Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
In vitro Development of Interspecies Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Embryos Derived from Murine Embryonic Fibroblasts and Bovine Oocytes

Interspecies somatic cell nuclear transfer (iSCNT) is a useful method to preserve endangered species and to study the reprogramming event of a nuclear donor cell by the oocyte. Although several studies of iSCNT using murine cells and bovine oocytes have been reported, the development of murine-bovine iSCNT embryos beyond the 8-cell stage has not been successful. In this paper, we examined the developmental potential of embryos reconstructed with a murine embryonic fibroblast as the nuclear donor and a bovine oocyte as the cytoplasm recipient. The reconstructed embryos were cultured in CZB (murine medium) or CR1aa (bovine medium). In addition, for the development of a murine-bovine iSCNT blastocyst, the antioxidant β-mercaptoethanol (βME) was supplemented to CR1aa medium. Furthermore, to verify the mouse genome activation in murine-bovine iSCNT embryos, RT-PCR analysis of murine Xist was performed. The development of the murine-bovine iSCNT embryos cultured in CR1aa was significantly higher than that in CZB (p<0.05). With respect to the effect of BME on the development of the murine-bovine iSCNT blastocyst, addition of BME produced a significant increase in blastocyst development (p<0.05). Karyotype analysis confirmed that the reconstructed embryos were derived from murine cells (40XX). The Xist gene was gradually increased from the 8-cell stage to the blastocyst stage. This is the first report of blastocyst development of iSCNT embryos derived from murine somatic cells and bovine oocytes. These results demonstrate that bovine cytoplasm can support the development of later stages of a preimplantation embryo from murine-bovine iSCNT. (
Immortalization and characterization of a nociceptive dorsal root ganglion sensory neuronal line

Abstract Development of neuroprotective strategies for peripheral neuropathies requires high‐throughput drug screening assays with appropriate cell types. Currently, immortalized dorsal root ganglion (DRG) sensory neuronal cell lines that maintain nociceptive sensory neuronal properties are not available. We generated immortalized DRG neuronal lines from embryonic day 14.5 rats. Here, we show that one of the immortalized DRG neuronal lines, 50B11, has the properties of a nociceptive neuron. When differentiated in the presence of forskolin, these cells extend long neurites, express neuronal markers, and generate action potentials. They express receptors and markers of small‐diameter sensory neurons and upregulate appropriate receptor populations when grown in the presence of glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor or nerve growth factor. Furthermore, they express capsaicin receptor transient receptor potential vanilloid family‐1 (TRPV‐1) and respond to capsaicin with increases in intracellular calcium. In a 96‐well plate format, these neurons show a decline in ATP levels when exposed to dideoxycytosine (ddC) in a proper time‐ and dose‐dependent manner. This ddC‐induced reduction in ATP levels correlates with axonal degeneration. The immortalized DRG neuronal cell line 50B11 can be used for high‐throughput drug screening for neuroprotective agents for axonal degeneration and antinociceptive drugs that block TRPV‐1.
Hemostasis Management during Completely Endoscopic Removal of a Highly Vascular Intraparenchymal Brain Tumor: Technique Assessment

Abstract Background Recently, stereotactic-guided removal of intraparenchymal lesions using endoscopic visualization through a brain port has been successfully reported. Although endoneurosurgical tumor resection uses the same principles as those used in microneurosurgery, the ability to control bleeding through the port requires an adapted technique. Material and Methods We present a patient that underwent a completely endoscopic resection of a vascular brain tumor through a brain port and describe the hemostatic technique. Results A 68 year-old female presented with progressive gait difficulties. She had been previously treated for a breast cancer. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a right subcortical solitary cerebellar lesion that homogeneously enhanced. The patient underwent an endoscopic brain port removal of a supposed brain metastasis. After port cannulation, the tumor partly delivered itself into the port. Following initial tumor biopsy, active bleeding occurred. Irrigation and application of Surgifoam allowed to control the bleeding. Coagulation with an adapted bipolar and removal of coagulated tissue with the side-cutting aspiration device were sequentially repeated. Once the tumor was resected, the suction served as counter-traction elongating the vessels whereas the bipolar cauterized them over a long segment. Hemostasis was performed circumferentially along the cavity's walls from deep to superficial, benefiting from the endoscope's dynamic properties and magnification. Pathology confirmed intraoperative suspicion of hemangioblastoma. Conclusion Removal of vascular tumors is feasible through the brain port, despite a relatively narrow corridor of 11.5 mm. However, specific hemostasis techniques are required and adapted instruments are needed to ensure hemostasis through these small corridors.
Use of a three-blood-sample plasma clearance technique to measure GFR in horses.

Measurement of renal function in horses poses a particular challenge because plasma creatinine is influenced by muscle mass which is highly developed and variable between individuals, while conventional clearance methods involve potentially daunting problems, particularly urine collection and bladder washout. This paper provides data which enable technetium-diethyleneaminopentacetic acid (Tc-DTPA) clearance to be used to calculate glomerular filtration rate (GFR)/extracellular fluid volume (ECFV) as an expression of GFR in horses, as previously validated in humans, dogs and calves. Apart from being arguably a more physiological expression of GFR than using derivatives of body weight, the use of GFR/ECFV eliminates a source of delay and error, namely measurement of the injected dose, and offers the convenience of requiring only three blood samples. It therefore has advantages for both research and clinical applications.
Japanese Women’s Perceptions of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a problem in Japan. The purpose is to describe IPV as perceived by a purposive sample of 11 Japanese adult females who were in a heterosexual marriage at the time of IPV. We used a cross-sectional, retroactive, qualitative description research design with individual, fact-to-face in depth interviews. At the time of the interview, the women had a mean age of 38 years and at the time of the IPV, a mean age of 28 years. Data were analyzed using the directed qualitative content analysis method. The results revealed that all women experienced physical and emotional abuse and 82% experienced sexual abuse. Communication between spouses was characterized as unilateral, with husbands initiating and dominating the conversation. The women identified the culture of the Japanese patriarchal system as directly influencing IPV. The implication is health professionals should actively advocate for effective legislation and policies to address IPV.
Design and development of a fast and precise low-cost 3D laser rangefinder

Many applications demand acquiring dense, wide ranging, accurate 3D data with low-cost, lightweight, and low power demanding sensors. This paper describes a new compact 3D laser scanner, based on pitching a commercial 2D rangefinder. The design of this mechatronic system accomplishes the following spedfications: i) the optical center of the scanner coincides with that of the 2D device, ii) the mechanism does not interfere with the measurement planes for a wide sweep of pitch angles, iii) low 3D scan acquisition time through continuous pitch motion, and iv) the device is interfaced as a compact full 3D sensor. Additionally, the pitch angle controller allows selection of scan resolution, establishing scanning limits, or locking into a specific angle. The paper describes the mechanical system, the motion controller, and the high-level interface of the device. Moreover, results from indoor and outdoor experiments are also given. This sensor has been made commercially available under the name of UNOlaser.
Statins for everyone?

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for one in three deaths globally.1 It is estimated that by the end of 2010, it will be the leading cause of death in developing countries.2 NICE guidelines state that those already established with coronary heart disease (CHD), cerebrovascular disease and those with established risk factors such as diabetes mellitus should be considered for treatment with a statin. But what, if any, is the role of statin therapy for patients at low cardiovascular risk? Would any benefit be clinically efficacious, safe and cost-effective? The key question is: should GPs be prescribing statins for ‘healthy’ patients at low cardiovascular risk? This controversial topic was in part answered by the recent published JUPITER (Justification for the Use of Statins in Primary Prevention: an Interventional Trial Evaluating Rosuvastatin) study.3 JUPITER was a large placebo-controlled RCT that included 17 802 ‘healthy’ individuals from 26 countries. The study recruited healthy people with normal LDL levels (<3.4 mmol/l) but with elevated levels …
Access to services for young adults with medical complexity

Background: With the number of young people with medical complexity increasing, an increasing number must navigate the transition to adulthood. This transition, in part, involves a situational transition in which young people and their families must access new services in the adult system. Objectives: To explore how societal ideologies, communities, and organizations represent the foundation of barriers to access to services. Research Design: The discussion in this paper, framed within a social justice perspective, outlines barriers to access to services at the societal and community levels including societal ideologies, differences in philosophies of care in pediatric and adult care, physical environments, and availability of services. Ethical Considerations: Since this is an exploratory discussion paper, no ethical approval was required. Findings and Conclusion: Based on analysis of the literature from a social justice perspective, it is suggested that the adult health care and social service systems do not provide the supports and services necessary to empower young people and their families to achieve their goals and maintain their health and quality of life. It is, thus, an ethical issue that the transfer from pediatric to adult services is occurring in the absence of appropriate services. Recommendations at the individual, community and policy levels highlight how nurses can address this ethical issue to promote more equitable access to services.
An Investigation of the Fault Sensitivity of Four Benchmark Workloads

This paper presents an experimental study of the fault sensitivity of four programs included in the MiBench test suit. We investigate their fault sensitivity with respect to hardware faults that manifest as single bit flips in main memory locations and instruction set architecture registers. To this end, we have conducted extensive fault injection experiments with two versions of each program, one basic version and one where the program is equipped with software- implemented hardware fault tolerance (SIHFT) through triple time redundant execution, majority voting and forward recovery (TTR-FR). The results show that TTR-FR achieves an error coverage between 94.6% and 99.2%, while the non- fault-tolerant versions achieve an error coverage between 55.8% and 81.1%. To gain understanding of the origin of the non-covered faults, we provide statistics on the fault sensitivity of different source code blocks, physical fault locations (instruction set architecture registers and main memory words) and different categories of machine instructions.
A study of the impact of influenza on the functional status of frail older people.

BACKGROUND Excess hospitalization and death are well-known impacts of influenza on older people; however, little is known regarding the impact of influenza on functional status. We hypothesized that frail older people are at risk of functional decline as an outcome of influenza. OBJECTIVE To measure the effect of acute influenza on the physical and mental status of older patients residing in nursing homes. METHODS Our study was conducted in 6 nursing homes that participated in the Medicare Influenza Vaccine Demonstration and experienced laboratory-confirmed outbreaks of influenza in 1991 and 1992. A case-comparison design was used. One hundred sixteen of 131 residents who developed influenza-like illness and survived at least 4 months served as the case subjects; 127 of 132 residents without influenza-like illness who survived served as the comparison subjects. Measures of functional status 1 to 2 months before outbreak and 1 to 2 months and 3 to 4 months after outbreak were collected from medical records. Matched pairs analyses were conducted to ascertain changes in selected measures of functional status within each of the study groups. Wilcoxon signed rank tests for statistical significance were used. RESULTS Among surviving case subjects and comparison subjects, 25% and 15.7%, respectively, experienced decline in at least 1 major function (P=.04). Case subjects experienced significant decline in independence in bathing, dressing, and mobility while comparison subjects experienced decline in mental status. CONCLUSIONS Within the limitations of this study, influenza is observed to cause decline in major physical functions in more than 9% of survivors. Such disabling outcomes constitute an important new measure of impact of influenza on the frail elderly.
How instruction and feedback can select the appropriate T helper response

The decision of the immune system to trigger immune responses that are, respectively, induced by Th1 or Th2 effectors is a critical one, because it profoundly influences disease outcome. We have recently constructed a mathematical model of Th1-Th2-pathogen interactions that shows that the major decisional events can often be successfully determined by the intrinsic behaviour of the T helper system itself. For certain dangerous types of pathogens, however, which replicate rapidly or have developed strategies to evade the immune response, additional stimuli may be necessary.As a possible mechanism for the decision-making process innate immune recognition has been proposed. Here we present an enlarged version of our model, which incorporates signals created from the innate immune system after pathogen recognition. The model analysis suggests that there is fault-tolerance of the T helper system to incorrect Th1 signals. In the presence of incorrect Th1 stimuli an initial Th1 response is shifted to the correct Th2-dominated response owing to the intrinsic T helper dynamics. By contrast, according to our model there is no fault-tolerance for incorrect Th2 signals. In fact, if timing is unimportant then Th2 signals are superfluous since the intrinsic T helper dynamics provide an automatic switch to Th2 if Th1 effectors fail to control the pathogen. Th2 signals may, however, be required to accelerate the onset of the Th2 response.Additionally, we discuss the role of feedback where successful pathogen destruction leads to up-regulation of activation of the effective T helper type. As one possibility we examine the role of CpG motifs as indicators for successful pathogen destruction. Differences between instructive and feedback mechanisms are highlighted.
Migraine Headache

&NA; EDITOR’S NOTE: The manuscript featured in this month's Search and Research is an example of nurse practitioner research that may be funded by a pharmaceutical company. While not specifically related to a given pharmaceutical agent, such research can give insights into behavioral patterns of patients (in this case RNs) that can affect treatment outcomes, management styles, and marketing strategies in the pharmaceutical industry as well as shed insight into nurse practitioner practice.
Platelet Adhesion Induced by Fibrinogen Adsorbed onto Glass∗

Summary Platelets suspended in serum or afibrinogenemia plasma (heated or congenital) adhered to glass slides previously exposed to normal plasma or to fibrinogen but not to slides exposed to serum or afibrinogenemic plasma. Platelets in platelet-rich plasma from a patient with congenital afibrinogenemia adhered to glass coated with plasma from a normal subject or von Willebrand patient but not to areas coated with afibrinogenemic plasma or serum. Platelets in platelet-rich plasma from two thrombasthenia patients failed to adhere even when the slide was coated with fibrinogen or plasma. At times, a much higher percentage of platelets adhered to areas exposed to plasma for 5 sec than to areas exposed for 3 min. According to other evidence, the protein film adsorbed from plasma onto a surface no longer reacts with antiserum to fibrinogen after 3 min. We conclude that a fibrinogen layer must first be adsorbed to glass for the platelets to adhere.
Electricity Forward Curves with Thin Granularity

We put forward a constructive definition of electricity forward price curve with cross-sectional timescale encompassing hourly frequency upward. The curve is jointly consistent to both risk-neutral market information, as represented by base load and peak load futures quotes, and historical market information, as mirrored by periodical patterns exhibited by time series of day-ahead prices. On a methodological ground, we combine non-parametric filtering with monotone convex interpolation in a way that the resulting forward curve is path wise smooth and monotonic, cross-sectionally stable, and time local. On an empirical ground, we exhibit these features in the joint context of EPEX Spot and EEX Derivative markets. A back testing analysis assesses the relative quality of our forward curve estimate compared to the benchmark market model of Benth et al. (2007).
Coordinated Energy Dispatching in Microgrid With Wind Power Generation and Plug-in Electric Vehicles

The integration of a massive number of small-scale wind turbines and plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) brought about urgent technical challenge to power distribution network operators (DNOs) in terms of secure power supply and energy dispatching optimization. In this paper, we exploited three coordinated wind-PEV energy dispatching approaches in the vehicle-to-grid (V2G) context, i.e., valley searching, interruptible and variable-rate energy dispatching, aiming to promote the user demand response through optimizing the utilization efficiency of wind power generation as well as meeting the dynamic power demands. This issue is addressed in a stochastic framework considering the uncertainties of wind power generation as well as the statistical PEV driving patterns. The performances of the proposed solutions are assessed through a comparative study through numerical simulation experiments covering sufficient system scenarios by the use of scenario generation and reduction techniques. The result demonstrates that the energy dispatch based on the latter two approaches can achieve better matching between power generation and demands as well as PEV user satisfaction. In addition, the suggested approaches can be adopted by DNOs in practice with minimal deployment hurdles to promote the energy supplies within microgrid with wind power sources and PEVs.
Forecasting the economic cycles based on an extension of the Holt-Winters model. A genetic algorithms approach

A key feature in fitting local polynomials and in using discounted least squares is the notion that the forecast should be "adaptive" in the sense that the low order polynomials used for extrapolations have coefficients that are modified with each observation. When the data exhibit seasonal behavior, several alternatives to ARIMA models exist. The authors focus on a direct extension of Holt's model, due to Winters and often termed as the Holt-Winters model-which is available for nonstationary time series with seasonal components. The key problems in using this model are: the optimal choice of the parameters involved and for the initial steps; the optimal choice of the number of seasonal coefficients (especially when the data are not monthly or weekly recorded). An alternative method is proposed based on a powerful searching technique, genetic algorithms, for optimizing all the start-up parameters. Numerical examples of non-stationary time series with seasonal components complete the paper.
Radiotherapy in Early Glottic Carcinoma

Radiotherapy is widely accepted as primary treatment in the T1 stage of glottic cancer, but controversy surrounds the proper approach to T2 lesions of the glottis. A retrospective review of 90 patients addresses treatment results for T1 and T2 lesions of glottic carcinoma managed by primary radiotherapy with 60 to 64 Gy from 1977 to 1989. Seventy-nine patients met the criteria for local control analysis with a minimum follow-up of 5 years. Radiotherapy alone controlled disease in 93% (43 of 46) of patients with T1 lesions and 18% (6 of 33) of those with T2 tumors (including 10 patients in whom radiotherapy was terminated at 40 Gy because of persistent tumor). Ultimate control of disease for T1 and T2 lesions, including surgical salvage, was 100% and 82%, respectively. Larynx preservation was achieved in 100% of Tl and in 45% of T2 lesions. Extension of tumor and impaired vocal cord mobility showed statistical significance for adverse prognosis (p < .001). This paper discusses how these results affect treatment of glottic carcinoma, particularly in the T2 stage.
Is mammography for breast cancer screening cost-effective in both Western and asian countries?: results of a systematic review.

BACKGROUND Mammography is considered the gold standard of breast cancer mass screening and many countries have implemented this as an established breast cancer screening strategy. However, although the incidence of breast cancer and racial characteristics are different between Western and Asian countries, many Asian countries adopted mammography for mass screening. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine whether mammography mass screening is cost-effective for both Western and Asian countries. MATERIALS AND METHODS A systematic review was performed of 17 national mammography cost-effectiveness data sets. Per capita gross domestic product (GDP), breast cancer incidence rate, and the most optimal cost- effectiveness results [cost per life year saved (LYS)] of a mammography screening strategy for each data set were extracted. The CE/per capita GDP ratio is used to compare the cost-effectiveness of mammography by countries. Non-parametric regression was used to find a cut-off point which indicated the breast cancer incidence rate boundary line determining whether mammography screening is cost-effective or not. RESULTS We found that the cost-effective cut-off point of breast cancer incidence rate was 45.04; it exactly divided countries into Western and Asian countries (p<0.0014). CONCLUSIONS Mammography screening is cost-effective in most of Western countries, but not in Asian countries. The reason for this result may be the issues of incidence rate or racial characteristics, such as dense breast tissue. The results indicate that mammography screening should be adopted prudently in Asian countries and other countries with low incidence rates.