Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary calcium intake and bone density

Dietary calcium intake and bone density In the January issue of the British Journal of Nutrition Ramsdale et al. reported their study on bone density and calcium intake in fifty-six healthy pre-menopausal women. They showed that there was a correlation between calcium intake and bone density at all three femoral sites and at the spine. In a study of young Chinese women, in whom calcium intake is known to be lower than in western societies, we observed that bone mineral density was higher in those with a calcium intake of 600 mg/day when compared with those with a calcium intake below 300 mg/day (Ho et al. 1994). It is well known that calcium excretion is dependent on many other dietary factors such as sodium, protein and phosphorus. There is a direct relationship between sodium intake and calcium excretion (Chan et al. 1992). In an experimental model we have shown that a high-salt diet can cause a negative calcium balance and decreased bone mineral content (Chan et al. 1993; Chan & Swaminathan 1993). It has also been shown that a high protein intake causes an increase in calcium excretion (Breslau et al. 1988; Chan & Swaminathan 1994). Furthermore, it was shown that high animal-protein intake was significantly related to hip fracture incidence (Abelow et al. 1992). Therefore, we feel that any study of relationship between calcium intake and bone density should take into account the intakes of sodium, phosphorus and protein. In a recent study of thirty-eight young Caucasian women, Metz et al. (1993) showed that bone density was positively associated with calcium intake (using multiple regression analysis) and negatively associated with protein and phosphorus intakes. In our study we also found a relationship between calcium: protein ratio and bone mineral density (Ho et al. 1994). It also should be stressed that any recommendation on calcium intake in preand postmenopausal women should also consider the intakes of other nutrients such as protein, phosphorus and sodium. R. SWAMINATHAN Department of Clinical Biochemistry United Dental and Medical Schools London S . C. Ho Departments of Community and Family Medicine, Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong
Isolation and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite loci in yellowtail catfish, Pangasius pangasius (Hamilton, 1822)

A total of nine polymorphic microsatellite loci were obtained from a genomic library of Pangasius pangasius (order Siluriformes, family Pangasiidae). Samples from rivers Bhagirathi (n = 22) and Mahanadi (n = 20) were genotyped for each of the nine microsatellite loci to determine genetic variation. The mean number of alleles per locus was 5.22 in Bhagirathi and 5.78 in Mahanadi; and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.567 (Bhagirathi) to 0.578 (Bhagirathi). Significant deviation (P < 0.003) from Hardy–Weinberg expectations was evident at three loci, Ppa2 (Bhagirathi), Ppa14 (Mahanadi) and Ppa28 (Bhagirathi and Mahanadi). The identified microsatellite loci were found to be promising for population genetics studies of P. pangasius.
Financial Statement Analysis

Financial statement analysis is important from both an internal and external business perspective. Managers will want to evaluate how a company is performing against itself in time (year to year), or other companies, or an industry average. Managers of the company, as well as short-term and long-term creditors and stockholders, will be evaluating a company’s performance in three key areas: liquidity, profitability, and solvency.
Diagnostic Strategies for Suspected Pulmonary Embolism Among Outpatients

Diagnosis of pulmonary embolism (PE) has been made easier, less invasive, and somewhat safer over the past 2 decades. This has been due mainly to the development of lung scan and to the recognition of VTE as an entity comprising deep vein thrombosis and PE. The prevalence of the disease in patients clinically suspected of PE has steadily decreased during the past 10 years. This has led to the development of diagnostic tools that aim at reducing the number of unnecessary pulmonary angiograms. These include clinical probability assessment and fibrin D-dimer. Several strategies combining these tools have been validated in large outcome studies and compared in a formal cost-effectiveness analysis. The results indicate that they should now be implemented in daily practice taking into account local facilities and expertise. The exact place of helical computed tomography in such sequential algorithms remains to be established.
Changes in milk fatty acid composition of goats during lactation in a semi-intensive production system

Abstract. This study aimed at investigating changes in the fatty acid (FA) profile and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) concentration of milk fat during lactation from goats managed in a semi-intensive production system, which consisted of grazing on a woody and herbaceous pasture with the supplementation of mixed concentrate and vetch hay. A total of 21 lactating goats were used. Milk samples were collected at different periods (25 April, 29 June, 25 August and 4 October) during lactation and analysed for their chemical composition and FA profile. The most abundant FA in the milk fat of goats was palmitic (C16:0) acid, followed by oleic (C18:1 n -9), stearic (C18:0), capric (C10:0) and myristic (C14:0) acids. These acids accounted for about 88 % of the total milk FA of goats in all sampling periods. The two medium chain FA; capric ( P =0.0001) and lauric (C12:0; P =0.0014) acid were affected by the sampling period, whereas myristic ( P =0.4469) and palmitic ( P =0.4418) acids did not change. Stearic ( P =0.0128), oleic ( P =0.0001), linoleic (C18:2; P =0.0088) and linolenic (C18:3; P =0.0001) acids also exhibited significant variations between the sampling periods. However, the CLA (C18:2 c9, t11 and C18:2 t10, c12 ) contents of milk fat did not change during the entire study regardless of the sampling period ( P =0.2448). Milk fatty acid composition of goats, which meet a major part of their nutrient requirements through grazing or browsing in a natural pasture, shows a seasonal variation with milk fat in summer representing a better fatty acid profile for product quality.
Tissue-specific effects on uptake of 99mTc-sestamibi by breast lesions: a targeted analysis of false scintigraphic diagnoses.

UNLABELLED The limited spatial resolution of gamma-cameras is commonly considered the main reason for the low sensitivity of scintimammography in the detection of small carcinomas. The present study assessed whether uptake of (99m)Tc-sestambi is affected by certain tissue-specific parameters besides the size of the tumor. METHODS Surgical specimens from 75 patients (30 benign lesions, 8 of which had shown false-positive scintigraphic findings, and 45 carcinomas, 8 of which had shown false-negative scintigraphic findings) were subjected to a distinct histopathologic/immunohistochemical reevaluation. Tissue-specific parameters (lesion size, cellular density, vascularity, signs of inflammation, proliferative activity, multidrug resistance expression, and receptor status) were visually scored and correlated with the sestamibi uptake on scintimammograms. RESULTS A clear relationship was found between sestamibi uptake and tumor size. As previously assumed, a lesion size of less than 1 cm in diameter was found to be one reason for false-negative scintigraphic diagnoses. In addition, a low cell count, low vascularity, and absence of inflammation in carcinomas had a negative effect on uptake of the radiopharmaceutical. The decisive factor for increased tracer uptake by benign lesions was the presence of inflammatory changes. No correlation could be found between sestamibi uptake and proliferative cellular activity, multidrug resistance expression, or the receptor status of the tumor. CONCLUSION Because all mentioned findings were statistically significant only in part, it is to be supposed that uptake of (99m)Tc-sestambi by breast lesions is determined by various tissue parameters in interaction.
Identification of a potential RNA intermediate for transposition of the LINE‐like element I factor in Drosophila melanogaster.

The I factor, a transposable element related to mammalian LINEs, controls the I‐R system of hybrid dysgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster. It transposes at high frequency in the germ‐line of the female progeny of crosses between females of the reactive class of strains and males of the inducer class. The structure and DNA sequence of the I factor suggest that it transposes by reverse transcription of an RNA intermediate. Northern blot and S1 mapping experiments show that a full‐length RNA of the I factor is synthesized specifically in the conditions of which I factors transpose. This RNA has all characteristics of a transposition intermediate. It is only found in the ovaries of dysgenic females suggesting that I factor activity is restricted to this tissue because of regulation at the level of the initiation of transcription or RNA stability.
Limpianchob Optimal Production Planning in Aromatic Coconuts Programming A Supply Chain Based O n Mixed-Integer Linear

This work addresses the problem of production planning that arises in the production of aromatic coconuts from Samudsakhorn province in Thailand. The planning involves the forwarding of aromatic coconuts from the harvest areas to the factory, which is classified into two groups; self-owned areas and contracted areas, the decisions of aromatic coconuts flow in the plant, and addressing a question of which warehouse will be in use. The problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model within supply chain management framework. The objective function seeks to minimize the total cost including the harvesting, labor and inventory costs. Constraints on the system include the production activities in the company and demand requirements. Numerical results are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of coconuts supply chain model compared with base case. Keywords—Aromatic coconut, supply chain management, production planning, mixed-integer linear programming.
Requirement for leukotriene B4 receptor 1 in allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness.

RATIONALE Leukotriene B4 (LTB4) is a rapidly synthesized, early leukocyte chemoattractant that signals via its cell surface receptor, leukotriene B4 receptor 1 (BLT1), to attract and activate leukocytes during inflammation. A role for the LTB4-BLT1 pathway in allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness and inflammation is not well defined. OBJECTIVES To define the role of the LTB4 receptor (BLT1) in the development of airway inflammation and altered airway function. METHODS BLT1-deficient (BLT1 -/-) mice and wild-type mice were sensitized to ovalbumin by intraperitoneal injection and then challenged with ovalbumin via the airways. Airway responsiveness to inhaled methacholine, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid cell composition and cytokine levels, and lung inflammation and goblet cell hyperplasia were assessed. RESULTS Compared with wild-type mice, BLT1 -/- mice developed significantly lower airway responsiveness to inhaled methacholine, lower goblet cell hyperplasia in the airways, and decreased interleukin (IL)-13 production both in vivo, in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid, and in vitro, after antigen stimulation of lung cells in culture. Intracellular cytokine staining of lung cells revealed that bronchoalveolar lavage IL-13 levels and numbers of IL-13(+)/CD4+ and IL-13(+)/CD8+ T cells were also reduced in BLT1 -/- mice. Reconstitution of sensitized and challenged BLT1 -/- mice with allergen-sensitized BLT1 +/+ T cells fully restored the development of airway hyperresponsiveness. In contrast, transfer of naive T cells failed to do so. CONCLUSION These data suggest that BLT1 expression on primed T cells is required for the full development of airway hyperresponsiveness, which appears to be associated with IL-13 production in these cells.
Soy protein films for wound‐healing applications: antibiotic release, bacterial inhibition and cellular response

Use of naturally derived materials is becoming widespread in the biomedical field. Soy protein has advantages over the various types of natural proteins employed for biomedical applications, due to its low price, non‐animal origin and relatively long storage time and stability. In the current study, soy protein isolate (SPI) was investigated as a matrix for wound‐dressing applications. The antibiotic drug gentamicin was incorporated into the matrix for local controlled release and thus continuous bactericidal effect. Homogeneous high‐quality films were cast from aqueous solutions and tested for the effects of gentamicin release on bacterial inhibition. The cytotoxicity and in vitro biocompatibility of these films were also examined. The gentamicin release profiles exhibited a moderate burst effect followed by a decreasing release rate, which was maintained for at least 4 weeks, thus enabling a suitable bacterial inhibition effect. The materials released from the films during an indirect cytotoxicity test were found to be safe, except for a slight inhibitory effect in the presence of high concentrations of glycerol. The biocompatibility test showed confluent cell cultures in close proximity to the SPI films. It is clear that these new antibiotic‐eluting SPI films exhibit a high potential for use as wound dressings. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Synchrotron radiation based X-ray micro-diffraction study on reliability issues of solder joints in electronic packaging technology

Orientation distribution of Cu<sup>6</sup>Sn<sup>5</sup> and its relationship with orientation of substrate Cu was studied with synchrotron based micro X-ray diffraction. We have obtained Laue spots both from Cu<sup>6</sup>Sn<sup>5</sup> and Cu at the same time. From the Laue pattern, orientation distribution maps of Cu<sup>6</sup>Sn<sup>5 </sup> and Cu were obtained. Orientations Cu<sup>6</sup>Sn<sup>5</sup> scallops had strong dependence to that of Cu. [001] direction of Cu<sup>6</sup>Sn<sup>5</sup> was always parallel to [110] of Cu, to minimize misfit. It was also found that there are loses in its texture as reflow time increases
Time of Flight 3D Magnetic Resonance Angiography in the Follow-up of Coiled Cerebral Aneurysms

The use of Guglielmi Detachable Coil (CDC) for the endovascular treatment of intracerebral aneurysms is increasing, particularly in those aneurysms for which there is a high surgical morbidity and mortality. However, the long-term efficacy of GDC is not known. Until the natural history of GDC treatment is established long-term follow-up in this cohort of patients is required, of necessity involving repeated intraarterial angiography (IA DSA) with its known attendant risks and exposure to ionising radiation. Three dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (3D TOF MRA) is now readily accepted as a non-invasive screening tool for familial aneurysmal disease and has been used as an alternative to IA DSA in the surgical management of aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage. MRA in patients treated with GDC is safe, imparts no radiation dose and provides acceptable image quality. The aim of this study was to assess 3D TOP MRA source data, maximum intensity projection (MIP) and 3D isosurface reconstruction in comparison to IA DSA in the follow-up of 25 patients treated with GDC. Images were assessed for parent and branch artery flow, the presence of neck recurrence and aneurysm regrowth. There was good correlation for all these features when 3D isosurface MRA and source data were compared with IA DSA. The correlation between MIP MRA and IA DSA was less robust. Additional confidence can be obtained by performing plain films of the skull to demonstrate change in coil ball configuration. MRA has the potential to replace IA DSA in the follow-up of GDC treated cerebral aneurysms.
Etoricoxib Provides Analgesic Efficacy to Patients After Knee or Hip Replacement Surgery: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study we assessed the analgesic effect of etoricoxib (a new cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor) in patients having had knee or hip replacement surgery. A total of 228 patients with moderate or severe pain were randomly allocated within 72 h after surgery to receive etoricoxib 120 mg, controlled-release naproxen sodium 1100 mg, or placebo (1:1:1) on day 1 followed by etoricoxib and placebo (1:2) on days 2 to 7. Patients reported pain scores, rescue (opioid-combination) medication use, and the response to study drug. On day 1, etoricoxib provided an analgesic effect superior to placebo and similar to controlled-release naproxen sodium as demonstrated by the total pain relief score over 8 h, the primary end-point; least-squares mean scores were 11.0, 11.5, and 5.6, respectively (P < 0.001 versus placebo). Similarly, a larger percentage of patients receiving etoricoxib and naproxen sodium than those receiv-ing placebo reported good to excellent responses to study drug: 53%, 60%, and 26% respectively. On days 2-7, etoricoxib demonstrated a significant reduction of rescue medication use, 35% (P < 0.001 versus placebo). The clinical relevance of the decrease was confirmed by Patient’s Global Evaluation (P < 0.05 versus placebo). Patients receiving etoricoxib also experienced significantly less "worst" and "average" pain than did those on placebo. Etoricoxib was generally well tolerated in this study; the incidence of adverse experiences was infrequent and similar across treatment groups. In summary, etoricoxib provided analgesia that was similar to controlled-release naproxen sodium on day 1 and superior to placebo with reduced supplemental opioid use over 7 days.
Potential of HMEC-1 Line and HUVEC Primary Culture Cells to Study the Neonatal IgG Fc Receptor in vitro

The neonatal IgG Fc receptor (FcRn) plays an important role in IgG homeostasis and immunity passive transfer. Fine points regarding these mechanisms, however, are still emerging. In order to obtain information about these phenomena, it is essential to have in vitro models of endothelium that express this receptor. In this study we chose two widely used models of human endothelial cells: the semi-immortalized and stable cell line HMEC-1 (CDC/USA) and the Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVECs) which maintain morphological, phenotypical and functional characteristics of human micro and macro-vasculature endothelia, respectively. We found that both cells express the FcRn mRNA and protein using real-time RT-PCR, flow cytometry and confocal microscopy, respectively. We detected differences in mRNA expression levels in HUVECs among individuals. The protein was found on the cell surface but also intracellularly within vesicles. This study supports the use of two cell types as models of FcRn expression, allowing either to understand or to manipulate the mechanisms in which the receptor is involved in vivo.
A comparative study of hidden Markov model and conditional random fields on a Yorùba part-of-speech tagging task

Parts-of-speech tagging, the predictive sequential labeling of words in a sentence, given a context, is a challenging problem both because of ambiguity and the infinite nature of natural language vocabulary. Unlike English and most European languages, Yorùba language has no publicly available part-of-speech tagging tool. In this paper, we present the achievements of variants of a bigram hidden Markov model (HMM) as compared to the achievement of a linear-chain conditional random fields (CRF) on a Yorùba part-of-speech tagging task. We have investigated the likely improvements due to using smoothing techniques and morphological affixes on the HMM-based models. For the CRF model, we defined feature functions to capture similar contexts available to the HMM-based models. Both kinds of models were trained and evaluated on the same data set. Experimental results show that the performance of the two kinds of models are encouraging with the CRF model being able to recognize more out-of-vocabulary (OOV) words than the best HMM model by a margin of 3.05 %. While the overall accuracy of the best HMM-based model is 83.62 %, that of CRF is 84.66 %. Although CRF model gives marginal superior performance, both HMM and CRF modeling approaches are clearly promising, given their OOV words recognition rates.
Link Prediction and Topological Feature Importance in Social Networks

The problem of link prediction describes how to account for the development of connection structure in a graph. There are many applications of link prediction, such as predicting missing links and future links in online social networks. Much of the literature has focused on limited characteristics of the graph topology or on node attributes, rather than a broad range of measures. There is a rich spectrum of topological features associated with a graph, such as neighbourhood similarity scores, node centrality measures, community structure and path-based distance measures. In this paper we formulate a supervised learning approach to link prediction using a feature set of graph measures chosen to capture a wide range of topological structure. This approach has the advantage that it can be applied to any graph where the connection structure is known. Random forest learning models are used for their high accuracy and measures of feature importance. The feature importance scores reveal the strength of contribution of the topological predictors for link prediction in a variety of synthetically generated network datasets, as well as three real world citation networks. We investigate both undirected and directed cases. Our results show that this approach can deliver very high model precision and recall performance in certain graphs, and good performance generally. Our models also consistently outperform a simpler comparison model we developed to resemble earlier work. In addition, our analysis of variable importance for each dataset reveals meaningful information regarding deep network properties.
Surgical treatment of primary malignant tumors of the sacrum

Abstract Objectives: The objective of the authors was to provide an up-to-date review about the epidemiology, diagnosis, and surgical management of the malignant primary sacral tumors. Methods: A PubMed search was conducted using a combination of the following items: ((‘Spinal Neoplasms’[Mesh]) AND ‘Sacrum’[Mesh]) NOT (‘Metastasis’ OR ‘Metastases’ OR ‘Benign’). The literature review and the author's own surgical experiences were used to assess the current treatment strategies of the malignant sacral tumors. Results: Twenty case series were identified, which studies discuss in detail the surgical strategies, the postoperative complications, the functional and oncologic outcome, and the recurrence-free and disease-specific survival of this rare patient category. Discussion: Sacral tumors are rare pathologies. Their management generates a complex medical problem, as they usually are diagnosed in advanced stages with extended dimensions involving the sacral nerves and surrounding organs. The evaluation and complex treatment of these rare tumors require a multidisciplinary approach, optimally at institutions with comprehensive care and experience. Although conventional oncologic therapeutic methods should be used as neoadjuvant or adjuvant therapies in certain histological types, en bloc resection with wide surgical margins is essential for long-term local oncologic control. This is often technically difficult to achieve, as just a few centers in the world perform sacral tumor surgeries on a regular basis, and have enough wide experience. Therefore international cooperation and organization of multicenter tumor registries are essential to develop evidence based treatment protocols.