tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
State monitoring activities related to Pfiesteria-like organisms.
Authors: R E Magnien
Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives (2001)

In response to potential threats to human health and fish populations, six states along the east coast of the United States initiated monitoring programs related to Pfiesteria-like organisms in 1998. These actions were taken in the wake of toxic outbreaks of Pfiesteria piscicida Steidinger & Burkholder in Maryland during 1997 and previous outbreaks in North Carolina. The monitoring programs have two major purposes. The first, rapid response, is to ensure public safety by responding immediately to conditions that may indicate the presence of Pfiesteria or related organisms in a toxic state. The second, comprehensive assessment, is to provide a more complete understanding of where Pfiesteria-like organisms may become a threat, to understand what factors may stimulate their growth and toxicity, and to evaluate the impacts of these organisms upon fish and other aquatic life. In states where human health studies are being conducted, the data from both types of monitoring are used to provide information on environmental exposure. The three elements included in each monitoring program are identification of Pfiesteria-like organisms, water quality measurements, and assessments of fish health. Identification of Pfiesteria-like organisms is a particularly difficult element of the monitoring programs, as these small species cannot be definitively identified using light microscopy; newly applied molecular techniques, however, are starting to provide alternatives to traditional methods. State monitoring programs also offer many opportunities for collaborations with research initiatives targeting both environmental and human health issues related to Pfiesteria-like organisms.
P672 HBeAg LEVELS DIFFER ACCORDING TO HBV GENOTYPE IN IMMUNE CLEARANCE DISEASE
Authors: J. Bayliss, A. Thompson, G. Rosenberg, A. Gaggar, K. Kitrinos, E. Gane, H.L. Chan, X. Li, M. Littlejohn, L. Yuen, R. Edwards, K. Jackson, S. Bonanzinga, R. Hammond, S. Bowden, S. Locarnini, P. Revill
Journal: Journal of Hepatology (2014)
Insights into ALK-Driven Cancers Revealed through Development of Novel ALK Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors
Authors: Christine M. Lovly, Johannes M. Heuckmann, Elisa de Stanchina, Heidi Chen, Roman K. Thomas, Chris Liang, William Pao
Journal: Cancer Research (2011)

Abstract Aberrant forms of the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) have been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple human cancers, where ALK represents a rational therapeutic target in these settings. In this study, we report the identification and biological characterization of X-376 and X-396, two potent and highly specific ALK small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). In Ambit kinome screens, cell growth inhibition studies, and surrogate kinase assays, X-376 and X-396 were more potent inhibitors of ALK but less potent inhibitors of MET compared to PF-02341066 (PF-1066), an ALK/MET dual TKI currently in clinical trials. Both X-376 and X-396 displayed potent antitumor activity in vivo with favorable pharmacokinetic and toxicity profiles. Similar levels of drug sensitivity were displayed by the three most common ALK fusion proteins in lung cancer (EML4-ALK variants E13;A20, E20;A20, and E6b;A20) as well as a KIF5B–ALK fusion protein. Moreover, X-396 could potently inhibit ALK kinases engineered with two point mutations associated with acquired resistance to PF-1066, L1196M, and C1156Y, when engineered into an E13;A20 fusion variant. Finally, X-396 displayed synergistic growth inhibitory activity when combined with the mTOR inhibitor rapamycin. Our findings offer preclinical proof-of-concept for use of these novel agents to improve therapeutic outcomes of patients with mutant ALK-driven malignancies. Cancer Res; 71(14); 4920–31. ©2011 AACR.
The Jak2V617F mutation, PRV-1 overexpression, and EEC formation define a similar cohort of MPD patients
Authors: Philipp S. Goerttler, Cordula Steimle, Edith März, Peter L. Johansson, Björn Andreasson, Martin Griesshammer, Heinz Gisslinger, Hermann Heimpel, Heike L. Pahl
Journal: Blood (2005)
Mind and Cancer Prognosis
Authors: David T. Carr
Journal: JAMA (1980)

Host factors have been receiving more attention by many students of the cancer problem in recent years. The immunocompetence of the host has received the greatest attention, but the psychosomatic aspects of cancer have not been ignored. Stoll and his numerous coauthors, from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, who have produced this collection of 15 essays on various aspects of the relationship between the mind and the prognosis in cancer, are to be congratulated. They have called attention to the evidence that a patient's attitude toward his cancer may have some influence on his prognosis. In the opening chapter, Stoll poses the two questions that the book attempts to answer: Can psychological factors affect prognosis in the cancer patient? Can psychological support improve cancer prognosis? In answer to the first question, the authors point out that variation in the emotional status of the patient might explain the periods
18. Comparison of Antitumor Activity of Cytosine Deaminase::Uracil Phosphoribosyl Transferase (CD::UPRT) and Purine Nucleoside Phosphorylase (PNP) Suicide Genes Using Replicative but Non-Disseminative Adenovirus Vectors
Authors: Jairo Jaime, Nadine Jabbour, William Parker, Eric Sorscher, Josephine Nalbantoglu, Bernard Massie
Journal: Molecular Therapy (2006)

Cancer gene therapy using suicide genes has shown great potential in tumor models. To improve efficacy, recent attention has focused on the use of oncolytic vectors. To date this strategy has not resulted in vectors with anti-tumor activities sufficiently potent to sustain complete tumor regression. In this study, we pursued a modified approach that makes use of viral DNA replication but not of oncolysis. This approach is based on the protease-deleted adenovirus vector (AdV) (Oualikene et al. 2000). Such vectors are designed to convert transduced cells into mega-factories for suicide genes. To evaluate this strategy, we compared the activity in vitro of two suicide genes: CD::UPRT and PNP in the Replicative but Non-Disseminative (RND) AdVs. In AdVs the CD::UPRT or PNP transgene and the E1A gene were introduced as a bicistronic cassette under the control of the CMV5 promoter. Adenoviruses were generated by introducing the expression cassette in the E1 region of an AdV backbone deleted for E1, E3, and the protease gene. Due to the protease deletion, these AdVs can no longer form viral particles, even following replication resulting from E1A expression. The resulting Ad(dPS)C::U-IRES-E1A, and Ad(dPS)PNP-IRES-E1A were grown in protease-complementing 293 cells. When tested for anti-tumor activities in two human and one murine glioblastoma cell lines and one ovarian cancer cell line, Ad(dPS)PNP-IRES-E1A outperformed its counterpart, the Ad(dPS)C::U-IRES-E1A, by up to 16-fold in human glioblastoma and 5 fold in human ovarian cancer cells. Both RND virus performed better than non replicative counterparts. In bystander assays, the number of transduced cells sufficient to convey the anti-tumor activity to the entire cell population could be reduced by more than 10-and 8-fold when comparing Ad(dPS)PNP-IRES-E1A to Ad(dPS)C::U-IRES-E1A on glioblastoma and ovarian cancer cells respectively. In a three-dimensional spheroid culture model, when both RND AdVs were compared, anti-tumor activity was significantly better (ANOVA p<0.001) for Ad(dPS)PNP-IRES-E1A in all cancer cell models, ranging from 3-fold in ovarian cancer up to 10-fold in glioblastoma spheroids. In conclusion, the RND AdV platform substantially improves anti-tumor activity of suicide gene therapy. Using this strategy, the suicide gene PNP performed better than CD::UPRT in both glioblastoma and ovarian cancer cells. This work demonstrates that the protease-deleted AdV platform can provide vectors that are potentially safer than conditional oncolytic AdVs and yet generate sufficient anti-tumor activity to eradicate large tumors. Results with Ad(dPS)PNP-IRES-E1A are promising and work with animal models is in progress.
Neurologic and Developmental Disability at Six Years of Age after Extremely Preterm Birth
Authors: Neil Marlow, Dieter Wolke, Melanie A. Bracewell, Muthanna Samara
Journal: New England Journal of Medicine (2005)

Birth before 26 weeks of gestation is associated with a high prevalence of neurologic and developmental disabilities in the infant during the first two years of life.We studied at the time of early school age children who had been born at 25 or fewer completed weeks of gestation in the United Kingdom and Ireland in 1995. Each child had been evaluated at 30 months of age. The children underwent standardized cognitive and neurologic assessments at six years of age. Disability was defined as severe (indicating dependence on caregivers), moderate, or mild according to predetermined criteria.Of 308 surviving children, 241 (78 percent) were assessed at a median age of six years and four months; 160 classmates delivered at full term served as a comparison group. Although the use of test reference norms showed that cognitive impairment (defined as results more than 2 SD below the mean) was present in 21 percent of the children born extremely preterm (as compared with 1 percent in the standardized data), this value rose to 41 percent when the results were compared with those for their classmates. The rates of severe, moderate, and mild disability were 22 percent, 24 percent, and 34 percent, respectively; disabling cerebral palsy was present in 30 children (12 percent). Among children with severe disability at 30 months of age, 86 percent still had moderate-to-severe disability at 6 years of age. In contrast, other disabilities at the age of 30 months were poorly predictive of developmental problems at 6 years of age.Among extremely preterm children, cognitive and neurologic impairment is common at school age. A comparison with their classroom peers indicates a level of impairment that is greater than is recognized with the use of standardized norms.
House of Lords supports human embryonic stem cell research
Authors: S. Mayor
Journal: BMJ (2001)

Members of the House of Lords—Britain's second parliamentary chamber—have supported government proposals to permit research using human embryonic stem cells, during a debate which many had thought would go against the recommendations.

Peers voted in favour of proposals approved by MPs in the House of Commons last month to change the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (Research Purposes) Regulations and rejected a delaying amendment by 212 votes to 92—an unexpectedly large majority of 120.

Under the current regulations, embryos up to 14 …
Prison medicine: a patient's perspective.
Authors: M. Leech
Journal: BMJ (1993)

n he nurse officer took a step back and punched the prisoner in the face while he was still sitting in the chair."These are not the words of a do gooding penal reformer or the claims of an embittered relative.They were spoken under oath from the witness box of Alloa Sheriff Court in August 1992 by Dr James MacGregor.He is a local general practitioner, who with his three colleagues has been contracted by the Scottish Home and Health Department to deliver health care to the 600 prisoners in Glenochil Prison near Stirling, from where I write.As someone who has experienced the penal system north and south of Hadrian's Wall, I found the actions of Dr MacGregor to be as unique as they are refreshingly different.
Dysregulation of the Desmosomal Cadherin Desmoglein-1 in Eosinophilic Esophagitis
Authors: J.D. Sherrill, E.M. Stucke, M.S. Costello, V.L. Fabry, M.H. Collins, P.E. Putnam, J.P. Franciosi, J.P. Abonia, L.J. Martin, P.M.A. Sleiman
Journal: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2011)
The Immediate Improvement of Hearing following Division of Cicatrices in the Membrana Tympani
Authors: H. B. Hewetson
Journal: BMJ (1885)

Background:  Obesity is a parallel problem in canine and human populations. We describe health perceptions and levels of companion animal attachment in a cohort of dog owners.  Methods:  As part of a larger trial examining the impact of veterinary counseling on activity levels of dog owners and their pets, owners presenting to a veterinary referral center were asked to self-report perceived levels of health and attachment to their dog (Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale). Owner body mass index and the body conditioning score of the companion dog were also recorded.  Results:  Heavier pet owners reported a greater sense of attachment to their dogs. Heavier owners also reported lower perceived health and less social support.  Conclusions:  Increasing body mass index is associated with higher pet attachment, lower perceived health, and less social support. This information can impact wellness counseling for overweight pet owners and canine companions.
Diabetic Coma versus Diabetic Nephropathy
Authors: Howard F. Root, Robert D. Story, Joseph B. Cortesi
Journal: New England Journal of Medicine (1951)

DIABETIC nephropathy has become the most serious late complication of childhood diabetes. After ten or more years of imperfect control, diabetes is accompanied by edema, albuminuria, hypertension, retinitis and finally uremia. The characteristic findings in the kidneys are arteriolosclerosis, particularly of the afferent arterioles, intercapillary glomerulosclerosis (Kimmelstiel-Wilson), pyelonephritis, generalized arteriosclerosis and usually some lesions of glomerulonephritis. Diabetic coma or severe acidosis has usually occurred one or more times during the earlier years of the patient's diabetes. The development of excessive ketone bodies in the blood and the characteristic air hunger, dehydration, acidosis and shock characterize diabetic coma in contrast to . . .
Screening for malignant melanoma: A cost-effectiveness analysis
Authors: Kenneth A. Freedberg, Alan C. Geller, Donald R. Miller, Robert A. Lew, Howard K. Koh
Journal: Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology (1999)

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States. Increasing evidence suggests that screening for malignant melanoma is effective, but its cost-effectiveness has not been determined.We attempted to determine the effectiveness and costs of a visual screen to diagnose malignant melanoma in high-risk persons.We developed a decision analysis comparing no skin cancer screen with a single screen by a dermatologist. Clinical outcomes included malignant melanoma, nonmelanoma skin cancer, or no skin cancer. Life expectancy and costs of care were projected on the basis of clinical findings.Skin cancer screening increased average discounted life expectancy from 15.0963 years to 15.0975 years. Based on the prevalence of malignant melanoma, however, this translates into an increased discounted life expectancy of 0.9231 years for each person with diagnosed melanoma. Using a cost of $30 per screen, total skin cancer-related costs for a cohort of 1 million people increased from $826 million with no screen to $861 million with screening, with an increase of 1200 years of life. This results in an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of $29,170 per year of life saved (YLS) with screening. Sensitivity analysis showed that the cost-effectiveness ratio for screening remained below $50,000/YLS if the prevalence of melanoma in the screened population was at least 0. 0009, the probability that a melanoma detected in screening was localized was at least 94.8%, or the cost of each screen was below $57.Skin cancer screening in high-risk patients is likely to be associated with a small increase in discounted life expectancy and is reasonably cost-effective compared with other cancer screening strategies.
The Optician's Side of the Case.
Authors: Edward J. Brown
Journal: JAMA (1896)

Minneapolis, Minn., April 22, 1896. <h3>To the Editor:</h3> —Your editorial remarks of April 18 on the "Ambition of the Optician," while thoroughly orthodox and unimpeachable, are yet suggestions of a controversy that has two sides to it. We have a very virtuous feeling when we have pocketed $5 or $10 for a ten minutes' examination of a healthy presbyope, and yet we know perfectly well that an intelligent optician would have given the same glass and saved the patient our fee. Of course there is the contingency of glaucoma, or some other disease of the eye, and so we can not admit the propriety of allowing the optician to meddle with eyes at all. Unfortunately for our pretensions the opticians and the public know us too well. They know that many of us give patients a less thorough, and in results, a less satisfactory examination than the better class of
Overexpression of VEGF-A in podocytes of adult mice causes glomerular disease
Authors: Delma Veron, Kimberly J. Reidy, Claudia Bertuccio, Jason Teichman, Guillermo Villegas, Juan Jimenez, Wa Shen, Jeffrey B. Kopp, David B. Thomas, Alda Tufro
Journal: Kidney International (2010)
Molecular Pathways: PI3K Pathway Phosphatases as Biomarkers for Cancer Prognosis and Therapy
Authors: Muhan Chen, Dawid G. Nowak, Lloyd C. Trotman
Journal: Clinical Cancer Research (2014)

Abstract Cancer research has seen tremendous changes over the past decade. Fast progress in sequencing technology has afforded us with landmark genetic alterations, which had immediate impact on clinical science and practice by pointing to new kinase targets, such as phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K), the EGF receptor, or BRAF. The PI3K pathway for growth control has emerged as a prime example for both oncogene activation and tumor suppressor loss in cancer. Here, we discuss how therapy using PI3K pathway inhibitors could benefit from information on specific phosphatases, which naturally antagonize the kinase targets. This PI3K pathway is found mutated in most cancer types, including prostate, breast, colon, and brain tumors. The tumor-suppressing phosphatases operate at two levels. Lipid-level phosphatases, such as PTEN and INPP4B, revert PI3K activity to keep the lipid second messengers inactive. At the protein level, PHLPP1/2 protein phosphatases inactivate AKT kinase, thus antagonizing mTOR complex 2 activity. However, in contrast with their kinase counterparts the phosphatases are unlikely drug targets. They would need to be stimulated by therapy and are commonly deleted and mutated in cancer. Yet, because they occupy critical nodes in preventing cancer initiation and progression, the information on their status has tremendous potential in outcome prediction, and in matching the available kinase inhibitor repertoire with the right patients. Clin Cancer Res; 20(12); 3057–63. ©2014 AACR.
Psychological Development in Health and Disease.
Authors: Marjorie C. Meehan
Journal: JAMA (1963)

Personality Development and Psychopathology: A Dynamic Approach . By Norman Cameron. 793 pp. $8.75. Houghton Mifflin, 2 Park St, Boston 7, 1963  Although medical students have long been expected to study embryology, anatomy, and physiology, it is only recently that they have been advised to learn about the development, structure, and functioning of the personality. Few books have been available to instruct them. A vast amount of theory, fact, and opinion is scattered through the psychological and psychiatric literature, but most of the attempts at synthesis have been brief and undetailed, or have presented a viewpoint too controversial to recommend to students. To meet the need, Engel, who teaches both medicine and psychiatry at the University of Rochester, prepared material for his students and residents. This material, after repeated revision, he expanded into the present book. He has combined information from the biological sciences, psychology, and psychiatry, with Freudian theory to
Childhood Lead Poisoning Associated with Gold Ore Processing: a Village-Level Investigation—Zamfara State, Nigeria, October–November 2010
Authors: Yi-Chun Lo, Carrie A. Dooyema, Antonio Neri, James Durant, Taran Jefferies, Andrew Medina-Marino, Lori de Ravello, Douglas Thoroughman, Lora Davis, Raymond S. Dankoli, Matthias Y. Samson, Luka M. Ibrahim, Ossai Okechukwu, Nasir T. Umar-Tsafe, Alhassan H. Dama, Mary Jean Brown
Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives (2012)

During May-June 2010, a childhood lead poisoning outbreak related to gold ore processing was confirmed in two villages in Zamfara State, Nigeria. During June-September of that year, villages with suspected or confirmed childhood lead poisoning continued to be identified in Zamfara State.We investigated the extent of childhood lead poisoning [≥ 1 child with a blood lead level (BLL) ≥ 10 µg/dL] and lead contamination (≥ 1 soil/dust sample with a lead level > 400 parts per million) among villages in Zamfara State and identified villages that should be prioritized for urgent interventions.We used chain-referral sampling to identify villages of interest, defined as villages suspected of participation in gold ore processing during the previous 12 months. We interviewed villagers, determined BLLs among children < 5 years of age, and analyzed soil/dust from public areas and homes for lead.We identified 131 villages of interest and visited 74 (56%) villages in three local government areas. Fifty-four (77%) of 70 villages that completed the survey reported gold ore processing. Ore-processing villages were more likely to have ≥ 1 child < 5 years of age with lead poisoning (68% vs. 50%, p = 0.17) or death following convulsions (74% vs. 44%, p = 0.02). Soil/dust contamination and BLL ≥ 45 µg/dL were identified in ore-processing villages only [50% (p < 0.001) and 15% (p = 0.22), respectively]. The odds of childhood lead poisoning or lead contamination was 3.5 times as high in ore-processing villages than the other villages (95% confidence interval: 1.1, 11.3).Childhood lead poisoning and lead contamination were widespread in surveyed areas, particularly among villages that had processed ore recently. Urgent interventions are required to reduce lead exposure, morbidity, and mortality in affected communities.
Book Review American Psychiatry after World War II (1944–1994) Edited by Roy W. Menninger and John C. Nemiah. 651 pp. Washington, D.C., American Psychiatric Press, 2000. $49. 0-88048-866-2 Century for Psychiatry Edited by Hugh Freeman. 370 pp., illustrated. St. Louis, Mosby, 2000. $120. 0-7234-3174-4
Authors: William A. Frosch
Journal: New England Journal of Medicine (2001)
Enhanced Thymic Stromal Lymphopoietin-Induced Eosinophil-Basophil Lineage Commitment In Atopic Individuals
Authors: Claudia C.K. Hui, Sina Rusta-Sallehy, Ilan Asher, Delia Heroux, Judah Aryeh Denburg
Journal: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2014)
The Importance of ERCP for the Surgical Tactic in Haemorrhagic Necrotizing Pancreatitis (Preliminary Report)
Authors: Ch. Gebhardt, J.F. Riemann, G. Lux
Journal: Endoscopy (1983)

In patients with haemorrhagic necrotizing pancreatitis who are scheduled for surgery, we have been carrying out a preoperative retrograde investigation of the pancreatic duct system for the past 3 months. The results in, to date, ten patients, all of whom survived their severe illness, revealed four different morphological findings of importance for the surgical tactic. 1. A normal pancreatic duct system with no signs of fistulae: only peripancreatic necrosectomy is required. 2. Contrast medium leaks via a ductal fistula: left resection, including the removal of the fistulous area, must be done. 3. Normal duct system with complete segmental parenchymal staining, representing total necrosis in this region: left resection of the pancreas. 4. Duodenoscopically demonstrable perforation into the duodenum of a necrotic cavity in the head of the pancreas: conservative management only, no surgery, since this lesions, resulting in drainage of the necrotic cavity into the bowel, permits self-healing, while the site of the perforation within the necrotic wall cannot be dealt with by surgery. The experience gained so far indicates that the surgical tactic can be determined with greater selectivity by the use of ERCP.