Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the round block technique in early breast cancer

Introduction Conservative surgery has become a well-established alternative to mastectomy in the treatment of breast cancer. However, in case of larger lesions or small-sized breasts, the removal of adequate volumes of breast tissue to achieve tumor-free margins and reducing the risk of local relapse may compromise the cosmetic outcome, causing unpleasant results. To address this issue, surgical techniques, the so-called oncoplastic techniques, have been introduced in recent years to optimize the efficacy of conservative surgery in terms of both local control and cosmetic results. Patients and methods A Clinical Interventional descriptive single arm randomized prospective study, conducted on twenty female patients presenting with operable breast cancer stages 1 and 2 located at the Upper or Central breast. Ages ranging 25 to 75 years to be treated using the “round block” technique. Results Cosmetic results were found to be excellent in three cases, good in eight cases, fair in five cases, and poor in two cases. In this study, the cosmetic results were unacceptable (fair and poor) in patients who underwent 25% resection or in whom the resected area was part of the lower portion of the breast. Conclusion These techniques are useful for performing breast-conserving surgery in the upper portion of the breast. However, if the excision volume is greater than 20% or excision of part of the lower portion of the breast is required, other procedures should be considered. This article discusses the indications, advantages, and limitations of the round block breast-conserving oncoplastic techniques and its results in terms of feasibility, maintaining breast esthetics, limitations, and early complications.
Highest level of division in classification of organisms. 3. Monodermata and Didermata

: The deepening our knowledge and embrassing the larger array of the investigated organisms leads to replacement of typological classifications with phylogenetic ones. This process seems to be the main stream of modern systematics. But typological classifications have not lost the value, remaining the important tool of the description of phylogeny. It is especially obvious today when molecular reconstructions are using so widely. However resulted phylogenetic classifications are difficult for understandable interpretation. Therefore phylogeneticist is interested in elaboration of typological classifications that can help to explain the results. As an example the phylogenetic classifications of organisms proposed recently by Cavalier-Smith (1998, 2002) and Gupta (1998, 2000) are considered. The modified system of Gupta is the most adequate description of organism phylogeny. Basal clostridia and togobacteria have to the greatest degree kept features of a common ancestor of organisms. From this common ancestor evolution spread by two phyletic lines. One of them included Gram-negative bacteria. The main groups of them have branched of from a common ancestor in the following order: (Deinococci, Chloroflexi) --> (Cyanobacteria) --> (Chlamydia, CFB, Fibrobacteria, Chlorobia) --> (Aquificae) --> --> (Epsilonproteobacteria, Deltaproteobacteria) --> (Alfaproteobacteria) --> (Betaproteobacteria) --> --> (Gammaproteobacteria). In other phyletic line the main groups were separated in the following order: (Thermotogae) --> (Clostridia, Fusobacteria) --> (Bacillae) --> (Actinobacteria). Exact position of archaebacteria and eukaryotes related to this line remains unclear. Typological division of organisms into Didermata and Monodermata (Gupta, 1998) corresponds to these two branches of a cladogram. The cell of the diderm organisms is covered with two membranes, plasmatic and outer. The cell of the monoderm organisms has only one plasmatic membrane. Development of the cellular organization at the earliest stages of evolution of a life went through use of non-lamellar (non-bilayer) lipids which could give a cell with one membrane (not two membranes as in the scenario of Cavalier-Smith (2001)). Membranes appeared at the earliest stages of the evolution of life. Therefore their distinction is quite logical to take as a principle the first typological division of organisms. At the same time the typological classifications considered beyond the framework of phylogenetics, have no independent value. Typological classifications do not give monothetic division into groups. Always there are exceptions. So, among Monodermata there are Gram-negative forms (Acidaminococcaceae, Syntrophomonadaceae, some Thermoanaerobacteriaceae), which are didermic.
Rural parents’ beliefs about healthy eating

Objectives: This study explored US rural parents’ perceived facilitators, challenges and motivators to healthy eating. Methods: Qualitative and purposive sampling was used to recruit one hundred (N = 100) parents of children enrolled in the fourth grade to participate in a series of focus group sessions. Eligibility criteria included being the head of the household and having a child enrolled in the fourth grade. Parents were questioned about factors impacting everyday lifestyle practices such as nutrition knowledge and eating habits. Data were analysed using grounded theory and constant comparative method. Results: Twelve focus groups sessions were conducted with parents who self-identified as African American (63%), Hispanic (25%) and Caucasian 2%. The majority (52%) of participants indicated they only had some high school education. Healthy eating among parents was highly dependent on socioeconomic status, time, availability and access to foods. Facilitators to healthy eating were school lunch programmes, nutrition education and family preferences. Findings demonstrate that parents tried to eat meals at home, but many factors (fear of genetically modified foods, money and time) prevented healthy eating and food preparation. Parents who consumed or prepared meals at home did so because of family influence and the fear of being unhealthy. Conclusion and implications: This study provides an in-depth understanding of rural parents’ efforts to promote healthy eating at home regardless of socioeconomic challenges.
Predictors of mortality in patients of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A prospective observational study

Background: Acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) result in increased morbidity, mortality and tremendous socioeconomic burden. Predicting inhospital mortality may aid prognostication, planning for the site of care, i.e., ward versus intensive care units, and better individualization of treatment. Aim of Study: This study aims in predicting inhospital mortality in patients of AECOPD based on the parameters measured at the time of admission. Methods: Known COPD patients in acute exacerbations admitted in a tertiary care hospital were interrogated for clinical history and examination. All relevant laboratory tests including arterial blood gas analysis, complete blood count, liver and renal function tests, and random blood sugar were done. Based on outcome, patients were grouped into survivors and nonsurvivors. Parameters recorded were then subjected for univariate analysis to get their statistical significance. All significant variables on univariate analysis were then analyzed further with multivariate analysis. Results: Out of the total 140 patients included in the study, 24 (17%) died during their hospital stay. Of the various acute-phase parameters recorded at the time of the admission, only five qualified to be predictors of inhospital mortality based on univariate and multivariate analyses. These were partial pressure of carbon dioxide in arterial blood (PaCO2) (odds ratio [OR], 95% confidence interval [CI] =1.067, 0.993–1.146), pH (OR, 95% CI = 0.001, 0.001–0.584), serum glutamic pyruvate transaminase (SGPT) (OR, 95% CI = 1.032, 1.006–1.059), sodium (OR, 95% CI = 0.779, 0.689–0.881), and random blood sugar (OR, 95% CI = 1.018, 1.007–1.029). With these five factors combined, area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was 0.9684, sensitivity 79.18%, specificity 96.55%, positive predictive value 82.61%, negative predictive value 95.73%, and correctly classify acute exacerbation in 93.57%. Good survival can be expected if these parameters are within normal limits. Conclusion: pH, PaCO2, SGPT, serum sodium, and random blood sugar at the time of admission are independent predictors of mortality in patients of AECOPD. These can be helpful in developing a prediction tool of inhospital mortality in such patients.
De l’usage du polymorphisme de répétitions en tandem pour l’étude des populations bactériennes : mise au point et validation d’un système de génotypage automatisé utilisant la technique de MLVA

Les especes bacteriennes exhibent plusieurs etats de structure de populations pouvant varier de clonale a panmictique selon l'importance des transferts horizontaux et la nature de leur ecosysteme. Dans mon travail de these, je me suis interesse a trois especes bacteriennes, Staphylococcus aureus, Legionella pneumophila et Pseudomonas aeruginosa qui refletent trois situations differentes. Afin de pouvoir decrire de facon rapide de grandes collections de souches, j'ai utilise comme marqueurs de diversite le polymorphisme de sequences repetees en tandem appelees VNTRs, pour Variable Number Tandem Repeat. La methode MLVA, ou Multiple Loci VNTR Analysis, est une methode de typage moleculaire qui s’appuie sur l’etude concomitante du polymorphisme de plusieurs loci VNTRs. Dans un premier temps, j'ai concu des protocoles de typage automatises pour les trois especes considerees, puis j'ai applique ces outils pour traiter de questions d'epidemiologie. S. aureus, espece a structure clonale, est un pathogene majeur responsable notamment de toxi-infections alimentaires collectives (TIAC). Les travaux realises ont permis de demontrer la specificite d’hote de certains complexes clonaux et l’origine humaine des cas de TIAC. L. pneumophila est un pathogene de l’environnement dont la structure de population est atypique : presumee panmictique dans la nature, la bacterie semble connaitre une evolution clonale lorsque son ecosysteme est restreint, dans un milieu anthropique par exemple. L’etude epidemiologique menee sur la population de L. pneumophila dans la ville de Rennes a mis en evidence la presence d’un ecotype, non implique dans les cas cliniques epidemiques, particulierement adapte aux reseaux d’eau. P. aeruginosa, modele de bacterie panmictique, colonise les bronches de patients atteints de mucoviscidose. Le suivi longitudinal de patients indique que les souches installees sont persistantes et quasi-exclusive de la niche qu’elles occupent. L’exploration de cette diversite du monde bacterien est un prealable a l’investigation epidemiologique des maladies infectieuses. Avec un meme outil moleculaire de premiere intention, cette these retrace l’epidemiologie et la structure de trois especes bacteriennes tres differentes. L’adaptation a un nouvel environnement (hote animal, niche ecologique, organe) est l'occasion d'expansions clonales.
Gene expression in the development of multidrug resistance

Molecular processes involved in the development of malignancy have a role to play in the establishment of the multidrug resistant (MDR) phenotype. Analysis of oncogene expression, at the mRNA level using RT-PCR, in resistant variants of the human squamous lung cell line, DLKP, and the human ovarian carcinoma cell line, OAW42, was carried out in this study. Analysis of gene expression, by RT-PCR and in situ hybridisation, on tumours from breast cancer patients was also carried out on fresh and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue. Altered expression of c-erbB-2, c-Ha-rov, c-myc and c-fos and the bcl-2 family members, bclxL and bax, were seen in resistant variants of the DLKP cell line developed by continuous exposure to adriamycin, carboplatin and VP-16. Ribozyme technology was used to downregulate the expression of the c-fos gene in the adriamycin-selected variant, DLKP-A, and the effect on adriamycin toxicity was analysed. Drug-resistant cell lines developed by continuous exposure to drug for prolonged periods are frequently resistant to drug concentrations above those achieved in the clinic. As patients can develop drug resistance after only a few courses of chemotherapy, a more clinicallly relevant in vitro model of drug resistance was developed in this thesis by pulse exposure of clonal populations of DLKP, DLKP-SQ and DLKP-I, to clinically attainable levels of adriamycin for a short period of time. The resulting resistant variants, DLKP-SQ/A25010p and DLKPI/ A25010p, exhibited a classical MDR phenotype in that increased resistance to adriamycin, vincristine and VP-16 was demonstrated. However, no alteration in 5-fluorouracil sensitivity was seen. The cell lines were found to over-express the mdrJ gene and decreased adriamycin accumulation was observed in the resistant variants. Characterisation of the resistant variant of DLKP-SQ revealed increased expression, using RT-PCR, of the bcl-xL, bax, c-erbB-2 and c-fos genes relative to the sensitive parental line. To counter-act the effect of bcl-xL over-expression in the DLKP-SQ/A25010p, the antagonistic bcl-xs gene was introduced into the resistant cell line, which resulted in increased sensitivity to adriamycin, VP-16 and vincristine but not to 5-fluorouracil. Attempts were made throughout the course of this thesis to determine the initialising events in the establishment of the MDR phenotype in the pulse-selected model. Results found indicate that bcl-xL and c-fos may be important initialising events in this process. Molecular studies of gene expression pattern in the pulse-selected variant of DLKP-SQ suggested that this may be a novel system amenable to the search for inhibitors of resistance development. Initial studies have been carried out in this thesis to determine if known inhibitors/circumventors of the MDR phenotype or oncogene signalling cascades affected the development of resistance using the DLKP-SQ model.
Rôle de la signalisation purinergique dans la régulation de la migration des kératinocytes

The epidermis is a stratified tissue, mainly composed of keratinocytes, that forms the first barrier of the organism. When skin injury occurs, the epidermis structure is altered and many signalling pathways are activated in order to re-establish its homeostasis. Among these signalling pathways, the PI3K and MAPK ERK1/2 pathways play key roles by controlling keratinocyte migration and proliferation. The aim of this thesis was to analyse the regulation of these two signalling pathways by extracellular nucleotides, acting through purinergic receptors P2Y2 and the heterotrimeric Gαq protein and to evaluate the impact of this receptor on keratinocyte migration. Firstly, we showed that P2Y2 receptor activation inhibits PI3K p110α isoform and consequently alters keratinocyte cell shape and migration. Additionally, we showed that purinergic signalling activation inhibits EGF-induced ERK1/2 pathway activation by inhibiting the phosphorylation of MEK1/2, ERK1/2 and p90RSK proteins. As a consequence, P2Y2 stabilizes α6β4 integrin localisation into hemidesmosome-like structures and inhibits keratinocyte migration. The involvement of purinergic signalling pathway in regulation of different signalling events suggests that it may play a central role in regulation of cellular events that occurred during skin wound healing process. Moreover, our present data in association with those of the literature show that extracellular nucleotides can act as a double-edged sword in the regulation of cell migration: either activate or block cell migration in a striking cell-specific manner.
Polymorphism of insulin like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP3) partial gene in mithun

A fragment of 652 bp corresponding to exon–2–3 of IGFBP3 gene was amplified in 90 mithun (Bos frontalis). The PCR- RFLP analysis showed the absence of polymorphism in this fragment with respect to HinfI restriction enzyme and showed only 2 restriction sites, which produced 3 fragments of 314, 206 and 132 bp (AA genotype). Six single nucleotide differences viz. T34C, C164G, T175C, A354G, T599C and G614A existed in mithun sequences when compared to cattle. The neocleotide and amino acid sequence homology between them was 98.2 and 100% respectively. Mithun had minimum deviation from cattle with respect to nucleotide as well as amino acid sequences. The sequence of the amplicon, which was the first report on mithun IGFBP3, was submitted to GenBank (Accession number EF686017).
Molecular analysis of microbial communities from oil industry environments

The effects of microbiologically influenced corrosion (MIC) can be very expensive to correct, dangerous to workers and its mechanisms are poorly understood. Understanding these processes is important so that they can be monitored and mitigated (Koch et al., 2001). It is now accepted that for the assessment of biocorrosion risks, the most powerful approach is to detect functional genes encoding the enzymes that play an important part in material deterioration (Schadt et al., 2004). The main aim of this study was to identify the microbial community present in corroded and non-corroded systems, and to detect genes that might be implicated in corrosion processes, particularly iron corrosion, so that a biochip could be designed for risk assessment of oil environments. In this thesis the microbial populations and their actives were assessed using sequencing and hybridisation techniques for three oil field sites, generating information that can help identify MIC risk. The final section of the thesis describes the development and design of functional gene probes, identified from hybridisation studies that might be included in a biochip for risk assessment in oil field environments. Microbial groups known to be involved in MIC, such as sulphate-reducing procaryota, iron-reducing bacteria, nitrate-reducing bacteria, hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria were detected, according to their 16S rRNA gene sequence, in the water injection system and production pipelines. In addition to these expected groups, sequences for Firmicutes, acetogens and methanogens were detected. Firmicutes, primarily Clostridium species, and Synergistetes sequences pre-dominated the corroded systems. Functional genes involved in biocorrosion, many of which belonged to the groups named above, were detected using the GeoChip, and a list of marker genes that can be utilised for biocorrosion monitoring has been proposed. Oligonucleotide probes for biochip development were either designed or selected from published sources. A quick and inexpensive method for probe evaluation during microarray development is described. A total of 16 probes, representing 15 genes were tested; all the probes exhibited similar hybridisation behaviour under standard conditions. The results presented in this thesis were part of an extensive EU project, BIOCOR, involving academic and industrial partners, on fundamental and applied aspects of microbial corrosion in oil field environments, which was funded to generate the knowledge needed to develop monitoring techniques for corrosion. The results presented in this thesis are the final report to the European Commission.
Diet and longevity: The effects of traditional eating habits on human lifespan extension

Since the dawn of time human beings have been trying to improve the quality of the existence and extend their lifespan. Genetic, environmental, behavioral and dietary factors influence the pathways that regulate aging and life expectancy, thus rendering longevity a very complex phenomenon. Although a long-lived elixir has not yet been found, physicians and scientists agree that nutrition has a major impact on the overall mortality and morbidity, hence becoming the subject of a widespread scientific research. This review describes, analyzes and compares the effects of different types of diets in reducing the onset of typical Western countries non-communicable diseases (NCDs) (cardiovascular diseases, tumors, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, etc.), thus increasing the average lifespan. It will first depict the most relevant characteristics, nutraceutical properties and effects on the populations of the Mediterranean, Japanese, Vegetarian and New Nordic Diet. Finally, it will describe the impact of different dietary restrictions in modulating the genetic pathways that regulate metabolism and aging. Overall, this work reinforces the evidence that specific eating habits, in addition to healthy and active lifestyles, are crucial to increase people’s health span and to achieve an optimal longevity.
Uber die chemische Natur des Thromboplastins aus menschlicher Hirnsubstanz

Zusammenfassung Die Frage, ob Thromboplastin aus menschlichem Hirngewebe eine eiweißhaltige Substanz ist oder nicht, wurde neuerdings untersucht. Nach Deutsch und Mitarb. (5) enthält humanes Hirnthromboplastin Eiweiß im Widerspruch mit früheren von Hecht md Mitarb. (17) mit Kaninchenhirn erhaltenen Befunden. Die Ergebnisse der gegenwärtigen Nachuntersuchung mit menschlicher Hirnlubstanz waren: 1. Die von Deutsch beschriebene Spaltung des Thromboplastins in eine Lipoidund )ine Eiweißkomponente unter Verwendung von Pyridin konnte nicht bestätigt verden. 2. In Deutschs sog. Eiweißfraktion konnten kleine Mengen von ungefähr 15 verschiedenen Aminosäuren mit Hilfe zweidimensionaler Chromatographie nach Hydro y se nachgewiesen werden. Diese sind auch in der Lipoidfraktion und in allen bei der Reinigung des Thromboplastins erhaltenen Waschflüssigkeiten und in den Pyridinextrakten, die der Entfernung der Lipoide aus der Eiweißfraktion dienen sollten, anwesend. 3. Gereinigtes Thromboplastin und dessen beide Fraktionen geben negative Biuretreaktionen; analytische Einzelheiten und die Untersuchung mit Hilfe der Polyacrylamidelektrophorese sprachen nicht für das Vorliegen von Eiweiß. 4. Deutschs analytische Resultate bzgl. der »Eiweiß«-Eraktion konnten nicht bestätigt werden. 5. Es wurden von dem Thromboplastin, dessen Lipoidund Eiweißfraktion sowie von allen Waschflüssigkeiten qualitativ identische Chromatogramme erhalten. Einund zweidimensionale Papier Chromatographie, Kieselgeldünnschicht Chromatographie und Trikomplexfärbung wurden verwendet. 6. Die nach Hydrolyse Aminosäuren liefernde Fraktion konnte isoliert und analysiert werden. 7. Es konnte jedoch nicht mit Sicherheit entschieden werden, ob die kleinen Mengen Aminosäuren liefernde Substanz (en) als Verunreinigungen von dem ursprünglich wässerigen Gewebeextrakt aus Hirnsubstanz, die nicht vollständig entfernt werden konnten, stammen, oder als molekuläre Bestandteile von Phospholipidmolekülen auf gef aßt werden müssen. Bis jetzt scheint die erstgenannte Auffassung wahrscheinlicher zu sein.