Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Combined With Asthma Education for Adults With Asthma and Coexisting Panic Disorder

This study tested the efficacy of a nurse-administered 8-week group treatment program for adults with asthma suffering from coexisting panic disorder. The program consisted of cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for panic disorder combined with asthma education (AE). Forty-eight women with a confirmed diagnosis of asthma and panic disorder were randomly allocated to a treatment condition (n=25) and a wait-list control condition (n=23). Twenty-five participants—15 in the treatment group and 10 in the wait-list control group— completed treatment. Repeated measures ANOVA procedures were used to compare the groups on panic and asthma outcomes at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up. The results demonstrate that the CBT-AE program is capable of producing substantial and durable antipanic and antianxiety treatment effects and led to substantial but nonsustained improvement in morning peak-flow expiratory rate and asthma-related quality of life. Implications of these findings for this clinical population are addressed.
1 Draft January , 2007 Preliminary and Incomplete P AYDAY L ENDERS : H EROES OR V ILLAINS ?

I study the effect that the availability of exceptionally high-interest consumer loans (payday loans) has on individual welfare by using natural disasters as an exogenous shock to communities’ financial condition. Utilizing a propensity score matched, triple difference approach, I find that communities with payday lenders show greater resiliency to natural disasters. For three of the four welfare measures considered – foreclosures, births, and alcohol and drug treatment admissions, – the estimates suggest that payday lending enhances the welfare of communities. I discuss whether this effect is limited to individuals facing personal disasters or applies in general. * I greatly benefited from comments and suggestions during seminars at the Berkeley, Columbia, Duke, the FDIC, Harvard Business School, MIT, New York University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, UCLA, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Southern California, Wharton, and Yale. In addition, I would especially like to thank Michael Barr, Alexander Dyck, Fred Feinberg, E. Han Kim, Amiyatosh Purnanandam, Amit Seru, Tyler Shumway, and Luigi Zingales for their helpful comments.
Effect of Salinity on Soil Microorganisms

Whilst the majority of countries have criteria to evaluate the quality of the air and water, the same does not occur for the quality of the soil. Traditionally soil quality is associated with productivity, but recently it has been defined in terms of sustainability, that is, the capacity of the soil to absorb, store and recycle water, minerals and energy such that the production of the crops can be maximized and environmental degradation minimized. Thus preservation of soil quality is a critical factor for environmental sustainability. A significant decline in soil quality has occurred throughout the entire world as a result of adverse changes in its physical, chemical and biological properties. According to Steer (1998), in the last decades of the last century, about 2 billion of the 8.7 billion agricultural lands, permanent pastures, forests and wild native lands were degraded. The global grain production growth rate fell from 3% in the seventies to 1.3% in the period from 1983-1993, and one of the main reasons for this decline was inadequate soil and water management. Inventories carried out on the soil productive capacity in the last decade indicated that 40% of the degradations of arable land were induced by man as a result of soil erosion, atmospheric pollution, intensive cultivation, over-grazing, deforestation, salinization and desertification (Oldeman, 1994). Soil degradation processes constitute a serious problem on a worldwide basis, with significant environmental, social and economic consequences. As the world population increases, so does the need to protect the soil as a vital resource, particularly for food production, . The soil is a dynamic medium, constituting the habitat of abundant biodiversity, with unique genetic patterns where one can find the greatest amount and variety of living organisms, which serve as a nutrient reservoir. One gram of soil in good conditions can contain 600 million bacteria belonging to 15,000 or 20,000 different species. These values decrease to 1 million bacteria encompassing from 5000 to 8000 species in desert soils (Informativo Capebe, 2010). Depending on the amount of organic matter present in the soil, the biological activity eliminates pathogenic agents, decomposes organic matter and other pollutants into simpler components (frequently less noxious), and contributes to maintaining the physical and biochemical properties required for soil fertility and structure. However, soil is not an inexhaustible resource and consciousness of this, allied to knowledge of the need to maintain or increase the capacity of this agro-ecosystem, directing its multiple functions in an adequate way, is increasing, as also changes in the overall perception of its importance as an environmental component.
The Most Common Mutation of KRT9, c.C487T (p.R163W), in Epidermolytic Palmoplantar Keratoderma in Two Large Chinese Pedigrees

Epidermolytic palmoplantar keratoderma (EPPK) is generally associated with dominant‐negative mutations of the Keratin 9 gene (KRT9), and rarely with the Keratin 1 gene (KRT1). To date, a myriad of mutations has been reported with a high frequency of codon 163 mutations within the first exon of KRT9 in different populations. Notably, a distinct phenotypic heterogeneity, digital mutilation, was found recently in a 58‐year‐old female Japanese EPPK patient with p.R163W. Here, we report the most common mutation, c.C487T (p.R163W) of KRT9, in two large EPPK pedigrees from southeast China. The arginine residue in peptide position 163 remains almost constant in at least 47 intermediate filament proteins ranging from snail to human. A substitution in arginine alters both the charge and shape of the 1A rod domain and disrupts the function of the helix initiation motif of keratins, finally compromising the integrity of filaments and weakening their stability in the epidermis of palms and soles. We summarize the clinical symptoms of EPPK in Chinese and show that knuckle pads are associated with KRT9 mutations. We suggest that the frequency of p.R163W in Chinese EPPK patients (31.03%) is consistent with that in the general population (29.33%), and that codon 163 is truly a hotspot mutational site of KRT9. Anat Rec, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Otogenic Cavernous Sinus Thrombosis

S e p t i c thrombosis of the dural venous sinuses was a fairly common complication of otitis media in the preantibiotic era. This dire complication frequently led to the patient’s death, either through overwhelming sepsis or intracranial complication. A small incidence of otogenic dural sinus thrombosis persists today, generally occurring in those patients whose ear infections have not been treated with specific antimicrobial therapy. The sigmoid sinus is the dural venous structure most frequently involved in otologic infection. Propagation of sigmoid sinus thrombosis (SST) via the petrosal sinuses to the cavernous sinus has been rarely reported in the literature. We present a recent case of otogenic cavernous sinus thrombosis (CST) that illustrates the contemporary diagnosis and management of this rare complication.
Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among school children and pregnant women in a low socio-economic area, Chandigarh, North India.

Urban slums are well known for their high infant mortality and morbidity rates, and parasitic infections seem to be a common problem among these children. Where as in pregnant women, intestinal parasitic infections (IPI), especially due to helminths, increase anaemia in pregnant women. The aim of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of IPI in the school going children and pregnant women attending the primary health care centres in a low socioeconomic area, Chandigarh, North India. Stool samples were collected from 360 children and 87 pregnant women. The stool samples were examined for intestinal parasites by direct microscopic. The prevalence of protozoan infections was much higher than the prevalence of helminth infections. The results indicate that intestinal parasitic infections among school children and pregnant women in the study area are mainly water-borne. The burden of parasitic infestations among the school children, coupled with the poor sanitary conditions in the schools, should be regarded as an issue of public health priority.
Small noise may diversify collective motion

Natural systems are undeniably affected by noises. How noise affects the collective behavior of self-organized systems has attracted wide interest from various fields in the past several decades. To describe the collective motion of multiple interacting particles, Vicsek et al. proposed a well-known self-propelled particle(SPP) system and conjectured it exhibited a second order phase transition from disordered to ordered motion by simulations. However, due to its nonequilibrium, randomness, and strong coupling nonlinear dynamics, the mathematical analysis of such system is still lack. To decouple the systems consisting of deterministic laws and randomness, this paper originally proposes a general method which transfers the analysis of these systems to the design of cooperative control algorithms. Using our method we rigorously analyze the origin Vicsek model under both open and periodic boundary conditions for the first time, and also make some extensions to the inhomogenous SPP systems including the leader-follower models. Theoretic results show that the SPP systems will switch infinite times between ordered and disordered states for arbitrary small noise and large population density, which implies the phase transition should have new form differing from traditional senses. Also, the robust consensus and connectivity of these systems will be investigated. Moreover, our research shows the noise can lead to the diversity of collective motion of flocks, such as the appearance of turn, vortex, bifurcation and merger.
Disk-to-Disk Transfer as the Rate-Limiting Step for Energy Flow in Phycobilisomes

A broadly tunable picosecond laser source and an ultrafast streak camera were used to measure temporally and spectrally resolved emission from intact phycobilisomes and from individual phycobiliproteins as a function of excitation wavelength. Both wild-type and mutant phycobilisomes of the unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6701 were examined, as well as two biliproteins, R-phycoerythrin (240 kilodaltons, 34 bilins) and allophycocyanin (100 kilodaltons, 6 bilins). Measurements of intact phycobilisomes with known structural differences showed that the addition of an average of 1.6 phycoerythrin disks in the phycobilisome rod increased the overall energy transfer time by 30 � 5 picoseconds. In the isolated phycobiliproteins the onset of emission was as prompt as that of a solution of rhodamine B laser dye and was independent of excitation wavelength. This imposes an upper limit of 8 picoseconds (instrument-limited) on the transfer time from "sensitizing" to "fluorescing" chromophores in these biliproteins. These results indicate that disk-to-disk transfer is the slowest energy transfer process in phycobilisomes and, in combination with previous structural analyses, show that with respect to energy transfer the lattice of approximately 625 light-harvesting chromophores in the Synechocystis 6701 wild-type phycobilisome functions as a linear five-point array.
Relations between the development of patterns of sleeping heart rate and body temperature in infants

Overnight patterns of rectal temperature and heart rate were recorded from 119 normal infants at weekly intervals from 7 to about 16 weeks of age. All data were collected in the infants' own homes. As previously reported, different infants developed an adult-like night time rectal temperature pattern abruptly at different ages. When heart rate data were collated by age, there was an apparently gradual fall in sleeping heart rate from 7 to about 14 weeks of age. This was, however, an artefact of data collation. Individual infants showed abrupt falls in heart rate at the time that the adult-like body temperature pattern appeared, but this occurred at different ages in different babies, so when data were collated cross sectionally, an apparently gradual fall resulted. The relation between the developmental changes in sleeping heart rate and rectal temperature was different in boys and girls, with girls showing a more abrupt and greater change in heart rate at the time of development of the adult-like body temperature pattern. Infants whose parents smoked had significantly lower heart rates once the adult-like body temperature pattern had appeared.
Ab Initio Calculations on Structural, Electronic and Optical Properties of ZnO in Wurtzite Phase

Self-consistent ab initio calculations are performed on the structural, electronic and optical properties of wurtzite ZnO. The Full Potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave (FP-LAPW) method is applied to solve the Kohn-Sham equations. Results are obtained by using the PBE-GGA and mBJLDA exchange correlation potentials. The energy and charge convergence have been examined to study the ground state properties. The band structure and Density of States (DOS) diagrams are plotted from the calculated equilibrium lattice parameters. The general profiles of the optical spectra and the optical properties, including the real and imaginary part of dielectric function, reflectivity, refractive index, absorption co-efficient, electron energy loss function and optical conductivity of wurtzite ZnO under ambient conditions are discussed. The optical anisotropy is studied through the calculated optical constants, namely dielectric function and refractive index along three different crystallographic axes.
Unusual compensatory neural connections following disruption of corpus callosum fibers in a patient with corpus callosum hemorrhage

Objective: We report on a patient with hemorrhage of the corpus callosum (CC) in whom unusual compensatory neural connections were observed following disruption of CC fibers. Methods: A 42-year-old female patient presented with callosal alien hand syndrome (AHS) after the onset of the hemorrhage. She showed a rapid recovery and the symptoms of her AHS had almost disappeared at 7 weeks after onset. We performed diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) for the evaluation of CC fibers and performed a comparison with DTT findings acquired from a normal subject (a 47-year-old female). Results: Findings on DTT of the patient revealed extensive disruption of CC fibers passing through the anterior portion of the genu and most of the CC body. We observed that CC fibers in the right and left temporal lobes joined with the right and left inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, respectively, and these neural fibers were connected to each other through the anterior commissure. These changes of neural connections were not observed in the normal subject. Conclusion: We think that the unusual neural connections in this patient were compensatory phenomena for disruption of CC fibers. In addition, the good recovery from symptoms of AHS in this patient appears to be correlated with these unusual compensatory neural connections. We believe that the results of this study suggest a mechanism for neural recovery following injury of the CC fibers.
Sequential in vivo confocal microscopy study of corneal wound healing after cross-linking in patients with keratoconus.

PURPOSE To evaluate the short- and long-term sequential histological changes of the cornea in vivo after corneal collagen cross-linking (CXL) in patients with keratoconus. METHODS Eighteen patients with keratoconus (Amsler-Krumeich classification: stages I, II, and III) underwent CXL with riboflavin/ultraviolet A (UVA) in one eye. The corneas were examined preoperatively and within 5 hours, 7 and 14 days, and 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, and 36 months after the procedure using in vivo confocal microscopy. RESULTS Early changes included edema, superficial nerve loss, cellular modifications, and isolated endothelial damage. At intermediate time points, there was nerve fiber regeneration, increased reflectivity of the extracellular matrix, enlarged keratocytes and extracellular deposits, and remodeling of the endothelial layer (two eyes). At later time points, loss of keratocytes and remodeling of the extracellular deposits were noted. CONCLUSIONS Although the cornea has no significant tissue modifications clinically after CXL, this study has shown that corneal wounding by riboflavin/UVA collagen CXL induces cellular wound-healing mechanisms and alters the normal structure and cellularity of the cornea for up to 36 months.
Solubility of aceclofenac in polyamidoamine dendrimer solutions

In the present study we investigated the effect of polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers on the aqueous solubility of aceclofenac. The aqueous solubility of aceclofenac was measured in the presence of dendrimers in distilled water. The effect of variables, such as pH condition, concentration, temperature and generation (molecule size) of dendrimer, has been investigated. Results showed that the solubility of aceclofenac in the dendrimer solutions was proportional to dendrimer concentration. The order in which the dendrimers increased the solubility at a constant pH condition was G3 > G0. The influence of dendrimer solution pH on the solubility enhancement of aceclofenac suggests that it involves an electrostatic interaction between the carboxyl group of the aceclofenac molecule and the amine groups of the dendrimer molecule. The solubility of aceclofenac was inversely proportional to the temperature of dendrimer solution.Different generation (G0 and G3) PAMAM dendrimers have the potential to significantly enhance the solubility of poor water-soluble drugs.
Placenta praevia: incidence, risk factors and outcome

Abstract Objective: Aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence, potential risk factors and the respective outcomes of pregnancies with placenta praevia. Methods: Data were prospectively collected from women diagnosed with placenta praevia in 10 Austrian hospitals in in the province of Styria between 1993 and 2012. We analyzed the incidence, potential risk factors and the respective outcomes of pregnancies with placenta praevia. Differences between women with major placenta praevia (complete or partial placenta praevia) and minor placenta praevia (marginal placenta praevia or low-lying placenta) were evaluated. Results: 328 patients with placenta praevia were identified. The province wide incidence of placenta praevia was 0.15%. Maternal morbidity was high (ante-partum bleeding [42.3%], post-partum hemorrhage [7.1%], maternal anemia [30%], comorbid adherent placentation [4%], and hysterectomy [5.2%]) and neonatal complications were frequent (preterm birth [54.9%], low birth weight <2500 g [35.6%], Apgar-score after five minutes <7 [5.8%], and fetal mortality [1.5%]. Women with major placenta praevia had a significant higher incidence of preterm delivery, birthweight <2500 g and Apgar-score after five minutes <7. Conclusions: Placenta praevia was associated with adverse maternal (34.15%) and neonatal (60.06%) outcome. The extent of placenta praevia was not related with differences regarding risk factors and maternal outcome.
Anaesthetic management of a patient with Weill-Marchesani syndrome complicated with mitral regurgitation

We read your article with great interest and once again we want to emphasize that the problem of lookalike drugs is still continuing. Recently, we have experienced the potentially disastrous problem of look-alike drugs when an ASA1 patient had nausea while undergoing hernia repair and when asked for inj. Ondansetron, an O.T. technician handed over ampoule of inj. Tramadol; however, because of the vigilance of the anaesthesiologist, wrong drug administration was avoided. Although nothing like life-threatening could have happened other than the exaggeration of patient’s symptoms, but instances are reported when even the life-threatening complications occurred with wrong administration of drugs due to similar looking ampoules. [1] While investigating on close inspection, it was found that both 2 ml ampoules have strikingly similar appearance. Inj ONDOC-2 (Ondansetron) is manufactured by Morepen Laboratories Ltd. with embossed printing in red colour whereas inj TRAMADOC (Tramadol Hydrochloride) is manufactured by Pharma Concepts, also with embossed printing in red colour [Figure 1]. Even the snap off dot is of blue colour in both the ampoules. The last three letters (doc) of commercial names are also similar. Although in the majority of the cases, the human factors are responsible in medication error be it fatigue, haste, stress, mixing of drug ampoules in drug cart, poor light, etc., but similarity of drug ampoules like the above-mentioned drugs definitely needs development of improved standards of drug packaging and labelling.
Family Planning Attitudes and Use in Nigeria: A Factor Analysis

This study examined the association between family planning (FP) attitudes and contraceptive use in Nigeria. Data were obtained from a random sample of 927 married men and women stratified in urban areas by social class (elites mixed migrant working class and indigenous) who responded to a KAP survey conducted during 1992-93 in the capital city and a rural village in the states of Enugu Kano and Lagos. Over 67% were Ibos or Hausas; 25% were Yorubas. Around 75% of men and 59% of women had formal education. 76% knew a contraceptive method but only 28% were currently using contraception. 47% had ever used. Women were more likely than men to have ever used. Respondents were supportive of FP. Men were less positive about FP and marital relations than women. 20 factors were identified as relating to use. Three factors explained 53% of the variance in current contraceptive use: 1) the association of FP with health benefits; 2) the association of contraceptive use with conflict in the home; and 3) support for daughters completion of school before marriage. Logistic models reveal that contraceptive use was best predicted by education religion approval of FP mass media exposure spousal communication and approval of educating girls and women. For men the critical explanatory factors for adoption of contraception were religion and ethnicity.
3':5'-cyclic adenosine monophosphate phosphodiesterase: negative cooperativity.

Kinetic and chromatographic analysis of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (EC 3.1.4.c) obtained from rat tissue has revealed that this enzyme exists in at least two molecular forms. After chromatographic separation, one form (cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase) still exhibits kinetics suggestive of the action of either two enzymes or one enzyme under negative cooperative regulation. Computer model studies were undertaken to distinguish between these two possibilities. The matrix method was used to generate the partition functions for (a) the sum of two independent enzymes and (b) one enzyme exhibiting negative cooperative kinetics. The experimental data were fitted to the theoretical models by a nonlinear least-squares computer program. The results show that, while both models can fit the data, the two-enzyme model would require contamination far in excess of what is detectable physically or by activity measurements. Thus, the negative cooperative model seems the more appropriate theoretical explanation of the observed kinetic behavior of this enzyme. The implication of negative cooperativity with respect to the regulation of cyclic AMP concentrations in physiological systems is discussed.