Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Re: ABO blood group and the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Wolpin et al. ( 1 ) reported on the association between ABO blood type and the risk of incidental pancreatic cancer in two large US cohorts: the Nurses ’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. They found, in agreement with previous reports, that participants with non-O blood group had an increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer (hazard ratio = 1.44; 95% confidence interval = 1.14 to 1.82). Although the authors mentioned the possibility that the blood group antigen may alter the systemic inflammatory response, they concluded that the potential mechanisms by which ABO antigen may influence the risk of pancreatic cancer risk are unknown ( 1 ). Interestingly, both individuals with non-O blood type and patients with pancreatic cancer have a markedly increased risk of venous thrombosis ( 2 , 3 ). The relationship of ABO genotype with venous thrombosis appears to be mediated in part through von Willebrand factor (vWF), which carries factor VII (FVII) and protects it from degradation and also has the A and/ or B or H (O) antigens on its surface. As a consequence, individuals with the A1 and B alleles have higher levels of vWF and factor VIII plasma levels ( 2 ), thus also activating the coagulation system from the other (plasmatic) side. The association between thrombosis and visceral cancer was suggested in 1865 by French internist Armand Trousseau. Thrombosis is not only a major complication of pancreatic cancer ( 3 ), but may appear as an early manifestation of the disease. Development of an idiopathic venous thromboembolic event, by itself, has been associated with a markedly increased risk of occult pancreatic cancer ( 4 ). Activation of coagulation and tissue factor (TF), the prime initiator of coagulation, have been described as important factors in pancreatic cancer ( 5 , 6 ), being associated with poor prognosis and increased angiogenesis. Therefore, aberrant coagulation could be caused from the TF/FVII activation coming from the tumor cell itself or be promoted from the other side of the pathway of the coagulation system in those with a certain ABO genotype ( 2 ). It would be valuable if the authors could assess whether the observed association between ABO blood type and pancreatic cancer varied in participants who had documented episodes of venous thrombosis or related factors, either before or after the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. This could help identify potential mechanisms by which ABO antigen may infl uence pancreatic cancer risk and factors promoting the risk of thrombosis during pancreatic carcinogenesis.
Ron receptor deficient alveolar myeloid cells exacerbate LPS-induced acute lung injury in the murine lung

Previous studies have shown that the Ron receptor tyrosine kinase is an important regulator of the acute lung inflammatory response induced by intranasal administration of bacterial LPS. Compared to wild-type mice, complete loss of the Ron receptor in all cell types in vivo was associated with increased lung damage as determined by histological analyses and several markers of lung injury including increases in pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α. Tumor-necrosis factor-α is a multifunctional cytokine secreted by macrophages, which plays a major role in inflammation and is a central mediator of several disease states including rheumatoid arthritis and sepsis. Based on increased TNF-α production observed in the Ron-deficient mice, we hypothesized that Ron receptor function in the inflammatory cell compartment is essential for the regulating lung injury in vivo. To test this hypothesis, we generated myeloid lineage-specific Ron-deficient mice. In this study, we report that loss of Ron signaling selectively in myeloid cells results in increased lung injury following intranasal administration of LPS as measured by increases in TNF-α production, ensuing neutrophil accumulation and increased lung histopathology. These findings corroborate the role of Ron receptor tyrosine kinase as a negative regulator of inflammation and further demonstrate the in vivo significance of Ron signaling selectively in myeloid cells as a major regulator of this response in vivo. These data authenticate Ron as a potential target in innate immunity and TNF-α-mediated pathologies.
Oral Mucositis and Stomatitis Associated with Conventional and Targeted Anticancer Therapy

Oral mucositis and stomatitis are characterized by pain, inflammation, and redness in the oral cavity. In the case of mucositis, ulceration also occurs. Despite being understudied, these symptoms are some of the most troubling, and yet common, adverse effects associated with cancer treatment. The incidence of these toxicities is highly variable depending on treatment-related and patient-related risk factors. However, most cancer treatment regimens carry some risk of this toxicity. The presence of mucositis or stomatitis can result in a significant decrease in the patient’s quality of life due to severe pain and the inability to eat or drink. These toxicities can also negatively affect the overall outcome of cancer treatment, leading to dose reductions and delays in treatment. Although the mechanism is not yet understood, the rapid increase in the number of targeted anticancer therapies available on the market has increased the number of patients who experience oral toxicities. The toxicities caused by targeted agents are less severe than those caused by conventional anticancer agents, but due to prolonged dosing schedules, they can still lead to significant declines in quality of life. The pathobiology of oral mucositis is a complex five phase process. It involves injury, activation of enzymes and transcription factors, upregulation of cytokine genes, inflammation/damage to tissue, and healing. These processes not only involve cells in the oral mucosa, but also the surrounding fibroblasts and connective tissue cells. A better understanding of the mechanisms behind oral mucositis and stomatitis will facilitate the development of effective prediction, prevention, and treatment strategies.
Resonant behavior and frequency preferences of thalamic neurons.

1. We studied the voltage responses of thalamocortical neurons to a periodic current input of variable frequency, in slices of mediodorsal thalamus (guinea pig). The ratio of the Fourier transform of the voltage response to the Fourier transform of the oscillatory current input was used to calculate the frequency response of the neurons at different resting and imposed membrane potentials. 2. Most neurons displayed a resonant hump in the frequency response curve. A narrow band of low-frequency (2-4 Hz) resonance occurred near the resting level [-66 +/- 8 mV (SD)] and at imposed membrane potentials in a range of -60 to -80 mV. An additional wide band (12-26 Hz) of peak resonant frequencies was observed at depolarized levels. 3. The low-frequency resonance was insensitive to tetrodotoxin (TTX) application in concentrations (0.5-1 microM) that blocked a depolarization activated inward rectifier and Na(+)-dependent action potentials. TTX, however, eliminated the wide-band resonant hump centered at 12-26 Hz that we observed at depolarized membrane potentials. 4. Application of Ni2+ (0.5-1 mM) reversibly blocked all slow spikes and greatly reduced the low-frequency resonant humps, without changing the resting potential. Octanol in concentrations of 50 microM had similar effects. 5. Application of Cs+ (3-5 mM), a blocker of the hyperpolarization activated inward rectifier, produced a 5- to 10-mV depolarization and completely blocked the rectification. Cs+ did not alter the low-frequency resonant hump or its dependence on membrane voltage. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Medical Practices' Sensitivity to Patients' Needs: Opportunities and Practices for Improvement

Summary:This article presents the results of a national study of medical practices' patient satisfaction using data collected from January to December 2001 with Press Ganey Associates' Medical Practice Survey (n = 503,407). The question, “Our sensitivity to your needs” (r = 0.85), most highly correlated with overall patient satisfaction. Patients' age, sex, or first visit were not predictors of sensitivity to patients' needs. Responses highly correlated with sensitivity to patients' needs: (1) concern for patients' privacy, (2) cheerfulness of practice, (3) care received during visit, and (4) likelihood to recommend practice. Patient perception and satisfaction with medical practices' sensitivity to patient needs and recommended practices for improvement are discussed.
Performance Analysis of Interaction between Smart Glasses and Smart Objects Using Image-Based Object Identification

We propose the use of smart glasses to collaborate with smart objects in the Internet of Things environment. Particularly we are focusing on new interaction methods and the analysis of acceptable reaction times in the process of object recognition using smart glasses. We evaluated the proposed method using user studies and experiments with three different smart glasses: Google Glass, Epson Moverio, and the developed eGlasses platform. We conclude that using the proposed method it is possible to recognize objects and process information allowing object detection below the average acceptance response times specified by almost all participants in the user study. Additionally, we showed that eye-tracking can be used for simple interaction between a user and a graphical user interface presented in the near-to-eye display.
Dynamic Ontology Based Model for Text Classification

Text Mining is the process of extraction of knowledge from large amounts of text. Information retrieval gains more focus due to tremendous increase of textual information in web servers. It is a very challenging task to process, organize, analyze and extract knowledge from huge volumes of unstructured text. Traditional text classification algorithms needs well defined text corpus to train and classify the given textual information. It is a very complex task to build text corpus with the help of thesaurus on the given text documents. To overcome this, ontology models can be considered for constructing knowledge base. Domain ontologies are considered for extracting more useful and high quality data on a particular domain. Many traditional approaches use static methods to construct domain ontologies. But, ontologies developed by these static approaches consist of limited terms in their knowledge base due to lack of updation. In this paper, we propose a dynamic ontology based model to classify the extracted terms and to build knowledge base on a particular domain. Experimental results show that our dynamic ontology based model performing excellently by frequent updating of extracted terms in our knowledgebase.
Hydrophobic effect in protein folding and other noncovalent processes involving proteins.

Large negative standard heat capacity changes (delta CP degree much less than 0) are the hallmark of processes that remove nonpolar surface from water, including the transfer of nonpolar solutes from water to a nonaqueous phase and the folding, aggregation/association, and ligand-binding reactions of proteins [Sturtevant, J. M. (1977) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 74, 2236-2240]. More recently, Baldwin [Baldwin, R. L. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83, 8069-8072] proposed that the delta CP degree of protein folding could be used to quantify the contribution of the burial of nonpolar surface (the hydrophobic effect) to the stability of a globular protein. We demonstrate that identical correlations between the delta CP degree and the change in water-accessible nonpolar surface area (delta Anp) are obtained for both the transfer of nonpolar solutes from water to the pure liquid phase and the folding of small globular proteins: delta CP degree/delta Anp = -(0.28 +/- 0.05) (where delta Anp is expressed in A2 and delta CP degree is expressed in cal.mol-1.K-1; 1 cal = 4.184 J). The fact that these correlations are identical validates the proposals by both Sturtevant and Baldwin that the hydrophobic effect is in general the dominant contributor to delta CP degree and provides a straightforward means of estimating the contribution of the hydrophobic driving force (delta Ghyd degree) to the standard free energy change of a noncovalent process characterized by a large negative delta CP degree in the physiological temperature range: delta Ghyd degree congruent to (80 +/- 10)delta CP degree.
Update on adaptor protein-3 in Arabidopsis

ABSTRACT Adaptor proteins (APs) mediate protein sorting within endomembrane compartments in eukaryotic cells. AP-3 is an ancient AP complex mediating vacuolar trafficking in different phyla. Only recently, a few tonoplast proteins have been identified as AP-3 cargos in Arabidopsis whereas the function of AP-3 was largely unexplored. Here, we summarize recent advances on AP-3 in Arabidopsis, pointing at the potential roles of AP-3 in plant development and cellular processes.
Passive Smoking and Risk of Colorectal Cancer

We conducted this meta-analysis to explore the association between passive smoking and the risk of colorectal cancer. A literature search of online databases, including MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, and Web of Science was performed up to June 30, 2015. A fixed-effects meta-analysis using Stata 12.0 was carried out to estimate the relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations. Eleven articles, including 6 case-control studies and 6 cohort studies, were included in our analysis according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. The pooled RR of all studies showed a statistically significant association between passive smoking and colorectal cancer (RR = 1.14; 95% CI = 1.05-1.24). Results of subgroup analysis showed a positive association between passive smoking and rectal cancer ((RR = 1.33; 95% CI = 1.15-1.53) and that male passive smokers were at greater risks of colorectal cancer (RR = 1.73; 95% CI = 1.37-2.19) than females. Results suggested that passive smoking is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer.
Sampling Clinicians' Activities Using Electronic Pagers

Pager-based activity sampling (PAS) is described as a cost-effective and unobtrusive method for sampling residents' activities in clinical settings. A sample program evaluation is presented using residents in an urban children's hospital resident-training program. The purposes of the program evaluation were: (a) to establish a behavioral baseline that would help clinical faculty understand how residents were using their time, and (b) to determine whether alterations in the way residents were assigned within the hospital resulted in desired changes to time spent. The primary rationale for changing resident-assignment policies were: (a) to decrease the time residents were spending in transit between various locations within the hospital, and (b) to increase the time spent by residents in educational activities and in direct contact with patients and their families. This PAS application demonstrates that the technique can produce statistically supportable conclusions, at minimal cos4 without unduly disrupting either the residents or their patients. PAS is compared with other time-sampling methods, its limitations are discussed, and suggestions for future applications are provided.
The Effects of Propofol, Isoflurane, and Sevoflurane on Oxygenation and Shunt Fraction During One-Lung Ventilation

Propofol's effect on hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction during one-lung ventilation (OLV) has not been determined. Twenty patients who had long-term OLV for esophageal surgery were allocated randomly to one of two study groups; one in which isoflurane administration preceded propofol, and another in which sevoflurane administration preceded propofol. Arterial and mixed venous blood samples and hemodynamics were measured as follows: before OLV, during OLV, OLV at 4 cm of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP), OLV after conversion from volatile anesthetics to propofol, OLV at 4 cm of PEEP, and after OLV. After the application of 4 cm of PEEP during propofol anesthesia, PaO2 increased significantly in both groups. The shunt fraction (Qs/Qt) increased significantly after the initiation of OLV in both groups and decreased significantly after the conversion from volatile anesthetics to propofol in both groups. Propofol can be used safely during OLV because PaO2 increased after the application of 4 cm of PEEP during propofol anesthesia, and Qs/Qt decreased significantly after the conversion from inhaled anesthetics to propofol anesthesia. Implications: During one-lung ventilation, the arterial partial pressure of oxygen values with propofol were greater than those with isoflurane and sevoflurane, and shunt fraction values with propofol were lower than those with both volatile anesthetics. Propofol improved oxygenation and shunt fraction during one-lung ventilation compared with volatile anesthetics. (Anesth Analg 1998;87:1164-9)
Pattern synthesis in time-modulated linear arrays through pulse shifting

In this study, an innovative approach for the synthesis of time-modulated linear array (TMLA) antennas is presented. The switch-on instants of the time-modulated elements are taken into account as additional degrees of freedom to optimise the array pattern. Towards this end, a technique based on a particle swarm optimisation is proposed to fully exploit the dependence of the sideband radiations (SR) on the shift of the time pulses. A set of representative results are reported to assess the effectiveness of the proposed approach as well as its flexibility.
Respiratory aquaporins in lung inflammation: the night is young.

From the nasopharynx to the pleural space, alterations in fluid transport are central to a wide range of pathophysiologic processes in the respiratory tract. Despite intense investigation, details of the pathways for water transport in the respiratory tract remain unclear. Insight into molecular mechanisms of membrane water permeability was provided by the discovery of the aquaporins, a growing family of water-specific membrane channel proteins (1). In this issue, Towne and colleagues (2) provide a rigorous description of changes in aquaporin expression in the respiratory tract by using a murine model of pulmonary inflammation, the adenovirus infection. The existence of water-specific membrane channel proteins was postulated by a small group of physiologists for several decades, but the molecular identity of such proteins remained enigmatic until recently. Aquaporin-1 (AQP1)
The distribution of oxytocin‐ and neurophysin‐stained fibers in the spinal cord of the rat and monkey

Immunohistochemical methods have been used to describe the distribution of neurophysin I‐ and oxytocin‐stained fibers in the spinal cord. In albino rats of either sex, such fibers descend through the dorsal part of the lateral funiculus to the caudal end of the cord. Fibers leave the lateral funiculus to innervate the marginal zone of the dorsal horn at all levels, and the intermediolateral column at thoracic, lumbar and sacral levels. Some fibers course medially through the intermediate gray to end in the central gray, which is innervated at all levels, and also appears to be innervated by fibers descending in the central gray itself. A semiquantitative analysis shows that the density of terminal fields in the intermediolateral column, marginal zone, and central gray varies significantly at different levels. The intermediolateral column is preferentially innervated between T1‐T3, T9‐T11, and T13‐L2. The nucleus intercalatus spinalis and the dorsal commissural nucleus (between T13 and L2), both of which contain preganglionic neurons, are densely innervated.
Towards an Architecture for Big Data-Driven Knowledge Management Systems

Nowadays, knowledge management systems are confronted with a variety and unprecedented amount of data, resulting from big data sources. A new generation of knowledge management systems for exploring and exploiting big data becomes a major need for organizations. For this reason, the paper proposes a novel service-oriented architecture for big data-driven knowledge management systems. The purpose of this research is to support organizations to leverage their knowledge-based assets for improving decisionmaking and facilitating organizational learning. The proposed architecture is based on the principles of design science research, including a set of constructs, a model and a method. The design evaluation is presented based on the analytical evaluation method. By applying the architecture, an organization can manage and govern business and digital transformation, setting them apart from their competitors.
Neurotoxins that act on voltage-sensitive sodium channels in excitable membranes.

A large number of biological toxins exert their toxic effects by modifying the properties of voltage-sensitive sodium channels involved in action po­ tential generation in nerve, heart, and skeletal muscle. These include the water-soluble heterocyclic guanidines, tetrodotoxin and saxitoxin, the lipid­ soluble polycyclic compounds, veratridine, aconitine, batrachotoxin, and grayanotoxin, and the low-molecular weight, basic polypeptide toxins iso­ lated from scorpion venoms and sea anemone nematocysts. The isolation, chemical characterization, and structure determination of many of these toxins as well as their systematic and comparative pharmacology have been the subject of previous excellent reviews. These aspects are, therefore, not treated in detail here. This review focuses on experiments that have given insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of these toxins and have revealed common features of their interaction with voltage-sensi­ tive sodium channels.