Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Promoting prevention through the Affordable Care Act.

Too many people in our country are not reaching their full potential for health because of preventable conditions. Moreover, Americans receive only about half of the preventive services that are recommended1 — a finding that highlights the national need for improved health promotion. The 2010 Affordable Care Act2 responds to this need with a vibrant emphasis on disease prevention. Many of the 10 major titles in the law, especially Title IV, Prevention of Chronic Diseases and Improving Public Health, advance a prevention theme through a wide array of new initiatives and funding. As a result, we believe that the Act .
Dynamics of glomerular ultrafiltration in the rat. IV. Determination of the ultrafiltration coefficient.

Pressures and flow rates were measured in accessible surface glomeruli of mutant Wistar rats under conditions deliberately designed to prevent achievement of filtration pressure equilibrium, that is, the equalization of transcapillary hydrostatic and oncotic pressures by the efferent end of the glomerulus as typically observed in the normal hydropenic rat. Disequilibrium was obtained at elevated levels of glomerular plasma flow (GPF) brought about by acute expansion of plasma volume with a volume of rat plasma equal to 5% of body weight. Glomerular hydrostatic and oncotic pressures measured at high GPF were used to calculate the ultrafiltration coefficient, K(f), the product of effective hydraulic permeability and surface area. GPF was then either lowered (by aortic constriction) or raised (by carotid occlusion) in order to examine the dependence of K(f) on GPF. The value of K(f) per glomerulus, 0.08 nl/(s.mm Hg), was found not to vary over an approximately twofold range of GPF. This finding, taken together with data from previous studies from this laboratory, leads us to conclude that plasma-flow dependence of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) results primarily from flow-induced changes in mean ultrafiltration pressure, rather than large changes in K(f).
Mice transgenic for human TTR have the same frequency of renal TTR deposition whether maintained in conventional or specific pathogen free environments

Mice transgenic for many copies of the human wild type transthyretin gene were bred and maintained in a specrfic pathogen fiee environment until twelve months of age. At that time, half the animals were moved to a conventional animal facility. The incidence of both transthyretin and AA amyloid was the same in both groups at two years of age, indicating that in this model, the frequency, extent or nature of TTR-amyloid deposition did not differ significantly between conventional and specific pathogen-free environments.
Auditory toxicity effects of long‐term cis‐dichlorodiammineplatinum II therapy in genitourinary cancer patients

To determine the auditory toxicity effects of long‐term cis‐dichlorodiammineplatinum II therapy, pure tone hearing thresholds were measured prior to therapy and repeated before each subsequent treatment. CDDP was given by a slow intravenous drip method at a low dose of 1 mg/kg body weight, with 37.5 gm mannitol, once a week for six treatments and every 3 weeks thereafter. From a group of 173 genitourinary cancer patients treated, 50 male patients were selected who received at least 12 months of CDDP with no active conductive ear pathology, and whose audiograms obtained at baseline, 6th weeks, 26th weeks, and 52nd weeks of treatment were all available for comparison. Pure tone threshold levels deteriorated across time particularly by the 52nd week and at the higher frequencies. Threshold differences across time were statistically significant and within a linear trend. Of the 50 cases, 30% showed suspect or no ototoxicity, 26% mild, 32% moderate, 2% marked, and 4% showed severe ototoxic changes. Of the two cases who developed severe ototoxicity, one showed complete recovery. There was partial recovery in 26% and no recovery in 54%. Individual variability in susceptibility to and recovery from ototoxicity necessitates systematic audiometric monitoring throughout the therapy.
EFFECT OF ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES ON NEUROBLASTOMA SH-SY5Y CELLS

The Arctic and sub-arctic regions are impacted by t he growth of the global nanotechnology industry and the transport of chemicals to the North. New nanotechno logy industries, such as neural prothesis, are brin ging nanomaterials in direct contact with neurons and gl ial cells. Nanomaterials have unique chemical and p hysical properties that may lead to toxicological effects b y interfering with normal cellular metabolism. Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are now very common and widely used in daily life. Over the last decade there have been reports that ZnO NPs can have negative impacts on plants and simple organisms. However, there is a paucity of research on the effects and mechanisms b y which ZnO NPs impact neuronal cells. This report investigates how ZnO NPs interact with the neuroblastoma cell line SH-SY5Y. Using transmission electron microscopy, we observed that the ZnO NPs form 36 nm particles, on average and increased the level of t he cytokine VEGF in extracellular fluid. Moreover, ZnO NPs, in presence of TNF-α, decreased the level of extracellular VEGF when compared with TNF-α treatment alone. These findings suggest a basis fo r further studies on the interactions of ZnO NPs with signal transduction pathways and their impact on the relea se of cytokines. The importance of developing cellular model systems to evaluate the toxicity of nanomateria ls before they are released to the marketplace will be nefit both the ecosystem and human health.
The Function of Credibility in Information Processing for Risk Perception

This study examines how credibility affects the way people process information and how they subsequently perceive risk. Three conceptual areas are brought together in this analysis: the psychometric model of risk perception, Eagly and Chaiken's heuristic‐systematic information processing model, and Meyer's credibility index. Data come from a study of risk communication in the circumstance of state health department investigations of suspected cancer clusters (five cases, N= 696). Credibility is assessed for three information sources: state health departments, citizen groups, and industries involved in each case. Higher credibility for industry and the state directly predicts lower risk perception, whereas high credibility for citizen groups predicts greater risk perception. A path model shows that perceiving high credibility for industry and state—and perceiving low credibility for citizen groups—promotes heuristic processing, which in turn is a strong predictor of lower risk perception. Alternately, perceiving industry and the state to have low credibility also promotes greater systematic processing, which consistently leads to perception of greater risk. Between a one‐fifth and one‐third of the effect of credibility on risk perception is shown to be indirectly transmitted through information processing.
Early Postnatal Lead Exposure Induces Tau Phosphorylation in the Brain of Young Rats

Cognitive impairment is a common feature of both lead exposure and hyperphosphorylation of tau. We, therefore, investigated whether lead exposure would induce tau hyperphosphorylation. Wistar rat pups were exposed to 0.2% lead acetate via their dams’ drinking water from postnatal day 1 to 21. Lead in blood and brain were measured by atomic absorption spectrophotometry and the expression of tau, phos-phorylated tau and various serine/threonine protein phosphatases (PP1, PP2A, PP2B and PP5) in the brain was analyzed by Western blot. Lead exposure significantly impaired learning and resulted in a significant reduction in the expression of tau but increased the phosphorylation of tau at Serl99/202, Thr212/Ser214 and Thr231. PP2A expression decreased, whereas, PP1 and PP5 expression increased in lead-exposed rats. These results demonstrate that early postnatal exposure to lead decrease PP2A expression and induce tau hyperphosphorylation at several serine and threonine residues. Hyperphosphorylation of tau may be a mechanism of Pb-induced deficits in learning and memory.
Study Of Fly Ash In Hydraulic Barriers In Landfills – A Review

Landfilling is the most common method ofsolid waste management in our country. Lining systems for waste containment facilities can be enhanced if they are constructed with reactive materials, that is, materials that retard the movement of solutes, promote biodegradation, or induce chemical conversion. One potential material for constructing reactive liners is Fly ash from coal-fired power plants that contains a modest amount of residual organic carbon, which is a sorbent of VOCs. In this study fly ash is taken into consideration and tested for various parameters associated with the behaviour of hydraulic barriers in landfills to advocate its usability as hydraulic barriers in landfills. Also, the hydraulic conductivity of fly ash decreases with addition of certain additives like lime, cement etc.
Toward a standardized thermal-optical protocol for measuring atmospheric organic and elemental carbon: The EUSAAR protocol

Thermal-optical analysis is a conventional method for classifying carbonaceous aerosols as organic carbon and elemental carbon. Unfortunately, different thermal evolution protocols result in a wide elemental carbon-to-total carbon variation up to a factor of five. In Europe, there is currently no standard procedure for determining carbonaceous aerosol fraction which implies that data from different laboratories at various sites are most likely not comparable and affected by unknown errors. In the framework of the European project EUSAAR (European Supersites for Atmospheric Aerosol Research), a comprehensive work has been carried out to investigate the causes of differences in the EC measured using different thermal evolution protocols and attempts have been devoted to assess and mitigate major positive and negative biases affecting thermal-optical analysis. Our approach to improve the accuracy of the thermal-optical discrimination between organic carbon and elemental carbon was essentially based on four goals. First, as charring correction relies on assumptions proven to be generally not true −e.g. pyrolic carbon is considered to evolve completely before native elemental carbon throughout the analysis−, we sought to reduce pyrolysis to minimum levels in favour of a maximum volatilisation of organic carbon. Second, we sought to minimize the potential negative bias in EC determination caused by early release of lightabsorbing species at high temperature in the He-mode, including native EC or a combination of EC and pyrolitic carbon with potentially different specific cross section values. Third, we sought to minimize the potential positive bias in EC determination resulting from the slipping of residual organic carbon into the He/O2-mode and its potential evolution after the split point. Finally, we sought to reduce the uncertainty arising from the position of the OC/EC split point on the FID profile through multiple desorption steps in the He/O2-mode. Based on different types of carbonaceous PM encountered across Europe, we defined an optimised thermal evolution protocol, the EUSAAR_2 protocol, as follows: step 1 in He, 200 °C for 120 s; step 2 in He 300°C for 150s; step 3 in He 450°C for 180s; step 4 in He 650°C for 180s. For steps 1-4 in He/O2, the conditions are 500°C for 120s, 550°C for 120s, 700°C for 70s, and 850°C for 80s, respectively.
Absence of specific mucosal antibody responses in HIV-exposed uninfected sex workers from the Gambia

ObjectivesSpecific antibodies to HIV envelope that inactivate virus at the mucosal surfaces involved in sexual contact are of interest for the design of a vaccine against HIV-1. It has been suggested that, in frequently HIV-exposed but uninfected individuals, HIV-specific mucosal antibody responses may exist and play a role in resistance against HIV. This study investigated HIV-1 envelope specific mucosal antibody responses in HIV-resistant sex workers in west Africa. MethodsA group of 26 exposed uninfected female commercial sex workers from the Gambia, who have had repeated exposures to HIV-1 and HIV-2 were studied. We assessed the presence of vaginal IgA and IgG in vaginal swabs against a range of HIV-1 and HIV-2 envelope presentations and performed HIV-1 neutralization assays. ResultsNo significant vaginal IgA or IgG responses against HIV-1 or HIV-2 were detected, and none of the vaginal secretions tested displayed any HIV-1 neutralizing activity. ConclusionVaginal antibody responses against HIV were not found in Gambian sex workers who resist HIV infection. Resistance against HIV infection can therefore occur in the absence of specific antibodies against HIV at the genital mucosa. A protective role for HIV-envelope specific IgA in resistance against HIV-1 infection in exposed uninfected individuals as reported in the literature is uncertain.
A walk on the wild side—emerging wildlife diseases

They increasingly threaten human and animal health E merging infectious diseases have been creeping up the research agenda since at least 1992, when the US Institute of Medicine defined them as infectious diseases that have recently increased in incidence or geographical range, recently been discovered, or are caused by newlyevolved pathogens.1 Diseases that have recently moved into new species can be added to this defining list.2 More recently, the emergence of diseases with high case fatality rates—such as AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and H5N1 avian influenza—have catapulted emerging infectious diseases to the top of the medical and political agendas, simultaneously highlighting the importance of wildlife as reservoirs or vectors for disease. A topical example is avian influenza, which can cause human pandemics after genetic mutation or reassortment between influenza viruses of wild and domestic birds, other animals, and humans. The prospect of a global pandemic of H5N1 is very real, at least for wild birds and mammals, and possibly also for humans. Another example is HIV infection and AIDS, which emerged from at least two non-human primate …
A simple method for correlative light and scanning electron microscopy of human iliac crest bone biopsies: Qualitative observations in normal and osteoporotic subjects

Despite the fact that the scanning electron microscope (SEM) offers a number of unique advantages for the investigation of bone structure, this instrument has seldom been applied in studies of the iliac crest bone biopsy. Here we describe a very simple method of preparing iliac crest biopsies for examination in the SEM after the routine histomorphometric analysis has been performed. With observations on biopsies from normal subjects and patients with osteoporosis, the paper illustrates the potential of the method for performing correlative light and scanning electron microscopical studies and for gaining new information on the three‐dimensional architecture of trabecular bone.
Insulin dose titration system in diabetes patients using a short messaging service automatically produced by a knowledge matrix.

BACKGROUND We designed a system for diabetes patients treated with glargine, a long-acting insulin, to make an automatic adjustment of insulin dose based on glucose level data and to provide the patients with the needed insulin dose by using a short message service (SMS). We also compared diabetes patients who used our system with patients who received the conventional titration scheme. METHODS Included were 100 type 2 diabetes patients whose blood glucose was suboptimally controlled on their previous antidiabetes treatment. Each participant was assigned to either the intervention or control group, each with 50 patients, using adaptive randomization. We applied our system to the intervention group for 12 weeks, whereas the control group received a conventional titration scheme, seeking a target fasting blood glucose of <120 mg/dL. RESULTS The fasting and postprandial glucose levels of the intervention group declined earlier than those of the control group. Lastly, a greater (P = 0.023) reduction in hemoglobin A(1C) from baseline to the end point was observed in the intervention group (from 9.8 +/- 1.3% to 7.4 +/- 0.7%) than in the control group (from 9.8 +/- 1.2% to 7.8 +/- 0.8%). The incidence of symptomatic, asymptomatic, and nocturnal hypoglycemia was similar in both groups. There was a small increase in body weight from baseline to the end point with both the intervention (2.4 +/- 3.0 kg) and control (2.2 +/- 2.8 kg) groups. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that SMS based on our specialized Internet-supported system is an effective and safe approach to long-acting insulin dose adjustments in patients with type 2 diabetes.
[Studies on intracellular kinetics of ara-C triphosphate in HL-60, human leukemia cells in relation to reasonable administration of ara-C].

To study the pharmacokinetics of 1-beta-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine (ara-C), which is one of the main drugs used in chemotherapy for acute leukemia, its intracellular metabolism was investigated using HL-60 cells derived from human acute non-lymphocytic leukemia. The concentration of the drug and its metabolites in the cells were serially determined and the following results were obtained. 1) The uptake of ara-C into HL-60 cell (1 X 10(7)/ml) was very rapid when they were incubated with 2 microM ara-C. The total intracellular ara-C content per 10(9) cells exceeded the ara-C concentration in the extracellular fluid at about 7 minutes after the start of incubation. It reached about 4 times higher than the extracellular concentration after 60 minutes. 2) Conversion of ara-C to the active form, ara-CTP, was also rapid. The intracellular concentration of ara-CTP was about 3 times higher than the ara-C concentration in the extracellular fluid after incubation for 60 minutes. 3) Total accumulation of ara-C in the cells was dependent on the extracellular ara-C concentration up to a concentration of 100 microM. The production of ara-CTP occurred in such a way that, when the extracellular ara-C concentration was lower than 10 microM, more than 90% of the uptake of ara-C was converted to ara-CTP, while at concentrations above 10 microM the efficiency at production (the ratio of total ara-C to ara-CTP production) was decreased. The maximum intracellular ara-CTP concentration was estimated to reach to 45 microM. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Combined Spinal and Epidural Anesthesia for Labor and Cesarean Delivery in a Patient With Guillain-Barre Syndrome

Background and Objectives The anesthetic management of labor, delivery, and cesarean delivery in patients with active or resolving Guillain-Barre syndrome is not well defined. Using a combined spinal and epidural (CSE) technique in such a rare clinical situation has not been previously reported. Case Report A 32-year-old woman gravida 2, para 0 was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome at 21 weeks of pregnancy. Paralysis spread up to the T4 level. Three months later, she was admitted for labor at term. She presented in severe labor pain and it was decided to proceed with CSE analgesia. No unusual hemodynamic instability, signs of autonomic dysfunction, or increased sensitivity to local anesthetics was noted. After several hours, delivery by cesarean section was required and epidural anesthesia was then used. The patient had an uncomplicated postpartum course. Conclusion Careful evaluation and documentation of the patient’s baseline neurological status, a thorough discussion with the patient regarding the risks and benefits of the technique for labor analgesia, and an appreciation of the limited experience with this kind of clinical situation are important.
The effects of prenatal stress on Alpha4 Beta2 and Alpha7 hippocampal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor levels in adult offspring

Prenatal stress in humans is associated with psychiatric problems in offspring such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. These same illnesses are also associated with neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) dysfunction. Despite the known associations between prenatal stress exposure and offspring mental illness, and between mental illness and nAChR dysfunction, it is not known whether prenatal stress exposure impacts neuronal nAChRs. Thus, we tested the hypothesis that maternal stress alters the development of hippocampal alpha4 beta2 (α4β2∗) and alpha7 (α7∗) nicotinic receptor levels in adult offspring. Female Sprague‐Dawley rats experienced unpredictable variable stressors two to three times daily during the last week of gestation. At weaning (21 days) the offspring of prenatally stressed (PS) and nonstressed (NS) dams were assigned to same‐sex PS or NS groups. In young adulthood (56 days), the brains of offspring were collected and adjacent sections processed for quantitative autoradiography using [125I]‐epibatidine (α4β2* nicotinic receptor‐selective) and [125I]‐α‐bungarotoxin (α‐BTX; α7* nicotinic receptor‐selective) ligands. We found that PS significantly increased hippocampal α4β2* nAChRs of males and females in all subfields analyzed. In contrast, only females showed a trend toward PS‐induced increases in α7* nAChRs in the dentate gyrus. Interestingly, NS females displayed a significant left‐biased lateralization of α7* nAChRs in the laconosum moleculare of area CA1, whereas PS females did not, suggesting that PS interfered with normal lateralization patterns of α7* nAChRs during development. Taken together, our results suggest that PS impacts the development of hippocampal nAChRs, which may be an important link between PS exposure and risk for neuropsychiatric illness. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 73:806–814, 2013
Triallelic Inheritance in Bardet-Biedl Syndrome, a Mendelian Recessive Disorder

Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS) is a genetically heterogeneous disorder characterized by multiple clinical features that include pigmentary retinal dystrophy, polydactyly, obesity, developmental delay, and renal defects. BBS is considered an autosomal recessive disorder, and recent positional cloning efforts have identified two BBS genes (BBS2 andBBS6). We screened our cohort of 163 BBS families for mutations in both BBS2 and BBS6 and report the presence of three mutant alleles in affected individuals in four pedigrees. In addition, we detected unaffected individuals in two pedigrees who carry two BBS2 mutations but not aBBS6 mutation. We therefore propose that BBS may not be a single-gene recessive disease but a complex trait requiring three mutant alleles to manifest the phenotype. This triallelic model of disease transmission may be important in the study of both Mendelian and multifactorial disorders.
Image matching techniques for vision-based indoor navigation systems: performance analysis for 3D map based approach

In this paper, we give an overview of image matching techniques for various vision-based navigation systems: stereo vision, structure from motion and map-based approach. Focused on map-based approach, which generally uses feature-based matching for localization, and based on our early developed system, a performance analysis has been carried out and three major problems have been identified: being vulnerable to illumination changes, drastic viewpoint changes and good percentage of mismatches. By introducing ASIFT into the system, the major improvement takes place on the epoch with large viewpoint changes. In order to deal with mismatches that are unable to be removed by RANSAC, we propose to use cross-correlation information to evaluate the quality of homography model and help select the proper one. The conducted experiments have proved that such an approach can reduce the chances of mismatches being included by RANSAC and final positioning accuracy can be improved.