jimnoneill/paper-to-field-training huggingface dataset:
Preparation of a Purified and Highly Potent Extract of Growth Hormone of Anterior Pituitary Lobe

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)

Since the demonstration by Long and Evans of the growth hormone of the anterior pituitary, various workers have confirmed the existence in alkaline extracts of the anterior lobes of animals of a growth-promoting substance. Van Dyke and Wallen-Lawrence have suggested the use of totally hypophysectomized animals as a test object for determining the potency of extracts. The latter also made definite progress in the preparation of potent extracts which were less crude than those previously used. We have been successful in preparing highly potent extracts of the anterior lobe of oxen. These extracts have been tested for growth-promoting effects upon totally hypophysectomized rats. Growth has started almost immediately following the institution of therapy and has continued at a fairly uniform rate (see chart). It was first observed that an alkaline extract (anterior lobes extracted with 10 volumes of 1% NH4OH) which had been partially deproteinized, by the addition of acetic acid to pH 6.5 and filtering, had a slight growth-promoting effect in hypophysectomized rats. Such extracts were then saturated with ammonium sulphate in the presence of 1% NH4OH, and the resultant precipitate collected, extracted with dilute ammonia and dialyzed. After dialysis the solution was concentrated at low temperature and pressure. During the concentration process a semi-crystalline substance separated out at a pH of 7.5 to 8. This was removed and an alkaline extract of it was found to be highly potent in stimulating growth in hypophysectomized rats. From these leads the following method has been evolved. The anterior lobe tissue is treated with several volumes of dilute alkali: 0.5 to 1% NaOH or 1% NH4OH.
IDDF2021-ABS-0070 Predictive performance of the hap score at patients with hepatocellular carcinoma following trans-arterial chemoembolisation (TACE)

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

Background

Transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is the therapy which have chosen in 50-60% of patients with Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Recently, Hepatoma Arterial Embolization (HAP) score stratifies patients who will benefit from the first TACE. We conducted a survey to investigate the value of HAP score in the prognosis of HCC treated with TACE in Vietnam.

Methods

Prospective cohort study in patients with HCC and first TACE at the Department of Internal Medicine, Hanoi Medical University Hospital, Vietnam, from January 2017 to June 2021. The HAP score (serum albumin 0.9 mg/dl, alpha-foetoprotein >400 ng/ml, and tumor size >7 cm), and ALBI score was applied before first TACE, mortality and survival were observed with a follow-up of 54 months.

Results

We included 106 patients with age of 62.8 ± 10.1 years. In this population, HCC risk factor was mainly hepatitis B with 75.5% (80/106). The HAP score classified 19, 41, 31 and 15 patients as HAP A, B, C and D, respectively, (IDDF2021-ABS-0070 Table 1). The median follow–up time was 37.5±1.2 months for HAP A, 40.8±2.9 months for HAP B, 24.0±2.5 months for HAP C and 20.4±4.1 months for HAP D. There were no deaths at the first year in HAP A. The cumulative proportion surviving at first years for HAP B, C, D was 97.4; 77.9 and 66.7, respectively. At 36 months, this percentage for HAP A, B, C and D was 92.3; 72.5; 31.1 and 27.1, respectively, (IDDF2021-ABS-0070 Table 2). Survival of all subgroups differed significantly from each other (each p < 0.05) (IDDF2021-ABS-0070 Figure 2. Kaplan-Meier curve for HAP score). Area under the curve for receiver operating characteristic of HAP score was 0.71 and higher than this of ALBI grade (0.57) (IDDF2021-ABS-0070 Figure 3. ROC curves for HAP score and ALBI grade), indicating a significant performance of HAP score compared with ALBI grade in prognosis of HCC treated with TACE.

Conclusions

HAP is a useful score to assist for the management decisions of patients with HCC requiring TACE due to its value in predicting mortality and survival.
Discovering COVID-19 Death Patterns from Deceased Patients: A Case Study in Saudi Arabia

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

COVID-19 is a serious infection that cause severe injuries and deaths worldwide. The COVID-19 virus can infect people of all ages, especially the elderly. Furthermore, elderly who have co-morbid conditions (e.g., chronic conditions) are at an increased risk of death. At the present time, no approach exists that can facilitate the characterization of patterns of COVID-19 death. In this study, an approach to identify patterns of COVID- 19 death efficiently and systematically is applied by adapting the Apriori algorithm. Validation and evaluation of the proposed approach are based on a robust and reliable dataset collected from Health Affairs in the Makkah region of Saudi Arabia. The study results show that there are strong associations between hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and kidney disease and death among COVID-19 deceased patients.
Does Environmental Regulation Improve the Green Total Factor Productivity of Chinese Cities? A Threshold Effect Analysis Based on the Economic Development Level

Field: Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)

Improvement of green total factor productivity (GTFP) through environmental regulation is of great practical significance in promoting the high-quality development of urban economies. Based on panel data for 163 cities in China from 2003 to 2016, five indicators were selected to quantify the effects of environmental regulation: the SO2 removal rate, smoke and dust removal rate, solid waste utilization rate, domestic sewage treatment rate, and waste harmless treatment rate. This study evaluated the impact of environmental regulation on urban GTFP, and analyzed the threshold effect of urban economic development levels. The research results showed that the impact of environmental regulations on GTFP changed as the level of urban economic development increases. When the economic development level was low, environmental regulation had a significant positive effect on GTFP, especially the SO2 removal rate. When the economy developed to reach a medium level, the impact of environmental regulation on GTFP was negative. When the economic development level was high, the SO2 removal rate still had a significant positive impact on GTFP. The solid waste utilization rate had a significant negative impact on GTFP. It was concluded that the government should consider the local economic development level when formulating environmental regulation policies.
Selective slow-wave sleep (SWS) deprivation and SWS rebound: do we need a fixed SWS amount per night?

Field: Neuroscience (Life Sciences)

Visually scored delta activity (stages 3 and 4, SWS) as well as computerized delta activity measures increase after total and selective sleep deprivation. It is, however, still controversial if SWS amount is only a function of prior waking duration, or if it is related to the structure of the previous sleep period (i.e., to the time spent in SWS). In order to clarify if the amount of SWS is crucial in determining SWS recovery, we selectively deprived SWS during two nights to assess the presence of a compensatory SWS rebound in the following recovery night. Ten normal males slept for 6 consecutive nights in the laboratory. After an adaptation and two baseline nights (BSL; BSL-A), selective SWS deprivation was accomplished for two consecutive nights (DEP-1; DEP-2), by means of an acoustic stimulation technique. A recovery (REC) night then followed. An almost complete selective SWS suppression during both deprivation nights was achieved. A significant increase of S4 and SWS in the REC as compared to the BSL-A paralleled a significant shortening of S3 and S4 latencies. S2 percentage significantly increased during both DEP nights with respect to the other experimental nights. There was no significant difference among nights with regard to total sleep time, percentage of REM sleep, stage 1, movement time, number of awakenings and number of movement arousals, indicating that the acoustic stimulation technique did not dramatically disrupt normal sleep continuity and architecture. These results indicate that SWS rebound after selective SWS deprivation can be ascribed to the loss of SWS accumulated during two consecutive nights, further supporting the idea that the delta sleep amount is more linked to SWS in the previous sleep periods than to the total sleep duration.
Promoting higher order thinking skills in biology: evaluation of a newly developed course using Bloom’s taxonomy.

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

We have recently designed and implemented a unique, large (1800 students/year) first year biological concepts of health course (BIOL*1080) aimed at promoting higher order thinking skills and attributes. Our course served as one of three courses that replaced two more traditional biology courses (BIOL*1030 and BIOL*1040) and incorporates seminar, lab and interdisciplinary assignments in an attempt to foster skills in areas such as oral and written communication, critical thinking, and independent learning. To determine if we were successful in designing a course centered on the teaching and assessment of higher order thinking skills, we ranked the course evaluative materials based on Bloom’s taxonomy (Zheng, A.Y., Science 319:414,2008). Bloom’s taxonomy is a hierarchical categorization of knowledge and thinking skills comprised of 6 levels (from lowest to highest): knowledge - 1, comprehension – 2, application – 3, analysis – 4, synthesis – 5, and evaluation – 6. Briefly, each exam question and assignment was scored by a team of 6 individuals with varying degrees of familiarity with the course. Scores per test/assignment were averaged and a weighted average was calculated for the entire course, with a higher weighted average representing assessment of a higher order of thinking. The average bloom level for our course was 3.28±0.15 which was significantly higher than one of the more traditional biology courses (BIOL*1030 – 1.93±0.08 ) but not the second course (BIOL*1040 – 2.95±0.17). The blooming exercise provided a useful metric to assess the level of higher order thinking required for newly developed courses and allowed for comparisons between courses to be objective.
SH1732657.08FU

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)

UNITE provides a unified way for delimiting, identifying, communicating, and working with DNA-based Species Hypotheses (SH). All fungal ITS sequences in the international nucleotide sequence databases are clustered to approximately the species level by applying a set of dynamic distance values (<0.5 - 3.0%). All species hypotheses are given a unique, stable name in the form of a DOI, and their taxonomic and ecological annotations are verified through distributed, web-based third-party annotation efforts. SHs are connected to a taxon name and its classification as far as possible (phylum, class, order, etc.) by taking into account identifications for all sequences in the SH. An automatically or manually designated sequence is chosen to represent each such SH. These sequences are released (https://unite.ut.ee/repository.php) for use by the scientific community in, for example, local sequence similarity searches and next-generation sequencing analysis pipelines. The system and the data are updated automatically as the number of public fungal ITS sequences grows.
Effect of cell substrate on antioxidant enzyme activities in cultured renal glomerular epithelium.

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)

The activities of three antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase, were monitored in isolated guinea pig glomeruli and primary or subcultured glomerular epithelial cells. Cell injury was assessed by morphologic studies and by measurement of cellular lipid peroxidation (levels of malondialdehyde). Antioxidant enzyme activities were very different in cultured cells than in parent glomeruli. The possible effect of culture substrates (tissue culture plastic, bovine corneal endothelial [BCE] cell basement membrane, and PF-HR-9 endodermal cell basement membrane) on antioxidant enzyme status, cell morphology, and lipid peroxidation was also assessed. Glomerular epithelial cells cultured on the BCE cell basement membrane substrate survived longer and showed less lipid peroxidation than cells cultured on plastic or the HR-9 substrate. Cells cultured on a plastic substrate had substantially less glutathione peroxidase activity than cells cultured on either BCE or HR-9 basement membranes.
Antidiarrheal, Analgesic and Antioxidant Activities of Trapa bispinosa Roxb. Fruits

Field: Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics (Life Sciences)

The ethanolic extract of fruits of Trapa bispinosa Roxb (Family: Trapaceae) was screened for its antidiarrheal, analgesic and antioxidant activities. The fruit extract showed a significant (P<0.01) antidiarrheal activity against castor oil induce diarrhea in mice in which it decreased the frequency of defecation and increased the mean latent period at the dose of 500 mg/kg body weight. In acetic acid induced writhing test the extract, at the dose of 500 mg/kg, exhibited a maximum of 50.17% inhibition (P<0.01) of writhing reflex compared to the reference drug diclofenac sodium 55.22% (P<0.01). The antioxidant property of the extract was assessed by 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assay. The extract showed antioxidant activity (IC50 about 08 �g/ml) which was comparable to standard drug ascorbic acid (IC50 about 10 �g/ml). The results tend to suggest that the extract might possess some chemical constituents that are responsible for antidiarrheal, analgesic and antioxidant activities.
Mobilizing religious differences and terrorism, negotiating civil rights in Egypt

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

Abstract The Egyptian state's publication of its first National Human Rights Strategy 2021–2026 (NHRS) (2021) on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks came at the crossroads of Western pressure to improve human rights and the state's use of counterterrorism to silence voices. The recent arrests of Coptic activists, dubbing them “terrorists” on the pretext of disturbing public peace and instigating sectarianism, follows the regime's capitalization on Egypt's history of battling Islamic radicalism and sectarian strife. The regime has additionally used societal instabilities post the 2011 revolution to demonstrate Egypt's unique case of human rights. This paper analyzes the ways in which the language of the NHRS entangles terrorism to negotiate the interpretation of civil rights and social justice. In doing so, the thesis of NHRS posits civil rights and social justice to be the responsibility of the collective in general, and religious institutions in particular, as preservers of public peace and national unity. While the publication of the NHRS is inscribed in the feigning of democratization to Western donors, assigning Coptic activists as terrorists, as this paper argues, plays up religious differences, broadens the purview of counterterrorism, and expands state power.
Use of a promiscuous biotin ligase to identify partners of the CRTC transcription factor

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology (Life Sciences)

CREB is an important transcription factor that is regulated in part by the CRTC family of cofactors. CRTCs work in tandem with CREB to mediate various metabolic processes, such as promoting gluconeogenesis in response to increased glucagon levels. CRTC1 in particular is highly expressed in the brain and known to be involved in memory formation, learning and synaptic plasticity. Consequently, its dysregulation is linked to neurological diseases as well as memory and learning problems. Identifying and studying novel CRTC1 partners may provide a better understanding of how CRTC1 functions. This project tests the feasibility of BioID in pulling down CRTC1 partner proteins. BioID is a protein screening technique that involves fusing a mutant E.coli biotin ligase, BirA*, to the protein of interest in order to biotinylate proximal proteins. These potential interaction partners can then be identified through streptavidin pull-down and Western blot or mass spectrometry. Results showed that known CRTC1 partners CREB and MEIS1A were successfully pulled down when overexpressed, demonstrating that BioID is functional and that novel protein partners of CRTC1 can potentially be pulled down with this method.
Who is using the drugs I prescribe?

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

ANSWER Like so many legal and ethical issues, your question has many more facets than appear at first. As a physician, your primary obligation is to ensure that your patient is given proper care. If you are prescribing a particular medication for a valid reason, you should satisfy yourself that your patient is, in fact, taking the medication as directed and obtaining the expected benefit. Regular reassessment of your patient’s condition and asking about proper use of the medication are part of good medical care. If your patient is not receiving the medication and is thereby being exposed to some degree of harm, or at least being prevented from obtaining the proper care for his condition, you should ensure that the adult responsible for him is aware that the medication needs to be given properly and that the child could be at risk if he is not receiving it. If it appears to you that the child is still not receiving the medication, the responsible adult might not be providing necessary or adequate care. You should then consider whether the law in your province or territory requires you to report this situation to a child protection agency. With regard to reporting such situations to the police, you are in a rather dif ficult position. You have no first-hand knowledge, nor do you know the identity of the person who telephoned you or the motivation for that call. In any case, you have no obligation to report possible misbehaviour on the part of others. If you make a report to the police based on inadequate or false information, you might find yourself faced with an allegation of defamation. It might be reasonable to suggest to the caller that he or she pass the information on to the police, because he or she apparently has direct knowledge of the facts. In summary, your obligation is to your patient, the child being treated. You should ensure that he is getting proper treatment and take action to protect him if necessary. Of course, you should always make sure the condition has been adequately diagnosed, your prescriptions are appropriate for the condition, and the patient is being properly monitored. If the patient is being deprived of proper treatment, you might have an obligation to report that fact to an appropriate agency. clinical challenge  defi clinique
Potential Niche Partitioning among Sponge Species in the Lower Florida Keys

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences (Life Sciences)

The shallow tidal flats off the islands of the lower Florida Keys represent a harsh environment for sessile marine invertebrates, with high light intensities and high food variability. This habitat is home to three taxonomically distinct sponge species that share similar rope morphologies: Cliona varians forma varians, Ircinia cf.variabilis, and Neopetrosia subtriangularis. Despite sharing a habitat, these three species differ in their symbiont regime, with C. varians hosting dinoflagellate photosymbionts and both I. variabilis and N. subtriangularis hosting cyanobacterial photosymbionts. To test hypotheses of niche partitioning among these species, we conducted experiments to measure several aspects of their niches. The sponges were all assayed for pumping rates using dye-video analysis, Total Organic Carbon (TOC) content, microbiome composition, and stable carbon isotope ratios. The results indicated that N. subtriangularis had a significantly higher pumping rate than the other species. The TOC of N. subtriangularis differed significantly between ambient seawater and exhalent seawater, and the microbiomes and carbon stable isotope ratios of the species varied significantly. More work is currently underway to examine the metabolism of these sponges, giving us insight into the unique ecology of this habitat.
Alzheimer Drug Trials: Combination of Safe and Efficacious Biologicals to Break the Amyloidosis-Neuroinflammation Vicious Cycle

Field: Medicine (Health Sciences)

Late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (LOAD) is a long-enduring neurodegenerative disease that progresses for decades before the symptoms of cognitive decline and loss of executive function are measurable. Amyloid deposits among other pathological changes, tau hyperphosphorylation, synapse loss, microglia and astroglia activation, and hippocampal atrophy are among the pathological hallmarks of the disease. These are present in the brain before memory complaints are reported and an AD diagnosis is made. The attempt to postpone or prevent the disease is becoming a more and more plausible goal because new early electrophysiological, cognitive, blood-based, and imaging-based diagnostics are being brought forward at the same time as the first anti-amyloid antibody is about to be approved. In view of known contributions of neuroinflammation to the pathology of LOAD, we should not focus solely on anti-amyloid therapies and ignore the interactive neuroinflammatory component of AD. Our belief is that it would be more rewarding to start clinical trials using combination therapies that are based on approved, safe, and efficacious anti-neuroinflammatory agents such as anti-interleukin-1 signaling agents in combination with the anti-amyloid antibodies that have been shown to be safe in multiyear trials. The proposal is that we should administer these two classes of safe biologicals to symptom-free individuals in midlife who are identified as having a high-risk-for-Alzheimer’s-disease using “precision medicine.”