Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A 12-month follow-up study of self-management training for people with chronic disease: are changes maintained over time?

OBJECTIVE A previous study reported some improved outcomes at 4-month follow-up after attendance on a lay-led, chronic disease self-management course (CDSMC). The purpose of this study was to determine whether changes were maintained over time (i.e. at 12 months) and to describe participants' current use of self-management techniques. DESIGN The study was a 12-month follow-up of a sample of 171 participants who attended a CDSMC in the UK. METHOD Data were collected by self-administered questionnaires mailed to participants 12 months after they commenced a CDSMC and via telephone interviews with a sub-sample. RESULTS The sample had a mean age of 54 years, mean disease duration of 16 years, 73% were women, and chronic diseases included endometriosis, depression, diabetes, myalgic encephalomyelitis, osteoporosis and polio. The significant improvements in outcomes identified at 4 months (i.e. cognitive symptom management, self-efficacy, communication with physician, fatigue, anxious and depressed moods and health distress) were sustained at 12 months. No significant changes between 4- and 12-month assessments were found on any study variables. Interview data confirmed that participants continued to use some of the self-management techniques learned on the course. CONCLUSION Attendance on the CDSMC may lead to longer-term changes in key outcomes such as self-efficacy, use of some self-management behaviours and some aspects of health status (e.g. fatigue, depressed mood).
A binaural auditory model for sound quality measurements and spatial hearing studies

This paper addresses auditory modeling in relation to binaural applications. Relatively few studies so far exist where auditory modeling is extended to include advanced binaural features. There are numerous potential applications where such modeling may yield practical results or improved insight into the problem. The focus is to develop models for spatial sound quality measurements and general modeling of spatial hearing. The novelties of the paper are related to auditory filterbank designs, temporal processing schemes, and binaural processing strategies.
Dihydroxynonene mercapturic acid, a urinary metabolite of 4‐hydroxynonenal, as a biomarker of lipid peroxidation

The objective of our study was to compare the information obtained through the use of three different urinary biomarkers of lipoperoxidation during the time course of a bromotrichloromethane (BrCCl3) induced oxidative stress in rats. These biomarkers were malondialdehyde (MDA) measured by LC/MS after derivatization, the isoprostane 8‐iso‐PGF2α measured by enzyme immunoassay and 1,4‐dihydroxynonene mercapturic acid (DHN‐MA), the major 4‐hydroxynonenal urinary metabolite [1], measured by LC‐MS. Male Wistar rats received a single dose of 100 μL/kg BrCCl3 per os and lipid peroxidation was estimated every day for a 4‐day‐period after treatment. MDA, 8‐iso‐PGF2α and DHN‐MA significantly increased in response to BrCCl3 treatment for this period of time, and DHN‐MA showed the main increase during the 24–48 h period after treatment.
Effect of seed coating material and storage containers on Germination and seedling Vigour of soybean (Glycine max L.)

A laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of different seed coating materials and storage containers on germination, seedling vigour and suitability of packaging material for soybean seed. Seed of soybean varietyPS1024 was used for coating purpose with 6 coating treatments viz., T 0 (control), T 1 (Polymer coating i.e. Polykote @ 3 ml kg -1 of seed diluted with 5 ml of water), T 2 (Flowable Thiram i.e. Royal flow 40 SC @ 2.4 ml kg -1 of seed), T 3 (T 1 + T 2 ), T 4 (Vitavax 200 i.e.thiram 37.5 % and carboxyl 37.5% @ 2 g kg -1 of seed and T 5 (T 1 + T 4 ). The coated seeds were stored in two kinds of containers i.e. jute canvas bag, high density poly ethylene (HDPE) non- laminated bag and bimonthly observation on germination and seedling vigour were recorded. After 8 th month of storage, germination and vigour index in polythene bag stored seeds were significantly higher than the seed stored in cloth bag. Among seed coating treatments, maximum %germination was recorded in polymer coating @ 3 ml kg -1 followed by vitavax 200 @ 2 g kg -1 of seed treatment (T 5 ) which was significantly higher than rest of the coated treatment including untreated control seeds (T 0 ). Similarly, maximum seed vigour index was observed in T 5 and minimum vigor index was recorded with T 0 (untreated control). DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/sja.v12i2. 21913 SAARC J. Agri. , 12(2): 16-24 (2014)
Real-Time SAH BVH Construction for Ray Tracing Dynamic Scenes

This work is aimed at the development of effective algorithms for building of full SAH BVH trees on GPU in real-time. In this work it is presupposed that all the scene objects are represented by a number of triangles (the so-called “triangle soup”), at the same time the arbitrary changes in the geometry are allowed in the process of rendering. The proposed methods have allowed more than tenfold increase performance compared to the best GPU implementation known.
Laparoscopic appendectomy in children: use of the endoloop vs the endostapler.

HYPOTHESIS Two techniques are used for laparoscopic appendectomy (LA): division of the mesoappendix with the harmonic scalpel and ligation of the appendix with an endoloop (EL), or division of the mesoappendix and appendix with an endostapler (ES). Using an ES is a cost-effective technique that provides an outcome benefit in children who require appendectomy. DESIGN Case series. SETTING Academic, tertiary care children's hospital. PATIENTS Seventy-five children who underwent LA from January 1, 2002, to March 31, 2004. INTERVENTION Laparoscopic appendectomy. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Age, diagnosis, length of stay, surgical time, total operating room time, complications, and instrumentation costs were compared between the EL and ES groups. RESULTS There was no significant difference in age, length of stay, perforated, gangrenous, or acute appendicitis diagnoses, or complications between the groups. The surgical time and total operating room time for LA in children in the ES group were significantly shorter than in children in the EL group by 15% and 17%, respectively (P<.05). The disposable equipment costs for LA were $201 per case in the ES group vs $400 per case in the EL group. The mean 14.9-minute increase in total operating room time in children in the EL group resulted in $373 of additional operating room and anesthesia costs. The decreased disposable equipment costs and shorter surgical time of LA in the ES group led to cost savings of $572 per case as compared with children who underwent LA with an EL. CONCLUSIONS There is no significant difference in outcome between children who undergo LA with an EL or with an ES. However, this study supports the use of the ES for LA as a more cost-effective technique that is associated with reduced surgical time.
The peritrophic membrane of Spodoptera frugiperda: secretion of peritrophins and role in immobilization and recycling digestive enzymes.

A peritrophin from the Spodoptera frugiperda peritrophic membrane (PM) and microvillar proteins from S. frugiperda anterior midgut cells were isolated and used to raise antibodies in a rabbit. These antibodies, as well as a Tenebrio molitor amylase antibody that cross-reacts with S. frugiperda amylases, and wheat-germ aglutinin were used in immunolocalization experiments performed with the aid of confocal fluorescence and immunogold techniques. The results showed that the peritrophin was secreted by anterior midgut columnar cells in vesicles pinched-off the microvilli (microapocrine secretion). The resulting double membrane vesicles become single membrane vesicles by membrane fusion, releasing peritrophin and part of the amylase and trypsin. The remaining membranes still containing microvillar proteins and membrane-bound amylase and trypsin are incorporated into a jelly-like material associated with PM. Calcofluor-treated larvae lacking a PM were shown to lose the decreasing gradient of trypsin and chymotrypsin observed along the midgut of control larvae. This gradient is thought to be formed by a countercurrent flux of fluid (in the space between PM and midgut cells) that powers enzyme recycling.
The Influence of Spine Surgeons’ Experience on the Classification and Intraobserver Reliability of the Novel AOSpine Thoracolumbar Spine Injury Classification System: An International Studys

Study Design. International validation study. Objective. To investigate the influence of the spine surgeons’ level of experience on the intraobserver reliability of the novel AOSpine Thoracolumbar Spine Injury Classification system, and the appropriate classification according to this system. Summary of Background Data. Wide variability has been demonstrated for intraobserver reliability of the AOSpine classification system. The spine surgeons’ level of experience may play a crucial role in the appropriate classification of thoracolumbar fractures, and the degree of reproducibility of the same observer on separate occasions. However, this has not been previously investigated. Methods. After a training on the classification system, high quality CT images together with clinical data from 25 patients with thoracolumbar fractures were independently assessed by 100 spine surgeons from across the world on 2 different occasions, 1 month apart from each other. The spine surgeons were allocated to a subgroup, according to their years of experience. Intraobserver reliability was calculated for each individual surgeon and for each subgroup, using the Kappa statistics (&kgr;). Descriptive statistics was used to describe any differences between the subgroups. Analysis of any misclassifications was performed by calculating sensitivity and specificity estimates. Results. Almost all surgeons demonstrated at least moderate intraobserver reliability. All surgeon subgroups demonstrated substantial reliability (&kgr; = 0.67–0.69) for fracture subtype grading, and almost all subgroups demonstrated excellent reliability (&kgr; = 0.79–0.83) for fracture morphology type regardless of subtype identified. In general, the fractures were most frequently misclassified by the most experienced surgeons. No major differences were observed among the subgroups when comparing the sensitivity and specificity rates. Conclusion. This international study demonstrated that the spine surgeons’ level of experience does not substantially influence the classification and intraobserver reliability of the recently described AOSpine Thoracolumbar Spine Injury Classification System. Level of Evidence: 4
Colorness index strategy for pixel fire segmentation

The use of computational resources of the area of image processing for early fire detection proves to be a good low-cost alternative to save human lives and ecological systems. In the literature, the general fire detection approaches use some color channel rules to determine if a pixel is a fire one. In this paper, we propose a new method of fire pixel segmentation using Colorness theory to red, yellow and brown indices combined with a reference probability table. The proposed method was evaluated by comparison with other 12 technical previews works. With a better efficiency than other methods in terms of true positive (82.05%) Accuracy (88.40%), F-Measure (84, 96%), the results show that our proposed method is more accurate to detect fire regions, indicating the effectiveness contribution of our fire probabilistic Colorness method.
Normal rat retina lacks significant numbers of ED2-positive macrophages.

We want to correct some statements that we published in an earlier volume of IOVS. We described microglia and macrophages in the normal rat retina and the response of these cells during the endotoxin-induced uveitis model (EIU). Retinal wholemounts from normal rats and at various time points after endotoxin injection were stained with the monoclonal antibodies ED1 and ED2. We reported the staining pattern and densities (196–271 cells/mm ) of these two antibodies to be essentially similar and described a massive influx of macrophages 24 to 96 hours after endotoxin injection. We reported that these cells were both ED11 and ED21. Since then we have repeated the experiments and performed similar protocols in collaboration with Dr. Paul McMenamin, who has extensive experience with these monoclonal antibodies, during a sabbatical visit he paid to our Institute. We experienced some difficulties in the staining of ED2, which caused us to review the material originally published in IOVS. With the aid of Dr. McMenamin, we performed extensive tests with the monoclonal antibody batches used in the original experiments, compared them with new batches, and concluded that retinal microglia, i.e., the macrophages within the retinal parenchyma, are weakly ED11 but ED22. The original findings that these cells were ED21 was in fact erroneous and appeared to be due to an error in labeling of antibodies at the time of aliquoting. It is important that this issue be clarified, because a number of studies of normal rat retinal tissue have failed to find significant numbers of ED21 macrophages in the retina. Furthermore, no influx of ED21 macrophages was noted in EIU by Pouvreau et al. We apologize for any inconvenience caused to our colleagues as a result of this error.
Oral Pharmacotherapy for the Movement Disorders of Cerebral Palsy

Movement disorders are a well-recognized feature of some patients with cerebral palsy and often require treatment. However, treatments have been symptomatic and empiric, and there have been few pharmacologic studies. The major movement disorders in cerebral palsy are dystonia and the hyperkinesias choreoathetosis and myoclonus. They may occur in combination, often accompanied by spasticity and sometimes by epilepsy. Some drugs are useful treatments for all of these problems, but others may improve one while worsening another. Pitfalls in management include not diagnosing metabolic/degenerative disorders, which may mimic cerebral palsy, or not recognizing reversible complications of cerebral palsy, which may exacerbate symptoms. This review attempts to summarize empiric drug use and recommendations for therapy, drug studies in extrapyramidal cerebral palsy, and prospects for new drugs or models for the problem. Many new pharmacologic agents are available for study in cerebral palsy. Better methods of detecting basal ganglia injury after perinatal injury in asymptomatic infants may allow early intervention in the biologic process of recovery and adaptation. (J Child Neurol 1996;11(Suppl 1): S 13-S22).
Knowledge Management: A New Idea Or a Recycled Concept?

Reading recent knowledge management (KM) articles, one cannot escape the impression of a recycled concept. Definitions of the new field look remarkably like those of information systems, decision support systems, and even data management of the past. Since we believe KM is essentially new, a refined articulation of KM is desirable. Our point of departure is the observation that yesterday’s data are today’s information, which will become tomorrow’s knowledge, and knowledge, in turn, recycles down the value chain back into information and into data. We outline a framework of KM that articulates the basic terms of this perpetual process. The proposed model defines operations and transformations of data-to-information, information-to-knowledge, and their reverse order. Such transformations correspond to a time dimension of pastpresent-future and resemble the process of abstraction. Based on our analysis, we conclude that knowledge management is truly a new idea, not a recycled concept.
Global goals for oral health 2020.

It is anticipated that dentists and other health planners in many different circumstances will use this document for guidance when developing their plans for oral health. We recognise that no document can provide an exact blue print for each and every set of circumstances where oral health plans are to be developed. What is presented here is a range of possible areas that need to be taken into consideration when plans are being developed. It also provides a useful checklist against which existing plans might be examined to determine if there are any possible gaps. Fundamental to the success of any plan is a clear understanding of what resources are already available or might become available once the plan has been adopted officially. Initially it may not be necessary to have a detailed inventory of all resources available, a simple analysis like the completion of the questionnaire in Annexure B will give a quick guide as to the level of resources available to you. This, combined with a prioritised list of the oral health problems of the community or population you are planning for, will help you identify those types of interventions that are likely to be most appropriate and sustainable under the prevailing circumstances. Background
Effects of microbial phytase supplementation on mineral composition of tibia and mineral utilization in broiler fed maize - based diets.

An experiment was conducted to determine effect of supplementing maize - based diet with different levels of microbial phytase on apparent nutrient bioavailability and tibia bone mineral of broilers. Eighty, day-old broiler were randomly allotted to five dietary treatments. The control diet contained 0 FTU/kg microbial phytase which was replaced by 200, 400, 600 and 800 FTU/kg microbial phytase of the basal feed combinations. Phytase supplementation of diet increased P, Ca, Zn, Cu and Phytate - P bioavailability significantly with 800 FTU/kg microbial phytase inclusion. No significant (p>0.05) difference was observed in the calcium content (r = 0.94) of the tibia bone of birds fed diets 400 (38.90%), 600 (38.91%) and 800 (39.08%) FTU/kg microbial phytase. Although, the phosphorus contents of birds fed diets containing 200 FTU/kg, 400 FTU/kg and 600 FTU/kg were not significantly (p>0.05) different, the copper and iron levels were however vary significantly. The result also showed a significant correlation (r = 0.98) between the phytase level and phytate phosphorus.
A new multilevel inverter topology with reduced number of power switches

Recent years have seen the emergence of various multilevel inverter topologies for high voltage and high power applications. This is mainly due to the attractive advantages of multilevel inverters such as lower Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) in the output voltage, higher efficiency, less stress on the power switches and low Electromagnetic Interference (EMI). The main problem of using multilevel inverters is the number of power switches that normally contributes to the complexity in controlling the power switches and high cost. In this paper a new structure of a nine-level inverter is proposed to improve the multilevel inverter performance by compensating these disadvantages. This topology employs fewer power switches compared to that of conventional multilevel inverters. In addition a modified Pulse width Modulation (PWM) control method has been designed for this new inverter structure that requires less number of carrier signals. The proposed topology and its control method are described and the results of a simulation study conducted have illustrated the performance of the overall system, thus revealing the advantages of this structure compared to conventional topologies.
Reliability of clinical oral examinations re-examined

Many medical schools still use oral examinations for the evaluation of clinical competence of students in their clerkship, although it has been proven that orals have poor reliability. This study investigates the feasibility and reliability of multiple oral examinations. Students in the last week of their Internal Medicine clerkship in an outpatient clinic were given several patient-based oral examinations. The student's performance was rated on a list of items reflecting clinical competence. A global judgement of the student's performance was also given. The results indicate that it is possible to increase the number of orals and the number of examiners in the day-to-day practice of an outpatient clinic moderately. The reliability when using a number of orals is better than the reliability of the common single oral examination. The reliability using global judgements appeared to be better than the reliability of averaged item scores.
Glial and neuronal cells in amniotic fluid of anencephalic pregnancies

Cultured amniotic fluid cells from four anencephalic pregnancies were characterized in indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) microscopy using specific antibodies against different types of cytoskeletal intermediate filaments. Most of the cells showed a fine fibrillar cytoplasmic fluorescence with antibodies against glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFA), indicating that amniotic fluid cells in anencephalic pregnancies are of glial origin. The GFA‐positive cells were rapidly adhering and proliferating. They remained as the major cell type also in long term cultures, and could easily be recovered from liquid nitrogen without losing their GFA positivity. GFA‐positive cells were pleomorphic in appearance, and occurred in several morphologically different shapes. Amniotic fluid from one of the anencephalic cases contained typical neuronal cells, which in IIF were GFA‐negative but could specifically be stained with anti‐neurofilament antibodies. Most of the GFA‐negative cells in all the cases were fibroblasts, identified by their fluorescence only with antibodies against vimentin. Epithelial cells showing positive keratin‐fluorescence in IIF, were seen only occasionally.
Mandibular single-implant overdentures: a review with surgical and prosthodontic perspectives of a novel approach.

OBJECTIVES To review the literature on mandibular single-implant overdentures (opposing complete maxillary dentures), and present surgical and prosthodontic perspectives of a novel approach for this treatment option. MATERIAL AND METHODS An electronic search through the databases of Pubmed, Embase and Medline using the linked key words 'mandibular single implant overdentures' was performed. The search was limited to English language articles published up to August 2008. Hand searches through articles retrieved from the electronic search, peer-reviewed journals and recent conference proceedings were also conducted. RESULTS A limited number of reports were identified on mandibular single-implant overdentures (opposing maxillary complete dentures). They comprised of case-series reports, short-term prospective trials and current randomized-controlled clinical trials. Different loading protocols with different implant systems have been used, but always with regular diameter implants. Specific anatomical and vascular dangers of the mandibular midline symphysis are identified including a novel surgical approach using a currently available short, wide diameter tapered implant. In addition, the prosthodontic rationale for using a larger attachment system (incorporating a platform switch) for mandibular single-implant overdentures is described. CONCLUSION The review reveals that there is a lack of published randomized clinical trials using mandibular single-implant overdentures, opposing maxillary complete dentures. Without the evidence from randomized clinical trials, routine use of this novel approach cannot be recommended, compared with using regular diameter implants and matching attachment systems.