Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical Profile of Patients Admitted with Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus Infection: An Experience from A Tertiary Care Hospital.

BACKGROUND Pandemic influenza A (H1N1) 2009 has posed a serious public health challenge world-wide. H1N1 critical illness mostly affects young patients and is often fatal. OBJECTIVE Primary objective was to study clinical profile of the patients admitted with confirmed H1N1 swine flu infection. Secondary objective was to observe the risk factors associated with complications like need of mechanical ventilation and or death among H1N1 infected patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS A prospective observational study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital from June 2009, to December, 2011. H1N1 infection was confirmed by reverse transcriptase PCR. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS, version 11. Binary logistic regression was used to find out independent risk factors for morbidity. RESULTS Total 495 patients were tested for H1N1 infection. Among them, 115 (23%) were positive and 88(76%) required admission. Median age of cohort was 29 years and 87% of the patients were below 54 years of age. Most common presenting symptoms were fever (98%), followed by cough (86%) and sore throat (54%). Out of 88 patients, 14 (16%) required mechanical ventilation and 6(6.8%) died. Lymphopaenia (Lymphocytes <10%) and presence of patchy infiltrates on chest X-ray (CXR) the time of presentation were independent risk factors associated with need of mechanical ventilation or death in H1N1 infected patients by multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION Present study showed that H1N1 swine flu mainly affected people who were < 54 years of age. Majority of patients improved with antiviral treatment. Lymphopaenia and CXR which showed bilateral pneumonia at time of presentation were found to be independent risk factors associated with requirement of mechanical ventilation and/or death in H1N1 infection. Pregnant females with flu constituted 33% of total mortality. High priority should be given to such patients. Further community based studies are required to analyze the actual impact of H1N1 infection in the community.
Limitations of Psychological Tests in a Dialysis Population

&NA; Psychological tests are being used increasingly in dialysis populations, both for psychosomatic research and for clinical evaluations, warranting careful examination of their uses and limitations. Characteristics associated with dialysis populations can limit the validity of many psychological tests which are useful in other populations. These characteristics include such factors as the great biological heterogeneity of dialysis patients, their uniquely dependent relationship to treating staff, and their tendency to respond with socially desirable answers. There is a need to develop psychological tests that are specific for dialysis populations and take into account social desirability response bias. At present, the limitations of psychological tests in a dialysis population are substantial.
Bupropion perceived as a stimulant by two patients with a previous history of cocaine misuse.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Despite animal studies having shown a generalisation of the bupropion cue to cocaine, this drug has been used in cocaine abuse with mixed results. We here aimed at describing two cases which contradict current knowledge. CASE REPORTS We describe two cases of former cocaine abusers who reported a cocaine-like sensation upon taking bupropion. Bupropion improved patients' depression without any increase in cocaine craving. One of the patients increased without doctor consultation his dose on an as needed basis. CONCLUSIONS The issue of bupropion cue generalisation to cocaine needs further elucidation. People with past cocaine addiction need to be informed on the potential of bupropion to elicit cocaine-like cues and be invited to adhere to medical prescription, because bupropion has been associated with fatalities in some cases.
Carbon budget estimation of a subarctic catchment using a dynamic ecosystem model at high spatial resolution

Abstract. A large amount of organic carbon is stored in high-latitude soils. A substantial proportion of this carbon stock is vulnerable and may decompose rapidly due to temperature increases that are already greater than the global average. It is therefore crucial to quantify and understand carbon exchange between the atmosphere and subarctic/arctic ecosystems. In this paper, we combine an Arctic-enabled version of the process-based dynamic ecosystem model, LPJ-GUESS (version LPJG-WHyMe-TFM) with comprehensive observations of terrestrial and aquatic carbon fluxes to simulate long-term carbon exchange in a subarctic catchment at 50 m resolution. Integrating the observed carbon fluxes from aquatic systems with the modeled terrestrial carbon fluxes across the whole catchment, we estimate that the area is a carbon sink at present and will become an even stronger carbon sink by 2080, which is mainly a result of a projected densification of birch forest and its encroachment into tundra heath. However, the magnitudes of the modeled sinks are very dependent on future atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Furthermore, comparisons of global warming potentials between two simulations with and without CO2 increase since 1960 reveal that the increased methane emission from the peatland could double the warming effects of the whole catchment by 2080 in the absence of CO2 fertilization of the vegetation. This is the first process-based model study of the temporal evolution of a catchment-level carbon budget at high spatial resolution, including both terrestrial and aquatic carbon. Though this study also highlights some limitations in modeling subarctic ecosystem responses to climate change, such as aquatic system flux dynamics, nutrient limitation, herbivory and other disturbances, and peatland expansion, our study provides one process-based approach to resolve the complexity of carbon cycling in subarctic ecosystems while simultaneously pointing out the key model developments for capturing complex subarctic processes.
Silent information regulator 2 family of NAD- dependent histone/protein deacetylases generates a unique product, 1-O-acetyl-ADP-ribose.

Conflicting reports have suggested that the silent information regulator 2 (SIR2) protein family employs NAD(+) to ADP-ribosylate histones [Tanny, J. C. , Dowd, G. J., Huang, J., Hilz, H. & Moazed, D. (1999) Cell 99, 735-745; Frye, R. A. (1999) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 260, 273-279], deacetylate histones [Landry, J., Sutton, A. , Tafrov, S. T. , Heller, R. C. , Stebbins, J., Pillus, L. & Sternglanz, R. (2000) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 5807-5811; Smith, J. S. , Brachmann, C. B. , Celic, I. , Kenna, M. A. , Muhammad, S. , Starai, V. J., Avalos, J. L. , Escalante-Semerena, J. C. , Grubmeyer, C. , Wolberger, C. & Boeke, J. D. (2000) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 6658-6663], or both [Imai, S. , Armstrong, C. M. , Kaeberlein, M. & Guarente, L. (2000) Nature (London) 403, 795-800]. Uncovering the true enzymatic function of SIR2 is critical to the basic understanding of its cellular function. Therefore, we set out to authenticate the reaction products and to determine the intrinsic catalytic mechanism. We provide direct evidence that the efficient histone/protein deacetylase reaction is tightly coupled to the formation of a previously unidentified acetyl-ADP-ribose product (1-O-acetyl-ADP ribose). One molecule of NAD(+) and one molecule of acetyl-lysine are readily catalyzed to one molecule of deacetylated lysine, nicotinamide, and 1-O-acetyl-ADP-ribose. A unique reaction mechanism involving the attack of enzyme-bound acetate or the direct attack of acetyl-lysine on an oxocarbenium ADP-ribose intermediate is proposed. We suggest that the reported histone/protein ADP-ribosyltransferase activity is a low-efficiency side reaction that can be explained through the partial uncoupling of the intrinsic deacetylation and acetate transfer to ADP-ribose.
Finding the Right Match: Mindfulness Training May Potentiate the Therapeutic Effect of Nonjudgment of Inner Experience on Smoking Cessation

Mindfulness training (MT) is an emerging therapeutic modality for addictive disorders. Nonjudgment of inner experience, a component of mindfulness, may influence addiction treatment response. To test whether this component influences smoking cessation, tobacco smokers (n = 85) in a randomized control trial of MT vs. Freedom from Smoking (FFS), a standard cognitive-behaviorally-oriented treatment, were divided into split-half subgroups based on baseline Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire nonjudgment subscale. Smokers who rarely judge inner experience (nonjudgment > 30.5) smoked less during follow-up when randomized to MT (3.9 cigs/d) vs. FFS (11.1 cigs/d), p < . 01. Measuring trait nonjudgment may help personalize treatment assignments, improving outcomes.
Suicides, Homicides, Accidents, and Other External Causes of Death among Blacks and Whites in the Southern Community Cohort Study

Prior studies of risk factors associated with external causes of death have been limited in the number of covariates investigated and external causes examined. Herein, associations between numerous demographic, lifestyle, and health-related factors and the major causes of external mortality, such as suicide, homicide, and accident, were assessed prospectively among 73,422 black and white participants in the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS). Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated in multivariate regression analyses using the Cox proportional hazards model. Men compared with women (HR = 2.32; 95% CI: 1.87–2.89), current smokers (HR = 1.74; 95% CI: 1.40–2.17), and unemployed/never employed participants at the time of enrollment (HR = 1.67; 95% CI 1.38–2.02) had increased risk of dying from all external causes, with similarly elevated HRs for suicide, homicide, and accidental death among both blacks and whites. Blacks compared with whites had lower risk of accidental death (HR = 0.46; 95% CI: 0.38–0.57) and suicide (HR = 0.55; 95% CI: 0.31–0.99). Blacks and whites in the SCCS had comparable risks of homicide death (HR = 1.05; 95% CI: 0.63–1.76); however, whites in the SCCS had unusually high homicide rates compared with all whites who were resident in the 12 SCCS states, while black SCCS participants had homicide rates similar to those of all blacks residing in the SCCS states. Depression was the strongest risk factor for suicide, while being married was protective against death from homicide in both races. Being overweight/obese at enrollment was associated with reduced risks in all external causes of death, and the number of comorbid conditions was a risk factor for iatrogenic deaths. Most risk factors identified in earlier studies of external causes of death were confirmed in the SCCS cohort, in spite of the low SES of SCCS participants. Results from other epidemiologic cohorts are needed to confirm the novel findings identified in this study.
Importance of synovial fluid aspiration when injecting intra-articular corticosteroids

OBJECTIVE The aim of this prospective study was to find if a complete synovial fluid aspiration before injecting intra-articular corticosteroids influences the treatment result. METHODS The study was performed in 147 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). One hundred and ninety one knees with synovitis were randomised to arthrocentesis (n=95) or no arthrocentesis (n=96) before 20 mg triamcinolone hexacetonide was injected. The duration of effect was followed up for a period of six months. All patients were instructed to contact the rheumatology department if signs and symptoms from the treated knee recurred. If arthritis could be confirmed by a clinical examination a relapse was noted. RESULTS There was a significant reduction of relapse in the arthrocentesis group (p=0.001). CONCLUSION The study shows that aspiration of synovial fluid can reduce the risk for arthritis relapse when treating RA patients with intra-articular corticosteroids. It is concluded that arthrocentesis shall be included in the intra-articular corticosteroid injection procedure.
Vitamin D and physical fitness in Qatari girls

Despite long sunlight hours in the Middle East, indigenous women have been shown to experience low vitamin D levels, generally considered as a consequence of the cultural norm of keeping the skin covered.1 However, vitamin D deficiency is also endemic (91%) in Middle Eastern sportsmen with a more marked deficiency in the youngest adult.2 Historical literature suggests that ultraviolet light and vitamin D may have a role in optimising athletic performance,3 but there is limited evidence to support this hypothesis as a 1-year prospective trial of vitamin D3 supplementation did not increase grip strength in Lebanese adolescents.4 To assess vitamin D deficiency in adolescent Qatari girls …
Exchange-Rate Dark Matter

Dark matter is believed to account for 83 percent of the matter in the universe and plays a central role in cosmology modeling. This paper argues that an analogous form of dark matter plays a similarly important role in international macroeconomics. Like its cosmological counterpart, exchange-rate dark matter cannot be directly observed, but its existence can be inferred from observations on the real exchange rates and interest rates. In the first part of this paper Is how that dark matter is the dominant driver of short- and medium-term changes in real exchange rates for the G-7 countries; accounting for more than 90 percent of the variance at the five-year horizon. Although standard models stress the role of real interest differentials as the proximate drivers of real exchange-rate variations, my findings indicate that they are empirically unimportant. To understand the nature of exchange-rate dark matter, the second part of the paper develops an open-economy DSGE model in which the risk shocks driving households’ habits interact with collateral constraints and incomplete markets. The model not only shows that risk shocks can account for the role of dark matter as a driver of real exchange-rate dynamics, but also that these same shocks have significant macroeconomic implications. My analysis suggests that exchange rates appear disconnected from traditional macroeconomic fundamentals because they are particularly susceptible to risk shocks that play an important role in international macroeconomics.
Detection of Polyomaviral Large T Antigen in Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia and Prostate Carcinoma Tissues

Background: The role of infectious agents in prostate cancer development has been considered for many years. Polyomaviruses are suspected to be related to human malignancies and they have been frequently detected from various human cancers. Aim: This study was performed to investigate presence of large t antigen encoded by Merkel Cell polyomavirus (MCV), JC polyomavirus (JCV), BK polyomavirus (BKV) and Simian Virus 40 (SV40) in prostate carcinoma and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) tissues. Material and Methods: 20 human BPH and 6 human prostate carcinoma samples (from archival formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissues) were collected and immunohistochemically examined for presence of large t antigen encoded by mentioned polyomaviruses. Results: The obtained results indicated presence of large t antigen encoded by SV40, BKV and/or JCV in 40% (8/20) and 50% (3/6) of examined BPH and prostate cancer tissues respectively. However, MCV large t antigen was not detectable in the mentioned tissues. Conclusion: The obtained results indicate probable contribution of SV40, BKV and/or JCV in development of BPH and prostate carcinoma. However, to create a relation between these viruses and the mentioned diseases, further in-depth investigations on protein expression and localization of these polyomaviruses in normal and diseased prostate tissues seem to be required. In addition, our findings propose no association between MCV and these diseases.
Cultural Competence

In nursing education, most of the current teaching practices perpetuate an essentialist perspective of culture and make it imperative to refresh the concept of cultural competence in nursing. The purpose of this article is to propose a constructivist definition of cultural competence that stems from the conclusions of an extensive critical review of the literature on the concepts of culture, cultural competence, and cultural safety among nurses and other health professionals. The proposed constructivist definition is situated in the unitary-transformative paradigm in nursing as defined by Newman and colleagues. It makes the connection between the field of competency-based education and the nursing discipline. Cultural competence in a constructivist paradigm that is oriented toward critical, reflective practice can help us develop knowledge about the role of nurses in reducing health inequalities and lead to a comprehensive ethical reflection about the social mandate of health care professionals.
Coagulation disorders in pregnancy: acquired and inherited thrombophilias

Both acquired and inherited thrombophilias are associated with an increased risk of pregnancy‐related venous thromboembolism (VTE) as well as with adverse pregnancy outcome. However, the extension of attributable risk for each thrombophilia and outcome is still a question of debate. Thrombophilias have been investigated in connection with VTE and pregnancy complications such as: recurrent and nonrecurrent early pregnancy loss, late fetal death, placental abruption, fetal growth restriction, and preeclampsia. This review discusses the evidence of association between thrombophilias and pregnancy outcome together with issues as to clinical management and preventive strategies.
H-Code: A Hybrid MDS Array Code to Optimize Partial Stripe Writes in RAID-6

RAID-6 is widely used to tolerate concurrent failures of any two disks to provide a higher level of reliability with the support of erasure codes. Among many implementations, one class of codes called {\bfseries{M}}aximum {\bfseries{D}}istance {\bfseries{S}}eparable ({\bfseries{MDS}}) codes aims to offer data protection against disk failures with optimal storage efficiency. Typical MDS codes contain horizontal and vertical codes. Due to the horizontal parity, in the case of \emph{partial stripe write} (refers to I/O operations that write new data or update data to a subset of disks in an array) in a row, horizontal codes may get less I/O operations in most cases, but suffer from unbalanced I/O distribution. They also have limitation on high single write complexity. Vertical codes improve single write complexity compared to horizontal codes, while they still suffer from poor performance in partial stripe writes. In this paper, we propose a new XOR-based MDS array code, named Hybrid Code (H-Code), which optimizes partial stripe writes for RAID-6 by taking advantages of both horizontal and vertical codes. H-Code is a solution for an array of $(p+1)$ disks, where $p$ is a prime number. Unlike other codes taking a dedicated anti-diagonal parity strip, H-Code uses a special anti-diagonal parity layout and distributes the anti-diagonal parity elements among disks in the array, which achieves a more balanced I/O distribution. On the other hand, the horizontal parity of H-Code ensures a partial stripe write to continuous data elements in a row share the same row parity chain, which can achieve optimal partial stripe write performance. Not only within a row but also within a stripe, H-Code offers optimal partial stripe write complexity to two continuous data elements and optimal partial stripe write performance among all MDS codes to the best of our knowledge. Specifically, compared to RDP and EVENODD codes, H-Code reduces I/O cost by up to $15.54%$ and $22.17%$. Overall, H-code has optimal storage efficiency, optimal encoding/decoding computational complexity, optimal complexity of both single write and partial stripe write.
Apocrine change in Fine‐needle aspiration biopsy: nuclear morphometry and DNA image cytometry

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of computerized nuclear morphometry and DNA image cytometry in characterizing the apocrine change of mammary epithelium in fine‐needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB). The effect of two different sample processing techniques on the results was also studied. Mean nuclear areas in air‐dried smears ranged from 59.0 μm2 to 151.0 μm2 and in ethanol‐fixed samples from 32.3 μm2 to 63.4 μm2. The DNA histograms of apocrine cells usually showed a dominant peak in the diploid region. In some cases the mode of the peak was slightly shifted to the right or left in respect to the control peak. One case had a tetraploid cell population, suggesting atypical apocrine change. After histological investigation this case was diagnosed as infiltrating carcinoma. The patient had earlier been treated with x‐ray irradiation for a mediastinal lymphoma. Findings of nuclear morphometry and DNA cytometry in apocrine metaplasia are here described in a systematic study for the first time. The data suggest that these methods may help in distinguishing premalignant and malignant apocrine lesions from typical apocrine metaplasia of mammary epithelial cells.
Adjusted Hospital Sentinel Lymph Node Positivity Rates in Melanoma: A Novel Potential Measure of Quality

Objective:Our objectives were to examine whether hospital characteristics are associated with lower- and higher-than-expected sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) positivity rates and whether hospitals with lower- or higher-than-expected SLNB positivity rates have worse patient outcomes. Background:Surgeon and pathologist SLNB technical errors may lead to incorrect melanoma staging. A hospital's SLNB positivity rate may reflect its SLNB proficiency for melanoma, but this has never been investigated. Methods:Stage IA-III melanoma patients undergoing SLNB were identified from the National Cancer Data Base (2004–2010). Hospital-level SLNB positivity rates were adjusted for patient- and tumor factors. Hospitals were divided into terciles of adjusted SLNB positivity rates. Hospital characteristics (using multinomial logistic regression) and survival (using Cox modeling) were examined across terciles. Results:Of 33,639 SLNB patients (from 646 hospitals), 2916 (8.7%) had at least 1 positive lymph node. Hospitals with lower- (low tercile) and higher-than-expected (high tercile) SLNB positivity rates were more likely to be low-volume hospitals (low tercile: relative risk ratio (RRR) = 2.57, P = 0.002; high tercile: RRR = 2.3, P = 0.004) compared to hospitals with expected rates (middle tercile). Stage I patients treated at lower-than-expected SLNB positivity rate hospitals had worse 5-year survival than those treated at expected SLNB positivity rate hospitals (90.0% vs 91.9%, P = 0.014; hazard ratio = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.05–1.57); survival differences were not observed by SLNB positivity rates for stage II/III. Conclusions:Adjusted hospital SLNB positivity rates varied widely. Surgery at hospitals with lower-than-expected SLNB positivity rates was associated with decreased survival. Hospital SLNB positivity rates may be a novel measure to confidentially report to hospitals for internal quality assessment.