Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SYSTEMIC INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE SYNDROME (SIRS), MULTIPLE ORGAN DYSFUNCTION SYNDROME (MODS), MULTIPLE ORGAN FAILURE (MOF): ARE WE WINNING THE BATTLE?

The problems of inflammation and infection leading to organ dysfunction and failure continue to be the major problems after injury and operations and with intensive care for many diseases and problems. When SIRS goes to MODS and MOF, the mortality becomes high, ranging from 30–80% depending on the number of failed organs. In spite of this, there have been recent exciting discoveries and contributions to patient care. A reasonable question then is, are we making progress and if so, can we document it? Are the incidence and mortality of MOF decreasing? The literature comparing care over some years suggests a decrease in ICU mortality in patients with severe organ failure, a decrease in elective surgical mortality, and improvement in the results of care and outcome for trauma patients. Review of problems occurring in sick and injured patients indicates that certain problems are decreasing in frequency, such as renal failure and ARDS after trauma, stress gastrointestinal bleeding, and abdominal abscesses, and these should improve outcome. There are a number of exciting therapies that help certain patients but not everyone. These controversies challenge us to focus on where and when there are positive benefits. Risk factors for MOF are addressed to focus on early intervention. The possibilities of multiple therapeutic agents are described. Finally, we describe and emphasize our recommendation to strive to prevent MODS and SIRS.
Sparse Highly Connected Spanning Subgraphs in Dense Directed Graphs

Mader proved that every strongly k-connected n-vertex digraph contains a strongly k-connected spanning subgraph with at most 2kn - 2k2 edges, where equality holds for the complete bipartite digraph DKk,n-k. For dense strongly k-connected digraphs, this upper bound can be significantly improved. More precisely, we prove that every strongly k-connected n-vertex digraph D contains a strongly k-connected spanning subgraph with at most kn + 800k(k + Δ(D)) edges, where Δ(D) denotes the maximum degree of the complement of the underlying undirected graph of a digraph D. Here, the additional term 800k(k + Δ(D)) is tight up to multiplicative and additive constants. As a corollary, this implies that every strongly k-connected n-vertex semicomplete digraph contains a strongly k-connected spanning subgraph with at most kn + 800k2 edges, which is essentially optimal since 800k2 cannot be reduced to the number less than k(k - 1)/2. We also prove an analogous result for strongly k-arc-connected directed multigraphs. Both proofs yield polynomial-time algorithms.
Restricted HIV‐1 replication in placental macrophages is caused by inefficient viral transcription

HIV‐infected PM show restricted replication as compared with MDM. We aimed to determine at what point in the viral replication cycle this restriction occurs in PM as compared with MDM. We performed Alu‐LTR PCR for proviral DNA to detect differences in HIV integration, real‐time RT‐PCR to measure env and gag mRNA levels, and Western blot analysis to detect differences in viral protein expression. PM and MDM were infected with HIV‐1 BaL, and DNA was extracted after 24 h and at 6 days p.i. for real‐time PCR studies. At 6 and 12 days p.i. , cells were lysed for Western blot analyses. We found no difference in viral integration between PM and MDM but significantly lower levels of viral protein gp120 in PM than in MDM. Real‐time RT‐PCR analyses revealed 24‐fold less env mRNA and tenfold less gag mRNA in PM. These results suggest that HIV‐1 restriction in PM occurs at the level of transcription. This study is significant, as it advances our understanding of HIV‐1 infection in PM and its contribution to decreased in utero vertical transmission.
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Center for Applied Financial Economics (CAFE) Common Correlated Effects Estimation of Heterogenous Dynamic Panel Data Models with Weakly Exogenous Regressors

This paper extends the Common Correlated Effects (CCE) approach developed by Pesaran (2006) to heterogeneous panel data models with lagged dependent variable and/or weakly exogenous regressors. We show that the CCE mean group estimator continues to be valid but the following two conditions must be satisfied to deal with the dynamics: a suffi cient number of lags of cross section averages must be included in individual equations of the panel, and the number of cross section averages must be at least as large as the number of unobserved common factors. We establish consistency rates, derive the asymptotic distribution, suggest using covariates to deal with the effects of multiple unobserved common factors, and consider jackknife and recursive de-meaning bias correction procedures to mitigate the small sample time series bias. Theoretical findings are accompanied by extensive Monte Carlo experiments, which show that the proposed estimators perform well so long as the time series dimension of the panel is suffi ciently large.
Pulmonary Function Decay In Women Ice Hockey Players: Is There a Relationship to Ice Rink Air Quality?

Fossil-fueled ice rink resurfacing machines emit high levels of ultrafine and fine particulate matter (PM1) and may be related to asthmalike symptoms in skaters. We examined PM1 exposure and airway status in elite women ice hockey players over 4 training years. Lung function, asthma symptoms, and rink PM1 were evaluated. Pre- and postexercise spirometry was performed on 14 female hockey players and 9 female control nordic skiers 4 times over 4 yr. Baseline lung functions were normalized to height cubed (Ht3) and recalculated to subject mean height (1.69 m) to evaluate change. Venue CO, NO2, and PM1 were measured. Training history for hockey players included 2 yr in a low-[PM1] rink, followed by transition to high-[PM1] fossil fuel machine resurfaced rinks; [PM1] for control ski venue was low. [CO] and [NO2] were acceptable at all venues. Controls showed no baseline function change over 4 yr. For hockey players, 1997 lung function values at the low-[PM1] venue were significantly higher than 2001 high-[PM1] venue values (p < .05); decay per year between 1997 and 2001 was greater for FEF25−75 (251 ± 185, 83 ± 40, 109 ± 58, 109 ± 187 ml yr−1, mean ± SD for FEF25−75, FVC, FEV1, PEF, respectively; p < .05). No relationships between baseline lung functions and airway hyperresponsiveness or symptoms were identified. Five of 9 controls had symptoms, and 10 of 14 subjects had symptoms. This preliminary study suggests [PM1] is related to airway function decay in ice rink athletes.
Strengthening Managerial Innovation Behavior in the SMEs

Managerial innovation as an internal change agent plays a central role in coping with the speed of today’s fast-paced customer demand and highly competitive market, yet previous studies paid less attention to the potential measures of strengthening managerial innovation behavior within organizations. Drawing from transformational leadership theory, the current study shed new light on this issue by examining the role of CEO transformational leadership (TFL), innovation culture (IC) and cross-functional integration (CFI) in advancing managerial innovation behavior in SMEs. A cross-sectional study with a sample of 434 respondents from 24 SMEs operating in Rwanda was conducted. To genuinely analyze the relationship between the variables hypothesized in this study, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrapping technique using Amos 23 and SPSS 24. The overall findings revealed that the relationship proposed in the model were significantly supported. However, our new mechanism implying innovation culture and cross-functional integration in the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and managerial innovation behavior, provide a substantial contribution to management literature.
Pain-related Impairment of Daily Activities After Thoracic Surgery: A Questionnaire Validation

Objective:Persistent postoperative pain is an acknowledged entity that reduces daily activities. Evaluation of the post-thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) is often measured using traditional pain scales without in-depth questions on pain impairment. Thus, the purpose was to create a procedure-specific questionnaire for assessment of functional impairment due to PTPS. Methods:Activities were obtained from the literature supplemented by interviews with patients and surgeons. The questionnaire was validated using the Rasch model in order to describe an underlying pain impairment scale. Results:Four of 17 questions were redundant. The remaining 13 questions from low to intensive activity described functional impairment following persistent pain from thoracotomy and video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). No evidence for differential item functioning for gender, age or differences between open or VATS, were found. A generalized log-linear Rasch model including local dependence was constructed. Though local dependence influenced reliability, the test-retest reliability estimated under the log-linear Rasch model was high (0.88–0.96). Correlation with items from the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (quick) questionnaire supported validity (&ggr;=0.46, P<0.0001), and procedure specificity. The analysis also procured evidence that the pain impairment questionnaire measured 2 qualitatively different pain dimensions although highly correlated (&ggr;=0.76). Conclusions:This study presents method, results and validation of a new unidimensional scale measuring procedure specific functional impairment due to PTPS following open surgery and VATS. Procedure specific tools such as this could provide important outcomes measures for future trials on persistent postsurgical pain states allowing better assessment of interventions (250).
Draft Genome Sequences of Eight Salmonella enterica Serotype Newport Strains from Diverse Hosts and Locations

ABSTRACT Salmonellosis is a major contributor to the global public health burden. Salmonella enterica serotype Newport has ranked among three Salmonella serotypes most commonly associated with food-borne outbreaks in the United States. It was thought to be polyphyletic and composed of independent lineages. Here we report draft genomes of eight strains of S. Newport from diverse hosts and locations.
MiR-34, SIRT1, and p53: The feedback loop

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that regulate gene expression. Several studies have linked dysregulation of miRNA with tumorigenesis. The TP53 is one of the most commonly mutated genes in human cancers, and its gene product p53 activates transcription of a set of miRNA including the miR-34 family of miRNA. The miR-34 family regulates cell cycle progression, cellular senescence, and apoptosis, but the targets of miR-34 are not completely defined. We recently found that miR-34a inhibits SIRT1, a gene that regulates cellular senescence and limits longevity. SIRT1 also regulates p53 dependent apoptosis through deacetylating and stabilizing p53. We also discovered that SIRT1 mediates miR-34a activation of apoptosis by regulating p53 activity. Based on this observation, we propose a positive feedback loop, in which p53 induces expression of miR-34a which suppresses SIRT1, increasing p53 activity.
The Clinical Course of Epilepsy and Its Psychosocial Correlates: Findings from a U.K. Community Study

As part of a large community‐based study, we retrospectively examined the clinical course of epilepsy in an unselected population of people who had a recent history of seizures or were receiving antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Clinical information was collected from medical records, and information about psychosocial functioning was obtained by means of postal questionnaires sent to identified subjects. The response rate to the postal questionnaire was 71%. There were some deficiencies in the recording of clinical data, which is not unusual since data were taken from records held by primary physicians rather than from hospital clinics. Nevertheless, findings regarding the clinical course of epilepsy corresponded to those of earlier studies. Fifty‐seven percent of the sample had had at least a 2‐year seizure‐free period and 46% of subjects were currently in a remission of at least 2‐year duration. There was a clear relationship between current seizure frequency and levels of anxiety and depression, perceived impact of epilepsy, perceived stigma, and marital and employment status. The relationship of seizure frequency and other clinical variables to psychosocial function was explored by multivariate analysis techniques. The amount of variation in scores on the various measures of function accounted for by the clinical variables was small. The most important predictor was current seizure activity, which was the first variable to enter the regression analyses for six of the eight measures of psychosocial function considered. Age at epilepsy onset also emerged as a significant predictor for depression, stigma, and marital status. In individuals with epilepsy in remission, there was little evidence that psychosocial functioning was associated with length of remission, a finding which may in part reflect the nature of this study population. The results indicate that there are several more important predictors of psychopathology and social dysfunction in epilepsy and suggest several implications for treatment interventions.
Hepatic Failure and Hemochromatosis of Salers and Salers-cross Cattle

Hemochromatosis is rare in domestic mammals. Five clinical cases and one preclinical case of hemochromatosis were diagnosed in Salers and Salers-cross cattle. Clinical disease developed between 9 and 22 months of age. Animals were healthy until weaning but then lost weight, developed rough hair coats, and lost incisor teeth. In two animals, hemochromatosis was identified by liver biopsy, biochemical evidence of hepatic injury, and/or elevated transferrin saturation values. At necropsy, carcasses were thin, with firm dark brown livers and lymph nodes, soft bones, and brown-colored small bowel. The principal histologic changes were hepatocellular siderosis and periportal, bridging, and perivenular fibrosis. Siderocalcinosis involved collagen, elastin, reticulin, and basement membrane components in liver, lymph nodes, spleen, duodenum, and kidney. Hepatic iron concentrations in clinically affected cattle were 1,500–10,500 μg/g wet weight (reference range for cattle = <300 μg/g). Ultrastructurally, the heaviest intrahepatic deposition was in hepatocytes, which contained large intracytoplasmic siderosomes. Iron deposition in bone was associated with osteopenia. Genetic analysis indicated a common ancestral bull in the pedigrees of five of six affected cattle; no pedigree was available for the remaining animal. Four dams of five affected animals were phenotypically normal and had histologically normal livers. Test mating of four cows to the ancestral bull resulted in a female calf that developed clinicopathologic and histologic evidence of preclinical hemochromatosis by 40 days of age. It was not possible to establish the pattern of inheritance because of the small number of pedigrees from affected cattle.
Diagnosis of miscarriages by molecular karyotyping: Benefits and pitfalls

Purpose: About 50% of spontaneous abortions are caused by fetal chromosome abnormalities. Identification of these abnormalities helps to estimate recurrence risks in future pregnancies. However, due to culture failures or maternal contamination often no fetal karyotype can be obtained. Array comparative genomic hybridization can overcome some of these limitations.Methods: In this study, we analyzed 103 miscarriages by both T-banding and 1-Mb array comparative genomic hybridization.Results: We found an overall abnormality rate of 35% (34 of 96). In a comparison of 70 samples that were successfully analyzed by both techniques, 54 (77%) had identical karyotypes (42 normal, 12 abnormal) and 16 (23%) cases showed discrepancies. Most of these differences were due to maternal contamination during cell culture, which resulted erroneously in a normal female karyotype.Conclusion: These results demonstrate the improved diagnostic yield of array comparative genomic hybridization as compared with conventional karyotyping. Therefore, we implemented this technique in the diagnostic workup of miscarriages.
The Binding of Riboflavin-5′-Phosphate in a Flavoprotein: Flavodoxin at 2.0-Å Resolution

Abstract The crystal structure of the oxidized form of flavodoxin from Desulfovibrio vulgaris has been studied at 2.0-A resolution, and a detailed description of the region around the flavin mononucleotide binding site is now available. The flavin is between a tyrosine group, roughly parallel to it on one side, and a tryptophan, about 45° from being parallel, on the other side. The two carbonyl groups and two nitrogen atoms of the flavin are hydrogen bonded to the peptide chain of the protein, while the two methyl groups are exposed at the surface of the protein. The phosphate group of the flavin mononucleotide is inside the protein and extensively hydrogen bonded to it. The ribityl group is hydrogen bonded both to the protein and to water on the surface of the protein.
Bond Market Integration of Emerging Economies and Bilateral Linkages

Although there are numerous studies that have looked at the spillover effects in equity markets, little attention has been paid to explore the integration of bond markets of developed and emerging economies. Our paper is an attempt to fill this void by quantifying the spillovers from developed countries on the bond markets of 25 emerging economies. We apply volatility and return spillover models to quantify the extent of the spillovers from developed markets (i.e. the United States, UK and Japan) into emerging bond markets. We find that the extent of the return spillovers and volatility spillovers has not been symmetric across emerging markets. We explain these differences using bilateral factors such as trade volume, portfolio investment, cultural and geographical factors. The bilateral trade volume turns out to be the leading explanation for the extent of spillovers between our set of countries.
Regional advantage and the geography of networks: Explaining global-local knowledge sourcing patterns

There is a dearth of systematic evidence concerning the extent to which being located in economically advantaged regions assists firms in accessing knowledge from global sources. This paper explores the issue by utilizing data from a survey of firms in the UK. It shows that local knowledge sourcing widely assists firms in economically advantaged regions by acting as a springboard for international knowledge sourcing, whilst this is not the case for their counterparts in disadvantaged regions. The analysis suggests that the springboard effect and the geography of external knowledge networks are associated with regional economic context.
[The cases of rotaviral diarrhea from Kielce and Kielce district, hospitalized in Kielce Voivodeship Children Hospital in 2002-2006].

UNLABELLED The aim of the study was an analysis of rotavirus diarrhea incidence in children within two age ranges: between 0-4 years and between 5-9 years. Into the analysis there were included children from the city of Kielce and from the Kielce administrative district suffering from diarrhea and admitted to the hospital, in the years 2002-2006. METHODS The Slidex Rota-Kit 2 tests were performed to confirm the rotavirus etiology of infection. RESULTS Throughout the 5 years period there were hospitalized 6980 children coming from whole Swietokrzyskie Province. Infection caused by rotavirus was diagnosed in 2064 (29.6%) children. Infection caused by Salmonella was diagnosed in 405 (5.8%) children. The etiology of diarrhea was not established in 4511 (64.6%) children. Into the next analysis there were included children only from the city of Kielce and from the Kielce administrative district. Infection caused by rotavirus was diagnosed in 1702. 1368 (80.4%) of children with diagnosis of rotavirus diarrhea were in the age group of 0-4 years, 334 (19.6%) of children were in the age group of 5-9 years. The highest incidence of rotavirus infection was observed in children aged 2 years--500 (29.4%). The prevalence of infection was not related to the sex of the patients. There was observed an increase in the rotavirus diarrhea prevalence during from autumn to spring season (Nov.- May) with peak incidence in February (13.6%). The prevalence of diarrhea in the urban area 54.2% was higher than in the rural area in both age groups.
Analysis of Effective Molecular Diffusion Rates for Verteporfin in Subcutaneous Versus Orthotopic Dunning Prostate Tumors¶

Abstract Photosensitizer biodistribution change inside tissue is one of the dominant factors in photodynamic therapy efficacy. In this study, the pharmacokinetics of a benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD), delivered in verteporfin for injection formulation, have been quantified in the rat Dunning prostate tumor MAT-LyLu model, using both subcutaneous and orthotopic sites. Blood plasma sampling indicated that BPD had a bi-exponential metabolic lifetime in vivo, with the two lifetimes being 9.6 min and 8.3 h. The spatial distributions in the tumor were quantified as a function of distance from the perfused blood vessels, using fluorescence histologic images of the tumor. A fluorescent vascular marker was used to obtain locations and shapes of perfused capillaries at a wavelength of emission different from that of BPD and to allow colocalized images to be acquired of vessel and BPD locations. Using the BPD fluorescence images obtained 15 min after intravenous administration, a forward finite-element solution to the diffusion equation was used to predict the drug distribution by matching the fluorescence intensity images observed microscopically. An inverse solver was used to minimize the root mean square error between the image of simulated diffusion and the experimental image, resulting in estimation of the diffusion coefficient of BPD in the tumor models. Effective diffusion coefficients were 0.88 and 1.59 μm2/s for the subcutaneous and orthotopically grown tumors, respectively, indicating that orthotopic tumors have significantly higher vascular extravasation rates as compared with subcutaneous tumors. This analysis supports the hypothesis that leakage rates of the photosensitizer vary considerably. Thus, although varying the time between injection and optical irradiation may be used to vary the targeting between vascular and less vascular areas, the precise time of treatment will depend on the nature of the permeability of the vasculature in the tissue being treated.
Secular trends in breastfeeding and parental smoking

To explore the association between smoking and breastfeeding, we obtained data from a retrospective questionnaire‐based national survey comprising a random sample (n= 34 799) of all mothers giving birth in Norway 1970‐91. Variables studied were postpartum smoking habits for both parents, duration of breastfeeding, infant's year of birth and parental age. The response rate was 70% (n= 24 438). During the study period, the maternal postpartum smoking prevalence decreased from 38% to 26%. The proportion breastfeeding at 6 months increased from 15% to 44% among smokers, and from 30% to 72% among non‐smokers. In spite of a considerable increase in breastfeeding both among smokers and non‐smokers, the proportion of breastfeeding, non‐smoking women at 6 months was twice that of smoking women during the whole period. Furthermore, the duration of breastfeeding was shorter among young mothers and when the fathers were smoking. There was epidemiological evidence that the effect on breastfeeding of smoking might represent both biological and social mechanisms.