Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobilization of CD34/CXCR4+, CD34/CD117+, c-met+ Stem Cells, and Mononuclear Cells Expressing Early Cardiac, Muscle, and Endothelial Markers Into Peripheral Blood in Patients With Acute Myocardial Infarction

Background—Adult stem cells can contribute to myocardial regeneration after ischemic injury. Bone marrow and skeletal muscles contain a population of CXCR4+ cells expressing genes specific for muscle progenitor cells that can be mobilized into the peripheral blood. The aims of the study were (1) to confirm the presence of early tissue-committed cells expressing cardiac, muscle, and endothelial markers in populations of mononuclear cells in peripheral blood and (2) to assess the dynamics and magnitude of the mobilization of CD34+, CD117+, CXCR4+, c-met+, CD34/CD117+, and CD34/CXCR4+ stem cells into peripheral blood in relation to inflammatory and hematopoietic cytokines in patients with ST-segment–elevation acute myocardial infarction (STEMI). Methods and Results—Fifty-six patients with STEMI (<12 hours), 39 with stable angina, and 20 healthy control subjects were enrolled. Real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was used for detection of tissue-specific markers. The number of the cells was assessed by use of a flow cytometer on admission, after 24 hours, and after 7 days. RT-PCR revealed increased expression of mRNA (up to 3.5-fold increase) for specific cardiac (GATA4, MEF2C, Nkx2.5/Csx), muscle (Myf5, Myogenin, MyoD), and endothelial (VE-cadherin, von Willebrand factor) markers in peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The number of CD34/CXCR4+ and CD34/CD117+ and c-met+ stem cells in peripheral blood was significantly higher in STEMI patients than in stable angina and healthy subjects, peaking on admission, without further significant increase after 24 hours and 7 days. Conclusions—The study demonstrates in the setting of STEMI a marked mobilization of mononuclear cells expressing specific cardiac, muscle, and endothelial markers as well as CD34/CXCR4+ and CD34/CD117+ and c-met+ stem cells and shows that stromal cell–derived factor-1 is an important factor influencing the mobilization.
Investigation into the signal transduction pathway via which heat stress impairs intestinal epithelial barrier function

Background and Aims: Intact protein absorption is thought to be a causative factor in several intestinal diseases, such as food allergy, celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease. However, the mechanism remains unclear. The aim of this study was to characterize a novel signal transduction pathway via which heat stress compromises intestinal epithelial barrier function.
Serum creatinine concentration and risk of cardiovascular disease: a possible marker for increased risk of stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Elevated serum creatinine has been associated with increased mortality in hypertensive persons, the elderly, and patients with myocardial infarction or stroke in whom cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death. We have examined the relationship between serum creatinine concentration and the risk of major ischemic heart disease and stroke events and all-cause mortality in a general population of middle-aged men. METHODS We present a prospective study of middle-aged men (aged 40 to 59 years) drawn from 24 British towns who have been followed up for an average of 14.75 years. Data on serum creatinine were available for 7690 men in whom there were 287 major stroke events, 967 major ischemic heart disease events, and 1259 deaths from all causes during follow-up. RESULTS The median serum creatinine concentration was 98 micromol/L (95% range, 76 to 129 micromol/L). Stroke risk was significantly increased at levels above 116 micromol/L (90th percentile) even after adjustment for a wide range of cardiovascular risk factors (relative risk [RR], 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.1; > 116 micromol/L versus the rest). Risk of a major ischemic heart disease event was significantly increased at or above 130 micromol/L (97.5 percentile), but this was attenuated after adjustment (RR, 1.2; 95% CI, 0.8 to 1.7; > or = 130 micromol/L versus the rest). There was a weak but significant positive association between diastolic blood pressure and creatinine concentration. However, elevated creatinine concentration (> or = 116 micromol/L) was associated with a significant increase in stroke in both normotensive and hypertensive men. All-cause mortality and overall cardiovascular mortality were significantly increased only above the 97.5 percentile, and no significant association was seen with cancer or other noncardiovascular mortality. CONCLUSIONS A high serum creatinine concentration within the normal range is a marker for increased risk of cerebrovascular disease in both normotensive and hypertensive subjects. These findings support the evidence indicating that subtle impairment of renal function is a factor for increased risk of stroke and suggest mechanisms in the pathogenesis of stroke that warrant further investigation.
Squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal.

OBJECTIVES This study aims to analyze the treatments, prognostic variables, and outcomes of patients with squamous cell carcinomas (SCC) of the external auditory canal (EAC) and middle ear treated in our department over a 15-year period. DESIGN A retrospective analysis of 19 patients treated in our department between 1990 and 2006. The patients were staged according to the Pittsburgh classification. Patients were treated with either a lateral (LTBR) or an extended temporal bone resection (total or subtotal). Parotidectomy was performed in patients with suspected clinical or radiological invasion and postoperative radiotherapy was the adjuvant treatment in most patients in advanced stages. RESULTS The overall 5-year survival was 37%. There were no patients in stage I. The survival rates were 100%, 25%, and 16% for stages II, III, and IV, respectively. Facial nerve paralysis (p = 0.007) and lymph node involvement (p = 0.006) were associated with decreased survival rates. CONCLUSION SCC of the temporal bone are rare but have a poor prognosis. Lymph node involvement and facial nerve palsy are associated with a poorer outcome. These tumors must initially be treated radically, for which an early diagnosis is important.
A frequent functional toll-like receptor 7 polymorphism is associated with accelerated HIV-1 disease progression

Objectives:Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play an important role in the innate immune response to pathogens. TLR7 recognizes RNA of various viruses including HIV. The objective of this study was to examine the influence of individual genetic variations of TLR7 on the susceptibility to and progression of HIV disease. Method:We genotyped a population of 734 HIV-positive adults and 545 healthy controls for three TLR7 single nucleotide polymorphisms. The frequency of TLR7 genetic variations was assessed and related to HIV disease progression. Furthermore, we analyzed peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from healthy individuals differing in their TLR7 genotype and assessed their response to a TLR7-specific ligand ex vivo. Results:Presence of the most frequent TLR7 polymorphism, TLR7 Gln11Leu, was associated with higher viral loads and accelerated progression to advanced immune suppression in HIV patients. Furthermore, in women this polymorphism may be associated with increased HIV-1 susceptibility as it was found more frequently among patients as compared with controls. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from polymorphism carriers secreted significantly less IFN-α following TLR7 activation, whereas IL-6 production remained unaltered. Conclusion:This is the first report of a functional TLR7 variant to be associated with susceptibility to and a more severe clinical course of HIV-1 disease. These results may have implications for the risk assessment of individual patients as well as for HIV-1 therapy and vaccination strategies in the future.
Plotting the Middle Classes: Gentrification and Circuits of Education in London

This paper examines the relationship between education and gentrification in contemporary London. The paper draws on Stephen Ball’s work on parental choice and educational markets in the context of empirical work that the authors have recently undertaken in five gentrified areas of inner London. The work of Mike Savage and Pierre Bourdieu is also referred to in the conception of a metropolitan habitus and how different middle-class groups operate within it. It is argued that parents pursue different educational strategies which are partly a consequence of their own economic capabilities and their ‘consciences’ but are also influenced by the nature of the ‘circuits’ of primary and secondary education in areas in which they live. Data are provided which confirm Ball’s work on parental choice and it is suggested that education has now become a social ‘field’ alongside that of employment, housing and consumption in relation to the contemporary metropolitan habitus.
Research on Regional Division of Labor Efficiency of China's Grain Industry Chain

There are significant differences between the efficiency of grain industry chain division in the areas,The labor efficiency of regional division of grain industry chain in China,such as production,processing, distribution and the others,is described with the empirical data.Space error model(SEM) analysis shows that, employees,capital inputs and grain production are the main factors that influence the efficiency of regional distribution of grain processing industry.The data envelopment analysis(DEA) model analysis concludes that,the overall efficiency of grain processing link is the highest in Henan,Liaoning,Inner Mongolia and Tianjin.
The influence of momentary retention forces on patient satisfaction and quality of life of two-implant-retained mandibular overdenture wearers.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of momentary retention forces on patient satisfaction and quality of life of two-implant-retained mandibular overdenture wearers. MATERIALS AND METHODS Edentulous patients who had been rehabilitated with two-implant-supported mandibular overdentures with single attachments and maxillary complete dentures at a university clinic were included in this study. The overdenture attachments were either ball or locator attachments. All the patients completed the Turkish version of the Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14) and the visual analog scale (VAS) satisfaction questionnaires. Momentary retention forces of the overdentures were measured using a custom-made dynamic testing machine. RESULTS Fifty-five patients were included in this study. No statistically significant association was detected between momentary retention forces and VAS scores (P > .05), but higher retention forces presented significantly better quality of life scores in the social disability and handicap domains of OHIP-14 (P < .05). CONCLUSION Within the limitations of this clinical study, it may be presumed that although higher instant retention force of an implant-retained overdenture provides better quality of life, it does not affect patient satisfaction.
Loss-of-function mutations in SCN4A cause severe foetal hypokinesia or ‘classical’ congenital myopathy

See Cannon (doi: 10.1093/brain/awv400 ) for a scientific commentary on this article. Dominant gain-of-function mutations in SCN4A , which encodes the α-subunit of the voltage-gated sodium channel, are a common cause of myotonia and periodic paralysis. Zaharieva et al. now report recessive loss-of-function SCN4A mutations in 11 patents with congenital myopathy. The mutations cause fully non-functional channels or result in reduced channel activity.
Texture segmentation for remote sensing image based on texture-topic model

Textures of land covers provide significant evidences for segmentation and classification. Inspired by resent researches on topic model, we work on a novel texture segmentation method for very high resolution (VHR) remote sensing images based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). In order to model spatial relationship between words in LDA, a constraint random variable which is used to control the selection of neighboring features of each specific texture is introduced to the model. The proposed method is evaluated on segmenting remote sensing images by finding the homogeneous regions in texture-topic map. The experimental results show our method has great potential for remote sensing image segmentation.
Influenza Nucleoprotein: Promising Target for Antiviral Chemotherapy

In the search for new anti-influenza agents, the viral polymerase has often been targeted due to the involvement of multiple conserved proteins and their distinct activities. Polymerase associates with each of the eight singled-stranded negative-sense viral RNA segments. These transcriptionally competent segments are coated with multiple copies of nucleoprotein (NP) to form the ribonucleoprotein. NP is an abundant essential protein, possessing operative and structural functions, and participating in genome organization, nuclear trafficking and RNA transcription and replication. This review examines the NP structure and function, and explores NP as an emerging target for anti-influenza drug development, focusing on recently discovered aryl piperazine amide inhibitor chemotypes.
A let-7 microRNA-binding site polymorphism in 3'-untranslated region of KRAS gene predicts response in wild-type KRAS patients with metastatic colorectal cancer treated with cetuximab monotherapy.

PURPOSE recent studies have found that KRAS mutations predict resistance to monoclonal antibodies targeting the epidermal growth factor receptor in metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC). A polymorphism in a let-7 microRNA complementary site (lcs6) in the KRAS 3' untranslated region (UTR) is associated with an increased cancer risk in non-small-cell lung cancer and reduced overall survival (OS) in oral cancers. We tested the hypothesis whether this polymorphism may be associated with clinical outcome in KRAS wild-type (KRASwt) mCRC patients treated with cetuximab monotherapy. PATIENTS AND METHODS the presence of KRAS let-7 lcs6 polymorphism was evaluated in 130 mCRC patients who were enrolled in a phase II study of cetuximab monotherapy (IMCL-0144). Genomic DNA was extracted from dissected formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor tissue, KRAS mutation status and polymorphism were assessed using direct sequencing and PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism technique. RESULTS KRAS let-7 lcs6 polymorphism was found to be related to object response rate (ORR) in mCRC patients whose tumors had KRASwt. The 12 KRASwt patients harboring at least a variant G allele (TG or GG) had a 42% ORR compared with a 9% ORR in 55 KRASwt patients with let-7 lcs6 TT genotype (P = 0.02, Fisher's exact test). KRASwt patients with TG/GG genotypes had trend of longer median progression-free survival (3.9 versus 1.3 months) and OS (10.7 versus 6.4 months) compared to those with TT genotypes. CONCLUSIONS these results are the first to indicate that the KRAS 3'UTR polymorphism may predict for cetuximab responsiveness in KRASwt mCRC patients, which warrants validation in other clinical trials.
Anti-apoA-1 IgG and oxidized LDL are raised in rheumatoid arthritis (RA): potential associations with cardiovascular disease and RA disease activity

Objective: To determine whether emerging cardiovascular risk factors such as anti-apolipoprotein A-1 (anti-apoA-1) immunoglobulin (Ig)G and oxidized low density lipoprotein (oxLDL) are associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD), carotid intima–media thickness (IMT), and disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Method: We determined the aforementioned associations in 69 RA patients with disease duration of 5 years and 46 controls matched by age, sex, and smoking status. Anti-apoA-1 IgG and oxLDL were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Carotid arteries were examined by ultrasound. Disease Activity Score calculated on 28 joints (DAS28) was used to assess disease activity. Results: CVD prevalence was higher among RA patients than controls (17% vs. 2%, p = 0.01) but there was no difference in IMT (median: 0.67 vs. 0.66, p = 0.33). RA patients had a higher anti-apoA-1 IgG prevalence than controls (20% vs. 0%, p = 0.001). Anti-apoA-1 IgG and oxLDL levels were higher in cases than controls [median: 0.33 vs. 0.175 optical density (OD), p = 0.03; and 121 vs. 37.2 U/L, p = 0.0001, respectively]. Anti-apoA-1 IgG-positive patients had higher levels of oxLDL (median: 140.5 vs. 112 U/L, p = 0.01) than those tested negative. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis showed that only anti-apoA-1 IgG was a modest but significant predictor of CVD [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.65, p = 0.03] in RA patients. oxLDL was significantly associated with RA disease activity, whereas anti-apoA-1 IgG was not. Conclusions: Anti-apoA-1 IgG could be a marker of CVD in RA, whereas oxLDL levels seem to reflect RA disease activity. Other causes of CVD than a general increase in atherosclerosis (as determined by IMT measurements) including plaque stability may therefore be of importance to explain the increased incidence of CVD in RA.
Leucine zipper structure of the protein CRE‐BP1 binding to the cyclic AMP response element in brain.

By screening a lambda gt11 library with the multimerized sequence of the cAMP response element (CRE), we isolated human clones encoding the CRE binding protein, CRE‐BP1, from a human brain cDNA library. CRE‐BP1 expressed in Escherichia coli bound not only to the CRE element of the somatostatin and fibronectin genes, but also to the CRE element of the adenovirus E4 gene, suggesting that the protein was not distinguishable from the adenovirus transcription factor, ATF. The human CRE‐BP1 clone encoded a 54.5 kd protein similar at its carboxy terminus to the leucine zipper motifs found in other enhancer binding proteins such as C/EBP and c‐jun/AP‐1. CRE‐BP1 mRNA was expressed in all of the cells examined and was abundant in brain. The structure of CRE‐BP1 and its recognition elements suggest that cellular response to extracellular stimuli is controlled by a family of transcription factors that bind to related cis‐active elements and that contain several highly conserved domains.
The Mycobacterium tuberculosis SigD sigma factor controls the expression of ribosome‐associated gene products in stationary phase and is required for full virulence

During infection Mycobacterium tuberculosis is exposed to several environmental conditions depending on the stage and severity of the disease. To survive, M. tuberculosis uses alternate sigma factors to regulate its gene expression in response to the changing host environment. In order to better understand the way in which stress response genes are regulated, the extracytoplasmic sigma factor gene sigD was deleted and subsequently complemented in the CDC1551 strain of M. tuberculosis. The ΔsigD mutant strain exhibited an in vitro growth rate in rich medium identical to that of both the sigD‐complemented and wild‐type CDC1551 strains. Additionally, no differences were observed in short‐term intracellular growth between the mutant, complemented, and wild‐type bacteria within the J774A.1 macrophage cell line. However, tumour necrosis factor (TNF)‐α levels in macrophages infected with the ΔsigD mutant were decreased as compared to levels observed in macrophages infected with the wild‐type bacteria. In time‐to‐death studies, C3H mice infected with the ΔsigD mutant exhibited a mortality delay compared to those infected with either the complemented or wild‐type strains. Although mice infected with the ΔsigD mutant died at a reduced rate, the bacillary loads in the lungs and spleen of these mice were comparable to those seen in mice infected with either the complemented or wild‐type strains. Microarray analysis of the ΔsigD mutant relative to wild type revealed that SigD directs the expression of a small set of ribosomal genes and adenosine triphosphate transporters whose expression is normally induced during stationary phase growth in vitro. Altered expression of a subset of these genes was confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction analysis. Promoter‐like elements resembling the consensus sequence AGAAAG‐N16−20‐CGTTAA were found upstream of 19 of the genes underexpressed in the ΔsigD mutant suggesting this may be the recognition sequence for the M. tuberculosis SigD‐holoenzyme, EσD. These data indicate that the M. tuberculosis SigD sigma factor governs the expression of a small set of ribosomal genes typically expressed in stationary phase during in vitro growth and that loss of sigD reduces macrophage TNF‐α secretion as well as the lethality of M. tuberculosis infection in mice.
Spontaneous Saccades and Gaze‐Holding Ability in the Pigmented Rat. II. Effects of Localized Cerebellar Lesions

We have studied the effects of the ablation of the cerebellar vermal area corresponding to lobules VI – VIII and of the flocculus – paraflocculus of both sides on the spontaneous eye movements performed in the light and in the dark in head‐restrained pigmented rats. These effects have been compared with those already described for the inferior olive lesion. The cerebellar lesions were performed 1 week to 6 months in advance. Eye movements were recorded through a phase detection search coil apparatus. Following vermal topectomy, the main characteristics of the spontaneous saccades are unmodified. Following the ablation of the flocculus – paraflocculus there is no change in the saccadic main sequence. However, the spontaneous saccades in the dark present a postsaccadic drift made up of two components with different time courses, the first one being fast and the second one slow. The former is due in part to a mismatch between the phasic (the pulse) and the tonic (the step) components of the eye movements; the latter to the leakage of the neural integrator. In light only the first component is present and the eye maintains a steady position. The time constant of the neural integrator is considerably reduced to ∼600–900 ms from a value of ∼1600–4000 ms in the intact rats. The amplitude of the postsaccadic drift in the light depends on both the mismatch between the pulse and the step of innervation of the extraocular muscles and the increased leakiness of the neural integrator. The gain of the pulse to step transformation is reduced to ∼0.79 at all saccadic amplitudes and eccentricities and such a reduction is due to a decreased step amplitude, while the pulse amplitude remains unchanged. The contribution of the leakage of the neural integrator to the postsaccadic drift in the light is a function of the eccentricity with a slope of 0.23. The deficits described after flocculus–paraflocculus ablation are also very similar to those described following inferior olive lesion from a quantitative point of view. The possible mechanisms of the visually activated olivocerebellar system in the control of saccadic performance and in maintaining its calibration are discussed.