Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychometric Comparisons of 4 Measures for Assessing Upper-Extremity Function in People With Stroke

Background: Functional limitation of the upper extremities is common in patients with stroke. An upper-extremity measure with sound psychometric properties is indispensable for clinical and research use. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the psychometric properties of 4 clinical measures for assessing upper-extremity motor function in people with stroke: the upper-extremity subscale of the Fugl-Meyer Motor Test (UE-FM), the upper-extremity subscale of the Stroke Rehabilitation Assessment of Movement, the Action Research Arm Test (ARAT), and the Wolf Motor Function Test. Design: This was a prospective, longitudinal study. Methods: Fifty-three people with stroke were evaluated with the 4 measures at 4 time points (14, 30, 90, and 180 days after stroke). Thirty-five participants completed all of the assessments. The ceiling and floor effects, validity (concurrent validity and predictive validity), and responsiveness of each measure were examined. Interrater reliability and test-retest reliability also were examined. Results: All measures, except for the UE-FM, had significant floor effects or ceiling effects at one or more time points. The Spearman ρ correlation coefficient for each pair of the 4 measures was ≥. 81, indicating high concurrent validity. The predictive validity of the 4 measures was satisfactory (Spearman ρ, ≥.51). The responsiveness of the 4 measures at 14 to 180 days after stroke was moderate (.52 ≤ effect size ≤ .79). The 4 measures had good interrater reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC], ≥.92) and test-retest reliability (ICC, ≥.97). Only the minimal detectable changes of the UE-FM (8% of the highest possible score) and the ARAT (6%) were satisfactory. Limitations: The sample size was too small to conduct data analysis according to type or severity of stroke. In addition, the timed component of the Wolf Motor Function Test was not used in this study. Conclusions: All 4 measures showed sufficient validity, responsiveness, and reliability in participants with stroke. The UE-FM for assessing impairment and the ARAT for assessing disability had satisfactory minimal detectable changes, supporting their utility in clinical settings.
Preparation and evaluation of a novel biodegradable long‐acting intravitreal implant containing ligustrazine for the treatment of proliferative vitreoretinopathy

It is challenging to deliver the therapeutic drug effectively to the posterior ocular disease location with optimized exposure and long‐term effects when treating proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR). The objective of this study is to develop a novel biodegradable and long‐acting ocular implant for PVR therapy with ligustrazine as the active ingredient.
Drug safety evaluation profile of stavudine plus lamivudine for HIV-1/AIDS infection

Introduction: The lamivudine (3TC) + stavudine (d4T) combination is still widely used as part of first-line therapy for HIV-1-infected patients in low-resource countries. This review is intended to assess the benefits and risks in terms of safety of d4T + 3TC-based combination antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of HIV-1 infection. Areas covered: The most relevant papers related to the safety of d4T + 3TC-based ART were selected and summarized. Expert opinion: In industrialized countries, the 3TC + d4T combination is not recommended for initial therapy because of long-term metabolic toxicities associated with d4T. In developing countries, it may have a role in the treatment of HIV-infected patients if there is no other chance for starting antiretroviral therapy.
Molecular and functional characterization of a candidate sex pheromone receptor OR1 in Spodoptera litura

Olfaction is primarily mediated by highly specified olfactory receptors (ORs). Here, we cloned and identified an olfactory receptor, named SlituOR1 (Genbank no. JN835269), from Spodoptera litura and found evidence that it is a candidate pheromone receptor. It exhibited male‐biased expression in the antennae, where it was localized at the base of sensilla trichoidea, the antennal sensilla mainly responsive to pheromones in moths. Conserved orthologues of this receptor, found among known pheromone receptors within the Lepidoptera, and SlituOR1 were placed among a clade of candidate pheromone receptors in a phylogeny tree of insect OR gene sequences. SlituOR1 showed differential expression in S. litura populations attracted to traps baited with different ratios of the two sex pheromone components (9Z,11E)‐tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9E11‐14:OAc) and (9Z,12E)‐tetradecadienyl acetate (Z9E12‐14:OAc). Knocking down of SlituOR1 by RNA interference reduced the electroantennogram (EAG) response to Z9E11‐14:OAc, and this result is consistent with the field trapping experiment. We infer that variation in transcription levels of olfactory receptors may modulate sex pheromone perception in male moths and could provide some of the flexibility required to maintain the functionality of communication with females when a population is adapting to a new niche and reproductive isolation becomes an advantage.
Highly Efficient Mutagenesis of Claviceps purpurea by Using Protoplasts

Claviceps purpurea ATCC 20102, which is aconidial under laboratory conditions, was grown in submerged culture in the presence of mutagens and various nutritional additives. Protoplasts from such cultures were prepared and regenerated on solid medium to obtain colonies from single cell units. Frequencies of auxotrophs and high alkaloid producers were on the order of 1 to 2%. Some of the auxotrophic mutants derived from strain ATCC 20102 were constantly segregating prototrophs. High-alkaloid-producing derivatives showed sclerotia-like morphology and violet-brown pigmentation, in contrast to the parent strain; some of them also showed segregation sectors when grown as giant colonies. Mutagenesis of strain 1029, isolated during this study and having an increased level of alkaloid synthesis and sclerotia-like cell morphology, was done in the same fashion as with the original parent strain, ATCC 20102. Mutants obtained from this strain were all stable with respect to their genotypes. However, a large proportion of colonies derived from regenerated protoplasts, even in the mutagen-free controls, showed a lowered level of alkaloid production and were morphologically more similar to the original wild type, ATCC 20102. The influence of protoplast preparation or regeneration or both on the stability of genes involved in differentiation is discussed.
The two-port laparoscopic retroperitoneal approach for minimal access pancreatic necrosectomy.

INTRODUCTION Despite advances in surgery and critical care, severe pancreatitis continues to be associated with a high rate of mortality, which is increased significantly in the presence of infected pancreatic necrosis. Controversy persists around the optimal treatment for such cases, with specialist units variously advocating open necrosectomy, simple percutaneous drainage or one of several minimal access approaches. We describe our technique and outcomes with a two-port laparoscopic retroperitoneal necrosectomy (2P-LRN). METHODS Thirteen consecutive patients with proven infected pancreatic necrosis were treated by 2P-LRN over a three-year period in the setting of a specialist hepatopancreatobiliary unit. The median patient age was 46 years (range: 28-87 years) and 10 of the patients were male. RESULTS The median number of procedures required to clear the necrosis was 2 (range: 1-5), with a median time to discharge following the procedure of 44 days (range: 10-135 days). There was no 90-day mortality and the morbidity rate was 38%, consisting of pancreatic fistula (31%) and bleeding (23%). CONCLUSIONS Two-port laparoscopic retroperitoneal necrosectomy has been demonstrated to confer similar or better outcomes to other techniques for necrosectomy. It carries the additional advantages of better visualisation, leading to fewer procedures and the opportunity to deploy simple laparoscopic instruments such as diathermy or haemostatic clips.
Radiation-induced molecular changes in rat mammary tissue: Possible implications for radiation-induced carcinogenesis

Purpose: Ionizing radiation is a potent mammary gland carcinogen, yet the exact molecular etiology of radiation-induced breast cancer remains unknown. Materials and methods: Our study utilized a rat model of breast carcinogenesis to analyse the molecular and epigenetic changes induced in mammary gland tissue upon exposure to ionizing radiation (IR). Using a methylation-sensitive cytosine extension assay we studied the IR-induced changes in DNA methylation. In parallel, we analysed the expression of proteins involved in DNA methylation, DNA repair and cell proliferation control. Molecular changes were related to cellular proliferation and apoptosis. Results: We found that IR led to a loss of genomic cytosine methylation in the exposed mammary tissue. Global DNA hypomethylation was paralleled by reduction in the levels of maintenance (DNMT1) and de novo (DNMT3a and 3b) DNA methyltransferases and methyl-binding protein MeCP2. The observed DNA hypomethylation was linked, at least in part, to activation of DNA repair processes. Concurrently, we observed increased levels of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (p-ERK1/2), phosphorylated AKT kinase (p-AKT), cyclin D1 and proliferating cells nuclear antigen (PCNA) proteins, suggesting IR alters intra-cellular signaling and cell cycle control mechanisms in mammary tissue. We also noted a significant induction of apoptosis in the exposed tissue 6 hours after irradiation. The observed apoptosis levels were paralleled by the slight elevation of cellular proliferation. Conclusions: We have demonstrated that a single exposure to 5 Gy of X rays leads to noticeable epigenetic changes in the rat mammary gland that occurred in the context of activation of DNA damage repair and alterations in the pro-survival growth-stimulatory cellular signaling pathways. The possible cellular repercussions of the observed changes in relationship to breast carcinogenesis are discussed.
CONCEPTS AND HYPOTHESES: INFLAMMATORY HYPOTHESIS IN THE PATHOGENESIS OF CEREBRAL CAVERNOUS MALFORMATIONS

OBJECTIVECerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) affect more than one million Americans, predisposing them to a lifetime risk of hemorrhagic stroke and epilepsy. A potential role of the immune response in this disease has not been postulated previously but is compelling given the unique antigenic milieu of CCM lesions with sequestered thrombi and a leaky blood-brain barrier and the numerous examples of immune modulation of angiogenesis in other disease states. The objective of this article is to reveal novel observations about apparent immune responses in CCM lesions excised from human patients and to outline the potential pathobiological significance of these observations, specific hypotheses for future research, and potential clinical implications. METHODSWe reviewed data from differential gene expression revealing several immunoglobulin and other related genes markedly upregulated within human CCM lesions. Other observations are presented revealing infiltration of antibody-producing B lymphocytes and plasma cells in CCM lesions. We also present recent data demonstrating fivefold enrichment of gamma globulin to albumin ratio in a human lesion compared with serum from the same patient and oligoclonality of IgG in four of five CCM lesions, but not in paired sera from the same patients or in control specimens. RESULTSWe describe ongoing research aiming to characterize cellular and humoral components of the immune response in CCMs and initiating investigation into its clonality by isoelectric focusing on the predominant immunoglobulin isotypes isolated from the lesion, in comparison to the patient's serum, and by the distribution of lengths of complementary-determining region 3 of the immunoglobulin heavy chain genes in messenger ribonucleic acid isolated from lesions and from pooled plasma cells and B cells laser captured from CCMs in comparison to peripheral lymphocytes from the blood of the same patients. CONCLUSIONImmune response could play a role in or represent a potential marker of CCM lesion proliferation and hemorrhage or could otherwise contribute to lesion phenotype. The ongoing studies will generate preliminary data for future research aimed at comparing the immune response in quiescent versus clinically aggressive CCM lesions. An oligoclonal immune response shown in this research would stimulate future experiments to identify autoimmune or extrinsic antigenic triggers involved in CCM disease.
The role of setting versus treatment type in alliance within youth therapy.

OBJECTIVE Does the strength of the youth-therapist alliance differ across treatment settings or treatment type? We examined these questions in the context of youth therapy. METHOD Eighty-nine youths (M age = 10.56, SD = 1.99; 63.70% Caucasian; 52.80% male) diagnosed with an anxiety disorder received (a) manual-based individual cognitive-behavioral therapy (ICBT) in a research setting, (b) manual-based ICBT in practice settings, or (c) nonmanualized usual care (UC) in practice settings. Coders, using the Therapy Process Observational Coding System-Alliance scale, rated 865 sessions. Youth completed the Therapeutic Alliance Scale for Children at posttreatment. RESULTS Youth who received ICBT in a research setting had significantly higher observer-rated alliance than youth who received either therapy delivered in practice settings. In practice settings, youth who received ICBT had significantly stronger observer-rated alliance early in treatment than youth in UC, but this difference was not observed at the end of treatment. Similarly, youth-report alliance at posttreatment was significantly higher in ICBT in the research setting, and there was no difference between ICBT and UC delivered in practice settings. Alliance differences largely held when controlling for youth characteristics; however, differences early in treatment between the ICBT groups were no longer statistically significant when controlling for anxiety severity or primary anxiety diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS Our findings suggest that (a) the alliance may be stronger in research settings, and (b) treatment manuals do not undermine alliance. Future research is required to help pinpoint whether other youth, therapist, or setting factors contribute to the lower alliance seen in practice settings.
Introduction to the Special Issue: Marketing in the E-Channel

It is impossible to look back at the frenzied two-year roller-coaster ride of the valuations of dot-com companies without wondering how so many reputable analysts, industry experts, and practitioners came to overestimate the promise of e-commerce. In hindsight, one could claim that the overestimations arose from focusing on the Internet as an insular channel not affected by happenings in other, more traditional channels. Now that realism has set in with the inevitable shakeout occurring in the e-business realm, it is a good time to examine the impact of the Internet on business, using a tried-and-trusted framework. This Special Issue takes a channels perspective on the Internet in order to accomplish this objective. The papers in the issue share a common ground in considering the Internet as another channel of distribution, albeit a special one, in examining marketing issues of key importance. The Internet is seen as complementing the traditional channels in some applications, acting as a substitute in others, and in some cases creating new opportunities. As a distribution channel, the World Wide Web facilitates information flow, negotiation flow, product/service flow (for digital products and services), transaction flow, and promotion flow. The characteristics of the Internet sometimes make these flows quite different from those that occur in traditional channels. In some instances, the different flows afford new marketing opportunities that do not exist in the traditional channels: researching consumer information-seeking and search behaviors, using the speed of the Internet to get feedback from consumers, creating communities on-line and using them to market products and services, and so on. The characteristics of the e-channel change consumers’ expectations, and these interact with expectations formed in traditional channels to affect their behavior not only in the e-channel but also in the traditional channels. In many cases, the e-channel complements the traditional channels, but it does so in interesting ways—some flows (e.g., ownership flow, product flow) may be substituted, and others (information and promotion flows) may be complemented. In consequence, the papers in this Special Issue collectively focus on the two main research issues that emerge when the Internet is viewed from a channels perspective:
A proposal for an algorithm to count nodes using wireless technologies

Algorithms to count objects people, animals, devices, vehicles, etc. have interested the research community for a long time since they can be used as basic tools in the development of many applications. Up to now, most of the work done in this area is supported by turnstiles, digital cameras, video cameras, pneumatic road tubes, magnetic sensors, infrared beams, or other types of sensors. However, very few works have been developed using wireless communications to count nodes. In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm for counting nodes equipped with a wireless interface. To validate our proposal, we simulate the algorithm using OMNeT++/INET, a famous network simulation tool. Our simulations show that the proposed algorithm computes a number of nodes close to the real one, with a small number of messages and a short response time.
Adaptive beam hardening correction based on projection data consistency condition

In the medical diagnostic computed tomography (CT) systems, the x-ray tube usually emits photons with a polychromatic spectrum, resulting in beam hardening artifacts in the reconstructed images. Although the bone correction method is extensively used to compensate for the beam hardening artifacts, its performance crucially depends on the empirical choice of a scaling factor. To overcome this shortcoming, here we propose two adaptive correction methods, which utilize the Helgasson-Ludwig (H-L) consistency condition to determine the optimal scaling factor and the corresponding coefficient vector. Our numerical simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
On the improved MB-OFDM system for wireless personal area networks

The IEEE 802.15. 3a model for UWB channel models is introduced in this paper. The least-squares (LS) channel estimation on the basis of pilot and linearity insertion are described. Wavelet de-noising for semi-blind channel estimation of multiband Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) based on WPANs UWB system was added. Compared with conventional method, the proposed framework can reduce the influence of noise.
Estimating the rate of accumulating drug resistance mutations in the HIV genome.

OBJECTIVE HIV mutation accumulation has great implications for pharmacoeconomics and clinical care, yet scarcity of data has hindered its representation in decision analytic models. Our objective is to determine the accuracy with which mutation accumulation and other unmeasured parameters could be estimated during model calibration. METHODS We used a second-order Monte Carlo simulation of HIV natural history that had been calibrated by varying two unmeasured parameters (mutation accrual rate and probability of adherence) to minimize differences between estimated and observed clinical outcomes (time to treatment failure and survival). We compared these estimated values first with only those results that had been already published at the time of model calibration, and second including results that were published after model calibration. RESULTS The value for mutation accrual rate assigned during calibration was 0.014 mutations per month for antiretroviral-naïve patients, at the lower bound of the results for nine heterogeneous studies published at the time of calibration (pooled 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.014-0.039 mutations per month). In contrast, this estimate accurately anticipated results from 11 larger and more homogeneous studies published after calibration (pooled 95% CI for antiretroviral-naïve patients, 0.012-0.015 mutations per month). The value for probability of adherence assigned during calibration (75%) was also within the range of published results (pooled 95% CI 62-76%). CONCLUSION Estimates for unobserved parameters derived during model calibration were not only within the range of clinical observations, but anticipated with accuracy clinical results that were not yet available. It may be feasible to use models to estimate unobserved parameters.
Long-Term Outcome and Late Recurrence in Patients with Completely Resected Stage IA Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

Background: The purpose of this study was to quantify the risk of late recurrence in patients with stage IA non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who remained recurrence-free for more than 5 years after resection. Methods: Between August 1992 and December 2002, a total of 519 patients with stage IA NSCLC underwent complete resection at our institution. Recurrence-free probability was measured from the benchmark of 5 years after primary tumor resection to the date of first recurrence or last follow-up using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: Of a total of 519 patients, 434 remained recurrence-free for 5 years. Among these, 21 (4.8%) developed late recurrence more than 5 years after resection. Recurrence-free interval ranged from 1 to 53 months, and the median recurrence-free interval was 14 months from the benchmark of 5 years after primary tumor resection. The 5-year recurrence-free probability from the benchmark was 93%. Multivariate Cox analysis demonstrated that vascular invasion significantly influenced late recurrence (p = 0.038). The 5-year recurrence-free probability from the benchmark was 84% for patients with vascular invasion and 95% for patients without vascular invasion (p < 0.001). Conclusions: Patients with stage IA NSCLC with vascular invasion harbor a significant risk of late recurrence more than 5 years after complete resection. In patients with stage IA NSCLC with vascular invasion, 5 years without recurrence is not sufficient to conclude that NSCLC is cured. In contrast, patients without vascular invasion may be declared to be cured at 5 years after resection if they are recurrence-free.
Zytokine in der Pathogenese der Atherosklerose

Dtsch Med Wochenschr 0120472 002; 127: 94–99 © Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart · New York Ü b e r s i c h t e n Die uniforme Reaktion des Immunsystems auf Verletzungen besteht in einer kaskadenartigen Freisetzung von Zytokinen. Diese führen dann zur Rekrutierung von Granulozyten, Lymphozyten und Monozyten. Die lokale Reaktion wird von einer systemischen Reaktion, der Akutphase-Reaktion, begleitet. Erst in den letzten Jahren hat sich gezeigt, dass diese Mechanismen auch in der Pathogenese der Atherosklerose eine entscheidende Rolle spielen.