Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Casting Material on the Cast Pressure After Sequential Cast Splitting

Background: Circumferential casting is a vital component of nonoperative fracture management. These casts are commonly valved to release pressure and decrease the risk of complications from swelling. However, little information exists regarding the effect of different casting supplies on the pressure within the cast. Methods: Seventy-five long-arm casts were performed on human volunteers, divided between 5 experimental groups with 15 casts in each groups. Testing groups consisted of 2 groups with a plaster short-arm cast overwrapped with fiberglass to a long arm with either cotton or synthetic cast padding. The 3 remaining groups included fiberglass long-arm casts with cotton, synthetic, or waterproof cast padding. A pediatric blood pressure cuff bladder was placed within the cast and inflated to 100 mm Hg. After inflation, the cast was sequentially released with pressure reading preformed after each stage. Order of release consisted of cast bivalve, cast padding release, and cotton stockinet release. After release, the cast was overwrapped with a loose elastic bandage. Difference in pressure readings were compared based upon the cast material. Results: Pressures within the cast were found to decrease with sequential release of cast. The cast type had no effect of change in pressure. Post hoc testing demonstrated that the type of cast padding significantly affected the cast pressures with waterproof padding demonstrating the highest pressure readings at all time-points in the study, followed by synthetic padding. Cotton padding had the lowest pressure readings at all time-points. Discussion: Type of cast padding significantly influences the amount of pressure within a long-arm cast, even after bivalving the cast and cutting the cast padding. Cotton cast padding allows for the greatest change in pressure. Clinical Relevance: Cotton padding demonstrates the greatest change in pressure within a long-arm cast after undergoing bivalve. Synthetic and waterproof cast padding should not be used in the setting of an acute fracture to accommodate swelling.
The role of hormones on Toxoplasma gondii infection: a systematic review

Background: Toxoplasma gondii is the causal agent of toxoplasmosis in which one third of the world's population has been infected. In pregnant women, it may cause abortion and severe damage to the fetal central nervous system. During pregnancy, the prevalence of toxoplasmosis increases throughout the second and third quarter of gestation, simultaneously progesterone and 17β-estradiol also increase. Thus, it has been suggested that these hormones can aggravate or reduce parasite reproduction. The aim of this study was reviewing the relationship between hormones and infection caused by T. gondii in several experimental animal models and humans, focused mainly on: (a) congenital transmission, (b) parasite reproduction, (c) strain virulence, (d) levels of hormone in host induced by T. gondii infection, and (e) participation of hormone receptors in T. gondii infection. Are the hormones specific modulators of T. gondii infection? A systematic review methodology was used to consult several databases (Pub Med, Lilacs, Medline, Science direct, Scielo, Ebsco, Sprinker, Wiley, and Google Scholar) dated from September, 2013 to March, 2014. Results: Thirty studies were included; eight studies in humans and 22 in animals and cell cultures. In the human studies, the most studied hormones were testosterone, progesterone, prolactin, and 17β-estradiol. Type I (RH and BK) and Type II (Prugniaud, SC, ME49, T45, P78, and T38) were the most frequent experimental strains. Conclusions: Thirty-five years have passed since the first studies regarding T. gondii infection and its relationship with hormones. This systematic review suggests that hormones modulate T. gondii infection in different animal models. However, given that data were not comparable, further studies are required to determine the mechanism of hormone action in the T. gondii infectious process.
On the Convergence of Boosting Procedures

A boosting algorithm seeks to minimize empirically a loss function in a greedy fashion. The resulted estimator takes an additive function form and is built iteratively by applying a base estimator (or learner) to updated samples depending on the previous iterations. This paper studies convergence of boosting when it is carried out over the linear span of a family of basis functions. For general loss functions, we prove the convergence of boosting's greedy optimization to the infinimum of the loss function over the linear span. As a side product, these results reveal the importance of restricting the greedy search step sizes, as known in practice through the works of Friedman and others.
In vitro effects of antihypertensive drugs on thromboxane agonist (U46619)-induced vasoconstriction in human internal mammary artery.

BACKGROUND Hypertension is a major problem in the perioperative period of cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. The vascular endothelium plays a crucial role in modulating vascular tone by producing vasodilators as well as vasoconstrictors. Thromboxane A2 (TxA2), a prototypical vasoconstrictor produced by endothelium and platelets, may play an important role in the pathogenesis of hypertension and subsequent ischaemic events. Although multiple drugs are currently available to treat perioperative hypertension, there is a paucity of data comparing these agents. Therefore, we examined the in vitro vascular effects of commonly used antihypertensive drugs on human internal mammary artery (IMA) segments. METHODS Relaxation responses to adenosine (a nucleoside), enalaprilat (a competitive inhibitor of angiotensin-converting enzyme), fenoldopam (a D1-dopamine receptor agonist), hydralazine, labetalol (an alpha- and beta-adrenergic blocker), nicardipine (a calcium channel blocker), nicorandil (K(+)-ATP channel opener), nitroglycerin (GTN, a nitrosovasodilator), and sodium nitroprusside (SNP, a nitrosovasodilator) were studied in IMA segments pre-contracted with the TxA2 analogue (U46619, 1.0 x 10(-8) M). Effects of labetalol were also studied in IMA segments pre-contracted with norepinephrine (1.0 x 10(-6) M). All drugs were added in a cumulative fashion (range 10(-10) to 10(-3) M). RESULTS All agents in the current study, with the exception of enalaprilat, dilated the IMA segments pre-contracted with U46619. Only GTN and SNP induced a complete (90-100%) relaxation. The order of efficacy of the in vitro relaxation was as follows: SNP, GTN, nicardipine, nicorandil, fenoldopam, hydralazine, adenosine, and labetalol. The potency was in the order of GTN, SNP, fenoldopam, nicorandil, hydralazine, adenosine, and nicardipine. CONCLUSIONS Various antihypertensive agents are effective in attenuating U46619-induced IMA vasoconstriction, but the efficacy and potency differ. The in vitro vasodilation may not be simply extrapolated to the clinical efficacy or outcome of each antihypertensive therapy; however, our data provide additional grounds for the choice of antihypertensive medication. Further clinical studies are needed to help to fully elucidate the use of different antihypertensive agents and clinical outcomes.
iGroup: Weakly supervised image and video grouping

We present a generic, efficient and iterative algorithm for interactively clustering classes of images and videos. The approach moves away from the use of large hand labelled training datasets, instead allowing the user to find natural groups of similar content based upon a handful of “seed” examples. Two efficient data mining tools originally developed for text analysis; min-Hash and APriori are used and extended to achieve both speed and scalability on large image and video datasets. Inspired by the Bag-of-Words (BoW) architecture, the idea of an image signature is introduced as a simple descriptor on which nearest neighbour classification can be performed. The image signature is then dynamically expanded to identify common features amongst samples of the same class. The iterative approach uses APriori to identify common and distinctive elements of a small set of labelled true and false positive signatures. These elements are then accentuated in the signature to increase similarity between examples and “pull” positive classes together. By repeating this process, the accuracy of similarity increases dramatically despite only a few training examples, only 10% of the labelled groundtruth is needed, compared to other approaches. It is tested on two image datasets including the caltech101 [9] dataset and on three state-of-the-art action recognition datasets. On the YouTube [18] video dataset the accuracy increases from 72% to 97% using only 44 labelled examples from a dataset of over 1200 videos. The approach is both scalable and efficient, with an iteration on the full YouTube dataset taking around 1 minute on a standard desktop machine.
The functions of societies and the evolution of group living: spider societies as a test case

Many models have been advanced to suggest how different expressions of sociality have evolved and are maintained. However these models ignore the function of groups for the particular species in question. Here we present a new perspective on sociality where the function of the group takes a central role. We argue that sociality may have primarily a reproductive, protective, or foraging function, depending on whether it enhances the reproductive, protective or foraging aspect of the animal's life (sociality may serve a mixture of these functions). Different functions can potentially cause the development of the same social behaviour. By identifying which function influences a particular social behaviour we can determine how that social behaviour will change with changing conditions, and which models are most pertinent. To test our approach we examined spider sociality, which has often been seen as the poor cousin to insect sociality. By using our approach we found that the group characteristics of eusocial insects is largely governed by the reproductive function of their groups, while the group characteristics of social spiders is largely governed by the foraging function of the group. This means that models relevant to insects may not be relevant to spiders. It also explains why eusocial insects have developed a strict caste system while spider societies are more egalitarian. We also used our approach to explain the differences between different types of spider groups. For example, differences in the characteristics of colonial and kleptoparasitic groups can be explained by differences in foraging methods, while differences between colonial and cooperative spiders can be explained by the role of the reproductive function in the formation of cooperative spider groups. Although the interactions within cooperative spider colonies are largely those of a foraging society, demographic traits and colony dynamics are strongly influenced by the reproductive function. We argue that functional explanations help to understand the social structure of spider groups and therefore the evolutionary potential for speciation in social spiders.
Predictive factors of myasthenic crisis after extended thymectomy for patients with myasthenia gravis.

OBJECTIVES Postoperative myasthenic crisis (POMC) is one of the serious complications after extended thymectomy for patients with myasthenia gravis (MG). This study aims to clarify the risk factors of POMC occurrence. METHODS The clinical data of 55 MG patients (25 male, 30 female; median age, 51 years) who underwent extended thymectomy at Kyoto University from 2000 to 2013 were retrospectively reviewed. Surgical outcomes and pre- and perioperative predictive factors of POMC were analysed. RESULTS The preoperative Myasthenia Gravis Foundation of America stage was I, II, III and IV in 24, 22, 8 and 1 patients, respectively. Ten patients (18.2%) developed POMC; 6 required prolonged intubation over 24 h and 4 required reventilatory support. All patients were weaned after 5.6 (2-26) days of ventilator support, and were discharged. Univariate analysis revealed a correlation with a high preoperative anti-acetylcholine receptor antibody titre (P = 0.009), history of myasthenic crisis (MC) (P = 0.0004) and unstable MG after preoperative medical therapy (P = 0.003). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed history of MC (odds ratio, 11.84; 95% confidential interval, 1.05-372; P = 0.045) and unstable MG (odds ratio, 29.45; 95% confidential interval, 2.00-1063; P = 0.013) independently predicted POMC. The surgical response rate was not significantly different between the two groups (66.7% with POMC, 85.4% without POMC; P = 0.334). CONCLUSIONS POMC occurred more frequently in unstable MG before surgery or in patients with a history of MC. Adequate preoperative medical therapy and perioperative care should be provided to these patients.
SIRT3–AMP-Activated Protein Kinase Activation by Nitrite and Metformin Improves Hyperglycemia and Normalizes Pulmonary Hypertension Associated With Heart Failure With Preserved Ejection Fraction

Background— Pulmonary hypertension associated with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (PH-HFpEF) is an increasingly recognized clinical complication of metabolic syndrome. No adequate animal model of PH-HFpEF is available, and no effective therapies have been identified to date. A recent study suggested that dietary nitrate improves insulin resistance in endothelial nitric oxide synthase null mice, and multiple studies have reported that both nitrate and its active metabolite, nitrite, have therapeutic activity in preclinical models of pulmonary hypertension. Methods and Results— To evaluate the efficacy and mechanism of nitrite in metabolic syndrome associated with PH-HFpEF, we developed a 2-hit PH-HFpEF model in rats with multiple features of metabolic syndrome attributable to double-leptin receptor defect (obese ZSF1) with the combined treatment of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor blocker SU5416. Chronic oral nitrite treatment improved hyperglycemia in obese ZSF1 rats by a process that requires skeletal muscle SIRT3-AMPK-GLUT4 signaling. The glucose-lowering effect of nitrite was abolished in SIRT3-deficient human skeletal muscle cells, and in SIRT3 knockout mice fed a high-fat diet, as well. Skeletal muscle biopsies from humans with metabolic syndrome after 12 weeks of oral sodium nitrite and nitrate treatment (IND#115926) displayed increased activation of SIRT3 and AMP-activated protein kinase. Finally, early treatments with nitrite and metformin at the time of SU5416 injection reduced pulmonary pressures and vascular remodeling in the PH-HFpEF model with robust activation of skeletal muscle SIRT3 and AMP-activated protein kinase. Conclusions— These studies validate a rodent model of metabolic syndrome and PH-HFpEF, suggesting a potential role of nitrite and metformin as a preventative treatment for this disease.
Journal of Experimental Pharmacology Dovepress Diuretic Activity of the Aqueous Crude Extract and Solvent Fractions of the Leaves of Thymus Serrulatus in Mice

you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms Abstract: The present study was undertaken to investigate the diuretic activity and acute toxicity profile of the crude aqueous extract and solvent fraction of the leaves of Thymus serrulatus in saline-loaded Swiss albino mice. Mice of either sex were divided into six groups (five animals in each group). The control group received normal saline (25 mL/kg), while the reference group received hydrochlorothiazide (10 mg/kg). Group III to Group VI received the test substances at dose levels of 125, 250, 500, and 1,000 mg/kg orally, respectively. At the end of the fifth hour, urine was collected, and total volume of urine excreted by each animal was recorded. Concentrations of urinary Na + and K + were determined, and the Na + /K + ratio was calculated to make comparison among the groups. The acute toxicity of the most active fraction was also evaluated. The findings demonstrated that the crude aqueous extract of T. serrulatus leaves showed significant diuretic (P<0.01), natriuretic (P<0.01), and kaliuretic (P<0.01) effects. At the dose of 1,000 mg/kg, the n-butanol fraction demonstrated the highest diuretic activity comparable to the reference drug. It also showed a good natriuretic activity. The dichloromethane fraction, however, did not have significant diuretic activity. Both the crude aqueous extract of the leaves of T. serrulatus and its n-butanol fraction have diuretic activity with high concentration of urinary electrolytes in mice. Further studies, however, need to be pursued on the possible mechanism(s) of diuretic action.
When Humanizing the Enemy Fails 1 The role of dissonance and justification in intergroup conflict

To “humanize” members of the outgroup is often considered the first step towards intergroup reconciliation and peace. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that for some individuals, outgroup humanization does not have any effect. This evidence raises two key questions: 1) what are the characteristics of those individuals for whom the outgroup humanization process fails? and 2) why does it fail for these individuals? This article presents a theory that answers these questions, suggesting that the outgroup humanization process will fail for individuals who A) feel dissonance from the humanization process, and B) naturally reduce dissonance by justifying it away. I present results from an original experiment conducted on a nationally diverse sample of Jewish-Israelis that shows that individuals with the strongest "Ingroup-Centric Beliefs" (ICBs), those who should be the targets of conflict resolution attempts, are precisely the individuals most likely to experience dissonance from humanization treatments. Disturbingly, the results suggest that for the subset of these individuals who deal with dissonance by justifying it away, outgroup humanization fails to produce the positive attitudinal change we would expect. In fact, for these individuals, humanizing the enemy might spur greater aggression towards the outgroup, as the self-justification process that ensues motivates them to hold more tightly to their negative beliefs and emotions.
Changes in the Effect of Isoflurane on N-methyl-d-aspartic Acid-gated Currents in Cultured Cerebral Cortical Neurons with Time in Culture: Evidence for Subunit Specificity

Background Developmental changes in NR1 splice variants and NR2 subunits of the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor have been associated with changes in the sensitivity of NMDA receptors to agonists, antagonists, and pharmacologic modulators. The authors have investigated changes in the effect of isoflurane on NMDA-gated currents from cultured cortical neurons with time in culture and related these changes to the subunit composition of the NMDA receptors. Methods N-methyl-d-aspartate–gated currents were measured using whole-cell voltage clamp recording in cortical neurons cultured for 1–4 weeks and HEK 293 cells transiently expressing NR1–1a + NR2A or NR1–1a + NR2B subunit-containing receptors. NMDA alone or NMDA with treatment agents (isoflurane or ifenprodil) was applied to cells using a U tube. Results The effect of isoflurane and the NR2B selective antagonist ifenprodil on NMDA-gated currents from cortical neurons decreased significantly with time in culture. NMDA-gated currents mediated by NR2A-containing receptors were less sensitive to isoflurane than those mediated by NR2B-containing receptors. Tachyphylaxis to repeated application of isoflurane was found in cortical neurons and HEK 293 cells with recombinant NMDA receptors. Hooked tail currents were induced by isoflurane in cultured cortical neurons and HEK 293 cells with expressed NMDA receptors. Conclusions Isoflurane inhibits NMDA-gated currents at concentrations well below 1 minimum alveolar concentration (MAC). This effect of isoflurane was subunit dependent with the NR2B-containing receptors more sensitive to isoflurane than the NR2A-containing receptors. A potent tachyphylaxis occurred after brief exposure to isoflurane.
Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (ctDCS)

The cerebellum is critical for both motor and cognitive control. Dysfunction of the cerebellum is a component of multiple neurological disorders. In recent years, interventions have been developed that aim to excite or inhibit the activity and function of the human cerebellum. Transcranial direct current stimulation of the cerebellum (ctDCS) promises to be a powerful tool for the modulation of cerebellar excitability. This technique has gained popularity in recent years as it can be used to investigate human cerebellar function, is easily delivered, is well tolerated, and has not shown serious adverse effects. Importantly, the ability of ctDCS to modify behavior makes it an interesting approach with a potential therapeutic role for neurological patients. Through both electrical and non-electrical effects (vascular, metabolic) ctDCS is thought to modify the activity of the cerebellum and alter the output from cerebellar nuclei. Physiological studies have shown a polarity-specific effect on the modulation of cerebellar–motor cortex connectivity, likely via cerebellar–thalamocortical pathways. Modeling studies that have assessed commonly used electrode montages have shown that the ctDCS-generated electric field reaches the human cerebellum with little diffusion to neighboring structures. The posterior and inferior parts of the cerebellum (i.e., lobules VI-VIII) seem particularly susceptible to modulation by ctDCS. Numerous studies have shown to date that ctDCS can modulate motor learning, and affect cognitive and emotional processes. Importantly, this intervention has a good safety profile; similar to when applied over cerebral areas. Thus, investigations have begun exploring ctDCS as a viable intervention for patients with neurological conditions.
Surveillance of musculoskeletal injuries and disorders in a diverse cohort of workers at a tertiary care medical center.

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence of work-related musculoskeletal (MSK) injuries and disorders among a dynamic cohort of health care workers, including direct care providers and support services, employed at a tertiary care medical center. METHODS Human resources data were used to define the cohort and time at risk. Workers' compensation (WC) records (1997-2003) were utilized to identify work-related MSK claims. Poisson regression was used to generate gender specific rate ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of MSK injuries among workgroups. RESULTS MSK injuries resulted equally ( approximately 30% each) from lift/push/pull of equipment, patient handling, and slip/trip/falls. Injury rates and their mechanisms varied substantially by occupational group, gender, and race. Even with declining injury rates over time, black workers had rates 2.5 times higher than other workers and women had rates 1.8 times higher than men. Male and female nurses' aides, housekeepers, and radiology technicians had among the highest rates of injury, while lost workdays rates were highest for male and female nurses' aides, female housekeepers, and male patient transporters. CONCLUSIONS Differential risk associated with work tasks in highly segregated work populations can contribute to disparities in health, and the patterns we observed partly reflect the high concentration of female and black workers in occupations with increased physical demands. While the greatest public health impact will be achieved by implementing prevention strategies among large workgroups with high injury rates, public health efforts must not ignore smaller, often segregated, workgroups identified in this study as high risk.