Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emergence of Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in the United States: clinical signs, lesions, and viral genomic sequences

During the 10 days commencing April 29, 2013, the Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory received the first 4 of many submissions from swine farms experiencing explosive epidemics of diarrhea and vomiting affecting all ages, with 90–95% mortality in suckling pigs. Histology revealed severe atrophy of villi in all segments of the small intestines with occasional villus-epithelial syncytial cells, but testing for rotaviruses and Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (Alphacoronavirus 1) were negative. Negative-staining electron microscopy of feces revealed coronavirus-like particles and a pan-coronavirus polymerase chain reaction (PCR) designed to amplify a conserved region of the polymerase gene for all members in the family Coronaviridae produced expected 251-bp amplicons. Subsequent sequencing and analysis revealed 99.6–100% identity among the PCR amplicons from the 4 farms and 97–99% identity to the corresponding portion of the polymerase gene of Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) strains, with the highest identity (99%) to strains from China in 2012. Findings were corroborated at National Veterinary Services Laboratories using 2 nested S-gene and 1 nested N-gene PCR tests where the sequenced amplicons also had the highest identity with 2012 China strains. Whole genome sequence for the virus from 2 farms in 2 different states using next-generation sequencing technique was compared to PEDV sequences available in GenBank. The 2013 U.S. PEDV had 96.6–99.5% identity with all known PEDV strains and the highest identity (>99.0%) to some of the 2011–2012 Chinese strains. The nearly simultaneous outbreaks of disease, and high degree of homology (99.6–100%) between the PEDV strains from the 4 unrelated farms, suggests a common source of virus.
Ablation of IL-17A abrogates progression of spontaneous intestinal tumorigenesis

The intrinsic role of endogenous IL-17A in spontaneous intestinal tumorigenesis has not been addressed previously to our knowledge. Ablation of IL-17A significantly reduced tumor development in mice bearing a heterozygote mutation in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) gene (ApcMin/+ mice). There was also a decrease in inflammatory cytokines and proinflammatory mediators, reduced infiltration of lymphocytes including T cells, and preservation of intestinal architecture and the presence of APC protein in intestinal epithelial cells. Interestingly, IL-17A ablation also corrected immunological abnormalities such as splenomegaly and thymic atrophy in ApcMin/+ mice. CD4 T cells from ApcMin/+ mice showed hyperproliferative potential in vitro and in vivo and increased levels of IL-17A and IL-10. The effector CD4 T cells from ApcMin/+ mice were more resistant to regulatory T cell–mediated suppression. Finally, these CD4 T cells induced colitis in immunodeficient mice upon adoptive transfer, whereas the ablation of IL-17A in CD4 T cells in ApcMin/+ mice completely abolished this pathogenic potential in vivo. Taken together, our results show that CD4 T cell–derived IL-17A promotes spontaneous intestinal tumorigenesis with altered functions of CD4 T cells in ApcMin/+ mice.
Delta‐based regression testing: a formal framework towards model‐driven regression testing

The increase in complexity and rate of technological changes in modern software development has led to a demand for systematic methods that raise the abstraction level for system maintenance and regression testing. Model‐driven development (MDD) has promised to reduce extra coding efforts in software maintenance activities using traceable change management. The research described in this paper presents a Z‐notation‐based framework, called delta‐based regression testing (DbRT), for formal modeling of regression testing in the context of MDD. The framework proposes to propagate the changes from a software specification to testing artifacts in order to preserve consistency after system evolution. Also, an effective delta‐based selection technique is provided for regression testing at the platform‐independent level. The framework is further enriched by introducing a new category of coverage patterns for DbRT. Complex coverage patterns can be defined using a declarative query language syntax for examining the adequacy of regression testing. Finally, an implementation technique and an analysis plan are provided to assess the effectiveness of the proposed framework. The assessment process is expected to be beneficial to both the platform‐independent and platform‐specific level of DbRT by identifying the desired coverage according to available testing resources. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effects of retained fetal membranes on milk yield and reproductive performance.

Effects of retained fetal membranes on subsequent productive and reproductive performance were measured in a single Florida Holstein dairy herd (n = 216 retained fetal membranes and 208 normal cases). Mean performance was peak daily milk yield, 31.9 kg; 305-d milk yield, 6317 kg; days to first service, 60; days open, 115; and services per conception, 2.3. Yield was unaffected by retained fetal membranes; however, retention resulted in an increase of 4 d to first service, 19 d open, and . 2 services per conception. Detrimental effects of parturitions in hot weather (July through September) compared with cool (December through February) were peak daily milk yield, 5.5 kg; 305-d milk yield, 512 kg; days to first service, 3; days open 39; and services per conception, . 9. Interactions could not be detected between diagnosis (retained or normal) and season for any response. Sex of calf effects could not be detected for any response. Continued research to reduce occurrence of retained fetal membranes or to obviate its effects should lead to improved reproductive performance.
Remodeling of rat pulmonary artery induced by chronic smoking exposure.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the dominant role in rat pulmonary artery (PA) remodeling induced by chronic smoking exposure (CSE). METHODS Thirty-five male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were exposed to 36 cigarettes per day, 6 days per week, for 1, 3, or 5 months. Another 35 SD rats were sham-exposed during the same period. Hemodynamic measurement, evaluation of the right ventricular hypertrophy index (RVHI) plus right ventricle-to-weight ratio, and hematoxylin eosin staining was performed. Wall thickness, artery radius, luminal area, and total area were measured morphometrically. Western blotting assessed expression of PPAR-γ BMP4, BMPR2, and TRPC1/4/6 in the artery and lung. Store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) and [Ca(2+)]i were measured using Fura-2 as dye. RESULTS Mean right ventricular pressure increased after 3 months of smoking exposure and continued to increase through 5 months. Right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) increased after 3 months of exposure and then stabilized. RVHI increased after 5 months; right ventricle-to-weight ratio was elevated after 3 months and further increased after 5 months. Wall thickness-to-radius ratio does-dependently increased after 3 months through 5 months, in parallel with the decreased luminal area/total area ratio after 5 months. Other changes included the development of inflammatory responses, enlargement of the alveolar spaces, and reductions in the endothelial lining of PAs, proliferative smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts, and adventitia. Moreover, BMP4 and TRPC1/4/6 expression increased to varying degrees in the arteries and lungs of smoking-exposed animals, whereas BMPR expression and SOCE increased only in the arteries, and PPAR-γ was downregulated in both the arteries and lungs. CONCLUSIONS In SD rats, smoking exposure induces pulmonary vascular remodeling. The consequences of increased SOCE include increase in TRPC1/4/6, probably via augmented BMP4 expression, which also contribute to inflammatory responses in the lung. Moreover, interactions between BMP4 and PPAR-γ may play a role in preventing inflammation under normal physiological conditions.
Diabetes in American Indians and Alaska Natives

Diabetes in American Indians and Alaska Natives was the focus of a conference that resulted in a unique interchange among tribal leaders, health-care providers, and medical scientists with particular interests in diabetes mellitus and its complications. The conference, which was held in Mesa, Arizona, 14–17 November 1989, was sponsored by the Indian Health Service: and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, in collaboration with the Intertribal Council of Arizona.
Image denoising using wavelet transform and median filtering

During acquisition of an image, from its source, noise becomes integral part of it, which is very difficult to remove. Various algorithms have been used in past to denoise images. Image denoising still has scope for improvement. In this paper we present a new image denoising algorithm based on combined effect of wavelet transform and median filtering. The algorithm removes most of the noisy part from the image and maintains the quality. The level of wavelet decomposition is restricted to three. The renowned index Peak Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) demonstrate marked improvement of image denoising over other methods.
Analysis of Pax7 expressing myogenic cells in zebrafish muscle development, injury, and models of disease

The transcription factor Pax7 is a marker and regulator of muscle progenitors and satellite cells that contribute to the embryonic development and postembryonic growth of skeletal muscle in vertebrates, as well as to its repair and regeneration. Here, we identify Pax7+ve myogenic cells in the zebrafish and characterize their behavior in postembryonic stages. Mononucleate Pax7+ve cells can first be found associated with myofibers at 72 hours post fertilization (hpf). To follow the behavior of muscle progenitor cells in vivo, we generated transgenic lines expressing fluorescent proteins under the control of the pax7a or pax3a promoters. We established an injury model using cardiotoxin injection and monitored cell proliferation and myogenic regulatory factor expression in myogenic precursors cells and muscle fibers after injury using proliferation markers and the transgenic lines. We also analyzed Pax7+ve cells in animals with dystrophic phenotypes and found an increased number compared with wild‐type. Developmental Dynamics 240:2440–2451, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Right-Left Orientation: Development of Correct Use of Right and Left Terms

Right-left orientation includes discrimination and recognition as well as identification, the former two differentiating between symmetrical cues and the latter using the words right and left. In the present experiment involving 406 children, the evolution of the knowledge and use of the concepts of right and left were assessed. Discrimination and recognition on all tasks used in this study are mastered much earlier than verbal identification, and, at even 11 years of age, half of the subjects of the present study still did not apply the words right and left properly onto other persons in the milieu. Children use the words right and left correctly first on their own bodies as early as seven years of age, then on people facing away, and finally on people facing them around eight to nine years of age. This transition most probably reflects the slow evolution of cognitive processes which determine the way the child will use internal or external frameworks as well as the passage from egocentrism to “alteregocentrism” with ability to consider other viewpoints than one's own.
Ambulatory oesophageal bile reflux monitoring in Barrett's oesophagus

Bile reflux has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Barrett's oesophagus but evaluation remains difficult. Bilitec 2000 is an ambulatory system that detects bilirubin based on its spectrophotometric properties. Oesophageal bile exposure was evaluated in three groups of patients. Group 1 (n = 11) were normal controls, group 2 (n = 13) were patients with uncomplicated gastro‐oesophageal reflux and group 3 (n = 12) were patients with Barrett's oesophagus. Bile reflux was greater in patients with Barrett's mucosa than in controls or those with uncomplicated reflux. This difference was seen in the supine and interdigestive periods. The percentage of time at which gastric pH was greater than 4 and oesophageal pH was above 7 did not differ between the groups. Bilitec 2000 detects greater bile reflux in patients with Barrett's oesophagus. No corresponding gastric or oesophageal alkaline shift is found. This ambulatory bile reflux monitoring system may be a useful tool in clinical practice.
Angina as a Symptom of Psychiatric Illness

ABSTRACT: We retrospectively studied all patients who had normal coronary angiograms at The Methodist Hospital during the year 1984 (8% of all angiograms). Patients were surveyed eight to 18 months after angiography. Of the 216 patients (83% of total sample), 130 were female and 86 male. Sixty-three percent of the women and 50% of the men satisfied the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, and 20% satisfied the criteria for panic attacks. On the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) Sornatization Scale, 64% had scores above the average reported for psychiatric outpatients. Eighty-one percent received only reassurance about the absence of heart disease, and 25% received continuing nitrate therapy in the absence of heart disease. A majority of these patients remain untreated functional “cardiac neurotics” with untreated anxiety symptoms. We make suggestions regarding a clinical profile to identify these patients and appropriate measures to avoid prolonged disability.
Selecting the right planning approach for a product

Purpose – The purpose of this research paper is to offer a solution to differentiate supply chain planning for products with different demand features and in different life‐cycle phases.Design/methodology/approach – A normative framework for selecting a planning approach was developed based on a literature review of supply chain differentiation and supply chain planning. Explorative mini‐cases from three companies – Vaisala, Mattel, Inc. and Zara – were investigated to identify the features of their innovative planning solutions. The selection framework was applied to the case company's new business unit dealing with a product portfolio of highly innovative products as well as commodity items.Findings – The need for planning differentiation is essential for companies with large product portfolios operating in volatile markets. The complexity of market, channel and supply networks makes supply chain planning more intricate. The case company provides an example of using the framework for rough segmentation .
A Health Promotion Program for Medical Students: Louisiana State University Medical Center

A health promotion program for medical students at Louisiana State University Medical Center (LSUMC) in New Orleans encourages students to take responsibility for their own physical and psychological health and well-being, enabling them to better cope with the stressors of medical education and those of later clinical practice. Administrative support for developing the program was considerable, and a broad-based Health Promotion Committee, comprising faculty, administrators, and students, was established to oversee the program. The program's cost was minimal, inasmuch as most components were offered voluntarily by full-time faculty. The most consistent funding came from the LSUMC Student Health fee, although grants and pharmaceutical companies also provided support. A full day of orientation was devoted to the program. The students completed a thorough lifestyle and nutrition assessment and used the results to help decide which component to sign up for: aerobics, relaxation/meditation, support groups, time management, and nutrition. Participation was voluntary, and aerobics and relaxation/meditation were the best attended. Overall, the students responded favorably to the orientation day and found the components valuable and useful. Students reported improvements on eight of 11 wellness dimensions and a composite score from a lifestyle assessment questionnaire over the one-year longitudinal study. These gains may in part be attributable to the program. The nutrition findings suggest entering medical students do not have better dietary practices than comparable young adults living in the United States. Students most often requested information on these topics: relaxation/stress reduction, exercise programs, time-management skills, nutrition, and learning skills. Offering individualized and diverse programs to students is important. A major challenge has been to motivate students to participate, and means are recommended for improving participation. Program evaluation is essential; therefore, problems in this area are discussed. Also, including physical and biochemical measures is desirable. We believe incorporating the principles of health promotion and disease prevention throughout the medical education curriculum is essential. Medical students taking responsibility for their own health are more likely to promote this self-responsibility with their patients in clinical practice.
Antiganglioside, antiganglioside-complex, and antiglycolipid-complex antibodies in immune-mediated neuropathies.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW There has been a recent renewed interest in the prevalence of antiglycolipid antibodies and their associations with specific clinical phenotypes in Guillain-Barré syndrome. Recent reports have sought to confirm and expand the antibody-phenotype associations of antiganglioside antibodies, antiganglioside-complex antibodies, and antiglycolipid-complex antibodies in the various acute immune-mediated neuropathies. This is a rapidly developing field with technical advances in assay methodology, which have resulted in numerous new putative antibody-phenotype associations. RECENT FINDINGS Antibodies against single ganglioside species remain the most established serological marker of Guillain-Barré syndrome and its myriad clinical variants. Antibodies against combinations of gangliosides, ganglioside-complex antibodies, detected by the ELISA method have emerged as putative markers of certain clinical features or pathological subtypes, specifically acute motor axonal neuropathy, but do not seem to greatly increase the diagnostic sensitivity of antibody testing as most also react with single ganglioside species. The novel assay method of the combinatorial glycoarray allows high-throughput detection of antibodies recognizing combinations of gangliosides and other glycolipids and early studies suggest it identifies antibody-phenotype associations in addition to significantly increasing the sensitivity of serological testing, including for the acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy variant. SUMMARY Antibodies against single ganglioside species remain diagnostically useful in routine clinical practice. Antibodies against ganglioside complexes, or gangliosides and other glycolipid complexes, are emerging as useful markers of various clinic features and pathological subtypes; however, the precise associations remain to be fully delineated and confirmed. The antibody-complex detection methods are rapidly evolving but in most centres are not yet available in routine clinical practice.
A Mediator Role of Ceramide in the Regulation of Neuroblastoma Neuro2a Cell Differentiation (*)

Current studies indicate that ceramide is involved in the regulation of important cell functions, namely cell growth, differentiation, and apoptosis. In the present study, the possible role of ceramide in the differentiation of neuroblastoma Neuro2a cells was investigated. The following results were obtained. (a) Ceramide content of Neuro2a cells, induced to differentiate by retinoic acid (RA) treatment rapidly increased after addition of RA, was maintained at high levels in RA-differentiated cells and returned to the starting levels with removal of RA and reversal of differentiation; under the same conditions, the sphingosine content remained unchanged. (b) After a short pulse with [H]sphingomyelin or [H]sphingosine or L-[H]serine, the metabolic formation of ceramide was markedly higher and more rapid in RA-differentiated than undifferentiated cells. (c) Inhibitors of ceramide biosynthesis (Fumonisin B1, β-chloroalanine and L-cycloserine) diminished the extent of the differentiating effect of RA and concomitantly Cer content decreased. (d) The activity of neutral sphingomyelinase increased after addition of RA, maintained high levels in RA-differentiated cells, and returned to the initial levels with removal of RA. (e) Experimental conditions that cause an elevation of ceramide content (treatment with sphingosine or ceramide or C-ceramide or bacterial sphingomyelinase) inhibited cell proliferation and stimulated neurite outgrowth; dihydro-analogues of sphingosine, ceramide, and C-ceramide had no effect on differentiation. (f) treatment with Fumonisin B1 completely inhibited sphingosine-induced differentiation. These data suggest a specific bioregulatory function of ceramide in the control of Neuro2a cell growth and differentiation and pose the general hypothesis of a mediator role of ceramide in the differentiation of cells of neural origin.
Electrical Stimulation in Tissue Regeneration

That human body generates biological electric field and current is a well-known natural phenomenon. In 1983, electrical potentials ranging between 10 and 60 mV at various locations of the human body were measured by Barker (Foulds & Barker, 1983), who also located the so-called epidermal or skin “battery” inside the living layer of the epidermis. Naturally occurred electrical field in human body was also reviewed in 1993 (Zipse, 1993). Bioelectricity is inherent in wound healing. An injury potential occurs in the form of a steady direct current (DC) electric field (EF) when a wound is created. This endogenous EF has been shown to guide cell migration to sprout directly toward the wound edge. On the other hand, wound healing is compromised when the EF is inhibited. McCaig et al. (McCaig et al., 2005) revealed that electrical events induced by injury potential could persist for a long time and present across hundreds of microns rather than be confined to the immediate vicinity of the cell membrane. Moreover, a voltage gradient called “action potential” across cell membrane is known to trigger cells to transmit signals and secrete hormones. The electrical resistivity of biological tissues obviously varies due to the variation in tissue composition, such as tissue type and density, cell membrane permeability, and electrolyte content. The resistivity of these biological tissues has been measured by means of bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). When nutritional and metabolic disorders occur, the electrical properties of certain tissues become abnormal. BIA has therefore been used to diagnose human organ malfunctions. However, it remains difficult to delineate living tissue, such as bone tissue, because this tissue is a composite material that is anisotropic in structure and inhomogeneous in composition. For example, in 1975, Liboff (Liboff et al., 1975) reported a resistance ranging widely from 0.7 to 1 × 105 ohm/cm in human tibia. Recent advances in computed three-dimensional microtomography (microCT) now enable us to clarify the interrelationships between the electrical properties and the microstructures of human bone. The electrical property of bones varies widely caused by many factors such as the unevenly distributed and electrolyte-filled pores, moisture content, pH and conductivity of the immersing fluid. Nevertheless, it remains both essential and possible to normalize the resistance and the capacitance of different bone types. Electrical measurements provide a tool for the rapid quantitative diagnosis of bone