Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Postoperative Infection in Cochlear Implantation

The overall incidence of postoperative infections in cochlear implantation has been established between 4 to 9 % of the cases. Major infectious complications take place in 3,0 % of cases and most of them need surgical intervention. These complications frequently involve surgical wound problems such as skin flap necrosis and wound dehiscence which may result in persistent infection and device extrusion.
Improvements to the construction of binary black hole initial data

Construction of binary black hole initial data is a prerequisite for numerical evolutions of binary black holes. This paper reports improvements to the binary black hole initial data solver in the spectral Einstein code, to allow robust construction of initial data for mass-ratio above 10:1, and for dimensionless black hole spins above 0.9, while improving efficiency for lower mass-ratios and spins. We implement a more flexible domain decomposition, adaptive mesh refinement and an updated method for choosing free parameters. We also introduce a new method to control and eliminate residual linear momentum in initial data for precessing systems, and demonstrate that it eliminates gravitational mode mixing during the evolution. Finally, the new code is applied to construct initial data for hyperbolic scattering and for binaries with very small separation.
Association of heart rate and left ventricular structure in a rural population in Korea

Abstract We investigated the association of heart rate (HR) and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) with left ventricular (LV) structure in a multi-rural cohort project in Korea. A total of 3215 subjects were analyzed for factors related to Echo-LV mass index (LVMI). eGFR was positively associated with both types of LVMI whereas HR was negatively associated with both. Odd ratios (ORs) (highest versus lowest quartiles) for LVMI by height2.7 were significant for HR (OR: 0.441, p = 0.0035 in males; OR: 0.638, p = 0.0226 in females), and for eGFR (OR:1.643, p = 0.0145) in females. In conclusion, in addition to age, systolic blood pressure and body mass index, eGFR is positively associated with echocardiographic LVMI and HR is negatively associated with echocardiographic LVMI.
Diagnostic Criteria of Urinary Tract Infection in Male Patients With Spinal Cord Injury

Background. The current diagnostic criteria of urinary tract infection (UTI) in male patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) are not clear. Methods. The authors studied 381 episodes of “symptomatic” UTI (209 participants) and 277 episodes of “asymptomatic” UTI (205 participants) in male SCI patients using intermittent catheterization. UTI was defined as a bacterial count ≥102 colony-forming units (cfu)/mL (American Paraplegia Society criterion). Univariate analysis and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis were used to determine optimal cfu and white blood cell (WBC) thresholds. Results. The most prevalent clinical signs, alone or in combination, were cloudy and/or malodorous urine (51.4%), onset of urinary incontinence (51.2%), fatigue (41.7%), fever (30.7%), and increased spasticity (30.2%). Urine cfu and WBC levels in patients with only one sign, including fever, were not significantly higher than those in asymptomatic controls. WBC, but not cfu, levels increased significantly with the number of signs (P = .026). Univariate analysis and ROC curve analysis failed to identify cfu, WBC, or a combination of cfu and WBC count thresholds, allowing discrimination between the symptomatic and asymptomatic UTI groups. Conclusions. Clinical signs of UTI correlate poorly with the urine cfu and WBC levels in SCI patients, except for a positive relationship between WBC counts and the number of signs. Fever alone has no higher diagnostic value. There are no satisfactory cfu and WBC thresholds: thresholds more restrictive than the current American Paraplegia Society criteria provide higher specificity values but with equivalent loss of sensitivity.
Dividing work, sharing work, and in-between: marriage patterns and depression.

Marriages in the United States are shifting from the complementary type, in which the husband is employed and the wife cares for the household and children, to the parallel type, in which both spouses are employed and both are responsible for the housework. This change, however, is far from complete. Disjunctions in the institution of marriage may be stressful and emotionally disturbing. We hypothesize that the effect of a wife's employment on her depression and her husband's depends on their preferences for her employment and on whether the husband helps with the housework. Using data from a national sample of 680 couples interviewed in 1978, we find that both spouses are less depressed when the wife's employment status is consistent with their preferences. Also, wives are less depressed if their husbands help with the housework, and husbands are not more depressed as a result of helping. These factors lead to the highest depression in transitional marriages. The lowest depression is in parallel marriages.
Construction of avian hepadnavirus variants with enhanced replication and cytopathicity in primary hepatocytes

Hepadnaviruses cause persistent noncytopathic infections of hepatocytes in humans and other animals. Virus replication depends on the pool of viral covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) molecules, which serve as transcriptional templates in the nuclei of infected cells. The size of this pool of cccDNA molecules is regulated by the ability of the large envelope protein of the virus to direct newly synthesized viral DNAs into a pathway for viral secretion and thereby inhibit their utilization for viral cccDNA synthesis. In this study, we showed that single amino acid changes in the large envelope protein could cause profound changes in cccDNA levels in transfected permissive cells or in infected cultured hepatocytes. While defects in cccDNA regulation were accompanied by a decrease of enveloped virus production in transfected cells, primary hepatocytes infected by such mutant viruses transiently produced wild-type or higher levels of enveloped virus. Moreover, high levels of cccDNA were always associated with cytopathic effects in the infected hepatocytes. The results demonstrate that the large envelope protein promotes persistent noncytopathic infection of hepatocytes by acting as an overall repressor of virus replication.
Imaging tooth enamel using zero echo time (ZTE) magnetic resonance imaging

In an event where many thousands of people may have been exposed to levels of radiation that are sufficient to cause the acute radiation syndrome, we need technology that can estimate the absorbed dose on an individual basis for triage and meaningful medical decision making. Such dose estimates may be achieved using in vivo electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) tooth biodosimetry, which measures the number of persistent free radicals that are generated in tooth enamel following irradiation. However, the accuracy of dose estimates may be impacted by individual variations in teeth, especially the amount and distribution of enamel in the inhomogeneous sensitive volume of the resonator used to detect the radicals. In order to study the relationship between interpersonal variations in enamel and EPR-based dose estimates, it is desirable to estimate these parameters nondestructively and without adding radiation to the teeth. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is capable of acquiring structural and biochemical information without imparting additional radiation, which may be beneficial for many EPR dosimetry studies. However, the extremely short T2 relaxation time in tooth structures precludes tooth imaging using conventional MRI methods. Therefore, we used zero echo time (ZTE) MRI to image teeth ex vivo to assess enamel volumes and spatial distributions. Using these data in combination with the data on the distribution of the transverse radio frequency magnetic field from electromagnetic simulations, we then can identify possible sources of variations in radiation-induced signals detectable by EPR. Unlike conventional MRI, ZTE applies spatial encoding gradients during the RF excitation pulse, thereby facilitating signal acquisition almost immediately after excitation, minimizing signal loss from short T2 relaxation times. ZTE successfully provided volumetric measures of tooth enamel that may be related to variations that impact EPR dosimetry and facilitate the development of analytical procedures for individual dose estimates.
Use of fat transfer to treat a chronic, non-healing, post-radiation ulcer: a case study.

OBJECTIVE Problematic wound healing and ulceration in radiation-damaged tissue is a surgical challenge. Clinical studies have shown that grafting fat tissue in an irradiated area can improve the quality of the skin and has regenerative effects. This case study describes how fat transfer led to the healing of a chronic ulcer resistant to other forms of treatment. CASE HISTORY A 67-year-old lady with a chronic, non-healing ulcer in her leg had a squamous cell carcinoma excised, followed by radiotherapy. Despite multiple excisions, the ulcer continued to cause symptoms. Following an initial procedure in which fat was infiltrated around and under the ulcer, the patient underwent a wide local excision and split-thickness skin grafting. Histology demonstrated a post-radiation dermatitis ulcer with no evidence of malignancy. After a period of management with dressings showing a reduction in ulcer size, more fat was infiltrated around the lesion. Two months later, the ulcer had fully healed and has not recurred. CONCLUSION The use of adipose-derived stem cells to heal wounds in irradiated tissue has been the focus of research for some time. This case highlights the potential of adipose tissue to improve damaged skin. Its use could negate the need for complex surgical procedures.
A placebo-controlled 18-month trial of lamotrigine and lithium maintenance treatment in recently depressed patients with bipolar I disorder.

BACKGROUND The anticonvulsant lamotrigine was previously shown to be effective for bipolar depression. This study assessed the efficacy and tolerability of lamotrigine and lithium compared with placebo for the prevention of mood episodes in bipolar disorder. METHOD During an 8- to 16-week open-label phase, lamotrigine (titrated to 200 mg/day) was added to current therapy for currently or recently depressed DSM-IV-defined bipolar I outpatients (N = 966) and concomitant drugs were gradually withdrawn. Patients stabilized on open-label treatment (N = 463) were then randomly assigned to lamotrigine (50, 200, or 400 mg/day; N = 221), lithium (0.8-1.1 mEq/L; N = 121), or placebo (N = 121) monotherapy for up to 18 months. The primary outcome measure was time from randomization to intervention (addition of pharmacotherapy) for any mood episode (depressive, manic, hypomanic, or mixed). Data were gathered from September 1997 to August 2001. RESULTS Time to intervention for any mood episode was statistically superior (p = .029) for both lamotrigine and lithium compared with placebo-median survival times were 200, 170, and 93 days, respectively. Intervention for depression was more frequent than for mania by a factor of nearly 3:1. Lamotrigine was statistically superior to placebo at prolonging the time to intervention for a depressive episode (p = .047). The proportions of patients who were intervention-free for depression at 1 year were lamotrigine 57%, lithium 46%, and placebo 45%. Lithium was statistically superior to placebo at prolonging the time to intervention for a manic or hypomanic episode (p = .026). The proportions of patients who were intervention-free for mania at 1 year were lamotrigine 77%, lithium 86%, and placebo 72%. Headache was the most frequent adverse event for all 3 treatment groups. CONCLUSION Lamotrigine and lithium were superior to placebo for the prevention of mood episodes in bipolar I patients, with lamotrigine predominantly effective against depression and lithium predominantly effective against mania.
Provision of preventive care to unannounced standardized patients.

OBJECTIVE To examine the relation between physician, training and practice characteristics and the provision of preventive care as described in the guidelines of the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Family practices open to new patients within 1 hour's drive of Hamilton, Ont. PARTICIPANTS A total of 125 family physicians were randomly selected from respondents to an earlier preventive care survey. Of the 125, 44 (35.2%) declined to participate, and an additional 19 (15.2%) initially consented but later withdrew when they closed their practices to new patients. Sixty-two physicians thus participated in the study. INTERVENTION Unannounced standardized patients posing as new patients to the practice visited study physicians' practices between September 1994 and August 1995, portraying 4 scenarios: 48-year-old man, 70-year-old man, 28-year-old woman and 52-year-old woman. OUTCOME MEASURES Proportion of preventive care manoeuvres carrying grade A, B, C, D and E recommendations from the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination that were performed, offered or advised. A standard score was computed based on the performance of grade A and B manoeuvres (good or fair evidence for inclusion in the periodic health examination) and the non-performance of grade D and E manoeuvres (fair or good evidence for exclusion from the periodic health examination). RESULTS Study physicians performed or offered 65.6% of applicable grade A manoeuvres, 31.0% of grade B manoeuvres, 22.4% of grade C manoeuvres, 21.8% of grade D manoeuvres and 4.9% of grade E manoeuvres. The provision of evidence-based preventive care was associated with solo (v. group) practice and capitation or salary (v. fee-for-service) payment method. Preventive care performance was unrelated to physician's sex, certification in family medicine or problem-based (v. traditional) medical school curriculum. CONCLUSIONS Preventive care guidelines of the Canadian Task Force on the Periodic Health Examination have been incompletely integrated into clinical practice. Research is needed to identify and reduce barriers to the provision of preventive care and to develop and apply effective processes for the creation, dissemination and implementation of clinical practice guidelines.
The Approach to the Patient with a Parapneumonic Effusion

Parapneumonic effusions are seen in up to 57% of patients with pneumonia. The majority of these effusions are noninfected and resolve with standard antibiotic treatment for the associated pneumonia. However, parapneumonic effusions in a minority of cases become infected and require prompt chest tube drainage and occasionally thoracic surgery. Patients may present in a variety of ways from florid sepsis to weight loss and anorexia; such diversity mandates a high index of suspicion among physicians. The role of the combination of intrapleural deoxyribonuclease (DNase) and tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) to aid fluid drainage shows promise but needs further assessment in large trials with surgery and mortality as primary end points.
The Structure and Matrix Microhardness of the 319 Aluminum Alloy After Isothermal Holding During the Solidification Process

The 319 aluminum alloy is used in a variety of automotive applications. This alloy is typically solution treated in order to improve its metallurgical and mechanical properties. "Traditional" solution treatment involves cooling the castings to an ambient temperature before heating them to the solution temperature; however, some foundries have attempted to institute a more efficient procedure by shortening or eliminating the cooling step. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of isothermal holding during the solidification process on the structure and matrix microhardness of 319 aluminum alloy test samples. The investigation reveals that isothermal holding at approximately 520 o C minimizes the volume fraction of Cu enriched phases while maximizing the Vickers microhardness of the aluminum matrix. This suggests that 520 o C is the ideal temperature for solutionizing Cu enriched phases in this alloy. Thermal analysis data from selected experiments are presented for illustrative purposes. This paper represents the first in a series of investigations comparing the properties of castings solution treated using "traditional" methods and those subjected to isothermal holding during the solidification process.
AVIAN HEMATOZOA OF SOME UGANDAN BIRDS

The hematozoa occurring in 217 of 922 Ugandan birds of 107 species is reported. Species of Haemoproteus were the most prevalent blood parasite, occurring in 82% of the infected birds. The other groups of avian hematozoa encountered, namely Leucocytozoon (6%), Plasmodium (5%), Trypanosoma (7%) and microfilaria (6%), were virtually identical in their rate of occurrence in the bird population. Multiple infections (6.9%) were uncommon. The highest prevalence of blood parasites were recorded in the Zosteropidae (80%) and Ploceidae (56%). Birds showed blood parasitaemias throughout the year, but the peak prevalence was in October, suggesting that vectors were most active at this time.
Hispanics and Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background:Historically, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was considered a disease, which predominately affects whites. As such, the majority of research in IBD has been conducted in this population. However, more research on this suggests that IBD affects other ethnic groups. Rapidly shifting demographics in the United States necessitates a better understanding of how IBD may affect Hispanics. We reviewed the current literature on IBD in Hispanics. Methods:A PubMed search was conducted using keywords inflammatory bowel disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's disease, Hispanics, Latinos, ethnicity, to identify existing literature with a focus on adult populations. Non-English language articles were excluded. Results:The existing data and literature on Hispanic patients with IBD remains sparse. Limited studies on prevalence suggest IBD may be more common in Hispanics in the United States compared with those in Latin America. Conflicting data exist as to whether Hispanics patients with IBD are more likely to have ulcerative colitis compared with Crohn's disease. One study explored difference in IBD between foreign-born and U.S.-born Hispanics and found that ulcerative colitis was more common only in foreign-born Hispanics, whereas within 1 generation, U.S.-born Hispanics resemble their non-Hispanic white counterparts about development of Crohn's disease. Such a rapid change in the proportion of ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease points strongly to environmental factors driving the change in proportion of disease subtypes. Additionally, a trend towards less use of biologic and immunomodulators in Hispanics was noted in several studies. Conclusions:Additional research is needed to better understand how diversity within the Hispanic population (U.S.-born and foreign-born) may be driving difference in disease manifestations. More investigations should focus on determining the cause of a potential disparity in the use of biologic and immunomodulators in Hispanics.
Fault Analysis-Based Logic Encryption

Globalization of the integrated circuit (IC) design industry is making it easy for rogue elements in the supply chain to pirate ICs, overbuild ICs, and insert hardware Trojans. Due to supply chain attacks, the IC industry is losing approximately $4 billion annually. One way to protect ICs from these attacks is to encrypt the design by inserting additional gates such that correct outputs are produced only when specific inputs are applied to these gates. The state-of-the-art logic encryption technique inserts gates randomly into the design, but does not necessarily ensure that wrong keys corrupt the outputs. Our technique ensures that wrong keys corrupt the outputs. We relate logic encryption to fault propagation analysis in IC testing and develop a fault analysis-based logic encryption technique. This technique enables a designer to controllably corrupt the outputs. Specifically, to maximize the ambiguity for an attacker, this technique targets 50% Hamming distance between the correct and wrong outputs (ideal case) when a wrong key is applied. Furthermore, this 50% Hamming distance target is achieved using a smaller number of additional gates when compared to random logic encryption.
D40/KNL1/CASC5 and autosomal recessive primary microcephaly

Autosomal recessive primary microcephaly (MCPH) is a very rare neuro‐developmental disease with brain size reduction. More than a dozen loci encoding proteins of diverse function have been shown to be responsible for MCPH1‐13. Mutations in the D40/KNL1/CASC5 gene, which was initially characterized as a gene involved in chromosomal translocation in leukemia and as a member of the cancer/testis gene family, was later found to encode a kinetochore protein essential for mitotic cell division and to cause MCPH4. Although our previous studies showed that this gene is required for cell growth and division in vitro and in animal experiments, the revelation that mutations in this gene caused microcephaly provides in vivo evidence of a critical role in brain growth. In this review, we describe mutated gene targets responsible for MCPH1‐13 and summarize clinical studies of, and molecular and biological aspects of the gene and encoded protein responsible for MCPH4.
Testicular microlithiasisOne case and four points to note

A 38‐year‐old man with non‐specific scrotal complaints was found to have bilateral testicular microlithiasis (TM) sonographically. MRI of the testes failed to depict microlithiasis. Bilateral double biopsies of the testes revealed testicular intraepithelial neoplasia (TIN; carcinoma in situ of the testis) in only one of the two biopsies from the right testis. At the request of the patient the biopsies were repeated, with the same histological result. A right‐sided orchiectomy was performed. Histology disclosed TIN in only some tubules of the lower pole of the testis. This case highlights four interesting points: (i) TM may be associated with testicular malignancy; (ii) MRI does not depict TM; (iii) TIN is arranged focally within the testis; and (iv) a two‐site biopsy may increase the sensitivity of the diagnosis of TIN.