Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infection in Children: A Prospective National Study

Background: The epidemiology and management of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infection in Australian children is unknown. Methods: From July 2004 to June 2007, clinicians identified children with NTM infection as part of a nationwide active surveillance network. Following notification, detailed data were collected. Results: From 192 reports, data were received on 153 cases (response rate: 79.7%). Of these, 102 met inclusion criteria. The median age was 2.9 years. Predisposing conditions were infrequent and included chronic respiratory disease (n = 12) and immunosuppression (n = 6). Lymphadenitis was the most frequent presentation (n = 68) with pulmonary and disseminated disease infrequent (n = 14 and 3, respectively). NTM was isolated in 68 cases with Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex most frequently isolated (33/68; 48.5%). Surgery was performed in 78 cases and 42 children were treated with antimycobacterial therapy. Twenty-five subjects received surgery and antimycobacterial therapy. Follow-up data were available for 77 children with recurrence observed in 18 cases. Complete excision was associated with a higher rate of treatment success when compared with all other therapies (OR: 9.48 [95% CI: 2.00–44.97], P = 0.001). Mycobacterium lentiflavum infection accounted for 4.4% of culture confirmed cases and had a lower rate of treatment success than other species (0% vs. 78.2%; P = 0.016). Conclusions: The incidence of NTM infection in Australian children is 0.84 of 100,000 (95% CI: 0.68–1.02). Infection occurs most often in young children without predisposing conditions. Despite therapy, there was recurrence in 23.4% of cases.
The ubiquitin-proteasome system: opportunities for therapeutic intervention in solid tumors.

The destruction of proteins via the ubiquitin-proteasome system is a multi-step, complex process involving polyubiquitination of substrate proteins, followed by proteolytic degradation by the macromolecular 26S proteasome complex. Inhibitors of the proteasome promote the accumulation of proteins that are deleterious to cell survival, and represent promising anti-cancer agents. In multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma, treatment with the first-generation proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib, or the second-generation inhibitor, carfilzomib, has demonstrated significant therapeutic benefit in humans. This has prompted United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) approval of these agents and development of additional second-generation compounds with improved properties. There is considerable interest in extending the benefits of proteasome inhibitors to the treatment of solid tumor malignancies. Herein, we review progress that has been made in the preclinical development and clinical evaluation of different proteasome inhibitors in solid tumors. In addition, we describe several novel approaches that are currently being pursued for the treatment of solid tumors, including drug combinatorial strategies incorporating proteasome inhibitors and the targeting of components of the ubiquitin-proteasome system that are distinct from the 26S proteasome complex.
Method of Effective Roughness Dielectric in a PCB: Measurement and Full-Wave Simulation Verification

Surface roughness topography of printed circuit boards (PCBs) needs to be included in signal integrity simulations in order to accurately predict the insertion loss of the structure and its delay time. An effective roughness dielectric (ERD) model can be used to substitute an inhomogeneous interface between copper foil and laminate dielectric in a PCB. Herein, this approach is tested for verification using 3-D full-wave numerical simulations. These ERD layers with the appropriate complex permittivity are included in the modeling of stripline examples. The parameters of an ambient laminate dielectric refined from conductor roughness in the stripline are determined using differential extrapolation roughness measurement technique. The agreement of the results of 3-D full-wave modeling simulations and measurements on multiple test structures justifies the proposed approach. Based on the extracted ERD parameters “design curves” can be built and used in numerical simulations of PCB high-speed designs.
Analysis of the galactose signal transduction pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: interaction between Gal3p and Gal80p

The GAL3 gene plays a critical role in galactose induction of the GAL genes that encode galactose- metabolizing enzymes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Defects in GAL3 result in a long delay in GAL gene induction, and overproduction of Gal3p causes constitutive expression of GAL. Here we demonstrate that concomitant overproduction of the negative regulator, Gal80p, and Gal3p suppresses this constitutive GAL expression. This interplay between Gal80p and Gal3p is direct, as tagged Gal3p coimmunoprecipitated with Gal80p. The amount of coprecipitated Gal80p increased when GAL80 yeast cells were grown in the presence of galactose. When both GAL80 and GAL3 were overexpressed, the amount of coprecipitated Gal80p was not affected by galactose. Tagged gal3 mutant proteins bound to purified Gal80p, but only poorly in comparison with the wild type, suggesting that formation of the Gal80p-Gal3p complex depends on the normal function of Gal3p. Gal3p appeared larger in Western blots (immunoblots) than predicted by the published nucleic acid sequence. Reexamination of the DNA sequence of GAL3 revealed several mistakes, including an extension at the 3' end of another predicted 97 amino acids.
A model-based Sonar image ATR method based on SIFT features

Sonar image automatic target recognition (ATR) is urgently needed in large-scale marine investigation. A modelbased Sonar image ATR method based on SIFT features is proposed in this paper. The proposed method can realize ATR for arbitrary shaped target by physically model 3D under water scene, generate simulated template images, extract Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) keypoints and matching target image and template image. Simulation result shows, the proposed method can reach relatively high probability of correct classification with small size of template library.
Tinospora cordifolia : Its Bioactivities and Evaluation of Physicochemical Properties

The medicinal plants are widely used by the traditional medical practitioners for curing various diseases in their day to day practice. In traditional systems of medicine, different parts (leaves, stem, flower, root, seeds and even whole plant) of tinospora cardifolia (Menispermaceae), commonly known as Guduchi are used. T. cordifolia is a glabrous, succulent, climbing shrub native to India. The plant is well known for several medicinal uses like immunostimulant, anti-bacterial, analgesic, antipyretic and also for the treatment of jaundice, skin diseases, diabetes, anemia etc. As there is no detailed on the standardisation work reported on stem, the physicochemical parameters, brief study on pharmacological activities and microbial contamination analysis are carried out. The study revealed specific identities for the particular crude drug which will be useful in identification and control to adulterations of the raw drug.
Primary gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphoma: II. Combined surgical and conservative or conservative management only in localized gastric lymphoma--results of the prospective German Multicenter Study GIT NHL 01/92.

PURPOSE The aim of the study was to obtain data on anatomic and histologic distribution, clinical features, and treatment results of patients with primary gastrointestinal non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, particularly combined surgical and conservative treatment (CSCT) versus conservative treatment (CT) alone for primary gastric lymphoma (PGL) in localized stages. PATIENTS AND METHODS Whether the treatment included surgery was left to the discretion of each participating center. Radiotherapy (Rx) and chemotherapy were stratified according to histologic grading, stage, and the inclusion or omission of surgery as follows: patients with low-grade PGL were treated with extended-field (EF) Rx (30 Gy). In case of residual tumor after surgery or in case of CT only (in stage IIE after six cycles of cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone), an additional boost of 10 Gy was given. All patients with high-grade PGL were treated with four (stage IE) or six (stage IIE) cycles of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone followed by EF Rx (stage IE) or involved-field (IF) Rx (stage IIE). Rx dosage corresponded to low-grade NHL. RESULTS Between October 1992 and November 1996, 106 patients had CT only. The survival rate (SR) after 5 years was 84.4% and was influenced neither by patients' characteristics nor by stage or histologic grade. Seventy-nine patients had CSCT. Their SR was 82.0%. Complete resection of the tumor (R0) was prognostic for the overall survival (P =.0165) as compared with incomplete resection. CONCLUSION Although the study was not randomized, a stomach-conserving approach may be favored.
Inhaled nitric oxide therapy in adults.

The therapeutic promise of nitric oxide (NO), a potent vasodilator, remains uncertain for adults, and licensed indications are restricted to pediatric practice. This review considers the biologic actions of inhaled nitric oxide, the clinical indications for its administration in adults, and an assessment of its potential therapeutic development.
Enhancing the Awareness of Decentralized Cooperative Mobile Robots through Active Perceptual Anchoring

In this paper, we describe a system for controlling the perceptual processes of two cooperative mobile robots that addresses the issue of enhancing perceptual awareness. We define awareness here as knowing the location of other robots in the environment. The proposed system benefits from a formalism called perceptual anchoring. Here, perceptual anchoring enhances the awareness of the system by employing an anchor-based active gaze control strategy or active perceptual anchoring to control the perceptual effort according to what is important at a given time. By anchoring we extend the notion of awareness as knowing what the symbols in the control module represent to by connecting them to the objects or features in the environment. We demonstrate the present system through a simulation of two nonholonomic mobile robots performing a cooperative transportation by carrying a cargo to a target location where there are two other robots moving about. The system is able to efficiently focus the perceptual effort and thus able to safely carry the cargo to the target position.
A role for actin in the polarized release of rotavirus 5

Rotaviruses are characterized by a polarized release from the apical side of infected enterocytes and the rotavirus VP4 spike protein specifically binds to the actin network at the apical pole of differentiated enterocytic cells. To determine the functional consequences of this VP4-actin interaction, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching experiments were carried out to measure the diffusional 5 mobility of VP4 associated with the microfilaments. Results show that VP4 binds to barbed ends of microfilaments by using actin treadmilling. Actin treadmilling inhibition results in the loss of rotavirus apical preferential release suggesting a major role for actin in polarized rotavirus release.
Optimal Eavesdropping in Quantum Cryptography. I

We consider the Bennett-Brassard cryptographic scheme, which uses two conjugate quantum bases. An eavesdropper who attempts to obtain information on qubits sent in one of the bases causes a disturbance to qubits sent in the other basis. We derive an upper bound to the accessible information in one basis, for a given error rate in the conjugate basis. Independently fixing the error rate in the conjugate bases, we show that both bounds can be attained simultaneously by an optimal eavesdropping probe, consisting of two qubits. The qubits' interaction and their subsequent measurement are described explicitly. These results are combined to give an expression for the optimal information an eavesdropper can obtain for a given average disturbance when her interaction and measurements are performed signal by signal. Finally, the relation between quantum cryptography and violations of Bell's inequalities is discussed.
Functional Activity of Natural Antibody is Altered in Cr2-Deficient Mice1

The major source of natural IgM Abs are B-1 cells, which differ from conventional B cells in their anatomic location, cell surface phenotype, restricted usage of particular VH genes and limited use of N-region addition during V-D-J rearrangement. The origin of B-1 cells is unclear. However, they are capable of self-renewal and their development is sensitive to signaling via the B cell receptor, as genetic defects that impair the strength of the signal often result in limited development. These findings suggest that B-1 cells require either an intrinsic signal, or contact with Ag, for positive selection and expansion and/or maintenance in the periphery. In support of interaction with cognate Ag, deficiency in the complement receptors CD21/CD35 results in a 30–40% decrease in the CD5+ B-1 population. To determine whether this reduction reflects a loss of certain specificities or simply a proportional decline in the repertoire, we examined peritoneal B cells isolated from Cr2+ and Cr2def mice for recognition of a B-1 cell Ag, i.e., phosphatidylcholine, and assayed for injury in an IgM natural Ab-dependent model of reperfusion injury. We found a similar frequency of phosphatidylcholine-specific CD5+ B-1 cells in the two strains of mice. By contrast, the Cr2def mice have reduced injury in the IgM-dependent model of reperfusion injury. Reconstitution of the deficient mice with pooled IgM or adoptive transfer of Cr2+ peritoneal B cells restored injury. These results suggest that complement receptors CD21/CD35 are important in maintenance of the B-1 cell repertoire to some, but not all, specificities.
The pathology of hepatic iron overload: A free radical‐Mediated Process?

Over the past 15 to 20 years much has been learned about genetic (hereditary, primary, idiopathic) hemochromatosis (GH). Confirmation that the disease is an inherited disorder of iron metabolism has been provided by the use of human leukocyte antigen typing and extensive pedigree analysis performed in many countries around the world (1-7). Recently, it has been confirmed that early diagnosis and phlebotomy therapy can result in improvement in long-term survival for patients with GH (8). Finally, it has been learned that the disease is much more common than was originally thought: about 1 in 220 whites of northern European ancestry is affected (
L’écriture électronique des collégiens : quelles questions pour la didactique du français ?

L’ouvrage s’interesse aux pratiques extrascolaires d’ecriture electronique d’eleves de classe de troisieme, en particulier sous l’angle de leur influence sur l’orthographe de ces derniers. Il propose notamment une comparaison des ecarts orthographiques de copies d’examen du Brevet recueillies dans un meme college a quinze ans d’intervalle (1996 et 2011), c’est-a-dire juste avant l’irruption de l’ecriture electronique, puis une fois celle-ci bien installee. Les implications didactiques de l’ensemble de la recherche sont enfin envisagees.
Ex vivo assessment of irrigant penetration and renewal during the final irrigation regimen.

AIM To assess irrigant penetration in curved canals after shaping procedures ex vivo. METHODOLOGY Thirty extracted mandibular molars with moderate to severe root canal curvature were included. A special aiming device was used to guarantee that each successive radiograph was taken with the same positioning. The mesiolingual canal of each tooth was instrumented with ProTaper rotary files. Apical third preparation was completed with an F1 instrument before additional step-back enlargement using F2 then F3 instruments. For each apical taper, the teeth were submitted successively to active irrigation (AI) then to passive irrigation (PI). AI consisted of a 0.5 mL flush of sodium diatrizoate (Hypaque 50%) immediately followed by manual mechanical activation with a gutta-percha point. PI consisted in flushing the canals with sodium hypochlorite passively delivered with a syringe. A digital radiograph was taken after each modality. The influence of needle tip design, needle tip insertion level, irrigant volume, root canal taper and solution activation was assessed by using digital subtraction radiography and measures of the depths of irrigant penetration. Comparisons were performed within an analysis of variance framework in a repeated-measures approach. RESULTS For PI, all the four explanatory variables 'apical taper', 'volume of irrigant used', 'corono-apical level of needle tip placement', 'needle tip design' had a significant (P < 0.005) influence on outcome of irrigation penetration. CONCLUSIONS Only active irrigation allowed complete penetration and exchange of irrigating solution. For syringe irrigation alone, the level of needle tip placement in the canal was the most dominating factor.
Blue‐yellow perimetry in patients with ocular hypertone

The authors report the data of the blue‐yellow (B‐Y) perimetry compared with the Standard perimetry in normal subjects with endocular hypertension or with initial glaucoma. With the aim of evaluating the relationship with chromatic sense deficits, precociously found in glaucoma, the F‐M 100 Hue test and Lanthony D 15 Desaturé test were done. Checks were made of refraction, visual acuity, pupil diameter and assumption of medications. Sensitivity reduction in eyes with initial glaucoma is highly significant with the B‐Y perimetry. Pupil diameter reduction is quite uninfluential while the chromatic sense shows some quantitative and qualitative deficits.
Développement d'un Examen Clinique Objectif Structuré pour évaluer les compétences des internes en urologie

Contexte : Bien que l'Examen Clinique Objectif Structure (ECOS) soit considere comme le meilleur instrument pour l'evaluation de la competence clinique, l'experience de ce type d'examen est encore limitee en France. But : Evaluer la faisabilite et l'acceptabilite d'un ECOS destine aux internes en Urologie. Materiel et Methodes : 20 internes d'urologie ont passe un circuit de 5 stations de 10 minutes chacune avec patients simules. La selection des problemes a ete effectuee en fonction des objectifs d'apprentissage des programmes d'enseignement de l'urologie. Un questionnaire ecrit avec echelle de Likert a ete utilise pour evaluer l'acceptabilite de l'ECOS. Les performances des internes juniors et seniors ont ete comparees avec un test t de Student. Resultats : La performance des internes seniors a ete globalement superieure a celle des juniors, mais sans difference significative. Les internes seniors ont ete significativement meilleurs concernant les problemes de consultation et la majorite d'entre eux ont obtenu une note superieure a la moyenne totale du groupe. Malgre notre manque d'experience et les difficultes logistiques, nous n'avons pas rencontre de difficulte dans le developpement et l'organisation de l'examen. Tous les participants ont confirme que les situations cliniques presentees etaient realistes et que les patients simules etaient credibles. Conclusions : Les resultats de cette experience pilote d'ECOS en urologie prouvent la faisabilite d'un tel instrument pour evaluer la performance des internes et les deficiences eventuelles de l'enseignement, notamment l'activite de consultation. Cette experience doit etre developpee afin d'explorer ses qualites psychometriques.
Cross-Talk Between PKA and Akt Protects Endothelial Cells From Apoptosis in the Late Ischemic Preconditioning

Objective—The aim of this study was to explore the molecular mechanisms involved in late preconditioning-induced cell protection in endothelial cells. Methods and Results—Preconditioning (PC) was induced by exposing bovine aortic endothelial cells (BAECs) to 3 cycles of 15 minutes of hypoxia followed by 15 minutes of reoxygenation. A 12-hour period of hypoxia induced cell death in 60% of BAECs (48±5% apoptosis, 12±4% necrosis). Early and late PC decreased hypoxia-induced apoptotic (25±5% and 28±4%, respectively) and necrotic (6±3%, and 8±2%, respectively) cell death. Consistently, hypoxia-induced caspase-3 cleavage was reduced by PC. Pretreatment with H89 (protein kinase A [PKA] inhibitor), LY294002 (phosphatidyl-inositol-3-kinase [PI3K] inhibitor), and N-acetyl-cysteine (antioxidant) abrogated late PC-induced cell protection, whereas inhibition of protein kinase C by Go6983, and of nitric oxide synthesis by L-NAME,1400W and bovine eNOS siRNA did not. In addition, in early and late PC, PKA physically interacted with the phosphorylated form of Akt, suggesting that PKA is required for Akt phosphorylation. Expression of PKA and Akt dominant negative mutants inhibited ischemic late PC-induced protection, indicating that these kinases play a key role in late PC-mediated cell protection. Conclusions—Late ischemic PC protects BAECs against hypoxia through PKA- and PI3K-dependent activation of Akt.
BALLDock/SLICK: A New Method for Protein-Carbohydrate Docking

Protein-ligand docking is an essential technique in computer-aided drug design. While generally available docking programs work well for most drug classes, carbohydrates and carbohydrate-like compounds are often problematic for docking. We present a new docking method specifically designed to handle docking of carbohydrate-like compounds. BALLDock/SLICK combines an evolutionary docking algorithm for flexible ligands and flexible receptor side chains with carbohydrate-specific scoring and energy functions. The scoring function has been designed to identify accurate ligand poses, while the energy function yields accurate estimates of the binding free energies of these poses. On a test set of known protein-sugar complexes we demonstrate the ability of the approach to generate correct poses for almost all of the structures and achieve very low mean errors for the predicted binding free energies.
The Economic Burden of Chronic Cardiovascular Disease for Major Insurers

Accounting models provide less precise estimates of disease burden than do econometric models. The authors seek to improve these estimates for cardiovascular disease using a nationally representative survey and econometric modeling to isolate the proportion of medical expenditures attributable to four chronic cardiovascular diseases: stroke, hypertension, congestive heart failure, and other heart diseases. Approximately 17% of all medical expenditures, or $149 billion annually, and nearly 30% of Medicare expenditures are attributable to these diseases. Of the four diseases, hypertension accounts for the largest share of prescription expenditures across payers and the largest share of all Medicaid expenditures. The large number of people with cardiovascular disease who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid could lead to large shifts in the burden to these payers as prescription drug coverage is included in Medicare. A societal perspective is important when describing the economic burden of cardiovascular disease.
Cyanogen bromide and tresyl chloride chemistry revisited: The special reactivity of agarose as a chromatographic and biomaterial support for immobilizing novel chemical groups

The cyanogen bromide and tresyl chloride (2,2,2‐trifluoroethanesulfonyl chloride) methods belong to the best‐known activation procedures for solid supports in biochemistry. In both cases the originally proposed reaction mechanisms were revised many years later. In this paper important aspects of these two major activation reactions in connection with the singular polysaccharide support, agarose, will be treated with emphasis on the novel reaction mechanism recently proposed for tresyl chloride. In addition, the special role played by sulfur in the new uncharged alkyl‐S‐S‐gels is examined in connection with the phenomenon of base atom recognition.