Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Field triage of trauma patients: improving on the Prehospital Index.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the predictive ability of the Prehospital Index (PHI) in identifying injury severity and to develop a trauma triage scale that incorporates, along with the PHI, a subset of time independent variables to improve the predictive ability of the PHI-based triage instrument. This study included 1,291 trauma patients treated in Montreal, Canada. The developed trauma triage protocol was based on logistic regression analysis, in which the model that predicts the data best was selected by using Bayesian information criterion. The selected regression model included the variables age, body region injured, mechanism of injury, comorbidity, and PHI. This algorithm was a substantial improvement in detecting major versus non-major injuries (major injury defined based on death, intensive care unit admission, and surgery intervention) over the PHI alone (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve: 0.76 v 0.66, P <.05). Considering time independent variables could lead to better injury triage decisions.
Capsule Endoscopy Retention: Is it a Complication?

Background Capsule endoscopy has been found superior to barium x-rays and push enteroscopy in the investigation of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and in the evaluation of suspected Crohn's disease. Currently, small bowel obstruction and strictures are considered by many physicians to be a contraindication to capsule endoscopy for fear of capsule retention or impaction. The goal of this study was to reassess this conventional wisdom that capsule endoscopy is contraindicated in small bowel obstruction and to determine the safety and efficacy of capsule endoscopy in the evaluation of patients with suspected stricture or small bowel obstruction. Study A retrospective chart review was performed using a database of 568 capsule endoscopy cases performed between August 2001 and November 2003. Cases of suspected small bowel obstruction were selected and reviewed. Results Nineteen cases were identified in which capsule endoscopy was used in the setting of suspected small bowel obstruction. The diagnosis of suspected small bowel obstruction was based on symptoms alone in 8 cases and on symptoms plus abnormal radiographs in the remaining 11 cases. Capsule endoscopy made a definitive diagnosis in 5 of the 19 cases (26%): 2 Crohn's strictures, 1 radiation induced stricture, 1 nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug induced stricture, and 1 MALT lymphoma. The capsule was retained proximal to a stricture in 4 cases, in which the obstructing lesions were electively resected without complications. There was no case in which administration of the capsule led to an acute small bowel obstruction. Conclusions Capsule endoscopy can be safely used to help identify the etiology and site of a small bowel obstruction. Retention of the capsule may indicate the presence of a lesion requiring surgery, but small bowel obstruction or strictures are not in themselves contraindications to the procedure. It is understood, however, that retention may lead to surgery in a patient who otherwise may have been treated medically without surgery for the same illness (eg, Crohn's disease and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug enteropathy).
Use of the alexandrite laser for treatment of seborrheic keratoses.

BACKGROUND Seborrheic karatoses are benign lesions that are easily irritated and often cosmetically objectionable. Liquid nitrogen cryotherapy and other surgical methods are useful in treating these lesions, but are difficult to tolerate in patients who have large numbers of lesions requiring treatment. The alexandrite laser was used in one patient to quickly and efficiently destroy hundreds of seborrheic keratoses. The treatment was tolerable and excellent cosmetic results were achieved.
Bevacizumab Therapy for Choroidal Melanoma

Bevacizumab, an anti-angiogenic agent, has gained widespread use in ophthalmology for the treatment of neovascular conditions, such as age-related macular degeneration. Targeting angiogenesis has been proposed as a potential therapy for different kinds of malignancies, by limiting supply of oxygen and nutrients, and consequently tumour growth and metastasis. Bevacizumab has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, along with chemotherapy, for the treatment of metastatic colorectal carcinoma and non-small cell lung cancer. Nevertheless, a beneficial effect in the treatment of choroidal melanoma has yet to be demonstrated, despite elevated levels of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). However, bevacizumab might have a role in the management of complications of radiation therapy.
High prevalence and excess mortality of late presenters among HIV-1, HIV-2 and HIV-1/2 dually infected patients in Guinea-Bissau - a cohort study from West Africa

Introduction HIV infected individuals with late presentation (LP) and advanced disease (AD) have been associated with higher mortality, higher cost of medical management, impaired CD4 cell count increment and potentially ongoing risk of HIV transmission. Here we describe the proportion of patients with LP and AD at an HIV clinic in Guinea-Bissau, identify risk factors and evaluate the outcome of these patients. Methods We included all patients >15 years diagnosed with HIV-1 and/or HIV-2 at the outpatient HIV clinic at Hospital National Simão Mendes, during June 2005 - December 2013 in a retrospective cohort study. Patients were followed until December 2014. LP and AD was defined as a baseline CD4 cell count of 200-349 cells/µL and <200 cells/µL, respectively. Results A total of 3,720/5,562 (65.7%) patients had a CD4 cell count measured within the first 90 days of HIV diagnosis. Forty-eight percent had AD and 23% had LP. Risk factors for presentation with AD were male sex, age >30 years, Fula and Mandinga ethnicity. HIV-2 and HIV-1/2 dually infected patients had lower risk of AD compared with HIV-1 infected patients. Although antiretroviral therapy (ART) was initiated for 64.4% of patients, those with AD progression had a 3.82 times higher mortality compared to patients with non-LP. Conclusion The majority of HIV infected patients presented late. Most of the late-presenters had advanced disease and patients with advanced disease had a very high mortality. Initiatives to enroll patients in care at an earlier point are needed and should focus on risk groups.
Impact de l'utilisation des moustiquaires pré-imprégnées de permethrine sur la transmission du paludisme dans un village hyperendémique du Sénégal

The efficacy of permethrin-treated bednets was evaluated in Wassadou, a hyperendemic village located in the Sudanese grasslands of southeast Senegal. Pretreatment data were collected between 1992 and 1993. Bednets were distributed to the whole population in June 1995 and impact of their use on vector populations and malaria transmission was evaluated until November 1995. This period corresponds to the rainy season during which malaria transmission is highest. Data were compared with a control village in which bednets were not distributed. Findings showed that use of bednets led to a sharp decrease in the density of the vector population and malaria transmission. The number of bites by Anopheles gambiae s.1. decreased 69%. The density of blood-laden and pregnant females inside dwellings decreased 91% and 96% respectively. The sporozoite index of females captured on the skin decreased 76% and the daily rate of entomological inoculation decreased 88%. This impact was not great enough to eliminate the risk of infection. Prolonged study over a period of 4 to 5 years is needed to evaluate the impact of long-term use of insecticide-treated bednets on vector population and malaria transmission.
The impact of a cooperative learning experience on pupils’ popularity, non‐cooperativeness, and interethnic bias in multiethnic elementary schools

In this study we investigated popularity and perceived non‐cooperativeness in multiethnic elementary schools. A sample of 94 pupils aged 10–12 years, from five multiethnic elementary schools, were divided into 26 teams and participated in a structured cooperative learning (SCL) curriculum of 11 lessons. Neither teachers nor pupils had prior SCL experience. The results show that SCL time increased popularity and decreased perceived non‐cooperativeness across ethnic backgrounds. In addition, experience with SCL enhanced the popularity of immigrant pupils and decreased differences in perceived non‐cooperativeness between immigrant and non‐immigrant pupils. Importantly, SCL time only raised popularity and decreased perceived non‐cooperativeness within ethnically heterogeneous teams. This last result extends the notion that enduring interethnic contact is fruitful for interethnic friendships.
The utility of amylase and lipase as reliable predictive markers for functioning renal graft.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate the utility of amylase and lipase as reliable predictive markers for functioning renal grafts, either short- or long-term. MATERIAL/METHODS Serum amylase (Amyl), lipase, creatinine (Cr), creatinine clearance (Cr Cl) and 24-hr proteinuria (Prot) were studied in 190 kidney recipients. The correlation of these outcomes for each parameter was tested. Sensitivity and specificity of the variables were obtained in patients with graft failure (GF) and acute cellular rejection (ACR). RESULTS Mean follow-up was 66.7 month. Amyl and lipase were elevated 67% vs. 45% in GF (N=23); 60% vs. 44% in ACR (N=42) patients and were inversely correlated with Cr Cl (p>.05). Lipase was notably superior to amylase and creatinine; the specificity of lipase (Amyl, Cr) was 87% (59%, 28%). Increases in amylase were more predictive in the presence of mild or moderate kidney failure (33% and 52%, respectively). However, the highest intensity of lipase elevation (39%) was in advanced kidney failure (Cr Cl <30 ml/min). CONCLUSIONS Serum amylase and lipase should be used as markers monitoring graft function. For early detection of graft dysfunction, amylase seems to be superior to lipase.
Acromegaly and Heart Failure: Revisions of the Growth Hormone/Insulin-Like Growth Factor Axis and Its Relation to the Cardiovascular System

Cardiomyopathy is a major cause of death in overt acromegaly. Recent progress in research has increasingly revealed the molecular mechanisms concerning growth hormone and insulin-like growth factor in the development of heart failure. In this article, we propose mechanisms according to which heart failure occurs, and we aim to extrapolate this knowledge to more general processes involved in heart failure.
Reverse Engineering Variability from Natural Language Documents: A Systematic Literature Review

Identifying features and their relations (i.e., variation points) is crucial in the process of migrating single software systems to software product lines (SPL). Various approaches have been proposed to perform feature extraction automatically from different artifacts, for instance, feature location in legacy code. Usually such approaches a) omit variability information and b) rely on artifacts that reside in advanced phases of the development process, thus, being only of limited usefulness in the context of SPLs. In contrast, feature and variability extraction from natural language (NL) documents is more favorable, because a mapping to several other artifacts is usually established from the very beginning. In this paper, we provide a multi-dimensional overview of approaches for feature and variability extraction from NL documents by means of a systematic literature review (SLR). We selected 25 primary studies and carefully evaluated them regarding different aspects such as techniques used, tool support, or accuracy of the results. In a nutshell, our key insights are that i) standard NLP techniques are commonly used, ii) post-processing often includes clustering & machine learning algorithms, iii) only in rare cases, the approaches support variability extraction, iv) tool support, apart from text pre-processing is often not available, and v) many approaches lack a comprehensive evaluation. Based on these observations, we derive future challenges, arguing that more effort need to be invested for making such approaches applicable in practice.
Association between 318C/T polymorphism of the CTLA‐4 gene and systemic lupus erythematosus in Iranian patients

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte‐associated antigen‐4 (CTLA‐4) is an important negative regulator of T‐cell response. It is a functional candidate gene connected with susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). We analyzed the role of −318C/T polymorphism in the promoter region of the CTLA‐4 gene in Iranian patients suffering from SLE.
Occupational stress, suppressed anger, and hypertension.

&NA; The present study examined the modifying effect of suppressed anger on the relationship between job stress and hypertension. The study population consisted of a random sample of male hourly workers, aged 40–63 years, employed at one of two plants in the metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area. Those men currently taking antihypertensive medication were excluded from the analyses. With both plants combined, stratified analyses indicated that, compared to men who do not habitually suppress their anger, hypertension was more strongly associated with self‐reports of an uncertain job future and dissatisfaction with coworkers and promotions among men who suppress their anger. Using logistic regression procedures, these interactions between suppressed anger and job stress significantly predicted hypertension status, controlling for age, body mass index, smoking, alcohol consumption, and family history of hypertension. These findings suggest that a coping‐related characteristic such as anger expression may be an important modifier of the relationship between job stress and hypertension.
A portable system for quantitative assessment of parkinsonian rigidity

Rigidity is one of the primary symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Passive flexion and extension of the elbow is used to assess rigidity in this study. An examiner flexes and extends the subject's elbow joint through a rigidity assessment cuff attached around the wrist. Each assessment lasts for 10 seconds. Two force sensor boxes and an inertial measurement unit are used to measure the applied force and the state of the elbow movement. Elastic and viscous values will be obtained through a least squares estimation with all the data. 9 healthy subjects were tested with this system in two experimental conditions: 1) normal state (relaxed); 2) imitated rigidity state. Also the subjects were performed the assessment task with different frequencies and elbow movement ranges. The imitated rigidity action increases viscosity and elasticity. The effect sizes (Cohen's d) of the viscosity and elasticity between normal state and imitated state are 1.61 and 1.36 respectively, which means the difference is significant. Thus, this system can detect the on-off fluctuations of parkinsonian rigidity. Both wrist movement angle and frequency have small effect on the viscosity, but have elevated effect on the elasticity.
Are multi-plant firms more or less profitable ? Evidence from Swedish electricity firms +

Using Swedish firm-level panel data, this paper shows that, depending on reaching ‘steady state’ with only random fluctuations around a fixed firm size, multi-plant firms on average have a 1% point lower return on total capital than their single-plant counterparts. One potential reason for this could be some degree of loss of control occurs aggregately across hierarchical levels within multi-plant firms because of reproduction distortion. If, in addition, objectives differ among managers across hierarchical levels because of the agent problem, the loss in control can be more extensive. Given the scenarios above, multi-plant firms which have reached a ‘steady state’ should be more likely to have lower profit than single-plant firms.
Hypotension‐induced vasopressin release distinguishes between pure autonomic failure and multiple system atrophy with autonomic failure

To investigate whether activation of afferent and central baroreceptor pathways could differentiate between pure autonomic failure (PAF) and multiple system atrophy with autonomic failure (MSA), we determined the effect of upright tilt on circulating levels of vasopressin in patients with PAF and patients with MSA. We also studied 14 normal subjects, nine of whom developed acute hypotension due to vasovagal syncope. In patients with PAF and in normal subjects with vasovagal syncope, upright tilt induced marked hypotension and a pronounced increase in the plasma concentration of vasopressin (1.1 ± 0.3 to 38.0 ± 8.0 pmol/l in PAF and 1.0 ± 0.2 to 27.4 ± 7.2 pmol/l in vasovagal syncope, p < 0.005 for both). In patients with MSA, upright tilt also elicited profound hypotension but circulating levels of vasopressin increased little (0.5 ± 0.1 to 1.5 ± 0.3 pmol/l, p < 0.05). During upright tilt, the plasma concentration of norepinephrine significantly increased in normal subjects but did not increase in patients with autonomic failure. Our results indicate that afferent and central baroreceptor pathways involved in vasopressin release are normal in patients with PAF but are impaired in patients with MSA. Thus, measurement of baroreceptor-mediated vasopressin release appears to provide a clear marker to differentiate between patients with PAF and patients with MSA.
Adaptive Control of Recurrent Trajectories Based on linearization of Poincaré Map

The problem of adaptive output feedback control aimed at stabilization of a (periodic or chaotic) goal trajectory is considered. Advantages and drawbacks of chaos control method based on linearization of Poincare map (first proposed by Ott, Grebogi and Yorke in 1990) are discussed. It is suggested that the recurrence of the goal trajectory is the key property for applicability of approach. Algorithms of adaptive control based on linearization of controlled Poincare map and method of goal inequalities are proposed. It is shown that stabilization of recurrent trajectories is possible under additional controllability-like and observability-like conditions. Examples of stabilization of periodic and chaotic trajectories for forced brusselator and Rossler systems are studied by computer simulations.
VIRUSES AS AGENTS OF AIRBORNE CONTAGION

The concept of airborne contagion is ancient, but serious study of airborne contagion had its beginning in the 1930s and received further impetus in World War 11 because of problems of respiratory illness in military populations. William Furth Wells, who was preeminent in developing knowledge of airborne infection in those years, has summarized events to about 1950 in a monograph published for the Commonwealth Fund. ' His concepts seem valid today. The early studies on airborne transmission dealt almost exclusively with bacterial diseases while the problem of airborne viral disease had to await the development of virology as a discipline after World War 11. The greatest recent contributions to understanding of airborne infection came from the extensive studies of the U S . Army Chemical Corps Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland, and from a similar institution, the Microbiological Research Establishment at Porton, England, during and after World War 11. My colleagues and I began studies of airborne viral infections in 1961, and our work was greatly benefitted by collaboration with the group at Fort Detrick. In recent years interest in the problem of airborne viral disease has waned, partly because of reduced activity at Fort Detrick and lack of interest of the civilian community in the problem. The present situation seems to be that by inference, many viral infections are disseminated by the airborne route, but proved instances of such transmission are few. In the future, we need to follow the spread of infections from their source in the infected patient to their implantation on the mucous membranes of the susceptible host. To get a proper perspective we should study both airborne and the various forms of contact spread of infection. This is not an easy assignment, but interrupting transmission effectively will require more precise knowledge than we now possess. The following report reviews the physical properties of aerosols that influence their distribution and the characteristics of viruses that influence their capacity to function as infections agents in aerosol.
Natural milk fatty acids affect survival and invasiveness of Listeria monocytogenes

The effects of 12 fatty acids, naturally occurring in milk from several mammalian species, on the survival and invasion ability of Listeria monocytogenes, a food‐borne pathogen, were determined. The survival was tested in the presence of 200 μg ml−1 fatty acids suspended in brain hearth infusion broth or in storage conditioning solution (NaCl 1%) of Mozzarella cheese, an Italian soft unripened cheese, at pH 7·0 or 5·0. Lauric (C12:0), linoleic (C18:2) and linolenic (C18:3) acids exerted the strongest bactericidal activity. The invasive efficiency of L. monocytogenes, determined in the Caco‐2 enterocyte‐like cell line, was strongly decreased in the presence of the fatty acids tested (from about 20 to 500‐fold). This research suggests that naturally occurring fatty acids of milk, supplemented in milk derivatives, could affect both bacterial growth and invasiveness and consequently, could serve as barriers towards L. monocytogenes infection.
Adrenocorticotropin-secreting pituitary adenomas originate from the anterior or the intermediate lobe in Cushing's disease: differences in the regulation of hormone secretion.

About 40‥ of patients with Cushing's disease respond to bromocriptine with a suppression of plasma ACTH and cortisol. In the present study, the reaction to bromocriptine in patients with Cushing's disease was correlated with pathological examination of the pituitary adenomas and the outcome of transsphenoidal operation. Fifteen consecutive patients with Cushing's disease were operated upon. In all patients, pituitary tumor tissue was removed. In nine tumors, no neural tissue was present in the adenomas (group I), but in the tissue removed from the other six patients, argyrophilic nerve fibers coursed freely through the adenoma tissue (group II). In two of these six patients, multiple adenomatous and/or hyperplastic cell nests containing nervous tissue were present, while a localization of tumor tissue in the intermediate lobe of the pituitary gland was evident in three of them. The two groups of patients showed the following differences: 1) normalization of the cortisol secretion rate was reached after op.
'Sustainable Development': Is it a Useful Concept?

It is argued that 'sustainable development' has been defined in such a way as to be either morally repugnant or logically redundant. 'Strong' sustainability, overriding all other considerations, is morally unacceptable as well as totally impractical; and 'weak' sustainability, in which compensation is made for resources consumed, offers nothing beyond traditional economic welfare maximisation. The 'sustainability' requirement that human well-being should never be allowed to decline is shown to be irrational. Welfare economics can accommodate distributional considerations, and, suitably defined, the concept of welfare can include the subjective effects of changes in - as well as the levels of - well-being. Hence there is no reason why welfare maximisation should not remain an overriding policy objective. Nor can sustainability be regarded as a 'constraint' on welfare maximisation unless there is a clear conflict between the two - which has yet to be demonstrated. This is not to deny the importance of intergenerational justice, nor the need for economic incentives to correct market imperfections if the environment is to be managed in a socially optimal manner. Apart from a few small developing countries heavily dependent on minerals or other finite primary products, the measurement of some wider concept of 'sustainable' GNP is a waste of time and such estimates as have been made are virtually worthless.