Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Nurses from the Mobile Emergency Service: profile and developed activities.

Objective: to characterize the profi le and identify the activities developed by nurses from the Mobile Emergency Care Service of a state of southern Brazil. Method: an exploratory, descriptive study. Data were collected through a questionnaire with 63 nurses. Results: the profi le showed a workforce predominantly female, young and having specialized training. The activities were organized in the dimensions of caring, managing and educating, verifying the predominance of the fi rst one. Care actions involved multiple procedures, but the use of the Systematization of Nursing Care (SNC) was not mentioned in the development of care activities. Then, the managerial dimension with a predominance of bureaucratic activities was emphasized. Educational activities were less prominent. Conclusion: care actions are the focus of the activities of nurses, predominantly the prescribed institutional care without the use of instruments such as SNC that could contribute to the greater visibility of their professional work.
Visual classification of banded human chromosomes:

Visual classification and karyotyping of 897 integrated density profiles generated from straight and non‐overlapping chromosomes from 22 trypsin‐bandedmetaphases of average quality was carried out and evaluated. The results were compared with visual classification of photographic prints of the same 897 chromosomes. The experiments were carried out by one observer.
Vertical distribution of phytoplankton and primary production in relation to nutricline depth in the open ocean

: Global ocean primary production (PP) is a function of both light and nutrient availability. The vertical distribution of nutrients in the euphotic zone differs in both time and space. As a result, the vertical distribution of PP varies as well. Differences in the vertical distribution of PP have not, however, been systematically studied. Here, we focus on the open ocean and use nutri-cline depth, D NO3 (defined as the depth where [NO 3− ] = 1 µmol kg −1 ), as a proxy for nutrient availability in the euphotic zone. Using our own and archived (WOD, HOT, BATS, CARIACO) data, we show universal relationships between D NO3 and (1) depth of the deep chlorophyll maximum (DCM), (2) total water column PP and (3) vertical distribution of PP. When D NO3 is located between ~20 and 90 m, the DCM and D NO3 are juxtaposed. However, the DCM is located above nutriclines found at > ~90 m. The observed relationships between DCM and D NO3 depths can be explained with a simple model including light and nutrient limitation. The global PP estimates indicate that ~25% of ocean PP occurs in the upper 10 m. Estimating total global ocean PP from surface optical characteristics and the relationship between vertical PP distribution and D NO3 indicates that oligo-trophic regions of the ocean may be more productive than usually assumed. The relationship shown here between water column PP and D NO3 suggests that considering stratification characteristics in a future ocean is critical for predicting climate change effects on global PP.
Effects of experimental heart failure on atrial cellular and ionic electrophysiology.

BACKGROUND Congestive heart failure (CHF) is frequently associated with atrial fibrillation (AF), but little is known about the effects of CHF on atrial cellular electrophysiology. METHODS AND RESULTS We studied action potential (AP) properties and ionic currents in atrial myocytes from dogs with CHF induced by ventricular pacing at 220 to 240 bpm for 5 weeks. Atrial myocytes from CHF dogs were hypertrophied (mean+/-SEM capacitance, 89+/-2 pF versus 71+/-2 pF in control, n=160 cells per group, P<0.001). CHF significantly reduced the density of L-type Ca(2+) current (I(Ca)) by approximately 30%, of transient outward K(+) current (I(to)) by approximately 50%, and of slow delayed rectifier current (I(Ks)) by approximately 30% without altering their voltage dependencies or kinetics. The inward rectifier, ultrarapid and rapid delayed rectifier, and T-type Ca(2+) currents were not altered by CHF. CHF increased transient inward Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchanger (NCX) current by approximately 45%. The AP duration of atrial myocytes was not altered by CHF at slow rates but was increased at faster rates, paralleling in vivo refractory changes. CHF created a substrate for AF, prolonging mean AF duration from 8+/-4 to 535+/-82 seconds (P<0.01). CONCLUSIONS Experimental CHF selectively decreases atrial I(to), I(Ca), and I(Ks), increases NCX current, and leaves other currents unchanged. The cellular electrophysiological remodeling caused by CHF is quite distinct from that caused by atrial tachycardia, highlighting important differences in the cellular milieu characterizing different clinically relevant AF substrates.
Automated Segmentation Refinement of Small Lung Nodules in CT Scans by Local Shape Analysis

One of the most important problems in the segmentation of lung nodules in CT imaging arises from possible attachments occurring between nodules and other lung structures, such as vessels or pleura. In this report, we address the problem of vessels attachments by proposing an automated correction method applied to an initial rough segmentation of the lung nodule. The method is based on a local shape analysis of the initial segmentation making use of 3-D geodesic distance map representations. The correction method has the advantage that it locally refines the nodule segmentation along recognized vessel attachments only, without modifying the nodule boundary elsewhere. The method was tested using a simple initial rough segmentation, obtained by a fixed image thresholding. The validation of the complete segmentation algorithm was carried out on small lung nodules, identified in the ITALUNG screening trial and on small nodules of the lung image database consortium (LIDC) dataset. In fully automated mode, 217/256 (84.8%) lung nodules of ITALUNG and 139/157 (88.5%) individual marks of lung nodules of LIDC were correctly outlined and an excellent reproducibility was also observed. By using an additional interactive mode, based on a controlled manual interaction, 233/256 (91.0%) lung nodules of ITALUNG and 144/157 (91.7%) individual marks of lung nodules of LIDC were overall correctly segmented. The proposed correction method could also be usefully applied to any existent nodule segmentation algorithm for improving the segmentation quality of juxta-vascular nodules.
The value of perioperative mitomycin C instillation in improving subsequent bacillus calmette-guerin instillation efficacy in intermediate and high-risk patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer: a prospective randomized study.

PURPOSE We evaluated the efficacy of perioperative mitomycin C (MMC) instillation to improve subsequent bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) instillation efficacy in intermediate and high risk patients with non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). MATERIALS AND METHODS From November 2004 to May 2006, 51 patients with intermediate or high risk NMIBC were enrolled in this prospective randomized trial. In group A, patients were treated with perioperative MMC (40 mg MMC in 40 mL saline was administered within 6 hours of surgery) followed by delayed (at least 15 days from surgery) BCG instillations (once a week for 6 weeks, 5 x 108 colony-forming units in 50 mL saline). Patients in group B were treated with delayed BCG instillations alone. The primary end points were recurrence-free interval and recurrence rate. RESULTS There were 25 and 26 patients in groups A and B, respectively. Median follow-up was 41.3 months (range 8 to 64) in group A and 40.9 months (range 6 to 68) in group B. Recurrence rate was 36 % (9 of 25) and 19.3 % (5 of 26) in group A and B, respectively (p = 0.052). Median time to the first recurrence was 8 months in group A and 7 months in group B (p = 0.12). CONCLUSIONS The present study showed no statistically significant difference in terms of recurrence rate and median time to first recurrence between intermediate or high-risk patients with NMIBC who were treated with early single dose instillation of MMC plus delayed BCG and those who were treated with only BCG.
Modeling Chord and Key Structure with Markov Logic

We propose the use of Markov Logic Networks (MLNs) as a highly flexible and expressive formalism for the harmonic analysis of audio signals. Using MLNs information about the physical and semantic content of the signal can be intuitively and compactly encoded and expert knowledge can be easily expressed and combined using a single unified formal model that combines probabilities and logic. In particular, we propose a new approach for joint estimation of chord and global key The proposed model is evaluated on a set of popular music songs. The results show that it can achieve similar performance to a state of the art Hidden Markov Model for chord estimation while at the same time estimating global key. In addition when prior information about global key is used it shows a small but statistically significant improvement in chord estimation performance. Our results demonstrate the potential of MLNs for music analysis as they can express both structured relational knowledge as well as uncertainty.
Enhancement of the immunosuppressive effect of cyclosporin A by ciprofloxacin in a rat cardiac allograft transplantation model

Ciprofloxacin hyperinduces interleukin-2 production in stimulated human and mouse lymphocytes. In this study, an enhanced and prolonged interleukin-2 response was also detected in polyclonally stimulated rat splenocytes in the presence of ciprofloxacin (5–80μg/ml) compared to control cells without any antibiotic. Ciprofloxacin was able to counteract the immunosuppressive effect of 10ng/ml cyclosporin A (CyA) but did not interfere with higher CyA concentrations. In parallel, ciprofloxacin did not influence thymidine uptake in mixed lymphocyte reactions in the presence of CyA. To obtain an in vivo application of these findings, graft survival was studied by performing rat cardiac allograft transplantations in the presence or absence of CyA. Brown Norway rats served as donors and Wistar Furth rats as recipients. Ciprofloxacin was injected intraperitoneally either at a high-dose regimen (240 mg/kg per 24h) into rats every 8th h starting 1 day before transplantation until day 21 or graft loss, or it was injected at a low and clinically relevant dose regimen (45mg/kg per 24h) until day 9. CyA was administered orally (10mg/kg per 24h) from day 1 through day 9. Ciprofloxacin given alone at a high-dose regimen resulted in a median graft survival of 14.8 days, which was significantly longer than graft survival in rats without treatment (median 8.0 days). A low-dose regimen of ciprofloxacin alone did not affect graft survival. Ciprofloxacin at a highdose regimen combined with CyA prolonged graft survival to a median of 24.0 days compared to 20.5 days with CyA alone. Ciprofloxacin administered in the drinking water (200mg/kg per 24h) until day 9 in addition to CyA did not affect graft survival. However, when the same dose regimen was used in experiments with PVG rats as donors and Wistar/Kyoto as recipients, graft survival was significantly prolonged to a median of 45 days. Ciprofloxacin, given orally without the addition of CyA, did not influence graft survival in either of the two strain combinations. Thus, our data show that ciprofloxacin has no negative impact on heart graft survival rats. It remains to be clarified whether ciprofloxacin influences graft survival in humans.
Commentary: the impact of compact lipiodolisation following transarterial chemoembolisation for hepatocellular carcinoma

Kim et al. report that complete uptake of lipiodol at 1 month after transarterial chemoembolisation (TACE), termed as compact lipiodisation, is a favourable prognostic factor for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The study is strengthened by the availability of serial post-TACE imagings, which enabled a uniform timing of assessment, and supports previous studies in suggesting that the achievement of compact lipiodisation is clinically meaningful. 3 However, there are several points which merit additional discussion. First, 41.2% of the study population had a single HCC. Among this group of patients who achieved compact lipiodisation, a large proportion (43%) occurred in tumour 3 cm, and very few (<9%) patients had tumour >5 cm. According to current standards, patients with tumour 3 cm should be treated with resection or ablation. Although the treatment practice may vary between different centres, the study results concerning a single tumour are less applicable to today’s TACE population, which often consists of a large single HCC. On the other hand, compact lipiodisation is significantly less common in multiple HCC. Instead, a variable degree of partial lipiodol uptake is more frequently observed within the multifocal tumour clinically. Given the database with paired survival data and serial imaging, the study would be more informative if the authors had analysed the outcome in accordance with different degrees of uptake of lipiodol. Finally, multivariate analysis of the study showed that larger tumour size, more advanced TNM stage and portal vein thrombosis were associated with better prognosis (Table 4; odd ratios <1). This is contradictory to the results of most literatures on prognostic factors for HCC. 8 In summary, compact lipiodisation is an important target to achieve during TACE. However, this is uncommon in the population undergoing TACE according to current standards. Future studies are required to study the role of partial uptake of lipiodol in predicting survival during TACE.
Spatially Distributed Dendritic Resonance Selectively Filters Synaptic Input

An important task performed by a neuron is the selection of relevant inputs from among thousands of synapses impinging on the dendritic tree. Synaptic plasticity enables this by strenghtening a subset of synapses that are, presumably, functionally relevant to the neuron. A different selection mechanism exploits the resonance of the dendritic membranes to preferentially filter synaptic inputs based on their temporal rates. A widely held view is that a neuron has one resonant frequency and thus can pass through one rate. Here we demonstrate through mathematical analyses and numerical simulations that dendritic resonance is inevitably a spatially distributed property; and therefore the resonance frequency varies along the dendrites, and thus endows neurons with a powerful spatiotemporal selection mechanism that is sensitive both to the dendritic location and the temporal structure of the incoming synaptic inputs.
Children of chronically ill parents: Relationship between parental multiple sclerosis and childhood developmental health

Background: Exposure to parental chronic illness is associated with adverse developmental outcomes. Objective: We examined the association between parental multiple sclerosis (MS) and parental MS-related clinical factors on developmental health. Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study in British Columbia, Canada, using linked health databases. The outcome was childhood development at 5 years of age, expressed as vulnerability on the Early Development Instrument (EDI). Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using conditional logistic regression. Results: MS-affected parents (n = 783) were older, more likely to be English speakers, and had higher rates of mental health morbidity (39.6% vs 22.2%, p < 0.001) than unaffected parents (n = 2988). In the adjusted models, children of mothers with MS (aOR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.44–0.87), but not children of the fathers with MS, had a lower risk of vulnerability on the social development domain of the EDI. However, mental health comorbidity (aOR = 1.62, 95% CI = 1.05–2.50) and physical comorbidity (aOR = 1.67, 95% CI = 1.05–2.64) among mothers with MS were associated with increased vulnerability on the EDI. Conclusion: Maternal MS, but not paternal MS, was associated with lower rates of developmental vulnerability on the social development domain. However, mental and physical comorbidity among MS-affected mothers were associated with increased developmental vulnerability in children.
Disenfranchised Grief Following African American Homicide Loss

Disenfranchised grief is experienced when a mourner’s grief response is socially invalidated, unacknowledged, or discouraged. When the circumstances of death or the emotional reactions of the griever violate social norms, empathic failures can occur within the bereaved individual’s support systems. This study used conventional content analysis, an intensive and inductive qualitative research method, to analyze the experience of one African American woman who lost her only son to homicide, a particularly distressing and marginalized form of loss. Results elucidate both the empathic failings and resiliencies within the social systems of this griever and emerged from the perspectives offered by the bereaved mother and her primary supporter. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Iterative source-channel decoder using extrinsic information from softbit-source decoding

In digital mobile communications, efficient compression algorithms are needed to encode speech or audio signals. As the determined source parameters are highly sensitive to transmission errors, robust source and channel decoding schemes are required. This contribution deals with an iterative source-channel decoding approach where a simple channel decoder and a softbit-source decoder are concatenated. We mainly focus on softbit-source decoding which can be considered as an error concealment technique. This technique utilizes residual redundancy remaining after source coding. We derive a new formula that shows how the residual redundancy transforms into extrinsic information utilizable for iterative decoding. The derived formula opens several starting points for optimizations, e.g. it helps to find a robust index assignment. Furthermore, it allows the conclusion that softbit-source decoding is the limiting factor if applied to iterative decoding processes. Therefore, no significant gain will be obtainable by more than two iterations. This will be demonstrated by simulation.
Changes in the derived central pressure waveform and pulse pressure in response to angiotensin II and noradrenaline in man

1 Peripheral pulse pressure provides a surrogate measure of arterial stiffness. Analysis of the central pressure waveform allows assessment of central pulse pressure and arterial stiffness. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of vasoconstrictor drugs on pulse pressure amplification and arterial stiffness in vivo. 2 Eight healthy male subjects (mean age 30 years) received an infusion of angiotensin II (1, 3, 6 and 10 ng kg−1 min−1), noradrenaline (10, 30, 60 and 100 ng kg−1 min−1) and matching placebo, in random order, on separate occasions. Peripheral blood pressure and cardiac index were recorded non‐invasively. Pulse wave analysis was used to determine augmentation index (AIx), which provides a measure of systemic arterial stiffness, aortic stiffness and central arterial pressure. 3 Infusion of both active drugs resulted in a significant increase in peripheral mean arterial pressure (PMAP), peripheral vascular resistance, AIx, aortic stiffness and central pulse pressure, but only angiotensin II reduced cardiac index. 4 Peripheral pulse pressure was unaffected by infusion of angiotensin II but increased with noradrenaline, which also produced a greater reduction in pulse pressure amplification than angiotensin II. However, the linear relationship of PMAP with both AIx and aortic stiffness did not differ significantly between drugs. 5 These results demonstrate that intravenous infusion of angiotensin II and noradrenaline increase aortic and systemic arterial stiffness. Despite a similar effect on both parameters, for a given change in PMAP, the two drugs had divergent effects on peripheral pulse pressure and pulse pressure amplification. These data reveal that assessment of peripheral pulse pressure does not always reliably predict changes in central pulse pressure or arterial stiffness.
Generating Nonisomorphic Quadrangular Embeddings of a Complete Graph

We construct (2s)! =22slog2s−O(s) (resp. (2s−2)! =22slog2s−O(s) ) index one current graphs with current group Z8s+5 such that the current graphs have different underlying graphs and generate nonisomorphic orientable (resp. nonorientable) quadrangular embeddings of the complete graph K8s+5 , s≥1 (resp. s≥2 ).
Convergence Across Countries and Regions: Theory and Empirics

This paper surveys the recent literature on convergence across countries and regions. We discuss the main convergence and divergence mechanisms identified in the literature and develop a simple model that illustrates their implications for income dynamics. We then review the existing empirical evidence and discuss its theoretical implications. Early optimism concerning the ability of a human capital-augmented neoclassical model to explain productivity differences across economies has been questioned on the basis of more recent contributions that make use of panel data techniques and obtain theoretically implausible results. Some recent research in this area tries to reconcile these findings with sensible theoretical models by exploring the role of alternative convergence mechanisms and the possible shortcomings of panel data techniques for convergence analysis.
Infantile pyknocytosis: effectiveness of erythropoietin treatment

Infantile pyknocytosis is a rare form of neonatal haemolytic anaemia with unusual red cell morphology. Anaemia is mostly severe and red blood cells transfusion is often needed. In this report, we have described a male child aged 10 days, born at 37 weeks + 3 days, who presented neonatal jaundice and severe anaemia. After a careful peripheral blood smear examination, infantile pyknocytosis was diagnosed. A treatment with recombinant subcutaneous erythropoietin (1,000 UI/prokg/week) in conjunction with iron supplementation (6 mg/kg/day) was started. The therapy was reduced 6 weeks after the beginning and discontinued 4 weeks after the reaching of a steady state of the haemoglobin values. After 12 months of follow up, the patient showed no anaemia and pyknocytosis.