Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Decontamination and detoxification strategies for the Fusarium mycotoxin deoxynivalenol in animal feed and the effectiveness of microbial biodegradation

Trichothecenes are a group of mycotoxins mainly produced by fungi of the Fusarium genus. Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the most abundant and important trichothecenes in food and feed, and is a significant contaminants due to its frequent occurrence in toxicologically relevant concentrations worldwide. Since toxin production depends strongly on environmental conditions, such as temperature and humidity, Fusarium toxin contamination can not be avoided completely. Therefore, exposure to this toxin is a permanent health risk for both humans and farm animals. As cereal crops are commonly contaminated with DON and animal diets consist mainly of cereals, it can be assumed that animals are frequently exposed to DON-contaminated feeds. Many strategies can be undertaken to reduce the toxic effect of DON. In addition to the general necessity for minimizing all risk factors that might influence the contamination of cereals with DON, such as the so-called field toxins before harvest, several post-harvest strategies can be applied to counteract possible deleterious effects of this mycotoxin in farm animals. Another approach for decontamination in feedstuffs is the use of adsorbent materials. Adsorbent materials may bind mycotoxins in the gastrointestinal tract and reduce absorption and systemic toxicity. It has been shown that some adsorbents are suitable to alleviate the toxic effects of specific mycotoxins, but its efficacy against trichothecenes is practically zero. Therefore, alternative strategies to reduce animal and human health risk are needed. The use of microbial additives is a method which uses microorganisms having the capability to detoxify mycotoxins by metabolism or degradation prior to their resorption in the gastrointestinal tract. DON has been reported to be completely transformed to de-epoxy-DON by ruminal and intestinal microflora. Eubacterium BBSH 797 was capable of DON degradation and counteracted the toxic effects of DON in animals. This review focuses on the efficacy of microbial feed additives in ameliorating the toxic effects of DON. According to the results of experiments to date, it appears that microorganisms are the main living organisms suitable for this mycotoxin biodegradation. However, the use of this approach depends on its effectiveness from both a practical and economic perspective.
Difference imaging of adenovirus: bridging the resolution gap between X‐ray crystallography and electron microscopy.

While X‐ray crystallography provides atomic resolution structures of proteins and small viruses, electron microscopy provides complementary structural information on the organization of larger assemblies at lower resolution. A novel combination of these two techniques has bridged this resolution gap and revealed the various structural components forming the capsid of human type 2 adenovirus. An image reconstruction of the intact virus, derived from cryo‐electron micrographs, was deconvolved with an approximate contrast transfer function to mitigate microscope distortions. A model capsid was calculated from 240 copies of the crystallographic structure of the major capsid protein and filtered to the correct resolution. Subtraction of the calculated capsid from the corrected reconstruction gave a three‐dimensional difference map revealing the minor proteins that stabilize the virion. Elongated density penetrating the hexon capsid at the facet edges was ascribed to polypeptide IIIa, a component required for virion assembly. Density on the inner surface of the capsid, connecting the ring of peripentonal hexons, was assigned as polypeptide VI, a component that binds DNA. Identification of the regions of hexon that contact the penton base suggests a structural mechanism for previously proposed events during cell entry.
Ranolazine as an Adjunct to Cardioplegia: A Potential New Therapeutic Application

The purpose of this study was to examine the therapeutic potential of ranolazine, a novel antianginal drug, as an adjunctive therapy to hyperkalemic cardioplegia. Rat hearts were Langendorff-perfused and exposed to 40 minutes of ischemia and 30 minutes of reperfusion without (control) or with cardioplegia or cardioplegia with 50 µmol/L ranolazine. During ischemia, cardioplegia prolonged time to contracture, defined as the time to reach an intraventricular pressure of 20 mm Hg, from 12 + 1 minute (control) to 25 + 2 minutes (P < .05). Ranolazine supplement further lengthened the time to contracture to 34 + 2 minutes (P < .05). Ischemia/reperfusion caused a dramatic elevation in left ventricular end diastolic pressure (LVEDP) during reperfusion. Cardioplegia lessened the LVEDP elevation measured at 30 minutes of reperfusion from 76 + 3 mm Hg (control) to 32 + 3 mm Hg (P < .05). The increase in LVEDP was reduced even further to 17 + 2 mm Hg in hearts receiving cardioplegia plus ranolazine (P < .05). These results suggest that addition of ranolazine during hyperkalemic ischemic cardioplegic arrest is beneficial and provides further protection against contracture.
Scales of the Extra Dimensions and their Gravitational Wave Backgrounds

Circumstances are described in which symmetry breaking, during the formation of our three-dimensional brane within a higher-dimensional space in the early universe, excites mesoscopic classical radion or brane-displacement degrees of freedom and produces a detectable stochastic background of gravitational radiation. The spectrum of the background is related to both the unification energy scale and the sizes and numbers of large extra dimensions. It is shown that properties of the background observable by gravitational-wave observatories at frequencies $f\ensuremath{\approx}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}4}\mathrm{Hz}$ to ${10}^{3}\mathrm{Hz}$ contain information about unification on energy scales from $1$ to ${10}^{10}\mathrm{TeV},$ gravity propagating through extra-dimension sizes from 1 mm to ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}\mathrm{mm},$ and the dynamical history and stabilization of from one to seven extra dimensions.
Studies of Integral Capillary Pressure in Man by the Use of Continuous Recordings

1 From the Medical Clinic of the City of Darmstadt, Professor M. Ratschow, M.D., F.A. C.A. , Director. Capillary pressure is an important physiologic value, since it is an essential factor in filtration of water and solutes and, thereby, in the exchange of substances between the blood and the tissues. Landis (1-3) first performed direct measurements of mechanical pressure in capillaries and found the normal values to be 21 to 48 Hg in the arterial limb and 6 to 18 mm Hg in the venous part of the capillaries. These values were correlated with the colloidal osmotic pressure by Krogh (4) and Landis (1-3), as was earlier done by Starling (5), and served as the basis for numerous theories for normal and pathologic physiology. On the other hand, little is known about functional changes of capillary pressure, since a continuous direct measurement is impossible on practical grounds. Schroeder (6), therefore, elaborated a method for indirect recording (in the unanesthetized dog), which at least permits qualitative conclusions. Stein (7) and Marx and Schoop (8) utilized this method in man. This paper will describe
Rofecoxib and Clinically Significant Gastrointestinal Events: Response.

We only recently saw the response to our article regarding rofecoxib. It is unclear to us, as we the authors of the original manuscript were not offered an opportunity to respond as the comment contained misstatements. We stand by the comments in our manuscript as the data are fully supported by the source documents (http://www.idd.med.cuhk.edu.hk/researchandpublications.html). The responding authors chose to rely on a judge’s decision to support their position on a medical issue. Decisions about risks and benefits of drugs are made by doctors and patients and not by judges. It is worth noting that 2 different courts have found punitive damages that were justified by the manufacturers’ intentional failure to disclose cardiovascular risks and included withholding of key data from the VIGOR study, which we have discussed in our article. The New England Journal of Medicine also found it necessary to publish an Expression of Concern in 2005 after the true data were revealed. We are confident that physicians and patients would have found our analysis important to their decision to use Vioxx, had the information been made known by the manufacturer, while the drug was on the market. Their “rebuttal” states that we claim that a prespecified subgroup analysis was planned for complicated gastrointestinal events. To the contrary, we clearly described how including the soft endpoint of “symptomatic ulcers” in the composite outcome could “potentially tilt the results in favor of rofecoxib. ” We stand by that analysis. Regarding our analysis, showing that all safety benefits were essentially confined to subgroup taking steroids, the primary data and emails are present as part of the online data allowing anyone to read the issues raised by the NEJM reviewers and the internal emails from Merck. We show that the authors were directly asked for the data as we provide (e.g., “You should acknowledge the points raised by reviewer D. These are the possibilities that the benefits in the patient population you studied are mainly limited to the uses of steroids. . .”). They avoided providing those data, and we show in our analyses that reviewer D was correct. The comment states, we were incorrect to “suggest that an author offered to remove a paragraph related to the steroid treatment-by-subgroup interaction. ” Indeed, as part of our providing, the background for the issue of the steroid subgroup analysis raised within Merck as it was being resurrected as part of the second article, we exactly related what was offered in an email (original available on line), from that author to his contact
Saltbush Leaves: Excision of Hypersaline Tissue by a Kangaroo Rat

Dipodomys microps climbs into shrubs and harvests leaves of the halophyte Atriplex confertifolia throughout the year. The epidermal vesicles of these leaves are high in electrolyte concentration, but the specialized photosynthetic parenchyma which is arranged concentrically about the vascular bundles is low in electrolytes and high in starch. The lower incisors of D. microps are broad, flattened anteriorly, and chisel-shaped (unlike those of other kangaroo rats, which are rounded and awl-shaped) and are used to shave off the hypersaline, peripheral tissue of the leaves so that the inner tissue can be eaten. This atypical feeding behavior should minimize the reliance of D. microps on the unpredictable seed crops of desert annuals, and also favor its coexistence with other species of Dipodomys, which are primarily granivorous.
Wing-to-Leg Homeosis by Spineless Causes Apoptosis Regulated by Fish-lips, a Novel Leucine-Rich Repeat Transmembrane Protein

ABSTRACT Growth, patterning, and apoptosis are mutually interactive during development. For example, cells that select an abnormal fate in a developing field are frequently removed by apoptosis. An important issue in this process that needs to be resolved is the mechanism used by cells to discern their correct fate from an abnormal fate. In order to examine this issue, we developed an animal model that expresses the dioxin receptor homolog Spineless (Ss) ectopically in the Drosophila wing. The presence of mosaic clones ectopically expressing ss results in a local transformation of organ identity, homeosis, from wing into a leg or antenna. The cells with misspecified fates subsequently activate c-Jun N-terminal kinase to undergo apoptosis in an autonomous or nonautonomous manner depending on their position within the wing, suggesting that a cell-cell interaction is, at least in some cases, involved in the detection of misspecified cells. Similar position dependence is commonly observed when various homeotic genes controlling the body segments are ectopically expressed. The autonomous and nonautonomous apoptosis caused by ss is regulated by a novel leucine-rich repeat family transmembrane protein, Fish-lips (Fili) that interacts with surrounding normal cells. These data support a mechanism in which the lack of some membrane proteins helps to recognize the presence of different cell types and direct these cells to an apoptotic fate in order to exclude them from the normal developing field.
Factors influencing the growth of Microcystis aeruginosa Kutz, emend, Elenkin.

Yields of unialgal M. aeruginosa NRC-1 were increased from 685 mg dry wt. /liter in 20 days to 1500 mg dry wt. /liter in 7 days by increasing the concentrations of NaNO3, K2HPO4, and MgSO4 in the medium of Fitzgerald et al. Within the concentration range that was favorable for growth the balance between these three salts was not especially critical. A low potassium tolerance was noted that appears to depend on the ratio of sodium to potassium in the medium. With the media used, growth was not limited by deficiencies of minor elements, iron, chelation, or any of 10 different vitamins, but was promoted by soil extract. The optimum temperature was approximately 28 °C; the optimum pH range was between 8 and 11. Vigorous aeration and agitation promoted growth by insuring better gas exchange and more efficient utilization of light and also, perhaps, by helping to relieve an inhibition caused by continuous leakage and/or lysis of the algal cells. Lysis was promoted by an excess of sodium (or deficiency of calcium).
La nouvelle économie politique : une introduction

La nouvelle economie politique (NEP) a pour origine la reconnaissance que les politiques economiques ne sont pas decidees par des planificateurs omnipotents et bienveillants, cherchant a maximiser le bien-etre social, mais sont le resultat d’un processus politique impliquant des personnes ou des groupes ayant des interets specifiques.
Clonal proliferations of cells infected with Epstein-Barr virus in preinvasive lesions related to nasopharyngeal carcinoma.

BACKGROUND The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is consistently detected in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma. To determine whether EBV infection is an early, initiating event in the development of this malignant tumor, we screened nasopharyngeal-biopsy samples, most of which were archival, for preinvasive lesions, including dysplasia and carcinoma in situ. Preinvasive lesions were found in 11 samples, which were tested for the presence of EBV. METHODS EBV infection was detected with in situ hybridization for EBV-encoded RNAs (EBERs) and by immunohistochemical staining for latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1). The larger samples were also tested for the EBV genome with the use of Southern blotting. The expression of specific EBV RNAs was determined by the amplification of complementary DNA with the polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS Evidence of EBV infection was detected in all 11 tissue samples with dysplasia or carcinoma in situ. EBERs were identified in all eight samples tested, and LMP-1 was detected in all six of the tested samples. Six of the seven samples tested for the EBV termini contained clonal EBV DNA: Transcription of the latent EBV gene products, EBV nuclear antigen 1, LMP-1, LMP-2A, and the BamHI-A fragment, was detected in most of the samples. Viral proteins characteristic of lytic lesions were not detected. CONCLUSIONS Preinvasive lesions of the nasopharynx are infected with EBV. The EBV DNA is clonal, indicating that the lesions represent a focal cellular growth that arose from a single EBV-infected cell and that EBV infection is an early, possibly initiating event in the development of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. Preinvasive lesions contain EBV RNAs that are characteristic of latent infection but not the viral proteins that are characteristic of lytic infection. The detection of the EBV-transforming gene, LMP-1, in all the neoplastic cells suggests that its expression is essential for preinvasive epithelial proliferations associated with nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
Gustav Mahler and Emanuel Libman: bacterial endocarditis in 1911.

was diagnosed definitively by Emanuel Libman (1872-1946) and his assistant, George Baehr (1887-1978), who at the time, together with William Osler and Thomas Horder in England, were the world's greatest authorities on endocarditis. In 1983 I initiated a search for the detailed bacteriological records known to have been kept by Dr Baehr. Dr ArnoldM Weissler, of Denver, Colorado, traced them to the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, through Dr George L Engel, nephew of Dr Libman, and Dr Manfred Waserman, formerly of the National Library of Medicine. The records, from the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, had been deposited there after Dr Libman's death. I present them here in relation to some of the biographical and clinical details of Mahler's illness and to the state of knowledge of bacterial endocarditis in 1911, a time when many of the outstanding problems of the disease were being solved.
Dendritic injury is a pathological substrate for human immunodeficiency virus—related cognitive disorders

To determine the neuropathological substrate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)‐associated neurocognitive disorders, we examined persons with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome before their death and related their antemortem neuropsychological performance to postmortem indicators of HIV encephalitis, viral burden, and presynaptic and postsynaptic neuronal injury. Of 20 prospectively examined cases, 9 were neurocognitively normal, 5 showed neuropsychological impairment, 5 had minor cognitive/motor disorder, and 1 was demented. Degree of neurocognitive impairment was strongly related to the amount of dendritic simplification based on microtubule‐associated protein 2 immunohistochemical staining, somewhat less so to a semiquantitative viral burden score based on numbers of HIV gp41‐immunoreactive cells, and much less so to the presence of multinucleated giant cells or microglial nodules. It appears that even milder neurocognitive impairment reflects microneuroanatomical injury to synaptic structures.
Computers in school: A student's perspective

Students who attend school today do not know a world without computers. They use them every day in different ways and with different purposes. For them, school is no longer the primary source of knowledge about computers. However, the school still remains for them an important source of knowledge about ICT, and computers in schools has become an important tool for learning. Teachers use computers in schools to enhance the educational process and to improve students' knowledge about ICT. How successful we are in it?
Gene Promoter Catalytic Subunit ( Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase ) Constitutively Active Caspase-6 Using the Human Telomerase Treatment of Malignant Glioma Cells with the Transfer of Updated

Because the apoptotic pathway is often disrupted in tumor cells, its genetic restoration is a very attractive approach for the treatment of tumors. To treat malignant gliomas with this approach, it would be preferred to restrict induction of apoptosis to tumor cells by establishing a tumor-specific expression system. Telomerase is an attractive target because the vast majority of malignant gliomas have telomerase activity whereas normal brain cells do not. Activation of telomerase is tightly regulated at the transcriptional level of the telomerase catalytic subunit [human telomerase reverse transcriptase, (hTERT)]. Therefore, we hypothesized that using a hTERT promoter-driven vector system, an apoptosis-inducible gene may be preferentially restricted to telomeraseor hTERT-positive tumor cells. In this study, we constructed an expression vector consisting of the constitutively active caspase-6 (rev-caspase-6) under the hTERT promoter (hTERT/rev-caspase-6) and then investigated its antitumor effect on malignant glioma cells. The rationale for using the rev-caspase-6gene is because it induces apoptosis independent of the initiator caspases. We demonstrated that the hTERT/rev-caspase-6 construct induced apoptosis in hTERT-positive malignant glioma cells, but not in hTERT-negative astrocytes, fibroblasts, and alternative lengthening of telomeres cells. In addition, the growth of s.c. tumors in nude mice was significantly suppressed by the treatment with hTERT/rev-caspase-6 construct. The present results strongly suggest that the telomerase-specific transfer of the rev-caspase-6gene under the hTERT promoter is a novel targeting approach for the treatment of malignant gliomas.
131I-tositumomab therapy as initial treatment for follicular lymphoma.

BACKGROUND Advanced-stage follicular B-cell lymphoma is considered incurable. Anti-CD20 radioimmunotherapy is effective in patients who have had a relapse after chemotherapy or who have refractory follicular lymphoma, but it has not been tested in previously untreated patients. METHODS Seventy-six patients with stage III or IV follicular lymphoma received as initial therapy a single course of treatment with 131I-tositumomab therapy (registered as Tositumomab and Iodine I 131 Tositumomab [the Bexxar therapeutic regimen]). This consisted of a dosimetric dose of tositumomab and 131I-labeled tositumomab followed one week later by a therapeutic dose, delivering 75 cGy of radiation to the total body. RESULTS Ninety-five percent of the patients had any response, and 75 percent had a complete response. The use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect rearrangement of the BCL2 gene showed molecular responses in 80 percent of assessable patients who had a clinical complete response. After a median follow-up of 5.1 years, the actuarial 5-year progression-free survival for all patients was 59 percent, with a median progression-free survival of 6.1 years. The annualized rate of relapse progressively decreased over time: 25 percent, 13 percent, and 12 percent during the first, second, and third years, respectively, and 4.4 percent per year after three years. Of 57 patients who had a complete response, 40 remained in remission for 4.3 to 7.7 years. Hematologic toxicity was moderate, with no patient requiring transfusions or hematopoietic growth factors. No cases of myelodysplastic syndrome have been observed. CONCLUSIONS A single one-week course of 131I-tositumomab therapy as initial treatment can induce prolonged clinical and molecular remissions in patients with advanced follicular lymphoma.
How to make manuals for health workers.

Health workers in developing countries need updated effective training and reference manuals. Health service representatives and teachers need to determine materials most urgently needed and curricula that needs revision. The writers must consider the educational background of the readers and approach the writing of the manual accordingly. The text should be locally relevant and contain only information specific to the particular group being addressed. Some manuals may be modified or adapted easily for use with a different category of health workers. The language used should correspond to user reading ability. Writers need to use case studies which correspond to local experiences, to use understandable illustrations, and to index the manuals well. The manual should be field-tested by the teachers and supervisors of the future users to determine readability, usefulness, and relevance. If the manual is approved, it can then be edited and printed. Distribution of the materials through health channels may be unreliable. Funds may need to be raised to distribute the manuals and publications. Careful evaluation of the manuals is necessary to effect constant revision and improvement.