Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sulphydryl-containing agents stimulate the healing of duodenal ulceration in man.

This prospective randomized double-blind study examined whether sulphydryl-containing agents stimulate the healing and prevent the recurrence of duodenal ulceration in man. To this end, DL-methionine methyl sulphonium chloride (MMSC, 500 mg four times daily) or DL-cysteine (200 mg four times daily) were orally administered with cimetidine. Symptomatic endoscopy-proven duodenal ulcer patients who were smokers and social drinkers were randomized to receive for 8 weeks cimetidine (400 mg b.d.), cimetidine (400 mg b.d.) with MMSC, or cimetidine (400 mg b.d.) with cysteine. These patients were then kept on their respective oral regimens (except for cimetidine which was changed to 400 mg at bedtime) for 1 year (maintenance) and followed up for another. After 8 weeks of treatment, the ulceration healed in 65 patients (74%) given cimetidine alone but in all the patients given MMSC (n = 87) or cysteine (n = 86) with cimetidine (p less than 0.01). During the maintenance year, 15 patients (29%) given cimetidine at night relapsed. Addition of MMSC or cysteine to cimetidine incurred a significantly (p less than 0.001) lower relapse rate. During the year following maintenance therapy, the relapse rate in the group that had been previously treated with cimetidine alone (63%, n = 51) was significantly (p less than 0.001) higher than that in the groups previously treated with MMSC and cimetidine (6%, n = 67) or cysteine with cimetidine (6%, n = 64). The results suggest that sulphydryl-containing agents stimulate the healing and protect against the recurrence of duodenal ulceration.
Double-Blind Prospective Randomized Comparison of Interferon Gamma-1b versus Placebo after Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation

Thirty-eight patients, including 14 with Hodgkin’s disease, 9 with non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, 4 with multiple myeloma and 11 with solid tumors, were enrolled in our study. Between March 1995 and March 1997, 24 of these patients had been autografted with peripheral blood, and 14 had received peripheral blood autografts plus bone marrow. The study was a double-blind, prospectively randomized comparison of interferon gamma-1b (IFN-γ), given subcutaneously at a dose of 50 µg/m2 daily for 30 days to 18 of the 38 patients, vs. placebo (20 of 38). Administration started after 2 consecutive days of >0.5 × 109 neutrophils/l following autologous stem cell transplantation. At a mean follow-up time of 536 ± 269 days, disease-free survival (DFS) for the IFN-γ and placebo groups was 728 vs. 510 days, respectively (p < 0.0750 by the Generalized Wilcoxon/Peto-Prentice test). Overall survival (OS) time for the IFN-γ and placebo groups was 830 vs. 755 days, respectively. Despite the limited number of patients included in this comparison, a trend for superior DFS was observed in the IFN-γ-treated group, a finding which merits further study.
Ulcerated Basal Cell Carcinomas Masquerading as Venous Leg Ulcers

BACKGROUND: Nonmelanoma skin cancers rarely arise from venous leg ulcers (VLUs). Although basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is the most common nonmelanoma skin cancer, its association with lower-extremity ulcers is not as frequently reported as other malignancies. OBJECTIVE: To report a case series of biopsy-proven BCC from lower-extremity ulcers of patients who presented at a multispecialty wound clinic. METHODS: Four male patients (mean age, 82.75 years) with 4 chronic VLUs (duration ranging from 2 months to 10 years) underwent a biopsy of their ulcerative lesions. RESULTS: Histologic examination of the specimens revealed 4 cases of BCC. All of the lesions were surgically excised, followed by split-thickness skin graft (n = 2) or healing by secondary intention (n = 2). All of the patients remained healed at follow-up ranging from 15 to 27 months, except for 1 patient who opted for conservative management and had not completely healed at 14 months’ follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Biopsies are warranted for any VLU with documented stalled healing following 3 months of standard of care. One biopsy is performed at the periphery of the ulcer and another at the base in order to rule out the presence of malignant transformation because of BCC, squamous cell carcinoma, sarcoma, melanoma, lymphoma, or metastases.
Nonenzymatic biomimetic remodeling of phospholipids in synthetic liposomes

Significance Cell membranes have numerous phospholipid species that are dynamically modified by enzymatic remodeling of lipid fragments. Changing the structure of lipids can play important roles in membrane biology and dysregulation can lead to disease. Although artificial membranes have been used to model the properties of native membranes, previous methods have not been able to mimic lipid membrane remodeling. Here, we show that reversible chemical reactions can be harnessed to achieve spontaneous remodeling of lipids in synthetic membranes. We demonstrate that our synthetic model system can be used to test the effects of lipid remodeling on vesicle composition and protein recruitment. Advanced biomimetic membranes could help us understand the various roles of lipid remodeling in biological membranes. Cell membranes have a vast repertoire of phospholipid species whose structures can be dynamically modified by enzymatic remodeling of acyl chains and polar head groups. Lipid remodeling plays important roles in membrane biology and dysregulation can lead to disease. Although there have been tremendous advances in creating artificial membranes to model the properties of native membranes, a major obstacle has been developing straightforward methods to mimic lipid membrane remodeling. Stable liposomes are typically kinetically trapped and are not prone to exchanging diacylphospholipids. Here, we show that reversible chemoselective reactions can be harnessed to achieve nonenzymatic spontaneous remodeling of phospholipids in synthetic membranes. Our approach relies on transthioesterification/acyl shift reactions that occur spontaneously and reversibly between tertiary amides and thioesters. We demonstrate exchange and remodeling of both lipid acyl chains and head groups. Using our synthetic model system we demonstrate the ability of spontaneous phospholipid remodeling to trigger changes in vesicle spatial organization, composition, and morphology as well as recruit proteins that can affect vesicle curvature. Membranes capable of chemically exchanging lipid fragments could be used to help further understand the specific roles of lipid structure remodeling in biological membranes.
Regularity changes of the retinal nerve fiber layer and macular ganglion cell complex in patients with the amnestic mild cognitive impairment

ABSTRACT Purpose/aim: We investigated the regularity changes of the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) and macular ganglion cell complex (mGCC) of the amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) patients in this prospective cohort study. Materials and methods: Twenty-four aMCI patients and 30 health controls, who are more than 60 years old, were recruited into the study. The RNFL and the mGCC average thickness were measured with Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT). Results: Compared with that in the controls, the intraocular pressure (IOP) was significantly lower in the aMCI patients. A significant decrease in RNFL thickness in superior temporal, temporal upper (TU), and temporal upper and lower (TL) (TU+TL) quadrants was found in the aMCI patients than in the controls. The average thickness of the mGCC was also significantly thinner in the aMCI patients than in the controls. Conclusions: Retinal degeneration in the aMCI patients detected by OCT together with lower IOP may indicate disease pathological progression.
Anomaly classification in digital mammography based on multiple-instance learning

Cancer tissues in mammography images exhibit abnormal regions; it is of great clinical importance to label a mammography image as having cancerous regions or not, perform the corresponding image segmentation. However, the detailed annotation of the cancer region is often an ambiguous and challenging task. The authors describe a fully automatic computer-aided detection and diagnosis (CAD) system to detect and classify breast cancer as malignant or benign, by using mammography and building on the multiple-instance learning (MIL) algorithms, which has been confirmed beneficial for radiologist decision sustenance. Traditional learning methods require great effort to annotate the training data by costly manual labelling and specialised computational models to detect these annotations during the test. The proposed CAD system simultaneously performs pixel-level segmentation (suspicious versus normal tissue) and image-level classification (benign versus malignant image). The set-up of the proposed system is in order: automatically segmented regions of interest (ROIs). Then, features derived from ROIs detected such as textural features and shape features are selected and extracted from each region and combined them to classify ROIs as `benign' or `malignant', by implementing MIL algorithms. Experimental results demonstrate the efficiency and robustness of the proposed CAD system compared with previous work in the literature.
Underappreciation of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease by primary care clinicians: limited awareness of surrogate markers of fibrosis

Non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common cause of incidental liver test abnormalities. General practitioners (GP) have a key role in identifying people with NAFLD at risk of significant liver disease. Recent specialist guidelines emphasise the use of fibrosis algorithms or serum biomarkers rather than routine liver tests, to assess advanced fibrosis.
Validation of the NCCN‐IPI for diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL): the addition of β2‐microglobulin yields a more accurate GELTAMO‐IPI

The study included 1848 diffuse large B‐cell lymphoma (DLBCL)patients treated with chemotherapy/rituximab. The aims were to validate the National Comprehensive Cancer Network International Prognostic Index (NCCN‐IPI) and explore the effect of adding high Beta‐2 microglobulin (β2M), primary extranodal presentation and intense treatment to the NCCN‐IPI variables in order to develop an improved index. Comparing survival curves, NCCN‐IPI discriminated better than IPI, separating four risk groups with 5‐year overall survival rates of 93%, 83%, 67% and 49%, but failing to identify a true high‐risk population. For the second aim the series was split into training and validation cohorts: in the former the multivariate model identified age, lactate dehydrogenase, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, Stage III‐IV, and β2M as independently significant, whereas the NCCN‐IPI‐selected extranodal sites, primary extranodal presentation and intense treatments were not. These results were confirmed in the validation cohort. The Grupo Español de Linfomas/Trasplante de Médula ósea (GELTAMO)‐IPI developed here, with 7 points, significantly separated four risk groups (0, 1–3, 4 or ≥5 points) with 11%, 58%, 17% and 14% of patients, and 5‐year overall survival rates of 93%, 79%, 66% and 39%, respectively. In the comparison GELTAMO IPI discriminated better than the NCCN‐IPI. In conclusion, GELTAMO‐IPI is more accurate than the NCCN‐IPI and has statistical and practical advantages in that the better discrimination identifies an authentic high‐risk group and is not influenced by primary extranodal presentation or treatments of different intensity.
Riemann manifold Langevin methods on stochastic volatility estimation

ABSTRACT In this article, we perform Bayesian estimation of stochastic volatility models with heavy tail distributions using Metropolis adjusted Langevin (MALA) and Riemman manifold Langevin (MMALA) methods. We provide analytical expressions for the application of these methods, assess the performance of these methodologies in simulated data, and illustrate their use on two financial time series datasets.
Anomalous transport of sucrose and urea in toad skin.

1. Increased permeability to sucrose and anomalous transport of this substance in the inward direction are elicited in toad skin when the outside bathing solution is made hyperosmotic by addition of 200 millimoles of urea per liter. Influx and efflux of sucrose are measured on paired halves of skins from the belly of the toad, using 14C-sucrose as a tracer. 2. When the hydrostatic pressure of the inside solution is raised 25 cm H2O over that of the outside solution, the flux asymmetry for sucrose is substantially reduced. 3. Similar experiments with 14C-urea as the ‘driven species’ and inactive urea as the ‘driving species’ gave similar results: Increased permeability and anomalous inward transport. The effect of a hydrostatic pressure difference on the flux ratio was, however, less apparent than in the case of sucrose. 4. At low urea concentrations there seems to be a slow inward active transport of urea between identical solutions. The phenomenon is absent in frog skin. 5. The anomalous transports of sucrose and urea are discussed in the light of a model involving ‘anomalous solvent drag’.
Electroencephalographic theta discharges in the midline.

Electroencephalographic theta discharges in the midline, described previously by Ciganek [1961] were found in 2.09% of a non-selected group of 1,100 neurologic patients. 14 of 23 reported patients suffered from epilepsy. The diagnostical value of the described phenomenon is discussed.
Direct antiviral agent treatment of chronic hepatitis C results in rapid regression of transient elastography and fibrosis markers fibrosis‐4 score and aspartate aminotransferase‐platelet ratio index

Novel direct antiviral agents (DAA) targeting hepatitis C virus (HCV) have revolutionized the treatment of chronic hepatitis C infection (CHC). Rates of sustained virological response (SVR) to treatment have drastically improved since introduction of DAA. Transient Elastography (TE) is an ultrasound based, non‐invasive technique to assess liver stiffness (LS). We examined the changes in TE values and fibrosis scores FIB‐4 and APRI after DAA treatment of CHC.
Chronic β2‐adrenoceptor agonist treatment alters muscle proteome and functional adaptations induced by high intensity training in young men

While several studies have investigated the effects of exercise training in human skeletal muscle and the chronic effect of β2‐agonist treatment in rodent muscle, their effects on muscle proteome signature with related functional measures in humans are still incompletely understood. Herein we show that daily β2‐agonist treatment attenuates training‐induced enhancements in exercise performance and maximal oxygen consumption, and alters muscle proteome signature and phenotype in trained young men. Daily β2‐agonist treatment abolished several of the training‐induced enhancements in muscle oxidative capacity and caused a repression of muscle metabolic pathways; furthermore, β2‐agonist treatment induced a slow‐to‐fast twitch muscle phenotype transition. The present study indicates that chronic β2‐agonist treatment confounds the positive effect of high intensity training on exercise performance and oxidative capacity, which is of interest for the large proportion of persons using inhaled β2‐agonists on a daily basis, including athletes.
Analysis of seasonal level shift (SLS) detection in SARIMA models

ABSTRACT This study aims at exploring correct identification of seasonal outliers using most commonly applied test statistics. We evaluate the performance of seasonal level shift (SLS) by means of empirical level of significance, power of the test for sensitivity in detecting changes, and the vulnerability to masking of outliers by misspecification frequencies. We observe that the size of SLS affects the sampling distribution of ηSLS (test statistics for SLS detection) in case of SAR (1) and SMA (1) model. The empirical critical values for 1%, 5%, and 10% upper percentiles are higher than the usual cut off points and the empirical level of significance is inversely related to sample size and the model coefficients. The empirical power of the test statistics is not satisfactory at small sample size, and for large model coefficient. ηSLS gets confused with IO. The potential list of types of outliers should retain both IO and SLS as a part of outlier detection procedure for most efficient results. We apply the method suggested by Kaiser and Maravall with five possible types of outliers, that is, AO, IO, LS, TC, and SLS, to a number of quarterly and monthly time series data from Pakistan.
Disentangling motivation from self-efficacy: implications for measurement, theory-development, and intervention

Ever since Bandura (1977) published his seminal article articulating the conceptual bases that underpin self-efficacy theory as a unifying theory of behaviour change, the study of self-efficacy has been extensive across diverse life contexts, and in particular within the context of health behaviour change. Indeed, in his writing Bandura (1997) has repeatedly argued that ‘self-efficacy beliefs constitute the key factor of human agency’ (emphasis added, p. 3). In their conceptual critique and narrative review, Williams and Rhodes (2016) provide a compelling case for why traditional measures of self-efficacy, in particular those framed in relation to the self-regulation of health behaviours, may inadvertently assess motivation rather than self-efficacy. Specifically, they contend that when participants are asked whether they ‘can do’ a target behaviour, such questions are interpreted in a colloquial sense in terms of whether they will do the behaviour, and not whether they are actually physically capable of performing that behaviour. Although Williams and Rhodes emphasise that more research is clearly needed to test their ‘selfefficacy-as-motivation’ contention, the implications stemming from their paper have the potential to be far reaching within the field of health psychology in terms of measurement, conceptual advancement, and intervention considerations. From ameasurement perspective, the authors draw from data derived from three studies by Rhodes and Blanchard (2007) and Rhodes and Courneya (2003, 2004) which found that when traditional self-efficacy measures are augmented by efforts to hold motivation constant (by adding the qualifier ‘if you really wanted to’) the predictive utility of those augmented measures was weaker in relation to behavioural intention than typical self-efficacy measures. The crux of these findings is that traditional self-efficacy measures (cf. Bandura, 2006), at least to some extent, unintentionally assess motivation. This, the authors conclude, has resulted in an extensive literature that reflects a confounded self-efficacy construct (as implied by the title of their article). Based on the authors’ synopsis, it would appear that it is the operationalisation (i.e., measures) of the self-efficacy construct that has been confounded and not the construct itself. This is an important distinction, and raises important questions (or what Messick, 1995, referred to as consequential validity considerations) related to the extent to which measurement instruments need improvement and/or whether the theory itself requires revision. Although Williams and Rhodes draw from qualitative work that points to motivational factors that may have non-trivial effects on self-efficacy ratings, research conducted in the context of health behaviour settings has yet to specifically examine the thought processes of research participants
A Classification of Programming Styles in Scratch

Scratch, the popular block programming platform created by MIT Media Lab, with more than 23 million projects shared by its users, provides interesting opportunities for studying utilization patterns thanks to the well documented datasets made available to researchers. In this paper, we describe our efforts to identify and categorize different programming styles by analyzing the blocks and sprites utilized by each user. Although our project is in early stages of development, we can point to indications that signal the existence of at least four types of users: scene designers, dialogue storytellers, complex animators, and remixers-copiers. We will describe each style, and outline our strategy to use the available data to validate the hypothesis that most users can be classified in one of these four types.
A High Glucose Concentration Stimulates the Expression of Monocyte Chemotactic Peptide 1 in Human Mesangial Cells

The mechanism of glomerular infiltration of monocytes remains unknown in diabetic nephropathy. We examined the effect of a high glucose concentration on monocyte chemotactic peptide 1 (MCP-1) expression in human mesangial cells (MCs) by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and reverse transcription coupled with polymerase chain reaction (PCR). More than a 50% increase in the MCP-1 protein production was observed in MCs cultured in high-glucose medium (450 mg/dl) as compared to normal glucose (100 mg/dl; 1,496 ± 75 vs. 966 ± 15 pg/ml after 24 h, 1,910 ± 93 vs. 1,250 ± 55 pg/ml after 48 h). Semiquantitative PCR showed that phorbol myristate acetate (100 nM) increased the ratio of PCR products for MCP-1 to housekeeping gene glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase on densitometric results at 24 h by 2.7-fold, which was prevented by calphostin C (200 nM) pretreatment. High glucose increased the ratio by 3-fold as compared to normal glucose at 24 h (0.72 ± 0.11 vs. 0.24 ± 0.01). This was also suppressed by calphostin C pretreatment. These findings demonstrate that high glucose can directly increase MCP-1 expression in MCs, which may contribute to monocyte infiltration in diabetic nephropathy, and this is regulated by protein kinase C.
GnRH secretion throughout the ovine estrous cycle.

In order to define the patterns of gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion during the estrous cycle of the sheep we sampled hypophysial portal blood from conscious animals on day 1 of the cycle (n = 1), during the luteal phase (n = 8), during the follicular phase (n = 6) and during the preovulatory luteinizing hormone (LH) surge (n = 6). At the same time, we sampled jugular blood to measure plasma LH concentrations. During day 1 we noted regular GnRH pulses, whereas GnRH pulse amplitude and frequency were more variable in the luteal phase of the cycle. In the transition from the luteal phase to the follicular phase the GnRH pulse frequency increased and the amplitude decreased. Around the time of the LH surge we noted 3 types of secretory profiles for GnRH. In one sheep (type 1) there was a large GnRH pulse at the onset of the LH surge followed by very little activity during the surge. In two sheep (type 2) the GnRH profile did not change between the late follicular phase and the onset of the LH surge. In the remaining three sheep (type 3) there was a clear increase in the secretion of GnRH at the onset of the LH surge. With the exclusion of the type 1 sheep the GnRH pulse frequency was maximal (2 pulses/h) at the time of the LH surge; average portal GnRH levels were also maximal at this time. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)