Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Endothelial dysfunction in patients with type 2 diabetes post acute coronary syndrome

This single visit study examined whether endothelial function, in addition to cardiovascular (CV) risk factors and plasma microparticle content, was normalised in 15 patients with type 2 diabetes + acute coronary syndrome (ACS) (6 weeks–6 months post cardiac event) undergoing standard clinical care compared to 16 sex- and age-matched healthy controls. Results: While total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels were well controlled in the patients with type 2 diabetes + ACS, residual CV risk profiles such as increased body mass index (BMI), systolic blood pressure, glucose levels and triglycerides and lower high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels were still apparent. Endothelium-dependent responses to acetylcholine (ACh) were significantly lower in type 2 diabetes + ACS patients compared to controls. Correspondingly, the reactive hyperaemic index (RHI) was lower in the patient cohort. Endothelial microparticle (EMP) levels (CD31+, CD41−) were 40% lower in the patient cohort. Simultaneous analysis of platelet microparticle (PMP) levels (CD41+) showed no difference between cohorts. Conclusions: Patients with type 2 diabetes suffering from recent ACS exhibit residual CV risk factors despite being on standard clinical care. In addition, these patients continue to present with endothelial dysfunction despite having lower levels of EMPs.
Development of Ocular Surface Tribometer and Frictional Characteristics of Human Ocular Surface

The purpose of this research is to determine the frictional characteristics of human ocular surfaces. An ocular surface tribometer was developed to measure the normal forces, frictional forces, and velocities of the probe on human ocular surfaces simultaneously. In this research, the measurement on six trial subjects was performed with the developed ocular surface tribometer. In addition, a mathematical model was proposed to describe the frictional coefficient of the human ocular surface. The frictional characteristic curves were found by using the computational program employing BSG-Starcraft of PSO and LSM developed by the authors in the previous research. It was possible to classify the frictional characteristics of human ocular surfaces into three types.
Oral administration of glucagon-like peptide 1 or peptide YY 3-36 affects food intake in healthy male subjects.

BACKGROUND Peripheral infusion of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) or peptide YY 3-36 (PYY3-36) reduces food intake in healthy, obese, and diabetic subjects. In vivo, both peptides are cosecreted from intestinal L cells; GLP-1 is subject to rapid breakdown by dipeptidyl peptidase IV, and together with PYY3-36 it is likely to be degraded in the liver before entering the systemic circulation. The largest concentrations are observed in the splanchnic blood rather than in the systemic circulation. OBJECTIVE In contrast with peripheral infusion, oral delivery of sodium N-[8-(2-hydroxybenzoyl) amino] caprylate (SNAC) mimics endogenous secretion. We aimed to investigate how this affects food intake. DESIGN Twelve healthy male subjects were studied in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 4-way crossover trial. Each subject received in random order 2.0 mg GLP-1, 1.0 mg PYY3-36, or 2.0 mg GLP-1 plus 1.0 mg PYY3-36; the peptides were mixed with SNAC. The placebo treatment was the delivery agent alone. Food intake during an ad libitum test meal was measured. RESULTS Both peptides were rapidly absorbed from the gut, leading to plasma concentrations several times higher than those in response to a normal meal. GLP-1 alone, but not PYY3-36, reduced total energy intake significantly, with marked effects on glucose homeostasis. Coadministration of both peptides reduced total energy intake by 21.5% and fullness at meal onset (P < 0.05) but not total 24-h energy intake. CONCLUSION The results show a marked effect of orally administered GLP-1 and PYY3-36 on appetite by showing enhanced fullness at meal onset and reduced energy intake. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00822705.
French Experience of 2009 A/H1N1v Influenza in Pregnant Women

Background The first reports on the pandemic influenza 2009 A/H1N1v from the USA, Mexico, and Australia indicated that this disease was associated with a high mortality in pregnant women. The aim of this study was to describe and compare the characteristics of severe critically ill and non-severe pregnant women with 2009 A/H1N1v-related illness in France. Methodology/Principal Findings A national registry was created to screen pregnant women with laboratory-confirmed 2009 A/H1N1v influenza. Three hundred and fifteen patients from 46 French hospitals were included: 40 patients were admitted to intensive care units (severe outcomes), 111 were hospitalized in obstetric or medical wards (moderate outcomes), and 164 were outpatients (mild outcomes). The 2009 A/H1N1v influenza illness occurred during all pregnancy trimesters, but most women (54%), notably the severe patients (70%), were in the third trimester. Among the severe patients, twenty (50%) underwent mechanical ventilation, and eleven (28%) were treated with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. Three women died from A/H1N1v influenza. We found a strong association between the development of a severe outcome and both co-existing illnesses (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 5.1; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.2–11.8) and a delay in oseltamivir treatment after the onset of symptoms (>3 or 5 days) (adjusted OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.9–12.1 and 61.2, 95% CI; 14.4–261.3, respectively). Among the 140 deliveries after 22 weeks of gestation known to date, 19 neonates (14%) were admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit, mainly for preterm delivery, and two neonates died. None of these neonates developed 2009 A/H1N1v infection. Conclusions This series confirms the high incidence of complications in pregnant women infected with pandemic A/H1N1v observed in other countries but depicts a lower overall maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity than indicated in the USA or Australia. Moreover, our data demonstrate the benefit of early oseltamivir treatment in this specific population.
Chirping for Congestion Control-Implementation Feasibility ∗

We present lessons from implementing a bandwidth probing scheme termed chirping as part of congestion control in the Linux kernel. Chirping was first introduced for bandwidth estimation in the pathChirp tool. A chirp is a group of several packets that are sent with decreasing inter-packet gaps in order to continuously probe for spare bandwidth. Current congestion control schemes are either slow to find new bandwidth or they overshoot due to lack of fast feedback information. The attraction of using chirping as a building block for congestion control is to be able to non-intrusively probe for available capacity in a very short time. But implementing chirping is challenging because it requires an exact timing of every packet which is very different to the traditional approach in the network stack. As there are changes needed at the receiver as well, we also discuss a potential approach for deployment. Success in detecting fast feedback information using chirping opens the possibility of future work on new congestion control designs that should be more responsive with less overshoot.
Association Between Left Ventricular Mechanics and Heart Rate Variability in Untreated Hypertensive Patients

The authors sought to investigate left ventricular (LV) mechanics and heart rate variability (HRV), and their relationship, in untreated hypertensive patients. A total of 63 untreated hypertensive patients and 45 healthy patients were included. All patients underwent 24‐hour Holter monitoring and echocardiographic examination (two‐ and three‐dimensional). All parameters of time and frequency domain of HRV were decreased in the hypertensive patients. Two‐dimensional LV longitudinal and circumferential deformation was significantly reduced in hypertensive patients. Three‐dimensional LV strain in all three directions as well as area strain were reduced in the hypertensive group. In two different models of multivariate regression, two‐dimensional LV longitudinal and circumferential strain, as well as three‐dimensional LV area strain, remained associated with HRV parameters independently of LV structural and functional parameters. This study showed that LV mechanics and HRV were significantly impaired in untreated hypertensive patients. Two‐ and three‐dimensional echocardiographic LV deformation were independently associated with HRV parameters in the whole study population.
The use of central nervous system drugs and analgesics among very old people with and without dementia

Old people in general, and particularly those with dementia, are more sensitive to adverse drug effects than younger people. Despite this, the use of central nervous system (CNS) drugs among old people is common. The aim of the present study was to compare the use of central nervous system drugs and analgesics among people aged 85 years or older, with and without dementia.
Investigating the potential of art neural network models for indexing and information retrieval

Database management systems are very sophisticated, efficient, and fast in information retrieval tasks involving traditional data sets such as numbers, strings, and so on, but many limitations become evident when the data are more complex, that is, high or nondimensional data. Considering some existing problems in information retrieval processes, this work proposes a hybrid system that combines a model of the ART family neural network, ART2‐A, with the Slim‐Tree data structure, which is a metric access method. This approach is an alternative to perform clustering on data in an intelligent way so that the data can be recovered from the corresponding Slim‐Tree. The proposed hybrid system is able to perform range and k‐nearest neighbor queries, which is not an inherent characteristic in implementations involving artificial neural networks. Furthermore, experimental results showed that the performance of the hybrid system was better than the performance of Slim‐Tree. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 319–336, 2007.
Brachyury: A sensitive marker, but not a prognostic factor, for skull base chordomas

Patients with skull base chordomas have a poor prognosis, and the role of the protein expression of brachyury in chordomas remains to be fully elucidated. The present study used immunohistochemistry to analyze 57 cases of skull base chordoma, and analyzed the clinical data of the patients. The results demonstrated that the protein expression of brachyury was negative in 8.8% (5/57) of the cases. The weak/positive, positive and strong/positive rates were 5.3% (3/5 7), 21.1% (12/57) and 64.9% (37/57), respectively. The association between the expression of brachyury and recurrence was not statistically significant. Kaplan-Meier analysis revealed that the degree of surgery, rather than the expression of brachyury, was associated with tumor recurrence (P=0.001). In conclusion, the results of the present study demonstrated that the expression of Brachyury offers a sensitive marker, but not a risk factor, for skull base chordomas, and radical surgery is recommended.
Treatment decision making in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: multidisciplinary team discussion with multidetector-row computed tomography.

HYPOTHESIS Multidetector-row computed tomography reduces the frequency of use of other imaging methods in patients with pancreatic carcinoma. DESIGN Validation cohort study. SETTING Tertiary care public hospital. PATIENTS Two hundred thirteen patients with pancreatic carcinoma. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Multidetector-row computed tomography was initially performed in patients with newly diagnosed pancreatic carcinoma. RESULTS Of the 213 pancreatic carcinomas, 79 (37%) were classified as probably resectable, 127 (60%) as certainly unresectable, and 7 (3%) as probably unresectable. Of 79 tumors classified as probably resectable, 68 (86%) were found to be resectable, 7 tumors considered as probably unresectable were unresectable, and the remaining 127 tumors were treated nonsurgically. Magnetic resonance imaging was recommended in 92 patients (43%), angiography in 1 patient (0.5%), and both endoscopic ultrasonography and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in 15 patients (7%). CONCLUSIONS Multidetector-row computed tomography provides reliable information for staging pancreatic carcinoma. Multidisciplinary team discussion along with use of this noninvasive technique simplifies the diagnostic strategy for pancreatic carcinoma and decreases the need for invasive staging methods.
Use of a Conical Conducting Layer with an Electrical Impedance Probe to Enhance Sensitivity in Epithelial Tissues

Abstract Tetra-polar electrical impedance measurement (TPIM) with a square geometry of electrodes is useful in the characterization of epithelial tissues, especially in the detection of cervical cancer at precancerous stages. However, in TPIM, the peak planar sensitivity just below the electrode surface is almost zero and increases to a peak value at a depth of about one third to one half of the electrode separation. To get high sensitivity for the epithelial layer, having thicknesses of 200 μm to 300 μm, the electrode separation needed is less than 1 mm, which is difficult to achieve in practical probes. This work proposes a conical conducting layer in front of a pencil like probe with a square geometry of TPIM electrodes to create virtual electrodes with much smaller separation at the body surface, thus increasing the sensitivity of the epithelial tissues. To understand the improvements, if any, 3D sensitivity distribution and transfer impedance were simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software for a simplified body tissue model containing a 300 μm epithelial layer. It has been shown that fractional contribution of an epithelial layer can be increased several times placing a cylindrical conducting layer in between the tissue surface and the electrodes, which can further be enhanced using a conical conducting layer. The results presented in this paper can be used to choose an appropriate electrode separation, conducting layer height and cone parameters for enhanced sensitivity in the epithelial layer.
Cheating at medical school

Recently the BMJ received the following anonymous letter. > “Dear Sir, > > I am a graduating student of Royal Free and University College London Medical School. During the finals of clinical exams I was witness to one of the most ugly scenes in my short but eventful life. One of my colleagues had in a brazen attempt to obfuscate the examiners made use of her Oxford Clinical Handbook during her long case. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for her, she was caught red handed. The deed was not looked on kindly by the authorities, especially when she attempted to extricate herself by claiming she had also done this in a previous examination and not been caught—thereby (or so she believed) justifying her act…. My colleagues and I were convinced that she would receive her comeuppance. > > After meeting the disciplinary board, however, she was allowed to pass her exams without further ado. Fair play and honesty—two virtues I …
Misalignments in the Retinal Nerve Fiber Layer Evaluation Using Cirrus High-definition Optical Coherence Tomography

PurposeTo evaluate the frequency and characteristics of misalignments (MAs) in the retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) analysis protocol of spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (Cirrus) and determine factors associated with MAs. MethodsThree hundred eyes (162 normal and 138 glaucomatous eyes) were included in this cross-sectional study. The MAs were considered limited when they affected only part of the scan line, and complete (CMA) when they were observed in the entire scan line. A subgroup (153 cases) with repeated scans was analyzed to compare the RNFL thicknesses in the scans with and without CMAs. ResultsTwo hundred ninety-nine limited MAs were found in 140 eyes (46.7%) and 151 CMAs were found in 91 eyes (30.3%). The frequency and number of CMAs were significantly related to age (P<0.05). Seventy-two CMAs were in the measurement ring in 48 eyes, more frequently in the 3 and 9-o’clock positions (P=0.001) and the horizontal quadrants (P=0.001). Among the repeated scans, the number of cases with CMAs was similar to the first scan (P=0.32). No significant differences were found in global or quadrant RNFL thickness between scans with and without CMAs. ConclusionsCMAs were present in the first or second scans in about 30% of cases and were related to older age. CMAs were more frequently in horizontal meridians and quadrants. No differences in RNFL thickness were found between scans with and without CMAs in the same patients. Scans with CMAs in the measurement ring can be considered in the RNFL evaluation.
Lymph-Node Ratio Classification Strongly Correlates with Cancer Survivals of Patients Who Underwent R0 Resection for Gastric Cancer with More than 15 Nodes Harvested

Background: During the last few years, the gastric cancer nodal staging has been extensively revised. Lately, a new system emerged in this field with the purpose of implementing the prognostic stratification: the lymph-node ratio (LNR). The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of the LNR in relation to cancer survivors undergoing resection for gastric adenocarcinoma. Methods: Off 227 patients undergoing surgical resection for gastric cancer at our Department, 129 curative gastric resections with more than 15 nodes harvested were selected. The LNR was calculated and patients were stratified into 6 subgroups based on the ratio values. The subgroups were compared for data analysis. Survivals were calculated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the mean follow-up period was 40 months. ROC curves were calculated in order to analyze the performance of the LNR system. Results: LNR stratification correlated with the stage of the disease, with the rate of patients undergoing chemotherapy and patients presenting with a relapse of disease at follow-up. Moreover, an increased ratio correlated with a worse overall, a disease-free and a disease-specific survival of the patients. The ROC curves documented a significant performance of the stratification system with the endpoints of disease-free and disease-specific survivals. Conclusion: LNR stratification correlated with cancer-related survivals in our case series. It is a reliable system that might improve current nodal staging and thereby the identification of patients with a higher risk of recurrence or cancer-related mortality.
Determination of mineral contents of Digitalis purpurea L. and Digitalis lanata Ehrh

Digitalis purpurea and Digitalis lanata are commonly used in treatment of heart diseases, the species has recently introduced for cultivation in the state of Uttarakhand, India. The mineral contents of cultivated plants of these species have to be within permissible limit for its effectiveness. Using inductively coupled plasma mass spec-trometry (ICP-MS), this paper describes analysis of selected minerals [viz. Boron (B), Chromium (Cr), Manganese (Mn), Cobalt (Co), Nickel (Ni), Copper (Cu), Arsenic (As) and Lead (Pb)] in various plant parts of D. purpurea and D. lanata at pre- and post flowering stages. Our results revealed that the concentration of B, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, As and Pb as 8.16±0.04 to 27.18±1.11, 7.30±0.03 to 21.16±0.20, 62.69±1.45 to 247.27±5.29, 0.65±0.08 to 6.13±0.05, 9.19±0.01 to 16.15±0.05, 0.02±0.0 to 25.27±0.20, 0.83±0.04 to 4.98±0.06 and 4.70±0.02 to 8.19±0.04 ug g1I, respectively. The study reports that the mineral contents were well within the permissible range for medicinal uses. Therefore, the species are recommended for large scale cultivation.
The importance for growth of dietary intake of calcium and vitamin D.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the role of dietary calcium and vitamin D in the process of growth and development of children and adolescents, focusing in particular on the prevention and treatment of delayed growth caused by nutritional deficiency. SOURCES Information was gathered from articles published in the last 2 decades, from searches on the databases SciELO, PubMed and Medline, technical books and publications of international organizations. SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS Growth is influenced by intrinsic (genetic and metabolic) and extrinsic factors (environmental factors such as diet, health, hygiene, housing and access to health services). Among the nutritional factors are vitamin and oligoelement deficiencies which may be associated with malnutrition or caused by insufficient absorption. Since calcium is one of the main mineral components of bone tissue, it is essential for adequate bone formation and, considering that vitamin D plays an important role in calcium metabolism, a diet with insufficient quantities of these nutrients can impact on the formation of the skeleton and on the process of growth and development. CONCLUSIONS In children and adolescents, low intake or low absorption of calcium and vitamin D may limit their statural growth, and it is necessary to supply sufficient quantities of both during the critical growth phases.
Step-Up DC/DC Converters With Cascaded Quasi-Z-Source Network

This paper is devoted to the step-up dc/dc converter family with a cascaded quasi-Z-source network (qZS-network). The cascaded (two-stage) qZS-network could be derived by the adding of one diode, one inductor, and two capacitors to the traditional quasi-Z-source inverter (qZSI). The proposed cascaded qZSI inherits all the advantages of the traditional solution (voltage boost and buck functions in a single stage, continuous input current, and improved reliability). Moreover, as compared to the conventional qZSI, the proposed solution reduces the shoot-through duty cycle by over 30% at the same voltage boost factor. Theoretical analysis of the two-stage qZSI in the shoot-through and non-shoot-through operating modes is described. The proposed and traditional qZS-networks are compared. A prototype of a step-up dc/dc converter with the cascaded qZS-network was built to verify the theoretical assumptions. The experimental results are presented and analyzed. Finally, a further optimization method of the cascaded qZS-network is proposed, and some practical design issues are discussed.
Influence of intermittent and continuous microwave heating on drying kinetics and wood behavior of Eucalyptus Gomphocephala

The aim of this work was to determine the microwave drying kinetics of Eucalyptus Gomphocephala wood and to investigate the influence of intermittent and continuous heating processes on the end quality of dreid samples. The average moisture content evolution and temperature of wood samples under different microwave powers were analyzed in terms of drying time and internal temperature level. Results show that the increase of microwave power level decreses the drying time and increases the internal wood temperature. Based on qualitative observations on the state of dried samples, the intermittent microwave powers intensity process present the optimal processing parameter in microwave drying of Eucalyptus wood species.Keywords: microwave drying; power; intermittent; continuous; Eucalyptus wood.