Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mortality risk for dialysis patients with different levels of serum calcium, phosphorus, and PTH: the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS).

BACKGROUND Abnormalities in serum calcium, phosphorus, and parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations are common in patients with chronic kidney disease and have been associated with increased morbidity and mortality. No clinical trials have been conducted to clearly identify categories of calcium, phosphorus, and PTH levels associated with the lowest mortality risk. Current clinical practice guidelines are based largely on expert opinions, and clinically relevant differences exist among guidelines across countries. We sought to describe international trends in calcium, phosphorus, and PTH levels during 10 years and identify mortality risk categories in the Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS), an international study of hemodialysis practices and associated outcomes. STUDY DESIGN Prospective cohort study. PARTICIPANTS 25,588 patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis therapy for longer than 180 days at 925 facilities in DOPPS I (1996-2001), DOPPS II (2002-2004), or DOPPS III (2005-2007). PREDICTORS Serum calcium, albumin-corrected calcium (Ca(Alb)), phosphorus, and PTH levels. OUTCOMES Adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause and cardiovascular mortality calculated using Cox models. RESULTS Distributions of mineral metabolism markers differed across DOPPS countries and phases, with lower calcium and phosphorus levels observed in the most recent phase of DOPPS. Survival models identified categories with the lowest mortality risk for calcium (8.6 to 10.0 mg/dL), Ca(Alb) (7.6 to 9.5 mg/dL), phosphorus (3.6 to 5.0 mg/dL), and PTH (101 to 300 pg/mL). The greatest risk of mortality was found for calcium or Ca(Alb) levels greater than 10.0 mg/dL, phosphorus levels greater than 7.0 mg/dL, and PTH levels greater than 600 pg/mL and in patients with combinations of high-risk categories of calcium, phosphorus, and PTH. LIMITATIONS Because of the observational nature of DOPPS, this study can only indicate an association between mineral metabolism categories and mortality. CONCLUSIONS Our results provide important information about mineral metabolism trends in hemodialysis patients in 12 countries during a decade. The risk categories identified in the DOPPS cohort may be relevant to efforts at international harmonization of existing clinical guidelines for mineral metabolism.
Lung cancer and environmental tobacco smoke in a non‐industrial area of China

We report results from a population‐based case‐control study of lung cancer and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among never‐smokers conducted in 2 rural prefectures of China, including 200 female and 33 male lung cancer cases, and 407 female and 114 male controls, matched on age, sex and prefecture of current residence. The odds ratio (OR) for ever‐exposed to ETS was 1.19 (95% CI 0.7–2.0), with a significant trend (p<0.05) with increasing exposure. ORs were 1.00, 1.04, 1.13 and 1.51 for non‐exposed, <10, 10–19 and ≥20 pack‐years of ETS exposure, respectively. Excess risks were limited to ETS exposures in childhood (≤18 years of age). The OR for ever‐exposed to ETS in childhood, adjusting for ETS exposure in adulthood, was 1.52 (95% CI 1.1–2.2), with a significant trend (p<0.01) with increasing pack‐years of childhood exposure, 1.00, 1.43, 1.81 and 2.95, respectively. After adjustment for ETS in childhood, there was no excess risk from adult ETS exposure. The OR for ever‐exposed to ETS in adulthood was 0.90 (95% CI 0.–1.4). These results were not affected by adjustment for type of residential dwelling, type or amount of fuel used, perceived indoor smokiness, or measures of socioeconomic status, or omitting next‐of‐kin respondents. Int. J. Cancer 88:139–145, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Improved myocardial perfusion in stable angina pectoris by oral lumbrokinase: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE A novel antithrombotic agent, lumbrokinase, was evaluated in this pilot study for its efficacy in the treatment of symptomatic stable angina. DESIGN This was a single-armed cohort study. SETTINGS The study was conducted at the National Cardiovascular Center, Harapan Kita, Jakarta, Indonesia. SUBJECTS The study comprised 10 patients who had coronary artery disease and stable angina and who consented to the trial. INTERVENTION Patients were treated with oral lumbrokinase for 30 consecutive days in addition to their standard medical therapy. OUTCOME MEASURES Stress technetium-99m sestamibi myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) was performed before and at the conclusion of the active treatment period. The degree and extent of inducible ischemia observed on the myocardial perfusion images were evaluated using the previously validated semiquantitative indices (Summed Stress Score and Summed Difference Score). RESULTS Following active treatment, the mean Summed Stress Score and Summed Difference Score deceased by 39% and 37%, respectively. The anginal symptom was ameliorated in 6 of 10 patients. No adverse reaction including major or minor bleeding was observed. CONCLUSIONS This paper represents the first description of the use of oral lumbrokinase in the treatment of chronic coronary artery disease with objective assessment using MPI. Oral lumbrokinase improves regional myocardial perfusion in patients with stable angina.
Selective astrocytic gap junctional trafficking of molecules involved in the glycolytic pathway: impact on cellular brain imaging

To assess the specificity of metabolite trafficking among gap junction‐coupled astrocytes, we developed novel, real‐time, single‐cell enzymatic fluorescence assays to assay cell‐to‐cell transfer of unlabeled glycolytic intermediates and report (i) highly restricted transfer of glucose‐6‐phosphate (P) and two analogs, deoxyglucose (DG)‐6‐P, and 2‐[N‐(7‐nitrobenz‐2‐oxa‐1,3‐diazol‐4‐yl)amino]‐2‐DG‐6‐P, compared with DG and 2‐ and 6‐[N‐(7‐nitrobenz‐2‐oxa‐1,3‐diazol‐4‐yl)amino]‐2‐DG, (ii) extensive junctional diffusion of glyceraldehyde‐3‐P, NADH, and NADPH plus three anionic fluorescent dyes used as internal standards for transfer assays, and (iii) stimulation of gap junctional communication by increased intracellular Na+ that also evokes metabolic responses in nearby coupled astrocytes. Thus, dye transfer does not predict gap junctional permeability of endogenous metabolites. Intracellular retention of flux‐regulating compounds (e.g. glucose‐6‐P) may be necessary for local metabolic control, whereas ‘syncytial sharing’ may dissipate the work load on peri‐synaptic astrocytes. Imaging of brain functional activity depends on local accumulation of exogenous or endogenous signals, and DG‐6‐P is trapped in the cell where it is phosphorylated, whereas rapid dispersal of cytoplasmic NAD(P)H and labeled glucose metabolites throughout the astrocytic syncytium can interfere with cellular assessment of neuron–astrocyte relationships in autoradiographic, fluorescence microscopic, and magnetic resonance spectroscopic studies.
Interactive Disassembly Planning for Complex Objects

We present an approach for the automatic generation, interactive exploration and real‐time modification of disassembly procedures for complex, multipartite CAD data sets. In order to lift the performance barriers prohibiting interactive disassembly planning, we run a detailed analysis on the input model to identify recurring part constellations and efficiently determine blocked part motions in parallel on the GPU. Building on the extracted information, we present an interface for computing and editing extensive disassembly sequences in real‐time while considering user‐defined constraints and avoiding unstable configurations. To evaluate the performance of our C++/CUDA implementation, we use a variety of openly available CAD data sets, ranging from simple to highly complex. In contrast to previous approaches, our work enables interactive disassembly planning for objects which consist of several thousand parts and require cascaded translations during part removal.
Dual ERK and phosphatidylinositol 3‐kinase pathways control airway smooth muscle proliferation: Differences in asthma

Hyperplasia of airway smooth muscle (ASM) within the bronchial wall of asthmatic patients has been well documented and is likely due to increased muscle proliferation. We have shown that ASM cells obtained from asthmatic patients proliferate faster than those obtained from non‐asthmatic patients. In ASM from non‐asthmatics, mitogens act via dual signaling pathways (both ERK‐ and PI 3‐kinase‐dependent) to control growth. In this study we are the first to examine whether dual pathways control the enhanced proliferation of ASM from asthmatics. When cells were incubated with 0.1% or 1% FBS, ERK activation was significantly greater in cells from asthmatic subjects (P < 0.05). In contrast, when cells were stimulated with 10% FBS, ERK activity was significantly greater in the non‐asthmatic cells. However, cell proliferation in asthmatic cells was still significantly higher in cells stimulated by both 1% and 10% FBS. Pharmacological inhibition revealed that although dual proliferative pathways control ASM growth in cells from non‐asthmatics stimulated with 10% FBS to an equal extent ([3H]‐thymidine incorporation reduced to 57.2 ± 6.9% by the PI 3‐kinase inhibitor LY294002 and 57.8 ± 1.1% by the ERK‐pathway inhibitor U0126); in asthmatics, the presence of a strong proliferative stimulus (10% FBS) reduces ERK activation resulting in a shift to the PI 3‐kinase pathway. The underlying mechanism appears to be upregulation of an endogenous MAPK inhibitor—MKP‐1—that constrains ERK signaling in asthmatic cells under strong mitogenic stimulation. This study suggests that the PI 3‐kinase pathway may be an attractive target for reversing hyperplasia in asthma. J. Cell. Physiol. 216: 673–679, 2008, © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Place of cabergoline in acromegaly: a meta-analysis.

CONTEXT Cabergoline is widely considered to be poorly effective in acromegaly. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to obtain a more accurate picture of the efficacy of cabergoline in acromegaly, both alone and in combination with somatostatin analogs. DESIGN We systematically reviewed all trials of cabergoline therapy for acromegaly published up to 2009 in four databases (PubMed, Pascal, Embase, and Google Scholar). We identified 15 studies (11 prospective) with a total of 237 patients; none were randomized or placebo-controlled. A meta-analysis was conducted on individual data (n = 227). RESULTS Cabergoline was used alone in nine studies. Fifty-one (34%) of the 149 patients achieved normal IGF-I levels. In multivariate analysis, the decline in IGF-I was related to the baseline IGF-I concentration (β = 1.16; P <0.001), treatment duration (β = 0.28; P < 0.001), and baseline prolactin concentration (β = -0.18; P = 0.01), and with a trend toward a relation with the cabergoline dose (β = 0.38; P =0.07). In five studies, cabergoline was added to ongoing somatostatin analog treatment that had failed to normalize IGF-I. Forty patients (52%) achieved normal IGF-I levels. The change in IGF-I was significantly related to the baseline IGF-I level (β = 0.74; P < 0.001) but not to the dose of cabergoline, the duration of treatment, or the baseline prolactin concentration. CONCLUSION This meta-analysis suggests that cabergoline single-agent therapy normalizes IGF-I levels in one third of patients with acromegaly. When a somatostatin analog fails to control acromegaly, cabergoline adjunction normalizes IGF-I in about 50% of cases. This effect may occur even in patients with normoprolactinemia.
Complex-type Asparagine-linked Oligosaccharides on Phosphacan and Protein-tyrosine Phosphatase-ζ/β Mediate Their Binding to Neural Cell Adhesion Molecules and Tenascin (*)

Phosphacan, a soluble nervous tissue-specific chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan, is an alternative splicing product representing the entire extracellular domain of a transmembrane receptor-type protein-tyrosine phosphatase (RPTPζ/β) that also occurs as a chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan in brain. We have previously demonstrated that phosphacan binds with high affinity to neural cell adhesion molecules (Ng-CAM/L1 and N-CAM) and to the extracellular matrix protein tenascin and that it is a potent inhibitor of cell adhesion and neurite outgrowth. Tryptic digests of 125I-labeled phosphacan contain two glycopeptides that bind to Ng-CAM/L1, N-CAM, and tenascin. The larger of these (17 kDa) begins at Gln-209 near the end of the carbonic anhydrase-like domain of phosphacan/RPTPζ/β, whereas a 13-kDa glycopeptide begins at His-361 located in the middle of the fibronectin type III-like domain. Treatment of phosphacan with peptide N-glycosidase under nondenaturing conditions reduced its binding to the neural cell adhesion molecules and tenascin by 65-75%, whereas endo-β-N-acetylglucosaminidase H had no effect, and peptide N-glycosidase treatment both decreased the molecular sizes of the tryptic peptides to ∼11 kDa and abolished their binding. Based on the amino acid sequence of phosphacan, it can be concluded that each of the tryptic peptides contains one potential N-glycosylation site (at Asn-232 and Asn-381), and analyses of the isolated glycopeptides demonstrated the presence of sialylated complex-type oligosaccharides. Our results therefore indicate that the interactions of phosphacan/RPTPζ/β with neural cell adhesion molecules and tenascin are mediated by asparagine-linked oligosaccharides present in their carbonic anhydrase- and fibronectin type III-like domains.
A new TDD scheme and interference-aware precoding for device-to-device underlay massive MIMO

Cognitive radio sensor network is applied to facilitate network monitoring and management, and achieves high spectrum efficiencies in smart grid. However, the conventional traffic scheduling mechanisms are hard to provide guaranteed quality of service for the secondary users. It is because that they ignore the influence of diverse transition requirements in heterogeneous traffic. Therefore, a novel QoS-aware packet scheduling mechanism is proposed to improve transmission quality for secondary users. In this mechanism, a QoS-based prioritization model is established to address data classification firstly. And then, channel quality and the effect of channel switch are integrated into priority-based packet scheduling mechanism. At last, the simulation is implemented with MATLAB and OPNET. The results show that the proposed scheduling mechanism improves the transmission quality of high-priority secondary users and increase the whole system utilization by 10%.
A Global Perspective on Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Consensus Statement of the World Gastroenterology Organisation Summit Task Force on Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is common in western Europe and North America, and many aspects of its epidemiology, risk factors, and natural history have been described in these regions. Recent data suggest, however, that IBS is also common in the rest of the world and there has been some evidence to suggest some differences in demographics and presenting features between IBS in the west and as it is experienced elsewhere. The World Gastroenterology Organization, therefore, established a Task Force comprising experts on the topic from all parts of the world to examine IBS from a global perspective. IBS does, indeed, seem to be common worldwide though with some significant variations in prevalence rates between regions and countries and there may well be some potentially interesting variations in presenting symptoms and sex distribution. The global map of IBS is far from complete; community-based prevalence data is not available from many areas. Furthermore, while some general trends are evident in terms of IBS impact and demographics, international comparisons are hampered by differences in diagnostic criteria, study location and methodology; several important unanswered questions have been identified that should form the basis for future collaborative research and have the potential to shed light on this challenging disorder.
Garment Recommendations for Online and Offline Consumers

Recommender Systems have obvious influence in environments where data size exceeds the capabilities of any user to fully explore the available choices in the store (physical or on-line). Many algorithms and techniques have been used to help recommending useful and interesting items to users. If the user is unidentified, the process is even harder as there are no historical or other data to use as input. Association rules is a popular technique used for many purposes in Recommender Systems such as for building more robust systems, improving quality of recommendations; and even addressing fundamental limitations of recommender systems and, generally, large datasets, e.g. sparsity and cold start. At the same time, efforts have been made to fully understand if and how differently customers are behaving in an online and in a physical environment.This work tries to combine the two efforts. We use association rules to provide recommendations to customers, as well as understand who the customer is, what her needs are and what is her mentality when entering a physical store or the corresponding e-shop. To fulfill our goal, we used descriptive statistics along with Association Rules analysis of the POS transactional data on basket data level and historical data level.
Motor performance status in 10 to 17‐year‐old Estonian girls

The improvement of motor abilities is associated with the periodical acceleration of changes in adolescents of both sexes. The present cross‐sectional study is aimed at establishing smooth curves of motor performance status in 10 to 17‐year‐old girls. Motor performance was tested in 902 girls with the aid of 30 m dash, standing long jump, vertical jump, pushing a stuffed ball (2 kg), standing quintuplet jump, isometric strength of back extensor muscles, trunk forward flexion and 1‐min ergocycling at the highest possible rate. Statistically significant differences of all studied motor abilities between the age groups of 10–12 were indicated. In height and body mass the most pronounced differences (on average 6.5 cm and 7.7 kg, respectively) appeared between the age groups of 12 and 13. At the age of 13 the group results were statistically higher than those at 12 in pushing a stuffed ball, vertical jump, quintuplet jump, strength of back extensors muscle, 30 m dash and ergocycling test, but not in standing long jump and trunk forward flexion. At the age of 14 the performance was not higher than at 13, except in the vertical jump and quintuplet jump. From 14 to 16 years of age differences reappeared in the results of vertical jump, quintuplet jump, pushing a stuffed ball, 1‐min cycling and trunk forward flexion but not in the 30 m dash and standing long jump. The lack of significant differences between the age groups of 16 and 17 indicated the final stabilization of tested motor abilities. The obtained results suggest the existence of several periods in motor performance status in 10 to 17‐year‐old Estonian girls: 1) The biggest differences in the mean results of the tests on motor abilities occurred between ages 10–11, 11–12 and 12–13, which coincide with the biggest differences in height and weight at the same age. 2) The differences in the mean results of most tests on motor abilities stabilized between the age groups of 13 and 14. The mean results of 14‐year‐old girls were lower in some tests compared to the results of 13‐year‐olds. 3) The positive differences in the mean results remained between the age groups of 14–15 and 15–16 (excluding the sprint velocity and standing long jump). 4) The final stabilization of motor abilities occurred at the age of 16 to 17.
FLORAL ISOLATION IS THE MAIN REPRODUCTIVE BARRIER AMONG CLOSELY RELATED SEXUALLY DECEPTIVE ORCHIDS

Floral isolation is an important component of pollinator‐driven speciation. However, up to now, only a few studies have quantified its strength and relative contribution to total reproductive isolation. In this study, we quantified floral isolation among three closely related, sympatric orchid species of the genus Ophrys by directly tracking pollen flow. Ophrys orchids mimic their pollinators’ mating signals, and are pollinated by male insects during mating attempts. This pollination system, called sexual deception, is usually highly specific. However, whether pollinator specialization also conveys floral isolation is currently under debate. In this study, we found strong floral isolation: among 46 tracked pollen transfers in two flowering seasons, all occurred within species. Accounting for observation error rate, we estimated a floral isolation index ≥0.98 among each pair of species. Hand pollination experiments suggested that postpollination barriers were effectively absent among our study species. Genetic analysis based on AFLP markers showed a clear species clustering and very few F1 hybrids in natural populations, providing independent evidence that strong floral isolation prevents significant interspecies gene flow. Our results provide the first direct evidence that floral isolation acts as the main reproductive barrier among closely related plant species with specialized pollination.
DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF GASTRIC INHIBITORY POLYPEPTIDE (GIP) AND ITS POSSIBLE ROLE IN THE ENTEROINSULAR AXIS IN NEONATES

Abstract. Lucas, A. , Sarson, D. L. , Bloom, S. R. and Aynsley‐Green, A. (University Department of Paediatrics, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford and Hammersmith Hospital, London, England). Developmental aspects of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) and its possible role in the enteroinsular axis in neonates. Acta Paediatr Scand, 69: 321, 1980. —Little is known on the development of the release of gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) in neonates or on its potential role in the enteroinsular axis. Using cross‐section data collection we studied: (a) 100 preterm neonates either at birth (cord blood), or before or after a feed on the sixth or 24th day and (b) 63 term neonates at birth or on the sixth day. Blood samples were assayed for GIP, insulin and glucose. At birth plasma GIP concentrations were low compared with fasting adults (p > 0.01). Basal plasma levels were significantly higher at six days in fed infants, but not in a group of sick preterm infants who had never been fed orally. On sixth day there was no GIP response to a feed, but by 24th day there was a marked postprandial elevation (p > 0.01). In preterm infants the insulin response was 68 % greater at 24 days than at six days in spite of a similar glycaemic response. We hypothesize that this increasing postnatal insulin response to enteral feeding may be due to the commencement of the postprandial release of GIP, thought to be an important effector in the enteroinsular axis.
Development of a cervical cancer progress prediction tool for human papillomavirus-positive Koreans: A support vector machine-based approach

Objectives To develop a Web-based tool to draw attention to patients positive for human papillomavirus (HPV) who have a high risk of progression to cervical cancer, in order to increase compliance with follow-up examinations and facilitate good doctor–patient communication. Methods Records were retrospectively analysed from women who were positive for HPV on initial testing (before any treatment). Information concerning age, Papanicolaou (PAP) smear result and presence of 15 high-risk HPV genotypes was used in a support vector machine (SVM) model, to identify the patient features that maximally contributed to progression to high-risk cervical lesions. Results Data from 731 subjects were analysed. The maximum number of correct cancer predictions was seen when four features (PAP, HPV16, HPV52 and HPV35) were used, giving an accuracy of 74.41%. A web-based high-risk cervical lesion prediction application tool was developed using the SVM model results. Conclusions Use of the web-based prediction tool may help to increase patient compliance with physician advice, and may heighten awareness of the significance of regular follow-up HPV examinations for the prevention of cervical cancer, in Korean women predicted to have heightened risk of the disease.