Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pain in pancreatic cancer: review of medical and surgical remedies

Pancreatic cancer is a malignant tumour with very poor prognosis and a chance for 5‐year survival is approximately 6%. One of the main symptoms of this neoplasm is pain, mostly of neuropathic origin, which significantly decreases the quality of life and impairs the functional activity of patients. The most common treatment of pain in pancreatic cancer is conservative therapy which is based on analgesic ladder rules established by the World Health Organization. Unfortunately, it is not always effective and it has many side effects that also can diminish patients’ quality of life. Invasive treatment of pain in pancreatic cancer includes mainly coeliac plexus block and sympathectomy, and both of them significantly reduce levels of pain and help to improve the quality of life. It is postulated that the place of those two invasive methods should not be at the final stage of treatment, but they can provide significantly better improvement of pain once instituted earlier (such as the first or second step of analgesic World Health Organization's ladder). The aim of this article is to review and assess the conservative as well as the invasive therapy in the management of pain in pancreatic cancer. It also presents brief insight into non‐medical methods of pain reduction, which can be supplementary to conservative and/or invasive treatment.
Engineered variants of InlB with an additional leucine‐rich repeat discriminate between physiologically relevant and packing contacts in crystal structures of the InlB:MET complex

The physiological relevance of contacts in crystal lattices often remains elusive. This was also the case for the complex between the invasion protein internalin B (InlB) from Listeria monocytogenes and its host cell receptor, the human receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) MET. InlB is a MET agonist and induces bacterial host cell invasion. Activation of RTKs generally involves ligand‐induced dimerization of the receptor ectodomain. The two currently available crystal structures of the InlB:MET complex show the same arrangement of InlB and MET in a 1:1 complex, but different dimeric 2:2 assemblies. Only one of these 2:2 assemblies is predicted to be stable by a computational procedure. This assembly is mainly stabilized by a contact between the Cap domain of InlB from one and the Sema domain of MET from another 1:1 complex. Here, we probe the physiological relevance of this interaction. We generated variants of the leucine‐rich repeat (LRR) protein InlB by inserting an additional repeat between the first and the second LRR. This should allow formation of the 1:1 complex but disrupt the potential 2:2 complex involving the Cap‐Sema contact due to steric distortions. A crystal structure of one of the engineered proteins showed that it folded properly. Binding affinity to MET was comparable to that of wild‐type InlB. The InlB variant induced MET phosphorylation and cell scatter like wild‐type InlB. These results suggest that the Cap‐Sema interaction is not physiologically relevant and support the previously proposed assembly, in which a 2:2 InlB:MET complex is built around a ligand dimer.
Aspectos imunológicos da hanseníase

A distribuicao espectral das formas clinicas da hanseniase tem sido associada a alteracoes imunologicas do hospedeiro, frente ao M. leprae . Foi verificado que, no polo de maior suscetibilidade, hanseniase virchoviana, apresenta depressao da resposta imune celular, associada ao aumento da producao de citocinas supressoras (IL-4 e TGF b ) e reducao dos niveis de citocinas ativadoras da resposta imune (TNF a , IL-1 e IFN g ). Ha, ainda, menor producao de elementos responsaveis pela oxidacao intracelular, como intermediarios do nitrogenio (RNI), avaliada pela expressao da enzima NO sintase induzida (iNOS). Por outro lado, no polo de resistencia, hanseniase tuberculoide, nao foram detectadas as citocinas supressoras, em contraste com elevadas concentracoes de TNF a e IL-1, citocinas indutoras da reacao inflamatoria.
Computer supported creative design : a pragmatic approach

Creativity is recognizable only in a given context thereby making its definition elusive. In design, creativity in a domain may depend on characteristics of the process or the product, or both. In this paper, we argue that a better understanding of creativity can occur by focusing on the conditions that allow for creative acts. With respect to design research, we believe that it would be most productive to create computer supported design environments that stress the complementary nature of human and computer design capabilities. These capabilities and their relationships are reviewed to identify some of the critical issues in designing and building such environments. We argue for building such integrated design environments in order to empirically test and evaluate hypotheses about design processes and creativity in the context of real design tasks. In this regard we discuss LOOS: a partially automated approach for the design of layouts which illustrates some of the features desired for a computational design support environment.
CYSTATIN C - MORE THAN THE MARKER OF THE GLOMERULAR FILTRATION RATE.

INTRODUCTION Cystatin C is one of biomarkers that meet the conditions necessary for an endogenous substance to be a marker of the glomerular filtration rate. Cystatin c – properties. Cystatin C is produced in the nucleated cells in a constant amount, and its serum concentration does not depend on muscle mass and protein intake. The catabolism of cystatin C is mostly done in the kidneys. Determination of cystatin c level. Cystatin C may be determined in the serum, plasma, capillary blood and urine. The laboratory methods which are mainly used to determine its level are neplielometric and turbidimetric immunoassays. Cystatin c as a marker of glomerular filtration rate. Cystatin C is superior to creatinine as a marker of kidney function, especially in the early stages of chronic kidney disease. Several formulas are available for calculating the glomerular filtration rate from serum cystatin C. Cystatin c in various physiological/pathophysiological conditions. The level of cystatin C should be interpreted carefully because there are factors that can affect its level regardless of the renal function (thyroid dysfunction, glucocorticoids use, malignancies etc.). Higher cystatin C concentrations in general population are associated with an increased cardiovascular risk, as well as with preecampsia in pregnant women. CONCLUSION The significant advantages of cystatin C as a kidney function marker are its use in the creatinine "blind" area, in pediatric and the elderly population. In addition, cystatin C could be used as a marker for cardiovascular risk assessment, in predicting and detecting preeclampsia, in patients with malignant diseases, etc.
Lifetime of Anthropogenic Climate Change: Millennial Time Scales of Potential CO2 and Surface Temperature Perturbations

Abstract Multimillennial simulations with a fully coupled climate–carbon cycle model are examined to assess the persistence of the climatic impacts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. It is found that the time required to absorb anthropogenic CO2 strongly depends on the total amount of emissions; for emissions similar to known fossil fuel reserves, the time to absorb 50% of the CO2 is more than 2000 yr. The long-term climate response appears to be independent of the rate at which CO2 is emitted over the next few centuries. Results further suggest that the lifetime of the surface air temperature anomaly might be as much as 60% longer than the lifetime of anthropogenic CO2 and that two-thirds of the maximum temperature anomaly will persist for longer than 10 000 yr. This suggests that the consequences of anthropogenic CO2 emissions will persist for many millennia.
Marcellus and mercury: Assessing potential impacts of unconventional natural gas extraction on aquatic ecosystems in northwestern Pennsylvania

Mercury (Hg) is a persistent element in the environment that has the ability to bioaccumulate and biomagnify up the food chain with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems and human health. Twenty-four streams remotely located in forested watersheds in northwestern PA containing naturally reproducing Salvelinus fontinalis (brook trout), were targeted to gain a better understanding of how Marcellus shale natural gas exploration may be impacting water quality, aquatic biodiversity, and Hg bioaccumulation in aquatic ecosystems. During the summer of 2012, stream water, stream bed sediments, aquatic mosses, macroinvertebrates, crayfish, brook trout, and microbial samples were collected. All streams either had experienced hydraulic fracturing (fracked, n = 14) or not yet experienced hydraulic fracturing (non-fracked, n = 10) within their watersheds at the time of sampling. Analysis of watershed characteristics (GIS) for fracked vs non-fracked sites showed no significant differences (P > 0.05), justifying comparisons between groups. Results showed significantly higher dissolved total mercury (FTHg) in stream water (P = 0.007), lower pH (P = 0.033), and higher dissolved organic matter (P = 0.001) at fracked sites. Total mercury (THg) concentrations in crayfish (P = 0.01), macroinvertebrates (P = 0.089), and predatory macroinvertebrates (P = 0.039) were observed to be higher for fracked sites. A number of positive correlations between amount of well pads within a watershed and THg in crayfish (r = 0.76, P < 0.001), THg in predatory macroinvertebrates (r = 0.71, P < 0.001), and THg in brook trout (r = 0.52, P < 0.01) were observed. Stream-water microbial communities within the Deltaproteobacteria also shared a positive correlation with FTHg and to the number of well pads, while stream pH (r = −0.71, P < 0.001), fish biodiversity (r = −0.60, P = 0.02), and macroinvertebrate taxa richness (r = −0.60, P = 0.01) were negatively correlated with the number of well pads within a watershed. Further investigation is needed to better elucidate relationships and pathways of observed differences in stream water chemistry, biodiversity, and Hg bioaccumulation, however, initial findings suggest Marcellus shale natural gas exploration is having an effect on aquatic ecosystems.
Karyotype evolution in B‐cell lymphoid malignancy with AN 8;14 translocation

To evaluate the significance of karyotypic evolution of tumor cells with an 8;14 translocation [t(8;14)(q24;q32)], we examined the clinicopathologic features and immunologic phenotypes of nine Japanese patients with various types of B‐cell malignancy with the translocation. All these patients had structural rearrangements of the long arm of chromosome No. I (Iq) in a stem line or the sub‐line of tumor cells with a t(8;14). The rearrangements were composed of a translocation involving Iq with other chromosomes and a tandem duplication of Iq, and they were exclusively associated with a partial trisomy for Iq. Two patients with diffuse large‐cell lymphoma, whose tumor cells did not express surface immunoglobulins (s‐Ig), had the Iq translocation in their highly complex karyo‐types. Tumor cells from the other seven patients expressed s‐Ig and the karyotypes were relatively simple. Among these patients, the Iq translocation was found in two patients with Burkitt's lymphoma, and the Iq duplication were observed in a stem line or the sublines from four patients with Burkitt's lymphoma‐leukemia and one each with small non‐cleaved‐cell or diffuse large‐cell lymphoma. Except for one patient in the stage of IE, these patients had a poor prognosis because of the clinical conversion of extranodal metastases in the earlier disease phase. These findings are compatible with those of Western patients with a t(8;14). Therefore, tumor cells marked primarily with a t(8;14) could have “major routes” in the karyotypic evolution, for which potentials should be recognized as clinical risk factors, and the morphologic presentation and the expression of surface immunoglobulins may be associated with the process of karyotypic evolution.
Short‐latency inhibitory reflex responses to inspiratory loading of the scalene muscles are impaired in spinal cord injury

What is the central question of this study? The aim was to determine whether the reflex inhibition in the electromyographic activity of scalene muscles in response to inspiratory muscle loading is present in individuals with cervical spinal cord injury and to examine whether the intercostal muscle afferents are critical for genesis of the reflex. What is the main finding and its importance? The lack of reflex inhibition in response to inspiratory loading in individuals with complete cervical spinal cord injury suggests that the reflex critically requires input from intercostal afferents and/or an intact intersegmental neural network.
Plataforma de seguridad basado en autenticidad de contenidos sobre conjunto de especificaciones SCORM

Los mecanismos que se presentan en la mayoria de plataformas Learning Content Management Systems, (LCMS), no permiten evaluar el concepto de “autenticidad” en contenidos que se comparten en cada una de ellas con un buen grado de aceptacion, por lo tanto, el siguiente articulo tiene como finalidad plantear un Modelo de seguridad informatico sobre plataformas de aprendizaje virtual LCMS, mediante sus contenidos a traves de las especificaciones dadas por Sharable Content Object Reference (SCORM), lo cual permita garantizar la autenticidad de contenidos mediante conceptos de firmas digitales e identificacion de protocolos y mecanismos que garanticen este tipo de actividades. Para llevar a cabo esta actividad, se plantean alternativas de modelos de seguridad, partiendo por el analisis de los mecanismos de seguridad informaticos que se trabajan actualmente sobre la mayoria de plataformas LCMS, al igual que la identificacion de componentes y variables desde el punto de vista del desarrollo de contenidos mediante las especificaciones SCORM. Finalmente se propone un modelo de seguridad para su implementacion sobre el desarrollo de objetos de aprendizaje que permitan identificar niveles de confianza en los diferentes contenidos que se comparten dentro de una Plataforma LCMS.
Astrocyte Protection of Neurons

Astrocytes have become a focal point for research in neurobiology, especially regarding their purported ability to regulate neuronal communication and survival. The present study addressed a poorly understood but important focus in this area, the mechanism(s) underlying astrocyte-induced survival of neurons. The results of the study show that soluble factors in astrocyte-conditioned media (ACM) protect murine GT1–7 neurons from serum deprivation-induced cell death and that this neuroprotection is correlated with enhanced activation/phosphorylation of the AP-1 transcription factor, c-JunSer-63. A parallel and correlated activation of the upstream kinases, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) and mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase-4 (MKK4) was also demonstrated. Furthermore, co-administration of JNK inhibitors, but not a MEK inhibitor, significantly attenuated ACM-induced phosphorylation of c-JunSer-63 and blocked its neuroprotective action. Gel shift analysis demonstrated that ACM enhanced AP-1 binding, an effect that appears functionally important, since an AP-1 binding inhibitor significantly attenuated the neuroprotective action of ACM. Further studies implicated transforming growth factor (TGF)-β1 and TGF-β2 as critical active soluble factors released by astrocytes, since both were demonstrated in ACM, and immunoneutralization of the conditioned media with a panspecific TGF-β antibody significantly attenuated the enhanced AP-1 binding and neuroprotective action of the ACM. Furthermore, exogenous application of TGF-β1 and TGF-β2 was found to enhance c-JunSer-63 phosphorylation and to be neuroprotective, and co-administration of JNK inhibitors or an AP-1 binding inhibitor blocked TGF-β-induced neuroprotection. Taken together, these studies suggest that astrocytes can protect neurons from serum deprivation-induced cell death, at least in part, by release of TGF-β and activation of a c-Jun/AP-1 protective pathway.
The activity pattern of the lumbo-pelvic muscles during prone hip extension in athletes with and without hamstring strain injury.

BACKGROUND Altered muscular activation pattern has been associated with musculoskeletal disorders. Some previous studies have demonstrated muscle weakness or tightness in athletes who have sustained hamstring (HAM) injuries. However, no study has clinically investigated the muscular activity pattern in subjects with HAM strain injuries. OBJECTIVE To investigate the activity pattern of the ipsilateral erector spinae (IES), contralateral erector spinae (CES), gluteus maximus (GM), and medial and lateral HAM muscles during the prone hip extension (PHE) test in athletes with and without history of HAM strain injury. DESIGN Cross-sectional non-experimental study design. PARTICIPANTS A convenience sample of 20 soccer athletes participated in the study. Subjects were categorized into two groups: those with history of HAM strain injury (n=10, mean age = 22.6 ± 3.74) and without history of HAM strain (n =10, mean age = 22.45 ± 3.77). METHODS Three repetitions of the PHE were performed by each subject, and the electromyographic (EMG) outputs of the IES, CES, GM, and HAM muscles were recorded, processed and normalized to maximum voluntary electrical activity (MVE). Independent t-tests were used for comparing activation means of each muscle between athletes with and without history of HAM strain injury. RESULTS There were significant differences in EMG activity of the GM (p= 0.04) and medial HAM (p = 0.01) between two groups. No significant difference was found in EMG signals of the IES (p= 0.26), CES (= 0.33) and lateral HAM (p= 0.58) between the two groups. Greater although non-significant normalized EMG outputes of IES, CES and lateral HAM were seen in athletes with history of HAM strain compared to those without HAM strain. CONCLUSION The findings of this study demonstrated greater normalized EMG activity of GM and medial HAM tested in athletes with history of HAM strain compared to those without HAM strain (altered activation pattern). LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 3a.
Regulation of asparagine synthetase gene expression by amino acid starvation

We have studied the regulation of expression of the asparagine synthetase (AS) gene in ts11 cells, a mutant of BHK hamster cells which encodes a temperature-sensitive AS and therefore does not produce endogenous asparagine at 39.5 degrees C. Incubation of ts11 cells at the nonpermissive temperature drastically increases the level of AS mRNA, and the stimulation of AS mRNA expression is effectively suppressed by the addition of asparagine to the medium. We show here that regulation of AS gene expression involves cis-acting elements which are contained in the mRNA as well as in the 5' genomic region. When a plasmid containing the human AS cDNA under the control of the human AS promoter region was stably transfected into ts11 cells, the expression of human AS RNAs was regulated as that of the endogenous hamster transcripts, indicating that this construct contained all cis elements necessary for regulation. Expression of the AS cDNA in ts11 cells under the control of a constitutive foreign promoter was also regulated by the concentration of asparagine, and this regulation required translation. When we introduced by mutagenesis a number of stop codons in the AS cDNA, the mutant mRNAs with short open reading frames were expressed at low levels that were not increased by asparagine deprivation. Inhibition of protein and RNA synthesis also prevented down-regulation of AS mRNA levels by high concentrations of asparagine. In a parallel series of experiments, we showed that an AS DNA fragment including the promoter and first exon can also regulate RNA expression in response to asparagine concentration. Furthermore, similar increases in the levels of AS RNAs are produced not only by asparagine deprivation in ts11 cells but also by deprivation of human and wild-type BHK cells of leucine, isoleucine, or glutamine. Thus, regulation of AS gene expression is a response to amino acid starvation through mechanisms which appear to involve both changes in RNA stability and change in the rates of transcription initiation or elongation.
Warbler: A Lightweight Pseudorandom Number Generator for EPC C1 Gen2 Passive RFID Tags

A pseudorandom number generator is an important component for implementing security functionalities on RFID tags. Most previous proposals focus on true random number generators that are usually inefficient for low-cost tags in terms of power consumption, area, and throughput. In this contribution, we propose a lightweight pseudorandom number generator (PRNG) for EPC Class-1 Generation-2 (EPC C1 Gen2) RFID tags. The proposed PRNG fully exploits nonlinear feedback shift registers and provides 16-bit random numbers that are required in the tag identification protocol of the EPC C1 Gen2 standard. The generated sequences are able to pass the EPC C1 Gen2 standard's statistical tests as well as the NIST randomness test suite. Moreover, a detailed cryptanalysis shows that the proposed PRNG is resistant to the most common attacks such as algebraic attacks, cube attacks, and time-memorydata tradeoff attacks. In particular, the proposed PRNG can be implemented on low-cost Xilinx Spartan-3 FPGA devices with 46 slices.
The anterolateral thigh flap is highly effective for reconstruction of complex lower extremity trauma.

BACKGROUND Trauma patients with high-energy injuries often present with severe tissue damage that extends beyond the immediate zone of injury and requires recruitment of vascularized tissues from distant sites. The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of the anterolateral thigh (ALT) flap for reconstruction of the traumatically injured lower extremity. METHODS Prospective data were collected on all patients who underwent lower extremity reconstruction with an ALT flap during a 3.5-year period at a primary adult resource center (PARC). Demographics captured included age, gender, Injury Severity Score, mechanism of injury, and size of defect and complications. RESULTS Fifty-six patients underwent a total of 59 ALT flap harvests during the study period. The majority of patients were male (75%) and sustained blunt injury (95%). The mean age was 37 +/- 14 years with a mean Injury Severity Score of 17.9 +/- 8. The mean flap size was 20.7 x 8.4 cm, with 64% harvested from the injured limb. Total flap success rate was 91.5%, with four total (6.7%) and one partial flap failure (1.7%). CONCLUSION The ALT flap is a useful tool for trauma reconstruction in lower extremity salvage. We have shown that the ALT flap can be performed successfully in the traumatically injured patient even when harvested from the ipsilateral lower extremity.
Homogenization of the Maxwell Equations at Fixed Frequency

The homogenization of the Maxwell equations at ﬁxed frequency is addressed in this paper. The bulk (homogenized) electric and magnetic properties of a material with a periodic microstructure are found from the solution of a local problem on the unit cell by suitable averages. The material can be anisotropic, and satisﬁes a coercivity condition. The exciting ﬁeld is generated by an incident ﬁeld from sources outside the material under investigation. A suitable sesquilinear form is deﬁned for the interior problem, and the exterior Calder´on operator is used to solve the exterior radiating ﬁelds. The concept of two-scale convergence is employed to solve the homogenization problem. A new a priori estimate is proved as well as a new result on the correctors. (Less)