TASK DEFINITION: Given a passage, construct a question on the basis of the information present in the passage. Construct the question in such a way that (i) it is unambiguous, (ii) it is answerable from the passage, (iii) its answer is unique (iv) it answer uses text phrases from the passage. Avoid creating questions that (i) can't be answered correctly without actually understanding the passage and (ii) uses the same words or phrases given in the passage.
PROBLEM: Toenail onychomycosis is a common disease that can have serious adverse effects on the quality of life (QOL) of patients.', 'To evaluate the impact of itraconazole pulse therapy on the QOL of patients with toenail onychomycosis.', 'A total of 20 patients with disto-lateral subungual toenail onychomycosis were treated with itraconazole 200 mg twice daily for 1 week every 4 weeks for 12 weeks. The patients were asked to complete a QOL questionnaire before treatment and on the last follow-up visit (week 48). A score of 0-4 was given according to the five possible responses to each question and these were summed to give the final score of the patient. The mean of the final scores of the patients before and after treatment were compared using the Wilcoxon matched-pairs test.', 'At 48 weeks after commencing treatment, 14 patients (70%) responded to treatment (nine patients were cured with almost totally clear toenails and five patients improved), and 16 patients (80%) were mycologically cured (negative KOH smear and culture). The mean of the QOL scores of the patients before treatment was 18.0+/-7.8, which reduced to 13.1+/-11.3 after treatment (two-tailed, p=0.009).

SOLUTION: Does itraconazole pulse therapy improve the quality of life of patients with toenail onychomycosis?

PROBLEM: Approximately 50% of subjects with essential hypertension (EH) are insulin resistant, and this defect in insulin action could contribute to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in these patients. To test this hypothesis, we attempted to see if there was a link between insulin resistance (IR) and carotid intimal medial thickness (IMT), an early index of CVD, in patients with essential hypertension.', 'Ultrasound quantification of carotid IMT was performed in 79 hypertensive patients, and 63 patients (31 m and 32 f), defined as being free of plaque (IMT < 1.3 mm), were further subdivided into normal (<1.0 mm) and thickened (1-1.3 mm) IMT groups. Subjects in the thickened IMT group were older and had significantly (p < 0.05) higher plasma concentrations of fasting insulin, nitric oxide (NO(x)) and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (ICAM-1). However, the two groups were not significantly different in terms of blood pressure, overall or regional obesity, fasting lipid levels, uric acid, concentrations of other cellular adhesion molecules or levels of C-reactive protein. There were significant (p < 0.05) correlations in the whole population between IMT and age, fasting insulin and NO(x), and multiple regression analysis identified fasting insulin as an independent predictor of IMT.

SOLUTION: Do insulin resistance/compensatory hyperinsulinemia predict carotid intimal medial thickness in patients with essential hypertension?

PROBLEM: Although prevalent in prokaryotes, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is rarer in multicellular eukaryotes. Bdelloid rotifers are microscopic animals that contain a higher proportion of horizontally transferred, non-metazoan genes in their genomes than typical of animals. It has been hypothesized that bdelloids incorporate foreign DNA when they repair their chromosomes following double-strand breaks caused by desiccation. HGT might thereby contribute to species divergence and adaptation, as in prokaryotes. If so, we expect that species should differ in their complement of foreign genes, rather than sharing the same set of foreign genes inherited from a common ancestor. Furthermore, there should be more foreign genes in species that desiccate more frequently. We tested these hypotheses by surveying HGT in four congeneric species of bdelloids from different habitats: two from permanent aquatic habitats and two from temporary aquatic habitats that desiccate regularly.', 'Transcriptomes of all four species contain many genes with a closer match to non-metazoan genes than to metazoan genes. Whole genome sequencing of one species confirmed the presence of these foreign genes in the genome. Nearly half of foreign genes are shared between all four species and an outgroup from another family, but many hundreds are unique to particular species, which indicates that HGT is ongoing. Using a dated phylogeny, we estimate an average of 12.8 gains versus 2.0 losses of foreign genes per million years. Consistent with the desiccation hypothesis, the level of HGT is higher in the species that experience regular desiccation events than those that do not. However, HGT still contributed hundreds of foreign genes to the species from permanently aquatic habitats. Foreign genes were mainly enzymes with various annotated functions that include catabolism of complex polysaccharides and stress responses. We found evidence of differential loss of ancestral foreign genes previously associated with desiccation protection in the two non-desiccating species.

SOLUTION:
Is horizontal gene transfer in bdelloid rotifers ancient , ongoing and more frequent in species from desiccating habitats?