Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and radiogical outcomes of endovascular detachable coil embolization in paraclinoid aneurysms : a 10-year experience.

OBJECTIVE Direct surgical clipping of paraclinoid aneurysms poses technical challenges to even very experienced neurosurgeons, making endovascular treatment an alternative treatment modality in many centers. We have therefore retrospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of endovascular detachable coil embolization of paraclinoid aneurysms. METHODS From June 1997 to June 2007, 65 patients underwent endovascular detachable coiling for 67 paraclinoid aneurysms (of which 9 were ruptured and 58 were unruptured) in our institute. Their medical records, radiological images and readings, and operation records were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS After the initial embolization procedure, complete occlusion was achieved in 29 (43.3%) of the aneurysms treated by endovascular detachable coiling. Six aneurysms required retreatment, with two each requiring one, two, or three additional endovascular procedures. Fifty-five (82.1%) aneurysms were measured by three-dimensional time of flight (TOF) magnetic resonance images (MRI) or transfemoral cerebral angiography (TFCA) at a mean follow-up of 29.7 months (range from 4 to 94 months), with 39 aneurysms (70.9%) showing complete occlusion. Thromboembolic events (3.8%) were the most frequent complication. Rupture did not occur during or after any of the procedures. According to the Glasgow Outcome Scale (GOS), 98.4% of the patients treated by coil embolization had a score of 4 or 5. CONCLUSION Our results indicate that endovascular detachable coiling is a safe and effective treatment modality in paraclinoid aneurysms.
Survey of software architecture description and usage in software industry of Pakistan

Software Architecture is a new field but it is not a new activity while developing Software. However, it remained ignored and less important as compared to other activities like coding. Now it is considered as a separate activity during the development of the software. This paper surveys the description, evolution, evaluation and usage of Software Architecture in Pakistani software industry. The conclusion is made about the description and usage of Software Architecture in Pakistani software industry in particular and in the world in general.
INCREASING PERCENT BURN IS CORRELATED WITH INCREASING INFLAMMATION IN AN ADULT RODENT MODEL

Burn injury has been associated with systemic/compartmental inflammatory responses and myocardial dysfunction. We hypothesized that burn size correlates with the extent of cardiac inflammatory response/contractile dysfunction. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were divided to receive anesthesia, a 3-degree burn covering 20%, 30%, 40%, or 60% total body surface area (TBSA) plus fluid resuscitation (lactated Ringer, 4 mL/kg per percent burn); sham burn animals were included as controls. There were seven rats in each group. Rats were euthanized Twenty-four h postburn, and TNF-&agr;, IL-1&bgr;, and IL-6 were measured in the plasma and in supernatant from isolated cardiac myocytes by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In addition, left ventricular function (Langendorff) was studied in vitro, and troponin levels were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. There were progressive, statistically significant increases in plasma and myocyte inflammatory cytokine levels, as well as plasma troponin with increasing burn size. Similarly, left ventricular pressure (in millimeters of mercury) and ±dP/dtmax (in millimeters of mercury per second) progressively fell with increasing burn size. However, myocardial contractile depression induced by 60% TBSA burn was similar to that produced by 40% TBSA burn. These data suggest that the degree of inflammatory response, cardiac tissue injury, and myocardial contractile depression were correlated directly with the percent TBSA burn. However, unlike inflammation and cardiac tissue damage, myocardial contractile depression reached a plateau, with maximal myocardial contraction and relaxation defects observed at 40% TBSA burn, which were not further aggravated by a larger (60%) burn.
Bone metastasis: Osteoblasts affect growth and adhesion regulons in prostate tumor cells and provoke osteomimicry

Bone metastasis is the primary cause of death in human prostate cancer. Disseminated from primary tumor and distributed via the bloodstream, a proportion of prostate carcinoma cells eventually reach the skeleton and develop into metastases, requiring adhesion to inner bone surfaces lined by osteoblasts. The crosstalk of tumor cells with osteoblasts is a critical but poorly characterized step in the metastatic process. Using an in vitro metastasis model system, we have been examining effects of osteoblast‐released factors on gene expression of prostate carcinoma cells. Here, we show by large‐scale transcript profiling and quantitative RT‐PCR that osteoblast‐released factors target in particular the proliferation and adhesion regulons of tumor cells. Genes encoding components of the cell‐cycle control machinery and connected pathways are predominantly repressed and cell proliferation is slowed down, resembling in vivo observations assumed to render commonly used chemotherapeutic measures ineffective. Genes encoding anchoring junction components are predominantly elevated, and the adhesion properties of tumor cells are altered. Moreover, prostate carcinoma cells are provoked to undergo osteomimicry, i.e., to express bone cell–related genes. The data indicate that the crosstalk with osteoblasts induces expressional changes in prostate carcinoma cells favoring the bone colonization process. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Differentiation of Function among the RsbR Paralogs in the General Stress Response of Bacillus subtilis with Regard to Light Perception

ABSTRACT The general stress response of Bacillus subtilis can be activated by a wide range of signals, including low intensities of visible light. It is regulated by a dedicated σ factor via a complex signal transduction pathway that makes use of stressosomes: hetero-oligomeric complexes that include one or more of the RsbR proteins (RsbRA, RsbRB, RsbRC, and RsbRD). The response to blue light is mediated by the photoreceptor YtvA. We show here which of the four RsbR proteins are necessary for the activation of the σB response by blue light. Experiments performed with single-, double-, and triple-deletion strains in the rsbR genes show that RsbRB and RsbRA function antagonistically, with the former being a negative regulator and the latter a positive regulator of the YtvA-dependent light activation of the stress response. A strain with RsbRB as the only RsbR protein is unable to respond to light-activation of σB. Furthermore, RsbRC and RsbRD can replace RsbRA's function only in the absence of RsbRB. This differentiation of function is confined to light stress, since strains with RsbRA or RsbRB as the only RsbR protein behave similarly in our experimental conditions in response to physicochemical stresses. Interestingly, RsbRB's absence is sufficient to result in light activation of the general stress response at wild-type expression levels of ytvA, while it was previously reported that YtvA could only activate σB when overproduced, or when cells are supplemented with an additional environmental stress.
Tilting at Insider Trading Windmills

In his article “Insider Trading via the Corporation,” Professor Jesse M. Fried expresses his frustration that “when insiders are subject to strict trade-disclosure requirements and firms are not, insiders have a strong incentive to exploit the relatively lax trade-disclosure rules that apply to firms in order to engage in indirect insider trading. ” Professor Fried divides insider trading into so-called “direct” and “indirect” styles and examines the indirect version – where corporate insiders maneuver the levers of the corporation to buy and sell shares at favorable prices and, in turn, boost the value of their own equity. Professor Fried views indirect insider trading as both costly to public investors and deleterious to the firm’s economic value. The Article also proposes to reduce these costs through the imposition of trade-disclosure rules which more closely mirror those applied to insiders themselves. This short Response aims to lend new insight and perspective to this topic, the importance of which cannot be overstated given the demonstrable increase in the number of corporate buybacks in recent years. The Response proceeds in four parts. Part I offers a summary and prioritization of the Article’s observations. Part II asserts that the problem of insider trading via the corporation is overstated, as any personal benefit obtainable through indirect insider trading is significantly diluted, with an offender unlikely to hold a sufficiently sizeable portion of the firm to make such behavior as desirable as the Article suggests. Part III focuses attention on regulatory and market distortions as the more benign (and more likely) explanation for firms’ stock issuance and repurchase choices. This Part also asserts that decisions can often be defended as in a firm’s interest, and therefore consistent with corporate insiders’ fiduciary duties. Finally, this part suggests that the regulation of corporate repurchases is far more robust than the Article concedes, with firms regularly employing responsible models of corporate governance which consider many concerns beyond those mentioned by Professor Fried. The final section of the Response offers a brief conclusion, positing that Professor Fried’s analysis rests on the tenuous assumption that the corporation and its officers are somehow inherently prone to malevolent action and self-dealing.
Hyperoxia in the intensive care unit: why more is not always better

Purpose of reviewHyperoxic inspired gas is essential for patients with hypoxic respiratory failure; it is also suspected, however, as a contributor to the pathogenesis of acute lung injury. Several recent studies in humans, animals, and cell culture have identified mechanisms by which hyperoxia may exert deleterious effects on critically ill patients. This review identifies relevant new findings regarding hyperoxic lung injury in the context of providing guidance for future clinical studies. Recent findingsRecent studies have clarified the roles of both receptor-mediated and mitochondrial cell death pathways in experimental hyperoxic lung injury. Studies in animals demonstrate that hyperoxia interacts with mechanical stretch to augment ventilator-induced lung injury. Finally, studies in humans implicate hyperoxia in impairment of host defense responses to infections. SummaryAlthough hyperoxia has not been conclusively identified as a clinically important cause of lung injury in humans, animal data strongly implicate it. Reports of interaction effects between hyperoxia and both mechanical ventilation and host defense suggest that clinical studies of hyperoxia must take these variables into account. Accumulating data about how hyperoxia initiates cell death provide guidance for development of both biomarkers to identify hyperoxia-induced injury and pharmacological interventions to limit hyperoxia's adverse effects.
American and exotic options in a market with frictions

In a market with frictions, bid and ask prices are described by sublinear pricing functionals, which can be defined recursively using coherent risk measures. We prove the convergence of bid and ask prices for various European and American possible path-dependent options, in particular plain vanilla, Asian, lookback and barrier options in a binomial model with transaction costs. We perform several numerical experiments to confirm the theoretical findings. We apply the results to real market data of American options and compute an implied liquidity to describe the bid–ask spread. This method describes liquidity over time very well, compared to the classical approach of describing bid and ask prices by quoting bid and ask implied volatilities.
The Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS): How Can We Improve the Care of Hemodialysis Patients?

Outcomes among dialysis patients vary considerably internationally and across regions within the United States. The Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (DOPPS) is a large, prospective, observational study of representative samples of hemodialysis patients in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The DOPPS collects a wealth of data regarding the patients' demographic characteristics, medical histories, laboratory values, prescriptions, dialysis unit practices, and outcomes. The study seeks to clarify which dialysis practices contribute to improved mortality rates, hospitalization rates, health related quality of life, and vascular access outcomes, after adjusting for the effects of comorbid disease and demographic variables. Over 18,000 patients have been enrolled to date. This paper describes the initial findings and outlines the plans to expand the trial.
Competition between anthocyanin and flavonol biosynthesis produces spatial pattern variation of floral pigments between Mimulus species

Significance The incredible diversity of vivid color patterns in natural organisms (e.g., butterfly wings, tropical fish skins, angiosperm flowers) has fascinated generations of biologists. Yet, neither the molecular mechanisms responsible for the color pattern formation nor the genetic bases underlying natural color pattern variation are well understood. In this study we have identified a causal gene underlying spatial pattern variation of floral pigments between two Mimulus (monkeyflowers) species: the bumblebee-pollinated Mimulus lewisii and the hummingbird-pollinated Mimulus cardinalis. We demonstrate that the competition between anthocyanin and flavonol biosynthesis sets a “prepattern” of pigment distribution in M. lewisii, producing a white region surrounding the throat of the otherwise pink corolla. This is likely to be a common mechanism underlying flower color patterns. Flower color patterns have long served as a model for developmental genetics because pigment phenotypes are visually striking, yet generally not required for plant viability, facilitating the genetic analysis of color and pattern mutants. The evolution of novel flower colors and patterns has played a key role in the adaptive radiation of flowering plants via their specialized interactions with different pollinator guilds (e.g., bees, butterflies, birds), motivating the search for allelic differences affecting flower color pattern in closely related plant species with different pollinators. We have identified LIGHT AREAS1 (LAR1), encoding an R2R3-MYB transcription factor, as the causal gene underlying the spatial pattern variation of floral anthocyanin pigmentation between two sister species of monkeyflower: the bumblebee-pollinated Mimulus lewisii and the hummingbird-pollinated Mimulus cardinalis. We demonstrated that LAR1 positively regulates FLAVONOL SYNTHASE (FLS), essentially eliminating anthocyanin biosynthesis in the white region (i.e., light areas) around the corolla throat of M. lewisii flowers by diverting dihydroflavonol into flavonol biosynthesis from the anthocyanin pigment pathway. FLS is preferentially expressed in the light areas of the M. lewisii flower, thus prepatterning the corolla. LAR1 expression in M. cardinalis flowers is much lower than in M. lewisii, explaining the unpatterned phenotype and recessive inheritance of the M. cardinalis allele. Furthermore, our gene-expression analysis and genetic mapping results suggest that cis-regulatory change at the LAR1 gene played a critical role in the evolution of different pigmentation patterns between the two species.
Soziale Differenzierung und zunehmende soziale Heterogenität in Leipzig im Spiegel von Alltagswahrnehmung und Politik

Zusammenfassung Soziale Differenzierung ist in den Großstädten Ostdeutschlands zu einem wesentlichen Charakteristikum urbaner Entwicklung, Alltagswahrnehmung und Politik geworden. Insbesondere lässt sich dies in den Städten beobachten, welche nach der Schrumpfung der 1990er-Jahre seit Kurzem wieder dynamisch wachsen. Die Vertiefung sozialer Ungleichheiten (soziale Differenzierung) sowie die Vervielfältigung von Lebensstilen, Lebenswelten und Identitäten (zunehmende Heterogenität) sind Teil dieser Entwicklung. Vor diesem Hintergrund diskutiert der Beitrag soziale Differenzierung und zunehmende Heterogenität der Bevölkerung in Leipzig mit einem Fokus auf Alltagswahrnehmungen der Bewohner sowie der lokalen Politikentwicklung. Es wird analysiert, wie soziale Differenz und zunehmende Heterogenität zu einem Thema im Alltag und für die Politik werden und wie beide Perspektiven in Bezug zueinander stehen. Der Beitrag fußt auf einem mehrdimensionalen Verständnis von Heterogenität einschließlich der sozioökonomischen, demographischen, lebensstilbezogenen und ethnisch-migrantischen Dimensionen. Räumlich gesehen werden sowohl die gesamtstädtische als auch die Quartiersperspektive betrachtet. Die Analyse kommt unter anderem zu dem Ergebnis, dass soziale Heterogenität in ihrer horizontalen Dimension anerkannt und wahrgenommen wird und sich diese Anerkennung auch in der Politikformulierung findet. Das gilt nicht im gleichen Maße für Ausprägungen sozialer Ungleichheit. Das Beispiel Leipzig zeigt überdies, dass der generelle Diskurs stärker differenzieren muss zwischen dem Anliegen, horizontale Differenz (explizit) anzuerkennen, der notwendigen Bekämpfung vertikaler sozialer Ungleichheiten sowie dem Umstand, dass sich aus deren Überschneidung zahlreiche neue Unübersichtlichkeiten und Komplexitäten ergeben.
SERIAL HOMOLOGY AND THE EVOLUTION OF MAMMALIAN LIMB COVARIATION STRUCTURE

Abstract The tetrapod forelimb and hindlimb are serially homologous structures that share a broad range of developmental pathways responsible for their patterning and outgrowth. Covariation between limbs, which can introduce constraints on the production of variation, is related to the duplication of these developmental factors. Despite this constraint, there is remarkable diversity in limb morphology, with a variety of functional relationships between and within forelimb and hindlimb elements. Here we assess a hierarchical model of limb covariation structure based on shared developmental factors. We also test whether selection for morphologically divergent forelimbs or hindlimbs is associated with reduced covariation between limbs. Our sample includes primates, murines, a carnivoran, and a chiropteran that exhibit varying degrees of forelimb and hindlimb specialization, limb size divergence, and/or phylogenetic relatedness. We analyze the pattern and significance of between-limb morphological covariation with linear distance data collected using standard morphometric techniques and analyzed by matrix correlations, eigenanalysis, and partial correlations. Results support a common limb covariation structure across these taxa and reduced covariation between limbs in nonquadruped species. This result indicates that diversity in limb morphology has evolved without signficant modifications to a common covariation structure but that the higher degree of functional limb divergence in bats and, to some extent, gibbons is associated with weaker integration between limbs. This result supports the hypothesis that limb divergence, particularly selection for increased functional specialization, involves the reduction of developmental factors common to both limbs, thereby reducing covariation.
Microscopic colitis in Uppsala health region, a population-based prospective study 2005–2009

Abstract Objective. The aim of this study is to report on the incidence of microscopic colitis (MC), any possible relation with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), concomitant drug consumption, related diseases and the clinical course of the diseases. Methods. Both new cases of IBD and MC were registered at the same time in the same geographical area. The study started in the county of Uppsala 2005–2006, and other parts of the surrounding health region were included 2007–2009. Established morphological criteria were used, i.e. a layer of subepithelial collagen band ≥ 10 μm in collagenous colitis (CC) with concomitant inflammation and at least 20 lymphocytes per 100 epithelial cells in lymphocytic colitis (LC). Results. The authors found 272 new cases of MC, 154 with CC and 118 with LC. The mean age-adjusted incidence was 7.0/1,000,000 for CC and 4.8/100,000 for LC. The clinical course was dominated by single episodes with diarrhea or intermittent symptoms, but 14% suffered from chronic diarrhea. In 10% of the cases, diagnosis was made in individuals without chronic watery diarrhea. Although not systematically tested, concomitant celiac disease was found in approximately 5% of the patients. Conclusions. The incidence of MC in Uppsala health region is similar to other studied areas. The majority of patients had a self-limiting or easily treated condition, but 14% need a more or less continuous medication. Ten percent of the patients demonstrate other symptoms than chronic watery diarrhea. The possibility of concomitant celiac disease should be considered in new cases of MC.
Tolerance of Noncompliance: Discretion Rather Than Simple Rules?

We argue that societies sometimes choose not to enforce the law to gain “flexibility”. Especially developing countries face a dilemma between discretion and commitment to only partially-contingent rules. Rules are good for incentives, but discretion may be more “flexible”. We embed this dilemma in a political model and show that citizens will not support strong enforcement institutions unless the state is able to commit to sufficiently sophisticated redistributive policies.
The effects of weight loss and gastric banding on the innate and adaptive immune system in type 2 diabetes and prediabetes.

CONTEXT Obesity-related chronic inflammation is implicated in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes (T2D). OBJECTIVE The objective of the study was to determine the effects of weight loss on immune cells in T2D and prediabetes. DESIGN AND SETTING Thirteen obese subjects with T2D or prediabetes underwent 24 wk dietary energy restriction with gastric banding surgery at 12 wk. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Measures included weight, waist, and insulin resistance; surface activation marker expression on circulating immune cells; T-helper cell polarization: type 1 (Th1), type 2 (Th2); adipose tissue macrophage number and activation in sc and visceral adipose tissue. RESULTS Mean total weight loss was 13.5%. There were significant decreases in expression of proinflammatory activation markers: granulocyte CD11b, monocyte CD66b, and T cell CD69 and CD25. Proinflammatory Th1 cell numbers fell by greater than 80%, as did the Th1 to Th2 ratio. The fall in Th1 to Th2 ratio related to weight (P < 0.05) and waist loss (P < 0.05). Reduction in immune cell activation was more pronounced in subjects with prediabetes. Weight and abdominal fat loss were predicted by lower activation of adipose tissue macrophage in sc and visceral adipose tissue (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS Energy restriction before and after gastric banding attenuates activation of circulating immune cells of the innate and adaptive immune system in T2D and prediabetes. The role of immune cells in the chronic inflammation of obesity and T2D requires further investigation.