Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intracranial bleeding rates associated with two methods of external ventricular drainage

We investigated the risk of intracranial haemorrhage with two frequently performed methods of external ventricular drainage (EVD). Haemorrhage is believed to be a rare complication of such procedures, although in most studies reported in the literature standardised evaluation of computed tomography (CT) scans was not performed in all cases. Data were analysed retrospectively for 82 patients who had undergone percutaneous needle trephination and 92 who had undergone classic ventriculostomy. We found an overall bleeding risk with EVD of 9.4%. Most haematomas were small, and only one caused neurological symptoms. Therefore, the risk of symptomatic haemorrhage in this study was low (0.5%). Percutaneous needle trephination was associated with a higher risk of haemorrhage (12.2%) than classic ventriculostomy (6.5%), although differences were not statistically significant. We conclude from our results that small asymptomatic haemorrhages occur far more often after EVD than has generally been suspected. To compare the true risk of bleeding associated with different drainage methods requires controlled studies in which CT scans are evaluated in a standardised way.
Treatment planning for MRI‐guided laser‐induced interstitial thermotherapy of brain tumors—The role of blood perfusion

MR techniques have been demonstrated to allow a reliable monitoring of laser‐induced interstitial thermotherapy (LITT). However, an adequate on‐line control of this coagulation technique requires an exact therapy planning. The latter is mandatory to interpret the MR‐monitoring data correctly to guarantee a precise laser irradiation. Moreover, it is a prerequisite for online decisions if modifications of the therapeutic regimen are required. In this work, we present a new simulation technique for LITT planning. The model accounts for the specific geometry of the treatment site, the exact configuration of the applicator, and the optical and thermal properties of the tissue, including changes during the heating process. The simulation results were compared with MR scans of laser‐induced lesions in three patients with World Health Organization (WHO) grade II astrocytoma. Special interest was directed toward the role of blood perfusion, which was studied parametrically. Good agreement between the simulation results and the MR data was found if the appropriate blood perfusion rates were taken into account. Thus, the model can generate valid therapy plans allowing a precise on‐line control of laser irradiation using MR techniques. Neglecting adequate perfusion parameters resulted in substantial errors with respect to the prediction of the final laser lesion.
Nurses' knowledge of mouth care practices.

AIM to assess nurses' knowledge and practices concerning oral care on surgical and medical wards in a district general hospital in Ireland. METHODS a survey of all qualified nurses on three medical and three surgical wards was carried out. Two hundred questionnaires were distributed and 50 were returned with 43 of these rendered useable. RESULTS the majority of nurses (90%) viewed oral care as an important aspect of nursing care. However, nurses lacked adequate knowledge of oral care practices, and experienced problems attending to oral care as a result of time constraints, lack of oral care packs, patients being confused or uncooperative, lack of toothpaste and toothbrush, limited education and low status attached to oral care. Although most nurses (over 70%) had received education on oral care, this was of short duration. Sixty-four per cent did not use an assessment tool to measure the condition of the patient's oral cavity, while 73% believed that an assessment tool would be important to measure a baseline of the condition of the patient's oral cavity. CONCLUSION although oral care is an essential component of quality nursing care, it appears to be given low priority by some nurses. This study indicates the need for educational updates for qualified nurses, adequate supply of oral care equipment and promotion of formal assessment tools usage in the hospital setting.
Building a Definition of Irritability From Academic Definitions and Lay Descriptions

The current work builds a definition of irritability from both academic definitions and lay perspectives. In Study 1, a quantitative content analysis of academic definitions resulted in eight main content categories (i.e., behaviour, emotion or affect, cognition, physiological, qualifiers, irritant, stability or endurance, and other). In Study 2, a community sample of 39 adults participated in qualitative interviews. A deductive thematic analysis resulted in two main themes. The first main theme dealt with how participants positioned irritability in relation to other negative states. The second dealt with how participants constructed irritability as both a loss of control and as an experience that should be controlled. The discussion integrates the findings of both studies and provides a concise, but comprehensive definition.
Controlling Autonomous Public Agencies as an Indicator of New Public Management

This article starts with a short description of the New Public Management (NPM) phenomenon, followed by the development of a more narrow and research-oriented conceptualization of the broader NPM concept. This paper will argue that the extent to which ex ante control of agencies is replaced by results based control is an indicator for the level of NPM orientedness. Firstly, this paper describes the extent to which the public agencies in Flanders are controlled and in which way (ex ante versus results). In particular with regard to result control, the extent or intensity of result control is investigated by looking at the completeness and scope of result control. Secondly this paper looks at the extent to which the control practices are part of the control relationship between oversight authority and agency and not only for internal organizational purposes. Thirdly, a differentiated landscape of practices for control agencies in Flanders is observed, and some explanations for this differentiated picture are presented.
GTP-dependent Heteropolymer Formation and Bundling of Chloroplast FtsZ1 and FtsZ2*

Bacteria and chloroplasts require the ring-forming cytoskeletal protein FtsZ for division. Although bacteria accomplish division with a single FtsZ, plant chloroplasts require two FtsZ types for division, FtsZ1 and FtsZ2. These proteins colocalize to a mid-plastid Z ring, but their biochemical relationship is poorly understood. We investigated the in vitro behavior of recombinant FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 separately and together. Both proteins bind and hydrolyze GTP, although GTPase activities are low compared with the activity of Escherichia coli FtsZ. Each protein undergoes GTP-dependent assembly into thin protofilaments in the presence of calcium as a stabilizing agent, similar to bacterial FtsZ. In contrast, when mixed without calcium, FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 exhibit slightly elevated GTPase activity and coassembly into extensively bundled protofilaments. Coassembly is enhanced by FtsZ1, suggesting that it promotes lateral interactions between protofilaments. Experiments with GTPase-deficient mutants reveal that FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 form heteropolymers. Maximum coassembly occurs in reactions containing equimolar FtsZ1 and FtsZ2, but significant coassembly occurs at other stoichiometries. The FtsZ1:FtsZ2 ratio in coassembled structures mirrors their input ratio, suggesting plasticity in protofilament and/or bundle composition. This behavior contrasts with that of α- and β-tubulin and the bacterial tubulin-like proteins BtubA and BtubB, which coassemble in a strict 1:1 stoichiometry. Our findings raise the possibility that plasticity in FtsZ filament composition and heteropolymerization-induced bundling could have been a driving force for the coevolution of FtsZ1 and FtsZ2 in the green lineage, perhaps arising from an enhanced capacity for the regulation of Z ring composition and activity in vivo.
My home is my castle! Or is it? Hospitalizations following home injury in Israel, 1997-2001.

BACKGROUND Although the home is perceived to be a safe haven, it is a scene of numerous injuries. OBJECTIVES To characterize home injury in Israel, the victims, injury circumstances and outcomes, and to identify groups at high risk for injury in order to focus future interventions and thus effectively prevent these injuries and their associated hospitalizations. METHODS We analyzed 5 year records (1997-2001) from the National Trauma Registry of all patients arriving at eight trauma centers following home injury and admitted to hospital, transferred to another medical center, or died in the emergency department. RESULTS The study group included 26,921 patients, constituting 34% of all unintentional hospitalized trauma patients. Twenty-seven percent were children (0-4 years) and 37% were elderly (> or = 65 years), the two age groups whose home injury accounted for most of the trauma injuries. Among children more boys (59%) than girls (41%) were injured, but the opposite was true for the elderly (30% males and 70% females). The share of females among the home-injured increased with age. Falls caused 79% of all home injuries (97% among the elderly) and bums 9%, increasing to 18% among children (0-4 years). Among non-Jewish home-injured patients, infants predominated (50% compared to 20% among Jews). Moderate to critical injuries amounted for 42%, with 38% of the home-injured and 60% of the elderly requiring surgery. The clinical and economic consequences of home injuries differed according to the type of injury, with bums carrying the heaviest toll of prolonged intensive care and hospital stay. Overall, hospital stay averaged 6.2 days per patient (median 3 days). CONCLUSIONS Falls among the elderly, bums among children, and a high prevalence of hospitalization among non-Jewish children define groups at high risk for home injuries. Prevention programs should be based on these findings and should focus on the more vulnerable groups.
Vascular Permeability Factor/Vascular Endothelial Cell Growth Factor-mediated Permeability Occurs through Disorganization of Endothelial Junctional Proteins*

Vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial growth factor stimulates endothelial proliferation, angiogenesis, and increased vascular permeability in vivo. We investigated mechanisms of vascular permeability factor-mediated endothelial monolayer permeability changes in vitro. [14C]Albumin flux across endothelial monolayers was measured following a 90-min exposure to vascular permeability factor (660 pm). Vascular permeability factor increased albumin flux to 3.4 times that of control albumin flux. Endothelial monolayers were also incubated for 90 min with vascular permeability factor plus Gö6976 (10 nm), staurosporine (1 μm), wortmannin (10 nm), AG126 (1 and 2.67 μm), and PD98059 (20 μm). Vascular permeability factor-mediated permeability was not blocked by Gö6976, an antagonist of “classical” protein kinase C, staurosporine, a pan-protein kinase C antagonist, nor wortmannin, a PI3-kinase blocker, but was blocked by incubation with AG126 or PD98059, inhibitors of mitogen-activated protein kinase activation. Immunofluorescent staining of the junctional proteins VE-cadherin and occludin showed a loss of these proteins from the endothelial junction that was prevented by co-incubation with AG126 or PD98059. These data demonstrate that vascular permeability factor increases albumin permeability across endothelial monolayers in vitro and suggests that permeability increases through rearrangement of endothelial junctional proteins involving the mitogen-activated protein kinase signal transduction pathway.
GSK3 Inhibitors Regulate MYCN mRNA Levels and Reduce Neuroblastoma Cell Viability through Multiple Mechanisms, Including p53 and Wnt Signaling

Neuroblastoma is an embryonal tumor accounting for approximately 15% of childhood cancer deaths. There exists a clinical need to identify novel therapeutic targets, particularly for treatment-resistant forms of neuroblastoma. Therefore, we investigated the role of the neuronal master regulator GSK3 in controlling neuroblastoma cell fate. We identified novel GSK3-mediated regulation of MYC (c-MYC and MYCN) mRNA levels, which may have implications for numerous MYC-driven cancers. In addition, we showed that certain GSK3 inhibitors induced large-scale cell death in neuroblastoma cells, primarily through activating apoptosis. mRNA-seq of GSK3 inhibitor–treated cells was performed and subsequent pathway analysis revealed that multiple signaling pathways contributed to the loss of neuroblastoma cell viability. The contribution of two of the signaling pathways highlighted by the mRNA-seq analysis was functionally validated. Inhibition of the p53 tumor suppressor partly rescued the cell death phenotype, whereas activation of canonical Wnt signaling contributed to the loss of viability, in a p53-independent manner. Two GSK3 inhibitors (BIO-acetoxime and LiCl) and one small-molecule Wnt agonist (Wnt Agonist 1) demonstrated therapeutic potential for neuroblastoma treatment. These inhibitors reduced the viability of numerous neuroblastoma cell lines, even those derived from high-risk MYCN-amplified metastatic tumors, for which effective therapeutics are currently lacking. Furthermore, although LiCl was lethal to neuroblastoma cells, it did not reduce the viability of differentiated neurons. Taken together our data suggest that these small molecules may hold potential as effective therapeutic agents for the treatment of neuroblastoma and other MYC-driven cancers. Mol Cancer Ther; 13(2); 454–67. ©2013 AACR.
Atom-Specific Mutagenesis Reveals Structural and Catalytic Roles for an Active-Site Adenosine and Hydrated Mg2+ in Pistol Ribozymes.

The pistol RNA motif represents a new class of self-cleaving ribozymes of yet unknown biological function. Our recent crystal structure of a pre-catalytic state of this RNA shows guanosine G40 and adenosine A32 close to the G53-U54 cleavage site. While the N1 of G40 is within 3.4 Å of the modeled G53 2'-OH group that attacks the scissile phosphate, thus suggesting a direct role in general acid-base catalysis, the function of A32 is less clear. We present evidence from atom-specific mutagenesis that neither the N1 nor N3 base positions of A32 are involved in catalysis. By contrast, the ribose 2'-OH of A32 seems crucial for the proper positioning of G40 through a H-bond network that involves G42 as a bridging unit between A32 and G40. We also found that disruption of the inner-sphere coordination of the active-site Mg2+ cation to N7 of G33 makes the ribozyme drastically slower. A mechanistic proposal is suggested, with A32 playing a structural role and hydrated Mg2+ playing a catalytic role in cleavage.
Evaluation of FOXP2 as an autism susceptibility gene.

A mutation in the gene FOXP2 was recently identified as being responsible for a complicated speech and language phenotype in a single large extended pedigree. This gene is of interest to autism because it lies in one of the most consistently linked autism chromosomal regions of interest. We therefore tested this gene for its involvement in autism in a large sample of autism families. We completely sequenced the exon containing the mutation, screened the remaining coding sequence using SSCP technology, and identified and genotyped two novel intronic tetranucleotide repeat polymorphisms that were then analyzed for evidence of linkage and linkage disequilibrium (LD). We identified two families in which heterozygous deletions of a small number of glutamines in a long poly-glutamine stretch were found in one parent and the autistic probands; no other non-conservative coding sequence changes were identified. Linkage and LD analyses were performed in 75 affected sibling pair families and in two subgroups of this sample defined by the presence/absence of severe language impairment. One allele appeared to have an opposite pattern of transmission in the language based subgroups, but otherwise the linkage and LD analyses were negative. We conclude that FOXP2 is unlikely to contribute significantly to autism susceptibility.
Theory of dynamic behavior in atmospheric pressure arc plasma devices. I. Theory and system behavior

Fluctuations in atmospheric pressure arc plasma devices play important role in plasma processing applications. A full knowledge and control over such fluctuations can effectively lengthen lifetime and drastically improve performance and reliability. Dynamical analyses of associated experimental fluctuating signals established existence of chaotic dynamics in such devices. However, the origin of such fluctuations remained unexplained so far and no theoretical investigation is carried out to explore underlying physics behind such phenomena. This work addresses development of a general theory for such fluctuations in atmospheric pressure arc plasma devices in terms of various nondimensional parameters using basic governing equations and presents the result of application of the theory to various important experiments reported in literature. Various aspects of dynamic behavior have been investigated through the study of coefficients appearing in the nonlinear amplitude equation. It has been shown that the theory supports arc current and gas flow rate as the major externally available controlling parameters in agreement with experiment. Theory exhibits period doubling route to chaos under variation of control parameter as observed experimentally. System includes catastrophic behavior for some operating range. The whole work is divided into two parts. This paper presents part I: development of theory for such fluctuations using basic equations of the dynamics and study of system behavior.
A survey of the opinions of recent veterinary graduates and employers regarding early career business skills

A questionnaire was designed to assess recent veterinary graduates' proficiency in early career business skills, from the perspectives of graduates of 2006–2008 and employers of recent graduates in the UK. Recent graduates perceived themselves to be generally more competent in financial matters than employers considered them to be. However, when specific skills were assessed, graduates felt less prepared than employers considered them to be competent. Overall, graduates and employers rated recent graduates' preparedness/competence as poor to average for all skills, which were regarded as having average to high importance. Both groups commented on the difficulties faced by new graduates in terms of client communication (generally and financially), and having the confidence to charge clients appropriately for veterinary services. The results of this study indicate that veterinary schools need to take a more active role in the teaching of basic finance skills in order to equip graduates with essential early career competencies. It is anticipated that the information reported will help inform undergraduate curriculum development and highlight the need for increased training at the continuing education level.
Chapter 2 Prevention of kidney allograft rejection using anti-CD 40 and anti-CD 86 in primates

Background Costimulation blockade has been proposed to induce allograft tolerance. We combined an antagonist anti-CD40 monoclonal antibody (mAb) with an antagonist anti-CD86 mAb in a rhesus monkey kidney allograft model. We chose this combination because it leaves CD80-CD152 signalling unimpaired, allowing for the down-regulatory effect of CD152 signalling to take place through this pathway. Methods Rhesus monkeys underwent transplantation with a major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-mismatched kidney. One group of animals received anti-CD40 alone, and a second group received the combination of anti-CD40 and anti-CD86, twice weekly for 56 days. Results Three animals with low levels of anti-CD40 rejected the transplanted kidney while still receiving treatment. Three animals with high levels of anti-CD40 rejected at days 91, 134, and 217 with signs of chronic rejection. Animals treated with the combination of anti-CD40 and CD86 mAbs rejected their kidneys at days 61, 75 and 78, shortly after cessation of treatment. Two animals were killed on days 71 and 116 with a blocked ureter. These animals developed virtually no signs of tubulitis or interstitial infiltration during treatment and no donor-specific alloantibodies. Conclusion Both treatment protocols prevented rejection for the duration of the treatment in most animals. Blocking costimulation by anti-CD40 or by anti-CD40 plus anti-CD86 may be an effective method to prevent graft rejection and may obviate the need for other immunosuppressive drugs, especially in the immediate posttransplantation period.
Pulmonary injury at the anhepatic phase without veno-venous bypass in portal hypertensive rats

ABSTRACT Objective: In order to understand the characterization and evolution of pulmonary injury, a portal hypertension rat model was used to imitate the anhepatic phase during standard orthotopic liver transplantation without veno-venous bypass. Methods: In this study, 135 healthy male Wistar rats were selected; in which 15 rats were assigned in the normal control (NC) group and the remaining 120 rats were used to establish a recoverable prehepatic portal hypertension model, which were further evenly divided into eight groups after ischemia-reperfusion: portal hypertensive control group (PHTC), R0h, R6h, R12h, R24h, R48h, R72h, and R7d groups. Meanwhile, arterial blood pressure, dry-to-wet weight ratios of the lung, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level in serum, arterial oxygen pressure (PaO2), and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in lung tissue were measured. Morphology changes of the lung were observed using an optical microscope and a transmission electron microscope. Results: The portal hypertension rat model was successfully established three weeks after the first operation. These portal hypertensive rats could withstand 1 hour at the anhepatic phase. Pulmonary injury severity increased to the most at 12–24 hours, and decreased to normal at seven days after reperfusion. Conclusion: Ischemia-reperfusion injury is an important mechanism that results in pulmonary injury after liver transplantation. It is safe for portal hypertensive rats to tolerate 1 hour at the anhepatic phase. Pulmonary injury was the most severe within 12–24 hours after ischemia-reperfusion.
Gin4 of S. cerevisiae is a bud neck protein that interacts with the Cdc28 complex

A number of proteins make up the Cdc28 complex in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and regulate CDK activity. The cell cycle regulator Nik1 (Hsl1) is a protein kinase that interacts with the Cdc28 complex. The growth inhibitor Gin4 is structurally similar to Nik1 and may play a redundant role in the regulation of the cell cycle. We investigated the functions of Gin4 with respect to those of Nik1.