Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Nutrition for Pressure Ulcer Management: National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance White Paper

Nutrition and hydration play an important role in preserving skin and tissue viability and in supporting tissue repair for pressure ulcer (PrU) healing. The majority of research investigating the relationship between nutrition and wounds focuses on PrUs. This white paper reviews the 2014 National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, European Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel, and Pan Pacific Pressure Injury Alliance Nutrition Guidelines and discusses nutrition strategies for PrU management.
Bilateral Diffuse Uveal Melanocytic Proliferation as a Precursor to Multiple Systemic Malignancies

Abstract Bilateral diffuse uveal melanocytic proliferation (BDUMP) is a rare, intraocular paraneoplastic syndrome characterized by multiple, elevated, pigmented uveal lesions, diffuse thickening of the uveal tract, and rapidly progressive cataracts. We report a 70-year-old Caucasian male with an inferotemporal conjunctival-scleral pigmented lesion of the right eye. Funduscopy and ultrasonography revealed multiple elevated pigmented choroidal lesions in both eyes. Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of intraoperative transscleral fine-needle aspiration biopsies from both eyes revealed a whole gain on chromosome 5. BDUMP was diagnosed, and the patient underwent a thorough systemic investigation, which was negative for an underlying malignancy; however, by maintaining a high index of suspicion, multiple malignancies were uncovered and appropriately treated over the ensuing years. This report presents the clinical, cytologic, and cytogenetic features of BDUMP, and is the first to demonstrate a novel finding of a whole gain in chromosome 5 by SNP analysis of the choroidal lesions. Additionally, this is the first case to potentially associate BDUMP and both transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder as well as renal clear cell carcinoma.
High‐sensitivity cerebral perfusion mapping in mice by kbGRASE‐FAIR at 9.4 T

The combination of flow‐sensitive alternating inversion recovery (FAIR) and single‐shot k‐space‐banded gradient‐ and spin‐echo (kbGRASE) is proposed here to measure perfusion in the mouse brain with high sensitivity and stability. Signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) analysis showed that kbGRASE‐FAIR boosts image and temporal SNRs by 2.01 ± 0.08 and 2.50 ± 0.07 times, respectively, when compared with standard single‐shot echo planar imaging (EPI)‐FAIR implemented in our experimental systems, although the practically achievable spatial resolution was slightly reduced. The effects of varying physiological parameters on the precision and reproducibility of cerebral blood flow (CBF) measurements were studied following changes in anesthesia regime, capnia and body temperature. The functional MRI time courses with kbGRASE‐FAIR showed a more stable response to 5% CO2 than did those with EPI‐FAIR. The results establish kbGRASE‐FAIR as a practical and robust protocol for quantitative CBF measurements in mice at 9.4 T. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Analysis of binary mixtures of pharmaceutical amines by the acid dye technique.

Abstract A general procedure using the acid dye technique is described for the direct analysis of certain binary mixtures of pharmaceutical amines without prior separation. Benzene (or benzene containing a small amount of isoamyl alcohol) is used to extract selectively the ion‐pair formed between the amine and an indicator dye from a suitably buffered aqueous phase. The less‐polar amine of the binary mixture is determined using bromcresol purple, while the total of both amines is determined with bromthymol blue. The amount of the more‐polar amine is calculated by difference. Specific combinations examined include diphenhydramine‐ephedrine, prochlorperazine‐amphetamine, promazine‐phenmetrazine, promethazine‐ephedrine, promethazine‐codeine, diphenhydraminecodeine, and diphenylpyraline‐codeine. Recoveries for simulated mixtures average 99.76%, with an average coefficient of variation of 0.85 for an individual determination. The method has some limitations in accuracy for binary mixtures containing a large proportion of the less‐polar amine. The scope of the technique is demonstrated by application to several commercially available dosage forms.
On functional motor adaptations: from the quantification of motor strategies to the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders in the neck–shoulder region

Background: Occupations characterized by a static low load and by repetitive actions show a high prevalence of work‐related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD) in the neck–shoulder region. Moreover, muscle fatigue and discomfort are reported to play a relevant initiating role in WMSD. Aims: To investigate relationships between altered sensory information, i.e. localized muscle fatigue, discomfort and pain and their associations to changes in motor control patterns.
Ritonavir‐boosted danoprevir plus peginterferon alfa‐2a and ribavirin in Asian chronic hepatitis C patients with or without cirrhosis

Chronic hepatitis C is an important public health problem in Asia. We evaluated the safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of fixed‐dose ritonavir‐boosted danoprevir plus peginterferon alfa‐2a/ribavirin in treatment‐naive Asian patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype (G)1 infection.
WAIS-R Subtest Pattern Clusters in Closed-Head-Injured and Healthy Samples*

Abstract Cluster analysis was performed on the WAIS-R subtest scores of a closed-head-injured (CHI) sample (n = 233) in an attempt to replicate and extend the findings of Crosson, Greene, Roth, Farr, and Adams (1990). The same analysis was also run with a healthy sample (n = 326) recruited to match the general adult population in terms of demographic variables; a subsample matched to the CHI sample was also formed (n = 117). Eleven clusters were extracted from the CHI sample, five of which contained 10 or more members. There was a low degree of correspondence between these latter clusters and the six subtest patterns clusters reported by Crosson et al. The importance of Verbal/Performance discrepancies in the formation of clusters in CHI was examined by comparing Verbal/Performance composites against arbitrary composites in CHI and healthy samples. In the CHI sample both sets of composites yielded significant effects but a larger effect size was obtained for the Verbal/Performance composites. However, the.
Subthalamic stimulation activates internal pallidus: Evidence from cGMP microdialysis in PD patients

Parkinson's disease patients benefit from deep brain stimulation (DBS) in subthalamic nucleus (STN), but the basis for this effect is still disputed. In this intraoperative microdialysis study, we found elevated cGMP extracellular concentrations in the internal segment of the globus pallidus, despite negligible changes in glutamate levels, during a clinically effective STN‐DBS. This supports the view that a clinically beneficial effect of STN‐DBS is paralleled by an augmentation (and not an inactivation) of the STN output onto the GPi. Ann Neurol 2005;57:448–452
Electrical degradation mechanisms of RF power GaAs PHEMTs

In this research, we have carried out a systematic investigation of the electrical degradation of RF power PHEMTs. By examining devices with different geometries as well as a variety of test structures, our research confirms previous observations of degradation under the gate of the device. We have also identified for the first time a mechanism that affects the source. Additionally, we convincingly show that impact ionization (II) is not directly responsible for drain degradation. Instead, we find that a hot-electron (HE)-induced chemical reaction at the surface of the drain, coupled with contact degradation appear to be the mechanisms responsible for the drain damage.
Signal Intensity Estimators for Free-Space Optical Communication With Array Detectors

Estimators motivated by the minimum mean-square estimation (MMSE) criterion are presented for the estimation of the optical signal intensity in free-space optical (FSO) communication systems impaired by atmospheric-induced scintillation. Joint parameter estimators for the estimation of signal intensities across a photodetector array are investigated. Three scenarios are considered. First, it is assumed that the received signal is detected using a p-i-n photodiode array and that the receiver operates under a shot-noise-limited condition. In the second scenario, the received signal is detected using an APD array and the receiver operates under a shot-noise-limited condition. In the third scenario, the received signal is detected using an APD array, but the receiver is impaired by thermal noise as well as shot noise. The mean primary electron count received by the APD is assumed to be large enough to justify the Gaussian approximation. The optical channel is modeled using a log-normal distribution with correlated random signal intensities across the array. With the aid of simulation, it is shown that the proposed estimators outperform the maximum-likelihood estimators for small scintillation indices while providing a performance similar to the maximum a posteriori estimator.
Activation of human AML14.3D10 eosinophils by nanoparticles: Modulatory activity on apoptosis and cytokine production

Abstract Eosinophilic inflammation is frequently observed in response to nanoparticle (NP) exposure in airway rodent models of allergies where the number of eosinophils is increased in lungs. Despite this, it is surprising that the potential cytotoxic effect of NP, as well as their direct role on eosinophils is poorly documented. The present study investigated how different NP can alter the biology of the human eosinophilic cell line AML14.3D10. It was found that among NP forms of CeO2, ZnO, TiO2, and nanosilver of 20 nm (AgNP20) or 70 nm (AgNP70) diameters, only ZnO and AgNP20 induced apoptosis. Caspases-7 and -9 were not activated by the tested NP while caspase-3 was activated by AgNP20 only. However, both ZnO and AgNP20 induced cytoskeletal breakdown as evidenced by the cleavage of lamin B1. Using an ELISArray approach for the simultaneous detection of several analytes (cytokines/chemokines), it was found that only ZnO and AgNP20 increased the production of different analytes including the potent pro-inflammatory CXCL8 (IL-8) chemokine. From the data here, we conclude that toxic effects of some NP could be observed in human eosinophil-like cells and that this could be related, at least partially, by induction of apoptosis and production of cytokines and chemokines involved in inflammation. The results of this study also indicate that distinct NP do not activate similarly human eosinophils, since ZnO and AgNP20 induce apoptosis and cytokine production while others such as TiO2, CeO2, and AgNP70 do not.
Disability status, perceived health, social support, self-efficacy, and quality of life among people with spinal cord injury in the People's Republic of China

Ž . Quality of life QOL of people with spinal cord injury Ž . SCI has attracted the attention of researchers in many countries. A large body of literature pertinent to QOL of Ž . people with SCI has been assembled Tam, 1998 . The majority of studies, however, have been conducted with people who live in Western countries. Few studies have investigated QOL of people with SCI in developing countries such as China. China has the largest disabled population in the world. According to the Chinese government, at least 60 million Ž . Chinese have a disability State Council, 1996 . Although there is no an official record of the incidence of SCI in China, the number of people who have sustained SCI is expected to be high given the increased incidence of automobile and construction accidents in this country. A few studies with Chinese people who had SCI indicated that the components of QOL identified by participants were similar to those found among people with SCI in Western countries. For example, Hampton Ž . 1998 interviewed 40 individuals with SCI in China. The participants identified the following aspects as the imŽ . portant components of the quality of their lives: a Ž . being able to contribute to society; b having good relationships with parents, spouse, children, and friends; Ž . Ž . c being in good health; d having material well-being Ž . and financial security; and e living in an accessible environment with government support. The participants Ž also emphasized that personal beliefs self-efficacy . beliefs about one’s ability to cope with the difficulties imposed by SCI and an inaccessible environment played a very important role in achieving the quality of their lives. In a study of QOL of Chinese people with SCI Ž . Hampton, 2000 it was found that self-efficacy beliefs, defined as an individual’s beliefs about his or her ability Ž . to cope with life’s exigencies Judge et al., 1998 , acŽ . counted for a substantial amount of variance P 0.39 in the QOL of the participants. Also, health status,
Effect of race, age, and axial length on optic nerve head parameters and retinal nerve fiber layer thickness measured by Cirrus HD-OCT.

OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of race, demographic, and ocular variables on optic nerve head and retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness measurements using spectral-domain optical coherence tomography. METHODS In a cross-sectional observational study, 284 normal subjects aged 18 to 84 years were evaluated at 7 sites using Cirrus HD-OCT. Disc area, rim area, average cup-disc ratio, vertical cup-disc ratio, cup volume, and average, temporal, superior, nasal, and inferior RNFL thicknesses were calculated. The main outcome measures were associations between Cirrus HD-OCT optic nerve head and RNFL measurements and age, sex, and race. RESULTS The 284 subjects self-identified as being of European (122), Chinese (63), African (51), or Hispanic (35) descent. After adjusting for the effect of age, there was a statistically significant difference among racial groups for all optic nerve head and RNFL parameters (all P ≤ .005) except rim area (P = .22). Rim area, average cup-disc ratio, vertical cup-disc ratio, and cup volume were moderately associated with disc area (r(2) = 0.15, 0.33, 0.33, and 0.37, respectively). After a linear adjustment for disc area, there was no statistically significant difference among racial groups for any optic nerve head parameter. Individuals of European descent had thinner RNFL measurements except in the temporal quadrant. CONCLUSIONS There are racial differences in optic disc area, average cup-disc ratio, vertical cup-disc ratio, cup volume, and RNFL thickness as measured by Cirrus HD-OCT. These differences should be considered when using Cirrus HD-OCT to assess for glaucomatous damage in differing population groups.
Taxane Therapy for Early Stage Breast Cancer

Breast cancer is the most frequent cancer of women in developed countries. Systemic adjuvant chemotherapy has dramatically improved the outcome of patients treated for early stage invasive breast cancer. Among novel chemotherapeutic agents, the taxanes have emerged as the most powerful compounds since anthracycline regimens. Two taxanes are available (paclitaxel and docetaxel) and they share some characteristics, while having a number of significant differences, both in terms of preclinical and pharmacokinetic profiles and, most importantly, clinical consequences. In clinical practice, the taxanes are now standard therapy in metastatic breast cancer. Their role as monochemotherapy or in combination with anthracyclines in advanced breast cancer has suggested their potential therapeutic impact in the treatment of patients with early breast cancer. Available results in the adjuvant and neoadjuvant setting demonstrate that taxanes, used in combination with other chemotherapeutic agents or trastuzumab, or in sequential therapy, possess the capability to induce significant improvements, in particular in terms of survival, confirming the positive impact of taxanes on the natural history of breast cancer.
Post-induction, Stimulus-specific Regulation of Tumor Necrosis Factor mRNA Expression*

The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) gene is activated by multiple extracellular signals in a stimulus- and cell type-specific fashion. Based on the presence of κB-like DNA motifs in the region upstream of the TNF gene, some have proposed a direct role for NF-κB in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced TNF gene transcription in cells of the monocyte/macrophage lineage. However, we have previously demonstrated a general and critical role for a minimal TNF promoter region bearing only one of the κB-like motifs, κ3, which is bound by nuclear factor of activated T cell proteins in lymphocytes and fibroblasts in response to multiple stimuli and Ets proteins in LPS-stimulated macrophages. Here, in an effort to resolve these contrasting findings, we used a combination of site-directed mutagenesis of the TNF promoter, quantitative DNase I footprinting, and analysis of endogenous TNF mRNA production in response to multiple stimuli under conditions that inhibit NF-κB activation (using the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin and using cells lacking either functional NF-κB essential modulator, which is the IκB kinase regulatory subunit, or the Nemo gene itself). We find that TNF mRNA production in response to ionophore is NF-κB-independent, but inhibition of NF-κB activation attenuates virus- and LPS-induced TNF mRNA levels after initial induction. We conclude that induction of TNF gene transcription by virus or LPS does not depend upon NF-κB binding to the proximal promoter; rather, a stimulus-specific post-induction mechanism involving NF-κB, yet to be characterized, is involved in the maintenance of maximal TNF mRNA levels.
Pattern Classification of Hand Movements using Time Domain Features of Electromyography

Myoelectric control of prostheses is a long-established technique, using surface electromyography (sEMG) to detect the electrical signals of muscle activity and perform subsequent mechanical actions. Despite several decades' research, robust, responsive and intuitive control schemes remain elusive. Current commercial hardware advances offer a variety of movements but the control systems are unnatural, using sequential switching methods triggered by specific sEMG signals. However, recent research with pattern recognition and simultaneous and proportional control shows good promise for natural myoelectric control. This paper investigates several sEMG time domain features using a series of hand movements performed by 11 subjects, taken from a benchmark database, to determine if optimal classification accuracy is dependent on feature set size. The features were extracted from the data using a sliding window process and applied to five machine learning classifiers, of which Random Forest consistently performed best. Results suggest a few simple features such as Root Mean Square and Waveform Length achieve comparable performance to using the entire feature set, when identifying the hand movements, although further work is required for feature optimisation.
SpoIID-Mediated Peptidoglycan Degradation Is Required throughout Engulfment during Bacillus subtilis Sporulation

ABSTRACT SpoIID is a membrane-anchored enzyme that degrades peptidoglycan and is essential for engulfment and sporulation in Bacillus subtilis. SpoIID is targeted to the sporulation septum, where it interacts with two other proteins required for engulfment: SpoIIP and SpoIIM. We changed conserved amino acids in SpoIID to alanine to determine whether there was a correlation between the effect of each substitution on the in vivo and in vitro activities of SpoIID. We identified one amino acid substitution, E88A, that eliminated peptidoglycan degradation activity and one, D210A, that reduced it, as well as two substitutions that destabilized the protein in B. subtilis (R106A and K203A). Using these mutants, we show that the peptidoglycan degradation activity of SpoIID is required for the first step of engulfment (septal thinning), as well as throughout membrane migration, and we show that SpoIID levels are substantially above the minimum required for engulfment. The inactive mutant E88A shows increased septal localization compared to the wild type, suggesting that the degradation cycle of the SpoIID/SpoIIP complex is accompanied by the activity-dependent release of SpoIID from the complex and subsequent rebinding. This mutant is also capable of moving SpoIIP across the sporulation septum, suggesting that SpoIID binding, but not peptidoglycan degradation activity, is needed for relocalization of SpoIIP. Finally, the mutant with reduced activity (D210A) causes uneven engulfment and time-lapse microscopy indicates that the fastest-moving membrane arm has greater concentrations of SpoIIP than the slower-moving arm, demonstrating a correlation between SpoIIP protein levels and the rate of membrane migration.
Adult myoclonic epilepsy: A distinct syndrome of idiopathic generalized epilepsy

Article abstract The authors present 11 cases of idiopathic generalized epilepsy that began in adulthood at a mean age of 39 years. All patients had myoclonic jerks, five had absence seizures, and nine had infrequent generalized tonic-clonic seizures. A majority had a family history of seizures. EEG in all patients showed generalized epileptiform abnormalities, whereas neuroimaging and neurologic examination results were normal. This series appears to represent a previously undescribed idiopathic generalized epilepsy syndrome of adult myoclonic epilepsy.
The effect of metabolic inhibitors on respiration and glycolysis in electrically stimulated cerebral-cortex slices.

Recent studies on the metabolism of brain-cortex slices in vitro have shown that under suitable conditions some of the changes associated with the passage of electrical impulses, namely increased oxygen uptake, increased glycolysis and increase of inorganic phosphate levels, togetherwitha decreased concentration of creatine phosphate, parallel those which can be reproduced in vivo by similar treatment (cf. Mcllwain, 1951a; 1952). Using this technique it has been found that certain drugs of therapeutic value repress the stimulated oxygen uptake and glycolysis of separated slices of cerebral cortex, although they do not have a similar effect on unstimulated metabolism (see Anguiano & McIlwain 1951; McIlwain, 1953a). Measurement of the effect of these drugs has been made in terms of metabolic events such as oxygen uptake and lactic acid production. From such measurements it has not always been easy to decide whether the drug affects primarily a metabolic process or one more closely associated with excitation (see McIlwain, 1953b). It therefore seemed desirable to obtain information concerning the effects on electrically stimulated tissue of substances known to inhibit metabolic processes, and the results with three such inhibitors are reported here.