Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aspiration and Tetracycline of Hydrocele: Sclerotherapy Can It Replace Surgical Treatment?

A randomized prospeclive study was carried out on 79 patients with a IOta1 of 86 hydroceles to compare surgical treatment with aspiration and tetracycline sclerotherapy. Results revealed that although surgical treatment carried a higher risk of complications (10%) yet, recurrence following it (2.5%) was very low compared lo recurrence in sclerotherapy group (67.4%). We concluded that surgery is the treatment of choice for hydrocele. Aspiration/ sclerotherapy should be preserved only for patients who are unfit for surgery and it gives the best results in hydroceles with a volume of less than 100 cc.
Vitamin E improves the aminotransferase status of patients suffering from viral hepatitis C: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

UNLABELLED Vitamin E has been shown to protect against liver damage induced by oxidative stress in animal experiments. Based on our previous findings of diminished vitamin E levels in patients suffering from viral hepatitis, we treated 23 hepatitis C patients refractory to alpha-interferon therapy with high doses of vitamin E (2 x 400 IU RRR-alpha-tocopherol/day) for 12 weeks. STUDY DESIGN pro-spective randomized double-blind crossover design. Clinical parameters including alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were determined for monitoring the disease state, in parallel vitamin E plasma levels and plasma lipids were determined. The plasma levels of the alpha-tocopherol were increased about 2-fold in all 23 patients. In 11 of 23 patients the clinical parameters indicative of liver damage were improved during the phase of vitamin E treatment (48% responders). ALT levels in responders were lowered by 46% and AST levels were lowered by 35% after 12 weeks of vitamin E treatment. Cessation of vitamin E treatment was followed by a rapid relapse of ALT and AST elevation, whereas retreatment led to a reproducible ALT decrease by 45% and AST decrease of 37% after a 6 months followup. Since vitamin E is non-toxic even at elevated doses ingested over extended periods, we suggest the treatment of patients refractory to alpha-interferon therapy suffering from hepatitis C with vitamin E as a supportive therapy.
Prosody vs. syntax: prosodic rebracketing of final vocatives in English

We examine the prosodic incorporation of utterance-final vocatives in American English. Our report is based on two separate experiments to test the claim by Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986) ([1]) and Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg ([9]) that the phonetic manifestation of an L* tone on the final vocative is indicative of its contrastive behavior. Our first experiment, involving the dramatic reading of two scenes from a make-believe play, shows that in contexts approximating natural speech, final vocatives are prosodically integrated into the matrix structure. A second experiment with decontextualized ”out-of-the-blue” readings, by contrast, shows patterns similar to Beckman and Pierrehumbert (1986)([1]) and Pierrehumbert and Hirschberg ([9]).
William Boog Leishman: parasitologist and politician

SUMMARY Famous for the discovery of the parasite, Leishmania, named after him, and the invention of Leishman's stain, William Boog Leishman should perhaps be better known for his work in military and public health, particularly the prevention of typhoid. Leishman was a Medical Officer in the British Army from 1887 until his death in 1926. His early research was on diseases affecting troops posted to stations within the British Empire. He saw cases of Leishmaniasis while stationed in India, and was able to identify the causative organism from his detailed records of his observations. Leishman's most important contribution to public health, however, was his work with typhoid, a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the army. Leishman planned experiments and the collection of data to demonstrate the efficacy of anti-typhoid inoculation and, using his considerable political skills, advocated the adoption of the vaccine. He planned for the inoculation of troops in an emergency so, when war broke out in 1914, the vaccine was available to save thousands of lives. Leishman's colleagues and mentors included Ronald Ross and Almroth Wright. Leishman was less outspoken than either Ross or Wright; this paper shows how the different contributions of the three men overlapped.
Biodiversity Assessment in Incomplete Inventories: Leaf Litter Ant Communities in Several Types of Bornean Rain Forest

Biodiversity assessment of tropical taxa is hampered by their tremendous richness, which leads to large numbers of singletons and incomplete inventories in survey studies. Species estimators can be used for assessment of alpha diversity, but calculation of beta diversity is hampered by pseudo-turnover of species in undersampled plots. To assess the impact of unseen species, we investigated different methods, including an unbiased estimator of Shannon beta diversity that was compared to biased calculations. We studied alpha and beta diversity of a diverse ground ant assemblage from the Southeast Asian island of Borneo in different types of tropical forest: diperocarp forest, alluvial forest, limestone forest and heath forests. Forests varied in plant composition, geology, flooding regimes and other environmental parameters. We tested whether forest types differed in species composition and if species turnover was a function of the distance between plots at different spatial scales. As pseudo-turnover may bias beta diversity we hypothesized a large effect of unseen species reducing beta diversity. We sampled 206 ant species (25% singletons) from ten subfamilies and 55 genera. Diversity partitioning among the four forest types revealed that whereas alpha species richness and alpha Shannon diversity were significantly smaller than expected, beta-diversity for both measurements was significantly higher than expected by chance. This result was confirmed when we used the unbiased estimation of Shannon diversity: while alpha diversity was much higher, beta diversity differed only slightly from biased calculations. Beta diversity as measured with the Chao-Sørensen or Morisita-Horn Index correlated with distance between transects and between sample points, indicating a distance decay of similarity between communities. We conclude that habitat heterogeneity has a high influence on ant diversity and species turnover in tropical sites and that unseen species may have only little impact on calculation of Shannon beta diversity when sampling effort has been high.
Evaluating and Predicting the Performance of Sorghum Lines in an Elite by Exotic Backcross-Nested Association Mapping Population

Maintaining or introducing genetic diversity into plant breeding programs is necessary for continual genetic gain; however, diversity at the cost of reduced performance is not something sought by breeders. To this end, backcross-nested association mapping (BC-NAM) populations, in which the recurrent parent is an elite line, can be employed as a strategy to introgress diversity from unadapted accessions while maintaining agronomic performance. This study evaluates (i) the hybrid performance of sorghum lines from 18 BC1-NAM families and (ii) the potential of genomic prediction to screen lines from BC1-NAM families for hybrid performance prior to phenotypic evaluation. Despite the diverse geographical origins and agronomic performance of the unadapted parents for BC1-NAM families, many BC1-derived lines performed significantly better in the hybrid trials than the elite recurrent parent, R.Tx436. The genomic prediction accuracies for grain yield, plant height, and days to mid-anthesis were acceptable, but the prediction accuracies for plant height were lower than expected. While the prediction accuracies increased when including more individuals in the training set, improvements tended to plateau between two and five lines per family, with larger training sets being required for more complex traits such as grain yield. Therefore, genomic prediction models can be optimized in a large BC1-NAM population with a relatively low fraction of individuals needing to be evaluated. These results suggest that genomic prediction is an effective method of pre-screening lines within BC1-NAM families prior to evaluation in extensive hybrid field trials.
Intensified CHOP regimen in aggressive lymphomas: maximal dose intensity and dose density of doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide.

BACKGROUND Following our previous study of CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone) intensification in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), in the present report we attempted to further increase dose intensity by shortening the between-course intervals with the support of growth factors. PATIENTS AND METHODS A total of 67 patients were enrolled. With a fixed dose of doxorubicin 75 mg/m(2), cyclophosphamide (CTX) was started at a dose of 1750 mg/m(2) and increased by 250 mg/m(2) in consecutive cohorts of patients provided that no dose-limiting toxicity occurred. After the maximal tolerated dose (MTD) had been identified, this was used to treat more patients in order to confirm the feasibility of the regimen on a large scale, with the number of cycles being varied on the basis of disease extension. RESULTS Twenty-three cases were enrolled in the CTX dose finding phase. Dose-limiting non-hematological toxicity occurred at 2250 mg/m(2). As the intermediate level of 2000 mg/m(2) had a borderline toxicity profile, a CTX dose of 1750 mg/m(2) was defined as the MTD. A total of 53 patients then received the MTD during the course of the study as a whole. At the MTD, toxicity was acceptable. Only 10 of 189 cycles (4%) required hospitalization due to infection or febrile neutropenia. Seventy-four percent of the patients achieved complete remission. Freedom from progression and overall survival at 12 months were 71% and 86% in the whole series, and 58% and 71% for high-risk cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS This intensified CHOP regimen is feasible on an outpatient basis. It can be safely considered a definitive treatment in patients at low and intermediate risk, and as induction before high-dose consolidation in high-risk cases.
Inactivation of Retinoblastoma Protein Does Not Overcome the Requirement for Human Cytomegalovirus UL97 in Lamina Disruption and Nuclear Egress

ABSTRACT Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) encodes one conventional protein kinase, UL97. During infection, UL97 phosphorylates the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor protein (pRb) on sites ordinarily phosphorylated by cyclin-dependent kinases (CDK), inactivating the ability of pRb to repress host genes required for cell cycle progression to S phase. UL97 is important for viral DNA synthesis in quiescent cells, but this function can be replaced by human papillomavirus type 16 E7, which targets pRb for degradation. However, viruses in which E7 replaces UL97 are still defective for virus production. UL97 is also required for efficient nuclear egress of viral nucleocapsids, which is associated with disruption of the nuclear lamina during infection, and phosphorylation of lamin A/C on serine 22, which antagonizes lamin polymerization. We investigated whether inactivation of pRb might overcome the requirement of UL97 for these roles, as pRb inactivation induces CDK1, and CDK1 phosphorylates lamin A/C on serine 22. We found that lamin A/C serine 22 phosphorylation during HCMV infection correlated with expression of UL97 and was considerably delayed in UL97-null mutants, even when E7 was expressed. E7 failed to restore gaps in the nuclear lamina seen in wild-type but not UL97-null virus infections. In electron microscopy analyses, a UL97-null virus expressing E7 was as impaired as a UL97-null mutant in cytoplasmic accumulation of viral nucleocapsids. Our results demonstrate that pRb inactivation is insufficient to restore efficient viral nuclear egress of HCMV in the absence of UL97 and instead argue further for a direct role of UL97 in this stage of the infectious cycle.
Report of the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) on the prospection of biological hazards of interest in food safety in Spain (2)

This report addresses the prospection of biological hazards for some types of food that may pose a risk to the population and that are not currently included in the official control programs in Spain. It completes and updates the 2018 report by the Scientific Committee of the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN, 2018). A number of bacteria that are significant contributors to nosocomial infections due to the increase in the number of multi-resistant strains of Acinetobacter spp . , Klebsiella pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa are listed first. It is also addressed the study of the prevalence and possible control of Bacillus cereus and Cronobacter spp. presence in cereal flours and others, the revision of Campylobacter jejuni and/or Campylobacter coli in meats Abstract Scientific Committee
ranscranial direct current stimulation ( tDCS ) of frontal cortex ecreases performance on the WAIS-IV intelligence test

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) modulates excitability of motor cortex. However, there is conflicting evidence about the efficacy of this non-invasive brain stimulation modality to modulate performance on cognitive tasks. Previous work has tested the effect of tDCS on specific facets of cognition and executive processing. However, no randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study has looked at the effects of tDCS on a comprehensive battery of cognitive processes. The objective of this study was to test if tDCS had an effect on performance on a comprehensive assay of cognitive processes, a standardized intelligence quotient (IQ) test. The study consisted of two substudies and followed a doubleblind, between-subjects, sham-controlled design. In total, 41 healthy adult participants were included in the final analysis. These participants completed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) as a baseline measure. At least one week later, participants in substudy 1 received either bilateral tDCS (anodes over both F4 and F3, cathode over Cz, 2 mA at each anode for 20 min) or active sham tDCS (2 mA for 40 s), and participants in substudy 2 received either right or left tDCS (anode over either F4 or F3, cathode over Cz, 2 mA for 20 min). In both studies, the WAIS-IV was immediately administered following stimulation to assess for performance differences induced by bilateral and unilateral tDCS. Compared to sham stimulation, right, left, and bilateral tDCS reduced improvement between sessions on Full Scale IQ and the Perceptual Reasoning Index. This demonstration that frontal tDCS selectively degraded improvement on specific metrics of the WAIS-IV raises important questions about the often proposed role of tDCS in cogni Abbreviations: PFC, Prefrontal cortex; tDCS, transcranial direct current stimulation; IQ SIQ, full scale IQ; VCI, Verbal Comprehension Index; PRI, Perceptual Reasoning Index lternating current stimulation; tDCS, transcranial direct current stimulation. ∗ Corresponding author at: 115 Mason Farm Rd. NRB 4109F, Chapel Hill, NC. 27599. Tel E-mail address: flavio frohlich@med.unc. edu (F. Fröhlich). ttp://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.bbr. 2015.04. 031 166-4328/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. tive enhancement. © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. , intelligence quotient; WAIS-IV, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Fourth Edition; ; WMI, Working Memory Index; PSI, Processing Speed Index; tACS, transcranial . : +1 919 966 4584; fax: +1 919 448 5675.
UDeKAM: A methodology for acquiring declarative structured knowledge from unstructured knowledge resources

An effective knowledge representation has always proved its importance for mankind intelligence. Among various kinds of knowledge, declarative knowledge has a vital role in medical domain and is critical for health-care safety and quality. A large volume of declarative knowledge is hidden in multiple knowledge resources such as clinical notes, standard guidelines etc. that can play an important role in decision support systems as well as in health and wellness applications after structured transformation. In this paper, an Unstructured Declarative Knowledge Acquisition Methodology, called UDeKAM, is proposed that acquires and constructs the declarative structured knowledge from unstructured knowledge resources using Documents Clustering, Topic Modeling, and Controlled Natural Language processing techniques. The proposed methodology is designed for different domains to serve a variety of applications. It is an ongoing work and for the realization of UDeKAM, a diabetes scenario is explained through example.
Long-acting risperidone injection: efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of the first long-acting atypical antipsychotic

Objective To review the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of long-acting risperidone. Methods Studies published between January 2000 and October 2006 evaluating the pharmacokinetics, efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of long-acting risperidone were reviewed, as identified from literature searches using Medline and EMBASE. Abstracts and posters on long-acting risperidone presented at key psychiatry congresses and available in the public domain during this time period were also reviewed. Results The unique pharmacokinetic profile of long-acting risperidone is derived from the encapsulation of risperidone in a glycolide/lactide matrix in the form of microspheres such that after a single intramuscular injection, significant plasma levels of the drug are achieved after week 3. Steady state, after repeated administration at 2-week intervals, is achieved after 3 injection cycles. Short- and long-term studies have demonstrated that long-acting risperidone (25, 37.5, or 50 mg) is both efficacious and well tolerated in a wide variety of patients with schizophrenia and related psychoses. Most patients can be switched from other oral and long-acting antipsychotic agents without compromising efficacy and safety. Long-acting risperidone may also reduce overall healthcare costs by decreasing rates of relapse and hospitalization. Conclusion The assured delivery of an atypical antipsychotic medication with long-acting risperidone has important implications for patient compliance, maintenance of stability, consistency of treatment, and improving patient outcomes including the achievement of remission.
Living with CHD: quality of life (QOL) in early adult life

Abstract Aims The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life, psychiatric morbidity, and the psychosocial adjustment of adolescents and young adults with CHD, and determine which variables play a role in buffering stress and promoting resilience and which ones have a detrimental effect; and to investigate the situation on school performance and failures, social and family support, physical limitations, and body image of these patients. Methods The study enrolled 137 CHD patients (79 male), with age ranging from 12 to 26 years old (M=17.60±3.450 years). The patients were interviewed regarding social support, family educational style, self-image, demographic information, and physical limitations. They responded to questions in a standardised psychiatric interview (SADS-L) and completed self-reported questionnaires for the assessment of quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF) and psychosocial adjustment (YSR/ASR). Results We found a 19.7% lifetime prevalence of psychopathology in our patients (27.6% in female and 13.9% in male). Of them, 48% had retentions in school (M=1.61 year±0.82). The perception of quality of life in CHD patients is better compared with the Portuguese population in the social relationships and environmental dimensions. However, it is worse in complex forms of CHD than in moderate-to-mild ones, in cyanotic versus acyanotic patients, in moderate-to-severe versus mild residual lesions, in patients submitted versus those not submitted to surgery, in patients with versus without physical limitations, and patients who have need for medication versus those who do not. Social support is very important in improving quality of life of patients in all dimensions as well as academic performance. Conclusions Female patients and patients with poor academic performance and poor social support have worse psychosocial adjustment and perception of quality of life.
CD8+ T Cell Migration to the Skin Requires CD4+ Help in a Murine Model of Contact Hypersensitivity

The relative roles of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in contact hypersensitivity responses have not been fully solved, and remain an important question. Using an adoptive transfer model, we investigated the role of the respective T cell subset. Magnetic bead separated CD4+ and CD8+ T cells from oxazolone sensitized C57BL/6 mice were transferred into RAG−/− mice, followed by hapten challenge and analysis of inflammatory parameters at 24 hours post exposure. The CD4+ T cell recipient mice developed partial contact hypersensitivity responses to oxazolone. CD8+ T cells caused significant amplification of the response in recipients of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells including ear swelling, type 1 inflammatory mediators, and cell killing. Unexpectedly, CD8+ T cells were not sufficient to mediate contact hypersensitivity, although abundantly present in the lymph nodes in the CD8+ T cell reconstituted mice. There were no signs of inflammation at the site of hapten exposure, indicating impaired recruitment of CD8+ T cells in the absence of CD4+ T cells. These data show that CD4+ T cells mediate contact hypersensitivity to oxazolone, but CD8+ T cells contribute with the most potent effector mechanisms. Moreover, our results suggest that CD4+ T cell function is required for the mobilization of CD8+ effector T cells to the site of hapten exposure. The results shed new light on the relative importance of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells during the effector phase of contact hypersensitivity.
Enhanced Transdermal Delivery of Granisetron by Using Iontophoresis

The purpose of the present study was to explore the passive and electrically assisted transdermal transport of Granisetron hydrochloride (GRA) in solution and gel formulation through iontophoresis and also the feasibility of delivering therapeutic amounts of drug for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. In this study, iontophoretic permeation of GRA through guinea pig skin using silver-silver chloride electrode was performed and the effects of different variables on this phenomenon were evaluated. Preliminary in-vitro studies using aqueous GRA formulations investigating the effect of drug concentration (5, 10, 15 and 20 mg mL-1) on passive permeation, current density (0.2, 0.4 and 0.5 mA cm-2), mode of current application, penetration enhancers and effect of application duration were performed. As expected, GRA delivery was found to be increased with the elevation in drug concentration and current density. Anodal continuous current delivery was more effective in the permeation of GRA than the pulsed current method. Penetration enhancers were ineffective to show synergistic effect in conjunction with iontophoresis. It was evident that reservoir in the skin was not formed during the iontophoretic delivery. The results confirm that GRA is an excellent candidate for iontophoresis. The present study demonstrated the feasibility of GRA transdermal transport through the Lutrol F-127 gel by iontophoresis. Further in-vivo studies will be required to support in-vitro conclusions and develop in-vitro, in-vivo correlations.