Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diminished Vascular Response to Inhibition of Endothelium‐Derived Nitric Oxide and Enhanced Vasoconstriction to Exogenously Administered Endothelin‐1 in Clinically Healthy Smokers

Smoking is a major risk factor for the development of atherosclerosis. Because endothelial dysfunction may be a marker for future atherosclerosis, we investigated the effects of smoking on endothelium-dependent control of vascular tone. Methods and ResultsThe effects of brachial arterial infusions of NG-monomethyl-L- arginine (L-NMMA), a nitric oxide synthesis inhibitor; sodium nitroprusside; endothelin-1; and norepinephrine on forearm blood flow (strain-gauge plethysmography) were compared in 29 long- term smokers and 16 nonsmokers. The acute effects of smoking on systemic hemodynamics, plasma catecholamines, and forearm vascular responses to these compounds were investigated in smokers only. Smokers did not differ from nonsmokers (n= 16) regarding the vascular effects of sodium nitroprusside (n= 13) or vasoconstriction due to norepinephrine and endothelin-1 (n= 16). Low- dose endothelin-1-induced vasodilation, believed to reflect endothelial prostacyclin or nitric oxide release, was absent in smokers (n= 16), and their increase of forearm vascular resistance (FVR) after L-NMMA (n=13) was impaired impaired (35.6±27.9% versus 118.8±43.2%, P < .001). Shortterm smoking (n=11) increased blood pressure, heart rate, and plasma epinephrine concentrations (P < .05 or less); enhanced endothelin-1-induced vasoconstriction (ΔFVR, 457±192% versus 254±143%, P < 01); and decreased norepinephrine- induced vasoconstriction (P < .05), but had no effect on the other interventions. ConclusionsLong-term smoking is associated with a diminished nitric oxide-dependent component of basal vascular tone and an impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilator response to low-dose endothelin-1 and short-term smoking enhances endothelin-1-induced vasoconstriction. Impaired endothelial control of vascular tone might reflect impairment of normal antiatherosclerotic endothelial functions in smokers, but the relevance of smoking-induced enhancement of endothelin-1 vasoconstriction remains to be determined.
Effects of hyperoxia on type II cell Na-K-ATPase function and expression.

Alveolar fluid is resorbed using active Na+ transport primarily through basolateral sodium-potassium-adenosinetriphosphatase (Na-K-ATPase) and apical Na+ channels that are particularly dense on the alveolar type II (ATII) epithelial cells. During lung injury with pulmonary edema, continued or accelerated Na+ and fluid resorption is critical for a favorable outcome. However, little is known of how ATII cell Na+ transport is affected during injury. These experiments examined the effects of acute lung injury on ATII cell Na-K-ATPase activity and expression using an established model of rats exposed to 100% O(2) for 60 h. Na-K-ATPase activity of ATII cells isolated immediately after exposure was assessed by ouabain-sensitive (86)Rb+ uptake in intact cells and by ouabain-sensitive P(i) production by cell membranes. In the presence of 1 mM ouabain, ouabain-sensitive Rb+ uptake was not different between normoxic and hyperoxic cells, but the apparent Na-K-ATPase maximal velocity (Vmax) of hyperoxic cell membranes was 75 +/- 8% of normoxic membranes (P < 0.05). On Western blots of ATII cell membranes, alpha1-subunit protein significantly decreased with hyperoxia (35 +/- 9% of normoxia; P < 0.05), whereas the amounts of the beta-subunit were unchanged (P > 0.05). On Northern blots of ATII cell total RNA, steady-state levels of both the alpha1- and beta1-subunit mRNA increased after hyperoxia (alpha1 = 2.5 +/- 1.3-fold; beta1 = 4.6 +/- 2.5-fold). Thus despite hyperoxic decreases in Na-K-ATPase Vmax and the amount of alpha1-protein, Rb+ uptake by Na-K-ATPase in intact cells was unchanged. The mRNA levels, protein amounts, and enzyme activity did not respond in parallel to hyperoxic injury, and the activity in intact cells correlated best with the amounts of the beta-subunit, the limiting component in de novo pump assembly in many tissues.
Limited Resection Versus Lobectomy for Older Patients With Early-Stage Lung Cancer: Impact of Histology.

PURPOSE Limited resection has been increasingly used in older patients with stage IA lung cancer. However, the equivalency of limited resection versus lobectomy according to histology is unknown. METHODS We identified patients older than 65 years with stage IA invasive adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma ≤ 2 cm who were treated with limited resection (wedge or segmentectomy) or lobectomy in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database. We estimated propensity scores that predicted the use of limited resection and compared survival of patients treated with limited resection versus lobectomy. Treatments were considered equivalent if the upper 95th percentile of the hazard ratio (HR) for limited resection was ≤ 1.25. RESULTS Overall, 27% of 2,008 patients with adenocarcinoma and 32% of 1,139 patients with squamous cell carcinoma underwent limited resection. Survival analyses, adjusted for propensity score by using inverse probability weighting, showed that limited resection was not equivalent to lobectomy in patients with adenocarcinoma (HR, 1.21; upper 95% CI,1.34) or squamous cell carcinoma (HR, 1.21; upper 95% CI, 1.39). Although patients with adenocarcinomas treated with segmentectomy had equivalent survival rates to those treated with lobectomy (HR, 0.97; upper 95% CI, 1.07), outcomes of those treated with wedge resection (HR, 1.29; upper 95% CI, 1.42) did not. Among patients with squamous cell carcinoma, neither wedge resection (HR, 1.34; upper 95% CI, 1.53) nor segmentectomy (HR, 1.19; upper 95% CI, 1.36) were equivalent to lobectomy. CONCLUSION We found generally that limited resection is not equivalent to lobectomy in older patients with invasive non-small-cell lung cancer ≤ 2 cm in size, although segmentectomy may be equivalent in patients with adenocarcinoma.
Intermittent‐relapsing pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency: a case with clinical, biochemical, and neuroradiological reversibility

Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDHC) deficiency causes encephalomyopathies, of which there are four major categories: (1) neonatal encephalopathy with lactic acidosis; (2) an early infantile form, which (3) at times resembles Leigh syndrome; and (4) a later‐onset form. Long‐term clinical and radiological follow‐up is still incompletely elucidated. We report a 12‐year‐old male with intermittent‐relapsing PDHC deficiency who presented with three typical acute episodes of metabolic decompensation over 7 years. Neuroimaging showed reversible signal abnormalities in the basal ganglia, inferior olivary nuclei, periaqueductal grey matter, and dentate nuclei, with evidence of lactate on magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Molecular analysis of PDH1A revealed a novel hemizygous c.1045G>A mutation, predicting a p.A349T missense mutation. He was treated with thiamine supplementation and, while on this regimen, he experienced several intercurrent febrile episodes without neurological compromise. This case report stresses the importance of performing neuroimaging during acute clinical episodes because brain lesions in PDHC deficiency may be transient and reversible, and false‐negative results may mislead the diagnosis and delay the treatment.
Rosette formation in relation to active synthesis of antibody.

Studies were done on the requirement for an active synthetic process for the production of rosettes by mouse spleen cells, and on the relation of rosette-forming cells (RFC) to plaque-forming cells (PFC). Evidence for an active process was obtained by injection of mice with actinomycin D on the day of antigen injection. This prevented the appearance of both RFC and PFC. In other approaches, the inhibiting agents were applied in vitro to suspensions of cells producing rosettes. Rosette formation was inhibited on incubation at 37°C, in contrast with 4°C, by inhibitors of protein synthesis, cycloheximide and puromycin, and by anti-metabolites, iodoacetate and arsanilic acid. The most direct evidence that rosettes and plaques can be produced by the same cells was obtained by differential density centrifugation. Following bovine plasma albumin density gradient centrifugation of original spleen cell suspensions, both rosettes and plaques were found to be produced by cells of the same, relatively low, density. When such suspensions were first incubated for rosette formation, however, the RFC, now in rosettes, were found in a fraction of higher density, intermediate between that of white blood cells and red blood cells. The number of plaques produced by this higher density fraction was found to be markedly increased over the analogous fraction from original spleen cell suspensions, in which rosettes had not been formed. The nature of the receptors on the cell surface involved in rosette formation was examined in several ways. It was shown that rosette formation could be inhibited by exposure of the cells to an excess of antigen or to anti-IgG serum or its Fab fragments. The rosettes were partially sensitive to complement, indicating that IgM molecules as well as IgG molecules can be involved in rosette formation.
Monitoring of Human Cytomegalovirus‐Specific CD4+ and CD8+ T‐Cell Immunity in Patients Receiving Solid Organ Transplantation

Absolute and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)‐specific CD4+ and CD8+ T‐cell counts were monitored in 38 solid organ (20 heart, 9 lung and 9 kidney) transplant recipients during the first year after transplantation by a novel assay based on T‐cell stimulation with HCMV‐infected autologous dendritic cells. According to the pattern of T‐cell restoration occurring either within the first month after transplantation or later, patients were classified as either early (n = 21) or late responders (n = 17). HCMV‐specific CD4+ and CD8+ T‐cell counts were consistently lower in late compared to early responders from baseline through 6 months after transplantation. In addition, in late responders, while HCMV infection preceded immune restoration, HCMV‐specific CD4+ restoration was significantly delayed with respect to CD8+ T‐cell restoration. The number of HCMV‐specific CD4+ and CD8+ T‐cells detected prior to transplantation significantly correlated with time to T‐cell immunity restoration, in that higher HCMV‐specific T‐cell counts predicted earlier immune restoration. Clinically, the great majority of early responders (18/21, 85.7%) underwent self‐resolving HCMV infections (p = 0.004), whereas the great majority of late responders (13/17, 76.5%) were affected by HCMV infections requiring antiviral treatment (p = <0.0001). Simultaneous monitoring of HCMV infection and HCMV‐specific T‐cell immunity predicts T‐cell‐mediated control of HCMV infection.
Effects of academic stress on oral hygiene--a potential link between stress and plaque-associated disease?

BACKGROUND While there seems to be a common belief that psychosocial stress affects oral hygiene behavior, this assumption has rarely been proved. The present study thus aims to analyse stress effects on oral hygiene. MATERIAL AND METHODS 16 matched pairs of medical students each consisting of 1 student participating in a major academic exam and 1 control without current academic stress, were formed on the basis of baseline plaque levels. At baseline, a professional tooth cleaning was performed. On the last day of exams, students answered questionnaires about oral hygiene during the exams and were afterwards asked to attend for a 2nd dental examination, of which they had no prior knowledge. RESULTS On the last day of exams, approximately 6 weeks after professional tooth cleaning, 20.9+/-18.3% of control students' sites but only 10.5+/-9.3% of exam students' sites were found to be free of any plaque (p=0.022). Differences were most obvious at oral, as compared to vestibular, sites. Exam students reported a reduction in thoroughness (p=0.019) but not of frequency of oral hygiene behavior. CONCLUSION The study strongly supports the assumption that psychosocial stress may induce neglect of oral hygiene and increase of plaque accumulation.
In Situ Monitoring of the Nascent Pseudomonas fluorescens Biofilm Response to Variations in the Dissolved Organic Carbon Level in Low-Nutrient Water by Attenuated Total Reflectance-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

ABSTRACT Drinking water quality management requires early warning tools which enable water supply companies to detect quickly and to forecast degradation of the microbial quality of drinking water during its transport throughout distribution systems. This study evaluated the feasibility of assessing, in real time, drinking water biostability by monitoring in situ the evolution of the attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) fingerprint of a nascent reference biofilm exposed to water being tested. For this purpose, the responses of nascent Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilms to variations in the dissolved organic carbon (DOC) level in tap water were monitored in situ and in real time by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Nascent P. fluorescens biofilms consisting of a monolayer of bacteria were formed on the germanium crystal of an ATR flowthrough cell by pumping bacterial suspensions in Luria-Bertani (LB) medium through the cell. Then they were exposed to a continuous flow of dechlorinated sterile tap water supplemented with appropriate amounts of sterile LB medium to obtain DOC concentrations ranging from 1.5 to 11.8 mg/liter. The time evolution of infrared bands related to proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids clearly showed that changes in the DOC concentration resulted in changes in the nascent biofilm ATR-FTIR fingerprint within 2 h after exposure of the biofilm to the water being tested. The initial bacterial attachment, biofilm detachment, and regrowth kinetics determined from changes in the areas of bands associated with proteins and polysaccharides were directly dependent on the DOC level. Furthermore, they were consistent with bacterial adhesion or growth kinetic models and extracellular polymeric substance overproduction or starvation-dependent detachment mechanisms.
Inflight wavelength correction of Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) data acquired from the ER-2

In 1991 one flightline of Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) data was acquired over Castaic Lake, CA, and in 1992 four flightlines of TIMS data were acquired over Death Valley, CA, and one flightime of TIMS data over Lake Tahoe, CA. All datasets were obtained from an altitude of 20 km. To produce surface radiance the data were first calibrated, and then corrected for atmospheric effects using MODTRAN. The surface temperature was then extracted from the radiance data assuming a constant emissivity of 0.985 in all the TIMS channels. The surface temperatures for a spectrally flat area in the Castaic Lake data were then examined. Since the emissivity of the area was constant, the surface temperatures in the six TIMS channels should also have been similar. However, this was not the case, the values in channel 4 were much higher (/spl sim/3/spl deg/C) and the values in channel 3 much lower (/spl sim/2/spl deg/C) than those in the other channels. This difference can be explained by an inflight shift in the system response functions of the six TIMS channels. The amount of shift can be determined by incremental shifting of the preflight system response functions to longer wavelengths, then recalculating the surface temperature using the above method until the temperatures for channels 3 and 4 agree. A shift of 85 nm (the narrowest TIMS channel is /spl sim/500 nm wide) was required to make the brightness temperatures of channels 3 and 4 agree to within +/-1/spl deg/C within the Castaic Lake data. The same procedure was undertaken with the TIMS data from the four flightlines acquired at Death Valley that overlapped a spectrally flat target and over Lake Tahoe. The surface temperatures for all the channels were found to be in good agreement after shifts of 79, 88, 91, and 100 nm, respectively, for the four Death Valley flightlines and 98 nm for the Lake Tahoe flightline. The amount of shift increased as a function of the time that TIMS was airborne. The Castaic Lake data were acquired after TEMS had been airborne for a similar amount of time to the Death Valley flightline which showed a shift of 91 nm. The results from this study clearly demonstrate that the system response functions of the six TIMS channels shift to longer wavelengths compared to their preflight values with data acquired from the ER-2. A method is provided for determining the amount of shift permitting its correction. The method could also be used to verify the inflight wavelength calibration of multispectral thermal infrared data acquired from other airborne or spaceborne scanners with a similar optical configuration to TIMS.
Dynamic modelling of polluted outdoor insulator under wet weather conditions

This paper proposes a dynamic pollution modelling for evaluating electric field distribution over the composite insulator surface. Axial-symmetric insulator profile under wet contaminated conditions was developed and analysed using Finite Element Method (FEM) software. A nonlinear field-dependent conductivity with simplified assumptions was established to characterise the electrical properties of the pollution layer. Comparative studies showed that simulation of the proposed pollution model results in a more realistic electric field profile, offering better understanding on how the electric field behaves under various wet and contaminated conditions.
Cognitive neuroscience of social emotions and implications for psychopathology: Examining embarrassment, guilt, envy, and schadenfreude

Social emotions are affective states elicited during social interactions and integral for promoting socially appropriate behaviors and discouraging socially inappropriate ones. Social emotion‐processing deficits significantly impair interpersonal relationships, and play distinct roles in the manifestation and maintenance of clinical symptomatology. Elucidating the neural correlates of discrete social emotions can serve as a window to better understanding and treating neuropsychiatric disorders. Moral cognition and social emotion‐processing broadly recruit a fronto–temporo–subcortical network, supporting empathy, perspective‐taking, self‐processing, and reward‐processing. The present review specifically examines the neural correlates of embarrassment, guilt, envy, and schadenfreude. Embarrassment and guilt are self‐conscious emotions, evoked during negative evaluation following norm violations and supported by a fronto–temporo–posterior network. Embarrassment is evoked by social transgressions and recruits greater anterior temporal regions, representing conceptual social knowledge. Guilt is evoked by moral transgressions and recruits greater prefrontal regions, representing perspective‐taking and behavioral change demands. Envy and schadenfreude are fortune‐of‐other emotions, evoked during social comparison and supported by a prefronto–striatal network. Envy represents displeasure in others' fortunes, and recruits increased dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, representing cognitive dissonance, and decreased reward‐related striatal regions. Schadenfreude represents pleasure in others' misfortunes, and recruits reduced empathy‐related insular regions and increased reward‐related striatal regions. Implications for psychopathology and treatment design are discussed.
Comparison of change detection techniques for the Yucatan peninsula using Landsat image time series

Several change detection methods have been developed over the last decades and an even higher number during the last years due to the opening of the Landsat archive. Some change detection methods aim at all types of land surface alterations while others target specific types such as inundations, urbanization or forest cover change or even more specifically forest cover loss. Many methods were developed and tested for temperate regions where most cloud-free data are obtained during the growing season. In the tropics, however, cloud cover is highest during the period when vegetation is most active. This study tests two common approaches, the Vegetation Change Tracker (VCT) and the Iterative Multivariate Alteration Detection (IMAD) in the northwestern portion of the Yucatan peninsula using Landsat images. Results from change detection algorithm were compared to reference samples and reference polygons. Various parameter sets for the VCT algorithm never reach the accuracy level of IMAD.
Guidelines for the investigation and management of mantle cell lymphoma

The guideline group was selected to be representative of UK-based medical experts and patients representatives. Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE and NCBI Pubmed were searched systematically for publications in English from 1980 to 2011 using the MeSH subheading 'lymphoma, mantle cell' and 'lymphoma, mantle cell' as a keyword, as well as all subheadings. In addition, all references to mantle cell lymphoma in the World Health Organization Classification of Tumours of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissue (Swerdlow et al, 2008) and the British Committee for Standards in Haematology (BCSH) Guideline: Best Practice in Lymphoma Diagnosis and Reporting (Parker et al, 2010) have been included. The writing group produced the draft guideline, which was subsequently revised by consensus by members of the Haemato-oncology Task Force of the BCSH. The guideline was then reviewed by a sounding board of approximately 50 UK haematologists, the BCSH and the British Society for Haematology Committee and comments incorporated where appropriate. The 'GRADE' system was used to quote levels and grades of evidence, details of which can be found in Appendix I. The objective of this guideline is to provide healthcare professionals with clear guidance on the investigation and management of patients with mantle cell lymphoma. The guidance may not be appropriate to patients with other lymphoma sub-types and in all cases individual patient circumstances may dictate an alternative approach.
The viper algorithm: A new approach for detection using 2D-adaptive sampling

This paper describes a new technique of irregular and adaptive sampling developed to process still images containing objects of interest over a non interesting background. The method allows the identification of interesting elements and is able to choose the sampling interval more adequate to obtain a correct description of them. The not interesting background is roughly sampled and this particular aspect of the method is an important advantage. Objects are first detected by a preliminary sampling phase and then a resampling process begins, until a convergence test in the Fourier domain is satisfied and stops the process. Examples of applications are given.