bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Immune Activation and Suppression by Group B Streptococcus in a Murine Model of Urinary Tract Infection
Authors: Kline Kimberly A. , Schwartz Drew J. , Lewis Warren G. , Hultgren Scott J. , Lewis Amanda L. 
Published: June 2011

ABSTRACTGroup B streptococcus (GBS) is a common commensal of the gastrointestinal and vaginal mucosa and a leading cause of serious infections in newborns, the elderly, and immunocompromised populations. GBS also causes infections of the urinary tract. However, little is known about host responses to GBS urinary tract infection (UTI) or GBS virulence factors that participate in UTI. Here we describe a novel murine model of GBS UTI that may explain some features of GBS urinary tract association in the human host. We observed high titers and heightened histological signs of inflammation and leukocyte recruitment in the GBS-infected kidney. However, extensive inflammation and leukocyte recruitment were not observed in the bladder, suggesting that GBS may suppress bladder inflammation during cystitis. Acute GBS infection induced the localized expression of proinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1α (IL-1α), macrophage inflammatory protein-1α (MIP-1α), MIP-1β, and IL-9, as well as IL-10, more commonly considered an anti-inflammatory cytokine. Using isogenic GBS strains with different capsule structures, we show that capsular sialic acid residues contribute to GBS urinary tract pathogenesis, while high levels of sialic acid O-acetylation attenuate GBS pathogenesis in the setting of UTI, particularly in direct competition experiments.In vitrostudies demonstrated that GBS sialic acids participate in the suppression of murine polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) bactericidal activities, in addition to reducing levels of IL-1α, tumor necrosis factor alpha, IL-1β, MIP-1α, and KC produced by PMNs. These studies define several basic molecular and cellular events characterizing GBS UTI in an animal model, showing that GBS participates simultaneously in the activation and suppression of host immune responses in the urinary tract.
The Poly-γ-
d
-Glutamic Acid Capsule of Bacillus anthracis Enhances Lethal Toxin Activity
Authors: Jang Jeyoun , Cho Minhui , Chun Jeong-Hoon , Cho Min-Hee , Park Jungchan , Oh Hee-Bok , Yoo Cheon-Kwon , Rhie Gi-eun 
Published: June 2011

ABSTRACT

The poly-γ-
d
-glutamic acid (PGA) capsule is one of the major virulence factors of
Bacillus anthracis
, which causes a highly lethal infectious disease. The PGA capsule disguises
B. anthracis
from immune surveillance and allows its unimpeded growth in the host. The PGA capsule recently was reported to be associated with lethal toxin (LT) in the blood of experimentally infected animals (M. H. Cho, et al., Infect. Immun. 78:387-392, 2010). The effect of PGA, either alone or in combination with LT, on macrophages, which play an important role in the progression of anthrax disease, has not been thoroughly investigated. In this study, we investigated the effect of PGA on LT cytotoxicity using the mouse macrophage cell line J774A.1. PGA produced a concentration-dependent enhancement of the cytotoxicity of LT on J774A.1 cells through an enhancement in the binding and accumulation of protective antigen to its receptors. The increase of LT activity was confirmed using Western blot analysis, which showed that the combination of PGA and LT produced a greater degree of degradation of mitogen-activated protein kinase kinases and an increased level of the activation of the proform of caspase-1 to its processed form compared to the effects of LT alone. In addition, mice that received a tail vein injection of both PGA and LT had a significantly increased rate of death compared to that of mice injected with LT alone. PGA had no effect when added to cultures or administered to mice in the absence of LT. These results emphasize the importance of PGA in the pathogenesis of anthrax infection.
Prognostic associations of clinical and histopathological features in renal amyloidosis
Authors: Min Kyueng-Whan , Na Woong , Jang Se Min , Park Moon Hyang 
Published: June 2011

ABSTRACT

Aim
This retrospective study was conducted to assess the relationship between renal functional parameters and histolopathological findings in patients with renal amyloidosis.

Methods
A total of 40 patients with biopsy-proven renal amyloidosis, which was diagnosed at the Department of Pathology, Hanyang University Hospital, between 1986 and 2010, were investigated. Renal biopsy specimens were evaluated in various histochemical and immunohistochemical stains using light, immunofluorescence and electron microscopes, and renal function was determined by estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) (ml/min/1.73 m2) using the method proposed by the Modification of Diet in Renal Disease study. Glomerular amyloid deposits were classified into four groups: none, mild, segmental and diffuse types. The vascular, tubular and interstitial deposits were subdivided into the negative and positive groups.

Results
In simple regression analysis, 24-hour protein excretion, serum blood urea nitrogen and eGFR were found to significantly correlate with the increased extent of glomerular amyloid deposit. In multiple regression analysis, a decrease in eGFR was significantly associated with an increase in glomerular amyloid deposits (p=0.024), but there was no significant correlation with an increase in 24-hour protein excretion and blood urea nitrogen (p=0.119 and 0.184, respectively).

Conclusion
The results of this study demonstrate that the increased extent of glomerular amyloid deposits may be associated with the decline of GFR in patients with renal amyloidosis.
Spontaneous haemopneumothorax: current management
Authors: Ng Calvin S H , Wong Randolph H L , Wan Innes Y P , Lau Rainbow W H , Hsin Michael K Y , Yeung Eugene C L , Wan Song , Underwood Malcolm J 
Published: June 2011

ABSTRACT
Spontaneous haemopneumothorax (SHP) can be life threatening and is an important cause for unexplained signs of significant hypovolaemia. There is still some debate relating to patient selection and timing of surgery, particularly in those who become stable following chest tube insertion without further blood loss. Review of the literature over the past decade in the management of SHP are presented and discussed. Surgery should be considered early in the management of SHP to reduce morbidity associated with continued haemorrhage and inadequate drainage. Lower postoperative complications and shorter hospital stay following video assisted thoracic surgery compared with thoracotomy have led to its increased acceptance as an alternative approach for SHP patients who are haemodynamically stable.
DeFT
Authors: Venkataramani Guru , Hughes Christopher J. , Kumar Sanjeev , Prvulovic Milos 
Published: June 2011

While multicore processors promise large performance benefits for parallel applications, writing these applications is notoriously difficult. Tuning a parallel application to achieve good performance, also known as performance debugging, is often more challenging than debugging the application for correctness. Parallel programs have many performance-related issues that are not seen in sequential programs. An increase in cache misses is one of the biggest challenges that programmers face. To minimize these misses, programmers must not only identify the source of the extra misses, but also perform the tricky task of determining if the misses are caused by interthread communication (i.e., coherence misses) and if so, whether they are caused by true or false sharing (since the solutions for these two are quite different).
In this article, we propose a new programmer-centric definition of false sharing misses and describe our novel algorithm to perform coherence miss classification. We contrast our approach with existing data-centric definitions of false sharing. A straightforward implementation of our algorithm is too expensive to be incorporated in real hardware. Therefore, we explore the design space for low-cost hardware support that can classify coherence misses on-the-fly into true and false sharing misses, allowing existing performance counters and profiling tools to expose and attribute them. We find that our approximate schemes achieve good accuracy at only a fraction of the cost of the ideal scheme. Additionally, we demonstrate the usefulness of our work in a case study involving a real application.
Evaluating indirect branch handling mechanisms in software dynamic translation systems
Authors: Hiser Jason D. , Williams Daniel W. , Hu Wei , Davidson Jack W. , Mars Jason , Childers Bruce R. 
Published: June 2011

Software Dynamic Translation (SDT) is used for instrumentation, optimization, security, and many other uses. A major source of SDT overhead is the execution of code to translate an indirect branch's target address into the translated destination block's address.
This article discusses sources of Indirect Branch (IB) overhead in SDT systems and evaluates techniques for overhead reduction. Measurements using SPEC CPU2000 show that the appropriate choice and configuration of IB translation mechanisms can significantly reduce the overhead. Further, cross-architecture evaluation of these mechanisms reveals that the most efficient implementation and configuration can be highly dependent on the architecture implementation.
Dynamic Changes in Regulatory T Cells Are Linked to Levels of Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemia
Authors: Maganto-García Elena , Tarrio Margarite L. , Grabie Nir , Bu De-xiu , Lichtman Andrew H. 
Published: June 2011

Background—
Regulatory T cells (Treg) are present in atherosclerotic lesions and can modulate disease. In this study we characterized changes in Treg responses associated with prolonged hypercholesterolemia and lesion progression.

Methods and Results—

Low-density lipoprotein receptor null mice in which Treg express green fluorescent protein were fed a control or cholesterol-rich diet, and green fluorescent protein–positive cells were enumerated in lymphoid tissues and in aorta. Splenic Treg numbers increased after 4, 8, and 20 weeks in cholesterol-diet–fed mice. However, the number of circulating and lesional Treg peaked at 4 weeks and decreased significantly at 8 and 20 weeks, concomitant with increased numbers of CD4
+
effector T cells and increased lesion size over this period. Treg expression of selectin ligands and their ability to bind to aortic endothelium decreased after prolonged hypercholesterolemia, and apoptosis of lesional Treg increased. After 4 weeks of cholesterol-rich diet, a switch to a control diet for 4 weeks reduced serum cholesterol and stopped lesion growth, and the high aortic Treg content was maintained, compared with mice fed a cholesterol diet for 8 weeks. After the diet reversal, the splenic Treg retained the phenotype of Treg after 4 weeks of cholesterol diet.

Conclusions—
Prolonged hypercholesterolemia impairs Treg but not effector T cell accumulation in lesions, but reversal of hypercholesterolemia can prevent loss of lesional Treg. Therefore, cholesterol-lowering therapies may induce dynamic and beneficial changes in Treg:effector T cell ratios in atherosclerotic lesions.
Perishock Pause
Authors: Cheskes Sheldon , Schmicker Robert H. , Christenson Jim , Salcido David D. , Rea Tom , Powell Judy , Edelson Dana P. , Sell Rebecca , May Susanne , Menegazzi James J. , Van Ottingham Lois , Olsufka Michele , Pennington Sarah , Simonini Jacob , Berg Robert A. , Stiell Ian , Idris Ahamed , Bigham Blair , Morrison Laurie 
Published: June 2011

Background—
Perishock pauses are pauses in chest compressions before and after defibrillatory shock. We examined the relationship between perishock pauses and survival to hospital discharge.

Methods and Results—
We included out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients in the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Epistry–Cardiac Arrest who suffered arrest between December 2005 and June 2007, presented with a shockable rhythm (ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia), and had cardiopulmonary resuscitation process data for at least 1 shock (n=815). We used multivariable logistic regression to determine the association between survival and perishock pauses. In an analysis adjusted for Utstein predictors of survival, the odds of survival were significantly lower for patients with preshock pause ≥20 seconds (odds ratio, 0.47; 95% confidence interval, 0.27 to 0.82) and perishock pause ≥40 seconds (odds ratio, 0.54; 95% confidence interval, 0.31 to 0.97) compared with patients with preshock pause <10 seconds and perishock pause <20 seconds. Postshock pause was not independently associated with a significant change in the odds of survival. Log-linear modeling depicted a decrease in survival to hospital discharge of 18% and 14% for every 5-second increase in both preshock and perishock pause interval (up to 40 and 50 seconds, respectively), with no significant association noted with changes in the postshock pause interval.

Conclusions—
In patients with cardiac arrest presenting in a shockable rhythm, longer perishock and preshock pauses were independently associated with a decrease in survival to hospital discharge. The impact of preshock pause on survival suggests that refinement of automatic defibrillator software and paramedic education to minimize preshock pause delays may have a significant impact on survival.
Rhesus Macaques Develop Metabolic Syndrome With Reversible Vascular Dysfunction Responsive to Pioglitazone
Authors: Zhang Xiuqin , Zhang Rongli , Raab Susanne , Zheng Wen , Wang Jue , Liu Na , Zhu Tiangang , Xue Lifang , Song Zhentao , Mao Jiaming , Li Kaitao , Zhang Huiliang , Zhang Yan , Han Chao , Ding Yi , Wang Hui , Hou Ning , Liu Yuli , Shang Shujiang , Li Chuanyun , Sebokova Elena , Cheng Heping , Huang Paul L. 
Published: June 2011

Background—
The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a constellation of clinical features that include central obesity, hypertension, atherogenic dyslipidemia, and insulin resistance. However, the concept remains controversial; it has been debated whether MetS represents nothing more than simultaneous co-occurrence of individual risk factors or whether there are common shared pathophysiological mechanisms that link the individual components.

Methods and Results—
To investigate the emergence of metabolic and cardiovascular components during the development of MetS, we identified MetS-predisposed animals (n=35) in a large population of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, 12.7±2.9 years old, n=408), acclimated them to standardized conditions, and monitored the progression of individual component features over 18 months. In 18 MetS animals with recently developed fasting hyperinsulinemia, central obesity, hypertension, and atherogenic dyslipidemia, we found that individual metabolic and cardiovascular components track together during the transition from pre-MetS to onset of MetS; MetS was associated with a 60% impairment of flow-mediated dilation, establishing the mechanistic link with vascular dysfunction. Pioglitazone treatment (3 mg/kg body weight/d for 6 weeks), a peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor γ agonist, reversibly improved atherogenic dyslipidemia and insulin resistance and fully restored flow-mediated dilation with persistent benefits.

Conclusions—
Coemergence of metabolic and cardiovascular components during MetS progression and complete normalization of vascular dysfunction with peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ agonists suggest shared underlying mechanisms rather than separate processes, arguing for the benefit of early intervention of MetS components. Predictive nonhuman primate (NHP) models of MetS should be highly valuable in mechanistic and translational studies on the pathogenesis of MetS in relation to cardiovascular disease and diabetes mellitus.
Impact of structure and yarn colour on UV properties and air permeability of multilayer cotton woven fabrics
Authors: Urbas Raša , Kostanjšek Klara , Dimitrovski Krste 
Published: June 2011

The aim of our work was to establish whether very good to excellent UV (ultraviolet) protective properties of fabrics can be obtained through a suitable fabric construction and yarn colour, at the same time ensuring suitable air permeability.  For this purpose, six different fabric structures divided into three groups were employed. The samples were made in blue and red combinations of weft with different sequences and proportions between the upper and lower weave threads. A comparison of different fabric structures and colours was attempted to enable the assessment of the impact of the mentioned parameters on both, UV protective properties and air permeability of fabrics.  The analysis comprised the investigation of physical and permeability properties, as well as the colour measurements on twelve different cotton fabrics.  The research indicated excellent UV protection (>60) in all samples. UV protection depended on their construction and in a sufficiently closed structure, also on the colour of the used yarn. There was no significant difference between the samples in blue and red. In addition to excellent UV protection, four samples (one double-weft and three double fabrics) also demonstrated very high air permeability, which was 3–5 times higher than in the one-layer sample, which demonstrated the best UV protective properties.  The research has shown that fabrics with a very high ultraviolet protective factor value and good air permeability can be made by using a suitable construction and yarn colours that sufficiently absorb UV light; the latter being particularly important for light summer cotton clothes.
Family Inclusion in Diabetes Education: A Nationwide Survey of Diabetes Educators
Authors: Denham Sharon A. , Ware Lezlee J. , Raffle Holly , Leach Kimberly 
Published: June 2011

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate perceptions about family inclusion and support in diabetes self-management education. Methods Surveys were mailed to certified diabetes educators (CDEs) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with a return of 225 surveys. Descriptive and inferential statistics (eg, t test, analysis of variance, correlation, and chi-square) were used as appropriate. Results Levels of importance placed on family involvement in diabetes education were significantly related to the emphasis placed on family during CDEs’ formal or preprofessional education. CDEs’ formal exposure to family theory influenced perceptions of their knowledge about family and the frequency that family support was emphasized in self-management activities but was unrelated to perceptions of their skillfulness in educating family members. Diabetes educators’ personal values of family support were significantly related to how frequently family members were asked to participate in formal diabetes education classes. CDEs perceived that they were meeting individuals’ self-management needs significantly better than those of families. Regional differences did not appear to be a factor in how CDEs incorporated family in diabetes education. Conclusions Diabetes educators without formal exposure to family theory may be overestimating how much they emphasize family support in diabetes education. Increasing formal education about the importance of family involvement in self-management behaviors could positively affect individual diabetes self-management outcomes.
A Technique with Manipulator‐Assisted Endoscope Guidance for Functional Endoscopic Sinus Surgery
Authors: Fischer Miloš , Gröbner Christina , Dietz Andreas , Krinninger Maximillian , Lüth Tim C. , Strauß Gero 
Published: June 2011

ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to examine the theoretical feasibility of a new manipulator system for endoscope guidance in functional endoscopic sinus surgery.Study DesignThe accuracy of endoscope positioning and time of endoscope movement with an endoscope manipulator system were determined with an artificial sinus model.SettingA laboratory trial was performed. The time for 60 repetitions of manual compared to manipulator‐assisted endoscope movements directed at 3 different target positions was evaluated. In addition, the alignment of the position vector for each endoscope movement was examined.Subjects and MethodsA zero‐degree Hopkins II telescope with a camera was used to head for the target positions. First, the endoscope movements were done manually, and afterward the endoscope manipulator system was used for endoscope guidance. The alignment of the position vector of the endoscope was measured with a portable measuring arm.ResultsThere was no statistical difference between the time for manual and manipulator‐assisted endoscope movements for all target positions. The alignment of the position vector of the endoscope was statistically different at 2 target positions: anterior ethmoid left side and ostium of maxillary sinus left side. There was no statistical difference at all other positions.ConclusionThe endoscope manipulator system has the potential to be integrated into the operating workflow without extending the time for endoscope guidance. The surgeon will be able to use both hands for the manipulation of the instruments. Less frequent endoscope movements and instrument changes may be expected after technical modification.
Gustatory Function after Radiofrequency Tongue Base Reduction in Patients with Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Authors: Eun Young Gyu , Shin Seung Youp , Byun Jae Yong , Kim Myung Gu , Lee Kun Hee , Kim Sung Wan 
Published: June 2011

ObjectivesTo investigate the changes in gustatory function as a complication after radiofrequency tongue base reduction (RTBR) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).Study DesignBefore‐and‐after study.SettingAcademic tertiary medical center.Subjects and MethodsThirty‐four patients with suspected velopharyngeal collapse only underwent uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP group). Twenty‐five patients with velopharyngeal and retrolingual collapse underwent concurrent UPPP with RTBR (RTBR group). All patients were evaluated before surgery and at 1 and 4 weeks after surgical treatment. A questionnaire was given to assess symptoms of hypogeusia, dysgeusia, hyposmia, and sensation of the tongue. Electrogustometry (EGM) in 4 areas was used to determine gustatory function.ResultsPostoperative values for subjective symptoms did not significantly change following surgical treatment in either group. EGM thresholds of all tested in both groups did not significantly change 1 week and 4 weeks after surgery.ConclusionsGustatory function remained unchanged after RTBR in patients with OSA. The authors suggest that RTBR is a safe procedure in terms of taste sensation in OSA patients.