Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characterization of the Immunoregulatory Function of Human TCRαβ+ CD4-CD8- Double-Negative T Cells

Abstract 2776 Regulatory T (Treg) cells have been shown to be involved in downregulating immune responses in autoimmunity, transplant rejection, and graft-versus-host disease. Moreover, the important role of Treg cells in tumor progression has also been extensively investigated and Treg-mediated immune suppression has emerged as a crucial mechanism of tumor evasion. Recently, a novel subset of TCRαβ+ CD4−CD8− (double-negative, DN) T cells has been characterized to specifically suppress immune responses in mice. Here we demonstrate that human DN T cells belong to the family of inducible Treg cells with potent suppressor activity towards CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses. Resting DN T cells failed to suppress responder cells, whereas antigen presenting cell (APC)-stimulated DN T-cells and freshly isolated CD4+CD25+ Treg cells revealed a strong suppressive activity. Of importance, when more potent stimulators such as allogeneic dendritic cells were used for activation of responder T cells, CD4+CD25+ Treg cells were unable to mediate any suppressor function, while APC-primed DN T cells were still able to suppress. The suppressive activity of DN T cells is neither mediated indirectly by modulation of APCs nor by competition for T-cell growth factors. Furthermore, DN T-cell mediated suppression towards responder T cells requires cell-cell contact and is TCR dependent. Based on the importance of Treg cells in tumor immunity, we determined the frequency of circulating DN T cells in patients with malignant diseases. Of interest, the DN T-cell pool revealed an increased frequency in cancer patients compared to healthy controls, indicating that these suppressor cells might limit tumor-specific T-cell responses and thereby impair tumor immunosurveillance. Taken together, our results demonstrate that human DN T cells are a new subset of inducible Treg cells exerting a very potent suppressive activity towards cellular immune responses. Further understanding of the mechanisms involved in human DN T-cell suppression may have important implications for novel immunotherapies. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Bacterial Profile and Antimicrobial Susceptibility Pattern of Urinary Tract Infection among Women attending at CIMS, Bhopal

Purpose: Determine the bacterial profile of urinary tract infection (UTI) and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern among women attending at Career Institute of Medical Science, Bhopal. Patients and methods: Study was conducted from January 18, 2018 to December 25, 2018. For this study clean-catch midstream urine specimens were collected from 186 women using sterile containers. Then, culture and antimicrobial susceptibility tests were performed by standard disk diffusion method. Results: Escherichia coli, Staphylococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Klebsiella spp. were common gram negative bacterial isolates, antimicrobial susceptibility tests show that most of the gram negative bacteria were resistant against ampicillin, tetracycline, cefeperazone-sulbactam and chloramphenicol and sensitive to amikacin, aztreonam, ciprofloxacin, nitrofurantoin, doripenam and imipenal. In case of gram positive bacteria were resistance against Polymixen-B, Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin and gentamycin and sensitive to Doxycycline, Minocycline, Linezolid, Teicoplanine, Tigycycline, Vancomycin, Ertapanum and tetracycline. Conclusion: In this study the overall prevalence of UTI was 14% among women. Study recommends that the early detection of causative agent of UTI and determining their drug susceptibility pattern in women will help to ensure adequate treatment of UTI and to prevent its further complication.
Development and pretesting of culturally appropriate nutrition education materials and messages for low income Latina immigrants of Guilford County

The purpose of this study was to develop and pre-test culturally appropriate, theoretically-based nutrition education materials targeting low-income Latina immigrant caretakers in Guilford County, North Carolina. Six focus groups and three household interviews were held with low-income Latina caretakers (N=20 women total) to identify key areas of interest, preferences, and concerns regarding their family’s diet. Sessions were conducted by a bicultural, bilingual community interviewer using a semi-structured question guide. Interviews were conducted in Spanish, tape recorded, transcribed and translated. Content analysis identified common themes. A response was considered a “theme” if mentioned greater than five times by different participants. Many women reported they cannot identify healthy foods when shopping and wanted tips about how to do so. The most common challenge reported was persuading children to eat vegetables. Most requested healthy recipes that are child-friendly and include serving size information. Spanish translated, colorful recipe cards or brochures were the most requested materials. Many wanted healthier recipes for traditional Hispanic dishes. These findings indicate that this low income group is very interested in providing healthy foods to their families and want the skills to do so. Thus, results were used to develop nutrition education messages and materials based on the Social Cognitive Theory. Materials were pretested with the target audience (N= 6) and revised accordingly. This project was funded by the NC Agricultural Research Service.
Validity and Reliability of the Daily Living Self-Efficacy Scale in Subacute Geriatric Rehabilitation

Abstract Aim: To examine the reliability and validity of the Daily Living Self-Efficacy Scale (DLSES) with patients participating in subacute geriatric rehabilitation. Methods: A prospective single-center cohort study of 151 patients was completed. Construct validity, convergent validity and internal consistency reliability were examined. Results: Cronbach’s α for the DLSES and the activities of daily living and psychosocial subscale were 0.73, 0.72 and 0.75, respectively, demonstrating sufficient evidence of internal consistency reliability. Principal components analysis established construct validity as three components with eigenvalues exceeding 1 (eigenvalues = 3.20, 1.31, 1.23) were generated, accounting for 63.69% of the variance in self-efficacy. Convergent validity was indicated as the DLSES was significantly positively correlated with the Cognitive Functional Independent Measure with r = 0.196 (p ≤ 0.001). Conclusion: This research has provided initial evidence for the reliability and validity of the DLSES with a general geriatric subacute rehabilitation population.
Enhancing tristetraprolin activity reduces the severity of cigarette smoke‐induced experimental chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease that causes significant mortality and morbidity worldwide and is primarily caused by the inhalation of cigarette smoke (CS). Lack of effective treatments for COPD means there is an urgent need to identify new therapeutic strategies for the underlying mechanisms of pathogenesis. Tristetraprolin (TTP) encoded by the Zfp36 gene is an anti‐inflammatory protein that induces mRNA decay, especially of transcripts encoding inflammatory cytokines, including those implicated in COPD.
Short- and long-term safety with sunitinib in an expanded access trial in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC)

5114 Background: Sunitinib malate is an oral, multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor of VEGFRs and PDGFRs that has demonstrated substantial antitumor activity in the first- and second-line mRCC settings (JAMA 2006;295:2516; NEJM 2007;356:115). Here, we present an analysis of safety for patients (pts) with < 6 months (“short term”) and ≥ 6 months (“long term”) of sunitinib use in an ongoing, international, open-label expanded access trial in first- and second-line mRCC. Methods: The purpose of this trial was to provide sunitinib prior to regulatory approval to mRCC pts without access to study drug due to trial ineligibility or other reasons; thus, eligibility criteria were minimized to broaden enrollment. Pts ≥18 yrs with histologically-confirmed mRCC received sunitinib 50 mg orally, once-daily in 6-wk cycles (4 wks on treatment, 2 wks off). Results: As of December 2007, 4,616 pts had been enrolled, with data available for 3,997 pts. Of those pts with data, 1,913 (48%) were short-term and 2,084 (52%) were.
Bir Kargo Firmasının Ek Taleplerinin Karşılanması için Kısıtlar Kuramı Yaklaşımı Uygulaması

Bayram, yilbasi ve diger tatil sezonlari oncesinde kargo firmalarina olan taleplerde artis oldugu gozlenmektedir. Mevcut personel ve ekipmanlarla bu taleplere cevap verilmekte zorluk yasandigindan kisitlar kurami yaklasimi ile gereksiz surecler ortadan kaldirilarak surecin hiz kazanmasi saglanacak ve bu sekilde taleplere cevap verebilmek mumkun olacaktir. Bu calismanin amaci kargo firmalarinin bu yogun donemlerde ortaya cikan ek talepleri optimizasyonu bozmayacak sekilde karsilayabilmeleri icin alternatif planlar gelistirmektir. Bu cercevede arastirmaya konu olan kargo firmasinin yoneticileri ile yuz yuze gorusmeler saglanmis, surecin isleyisi ile ilgili derinlemesine arastirmalar yapilmistir. Bu noktada gercege en yakin degerlendirmeler yapilarak elde edilen arastirma sonuclari dogrultusunda bu firmalarin ek talepleri karsilayabilmeleri icin alternatif cozum onerileri sunulmasi acisindan bu calisma diger calismalardan farklilik gostermektedir. Sonuc olarak bu calismanin yogun donemlerde ek taleplere cevap vermekte zorluk yasayan firmalara aydinlatici bir bakis acisi sunacagi dusunulmektedir.
Ageing the elderly: A new approach to the estimation of the age‐at‐death distribution from skeletal remains

This study reports on the use of a proportional measure to estimate the age ‐ at ‐ death distribution of an assemblage and, when combined with a seriation method, addition-ally estimate the age ‐ at ‐ death of individuals. Traditional methods of estimating age ‐ at ‐ death suffer from a number of issues, including decreasing accuracy with increasing age, age mimicry of the reference population, and difficulty balancing accuracy with precision. A new method is proposed for estimating the age ‐ at ‐ death distribution of middle and older adults. As the age ‐ at ‐ death distribution is significantly impacted by the fertility rate, it was hypothesised that the D0 ‐ 14/D ratio (the number of individuals who died aged 0 – 14 years divided by the total population; an indi-cator of fertility) may be able to estimate the proportion of individuals that might be expected to die in each five ‐ year age group over 35 years. The method permits the estimation of individual age when used in conjunction with seriation methods and the age ‐ at ‐ death distribution of a population. The method is tested on two samples of known age, the Spitalfields crypt and St Thomas' Church cemetery collections and found to provide greater accuracy over previously applied methods.
Performance of the Pediatric Sequential Organ Failure Assessment Score in Assessing the Prognosis of Children with Sepsis in A PICU of A Developing Country: A Single-Center Retrospective Observational Study

Background: The Third International Consensus Deﬁnitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (Sepsis 3) was based on the sequential organ failure assessment (SOFA) score. Matics and Sanchez-Pinto contrived a SOFA score designed speciﬁcally for pediatric patients (pSOFA) to evaluate the prognosis of children with sepsis according to the degree of organ dysfunction. Objectives: Theaimof ourstudywastoevaluatethepredictivevalidityof thepSOFAforin-hospitalmortalityinchildrenwithsepsis in a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) of a developing country. Methods: This was a single-center retrospective observational study. The data of 516 children diagnosed with sepsis according to the2005InternationalPediatricSepsisConsensusConferencewasretrospectivelyanalyzed. Thepatientsweredividedintosurvivor group and non-survivor group according to the clinical outcome of 28 days after admission. The variables of pSOFA score, PELOD-2 score and P-MODS were collected and scored. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was plotted; the eﬃciency of the pSOFA score for predicting death was evaluated by the area under ROC curve (AUC). Results: ROC curve analysis showed that the AUCs of the pSOFA score, PELOD-2 score and P-MODS predicting the prognosis of children with sepsis in a PICU of a developing country were 0.937, 0.916, and 0.761, respectively (all P < 0.05). Conclusions: ThepSOFAscoreiseﬀectiveandhastheabilitytoassesstheprognosisof childrenwithsepsisinaPICUof adeveloping country.
Characteristics of victims of non-ischemic sudden cardiac death

A non-ischemic etiology of sudden cardiac death (SCD), mostly due to various cardiomyopathies (CMP), accounts for about 20% of all SCDs. Most of the major studies of risk factors for SCD have focused on coronary artery disease (CAD). The aim of the present study was to clarify the characteristics of non-ischemic SCD in Northern Finland. In this study, consecutive victims of SCD (n=2661) were prospectively collected, and among whom post-mortem examinations were performed between 1998 and 2007. Information about the SCD victims was obtained from a combination of available medical records, postmortem examination reports, medication used at the time of SCD, and standardized questionnaire filled out by the closest family members of the victims of SCD. We also screened the candidate genes from a Finnish family in which fatal arrhythmias was first manifestation of a cardiac disease. The collagen content of the myocardium from histological samples in victims of SCD due to idiopathic myocardial fibrosis (IMF) was also evaluated. CAD was the most common cause of death (2082 victims, 78.2%). The prevalence of nonischemic SCDs was 21.8% of all the SCDs. After sub-grouping the non-ischemic SCDs into various categories, the most common cause of death was CMP related to obesity (23.7%), followed by alcoholic CMP (19.0%), hypertensive CMP (15.5%) and IMF (13.6%). The association of SCD with IMF is notably frequent among victims <40 years old (28.3%). The prevalence of family history of SCD was significantly higher in the victims of ischemic (34.2%) than non-ischemic SCD (13.4%, P<0.001) or controls (17.6%, P<0.001). Lamin A/C gene mutation R541C was found from Finnish SCD family, in which the IMF was predominant pathologic-anatomic finding. Myocardial type I collagen synthesis was increased in victims of SCD due to IMF. In conclusion, the characteristics of non-ischemic SCD in Finland differ from those reported previously. Higher prevalences of CMP-associated SCDs related to obesity, IMF and alcoholic CMP were observed as clinical and/or pathologic bases for non-ischemic SCD. The family history of SCD is not significantly increased in victims of non-ischemic SCD, suggesting a larger role of sporadic occurrence than inherited traits as the cause of non-ischemic SCD. Replacement of cardiac myocytes by fibrosis can be responsible for fatal cardiac arrhythmias in subjects with the lamin A/C gene mutation. The victims of SCD due to IMF have increased myocardial type I collagen synthesis.
Trial design and baseline characteristics of CaLIPSO: a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial of SNF472 in patients receiving haemodialysis with cardiovascular calcification

Abstract Background The objective of CaLIPSO, a Phase 2b, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, is to test the hypothesis that myo-inositol hexaphosphate (SNF472) attenuates the progression of cardiovascular calcification in patients receiving maintenance haemodialysis. Here we report the trial design and baseline characteristics of trial participants. Methods Adult patients on maintenance haemodialysis (≥6 months) with an Agatston coronary artery calcium score, as measured by a multidetector computed tomography scanner, of 100–3500 U were enrolled. Patients were stratified by Agatston score (100–<400, 400–1000 or >1000 U) and randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive placebo, SNF472 300 mg or SNF472 600 mg administered intravenously three times weekly during each haemodialysis session. Results Overall, 274 patients were randomized. The mean age of trial participants was 63.6 (standard deviation 8.9) years and 39% were women. The coronary artery, aorta and aortic valve median (25th-75th percentile) Agatston scores at baseline were 730 U (315–1435), 1728 U (625–4978) and 103 U (31–262), respectively, and the median (25th–75th percentile) calcium volume scores at baseline were 666 (310–1234), 1418 (536–4052) and 107 (38–278), respectively. Older age and diabetes mellitus were associated with higher calcium scores at baseline. Conclusions The CaLIPSO trial enrolled patients on haemodialysis with pre-existent cardiovascular calcification to test the hypothesis that SNF472 attenuates its progression in the coronary arteries, aorta and aortic valve.
Effect of adjuvant zoledronic acid (ZOL) on disseminated tumor cells (DTC) in the bone marrow (BM) of women with early-stage breast cancer (ESBC): Updated results.

1002 Background: DTC are associated with increased risk of distant recurrence and death in patients (pts) with ESBC, especially if present after adjuvant chemotherapy (AT). Bisphosphonates (BP) including clodronate and ZOL have demonstrated anti-tumor activity in several clinical trials. We designed a pilot study to evaluate the effect of ZOL on DTC in pts with ESBC and DTC following AT. We hypothesized that ZOL would reduce DTC which could serve as a surrogate marker of anti-tumor effect. Methods: Pts with stage I-III BC were evaluated for DTC with a unilateral BM aspiration after neoadjuvant or AT. Eligibility was defined as > 4 DTC/mL w/in 12 wks of study entry, defined as > 2.5 standard deviations above that found in 50 normal BMs (Park, Proc ASCO 2002). Pts received 4 mg of ZOL IV monthly for 24 months (mos). Concomitant hormonal therapy was allowed. Serum creatinine (Cr) and toxicity were evaluated monthly, urinary n-telopeptide (nTX) was measured at 0, 2, 4, 6, 12, and 24 mos, peripheral blood circ.
Assessing the accuracy of ICD-10 coding for measuring rates of and mortality from acute kidney injury and the impact of electronic alerts: an observational cohort study

Abstract Background The application of a uniform definition for acute kidney injury (AKI) is vital to advance understanding and management of AKI. International Classification of Diseases (Tenth Revision) (ICD-10) coding is frequently used to define AKI, but its accuracy is unclear. The aim of this study was to determine whether ICD-10 coding is a reliable method of monitoring rates and outcomes of AKI in inpatients compared with biochemically defined AKI, and whether electronic alerts (e-alerts) for AKI affect ICD-10 AKI coding. Methods An observational cohort study of all 505 662 adult admissions to acute hospitals in two Scottish Health Boards [National Health Service (NHS) Tayside and NHS Fife] from January 2013 to April 2017 was performed. AKI e-alerts were implemented in NHS Tayside in April 2015. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of ICD-10 coding for AKI compared with biochemically defined AKI using the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes definition and relative risk of 30-day mortality in people with ICD-10 and biochemically defined AKI before and after AKI e-alert implementation were performed. Results Sensitivity of ICD-10 coding for identifying biochemically defined AKI was very poor in both health boards for all AKI (Tayside 25.7% and Fife 35.8%) and for Stages 2 and 3 AKI (Tayside 43.8% and Fife 53.8%). Positive predictive value was poor both for all AKI (Tayside 76.1% and Fife 45.5%) and for Stages 2 and 3 AKI (Tayside 45.5% and Fife 36.8%). Measured mortality fell following implementation of AKI e-alerts in the ICD-10-coded population but not in the biochemically defined AKI population, reflecting an increase in the proportion of Stage 1 AKI in ICD-10-coded AKI. There was no evidence that the introduction of AKI e-alerts in Tayside improved ICD-10 coding of AKI. Conclusion ICD-10 coding should not be used for monitoring of rates and outcomes of AKI for either research or improvement programmes.
Acoustic analysis of fricatives in dysarthric speakers with cerebral
 palsy

This study acoustically examines the quality of fricatives produced by ten dysarthric speakers with cerebral palsy. Previous similar studies tend to focus only on sibilants, but to obtain a better understanding of how dysarthria affects fricatives we selected a range of samples with different places of articulation and voicing. The Universal Access (UA) Speech database was used to select thirteen words beginning with one of the English fricatives (/f/, /v/, /s/, /z/, /ʃ/, /ð/). The following four measurements were taken for both dysarthric and healthy speakers: phoneme duration, mean spectral peak, variance and skewness. Results show that even speakers with mild dysarthria have significantly longer fricatives and a lower mean spectral peak than healthy speakers. Furthermore, mean spectral peak and variance showed significant group effects for both healthy and dysarthric speakers. Mean spectral peak and variance was also useful for discriminating several places of articulation for both groups. Lastly, spectral measurements displayed important group differences when taking severity into account. These findings show that in general there is a degradation in the production of fricatives for dysarthric speakers, but difference will depend on the severity of dysarthria along with the type of measurement taken.
Study of the effect of the phenolic extract of the Urtica dioica the level of Des-gamma-prothrombin after treatment with carbon tetrachloride

The present study was conducted on 90 males of Wistar rat weightings (190-300 g), aged (15-17) weeks, at the animal house faculty of science / university of Kufa during the period from December 2016 to July 2017. This study included some physiological to evaluate the protective role of phenolic extract of Urtica dioica leaves (250 and 500 mg/kg ) against hepatotoxicity induced by carbon tetrachloride. The animals experimetal are divided into 22 groups (n=5 rats per each group) for duration of two and three months. The results showed a significant increase (P⩽0.05) in serum levels of biomarker proteins (Des gamma carboxy prothrombin) in carbon tetrachloride groups as compared with the control group. A significant decrease (P⩽0.05) in the serum levels of biomarker proteins (Des gamma carboxy prothrombin) in groups treated with phenolic extract of Urtica dioica as compared with carbon tetrachloride group. The present study concluded that phenolic extract of Urtica dioica leaves had a protective effect on hepatotoxicity in carbon tetrachloride induced group.