Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Excitatory amino acid profiles of synovial fluid from patients with arthritis.

OBJECTIVE Previous studies in an experimental synovitis model in rats determined that administration of glutamate and aspartate into the joint produces hyperalgesic responses, while their receptor antagonists provide protection against the development of a hyperalgesic state. We examined concentrations of amino acids in synovial fluid (SF) to determine if increases might be relevant to human joint pathology. METHODS One hundred forty-four repository SF samples from patients undergoing diagnostic or therapeutic arthrocentesis and 14 SF samples from 7 cadavers were analyzed by high pressure liquid chromatography and compared as arthritic and control cohorts. RESULTS Compared to the average concentrations from the autopsy cases, the excitatory amino acids (EAA) glutamate and aspartate in SF from patients with synovitis were 54 and 28 times higher, respectively. Increases for all other amino acids ranged from 3 to 18-fold. The values for glutamate and aspartate were significantly higher than the mean increase for other amino acids compared using unpaired t tests (p < 0.0001). The mean ratio of glutamate and aspartate elevations over the mean increase for other amino acids was 4-fold and 2-fold, respectively. The EAA were highest in Reiter's, infectious arthropathies, and systemic lupus erythematosus, but did not appreciably segregate to diagnosis or SF white blood cell count. CONCLUSION Our data provide evidence of increased glutamate and aspartate in the SF of humans with active arthritis, suggesting that glutamate mediated events may contribute to the pathogenesis of human arthritic conditions.
A Phase II Clinical Trial of Concurrent Helical Tomotherapy plus Cetuximab Followed by Adjuvant Chemotherapy with Cisplatin and Docetaxel for Locally Advanced Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

Purpose: The present clinical trial was designed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of concurrent helical tomotherapy (HT) with cetuximab followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with docetaxel and cisplatin (TP) in the treatment of patients with locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Materials and Methods: This phase II clinical trial included 43 patients with Stage III/IV LANC (33 Stage III and 10 Stage IV). The treatment consisted of concurrent HT with cetuximab (400 mg/m2 loading dose and weekly 250mg/m2), followed by four cycles of chemotherapy [docetaxel (70 mg/m2 on Day 1) and cisplatin (40 mg/m2 on Days 1 and 2 every 3 weeks). Side effects were evaluated with CTCAE criteria (Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events 3.0). Results: The median follow-up duration was 48.0 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 41.7-58.0 months], the 2-year locoregional failure-free rate (LFFR), progression-free survival (PFS), distant failure-free rate (DFFR) and overall survival (OS) were 95.2%, 79.1%, 88.1% and 93.0% respectively; the 3-year LFFR, DFFR, PFS and OS were 92.7%, 85.6%, 72.0% and 85.7% respectively. The most common grade 3 toxicities were oropharyngeal mucositis (81.4%) and RT-related dermatitis (7.0%). No patients had more than grade 3 radiation related toxicities and no patients required nasogastric feeding. One patient experienced grade 3 osteonecrosis at 18 months after treatment. Conclusions: Concurrent HT with cetuximab followed by adjuvant chemotherapy with TP is an effective strategy for the treatment of LANC with encouraging survival rates and minimal side effects.
Role of Migratory Birds in Introduction and Range Expansion of Ixodes scapularis Ticks and of Borrelia burgdorferi and Anaplasma phagocytophilum in Canada

ABSTRACT During the spring in 2005 and 2006, 39,095 northward-migrating land birds were captured at 12 bird observatories in eastern Canada to investigate the role of migratory birds in northward range expansion of Lyme borreliosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and their tick vector, Ixodes scapularis. The prevalence of birds carrying I. scapularis ticks (mostly nymphs) was 0.35% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.30 to 0.42), but a nested study by experienced observers suggested a more realistic infestation prevalence of 2.2% (95% CI = 1.18 to 3.73). The mean infestation intensity was 1.66 per bird. Overall, 15.4% of I. scapularis nymphs (95% CI = 10.7 to 20.9) were PCR positive for Borrelia burgdorferi, but only 8% (95% CI = 3.8 to 15.1) were positive when excluding nymphs collected at Long Point, Ontario, where B. burgdorferi is endemic. A wide range of ospC and rrs-rrl intergenic spacer alleles of B. burgdorferi were identified in infected ticks, including those associated with disseminated Lyme disease and alleles that are rare in the northeastern United States. Overall, 0.4% (95% CI = 0.03 to 0.41) of I. scapularis nymphs were PCR positive for Anaplasma phagocytophilum. We estimate that migratory birds disperse 50 million to 175 million I. scapularis ticks across Canada each spring, implicating migratory birds as possibly significant in I. scapularis range expansion in Canada. However, infrequent larvae and the low infection prevalence in ticks carried by the birds raise questions as to how B. burgdorferi and A. phagocytophilum become endemic in any tick populations established by bird-transported ticks.
Automatic Text Summarization by Non-topic Relevance Estimation

We investigate a novel framework for Automatic Text Summarization. In this framework underlying language-use features are learned from a minimal sample corpus. We argue the low complexity of this kind of features allows relying in generalization ability of a learning machine, rather than in diverse human-abstracted summaries. In this way, our method reliably estimates a relevance measure for predicting summary candidature scores, regardless topics in unseen documents. Our output summaries are comparable to the state-of-the-art. Thus we show that in order to extract meaning summaries, it is not crucial what is being said; but rather how it is being said.
Una aproximación al tratamiento de la imagen y la comunicación en las empresas. Aplicación en los operadores de comunicaciones móviles

En entornos competitivos los activos intangibles adquieren gran importancia. La imagen de la empresa, entendida como representacion mental que influye en los comportamientos, debe ser convenientemente dirigida desde el interior a partir de dos elementos clave, la identidad y la comunicacion. La importancia de esta variable se ha dejado sentir particularmente en el sector de las telecomunicaciones. A este respecto, los operadores de comunicaciones moviles no han sido ajenos a los cambios del entorno y han abandonado su orientacion a la tecnologia para instaurar nuevos valores, en los que prima el acercamiento al cliente y el establecimiento de relaciones, basadas en la confianza y en una buena imagen.
p38 MAPK Activation Elevates Serotonin Transport Activity via a Trafficking-independent, Protein Phosphatase 2A-dependent Process*

Presynaptic, plasma membrane serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) transporters (SERTs) clear 5-HT following vesicular release and are regulated through trafficking-dependent pathways. Recently, we (Zhu, C.-B., Hewlett, W. A., Feoktistov, I., Biaggioni, I., and Blakely, R. D. (2004) Mol. Pharmacol. 65, 1462–1474) provided evidence for a trafficking-independent mode of SERT regulation downstream of adenosine receptor (AR) activation that is sensitive to p38 MAPK inhibitors. Here, we probe this pathway in greater detail, demonstrating elevation of 5-HT transport by multiple p38 MAPK activators (anisomycin, H2O2, and UV radiation), in parallel with p38 MAPK phosphorylation, as well as suppression of anisomycin stimulation by p38 MAPK siRNA treatments. Studies with transporter-transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells reveal that SERT stimulation is shared with the human norepinephrine transporter but not the human dopamine transporter. Saturation kinetic analyses of anisomycin-SERT activity reveal a selective reduction in 5-HT Km supported by a commensurate increase in 5-HT potency (Ki) for displacing surface antagonist binding. Anisomycin treatments that stimulate SERT activity do not elevate surface SERT surface density whereas stimulation is lost with preexposure of cells to the surface-SERT inactivating reagent, 2-(trimethylammonium)ethyl methane thiosulfonate. Guanylyl cyclase (1H-(1,2,4)-oxadiazolo[4,3-a]-quinoxalin-1-one) and protein kinase G inhibitors (H8, DT-2) block AR stimulation of SERT yet fail to antagonize SERT stimulation by anisomycin. We thus place p38 MAPK activation downstream of protein kinase G in a SERT-catalytic regulatory pathway, distinct from events controlling SERT surface density. In contrast, the activity of protein phosphatase 2A inhibitors (fostriecin and calyculin A) to attenuate anisomycin stimulation of 5-HT transport suggests that protein phosphatase 2A is a critical component of the pathway responsible for p38 MAPK up-regulation of SERT catalytic activity.
Effect of Interelectrode Distance on Sural Nerve Action Potential Parameters

Plastaras CT, Marciniak CM, Sipple DP, D'Amore KG, Garvan C, Zaman SM: Effect of interelectrode distance on sural nerve action potential parameters. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2008;87:183–188. Objective:To assess differences in amplitude, latency, and duration, using a 3-cm vs. 4-cm distance between the active and reference electrodes when performing sural nerve conduction studies (NCS). Current normative data in lower-limb studies are generally based on 3-cm interelectrode differences, although 4-cm differences have been reported to be optimal in the upper limb. Design:Prospective study comparing the onset latency, peak latency, duration, and amplitude for the sural sensory nerve action potential (SNAP) recording at two interelectrode distances in adult volunteers. Results:Forty-three sural nerves were studied in 22 normal subjects. Peak latencies recorded with a 4-cm interelectrode distance were significantly longer than those recorded with a 3-cm distance (mean difference = 0.06 msecs [SD = 0.09, P = 0.0073]). Duration was significantly longer (mean difference = 0.03 msecs [SD = 0.07, P = 0.0270]), conduction velocities were significantly slower (mean difference = −0.7 msecs [SD 1.0, P = 0.0012]), and onset latency and amplitude were not found to differ significantly. Average differences in peak latencies, duration, velocity, onset latency, and amplitude were not correlated with gender, age, or BMI. Conclusions:In contrast to studies of upper-limb sensory NCS, sural SNAP parameters obtained with 3- and 4-cm interelectrode distances did not differ for onset latencies and amplitude. Peak latencies, duration, and conduction velocity differences, though statistically significant, were of insufficient magnitude to be clinically meaningful. By using a 4-cm instead of a 3-cm interelectrode difference for sural nerve studies, the small prolongation of 0.06 msecs in peak latency and tiny increment of 0.27 &mgr;V observed in our investigation is unlikely to influence the electrodiagnostician's interpretation of the study.
Are Randomized Controlled Trials Controlled? Patient Preferences and Unblind Trials

The most reliable information about treatment effects comes from randomized controlled trials (RCTs). However, the possibility of subtle interactions—for example, between treatment preferences and treatment effects—is generally subordinated in the quest for evidence about main treatment effects. If patient preferences can influence the effectiveness of treatments through poorly understood (psychological) pathways, then RCTs, particularly when unblinded, may wrongly attribute effects solely to a treatment's physiological/pharmacological properties. To interpret the RCT evidence base it is important to know whether any preference effects exist and, if so, by how much they affect outcome. Reliable measurement of these effects is difficult and will require new approaches to the conduct of trials. In view of the fanciful image with which such effects are portrayed and the uncertainties about their true nature and biological mechanisms, existing evidence is unlikely to provide sufficient justification for investment in trials. This is a Catch 22. Until an escape is found we might never know, even approximately, how much of modern medicine is attributable to psychological processes.
A REVIEW ON NEW GENERATION ORODISPERSIBLE TABLETS AND ITS FUTURE PROSPECTIVE

Advancements in oral delivery of active ingredients include a number of technologies, many of which may be classified as oral disintegrating tablets (ODTs). A number of companies have marketed products using various nomenclatures including ODT as well as their own trademarked names. The new generation of orally disintegrating tablet (ODT) technologies is no longer limited by dosage strength, bitter active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and narrow therapeutic applications. Today’s emerging technologies can produce robust, versatile tablets with exceptional taste masking and controlled release, broadening the applications of this dosage form. Over the last decade, ODTs have grown steadily in demand and importance as a convenient, potentially safer alternative to conventional tablets and capsules. ODTs are solid dosage forms that disintegrate in the mouth in less than 60 seconds, and are thus swallowed without the need for water. Since their introduction to the market in the 1980s, ODTs have become one of the fastest‐growing segments of the oral drug delivery industry, and their product pipeline is rapidly expanding. They are particularly beneficial to people who have difficulty taking conventional solid dosage forms, including children, the elderly, patients who have swallowing difficulties, the mentally ill, and the disabled. This review depicts the various formulation techniques, ingredients used, and overview of patented formulations.
P-adic reconstruction of rational numbers

In a recent paper, Wang [1981] introduces a p-adic algorithm for the construction of partial fraction decompositions. This differs from the usual p-adic algorithms for factorisation or the computation of greatest common divisors ([Wang, 1978], [Wang, 1980], [Moore & Norman, 1981]) in that the p-adic image is used to reconstruct rational numbers, rather than integers.
A Survey of Rings Generated by Units

— This article presents a brief survey of the work done on rings generated by their units. RESUME. — Cet article est un bref survey de l’etude des anneaux engendres par leurs unites. The study of rings generated additively by their units started in 19531954 when K. G. Wolfson [24] and D. Zelinsky [25] proved, independently, that every linear transformation of a vector space V over a division ring D is the sum of two nonsingular linear transformations, except when dim V = 1 and D = Z2 := Z/2Z. This implies that the ring of linear transformations EndD(V ) is generated additively by its unit elements. In fact, each element of EndD(V ) is the sum of two units except for one obvious case when V is a one-dimensional space over Z2. In 1998 this result was reproved by Goldsmith, Pabst and Scott, who remarked that this result can hardly be new, but they were unable to find any reference to it in the literature [8]. Wolfson and Zelinsky’s result generated quite a bit of interest in the study of rings that are generated by their unit elements. All our rings are associative (not necessarily commutative) with identity element 1. A ring R is called a von Neumann regular ring if for each element x ∈ R there exists an element y ∈ R such that xyx = x. In 1958 Skornyakov ([20], Problem 31, page 167) asked: Is every element of a von Neumann regular ring (which does not have Z2 as a factor ring) a sum of units? This
Metabolism, excretion and distribution of the flame retardant tetrabromobisphenol-A in conventional and bile-duct cannulated rats

1. 14C-TBBP-A (2,2-bis(4-hydroxy-3,5-dibromophenyl)propane) was administered orally to the conventional and bile-duct cannulated male Sprague-Dawley rat (2.0 mg/kg body weight). Urine, bile and faeces were collected daily for 72 h, and selected tissues were removed for distribution studies. 2. Faeces was the major route of elimination of TBBP-A in the conventional rat (9.7% of dose), and urine was a minor elimination route (0.3%). Enterohepatic circulation was suggested by biliary excretion of 71.3% and faecal excretion of 26.7% of the administered radioactivity in the bile-duct cannulated rat. 3. 14C-labelled residues in tissues were 2% in the conventional rat, and <1% in the bile-duct cannulated rat. The large and small intestines contained the majority of the tissue 14C activity for both groups of rat. Levels of TBBP-A in liver were < 0.1%, and in fat were below the level of quantification. 4. Three metabolites were characterized in 0-24 h bile samples. Glucuronic acid and sulphate ester conjugates were characterized by mass spectrometry. More than 95% of the extractable faecal 14C was identified as parent TBBP-A. 5. Negligible amounts of TBBP-A-derived 14C were associated with carrier proteins he urine and bile.
Epstein-Barr virus glycoprotein homologous to herpes simplex virus gB

The Epstein-Barr virus DNA open reading frame BALF4 (R. Baer, A.T. Bankier, M.D. Biggin, P.L. Deininger, P.J. Farrell, T.J. Gibson, G. Hatfull, G.S. Hudson, S.C. Stachwell, C. Sequin, P.S. Tuffnell, and B.G. Barrell, Nature [London] 310:207-211, 1984), which by nucleotide sequence comparison could encode a protein similar to herpes simplex virus gB (P.E. Pellett, M.D. Biggin, B. Barrell, and B. Roizman, J. Virol. 56:807-813, 1985), has now been shown to encode a 110-kilodalton glycoprotein. Late infectious cycle RNAs of 3.0 and 1.8 kilobases are transcribed from BALF4. Translation of these RNAs in vitro, transcription and translation of BALF4 in vitro, or metabolic labeling of cells in the presence of tunicamycin and immunoprecipitation with BALF4-specific sera results in identification of a 93-kilodalton precursor to gp110. Since N-glycosidase F only reduces the size of gp110 to 105 kilodaltons, gp110 probably has both N- and O-linked glycosylation, gp110 is an abundant glycoprotein in Epstein-Barr virus-infected cells. In infected lymphocytes and in 3T3 cells, in which the gene is expressed from a recombinant expression vector, most of the protein is cytoplasmic and perinuclear. In contrast to gB, gp110 was not detected in the infected-cell plasma membrane. In cells replicating Epstein-Barr virus, gp110 localized to the inner and outer nuclear membrane lamellae and to endoplasmic reticulum structures which sometimes contained enveloped virus. gp110 may play an important role in modifying infected intracellular membranes.
LSD1 Mediates Neuronal Differentiation of Human Fetal Neural Stem Cells by Controlling the Expression of a Novel Target Gene, HEYL

Histone‐modifying enzymes dynamically regulate the chromatin status and have been implicated in the fate specification of stem cells, including neural stem cells (NSCs), which differentiate into three major cell types: neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Lysine‐specific demethylase 1 (LSD1, also known as KDM1A) catalyzes the demethylation of H3K4me1/2 and H3K9me1/2, and it was recently suggested that functional disruption of LSD1 links to various human diseases. However, the mechanism by which LSD1 regulates human neural development remains unclear. Here, we present evidence that specific inhibition of LSD1 suppresses the neurogenesis of cultured human fetal NSCs (hfNSCs) isolated from the human fetal neocortex. Notably, we found that LSD1 directly associates with the promoter of the HEYL gene, and controls the demethylation of H3K4me2, which is accompanied by repression of HEYL expression during hfNSC neuronal differentiation. Furthermore, we also showed that HEYL expression is sufficient to inhibit the neuronal differentiation of hfNSCs. This mechanism seems to be primate‐specific because mouse NSCs do not exhibit the LSD1 inhibitor‐induced upregulation of Heyl. Our findings suggest that LSD1 plays an important role in primate neurogenesis and may contribute to the characterization of an evolved primate brain. Stem Cells 2016;34:1872–1882
Improving 351-nm damage performance of large-aperture fused silica and DKDP optics

A program to identify and eliminate the causes of UV laser- induced damage and growth in fused silica and DKDP has developed methods to extend optics lifetimes for large- aperture, high-peak-power, UV lasers such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Issues included polish-related surface damage initiation and growth on fused silica and DKDP, bulk inclusions in fused silica, pinpoint bulk damage in DKDP, and UV-induced surface degradation in fused silica and DKDP in a vacuum. Approaches included an understanding of the mechanism of the damage, incremental improvements to existing fabrication technology, and feasibility studies of non-traditional fabrication technologies. Status and success of these various approaches are reviewed. Improvements were made in reducing surface damage initiation and eliminating growth for fused silica by improved polishing and post- processing steps, and improved analytical techniques are providing insights into mechanisms of DKDP damage. The NIF final optics hardware has been designed to enable easy retrieval, surface-damage mitigation, and recycling of optics.
Selective-Attention Correlation Measure for Precision Video Tracking

In this paper, the false-peaks problem of the conventional correlation-based video tracking is investigated using a simple mathematical analysis. To reduce the false detection problem, a selective-attention correlation measure is proposed. The problem with the conventional correlation measures is that all pixels in the reference block image are equally treated in the computation of the correlation measures irrespective of target or background pixels. Therefore, the more the reference block image includes background pixels, the higher probability of false-peaks is introduced due to the correlation between the background pixels of the reference block and those of the input search image. The proposed selective-attention correlation measure has different consideration according to target and background pixels in the matching process, which conform with the selective-attention property of human visual system. Various computer simulations validated these analyses and confirmed that the proposed selective-attention measure is effective to reduce considerably the probability of the false-peaks.
Strategies for Wideband Mechanical Energy Harvester

The energy harvesting market expands day by day, this is mainly due to the number of the implemented low power sensors in different fields, such as: human body, building, car engine.etc. These sensors are in most cases powered by batteries, but the main drawback of this technique is the need of a continuous control of their state of charge, the recharge and the replacement which is in most cases expensive. Thus, in order to overcome these limitations, one of the most promising solutions is to harvest the surrounding energy beside the system to power. In our environment, we can find many types of recoverable energy, for example: mechanical energy, thermal energy and radiative energy (solar, infra-red, radiofrequency). This chapter is dedicated to mechanical energy and more particularly to mechanical vibration energy produced by cars, fridges, mechanical engines and so on. The mechanical to electrical converter can be electromagnetic, electrostatic or piezoelectric. In case of an electromagnetic conversion, the vibrations are used to create a relative movement between a coil and a permanent magnet. In case of an electrostatic transduction, the vibrations are used to create a variable capacitance. In case of a piezoelectric transduction, the vibrations are used to apply a mechanical stress on a piezoelectric material. Actually, a vibration energy harvester (VEH) features 3 main components as presented in the Figure 1.