Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gastroschisis and Omphalocele: Does Either Antenatal Diagnosis or Route of Delivery Make a Difference in Perinatal Outcome?

The route of delivery for the fetus with an abdominal wall defect is controversial. This investigation proposed two null hypotheses: 1) The prognosis for the fetus with an abdominal wall defect is not affected by the timing of the diagnosis (antenatal or postnatal); and 2) the route of delivery does not affect fetal outcome. Sixty-one pregnancies complicated by either fetal gastroschisis (33) or omphalocele (28) delivered between December 1979 and January 1989 were reviewed. Seventy-one percent of the fetuses with gastroschisis and 59% with omphalocele were born vaginally. Gestational age at delivery, incidence of meconium staining, days to first neonatal oral feeding, percentage of neonates with one-stage closure of their defect, and percent of neonates with a birth weight less than the tenth percentile for gestational age were similar in fetuses with gastroschisis and with omphalocele, whether diagnosed antenatally or at birth. Significantly lower birth weights and longer neonatal hospitalizations were noted in the infants with omphalocele diagnosed antenatally compared with those diagnosed at birth (P<.03), but no such differences were seen with gastroschisis. The route of delivery did not affect outcome for either defect. All fetuses born with gastroschisis and 87% with omphalocele free of associated lethal abnormalities were discharged alive. We conclude that the antenatal diagnosis of gastroschisis is not associated with either worse disease or a poorer outcome, though this may not be true for omphalocele. The good outcome with a high vaginal delivery rate suggests the need for a randomized trial of vaginal and cesarean delivery for fetal gastroschisis and omphalocele.
Adherence to secondary prophylaxis for rheumatic heart disease is underestimated by register data

Objective In high-burden Australian states and territories, registers of patients with acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease are maintained for patient management, monitoring of system performance and research. Data validation was undertaken for the Australian Northern Territory Rheumatic Heart Disease Register to determine quality and impact of data cleaning on reporting against key performance indicators: overall adherence, and proportion of patients receiving ≥80% of scheduled penicillin doses for secondary prophylaxis. Methods Register data were compared with data from health centres. Inconsistencies were identified and corrected; adherence was calculated before and after cleaning. Results 2780 penicillin doses were validated; 426 inconsistencies were identified, including 102 incorrect dose dates. After cleaning, mean adherence increased (63.5% to 67.3%, p<0.001) and proportion of patients receiving ≥80% of doses increased (34.2% to 42.1%, p = 0.06). Conclusions The Northern Territory Rheumatic Heart Disease Register underestimates adherence, although the key performance indicator of ≥80% adherence was not significantly affected. Program performance is better than hitherto appreciated. However some errors could affect patient management, as well as accuracy of longitudinal or inter-jurisdictional comparisons. Adequate resources are needed for maintenance of data quality in acute rheumatic fever/rheumatic heart disease registers to ensure provision of evidence-based care and accurate assessment of program impact.
Body-Penetrating Tactile Phantom Sensations

In tactile interaction, a phantom sensation refers to an illusion felt on the skin between two distant points at which vibrations are applied. It can improve the perceptual spatial resolution of tactile stimulation with a few tactors. All phantom sensations reported in the literature act on the skin or out of the body, but no such reports exist for those eliciting sensations penetrating the body. This paper addresses tactile phantom sensations in which two vibration actuators on the dorsal and palmar sides of the hand present an illusion of vibration passing through the hand. We also demonstrate similar tactile illusions for the torso. For optimal design, we conducted user studies while varying vibration frequency, envelope function, stimulus duration, and penetrating direction. Based on the results, we present design guidelines on penetrating phantom sensations for its use in immersive virtual reality applications.
Malate dehydrogenase from Chlorobium vibrioforme, Chlorobium tepidum, and Heliobacterium gestii: purification, characterization, and investigation of dinucleotide binding by dehydrogenases by use of empirical methods of protein sequence analysis

Malate dehydrogenase (MDH; EC 1.1.1.37) from strain NCIB 8327 of the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobium vibrioforme was purified to homogeneity by triazine dye affinity chromatography followed by gel filtration. Purification of MDH gave an approximately 1,000-fold increase in specific activity and recoveries of typically 15 to 20%. The criteria of purity were single bands on sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and nondenaturing polyacrylamide electrophoresis (PAGE) and the detection of a single N terminus in an Edman degradation analysis. MDH activity was detected in purified preparations by activity staining of gels in the direction of malate oxidation. PAGE and gel filtration (Sephadex G-100) analyses showed the native enzyme to be a dimer composed of identical subunits both at room temperature and at 4 degrees C. The molecular weight of the native enzyme as estimated by gel filtration was 77,000 and by gradient PAGE was 74,000. The subunit molecular weight as estimated by SDS-gradient PAGE was 37,500. N-terminal sequences of MDHs from C. vibrioforme, Chlorobium tepidum, and Heliobacterium gestii are presented. There are obvious key sequence similarities in MDHs from the phototrophic green bacteria. The sequences presented probably possess a stretch of amino acids involved in dinucleotide binding which is similar to that of Chloroflexus aurantiacus MDH and other classes of dehydrogenase enzymes but unique among MDHs.
Etiologies of Shoulder Pain in Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

A protocol including physical examination, plain radiography, and shoulder arthrography was designed to study prospectively the causes of shoulder pain in patients with cervical spinal cord injury. Twenty-four patients (30 shoulders) were studied and subdivided into acute and chronic groups. The causes of shoulder pain in the acute group of 11 patients (15 shoulders) included capsular contracture or capsulitis or both in 6 shoulders; rotator cuff tears in 4; anterior instability in 2; and rotator cuff impingement, osteoarthritis with osteonecrosis, and osteoarthritis in 1 each. Of 13 patients (15 shoulders) assigned to the chronic group, the diagnoses included anterior instability in 5 shoulders; multidirectional instability in 3; capsular contracture or capsulitis or both in 3; and Charcot arthropathy, rotator cuff tear, rotator cuff impingement, and scapular pain in 1 each. To prevent and treat shoulder pain, therapeutic protocols for these patients must be individualized after a correct diagnosis is made.
Acoustic droplet vaporization for temporal and spatial control of tissue occlusion: a kidney study

Acoustic droplet vaporization (ADV) has been introduced with the potential application of tumor treatment via occlusion and subsequent necrosis. New Zealand White rabbits were anesthetized, and their left kidney was externalized. An imaging array and single-element transducer were positioned in a tank with direct access to the kidney's vasculature and renal artery. Filtered droplet emulsions (diameter < 6 /spl mu/m) were injected intra-arterially (IA) into the left heart during insonification of the renal artery, and the extent of blood flow reduction by ADV was compared to the untreated right kidney. Flow cytometry (using colored microspheres) of kidney tissue samples and reference blood from the femoral artery allowed the quantitative estimation of regional blood flow. A maximum regional blood flow reduction in the treated region of >90% and an average organ perfusion reduction of >70% was achieved using ADV. After treatment of the left kidney, the control kidney on the contralateral side showed a maximum decrease in regional blood flow of 18% relative to the pre-ADV baseline. Image-based hyper-echogenicity from ADV of IA injections was monitored for approximately 90 minutes, and cortex perfusion was reduced by >60% of its original value for more than 1 hour. This could be enough time for the onset of cell death and possible tumor treatment via ischemic necrosis. Moreover, currently used radiofrequency tissue ablation-based tumor treatment could benefit from ADV due to the decreased heat loss via vascular cooling.
Route of administration of chimeric BPV1 VLP determines the character of the induced immune responses

To examine the mucosal immune response to papillomavirus virus‐like particles (PV‐VLP), mice were immunized with VLP intrarectally (i.r.), intravaginally (i.va.) or intramuscularly (i.m.) without adjuvant. PV‐VLP were assembled with chimeric BPV‐1 L1 proteins incorporating sequence from HIV‐1 gp120, either the V3 loop or a shorter peptide incorporating a known CTL epitope (HIVP18I10). Antibody specific for BPV‐1 VLP and P18 peptide was detected in serum following i.m. , but not i.r. or i.va. immunization. Denatured VLP induced a much reduced immune response when compared with native VLP. Immune responses following mucosal administration of VLP were generally weaker than following systemic administration. VLP specific IgA was higher in intestine washes following i.r. than i.va. immunization, and higher in vaginal washes following i.m. than i.r. or i.va. immunization. No differences in specific antibody responses were seen between animals immunized with BPV‐1 P18 VLP or with BPV‐1 V3 VLP. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursors specific for the P18 CTL epitope were recovered from the spleen following i.m. , i.va. or i.r. immunization with P18 VLP, and were similarly detected in Peyer's patches following i.m. or i.r. immunization. Thus, mucosal or systemic immunization with PV VLP induces mucosal CTL responses and this may be important for vaccines for mucosal infection with human papillomaviruses and for other viruses.
The Burden of Diabetes Mellitus Among US Youth: Prevalence Estimates From the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study

OBJECTIVE. Our goal was to estimate the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in youth <20 years of age in 2001 in the United States, according to age, gender, race/ethnicity, and diabetes type. METHODS. The SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth Study is a 6-center observational study conducting population-based ascertainment of physician-diagnosed diabetes in youth. Census-based denominators for 4 geographically based centers and enrollment data for 2 health plan-based centers were used to calculate prevalence. Age-, gender-, and racial/ethnic group-specific prevalence rates were multiplied by US population counts to estimate the total number of US youth with diabetes. RESULTS. We identified 6379 US youth with diabetes in 2001, in a population of ∼3.5 million. Crude prevalence was estimated as 1.82 cases per 1000 youth, being much lower for youth 0 to 9 years of age (0.79 cases per 1000 youth) than for those 10 to 19 years of age (2.80 cases per 1000 youth). Non-Hispanic white youth had the highest prevalence (1.06 cases per 1000 youth) in the younger group. Among 10- to 19-year-old youth, black youth (3.22 cases per 1000 youth) and non-Hispanic white youth (3.18 cases per 1000 youth) had the highest rates, followed by American Indian youth (2.28 cases per 1000 youth), Hispanic youth (2.18 cases per 1000 youth), and Asian/Pacific Islander youth (1.34 cases per 1000 youth). Among younger children, type 1 diabetes accounted for ≥80% of diabetes; among older youth, the proportion of type 2 diabetes ranged from 6% (0.19 cases per 1000 youth for non-Hispanic white youth) to 76% (1.74 cases per 1000 youth for American Indian youth). We estimated that 154369 youth had physician-diagnosed diabetes in 2001 in the United States. CONCLUSIONS. The overall prevalence estimate for diabetes in children and adolescents was ∼0.18%. Type 2 diabetes was found in all racial/ethnic groups but generally was less common than type 1, except in American Indian youth.
Spectrum of High‐Resolution Sonographic Features of Urinary Tuberculosis

Objective. To evaluate the high‐resolution sonographic features of urinary tuberculosis. Methods. During a period of about 3 years 6 months, there were 45 patients with sonographic features of urinary tuberculosis that was subsequently proved by urine culture or biopsy. The clinical symptoms, urinalysis findings, sonographic features, urine smear findings, and biopsy findings were recorded. Results. The most common symptoms were dysuria and frequency of micturition. Sonographic features included parenchymal masses, cavities, mucosal thickening of the collecting system and urinary bladder, stenosis of the collecting system, a contracted urinary bladder, vesicoureteric reflux, and calcifications. The proof of tuberculosis was by urinalysis, culture, and biopsy. Conclusions. High‐resolution sonography in appropriate clinical situations is useful in diagnosis of urinary tuberculosis. The various high‐resolution sonographic findings in urinary tuberculosis are illustrated. The distinguishing features are visualization of involvement of multiple sites and multiple stages of disease in the same patient.
Differentiating Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia From Chronic Myeloid Leukemia in Childhood

Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML) is a rare clonal myeloproliferative disease of early childhood. To determine the diagnostic features, appropriate treatment, and overall patient survival pertaining to JMML for children, the authors reviewed the clinical data of 16 children with JMML admitted to the National Taiwan University Hospital between 1978 and 2001. Median age at diagnosis was 2.5 years. Fever was the most common symptom at diagnosis. At initial presentation, the mean white blood count and absolute monocyte count were 30 × 109/L and 4.5 × 109/L, respectively. Cytogenetic analysis was performed in 14 patients, and 2 patients (14%) had monosomy 7. Another patient, with normal karyotype at diagnosis, had deletion of 7q22 at the follow-up chromosome study. Forty-seven chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients were also diagnosed and followed at the same hospital during the same interval period. The age, leukocyte counts, platelet counts, basophil counts, monocyte percentages on peripheral blood smears, and median survival rate showed significant differences between JMML and CML patients (P < 0.05). The median survival was 10 months and the probability of 10-month survival was 0.38 by Kaplan-Meier analysis for 12 of the 16 JMML patients who did not receive hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Among three patients receiving HSCT, one patient relapsed 9 months after the first HSCT and was treated successfully by a second HSCT from the same sibling donor.
Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor inhibition enhances chronic obstructive pulmonary disease picture in mice exposed to waterpipe smoke.

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is marked by destruction of alveolar architecture. Preclinical modelling for COPD is challenging. Chronic cigarette smoke exposure, the reference animal model of COPD, is time-inefficient, while exposure to waterpipe smoke (WPS), a surging smoking modality, was not fully tested for its histopathological pulmonary consequences. Since alveolar damage and pulmonary vascular endothelial dysfunction are integral to COPD pathology, lung histopathological effects of WPS were temporally evaluated, alone or in combination with vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) inhibition in mice. MATERIALS AND METHODS Mice were exposed to WPS, 3 hours/day, 5 days/week, for 1, 2, 3, or 4 months. Another group of mice was exposed to WPS for 1 month, while being subjected to injections with the VEGFR blocker Sugen5416 (SU, 20 mg/kg) 3 times weekly. Control mice were exposed to fresh air in a matching inhalation chamber. Histopathological assessment of COPD was performed. Alveolar destructive index (DI) was counted as the percentage of abnormally enlarged alveoli with damaged septa per all alveoli counted. Mean linear intercept (MLI) was calculated as a measure of airspace enlargement. RESULTS Exposure to WPS resulted in significant increases in alveolar DI and MLI only after 4 months. Lung inflammatory score was minimal across all time-points. Importantly, combination of WPS and SU resulted in significantly increased DI, MLI, and inflammatory scores as early as 1 month post exposure. CONCLUSIONS Combined exposure to WPS and SU results in COPD picture, highlighting the role of pulmonary vascular endothelial dysfunction in the disease.
Impaired Wisconsin Card Sort performance in schizophrenia may reflect motivational deficits.

To the Editor. — During the past several years important reports have appeared in theArchives 1-3 concerning relationships between regional cerebral blood flow and impaired Wisconsin Card Sort (WCS) performance in schizophrenia. One provocative finding has been that impairment on this task is not corrected by instruction. 4 The WCS task requires the respondent to match cards that vary simultaneously in a number of dimensions (color, form, and number of elements) to one of four models. The subject is told whether each placement is correct or incorrect and must discover the correct sorting rule from this feedback. The first rule is to sort by color. When this rule has been learned, the correct dimension is changed, first to form and then to number. The subject is not informed of this change; rather, he or she must discover the new rule. 5 Although many different scores can be derived from the
Targeting of two effector protein classes to the type III secretion system by a HpaC‐ and HpaB‐dependent protein complex from Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria

The Gram‐negative plant pathogenic bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv. vesicatoria translocates effector proteins via a specialized type III secretion (TTS) system into the host cell cytosol. The efficient secretion of many effector proteins depends on the global TTS chaperone HpaB. Here, we identified a novel export control protein, HpaC, which significantly contributes to bacterial pathogenicity. Deletion of hpaC leads to a severe reduction in secretion of effector proteins and the putative type III translocon proteins HrpF and XopA. By contrast, secretion of the TTS pilus protein HrpE is not affected. We provide experimental evidence that HpaC differentiates between two classes of effector proteins. Using an in vivo reporter assay, we found that HpaC specifically promotes the translocation of the effector proteins XopJ and XopF1 into the plant cell, whereas AvrBs3 and XopC are efficiently translocated even in the absence of HpaC. Similar findings were obtained for HpaB. Inhibition of protein synthesis suggests that HpaB is involved in the secretion of stored effector proteins. Furthermore, protein–protein interaction studies revealed that HpaB and HpaC form an oligomeric protein complex and that they interact with members of both effector protein classes and the conserved TTS system component HrcV. Taken together, our data indicate that HpaB and HpaC play a central role in recruiting TTS substrates to the secretion apparatus.
Iris Freckles a Potential Biomarker for Chronic Sun Damage.

Purpose To investigate the role of sunlight exposure in iris freckles formation. Methods We prospectively examined volunteers attending a skin cancer screening program conducted by ophthalmologists and dermatologists. Frequency and topographical variability of iris freckles were noted and associated with behavioral and dermatologic characteristics indicating high sun exposure. Results Six hundred thirty-two participants (n = 360; 57% female) were examined. Mean age of all participants was 38.4 ± 18.4 years (range, 4-84 years). Of all individuals, 76.1% (n = 481) exhibited at least one iris freckle. Most freckles were observed in the inferior temporal quadrant. The presence of iris freckles was associated with higher age (participants with iris freckles: 41.8 ± 16.8 years versus participants without iris freckles: 27.6 ± 19.2 years), a high number of sunburns during lifetime (>10: 31% vs. 19%), sunlight-damaged skin (26% vs. 11%), presence of actinic lentigines (72% vs. 45%), and a high total nevus body count (>10; 78% vs. 67%). Conclusions The association of iris freckles, behavioral factors, and dermatologic findings, as well as the topographical distribution, indicate that sunlight exposure may trigger the formation of iris freckles. The evaluation of iris freckles offers an easily accessible potential biomarker, which might be helpful in indicating sun damage on the skin associated with cutaneous malignancies. Furthermore, the evaluation of iris freckles could also be helpful in understanding the role of sunlight in several ophthalmologic diseases.
Evidence for chromosome 2p16.3 polycystic ovary syndrome susceptibility locus in affected women of European ancestry.

CONTEXT A previous genome-wide association study in Chinese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) identified a region on chromosome 2p16.3 encoding the LH/choriogonadotropin receptor (LHCGR) and FSH receptor (FSHR) genes as a reproducible PCOS susceptibility locus. OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to determine the role of the LHCGR and/or FSHR gene in the etiology of PCOS in women of European ancestry. DESIGN This was a genetic association study in a European ancestry cohort of women with PCOS. SETTING The study was conducted at an academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS Participants in the study included 905 women with PCOS diagnosed by National Institutes of Health criteria and 956 control women. INTERVENTION We genotyped 94 haplotype-tagging single-nucleotide polymorphisms and two coding single-nucleotide polymorphisms mapping to the coding region of LHCGR and FSHR plus 20 kb upstream and downstream of the genes and test for association in the case control cohort and for association with nine quantitative traits in the women with PCOS. RESULTS We found strong evidence for an association of PCOS with rs7562215 (P = 0.0037) and rs10495960 (P = 0.0046). Although the marker with the strongest association in the Chinese PCOS genome-wide association study (rs13405728) was not informative in the European populations, we identified and genotyped three markers (rs35960650, rs2956355, and rs7562879) within 5 kb of rs13405728. Of these, rs7562879 was nominally associated with PCOS (P = 0.020). The strongest evidence for association mapping to FSHR was observed with rs1922476 (P = 0.0053). Furthermore, markers with the FSHR gene region were associated with FSH levels in women with PCOS. CONCLUSIONS Fine mapping of the chromosome 2p16.3 Chinese PCOS susceptibility locus in a European ancestry cohort provides evidence for association with two independent loci and PCOS. The gene products LHCGR and FSHR therefore are likely to be important in the etiology of PCOS, regardless of ethnicity.
Three stage amplifier frequency compensation

This paper analyzes four recent different frequency compensation schemes for three stage amplifier. Under equal conditions it is possible to study the unity gain frequency (UGF) for each scheme without external interferences, such as technology variations or different design criteria and optimization emphasis. Recently published amplifiers and their specifications are later commented on in light of this new study. Unexpectedly, measurements from an amplifier designed in a 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS technology, published results and theory appear to show contradictory results.