Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The incidence of nosocomial infections in patients with isolated severe traumatic brain injury

Introduction: Traumatic brain injury is the leading cause of death in children and adults in developed countries. Severe traumatic brain injury is classified with Glasgow Coma Scale score 8 and less. About 50% of patients with severe traumatic brain injury developes at least one infection as a complication of primary condition during hospitalization in the Intensive Care Unit, resulting with fatal outcome in 28% of patients. Ventilator — associated pneumonia is the leading infection that affects patients with severe traumatic brain injury, with an incidence between 41% and 74%. Following are sepsis and urinary tract infections. The aim: To analyze the number of patients with nosocomial infection and isolated severe traumatic brain injury hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Croatia, from 31st January 2013 to 31st December 2014. Patients and methods: A two–year retrospective study included 46 patients with isolated severe traumatic brain injury and nosocomial infection hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit of the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Croatia, in the period from 31st January 2013 to31st December2014. All medical data was collected from the Division of Intensive Care Unit, Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka, Croatia. Results: From 67 patients with isolated severe traumatic brain injury, 46 (68, 65%) of them developed nosocomial infection. There was statistically significant more male patients than female (p<0.05). The average age of infected patients was 57, 8 years. The leading were the infections of the respiratory system. Gram–negative bacteria Proteus mirabilis and Pseudomonas aerugnonsa were the leading pathogens. The average duration of the infection was 5, 77 day. Duration of mechanical ventilation accounted for the majority of the patients more than 10 days.The average duration of treatment for all 46 patients was 10, 475 days, and for 16 (34, 78%) of them, the treatment outcome was lethal. Conclusion: Nosocomial infections are becoming a major public health problem. The emphasis must be set on the prevention which includes maintaining the hygiene and the antiseptic rules among the medical personnel of the Intensive Care Unit. Already developed infections must be adequately treated so the negative treatment outcomes can be reduced.
Coupling integrable field theories to mechanical systems at the boundary

We present an integrable Hamiltonian which describes the sinh-Gordon model on the half line coupled to a non-linear oscillator at the boundary. We explain how we apply Sklyanin's formalism to a dynamical reflection matrix to obtain this model. This method can be applied to couple other integrable field theories to dynamical systems at the boundary. We also show how to find the dynamical solution of the quantum reflection equation corresponding to our particular example.
Unbiased metabolite profiling indicates that a diminished thymidine pool is the underlying mechanism of colon cancer chemoprevention by alpha-difluoromethylornithine.

UNLABELLED The ornithine decarboxylase inhibitor α-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) is a highly effective chemopreventive agent for colorectal cancer thought to act via polyamine depletion. However, in DFMO-treated patients, mucosal polyamine levels do not directly correlate with colorectal cancer risk. Untargeted metabolite profiling was used to broadly survey DFMO actions on colon cancer cell metabolism. We found that DFMO treatment of Apc(Min) intestinal tumors and human colorectal cancer cells is associated with reduced levels of folate-dependent metabolites, including S-adenosylmethionine (SAM), thymidine pools, and related pathway intermediates. We hypothesized that unrestrained SAM consumption/regeneration constitutes a futile DFMO-triggered cascade that can steal tetrahydrofolate from thymidylate synthase and thereby diminish thymidine pools. In accord with this hypothesis, DFMO treatment altered the folate cofactor balance and thymidine supplementation prevented DFMO-elicited cytostasis without restoring polyamine levels. These findings suggest that thymidine metabolite pool insufficiency is a fundamental mechanism of DFMO cytostatic activity. SIGNIFICANCE A previously unappreciated metabolic linkage between polyamine and thymidine biosynthesis is revealed, based on the competing requirement of these pathways for a limited pool of tetrahydrofolate cofactor. This study identifies the fi rst shared mechanism for colorectal cancer chemoprevention and chemotherapy, suggesting a common metabolic target for both premalignant and malignant colon cells.
Potential Antibacterial Activity of Carvacrol-Loaded Poly(DL-lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) Nanoparticles against Microbial Biofilm

The ability to form biofilms contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of many microbial infections, including a variety of ocular diseases often associated with the biofilm formation on foreign materials. Carvacrol (Car.) is an important component of essential oils and recently has attracted much attention pursuant to its ability to promote microbial biofilm disruption. In the present study Car. has been encapsulated in poly(dl-lactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) nanocapsules in order to obtain a suitable drug delivery system that could represent a starting point for developing new therapeutic strategies against biofilm-associated infections, such as improving the drug effect by associating an antimicrobial agent with a biofilm viscoelasticity modifier.
On-line estimation of the metabolic burden resulting from the synthesis of plasmid-encoded and heat-shock proteins by monitoring respiratory energy generation.

Human basic fibroblast growth factor (hFGF-2) was produced in high-cell density cultures of recombinant Escherichia coli using a temperature-inducible expression system. The synthesis rates of proteins were followed by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis of the (35)S-methionine-labeled proteom. After temperature induction of hFGF-2 synthesis, the rate of total protein synthesis per biomass increased by a factor of three, mainly as a result of the additional synthesis of hFGF-2 and heat-shock proteins. The synthesis rates of heat-shock proteins and constitutive plasmid-encoded proteins increased after the temperature upshift also in the control strain without hFGF-2 gene but followed time profiles different from the producing strain. The energy demand for the extra synthesis of plasmid-encoded and heat-shock proteins resulted in an elevated respiratory activity and, consequently, in a reduction of the growth rate and the biomass yield. A procedure was developed to relate the energy demand for the additional synthesis of these proteins to the generation of energy in the respiratory pathway. Specific energy production was estimated based on on-line measurable rates of oxygen consumption, or carbondioxide evolution and growth, respectively. In this way, the metabolic burden resulting from the synthesis of plasmid-encoded and heat-shock proteins was quantified from on-line accessible data.
Time course of molecular responses of human skeletal muscle to acute bouts of resistance exercise

Resistance exercise (RE) training, designed to induce hypertrophy, strives for optimal activation of anabolic and myogenic mechanisms to increase myofiber size. Clearly, activation of these mechanisms must precede skeletal muscle growth. Most mechanistic studies of RE have involved analysis of outcome variables after many training sessions. This study measured molecular level responses to RE on a scale of hours to establish a time course for the activation of myogenic mechanisms. Muscle biopsy samples were collected from nine subjects before and after acute bouts of RE. The response to a single bout was assessed at 12 and 24 h post‐exercise. Further samples were obtained 24 and 72 h after a second exercise bout. RE was induced by neuromuscular electrical stimulation to generate maximal isometric contractions in the muscle of interest. A single RE bout resulted in increased levels of mRNA for IGF binding protein‐4 (84%), MyoD (83%), myogenin (approximately threefold), cyclin D1 (50%), and p21‐Waf1 (16‐fold), and a transient decrease in IGF‐I mRNA (46%). A temporally conserved, significant correlation between myogenin and p21 mRNA was observed (r=0.70, P
Recreational Specialization: A Critical Look at the Construct

Recreational specialization has generally been treated by leisure researchers as a measure of intensity of involvement and has been used to explore variation among activity participants in terms of their preferences, motivations, attitudes, and the like. A close look at Bryan's (1977, 1979) original writings, however, reveals that he regarded specialization foremost as a developmental process that entails a progression in behavior, attitudes, and preferences. In this paper, we examine how researchers might go about examining recreational specialization as a developmental process. We envisage specialization as a progression in behaviors, skills, and commitment. We also describe progression in terms of stages of involvement, career changes, and turning points. Findings from various studies, however, suggest that progression is not a typical career path pursued by recreation participants. Indeed, progression may well be the least common trajectory among recreation participants. To better understand the dynamics of progression, we examine a variety of individual and socio-cultural factors and events that are likely to facilitate or impede people's movement along the specialization continuum over time. We conclude the paper with suggestions for future research.
A model for tunneling-limited breakdown in high-power HEMTs

We present a new predictive model for off-state breakdown in InAlAs/InGaAs and AlGaAs/InGaAs power high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). The proposed model suggests that electron tunneling from the gate edge, and not impact ionization, is responsible for off-state breakdown in these devices. The model indicates that the crucial variables in determining the off-state breakdown voltage of power HEMTs are the sheet carrier concentration in the extrinsic gate-drain region, and the gate Schottky barrier height. Other design parameters have only secondary impact on the breakdown voltage for realistic device designs.
Data and text mining RelEx — Relation extraction using dependency parse trees

Motivation: The discovery of regulatory pathways, signal cascades, metabolic processes or diseasemodels requires knowledge on individual relations like e.g. physical or regulatory interactions between genes and proteins. Most interactions mentioned in the free text of biomedical publications are not yet contained in structured databases. Results: We developed RelEx, an approach for relation extraction from free text. It is based on natural language preprocessing producing dependency parse trees and applying a small number of simple rules to these trees. We applied RelEx on a comprehensive set of one million MEDLINE abstracts dealing with gene and protein relations and extracted ~150000 relations with an estimated perfomance of both 80% precision and 80% recall. Availability: The used natural language preprocessing tools are free for use for academic research. Test sets and relation term lists are available from our website (http://www.bio.ifi.lmu.de/publications/RelEx/). Contact: katrin.fundel@bio.ifi.lmu.de
Chronic Myeloid Leukemia with e19a2 BCR-ABL1 Transcripts and Marked Thrombocytosis: The Role of Molecular Monitoring

While most patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) express either e13a2 or e14a2 BCR-ABL1 transcripts, a significant minority expresses variant transcripts, of which e19a2 is the most common. Although considered to have a relatively favourable outcome, reported responses to tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) therapy are variable with molecular monitoring in CML patients with e19a2 BCR-ABL1 transcripts rarely reported. A case of e19a2 BCR-ABL1 CML with marked thrombocytosis is described in which the value of molecular monitoring is emphasised during treatment interruptions, dose reductions, and changes. This case serves to demonstrate the requirement for prospective real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) assays for patients with variant BCR-ABL1 transcript types and standardisation of such assays to enable modern patient management.
A population-based follow-up study on gallstone disease among type 2 diabetics in Kinmen, Taiwan.

AIM To assess the incidence of and risk factors for gallstone disease (GSD) among type 2 diabetics in Kinmen, Taiwan. METHODS A screening program for GSD was performed by two specialists who employed real-time abdominal ultrasound to examine the abdominal region after patients had fasted for at least eight hours. Screening, which was conducted in 2001, involved 848 patients diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. After exclusion of 63 subjects with prevalent GSD, 377 participants without GSD were invited in 2002 for a second round of screening. A total of 281 (74.5%) subjects were re-examined. RESULTS Among the 281 type 2 diabetics who had no GSD at the first screening, 10 had developed GSD by 2002. The incidence was 3.56% per year (95% CI: 1.78% per year-6.24% per year). Using a Cox regression model, age (RR = 1.07, 95% CI: 1.00-1.14), waist circumference (RR = 1.12, 95% CI: 1.01-1.29), and ALT (RR = 1.13, 95%CI: 1.01-1.26) appeared to be significantly correlated with development of GSD. CONCLUSION Older age is a known risk factor for the development of GSD. Our study shows that greater waist circumference and elevated ALT levels are also associated with the development of GSD among type 2 diabetics in Kinmen.
Purification, Preliminary Characterization, and Immunological Activity of Polysaccharides from Crude Drugs of Sijunzi Formula

Sijunzi Decoction (SJZD) is a conventional prescription for curing spleen deficiency in Traditional Chinese Medicine and polysaccharide is its main ingredient. In order to explore the effective ingredients contributing to the immunological activity of SJZD, we isolated and purified seven homogeneous polysaccharides from Radix Ginseng (RS-3-1 and RS-3-2), Rhizoma Atractylodis Macrocephalae (BZ-3-1, BZ-3-2, and BZ-3-3), Poria (FL-3-1), and Radix Glycyrrhizae (GC-3-1) decoctions, respectively. The molecular weight of seven homogeneous polysaccharides ranged from 5.42 × 104 to 5.65 × 104 Da. Monosaccharide composition determined by GC-MS analysis showed that these polysaccharides were primarily composed of Rha, Ara, Xyl, Man, Glc, and Gal with various ratios. Immunological activity assay revealed that polysaccharides from four crude drug components of SJZD displayed inhibitory effects on the complement system. RS-3-1, BZ-3-1, FL-3-1, and GC-3-1 could significantly enhance the phagocytosis and increase the NO production and tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α) level in RAW 264.7 cells (p < 0.05). These results demonstrated the immunological activities of these polysaccharides from the four crude drugs. This study supports the therapeutic effect of SJZD in clinical use and is essential for further identification the immunopolysaccharide from SJZD decoction.
Statistics and the media: A statistician’s view

How should statisticians interact with journalists? The author, an academic statistician, has worked with journalists in several ways over the years. The article explores the many-sided relationship between scientists, journalists and the public, from the point of view of the statisticians involved. One pessimistic view of the role of numbers in news is that they are there largely for rhetorical reasons, to increase the credibility and authority of a story. The author would not subscribe to that view, but it does point to a potential need to educate readers as well as journalists in dealing with numbers, and the article briefly discusses a checklist intended to help the consumers of media stories about risks to choose what to ignore. The article concludes by presenting some reasons for being optimistic about the position of statistics in journalism.
Correction: Ammonia Oxidizers in a Pilot-Scale Multilayer Rapid Infiltration System for Domestic Wastewater Treatment

A pilot-scale multilayer rapid infiltration system (MRIS) for domestic wastewater treatment was established and efficient removal of ammonia and chemical oxygen demand (COD) was achieved in this study. The microbial community composition and abundance of ammonia oxidizers were investigated. Efficient biofilms of ammonia oxidizers in the stationary phase (packing material) was formed successfully in the MRIS without special inoculation. DGGE and phylogenetic analyses revealed that proteobacteria dominated in the MRIS. Relative abundance of ammonia-oxidizing archaea (AOA) and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) showed contrary tendency. In the flowing phase (water effluent), AOA diversity was significantly correlated with the concentration of dissolve oxygen (DO), NO3-N and NH3-N. AOB abundance was significantly correlated with the concentration of DO and chemical oxygen demand (COD). NH3-N and COD were identified as the key factors to shape AOB community structure, while no variable significantly correlated with that of AOA. AOA might play an important role in the MRIS. This study could reveal key environmental factors affecting the community composition and abundance of ammonia oxidizers in the MRIS.
Generative Leadership: Shaping New Futures for Today's Schools

Foreword by Senator John H. Glenn Preface Acknowledgments About the Authors Prologue 1. Generativity: The First Foundational Element Why Generative Leadership? Like Clockwork Atoms and Organizations Social Science Roots An Appreciative Eye Lessons From Science Defining Generativity 2. Living Systems: The Second Foundational Element Early Developments Enter the Engineers Feedback: The Missing Loops Complex Systems, Simple Models Lessons From Nature Attributes of Living Systems What School Leaders Can Learn 3. The Brain/Mind System: The Third Foundational Element Natural Learning How Learning Correlates to Structure Brain/Mind Basics Teaching, Learning, and Leading Implications for Leaders 4. Generative School Leadership Expanding Possibilities The Look and Feel of Generativity A Lens on Learning Leadership Modalities A Developmental Continuum The Leader's Role The Leader's Journey Situational Assessments 10 Operational Indicators 5. Putting Ideas Into Action: Methods and Practices to Develop Generativity The Power of Authentic Conversation Ancient Lessons Circles at School World Cafe Appreciative Inquiry A Quick Comparison Getting Started The U-Process 6. Catalysts for Growth: Tools and Resources for the Generative School Leader How to Use Chapter 6 Both/And Viewfinder Unpacking the Six Hallmarks The Modality Matrix Critical Visioning Web and Waterfall The Brain Learning Cycle Brain/Mind Principles and Capacities Wheels Generativity, Living Systems and Brain/Mind Learning: The Processes and Procedures Lens From the Authors' Bookshelves Resources References Index
Sexual distractors boost younger and older adults' visual search RSVP performance.

Do sexual words have high attentional priority? How does the ability to ignore sexual distractors evolve with age? To answer these questions, two experiments using Rapid Serial Visual Presentation (RSVP) were conducted. Experiment 1 showed that both younger and older participants were better at identifying a target (the name of a colour) when it was preceded by 336 ms by a sexual word rather than by a musical word. Strikingly, the sexual-word advantage was more pronounced for older adults than for younger adults. Experiment 2 showed that introducing a variable delay between the distractor and the target eliminated the sexual-word advantage. This finding suggests that the sexual-word advantage found in Experiment 1 was due to learning to utilize the sexual word as a temporal cue with a fixed duration between the distractor and the target. Contrary to previous research [Arnell et al., 2007, Emotion, 7, 465), neither experiment showed that sexual words produce an attentional blink.
Factors Affecting Soil Fauna Feeding Activity in a Fragmented Lowland Temperate Deciduous Woodland

British temperate broadleaf woodlands have been widely fragmented since the advent of modern agriculture and development. As a result, a higher proportion of woodland area is now subject to edge effects which can alter the efficiency of ecosystem functions. These areas are particularly sensitive to drought. Decomposition of detritus and nutrient cycling are driven by soil microbe and fauna coactivity. The bait lamina assay was used to assess soil fauna trophic activity in the upper soil horizons at five sites in Wytham Woods, Oxfordshire: two edge, two intermediate and one core site. Faunal trophic activity was highest in the core of the woodland, and lowest at the edge, which was correlated with a decreasing soil moisture gradient. The efficiency of the assay was tested using four different bait flavours: standardised, ash (Fraxinus excelsior L.), oak (Quercus robur L.), and sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus L.). The standardised bait proved the most efficient flavour in terms of feeding activity. This study suggests that decomposition and nutrient cycling may be compromised in many of the UK's small, fragmented woodlands in the event of drought or climate change.
Non-relativistic strings in expanding spacetime

We obtain a non-relativistic diffeomorphism invariant string action as a special limit of the Nambu–Goto action in a FLRW background. We use this action to study non-relativistic string dynamics in an expanding universe and construct an analytic model describing the macroscopic properties of non-relativistic string networks. The non-relativistic constraint equations allow arbitrarily small string velocities and thus a ‘frustrated’ equation of state for non-interacting strings can be obtained without the need of a velocity damping mechanism. Assuming that colliding string segments reconnect by the exchange of partners, non-relativistic string networks exhibit scaling behaviour, but with enhanced energy densities due to the smaller average string velocity. Non-relativistic string networks can be relevant in several contexts in condensed matter physics and cosmology.
Quantitative regional brain water measurement with magnetic resonance imaging in a focal ischemia model

Therapeutic approaches to cerebral edema require an understanding of both the magnitude and location of changes in brain water content. It is desirable to have a sensitive, accurate means of measuring brain water noninvasively so that effective therapies for cerebral edema in stroke, head trauma, and other conditions can be investigated. In this work, a three‐dimensional magnetic resonance imaging technique that is able to provide both spin density and T1 simultaneously is described. This method was used to quantitate regional changes in brain water content in a rat model of focal cerebral ischemia. Brain water contents estimated from both relative spin density and relative T1 measurements made in vivo were compared with ex vivo measurements of relative tissue water content based on the wet‐dry technique. Correlation coefficients of 0.95 and 0.98 were obtained between the wet‐dry measurements and magnetic resonance measurements of T1 and spin density, respectively. Notably, the slope of the relationship between T1 and tissue water content changed dramatically after the injection of a paramagnetic contrast agent while precontrast and postcontrast spin density measurements remained essentially invariant. In addition, a plot of absolute spin density (obtained by normalizing spin density from agar gelatin phantoms of different water contents to the spin density of a sample of 100% water) was linearly related to wet‐dry measurements with a slope of 0.99 (R2 = 0.99).