be emphasised. For health services research, databases are core resources, and their stewardship must be cultivated.
Training proposal for community health agents in hearing health.

BACKGROUND training of community health agents in hearing health. AIM to verify the effectiveness of a training program regarding the hearing health of children for Community Health Agents of a Family Health Program. METHOD research sample consisted of two groups: Group A, constituted by 31 community health agents, from Bauru, SP, and Group B, constituted by 75 community health agents, from Sorocaba, SP. Training was provided through classes for both groups. For Group A, a text adapted from the material organized by the World Health Organization (2006) was used so that the community health agents could follow the activities in an interactive way. Training focused on the following topics: normal and impaired hearing; types, prevention and causes of hearing loss; procedures to identify and diagnose the hearing impairment and rehabilitation. Pre and post training questionnaires were used to assess the assimilation of the presented content. RESULTS training demonstrated to be effective, since there was an increase in the overall score when comparing the scores obtained in the pre and post training questionnaires. CONCLUSION the results indicate the effectiveness of the training program for community health agents of a Family Health Program with the use of texts and with an interactive approach.
Nfatc1 orchestrates aging in hair follicle stem cells

Significance Signs of aging often first appear in our skin and hair. As animals age, hair follicles spend more time resting instead of generating hair. Here we show that this decline is rooted in age-related changes in systemic, local, and intrinsic factors, which collaborate to reduce hair follicle stem cell (HFSC) activity. We uncover a unique and hitherto-undescribed age-related role for bone morphogenic protein signaling and a downstream effector, nuclear factor of activated T-cell c1 (NFATc1). In young stem cells, NFATc1 is on when they are quiescent and wanes when they make hair. In aging follicles, NFATc1 and its target genes remain high too long. Importantly, NFATc1 inhibitors restore youthful behavior to aging HFSCs, providing unique insights into age-related changes in skin physiology. Hair production is fueled by stem cells (SCs), which transition between cyclical bouts of rest and activity. Here, we explore why hair growth wanes with age. We show that aged hair follicle SCs (HFSCs) in mice exhibit enhanced resting and abbreviated growth phases and are delayed in response to tissue-regenerating cues. Aged HFSCs are poor at initiating proliferation and show diminished self-renewing capacity upon extensive use. Only modestly restored by parabiosis, these features are rooted in elevated cell-intrinsic sensitivity and local elevation in bone morphogenic protein (BMP) signaling. Transcriptional profiling presents differences consistent with defects in aged HFSC activation. Notably, BMP-/calcium-regulated, nuclear factor of activated T-cell c1 (NFATc1) in HFSCs becomes recalcitrant to its normal down-regulating cues, and NFATc1 ChIP-sequencing analyses reveal a marked enrichment of NFATc1 target genes within the age-related signature. Moreover, aged HFSCs display more youthful levels of hair regeneration when BMP and/or NFATc1 are inhibited. These results provide unique insights into how skin SCs age.
A numerical study of ultrafast vector flow imaging in the neonatal heart

Doppler flow imaging for the visualisation of neonatal intraventricular blood flow currently still has inherent limitations: beam-to-flow angle dependency, aliasing and a too low frame rate. Ultrafast imaging and vector flow estimation may resolve these limitations, yet both still require thorough validation for the pediatric cardiac setting. Hence, a computational modelling approach in the neonatal left ventricle was employed to investigate (i) diverging wave emission to acquire images at very high frame rate and (ii) subsequent speckle tracking algorithms for vector flow estimation. Single non-tilted diverging waves with an opening angle of 60° were transmitted, at a pulse repetition frequency of 9 kHz. Speckle tracking on the acquired ultrasound images provided 2D intraventricular flow estimates at a frame rate of 180 Hz for both the apical four chamber and parasternal short axis view, and this over an entire cardiac cycle. Overall, the blood flow was reasonably accurately tracked throughout the cardiac cycle, yet several imaging artefacts were observed. Zones of low flow proved very difficult to track due to clutter filtering issues, while high spatial flow gradients caused strong underestimation of systolic outflow.
The Polya Tree Sampler: Toward Efficient and Automatic Independent Metropolis–Hastings Proposals

We present a simple, efficient, and computationally cheap sampling method for exploring an unnormalized multivariate density on ℝd, such as a posterior density, called the Polya tree sampler. The algorithm constructs an independent proposal based on an approximation of the target density. The approximation is built from a set of (initial) support points—data that act as parameters for the approximation—and the predictive density of a finite multivariate Polya tree. In an initial “warming-up” phase, the support points are iteratively relocated to regions of higher support under the target distribution to minimize the distance between the target distribution and the Polya tree predictive distribution. In the “sampling” phase, samples from the final approximating mixture of finite Polya trees are used as candidates which are accepted with a standard Metropolis–Hastings acceptance probability. Several illustrations are presented, including comparisons of the proposed approach to Metropolis-within-Gibbs and delayed rejection adaptive Metropolis algorithm. This article has supplementary material online.
UlteriorScape: Interactive optical superimposition on a view-dependent tabletop display

In order to increase the ways that users can intuitively interact with a tabletop display, we developed UlteriorScape. This system integrates two major functions of its predecessors. As with Tablescape Plus, UlteriorScape uses tabletop objects as both projection screens and input interfaces. As with the Lumisight Table, the tabletop is physically single, but visually multiple with a view-dependent display, which can show different images to each user around the table. We developed several applications that demonstrate the advantages of UlteriorScape. In one, a single user can hold a simple screen-object over the tabletop and see additional images projected onto its surface. Those images change interactively based on the position of the object, which is tracked by ID. In another application, multiple users can simultaneously work with a single mountain-shaped object that displays separate images on each side. In this paper, we describe the system design of UlteriorScape and its applications.
Mitochondrial long chain fatty acid oxidation, fatty acid translocase/CD36 content and carnitine palmitoyltransferase I activity in human skeletal muscle during aerobic exercise

Mitochondrial fatty acid transport is a rate‐limiting step in long chain fatty acid (LCFA) oxidation. In rat skeletal muscle, the transport of LCFA at the level of mitochondria is regulated by carnitine palmitoyltransferase I (CPTI) activity and the content of malonyl‐CoA (M‐CoA); however, this relationship is not consistently observed in humans. Recently, fatty acid translocase (FAT)/CD36 was identified on mitochondria isolated from rat and human skeletal muscle and found to be involved in LCFA oxidation. The present study investigated the effects of exercise (120 min of cycling at ∼60%) on CPTI palmitoyl‐CoA and M‐CoA kinetics, and on the presence and functional significance of FAT/CD36 on skeletal muscle mitochondria. Whole body fat oxidation rates progressively increased during exercise (P < 0.05), and concomitantly M‐CoA inhibition of CPTI was progressively attenuated. Compared to rest, 120 min of cycling reduced (P < 0.05) the inhibition of 0.7, 2, 5 and 10 μm M‐CoA by 16%, 21%, 30% and 34%, respectively. Whole body fat oxidation and palmitate oxidation rates in isolated mitochondria progressively increased (P < 0.05) during exercise, and were positively correlated (r= 0.78). Mitochondrial FAT/CD36 protein increased by 63% (P < 0.05) during exercise and was significantly (P < 0.05) correlated with mitochondrial palmitate oxidation rates at all time points (r= 0.41). However, the strongest (P < 0.05) correlation was observed following 120 min of cycling (r= 0.63). Importantly, the addition of sulfo‐N‐succimidyloleate, a specific inhibitor of FAT/CD36, reduced mitochondrial palmitate oxidation to ∼20%, indicating FAT/CD36 is functionally significant with respect to LCFA oxidation. We hypothesize that exercise‐induced increases in fatty acid oxidation occur as a result of an increased ability to transport LCFA into mitochondria. We further suggest that decreased CPTI M‐CoA sensitivity and increased mitochondrial FAT/CD36 protein are both important for increasing whole body fatty acid oxidation during prolonged exercise.
Cognitive and adaptive outcomes and age at insult effects after non-traumatic coma

Cognitive and adaptive behavioural outcome were studied in the identified survivors of a population based study of non-traumatic coma (NTC) in childhood. Children were assessed early (six weeks) and late (12 months) after NTC. At least 7% of those children in whom no suspicions of prior neurodevelopmental morbidity existed showed moderate or severe disability following NTC. Children over 2 years of age at insult showed some improvement between early and late assessments; however, children below 2 years showed no improvement. Differing age at insult effects were observed between aetiological groups. A relation between early age at first insult and poor outcome was particularly evident among children experiencing NTC caused by epilepsy.
Detection of fMRI activation using Cortical Surface Mapping

A methodology for fMRI data analysis confined to the cortex, Cortical Surface Mapping (CSM), is presented. CSM retains the flexibility of the General Linear Model based estimation, but the procedures involved are adapted to operate on the cortical surface, while avoiding to resort to explicit flattening. The methodology is tested by means of simulations and application to a real fMRI protocol. The results are compared with those obtained with a standard, volume‐oriented approach (SPM), and it is shown that CSM leads to local differences in sensitivity, with generally higher sensitivity for CSM in two of the three subjects studied. The discussion provided is focused on the benefits of the introduction of anatomical information in fMRI data analysis, and the relevance of CSM as a step toward this goal. Hum. Brain Mapping 12:79–93, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Galleria mellonella as a Model System To Study Acinetobacter baumannii Pathogenesis and Therapeutics

ABSTRACT Nonmammalian model systems of infection such as Galleria mellonella (caterpillars of the greater wax moth) have significant logistical and ethical advantages over mammalian models. In this study, we utilize G. mellonella caterpillars to study host-pathogen interactions with the gram-negative organism Acinetobacter baumannii and determine the utility of this infection model to study antibacterial efficacy. After infecting G. mellonella caterpillars with a reference A. baumannii strain, we observed that the rate of G. mellonella killing was dependent on the infection inoculum and the incubation temperature postinfection, with greater killing at 37°C than at 30°C (P = 0.01). A. baumannii strains caused greater killing than the less-pathogenic species Acinetobacter baylyi and Acinetobacter lwoffii (P < 0.001). Community-acquired A. baumannii caused greater killing than a reference hospital-acquired strain (P < 0.01). Reduced levels of production of the quorum-sensing molecule 3-hydroxy-C12-homoserine lactone caused no change in A. baumannii virulence against G. mellonella. Treatment of a lethal A. baumannii infection with antibiotics that had in vitro activity against the infecting A. baumannii strain significantly prolonged the survival of G. mellonella caterpillars compared with treatment with antibiotics to which the bacteria were resistant. G. mellonella is a relatively simple, nonmammalian model system that can be used to facilitate the in vivo study of host-pathogen interactions in A. baumannii and the efficacy of antibacterial agents.