Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Persistent pain in a community-based sample of children and adolescents.

BACKGROUND Very few studies have investigated the psychological factors associated with the pain experiences of children and adolescents in community samples. OBJECTIVES To examine the lifetime prevalence of, and psychological variables associated with, persistent pain in a community sample of children and adolescents, and to explore differences according to sex, age and pain history. METHODS Participants completed the Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index (CASI), the Child Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (CPASS), the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children-10 (MASC-10), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale for Children (PCS-C) and a pain history questionnaire that assessed chronicity and pain frequency. After research ethics board approval, informed consent⁄assent was obtained from 1022 individuals recruited to participate in a study conducted at the Ontario Science Centre (Toronto, Ontario). RESULTS Of the 1006 participants (54% female, mean [± SD] age 11.6±2.7 years) who provided complete data, 27% reported having experienced pain that lasted for three months or longer. A 2×2×2 (pain history, age and sex) multivariate ANOVA was conducted, with the total scores on the CASI, the CPASS, the MASC-10 and the PCS-C as dependent variables. Girls with a history of persistent pain expressed higher levels of anxiety sensitivity (P<0.001) and pain catastrophizing (P<0.001) than both girls without a pain history and boys regardless of pain history. This same pattern of results was found for anxiety and pain anxiety in the older, but not the younger, age group. CONCLUSIONS Boys and girls appear to differ in terms of how age and pain history relate to the expression of pain-related psychological variables. Given the prevalence of persistent pain found in the study, more research is needed regarding the developmental implications of persistent pain in childhood and adolescence.
Agreement and Reproducibility of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Measurements of Dual-b-Value and Multi-b-Value Diffusion-Weighted Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 1.5 Tesla in Phantom and in Soft Tissues of the Abdomen

Objective To compare the coefficient of variation (CV) and long-term reproducibility of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) in a simple fluid-filled phantom and abdominal organs simultaneously. Materials and Methods Retrospective institutional review board–approved and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act–compliant study sequentially selected 100 patients who underwent clinically indicated abdominal magnetic resonance imaging. A subset of 58 patients had repeat scans within 2 to 5 months after the initial magnetic resonance imaging. Two diffusion-weighted imaging techniques (b-values 0–750 mm2/s) were performed to compare the ADC values. Mean ADC values were calculated for 10 locations and the reference phantom. The CV and Bland-Altman plots were calculated for the phantom and soft tissues at each session and location. Results There were no significant differences in the mean ADC values between repeated acquisitions. However, ADC values were statistically higher using dual-b-value than multi-b-value diffusion-weighted imaging. The CV for the phantom was 8.6 versus 10.8 for dual-b-value and multi-b-value, respectively. The CVs for the soft tissues had a wider range compared with that of the phantom (liver, 12.6 vs 9.0; spleen, 11.7 vs 11.2; gallbladder, 11.0 vs 13.6; head of pancreas, 14.6 vs 14.7; body of pancreas, 13.4 vs 13.0; tail of pancreas, 14.8 vs 16.3; right kidney, 9.1 vs 9.6; left kidney, 9.3 vs 9.3; right paraspinal muscle, 7.9 vs 7.5; left paraspinal muscle, 7.3 vs 7.3, respectively). Conclusions A change in ADC less than 11% falls into the range of measurement variability. Paraspinal muscle could potentially be used as an internal reference parameter.
Conformation of cationic N,N-dimethylglycine in dimethylglycinium trifluoroacetate.

In the title compound, C(4)H(10)NO(2)(+). C(2)F(3)O(2)(-), the main N-C-COOH skeleton of the protonated amino acid is nearly planar. The C=O/C-N and C=O/O-H bonds are syn and the two methyl groups are gauche to the methylene H atoms. The conformation of the cation in the crystal is compared to that given by ab initio calculations (Hartree-Fock, self-consistent field molecular-orbital theory). The trifluoroacetate anion has the typical staggered conformation with usual bond distances and angles. The cation and anion form dimers through a strong O-H.O hydrogen bond which are further interconnected in infinite zigzag chains running parallel to the a axis by N-H.O bonds. Weaker C-H.O interactions involving the methyl groups and the carboxy O atoms of the cation occur between the chains.
Learning for innovation in high-technology small firms

Most literature pertaining to organisational learning and performance remains conceptual. On the basis of theoretical findings reported in the previous strategic and knowledge management literature, the proposed model offers an empirical means to study the links among organisational learning, innovation and company performance. The derived constructs, applied to a sample of 110 high-tech small firms and used to test the model, indicate a positive relationship among the three factors; moreover, company age moderates these results. The paper concludes with recommendations regarding how to capture and share knowledge for small firm managers.
Microbial Amyloids Induce Interleukin 17A (IL-17A) and IL-22 Responses via Toll-Like Receptor 2 Activation in the Intestinal Mucosa

ABSTRACT The Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2)/TLR1 receptor complex responds to amyloid fibrils, a common component of biofilm material produced by members of the phyla Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Proteobacteria. To determine whether this TLR2/TLR1 ligand stimulates inflammatory responses when bacteria enter intestinal tissue, we investigated whether expression of curli amyloid fibrils by the invasive enteric pathogen Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium contributes to T helper 1 and T helper 17 responses by measuring cytokine production in the mouse colitis model. A csgBA mutant, deficient in curli production, elicited decreased expression of interleukin 17A (IL-17A) and IL-22 in the cecal mucosa compared to the S. Typhimurium wild type. In TLR2-deficient mice, IL-17A and IL-22 expression was blunted during S. Typhimurium infection, suggesting that activation of the TLR2 signaling pathway contributes to the expression of these cytokines. T cells incubated with supernatants from bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs) treated with curli fibrils released IL-17A in a TLR2-dependent manner in vitro. Lower levels of IL-6 and IL-23 production were detected in the supernatants of the TLR2-deficient BMDCs treated with curli fibrils. Consistent with this, three distinct T-cell populations—CD4+ T helper cells, cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, and γδ T cells—produced IL-17A in response to curli fibrils in the intestinal mucosa during S. Typhimurium infection. Notably, decreased IL-6 expression by the dendritic cells and decreased IL-23 expression by the dendritic cells and macrophages were observed in the cecal mucosa of mice infected with the curli mutant. We conclude that TLR2 recognition of bacterial amyloid fibrils in the intestinal mucosa represents a novel mechanism of immunoregulation, which contributes to the generation of inflammatory responses, including production of IL-17A and IL-22, in response to bacterial entry into the intestinal mucosa.
The value of gamma probe in the detection of epileptogenic focus

Radiol Bras. 2014 Jan/Fev;47(1):IX Even though epilepsy is known since the antiquity and, despite the great developments in the diagnosis and clinical treatment of this disease, there are still cases of refractory epilepsy to conventional antiepileptic drugs. In such cases of refractory epilepsy when an epileptogenic focus has been defined, surgery may be indicated for focus resection, if it is not located in an eloquent area. Imaging methods are routinely utilized to detect lesions that may be the cause for refractory epilepsy. In such patients, the identification of an epileptogenic focus represents a decisive factor for the indication or not of a surgery for management of the seizure. The association of structural imaging methods, such as magnetic resonance imaging, with functional methods such as SPECT (ictal and interictal) and PET plays a significant role in the identification of such lesions, allowing that many cases previously diagnosed as cryptogenic epilepsy have the disease origin defined and surgery indicated. Additionally, electroencephalography and video-encephalography data are essential to confirm the presence of abnormal electrical activity coinciding with the focal lesions identified at the imaging studies. The utilization of nuclear medicine with a gamma probe (portable gamma ray detector) is known as radioguided surgery. Such procedure modality already has its use recognized in oncology, and has changed the approach to several types of malignant neoplasms (breast, melanoma, colorectal cancer), neuroendocrine neoplasms and parathyroid surgery. The gamma probe allows the real-time obtention of essential information for the surgeon regarding the disease location and its extent besides information about margin resection.
T helper cell epitope of rabies virus nucleoprotein defined by tri‐ and tetrapeptides

T cell clones and subsequently hybridomas were generated from rabies virus‐immune C3H/He mice to an immunodominant epitope of the viral nucleoprotein, termed 31D, that had previously been identified by a 15‐amino acid‐long synthetic peptide. T cells to this epitope that by phenotypical and functional characteristics belonged to the T helper cell subset were shown to respond to most rabies and rabies‐related viruses. In order to define the minimal sequence needed to elicit a response from 31D‐specific T cell clones or hybridomas, a number of peptides of varied lengths, i.e. 3–32 amino acids long, were tested. The ability of the peptides to induce a response was inversely correlated in their lengths, i.e., short peptides (3–5 amino acids long) had to be used at 106 times higher concentrations as compared to long peptides (15 or 32 amino acids long). Conversely, the specificity of the T cell response was directly correlated to the length of the peptides, i.e., while the response to 15‐amino acid‐long peptides exhibited a high degree of specificity, the response to 3‐ to 5‐amino acid‐long peptides showed a high degree of flexibility. The long as well as the short peptides had to be presented in association with I‐Ek. We speculate that in this system the T cell receptor interacts predominantly with a peptide‐induced modification of the I‐Ek molecule.
The comparison between the serum level of interleukin-6 in women with acute ovarian torsion and other causes of lower abdominal pain

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the role of serum Interleukin-6 (IL-6) as a predictive value to make decision for surgical interventions when ovarian torsion (OT) is suspected. This study was performed on 284 women with lower abdominal pain. IL-6 levels were compared between OT (n = 67, 23.6%) and control groups (n = 217, 76.4%). For the purpose of diagnosis of OT, sensitivity and specificity of IL-6 at the cut-off point of 9.6 pg/ml were 41.79 and 82.49%, respectively. Patients with ovarian masses on ultrasound and IL-6 >9.6 pg/ml were found to be 24 times more likely to develop OT. Patients with serum IL-6 >9.6 pg/ml who lacked blood flow in ovarian Doppler ultrasound had 40.75 times higher risk of developing OT. It seems that simultaneous use of Doppler ultrasound and serum IL-6 levels can be helpful for early diagnosis of OT and making decision for surgical intervention.
Effect of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising on Asthma Medication Sales and Healthcare Use.

RATIONALE The United States is one of only two countries that permit direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs, and many questions remain regarding its effects. OBJECTIVES To quantify the association between asthma-related DTCA, pharmacy sales, and healthcare use. METHODS This was an ecological study from 2005 through 2009 using linked data from Nielsen (DTCA television ratings), the IMS Health National Prescription Audit (pharmacy sales), and the MarketScan Commercial Claims data (healthcare use) for 75 designated market areas in the United States. We used multilevel Poisson regression to model the relationship between DTCA and rates of prescriptions and use within and across designated market areas. Main outcome measures include (1) volume of total, new, and refilled prescriptions for advertised products based on pharmacy sales; (2) prescription claims for asthma medications; and asthma-related (3) emergency department use, (4) hospitalizations, and (5) outpatient encounters among the commercially insured. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Four Food and Drug Administration-approved asthma medicines were advertised during the period examined: (1) fluticasone/salmeterol (Advair), (2) mometasone furoate (Asmanex), (3) montelukast (Singulair), and (4) budesonide/formoterol (Symbicort). After adjustment, each additional televised advertisement was associated with 2% (incident rate ratio, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.03) higher pharmacy sales rate from 2005 through 2009, although this effect varied across the three consistently advertised therapies examined. Among the commercially insured, DTCA was positively and significantly associated with emergency room visits related to asthma (incident rate ratio, 1.02; 95% confidence interval, 1.01-1.04), but there was no relationship with hospitalizations or outpatient encounters. CONCLUSIONS Among this population, DTCA was associated with higher prescription sales and asthma-related emergency department use.
KCNQ1, KCNE2, and Na+-Coupled Solute Transporters Form Reciprocally Regulating Complexes That Affect Neuronal Excitability

Complexes of solute transporters and potassium channels that reciprocally regulate each other may contribute to seizure susceptibility. Stopping Seizures The activity of potassium channels limits neuronal excitability, and mutations in the regulatory subunit (KCNE2), which promotes the activity of the potassium-conducting pore (KCNQ1), are associated with increased seizure susceptibility. Abbott et al. found that SMIT1, which transports the molecule myo-inositol, associated with KCNQ1 or KCNQ1-KCNE2 complexes. When complexed with KCNE2, KCNQ1 is constitutively active. SMIT1 activity was increased in the presence of KCNQ1 but was inhibited in the presence of KCNQ1-KCNE2. SMIT1 increased the activity of both KCNQ1 and KCNQ1-KCNE2 complexes. The increased seizure activity of mice deficient in KCNE2 was attenuated by administration of myo-inositol, suggesting that a decrease in SMIT1 activity or alterations in the activity of these molecular complexes may contribute to seizure susceptibility. Na+-coupled solute transport is crucial for the uptake of nutrients and metabolic precursors, such as myo-inositol, an important osmolyte and precursor for various cell signaling molecules. We found that various solute transporters and potassium channel subunits formed complexes and reciprocally regulated each other in vitro and in vivo. Global metabolite profiling revealed that mice lacking KCNE2, a K+ channel β subunit, showed a reduction in myo-inositol concentration in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) but not in serum. Increased behavioral responsiveness to stress and seizure susceptibility in Kcne2−/− mice were alleviated by injections of myo-inositol. Suspecting a defect in myo-inositol transport, we found that KCNE2 and KCNQ1, a voltage-gated potassium channel α subunit, colocalized and coimmunoprecipitated with SMIT1, a Na+-coupled myo-inositol transporter, in the choroid plexus epithelium. Heterologous coexpression demonstrated that myo-inositol transport by SMIT1 was augmented by coexpression of KCNQ1 but was inhibited by coexpression of both KCNQ1 and KCNE2, which form a constitutively active, heteromeric K+ channel. SMIT1 and the related transporter SMIT2 were also inhibited by a constitutively active mutant form of KCNQ1. The activities of KCNQ1 and KCNQ1-KCNE2 were augmented by SMIT1 and the glucose transporter SGLT1 but were suppressed by SMIT2. Channel-transporter signaling complexes may be a widespread mechanism to facilitate solute transport and electrochemical crosstalk.
Content adaptive prediction unit size decision algorithm for HEVC intra coding

The quadtree based picture partition scheme in HEVC contributes to significant coding efficiency improvement, especially for high resolution videos. But encoding complexity also increases dramatically. This paper brings forward a two-stage prediction unit size decision algorithm to speed up the original intra coding in HEVC. In the pre-stage, texture complexity of down-sampled largest coding unit (LCU) and its four sub-blocks are analyzed according to video content, to filter out unnecessary prediction units for both the LCU and its sub-blocks. Secondly, during intra coding, prediction unit sizes of encoded neighboring blocks are utilized to skip small prediction unit candidates for current block. Experimental results show that proposed algorithm can speed up original HEVC intra coding by a factor of up to 73.7% and by averagely 44.91% for 4k×2k video sequences. Meanwhile, the peak signal-to-noise ratio degradation is less than 0.04dB and bit-rate stays almost the same compared with that of original HEVC intra coding.
IDENTIFICATION OF A ZEBRAFISH MODEL OF MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY

1. Large‐scale mutagenic screens of the zebrafish genome have identified a number of different classes of mutations that disrupt skeletal muscle formation. Of particular interest and relevance to human health is a class of recessive lethal mutations in which muscle differentiation occurs normally, but is followed by tissue‐specific degeneration reminiscent of human muscular dystrophies.
Plasma reactivity to hexagonal II phase phosphatidylethanolamine is more frequently associated with lupus anticoagulant than with antiphosphatidylethanolamine antibodies.

In membranes, phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) is usually in a lamellar phase, but it can also adopt a hexagonal II phase (HexII PE), which has been demonstrated to be immunogenic in mice and has recently been used in a new clotting assay to detect lupus anticoagulant (LA). A population of 58 patients susceptible of having LA or antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLA), was screened for reactivity to HexII PE using the new clotting assay and for the presence of anti-PE antibodies (aPEA) using ELISA. The patients could be classified as follows: 26 systemic lupus erythematosus, 14 primary antiphospholipid syndromes and 18 miscellaneous non autoimmune disorders. HexII PE reactivity was detected in 22 patients. It was significantly more often associated with LA-positivity (20/29) than with LA-negativity (2/29), (p < 0.0001). However, 9 patients with LA had negative HexII PE assays. Anti-PE antibodies were detected by ELISA in only 12% of the cases. No correlation was observed between the distribution of aPEA and that of HexII PE reactivity. Interestingly, 2 LA- and aPLA-negative patients exhibited HexII PE reactivity. The absence of identity between the distribution of HexII PE reactivity and that of either LA or aPEA indicates that this new assay has its own specificity. It might detect antibodies to the immunogenic hexagonal PE and may therefore have a broader scope than that proposed initially. Although in the studied populations, no significant relationship could be found between HexII PE positivity and clinical complications (thrombosis and/or recurrent fetal losses), it might be associated with other complications of the antiphospholipid syndrome. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Self-Tuning Underwater Image Restoration

A self-tuning image restoration filter based on a simplified version of the Jaffe-McGlamery underwater image formation model is presented. Optimal values of the filter parameters are estimated automatically for each individual image by optimizing a quality criterion based on a global contrast measure. The simplified model is ideally suitable for diffuse-light imaging with limited backscatter, but qualitative tests show good performance in a variety of imaging conditions. In addition, quantitative tests with a large number of frames from six real mission videos indicate a substantial performance improvement when restoration is used as a preprocessor for a classifier detecting man-made objects in unconstrained subsea videos
Fluid Shear Stress Increases the Intra-cellular Storage Pool of Tissue-type Plasminogen Activator in Intact Human Conduit Vessels

Summary We investigated the effect of shear stress on the expression of tissuetype plasminogen activator (t-PA) in intact human conduit vessels. Human umbilical veins were exposed to high or low shear stress (25 vs < 4 dyn/cm2) at identical intraluminal pressure (20 mmHg) for 1.5, 3, and 6 h in a new computerized biomechanical perfusion system. High shear perfusion induced a marked, time-dependent increase in t-PA immunostaining in both the endothelium and the media. t-PA relative to GAPDH gene expression increased by 54 ± 14% in highcompared to low-sheared vessels (p = 0.002). By contrast, t-PA release into the perfusion medium was similar in vessels perfused under high or low shear stress conditions. The results show that shear stress independently of pressure is a potent fluid mechanical stimulus for upregulation of the intracellular storage pool of t-PA in the vascular wall of fresh human conduit vessels. The shear effect is associated with an increased t-PA gene expression.