Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Isokinetic Strength Training Improves Knee Symptoms and Function as Evaluated with 2000 IKDC

Background: Knee pain is most common complaint in athletes which may be caused by physical activity and exercises with many other causative factors. Sports injuries may lead to decline in muscle strength. This loss of muscular strength is strongly associated with decline in athletic performance. Improvement in strength may result in improved physical functions in injured athletes. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of isokinetic strength training in athletes with knee pain. Subjects: The average age of the athletes was 23.48 ± 4.71 years (Range: 18 - 34). Mean body mass of the athletes was 63.35 ± 15.52 kg (Range: 39 - 93.90). 25 male and 1 female athletes participated in this study. Methods: 25 athletes with knee pain completed the isokinetic strength training sessions by using Biodex Isokinetic system 10 sessions on alternate day basis. International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) 2000 form was used to assess the functional status and symptoms of the athletes at baseline and after completing 10 sessions. Results: The average IKDC score was 45.64 (Range20.68-62.06) at baseline and 84.08 (range 68.96- 93.1) after completion of 10 th sessions. Significant improvement was there when paired sample T test was used to find out pre and post changes in individual items of IKDC. Most of the individual items improved significantly as p value is <0.001.
Urinary proteomics analysis for sepsis biomarkers with iTRAQ labeling and two-dimensional liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

BACKGROUND Proteomics has only recently been applied to the field of critical care research. Sepsis is a major factor contributing to intensive care unit admissions and deaths. The purpose of this study was to screen potential urinary biomarkers for sepsis using A proteomics approach. METHODS Fifteen sepsis and 15 systemic inflammatory response syndrome patients were involved in this study. Urinary proteins were identified by isobaric tag for relative and absolute quantitation coupled with liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Mass spectroscopy analysis was performed with the Mascot software and the International Protein Index. Bioinformatics analyses were performed using the hierarchy cluster analysis, the STRING software, the Gene Ontology, and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome database. RESULTS One hundred thirty proteins were identified, and 34 differentially expressed proteins were selected (fold change, >1.5). On the basis of the Gene Ontology and the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genome database, these 34 proteins were identified to be involved in inflammation, immunity, and structural or cytoskeletal processes. Five proteins were selected by a protein–protein interaction network for sepsis differentiation: cadherin 1, haptoglobin, complement 3, alpha-1-antitrypsin, and ceruloplasmin. CONCLUSION Urinary proteomics may represent a suitable approach for sepsis-related research. The detection of urinary biomarkers is expected to become a noninvasive and acceptable method, which facilitates the close surveillance of diseases and reduces medical costs. LEVELS OF EVIDENCE Diagnostic study, level IV.
Refined criteria for estimating limits of broadband AR coatings

A decade ago we introduced empirically derived formulas which allowed one to estimate the performance which can be achieved in the design of broad-band antireflection (AR) coatings based upon the indices of refraction of the materials to used, the bandwidth required, and the overall thickness of the coating. This has proved to be a useful tool to avoid attempting impossible designs and to guide the designer toward an optical result. It can also be helpful to non-designers who need to know what can and cannot be done before specifying a system AR coating requirement. In the new work reported here, forumlas with additional accuracy have been developed by further data generation and the application of modern statistical analysis tools. The overall thickness parameter used in the equations has also been better defined and understood, and the tendency of overall thicknesses to have quantization has been studied further. These findings are discussed in conventional thin film design terms and also from the Fourier synthesis/analysis viewpoint.
Hospital Patient Safety: Characteristics of Best‐Performing Hospitals

Hospitals have made slow progress in meeting the Institute of Medicine's patient safety goals, and implementation of safety systems has been inconsistent. The next logical question is this: What organizational characteristics predict greater implementation of patient safety systems, in terms of both extent of systems and progress over time? To answer this question, a survey was administered to 107 hospitals at two points in time. Data were consolidated into seven latent variables measuring progress in specific areas. Using the overall measure, Joint Commission-accredited hospitals showed statistically significant improvement, as reflected in the sum score (p = .01); nonaccredited hospitals did not show statistically significant improvement (p = .21). Joint Commission accreditation was the key predictor of patient safety system implementation. Management type and urban/rural status were secondary predictors. Several factors may account for the strong association between accreditation and patient safety system implementation. In 2003, the Joint Commission began tying accreditation to patient safety goals. Also, Joint Commission data are now widely available to the public and may stimulate hospitals to address safety issues. Healthcare executives, hospital trustees, regulators, and policymakers should encourage Joint Commission accreditation and reward hospital efforts toward meeting Joint Commission standards. The Joint Commission should continually strive to maintain evidence-based and state-of-the-art standards that advance the aim of providing the best possible care for hospitalized patients.
Dose Escalation and Co-therapy Intensification Between Etanercept, Adalimumab, and Infliximab: The CADURA Study

Objective: To compare anti-TNF dose escalation, DMARD and/or glucocorticoid intensification, switches to another biologic, and drug and drug-related costs over 12 and 18 months for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients initiating etanercept (ETN), adalimumab (ADA), or infliximab (IFX) in routine clinical practice across Canada. Methods: A retrospective chart review of biologic-naïve adult RA patients newly initiating ADA, ETN, or IFX between January 01, 2006 and December 31, 2012 from 11 practices across Canada. Results: There were 314 patients in the 12-month analysis and 217 in the 18-month analysis. No dose escalation occurred with ETN over 12 and 18 months versus 38% and 32% for IFX (p<0.001) and 2% and 2% for ADA (p=0.199, p=0.218). Over 18 months, dose escalation and/or DMARD and/or glucocorticoid intensification was less frequent among ETN (16%) versus IFX (44%, p=0.005) and ADA (34%, p=0.004). By 18 months, 22% of patients initiating ADA had switched to another biologic compared with 6% of ETN patients (p=0.001). Patients initiating ETN had lower total (drug and drug-related) costs over 12 and 18 months compared to IFX, and no difference compared to ADA when adjusted for potential confounders. Patients with dose escalation had higher costs compared to those with no dose escalation. Conclusion: Physicians were more likely to escalate the dose of IFX, but optimize co-therapy with ADA and ETN. ETN patients had no dose escalation and were less likely to have DMARD and/or glucocorticoid intensification than ADA patients. ETN-treated patients had lower costs compared to IFX patients.
DNA is an efficient booster of dendritic cell-based vaccine

DC-based therapeutic vaccines as a promising strategy against chronic infections and cancer have been validated in several clinical trials. However, DC-based vaccines are complex and require many in vitro manipulations, which makes this a personalized and expensive therapeutic approach. In contrast, DNA-based vaccines have many practical advantages including simplicity, low cost of manufacturing and potent immunogenicity already proven in non-human primates and humans. In this study, we explored whether DC-based vaccines can be simplified by the addition of plasmid DNA as prime or boost to achieve robust CD8-mediated immune responses. We compared the cellular immunity induced in BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice by DC vaccines, loaded either with peptides or optimized SIV Env DNA, and plasmid DNA-based vaccines delivered by electroporation (EP). We found that mature DC loaded with peptides (P-mDC) induced the highest CD8+ T cell responses in both strains of mice, but those responses were significantly higher in the C57BL/6 model. A heterologous prime-boost strategy (P-DC prime-DNA boost) induced CD8+ T cell responses similar to those obtained by the P-DC vaccine. Importantly, this strategy elicited robust polyfunctional T cells as well as highest antigen-specific central memory CD8+ T cells in C57BL/6 mice, suggesting long-term memory responses. These results indicate that a DC-based vaccine in combination with DNA in a heterologous DC prime-DNA boost strategy has potential as a repeatedly administered vaccine.
Stabilization of glomerular filtration rate over 2 years in patients with diabetic nephropathy under intensified therapy regimens. Diabetes Treatment and Teaching Programmes Working Group.

OBJECTIVES We investigated the effect of achieved continuous tight blood pressure control and intensified insulin therapy on the rate of progression of renal failure in patients with overt diabetic nephropathy and already impaired renal function. DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective, randomized, multicentre, follow-up study. PATIENTS AND INTERVENTIONS From a screened group of the 66 hypertensive type 1 diabetic patients (IDDM) with overt diabetic nephropathy and reduced glomerular filtration rate who participated in two intensified treatment programmes, 39 patients fulfilled the study inclusion criteria and were enrolled into the 2-year follow-up period. The choice of antihypertensive drugs was based on a randomized allocation to open antihypertensive treatments starting with felodipine, metoprolol, or ramipril. OUTCOME MEASURES Progression of renal failure was assessed by measurement of glomerular filtration rate (GFR) on insulin clearance every 6 months. MAIN RESULTS During the study period mean HbA1c was 8.1 +/- 1.6% and the office blood pressure 143 +/- 14/88 +/- 8 mmHg. The change in GFRinulin (mean and 95% CI) was +1.9 (-2.2; +6.1) ml/min/year. GFR improved in 51%, deteriorated in 39%, and remained stable in 10% of the patients. CONCLUSION This study shows that stabilization of glomerular filtration rate, as assessed by inulin clearance, is possible in patients with overt diabetic nephropathy who reach the goals of intensified antihypertensive treatment even if kidney function is already impaired.
The metrics process: Baylor's development of a "report card" for faculty and departments.

In 1996, Baylor College of Medicine began the first year of its "metrics process," collecting, analyzing, and reporting data on the performance of each individual faculty member and each department in achieving the school's missions of education, patient care, research, service, and finance. This article is a report of the first two years of the process, with updates about the 1999 process, future plans, and lessons learned. The primary goal of the metrics process is to provide meaningful data to assess and improve the performance of faculty and departments across all missions. The authors (1) indicate the categories chosen, within each mission of the school, for measuring faculty time and effort (e.g., patient care, with or without learners) and state the measures chosen (e.g., percentage of time); (2) describe the development of questionnaires in 1996 and 1997 to acquire data from faculty, in the chosen categories and measures, about the time and effort they spent; and (3) report highlights of the resulting departmental data that were gathered in 1997. Among the key categories and units of measure chosen for measuring faculty (and departmental) time and effort are research grant dollars (total and per research full-time equivalent, or FTE); basic research grant dollars per square foot of laboratory space; percentage of faculty who spend at least 50% of their time in research who are National Institutes of Health principal investigators; numbers of inpatient and outpatient visits per evaluation and management FTE; total relative value units (RVUs) per patient-care FTE; patient-care income/RVU and expense/RVU for total faculty and support staff; percentage of faculty with at least one leadership position in a state or national organization; and income in excess of expense, by mission (e.g., patient care). Results of comparing data from the first two years of the metrics process demonstrate marked improvements in performance for most research measures (i.e., items of measurement agreed upon for the metrics process). The process is continually being redeveloped; the ultimate challenge is to place the objective measurements in a context where less objective qualities (e.g., innovation) also figure importantly in the evaluation and fostering of excellence. The metrics process is providing important management data, encouraging significant discussions among faculty and chairs about performance and accountability, and aiding greatly in departmental goal-setting and ultimately in determining the overall performance of the school.
Electronic Democracy in America: Civil Society, Cyber Society and Participation in Local Politics

Electronic Democracy in America: Civil Society, Cyber Society and Participation in Local Politics Michael J. Jensen* James N. Danziger Alladi Venkatesh Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO), University of California, Irvine *Contact author: mjensen@uci.edu http://www.crito. uci.edu/point March 31, 2005 This study was conducted as part of Project POINT at the Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (CRITO) at the University of California, Irvine. Funding was provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation grant No. SES-0121232. Working Paper
On the mathematical foundations of learning

(1) A main theme of this report is the relationship of approximation to learning and the primary role of sampling (inductive inference). We try to emphasize relations of the theory of learning to the mainstream of mathematics. In particular, there are large roles for probability theory, for algorithms such as least squares, and for tools and ideas from linear algebra and linear analysis. An advantage of doing this is that communication is facilitated and the power of core mathematics is more easily brought to bear. We illustrate what we mean by learning theory by giving some instances. (a) The understanding of language acquisition by children or the emergence of languages in early human cultures. (b) In Manufacturing Engineering, the design of a new wave of machines is anticipated which uses sensors to sample properties of objects before, during, and after treatment. The information gathered from these samples is to be analyzed by the machine to decide how to better deal with new input objects (see [43]). (c) Pattern recognition of objects ranging from handwritten letters of the alphabet to pictures of animals, to the human voice. Understanding the laws of learning plays a large role in disciplines such as (Cognitive) Psychology, Animal Behavior, Economic Decision Making, all branches of Engineering, Computer Science, and especially the study of human thought processes (how the brain works). Mathematics has already played a big role towards the goal of giving a universal foundation of studies in these disciplines. We mention as examples the theory of Neural Networks going back to McCulloch and Pitts [25] and Minsky and Papert [27], the PAC learning of Valiant [40], Statistical Learning Theory as developed by Vapnik [42], and the use of reproducing kernels as in [17] among many other mathematical developments. We are heavily indebted to these developments. Recent discussions with a number of mathematicians have also been helpful. In
Feminist disability studies

Acknowledgments Reimagining Disability and Gender through Feminist Disability Studies: An Introduction / Kim Q. Hall Part 1. Toward a Theoretical Framework for Feminist Disability Studies 1. Integrating Disability, Transforming Feminist Theory / Rosemarie Garland-Thomson 2. Critical Divides: Judith Butler's Body Theory and the Question of Disability / Ellen Samuels Part 2. Refiguring Literature 3. Invisible Disability: Georgina Kleege's Sight Unseen / Susannah B. Mintz 4. Revisiting the Corpus of the Madwoman: Further Notes toward a Feminist Disability Studies Theory of Mental Illness / Elizabeth J. Donaldson Part 3. Interrogating Fitness: Nation, Identity, and Citizenship 5. The Color of Violence: Reflecting on Gender, Race, and Disability in Wartime / Nirmala Erevelles 6. Gwendolyn Brooks, World War II, and the Politics of Rehabilitation / Jennifer C. James 7. Revising the Subject: Disability as "Third Dimension" in Clear Light of Day and You Have Come Back / Cindy LaCom 8. A Heritage of Ableist Rhetoric in American Feminism from the Eugenics Period / Sharon Lamp and W. Carol Cleigh Part 4. Sexual Agency and Queer Feminist Futures 9. Disability, Sex Radicalism, and Sexual Agency / Abby Wilkerson 10. Debating Feminist Futures: Slippery Slopes, Cultural Anxiety, and the Case of the Deaf Lesbians / Alison Kafer Part 5. Inclusions, Exclusions, and Transformations 11. Disparate but Disabled: Fat Embodiment and Disability Studies / April Herndon 12. Chronic Illness and Educational Equity: The Politics of Visibility / Karen Elizabeth Jung 13. Res(Crip)ting Feminist Theater through Disability Theater: Selections from the DisAbility Project / Ann M. Fox and Joan Lipkin Contributors Index
The Cyclosporin A-sensitive Nuclear Factor of Activated T Cells (NFAT) Proteins Are Expressed in Vascular Smooth Muscle Cells

Expression of the antigen-regulated, cyclosporin A-sensitive nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT) is not restricted to lymphoid cells, as thought initially, but the physiological inducers of NFAT-mediated transcription in non-lymphoid cells are unknown. Here, cultured vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) are shown to express two isoforms of the NFAT family endogenously, which are localized differentially in cells under resting conditions. Using a retroviral NFAT-specific luciferase reporter, we show that VSMC support previously unrecognized complexities in NFAT-mediated transcription, including evidence for negative regulation by Ca2+ signaling and positive regulation through co-activation of adenylyl cyclase and Ca2+ mobilization. The VSMC mitogen platelet derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB) induces NFAT-mediated transcription in VSMC. Thrombin and angiotensin II, which activate Gαq-coupled receptors, are significantly weaker inducers of NFAT-mediated luciferase expression than is PDGF-BB. However, co-stimulation studies show that Gαq receptor agonists augment the NFAT-mediated transcriptional response to PDGF-BB. This synergy can be explained in part by augmented intracellular Ca2+ transients elicited by multiple agonist challenges. These data indicate that agonists for phospholipase C-coupled receptors stimulate NFAT-mediated transcription in VSMC differentially, and that NFAT can function to integrate co-activating signals in the extracellular environment.
Ribosomes: Effect of Interferon on Their Interacton with Rapidly Labeled Cellular and Viral RNA's

Rapidly labeled RNA of mouse L cells and labeled RNA of Mengo virus, unlike cellular RNA labeled under steady-state conditions, form detectable complexes with L-cell ribosomes. These ribosome-RNA complexes formed in vitro appear analogous to those assembled during polysome formation in vivo. When ribosomes are prepared from L cells exposed to homologous interferon, their capacity to associate with cell messenger is preserved, while their ability to interact with viral RNA is markedly reduced. The ribosomes from cells exposed to interferon are thus altered selectively to permit only certain messages to be bound and translated.
Three Readers, Three Languages, Three Texts: The Strategic Reading of Multilingual and Multiliterate Readers.

This case study investigates the metacognitive reading strategies of three advanced proficient trilingual readers whose native language is Hausa. The study examines the reading strategies employed by the three readers in English, French and Hausa. The aim of the study was to compare the reading strategy profiles of trilingual readers through perceived use and real-time or actual use of reading strategies. The major findings revealed that: (1) The three multilingual readers demonstrate high awareness of reading strategies; (2) They deploy more reading strategies in their second and third language than in their first language; (3) Some types of reading strategies were used more often than others; (4) The most proficient readers deploy a wider range of strategies than the least proficient reader who relies heavily on translation. The topic and research questions are pertinent because it adds to a relatively small data base on the strategic reading of multiliterate and multilingual readers.
Antidiarrhoeal assessment of hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts of Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss. and apigenin in mice

Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss, a member of Labiatae family, is a native plant to Iran, which has been reported to have immunomodulatory, antihyperlipidemic and antispasmodic activities. The objective of this research was to study the antispasmodic and antidiarrhoeal activities of hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts of D. kotschyi in mice. Furthermore, the antidiarrhoeal and antispasmodic effect of apigenin, a flavonoid constituent of D. kotschyi, was also studied. Hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts were obtained from aerial part of D. kotschyi using percolation method. Antispasmodic effect of the test compounds was assessed by measurement of small intestine transit following oral administration of a charcoal meal. Diarrhoea was induced by administration of either castor oil (0.5 ml) or magnesium sulphate (MgSO4) (10% w/v solution). Both the hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts of D. kotschyi (10 and 20 mg/kg) reduced the intestinal charcoal meal transit. Loperamide (2 mg/kg) and apigenin (2 and 10 mg/kg) inhibited intestinal movement of the charcoal meal and also inhibited castor oil and MgSO4-induced diarrhoea. The hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts of D. kotschyi (10 and 20 mg/kg) also significantly inhibited the castor oil and MgSO4-induced diarrhoea in mice in comparison with the vehicle-treated control groups. This study confirms that both the hydroalcoholic and hexane extracts of D. kotschyi has antispasmodic and antidiarrhoeal properties in vivo and could be a suitable remedy for treatment of gastrointestinal disorders in which smooth muscle spasm and/or diarrhoea plays a significant roles.