Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
[Activities of daily living of the elderly with a chronic disease and burden on family care-givers].

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to help families decrease and alleviate the burden on family care-givers taking care of elderly patients. METHOD Data was collected by a questionnaire from 100 family members who were registered in the department of home health care nursing at 4 hospitals of H University Medical Center from September 20 to October 25, 2005. The collected data was analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation, Pearson Correlation Coefficient, t-test and One-Way ANOVA with the Duncan's test, and Stepwise multiple regression. RESULT The average burden on family care-givers of elderly patients with chronic diseases was 3.31. The social burden was the highest(M=3.68), the lowest was the emotional burden (M=2.95). In ADL of elderly patients with chronic diseases, all 10 questions showed an average point above 2.50. The dependency level of going up and down the stairs was the highest (M=2.88). CONCLUSION This research is necessary for the application of a plan in the social support system in order to reduce the burden on family care-givers who are taking care of elderly patients with a chronic disease.
Masking-level differences as a function of interaural disparities in intensity of signal and of noise.

A marked release from masking, or masking‐level difference (MLD), results when a sinusoid is presented monaurally Sm rather than binaurally and in phase S0 with correlated (in phase) noise N0. If the sinusoid in one ear, rather than being removed entirely, is reduced in intensity relative to that in the other, a smaller MLD should result. MLD's were determined as a function of the ratio of the energies of the right‐ and left‐ear sinusoids. This signal (500 cps, 0.25 sec) was presented in one or the other of two temporal intervals against a background of white noise N0. Also, MLD's result when Nm‐Sm is changed to N0‐Sm. Thus, MLD's were determined as a function of the relative intensity of the noise in the nonsignal ear with noise correlations of N0, Nπ, and NU. For N0, there is some release from masking even when the noise in the nonsignal ear is as much as 40 dB down from that in the signal ear. [Work supported by the U. S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. ]
Protective effects of chronic melatonin treatment against renal injury in streptozotocin‐induced diabetic rats

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of melatonin as an antioxidant, on prevention and treatment of streptozotocin (STZ)‐induced diabetic renal injury in rats. Male Wistar rats were divided into four groups: (1) untreated, (2) melatonin‐treated, (3) untreated diabetic (UD), (4) melatonin‐treated diabetic (MD). Experimental diabetes was induced by single dose (60 mg/kg, i.p.) STZ injection. For 3 days prior to administration of STZ, melatonin was injected (200 μg/kg/day, i.p.); these injections were continued until the end of the study (4 weeks). Malondialdehyde (MDA) levels as a marker of lipid peroxidation were significantly increased in the renal homogenates of UD animals and decreased after melatonin administration. The activity of the antioxidative enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px) was significantly reduced in UD rats. Melatonin treatment reversed STZ‐induced reduction of GSH‐Px activity without having an effect on blood glucose. Upon histopathological examination, it was observed that the melatonin treatment prevented the renal morphological damage caused by diabetes. Upon immunohistochemical investigation, glomerular anti‐laminin β1 staining decreased in MD rats. Additionally, no tubular anti‐IGF‐1 staining was observed in melatonin‐treated rats. In conclusion, chronically administered melatonin reduced renal injury in STZ‐induced diabetic rats and thus it may provide a useful therapeutic option in humans to reduce oxidative stress and the associated renal injury in patients with diabetes mellitus.
Trough insulin levels in bronchoalveolar lavage following inhaled human insulin (Exubera) in patients with diabetes mellitus.

BACKGROUND/AIM There are few data regarding insulin levels in the lungs during diabetes therapy with inhaled insulin. We examined the disposition of inhaled human insulin (Exubera(®) [EXU] human insulin [recombinant DNA origin], Pfizer, New York, NY) in the lungs by measuring trough insulin levels in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid after 12 weeks of EXU treatment. METHODS After a 4-week run-in period of subcutaneous insulin therapy, 24 subjects with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and 26 with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) continued their basal insulin regimen and received premeal subcutaneous (SC) insulin for 13 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of premeal EXU. BAL was performed approximately 12 h after the last insulin dose at (1) baseline, (2) following SC insulin, and (3) following EXU. RESULTS Twenty patients with T1DM and 24 patients with T2DM completed all three bronchoscopies. BAL trough insulin levels were undetectable at baseline or following SC insulin. After EXU therapy, they increased to a median of 4.5 nM (1.6-9.0 nM) and 2.3 nM (0.5-9.4 nM) in T1DM and T2DM, respectively. BAL trough insulin levels did not correlate with treatment efficacy, adverse effects, plasma insulin levels, or changes in pulmonary function. A larger proportion of previous EXU doses was present in the BAL in patients with T1DM. We found no correlation between average daily insulin doses and BAL trough insulin levels. CONCLUSIONS BAL trough insulin increased following EXU therapy, but this increase did not correlate with other clinical or laboratory parameters, suggesting no significant biological action. Further studies are warranted to better understand inhaled insulin deposition and clearance and possible effects of increased insulin levels on the lungs.
Vertebral Pseudarthrosis in the Osteoporotic Spine

Study Design. Radiologic and operative findings of intravertebral cleft in the osteoporotic spine were investigated and the pathomechanism discussed. Objectives. To clarify the pathologic features of the intravertebral cleft. Summary of Background Data. Intravertebral "vacuum" cleft is one of the common radiographic findings in the osteoporotic spine. It is thought that the cleft is a rare lesion of an ununited fracture, or pseudarthrosis. Evidential findings of the disease, however, have never been reported. Methods. Simple bone grafting was performed in five cases (average age, 76.8 years) of thoracolumbar intravertebral cleft in osteoporotic spine in patients who had been suffering from prolonged pain of the back or leg. Preoperative radiologic evaluation using flexion‐extension radiograph and magnetic resonance imaging was performed in all patients. At operation, the cleft and the components of the structure were macroscopically and microscopically observed. The fluid content in the cleft was biochemically analyzed. Results. In all patients, preoperative flexion‐extension radiographs showed intravertebral instability at the location of the clefts that indicated gas density in three cases and water density in two cases. Magnetic resonance imaging showed that, for the most part, the cleft was low intensity on the T1‐weighted image and high intensity on the T2‐weighted scans, regardless of the radiographic findings. At operation, abnormal movement was observed at the cleft of the affected body, which was covered with hypertrophic membrane. The serous fluid within the cleft was aspirated before the excision of soft tissue. The thick membrane was excised and showed that the cleft was lined by smooth fibrocartilaginous tissue and the great degree of motion between the fracture ends that is consistent with the pathologic appearance of pseudarthrosis. Conclusions. The unstable cleft in the affected vertebral body of the osteoporotic spine with magnetic resonance findings of low intensity on the T1‐weighted scans and high intensity on the T2‐weighted scans suggests that the cleft is a false joint lined by fibrocartilaginous tissue with notable movement consistent with pseudarthrosis.
Predicting the Chemical Potential and Osmotic Pressure of Polysaccharide Solutions by Molecular Simulations.

Differences in the chemical potential of water and the resulting osmotic pressure across semipermeable membranes are of fundamental importance for many biological systems. Here, we calculate the osmotic pressure and the chemical potential of water for polysaccharide solutions by molecular simulations. We set up a method to measure the osmotic pressure in polysaccharide systems at different concentrations and found that for monomers the experimental trend with respect to the solute concentration is reproduced correctly. However, the calculated osmotic pressure values are systematically too low, and two common carbohydrate force fields (FFs) cannot correctly describe the relationship between the osmotic pressure and the degree of polymerization. Therefore, we reparametrized parts of the GLYCAM06 TIP5P FF based on osmotic pressure data. The predictive power of the resulting GLYCAM06OSMOr14TIP5P FF is demonstrated for two different sugar molecules over a wide range of concentrations, and additional evaluation.
Junctionless Multiple-Gate Transistors for Analog Applications

This paper presents the evaluation of the analog properties of nMOS junctionless (JL) multigate transistors, comparing their performance with those exhibited by inversion-mode (IM) trigate devices of similar dimensions. The study has been performed for devices operating in saturation as single-transistor amplifiers, and we have considered the dependence of the analog properties on fin width Wfin and temperature T. Furthermore, this paper aims at providing a physical insight into the analog parameters of JL transistors. For that, in addition to device characterization, 3-D device simulations were performed. It is shown that, depending on gate voltage, JL devices can present both larger Early voltage VEA and larger intrinsic voltage gain AV than IM devices of similar dimensions. In addition, VEA and AV are always improved in JL devices when the temperature is increased, whereas they present a maximum value around room temperature for IM transistors.
Multiple Fetal Anomalies in Association with Topiramate and Oxcarbezepine Treatment

We present a case of a woman who used topiramate (100 mg) and oxcarbazepine (300 mg) continuously during pregnancy. Multiple fetal anomalies including limp defects of the lower extremities, pericardiac fluid collection, cardiomegaly, cleft lip and palate, absent right kidney, and dysplastic left kidney were found by ultrasonography. Labor was induced and anomalies were confirmed by autopsy. The malformation rate after exposure to oxcarbazepine in utero as a monotherapy was calculated to be 2.4%, which is compatible with the malformation rate seen in the general population. Topiramate is teratogenic in mice, rats, and rabbits, but there are very few reports about its teratogenicity in humans.
Isolation and characterization of a monoclonal antibody-resistant antigenic mutant of Toxoplasma gondii.

Several monoclonal antibodies against Toxoplasma gondii were parasiticidal in the presence of normal human serum as measured by reduction in plaque titer or in assays that detected lysis. One monoclonal antibody, G, was used to select a resistant mutant from a large population of chemically mutagenized wild-type parasites. This mutant retained the wild-type sensitivity to other monoclonal antibodies and to polyclonal antisera. A comparison of surface radioiodinated wild-type and mutant parasites by using one and two-dimensional electrophoresis showed that the mutant lacked a protein (or proteins) of approximate m.w. 22,000. An immunoprecipitation procedure using monoclonal antibody G yielded a protein(s) of this m.w. from surface radioiodinated wild-type T. gondii but not from surface radioiodinated mutant parasites.
The New European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism Definition of Malnutrition: Application for Nutrition Assessment and Prediction of Morbimortality in an Emergency Service

BACKGROUND Recently, the European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (ESPEN) provided novel consensus criteria for malnutrition diagnosis. This study aimed to evaluate the applicability of this instrument in combination with different nutrition screening tools (1) to identify malnutrition and (2) to predict morbidity and mortality in hospitalized patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS Observational prospective study in 750 adults admitted to the emergency service of a tertiary public hospital. Subjective Global Assessment (SGA-reference method) and the new ESPEN criteria were used to assess nutrition status of patients, who were initially screened for nutrition risk using 4 different tools. Outcome measures included length of hospital stay, occurrence of infection, and incidence of death during hospitalization, analyzed by logistic regression. RESULTS There was a lack of agreement between the SGA and ESPEN definition of malnutrition, regardless of the nutrition screening tool applied previously (κ = -0.050 to 0.09). However, when Malnutrition Screening Tool and Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 (NRS-2002) were used as the screening tool, malnourished patients according to ESPEN criteria showed higher probability of infection (relative risk [RR], 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02-2.31 and RR, 2.06; 95% CI, 1.37-3.10, respectively), and when the NRS-2002 was used, the risk for death was 2.7 times higher (hazard ratio, 2.69; 95% CI, 1.07-6.81) in malnourished patients than in well-nourished patients. CONCLUSION Although the new ESPEN criteria had a poor diagnostic value, it seems to be a prognostic tool among hospitalized patients, especially when used in combination with the NRS-2002.
Comparable efficacy with varying dosages of glucarpidase in pediatric oncology patients

Glucarpidase rapidly reduces methotrexate plasma concentrations in patients experiencing methotrexate‐induced renal dysfunction. Debate exists regarding the role of glucarpidase in therapy given its high cost. The use of reduced‐dose glucarpidase has been reported, and may allow more institutions to supply this drug to their patients. This report explores the relationship between glucarpidase dosage and patient outcomes in pediatric oncology patients.
Siamese Convolutional Neural Networks for Authorship Verification

Determining handwriting authorship of a written text has practical significance in the realm of forensics, signature verification, and literary history. While there have been studies in signature verification and handwriting classification, a vast literature review reveals that very little work has been done in handwriting verification. Recent advances in convolutional architectures, particularly those involving facial verification, suggest that the task can be tackled effectively. In this study, we build a Siamese convolutional neural network to determine whether two pieces of handwriting are written by the same author. We examine questions such as whether long pieces of handwriting must be present to achieve good results, how many samples are needed, what features are important, and how different architectures perform on this task. We explore different convolutional architectures like VGG, GoogLeNet and ResNet, to determine which architecture produces the best encoding of each sample. We note that our best performing single model, TinyResNet, achieves a 92.08% accuracy on the held out test set.
Credit Market Disruptions and Liquidity Spillover Effects in the Supply Chain

How do shocks to the banking sector travel through the corporate economy? Using a novel data set of interfirm sales, I show that suppliers exposed to a large and exogenous decline in bank financing pass this liquidity shock to their downstream customers. The spillover effect occurs through two channels: a reduction in trade credit offered and a reduction in the total supply of goods and services. After exposure to the spillover, downstream customers show a spike in credit risk and a reduction in employment. Overall, the paper highlights the importance of financial spillovers in explaining corporate sector outcomes.
A general-purpose processor-per-pixel analog SIMD vision chip

A smart-sensor VLSI circuit suitable for focal-plane low-level image processing applications is presented. The architecture of the device is based on a fine-grain software-programmable SIMD processor array. Processing elements, integrated within each pixel of the imager, are implemented utilising a switched-current analog microprocessor concept. This allows the achievement of real-time image processing speeds with high efficiency in terms of silicon area and power dissipation. The prototype 21 /spl times/ 21 vision chip is fabricated in a 0.6 /spl mu/m CMOS technology and achieves a cell size of 98.6 /spl mu/m /spl times/ 98.6 /spl mu/m. It executes over 1.1 giga instructions per second (GIPS) while dissipating under 40 mW of power. The architecture, circuit design and experimental results are presented in this paper.
SEGUE 2: THE LEAST MASSIVE GALAXY

Segue 2, discovered by Belokurov et al., is a galaxy with a luminosity of only 900 L☉. We present Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopy of 25 members of Segue 2—a threefold increase in spectroscopic sample size. The velocity dispersion is too small to be measured with our data. The upper limit with 90% (95%) confidence is σv < 2.2 (2.6) km s−1, the most stringent limit for any galaxy. The corresponding limit on the mass within the three-dimensional half-light radius (46 pc) is M1/2 < 1.5 (2.1) × 105 M☉. Segue 2 is the least massive galaxy known. We identify Segue 2 as a galaxy rather than a star cluster based on the wide dispersion in [Fe/H] (from −2.85 to −1.33) among the member stars. The stars' [α/Fe] ratios decline with increasing [Fe/H], indicating that Segue 2 retained Type Ia supernova ejecta despite its presently small mass and that star formation lasted for at least 100 Myr. The mean metallicity, 〈[Fe/H]〉 = -2.22 ± 0.13 (about the same as the Ursa Minor galaxy, 330 times more luminous than Segue 2), is higher than expected from the luminosity–metallicity relation defined by more luminous dwarf galaxy satellites of the Milky Way. Segue 2 may be the barest remnant of a tidally stripped, Ursa Minor-sized galaxy. If so, it is the best example of an ultra-faint dwarf galaxy that came to be ultra-faint through tidal stripping. Alternatively, Segue 2 could have been born in a very low mass dark matter subhalo (vmax < 10 km s−1), below the atomic hydrogen cooling limit.
The origin of urinary aromatic compounds excreted by ruminants

1. Dietary phenolic cinnamic acids are hydrogenated in the side-chain, demethylated and dehydroxylated in the rumen and are responsible for the large urinary output of benzoic acid by ruminants. 2. Decarboxylation of phenolic acids to simple phenols is another reaction of the intestinal microflora and experiments were made to determine the extent of this reaction in the rumen of sheep. 3. In five experiments phenolic compounds, quinic acid or casein were infused into therumen or abomasum of sheep and increments in urinary outputs of phenolic acids and phenols determined by thin-layer and gas-liquid chromatography. 4. Production of phenols was almost exclusively confined to reactions in the rumen. 5. Rumen administration of phenolic benzoic or phenylacetic acids which contained a 4-hydroxy substituent yielded large increments in urinary phenol outputs. Other phenolic benzoic and phenylacetic acids were not decarboxytated. Rumen decarboxylation of 4-hydroxy-3-phenylpropionic acid did not occur and decarboxylation of 4-hydroxycinnamic acids was slight. 6. Nearly half the tyrosine content of rumen-administered casein was excreted as p-cresol, a decarboxylation product of 4-hydroxyphenylaceticacid, p-Cresol was the principal phenol found in sheepurine. 7. Catechol and phenol were consistently found in sheep urine samples and p-ethylphenol, resorcinol, quinol, 4-methylcatechol, orcinoland pyrogallol were also found when suitable precursors were infused to the rumen. 8. It is concluded that p-cresol is a rumen metabolite of tyrosine. The other phenols found are microbial metabolites of phenolic precursorswhich are either widely distributed in plants such as 4-hydroxybenzoic, protocatechuic andvanillic acids or of more limited distribution such as the orcinol glycosides of some Ericaceous plants.
Effect of epidural analgesia on change in Mallampati class during labour

Mallampati class has been shown to increase during labour. Epidural analgesia might influence this change. The aim of our study was to compare the change in Mallampati class during labour in parturients who did and did not receive epidural analgesia and study the association of these changes with pre‐defined clinical characteristics. We performed a prospective observational study of 190 parturients. Using standard methodology, photographs of the upper airway were taken with a digital camera during early labour and within 90 min of delivery. Two to three consultant anaesthetists, blinded to the origin of the photographs, evaluated the images obtained and assigned a Mallampati class to each. Overall, Mallampati class increased in 61 (32.1%), decreased in 18 (9.5%) and did not change in 111 (58.4%) parturients (p < 0.001). The proportions of parturients in the epidural and non‐epidural groups who demonstrated an increase, decrease and no change in Mallampati class were similar. Of the relationships between change in Mallampati class and the other factors studied, only the total dose of epidural levobupivacaine during labour demonstrated a weak positive correlation 0.17 (p = 0.039) with Mallampati class. This study confirms that labour is associated with an increase in the Mallampati class in approximately one third of parturients. Our findings indicate that having an epidural does not influence the likelihood of a change in Mallampati class during labour.
The cation distribution in synthetic (Fe,Mn)3(PO4)2 graftonite-type sotid solutions

Nine (Fe1-*Mn*)3(POa)2 solutions (0. l<xs0.9) with the graftonite-type structure have been prepared and equilibrated at 1070 K. The structure contains three distinct cation coordination polyhedra, all distorted: one octahedron, and two five-coordinated polyhedra. Accurate unit cell dimensions (P2rlc) have been obtained from Guinier-Hiigg photographic data for these phases. Mcissbauer spectra in combination with a neutron difraction study of JFes 56Mne.5s)r@Oa)z have been used to determine the cation distribution for the various compositions. Mn2+ preferentially enters the distorted octahedra and Fe2* the fivecoordinated sites. The site populations obtained are in agreement with general cation preference trends.