Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human drug hepatotoxicity: a contemporary clinical perspective.

BACKGROUND Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) constitutes a significant medical challenge. The rising number of marketed drugs, aging population and polypharmacy make it imperative to understand the clinical presentation of DILI and the processes used in the assessment of causality and early detection. OBJECTIVE This article reviews the current clinical understanding of DILI including presentation patterns, causality assessment, risk factor ascertainment and early detection strategies including liver test monitoring. Significant initiatives such as the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network (DILIN) are also discussed. METHODS A narrative review of clinical studies of DILI, with emphasis on clinical features, causality and surveillance. CONCLUSION DILI remains a serious challenge in contemporary clinical practice. Further research and collaboration in the areas of epidemiology, causality and early detection are required to enhance the diagnosis and management of DILI.
Robust Inventory Control System

Further developments of the inventory control strategy are studied in this brief. We use high gain (sliding mode) adaptive control to handle the system uncertainties caused by modeling errors and unmeasured disturbances. It is proven that this control law makes the uncertain system globally stable. The parameters of the resulting controller are easy to tune. The simulation example and experiment studies illustrate the application of the novel method.
Low positivity rate after systematic screening for Trichomonas vaginalis in three patient cohorts from general practitioners, STI clinic and a national population-based chlamydia screening study

Objective The goal of this multi-cohort study is to investigate the positivity rate of Trichomonas vaginalis (TV) among three distinct Dutch patient populations and its relation with Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) positivity. Few studies have been performed in Europe where TV positivity rate seems to be low. Additionally, the majority of earlier studies have focused on high risk or specific populations. Methods A random selection of men and women from a national population-based chlamydia screening, attendees of a sexually transmitted infections (STI) clinic and a non-selected population from general practitioners (GPs) were systematically screened for TV and CT using PCR. The associations among TV and CT co-infection, age and gender were studied. Results A total of 2079 individuals were studied. A TV positivity rate of 1.5% was observed in the medium risk GP cohort followed by 0.7% in the low risk population-based cohort and 0.6% in the high risk STI clinic. TV was found in 0.7% of CT positives and a similar 1.1% among CT negatives. All TV positive individuals in this study were women. Conclusions The positivity rate of TV was low (<2%) and comparable in all three populations studied. We found no association between TV and CT infection.
Analysis of the relationship of leptin, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, adiponectin, insulin, and uric acid to metabolic syndrome in lean, overweight, and obese young females.

OBJECTIVE Over the last decade there has been a steady rise in obesity and co-morbidity, but little is known about the rate of metabolic dysfunction among young adults in the United Arab Emirates. Various factors have been implicated as biomarkers of metabolic syndrome. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationships of leptin, C-reactive protein (CRP), adiponectin, insulin, and uric acid to the metabolic syndrome components in lean, overweight, and obese young females. METHODS This was a cross-sectional study of 69 apparently healthy young females, who were classified according to their body mass index (BMI) (kg/m(2)) into three groups: lean (<or=25), overweight (>25 and <30), and obese (>or=30). Estimated biomarkers were: leptin, insulin, adiponectin, high-sensitivity [hs]-CRP, uric acid, blood sugar, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), total cholesterol, and triglycerides (TG). Anthropometric measures, blood pressure, and homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were also measured. RESULTS Serum leptin, hs-CRP, insulin, and uric acid increased significantly (p < 0.01) with increased BMI. Only one significant correlation (p < 0.05) between the biomarkers and the metabolic syndrome components was found in lean subjects (leptin vs. waist circumference r = 0.48) as opposed to six in the obese group (hs-CRP vs. waist circumference and systolic blood pressure [SBP], r = 0.45 and r = -0.41, respectively; insulin vs. diastolic blood pressure [DBP], r = 0.47; adiponectin vs. blood sugar, r = -0.44; and uric acid vs. waist circumference and TG, r = 0.5 and r = 0.51, respectively). CONCLUSION Estimation of the levels of studied biomarkers could be an important tool for early detection of metabolic syndrome before the appearance of its frank components. Uric acid seems to be the most reliable biomarker to identify obese subjects with metabolic syndrome.
Attaching and effacing activities of rabbit and human enteropathogenic Escherichia coli in pig and rabbit intestines

Three strains of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC), originally isolated from humans and previously shown to cause diarrhea in human volunteers by unknown mechanisms, and one rabbit EPEC strain were shown to attach intimately to and efface microvilli and cytoplasm from intestinal epithelial cells in both the pig and rabbit intestine. The attaching and effacing activities of these EPEC were demonstrable by light microscopic examination of routine histological sections and by transmission electron microscopy. It was suggested that intact colostrum-deprived newborn pigs and ligated intestinal loops in pigs and rabbits may be useful systems to detect EPEC that have attaching and effacing activities and for studying the pathogenesis of such infections. The lesions (attachment and effacement) produced by EPEC in these systems were multifocal, with considerable animal-to-animal variation in response to the same strain of EPEC. The EPEC strains also varied in the frequency and extent of lesion production. For example, three human EPEC strains usually caused extensive lesions in rabbit intestinal loops, whereas two other human EPEC strains usually did not produce lesions in this system.
Relationship between periodontitis and hepatic abnormalities in young adults

Abstract Objective. Obesity has been implicated as a risk factor for periodontitis and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). In NAFLD, elevated alanine aminotransferase (ALT) is associated with obesity. Although a possible interrelationship between liver function and periodontitis has been reported among the middle-aged population, the correlation in young adults is little known. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between ALT and the presence of periodontitis in university students in Japan. Material and methods. Medical and oral health data were collected in a cross-sectional examination conducted by the Health Service Center of Okayama University. Systemically healthy, non-smoking students aged 18 and 19 years old (n = 2225) were included. The protocol of the United States National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey was applied. Subjects with probing pocket depth ≥ 4 mm were defined as having periodontitis. Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the association between ALT, body mass index and periodontitis. Results. The number of subjects with periodontitis was 104 (4.7%). In males, having periodontitis was significantly associated with an increased level of ALT (≥ 41 IU/l) in logistic regression analysis (adjusted odds ratio 2.3; 95% confidence interval 1.0–5.2; p < 0.05). However, there was no significant association between periodontitis and ALT in female students. Conclusions. Elevated ALT could be a potential risk indicator for periodontitis among young males. Monitoring hepatic abnormalities to prevent periodontitis must be better understood, even in the young adult population.
The Simultaneous Impact of Supplier and Customer Involvement on New Product Performance

The recall rates of various products these years have triggered a new round of interests in the impacts of supplier involvement (SI) and customer involvement (CI) on new product performance (NPP). However, existing literature looks at either SI or CI but not both. Most supply chain management papers focus on SI and NPP while research in marketing field focuses on CI and NPP. Additionally, the NPP has not been elaborated into detail dimensions in these previous studies. This research investigates the impact of both SI and CI on the three dimensions of NPP, namely new product quality and reliability, time to market and product innovativeness. The research was based on the data from over 600 manufacturers in 21 countries. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the simultaneous impact of SI and CI on NPP. The results show that SI influences all the three dimensions of NPP while CI influences quality and reliability. The research also reveals that companies pay more attention to CI than SI. It seems that more efforts in both academic and practical fields are needed to enhance SI in relation to NPD. The research suggests that both SI and CI should be implemented in new product development process. It is not a two-party issue but a three-party-issue.
Real-Time Operating Hand Detection for the Optimization of Mobile Web Interfaces

Mobile devices now rival desktop computers as a method of web browsing. Even so, many web applications are still designed with the desktop setting in mind. As screen sizes of mobile devices continue to get larger, operating smartphones single-handedly becomes increasingly difficult. This paper explores the possibility of automatic operating hand detection by capturing users' touch traces during normal browsing activities. Automatic operating hand detection would enable web applications to adapt their interfaces and better suit the user's laterality. Supervised classifiers were constructed for the primary goal of operating hand detection (left, right), but also to detect hand posture (thumb, index). Both classifiers use features extracted from the touch traces and button clicks on a dataset of 174 users. The resulting classifiers featured true positive rates of 96.0% and 70.1% respectively when tested using 10-fold cross-validation. While previous studies achieved similarly accurate results for operating hand (94.1%) and posture (82.6%) detection, the approach proposed by this paper is not platform-specific and does not rely on access to gyroscopes or accelerometers.
BPF and MPF-based packet scheduling for AMC-based OFDMA wireless communication systems

Two novel packet scheduling algorithms, the basic and modified priority and fairness (BPF and MPF)-based packet scheduling algorithms, are proposed in this paper for adaptive modulation and coding (AMC)-based orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems. In the proposed algorithms, various user traffics are transmitted in a sequence determined by their priorities on subchannels while jointly considering fairness among users and subchannels. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms increase the number of supported users satisfying the same underlying quality of service (QoS) requirements than some existing packet scheduling algorithms in literature.
Lepp-WCentroid method for tetrahedral mesh improvement

In this paper we propose an improved Lepp-centroid algorithm for the refinement of 3D triangulations which quickly increases the proportion of better tetrahedra in the mesh. This generalizes and improves previous Lepp-bisection algorithm in three-dimensions. We also study the practical behavior of the algorithm. The algorithm is a simple and fast mesh refinement tool for adaptive finite element methods. This has also great potential to be combined with local mesh improvement operations to quickly eliminate bad quality tetrahedra. © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of IMR 26.
Stability analysis of analog frequency dividers in the quasi-periodic regime

A simulation technique allowing the determination of all the steady state regimes of synchronized devices, including the quasi-periodic operation, is presented here. Combined with a continuation method, it provides the circuit quasi-periodic solution paths as a function of any parameter of interest. The different bifurcation loci on a two-parameters space, obtained here both from periodic and quasi-periodic simulations, allow an easy prediction acid deep understanding of the circuit behavior. By means of the proposed method, the possible working regimes of a MMIC analog frequency divider have been determined and experimentally confirmed. <<ETX>>
A comparative study of competitiveness between different genotypes of weedy rice (Oryza sativa) and cultivated rice.

BACKGROUND Competition from weedy rice can cause serious yield losses to cultivated rice. However, key traits that facilitate competitiveness are still not well understood. To explore the mechanisms behind the strong growth and competitive ability, replacement series experiments were established with six genotypes of weedy rice from different regions and one cultivated rice cultivar. RESULTS (1) Weedy rice from southern China had the greatest impact on growth and yield of cultivated rice throughout the entire growing season. Weedy rice from the northeast was very competitive during the early vegetative stage while the competitive effects of eastern weedy rice were more detrimental at later crop-growth stages. (2) As the proportion of weedy rice increased, plant height, tillers, above-ground biomass, and yield of cultivated rice significantly declined; the crop always being at disadvantage regardless of proportion. (3) Weedy biotypes with greater diversity as estimated by their Shannon indexes were more detrimental to the growth and yield of cultivated rice. CONCLUSION Geographic origin (latitude) of weedy rice biotype, its mixture proportion under competition with the crop and its genetic diversity are determinant factors of the outcome of competition and the associated decline in the rice crop yield. © 2013 Society of Chemical Industry.
A Rhetorical Study of Kiswahili Classical Poetry: An Investigation into the Nature and Role of Repetition

L'A. propose une analyse detaillee du role de la repetition dans la litterature, et plus particulierement dans la poesie classique Kiswahili, en tant qu'element structurel essentiel du texte et de la narration. Il met en evidence les differentes formes de la repetition dans la structure narrative : metrique, rythme, reiteration lexicale ou structuro-lexicale, structure syntaxique, alliteration, refrain, strophes. En conclusion, il suggere qu'il est essentiel de prendre en compte la dimension intertextuelle de ces textes, tant au niveau thematique, qu'au niveau de la signification. Les figures rethoriques mises en evidence constituent un element essentiel de la force oratoire de la poesie classique Kiswahili, et la repetition s'inscrit de facon essentielle dans la relation entre l'oral et l'ecrit.
Effects and mechanisms of indol-2,3-dione on atherosclerosis.

PURPOSE Indol-2,3-dione (ISA), a natural substance with clear structure, has been shown to process anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-atherosclerosis activity in vivo. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect and mechanism of ISA on AS by primary rat cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (rCMEC). METHODS rCMEC cells were primary cultured, appraised by cell morphology and immune cell chemical dyeing, and passaged to the 3(rd) generation. The effect of ISA on the activity of rCMEC induced by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (ox-LDL) was detected by MTT method. Then we studied the effect of ISA on the adhesion of monocyte with rCMEC induced by ox-LDL. The secretion of interleutin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) by rCMEC were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) method. Finally the mRNA level of IL-6 and TNF-α of rCMEC were analyzed by real time RT-PCR. Results MTT result indicated that ISA (10(-8)-10(-6) g/L) could inhibit rCMEC injury induced by ox-LDL in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). The adhesion of monocyte with rCMEC induced by ox-LDL was inhibited by ISA in a dose-dependent manner (P < 0.05). The levels of IL-6 and TNF-α of ISA groups were significantly decreased in a dose-dependent manner compared with model group (P < 0.05). The mRNA expressions of IL-6 and TNF-α of ISA groups were also downregulated significantly compared with model group (P < 0.05). Conclusions ISA can prevent atherosclerotic lesion. Its mechanism may be that it can defend against the oxidation damage to rCMEC, inhibit the adhesion of monocyte to rCMEC, and reduce inflammatory secretions of IL-6 and TNF-α.
Robust Graph Coloring for Uncertain Supply Chain Management

This paper studies a new Robust Graph Coloring (RGC) problem for modelling the uncertain resource constraint assignment problems in supply chain management. Most optimization tasks under uncertainty were studied by the stochastic programming based on the prediction of the future changes. However, in this study, we have another motivation concerning the robustness of the model to deal with various uncertain changes rather than focusing on the prediction of the input. RGC is an extension of the classical graph coloring problem, which maintains the number of colors as a constraint and models the uncertain scenarios based on the edge weight in the graph. A case studies of RGC - Robust Aircraft Assignment is first introduced. Then, several new techniques are proposed to solve such an NP-hard problem approximately, including the partition based encoding, the improvement graph and k-exchange cycle based neighborhood construction and several meta-heuristics including local search, simulated annealing, tabu search and hybrid method. The experimental results show that the above techniques solve the RGC accurately and effectively.
Heterogeneity of mucus glycoproteins from cystic fibrotic sputum. Are there different families of mucins?

High-Mr mucin glycopeptides prepared from sputum of an individual with cystic fibrosis (CF) were studied by ion-exchange h.p.l.c. The glycopeptides were heterogeneous and a number of partially resolved populations were identified. Whole mucins from the gel phase were separated into four fractions by isopycnic density-gradient centrifugation in CsCl, and high-Mr glycopeptides from these fractions were examined by ion-exchange h.p.l.c. The acidic nature of the high-Mr glycopeptides increased with increasing buoyant density of the intact mucins, and a periodate-Schiff (PAS)-rich and an extremely high-iron diamine (HID)-reactive component were present in the lowest and highest density fractions respectively. The various glycopeptide populations were identified in different proportions in mucins from four other individuals with CF. CF sputum thus seems to contain distinct mucin populations containing different oligosaccharide clusters corresponding to these high-Mr glycopeptides.
Aspects on the Physiological and Biochemical Foundations of Neurocritical Care

Neurocritical care (NCC) is a branch of intensive care medicine characterized by specific physiological and biochemical monitoring techniques necessary for identifying cerebral adverse events and for evaluating specific therapies. Information is primarily obtained from physiological variables related to intracranial pressure (ICP) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) and from physiological and biochemical variables related to cerebral energy metabolism. Non-surgical therapies developed for treating increased ICP are based on knowledge regarding transport of water across the intact and injured blood–brain barrier (BBB) and the regulation of CBF. Brain volume is strictly controlled as the BBB permeability to crystalloids is very low restricting net transport of water across the capillary wall. Cerebral pressure autoregulation prevents changes in intracranial blood volume and intracapillary hydrostatic pressure at variations in arterial blood pressure. Information regarding cerebral oxidative metabolism is obtained from measurements of brain tissue oxygen tension (PbtO2) and biochemical data obtained from intracerebral microdialysis. As interstitial lactate/pyruvate (LP) ratio instantaneously reflects shifts in intracellular cytoplasmatic redox state, it is an important indicator of compromised cerebral oxidative metabolism. The combined information obtained from PbtO2, LP ratio, and the pattern of biochemical variables reveals whether impaired oxidative metabolism is due to insufficient perfusion (ischemia) or mitochondrial dysfunction. Intracerebral microdialysis and PbtO2 give information from a very small volume of tissue. Accordingly, clinical interpretation of the data must be based on information of the probe location in relation to focal brain damage. Attempts to evaluate global cerebral energy state from microdialysis of intraventricular fluid and from the LP ratio of the draining venous blood have recently been presented. To be of clinical relevance, the information from all monitoring techniques should be presented bedside online. Accordingly, in the future, the chemical variables obtained from microdialysis will probably be analyzed by biochemical sensors.
Expression of N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptor subunits in the rat parabrachial and Kölliker‐Fuse nuclei and in selected pontomedullary brainstem nuclei

In the present study, we investigated the expression of N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor subunits in the parabrachial/Kölliker‐Fuse complex (PB/KF), the intertrigeminal region, the ventrolateral pons, the nucleus of the solitary tract, the ventrolateral medulla with the ambiguus nucleus, and the caudal spinal trigeminal nucleus, which are presumably involved in mediating the autonomic responses to nasotrigeminal stimulation (diving response). Our immunocytochemical data demonstrate that the majority of neurons in the respective nuclei stain for the NR1 subunit, which is a mandatory component of all NMDA receptors. NR1 immunoreactivity was found mainly on neuronal cell bodies and primary dendrites. The ubiquitous expression of the NR1 subunit was confirmed by in situ hybridization, revealing a strong NR1 mRNA signal over neurons in all nuclei investigated. Among the NR2A–D subunits, the strongest expression was observed for the NR2D transcript, both in the PB/KF and in the brainstem. For the PB/KF, we found in addition a moderate expression of NR2A mRNA in the internal lateral PB and of NR2B mRNA in the external lateral PB. The remaining PB nuclei and the KF were essentially devoid of NR2A–C transcripts. For the nucleus of the solitary tract and in the spinal trigeminal nucleus, we found, in addition to the strong NR2D mRNA signal, moderate expression of the NR2A–C transcripts. In the ventrolateral medulla, a moderate signal was seen for NR2C transcript, whereas signals for the NR2A and ‐B subunits were negligible. Our data suggest that, in PB/KF and pontomedullary brainstem nuclei involved in mediating the diving response, glutamatergic neurotransmission is apparently mediated through a specific type of NMDA receptor channels, consisting essentially of NR1 and NR2D subunits. J. Comp. Neurol. 415:501–517, 1999. © 1999 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.