Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time‐of‐Flight Magnetic Resonance Angiography of the Aorta and Renal Arteries

&NA; Lewin JS. Time‐of‐flight magnetic resonance angiography of the aorta and renal arteries. Invest Radiol 1992;27:S84‐S89. The evaluation of the aorta and renal arteries with time‐offlight (TOF) magnetic resonance angiographic (MRA) techniques has been the subject of several recent investigations, with both sequential two‐dimensional and three‐dimensional methods described. Although the data are preliminary, these techniques appear to allow the noninvasive evaluation of a variety of vascular abnormalities, including renal artery stenosis and occlusion. This report outlines the theoretical considerations of TOF MRA of the abdomen, and discusses differential characteristics of the available techniques along with their advantages and limitations.
Colorectal cancer stem cells

Somatic stem cells reside at the base of the crypts throughout the colonic mucosa. These cells are essential for the normal regeneration of the colonic epithelium. The stem cells reside within a special ‘niche’ comprised of intestinal sub‐epithlial myofibroblasts that tightly control their function. It has been postulated that mutations within these adult colonic stem cells may induce neoplastic changes. Such cells can then dissociate from the epithelium and travel into the mesenchyme and thus form invasive cancers. This theory is based on the observation that within a colon cancer, less than 1% of the neoplastic cells have the ability to regenerate the tumour. It is this group of cells that exhibits characteristics of colonic stem cells. Although anti‐neoplastic agents can induce remissions by inhibiting cell division, the stem cells appear to be remarkably resistant to both standard chemotherapy and radiotherapy. These stem cells may therefore persist after treatment and form the nucleus for cancer recurrence. Hence, future treatment modalities should focus specifically on controlling the cancer stem cells. In this review, we discuss the biology of normal and malignant colonic stem cells.
Lecture 6: Intro brownian motion

1 Historical notes • 1765 Jan Ingenhousz observations of carbon dust in alcohol. • 1828 Robert Brown observed that ”pollen grains suspended in water per­ form a continual swarming motion”. • 1900 Bachelier’s work ”The theory of speculation” on using Brownian motion to model stock prices. • 1905 Einstein and Smoluchovski. Physical interpretation of Brownian motion. • 1920’s Wiener concise mathematical description.
Incidence of Pulmonary Metastases for Various Neoplasms in BALB/cStCrlfC3H/Nctr Female Mice Fed N-2-Fluorenylacetamide

Incidence of pulmonary metastases for a variety of neoplasms was studied in many inbred BALB/cStCrlfC3H/Nctr female mice fed 2-fluorenylacetamide. Bladder carcinomas and hepatocellular carcinomas appeared to be the only neoplasms that were dose related. Hepatocellular carcinomas metastasized to the lungs at an incidence of 4.8%, and bladder carcinomas metastasized at an incidence of 0.28%. Osteogenic sarcomas metastasized to the lungs at an incidence of 46.2%; renal adenocarcinomas, at 20%; fibrosarcomas, at 16.7%; mammary adenocarcinomas, at 9.8%; and myoepitheliomas, at 10.5%. Other malignant neoplasms, including leiomyosarcomas, granulosa cells tumors, adrenocortical carcinomas, angiosarcomas, squamous cell carcinomas, and harderian gland tumors, metastasized at an incidence of less than 5%.
What Do Project Managers Actually Do? Exploring Micro-Practices of Managing Temporary Organizational Forms

While the management of projects is rapidly gaining importance in the current fast pace economy, there is a growing dissatisfaction with its theoretical underpinnings. Rooted in an exploratory micro-analysis of the practices of 86 project managers, our study demonstrates that project managers engage in 10 core practices, which together imply that managing projects 1) is only partly about planning and scheduling, 2) is locally situated in specific types of projects, 3) is an activity aimed at a continuous recoupling of diverse practices, and 4) is shaped by project contexts, which act as temporary points of intersection for social practice. Together, we propose these practices form a set of building blocks for a practice-perspective of project-based organization, presenting an alternative to the theoretical paradigm currently dominating the field.
Efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy with trastuzumab concurrent with anthracycline- and nonanthracycline-based regimens for HER2-positive breast cancer.

532 Background: To evaluate the pathologic complete response (pCR) rates and relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) of patients receiving neoadjuvant systemic therapy (NST) with trastuzumab in combination with an anthracycline- or a nonanthracycline-based regimen. METHODS We reviewed records of 300 patients with HER2-positive breast cancer treated with either sequential paclitaxel and trastuzumab and FEC75 in combination with trastuzumab (PH-FECH) or docetaxel, carboplatin, and trastuzumab (TCH). The Kaplan-Meier product-limit method was used to estimate RFS and OS rates. Logistic regression models and Cox proportional hazards models were fit to determine the associations between NST, pCR, and survival. RESULTS pCR rates were 60.6% and 43.3% for patients who received PH-FECH (n=235) and TCH (n=65), respectively (p=0.016). Patients who received PH-FECH were 1.45 times more likely to have a pCR (Odds ratio [OR]:1.45; 95% confidence interval (CI):1.06-1.98; P=0.02). At a median follow-up of 26.8 months for survivors, there were 28 recurrences and 15 deaths. Three-year RFS rates were 93% and 71% (P<0.001), and 3-year OS rates were 96% and 86% (p=0.008) for patients who received PH-FECH and TCH, respectively. Patients who received PH-FECH had a lower risk of recurrence (hazard ratio [HR]:0.27; 95% CI:0.12-0.60; p=0.001) and death (HR:0.37; 95% CI:0.12-1.13; p=0.08) than those treated with TCH. CONCLUSIONS The type of NST in HER2-positive breast cancer is predictive of pCR rate independent of disease and patient characteristics. While TCH is active, trastuzumab combined with a taxane and then with an anthracycline (PH-FECH) shows a higher pCR rate and a RFS advantage.
Compartmentalisation of cAMP-dependent signalling in blood platelets: The role of lipid rafts and actin polymerisation

Abstract Prostacyclin (PGI2) inhibits blood platelets through the activation of membrane adenylyl cyclases (ACs) and cyclic adenosine 3',5'-monophosphate (cAMP)-mediated signalling. However, the molecular mechanism controlling cAMP signalling in blood platelet remains unclear, and in particular how individual isoforms of AC and protein kinase A (PKA) are coordinated to target distinct substrates in order to modulate platelet activation. In this study, we demonstrate that lipid rafts and the actin cytoskeleton may play a key role in regulating platelet responses to cAMP downstream of PGI2. Disruption of lipid rafts with methyl-beta-cyclodextrin (MβCD) increased platelet sensitivity to PGI2 and forskolin, a direct AC cyclase activator, resulting in greater inhibition of collagen-stimulated platelet aggregation. In contrast, platelet inhibition by the direct activator of PKA, 8-CPT-6-Phe-cAMP was unaffected by MβCD treatment. Consistent with the functional data, lipid raft disruption increased PGI2-stimulated cAMP formation and proximal PKA-mediated signalling events. Platelet inhibition, cAMP formation and phosphorylation of PKA substrates in response to PGI2 were also increased in the presence of cytochalasin D, indicating a role for actin cytoskeleton in signalling in response to PGI2. A potential role for lipid rafts in cAMP signalling is strengthened by our finding that a pool of ACV/VI and PKA was partitioned into lipid rafts. Our data demonstrate partial compartmentalisation of cAMP signalling machinery in platelets, where lipid rafts and the actin cytoskeleton regulate the inhibitory effects induced by PGI2. The increased platelet sensitivity to cAMP-elevating agents signalling upon raft and cytoskeleton disruption suggests that these compartments act to restrain basal cAMP signalling.
TCP1 Modulates Brassinosteroid Biosynthesis by Regulating the Expression of the Key Biosynthetic Gene DWARF4 in Arabidopsis thaliana[C][W]

Using an activation-tagging genetic screen, this work identified a basic helix-loop-helix–containing protein, named TCP1, as a positive regulator of the transcription of a key brassinosteroid biosynthesis enzyme DWARF4. Brassinosteroids (BRs) are essential phytohormones regulating normal plant growth and development. TCP1, a gene thought to be involved in floral organ symmetric control, was identified as a genetic suppressor of a weak BR receptor mutant, bri1-5, in an activation-tagging genetic screen. TCP1 encodes a putative transcription factor possessing a basic helix-loop-helix domain. The dominant allele of TCP1, tcp1-1D, suppresses the defective phenotypes of bri1-5. Overexpression of a dominant-negative form of TCP1, TCP1-SRDX, with a 12–amino acid repressor sequence fused to TCP1 at its C terminus, results in dwarfed plants resembling BR-deficient or insensitive mutants. The defective phenotypes can be rescued by exogenously applied brassinolide but cannot be recovered by auxins, gibberellins, or cytokinins. BR profile assay (quantitative analysis of BR biosynthetic intermediates) strongly suggests that TCP1 expression level positively coordinates with the function of DWARF4 (DWF4), a key enzyme in BR biosynthesis. Real-time RT-PCR analysis further demonstrated that TCP1 regulates the transcription levels of DWF4, and chromatin immunoprecipitation experiments showed that TCP1 indeed interacts with the DWF4 promoter. Confocal microscopy indicated that TCP1 is mainly confined to the nucleus. The expression of TCP1 appears to be regulated by BR levels. These studies demonstrate another level of regulation through which BRs mediate plant growth and development.
Differential Decay of Enterococci and Escherichia coli Originating from Two Fecal Pollution Sources

ABSTRACT Using in situ subtropical aquatic mesocosms, fecal source (cattle manure versus sewage) was shown to be the most important contributor to differential loss in viability of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), specifically enterococci in freshwater and Escherichia coli in marine habitats. In this study, sunlight exposure and indigenous aquatic microbiota were also important contributors, whose effects on FIB also differed between water types.
Energy back-projective composition for 3-D coronary artery reconstruction

This paper presents a novel energy back-projective composition model (EBPCM) for 3-D reconstruction of the coronary arteries from two mono-plane angiographic images. A major problem with the commonly used parameter deformable model is that the predefined correspondences may become non-strict matching after the curve evolution, which generally leads to large extra calculation errors. In this study, the energy field in the image is back-projected to 3-D space and decomposed into three independent components in the world coordinates centered at the iso-center of the C-arm. Then, the components from different views are composited together according to the rotation and scaling relationship of the imaging angles. The composited energy field hence is utilized as the external force to control the evolution of the vascular structure in 3-D space. As the driving force is iteratively updated according to energy in the two projection images, the non-strict matching can be effectively avoided. Also, the proposed method is very flexible, which can be composited with any energy fields such as Generalized Gradient Vector Flow (GGVF) and Potential Energy (PE) etc. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed method is very effective and robust, when using GGVF as the external force, the reconstruction RMS error can be reduced to about 0.595mm in the 3-D space.
ALLOGENEIC STEM CELL TRANSPLANTATION FOR MYELODYSPLASTIC SYNDROMES IN CHILDREN: A Report from the Spanish Working Party for Blood and Marrow Transplantation in Children (GETMON)

Introduction: Experience with the use of allogeneic hemopoietic stem transplantation (AHSCT) in pediatric myelodisplastic syndrome (MDS) in Spain is reviewed. Methods and patients: Twenty-four children with MDS were analyzed retrospectively. Median age of the patients was 10 years. Twenty patients received a bone marrow graft and 4 an unrelated cord blood (UCB) transplant; 12 bone marrow grafts were from a matched related donor (MRD) and 8 from a matched unrelated donor (MUD). Conditioning regimen consisted of chemotherapy alone in 17 patients (busulfan and cyclophosphamide ± melfalan) Seven patients received TBI and cyclophosphamide. Results: Ten patients died from transplant-related toxicity and 4 had relapse or disease progression post-AHSCT. Nine patients are alive and event-free with a median follow-up of 120 months. EFS rate in the MRD group was 0.48 (SE 0.13) versus 0.25 (SE 0.12) in the MUD/UCB group (p =. 07). Lansky score in survivors is ≥90%. Conclusions: In this historical series of children with MDS, in spite of severe transplant–related toxicity, encouraging EFS outcomes have been achieved after AHSCT with good quality of life.
Differences in egg hatching time between cyclical and obligate parthenogenetic lineages of aphids

Many aphid species exhibit a variation in reproductive mode which is influenced by winter climate regimes, with cyclical parthenogenetic (CP) lines dominating in cold winter areas (because they produce cold‐resistant eggs) and obligate parthenogenetic (OP) ones in mild winter regions (because of their parthenogenetic overwintering). Genetic studies on several aphid species have shown that the OP trait can be transmitted during sexual events involving the 2 types of lines. This genetic system could be considered as a local safeguarding mechanism for OP alleles in case severe frost would have killed all parthenogenetically overwintering individuals. However, this strategy would only be efficient in restoring local polymorphism in breeding systems if the newly hatched OP recombinants remain competitive over their CP counterparts. In this study we compared egg hatching sequences of CP and OP F1 clones from several crosses obtained for 2 cereal aphid species, Sitobion avenae (constant 5 °C, 8 h of light) and Rhopalosiphum padi (winter outdoor conditions). For S. avenae, we obtained F1 offspring from 6 crosses, involving 4 clones while in R. padi F1 were obtained from 11 crosses involving 14 clones. We showed that in both species proportions of OP clones were higher in the first half of the progeny relative to the second half. In addition, F1 OP clones hatched in the mean about a week earlier than their CP sibs, which gives them a demographic advantage at the start of the growth season. We then discussed the consequences of this fitness advantage for the maintenance and spread of the OP trait in aphid populations.
Cardiovascular risk profile and blood pressure control in Italian hypertensive patients under specialist care

Background Information on the association between high hypertension and metabolic risk factors in Italy is limited. Furthermore, data on the rate of blood pressure control in the Italian hypertensive population are restricted to some Italian regions only, and refer usually to surveys performed, in most instances, several years ago. Methods In the present study, a total of 4059 essential hypertensive patients were examined consecutively from March to June 2000 by 450 cardiovascular specialists (cardiologists, internists and diabetologists) operating throughout the Italian territory. Analysable data were obtained in 3812 patients. Results Blood pressure control by treatment (< 140/90 mmHg) was infrequent (11.9%), this being particularly the case for systolic as compared to diastolic blood pressure (15.1 versus 33.7%). Hypertension was the only risk factor in only 13.7% of the patients, the association with diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia or obesity characterizing the remaining cases. About 60% of the patients fell into the high or very high cardiovascular risk category of the World Health Organization/International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH) Guidelines. Compared to low or moderate cardiovascular risk, multiple antihypertensive drug treatment was more frequently used in individuals at high or very high risk. These conditions were frequently underdiagnosed by physicians. Conclusions Thus, in Italy, hypertension continues to be a poorly controlled condition. Despite being a Mediterranean country, the occurrence of hypertension is commonly associated with metabolic risk factors and often with a high or very high cardiovascular risk profile. This is not properly identified by specialist physicians.
A bio-inspired method for locating the diffusion source with limited observers

Locating the source of diffusion is a challenging problem in complex networks and has great practical significance for restraining rumors propagation and controlling epidemics spreading. An efficient locating method should have a higher locating accuracy with the minimum required information. Although existing locating methods based on observers consider the time delays of edges, they compute the time delays based on the shortest path, which may differ from the actual diffusion process. Moreover, the higher locating accuracy of traditional method with observers has a great dependence on the assumption that the propagation delays along edges follow a definite distribution such as the Gaussian distribution. In order to solve these shortcomings, this paper proposes a Physarum-inspired method to locate the diffusion source that is independence of the distribution of propagation delays. Our method quantifies the nutrient transportation process in the adaptive network evolved by Physarum, which is used to simulate the information or epidemic diffusion routes in a social network. Simulation results on various benchmark networks show that our method has a better performance in terms of error distance than that of Gaussian method without assuming the definite distribution of time delays. Together with the advantage that our method does not require the sender information of observers compared with existing methods, our method allows for a wider range of applications in the real-world networks.
Hyperhomocysteinaemia in heart transplant recipients.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hyperhomocysteinaemia in cardiac transplant recipients. Three groups of subjects were studied: 27 heart transplant recipients, 14 to 63 months (mean = 36.5) after transplantation; 10 patients with moderate chronic renal insufficiency without clinical evidence of vascular disease; 17 apparently healthy individuals. Twenty-five out of 27 transplanted patients had a coronaroangiography within 6 months of homocysteine measurement. Plasma homocysteine was measured both while the subject was fasting (t0) and 6 h after administration of 0.1 g.kg-1 of methionine (t6). Hyperhomocysteinaemia was present in 14/27 fasting transplanted patients and after methionine loading. Mean plasma levels of homocysteine at t0 were higher (P = 0.03) in transplanted heart recipients (15.4 +/- 7 mumol.l-1) than in the renal patients (9.9 +/- 5 mumol.l-1) despite similar mean plasma creatinin. In eight transplanted patients with angiographic coronary abnormalities of the cardiac graft, homocysteinaemia was at t0 17.1 +/- 9 mumol.l-1 and at t6 47.8 +/- 25 mumol.l-1. In 17 transplanted patients with angiographically normal coronary arteries, plasma homocysteine levels were at t0, 13.2 +/- 4 mumol.l-1 and at t6, 46.8 +/- 25 mumol.l-1. We conclude that hyperhomocysteinaemia is common in transplanted heart recipients, and partly related to renal insufficiency. No correlation was found between hyperhomocysteinaemia and angiographic evidence of coronary atherosclerosis of the graft, but the population of the study was possibly too small to establish this correlation.
Familial relationship between Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities, speech disorders, and stuttering.

OBJECTIVE This study examined the familial relationship between Gilles de la Tourette's syndrome (GTS) and attention deficit disorder (ADD), learning problems, speech disorders, and stuttering. METHOD This family study consisted of 338 first degree relatives of 85 GTS probands and 113 controls. All available relatives were personally assessed using structured interviews, and family history information was collected from all family members. Best-estimate diagnoses were assigned for GTS, ADD, learning problems, speech disorders, and stuttering. Analyses examined whether ADD, learning problems, speech disorders, and stuttering by themselves represent genetically variant expressions of GTS. RESULTS There was no evidence that ADD, learning problems, speech disorders, or stuttering represent variant expressions of GTS. However, relatives with GTS were at increased risk for ADD regardless of the ADD diagnosis of the GTS proband. CONCLUSIONS ADD, learning problems, stuttering, and speech problems by themselves are not variant forms of GTS. However, GTS and ADD may be etiologically related in some persons. There may be two types of individuals with GTS and ADD: ones in whom ADD is independent of GTS, and others in whom ADD is secondary to occurrence of GTS.
Effects of magnesium-substituted nanohydroxyapatite coating on implant osseointegration.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to compare magnesium-substituted and pure hydroxyapatite coatings on the promotion of osteogenesis in vitro and on the osseointegration in vivo. METHODS Electrochemically deposited pure hydroxyapatite (EDHA) or electrochemically deposited magnesium-substituted hydroxyapatite (EDMHA) coatings were formed on the surface of pure titanium disks or implants. MC3T3-E1 preosteoblasts were cultured in the EDHA and EDMHA coated disks, and cell growth, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity, and osteocalcin secretion were measured at various time points. For studies on osseointegration, 30 roughened implants coated either with EDHA or EDMHA (n = 15 for each coating) were implanted in the femurs of 15 NZW rabbits. After 2, 4, and 8 weeks, femurs were retrieved and prepared for histomorphometric evaluation (n = 5 for each coating at each time point). RESULTS MC3T3-E1 cells cultured on EDMHA coated disks showed increased cell number, ALP, and osteocalcin secretion compared with the EDHA coated disks at all time points (P < 0.05 for all). Histologic observation of the coated implants showed woven bone in direct contact with both implant surfaces after 2 weeks and mature bone after 8 weeks. While there were no differences in the amount of bone between the threads at any time point, the percentage of implant in direct contact with bone (bone implant contact) was slightly higher along the EDMHA coated implants at 2 weeks (P = 0.086), although this difference was no longer seen at 4 and 8 weeks. CONCLUSION Mg-substituted HA coated surfaces promote osteogenic differentiation of preosteoblasts in vitro and may improve implant osseointegration during the early stages of bone healing compared with pure EDHA coated surfaces.
OPTIMAL MONETARY POLICY WITH FINITE LIFETIMES

In a two-period overlapping generations context, postulating the instantaneous social wel farefunction consisting of utilities of generations who live at that time and defining their discounted sum as the social objective, it is shown that optimal monetary policy depends on income distribution between generations within a period and on relative social marginal weights to the generations, and that, even when income distribution is optimized, i.e., even in the first-best optimum, the optimal money growth rate is not equal to the social discount factor unless the planner attaches to the working generation the relative weight equal to the social discount factor.