Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Pregnancy outcome of threatened abortion with subchorionic hematoma: possible benefit of bed-rest?

BACKGROUND Bleeding in the first trimester of pregnancy is a common phenomenon, associated with early pregnancy loss. In many instances a subchorionic hematoma is found sonographically. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the possible benefit of bed-rest in women with threatened abortion and sonographically proven subchorionic hematoma, and to examine the possible relationship of duration of vaginal bleeding, hematoma size, and gestational age at diagnosis to pregnancy outcome. METHODS The study group consisted of 230 women of 2,556 (9%) referred for ultrasound examination because of vaginal bleeding in the first half of pregnancy, who were found to have a subchorionic hematoma in the presence of a singleton live embryo or fetus. All patients were advised bed-rest at home; 200 adhered to this recommendation for the duration of vaginal bleeding (group 1) and 30 continued their usual lifestyle (group 2). All were followed with repeated sonograms at 7 day intervals until bleeding ceased, the subchorionic hematoma disappeared, or abortion occurred. The groups were compared for size of hematoma, duration of bleeding, and gestational age at diagnosis in relation to pregnancy outcome (spontaneous abortion, term or preterm delivery). RESULTS The first bleeding episode occurred at 12.6 +/- 3.4 weeks of gestation (range 7-20 weeks) and lasted for 28.8 +/- 19.1 days (range 4-72 days). The women who adhered to bed-rest had fewer spontaneous abortions (9.9% vs. 23.3%, P = 0.006) and a higher rate of term pregnancy (89 vs. 70%, P = 0.004) than those who did not. There was no association between duration of vaginal bleeding, hematoma size, or gestational age at diagnosis of subchorionic hematoma and pregnancy outcome. CONCLUSIONS Fewer spontaneous abortions and a higher rate of term pregnancy were noted in the bed-rest group. However, the lack of randomization and retrospective design of the outcome data collection preclude a definite conclusion. A large prospective randomized study is required to confirm whether bed-rest has a real therapeutic effect.
Simulation Study of Direct Causality Measures in Multivariate Time Series

Measures of the direction and strength of the interdependence among time series from multivariate systems are evaluated based on their statistical significance and discrimination ability. The best-known measures estimating direct causal effects, both linear and nonlinear, are considered, i.e., conditional Granger causality index (CGCI), partial Granger causality index (PGCI), partial directed coherence (PDC), partial transfer entropy (PTE), partial symbolic transfer entropy (PSTE) and partial mutual information on mixed embedding (PMIME). The performance of the multivariate coupling measures is assessed on stochastic and chaotic simulated uncoupled and coupled dynamical systems for different settings of embedding dimension and time series length. The CGCI, PGCI and PDC seem to outperform the other causality measures in the case of the linearly coupled systems, while the PGCI is the most effective one when latent and exogenous variables are present. The PMIME outweighs all others in the case of nonlinear simulation systems.
Developing and Using a Pilot Dialectal Arabic Treebank

In this paper, we describe the methodological procedures and issues that emerged from the development of a pilot Levantine Arabic Treebank (LATB) at the Linguistic Data Consortium (LDC) and its use at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Center for Language and Speech Processing workshop on Parsing Arabic Dialects (PAD). This pilot, consisting of morphological and syntactic annotation of approximately 26,000 words of Levantine Arabic conversational telephone speech, was developed under severe time constraints; hence the LDC team drew on their experience in treebanking Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) text. The resulting Levantine dialect treebanked corpus was used by the PAD team to develop and evaluate parsers for Levantine dialect texts. The parsers were trained on MSA resources and adapted using dialect-MSA lexical resources (some developed especially for this task) and existing linguistic knowledge about syntactic differences between MSA and dialect. The use of the LATB for development and evaluation of syntactic parsers allowed the PAD team to provide feedbasck to the LDC treebank developers. In this paper, we describe the creation of resources for this corpus, as well as transformations on the corpus to eliminate speech effects and lessen the gap between our pre-existing MSA resources and the new dialectal corpus
Optical Coherence Tomography Findings in Lesions After Sirolimus-Eluting Stent Implantation With Peri-Stent Contrast Staining

Background—We have sometimes noted abnormal angiographic coronary dilatation, <50% of the reference vessel, at the site of sirolimus-eluting stent implantation, suggesting contrast staining outside the stent struts and named this finding peri-stent contrast staining (PSS). Little was known about optical coherence tomography findings of lesions with PSS. Methods and Results—Between May 2008 and March 2010, we performed optical coherence tomography for 90 in-stent restenosis lesions after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation. We found PSS in 20 of the 90 lesions by coronary angiography. The differences in optical coherence tomography findings, including incomplete stent apposition, multiple interstrut hollows (MIH), strut coverage, and thrombus, were compared between lesions with PSS and those without PSS. PSS is defined as contrast staining outside the stent contour extending to >20% of the stent diameter measured by quantitative coronary angiography. MIH is defined as multiple hollows (the maximum depth >0.5 mm) existing between and outside well-apposed stent struts. Both incomplete stent apposition (60.0% versus 10%; P<0.001) and MIH (85.0% versus 25.7%; P<0.001) were frequently observed in lesions with PSS than in lesions without PSS. Among the 20 lesions with PSS, there was only 1 lesion in which we found neither MIH nor incomplete stent apposition, but only minor dissection. Uncovered struts (11.6% versus 3.9%; P=0.001), malapposed struts (2.0% versus 0.0%; P<0.001), and red thrombus (35% versus 10%; P=0.012) were frequently observed in lesions with PSS than in lesions without PSS. Conclusions—PSS might be closely associated with 2 different optical coherence tomography findings, MIH and incomplete stent apposition, in lesions after sirolimus-eluting stent implantation.
Quality of life after volar plate fixation of articular fractures of the distal part of the radius.

BACKGROUND Outcome measurement following surgery is increasingly the focus of attention in current health-care debates because of the rising costs of medical care and the large variety of operative options. The purpose of the present study was to correlate quality of life after volar locked plate fixation of unstable intra-articular distal radial fractures with functional and radiographic results as well as with quality-of-life data from population norms. METHODS Fifty-four consecutive patients with intra-articular distal radial fractures and a mean age of sixty-three years were managed with a volar locked plate system. Range of motion, grip strength, and radiographs were assessed at a mean of six years postoperatively. The wrist-scoring systems of Gartland and Werley and Castaing were adopted for the assessment of objective outcomes. The Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand and Short Form-36 questionnaires were completed as subjective outcome measures, and the results were compared with United States and Austrian population norms. RESULTS Functional improvement continued for two years postoperatively. At the time of the latest follow-up, >90% of all patients had achieved good or excellent results according to the scoring systems of Gartland and Werley and Castaing. The results of the Short Form-36 questionnaire were similar to the United States and Austrian population norms. The mean Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand score was 5 points at two years, and it increased to 13 points at six years. The twenty patients with radiocarpal arthritis had significantly poorer results in the physical component summary measure of the Short Form-36 questionnaire (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS The results of the present single-center study show that, following distal radial fracture fixation, wrist arthritis may affect the patient's subjective well-being, as documented with the Short Form-36, without influencing the functional outcome. Well-designed longitudinal clinical trials are needed to confirm the findings of the present investigation in terms of quality of life after surgical treatment of intra-articular distal radial fractures.
Knowledge processes in virtual teams: consolidating the evidence

This article takes stock of the current state of research on knowledge processes in virtual teams (VTs) and consolidates the extent research findings. Virtual teams, on the one hand, constitute important organisational entities that facilitate the integration of diverse and distributed knowledge resources. On the other hand, collaborating in a virtual environment creates particular challenges for the knowledge processes. The article seeks to consolidate the diverse evidence on knowledge processes in VTs with a specific focus on identifying the factors that influence the effectiveness of these knowledge processes. The article draws on the four basic knowledge processes outlined by Alavi and Leidner (2001) (i.e. creation, transferring, storage/retrieval and application) to frame the investigation and discuss the extent research. The consolidation of the existing research findings allows us to recognise the gaps in the understanding of knowledge processes in VTs and identify the important avenues for future research.
Classifier based low-complexity MIMO detection for spatial multiplexing systems

In this paper, we propose a low complexity detection scheme for MIMO systems incorporating spatial multiplexing. Optimal detection schemes such as maximum-likelihood (ML) detection of MIMO signals demands computational resources that are beyond the capabilities of most practical systems. Alternative reduced complexity MIMO detection techniques have been proposed, but the complexity of algorithmic schemes are in general much higher than that of the equalizer-based techniques, e.g. zero-forcing (ZF) or MMSE. On the other hand, equalizer- based techniques perform relatively poor in terms of error rate. In this paper, we propose a hybrid of an equalizer-based technique and an algorithmic search stage. Based on an error matrix and its probability density functions for different classes of error, a particular search region is selected for the algorithmic stage. As the probability of occurrence of error classes with larger search regions is small, overall complexity of the proposed technique remains low while providing a significant improvement in the error performance.
Keeping track of who said what: Performance on a modified auditory n-back task with young and older adults

A modified auditory n-back task was used to examine the ability of young and older listeners to remember the content of spoken messages presented from different locations. The messages were sentences from the Coordinative Response Measure (CRM) corpus, and the task was to judge whether a target word on the current trial was the same as in the most recent presentation from the same location (left, center, or right). The number of trials between comparison items (the number back) was varied while keeping the number of items to be held in memory (the number of locations) constant. Three levels of stimulus uncertainty were evaluated. Low- and high-uncertainty conditions were created by holding the talker (voice) and nontarget words constant, or varying them unpredictably across trials. In a medium-uncertainty condition, each location was associated with a specific talker, thus increasing predictability and ecological validity. Older listeners performed slightly worse than younger listeners, but there was no significant difference in response times (RT) for the two groups. An effect of the number back (n) was seen for both PC and RT; PC decreased steadily with n, while RT was fairly constant after a significant increase from n = 1 to n = 2. Apart from the lower PC for the older group, there was no effect involving age for either PC or RT. There was an effect of target word location (faster RTs with a late-occurring target) and an effect of uncertainty (faster RTs with a constant talker-location mapping, relative to the high-uncertainty condition). A similar pattern of performance was observed with a group of elderly hearing-impaired listeners (with and without shaping to ensure audibility), but RTs were substantially slower and the effect of uncertainty was absent. Apart from the observed overall slowing of RTs, these results provide little evidence for an effect of age-related changes in cognitive abilities on this task.
The impact of mandatory continuing medical education.

MANY states are either moving toward or have adopted legislation that mandates physician participation in continuing medical education (CME). To date, 13 states have CME requirements in effect, another ten states have passed enabling legislation that has not been implemented, and the others have not taken formal action. In June 1975, the governor of Michigan signed into law Public Act 112, which mandates participation in CME as a prerequisite for annual reregistration of the license to practice medicine. Each physician must show evidence of participation in 50 hours of CME activities, approved by the Board of Medical Examiners, in the calendar year before application for reregistration. This law appears to result from a concept, held by many legislators, that CME provides a handle on medical practice and that manipulation of that handle will result in direct and desirable effects on medical practice. Participation in CME is perceived as a means
Effects of an Educational Intervention of Physical Activity for Children and Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial

BACKGROUND: Regular aerobic exercise in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) improves aerobic conditioning and delays disease progression, resulting in better quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of an aerobic exercise program based on verbal and written guidelines on maximum exercise capacity using a cardiopulmonary exercise test, quality of life, and the self-reported aerobic exercise practice of children and adolescents with CF. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial followed guidelines for physical exercise in a CF center. Subjects were assigned to 2 groups: intervention (group 1), with 17 subjects; and control (group 2), also with 17 subjects. Data were collected from October 2010 to October 2011, and the study population comprised 7–20-y-old children and adolescents with CF. The intervention consisted of handing out a manual with guidelines for aerobic physical exercises and reinforcing recommendations in telephone calls every 2 weeks. RESULTS: Thirty-four subjects were included in the study, 20 of whom were boys (58.5%). The groups were similar at baseline. In group 1, 6 subjects (35.2%) reported practicing physical exercises regularly. The mean age was 13.4 ± 2.8 y, the mean percent-of-predicted FEV1 was 95.5 ± 17.9%, and the mean peak oxygen uptake (V̇O2) relative to body mass was 34.9 ± 9.0 mL/kg/min. In group 2, 4 subjects (23.5%) reported practicing physical exercises regularly. The mean age was 12.7 ± 3.3 y, the mean percent-of-predicted FEV1 was 100.1 ± 21.2%, and the mean peak V̇O2 was 33.2 ± 8.2 mL/kg/min. In group 1, there was a significant increase in physical exercise practice as reported by subjects after 3 months of intervention compared with group 2 (P = .01). No statistically significant differences were found for the other variables. CONCLUSIONS: Verbal and written guidelines for aerobic exercise, together with supervision over the telephone, had a positive impact on the self-reported regular physical exercise practice of children and adolescents. However, no improvement was found in lung function and maximum exercise capacity or domains of the quality of life questionnaire.
Visualization of Retrieval Results using DART

In most information retrieval systems, especially those in the Web, users suffer from too many search results force them to go through a long list of document surrogates that may not reveal their contents sufficiently. This paper describes our attempt to provide a solution to this problem: a new visual interface for search results and a system architecture that supports the visualization technique. The visual interface is evaluated for its efficacy with human subjects. Our interface, DART, displays document clustering information and the similarity values between individual documents and different sub-queries. With the distinguishing colors and brightness of the icons representing documents scattered on a series of concentric circles resembling a dart target, users can make intuitive judgment as to which one they want to read next. Based on our experiments, users acquire relevant documents more quickly with the DART display than with the conventional document list.
Receptor for Hyaluronic Acid-Mediated Motility is Associated with Poor Survival in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA)-mediated motility (RHAMM) is a nonintegral cell surface receptor involved in the aggressive phenotype in a wide spectrum of human malignancies, but the significance of RHAMM in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains unknown. In this study, we investigated the expression of RHAMM and its clinical relevance in PDAC. RHAMM mRNA expression was examined in 8 PDAC cell lines and in primary pancreatic cancer and adjacent non-tumor tissues from 14 patients using real-time RT-PCR. Western blotting was carried out to analyze the expression of RHAMM protein in PDAC cell lines. We also investigated the expression patterns of RHAMM protein in tissue samples from 70 PDAC patients using immunohistochemistry. The RHAMM mRNA expression was increased in some PDAC cell lines as compared to a non-tumorous pancreatic epithelial cell line HPDE. The RHAMM mRNA expression was significantly higher in PDAC tissues as compared to corresponding non-tumorous pancreatic tissues (P < 0.0001). The RHAMM protein expression was higher in the vast majority of PDAC cell lines relative to the expression in HPDE. The immunohistochemical analysis revealed strong expression of RHAMM in 52 (74%) PDAC tissues. Strong expression of RHAMM was significantly associated with a shorter survival time (P = 0.038). In multivariate analysis, tumor stage (P = 0.039), residual tumor (P = 0.015), and strong RHAMM expression (P = 0.034) were independent factors predicting poor survival. Strong expression of RHAMM may predict poor survival in PDAC patients and may provide prognostic and, possibly, therapeutic value.
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Toxin-Producing Cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon gracile in Northeast Germany

ABSTRACT Neurotoxic paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins, anatoxin-a (ATX), and hepatotoxic cylindrospermopsin (CYN) have been detected in several lakes in northeast Germany during the last 2 decades. They are produced worldwide by members of the nostocalean genera Anabaena, Cylindrospermopsis, and Aphanizomenon. Although no additional sources of PSP toxins and ATX have been identified in German water bodies to date, the observed CYN concentrations cannot be produced solely by Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, the only known CYN producer in Germany. Therefore, we attempted to identify PSP toxin, ATX, and CYN producers by isolating and characterizing 92 Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, and Anabaenopsis strains from five lakes in northeast Germany. In a polyphasic approach, all strains were morphologically and phylogenetically classified and then tested for PSP toxins, ATX, and CYN by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and screened for the presence of PSP toxin- and CYN-encoding gene fragments. As demonstrated by ELISA and LC-MS, 14 Aphanizomenon gracile strains from Lakes Melang and Scharmützel produced four PSP toxin variants (gonyautoxin 5 [GTX5], decarbamoylsaxitoxin [dcSTX], saxitoxin [STX], and neosaxitoxin [NEO]). GTX5 was the most prevalent PSP toxin variant among the seven strains from Lake Scharmützel, and NEO was the most prevalent among the seven strains from Lake Melang. The sxtA gene, which is part of the saxitoxin gene cluster, was found in the 14 PSP toxin-producing A. gracile strains and in 11 non-PSP toxin-producing Aphanizomenon issatschenkoi, A. flos-aquae, Anabaena planktonica, and Anabaenopsis elenkinii strains. ATX and CYN were not detected in any of the isolated strains. This study is the first confirming the role of A. gracile as a PSP toxin producer in German water bodies.
Common Rail Direct Injection Mode of CI Engine Operation with Different Injection Strategies - A Method to Reduce Smoke and NOx Emissions Simultaneously

Compression ignition (CI) engines are most efficient and robust prime movers used in transportation, power generation applications but suffer from the problems of higher level of exhaust smoke and NOx tailpipe emissions with increased use of fossil fuels. Alternative fuel that replaces diesel and at the same time that result in lower smoke and NOx emissions is presently needed. Therefore the main aim of this experimental study is to lower the smoke and NOx emissions and to use non edible oils that replace the diesel. For this locally available honge biodiesel (BHO) and cotton seed biodiesel (BCO) were selected as alternative fuels to power CI engine operated in common rail direct injection (CRDI) mode. In the first part, optimum fuel injection timing (IT) and injection pressure (IP) for maximum engine brake thermal efficiency (BTE) was obtained. In the second part, performance, combustion and emission characteristics of the CRDI engine was studied with two different fuel injectors having 6 and 7 holes each having 0.2 mm orifice diameter. The CRDI engine results obtained were compared with the baseline date reported. The combustion chamber (CC) used for the study was toroidal re-entrant (TRCC). The experimental tests showed that BHO and BCO fuelled CRDI engine showed overall improved performance with 7 hole injector when engine was operated at optimized fuel IT of 10° before top dead centre (bTDC) and IP of 900 bar. The smoke emission reduced by 20% to 26% and NOx reduced by 16% to 20% in diesel and biodiesel powered CRDI engine as compared to conventional CI mode besides replacing diesel by biodiesel fuel (BDF).