Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changes in binding of staphylococcal leukocidin to HL-60 cells during differentiation induced by dimethyl sulfoxide

The susceptibility of HL-60 cells to the cytotoxic activity of leukocidin increased depending on the degree of differentiation induced by dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). To compare binding characteristics of two components (S and F) of leukocidin to HL-60 and DMSO-treated HL-60 cells, the S and F components were labeled with 125I. Scatchard analysis of the binding curve of the 125I-labeled S component to HL-60 cells showed two classes of binding sites. The binding sites with higher affinity had a dissociation constant of 3.39 nM, and the number of binding sites per cell was 730. The specific binding of the 125I-labeled S component to DMSO-treated cells increased depending on the period of DMSO treatment. Scatchard analysis of the binding curve of cells treated with DMSO for 7 days gave a straight line. The dissociation constant was 1.78 nM, and the number of binding sites per cell was 6,920. The total binding of the 125I-labeled F component to DMSO-treated cells increased about twofold over binding to HL-60 cells. However, in the presence of the unlabeled S component, the increase of binding of the F component to DMSO-treated cells was much greater. These data suggested that the increased susceptibility of DMSO-treated cells to leukocidin was dependent on the changes in the number of high-affinity binding sites of the S component and of the bound F component.
Detection of seven Candida species using the Light-Cycler system.

Due to the limitations of classical methods for the detection of systemic fungal infections and the high mortality rates associated with these infections, it has become essential to develop a quick, sensitive and specific detection assay. By using the Idaho Technologies Light-Cycler system, a qualitative real-time PCR system has been developed for the detection of the leading causes of systemic infection within the genus Candida. The sensitivity of the assay was comparable to previously described PCR methods (1-5 c.f.u. ml(-1)) and, by the use of a single Candida probe, it was able to detect, but not differentiate between, seven species of Candida (Candida albicans, Candida dubliniensis, Candida glabrata, Candida kefyr, Candida krusei, Candida parapsilosis and Candida tropicalis). Single-round amplification on the Light-Cycler allowed rapid turn-around of clinical samples (within one working day) and it was shown to be more sensitive than classical procedures, exposing 39 possible systemic infections that were not detected by blood culture.
Platelet Reactivity In Vitro in Relation to Thromboxane in Healthy Pregnancy

Summary There is substantial evidence of increased platelet reactivity in vivo and in vitro during pregnancy. Previous in vitro studies suggest that platelets from pregnant women show increased sensitivity to agonists, the response to which has a thromboxane dependent component. The aim of this study was to determine whether this is due to increased activity of the thromboxane biosynthetic pathway or to increased platelet sensitivity to the effects of thromboxane. During pregnancy, platelets were more sensitive to the pro-aggregatory effects in vitro of the thromboxane mimetic U46619, in whole blood and in platelet rich plasma, compared to those from non-pregnant controls. The difference in extent of U46619-induced platelet aggregation between groups was abolished in the presence of a high concentration of the specific thromboxane antagonist ICI 192605, but not by prior incubation of blood with aspirin. Platelets from pregnant women were significantly less sensitive to inhibition of arachidonic acid induced activation by the thromboxane synthetase inhibitor dazmegrel, but there was no change in platelet cyclic AMP accumulation under these conditions. Arachidonic acid induced platelet thromboxane B2 production was similar in pregnant and non-pregnant subjects. In conclusion, platelets are more sensitive to the activating effects of thromboxane during pregnancy, but there is no change in the intrinsic reactivity of the thromboxane biosynthetic pathway.
Female gonadal function before and after treatment of acromegaly.

CONTEXT The menstrual cycle is often abnormal in women with acromegaly. Gonadotropin deficiency may be due to a tumor mass effect (macroadenomas) and/or hyperprolactinemia and/or GH excess. AIM OF THE STUDY The aim of the study was to analyze the causes of ovarian dysfunction in a large series of patients with acromegaly followed up in a single center. PATIENTS AND METHODS Gonadal function was assessed on the basis of menstrual status and hormone assays before and after treatment of acromegaly, between 1985 and 2005, in 55 patients aged from 17 to less than 45 yr. RESULTS Seventeen women (31%) were considered to be eugonadal because they had regular menstrual cycles and/or conceived spontaneously. The remaining 38 women had anovulatory cycles. Of these, 11 had hyperprolactinemia and six had hypogonadism due to a mass effect. The cause of the menstrual disturbances was mixed or unclassifiable in 14 cases. In the seven remaining cases, the gonadal dysfunction was likely related to the GH/IGF-I excess, which exerts a direct effect on the gonadotropic axis. Two had polycystic ovary syndrome, which disappeared after normalization of serum GH/IGF-I levels, suggesting that GH/IGF-I excess may also have a direct effect on the ovary. Thirty-eight women became pregnant, and all had healthy children, despite active acromegaly in 12 cases (31%). CONCLUSION Gonadal dysfunction is very common in premenopausal women with acromegaly. The potential causes include the lactogenic effect of prolactin, GH, or both on gonadotropic axis. Tumor mass effect or direct effect of GH or IGF-I on the ovary may also participate in ovarian dysfunction.
Statistical modelling of selective non-participation in health examination surveys

Health examination surveys aim to collect reliable information on the health and risk factors of a population of interest. Missing data occur when some invitees do not participate the survey. If non-participation is associated with the variables to be studied, then the estimates based only on the participants cannot be generalised to the population of interest. In this case, the estimates have selection bias, which misleads the decision-makers. The purpose of this thesis is to develop statistical methods to reduce the selection bias in the cross-sectional data using additional data sources. The data, which we use, comes from the National FINRISK Study, and we aim to estimate the prevalences of self-reported daily smoking and self-reported heavy alcohol consumption. The sources of additional information are follow-up data consisting of hospitalisations and causes of deaths, and questionnaire data collected from the non-participants of health examination by contacting them again, called re-contact data. Follow-up data give indirect information after the follow-up period about the health behaviour of non-participants during the health examination while the re-contact data give information similar to the health examination survey. This thesis presents methods for utilising these sources of additional information. Multiple imputation has been applied for the use of re-contact data, and Bayesian statistical modelling has been implemented for the use of follow-up data. The thesis demonstrates that the use of additional data sources and these statistical methods leads to prevalence estimates for daily smoking and heavy alcohol consumption that are higher than those obtained from the participants only. Multiple imputation can be utilised for prevalence estimation if the re-contact data are available. Bayesian modelling is appropriate for the situation where re-contact data are not available but the follow-up data are and have follow-up period long enough to indicate about the differences between the participants and non-participants. This thesis presents means for reducing the selection bias caused by non-participation. It is important to reduce the magnitude of the bias for obtaining more reliable information for example to support decision making. The statistical methods used in this thesis can also be applied to other fields of research than in the health studies.
Duration of Untreated Genital Infections With Chlamydia trachomatis: A Review of the Literature

Background: Estimates of the duration of untreated genital infections with Chlamydia trachomatis vary. Accurately estimating the distribution of the duration of infection would be useful in the counseling patients, and is essential when modeling the burden of chlamydial disease and the potential impact of prevention programs. Goal: The authors review the scientific literature to summarize what is known about the duration of genital chlamydial infection and the factors that affect it. Study Design: Literature review of animal and human studies. Results: Animal studies document a longer duration of infection in primates than in mice or guinea pigs. Although animals spontaneously become culture negative over time, numerous studies document persistent nonculture evidence of chlamydiae in the upper genital tract. Studies in which women have been serially cultured suggest that most untreated infections remain culture positive for more than 60 days. Small series report that some infections may persist for years. Most infections eventually become culture negative; however, nonculture evidence of chlamydiae often persist in women with negative cultures. The duration of chlamydial infection is reduced in animals previously exposed to chlamydiae and in older humans, suggesting that partial immunity may result from exposure. Data are inadequate to define the median duration of untreated infection or to derive a curve that describes the natural history of untreated genital chlamydial infections. Conclusion: Current data do not allow one to reliably estimate the duration of genital infections with C trachomatis. Systematic retesting could help to better define the duration of infection in patients who, against medical advice, delay treatment for genital chlamydial infections.
Correlates of unmet need for mental health services by children and adolescents

Background. Little is known about the extent and correlates of unmet need for mental health services in community samples of children and adolescents. Methods. Data were obtained from the 1285 parent/youth pairs interviewed at four sites in the USA and Puerto Rico in the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders (MECA) Study. Unmet need was defined to exist if psychopathology and associated functional impairment were present but no mental health services had been received in the previous 6 months. Results. Of the total sample, 17·1% had unmet need. Adjusting for demographic variables, logistic regression analyses revealed that unmet need was significantly associated with: indicators of economic disadvantage, such as being on public assistance and not being covered by health insurance; opinions of the parents and children or adolescents that the latter had poor mental health; parental psychopathology; poor school grades; and parent-reported access barriers such as concern that the child would want to solve the problem unassisted, would refuse to attend mental health services, or would be hospitalized or taken away against the parent's will. No youth-reported access barriers were significantly associated with unmet need. Conclusions. The economic correlates of unmet need may attain increased importance in the light of current reform in health care financing in the USA. Access may be facilitated by increasing parental knowledge of mental health services and enabling children and adolescents to initiate contact with services independently of their families.
Gender Differences in the Relationships Among Parenting Styles and College Student Mental Health

Abstract Objective: Levels of student depression may increase as stress increases; parenting styles may be one indirect source of stress. The authors examined the role of parenting style in relationship to student stress, anxiety, and depression, with focused attention on gender differences. Participants: Participants were 290 undergraduate students (58% female, mean age = 19). Methods: Cross-sectional design. Participants completed surveys containing measures of parenting styles, college stress, anxiety, and depression. Results: Anxiety and stress acted as mediators between some maternal parenting styles and female student depression. No mediational relationships were found for male student ratings. Conclusions: Daughters may be more susceptible to the influences of maternal parenting styles, which can either prepare or fail to prepare them for management and avoidance of stressors that are encountered during the college transition. College counseling centers and student affairs personnel may wish to focus attention on the instruction of self-management and problem-solving skills for incoming students.
The language of breathlessness. Use of verbal descriptors by patients with cardiopulmonary disease.

The main objective of the present study was to test the hypothesis that patients with cardiopulmonary disease can reliably identify different sensory qualities of their experience of breathlessness. A secondary aim was to examine whether there was any relationship between such specific descriptors of the sensation of breathlessness and a patient's clinical diagnosis. A randomly ordered list of 45 descriptors of breathing discomfort related to exertion was administered on two occasions to 208 patients with cardiopulmonary disease; patients identified the descriptors that applied to their own experience. A total of 169 patients were considered reliable in that their responses were repeatable between questionnaires; there was evidence that an individual's reliability could be assessed by asking repeat questions within a questionnaire. With these patients, individual descriptors generated different degrees of yes and no response and were answered with a variable consistency, suggesting that some questions may be more useful than others in discriminating between the quality of patients' sensations. Overall, patients with obstructive disorders (asthma and chronic obstructive airways disease [COAD]) answered yes more often than those with restrictive or cardiac conditions, possibly reflecting differences in severity of disease. A cluster analysis separated the descriptors into 12 groups which appeared to describe different aspects of breathing discomfort. Relative to their response to other clusters, COAD patients were more inclined to identify distress, asthma patients to indicate wheeziness, restrictive patients to report rapid breathing, and the cardiac group to describe a need to sign. A second cluster analysis separated patients into 12 groups based on responses for the descriptor clusters. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
‘It was all intertwined’: Illness representations and self-management in patients with cancer and anxiety/depression

Objective: Cancer and anxiety/depression frequently co-occur, leading to poorer outcomes for these illnesses. However, the majority of existing research investigates how participants view single illnesses alone. This study aimed to explore the content of individuals’ multimorbid representations and how these relate to their coping behaviours and self-management strategies for cancer and anxiety/depression. Design: A semi-structured qualitative research design with theoretical thematic analysis. Main Outcome Measures: Multimorbid illness representations, coping behaviours, and self-management strategies. Results: In interviews with 21 participants multimorbid representations varied, three participants viewed cancer and anxiety/depression as unrelated, five participants were uncertain about the relationship between cancer and anxiety/depression, and the majority of participants perceived cancer and anxiety/depression as related. This third group of participants often described relationships as causal, with representations having both positive and negative influences on coping behaviours and self-management strategies. Representations were shown to change over the course of the cancer experience, with fear of cancer recurrence and the influence of participants’ most challenging illness also discussed. Conclusions: People hold multimorbid illness representations that can influence self-management. An awareness of these representations by researchers, health professionals, and patients is important for the creation of future interventions that aim to improve and maintain patient wellbeing.
CAT(-1)-spaces, divergence groups and their commensurators

A CAT(−1)-space is a metric geodesic space in which every geodesic triangle is thinner than its associated comparison triangle in the hyperbolic plane ([B], [BriHa], [Gr]). The CAT(−1)-property is one among many possible generalizations to singular spaces of the notion of negative curvature. Important examples of CAT(−1)-spaces include Riemannian manifolds of sectional curvature k ≤ −1 and their convex subsets ([B-G-S]), metric trees and piecewise hyperbolic cell complexes ([Mou],[Da],[Hag],[Be 1],[Be 2],[B-Br]). In this paper we establish certain superrigidity results for isometric actions of a group Λ on a CAT(−1)-space in the following two settings: A. The group Λ is a subgroup of a locally compact group G with Γ < Λ < ComGΓ, where Γ < G is a sufficiently large discrete subgroup and ComGΓ = {g ∈ G : g−1Γg and Γ share a subgroup of finite index} is the commensurator of Γ in G. B. The group Λ is an irreducible lattice in G := ∏n α=1Gα(kα), where each Gα is a semisimple algebraic group defined over a local field kα. The issues addressed in this paper are motivated on one hand by earlier work of G.A. Margulis ([Ma]) dealing with the linear representation theory of Λ, where in case A, G is a semisimple group and Γ < G a lattice, and on the other hand by the results of Lubotzky, Mozes and Zimmer ([L-M-Z]) concerning isometric actions of Λ on trees, where Γ < Λ < ComGΓ, G is the group of automorphisms of a regular tree and Γ < G is a lattice. Our approach to establishing superrigidity results is based on ergodic theoretic methods developed by Margulis ([Ma],[Zi 3],[A’C-B]). In this context, the following notion of boundary of a locally compact group Γ will be useful: let B be a standard Borel space on which Γ acts by Borel automorphisms preserving a σ-finite measure class μ.
Mediating role of students’ engagement to their classes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to establish the mediating role of students’ engagement to their classes, for the conventional relationship between teachers’ efforts and students’ development, for a better understanding of the instruction-based classroom learning. Design/methodology/approach The investigation is made using a mult-istage-stratified-systematic sample of 500 students from business and engineering schools with an almost equal representation of both the genders and the type of schools’ ownership. A structural equation modeling is used for this mediation analysis. Findings The mediating role of students’ engagement is identically established both for business and engineering schools and for both genders. However, in public sector universities, this mediation is insignificant. Research limitations/implications The investigation is limited only to business and engineering schools, and this limitation may conceal some factor(s) more important for other schools. Further, the investigation is reading data from Lahore, a metropolitan, which may hide some factor(s) some appropriate for smaller cities. Originality/value The data are gathered, analyzed and discussed through the lens of the socio-cultural theory, allowing for a comprehensive understanding to emerge for students’ engagement to their classes.
Evaluation of Morbidity of Suction Drains After Retroperitoneal Lymphadenectomy in Gynecological Tumors: A Systematic Literature Review

Introduction: The prophylactic use of closed suction drains after retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy in the management of gynecologic tumors has been widely used to prevent collections of clots or lymph and to avoid infections and postoperative fistulas. The improvement of newer surgical techniques, the use of antibiotic prophylaxis, and the nonclosure of the peritoneum led to the need to reevaluate the use of drains. Retrospective, prospective, and randomized studies did not find differences in the postoperative morbidity between the use and nonuse of drains. Some studies even suggested worse morbidity with the use of drains. Objectives: To assess the morbidity of the use of drains compared with no drains in a systematic literature review with aggregate effect measure (meta-analysis). Materials and Methods: Between 1966 and August 2007, 3 independent reviewers analyzed all studies that assessed the use of drains or no drains through a comprehensive literature search of the MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Databases. Statistical analysis was carried out through the RevMan software. Results: Of the 285 studies initially reviewed, 11 were selected. Only 4 were considered adequate for group analysis, totaling 571 patients. When assessing outcomes altogether, namely, fever morbidity, symptomatic lymphocysts, deep vein thrombosis, pelvic infection, and fistulas, the relative risk was 1.76 (95% confidence interval, 1.04-3.01) and number necessary to harm was 12.2 referring to the use of drains. Conclusions: The prophylactic use of continuous suction drains after retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy in the management of gynecologic tumors should be avoided.
A comprehensive model for security-constrained unit commitment considering renewable energy resources

This paper presents an effective method for deriving stochastic solution to the security- constrained unit commitment (SCUC) problem, which takes into account wind uncertainties via effective scenarios. Increasing penetration of intermittent renewable generations forces independent system operators (ISOs) with new challenges for the economic and secure operation of power systems. The proposed model is applied to a modified 24-bus IEEE Reliability Test System considering two case studies. The case studies investigate the effect of PV arrays in the stochastic SCUC problem. The simulation outcomes confirm the applicability and effectiveness of proposed model.
Trade, Financial Flows and Stock Market Interdependence: Evidence from Asian Markets

Liberalization and globalization of Newly Industrialized Economies have contributed to increased integration of capital markets. This study tests whether convergence of macroeconomic variables and enhanced bilateral trade and financial flows causes greater interdependence of markets. Daily closing indices and quarterly differentials in interest, inflation, growth rates, exchange rates, trade of goods and services, direct and portfolio investment were used. Results revealed that markets of Asia are not immune to shocks originating in US although co-movements of macroeconomic variables do not help in explaining level of interdependence. Portfolio flows were found to be important than trade flows in explaining market interdependence.