Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Changing trends of hepatitis B seromarkers amongst Pakistani population: a laboratory-based review.

OBJECTIVE To study the changing trends of hepatitis B markers tested at Aga Khan University Hospital clinical laboratory according to the internationally recognised classification of hepatitis B profile. METHODS The retrospective study involved analysis of laboratory records of hepatitis B profiles of all patients collected from January 2001 to December 2008 at the Aga Khan University Hospital's clinical laboratory. Patients with complete profile tested were categorised according to the Centre for Diseases Control classification of hepatitis B profile. SPSS 16 was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS A total of 185,825 patients had serological markers for hepatitis B tested. Mean-age of reactive hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) patients was 30+/-12.5 years. HBsAg reactivity was significantly higher in males than females (34% vs 12%; p <0.0001). HBsAg showed a slight decline in the percentage reactivity during the 8-year study period, while a gradual increase in hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) reactivity was observed. Of the total, 23% patients belonged to the 'susceptible to infection' category; 39% patients were classified as 'chronically-ill'; 12% patients were categorised as 'immune due to hepatitis B vaccination. 3% patients were classed as 'acutely infected'. Overall, samples received from Peshawar, Quetta and Larkana showed very high reactivity rates. CONCLUSION The study substantiated the general perception that levels of HBsAg is showing a decreasing trend, while levels of HBsAb are increasing perhaps due to better vaccination of population.
High prevalence of bilateral transverse sinus stenosis-associated IIHWOP in unresponsive chronic headache sufferers: Pathogenetic implications in primary headache progression

Dear Sir We read with great interest the paper ‘‘Abnormal pressure waves in headache sufferers with bilateral transverse sinus stenosis’’ by Bono et al. (1). The study replicates the findings of a previous study by Torbey et al. entitled ‘‘Utility of CSF pressure monitoring to identify idiopathic intracranial hypertension without papilledema in patients with chronic daily headache’’ (2), providing an independent confirmation that the diagnosis of idiopathic intracranial hypertension without papilledema (IIHWOP) may be overlooked even in the case of direct opening pressure (OP) measurement by lumbar puncture (LP). In fact, in most such cases the intracranial hypertensive status presents large intra-day fluctuations so that prolonged intracranial pressure (ICP) monitoring is crucial in recognizing the condition. However, the study design of Bono et al. presents a number of important differences from that of Torbey, four of which are of major relevance:
Burnout Patients Primed with Success Did Not Perform Better on a Cognitive Task than Burnout Patients Primed with Failure

Burnout patients perform poorer on cognitive tasks than healthy controls. A possible explanation for this decreased performance is a relatively permanent reduced motivation to expend effort. In a previous study, we failed to enhance the performance of burnout patients using a monetary incentive and positive feedback. In an attempt to bypass cognitions about fatigue and performance, we tried to motivate healthy controls and burnout patients implicitly by priming participants with either success or failure prior to task performance. As expected, healthy controls primed with success outperformed healthy controls primed with failure. However, no differential priming effect was observed in burnout patients. This suggests that success priming fails to enhance performance in subjects with burnout.
Does functional MRI detect activation in white matter? A review of emerging evidence, issues, and future directions

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive technique that allows for visualization of activated brain regions. Until recently, fMRI studies have focused on gray matter. There are two main reasons white matter fMRI remains controversial: (1) the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signal depends on cerebral blood flow and volume, which are lower in white matter than gray matter and (2) fMRI signal has been associated with post-synaptic potentials (mainly localized in gray matter) as opposed to action potentials (the primary type of neural activity in white matter). Despite these observations, there is no direct evidence against measuring fMRI activation in white matter and reports of fMRI activation in white matter continue to increase. The questions underlying white matter fMRI activation are important. White matter fMRI activation has the potential to greatly expand the breadth of brain connectivity research, as well as improve the assessment and diagnosis of white matter and connectivity disorders. The current review provides an overview of the motivation to investigate white matter fMRI activation, as well as the published evidence of this phenomenon. We speculate on possible neurophysiologic bases of white matter fMRI signals, and discuss potential explanations for why reports of white matter fMRI activation are relatively scarce. We end with a discussion of future basic and clinical research directions in the study of white matter fMRI.
A new delay-dependent absolute stability of Lur ’ e systems for neutral type with time-varying delays

This paper deals with the problem of absolute stability of neutral type Lur’e systems with time-varying delays. By constructing new Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional, a matrix-based on quadratic convex approach combining with some improved bounding techniques for integral terms such as Wirtinger-based integral inequality, new stability condition is much less conservative and more general than some existing results. New stability criteria is given in terms of linear matrix inequalities. Numerical examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the results. Key–Words: absolute stability; neutral type; time-delay Lur’e system; combined quadratic convex technique; LMI approach
The Floer Homotopy Type of the Cotangent Bundle

Let M be a closed, oriented, n-dimensional manifold. In this paper we describe a spectrum in the sense of homotopy theory, Z(TM), whose homology is naturally isomorphic to the Floer homology of the cotangent bundle, TM. This Floer homology is taken with respect to a Hamiltonian H : S 1 × TM ! R which is quadratic near infinity. Z(TM) is constructed assuming a basic smooth gluing result of J-holomorphic cylinders. This spectrum will have a C.W decomposition with one cell for every periodic solution of the equation defined by the Hamiltonian vector field XH. Its induced cellular chain complex is exactly the Floer complex. The attaching maps in the C.W structure of Z(TM) are described in terms of the framed cobordism types of the moduli spaces of J-holomorphic cylinders in TM with given boundary conditions. This is done via a Pontrjagin-Thom construction, and an important ingredient in this is proving, modulo this gluing result, that these moduli spaces are compact, smooth, framed manifolds with corners. We then prove that Z(TM), which we refer to as the "Floer homotopy type" of TM, has the same homotopy type as the suspension spectrum of the free loop space, LM. This generalizes the theorem first proved by C. Viterbo that the Floer homology of TM is isomorphic to H�(LM).
Moyamoya Syndrome: A Window of Moyamoya Disease

Moyamoya-like vasculopathy develops in association with various systemic diseases and conditions, which is termed moyamoya syndrome. Relatively common diseases and conditions are related to moyamoya syndrome, including neurofibromatosis type 1, Down syndrome, thyroid disease, and cranial irradiation. Moyamoya syndrome shares phenotypical characteristics with idiopathic moyamoya disease. However, they differ in other details, including clinical presentations, natural history, and treatment considerations. The study of moyamoya syndrome can provide clinicians and researchers with valuable knowledge and insight. Although it is infrequently encountered in clinical practice, moyamoya-like vasculopathy can severely complicate outcomes for patients with various underlying diseases when the clinician fails to expect or diagnose moyamoya syndrome development. Furthermore, moyamoya syndrome could be used as a doorway to more enigmatic moyamoya disease in research. More comprehensive survey and investigation are required to uncover the secrets of all the moyamoya-like phenomena.
Physicians recommend different treatments for patients than they would choose for themselves.

BACKGROUND Patients facing difficult decisions often ask physicians for recommendations. However, little is known regarding the ways that physicians' decisions are influenced by the act of making a recommendation. METHODS We surveyed 2 representative samples of US primary care physicians-general internists and family medicine specialists listed in the American Medical Association Physician Masterfile-and presented each with 1 of 2 clinical scenarios. Both involved 2 treatment alternatives, 1 of which yielded a better chance of surviving a fatal illness but at the cost of potentially experiencing unpleasant adverse effects. We randomized physicians to indicate which treatment they would choose if they were the patient or they were recommending a treatment to a patient. RESULTS Among those asked to consider our colon cancer scenario (n = 242), 37.8% chose the treatment with a higher death rate for themselves but only 24.5% recommended this treatment to a hypothetical patient (χ(2)(1) = 4.67, P = . 03). Among those receiving our avian influenza scenario (n = 698), 62.9% chose the outcome with the higher death rate for themselves but only 48.5% recommended this for patients (χ(2)(1) = 14.56, P < . 001). CONCLUSIONS The act of making a recommendation changes the ways that physicians think regarding medical choices. Better understanding of this thought process will help determine when or whether recommendations improve decision making.
The eta invariant and families of pseudodifferential operators

For a compact manifold without boundary a suspended algebra of pseudodifferential operators is considered; it is an algebra of pseudodifferential operators on, and translation-invariant in, an additional real variable. It is shown that the eta invariant, as defined by Atiyah, Patodi and Singer for admissible Dirac operators, extends to a homomorphism from the ring of invertible elements of the suspended algebra to the additive real line. The deformation properties of this extended eta homomorphism are discussed and a related ‘divisor flow’ is shown to label the components of the set of invertible elements within each component of the elliptic set. Introduction The eta invariant of the spin Dirac operator, and of the signature operator, on an odd dimensional manifold was introduced by Atiyah, Patodi and Singer [1] as the boundary correction term for their index formula on an even-dimensional compact manifold with boundary. Their definition extends directly to all ‘admissible’ Dirac operators and was later shown to extend to all self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operators on compact manifolds without boundary. In the Dirac setting there are various further extensions to non-compact manifolds (by Brüning and Seeley [6], by Müller [16], by Stern [19] and in [13]), to singular manifolds (by Cheeger [8]) to boundary problems (by Branson and Gilkey [5], by Douglas and Wojciechowski [9], by Lesch and Wojciechowski [11] and by Müller [17]), to families (by Bismut and Cheeger [3], [2] and in [14], [15] ) also to define ‘higher’ eta invariants (by Lott [12], by Getzler [10] and by Wu [20]). Here a somewhat different ‘pseudodifferential’ extension of the eta invariant is given. This is closely related to Singer’s comments in [18] on the formal analogy between the index function and the eta invariant (despite their obvious differences). Received January 31, 1995. Supported in part by NSF grant 9306389-DMS. Manuscript available from ftp-math-papers.mit. edu
Reversibility of cardiac fibrosis in mice chronically infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, under specific chemotherapy.

UNLABELLED This investigation was performed to verify the effect of specific chemotherapy (Benznidazole or MK-436) on the inflammatory and fibrotic cardiac alterations in mice chronically infected with the strains 21 SF (Type II) and Colombian (Type III) of Trypanosoma cruzi. To obtain chronically infected mice, two groups of 100 Swiss mice each, were infected with either the 21 SF or the Colombian strain (2 x 10(4) and 5 x 10(4) blood forms respectively). The rate of mortality in the acute phase was of 80% for both groups. Twenty surviving mice chronically infected with the 21 SF strain and 20 with the Colombian strain were then divided in treated and untreated groups. Excluding those that died during the course of treatment, 14 mice chronically infected with the 21 SF strain and 15 with the Colombian strain were finally evaluated in the present study. Chemotherapy was performed with Benznidazole (N-benzil-2-nitro-1-imidazolacetamide) in the dose of 100 mg/k.b. w/day, for 60 days, or with the MK-436 (3(1-methyl-5 nitroimidazol-2-yl) in two daily doses of 250 mg/k.b. w, for 20 days. Parasitological cure tests were performed (xenodiagnosis, haemoculture, subinoculation of the blood into newborn mice), and serological indirect immunofluorescence test. The treated and untreated mice as well as intact controls were killed at different periods after treatment and the heart were submitted to histopathological study with hematoxilineosin and picrosirius staining; ultrastructural study; collagen immunotyping, fibronectin and laminin identification by immunofluorescence tests. RESULTS the untreated controls either infected with 21 SF or Colombian strain, showed inflammatory and fibrotic alterations that were mild to moderate with the 21 SF strain and intense with the Colombian strain. Redpicrosirius staining showed bundles of collagen in the interstitial space and around cardiac fibers. Increased deposits of matritial components and collagen fibers, macrophages and fibroblasts appeared at the ultrastructural examination. Deposits of fibronectin, laminin, pro-III and IV collagens were seen, most intense in those infected with the Colombian strain. Treated mice, parasitologically cured, presented clear-cut regression of the inflammatory lesions and of the interstitial matrix thickening. Mice infected with the Colombian strain and treated with MK-436, was parasitologically cured in 5/6 cases and showed mild inflammatory infiltration and fibrosis. The mice treated with Benznidazole (Colombian strain) did not cure and showed moderate fibrosis and inflammation. Treatment of the mice infected with the 21 SF with Benznidazole determined parasitological cure of all animals, that showed mild inflammation and fibrosis of the myocardium. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Bifidobacterium infantis 35624 modulates host inflammatory processes beyond the gut

Certain therapeutic microbes, including Bifidobacteria infantis (B. infantis) 35624 exert beneficial immunoregulatory effects by mimicking commensal-immune interactions; however, the value of these effects in patients with non-gastrointestinal inflammatory conditions remains unclear. In this study, we assessed the impact of oral administration of B. infantis 35624, for 6‒8 weeks on inflammatory biomarker and plasma cytokine levels in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) (n = 22), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) (n = 48) and psoriasis (n = 26) in three separate randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled interventions. Additionally, the effect of B. infantis 35624 on immunological biomarkers in healthy subjects (n = 22) was assessed. At baseline, both gastrointestinal (UC) and non-gastrointestinal (CFS and psoriasis) patients had significantly increased plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and the pro-inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) compared with healthy volunteers. B. infantis 35624 feeding resulted in reduced plasma CRP levels in all three inflammatory disorders compared with placebo. Interestingly, plasma TNF-α was reduced in CFS and psoriasis while IL-6 was reduced in UC and CFS. Furthermore, in healthy subjects, LPS-stimulated TNF-α and IL-6 secretion by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) was significantly reduced in the B. infantis 35624-treated groups compared with placebo following eight weeks of feeding. These results demonstrate the ability of this microbe to reduce systemic pro-inflammatory biomarkers in both gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal conditions. In conclusion, these data show that the immunomodulatory effects of the microbiota in humans are not limited to the mucosal immune system but extend to the systemic immune system.
Comparison of Rectoanal Mucosal Swab Cultures and Fecal Cultures for Determining Prevalence of Escherichia coli O157:H7 in Feedlot Cattle

ABSTRACT We compared fecal samples with samples collected with rectoanal mucosa swabs (RAMS) to determine the prevalence of Escherichia coli O157 in feedlot cattle (n = 747). Escherichia coli O157 was detected in 9.5% of samples collected with RAMS and 4.7% of samples tested by fecal culture. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis analysis of isolates suggested that the strains colonizing the rectoanal junction were the same as those from the feces. Mucosal swab sampling was more sensitive than fecal sampling for determining the prevalence of E. coli O157 in feedlot cattle.
Metastasis to the Jawbones: A review of 453 cases

The purpose of the present article was to review the characteristics of the jawbone metastases to analyze all variables. A relevant English Literature search in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar was performed. All variables such as age, gender, primary and secondary tumor sites were analyzed. There were 453 metastatic cases. The male-to-female ratio was 1.2:1, and the mean age of the patients was 53.4 years. The lung was the most common primary site in men, and breast in women. The most common metastatic site was the mandible, and adenocarcinoma was the most frequent histological diagnosis. Metastases to the jaw bones occur in the advanced stages of a malignancy hence; a careful examination of patients with jaw bone lesions is strongly suggested. Dentists, as well as general physicians, should take into consideration the possible presence of jaw metastases in cases which present atypical symptoms, especially in patients with known malignant disease.
Investigation on the Interaction of Secondary Current Pulses with the Main Wavefront

Additional current pulses get injected into the lightning channel from branches and/or from successive reflections within struck Tall Grounded Objects (TGOs). These pulses termed here as "secondary current waves/pulses" affect the lightning Electro-Magnetic Fields (EMFs). With regard to these, an important question arises on whether or not these pulses get reflected at the main wavefront and there seems to be uncertainty in the pertinent literature. A particular case involving only the first ground end reflection from a struck TGO has been fully dealt in our earlier work. However, the same for subsequent reflections from TGO and that for the current fed by the branches were not dealt and this forms the main goal of present work. As the main objective is to ascertain the status of these secondary current pulses after they have reached the main wavefront, dynamics at the point of injection assumes lesser importance. In view of this, a lumped voltage source is employed for the injection of secondary current pulses at appropriate time instants. The main stroke evolution is emulated by a macroscopic physical model, which was developed in our earlier work. Investigation showed that these secondary pulses merge with the main wavefront without any sign of reflection whatsoever. Analysis showed that the spatial dynamic resistance/conductance profile at the main wavefront is basically responsible for the same with distributed source providing additional support. These findings are in line with the observations made in our earlier work for the first ground end reflected current.
Respiratory and circulatory effects of pentazocine. Review of analgesics used after myocardial infarction.

The analgesic pentazocine has been studied in myocardial infarction. A dose of 30 mg given intravenously provokes significant respiratory depression (which may be potentiated by ligno-caine). This dose caused a small, but not significant rise in systemic arterial pressure and heart rate when breathing air. Attempts to provoke postural hypotension failed. Changes in pulmonary arterial pressure and arteriovenous oxygen difference were small and not significant. The published reports have been reviewed with a view to determining the most suitable intravenous analgesic for use after myocardial infarction. Pethidine and morphine appear to be unsatisfactory. Pentazocine is preferable to either, but less satisfactory than heroin in a normotensive patient. Dosage should be as small as practicable and injection slow. Oxygen should be given routinely; phenothiazines should not. Blood gas tensions are altered
Solar Powered Wheel Chair for Physically Challenged People Using Surface EMG Signal

This paper presents the design of low cost solar powered wheel chair for physically challenged people. The signals necessary to maneuver the wheel chair are acquired from different muscles of the hand using surface Electromyography (sEMG) technique. The raw sEMG signals collected from upper limb muscles are processed to extract the desired direction of movement for the wheel chair. The accuracy of the extracted EMG signals is found to be relatively high. A prototype is developed and tests verified the objective functionalities. The analysis of life cycle cost of the solar powered wheel chair is presented. It is found that the proposed wheel chair is financially feasible for developing countries.
An Efficient Online Hierarchical Supervoxel Segmentation Algorithm for Time-critical Applications

Video segmentation has been used in a variety of computer vision algorithms as a pre-processing step. Despite its wide application, many existing algorithms require preloading all or part of the video and batch processing the frames, which introduces temporal latency and significantly increases memory and computational cost. Other algorithms rely on human specification for segmentation granularity control. In this paper, we propose an online, hierarchical video segmentation algorithm with no latency. The new algorithm leverages a graph-based image segmentation technique and recent advances in dense optical flow. Our contributions include: 1) an efficient, yet effective probabilistic segment label propagation across consecutive frames; 2) a new method for label initialization for the incoming frame; and 3) a temporally consistent hierarchical label merging scheme. We conduct a thorough experimental analysis of our algorithm on a benchmark dataset and compare it with state-of-the-art algorithms. The results indicate that our algorithm achieves comparable or better segmentation accuracy than state-ofthe-art batch-processing algorithms, and outperforms streaming algorithms despite a significantly lower computation cost, which is required for time-critical applications.