Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of key pharmacokinetic variables of bioequivalent and non-bioequivalent enrofloxacin preparations under various water management conditions.

Considering that a study of bioequivalence is not compulsory for drug registration in many Latin-American countries, a trial using a bioequivalent preparation of enrofloxacin (bENR) and a non-bioequivalent one (nbENR) was carried out in broilers to assess the maximum serum concentrations (Cmax) and area under the plasma drug-concentration vs. time profiles (AUC) obtained. Three levels of drug handling when delivering the medicated water to the birds have been identified in poultry producing units in Mexico i.e., poor, medium and high. The trial was carried out in eight thousand, divided in six groups with three replicates per group. Variables included in handing the medicated water were grouped to integrate the poor, medium and high groups. The highest AUC and Cmax values were obtained with the bENR handled under high standards (P<0.05). The nbENR, similarly handled, failed to achieve adequate values in these variables. Medium and poor drug management either with bENR or nbENR resulted in low to very low Cmax and AUC values, reaching a lowest value of Cmax of 0. 17μg/mL, equivalent to 7% of the best Cmax (2.43μg/mL). It is concluded that excepting in the bENR handled with high standards, all groups showed insufficient Cmax/MIC and AUC/MIC ratios. Relevance of these findings for clinical efficacy and for the emergence of bacterial resistant strains is discussed.
A case of acute spinal epidural hematoma in a chronic hemodialysis patient.

12年来, 慢性血液透析を受けている47歳, 女性の急性脊髄硬膜外血腫 (ASEH) の1例を報告した. 患者は, 血液透析中に項背部痛で発症し, 5時間後には下肢の完全対麻痺となった. その後, Th4以下の知覚障害, 四肢麻痺, さらに肋間筋麻痺による呼吸障害へと急速に症状は悪化した. MRIによりC3-Th2のレベルでの背側のASEHと診断し, 発症後, 約10時間後に手術を開始した. C4-Th3の椎弓切開により減圧し, 血腫を可及的に除去し, 椎弓形成術を追加した. 術後の血液透析の際, 抗凝固剤は術後第7病日までNafamostat mesilate (フサン®) 20mg/hrを, それ以後はヘパリンを使用した. 術後に上肢の不全麻痺のみ改善したが, 両下肢は, 完全麻痺となった. また, 肋間筋麻痺による喀痰排出困難から左無気肺となり気管内挿管し, 人工呼吸器を一時的に必要とした. 最終的に気管切開を行い, 現在も生存中である. 慢性血液透析患者でのASEHは, 本邦では自験例を含めて5例の報告しかない. 自験例は, 発症から最も早く手術を行い, 救命こそしたが, その神経学的予後は不良であり, 肋間筋麻痺を伴っていたため術後に呼吸管理を必要とした. この要因は, 血腫が脊柱管の比較的狭い頸椎から上部胸椎に, しかも7椎体にわたる広範囲に存在したことと, 抗凝固剤を必要とする血液透析中に発症したことが主なものと考えられた. MRIは, ASEHの診断や治療方針の決定に極めて有用であった. 早期の診断と適切な治療が, ASEHの予後改善のためには必須であり, 日頃の血液透析患者の管理において, ASEHも念頭に置く必要がある.
Update on the Epidemiology and Pathogenesis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Defined as incompletely reversible airflow obstruction resulting from chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States behind coronary artery disease, malignancy, and cerebrovascular disease. Over 16 million individuals in the United States suffer from COPD, and the prevalence is increasing. This is particularly true in women, which may be related to their increased prevalence of smoking. It is estimated that almost two thirds of people with obstructive airways disease remain undiagnosed. This is an alarming fact, as early detection and intervention for COPD may retard the progression of disease and improve patients’ quality of life. The annual cost for COPD in the United States was $26 billion in 1998, the majority of which was due to hospitalizations. A small minority of patients, those with the most severe disease, account for a disproportionate majority of the COPD-associated costs. Although new research initiatives into the mechanisms of COPD may someday pave the way for the development of curative therapies, COPD remains an incurable disease. It is a progressive and irreversible disease, although disease progression can be slowed and disability can be reduced through appropriate therapy.
Do recommended protein intakes improve neurodevelopment in extremely preterm babies?

Objective To determine whether achieving recommended protein intakes for extremely low birthweight (ELBW; birth weight <1000 g) babies, resulting in better growth, improves neurodevelopmental outcomes. Design A prospective cohort study of ELBW babies before and after the introduction of a new nutritional policy designed to meet international consensus protein recommendations. Forty-five children born ‘before’ and 42 born ‘after’ the policy change were assessed at 2 years’ corrected age (CA). Associations between nutritional intakes, growth and neurodevelopmental outcome (Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third edition (Bayley-III), motor and sensory impairment) were assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results Bayley-III cognitive (mean (SD) 96 (12) vs 96 (15)), motor (96 (13) vs 95 (15)) or language scores (89 (11) vs 91 (17)) were not different between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ cohorts. In the ‘before’ cohort, motor scores were positively associated with enteral nutrition intakes and growth velocity. Neither were sensory impairments different between groups (visual impairment 4 vs 2, hearing impairment 2 vs 0) nor was the gross motor function classification score (any cerebral palsy 2 vs 1). Conclusions In this prospective cohort study, increasing intravenous and enteral protein intakes to recommended levels in the first month after birth was not associated with improved cognitive, language or motor scores or decreased sensory impairments at 2 years’ CA despite significantly improved early growth and reduced postnatal faltering growth. Appropriate randomised controlled trials are needed to answer definitively whether higher early protein intakes improve neurodevelopmental outcome in this population.
Early cyclosporine withdrawal from a sirolimus‐based regimen results in better renal allograft survival and renal function at 48 months after transplantation

We report the 48‐month results of a trial testing whether withdrawal of cyclosporine (CsA) from a sirolimus (SRL)‐CsA‐steroid (ST) regimen would impact renal allograft survival. Eligible patients receiving SRL‐CsA‐ST from transplantation were randomly assigned at 3 months to remain on triple therapy (SRL‐CsA‐ST, n = 215) or to have CsA withdrawn and SRL trough concentrations increased (SRL‐ST, n = 215). SRL‐ST therapy resulted in significantly better graft survival, either when including death with a functioning graft as an event (84.2% vs. 91.5%, P = 0.024) or when censoring it (90.6% vs. 96.1%, P = 0.026). Calculated glomerular filtration rate (43.8 vs. 58.3 ml/min, P < 0.001) and mean arterial blood pressure (101.3 vs. 97.1 mmHg, P = 0.047) were also improved with SRL‐ST. Differences in the incidences of biopsy‐proven acute rejection after randomization (6.5% vs. 10.2%, SRL‐CsA‐ST versus SRL‐ST, respectively) and mortality (7.9% vs. 4.7%) were not significant. SRL‐CsA‐ST‐treated patients had significantly higher incidences of adverse events generally associated with CsA, whereas those in the SRL‐ST group experienced greater frequencies of events commonly related to higher trough levels of SRL. In conclusion, early withdrawal of CsA from a SRL‐CsA‐ST regimen rapidly improves renal function and ultimately results in better graft survival.
Person Re-identification Using the Silhouette Shape Described by a Point Distribution Model

In this paper, we present a new shape-based system for person re-identification. The silhouette shape is represented by a Point Distribution Model (PDM) aligned on the body. We improve a fitting model which iteratively adjusts the shape by maximizing a boosted score of local features: the "Boosted Deformable Model". We modify the training procedure with a ranking structure to find how the model can approach the correct fitting. This is enhanced by the use of weak Artificial Neural Networks as regression functions. Then, we experiment the use of two kind of descriptors on the aligned model : a pose shape signature built with the Shape Context on the set of landmarks and an appearance-based signature using color histograms on the warped appearance contained in the shape model. We demonstrate our approach with evaluations employing the alignment and re-identification modules. The results show that our improvements provide a more accurate fitting, the adapted shape representation has a potential discriminant for re-identification through the pose and employing a PDM instead of a pixel mask to describe silhouette enhances performance of conventional appearance features.
The Repeatability of Total Contact Cast Applications: Implications for Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study was to determine the repeatability of total contact cast application for clinical trials using plantar pressure measurement. Nine healthy volunteers consented to be tested while wearing a running shoe and two applications of a total contact cast (TCC). Using the Pedar system of plantar pressure measurement, each subject walked on a motorized treadmill at a self-selected walking speed for each footwear condition (running shoe, TCC1, TCC2). After a 5-minute acclimation period on the treadmill to the footwear, data from 84 mid-gait steps were collected for analysis before the treadmill being stopped and the subject dismounting. Only steps at a constant gait speed and stride length were analyzed. Repeatability was determined using intraclass correlation coefficients, and plantar pressures were analyzed using a repeated measures analysis of variance with Tukey’s post-hoc tests for follow-up. The repeatability for the TCC applications were r = . 9636 (forefoot) and r = . 9622 (heel region). Significant main effects and interaction effects were body region (p = .000), footwear (p = .001), and body region × footwear (p = .000). The results indicate that total contact casts reliably redistribute plantar foot pressure. In the forefoot region, plantar pressures may be significantly reduced using total contact casting, with excellent repeatability. Although excellent repeatability is attainable for total contact cast application in the heel region, plantar pressure off-loading is not as successful and alternative measures are still needed.
Children with oral clefts are at greater risk for persistent low achievement in school than classmates

Objectives To examine trajectories in academic achievement for children with oral clefts versus unaffected classmates and explore predictors of persistently low achievement among children with oral clefts. Design Longitudinal cohort study of academic achievement in a population-based sample. Setting and participants Children born from 1983 through 2003 with oral clefts were identified from the Iowa Registry for Congenital and Inherited Disorders and matched to unaffected classmates by sex, school/school district and month and year of birth. Main outcome measures Academic achievement was measured from Iowa Testing Programs data. Outcomes included achievement scores in reading, language and mathematics. Results Academic achievement data were available for 586 children with oral clefts and 1873 unaffected classmates. Achievement trajectories were stable for both groups. Children with oral clefts were more likely than their classmates to be classified into persistent low achievement trajectories, including when adjusting for socioeconomic differences: OR=1.63, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.16 for reading; OR=1.73, 95% CI 1.29 to 2.31 for language; OR=1.45, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.99 for math. Predictors of low achievement were cleft palate only (vs other cleft types), adolescent mothers, low maternal education and less frequent use of prenatal care. Conclusions Most children have steady academic trajectories and children with oral clefts are at greater risk for persistent low achievement in school than unaffected classmates. These findings support the need for routine, early screening for academic deficits in this population. Cleft palate only, low parental education and adolescent mothers are associated with increased risk for persistent low achievement.
Leptospirosis and malaria as causes of febrile illness during a dengue epidemic in Jamaica

Abstract Background: Epidemics of febrile illnesses are often associated with rainy seasons in the tropics. During 2007–2008 an epidemic of dengue was identified in Jamaica based on serological testing of sera. Methods: A subset of 3165 of 5400 sera submitted for dengue analysis was tested for Leptospira IgM and malaria IgG using ELISA to determine their role in causing epidemic fever. Findings: Seropositivity for dengue, leptospirosis, and malaria were 38·4 and 6·0 and 6·5%, respectively, indicative of three concurrent epidemics. Mixed exposure to all three diseases was rare (0·1%), as were mixed dengue/malaria (2·4%); dengue/leptospirosis (1·6%), and leptospirosis/malaria (0·03%) exposure. Exposure to dengue and malaria appeared to occur most frequently among children while leptospirosis was more common among adults. Conclusion: While serological diagnosis definitively established that dengue was the main cause of the epidemic febrile illness, the data suggested that there may be other causes of fever, which may occur simultaneously. Consequently, leptospirosis and malaria should be considered as causes of fever during epidemics of dengue in endemic areas.
Fused DNN: A Deep Neural Network Fusion Approach to Fast and Robust Pedestrian Detection

We propose a deep neural network fusion architecture for fast and robust pedestrian detection. The proposed network fusion architecture allows for parallel processing of multiple networks for speed. A single shot deep convolutional network is trained as a object detector to generate all possible pedestrian candidates of different sizes and occlusions. This network outputs a large variety of pedestrian candidates to cover the majority of ground-truth pedestrians while also introducing a large number of false positives. Next, multiple deep neural networks are used in parallel for further refinement of these pedestrian candidates. We introduce a soft-rejection based network fusion method to fuse the soft metrics from all networks together to generate the final confidence scores. Our method performs better than existing state-of-the-arts, especially when detecting small-size and occluded pedestrians. Furthermore, we propose a method for integrating pixel-wise semantic segmentation network into the network fusion architecture as a reinforcement to the pedestrian detector. The approach outperforms state-of-the-art methods on most protocols on Caltech Pedestrian dataset, with significant boosts on several protocols. It is also faster than all other methods.
Solving Occlusion Problem in Pedestrian Detection by Constructing Discriminative Part Layers

Occlusion handling is one of the most challenging issues for pedestrian detection, and no satisfactory achievement has been found in this issue yet. Using human body parts has been considered as a reasonable way to overcome such an issue. In this paper, we propose a brand new approach based on the fusion of Mid-level body part mining and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to solve this problem, named DP-CNN(Discriminative Parts CNN). Two main discussions are included in this paper. First, we take an exhaustive analysis on how to mine useful body parts that contribute to pedestrian detection. Multiple ingredients (e.g. feature representation, pedestrian attributes) are analyzed through a wide range of experiments. Second, we convert the part detectors to the middle layer of CNN and re-train the model to get a better adaption of the dataset. Compare to existing approaches based on fine-tuning CNN models, our method is not only robust to occlusion handling but also has a smaller computational cost.
Assessment of Nonconformity to Prescription Writing Requirements and Prescription Errors: A Community Based Study

Background: Drug therapy may not be successful if the process of writing prescription, dispensing and administration is not appropriately performed resulting into medication errors, which are unfortunately a reality in most health care settings. Approximately 30% of problems occurring during hospitalization are related to medication errors, causing great economic impact, serious morbidity and mortality. So it was thought of interest to study non compliance with prescription writing requirements and prescription errors in a community based setting. Methodology: The study was conducted in the community pharmacies for over a period of two months. The new prescriptions were screened prospectively to assess non compliance for one or more of the legal or the procedural requirements of prescription writing and was recorded in a standard data collection form. Result: Of the 1488 prescriptions screened during the study, 98.7% had one or more of the legal or procedural requirements missing. These errors of omission are patient’s age, gender, weight, dose, frequency, course prescribed. Errors of commission involved related to dosage form 4.91% and Polypharmacy 58%. These errors occurred in considerable number regarding important variables involving all health care professionals working in patient care. Conclusion: The study shows a low compliance to the legal and procedural requirements for prescription writing and denotes significant scope to educate and emphasize the importance of writing clear and complete prescriptions to avoid medication related injuries, thus evidencing the need of constant evaluation of these events in order to prevent them and assure greater safety and success in the therapy.
Bovine heart NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase contains one molecule of ubiquinone with ten isoprene units as one of the cofactors.

NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase (Complex I) is located at the entrance of the mitochondrial electron transfer chain and transfers electrons from NADH to ubiquinone with 10 isoprene units (Q(10)) coupled with proton pumping. The composition of Complex I, the largest and most complex proton pump in the mitochondrial electron transfer system, especially the contents of Q(10) and phospholipids, has not been well established. An improved purification method including solubilization of mitochondrial membrane with deoxycholate followed by sucrose gradient centrifugation and anion-exchange column chromatography provided reproducibly a heme-free preparation containing 1 Q(10), 70 phosphorus atoms of phospholipids, 1 zinc ion, 1 FMN, 30 inorganic sulfur ions, and 30 iron atoms as the intrinsic constituents. The rotenone-sensitive enzymatic activity of the Complex I preparation was comparable to that of Complex I in the mitochondrial membrane. It has been proposed that Complex I has two Q(10) binding sites, one involved in the proton pump and the other functioning as a converter between one and two electron transfer pathways [Ohnishi, T. , Johnson, J. J. E. , Yano, T. , LoBrutto, R. , and Widger, R. W. (2005) FEBS Lett. 579, 500-506]. The existence of one molecule of Q(10) in the fully oxidized Complex I suggests that the affinity of Q(10) to one of the two Q(10) sites is greatly dependent on the oxidation state and/or the membrane potential and that the Q(10) in the present preparation functions as the converter of the electron transfer pathways which should be present in any oxidation state.
Height growth in children with asthma treated with guideline-recommended dosages of fluticasone and electronically assessed adherence

Background and aims Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) reduce growth during the first year of treatment, but this growth suppressing effect does not continue during further treatment. Decreasing adherence may play a role in explaining this. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between cumulative real exposure (with objectively assessed adherence) to ICS and height growth in children with asthma. Methods We investigated 99 prepubertal children with asthma, 2–13 years of age, who had been using ICS in guideline-recommended dosages for ≥3 months, and continued to do so during 1-year follow-up. ICS adherence was assessed by electronic monitoring devices, allowing calculation of true cumulative exposure to ICS. We analysed the relationship between cumulative ICS dose and height growth velocity (assessed as change in height SD score) over 1 year. Results Median (IQR) adherence over 1 year was 84 (68–92) %. Mean cumulative fluticasone dose was 64.6 (SD, 27.8) mg, reflecting a daily dose of 167 (SD, 7) µg. The negative correlation between cumulative ICS dose and height growth velocity (r=−0.266; p=0.008) became non-significant after adjustment for age and sex in a multiple regression model (adjusted r=−0.188; p=0.066). Conclusions One year of ICS treatment in guideline-recommended dosages with high adherence did not result in significant or relevant growth suppression. Unaffected growth can be maintained for at least 1 year in children with asthma during ICS treatment with high adherence.
Inguinal hernia in dogs

A review of inguinal hernia in dogs for the last 16 years revealed 65 females and nine males treated at The Norwegian College of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Surgery. In a litter of three male and two female five-month-old West Highland white terrier puppies, all the males showed inquinal hernia, two combined with ectopic testicle.
On the Joint Estimation of the RSS-Based Location and Path-loss Exponent

Due to its straightforward implementation, the received signal strength (RSS) has been an advantageous approach for low cost localization systems. Although the propagation model is difficult to characterize in uncertain environments, the majority of current studies assume to have exact knowledge of the path-loss exponent (PLE). This letter deals with RSS based localization in an unknown path-loss model. First, we derive an analytical expression for the mean square error on location estimates for incorrect PLE assumption and examine, via simulation, the effects of error in the PLE on the location accuracy. Second, we enhance a previously proposed RSS-PLE joint estimator (JE) by reducing its complexity. We also propose a maximum a posteriori (MAP) estimator by considering the PLE as an unknown random variable. Finally, we derive the Hybrid Cramer Rao Bound (HCRB) as a benchmark for the MAP estimator. Error analysis results predict large error due to incorrect PLE assumption which are in agreement with the simulation results. Further simulations show that the MAP estimator exhibits better performance at low signal to noise ratio (SNR) and that the relation between the HCRB and CRB depends on the network geometry.