Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary clarithromycin resistance in Helicobacter pylori: the Multicentric Italian Clarithromycin Resistance Observational (MICRO) study.

BACKGROUND Primary clarithromycin resistance markedly reduces Helicobacter pylori eradication rate following standard therapies. Prevalence of primary clarithromycin resistance in H. pylori is increasing, and three point mutations are mainly involved. AIM. To assess both the prevalence of primary clarithromycin resistance in Italy, and the distribution of the involved point mutations. METHODS Primary clarithromycin resistance was assessed by TaqMan real-time polymerase chain reaction on antral biopsies of 253 consecutive, H. pylori infected patients enrolled in 13 Italian centres between January and September 2010. RESULTS Primary clarithromycin resistance was detected in 25 (9.9%) patients, with prevalence values widely ranging from 0 to 25%. Clarithromycin resistance rate was higher in female as compared to male patients (13.4% vs. 5.3%, p=0.03), and it tended to be higher in non-ulcer dyspepsia than in peptic ulcer patients (10.6% vs. 6.9%, p=0.5), female patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia showing the highest value (15.4%). The A2143G point mutation was detected in 13 (52.0%) patients, the A2142G in 9 (34.6%), whilst a double point mutation (A2143G plus A2142G) in 3 (11.6%) cases. CONCLUSIONS Primary clarithromycin resistance is highly variable in different Italian geographic areas. High resistance rates were observed in female and in dyspeptic patients. Among the three point mutations of clarithromycin resistance, the A2143G remains the most frequently observed.
Effect of shoulder angle on the activation pattern of the elbow extensors during a submaximal isometric fatiguing contraction

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of shoulder angle on the electromyographic (EMG) activation pattern of the elbow extensors during a fatiguing contraction. Ten young men (23.5 ± 1.7) were tested on two occasions with the elbow angle at 90° and the shoulder at either 0° or 90° of flexion. EMG was recorded by fine wire electrodes inserted into the lateral, medial, and long heads of the triceps brachii and the anconeus. An EMG‐torque relationship was determined prior to a sustained isometric contraction at 20% of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) until target failure. Endurance time was shorter, and postfatigue MVC torque was lower at 90° (40.4 ± 12.7 Nm) versus 0° (47.9 ± 14.7 Nm) of flexion. EMG activity of the long head during the final 10% of the fatiguing contraction was significantly greater at 90° versus 0° with no effect of shoulder angle on any other muscle portions. The findings suggest that measures from one muscle portion of the elbow extensors are not representative of the whole group, and the relative activation of the two‐joint long head was changed depending on shoulder angle during a fatigue task. Muscle Nerve, 2010
Extracting Features from Time‐Dependent Vector Fields Using Internal Reference Frames

Extracting features from complex, time‐dependent flow fields remains a significant challenge despite substantial research efforts, especially because most flow features of interest are defined with respect to a given reference frame. Pathline‐based techniques, such as the FTLE field, are complex to implement and resource intensive, whereas scalar transforms, such as λ2, often produce artifacts and require somewhat arbitrary thresholds. Both approaches aim to analyze the flow in a more suitable frame, yet neither technique explicitly constructs one.
Computer understanding of document structure

We describe a system which is capable of learning the presentation of document logical structure, exemplary as shown for business letters. Presenting a set of instances to the system, it clusters them into structural concepts and induces a concept hierarchy. This concept hierarchy is taken as a reference for classifying future input. The article introduces the sequence of learning steps and describes how the resulting concept hierarchy is applied to logical labeling, and reports the results. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Prediction of low-risk breast cancer using quantitative DCE-MRI and its pathological basis

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the difference of mass in dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) characteristics between low-risk and non-low-risk breast cancers and to explore the possible pathological basis. Materials and Methods Approval from the institutional review board and informed consent were acquired for this study. The MR images of 104 patients with pathologically proven breast cancer (104 lesions) were prospectively analyzed. All of included patients were Chinese woman. The DCE-MRI morphologic findings, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values, quantitative DCE-MRI parameters, and pathological biomarkers between the two subtypes of breast cancer were compared. The quantitative DCE-MRI parameters and ADC values were added to the morphologic features in multivariate models to evaluate diagnostic performance in predicting low-risk breast cancer. The values were further subjected to the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results Low-risk tumors showed significantly lower Ktrans and Kep values (t = 2.065, P = 0.043 and t = 3.548, P = 0.001, respectively) and higher ADC value (t = 4.713, P = 0.000) than non-low-risk breast cancers. Our results revealed no significant differences in clinic data and conventional imaging findings between the two breast cancer subtypes. Adding the quantitative DCE-MRI parameters and ADC values to conventional MRI improved the diagnostic performance of MRI: The area under the ROC improved from 0.63 to 0.91. Low-risk breast cancers showed significantly lower matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-2 expression (P = 0.000), lower MMP-9 expression (P = 0.001), and lower microvessel density (MVD) values (P = 0.008) compared with non-low-risk breast cancers. Ktrans and Kep values were positively correlated with pathological biomarkers. The ADC value showed a significant inverse correlation with pathological biomarkers. Conclusions The prediction parameter using Ktrans, Kep, and ADC obtained on DCE-MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging could facilitate the identification of low-risk breast cancers. Decreased biological factors, including MVD, vascular endothelial growth factor, MMP-2, and MMP-9, may explain the possible pathological basis.
Evaluation of the Biolog system for the identification of food and beverage yeasts

The inconvenience of conventional yeast identification methods has resulted in the development of rapid, commercial systems, mainly for clinical yeast species. The Biolog system (Biolog Inc., Hayward, CA, USA) is a new semi‐automated, computer‐linked technology for rapid identification of clinical and non‐clinical yeasts. The system is based around a microtitre tray and includes assimilation and oxidation tests. This paper evaluates the Biolog system for the identification of 21 species (72 strains) of yeasts of food and wine origin. Species correctly identified included Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Debaryomyces hansenii, Yarrowia lipolytica, Kluyveromyces marxianus, Kloeckera apiculata, Dekkera bruxellensis and Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Zygosaccharomyces bailii and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii were identified correctly 50% of the time and Pichia membranaefaciens 20% of the time.
Identification of children at risk for adult schizophrenia: a longitudinal study

Summary The results of our longitudinal, prospective research programme to date suggest that, as a first step, peer-rated aggression and withdrawal constitute a useful broad-based behavioural index of early problems related to psychopathology. The findings at this point also support our expectation that this index may serve as a fruitful criterion of vulnerability to schizophrenia in adulthood. Finally, as a screening procedure, the assessment method generated by this approach appears to be an effective means by which children in need of treatment or preventive intervention programmes may be identified.
Chapter 20 Circadian Clocks , Metabolism , and Food-Entrained Rhythms

The circadian clock is one of the most conserved systems in mammals. It is an important regulator of many biological processes, such as the sleep-wake cycle, hormone secretion, and body temperature, which can influence both cellular and organ-level metabolic functioning. At the molecular level, the circadian system consists of autoregulatory feedback loop that dictates the timing of behavioral and physiological processes. This molecular clock is persistent in all of the central and peripheral tissues. Metabolism can also affect the circadian clock via feeding, or by metabolites which expression is controlled by food intake. Therefore, the current chapter emphasizes the cross-talk between the circadian system and metabolism at the molecular level, and its physiological outcome.
Recognition of Self-Referent Stimuli in People With Dementia: Names and Pictures as Prosthetic Memory Aids

Individuals with dementia have difficulty distinguishing their personal items and spaces from others, which creates problems in long-term care (LTC). Prosthetic memory aids may help facilitate recognition. This study assessed which self-referent stimuli were best recognized by individuals with dementia. LTC residents with dementia (n = 27) were shown arrays of three stimuli and asked to select the picture/name that featured them. Stimulus arrays included photographs from young adulthood, middle adulthood, current age, and their printed name. Most participants (95%) completed the assessment and recognized at least one stimulus type above chance levels. Participants recognized printed names most accurately (M = 89%). Current photographs were recognized least (M = 64%). Printed names and early adulthood photographs facilitate self-recognition in individuals with dementia.
Detection of intracranial abnormalities in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: comparison of MR imaging and SPECT.

OBJECTIVE Chronic fatigue syndrome is a recently characterized condition of unknown origin that is manifested by fatigue, flulike complaints, and neurologic signs and symptoms, including persistent headache, impaired cognitive abilities, mood disorders, and sensorimotor disturbances. This syndrome can be difficult to diagnose clinically or by standard neuroradiologic tests. We performed MR imaging and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome to compare the usefulness of functional and anatomic imaging in the detection of intracranial abnormalities. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Sixteen patients who fulfilled the Centers for Disease Control, British, and/or Australian criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome had MR and SPECT examinations within a 10-week period. Axial MR and SPECT scans were analyzed as to the number and location of focal abnormalities by using analysis of variance with the Student-Newman-Keuls option. MR imaging findings in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were compared with those in 15 age-matched control subjects, and SPECT findings in the patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were compared with those in 14 age-matched control subjects by using Fisher's exact test. The findings on MR and SPECT scans in the same patients were compared by using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test. RESULTS MR abnormalities consisted of foci of T2-bright signal in the periventricular and subcortical white matter and in the centrum semiovale; there were 2.06 foci per patient, vs 0.80 foci per control subject. MR abnormalities were present in eight (50%) of 16 patients, compared with three (20%) of 15 age-matched control subjects. Neither of these differences reached significance, although the power of the study to detect differences between groups was small. Patients with chronic fatigue syndrome had significantly more defects throughout the cerebral cortex on SPECT scans than did normal subjects (7.31 vs 0.43 defects per subject, p < .001). SPECT abnormalities were present in 13 (81%) of 16 patients, vs three (21%) of 14 control subjects (p < .01). SPECT scans showed significantly more abnormalities than did MR scans in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (p < .025). In the few patients who had repeat SPECT and MR studies, the number of SPECT abnormalities appeared to correlate with clinical status, whereas MR changes were irreversible. CONCLUSION SPECT abnormalities occur more frequently and in greater numbers than MR abnormalities do in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. SPECT may prove to be useful in following the clinical progress of patients with this syndrome.
Does ischemic preconditioning in the human involve protein kinase C and the ATP-dependent K+ channel? Studies of contractile function after simulated ischemia in an atrial in vitro model.

Protein kinase C (PKC) and the ATP-dependent K+ channel (KATP channel) have been implicated in the mechanism of ischemic preconditioning in animal models. This study investigated the role of KATP channels and PKC in preconditioning in human myocardium and whether KATP channels are activated via a PKC-dependent pathway. Right atrial trabeculae were superfused with Tyrode's solution and paced at 1 Hz. After stabilization, muscles underwent one of nine different protocols, followed by simulated ischemia (SI) consisting of 90 minutes of hypoxic substrate-free superfusion paced at 3 Hz and then by 120 minutes of reperfusion. Preconditioning consisted of 3 minutes of SI and 7 minutes of reperfusion. The experimental end point was recovery of contractile function after SI, presented here as percentage recovery (%Rec) of baseline function. %Rec was significantly improved by preconditioning by the KATP channel opener cromakalim (CK), and by the PKC activator 1,2-dioctanoyl-sn-glycerol (DOG) compared with nonpreconditioned controls when these treatments were given before the SI insult (control group, 29.5 +/- 3.6%; preconditioned group, 63.5 +/- 5.4%, CK-treated group, 52.9 +/- 3.1%; and DOG-treated group, 48.0 +/- 3.5%; P < .01). The effects of CK could be blocked by the KATP channel blocker glibenclamide (%Rec, 17.8 +/- 3.5%). Preconditioning could be blocked by the PKC antagonist chelerythrine (%Rec, 24.1 +/- 5.0%) and the KATP blocker glibenclamide (%Rec, 24.8 +/- 3.1%). The effects of DOG could also be blocked by glibenclamide (%Rec, 23.1 +/- 2.3%). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Model based three dimensional medical image segmentation

In this thesis, we describe a knowledge-based approach to segmentation of three-dimensional medical imagery. This approach emphasizes the role of four complementary kinds of knowledge or models in medical segmentation: intensity models that describe the gray-level appearance of different tissues, imaging models that describe the characteristics of the imaging process, geometric models that describe the spatial relationships between structures, and shape models that describe the shapes of individual structures. We instantiate this approach in a novel Bayesian method for segmentation of Magnetic Resonance images. This method uses Expectation-Maximization to iteratively estimate the classification of an input image. Intensity models and geometric models are formulated as probability distributions, and are used as priors in the Bayesian classification. A well-known imaging model is used to account for the inhomogeneities due to the MR acquisition process. A Gibbs model is used to impose piecewise homogeneity of tissue class, which reduces the fragmentation effects in the segmentation that are caused by the presence of thermal noise in MR. Geometric relationships are described as spatially varying probability distributions on geometric primitives such as distances and normals that relate pairs of structures, and are constructed from segmented training data. We demonstrate the results of using this segmentation method in two application areas: segmentation of bones and cartilage from knee MRI, and segmentation of white matter, gray matter, fluid, and skin from brain MRI. (Copies available exclusively from MIT Libraries, Rm. 14-0551, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307. Ph. 617-253-5668; Fax 617-253-1690.)
Recombinant human tissue transglutaminase ELISA for the diagnosis of gluten-sensitive enteropathy.

BACKGROUND Tissue transglutaminase (TGc) has recently been identified as the major, if not the sole, autoantigen of gluten-sensitive enteropathy (GSE). We developed and validated an ELISA based on the human recombinant antigen and compared it to existing serological tests for GSE [guinea pig TGc ELISA and endomysium antibody (EMA) test]. METHODS Human TGc was expressed in the human embryonic kidney cell line 293-EBNA as a C-terminal fusion protein with the eight-amino acid Strep-tag II allowing one-step purification via streptavidin affinity chromatography. We carried out ELISA assays for IgA antibodies against TGc using calcium-activated human and guinea pig TGc. The sera were also tested on monkey esophagus sections by indirect immunofluorescence for IgA EMA. We examined 71 serum samples from patients with GSE (38 with celiac disease, 33 with dermatitis herpetiformis), including 16 on therapy, and 53 controls. RESULTS The human TGc could be expressed and purified as an active enzyme giving a single band on a Coomassie-stained gel. The mean intra- and interassay CVs for the human TGc ELISA were 3.2% and 9.2%, respectively. The area under the ROC curve was 0.999. The specificity and sensitivity were 98.1% (95% confidence interval, 95.7-100%) and 98.2% (95.9-100%), respectively. CONCLUSIONS The human TGc ELISA was somewhat superior to the guinea pig TGc ELISA, and was as specific and sensitive as the EMA test. The human TGc-based ELISA is the method of choice for easy and noninvasive screening and diagnosis of GSE.
Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Production

This article seeks to develop an approach to cultural production which takes racism seriously. We suggest that there has been a lack of attention to race and ethnicity in the booming research field of cultural production studies, and that the few good studies of race, ethnicity, and cultural production have been somewhat marginalized. Following a section that outlines our understandings of “race” and ethnicity, we outline the development of research on cultural production, differentiating various approaches according to the degree of attention that they afford to questions of power, inequality, and social justice. We then survey the main themes that have emerged from cultural production studies regarding race and ethnicity, and outline some of the problems associated with such research. We argue that a theory of cultural production that adequately integrates race and ethnicity needs to combine analysis of micro and macro factors, structure and agency, and change and continuity.
Evidence of Early Language Discrimination Abilities in Infants From Bilingual Environments.

Previous research data indicate that soon after birth, infants from monolingual families can discriminate utterances drawn from languages that differ prosodically, but discrimination between rhythmically similar languages, such as English and Dutch, has not yet been established by 2 months of age. In the case of bilinguals, the question of how early they can distinguish between the languages of exposure remains unanswered. The goal of this study was to analyze language discrimination capacities in 4-month-old bilingual infants simultaneously exposed to 2 Romance languages belonging to the same rhythmic category, Spanish and Catalan. Using a familiarization-preference procedure, 2 groups of bilingual-to-be infants showed a capacity to discriminate between these 2 familial languages. Moreover, when compared with 2 groups of infants from monolingual environments, the size of the observed effects was the same. These results can be taken as initial evidence of an early capacity to distinguish languages in simultaneous bilingual exposure, thus challenging the hypothesis that language discrimination capacities are delayed in bilinguals.
STOCHASTIC LOSS OF STYLE MORPHS FROM POPULATIONS OF TRISTYLOUS LYTHRUM SALICARIA AND DECODON VERTICILLATUS (LYTHRACEAE)

Despite the theoretical importance of stochastic processes in evolution there have been few empirical studies of the interaction between genetic drift and selection on the maintenance of polymorphisms in plant populations. We used computer models to investigate the interaction between drift and frequency‐dependent selection in affecting style morph frequencies in populations of tristylous species. Drift produces a distinct pattern of morph frequency variation involving: 1) the loss of the S morph and, to a lesser extent, the M morph; 2) no consistent bias in frequencies within populations; 3) a restricted pattern of variation involving a deficiency of one morph and equal excesses of the other two. Morph frequencies were surveyed in 137 populations of Lythrum salicaria from both its native range in Europe (N = 35) and recent adventive range in Ontario (N = 102), and 133 populations of Decodon verticillatus from four regions in eastern North America with different glacial histories to assess these theoretical predictions. There was a negative relationship between morph loss and population size in both species; the relationship was weaker in D. verticillatus than in L. salicaria. Morph loss was more frequent in the adventive than native range of L. salicaria, and in populations of D. verticillatus from glaciated northern regions compared with the unglaciated southern portion of its range. Simulations incorporating variation in life history, regeneration strategy and mating patterns revealed that the degree of morph loss was strongly influenced by year to year survival, clonal propagation, self‐fertilization and departures from disassortative mating. Comparing the pattern of morph frequency variation between species supported these predictions. Morph loss was lower in self‐incompatible L. salicaria (0% in Europe; 23% in Ontario), which reproduces through seed compared to self‐compatible, clonal D. verticillatus (52%). A stochastic model provides the most parsimonious explanation for observed patterns of morph frequency variation in both species.
Complete genome sequence of Kytococcus sedentarius type strain (541 T )

an opportunistic pathogen causing valve endocarditis, hemorrhagic pneumonia, and pitted keratolysis. It is strictly aerobic and can only grow when several amino acids are provided in the medium. The strain described in this report is a free-living, nonmotile, Gram-positive bacterium, origi-nally isolated from a marine environment. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence, and annotation. This is the first complete genome sequence of a member of the family Dermacoccaceae and the 2,785,024 bp long sin-gle replicon genome with its 2639 protein-coding and 64 RNA genes is part of the G enomic E ncyclopedia of B acteria and A rchaea project.
More Than Just Talk: Uses, Gratifications, and the Telephone

This study examines gratifications sought from telephones and variations in behavioral patterns of telephone use. Such research is increasingly important as telephones become a mixed mass-media, interpersonal communication channel. The results of a survey of Midwestern adults delineate social, entertainment, and instrumental dimensions of telephone use. Uses vary considerably across specific demographics.