Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Letter: stool adalimumab detection in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease

SIRS, We read with great interest the excellent review article reported by Rosen et al. In this review, the authors explain the conceptual framework for hypothesised mechanisms of rapid clearance of therapeutic anti-tumour necrosis factor (TNF) therapies in acute severe ulcerative colitis (UC). In their discussion, they proposed that dashboard systems could incorporate baseline covariates into a PK model to reduce unexplained variability, and proposed a dosing regimen estimated to result in optimal drug exposure for a given patient. We also think that faecal anti-TNF levels in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients can explain a drop in circulating anti-TNF, and so could be useful in acute severe ulcerative colitis. In a preliminary study including 11 patients with severe UC during infliximab (IFX) induction treatment, Brandse et al. found an association between faecal IFX levels, a drop in circulating IFX trough levels (TLI), and treatment nonresponse. To our knowledge, no studies have been carried out on faecal anti-adalimumab (ADA), in cases of loss of therapeutic response in UC or Crohn’s disease (CD) patients. In a retrospective study, we included from a clinical database and from biological collection data, the first 36 IBD patients with faecal calprotectin levels above of 1800 lg/g stools. Faecal anti-TNF assays were conducted on all of these patients and compared with the results of six IBD patients with a faecal calprotectin level below 500 lg/g (below 500 lg/g in three cases and below 100 lg/g in the other three cases). At the same time, we analysed trough levels of anti-TNF and antibodies. All measurements were obtained just before infusion or injection of anti-TNF drugs. Forty-two samples were analysed (20 CD, 22 UC, 20 cases on ADA treatment and 22 under IFX therapy). The 36 patients with faecal calprotectin levels >1800 lg/g exhibited clinical activity. Stool anti-TNF trough levels (IFX for five cases and ADA for two cases) (>0.2 lg/g of stools; median: 0.3–1.2 lg/g of stools) was reported in seven cases. Anti-TNF was found to be present in the stools in five cases of UC (22.7%) and in two cases of colonic CD (10%) (P = NS). A positive anti-TNF threshold of stools was only isolated in cases where calprotectin was over 1800 lg/g (19.4%). In the seven cases showing faecal anti-TNF, an endoscopy detected ulcers in the colonic mucosa (100%) as compared with 5/29 showing ulcers in the absence of faecal anti-TNF (14%, P < 0.05). In conclusion, faecal anti-ADA can be detected in patients with CD as well as UC, irrespective of the antiTNF used. The presence of colonic ulcers appears to be a pre-condition of intestinal leaks. These data could explain the low serum ADA concentrations observed after induction treatment with an anti-TNF in some patients with acute severe IBD.
Vitamin D Stimulates Growth Hormone-Insulin-Like Growth Factor (GH-IGF) Gene Axis Expression and Potentiates GH Effect to Reverse the Inhibition Produced by Glucocorticoids in Human Growth Plate Chondrocytes

Chondrocytes from human fetal epiphyseal growth plates were obtained at first passage, serum-deprived for 48 h and incubated for a further 48 h with Dx (10 –9 to 10 –6 M ), VitD (10 –11 to 10 –6 M ) or GH (500 ng/ml) or combinations of Dx, VitD and GH. Cell proliferation was determined as 3 H-thymidine incorporation into DNA (n = 25), and gene expression of growth factors and binding proteins (IGF-I, IGF-II, IGF binding protein-3 [IGFBP3]), receptors (IGF-IR, GHR), SOX9 transcription factor and matrix proteins (aggrecan, COL2A1, COMP) were analyzed by total RNA extraction and real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (n = 8).
CXCR4+ and SDF-1+ Bone Marrow Cells Are Mobilized into the Blood Stream in Acute Myocardial Infarction and Acute Ischemia

Cell therapy has shown beneficial effects on ventricular function and tissue regeneration in patients with acute and chronic myocardial infarction, although with diverse grades of variability in the results, possibly by proportion, subtype and cell cycle status. Objective: Identify and phenotypically characterize, via CXCR4 and SDF-1 expression, the bone marrow cell subpopulations that are mobilized into the bloodstream in patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) and Acute Ischemia (AI) such as acute angina and Chronic Ischemia (CI) such as chronic stable angina, and also determine the cell cycle status of these cells. Method: Patients with AMI and AI were recruited in the ICCU, and patients with CI in the departments of cardiology and cardiovascular surgery. The quantification of cellular subpopulations was made by cytofluorometry with a FACS caliburcyto fluorometry (Becton Dickinson) with specific FITC-labeled anti human monoclonal antibodies against CD34, CD133, CD117, CD48, CXCR4, SDF-1 and Ki67 (Becton Dickinson). Serum concentration of IL-6 and IL-8 were determined by a sequential solid phase chemiluminescent assay performed in a SIEMENS IMMULITE 1000 Analyzer. Statistical analysis was made with the SPSS version 20.0 for Windows. A p value 3/ml) than that in AI (9.2 ± 1.3 × 103/ml) and CI (6.6 ± 1.1 × 103/ml) patients (p p = 0.22 to 0.39), but interestingly in AMI and AI patients, cells were CXCR4+ in almost half of these mobilized cells, although the proportion was significantly higher in AMI patients (46.8% ± 7.1% to 55.7% ± 6.3% vs 23% ± 1.6% to 28.4% ± 2.1%, p = 0.03 to 0.05). A similar behavior was observed with the Ki67 antibody (29.9% ± 2.1% to 36.1% ± 6.3% vs 10% ± 1.2% to 24% ± 1.1%, p = 0.001 to 0.05). Bivariate analysis of the results showed a significant correlation of the cell proportion in AMI but not in AI and CI patients (p = 0.001 to 0.05; 0.12 to 0.87 and 0.17 to 0.92 respectively). The amount of myocardial tissue infarcted did not show any correlation with the amount of cellular subpopulations mobilized to peripheral blood (r = 0.10 to 0.20; p = 0.21 to 0.64) from the bone marrow. Conclusion: The proportion of cellular subpopulations with regenerative potential mobilized to circulation during an event of Acute Myocardial Infarction is significantly higher than during an event of acute angina and chronic stable angina, with a significant proportion of mobilized cells that expressed CXCR4, most of which were already in some of the cell cycle phases.
The placental transfer of mifepristone (RU 486) during the second trimester and its influence upon maternal and fetal steroid concentrations

Summary. A double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study has assessed the maternal and fetal endocrine effects of the maternal administration of the anti‐progestin mifepristone in mid‐pregnancy. There were six women in each group. Four hours after oral administration of 600 mg mifepristone, the drug was detected in both maternal and fetal circulations and in the amniotic fluid. No significant changes in progesterone, cortisol, oestradiol, or aldosterone concentrations were detected in the maternal circulation after treatment with mifepristone or placebo. In women treated with mifepristone, the mean fetal aldosterone level was 1699 (SD 217) pmol/1 which was significantly higher than the mean level of 999 (SD 84) pmol/1 in the control group but no significant changes occurred in the fetal progesterone, oestradiol or cortisol concentrations. The significance of these results is discussed in relation to the possible therapeutic uses of mifepristone for inducing labour.
Optimal Merging of 3 Elements with n Elements

Suppose we are given two disjoint linearly-ordered subsets $A_m $ and $B_n $ of a linearly-ordered set S. The problem is to determine the linear ordering of their union (i.e., to “merge” $A_m $ and $B_n $) by means of a sequence of pairwise comparisons between an element of $A_m $ and an element of $B_n $. An algorithm to merge $A_m $ and $B_n $ is called M-optimal if it minimizes the maximum number of comparisons required where the maximum is taken over all possible ordering of $A_m \cup B_n $. Let $f_m (k)$ denote the largest n such that $A_m $ and $B_n $, can be merged in k comparisons by an M-optimal algorithm. The determination of $f_3 (k)$ has been an open problem for a long time. In this paper we give a constructive proof that\[ f_3 (1) = 0,\quad f_3 (2) = 1,\quad f_3 (3) = 1,\quad f_3 (4) = 2, \]\[ f_3 (5) = 3,\quad f_3 (6) = 4,\quad f_3 (7) = 6,\quad f_3 (8) = 8, \]and for $r \geqq 3$,\[ f_3 (3r) = \left[ {\frac{{43}}{7}2^{r - 2} } \right] - 2, \]\[ f_3 (3r + 1) = \left[ {\frac{{107}}{7}2^{r - 3}.
Regulation of Placental Growth Hormone Secretion in a Human Trophoblast Model—The Effects of Hormones and Adipokines

Placental growth hormone (PGH) is secreted from the human placental syncytiotrophoblast into the maternal circulation. PGH levels in pregnant women correlate with the birth weight of their offspring. We hypothesized that metabolic regulators may alter PGH secretion. BeWo cells as human trophoblast models were treated for 24, 48, and 72 h with insulin, insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1, cortisol, ghrelin, leptin and visfatin. Cyclic-adenosinmonophosphate treatment served as positive control. PGH concentrations in culture media were measured. Insulin reduced (p < 0.008; analysis of variance) PGH secretion from BeWo cells after 72 h. No effect was found when treating cells with IGF-1. Cortisol reduced PGH secretion after 48 h (p < 0.00118; analysis of variance) and 72 h (p < 0.015). Leptin and ghrelin both suppressed (p < 0.027 and p < 0.017, paired t test) whereas visfatin increased (p < 0.014, paired t test) PGH secretion at 72 h. Cyclic adenosinmonophosphate increased (p < 0.003) PGH secretion at 72 h. Our results indicate that in vitro PGH secretion by BeWo cells is regulated by hormonal factors and adipokines. We speculate on the existence of a maternal-placental regulatory loop, in which elevated insulin and leptin levels might down-regulate PGH secretion.
Performance Bounds for Orthogonal Oriented Two-Dimensional Packing Algorithms

Two orthogonal oriented two-dimensional, packing algorithms are presented and their behavior is analyzed under several assumptions. For one of the algorithms we show that the ratio of the height used by the algorithm to the optimal height is asymptotically bounded by $\frac{4}{3}$. This bound is an improvement over similar bounds for previously proposed algorithms.
Continuous Data Types

Data types can be elegantly characterized as the algebraic quotient of the initial algebra in the appropriate class of algebras. In this paper, data types whose domain is continuous (continuous data types) are defined and studied. It is shown that an algebraic quotient of the appropriate initial continuous algebra can be used to characterize continuous data types when certain conditions are satisfied. Two well-known computer science examples are presented to illustrate the results. These types are lists, including infinite lists and control structures considered as operators of a data type.
Planar Formulae and Their Uses

We define the set of planar boolean formulae, and then show that the set of true quantified planar formulae is polynomial space complete and that the set of satisfiable planar formulae is NP-complete. Using these results, we are able to provide simple and nearly uniform proofs of NP-completeness for planar node cover, planar Hamiltonian circuit and line, geometric connected dominating set, and of polynomial space completeness for planar generalized geography.The NP-completeness of planar node cover and planar Hamiltonian circuit and line were first proved elsewhere [M. R. Garey and D. S. Johnson, The rectilinear Steiner tree is NP-complete, SIAM J. Appl. Math., 32 (1977), pp. 826–834] and [M. R. Garey, D. S. Johnson and R. E. Tarjan, The planar Hamilton circuit problem is NP-complete, SIAM J. Comp., 5 (1976), pp. 704–714].
Fast Algorithms for Finding Nearest Common Ancestors

We consider the following problem: Given a collection of rooted trees, answer on-line queries of the form, “What is the nearest common ancester of vertices x and y? ” We show that any pointer machine that solves this problem requires $\Omega (\log \log n)$ time per query in the worst case, where n is the total number of vertices in the trees. On the other hand, we present an algorithm for a random access machine with uniform cost measure (and a bound of $\Omega (\log n)$ on the number of bits per word) that requires $O(1)$ time per query and $O(n)$ preprocessing time, assuming that the collection of trees is static. For a version of the problem in which the trees can change between queries, we obtain an almost-linear-time (and linear-space) algorithm.
Toxicological evaluation of Thymelaea hirsuta and protective effect against CCl 4 -induced hepatic injury in rats

The aerial part of Thymelaea hirsuta (TH) is used as decoction in the treatment of different pathologies in folk medicine in Morocco. The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the potential of toxicity of an aqueous extract of TH and its hepatoprotective activity against CCl 4 -induced hepatic injury in rats. In the acute study, there were no signs of toxicity observed after oral administration of single dose of the extract (5g/kg body weight). In the sub-chronic dose study, (given by gavages (4 ml/kg) to Wistar rats daily at: 0.0 g/kg, 0.5g/kg, 1 g/kg or 2 g/kg body weight for 4 weeks) no variation on biochemical parameters; serum glucose, creatinine and urea levels was observed compared to the control group. However, the serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALAT) and aspartate aminotransferase (ASAT) were markedly decreased (P < 0.05 and P<0.001 respectively) as compared to the controls. There were no significant differences in red blood cells count (p<0.05), in Hemoglobin and Hematocrit serum levels but a significant increase in white blood cells count (p<0.001) and in platelets (p< 0.05) for all doses tested. Histopathological examination of the liver, spleen and kidneys tissues at the end of the study showed normal architecture. The elevated serum enzymatic activities of ALAT and ASAT, due to carbon tetrachloride treatment (1 ml/kg CCl 4 every 72 h during 15 days) were restored towards normalization by the plant extracts. The biochemical observations were supplemented with histopathological examination of liver sections. The results indicate that this plant possesses no toxicity effects but hepatoprotective properties. Keywords : Thymelaea hirsuta , Wistar rats, Toxicity, Histopathology, hepatoprotective action, Folk medicine
The Physiologic Development of Fetuin-A Serum Concentrations in Children

Fetuin-A prevents tissue calcification by forming soluble complexes with calcium and phosphate. A pathological depletion of serum fetuin-A has been observed in children on dialysis or after renal transplantation but knowledge on physiologic age-related changes in serum fetuin-A is limited. We prospectively evaluated serum fetuin-A in 133 infants and children, ranging from very low birth weight infants to adolescents. Highest serum fetuin-A levels were present between 23 and 30 wk of gestation (1 ± 0.33 mg/mL). Thereafter, the values decreased. This decrease was linked to biological rather than chronological age. At 32 to 36 and 37 to 40 wk of gestation, the serum fetuin-A concentration was 0.63 ± 0.26 and 0.63 ± 0.21 mg/mL, respectively. Thereafter, the concentrations remained stable until adolescence at 0.58 ± 0.12 mg/mL. Intercurrent infections were associated with a transient decrease of serum fetuin-A levels. The high serum fetuin-A concentrations in preterm children suggest that fetuin-A is of high physiologic impact for the fetal and the preterm-born organism, showing extensive tissue formation. This might point to a new mechanism contributing to organ damage in these patients, comparable with children on dialysis.
Difficulties in estimating the effect of low radiation doses in man

Any reliable estimation of the frequency with which low doses of ionising radiation cause cancer requires a detailed study of records from very large exposed populations, over long periods of time following exposure, and with an exact comparison of cancer frequencies with those of equally large or larger populations which have not been similarly exposed, but in which the cancer incidences or mortalities have been ascertained with equal efficiency. Special problems occur in finding appropriate comparison groups for occupationally exposed workers and for patients treated or investigated radiologically. These are discussed, together with the difficulties in ensuring comprehensive recording of total cancer incidence, rather than of mortality.
Wingate performance and surface EMG frequency variables are not affected by caffeine ingestion

The ergogenic effect of caffeine and its mechanism of action on short-term, high-intensity exercise are controversial. One proposed mechanism is caffeine’s stimulatory effect on the central nervous system and thus, motor-unit excitation. The latter is non-invasively determined from surface electromyographic signal (EMG) frequency measures. The purpose of this study was to determine if power output and surface EMG frequency variables during high-intensity cycling were altered following caffeine ingestion. Eighteen recreationally active college males (mean ± SD age, 21.5 ± 1.8 y; height, 181.8 ± 0.5 cm; body mass, 84.7 ± 11.4 kg) performed the Wingate test (WG) after ingestion of gelatin capsules containing either placebo (PL; dextrose) or caffeine (CAFF; 5 mg/kg body mass). The trials were separated by 1 week and subjects were asked to withdraw from all caffeine-containing products for 48 h before each trial. From the resulting power–time records, peak power (PP; highest power output in 5 s), minimum power.
A Time-Randomness Trade-Off for Oblivious Routing

Three parameters characterize the performance of a probabilistic algorithm: T, the run-time of the algorithm; Q, the probability that the algorithm fails to complete the computation in the first T steps; and R, the amount of randomness used by the algorithm, measured by the entropy of its random source. A tight trade-off between these three parameters for the problem of oblivious packet routing on N-vertex bounded-degree networks is presented. A $(1 - Q) \log ({N / T}) - \log Q - O(1)$ lower bound for the entropy of a random source of any oblivious packet routing algorithm that routes an arbitrary permutation in T steps with probability $1 - Q$ is proved. It is shown that this lower bound is almost optimal by proving the existence, for every $e^{3} \log N \leqq T \leqq N^{{1 / 2}}$, of an oblivious algorithm that terminates in T steps with probability $1 - Q$ and uses $(1- Q + o(1)) \log ({N / T}) - \log Q$ independent random bits. This result is complemented with an explicit construction of a family of o.
A 4n Lower Bound on the Combinational Complexity of Certain Symmetric Boolean Functions over the Basis of Unate Dyadic Boolean Functions

A simple, and easy-to-check, property of a symmetric boolean function is shown to imply a $4n - O(1)$ lower bound on the circuit complexity of the function over $U_2 = B_2 - \{ \oplus , \equiv \}$, the basis of unate dyadic boolean functions. Among the functions to which this lower bound applies are the modular functions ${\operatorname{MOD}}_k (n)$ for any fixed $k \geqq 3$ (${\operatorname{MOD}}_k (n)$ is the function which returns 1 if and only if $(\sum x_i )\bmod k = 0$). Finally, a $5n$ upper bound is obtained on the circuit complexity over $U_2 $ of the function ${\operatorname{MOD}}_4 (n)$.
Fully Dynamic Algorithms for 2-Edge Connectivity

This paper studies the problem of maintaining the 2-edge-connected components of a graph undergoing repeated dynamic modifications, such as edge insertions and edge deletions. It is shown how to test at any time whether two vertices belong to the same 2-edge-connected component, and how to insert and delete an edge in $O(m^{2/3} )$ time in the worst case, where m is the current number of edges in the graph. This answers a question posed by Westbrook and Tarjan [Tech. Report CS-TR-229-89, Dept. of Computer Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, August 1989; Algorithmica. , to appear]. For planar graphs, the paper presents algorithms that support all these operations in $O(\sqrt {n\log \log n} )$ worst-case time each, where n is the total number of vertices in the graph.
Advanced prehospital airway management techniques.

Alternative techniques include mask ventilation to ensure immediate oxygenation, the oesophageal tracheal Combitube and various laryngeal mask airways. Modifications of laryngoscopic blades (e.g. Henderson, McCoy) and fibreoptic intubation techniques (e.g. Bonfils, Bullard) may offer alternatives to the expert even in the prehospital environment. The needle or surgical cricothyrotomy is rarely required, but remains the ‘ultima ratio’ in airway problems when all other techniques fail.
A New Distillation Algorithm for Floating-Point Summation

The summation of n floating-point numbers is ubiquitous in numerical computations. We present a new distillation algorithm for floating-point summation which is stable, efficient, and accurate. The algorithm iteratively "distills" the summands without discarding any significant digit until the partial sums cannot change the whole sum. It uses standard floating-point arithmetic and does not rely on the choice of radix or any other specific assumption. Furthermore, the error bound of our algorithm is independent of n and less than 1 ulp.
Graph Bipartization and via Minimization

The vertex- (respectively, edge-) deletion graph bipartization problem is the problem of deleting a set of vertices (respectively, edges) from a graph so as to make the remaining graph bipartite. This paper first shows that the vertex-deletion graph bipartization problem has a solution of size k or less if and only if the edge-deletion graph bipartization problem has a solution of size k or less, when the maximum vertex degree is limited to three. This immediately implies that (1) the vertex-deletion graph bipartization problem is NP-complete for cubic graphs, and (2) the minimum vertex-deletion graph bipartization problem is solvable in polynomial time for planar graphs when the maximum vertex degree is limited to three. It is then proved that the vertex-deletion graph bipartization problem is NP-complete for planar graphs when the maximum vertex degree exceeds three. Using this result, it is finally shown that the via minimization problem, which arises in the design of integrated circuits and printed ci.
Professionalization of Nursing: Current Issues and Trends

This issues and trends text provides a solid foundation for a future career in nursing! Now completely revised and updated, this respected text continues to provide in-depth exploration of nursing as a profession. A thorough discussion of the nature of a profession, nursing's evolution, and its progress toward professional status leads to developing strategies for enhancing professionalization. Coverage includes the development of nursing's knowledge base, nursing education in promoting professionalization, and nursing practice roles
Routing with Polynomial Communication-Space Trade-Off

This paper presents a family of memory-balanced routing schemes that use relatively short paths while storing relatively little routing information. The quality of the routes provided by a scheme is measured in terms of their stretch, namely, the maximum ratio between the length of a route connecting some pair of processors and their distance. The hierarchical schemes$\mathcal{H}_k $ (for every integer $k\geqq 1$) presented in this paper guarantee a stretch factor of $O( k^2 )$ on the length of the routes and require storing at most $O( k \cdot n^{1/k} \cdot \log n\log D )$ bits of routing information per vertex in an n-processor network with diameter D. The schemes are name independent and applicable to general networks with arbitrary edge weights. This improves on previous designs whose stretch bound was exponential in k.The proposed schemes are based on a new efficient solution to a certain graph-theoretic problem concerning sparse graph covers. The new cover technique has already found several other a.