Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Expression of Twist and relation with epithelial-mesenchymal transition in oral squamous cell carcinoma].

OBJECTIVE The objective of this paper was to study the expression of related protein and Twist transcription factor of epithelial-mesenchymal transition in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) tissue and the correlations of OSCC and oral squamous cell carcino-metastasis. The paper also investigated the clinical significance of expression on OSCC. METHODS The labels of epithelium materialization (E-cadherin and cytokeratin), stromal labels (N-cadherin), transcription factor Twist protein, and mRNA expression in 30 OSCC tissues were investigated via immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization. The paper also conducted contrast analysis with clinicopathology. RESULTS Immunization result showed that the expressions of Twist and N-cadherin in the OSCC group were more significant than those of the normal group (P<0.05). The expressions of E-cadherin and keratin in OSCC were significantly lower than those of the normal group (P<0.05). In the moderate- and low-differentiated group of OSCC, the expressions of Twist and N-cadherin were higher than those of the high-differentiated group (P<0.05). The expressions of E-cadherin and keratin were lower than those in the high-differentiated group (P<0.05). In the lymphatic metastasis group, the expressions of Twist and N-cadherin were higher than those of no-lymphatic metastasis group (P<0.05). The expressions of E-cadherin and keratin were lower than those of the no-lymphatic metastasis group (P< 0.05). Results of in situ hybridization showed that the expression of Twist mRNA in the moderate- and low-differentiated groups of OSCC, T3, and T4 groups as well as that of the lymphatic metastasis group were higher than those of the high-differentiated, T1 and T2 groups, and no-separate lymphatic metastasis group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05). CONCLUSION Epithelium materialization exists in OSCC tissue. Twist can enhance the invasiveness of tumor cell and promote the infiltration and metastasis of OSCC. The combined detection of Twist, E-cadherin, and N-cadherin expressions can effectively predict and estimate OSCC metastasis.
Quantitative Modeling of the Alternative Pathway of the Complement System

The complement system is an integral part of innate immunity that detects and eliminates invading pathogens through a cascade of reactions. The destructive effects of the complement activation on host cells are inhibited through versatile regulators that are present in plasma and bound to membranes. Impairment in the capacity of these regulators to function in the proper manner results in autoimmune diseases. To better understand the delicate balance between complement activation and regulation, we have developed a comprehensive quantitative model of the alternative pathway. Our model incorporates a system of ordinary differential equations that describes the dynamics of the four steps of the alternative pathway under physiological conditions: (i) initiation (fluid phase), (ii) amplification (surfaces), (iii) termination (pathogen), and (iv) regulation (host cell and fluid phase). We have examined complement activation and regulation on different surfaces, using the cellular dimensions of a characteristic bacterium (E. coli) and host cell (human erythrocyte). In addition, we have incorporated neutrophil-secreted properdin into the model highlighting the cross talk of neutrophils with the alternative pathway in coordinating innate immunity. Our study yields a series of time-dependent response data for all alternative pathway proteins, fragments, and complexes. We demonstrate the robustness of alternative pathway on the surface of pathogens in which complement components were able to saturate the entire region in about 54 minutes, while occupying less than one percent on host cells at the same time period. Our model reveals that tight regulation of complement starts in fluid phase in which propagation of the alternative pathway was inhibited through the dismantlement of fluid phase convertases. Our model also depicts the intricate role that properdin released from neutrophils plays in initiating and propagating the alternative pathway during bacterial infection.
A new metaheuristic optimisation algorithm motivated by elephant herding behaviour

In this paper, a new swarm-based metaheuristic algorithm, called elephant herding optimisation EHO, is proposed for solving global optimisation tasks, which is inspired by the herding behaviour of the elephant groups. In nature, the elephants belonging to different clans live together under the leadership of a matriarch, and the male elephants will leave their family group when growing up. These two behaviours can be modelled into two following operators: clan updating operator and separating operator. In EHO, the elephants are updated using its current position and matriarch through clan updating operator, and the separating operator is then implemented. Moreover, EHO has been benchmarked by 20 standard benchmarks, and two engineering cases in comparison with BBO, DE and GA. The results clearly establish the supremacy of EHO in finding the better function values on most test problems than those three algorithms. The code can be found in the website: http://www.mathworks. com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/53486.
Choroidal Thickness and Ametropia in Children: A Longitudinal Study

Purpose To determine the relationship of subfoveal choroidal thickness (ChT), refraction, and axial length in children, and evaluate the evolution of subfoveal ChT with time in myopic versus nonmyopic eyes. Methods A total of 229 eyes of 115 children aged 2 to 16 years were included in the study. Refraction under cycloplegia, axial length, and subfoveal ChT were measured at baseline with comparative investigations at 15 months follow-up. Results The probability for the subfoveal ChT to be thinner in myopic children compared to nonmyopic children was 0.9999. We found a relation between subfoveal ChT and axial length. At 15 months follow-up, subfoveal ChT was found to have increased in the nonmyopic eyes, but decreased in myopic patients. Conclusions A number of studies have already shown the choroid to play an important role in the process of emmetropization. We found that ChT had a different evolution in myopic children compared to nonmyopic children. A thinner choroid may predict the onset, or progression, of myopia. Further studies, with longer follow-up, are necessary to confirm this hypothesis.
Assessment of Serological Response of Chickens to Salmonella Gallinarum and Salmonella Pullorum by Elisa

This study was done to assess an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to detect chicken serological response against Salmonella enterica serotypes Gallinarum and Pullorum. The assays have used soluble bacterial proteins of Salmonella Gallinarum strain 9 (AgSG) as detecting antigen and peroxidase and alkaline phosphatase conjugates. According to the results, the antigen, sera and conjugate concentrations were optimized. In addition, the assay using alkaline phosphatase and peroxidase conjugates was helpful to distinguish positive serological reaction to serotypes Gallinarum and Pullorum from Enteritidis.
20 years of RET/PTC in thyroid cancer: clinico-pathological correlations.

The RET/PTC oncogene has been isolated almost twenty years ago. During these years, the research has given a final answer to several questions. In fact, it has been demonstrated that: a) RET/PTC is an early event in the process of thyroid carcinogenesis and has a critical role in the generation of the papillary carcinoma; b) RET/PTC activation is essentially restricted to the papillary histotype and to the Hürthle thyroid tumors; c) its incidence increases after exposure to radiations. However, some questions have not found a final answer yet: a) which is the real frequency of RET/PTC activation? Likely it is around 20%, but this point is still questionable; b) which other gene modifications are required to lead a thyroid cell carrying a RET/PTC oncogene to the malignant phenotype? , and c) is there any correlation between RET/PTC activation and clinical parameters? We hope that these questions will have a clear answer in the near future.
Dihydrotestosterone inhibits fetal rabbit pulmonary surfactant production.

Males have a higher morbidity and mortality for neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS) than females, and respond less well to hormone therapy designed to prevent RDS by stimulating fetal pulmonary surfactant production. We have shown that male fetuses exhibit delayed production of pulmonary surfactant. We tested the hypothesis that the sex difference in fetal pulmonary surfactant production is under hormonal control. Pulmonary surfactant was measured as the saturated phosphatidylcholine/sphingomyelin ratio (SPC/S) in the lung lavage of fetal rabbits at 26 d gestation. There was an association between the sex of neighboring fetuses and the SPC/S ratio of the female fetuses, such that with one or two male neighbors, respectively, females had decreasing SPC/S ratios (P < 0.05). We injected dihydrotestosterone (DHT) into pregnant does from day 12 through day 26 of gestation in doses of 0.1, 1.0, 10, and 25 mg/d, and measured the SPC/S ratio in fetal lung lavage on day 26. In groups with the normal sex difference in fetal serum androgen levels (controls, 0.1 mg DHT/d) the normal sex difference in the SPC/S ratio was also present (females > males, P = 0.03). In the 1-mg/d group there was no sex difference in androgen levels and the sex difference in the SPC/S ratio was also eliminated as the female values were lowered to the male level. Higher doses of DHT (10, 25 mg/d) further reduced the SPC/S ratios. We injected the anti-androgen Flutamide (25 mg/d) from day 12 through day 26 of gestation. This treatment eliminated the normal sex difference in the lung lavage SPC/S ratio by increasing the male ratios to that of the females. We conclude that androgens inhibit fetal pulmonary surfactant production. An understanding of the mechanism of the sex difference in surfactant production may allow development of therapy that is as effective in males as in females for preventing RDS.
Regulating stem-cell research and human cloning in an Australian context: an exercise in protecting the status of the human subject

Abstract Over 12 months prior to the recent United Nations decision to defer a decision about what type of international treaty should be developed in the global stem-cell research and human cloning debate, the Federal Parliament of Australia passed two separate pieces of legislation relating to both these concerns. After a five-year long process of community consultation, media spectacle and parliamentary debate, reproductive cloning has been banned in Australia and only embryos considered to be excess to assisted reproductive technologies in existence on the 5th of April 2002 are currently valid research material. This paper argues that underpinning both pieces of legislation is a profound belief in the disruptive potential of all types of human cloning for the very nature and integrity of human species being. A belief, moreover, that is based on a presumption that it is apparently possible to conceptualise what being human even means for all Australians.
Malignant Melanoma in a Candidate for Heart Transplantation

A superficial spreading melanoma (Breslow thickness 0.4 mm) was diagnosed in a 65-year-old candidate for heart transplantation due to refractory end stage heart failure. After extensive review of the literature (USA and Europe), no clear guidelines about the management of candidates for transplantation with a previous diagnosis of melanoma were found. As this patient had a 5-year probability of survival higher than 95% and heart transplantation was necessary for saving his life, the final decision was to perform the transplantation. Unfortunately, the patient died of heart failure before a suitable heart became available. This case stresses the need for early and continuous dermatological evaluation of all candidates for solid organ transplantation. Clear guidelines for screening of skin cancer before transplantation are needed.
Changes in the Clinical Manifestation of Fibromyalgia in an Individual with Dementia

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Intravascular susceptibility contrast mechanisms in tissues

The factors affecting the rate of loss of transverse magnetization in gradient echo and spin‐echo pulse sequences have been quantified using computer modeling for media containing arrays of susceptibility variations. The results are particularly relevant for describing the signal losses that occur in tissues containing capillaries of altered intrinsic susceptibility from the administration of exogenous contrast agents or arising from changes in blood oxygenation. The precise magnitudes and relationship of gradient echo and spin‐echo decay rates depend on geometrical factors such as the sizes and spacings of the inhomogeneities, the rate of water diffusion, field strength, and echo times. The conventional separation of contributions to transverse decay rates arising from so‐called static field effects and diffusion is shown to be inappropriate for many situations of practical interest because diffusion introduces a motional averaging of the static field even in gradient echo sequences. The result of diffusion in some regimes is to reduce the decay rate from field inhomogeneities in gradient echo sequences, so that T2* is longer in media such as tissue where water diffuses reasonably rapidly, than would be the case for stationary nuclei. The effects of different types of contrast agent and the implications for functional imaging based on the effects of deoxyhemoglobin in brain tissue are considered.
A Robust Adaptive Beamforming Framework With Beampattern Shaping Constraints

We propose a framework based on the use of a set of beampattern shaping constraints. The proposed beamformer possesses not only adaptive interference-rejection ability and robustness against large steering direction errors, but also direct sidelobe control. It contains a new weighing ratio that can automatically control the relative proportions of interference-rejection and sidelobe suppression in different scenarios, without ambiguity. Unlike other beamformers, the proposed beamformer is robust against strong moving interferences, requiring only a coarse estimation of their directions-of-arrival. The generic framework encompasses different optimization strategies for specific application problems.
Has Electromagnetic Energy in the Band 0.1–100 GHz Useful Medical Applications? A Review of Mechanisms and Biological Database Offers Dim Prospects

We now have a history of more than 50 years of searching for low-level nonthermal radio frequency (RF) effects on biological systems. An analysis of this database and an evaluation of the proposed mechanism of interactions suggest that the probability of finding such effects between the frequencies of 100 MHz and 150 GHz is vanishingly small and that most likely, such effects do not exist between 10 MHz and 200 GHz. However, studies using low-frequency fields with amplitude on the order of or exceeding endogenous fields, the development of terahertz spectroscopy, and medical imaging at terahertz frequencies and RF fields that can cause temperature elevation have proven and are proving to be fruitful areas of research.
Castilla y León en el contexto tecnológico de la Unión Europea: situación actual y perspectivas

Transcurrido un tiempo desde que Schumpeter calificase a la innovacion como “fenomeno de destruccion creadora”, capaz de “revolucionar” a la economia desde dentro y erigirse asi en el dato de hecho esencial del capitalismo (SCHUMPETER, 1942), y a pesar de las divergencias y posturas no siempre concordantes de las diferentes escuelas de pensamiento, o de los distintos enfoques de las lineas de investigacion desarrolladas desde entonces en relacion con la materia, hoy en dia parece haber un acuerdo generalizado acerca del hecho de que las actividades relacionadas con la innovacion y la incorporacion de nuevas tecnologias resultan fundamentales con vistas a conseguir alcanzar unos adecuados niveles de desarrollo economico empresarial y regional, sobre todo en el contexto de unos mercados cada vez mas interdependientes y globalizados que, apoyados por los avances en las nuevas tecnologias de telecomunicaciones, se encargan de minimizar la importancia de fronteras o barreras politico-geograficas previa y muchas veces convencionalmente establecidas. La estrecha relacion existente entre nivel de desarrollo economico y grado de innovacion y progreso tecnologico llega incluso al punto de ser considerada una evidencia practicamente incuestionable, que condiciona la necesidad de articular en aquellas empresas y regiones que se quieran desarrollar un sistema adecuado para propiciar actitudes que generen, a su vez, iniciativas y actividades innovadoras, apoyadas por el maximo numero posible de mecanismos incentivadores (VAZQUEZ, 1995), tanto publicos como privados.
The prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease in adult asthmatics.

BACKGROUND Asthma and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) often coexist. However, the results of the studies investigating the prevalence of GERD among patients with asthma vary greatly. STUDY OBJECTIVE To investigate the prevalence of GERD in adult patients with asthma. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The basic study population consisted of 2,225 asthmatic patients who were treated in six specialist-headed hospitals during 1 year. From the common computer-based discharge register, every 14th patient was randomly selected for the study. Ninety of the 149 contacted patients (60%) agreed to participate in the study. Twenty-four-hour esophageal pH monitoring was performed on all patients. RESULTS GERD was found in 32 of the patients (36%). Eight of these patients (25%) were free from classical reflux symptoms. Forty-seven of the 90 patients (52%) presented with typical reflux symptoms. Twenty-four of these patients (51%) were found to have abnormal acidic reflux. CONCLUSIONS According to the current study, one third of adult patients with asthma have GERD. These patients often do not have typical reflux symptoms. However, the presence of typical reflux symptoms in an asthmatic patient does not seem to guarantee the presence of abnormal acidic reflux.
Voice Activity Detector Based on Enhance On-line EM Alg

This paper addresses the problem of segmenting audio data recorded with embedded devices for the purpose of intelligent sensing in the context of multi-modal interactions. We propose a real-time method for robust speech detection in natural, noisy environments. It is based on a fusion of high order statistics of the LPC residual and autocorrelation, and adopts an on-line version of Expectation Maximization algorithm for the classification. Experimental evaluations show that the proposed method provides better detection performance under different types of natural noises, working robustly against other voices in the context of multi-speaker interactive situations. As the proposed method is based on features which have a low computational cost, and has a small latency, it is suitable for real-time tracking applications.
Prognostic value of formulas estimating excretory renal function in elderly with systolic heart failure middle-aged patients with chronic renal disease and reduced

Background: reduced renal excretory function (REF) is increasingly being appreciated as a potent prognostic factor in chronic heart failure (CHF). The Cockroft–Gault (CG) and the simplified Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equations have been recommended to estimate REF. However, limitations for both formulas have been reported in the elderly. Their prognostic performance in older CHF patients has not been investigated. Objectives: to assess the factors independently associated with all-cause mortality and compare the prognostic value of formulas estimating REF in CHF patients aged ≥70 years. Design: a longitudinal study with a median follow-up of 859 days. The end-point was all-cause mortality. Setting: Division of Cardiology and Cardiac Rehabilitation. Subjects: two hundred and sixty-six patients aged ≥70 years with systolic CHF. Methods: REF was estimated using the CG (eCrClCG) and the MDRD (eGFRMDRD) formulas. Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the factors independently associated with mortality and compare the prognostic value of estimating formulas. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was also performed. Results: Kaplan–Meier estimates of the rates of death at 1 and 2 years were 85% and 73%, respectively At multivariate analysis, eCrClCG <50 mL/min (P = 0.005), anaemia (P = 0.012), non-prescription of beta-blockers (P = 0.006) and left ventricular ejection fraction (P = 0.03) were the only independent predictors of mortality. On ROC analysis, the eCrClCG was significantly more accurate than the eGFRMDRD. Conclusions: among CHF patients aged ≥70 years, reduced REF is the most powerful independent predictor of survival. The excess in risk conferred by reduced REF is better appraised by means of the CG than the MDRD equation.
The Roots, Rules, and Rise of RFID

This article has offered a brief excerpt of the basic requirements and current development trends in (passive) RFID systems in different application areas. Even after reaching a sophisticated state of development, RFID technology is still dependent on sufficient acceptance at the market. Conventional bar code systems lack programmability, have low storage capability, and need a line-of-sight connection to the reader. If the fall in prices for low-cost tags continues, barcodes could be largely replaced in some years. In this case, additional features like positioning or sensing will become even more attractive for commercial and industrial application fields.