Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stem Cell–Based Tissue Replacement After Stroke: Factual Necessity or Notorious Fiction?

The increasing stroke incidence and the long-term, severe disability of survivors requiring complex nursing care over extended time periods cause an enormous social and economic burden to ageing societies. Unfortunately, all clinical trials on neuroprotectants have failed thus far.1 The only approved therapy is clot lysis (recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator [r-tPA]), which is restricted to only 4.5 hours poststroke onset.2 Although r-tPA application is statistically justified, it can result in severe adverse events,3 complicating individual r-tPA treatment decisions. Thus, the current strategies in stroke management are focused on prevention by identification of risk factors4 and intensive rehabilitation in the chronic phase.5 However, stroke outcomes remain poor, causing a strong but unmet demand for alternative therapeutic approaches. The failure of the neuroprotective paradigm and limited eligibility for thrombolysis spawned an interest in stem cell–based neurorestoration,6 which is characterized by a wide therapeutic window and is highly convergent with rehabilitation. However, stem cell–based tissue replacement may be aggravated by pathophysiological and anatomic features, whereas the beneficial effects of (stem) cells may not necessarily result from cellular restoration. Here, we review the state of the art of cell-based stroke therapies and balance arguments supporting and challenging the concept of poststroke tissue restoration. Moreover, we discuss the respective therapeutic mechanisms related to tissue restoration versus indirect means of regenerative support including practical issues such as transplantation time windows, routes of cell administration, and potential detrimental effects. The replacement of lost brain tissue by transplanted cells has fired the imagination of researchers for decades. Studies on lesion-induced axonal sprouting of catecholamine neurons devised the fundamentals for brain-regenerating strategies. Then, the functional connections of transplanted monoamine neurons were demonstrated, whereas fetal nigral transplants were able to reverse parkinsonism in animal models and patients.7 These early proof-of-principle studies supported the …
Cardiovascular magnetic resonance of left ventricular pseudoaneurysm

Objective: To evaluate how well patients with non-valvar atrial fibrillation (NVAF) were maintained within the recommended international normalised ratio (INR) target of 2.0–3.0 and to explore the relation between achieved INR control and clinical outcomes. Design: Record linkage study of routine activity records and INR measurements. Setting: Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales, UK. Participants: 2223 patients with NVAF, no history of heart valve replacement, and with at least five INR measurements. Main outcome measures: Mortality, ischaemic stroke, all thromboembolic events, bleeding events, hospitalisation, and patterns of INR monitoring. Results: Patients treated with warfarin were outside the INR target range 32.1% of the time, with 15.4% INR values > 3.0 and 16.7% INR values < 2.0. However, the quartile with worst control spent 71.6% of their time out of target range compared with only 16.3% out of range in the best controlled quartile. The median period between INR tests was 16 days. Time spent outside the target range decreased as the duration of INR monitoring increased, from 52% in the first three months of monitoring to 30% after two years. A multivariate logistic regression model showed that a 10% increase in time out of range was associated with an increased risk of mortality (odds ratio (OR) 1.29, p < 0.001) and of an ischaemic stroke (OR 1.10, p = 0.006) and other thromboembolic events (OR 1.12, p < 0.001). The rate of hospitalisation was higher when INR was outside the target range. Conclusions: Suboptimal anticoagulation was associated with poor clinical outcomes, even in a well controlled population. However, good control was difficult to achieve and maintain. New measures are needed to improve maintenance anticoagulation in patients with NVAF.
Heat Kernel Embeddings, Differential Geometry and Graph Structure

In this paper, we investigate the heat kernel embedding as a route to graph representation. The heat kernel of the graph encapsulates information concerning the distribution of path lengths and, hence, node affinities on the graph; and is found by exponentiating the Laplacian eigen-system over time. A Young–Householder decomposition is performed on the heat kernel to obtain the matrix of the embedded coordinates for the nodes of the graph. With the embeddings at hand, we establish a graph characterization based on differential geometry by computing sets of curvatures associated with the graph edges and triangular faces. A sectional curvature computed from the difference between geodesic and Euclidean distances between nodes is associated with the edges of the graph. Furthermore, we use the Gauss–Bonnet theorem to compute the Gaussian curvatures associated with triangular faces of the graph.
Cloning, overexpression, purification, and physicochemical characterization of a cold shock protein homolog from the hyperthermophilic bacterium Thermotoga maritima

Thermotoga maritima (Tm) expresses a 7 kDa monomeric protein whose 18 N‐terminal amino acids show 81% identity to N‐terminal sequences of cold shock proteins (Csps) from Bacillus caldolyticus and Bacillus stearothermophilus. There were only trace amounts of the protein in Thermotoga cells grown at 80°C. Therefore, to perform physicochemical experiments, the gene was cloned in Escherichia coli. A DNA probe was produced by PCR from genomic Tm DNA with degenerated primers developed from the known N‐terminus of TmCsp and the known C‐terminus of CspB from Bacillus subtilis. Southern blot analysis of genomic Tm DNA allowed to produce a partial gene library, which was used as a template for PCRs with gene‐and vector‐specific primers to identify the complete DNA sequence. As reported for other csp genes, the 5′ untranslated region of the mRNA was anomalously long; it contained the putative Shine–Dalgarno sequence. The coding part of the gene contained 198 bp, i.e., 66 amino acids. The sequence showed 61% identity to CspB from B. caldolyticus and high similarity to all other known Csps. Computer‐based homology modeling allowed the conclusion that TmCsp represents a β‐barrel similar to CspB from B. subtilis and CspA from E. coli.
Absolute numbers of lives saved and overdiagnosis in breast cancer screening, from a randomized trial and from the Breast Screening Programme in England

Objectives To estimate the absolute numbers of breast cancer deaths prevented and the absolute numbers of tumours overdiagnosed in mammographic screening for breast cancer at ages 50–69 years. Setting The Swedish Two-County randomized trial of mammographic screening for breast cancer, and the UK Breast Screening Programme in England, ages 50–69 years. Methods We estimated the absolute numbers of deaths avoided and additional cases diagnosed in the study group (active study population) of the Swedish Two-County Trial, by comparison with the control group (passive study population). We estimated the same quantities for the mortality and incidence rates in England (1974–2004 and 1974–2003, respectively). We used Poisson regression for statistical inference. Results A substantial and significant reduction in breast cancer mortality was associated with screening in both the Two-County Trial (P < 0.001) and the screening programme in England (P < 0.001). The absolute benefits were estimated as 8.8 and 5.7 breast cancer deaths prevented per 1000 women screened for 20 years starting at age 50 from the Two-County Trial and screening programme in England, respectively. The corresponding estimated numbers of cases overdiagnosed per 1000 women screened for 20 years were, respectively, 4.3 and 2.3 per 1000. Conclusions The benefit of mammographic screening in terms of lives saved is greater in absolute terms than the harm in terms of overdiagnosis. Between 2 and 2.5 lives are saved for every overdiagnosed case.
Perlaksanaan Aktiviti Seni Kreatif Dalampendidikan Prasekolah Malaysia

Creative art activity is an instructional activity which combines creative visual, musical, and performance arts to foster children’s creativity and development. This study aims at identifying parents’ and pre-school teachers’s of perception of the importance of creative arts in pre-school education, their perception levels on the basis of school status and location, and pre-school teachers’ understanding of creative art activities. A set of instruments was distributed to 53 preschool teachers, and another set was handed out to 253 parents of children of public and private kindergartens in Sibu, Serawak. T-test and two-triled ANOVA were used to compare mean scores of two or more groups. Findings show that creative art activition constitute an important element for parents and teachers. However, their understanding level is not as high as their perception has not contributed to the level of understanding of creative art activities. Hence, it is necessary to provide more creative art causes and workshop to increase understanding level of pre-school teachers.
Ontogeny of the cytoplasmic androgen receptor in the rat ventral prostate gland.

The concentration of the cytosolic androgen receptor of the ventral prostate gland of the male rat was measured at various time periods prior to, at the time of, and following the sexual maturation of the animal. The prostatic dihydrotestosterone (DHT) receptor gradually increased from 29 femtomoles (fm)/mg cytosol protein during the early postnatal period (Day 16 of age) to a peak of 87 fm/mg protein around the time when the rat attains sexual maturity (Day 50 of age). Following this, the receptor concentration declined precipitously to a level of 19 fm/mg protein at Day 70 of age. These results suggest that the level of the prostatic DEIT receptor observed during these time periods may be important in the imprinting mechanism of the rat ventral prostate gland that is known to occur in the rat sometime between Day 35 and Day 65 of age.
Educational Attainment in Switzerland: The Role of Observable and Non-Observable Family Factors

This study aims at investigating the role of family background on the probability of pursuing education for young Swiss individuals using data from the population census of 2000. While some family background variables are measurable like parents' education or profession, some can not be observed in our data. This is typically the case for variables like parents investment in their children human capital or genetic endownment. To control for these unobserved factors, we use a large sample of twins aged between 15 and 19 years old. The decompositon of the variance by means of the Shapley-value technique indicates that unobservables factors play a greater role than unobservables factors. Unfortunately, lack of information on zygosity does not allow to disentangle genetic factors from environmnental factors.
Recognition and Management of Patients Who Repeatedly Swallow Foreign Bodies

Repeated swallowing of foreign bodies, in adults, is part of a syndrome comprising personality disorder, drug overdose, and other self-inflicted injuries. The management should be conservative, as in many cases the foreign body will pass naturally or can be left in the bowel, if necessary for several years. Surgical intervention should be reserved for the complications of perforation, severe haemorrhage and persistent complete bowel obstruction, or for the removal of a toxic substance from the bowel. Five cases are reported which illustrate the natural history and management of the problem.
IL‐22 in tissue‐protective therapy

IL‐22, a member of the IL‐10 cytokine family, has recently gained significant attention as a protective agent in murine models of diseases driven by epithelial injury. Like its biochemical and functional sibling IL‐10, IL‐22 elicits cellular activation primarily by engaging the STAT3 signalling pathway. Exclusively produced by leukocytes, but targeting mostly cells of epithelial origin, IL‐22 has been proposed as a specialized cytokine messenger acting between leukocytic and non‐leukocytic cell compartments. A lack of response in leukocytes to IL‐22 mirrors tightly controlled IL‐22 receptor expression and probably explains the apparent lack of instant adverse effects after systemic IL‐22 administration to mice. Anti‐apoptotic, pro‐proliferative and pro‐regenerative characteristics the major biological properties of this cytokine. Specifically, application of IL‐22 is associated with tissue protection and/or regeneration in murine models of infection/microbe‐driven inflammation at host/environment interfaces, ventilator‐induced lung injury, pancreatitis and liver damage. Overall, preclinical studies would support therapeutic administration of seemingly well‐tolerated recombinant IL‐22 for treatment of an array of acute diseases manifested in epithelial tissues. However, the feasibility of prolonged administration of this cytokine is expected to be restricted by the tumourigenic potential of the IL‐22/STAT3 axis. IL‐22, moreover, apparently displays an inherent context‐specific capacity to amplify distinct aspects of autoimmune inflammation. Here, the prospects, expectations and restrictions of IL‐22 administration in tissue‐protective therapy are discussed.
Command line tool for calculating theoretical MS spectra for given sequences

UNLABELLED Scientists usually want to verify the ion matching process of algorithms that look up peptide sequences in DNA or protein databases. The verification step is often done numerically or visually. Not all search algorithms present the appropriate theoretical spectrum information within their results. Thus, the theoretical spectrum for each result should be calculated from the sequence of the matched peptide. We present an operating-system-independent command line tool for this purpose that can be integrated easily into complex as well as existing environments, and can be used to present the theoretical spectrum to the user in either graphical or tabular format by third party products. AVAILABILITY The code is available via the website http://www.protein-ms.de
Interrelationships between Atopic Disorders in Children: A Meta-Analysis Based on ISAAC Questionnaires

Purpose To study the prevalence and interrelationship between asthma, allergic rhinitis and eczema using data obtained from ISAAC questionnaires. Method The Medline, Pubmed Publisher, EMBASE, Google Scholar and the Cochrane Controlled Clinical Trials Register databases were systematically reviewed to evaluate epidemiological data of children with atopic disorders. To study these interrelationships, a new approach was used. Risk ratios were calculated, describing the risk of having two different atopic disorders when the child is known with one disorder. Results Included were 31 studies, covering a large number of surveyed children (n=1,430,329) in 102 countries. The calculated worldwide prevalence for asthma, eczema and allergic rhinitis is 12.00% (95% CI: 11.99-12.00), 7.88% (95% CI: 7.88-7.89) and 12.66% (95% CI: 12.65-12.67), respectively. The observed prevalence [1.17% (95% CI: 1.17-1.17)] of having all three diseases is 9.8 times higher than could be expected by chance. For children with asthma the calculated risk ratio of having the other two disorders is 5.41 (95% CI: 4.76-6.16), for children with eczema 4.24 (95% CI: 3.75-4.79), and for children with allergic rhinitis 6.20 (95% CI: 5.30-7.27). No studied confounders had a significant influence on these risk ratios. Conclusions Only a minority of children suffers from all three atopic disorders, however this co-occurrence is significantly higher than could be expected by chance and supports a close relationship of these disorders in children. The data of this meta-analysis supports the hypothesis that there could be a fourth distinct group of children with all three disorders. Researchers and clinicians might need to consider these children as a separate group with distinct characteristics regarding severity, causes, treatment or prognosis.
Quantitative Detection of the nosZ Gene, Encoding Nitrous Oxide Reductase, and Comparison of the Abundances of 16S rRNA, narG, nirK, and nosZ Genes in Soils

ABSTRACT Nitrous oxide (N2O) is an important greenhouse gas in the troposphere controlling ozone concentration in the stratosphere through nitric oxide production. In order to quantify bacteria capable of N2O reduction, we developed a SYBR green quantitative real-time PCR assay targeting the nosZ gene encoding the catalytic subunit of the nitrous oxide reductase. Two independent sets of nosZ primers flanking the nosZ fragment previously used in diversity studies were designed and tested (K. Kloos, A. Mergel, C. Rösch, and H. Bothe, Aust. J. Plant Physiol. 28:991-998, 2001). The utility of these real-time PCR assays was demonstrated by quantifying the nosZ gene present in six different soils. Detection limits were between 101 and 102 target molecules per reaction for all assays. Sequence analysis of 128 cloned quantitative PCR products confirmed the specificity of the designed primers. The abundance of nosZ genes ranged from 105 to 107 target copies g−1 of dry soil, whereas genes for 16S rRNA were found at 108 to 109 target copies g−1 of dry soil. The abundance of narG and nirK genes was within the upper and lower limits of the 16S rRNA and nosZ gene copy numbers. The two sets of nosZ primers gave similar gene copy numbers for all tested soils. The maximum abundance of nosZ and nirK relative to 16S rRNA was 5 to 6%, confirming the low proportion of denitrifiers to total bacteria in soils.
Hamiltonian Annealed Importance Sampling for partition function estimation

We introduce an extension to annealed importance sampling that uses Hamiltonian dynamics to rapidly estimate normalization constants. We demonstrate this method by computing log likelihoods in directed and undirected probabilistic image models. We compare the performance of linear generative models with both Gaussian and Laplace priors, product of experts models with Laplace and Student's t experts, the mc-RBM, and a bilinear generative model. We provide code to compare additional models.
Brain serotonin2 receptors in major depression: a positron emission tomography study.

BACKGROUND Postmortem and brain imaging studies that measured brain serotinin(2) (5-HT(2)) receptors in major depression reported an increase, decrease, and no change compared with controls. In this study, we assessed brain 5-HT(2) receptors in 20 depressed patients (mean +/- SD age, 40.1 +/- 9.5 years; range, 22-60 years) and 20 healthy controls similar in age (37.2 +/- 12.6 years; range, 19-59 years) using positron emission tomography and setoperone labeled with fluorine 18 ([(18)F]setoperone). METHODS Patients with DSM-IV major depression and healthy controls underwent scanning with [(18)F]setoperone. All study subjects were drug free for at least 2 weeks. The 5-HT(2) binding images were created using region-to-cerebellum ratios. The differences in 5-HT(2) receptor binding potential between the two groups were determined with statistical parametric mapping software and region of interest analysis. RESULTS There was a significant negative correlation between 5-HT(2) receptor binding potential and age in both patients and controls, and the magnitude of this correlation was similar in both groups. Both statistical parametric mapping and region of interest analyses showed that, compared with healthy controls, depressed patients had significantly lower 5-HT(2) receptor binding potential in frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital cortical regions. Statistical parametric mapping analysis showed that the mean decrease in 5-HT(2) receptor binding potential for the entire cluster in these regions was 22%, and it ranged from 22% to 27% for local maxima within the clusters of significant voxels. CONCLUSION This study suggests that brain 5-HT(2) receptors are decreased in patients with major depression.
SMILe: Shuffled Multiple-Instance Learning

Resampling techniques such as bagging are often used in supervised learning to produce more accurate classifiers. In this work, we show that multiple-instance learning admits a different form of resampling, which we call "shuffling. " In shuffling, we resample instances in such a way that the resulting bags are likely to be correctly labeled. We show that resampling results in both a reduction of bag label noise and a propagation of additional informative constraints to a multiple-instance classifier. We empirically evaluate shuffling in the context of multiple-instance classification and multiple-instance active learning and show that the approach leads to significant improvements in accuracy.
Security Audit and Access Accountability Message XML Data Definitions for Healthcare Applications

This document defines the format of data to be collected and minimum set of attributes that need to be captured for security auditing in healthcare application systems. The format is defined as an XML schema, which is intended as a reference for healthcare standards developers and application designers. It consolidates several previous documents on security auditing of healthcare data. This memo provides information for the Internet community.
Living with chronic pain - a longitudinal study of the interrelations between acceptance, emotions, illness perceptions and health status

Psychological adjustment to chronic pain has been recently explored within three separate frameworks: a behaviour-focused account of chronic pain acceptance within the broader remit of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; an emotion-focused approach with various research programs investigating the role of anger, fear, depression and also shame and positive emotions in chronic pain; and a cognitionfocused perspective more recently reframed in terms of illness perceptions as part of a wider model of response to health threats, the Self-Regulatory Model. Although these frameworks have broad areas of overlap, limited research has been directed at integrating acceptance, emotions and illness perceptions into a common, comprehensive account of psychological adjustment to chronic pain. Such an account would be beneficial both for providing a parsimonious approach that would guide further research and for developing pain management interventions that would take advantage of existing research from all three domains. The aim of the present thesis was to explore the possibility of integrating these separate areas by studying the relationships between the main concepts (acceptance, emotions, and illness perceptions) in the context of chronic pain. Based on a review of the relevant conceptual and methodological issues of each domain, a theoretical analysis of the similarities and differences between them was developed, with particular emphasis on the potential of existing models to support an integrative account. This analysis provided specific hypotheses regarding each domain and the interrelationships between them, which were investigated in a longitudinal study on a heterogeneous sample of 265 chronic pain patients using the services of the NHS Lothian Pain Clinic and several patient support organisations. Data were collected via postal and online questionnaires at 3 time points, at 41/2-month intervals (21% attrition rate). Validated questionnaires were used to measure the relevant constructs, with additional questions obtaining information regarding health status, medical history and demographics.