Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knee effusions, popliteal cysts, and synovial thickening: association with knee pain in osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the association of effusions, popliteal cysts, and synovial thickening with knee symptoms in older persons with and without radiographic (XR) osteoarthritis (OA), using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). METHODS Subjects with and without knee symptoms were recruited from Veterans Affairs and community sources. All had weight-bearing knee radiographs. Subjects were divided into 3 groups: Knee pain/XROA group had knee symptoms and radiographic OA; No knee pain/XROA group had no knee symptoms and radiographic OA; and No knee pain/no XROA group had no knee symptoms and a normal radiograph. A single knee was imaged using a 1.5 T MR scanner using T1 and T2 weighted and proton density SE imaging sequences. MRI were read for effusion, popliteal cysts, and synovial thickening. RESULTS The mean age of subjects was 67.0 years (66.6% male). We studied 381 subjects with Knee pain/XROA, 52 with No knee pain/XROA, and 25 with No knee pain/no XROA. The prevalence of moderate or larger effusions was: Knee pain/XROA 54.6%, No knee pain/XROA 15.6%, and No knee pain/no XROA 11.1%. Popliteal cysts were present in 33.0% of Knee pain/XROA subjects, 28.0% No knee pain/XROA, and 9.1% No knee pain/no XROA. After adjusting for the severity of radiographic OA, there was a difference between those with and without knee pain in prevalence of moderate or larger effusions (p < 0.001) and synovial thickening, independent of effusion (p < 0.001), but not in the prevalence of popliteal cysts. Further, among those in Knee pain/OA group, synovial thickening was associated with the severity of knee pain. CONCLUSION Effusions and popliteal cysts are common in middle aged and elderly people. After adjusting for the degree of radiographic OA, moderate or large effusions and synovial thickening were more frequent among those with knee pain than those without pain, suggesting these features are associated with the pain of knee OA. In those with knee symptoms, synovial thickening is uniquely associated with the severity of knee pain.
Predictive Factors of Recurrence in Pediatric Cholesteatoma Surgery

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to analyze factors influencing the recurrence of acquired pediatric cholesteatoma that has impact on operative plan decision. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective review of 62 children (68 ears) with acquired middle ear cholesteatoma who underwent surgery from 1995 to 2006. Age distribution at initial operation ranged from 3 to 16 years with mean age of 11.2 years. Surgical removal of acquired cholesteatoma using ICWT (22%) or CWDT (78%) was performed. The median observation period was 30 months(±SD? ). RESULTS: The recurrence rate was estimated at 22%. In univariate analysis, higher rate of recurrence was correlated with age, cholesteatoma extent, mucosa state, ossicular chain state and operative technique. When multivariate analysis was performed to verify the independent correlation of the above four variables, only ossicular chain state, mucosa state, and cholesteatoma extent remained associated with recurrence. CONCLUSION: Pediatric acquired cholesteatoma is known to be an aggressive disease associated with a higher rate of recurrence than adults. Thus, this disease should be managed as early as possible for better anatomic and hearing results. To define the best therapeutic strategy, it is necessary to consider many factors such as total eradication of the disease, preservation of auditory function, and predictable follow up period. This study shows that ossicular chain state, mucosa state and cholesteatoma extent were found to be independently associated with recurrence. For the final decision, all factors should be properly considered and analyzed. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck surgery; University Hospital Farhat Hached Sousse – Tunisia.
Intra- and Interhost Evolutionary Dynamics of Equine Influenza Virus

ABSTRACT Determining the evolutionary basis of cross-species transmission and immune evasion is key to understanding the mechanisms that control the emergence of either new viruses or novel antigenic variants with pandemic potential. The hemagglutinin glycoprotein of influenza A viruses is a critical host range determinant and a major target of neutralizing antibodies. Equine influenza virus (EIV) is a significant pathogen of the horse that causes periodical outbreaks of disease even in populations with high vaccination coverage. EIV has also jumped the species barrier and emerged as a novel respiratory pathogen in dogs, canine influenza virus. We studied the dynamics of equine influenza virus evolution in horses at the intrahost level and how this evolutionary process is affected by interhost transmission in a natural setting. To this end, we performed clonal sequencing of the hemagglutinin 1 gene derived from individual animals at different times postinfection. Our results show that despite the population consensus sequence remaining invariant, genetically distinct subpopulations persist during the course of infection and are also transmitted, with some variants likely to change antigenicity. We also detected a natural case of mixed infection in an animal infected during an outbreak of equine influenza, raising the possibility of reassortment between different strains of virus. In sum, our data suggest that transmission bottlenecks may not be as narrow as originally perceived and that the genetic diversity required to adapt to new host species may be partially present in the donor host and potentially transmitted to the recipient host.
[Evaluating the activity of the Italian Mental Health Services inpatient and residential facilities: the PRISM (Process Indicator System for Mental health) indicators].

UNLABELLED This article describes the activities of a project aimed at developing a system of process and process/outcome indicators suitable to monitor over time the quality of psychiatric care of Italian inpatient and residential psychiatric facilities. This system, named PRISM (Process Indicator System for Mental health), was developed by means of a standardized evaluation made by a panel of experts and a consecutive pilot study in 17 inpatient and 13 residential psychiatric facilities. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 28 indicators were selected from a set of 251 candidate indicators developed by the most relevant and qualified Italian and international authorities. These indicators are derived by data from medical records and information about characteristics of facilities, and they cover processes of care, operational equipment of facilities, staff training and working, relationships with external agencies, and sentinel events. RESULTS The procedure followed for the development of the indicator system was reliable and innovative. The data collected from the pilot study suggested a favourable benefit-cost ratio between the workload associated with regular use of the indicators into the context of daily clinical activities and the advantages related to the information gathered through regular use of the indicators. CONCLUSIONS. :The PRISM system provides additional information about the healthcare processes with respect to the information gathered via routine information systems, and it might prove useful for both continuous quality improvement programs and health services research.
Identiﬁcation and characterization of a novel ﬂavin-containing spermine oxidase of mammalian cell origin

During polyamine catabolism, spermine and spermidine are ﬁrst acetylated by spermidine } spermine N " -acetyltransferase (SSAT) and subsequently oxidized by polyamine oxidase (PAO) to produce spermidine and putrescine, respectively. In attempting to clone the PAO involved in this back-conversion pathway, we encountered an oxidase that preferentially cleaves spermine in the absence of prior acetylation by SSAT. A BLAST search using maizePAOsequencesidentiﬁedhomologousmammaliancDNAsderivedfromhumanhepatomaandmousemammarycarcinoma:theencodedproteinsdiﬀeredby20aminoacids. WheneithercDNAwastransientlytransfectedintoHEK-293cells,intra-cellularsperminepoolsdecreasedby75 % while spermidine and N " -acetylspermidine pools increased, suggesting that spermine was selectively and directly oxidized by the enzyme. Substrate speciﬁcity using lysates of oxidase-transfected HEK-293 cells revealed that the newly identiﬁed oxidase strongly favoured spermine over N " -acetylspermine and that it failed to act on N " INTRODUCTION acetylspermidine, spermidine or the preferred PAO substrate, N " , N "# -diacetylspermine. The PAO inhibitor, MDL-72,527, only partially blocked oxidation of spermine while a previously reported PAO substrate, N " -( n -octanesulphonyl)spermine, po-tently inhibited the reaction. Overall, the data indicate that the enzyme represents a novel mammalian oxidase which, on the basis ofsubstratespeciﬁcity, wehavedesignated spermine oxidase in order to distinguish it from the PAO involved in polyamine back-conversion. The identiﬁcation of an enzyme capable of directly oxidizing spermine to spermidine has important implications for understanding polyamine homoeostasis and for interpreting metabolic and cellular responses to clinically relevant polyamine analogues and inhibitors.
Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: Architectures, Research Issues, Methodologies, Challenges, and Trends

Vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been quite a hot research area in the last few years. Due to their unique characteristics such as high dynamic topology and predictable mobility, VANETs attract so much attention of both academia and industry. In this paper, we provide an overview of the main aspects of VANETs from a research perspective. This paper starts with the basic architecture of networks, then discusses three popular research issues and general research methods, and ends up with the analysis on challenges and future trends of VANETs.
Estimate of the annual economic impact of treatment of cranial cruciate ligament injury in dogs in the United States.

OBJECTIVE To estimate the economic impact to veterinary clients for the medical and surgical treatment of rupture of the cranial cruciate ligament (RCCL) in dogs for the year 2003. DESIGN Economic impact survey. SAMPLE POPULATION 501 diplomates of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) indicating that their area of surgical emphasis was small animal orthopedic surgery or small animal general and orthopedic surgery and 4,000 veterinarians indicating to the AVMA that their professional area was small animal practice exclusive or mixed animal practice (at least 80% small animal). PROCEDURE Veterinarians were surveyed concerning the cost for medical and surgical treatment of RCCL for 2003. The economic impact was calculated by multiplying the number of RCCL surgeries performed by the mean cost of surgery. This was added to the number of RCCL cases managed medically multiplied by the mean cost of medical management. This estimate for survey responders was extrapolated to the total number of veterinarians in the study population for the ACVS or AVMA. RESULTS Estimates for the total cost of surgery were $171,730,134.72 and $1,020,167,907 for veterinarians in the ACVS and AVMA populations, respectively. The cost of medical management was $2,885,687.86 and $126,558,155.16 for veterinarians in the ACVS and AVMA populations, respectively. After combining the ACVS and AVMA populations, we estimated that owners spent $1.32 billion for the treatment of RCCL in the United States in 2003. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE RCCL is a prevalent, costly injury. Results may motivate veterinary and consumer agencies to prioritize funding for a better understanding of the injury.
Electrochemical removal of CuII in the presence of humic acid

The removal of CuII (10 mg L-1) complexed by commercial humic acid (100 mg L-1) was studied at different current densities (30-80 mA cm-2) using a filter-press cell, Ti/Ru0.3Ti0. 7O2 anode and stainless steel cathode. The electrolyses were performed with and without membrane separating the cell compartments [(homogeneous anionic (Nafion R117), heterogeneous cationic (Ionac MC-3470) and heterogeneous anionic (Ionac MA-3475)]. The influence of the membrane on the rate of CuII removal was bigger for cationic membranes. Current efficiencies up to ca. 55% (Ionac MC-3470) for CuII removal at 30 mA cm-2 were obtained. By combining oxidation and reduction, 100% CuII removal was achieved at current efficiencies of 75%. The main path for the removal is the electrostatic interaction with the anode followed by diffusion through the membrane and deposition at the cathode. Additionally, the oxidative degradation of humic acid contributes to the rate of CuII removal.
Double-stranded RNA viruses of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

INFECTIOUS ELEMENTS OF SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE 250 BIOLOGY OF THE YEAST dsRNA VIRUSES AND THE KILLER PHENOMENON 250 L-A VIRUS STRUCTURE: T 5 1 WITH 60 ASYMMETRIC Gag DIMERS 251 VIRAL REPLICATION CYCLES 251 L-A ENCODES Gag AND Gag-Pol 252 REPLICATION AND TRANSCRIPTION OF VIRAL RNA: IN VITRO SYSTEMS 254 TRANSLATION OF VIRAL mRNA 254 The SKI2,3,8 System Blocks the Translation of Non-Poly(A) mRNA 255 M1 Propagation Depends Critically on Free 60S Ribosomal Subunit Levels 256 Do SKI2, 3, and 8 Determine 60S Subunit Interaction with Poly(A)? 257 Gag Makes Decapitated Decoys To Distract the SKI1/XRN1 Exoribonuclease 257 Lethality of ski1 ski2 and ski1 ski3 double mutants 258 Gag-Pol Fusion Protein Formed by a 21 Ribosomal Frameshift: How and Why 258 Mechanism of 21 ribosomal frameshifting 258 How critical is the efficiency of frameshifting? 259 Chromosomal genes affecting the efficiency of frameshifting 259 Can 21 ribosomal frameshifting be used as a target of antiviral drugs? 259 POSTTRANSLATIONAL PROCESSING 259 MAK3 N-Acetyltransferase Modification of Gag Is Necessary for Assembly 259 Killer Preprotoxin Is Processed To Form Mature Toxin 260 KEX1 and KEX2 Processing Proteases and Mammalian Prohormone Processing 260 RNA PACKAGING: IN VITRO AND IN VIVO 260 Evidence for cis Packaging by L-A 260 Does Packaging Control Translation? 260 L-BC IS CLOSELY RELATED TO L-A 261 CONCLUSIONS AND PROSPECTS 261 REFERENCES 262
Position estimation for manipulators based on multisensor fusion

Maximizing the tracking performance of an industrial manipulators requires an accurate position estimation of the end-effector. By using the motor position from the encoder, the accuracy of end-effector position estimation is affected by the gear mechanisms employed by industrial manipulators. An accelerometer is fixed on the end-effector to get measurements that reflect the actual end-effector motion and the effect of unmodelled dynamics. In the paper a multisensor fusion method is presented to achieve good estimates of the position of the end-effector fusing the measurements from an accelerometer, a gyroscope and the encoders of joints' motors. Since the robot dynamics and measurements are highly nonlinear and the measurement noise is non-Gaussian, the particle filter provides a solution to the sensor fusion problem. Simulation research results show an improvement in position accuracy using proposed method.
Differences and determinants in access to essential public health services in China: a case study with hypertension people and under‐sixes as target population

Background Since 2009, health reform had launched in China and essential public health services were provided for all residents to ensure service equity and accessibility, and to achieve sustained population‐wide health improvement. This study aimed to investigate the differences and determinants among populations with different characteristics access to essential public health services in China, especially hypertension people and children aged 0‐6 years. Methods A cross‐sectional study with socio‐demographic data analysis was undertaken to estimate distribution characteristics of receiving essential public health services of hypertension patients and children. Regular follow‐ups and effective blood pressure control reflected the effective management for hypertension patients, and for children, public services provided were vaccination on schedule and regular physical check‐up. Logistic regression was used to determine the predictors for effective management. Results A total of 1 505 hypertension patients and 749 children were involved; 39.14% of hypertension participants could control their blood pressure in the normal range, and the rate in urban areas (43.61%) was higher than that in rural (31.88%). And 34.68% of them could receive more than 4 times follow‐ups by the medical technician. Of 754 children, 79.84% could receive the periodic physical examination and 98.40% had vaccinated regularly. Children living in rural areas were more likely to have regular check‐ups (83.96%) and regular vaccination (nearly 99%). Overall, geographic location and education level were the determinants of people access to essential public health services. Conclusions Implementation of the health reform since 2009 has headed China’s public health system in the right direction and promoted the improvement of public health system development. Our study highlights the growing needs for more public health services in China, and China’s public health system needs to be greatly improved in terms of its quality and accessibility.
Insulin Regulates Expression of Metabolic Genes through Divergent Signaling Pathways

The regulation of metabolic gene expression is a major mechanism by which insulin modulates glucose homeostasis. Defective transcription factors or signal transduction molecules that are required for insulin regulated gene expression could contribute to insulin resistance. The phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase (PEPCK) and hexokinase II (HKII) genes are involved in metabolic processes that represent opposing facets of glucose homeostasis, namely gluconeogenesis and glucose utilization. The regulation of the PEPCK and HKII genes by insulin has been studied in great detail at the level of both transcription and signal transduction. Recent work on the insulin signaling pathways that lead to down-regulation of PEPCK gene expression and upregulation of HKII gene expression has shown that they both require activation of phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) for the transmission of the insulin signal. However, the pathways diverge after PI3K and lead to activation of different downstream effectors. In this paper we review the results of studies on the transcriptional regulation of these genes by insulin and the signal transduction pathways that mediate these responses.
Personality as a Vulnerability Factor to Depression

One hundred and forty non-depressed primiparous women in a stable relationship completed two personality measures (the EPI and the IPSM) antenatally, and were then assessed for depression at several times post-natally. The risk of depression at six months was increased up to tenfold by high interpersonal sensitivity and threefold by high neurotic ism. When previously depressed women were excluded from analyses, high interpersonal sensitivity and, to a lesser extent, high neuroticism were still associated with an increased risk of being depressed. Interpersonal sensitivity, as measured, is suggested as a refined personality risk factor to both the onset and recurrence of depression.
Involvement of ErbB2 in the Signaling Pathway Leading to Cell Cycle Progression from a Truncated Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Lacking the C-terminal Autophosphorylation Sites (*)

To investigate the mechanisms underlying the enhanced mitogenic activity of the truncated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) lacking the C-terminal autophosphorylation sites (Δ973-EGFR), we studied the intracellular signaling pathways in NR6 cells expressing human wild type EGFR and Δ973-EGFR. Microinjection of dominant/negative p21(N17) completely inhibited EGF-induced DNA synthesis in both cell types. EGF stimulated Shc phosphorylation as well as the formation of wild type EGFR•Shc complexes. In contrast, EGF stimulated Shc phosphorylation without formation of Δ973-EGFR•Shc complexes. Tyrosine-phosphorylated Shc formed complexes with Grb2•Sos, and microinjection of anti-Shc antibody and Shc-SH2 GST fusion protein inhibited EGF stimulation of DNA synthesis in both cell lines. EGF markedly increased ErbB2 tyrosine phosphorylation in wild type EGFR cells. In Δ973-EGFR cells, ErbB2 was tyrosine phosphorylated in the basal state and EGFR stimulated further phosphorylation of ErbB2. In addition to ErbB2, additional proteins were tyrosine phosphorylated in Δ973-EGFR cells, mostly in the molecular mass range of 120-170 kDa. Taken together with our findings indicating coupling of ErbB2 to Shc, these data suggest the importance of an alternative signaling pathway in Δ973-EGFR cells mediated by the formation of heterodimeric structures between the truncated EGFR and ErbB2, followed by coupling through Shc to Grb2•Sos and the p21 pathway, ultimately leading to mitogenesis.
Temporal position of discharges in single auditory nerve fibers within the cycle of a sine-wave stimulus: frequency and intensity effects.

Period histograms, which display the distribution of spikes throughout the cycle of the sinusoidal stimulus, were computed for discharges recorded from single auditory nerve fibers of the squirrel monkey when low‐frequency tones were employed. For each histogram, an average phase angle was determined, which constitutes a measure of central tendency for the spike distribution. For frequencies up to 4 kHz, where phase locking is observed, the average phase angle was tracked as frequency was varied in small steps from low to high. To the first approximation, the cumulative shift in average phase angle is a linear function of frequency, as would be anticipated for a constant‐propagation delay. A more detailed examination revealed that average phase angle is also sensitive to intensity, depending upon the relation of the stimulating frequency to the best frequency. For stimulating frequencies below best frequency, discharges tend to occur progressively later in the cycle as intensity increases. Above best freq.
A Malware Variant Detection Method Based on Byte Randomness Test

Malware variants, referring to the different members in the same malware family, are generally produced by simply modifying the existing malwares in order to avoid being detected by the traditional signature-based methods. The mass of malware variants has brought great difficulties to detect malicious code. In this paper, a malware variants detection method based on byte randomness tests is proposed. The bytes distribution value of the instruction sequences obtained from randomness tests , named as the byte randomness profiles, can preserves enough local detail about program, so it can be used as feature vector to represent malware in a distinctive manner. Moreover, the sum of squares distance (SSD) and the cosine similarity (COS) are used to measure the distinctiveness between two malwares. Experimental results show that the proposed method provides a fast and effective way to detect variants of known malware families.
16S rDNA phylogeny and ultrastructural characterization of Wolbachia intracellular bacteria of the filarial nematodes Brugia malayi, B. pahangi, and Wuchereria bancrofti.

Abstract Taylor, M. J., Bilo, K. , Cross, H. F. , Archer, J. P., and Underwood, A. P. 1999. 16S rDNA phylogeny and ultrastructural characterization ofWolbachiaintracellular bacteria of the filarial nematodesBrugia malayi, B. pahangi, andWuchereria bancrofti. Experimental Parasitology91, 356–361.