tbuckley/cabot-search huggingface dataset:
Gestational and lactational exposure of rats to xenoestrogens results in reduced testicular size and sperm production.
Authors: R M Sharpe, J S Fisher, M M Millar, S Jobling, J P Sumpter
Journal: Environmental Health Perspectives (1995)

This study assessed whether exposure of male rats to two estrogenic, environmental chemicals, 4-octylphenol (OP) and butyl benzyl phthalate (BBP) during gestation or during the first 21 days of postnatal life, affected testicular size or spermatogenesis in adulthood (90-95 days of age). Chemicals were administered via the drinking water or concentrations of 10-1000 micrograms/l (OP) or 1000 micrograms/l (BBP), diethylstilbestrol (DES; 100 micrograms/l) and an octylphenol polyethoxylate (OPP; 1000 micrograms/l), which is a weak estrogen or nonestrogenic in vitro, were administered as presumptive positive and negative controls, respectively. Controls received the vehicle (ethanol) in tap water. In study 1, rats were treated from days 1-22 after births in studies 2 and 3, the mothers were treated for approximately 8-9 weeks, spanning a 2-week period before mating throughout gestation and 22 days after giving birth. With the exception of DES, treatment generally had no major adverse effect or body weight: in most instances, treated animals were heavier than controls at day 22 and at days 90-95. Exposure to OP, OPP, or BBP at a concentration of 1000 micrograms/1 resulted in a small (5-13%) but significant (p < 0.01 or p < 0.0001) reduction in mean testicular size in studies 2 and 3, an effect that was still evident when testicular weight was expressed relative to body, weight or kidney weight. The effect of OPP is attributed to its metabolism in vivo to OP. DES exposure caused similar reductions in testicular size but also caused reductions in body weight, kidney weight, and litter size. Ventral prostate weight was reduced significantly in DES-treated rats and to minor extent in OP-treated rats. Comparable but more minor effects of treatment with DES or OP on testicular size were observed in study 1. None of the treatments had any adverse effect on testicular morphology or on the cross-sectional area of the lumen or seminiferous epithelium at stages VII-VIII of the spermatogenic cycle, but DES, OP, and BBP caused reductions of 10-21% (p < 0.05 to p < 0.001) in daily sperm production. Humans are exposed to phthalates, such as BBP, and to alkylphenol polyethoxylates, such as OP, but to what extent is unknown. More detailed studies are warranted to assess the possible risk to the development of the human testis from exposure to these and other environmental estrogens.
Questioning explicit properties of implicit individuals in knowledge representation
Authors: Carmen E. Westerberg, Chad J. Marsolek
Journal: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1999)

Dienes &amp; Perner argue that the explicit representation of an individual to which a property is attributed requires explicit representation of the attributed property. The reasons for this conclusion are similar to the reasons why another of their conclusions may be considered suspect: A property may be explicit without an explicit representation of an individual or the predication of the property to an individual. We question the latter conclusion and draw connections to neurophysiological and cognitive evidence.
IMMUNOLOGIC STUDIES WITH ETHYLENE OXIDE-TREATED HUMAN SERUM
Authors: Paul H. Maurer
Journal: The Journal of Experimental Medicine (1961)

The antigenicity of an ethylene oxide-treated human serum in humans has been studied. The immune response to the material had many of the characteristics of a delayed cellular skin reaction. Even after repeated immunizations by intradermal skin testing over a period of 1(1/2) years, no detectable antibody could be found in the sera. The antigenicity has been shown to be associated with drastic alteration of the homologous serum proteins as evidenced by (a) the formation of new proteins, and (b) the poor cross-reactions of the modified serum proteins with antisera against normal human serum albumin and normal human gamma globulin. The delayed hypersensitivity was transferable to normal recipients by either viable or killed leukocytes. The implications of these findings have been discussed with respect to the problem of sterilization of sera, the tuberculin reaction, and autoimmune phenomena.
NUTRITION SCREENING IN OLD PEOPLE: Its Place in a Coherent Practice of Preventive Health Care
Authors: David Rush
Journal: Annual Review of Nutrition (1997)

▪ Abstract The central demographic reality of our times is the rapid aging of our society. Preventive nutritional and preventive health care of older people, therefore, are pressing issues that must be contended with. Several strategies for this are possible, including the broadcasting of general nutritional and health messages to the population, the inclusion of preventive nutrition and health as part of routine primary care, and nutrition screening: a process of self-identification by the older population in which they judge for themselves whether they are at nutritional risk and, if so, seek the care of professionals. This review focuses on some of the necessities for screening: sensitive, specific, and inexpensively applied screening devices; and explicit interventions that do not have major public health benefit for those who screen negative. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that screening is beneficial, nor have the benefits of this strategy been compared with its alternatives. Thus, the ethical imperative of screening has not been met: that because the activity is being promoted (it is not initiated by the public), its benefit must be conclusive.
Reply to A. Messori et al, R. Bordonaro et al, and G. Fasola et al
Authors: Daniel A. Goldstein, Bassel F. El-Rayes, Qiushi Chen, Christopher R. Flowers
Journal: Journal of Clinical Oncology (2015)

We read the responses to our cost-effectiveness analysis of the addition of bevacizumab tofirst- and second-line therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer. 1 Messori et al 2 fittingly identify significant differences in pricingmechanismsbetweentheUnitedStatesandItalythatcouldinfluence the cost-effectiveness of a health care intervention. Our study was developed from the perspective of a US payer and was not designed to directly provide information regarding the cost-effectiveness of bevacizumabwithinthehealthcarefinancingsystemsofothercountries.Thus, our results and conclusions should not be extrapolated and applied outside of the health care environment that was considered in the analyses. However, as Messori et al 2 observe, our model provides a useful framework for analysis that could be employed to examine the incremental cost-effectivenessoftheseinterventionswhencomparablehealthcarecost data for other countries are considered. In the United States, as in Italy, paybacks and rebates are used, albeit by different mechanisms. In our study, all medication pricing was based on the Medicare average sales price, which accounts for such paybacks and rebates. The average sales priceprovidesasuitableindicatoroftheactualnetamountofmoneythat changes hands. Aswediscussedinthelimitationsofourstudy, 1 andaswassimilarly
Microalbuminuria in nondiabetic patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: association with liver fibrosis
Authors: Yusuf Yilmaz, Yesim Ozen Alahdab, Oya Yonal, Ramazan Kurt, Alla Eldeen Kedrah, Cigdem Ataizi Celikel, Osman Ozdogan, Deniz Duman, Nese Imeryuz, Erol Avsar, Cem Kalayci
Journal: Metabolism (2010)
Effect on Survival and Hospitalization of Initiating Treatment for Chronic Heart Failure With Bisoprolol Followed by Enalapril, as Compared With the Opposite Sequence
Authors: Ronnie Willenheimer, Dirk J. van Veldhuisen, Bernard Silke, Erland Erdmann, Ferenc Follath, Henry Krum, Piotr Ponikowski, Allan Skene, Louis van de Ven, Patricia Verkenne, Philippe Lechat
Journal: Circulation (2005)

In patients with chronic heart failure (CHF), a beta-blocker is generally added to a regimen containing an angiotensin-converting-enzyme (ACE) inhibitor. It is unknown whether beta-blockade as initial therapy may be as useful.We randomized 1010 patients with mild to moderate CHF and left ventricular ejection fraction < or =35%, who were not receiving ACE inhibitor, beta-blocker, or angiotensin receptor blocker therapy, to open-label monotherapy with either bisoprolol (target dose 10 mg QD; n=505) or enalapril (target dose 10 mg BID; n=505) for 6 months, followed by their combination for 6 to 24 months. The 2 strategies were blindly compared with regard to the combined primary end point of all-cause mortality or hospitalization and with regard to each of these end point components individually. Bisoprolol-first treatment was noninferior to enalapril-first treatment if the upper limit of the 95% confidence interval (CI) for the absolute between-group difference was <5%, corresponding to a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.17. In the intention-to-treat sample, the primary end point occurred in 178 patients allocated to bisoprolol-first treatment versus 186 allocated to enalapril-first treatment (absolute difference -1.6%, 95% CI -7.6 to 4.4%, HR 0.94; 95% CI 0.77 to 1.16). In the per-protocol sample, 163 patients allocated to bisoprolol-first treatment had a primary end point, versus 165 allocated to enalapril-first treatment (absolute difference -0.7%, 95% CI -6.6 to 5.1%, HR 0.97; 95% CI 0.78 to 1.21). With bisoprolol-first treatment, 65 patients died, versus 73 with enalapril-first treatment (HR 0.88; 95% CI 0.63 to 1.22), and 151 versus 157 patients were hospitalized (HR 0.95; 95% CI 0.76 to 1.19).Although noninferiority of bisoprolol-first versus enalapril-first treatment was not proven in the per-protocol analysis, our results indicate that it may be as safe and efficacious to initiate treatment for CHF with bisoprolol as with enalapril.
Postoperative adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion of lipiodol containing anticancer drugs in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
Authors: Ryohei Izumi, Kouichi Shimizu, Takayoshi Iyobe, Tohru Ii, Masao Yagi, Osamu Matsui, Akitaka Nonomura, Itsuo Miyazaki
Journal: Hepatology (1994)

Vascular invasion and intrahepatic metastasis by hepatocellular carcinoma are important factors predisposing to tumor recurrence. Recurrences of this malignancy occur frequently in residual liver, and its prevention is one of the most important factors in obtaining better surgical survival. Fifty patients who underwent hepatectomy for invasive hepatocellular carcinoma with vascular invasion and/or intrahepatic metastases were studied to evaluate the effect of adjuvant bolus hepatic arterial infusion of iodized poppyseed oil (Lipiodol) containing anticancer drugs in preventing recurrence and in prolonging survival. Patients were assigned to two treatment groups. Twenty-three of the fifty patients received adjuvant bolus infusion of Lipiodol containing doxorubicin and mitomycin C, whereas 27 patients received no therapy. The disease-free survival rate for the patients who received adjuvant therapy was significantly better (p < 0.05) than that for those who did not when measured at 172, 516, 688 and 860 days after hepatectomy, and the disease-free survival curve for patients with adjuvant therapy was significantly (p = 0.0237) better than that without adjuvant therapy. The cumulative survival rates and curves were not significantly different between the two groups. While adjuvant hepatic arterial infusion of Lipiodol containing anticancer drugs was effective in improving disease-free survival, the effect was not satisfactory. Further trials of adjuvant chemotherapy are required to improve the surgical survival of hepatocellular carcinoma patients.
Regulation of in vitro cytotoxic T lymphocyte generation. I. Evidence that killer cell precursors differentiate to effector cells in two steps.
Authors: A Schwartz, S L Sutton, R K Gershon
Journal: The Journal of Experimental Medicine (1982)

The differentiation of cytotoxic T lymphocyte precursor cells (CTL-P) into CTL effector cells is a two-step process. In the first step, naïve CTL-P (CTL-PN) become activated (CTL-PA) but do not yet have the capacity to kill target cells. CTL-PA can be distinguished from CTL-PN because the former are far less sensitive than the latter to the effects of in vitro-generated suppressor cells. Thus, the addition of suppressor T cells (Ts) to a fresh MLC can totally inhibit the production of CTL from CTL-PN, whereas the same Ts only minimally affect the generation of CTL from CTL-PA. It is not known whether these Ts act directly on CTL-PN or on a helper cell needed for activation to CTL-PA. The production of CTL-PA can take place in allogeneic mixed leukocyte cultures (MLC) treated with the drug pyrilamine, or when heat-inactivated stimulator cells are used. Each of these treatments inhibits the differentiation of CTL-PA to CTL. However, if pyrilamine is removed, a nonspecific MLC-derived signal can induce these CTL-PA to become CTL, even in the presence of significant numbers of Ts. This two step process of differentiation of CTL-P to CTL may be analogous to the way naïve B cells become antibody-producing cells.
The relationship of early-life antibiotic use with asthma in at-risk children
Authors: Brittany Lapin, Julie Piorkowski, Dennis Ownby, Cynthia Wagner-Cassanova, Sally Freels, Noel Chavez, Eva Hernandez, Darlene Pelzel, Carmen Vergara, Rachel M. Hayes, Victoria Persky
Journal: Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (2014)
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus⁎⁎Presented in part at: Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology Annual Meeting, May 3, 2006, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Supported in part by an unrestricted research grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc., New York, New York.
Authors: Scott Robert Witherspoon, Preston H. Blomquist
Journal: Ophthalmology (2007)
Alprenolol Treatment of Angina Pectoris
Authors: K. Gunnar F. Nyberg
Journal: JAMA (1972)

To the Editor.—  Lyon and associates recently wrote ( 215 :1669, 1971) that they found alprenolol, a β-adrenergic blocker, ineffective in angina pectoris at a dosage of 100 mg four times daily. They criticize a trial I took part in, 1 suggesting that ... when their data are regarded objectively, the results are similar to ours. We had concluded that in 14 out of 21 patients, alprenolol produced a clinically significant improvement. This was based on daily subjective rating of anginal severity and nitroglycerin consumption. The statistical evaluation of these variables provided confidence limits of P   Lyon et al, in order to classify the patient as improved, demanded a 50% reduction of nitroglycerin consumption and a 50% increase of number of trips in a two-step exercise test. We do not consider that nitroglycerin consumption or attack rate can be assigned a quantitative value. Decrease in attack rate may lead
Vitamin D Deficiency, hypocalcemia, and increased skeletal muscle degradation in rats.
Authors: S J Wassner, J B Li, A Sperduto, M E Norman
Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation (1983)

The myopathy associated with vitamin D deficiency was examined in vitamin D-deficient and vitamin D-supplemented rats. When compared with either vitamin D-supplemented ad lib. or pair-fed rats, weight gain and muscle mass were decreased in vitamin D-deficient hypocalcemic animals. With the exception of a modest decrease in muscle creatine phosphate levels, muscle composition was unchanged by vitamin D deficiency. Muscle protein turnover rates were determined in both in vivo and in vitro studies and demonstrated that myofibrillar protein degradation was increased in vitamin D deficiency. Normal growth rates could be maintained be feeding the rats vitamin D-deficient diets containing 1.6% calcium, which maintained plasma calcium within the normal range. In addition to its role in maintaining plasma calcium, vitamin D-supplemented rats had significantly higher levels of the anabolic hormone insulin. Vitamin D supplementation may affect muscle protein turnover by preventing hypocalcemia, as well as directly stimulating insulin secretion, rather than by a direct effect within skeletal muscle.
ODD (observation- and description-deprived) psychological research
Authors: Tage S. Rai, Alan Fiske
Journal: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2010)

Most psychological research consists of experiments that put people in artificial situations that elicit unnatural behavior whose ecological validity is unknown. Without knowing the psychocultural meaning of experimental situations, we cannot interpret the responses of WEIRD people, let alone people in other cultures. Psychology, like other sciences, needs to be solidly rooted in naturalistic observation and description of people around the world. Theory should be inductively developed and tested against real-world behavior.
Intrapulmonary shunting associated with sildenafil treatment in a patient with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension
Authors: P. F. Castro, D. Greig, H. E. Verdejo, I. Godoy, S. Cordova, M. P. Ferrada, R. C. Bourge
Journal: Thorax (2011)

We reported a case of a 30-year-old Hispanic patient with a history of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). A baseline catheterisation showed a mean pulmonary artery pressure (PAP) of 58 mm Hg, capillary wedge pressure of 14 mm Hg, cardiac index of 2.7 l/min/m2 and pulmonary vascular resistance of 7.5 WU, with no response to adenosine. A pulmonary CT scan ruled out thromboembolism or significant abnormalities (such as glass opacities, septal lines or mediastinal node enlargement commonly seen in venocclusive disease1); albumin macroaggregate lung perfusion scan showed normal perfusion without significant intrapulmonary shunt (IPS). He was started on diuretics, oxygen and sildenafil 25 mg three times a day. Despite treatment, dyspnoea worsened and 2 months later the patient was referred …
Interference by interferons: Janus faces in vascular proliferative diseases
Authors: R WESSELY
Journal: Cardiovascular Research (2005)

Interferons (IFNs) display pleiotropic properties; not only do they protect cells from viral infections but they may also modulate cell growth and differentiation as well as innate and adaptive immune responses. Therapeutic applications of IFNs have proven efficacy in a variety of illnesses, including hepatitis, multiple sclerosis, and some forms of cancer. Emerging evidence has been obtained during recent years that interferons impact on molecular and cellular mechanisms implicated in the development of vascular proliferative diseases such as atherosclerosis, restenosis, and cardiac allograft vasculopathy. Further appreciation and delineation of the precise mechanisms on how interferons influence vascular proliferative disease processes could potentially facilitate the development of novel treatment options attenuating these common causes of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Self-reported sleep apnoea and mortality in patients from the Swedish Obese Subjects study
Authors: N.S. Marshall, L. Delling, R.R. Grunstein, M. Peltonen, C.D. Sjöström, K. Karason, L.M.S. Carlsson, J. Hedner, K. Stenlöf, L. Sjöström
Journal: European Respiratory Journal (2011)

Sleep apnoea is associated with increased mortality in sleep clinic and community population groups. It is unclear whether a clinical report of sleep apnoea results in additional mortality risk in patients with severe obesity. The Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study is a nonrandomised controlled trial of bariatric surgery versus conventional treatment for the treatment of severe obesity and its complications (mean± sd body mass index 41±5 kg·m −2 ). The presence or absence of sleep apnoea (witnessed pauses in breathing) was determined by self-reporting at baseline in 3,953 patients who were observed for 54,236 person-yrs (mean 13.5 maximum 21.0 yrs). Sleep apnoea was reported by 934 (23.6%) patients at baseline and was a significant univariate predictor of mortality (hazard ratio (95% CI) 1.74 (1.40–2.18)). In a range of multivariate models of mortality risk, controlling for ≤16 other potential confounders and established mortality risk factors, sleep apnoea remained a significant prognostic factor (fully adjusted model 1.29 (1.01–1.65)). Self-reported sleep apnoea is an independent prognostic marker of all-cause mortality in obese patients.
A mouse GM-CSF receptor antibody attenuates neutrophilia in mice exposed to cigarette smoke
Authors: F.M. Botelho, J.K. Nikota, C. Bauer, N.H.E. Davis, E.S. Cohen, I.K. Anderson, A.J. Coyle, R. Kolbeck, A.A. Humbles, M.R. Stämpfli, M.A. Sleeman
Journal: European Respiratory Journal (2011)

We investigated the role of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in a subchronic exposure model of cigarette smoke (CS)-induced inflammation using antibodies directed against GM-CSF or the GM-CSF receptor (GM-CSFR) α-chain. CS-induced mononuclear and neutrophilic inflammation following 4 days of CS exposure in BALB/c mice was assessed in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid. An increase in mature dendritic cells (DCs) (CD11c+ and major histocompatibility complex II+) and Gr-1-high neutrophils was also observed by flow cytometric analysis of whole-lung tissue. Daily i.p. injection of 400 μg GM-CSF or GM-CSFR antibody prior to daily smoke exposure attenuated the accumulation of neutrophils within the BAL by 60%. A reduction in mature DCs was also observed. Anti-GM-CSFR antibody administration did not have an effect on the percentage of lung T-cells; however, a significant decrease in activated CD69+ CD8+ T-cells was observed. Anti-GM-CSFR antibody administration decreased the mRNA and protein expression of interleukin-12 p40 and matrix metalloproteinase 12. Taken together, intervention with this receptor antibody implicates the GM-CSF pathway as an important mediator of smoke-induced inflammation.
The cognitive functions of language
Authors: Peter Carruthers
Journal: Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2002)

This paper explores a variety of different versions of the thesis that natural language is involved in human thinking. It distinguishes amongst strong and weak forms of this thesis, dismissing some as implausibly strong and others as uninterestingly weak. Strong forms dismissed include the view that language is conceptually necessary for thought (endorsed by many philosophers) and the view that language is de facto the medium of all human conceptual thinking (endorsed by many philosophers and social scientists). Weak forms include the view that language is necessary for the acquisition of many human concepts and the view that language can serve to scaffold human thought processes. The paper also discusses the thesis that language may be the medium of conscious propositional thinking, but argues that this cannot be its most fundamental cognitive role. The idea is then proposed that natural language is the medium for non-domain-specific thinking, serving to integrate the outputs of a variety of domain-specific conceptual faculties (or central-cognitive “quasi-modules”). Recent experimental evidence in support of this idea is reviewed and the implications of the idea are discussed, especially for our conception of the architecture of human cognition. Finally, some further kinds of evidence which might serve to corroborate or refute the hypothesis are mentioned. The overall goal of the paper is to review a wide variety of accounts of the cognitive function of natural language, integrating a number of different kinds of evidence and theoretical consideration in order to propose and elaborate the most plausible candidate.