Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of total-body electrical conductivity to estimate whole-body water content of yellow perch

Attempts to construct energy budgets for many important fish species are often hampered by the lack of data on their energy density. Further, the study of energy flow in aquatic communities is complicated by seasonal variation of the energy density within organisms and relative differences in energy content of predator and prey (Craig, 1977; Stewart et al., 1983; Stewart and Binkowski, 1986; Rand et al., 1994). The shortage of useful data is due in part to the difficulty of determining the energy content of large numbers of individuals. Estimation of fish energy density has been simplified with development of relationships, based on calorimetric analysis, between percentage dry weight (100 × (dry weight/wet weight)) and wet weight energy density (Stewart and Binkowski, 1986; Rand et al., 1994; Hartman and Brandt, 1995; Lantry, 1997). The measurement of dry weights on substantial numbers of large individual fish, however, can be problematic, because they Evaluation of total-body electrical conductivity to estimate whole-body water content of yellow perch, Perca flavescens, and alewife, Alosa pseudoharengus*
Treatment results of post-operative radiotherapy in patients with salivary duct carcinoma of the major salivary glands.

OBJECTIVE Salivary duct carcinoma (SDC) is a rare malignancy of high-grade pathological type. We evaluated clinical outcomes and prognostic factors in 35 patients with SDC treated post-operatively with adjuvant radiation. METHODS We retrospectively assessed overall survival, locoregional control and disease-free survival in 35 patients with SDC of the major salivary glands who underwent surgery and were subsequently treated with radiotherapy. The evaluated prognostic factors included gender, age, symptom duration, tumour site, tumour size, TNM classification, and the following pathological features: perineural invasion, lymphovascular invasion, extraparenchymal invasion and resection-margin status. RESULTS Of the 35 patients, 30 (85.7%) were male. Median age at initial diagnosis was 62 years (range 38-75 years). The parotid gland was the main site affected in 22 patients (62.9%). 18 patients (51.5%) had pathological T3/T4 tumours, and 26 (74.3%) showed pathological nodal involvement. Actuarial 5-year locoregional control, disease-free survival and overall survival rates were 63.3%, 47.4% and 55.1%, respectively. The cause-specific death rate was 31.4% (n=11). Pathological nodal involvement was correlated with distant metastasis (p=0.011). Lymphovascular invasion was significantly prognostic for distant metastasis-free survival (p=0.049), locoregional control (p=0.012) and overall survival (p=0.003) in a Cox proportional hazard model, whereas perineural invasion was only significantly prognostic for overall survival (p=0.005). CONCLUSIONS Surgery and post-operative radiotherapy were effective for locoregional control. Lymphovascular invasion and perineural invasion were significant prognostic factors in patients with SDC.
Trauma association of Canada Pediatric Subcommittee National Pediatric Cervical Spine Evaluation Pathway: consensus guidelines.

BACKGROUND The Institute of Medicine calls for the use of clinical guidelines and practice parameters to promote "best practices" and improve patient outcomes. In 2006, The Trauma Association of Canada Pediatric Committee set out to create an evidence-based, national pediatric cervical spine (c-spine) clearance guideline based on the literature, existing algorithms from each pediatric trauma center and from expert opinion from across Canada. METHODS A review of the literature took place in September 2006 using the PubMed database. Search criteria were "cervical spine," "c-spine," "clearance," and "trauma. " Limits that were applied were "Languages: English," "Humans," "Type of Article: Meta-Analysis, Practice Guidelines, Randomized Control Trial, Review," and "Ages: all child 0-18 years. " These search criteria were repeated in December 2007, April 2009, and October 2009. A total of 248 articles were identified. Existing guidelines were identified and their practices examined as models of care. Two draft guidelines were created for discussion: one for the pediatric patient with a reliable clinical examination and the other for the pediatric patient with an unreliable clinical examination. Via email, telephone, and two national videoconferences, the content of the guidelines was reviewed, discussed, and amended. The final article was prepared and circulated for author input until consensus was reached. RESULTS A consensus was reached on two pathways to evaluate the pediatric cervical spine: a patient with a reliable clinical examination and a patient with an unreliable examination. CONCLUSION Presented herein are the consensus Trauma Association of Canada, National Pediatric Cervical Spine Evaluation Pathways for the patient with a reliable clinical examination, and the patient with and unreliable clinical examination.
Focused chemical genomics using zebrafish xenotransplantation as a pre-clinical therapeutic platform for T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Cancer therapeutics is evolving to precision medicine, with the goal of matching targeted compounds with molecular aberrations underlying a patient’s cancer. While murine models offer a pre-clinical tool, associated costs and time are not compatible with actionable patient-directed interventions. Using the paradigm of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a high-risk disease with defined molecular underpinnings, we developed a zebrafish human cancer xenotransplantation model to inform therapeutic decisions. Using a focused chemical genomic approach, we demonstrate that xenografted cell lines harboring mutations in the NOTCH1 and PI3K/AKT pathways respond concordantly to their targeted therapies, patient-derived T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia can be successfully engrafted in zebrafish and specific drug responses can be quantitatively determined. Using this approach, we identified a mutation sensitive to γ-secretase inhibition in a xenograft from a child with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, confirmed by Sanger sequencing and validated as a gain-of-function NOTCH1 mutation. The zebrafish xenotransplantation platform provides a novel cost-effective means of tailoring leukemia therapy in real time.
EULAR recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis with synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs: 2013 update

In this article, the 2010 European League against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations for the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with synthetic and biological disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (sDMARDs and bDMARDs, respectively) have been updated. The 2013 update has been developed by an international task force, which based its decisions mostly on evidence from three systematic literature reviews (one each on sDMARDs, including glucocorticoids, bDMARDs and safety aspects of DMARD therapy); treatment strategies were also covered by the searches. The evidence presented was discussed and summarised by the experts in the course of a consensus finding and voting process. Levels of evidence and grades of recommendations were derived and levels of agreement (strengths of recommendations) were determined. Fourteen recommendations were developed (instead of 15 in 2010). Some of the 2010 recommendations were deleted, and others were amended or split. The recommendations cover general aspects, such as attainment of remission or low disease activity using a treat-to-target approach, and the need for shared decision-making between rheumatologists and patients. The more specific items relate to starting DMARD therapy using a conventional sDMARD (csDMARD) strategy in combination with glucocorticoids, followed by the addition of a bDMARD or another csDMARD strategy (after stratification by presence or absence of adverse risk factors) if the treatment target is not reached within 6 months (or improvement not seen at 3 months). Tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (adalimumab, certolizumab pegol, etanercept, golimumab, infliximab, biosimilars), abatacept, tocilizumab and, under certain circumstances, rituximab are essentially considered to have similar efficacy and safety. If the first bDMARD strategy fails, any other bDMARD may be used. The recommendations also address tofacitinib as a targeted sDMARD (tsDMARD), which is recommended, where licensed, after use of at least one bDMARD. Biosimilars are also addressed. These recommendations are intended to inform rheumatologists, patients, national rheumatology societies and other stakeholders about EULAR's most recent consensus on the management of RA with sDMARDs, glucocorticoids and bDMARDs. They are based on evidence and expert opinion and intended to improve outcome in patients with RA.
Ethics Committees in India: Past, present and future

Following watershed amendments in Schedule Y India's star rose rather rapidly on the clinical research (especially clinical trials) horizon. Just as dramatic was the fall of this empire. At the centre of these events has been the participant and indirectly, the Ethics Committee (EC) that is established primarily to protect this individual. This paper traces the evolution of the concept of ECs in India, examines the current state of these committees in the country and suggests the way forward. The Past: The requirement for an EC to oversee clinical research was first made in the ICMR Policy Statement for Ethics published in 1980 and then again in the Schedule Y (1988). Later, both the Amended Schedule Y (2005) assigned regulatory responsibility on the EC and the ICMR Guidelines (2006) described the functioning of ECs. Several challenges including inadequate formal training, contribution from non-technical members, administrative support as well no SOPs and a heavy workload were identified. In the absence of regulatory oversight of ECs, the introduction of the Clinical Trial Registry - India (CTRI) and self-regulation through voluntary accreditation programs brought a measure of accountability and transparency. The Present: A slew of regulatory reforms led to more than 1000 ECs to be registered with CDSCO although the actual impact on participants' protection and safety of these new regulations still remains to be seen. Way Forward: A method to oversee all ECs, improved functioning of ECs including on site monitoring, central ECs for multicentric studies, the development of metrics to assess the ability of ECs to protect the participant are other ideas for the future. Conclusions: Although ECs in India have evolved from being mere rubber stamps for approval of protocols to efficiently functioning accredited ECs, yet there is much to be done for and by Ethics Committees.
Employing subjects' information as privileged information for emotion recognition from EEG signals

Current research of emotion recognition from electroencephalogram (EEG) signals rarely considers common patterns embodied in multiple subjects and individual patterns for each subject simultaneously. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a novel emotion recognition approach using subjects or subject groups as privileged information, which is only available during training. First, five frequency features are extracted from each channel of the EEG signals, and features are selected by statistical tests. Then, we propose two three-node Bayesian networks to capture the joint probability distribution function of emotion labels, EEG features, and subjects or subject groups during training. Through the learned joint probability distribution, the Bayesian networks model both common and individual emotion patterns simultaneously. During testing, emotion labels can be estimated from EEG features only by marginalized over the privileged information, i.e. subjects or subject groups. Experimental results on three benchmark databases, i.e. the MAHNOB-HCI database, the DEAP database and the USTC-ERVS database, demonstrate that our approach incorporating subjects and clusters achieves better emotion recognition performance than training a classifier for each subject, as well as training a classifier without subject information on the whole dataset.
Endophthalmitis Caused by Acinetobacter baumannii: Report of Two Cases

ABSTRACT Acinetobacter baumannii is most often responsible for hospital-acquired infections and is occasionally associated with community-acquired infections. We report two cases of A. baumannii endophthalmitis, one with endogenous endophthalmitis and the other with postkeratoplasty endophthalmitis. Although endophthalmitis is rare, ophthalmologists should be alert to the possibility of patients having endophthalmitis caused by A. baumannii.
Molecular events associated with ciclosporin A-induced gingival overgrowth are attenuated by Smad7 overexpression in fibroblasts.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Ciclosporin A (CsA)-induced gingival overgrowth is attributed to an exaggerated accumulation of extracellular matrix, which is mainly due to an increased expression of transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1). Herein, the in vitro investigation of effects of overexpression of Smad7, a TGF-β1 signaling inhibitor, in the events associated with CsA-induced extracellular matrix accumulation was performed. MATERIAL AND METHODS The effects of Smad7 were assessed by stable overexpression of Smad7 in fibroblasts from normal gingiva. Smad7-overexpressing cells and control cells were incubated with CsA, and synthesis of type I collagen, production and activity of MMP-2 and cellular proliferation were evaluated by ELISA, zymography, growth curve, bromodeoxyuridine incorporation assay and cell cycle analysis. The effects of CsA on cell viability and apoptosis of fibroblasts from normal gingiva were also evaluated. Western blot and immunofluorescence for phospho-Smad2 were performed to measure the activation of TGF-β1 signaling. RESULTS Although the treatment with CsA stimulated TGF-β1 production in both control and Smad7-overexpressing fibroblasts, its signaling was markedly inhibited in Smad7-overexpressing cells, as revealed by low levels of phospho-Smad2. In Smad7-overexpressing cells, the effects of CsA on proliferation, synthesis of type I collagen and the production and activity of MMP-2 were significantly blocked. Smad7 overexpression blocked CsA-induced fibroblast proliferation via p27 regulation. Neither CsA nor Smad7 overexpression induced cell death. CONCLUSION The data presented here confirm that TGF-β1 expression is related to the molecular events associated with CsA-induced gingival overgrowth and suggest that Smad7 overexpression is effective in blocking these events, including proliferation, type I collagen synthesis and MMP-2 activity.
Silicon Surface Passivation by Laser Processing a Sol–Gel TiOx Thin Film

Silicon surface passivation is highly important for solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. In order to achieve a high-performance, low-cost, room-temperature, and nonvacuum surface passivation, we investigated laser processing of sol–gel TiOx films on n-type semiconductor silicon. We achieved an effective lifetime of 1.11 ms and surface recombination velocity SRV = 6.25 cm/s using 60 nm thin TiOx film and laser fluence value near the silicon melting point (1.19 J/cm2). Through structural and electrical analysis, we provide the mechanism of laser processing for achieving excellent surface passivation. We found that laser processing can induce chemical passivation in addition to the intrinsic field effect passivation and can accelerate the sol–gel reaction while maintaining a high-purity TiOx film. Moreover, the optical reflection and refractive index measurements were carried out, and results show that our laser-processed TiOx films can function as antireflection layer and provide excellent passivat.
Association between sleep quality and postpartum depression

Background: The objective of this study was an investigation of the association between depression and sleep quality. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on 360 delivered women that referred to thirty health-care centers in Ardabil, Iran. The Standard Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index questionnaire was used to the investigation of sleep quality. We used the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Questionnaire to assess postpartum depression. Logistic regression was used to examine the association of sleep quality with postpartum depression. Results: Chance of depression in women with poor sleep quality was 3.34 times higher than those with good sleep quality (odds ratio = 3.34; 95% confidence interval: 2.04–5.48; P < 0.001). After controlling for some risk factors, an association observed between sleep quality and depression in postpartum women. Conclusion: we found an association between sleep quality in women who had given birth in the last 3 months and symptoms of postpartum depression.
Galaxy cluster X-ray luminosity scaling relations from a representative local sample (REXCESS)

We examine the X-ray luminosity scaling relations of 31 nearby galaxy clusters from the Representative XMM-Newton Cluster Structure Survey (REXCESS). The objects are selected only in X-ray luminosity, optimally sampling the cluster luminosity function. Temperatures range from 2 to 9 keV, and there is no bias toward any particular morphological type. To reduce measurement scatter we extract pertinent values in an aperture corresponding to R500, estimated using the tight correlation between YX (the product of gas mass and temperature) and total mass. The data exhibit power law relations between bolometric X-ray luminosity and temperature, YX and total mass, all with slopes that are significantly steeper than self-similar expectations. We examine the possible causes for the steepening, finding that structural variations have little effect and that the primary driver appears to be a systematic variation of the gas content with mass. Scatter about the relations is dominated in all cases by the presence of cool cores. The natural logarithmic scatter about the raw X-ray luminosity-temperature relation is about 70 per cent, and about the X-ray luminosity-YX relation it is 40 per cent. Systems with more morphological substructure show similar scatter about scaling relations than clusters with less substructure, due to the preponderance of cool core systems in the regular cluster subsample. Cool core and morphologically disturbed systems occupy distinct regions in the residual space with respect to the best fitting mean relation, the former lying systematically at the high luminosity side, the latter lying systematically at the low luminosity side. Simple exclusion of the central regions serves to reduce the scatter about the scaling relations by more than a factor of two. The scatter reduces by a similar amount with the use of the central gas density as a third parameter. Using YX as a total mass proxy, we derive a Malmquist bias-corrected local luminosity-mass relation and compare with other recent determinations. Our results indicate that luminosity can be a reliable mass proxy with controllable scatter, which has important implications for upcoming all-sky cluster surveys, such as those to be undertaken with Planck and eROSITA ,a nd ultimately for the use of the cluster population for cosmological purposes.
GP detection of health risk factors among general practice patients at risk of primary and secondary stroke.

BACKGROUND People with a history of stroke or heart disease are at increased risk of future stroke; therefore, identification of risk factors by GPs is critical. OBJECTIVES To compare the following among general practice patients with and without a history of stroke or heart disease: (i) self-reported prevalence rates of lifestyle risk factors; (ii) accuracy of GP detection of patient-reported risk factors and (iii) average proportion of patient-reported risk factors detected by GPs. METHODS Consecutive patients attending a participating general practice clinic were invited to participate in a cross-sectional touchscreen survey assessing lifestyle risk factors in 2010-11. The GP of each consenting patient completed a corresponding survey assessing the patient's risk factors. Demographic characteristics of patients and GPs were obtained. RESULTS Data from 51 GPs and 564 patients were analysed. Patients without a history of stroke or heart disease reported significantly higher rates of smoking (12%) and risky alcohol consumption (56%) than patients with a history of stroke or heart disease (6% and 36%, respectively). Low sensitivity of GP detection of risk factors was found for all risk factors for all patients. Patients with a history of stroke or heart disease have a significantly higher mean proportion of risk factors detected by their GP compared to patients without a history of stroke or heart disease (P = 0.00). CONCLUSION Given low sensitivity and specificity of GP detection of risk factors among patients, alternate methods of identification are needed. Research is required to determine strategies to facilitate secondary care of patients with a history of stroke or heart disease by GPs.
Injury rates, types, mechanisms and risk factors in female youth ice hockey

Background The objectives of this cohort study were to examine the rate, types, mechanisms and risk factors for injury in female youth (ages 9–17) ice hockey players in the Girls Hockey Calgary Association. Methods The main outcome was ice hockey injury, defined as any injury occurring during the 2008/2009 season that required medical attention, and/or removal from a session and/or missing a subsequent session. Potential risk factors included age group, level of play, previous injury, ice hockey experience, physical activity level, weight, height, position of play and menarche. Incidence rate ratios (IRR) were estimated with Poisson Regression adjusted for cluster (team). Exposure data were collected for every session for each participating player. Results Twenty-eight teams (n=324) from Atom (ages 9–10), PeeWee (11–12), Bantam (13–14) and Midget (15–17) participated with 53 reported injuries. The overall injury rate was 1.9 injuries/1000 player-hours (95% CI 1.4 to 2.7). Previous injury (IRR=2.7, 95% CI 1.7 to 4.3), games (IRR=2.1, 95% CI 1.1 to 4.2), menarche (PeeWee) (IRR=4.1, 95% CI 1.0 to 16.8) were significant risk factors. In Midget, the more elite divisions were associated with a lower injury risk (A-IRR=0.2, 95% CI 0.1 to 0.5) (AAA-IRR=0.5, 95% CI 0.2 to 0.9). Conclusions Injury rates were lower in this study than previously found in male youth and women's ice hockey populations. Previous injury and game play as risk factors are consistent with the literature. Menarche as a risk factor is a new finding in this study. This research will inform future studies of the development of injury prevention strategies in this population.