Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fatal cardiac tamponade and other mechanical complications of central venous catheters

A fatal cardiac tamponade caused by an intact polyethylene central venous catheter perforating the wall of the right ventricle is reported. A retrospective review of 105 central venous catheters used in an intensive care unit revealed a high incidence of catheter malposition and a 20 per cent mechanical complication rate. The possible causes of these malpositions and complications are discussed. Guidelines for the safer use of central venous catheters are presented.
Multidrug Resistance Genes and P-Glycoprotein in the Testis of the Rat, Mouse, Guinea Pig, and Human1

Abstract Study of the multidrug resistance phenomenon in tumor cell lines has led to the discovery of the product of the multidrug resistance (MDR) type 1 genes, the plasma membrane P-glycoprotein (P-gp) that functions as an energy-dependent pump for the efflux of diverse anticancer drugs. P-gp was also recently identified in normal epithelial cells with secretory/excretory functions and in the endothelial cells of the capillary blood vessels in the brain and the testis. These endothelial cells are key elements of the blood-brain and blood-testis barriers, respectively. The aim of this study, in the rat, mouse, guinea pig, and human, was to determine whether testicular cells other than the capillary endothelial cells could express MDR type I genes. Immunohistochemistry on testicular sections revealed that P-gp is present in interstitial cells in the mouse, rat, and human testes, in early and late spermatids in guinea pig testis, and in late spermatids in the rat, mouse, and human. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis on isolated mouse, rat, and human cells showed that all somatic testicular cells (Leydig cells, macrophages, peritubular cells, and Sertoli cells) and the cytoplasmic lobes from rat late spermatids expressed MDR type I mRNAs, whereas spermatogonia, pachytene spermatocytes, and early spermatids did not. An ontogenesis study in the mouse reveals that type I MDR gene expression begins at 13.5 days postcoitum at the time when the seminiferous cords and the blood vessels appear and are maintained thereafter. Finally, two functional tests on isolated rat cells, the doxorubicin and rhodamine uptake assays, demonstrated that rat testicular macrophages, Leydig cells, peritubular cells, and Sertoli cells displayed a multidrug-resistance activity, whereas spermatogonia, pachytene spermatocytes, and early spermatids did not. Western blot experiments have revealed that a P-gp of 175 kDa is present in the human testis as well as in the rat Leydig cells, testicular macrophages, peritubular cells, and Sertoli cells, but is absent in spermatogonia, spermatocytes, and early spermatids. We conclude that P-gp is involved in the self-protection of the somatic cells and is most probably one of the molecules that confers its functionality to the blood-testis barrier. The absence of expression of MDR type I genes in mitotic and meiotic germ cells probably explains their particular vulnerability to various anticancer drugs. In contrast, expression of the P-gp in the haploid cells most likely reflects the ability of spermatozoa to assume their own antidrug defense.
Dorsal Horn Neurophysiology of Pain a

Pain is usually a consequence of the activation of nociceptors. These are sense organs designed to respond to stimuli that threaten or cause tissue damage. ' Nociceptors provide a dense innervation of skin and mucous membranes and a more sparse innervation of other structures, including muscle, joints, and viscera. Nociceptors are supplied by fine afferent nerve fibers, either small myelinated (A6) axons or unmyelinated (C) axom2 The quality of pain sensation depends upon the type of nociceptors that are activated and the organ that is damaged. For example, intense stimulation of the skin or of a cutaneous nerve may produce either pricking or burning pain, depending upon whether A6 or C fibers are On the other hand, activation of nociceptors innervating musculoskeletal structures results in aching p a h 4 Thus, the central processing of information from different sources and from different classes of nociceptors must differ to some extent. Furthermore, the transduction mechanisms responsible for activation of different classes of nociceptors vary. Some nociceptors can be activated by a restricted class of stimuli (e.g. , cutaneous A6 mechanical nociceptors are excited just by intense mechanical stimuli, such as compression of the skin with serrated forceps5), whereas others can be activated by a number of kinds of damaging stimuli (e.g. , cutaneous C polymodal nociceptors can be excited by intense mechanical, thermal or chemical stimuli6).
Reasoning about Noisy Sensors and Eectors in the Situation Calculus

Agents interacting with an incompletely known world need to be able to reason about the eeects of their actions, and to gain further information about that world they need to use sensors of some sort. Unfortunately, both the eeects of actions and the information returned from sensors are subject to error. To cope with such uncertainties , the agent can maintain probabilistic beliefs about the state of the world. With probabilistic beliefs the agent will be able to quantify the likelihood of the various outcomes of its actions and is better able to utilize the information gathered from its error-prone actions and sensors. In this paper, we p r e s e n t a model in which w e can reason about an agent's probabilistic degrees of belief and the manner in which t h e s e beliefs change as various actions are executed. We build on a general logical theory of action developed by Reiter and others, formalized in the situation calculus. We propose a simple axiomatization that captures an agent's state of belief and the manner in which these beliefs change when actions are executed. Our model displays a number of intuitively reasonable properties.
Gerenciamento em Ambientes Virtuais de Educação a Distância

As universidades e outras instituicoes de ensino superior que adotaram a modalidade de educacao a distância (EaD) buscam, atraves de ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem, uma alternativa de ensino que atenda a crescente demanda de alunos em busca de formacao. Essa demanda, exige que o professor ministre e administre suas disciplinas em qualquer lugar e a qualquer hora pela Internet, mas nem sempre conta com todos os elementos necessarios para tal fim. Assim, dentro das inovacoes tecnologicas de ensino pela internet a equipe do Nucleo de Educacao a Distância Feevale (NEAD) aprimorou algumas ferramentas de gerenciamento que irao auxiliar o professor no desenvolvimento de suas aulas pela Web e suas disciplinas e turmas de forma a facilitar e auxiliar o trabalho de organizacao e manutencao de cursos e disciplinas a distância. O presente artigo apresenta as necessidades enfrentadas pelo docente no gerenciamento de arquivos em ambientes virtuais e aponta as solucoes encontradas pela equipe do Nucleo de Educacao a Distância para gerenciar turmas e disciplina, racionalizar o uso de seus servidores de conteudo e otimizar o tempo de acesso dos seus usuarios atraves de um conjunto de ferramentas que permitem gerenciar aulas e atividades a distância dentro do ambiente VIRTUALE.
Chromosome abnormalities in sperm from infertile men with normal somatic karyotypes: teratozoospermia

Teratozoospermia is characterized by the presence of spermatozoa with abnormal morphology in sperm. This condition is frequently associated with infertility and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is frequently used as the treatment of choice. However, the use of ICSI has created consequential debate concerning the genetic risk for the offspring. Fluorescence in situ hybridization technique (FISH), allowing the specific identification of human chromosomes in sperm nuclei, has been used to study chromosome abnormalities in sperm from men with teratozoospermia and a normal karyotype. In this review, we present studies that have tried to determine if men with a normal blood karyotype but suffering from teratozoospermia present a higher aneuploidy frequency. The literature is limited to three forms of teratozoospermia. The first group consists of “polymorphic teratozoospermia”, where a majority of spermatozoa display more than one type of abnormality. In this case, only a slight increase in aneuploidy frequency is observed, which cannot be differentiated from the results observed in oligo-astheno-teratozoospermia (OAT). The second group, named “globozoospermia”, is characterized by round spermatic heads, absence of acrosome and disorganization of mid-piece and tail. In this case, some studies have shown a significant, but moderate, increase in the aneuploidy frequency for acrocentrics and sex chromosomes. The aneuploidy frequency remains low, also ICSI can be proposed to these patients, but few successes occur. The third group consists of “enlarged head teratozoospermia”, where almost all spermatozoa have an enlarged head, multiple tail and abnormal acrosome. In this case a very high level of missegregation is observed, leading to nearly 100% aneuploidy. In this particular group, ICSI must be refuted, and patients have to be redirected to other possibilities, like sperm donation.
MR tagging from a signal processing perspective

Although magnetic resonance (MR) tagging has been shown to be a useful tool in myocardial motion quantification, its clinical utilization is limited as current available methods generally either lack computational speed or require extensive user intervention. Recently, the harmonic phase imaging (HARP) technique has been proposed to look at the phase information of the tagged images. HARP imaging promises to overcome the limitations of existing methods in terms of both computational speed and automation. Motivated by this work, we present mathematical analysis providing a signal processing perspective on the HARP technique. This new perspective provides a clearer understanding of how tags can be accurately tracked using highly-filtered data.
Transcriptional outputs of the Caenorhabditis elegans forkhead protein DAF‐16

In Caenorhabditis elegans, the forkhead protein DAF‐16 transduces insulin‐like signals that regulate larval development and adult lifespan. To identify DAF‐16‐dependent transcriptional alterations that occur in a long‐lived C. elegans strain, we used cDNA microarrays and genomic analysis to identify putative direct and indirect DAF‐16 transcriptional target genes. Our analysis suggests that DAF‐16 action regulates a wide range of physiological responses by altering the expression of genes involved in metabolism, energy generation and cellular stress responses. Furthermore, we observed a large overlap between DAF‐16‐dependent transcription and genes normally expressed in the long‐lived dauer larval stage. Finally, we examined the in vivo role of 35 of these target genes by RNA‐mediated interference and identified one gene encoding a putative protease that is necessary for the daf‐2 Age phenotype.
Foie et tolérance périphérique : rôle des cellules dendritiques plasmacytoïdes et des cellules NK-T

Le foie est un organe connu empiriquement pour sa capacite a induire une tolerance immunologique des lymphocytes T (LT). Cette propriete pourrait s'exercer en particulier visa- vis d'antigenes alimentaires draines de l'intestin dans le foie via la veine porte. L'objectif de ce travail de these etait d'etudier l'implication du foie dans la tolerance peripherique et en particulier la tolerance induite par voie orale, en utilisant un modele murin d'hypersensibilite retardee de contact (HSRC) specifique d'haptene (DNFB), induit par des LT CD8+ specifiques. Nous avons identifie deux types cellulaires enrichis dans le foie et doues de proprietes regulatrices/tolerogenes : i) Les cellules dendritiques plasmacytoides, capables d'induire une tolerance des LT CD8+ in vivo et jouant un role clef dans l'induction de la tolerance orale, et ii) les cellules NKT capables de reguler la reponse T CD8+ aussi bien au cours de la phase afferente que de la phase efferente de la reponse immunitaire.
Impact of Mobility on Performance of Caching Strategies in Information-centric Networks

Information-centric networking (ICN) is a new networking paradigm that intends to evolve today’s hostcentric Internet to a content-centric one. Caching content within the network at storage-enabled nodes, one of the salient features of ICN, enables requests for content to be served from intermediate nodes rather than the origin servers. In recent years, many caching strategies have been proposed for ICN, the most popular ones being Leave Copy Everywhere (LCE) [2], Leave Copy Down (LCD) [3], Cache Less for More (CL4M) [1] and ProbCache [4]. In contrast to existing work that have
Myocardial infarction in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study: the interaction among environmental, health, social, behavioural and genetic factors

Objectives This study examined how environmental, health, social, behavioural and genetic factors interact to contribute to myocardial infarction (MI) risk. Design Survey data collected by Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS), USA, from 1957 to 2011, including 235 environmental, health, social and behavioural factors, and 77 single- nucleotide polymorphisms were analysed for association with MI. To identify associations with MI we utilized recursive partitioning and random forest prior to logistic regression and chi-squared analyses. Participants 6198 WLS participants (2938 men; 3260 women) who (1) had a MI before 72 years and (2) had a MI between 65 and 72 years. Results In men, stroke (LR OR: 5.01, 95% CI 3.36 to 7.48), high cholesterol (3.29, 2.59 to 4.18), diabetes (3.24, 2.53 to 4.15) and high blood pressure (2.39, 1.92 to 2.96) were significantly associated with MI up to 72 years of age. For those with high cholesterol, the interaction of smoking and lower alcohol consumption increased prevalence from 23% to 41%, with exposure to dangerous working conditions, a factor not previously linked with MI, further increasing prevalence to 50%. Conversely, MI was reported in <2.5% of men with normal cholesterol and no history of diabetes or depression. Only stroke (4.08, 2.17 to 7.65) and diabetes (2.71, 1.81 to 4.04) by 65 remained significantly associated with MI for men after age 65. For women, diabetes (5.62, 4.08 to 7.75), high blood pressure (3.21, 2.34 to 4.39), high cholesterol (2.03, 1.38 to 3.00) and dissatisfaction with their financial situation (4.00, 1.94 to 8.27) were significantly associated with MI up to 72 years of age. Conversely, often engaging in physical activity alone (0.53, 0.32 to 0.89) or with others (0.34, 0.21 to 0.57) was associated with the largest reduction in odds of MI. Being non-diabetic with normal blood pressure and engaging in physical activity often lowered prevalence of MI to 0.2%. Only diabetes by 65 (4.25, 2.50 to 7.24) and being exposed to dangerous work conditions at 54 (2.24, 1.36 to 3.69) remained significantly associated with MI for women after age 65, while still menstruating at 54 (0.46, 0.23 to 0.91) was associated with reduced odds of MI. Conclusions Together these results indicate important differences in factors associated with MI between the sexes, that combinations of factors greatly influence the likelihood of MI, that MI-associated factors change and associations weaken after 65 years of age in both sexes, and that the limited genotypes assessed were secondary to environmental, health, social and behavioral factors.
Determ inants of Positive and Negative Generation Effects in Free Recall

Better retention of self-produced as opposed to experimenter-presented material is called generation effect; the reverse phenomenon is the negative generation effect. Both are found in intentional-learning experiments in which generating versus reading is manipulated between subjects. The present article presents an overview of those findings and aims at clarifying the conditions under which these effects emerge. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrate that if cuetarget relations are manipulated within one list, a negative generation effect in free recall can be obtained for all items, no matter which cue-target relation they bear. In Experiment 3, cue-target relations were manipulated between lists. Here, a negative generation effect in free recall was found only in lists in which items were cued with words that mismatched the intertarget relations, whereas a positive generation effect was observed in those lists in which the generation cues matched the inter-target relations. A subsequent cued-recall test demonstrated that in cases of mismatch of relations, participants in the generate condition process cue-target relations at the expense of inter-target relations. The three-factor theory can be integrated with the task-demand account in a transfer-appropriate processing framework to accommodate these findings.
Prevalence and predictive value of p53 mutation in patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas: A prospective clinico‐pathological study and survival analysis of 70 patients

The tissues from 70 Chinese patients with oesophageal squamous cell carcinoma were prospectively collected to study for the pattern of p53 mutations and its relationship with clinico‐pathological features and prognosis using immunohistochemistry, polymerase chain reaction‐single strand conformational polymorphism (PCR‐SSCP) analysis and DNA sequencing. p53 over‐expression and p53 mutations were detected in 73% and 44% of the patients. These p53 aberrations had no relationship with the patient age, sex, smoking/drinking habits and tumor site, size or stage. The p53 over‐expression was more intense in moderately/poorly‐differentiated squamous cell carcinomas. Thirty‐three p53 mutations were noted in 31 patients; 18.2% in exon 5, 15.2% in exon 6, 33.3% in exon 7 and 33.3% in exon 8. Mutations were primarily point mutations and common in codons 248, 273 and 285. There were 46% transversions, 36% transitions and 18%; frameshift. The survival of the patients depended mainly on the extent of resection. In patients with stage III oesophageal cancer, the median survival of those with p53 mutations was 6.8 months whereas those without was 12.5 months. The results were of clinical importance although the value did not reach statistical significance. Thus, there was a definite role of p53 mutations in the pathogenesis of oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas. p53 mutations were not synonymous with p53 over‐expression. The distribution of p53 mutations in oesophageal cancers suggested that the etiologic contribution might be complex and probably involve different exogenous and endogenous exposures. p53 mutations also appear to play a role in predicting the survival of patients with stage III oesophageal squamous cell carcinomas. Int. J. Cancer 74:212‐219, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A parametric study: The impact of components sizing on range extended electric vehicle's driving range

The limited energy density in batteries has been a challenge for electric vehicle, which indirectly causes range anxiety among the drivers. Range extender (RE) is seen to be a potential solution for this problem. This paper presents a parametric study on the impact of components sizing (RE power and battery capacity) on the range extended electric vehicle (REEV). Urban (MUDC) and highway (HWFET) driving condition were considered in the study. The study was carried out using a vehicle computational model developed in the authors' research group.
Ontology-based data description and discovery in a SWIM environment

ATM data in the upcoming SWIM originates from different authoritative sources (such as Eurocontrol) and is combined and enriched by different data providers (such as GroupEAD). It is further filtered, combined and enriched specifically by organizations (Airlines, ANSPs, Manufacturers) and provided to end-users for the accomplishment of specific tasks (such as the data in an EFB for a pilot conducting a specific flight). The relationships between these different data products are hidden in APIs or non-standardized interfaces of web services. This makes the discovery and combination of data products an intricate task requiring intervention of IT personnel. The lack of a common model to describe the contents of data products prevents automatic identification of relevant data products for a specific task.
Hepatocellular adenoma and focal nodular hyperplasia: value of gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR imaging in differential diagnosis.

PURPOSE To retrospectively evaluate the utility of gadoxetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in the differential diagnosis of hepatocellular adenoma (HCA) and focal nodular hyperplasia (FNH). MATERIALS AND METHODS This study had institutional review board approval; the requirement for informed consent was waived. Eighty-two patients (58 patients with FNH and 24 patients with HCAs) with 111 lesions were included in the study. There were 74 female patients and eight male patients (mean age, 41.9 years±13.2 [standard deviation]; age range, 11-78 years). Two readers reviewed all images in terms of signal intensity (SI) features on unenhanced, dynamic, and hepatobiliary phase images. For quantitative analysis, contrast enhancement ratio (CER), lesion-to-liver contrast (LLC), and SI ratio on dynamic and hepatobiliary phase images were calculated. RESULTS The CER of FNH in the arterial phase (mean, 94.3%±33.2) was significantly higher than that of HCAs (mean, 59.3%±28.1) (P<.0001). During the hepatobiliary phase, the LLC of FNH showed minimally positive values (mean, 0.05±0.01) and that of HCAs demonstrated strong negative values (mean, -0.67±0.24) (P<.0001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of the hepatobiliary phase SI ratio for differentiation of the two tumors was 0.97, and a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 91% were found with a cutoff value of 0.87. Among six FNH lesions that showed atypical hypointensity during the hepatobiliary phase, four had a large central scar, one contained a substantial fat component, and one had abundant radiating fibrous septa. Three HCAs were isointense during the hepatobiliary phase owing to severe hepatic steatosis. CONCLUSION Gadoxetic acid-enhanced MR imaging facilitates the differentiation of FNH from HCA.
TLR2 Stimulation Regulates the Balance between Regulatory T Cell and Th17 Function: A Novel Mechanism of Reduced Regulatory T Cell Function in Multiple Sclerosis

CD4+CD25hi FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Tregs) maintain tolerance to self-Ags. Their defective function is involved in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis (MS), an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the CNS. However, the mechanisms of such defective function are poorly understood. Recently, we reported that stimulation of TLR2, which is preferentially expressed by human Tregs, reduces their suppressive function and skews them into a Th17-like phenotype. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that TLR2 activation is involved in reduced Treg function in MS. We found that Tregs from MS patients expressed higher levels of TLR2 compared with healthy controls, and stimulation with the synthetic lipopeptide Pam3Cys, an agonist of TLR1/2, reduced Treg function and induced Th17 skewing in MS patient samples more than in healthy controls. These data provide a novel mechanism underlying diminished Treg function in MS. Infections that activate TLR2 in vivo (specifically through TLR1/2 heterodimers) could shift the Treg/Th17 balance toward a proinflammatory state in MS, thereby promoting disease activity and progression.