Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary Patterns and Colorectal Adenoma and Cancer Risk: A Review of the Epidemiological Evidence

A number of studies exploring associations between individual dietary components and colorectal adenoma or cancer risk have yielded conflicting results. The study of food-based dietary patterns in relation to chronic disease risk represents an alternative approach to the evaluation of single dietary exposures in epidemiological investigations. Results from prospective cohort and population-based case-control studies examining associations between dietary patterns and colorectal cancer or adenoma risk were evaluated and described in this review. Despite notable differences in population characteristics, study design, and methods used for characterizing dietary patterns across the different studies, two general dietary patterns were found to modestly predict colorectal adenoma and cancer risk. A healthier pattern consisting of greater intakes of fruits and vegetables, and lower intakes of red and processed meat, appeared protective against colorectal adenoma and cancer incidence. Findings also suggest that a less healthy pattern characterized by higher intakes of red and processed meat, as well as potatoes and refined carbohydrates, may increase risk. Continued research efforts are needed to evaluate the cumulative and interactive effects of numerous dietary exposures on colorectal cancer risk.
Cerebral protection during CPB

Despite advances in surgical, anesthetic, and neuroprotective strategies, cerebral injury after cardiac surgery remains a significant source of post-operative morbidity and is responsible for an increasing proportion of peri-operative deaths. Technological advancements have allowed cardiac surgery to be performed on a progressively older and sicker population who, in turn, are at increased risk for the associated cerebral injury. The underlying mechanism of the associated cerebral injury is incompletely understood. While considered multifactorial, the most importantly cited etiologic factors are cerebral macroand microembolism and hypoperfusion, exacerbated by ischemia/reperfusion injury. Extensive research has been undertaken in an attempt to minimize the incidence of peri-operative cerebral injury, and both pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies have been investigated. Although many agents showed promise in pre-clinical studies, there is currently insufficient evidence from clinical trials to recommend the routine administration of any pharmacological agents for neuroprotection during cardiac surgery. Non-pharmacological strategies that can be recommended on the basis of evidence include TEE and epiaortic ultrasound guided assessment of the atheromatous ascending aorta with appropriate modification of cannulation, clamping or anastomotic technique and optimal temperature management. Largescale randomized controlled trials are still required to further address the issues of optimal pH management, glycemic control, blood pressure management, and hematocrit during CPB.
Low frequency of HLA-DRB1*11 in hepatitis C virus induced end stage liver disease

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection becomes chronic in more than 70% of patients, leading to end stage liver disease in about 20–30% of these patients. Apart from the virus itself, host factors that modulate the immune response are likely to be involved in determining the outcome of HCV infection. Studies on the association of human leucocyte antigens (HLAs) and HCV infection have shown inconsistent results. Selection of patient subgroups may be crucial. However, any association relevant to HCV disease progression will become evident, especially in those patients with end stage liver disease. Therefore, we analysed the phenotype frequencies of HLA antigens in two groups of 69 and 39 patients with HCV induced liver cirrhosis who had received a transplant or were awaiting liver transplantation. The first group was typed serologically and compared with 331 blood and liver donors. The second group, prospectively HLA typed by a polymerase chain reaction-sequence specific oligonucleotide (PCR-SSO) procedure for HLA-DRB and DQB alleles, was compared with another 170 PCR-SSO typed and randomly selected blood donors. Decreased frequencies for HLA-DR5 and HLA-DQ3 were found in one group of patients with HCV induced liver cirrhosis compared with the control groups. In the second analysis comparing 39 patients with end stage liver cirrhosis with blood donors, we confirmed the significant decrease in HLA-DRB1*11 and HLA-DQB1*03, which corresponded to serological HLA-DR5 and HLA-DQ3 antigens, respectively. Our results show that the presence of HLA-DRB1*11 and HLA-DQB1*03 alleles is associated with a reduced risk for the development of HCV induced end stage liver disease.
Personality Disorders in College Students With Internet Addiction.

W u et al. (2016) reported the prevalence of personality disorder (PD) in 556 college students with Internet addiction (IA), stratified by sex. Self-administered questionnaires for IA and interviews for PD diagnosis were conducted. Males with IA showed a higher frequency of narcissistic PD, and females with IA showed a higher frequency of borderline, narcissistic, avoidant, or dependent PD against subjects without IA. Although higher prevalence of IA was recognized in males, PD with IAwas predominant in females. I have some concerns about their study. First, Malik and Khan (2015) investigated the relationship between Facebook addiction, narcissism, and self-esteem in 200 students with special reference to sex. There were no sex differences in the prevalence of Facebook addiction, narcissism, and self-esteem. In addition, Facebook addiction was a significant
Hybride, kontext-sensitive Generierung von Produktempfehlungen

Zusammenfassung In diesem Beitrag stellen wir mit Hybreed RecFlows ein modulares Framework zur Generierung von (Produkt) Empfehlungen vor. RecFlows (Kurzform für Recommendation Workflows) stellt eine Reihe etablierter Algorithmen aus dem Bereich Recommender Systems zur Verfügung sowie einen Workflow-Mechanismus, um aus diesen Algorithmen flexibel hybride Recommender zu erstellen. Darüber hinaus werden unterschiedliche Sensoren bereitgestellt, um Informationen aus verschiedenen Quellen in den Empfehlungsprozess mit einfließen zu lassen. Insbesondere werden Sensoren zur Kontext-Erfassung (z. B. der aktuelle Ort des Nutzers anhand seiner IP-Adresse) implementiert. So ist es möglich, mit Hilfe von RecFlows hybride, kontextsensitive Empfehlungen zu generieren. Abstract In this contribution, we introduce Hybreed RecFlows, a modular framework for contextaware product recommendations. RecFlows (short for recommendation workflows) contains a set of wellestablished recommendation algorithms as well as a workflow-mechanism for generating modular hybrid recommenders. Beyond that, Hybreed provides sensors for integrating context information (for instance the user′s current location). By doing so, Hybreed RecFlows enables context-aware recommendation generation.
Phase Transitions for Controlled Markov Chains on Infinite Graphs

This paper is concerned with some long-run average cost problems for controlled Markov chains with a denumerable state space. The criterion to be optimized contains both reward and penalty functions. As a trade-off between reward and penalty, we observe certain phase transition phenomena. Our results also provide a stochastic optimal control interpretation for phase transitions of discrete homopolymers with finite attracting potentials.
DeltaTAp73 upregulation correlates with poor prognosis in human tumors: putative in vivo network involving p73 isoforms, p53, and E2F-1.

PURPOSE Although full-length TAp73 variants largely mimic p53 suppressor activities, the transactivation-deficient transcripts DeltaTAp73 exert an oncogenic effect by inactivating p53 and TAp73 suppressor properties. Additionally, DeltaTAp73 may cooperate with oncogenic RAS to induce cell transformation, confer drug resistance, and induce the phosphorylation of phosphorylated Rb. Here, we study the expression of TAp73 and DeltaTAp73 variants and assess possible associations with E2F-1, p53 and K-ras status. We address the possible clinical relevance of alterations in these genes. PATIENTS AND METHODS We determine in 113 colon and 60 breast cancer patients (a) the expression levels of TAp73, DeltaTAp73 (DeltaEx2p73, DeltaEx2/3p73, and DeltaNp73), and E2F-1 transcripts by quantitative real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR); (b) mutations in the first exon of K-ras by PCR-single-stranded confirmational polymorphism; and (c) p53 status by immunohistochemistry. Tumor characteristics were examined in each patient. RESULTS Both suppressor and oncogenic isoforms of TP73 were significantly coupregulated in tumor tissues. Associations were observed between (a) p53 wild type status and upregulation of some TP73 variants; (b) overexpression of E2F-1 and some TP73 forms; and (c) upregulation of DeltaTAp73 variants and advanced pathologic stage, lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, presence of polyps, and tumor localization. CONCLUSION Overexpression of TP73 variants in tumor tissues indicates that they may be involved in colon and breast carcinogenesis. The association between upregulation of DeltaTAp73 isoforms and poor prognosis features, specifically advanced tumor stage, suggests that they may be of practical clinical prognostic value. Interestingly, the in vivo associations identified here may indicate a functional network involving p73 variants, p53, and E2F-1.
Towards a conceptual evaluation of transience in relation to palliative care.

AIM This paper is a report of a concept evaluation of transience and its relevance to palliative care. BACKGROUND A qualitative study into palliative care patients' experiences of transition revealed a gap between current definitions of transition and their expression of the palliative care experience. Transience appears to offer a better definition but remains conceptually weak, with limited definition in a healthcare context. METHODS A qualitative conceptual evaluation of transience was undertaken using two case examples, interview data and the literature. Multiple sources were used to identify the literature (1966-2006), including a search on Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Medline, and Ovid and Arts and Humanities Index using the keywords 'transience' and 'palliative care'. Thirty-one papers related to transience were retrieved. Analysis and synthesis formulated a theoretical definition of transience relative to palliative care. FINDINGS Transience is a nascent concept. Preconditions and outcomes of transience appear contextually dependent, which may inhibit its conceptual development. Transience depicts a fragile emotional state related to sudden change and uncertainty at end-of-life, exhibited as a feeling of stasis. Defining attributes would seem to include fragility, suddenness, powerlessness, impermanence, time, space, uncertainty, separation and homelessness. CONCLUSIONS Transience is potentially more meaningful for palliative care in understanding the impact of end-of-life experiences for patients than current conceptualizations of transition as a process towards resolution. As a nascent concept, it remains strongly encapsulated within a framework of transition and further conceptual development is needed to enhance its maturity and refinement.
Purity matters : enhancing carrier transport properties in tin sulfide for photovoltaic applications by reducing impurity content

Tin sulfide (SnS), a potential p-type absorber material for photovoltaic applications, is hampered by poor carrier-transport properties, particularly minority-carrier lifetime. This study investigates the role of intrinsic and extrinsic crystallographic point defects on the electronic transport properties of SnS. High-purity SnS is grown via sulfurization of tin films, and compared with baseline material made from feedstock with two orders of magnitude higher impurity content. Minority-carrier lifetime, morphology, and impurity content are analyzed in both materials. It is shown that improving feedstock purity by two orders of magnitude results in an improvement to minority-carrier lifetime from under 100 ps to over 2 ns. Simulations suggest that this increase in minority-carrier lifetime could lead to device efficiency improvements Thesis Supervisor: Tonio Buonassisi Title: Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Relationship of Na Transport and K Excretion by the Urinary Bladder of Bufo marinus 1

Summary The serosal to mucosal flux of K in the urinary bladder of Bufo marinus is not changed by reducing the mucosal Na concentation to virtually zero. Vasopressin, which is known to increase the rate of sodium reabsorption from the bladder, does not significantly alter the serosal to mucosal K flux. This evidence is against the theory that K excretion in the toad bladder is linked either to Na reabsorption per se or to the PD produced across the bladder by the Na pump.
Object-size invariant anomaly detection in video-surveillance

Nowadays, there is a growing demand for automated video-based surveillance systems due to increase security concerns. Anomaly detection is a popular application in this area where anomalous events of interest are defined as observed behavior that stands out from its context in space and time. In this paper, we present an approach for the detection of anomalous motion based on the extraction of object-size features that is independent of object size and video resolution. The proposed approach relies on a variable spatial window based on object size that has shown robustness in scenarios that present motion of objects of different sizes. We propose a system composed of four building blocks: background subtraction, feature extraction, event modeling and outlier detection. The proposed approach is evaluated on publicly available datasets which contain instances of abandoned objects of different sizes (considered as anomalies). The experiments carried out demonstrate that our approach outperforms the related state-of-the-art in the selected datasets. The proposal can identify anomalies associated to objects with different sizes and motion without increasing the number of false positives.
Linker Histone Subtype Composition and Affinity for Chromatin in Situ in Nucleated Mature Erythrocytes*

The replacement linker histones H10 and H5 are present in frog and chicken erythrocytes, respectively, and their accumulation coincides with cessation of proliferation and compaction of chromatin. These cells have been analyzed for the affinity of linker histones for chromatin with cytochemical and biochemical methods. Our results show a stronger association between linker histones and chromatin in chicken erythrocyte nuclei than in frog erythrocyte nuclei. Analyses of linker histones from chicken erythrocytes using capillary electrophoresis showed H5 to be the subtype strongest associated with chromatin. The corresponding analyses of frog erythrocyte linker histones using reverse-phase high performance liquid chromatography showed that H10 dissociated from chromatin at somewhat higher ionic strength than the three additional subtypes present in frog blood but at lower ionic strength than chicken H5. Which of the two H10 variants in frog is expressed in erythrocytes has thus far been unknown. Amino acid sequencing showed that H10-2 is the only H10 subtype present in frog erythrocytes and that it is 100% acetylated at its N termini. In conclusion, our results show differences between frog and chicken linker histone affinity for chromatin probably caused by the specific subtype composition present in each cell type. Our data also indicate a lack of correlation between linker histone affinity and chromatin condensation.
Single-Neuron Activity and Tissue Oxygenation in the Cerebral Cortex

Blood oxygen level–dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging uses alterations in brain hemodynamics to infer changes in neural activity. Are these hemodynamic changes regulated at a spatial scale capable of resolving functional columns within the cerebral cortex? To address this question, we made simultaneous measurements of tissue oxygenation and single-cell neural activity within the visual cortex. Results showed that increases in neuronal spike rate were accompanied by immediate decreases in tissue oxygenation. We used this decrease in tissue oxygenation to predict the orientation selectivity and ocular dominance of neighboring neurons. Our results establish a coupling between neural activity and oxidative metabolism and suggest that high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging may be used to localize neural activity at a columnar level.
Aerobic Growth of Escherichia coli with 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene (TNT) as the Sole Nitrogen Source and Evidence of TNT Denitration by Whole Cells and Cell-Free Extracts

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli grew aerobically with 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) as sole nitrogen source and caused TNT's partial denitration. This reaction was enhanced in nongrowing cell suspensions with 0.516 mol nitrite released per mol TNT. Cell extracts denitrated TNT in the presence of NAD(P)H. Isomers of amino-dimethyl-tetranitrobiphenyl were detected and confirmed with U-15N-labeled TNT.
Rendimiento académico de los estudios de Informática en algunos centros españoles

Se presentan los resultados de un estudio sobre el rendimiento academico de los estudios de Informatica (ingenierias tecnicas e ingenieria superior) en ocho universidades publicas espanolas. Se estudian separadamente los alumnos de nuevo ingreso y el total de alumnos de una titulacion, desagregados por sexo, edad, procedencia y nota de ingreso. Se calculan valores medios y agregados para cada titulacion, teniendo en cuenta que cada una de las universidades participantes aporto aquellos datos de los que podia disponer. Los indicadores calculados se refieren a tasas de exito, rendimiento, abandono, demanda en 1a opcion y duracion media de los estudios.
The value of complete blood count parameters in predicting preterm delivery.

OBJECTIVE The association between inflammation and threatened preterm labor (TPL) is well known. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible relation between TPL and new defined systemic inflammatory markers, neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR) and platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR). PATIENTS AND METHODS Fifty-three healthy pregnant women as the control group and 55 pregnant women diagnosed with TPL as the study group were included in this prospective controlled study. The study group was divided into two groups according to the gestational age at delivery: pregnant with TPL who delivered < 37 weeks and pregnant with TPL who delivered ≥ 37 weeks. The clinical and laboratory data were compared among the groups. RESULTS LMR was found to be significantly higher in patients complicated with TPL who delivered prematurely when compared to the women whose pregnancies continued to term (p = 0.02). Furthermore, a significant negative correlation was also observed between the gestational week at delivery and LMR in women who delivered < 37 weeks. DISCUSSION We demonstrated that LMR was significantly increased in pregnant women with preterm birth and threatened preterm labor than healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS Although increased LMR levels were demonstrated to be associated with preterm birth and threatened preterm labor to be able to extrapolate these findings into clinical daily practice, further studies are needed.
Where am I and why? Synthesizing range biology and the eco-evolutionary dynamics of dispersal

Although generations of researchers have studied the factors that limit the distributions of species, we still do not seem to understand this phenomenon comprehensively. Traditionally, species’ ranges have been seen as the consequence of abiotic conditions and local adaptation to the environment. However, during the last years it has become more and more evident that biotic factors – such as intra- and interspecific interactions or the dispersal capacity of species – and even rapidly occurring evolutionary processes can strongly influence the range of a species and its potential to spread to new habitats. Relevant eco-evolutionary forces can be found at all hierarchical levels: from landscapes to communities via populations, individuals and genes. We here use the metapopulation concept to develop a framework that allows us to synthesize this broad spectrum of different factors. Since species’ ranges are the result of a dynamic equilibrium of colonization and local extinction events, the importance of dispersal is immediately clear. We highlight the complex interrelations and feedbacks between ecological and evolutionary forces that shape dispersal and result in non-trivial and partially counter-intuitive range dynamics. Our concept synthesizes current knowledge on range biology and the eco-evolutionary dynamics of dispersal.
Treatment of Dendritic Corneal Ulceration

how often these leaks can be found at the various stages of gestation, but an idea of their frequency in later pregnancy is given by our finding positive films in 19 out of 240 pregnant women, all examined at the 34th week. Kleihauer and Betke (1960) found a still higher proportion of spills, but they surveyed a far greater number of erythrocytes, and were recording foetal cells when their presence corresponded with a spill of only 0.001 ml. The accidents of pregnancy increase the likelihood of spill, especially those in the later stages of gestation. Amongst 196 women examined after an abortion between the 12th and 16th weeks of pregnancy, we detected three cases of transplacental leak. But out of four women who had miscarriages between the 20th and 24th weeks, two were found to have foetal cells in the circulation. In all these cases the leak amounted to only 0.1 to 0.2 ml. of foetal blood. Among eight women who suffered an accidental haemorrhage at the 33rd to 34th week of gestation, four instances of foeto-maternal leak were found. When the frequency and size of these microtransfusious have been fully defined, it will be possible to determine their role in Rh sensitization. This work is now in progress. SUMMARY Foetal red cells were searched for in blood taken on the first and second days after childbirth from 635 women. In terms of the ABO system, 535 women bore a compatible child, and a foeto-maternal microtransfusion was found in 166 (31%) of these; 100 bore an incompatible child, and 16 of these women showed a foeto-maternal " spill. " The magnitude of the spill was not apparently affected by the ABO compatibility status, but disappearance of the transfused cells on the second day of observation was significantly more common when they were incompatible with the mother's serum. The likelihood of foeto-maternal spill is increased when the accidents of pregnancy occur, especially those in the later stages of gestation. I. D. FRASER, M.D. A. B. RAPER, M.D., M.R. C.P. Department of Pathology, United Bristol Hospitals.