Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complications of echinococcus cyst rupture. A study of 30 cases.

ECHINOCOCCOSIS is uncommon in the continental United States 1 ; because the disease is difficult to diagnose, the characteristic cysts of the cestode Echinococcus granulosus are often approached surgically without prior diagnosis and occasionally are ruptured. An Echinococcus cyst may be present in any organ of the body, but it is most frequently situated in the liver or the lung. 1 Rupture or incision may result in the spillage of hydatid material, ie, detached germinal layer, brood capsules, and scolices, into the peritoneal or thoracic cavities and may result in an immediate anaphylactic reaction or in the long-term development of secondary cysts in contaminated sites. 1 Several cases of traumatic or surgical rupture of hydatid cysts followed by secondary-cyst formation have been reported. 2-5 Frequently, spillage followed attempts to aspirate the cysts. Dew 6 stated that secondary-cyst formation is a common and constant risk to all patients with intra-abdominal hydatid cysts.
The Application of Negative Pressure Wound Therapy in the Treatment of Chronic Venous Leg Ulceration: Authors Experience

The aim of the study was to use negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) in patients with chronic venous leg ulceration. The authors present their experience in treatment of 15 patients whose average ulceration surface area was 62.6 cm2. In 10 patients, the ulcers healed within 6 weeks and in the remaining patients within 20 weeks. Based on the results obtained, the authors imply that NPWT is an effective method in the treatment of chronic venous leg.
Technology for agriculture: Information channels for decision making in Chamwino, Tanzania

Small scale farmers (SSFs) rely on information sources, which range from traditional means to modern information channels. This research explores the current decision making and information gaining mechanisms of small scale farmers in Chamwino District, Tanzania, where small scale farmers are experiencing low productivity, lack of infrastructures, and malnutrition. In-depth focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted with a total of 94 participants. The interviews were built around several themes (crop farming activities, types of information sources, decision making processes) divided between the farming seasons (pre-farming, tilling, weeding, post-weeding, harvesting, post-harvesting). Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. The results reveal a number of contextual challenges in small scale farming. The analysis suggests a number of engineering solutions to address the identified challenges.
Religion and development: subjecting religious perceptions and organisations to scrutiny

Writing on the relationships between religion and development has blossomed in the last decade or so, after years of relative neglect. Like any field of social enquiry that is both underdeveloped and closely linked to the interests of advocates and practitioners, the work available to date has encountered various pitfalls. These are outlined, to pinpoint the contribution that this special issue makes to the rapidly-evolving body of research on religion in the context of development. The paper then provides an editorial overview of the themes and papers in the special issue, which includes both research-based articles and practical notes. Religion et développement : examiner de près les perceptions et les organisations religieuses Après des années d'oubli relatif, les rapports entre la religion et le développement ont suscité une quantité croissante d'écrits durant les dix dernières années. À l'instar de tout domaine d'étude sociale qui est à la fois sous-développé et étroitement lié aux intérêts des défenseurs et des praticiens, les travaux disponibles à ce jour se sont heurtés à diverses embûches. Ils sont décrits ici, pour indiquer la contribution que ce numéro spécial apporte au corps de recherches en évolution rapide sur la religion dans le contexte du développement. Cet article présente ensuite un aperçu éditorial des thèmes et des documents du numéro spécial, lequel englobe des articles basés sur des recherches, ainsi que des notes pratiques. Religião e desenvolvimento: sujeitando as percepções e organizações religiosas a um exame detalhado Textos sobre as relações entre religião e desenvolvimento vêm surgindo na última década ou algo em torno disto, após anos de relativa negligência. Como em qualquer área de investigação social que é subdesenvolvida e está intimamente ligada aos interesses de defensores e praticantes, o trabalho disponível até o momento tem encontrado várias armadilhas. Estas armadilhas são apresentadas, para apontar a contribuição que esta edição especial oferece ao órgão de pesquisa que está rapidamente evoluindo sobre religião no contexto de desenvolvimento. O artigo, então, oferece uma visão geral editorial dos temas e artigos na edição especial, que inclui artigos baseados em pesquisa e notas práticas. Religión y desarrollo: evaluando percepciones y organizaciones religiosas Tras años de relativo desinterés, en la última década se ha escrito mucho sobre la relación entre religión y desarrollo. Como cualquier área de investigación social que ha sido poco estudiada pero que está estrechamente vinculada a los intereses de sus defensores y de quienes trabajan en el tema, los estudios realizados hasta el momento se han enfrentado con varios escollos. Estos se describen en el presente número especial como una contribución a las investigaciones en rápida evolución sobre la religión en el contexto del desarrollo. Esta introducción también ofrece una perspectiva general de los temas y los ensayos que contiene este número especial, los cuales abarcan tanto artículos académicos como notas prácticas.
Cooperation, Competition and Altruism Among Schoolchildren in Zambia

Abstract Partant de l'hypothese que l'Africain traditionnel est plus cooperatif que l'Europeen ou le Nord-Americain - la societe occidentale orientant vers des conduites competitives - l'auteur propose a quarante garcons zambiens et quarante garcons blancs le jeu du Dilemme du Prisonnier ct un second jeu o[ugrave] chaque enfant possede le controle total du gain relatif apparent de son adversaire. Le plan experimental de type factoriel 2 × 2 × 2 utilise les variables suivantes: groupe ethnico-racial du sujet, groupe ethnico-racial de l'adversaire ainsi que deux niveaux d'apparente cooperation de l'opposant. Aucun des effets principaux ni des interactions ne fut significatif. La variance des groupes zambiens apparut significativement plus grande que celle des groupes americains-europeens dans le jeu du Dilemme du Prisonnier et surtout dans le cas d'un partenaire cooperatif. L'esprit de competition s'avera tres eleve dans tous les groupes et des experiences complementaires ne purent reveler beaucoup d'altruisme.
Controller design for systems with state constraints

For nonlinear systems affine in the control, controller design is considered with constraints on state variables. A change of variables is proposed to establish the diffeomorphism between the constrained domain in the original coordinates and the whole state space in the new coordinates. The introduction of the diffeomorphism eliminates the constraints on state variables for the transformed systems, and attention can simply be focused on the global controller design of the transformed systems. The proposed general theory is applied to two special cases for which respective applications are given.
Suppression of Interface State Generation in Si MOSFETs with Biaxial Tensile Strain

In this letter, we experimentally investigate the interface state generation behaviors in biaxial tensile strained-Si (s-Si) MOSFETs. It is found that s-Si MOSFETs exhibit a much smaller interface state generation rate than bulk-Si MOSFETs, under the same gate current. Our results show that such robustness of the s-Si MOS interface cannot be explained by the decrease in the substrate hole current flowing through the SiO2/Si interface, which has widely been recognized as an origin of the interface state generation. Our results indicate that the mechanism may be attributed to the smaller SiO2/Si interface roughness in s-Si devices, which has previously been reported.
Individual differences in RAN and reading: A response timing analysis.

Thirty 8–11-year-old children were administered tests of rapid naming (RAN letters and digits) and reading-related skills. Consistent with the hypothesis that RAN predicts reading because it assesses the ability to establish arbitrary mappings between visual symbols and verbal labels, RAN accounted for independent variance in exception word reading when phonological skills were controlled. Response timing analysis of different components of RAN digits and letters revealed that neither average item duration nor average pause duration were unique predictors of reading skill. However, the number of pauses on digit naming predicted unique variance in exception word reading. Moreover, better readers paused more strategically than poorer readers (e.g. more often at the ends of lines). We suggest that rapid automatised naming may in part reflect differences in strategic control that are a result of differences in reading practice and experience.
Compositional Stability of the Bacterial Community in a Climate-Sensitive Sub-Arctic Peatland

The climate sensitivity of microbe-mediated soil processes such as carbon and nitrogen cycling offers an interesting case for evaluating the corresponding sensitivity of microbial community composition to environmental change. Better understanding of the degree of linkage between functional and compositional stability would contribute to ongoing efforts to build mechanistic models aiming at predicting rates of microbe-mediated processes. We used an amplicon sequencing approach to test if previously observed large effects of experimental soil warming on C and N cycle fluxes (50–100% increases) in a sub-arctic Sphagnum peatland were reflected in changes in the composition of the soil bacterial community. We found that treatments that previously induced changes to fluxes did not associate with changes in the phylogenetic composition of the soil bacterial community. For both DNA- and RNA-based analyses, variation in bacterial communities could be explained by the hierarchy: spatial variation (12–15% of variance explained) > temporal variation (7–11%) > climate treatment (4–9%). We conclude that the bacterial community in this environment is stable under changing conditions, despite the previously observed sensitivity of process rates—evidence that microbe-mediated soil processes can alter without concomitant changes in bacterial communities. We propose that progress in linking soil microbial communities to ecosystem processes can be advanced by further investigating the relative importance of community composition effects versus physico-chemical factors in controlling biogeochemical process rates in different contexts.
Increased lung neutrophil apoptosis and inflammation resolution in nonresponding pneumonia

Neutrophil activation state and its relationship with an inflammatory environment in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remain insufficiently elucidated. We aimed to evaluate the neutrophil apoptosis and cytokine pattern in CAP patients after 72 h of treatment, and their impact on infection resolution. Apoptosis of blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) neutrophils was measured in nonresponding CAP (NCAP), in responding CAP (blood only) and in patients without infection (control). Pro-inflammatory (interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8) and anti-inflammatory (IL-10) cytokines were measured. Main outcomes were clinical stability and days of hospitalisation. Basal neutrophil apoptosis was higher in the BAL and blood of NCAP, whereas spontaneous apoptosis (after 24 h culture) was lower. Cytokines in NCAP were higher than in responding CAP and control: IL-6 was increased in BAL and blood, IL-8 in BAL and IL-10 in blood. An increased basal apoptosis (≥20%) in BAL of NCAP was associated with lower systemic IL-10 (p<0.01), earlier clinical stability (p=0.05) and shorter hospital stay (p=0.02). A significant correlation was found for systemic IL-6 and IL-10 with days to reach stability and length of stay. After 72 h of treatment, an increased basal alveolar neutrophil apoptosis might contribute to downregulation of inflammation and to faster clinical stability.
Sulfonylurea Receptor Type 1 Knock-out Mice Have Intact Feeding-stimulated Insulin Secretion despite Marked Impairment in Their Response to Glucose*

The ATP-sensitive potassium channel is a key molecular complex for glucose-stimulated insulin secretion in pancreatic β cells. In humans, mutations in either of the two subunits for this channel, the sulfonylurea type 1 receptor (Sur1) or Kir6.2, cause persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia of infancy. We have generated and characterized Sur1 null mice. Interestingly, these animals remain euglycemic for a large portion of their life despite constant depolarization of membrane, elevated cytoplasmic free Ca2+ concentrations, and intact sensitivity of the exocytotic machinery to Ca2+. A comparison of glucose- and meal-stimulated insulin secretion showed that, although Sur1 null mice do not secrete insulin in response to glucose, they secrete nearly normal amounts of insulin in response to feeding. Because Sur1 null mice lack an insulin secretory response to GLP-1, even though their islets exhibit a normal rise in cAMP by GLP-1, we tested their response to cholinergic stimulation. We found that perfused Sur1 null pancreata secreted insulin in response to the cholinergic agonist carbachol in a glucose-dependent manner. Together, these findings suggest that cholinergic stimulation is one of the mechanisms that compensate for the severely impaired response to glucose and GLP-1 brought on by the absence of Sur1, thereby allowing euglycemia to be maintained.
Comparison of acute leukemia Image segmentation using HSI and RGB color space

The Image segmentation plays an important role in computer vision and image processing areas. In this paper, the use of color segmentation for segmenting acute leukemia images is proposed. The segmentation technique segments each leukemia image into two regions: blast and background. In our approach, the segmentation is based on HSI and RGB color space. The performance comparison between the segmentation algorithms based on HSI and RGB color space is carried out to choose a better color image segmentation for blast detection. The results show that the proposed segmentation technique based on HSI has successfully segmented the acute leukemia images while preserving significant features and removing background noise.
Training attentional control in older adults

ABSTRACT Recent research has demonstrated benefits for older adults from training attentional control using a variable priority strategy, but the construct validity of the training task and the degree to which benefits of training transfer to other contexts are unclear. The goal of this study was to characterize baseline performance on the training task in a sample of 105 healthy older adults and to test for transfer of training in a subset (n = 21). Training gains after 5 days and extent of transfer was compared to another subset (n = 20) that served as a control group. Baseline performance on the training task was characterized by a two-factor model of working memory and processing speed. Processing speed correlated with the training task. Training gains in speed and accuracy were reliable and robust (ps <.001, η2 = .57 to .90). Transfer to an analogous task was observed (ps <.05, η2 = .10 to .17). The beneficial effect of training did not translate to improved performance on related measures of processing speed. This study highlights the robust effect of training and transfer to a similar context using a variable priority training task. Although processing speed is an important aspect of the training task, training benefit is either related to an untested aspect of the training task or transfer of training is limited to the training context.
Industrial Man: The Relation of Status to Experience, Perception, and Value

Perceptions, attitudes, and values relating to a wide range of situations are shown to be systematically ordered in modern societies. The average proportion of persons holding a particular view may be dintinctive of a given country, but within all modern societies the order or structure of response is the same, following the typical status ladders of occupation, income, and education. The findings support the theory that the standard institutional environments of modern society induce standard patterns of response, despite the countervailing randomizing effects of persisting traditional patterns of culture.
Semantic Satiation and Generalization

Lamben and Jakobovits ( 1960), comparing preand post-satiation ratings on the semantic differential, found that a word appears to lose some of its connotative meaning when it is continuously repeated aloud for 15 sec. Such a loss of meaning is known as semantic satiation. T h e present study partially replicated their study and tested for the generalization of the satiation effect to a semantically similar word. Twenty undergraduate Ss initially rated 18 words on six semantic differential scales. These 18 words consisted of 6 basic words, e.g., style; 6 generalization words which are semantically related to the basic words, e.g., fashion; and 6 control words which have no apparent semantic relationship to either the basic or generalization words, e.g., ocean. Immediately after the initial ratings had been obtained, Ss again rated the same 18 words on the same six scales, this time under satiation conditions. Following continuous repetition of a basic word for a 15-sec. period, each S rated either a basic, generalization, or control word on one semantic scale. This procedure was repeated until all 1 8 words had been rated on each of the six scales. Throughout the experiment, words and scales were presented individually to S on 3x 5-in. cards in a random, predetermined order. Polarity difference scores (difference between preand post-satiation ratings) were obtained and differences in rating change for the three types of words were tested by analysis of variance. N o significant differences between pre -and post-satiation ratings were obtained for any of the words. Our failure co replicate Larnbert and Jakobovits' (1960) basic findings is in substantial agreement with other recent reports (Yelen & Schulz, 1962; Floyd, 1962). The failure to obtain satiation effects in these studies clearly shows that we d o not know the necessary conditions for producing semantic satiation using the semantic differential technique.
Does speech prosody matter in health communication? : evidence from native and non-native English speaking medical students in a simulated clinical interaction

The impact of the UK’s multilingual and multicultural society today can be seen in its healthcare services and have contributed towards shaping communication skills training as a core part of the UK undergraduate medical curriculum. NHS complaints statistics involving perceived staff attitudes have remained high, despite extensive communication skills training. Furthermore, foreign doctors have received a higher proportion of complaints than UK doctors. Finally, how linguistic and social factors shape the conveyance and perception of attitudes related to professionalism in medical communication remains poorly understood. The ultimate aim of this study was to ascertain if speech prosody contributes to the perception of professionalism in medical communication. Research questions on the role of speech prosody in conveying professional attitudes in medical communication, the prosodic differences between native and non-native English speaking medical students in a simulated clinical interaction, and the influence of prosodic features on listeners’ perceptions of professional attitudes were addressed. A set of acoustic parameters representing the speech prosody of native and non-native medical students in the simulated clinical setting was analysed. A perceptual experiment was then carried out to investigate the factors affecting perceived professionalism in extracts of the analysed simulated clinical interaction. The examined acoustic parameters were found to be sensitive to the English language background and the task within the simulated consultation. Interestingly, the attitudinal information associated with some of these acoustic parameters were perceived by listeners and were reflected by higher professional scale scores in the perceptual experiment, even after adjusting for the English language background. The factors of training level and consultation task also emerged to be affecting professional scale scores. Initial findings have confirmed that speech prosody plays a role in terms of contributing towards the perception of professionalism in medical communication. Incorporating how messages are delivered to patients into current models of communication skills training may have positive outcomes.
Structured Brief Therapy with a Focus on Dreams or Loss for Clients with Troubling Dreams and Recent Loss.

The authors tested whether a focus on dreams added something specific to the therapy process beyond the structure of a 3-stage approach. Fourteen distressed clients with troubling dreams and recent loss of a loved one participated in brief structured therapy focused on dreams or loss. After therapy, clients in both conditions reported being satisfied with therapy, having lowered impact of the loss, gaining new insights about themselves, and having made changes. In addition, clients in the dream condition rated the process of therapy higher, became involved in the therapeutic process more quickly, gained more understanding of their dreams, liked the structure of therapy more, and kept fewer secrets from their therapists than clients in the loss condition. In contrast, clients in the loss condition gained more insight about the effects of the past and their loss and liked therapist guidance more than clients in the dream condition.
Could plasma sphingolipids be diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease?

Abstract Understanding the etiopathological processes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the preclinical and early clinical stages will be important in developing new therapeutic targets and biomarkers. There is growing consensus that nonamyloid targets will be necessary to reverse or slow AD progression. Lipidomic, metabolomic and targeted approaches have identified pathways and products of sphingolipid metabolism that are altered early in the course of AD and contribute to the neuropathological alterations associated with AD, including amyloid-b production, tau formation and neurodegeneration. In this article, we briefly review the current literature on the role of sphingolipids in the underlying pathophysiology of AD, and then discuss the current state of translating these findings to clinical populations and the potential utility of plasma sphingolipids as diagnostic and/or prognostic indicators of AD.