Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Acute and chronic whiplash disorders--a review.

OBJECTIVE This review examines acute and chronic whiplash-associated disorders to facilitate assessment, treatment and rehabilitation for further research and evidence-based practices. DESIGN A review of the literature. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Whiplash-associated disorders account for a large proportion of the overall impairment and disability caused by traffic injuries. Rarely can a definite injury be determined in the acute (or chronic) phase. Crash-related factors have been identified, and several trauma mechanisms possibly causing different injuries have been described. Most whiplash trauma will not cause injury, and the majority of patients (92-95%) will return to work. Litigation is not a major factor. Cognitive impairments are not the same as brain injury. Variables such as pain intensity, restricted motion, neurological symptoms and signs, together with central nervous system symptoms can be used to predict a situation with risk of remaining complaints. Influences of other factors--the same as for other chronic pain conditions--also exist. Persistent/chronic pain is not merely acute pain that persists over time; changes occur at different levels of the pain transmission system. Chronic whiplash-associated disorders are associated with problems concerning social functioning, daily anxieties and satisfaction with different aspects of life. Adequate information, advice and pain medication together with active interventions might be more effective in the acute stage. Early multidisciplinary rehabilitation focusing on cognitive-behavioural changes might be of value. To develop specific treatment and rehabilitation, it is important to identify homogenous subgroups.
The mutT Defect Does Not Elevate Chromosomal Fragmentation in Escherichia coli Because of the Surprisingly Low Levels of MutM/MutY-Recognized DNA Modifications

ABSTRACT Nucleotide pool sanitizing enzymes Dut (dUTPase), RdgB (dITPase), and MutT (8-oxo-dGTPase) of Escherichia coli hydrolyze noncanonical DNA precursors to prevent incorporation of base analogs into DNA. Previous studies reported dramatic AT→CG mutagenesis in mutT mutants, suggesting a considerable density of 8-oxo-G in DNA that should cause frequent excision and chromosomal fragmentation, irreparable in the absence of RecBCD-catalyzed repair and similar to the lethality of dut recBC and rdgB recBC double mutants. In contrast, we found mutT recBC double mutants viable with no signs of chromosomal fragmentation. Overproduction of the MutM and MutY DNA glycosylases, both acting on DNA containing 8-oxo-G, still yields no lethality in mutT recBC double mutants. Plasmid DNA, extracted from mutT mutM double mutant cells and treated with MutM in vitro, shows no increased relaxation, indicating no additional 8-oxo-G modifications. Our ΔmutT allele elevates the AT→CG transversion rate 27,000-fold, consistent with published reports. However, the rate of AT→CG transversions in our mutT+ progenitor strain is some two orders of magnitude lower than in previous studies, which lowers the absolute rate of mutagenesis in ΔmutT derivatives, translating into less than four 8-oxo-G modifications per genome equivalent, which is too low to cause the expected effects. Introduction of various additional mutations in the ΔmutT strain or treatment with oxidative agents failed to increase the mutagenesis even twofold. We conclude that, in contrast to the previous studies, there is not enough 8-oxo-G in the DNA of mutT mutants to cause elevated excision repair that would trigger chromosomal fragmentation.
An evaluation of the effects of susceptibility changes on the water chemical shift method of temperature measurement in human peripheral muscle

Divergencies between chemical shift measurements of temperature and directly measured values using optical sensors have been studied in vivo in human peripheral muscle with the assistance of a variety of experimental and theoretical techniques. These include the modeling of both thermal and susceptibility changes using two‐ and three‐dimensional finite element methods, as well as the use of multi‐wavelength near infrared observations. The conclusion of these studies is that a simple temperature calibration is not accessible, with results affected by the complex response of the tissue itself.
Label-free, high-sensitivity detection of biomolecules using optical resonance

• Recognition and specific interactions between proteins and other macromolecules within the cell are the fundamental prerequisite for biological functions. They are, for example, required to transmit and amplify chemical and electrical signals, for the assembly of larger molecular machines, e.g. the ribosome, and are sequentially combined in metabolic and signalling pathways. The modular structure of amino acids and nucleic acids enables the cell to generate a wide variety of molecules with very different binding specificities and thus with a large variety of possible interactions. On an evolutionary timescale, biomolecular function is the result of the natural selection of interactions which have become heritable parts of the genetic and proteomic circuits of the cell. One recent interdisciplinary effort of genomics and proteomics aims to elucidate the complete network of biomolecular interactions in the cell. This research requires methods and techniques that examine molecular interactions with high sensitivity and high throughput. Most of the established high-throughput techniques use light to detect molecules interacting on a surface with immobilized binding partners. Examples of this include DNA(1) and protein-based(2) microarrays. In these approaches, DNA or protein molecules must be tagged with strongly fluorescent dyes to be detectable. A laser can then rapidly scan for labelled molecules spotted at specific locations on a glass support. A charge-coupled device (CCD) camera records the fluorescent image of the microarray surface and a computer analyses the image pixel by pixel. This technique makes it possible to analyse 1.3 million unique oligonucleotides on an array with an 11-μm »spot« size (www.affymetrix. com). However, the necessity to label the molecules prevents real-time detection. The sample must be processed, which takes time and skill, and can change the relative levels of the molecules originally present. For example, total mRNA must be extracted by a phenol-chloroform procedure from a cell suspension, reversely transcribed into cDNA and labelled before being analysed on a microarray. The direct detection of the dynamics and interactions of untagged – and in many approaches – single molecules is therefore one of the ultimate goals for a wide variety of analyses.
Ranking in Heterogeneous Networks with Geo-Location Information

Entity ranking by importance or authority through relational information is an important problem in network science. A large body of existing work addresses the problem for homogeneous networks. With the emergence of richer networks, containing various types of entities and meta-data (e.g., attributes) in which edges carry rich semantic information, it becomes essential to build models that can leverage all available data in a meaningful way. In this work, we consider the ranking problem in heterogeneous information networks (HIN) with side information. Specifically, we introduce a new model called HINSIDE that has two key properties: (i) it explicitly represents the interactions (i.e., authority transfer rates or ATR) between different types of nodes, and (ii) it carefully incorporates the geo-location information of the entities to account for the distance and the competition between them. Besides an intuitive local formula, our model has a matrix form for which we derive a closed-form solution. Thanks to its closed form, HINSIDE lends itself to be used within various learning-to-rank objectives, for the estimation of its parameters (the ATR) provided training data. We formulate two kinds of objective functions for parameter learning with efficient estimation procedures. We validate the effectiveness of our proposed model and the learning procedures on samples from two real-world graphs, where we show the advantages of HINSIDE over popular existing models, including Pagerank and degree centrality.
Bis[2-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylidene)-N-phenylhydrazinecarbothioamidato-κ3 O,N 2,S]nickel(II) dimethylformamide monosolvate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, [Ni(C15H11N4OS)2]·C3H7NO, contains one NiII complex molecule and one disordered dimethylformamide solvent molecule. The NiII ion is six-coordinated in a distorted octahedral geometry by two N, two O and two S atoms. An intramolecular C—H⋯S hydrogen bond generates an S(6) ring motif. In the crystal, molecules are linked through intermolecular N—H⋯S, N—H⋯O, C—H⋯N, C—H⋯O and C—H⋯S hydrogen bonds into infinite two-dimensional network parallel to the ab plane. The structure is further stablized by weak C—H⋯π interactions. The dimethylformamide solvent molecule is disordered over two sets of sites in a 0.514 (15):0.486 (15) ratio.
Localization of multiple sources using time-difference of arrival measurements

This paper addresses the problem of localizing an unknown number of static sources emitting unknown signals from time-difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements. Based on the framework of random finite sets and finite set statistics, we formulate the Bayesian estimation problem and develop a particle-based localization algorithm that overcomes the challenges related to the highly non-linear TDOA measurement model, the data associations uncertainty, and the uncertainty in the number of sources to be localized. Simulation results confirm that the number of sources can be determined correctly and accurate location estimates can be obtained when the number of false alarms is low and the probability of detection is high.
LOCALIZATION OF DISACCHARIDASES IN EXTRACTS OF NEUROSPORA AFTER ELECTROPHORESIS IN POLYACRYLAMIDE GELS

A technique for localizing the activity of disaccharidases on acrylamide gels is described. The technique is a modification of that of Dahlqvist and Brun and employs as the chromogenic reagent a mixture of glucose oxidase, nitro BT and phenazine methosulfate, with a disaccharide as the substrate. A formazan is deposited at the site of enzyme activity, thereby permitting localization. Through this means the invertase activity of several strains of Neurospora crassa has been investigated. Two of the "standard" strains used showed two invertases whereas a variant derived from one of these had only one. A trehalase which runs ahead of the invertases also has been demonstrated. A band is formed with cellobiose but is at the position of one of the invertases so that this enzyme may be of mixed specificity. No band was formed with lactose as substrate.
Adrenal-gonad interactions in cattle. Corpus luteum function in intact and adrenalectomized heifers.

To determine the effect of the hyperadrenal state on corpus luteum (CL) function, we treated intact and adrenalectomized (ADRX) heifers with adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and hydrocortisone. ACTH treatment of intact heifers by infusion of 1 mg alpha 1-24 ACTH/24 hr from day 2 to 25 of an estrous cycle increased progesterone concentrations in plasma to 4 +/- . 52 ng/ml plasma on days 3 to 4. Thereafter, progesterone concentrations declined, indicating severe suppression of CL function as compared to that of control heifers. Similar infusions of ACTH to ADRX heifers did not alter CL function as reflected by progesterone concentrations in jugular plasma. Infusion of ADRX animals with hydrocortisone succinate (100 mg/24 hr) decreased progesterone in plasma during the cycle, with maximum values averaging less than 4 ng/ml, compared to concentrations of 6 to 7 ng/ml in control ADRX heifers. Chronic administration of ACTH or hydrocortisone to heifers caused a decreased progesterone secretion during the luteal phase of the estrous cycle. On the basis of these results, we suggest that stress, as indicated by the hyperadrenal state, could inhibit progesterone secretion by the corpus luteum.
A retrospective comparative study of 2-drug oral and intramuscular cephalosporin treatment regimens for pharyngeal gonorrhea.

BACKGROUND The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for pharyngeal gonorrhea treatment recommend dual therapy with intramuscular ceftriaxone and either azithromycin or doxycycline. Few clinical data exist to support this recommendation. METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients diagnosed with pharyngeal gonorrhea during 1993-2011, at a sexually transmitted disease clinic in Seattle, Washington, and compared the proportion of repeat positive tests for pharyngeal gonorrhea 7-180 days following treatment among persons receiving different drug regimens. Associations of treatment regimens were assessed using relative risks through Poisson regression models with log link and robust standard errors. RESULTS A total of 1440 cases of pharyngeal gonorrhea were diagnosed during the study period, 25% of which (n = 360) underwent retesting. Among retested patients, the risk of repeat positive test was lowest among persons receiving an oral cephalosporin and azithromycin (7%, reference group), and highest among those receiving an oral cephalosporin alone (30%; relative risk [RR], 3.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.70-9.36) or in combination with doxycycline (33%; RR, 4.18; 95% CI, 1.64-10.7). The risk of repeat test positivity did not significantly differ between persons treated with an oral cephalosporin and azithromycin and those treated with ceftriaxone alone (9.1%; RR, 0.81; 95% CI, .18-3.60) or ceftriaxone combined with azithromycin or doxycycline (11.3%; RR, 1.20; 95% CI, .43-3.33). CONCLUSIONS In this retrospective study, dual therapy with an oral third-generation cephalosporin and azithromycin was comparable to ceftriaxone-based regimens in the treatment of pharyngeal gonorrhea. Combination oral therapy with doxycycline was associated with an elevated risk of persistent or recurrent infection.
SURGERY VERSUS ENDOSCOPIC THERAPIES FOR EARLY CANCER AND HIGH-GRADE DYSPLASIA IN THE ESOPHAGUS: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND Esophageal cancer occurs as a local disease in 22% of cases, and a minority of this disease is limited to the mucosa or submucosa (early lesions). Endoscopic mucosal resection, endoscopic submucosal dissection, photodynamic therapy, laser therapy, and argon plasma coagulation have emerged as alternatives to surgical resection for early lesions. OBJECTIVE The aim of this systematic review is to identify studies that statistically compare survival, disease-free survival, morbidity and mortality associated with the procedure, and mortality associated with cancer in the endoscopic versus surgical therapies. DATA SOURCES A systematic review using MEDLINE, COCHRANE, EMBASE, EBSCO, LILACS, Library University of Sao Paulo, BVS, and SCOPE. STUDY SELECTION Randomized controlled trial, controlled clinical trial, clinical trial, and cohort study. CRITERIA - Studies that statistically compare survival, disease-free survival, morbidity and mortality associated with the procedure, and mortality associated with cancer in patients who underwent endoscopic and surgical therapy for early lesions of esophageal cancer. DATA EXTRACTION Independent extraction of the articles by two authors using predefined data fields, including study quality indicators. LIMITATION Only retrosprospective cohort studies comparing the endoscopic and surgical therapies were recovered. RESULTS The survival rates after 3 and 5 years were different and exhibited superiority with the surgical therapies over time. Endoscopy is superior in the control of mortality related to cancer with a high rate of disease recurrence. With regard to the comorbidity and the mortality associated with the procedure, endoscopy is superior. CONCLUSION There is no evidence from clinical trials. In this systematic review, surgical therapies showed superiority for survival, and endoscopic therapies showed superiority in the control of mortality related to cancer with a high rate of disease recurrence; also, for the comorbidity and the mortality associated with the procedure, endoscopy is superior. Prospective, controlled trials with large sample sizes are necessary to confirm the results of the current analysis.
Molecular Genetic Analysis of Phosphite and Hypophosphite Oxidation by Pseudomonas stutzeriWM88

ABSTRACT The first molecular and genetic characterization of a biochemical pathway for oxidation of the reduced phosphorus (P) compounds phosphite and hypophosphite is reported. The pathway was identified inPseudomonas stutzeri WM88, which was chosen for detailed studies from a group of organisms isolated based on their ability to oxidize hypophosphite (+1 valence) and phosphite (+3 valence) to phosphate (+5 valence). The genes required for oxidation of both compounds by P. stutzeri WM88 were cloned on a single ca. 30-kbp DNA fragment by screening for expression in Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Two lines of evidence suggest that hypophosphite is oxidized to phosphate via a phosphite intermediate. First, plasmid subclones that conferred oxidation of phosphite, but not hypophosphite, upon heterologous hosts were readily obtained. All plasmid subclones that failed to confer phosphite oxidation also failed to confer hypophosphite oxidation. No subclones that conferred only hypophosphite expression were obtained. Second, various deletion derivatives of the cloned genes were made in vitro and recombined onto the chromosome of P. stutzeriWM88. Two phenotypes were displayed by individual mutants. Mutants with the region encoding phosphite oxidation deleted (based upon the subcloning results) lost the ability to oxidize either phosphite or hypophosphite. Mutants with the region encoding hypophosphite oxidation deleted lost only the ability to oxidize hypophosphite. The phenotypes displayed by these mutants also demonstrate that the cloned genes are responsible for the P oxidation phenotypes displayed by the originalP. stutzeri WM88 isolate. The DNA sequences of the minimal regions implicated in oxidation of each compound were determined. The region required for oxidation of phosphite to phosphate putatively encodes a binding-protein-dependent phosphite transporter, an NAD+-dependent phosphite dehydrogenase, and a transcriptional activator of the lysR family. The region required for oxidation of hypophosphite to phosphite putatively encodes a binding-protein-dependent hypophosphite transporter and an α-ketoglutarate-dependent hypophosphite dioxygenase. The finding of genes dedicated to oxidation of reduced P compounds provides further evidence that a redox cycle for P may be important in the metabolism of this essential, and often growth-limiting, nutrient.
Efficient soft demapping for M-ary APSK

In this paper, we present an efficient soft demapping method for M-ary APSK based on hard decision thresholds (HDT). The proposed scheme is of great reducing in computational complexity compared to maximum likelihood detection (MLD) using log likelihood ratio (LLR) and Max LLR. We demonstrate the bit error rate (BER) performance of various soft demapping methods combined with turbo codes. The BER simulation results reveal that the proposed method can achieve almost approximating performance to MLD.
Cationic PEGylated polycaprolactone nanoparticles carrying post-operation docetaxel for glioma treatment

Background: Brain tumors are the most common tumors among adolescents. Although some chemotherapeutics are known to be effective against brain tumors based on cell culture studies, the same effect is not observed in clinical trials. For this reason, the development of drug delivery systems is important to treat brain tumors and prevent tumor recurrence. The aim of this study was to develop core–shell polymeric nanoparticles with positive charge by employing a chitosan coating. Additionally, an implantable formulation for the chemotherapeutic nanoparticles was developed as a bioadhesive film to be applied at the tumor site following surgical operation for brain glioma treatment. To obtain positively charged, implantable nanoparticles, the effects of preparation technique, chitosan coating concentration and presence of surfactants were evaluated to obtain optimal nanoparticles with a diameter of less than 100 nm and a net positive surface charge to facilitate cellular internalization of drug-loaded nanoparticles. Hydroxypropyl cellulose films were prepared to incorporate these nanoparticle dispersions to complete the implantable drug delivery system. Results: The diameter of core–shell nanoparticles were in the range of 70–270 nm, depending on the preparation technique, polymer type and coating. Moreover, the chitosan coating significantly altered the surface charge of the nanoparticles to net positive values of +30 to +50 mV. The model drug docetaxel was successfully loaded into all particles, and the drug release rate from the nanoparticles was slowed down to 48 h by dispersing the nanoparticles in a hydroxypropyl cellulose film. Cell culture studies revealed that docetaxel-loaded nanoparticles cause higher cytotoxicity compared to the free docetaxel solution in DMSO. Conclusion: Docetaxel-loaded nanoparticles dispersed in a bioadhesive film were shown to be suitable for application of chemotherapeutics directly to the action site during surgical operation. The system was found to release chemotherapeutics for several days at the tumor site and neighboring tissue. This can be suggested to result in a more effective brain tumor treatment when compared to chemotherapeutics administered as an intravenous bolus infusion.
The diagnostic role of microRNA-34a in breast cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background MicroRNA-34a (miR-34a) is a master regulator of tumor suppression in breast cancer (BC). This systematic review aims to analyze the diagnostic accuracy of miR-34a in the detection of BC as a biomarker. Results A total of 1858 BC cases and 494 controls from thirteen eligible studies reported in 9 publications were included. The overall pooled sensitivity, specificity, negative likelihood ratio (NLR), positive likelihood ratio (PLR), and diagnostic odds ratio (DOR) were 85.50% (95% CI: 83.80-87.00%), 70.00% (95% CI: 65.80–74.10%), 0.29 (95% CI: 0.19–0.43), 2.58 (95% CI: 1.91–3.43), and 9.39 (95% CI: 5.47–16.12), respectively. Similarly, the overall area under the curve (AUC) of the summary receiver operating characteristic (SROC) was 0.80, indicating the high conservation of miR-34a as a biomarker. Furthermore, subgroup analysis suggested that the use of miR-34a as a biomarker is more accurate in tissue-based sample of invasive BC. We also indicated that miR-34a is a capable biomarker in diagnosing BC in people of Caucasian descent. Materials and Methods A systematic search was conducted for eligible publications that address miR-34a expression level in BC cases and noncancerous controls. Diagnostic capacity of miR-34a for BC was assessed using pooled sensitivity and specificity, DOR, and AUC of SROC. PLR and NLR were verified to estimate the miR-34a diagnostic accuracy in clinical level. The quality of the included studies was assessed by QUADAS-2. Conclusions These findings suggest miR-34a is a promising non-invasive biomarker in diagnosing BC. Well-designed cohort studies should be implemented to warrant the diagnostic value of miR-34a in clinical purposes.