Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A pilot study to investigate any relationship between sustained maximal inspiratory pressure and extubation outcome.

OBJECTIVE To establish whether any relationship exists between extubation outcome and sustained maximal inspiratory pressures (SMIP). DESIGN AND SETTING Prospective clinical study in the 7-bed general intensive care unit of a university hospital. SUBJECTS Twenty-seven intubated adults who were deemed ready for extubation were enrolled. MEASUREMENTS Standard respiratory parameters and inspiratory muscle function data (ie, SMIP and peak maximal inspiratory pressures [MIP]) were recorded before extubation. RESULTS SMIP was found to be significantly greater in those who were successfully extubated than in those who underwent a failed extubation (P <.01). Receiver operating characteristic curves for SMIP data indicated that a cutoff point of 57.5 pressure time units would give a sensitivity and specificity of 1.0 for extubation outcome prediction. Peak MIP was also significantly greater in those successfully extubated (P =.04); a cutoff point of 17.5 cm H(2)O gave a sensitivity of 1.0 and a specificity of 0.5. CONCLUSIONS In this study, peak MIP was not specific enough to be clinically useful as a predictor of extubation outcome. SMIP was associated with extubation outcome with equally high sensitivity and specificity and may therefore have a role in outcome prediction.
Multi‐syndrome analysis of time series using PCA: A new concept for outbreak investigation

To date, despite widespread availability of time series data on multiple syndromes, multivariate analysis of syndromic data remains under‐explored. We present a non‐parametric multivariate framework for early detection of temporal anomalies based on principal components analysis of historical data on multiple syndromes. We introduce simulated outbreaks of different shapes and magnitudes into the historical data, and compare the detection sensitivity and timeliness of the multi‐syndrome detection method with those of uni‐syndrome. We find that the multi‐syndrome detection framework provides a powerful tool for identifying such designated abnormalities in the data and significantly improves upon the detection sensitivity and timeliness of uni‐syndrome analysis. The proposed multivariate framework requires minimal preprocessing of the data and can be easily adopted in settings where temporal information on multiple syndromes are routinely collected and processed, and thus can be an integral component of real‐time surveillance systems. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Effect of Cement-kiln Dust Pollution on The Vegetation in The Western Mediterranean Desert of Egypt

This study investigated the ecological effects of particulate pollution from a cement factory on the vegetation in the western Mediterranean coastal desert of Egypt. Variations in vegetation, soil chemical characters, and some responses of Atriplex halimus, as a dominant species in the study area, were investigated in some sites located in different directions from the cement factory between Burg El-Arab in the east and El-Hammam in the west. The results showed an obvious decrease in vegetation diversity, in response to cement-kiln dust pollution, that accompanied by a high dominance attributed to the high contribution of Atriplex halimus. Annual species were found to be more sensitive to cement dust pollution as they all failed to persist in highly disturbed sites. It is remarkable that cover and phytomass of Atriplex halimus were increased greatly in response to cement dust pollution, and this was accompanied by a reduction in the mature seeds and leaf-area of the plant. The few seeds of the affected individuals seemed to be more fertile and attained higher germination percentages and exhibited hardening against drought stress. Keywords—Atriplex halimus, Alpha diversity, Cement dust pollution.
Lung cancer Haematologic malignancy Hepatobiliary cancer Gynaecologic cancer Oesophageal cancer Stomach & colorectal cancer Brain tumour Prostate & genitourinary tract cancer Sarcoma Breast cancer Head & neck cancer Others

1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Konkuk University School of Medicine, 2Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, South Korea Correspondence: Dr Ji Hye Hwang, Professor, Department of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, 81, Ilwon-ro, Gangnam-gu, Seoul 06351, South Korea. hwanglee@skku.edu Clinical characteristics and rehabilitation of hospitalised cancer patients in a Korean tertiary hospital
Mild protein oxidation enhanced hydration and myofibril swelling capacity of fresh ground pork muscle packaged in high oxygen atmosphere.

UNLABELLED This study investigated the influence of an oxygen-enriched modified atmosphere packaging (HiOx: 80% O₂/20% CO₂) in comparison with air-permeable polyvinylchloride (PVC) wrapping and partial vacuum (VP: 60%) packaging on the ability of myofibrils to imbibe water during retail display of fresh ground pork at 2 to 4 °C. Both HiOx and PVC muscles after 4 d showed maximum myofibril swelling and A-band dissolution when isolated myofibrils were subjected to a graded series of salt solutions (0.2→0.4 M NaCl with 10-mM sodium pyrophosphate, pH 6.2), while VP samples exhibited no remarkable change. Protein carbonyl content increased substantially from day 0 to 4 in all muscle samples. For HiOx, muscle hydration capacity increased linearly (P < 0.05) during storage up to 14 d, corresponding to protein carbonyl production. No significant changes in hydration properties were noted in VP muscle samples, which also maintained lower levels of protein oxidation, during storage up to 21 d. These results indicated that packaging in modified atmosphere with high levels of oxygen could result in increased protein oxidation but enhanced hydration capacity of fresh meat. PRACTICAL APPLICATION Packaging of fresh meat, including ground pork, under an oxygen-enriched atmosphere condition is widely used in the industry to preserve red color of meat. Results from the present study indicate that high oxygen packaging has a discordant effect on fresh ground pork: it enhances hydration but decreases water-binding, and this seems to be caused by increased swelling of muscle fibers due to mild protein oxidation. Hence, it is advisable to employ a water-binding agent in this type of packaging system so as to retain the moisture in stored fresh pork products while maintaining the color stability.
Lysozyme in Livestock: A Guide to Selection for Disease Resistance: a Review

Lysozyme is a ubiquitous enzyme found in all major taxa of living organisms having diverse role starting from digestion to immune response. In livestock two major lysozyme types are present i.e. g-type (goose-type) and c-type (chicken type) classified depending on their origin, primary structure, three dimensional structure, biochemical as well as enzymatic properties. The course of this review covers brief introduction about the enzyme, its historical prospective, types and distribution, biochemistry and biological action with special reference to the antibacterial properties as well as the structural organization of concerned gene. It also covers the attempts to explore the role of lysozyme in disease biology, possibility of lysozyme as a conventional marker as well as the role of lysozyme gene as a candidate gene for future breeding for disease resistance in general and mastitis resistance in particular. The biotechnological approach to modulate the antimicrobial activity by controlling expression level of the lysozyme gene in native and recombinant form is also discussed.
Mechanical Programming of Soft Actuators by Varying Fiber Angle

Abstract In this work we investigate the influence of fiber angle on the deformation of fiber-reinforced soft fluidic actuators and examine the manner in which these actuators extend axially, expand radially and twist about their axis as a function of input pressure. We study the quantitative relationship between fiber angle and actuator deformation by performing finite element simulations for actuators with a range of different fiber angles, and we verify the simulation results by experimentally characterizing the actuators. By combining actuator segments in series, we can achieve combinations of motions tailored to specific tasks. We demonstrate this by using the results of simulations of separate actuators to design a segmented wormlike soft robot capable of propelling itself through a tube and performing an orientation-specific peg insertion task at the end of the tube. Understanding the relationship between fiber angle and pressurization response of these soft fluidic actuators enables rapid explorat.
A new rail-to-rail ultra low voltage high speed comparator

This paper presents a new rail-to-rail input highperformance regenerative comparator suitable for low-voltage low-power applications, e.g. bio-implantable circuits. In this circuit the body of the PMOS transistor is used as comparator's input. A technique is proposed to increase the speed of the circuit. The proposed comparator has a good performance in weak inversion (sub-threshold). Simulations are done in the 0.18-μm CMOS technology with a supply voltage of 0.5 V. The propagation delay time of the second proposed comparator is 16.4 ns, the power dissipation is 20 nW and the power delay product is 0.33 fJ in clock frequency of 5 MHz and input voltage of 500 μV. Also the supply voltage can be decreased to 0.3 V.
Does maternal care evolve through egg recognition or directed territoriality?

The mechanism that facilitates the evolution of maternal care is ambiguous in egg‐laying terrestrial vertebrates: does the ability of mothers to recognize their own eggs lead them under some circumstances to begin providing care or can maternal care evolve from simply being in close proximity to the eggs (e.g. through territorial behaviour)? This question is difficult to answer because in most species, parental care is either absent altogether or present; in only a few species we have the opportunity to observe intraspecific variation in the expression of parental care. We studied a population of long‐tailed skinks (Eutropis longicaudata) in which females have recently evolved maternal care from a noncaring state. Females on Orchid Island, Taiwan, remain with their eggs during incubation and when doing so, actively deter egg predation by egg‐eating snakes (Oligodon formosanus); in all other populations, females lack post‐ovipositional maternal care. Nest‐guarding females on Orchid Island (i) showed antipredator behaviours only in the original nest site in which they laid eggs, even after we removed all of the eggs or substituted them with those of a conspecific; (ii) protect any eggs present inside the original nest site (even when the eggs belong to a conspecific); and (iii) develop this behaviour while gravid (i.e. prior to laying eggs). This supports the hypothesis that long‐tailed skinks cannot recognize their own eggs, suggesting that maternal care is a directed form of territoriality only expressed towards egg‐eating snakes and only during reproduction. Nest guarding is among the most primitive forms of parental care, and the recent evolution of this behaviour in a single population provides insight into one of the mechanisms by which parental care can originate in terrestrial vertebrates.
Viscosity and diffusion: crowding and salt effects in protein solutions

We report on a joint experimental–theoretical study of collective diffusion in, and static shear viscosity of solutions of bovine serum albumin (BSA) proteins, focusing on the dependence on protein and salt concentration. Data obtained from dynamic light scattering and rheometric measurements are compared to theoretical calculations based on an analytically treatable spheroid model of BSA with isotropic screened Coulomb plus hard-sphere interactions. The only input to the dynamics calculations is the static structure factor obtained from a consistent theoretical fit to a concentration series of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) data. This fit is based on an integral equation scheme that combines high accuracy with low computational cost. All experimentally probed dynamic and static properties are reproduced theoretically with an at least semi-quantitative accuracy. For lower protein concentration and low salinity, both theory and experiment show a maximum in the reduced viscosity, caused by the electrostatic repulsion of proteins. On employing our theoretical and experimental results, the applicability range of a generalized Stokes–Einstein (GSE) relation connecting viscosity, collective diffusion coefficient, and osmotic compressibility, proposed by Kholodenko and Douglas [Phys. Rev. E, 1995, 51, 1081] is examined. Significant violation of the GSE relation is found, both in experimental data and in theoretical models, in concentrated systems at physiological salinity, and under low-salt conditions for arbitrary protein concentrations.
Intentional injuries among Ugandan youth: a trauma registry analysis

Purpose To determine intentional injury burden, incident characteristics, and outcomes among Ugandan youth. Methods A cross sectional analysis of trauma registry data from accident and emergency units of five regional referral hospitals was conducted. Data had been prospectively collected from all patients accessing injury care at the five sites between July 2004 and June 2005: youth records were analysed. Results Intentional injuries among youth victims, especially school-age males, are common in all five regions, constituting 7.3% of their injury burden with a male dominance. Intentional youth victimisation mainly occurred at home, on roads, and in public places; incidents were largely due to blunt force, stabs/cuts, and gunshots in general, although variations in causes were evident depending on age. Intentional injuries among the youth victims often manifested as head, neck, and face injuries: 2% were severe and there were 4%case fatalities at 2 weeks. Conclusions and recommendations Intentional injuries among youth victims, especially school-age males, are important contributors of injury burden in all five sites. Homes, roads, and public places are unsafe for Ugandan youth. Although guns were used in all five sites, less lethal mechanisms (blunt force, stabs/cuts, and burns) are the most common with variations between locations. Incidents involving teenage housewives could reflect underlying problem of domestic violence. Community based studies could be highly informative. Youth should be prioritised for prevention of injuries both in and out of school.
Which Handedness: Preference or Performance?

Two ways of measuring handedness, questionnaires and hand-efficiency tests, are compared. A method for combining performance scores of 128 children from different hand-efficiency tests to obtain a single handedness score based on efficiency is presented. Handedness classifications according to different thresholds of preference as well as of performance are shown. To select pure right- or left-handers, it is argued that handedness should be established simultaneously through preference questionnaires and performance tests and that only subjects falling simultaneously into the same category on both measures be kept. Advantages and disadvantages of each classification are discussed as well as the relations between efficiency and motor control of upper limb and hand.
Primary gastric combined adeno- small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.

A 66-year-old man presented with intermittent upper abdominal pain (epigastralgia) for a few months associated with heartburn, intermittent nausea and bloating. The patient denied vomiting, dysphagia or odynophagia. There was no history of significant weight loss, anorexia, overt gastrointestinal bleeding or alterations in bowel movements. His past medical history included type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypothyroidism. He was a former smoker with 20 pack-year smoking history, and drank alcohol occasionally. Family history was notable for his sister and two nieces with breast cancer. The patient’s symptoms were attributed to gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and were empirically treated with proton pump inhibitor (PPI)—omeprazole. However, his symptoms continued to worsen and he was referred for endoscopic evaluation. Physical examination was significant only for mild epigastric tenderness. There was no hepatosplenomegaly, ascites or lymphadenoapthy. Initial laboratory investigations were unremarkable. Oesophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) was performed, which revealed a 20 mm semi-sessile polyp on the greater curvature in the fundus of the stomach (Figure 1). Histopathology of the gastric biopsies from this polypoid mass showed solid proliferation of small-sized tumour cells with scanty cytoplasm and hyperchromatic nuclei, positive for immunostaining with anti-chromogranin A and antisynaptophysin (Figures 2, 3A1, 3A2). There was also a minor
A Conserved Histidine Is Essential for Glycerolipid Acyltransferase Catalysis

ABSTRACT Sequence analysis of membrane-bound glycerolipid acyltransferases revealed that proteins from the bacterial, plant, and animal kingdoms share a highly conserved domain containing invariant histidine and aspartic acid residues separated by four less conserved residues in an HX4D configuration. We investigated the role of the invariant histidine residue in acyltransferase catalysis by site-directed mutagenesis of two representative members of this family, the sn-glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (PlsB) and the bifunctional 2-acyl-glycerophosphoethanolamine acyltransferase/acyl-acyl carrier protein synthetase (Aas) ofEscherichia coli. Both the PlsB[H306A] and Aas[H36A] mutants lacked acyltransferase activity. However, the Aas[H36A] mutant retained significant acyl-acyl carrier protein synthetase activity, illustrating that the lack of acyltransferase activity was specifically associated with the H36A substitution. The invariant aspartic acid residue in the HX4D pattern was also important. The substitution of aspartic acid 311 with glutamic acid in PlsB resulted in an enzyme with significantly reduced catalytic activity. Substitution of an alanine at this position eliminated acyltransferase activity; however, the PlsB[D311A] mutant protein did not assemble into the membrane, indicating that aspartic acid 311 is also important for the proper folding and membrane insertion of the acyltransferases. These data are consistent with a mechanism for glycerolipid acyltransferase catalysis where the invariant histidine functions as a general base to deprotonate the hydroxyl moiety of the acyl acceptor.
[Efficacy assessment of treating patients with coronary heart disease angina of phlegm and stasis mutual obstruction syndrome by Danlou tablet].

OBJECTIVE To assess the clinical efficacy of danlou tablet (DT) in treating coronary heart disease angina (CHDA) patients of phlegm and stasis mutual obstruction syndrome (PSMOS). METHODS Totally 66 CHDA patients of PSMOS were recruited from four centers (Beijing Guang'anmen Hospital, Beijing Anzhen Hospital, First Affiliated Hospital of Henan College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Hubei Union Hospital). They were assigned to two groups according to the random digit table, the treatment group (treated by DT +Western medicine) and the control group (treated by Western medicine), 33 in each group. All patients took Western medicine. Patients in the treatment group were given DT, 1.5 g each time, twice daily, while those in the control group took DT placebo. The treatment course was 28 days for all. The efficacy of angina, the angina attack frequency, its duration, the score of angina, the numbers of ST segment depression and flat or inversed T wave, the lead number of inversed T wave, the angina relief time after taking nitroglycerin, the amount of nitroglycerin were observed in the two groups. The changes of Chinese medicine (CM) syndrome scores, including the duration and frequency of chest tightness and pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, palpitation, spontaneous sweating, and total syndrome score were compared before and after treatment. The changes of hypersensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), homocysteic acid (HCY), soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L), interleukin-6 (IL-6), myeloperoxidase (MPO), matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9), and vascular cell adhesion molecular-1 (VCAM-1) were also observed in both groups. RESULTS The total effective rate was significantly higher in the treatment group (26/32 cases, 81.2%) when compared with the control group (13/30 cases, 43.3%, P < 0.05). Compared with before treatment in the same group, the duration and frequency of chest tightness and pain, the score of angina, the numbers of ST segment depression and flat or inversed T wave, the lead number of inversed T wave, the angina relief time after taking nitroglycerin, the amount of nitroglycerin, the duration and frequency of chest tightness and pain, hs-CRP, sCD40L, HCY, IL-6, MMP-9, MPO were lowered after treatment in both groups (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). The VCAM-1 level decreased in the treatment group, while it increased in the control group, showing statistical difference (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). Compared with the control group after treatment, the duration and frequency of chest tightness and pain, the score of angina, the angina relief time after taking nitroglycerin, the amount of nitroglycerin, the duration and frequency of chest tightness and pain, fatigue, the total syndrome score, the levels of hs-CRP, sCD40L, HCY, IL-6, MMP-9, MPO, and VCAM-1 were lowered in the treatment group after treatment (P < 0.01, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION DT could improve CHDA patients' clinical symptoms, inhibit the inflammation reaction, showing plaque stabilizing and anti-oxidization effects.
Cyclophosphamide cystitis in mice: Behavioural characterisation and correlation with bladder inflammation

The generation of transgenic ‘knock‐out’ mice which lack genes relevant to pain is becoming increasing common. However, only one visceral pain model, the writhing test, is available in mice. The aim of this study was to adapt cyclophosphamide cystitis, a model of inflammatory visceral pain described in rats, for use in mice, and to characterise its behavioural effects. The toxic metabolites of systemically‐administered cyclophosphamide are excreted in the urine, and induce bladder inflammation. We compared the effects of cyclophosphamide (100 and 300 mg/kg i.p., 4 h survival period) and vehicle (saline) in male mice on spontaneous behaviour (4 h continuous video‐tape, and a 5‐min Open Field test after 4 h). Involvement of the urinary bladder and other abdominal tissues was assessed by macroscopic examination and measurement of Evan's Blue plasma extravasation. Cyclophosphamide (300 mg/kg) produced significant changes in behaviour, including 22 ± 6 min of ‘crises’ of visceral pain‐related behaviour and a 53% reduction in activity, and also induced haemorrhage and substantial plasma extravasation in the bladder, but no change in other abdominal tissues. We conclude that cyclophosphamide cystitis has many advantages as a model of sub‐acute, inflammatory visceral pain in mice. It does not require surgery or intubation, and we have found it to produce consistent, reproducible and quantifiable behavioural changes, which are significantly correlated with the degree of bladder inflammation in the absence of inflammation of other abdominal tissues.