Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dynamic cerebral autoregulation and cerebrovascular reactivity: a comparative study in lacunar infarct patients

The major purpose of this study was to simultaneously evaluate dCA before and shortly after cerebral vasodilatation evoked by infusion of acetazolamide (ACZ). It was questioned if and to what degree dCA was changed after ACZ infusion. Using 15 mg kg−1 ACZ infusion cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) was assessed in 29 first ever lacunar stroke patients (19 M/10 F). During the CVR-test, the electrocardiogram, non-invasive finger arterial blood pressure (ABP) and middle cerebral artery blood flow velocity (CBFV) were recorded. DCA based on spontaneous blood pressure variations was evaluated in 24 subjects by linear transfer function analysis. Squared coherence, gain and phase angle in the frequency range of autoregulation (0.04–0.16 Hz) were compared before and after ACZ infusion. After ACZ infusion, median phase angle decreased significantly (p < 0.005 Wilcoxon) to 0.77 rad compared to a pre-test baseline value of 1.05 rad, indicating less efficient dCA due to ACZ. However, post-test phase values are still mostly within the normal range. Poor and statistically non-significant correlations were found between CVR and absolute dCA phase angle. It can be concluded that CVR testing with body weight adjusted infusion of ACZ lowers dCA performance but by no means exhausts dCA, suggesting that in this way maximal CVR is not determined. Characterizing dCA based on transfer function analysis of ABP to CBFV needs no provocation and adverse patient effects are minimal. The poor correlation between CVR and dCA phase angle supports an interpretation that CVR and dCA study different mechanisms of cerebrovascular control.
Current practice in total-body irradiation: results of a Canada-wide survey.

BACKGROUND Total-body irradiation (tbi) is used to condition patients before bone marrow transplant. A variety of tbi treatment strategies have been described and implemented, but no consensus on best practice has been reached. We report on the results of a survey created to assess the current state of tbi delivery in Canada. RESULTS A 19-question survey was distributed to 49 radiation oncology programs in Canada. Responses were received from 20 centres, including 12 centres that perform tbi. A variety of tbi dose prescriptions was reported, although 12 Gy in 6 fractions was used in 11 of the 12 centres performing tbi. Half of the centres also reported using a dose prescription unique to their facility. Most centres use an extended-distance parallel-opposed-pair technique, with the patient standing or lying on a stretcher against a wall. Others translate the patient under the beam, sweep the beam over the patient, or use a more complicated multi-field technique. All but 1 centre indicated that they attenuate the lung dose; only 3 centres indicated attenuating the dose for other organs at risk. The survey also highlighted the considerable resources used for tbi, including extra staff, prolonged planning and treatment times, and use of locally developed hardware or software. CONCLUSIONS At transplant centres, tbi is commonly used, but there is no commonly accepted approach to planning and treatment delivery. The important discrepancies in practice between centres in Canada creates an opportunity to prompt more discussion and collaboration between centres, improving consistency and uniformity of practice.
Risk Factors for Residual Cancer and Lymph Node Metastasis After Noncurative Endoscopic Resection of Early Colorectal Cancer

BACKGROUND: Endoscopic resection could be a curative treatment for early colorectal cancer without the possibility of lymph node metastasis. However, if the resection margin is positive, and there is a risk of lymph node metastasis, additional surgery should be performed. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the characteristics of patients who underwent additional surgery to determine risk factors associated with residual tumor and lymph node metastasis. DESIGN: This study is a retrospective analysis. SETTINGS: This study was conducted at a tertiary academic hospital. PATIENTS: We evaluated 85 patients who underwent additional surgery with curative intent after endoscopic resection for early colorectal cancer at the Samsung Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea, between January 2001 and April 2010. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: We identified risk factors associated with residual tumor or lymph node metastasis in surgical specimens after noncurative endoscopic resection for early colorectal cancer. RESULTS: Among 85 patients who underwent additional surgery after noncurative endoscopic resection, 76 (89.4%) had submucosal invasion greater than 1000 &mgr;m. Twenty-one (24.7%) and 25 patients (29.4%) had a positive lateral or vertical resection margin, and 11 patients (12.9%) had inadequate lifting sign. After additional surgery, patients were divided into 2 groups according to the presence or absence of residual tumor and/or lymph node metastasis. There was no significant difference between the groups in positive lateral margin, but there was a significant difference in positive vertical margin (p = 0.015 with an OR of 15.02). In patients with inadequate lifting sign, the OR was 13.68 (p = 0.013). LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by its retrospective nature. CONCLUSION: There is a greater need for additional surgery in cases with positive vertical resection margin or inadequate lifting sign, because the risk of residual tumor and lymph node metastasis is higher than in other cases.
Economic Gains From Gender Inclusion; New Mechanisms, New Evidence

While progress has been made in increasing female labor force participation (FLFP) in the last 20 years, large gaps remain. The latest Fund research shows that improving gender diversity can result in larger economic gains than previously thought. Indeed, gender diversity brings benefits all its own. Women bring new skills to the workplace. This may reflect social norms and their impact on upbringing and social interactions, or underlying differences in risk preference and response to incentives for example. As such, there is an economic benefit from diversity, that is from bringing women into the labor force, over and above the benefit resulting from more (male) workers. The study finds that male and female labor are imperfect substitutes in production, and therefore gender differences in the labor force matter. The results also imply that standard models, which ignore such differences, understate the favorable impact of gender inclusion on growth, and misattribute to technology a part of growth that is actually caused by women’s participation. The study further suggests that narrowing gender gaps benefits both men and women, because of a boost to male wages from higher FLFP. The paper also examines the role of women in the process of sectoral reallocation from traditional agriculture to services and the resulting effect on productivity and growth. Because FLFP is relatively high in services, sectoral reallocation along development paths serves to boost gender parity and productivity.
Melatonin: an ancient molecule that makes oxygen metabolically tolerable

Melatonin is remarkably functionally diverse with actions as a free radical scavenger and antioxidant, circadian rhythm regulator, anti‐inflammatory and immunoregulating molecule, and as an oncostatic agent. We hypothesize that the initial and primary function of melatonin in photosynthetic cyanobacteria, which appeared on Earth 3.5–3.2 billion years ago, was as an antioxidant. The evolution of melatonin as an antioxidant by this organism was necessary as photosynthesis is associated with the generation of toxic‐free radicals. The other secondary functions of melatonin came about much later in evolution. We also surmise that mitochondria and chloroplasts may be primary sites of melatonin synthesis in all eukaryotic cells that possess these organelles. This prediction is made on the basis that mitochondria and chloroplasts of eukaryotes developed from purple nonsulfur bacteria (which also produce melatonin) and cyanobacteria when they were engulfed by early eukaryotes. Thus, we speculate that the melatonin‐synthesizing actions of the engulfed bacteria were retained when these organelles became mitochondria and chloroplasts, respectively. That mitochondria are likely sites of melatonin formation is supported by the observation that this organelle contains high levels of melatonin that are not impacted by blood melatonin concentrations. Melatonin has a remarkable array of means by which it thwarts oxidative damage. It, as well as its metabolites, is differentially effective in scavenging a variety of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species. Moreover, melatonin and its metabolites modulate a large number of antioxidative and pro‐oxidative enzymes, leading to a reduction in oxidative damage. The actions of melatonin on radical metabolizing/producing enzymes may be mediated by the Keap1‐Nrf2‐ARE pathway. Beyond its direct free radical scavenging and indirect antioxidant effects, melatonin has a variety of physiological and metabolic advantages that may enhance its ability to limit oxidative stress.
Prospective memory deficits in illicit polydrug users are associated with the average long-term typical dose of ecstasy typically consumed in a single session.

RATIONALE Neuroimaging evidence suggests that ecstasy-related reductions in SERT densities relate more closely to the number of tablets typically consumed per session rather than estimated total lifetime use. To better understand the basis of drug related deficits in prospective memory (p.m.) we explored the association between p.m. and average long-term typical dose and long-term frequency of use. METHOD Study 1: Sixty-five ecstasy/polydrug users and 85 nonecstasy users completed an event-based, a short-term and a long-term time-based p.m. task. Study 2: Study 1 data were merged with outcomes on the same p.m. measures from a previous study creating a combined sample of 103 ecstasy/polydrug users, 38 cannabis-only users, and 65 nonusers of illicit drugs. RESULTS Study 1: Ecstasy/polydrug users had significant impairments on all p.m. outcomes compared with nonecstasy users. Study 2: Ecstasy/polydrug users were impaired in event-based p.m. compared with both other groups and in long-term time-based p.m. compared with nonillicit drug users. Both drug using groups did worse on the short-term time-based p.m. task compared with nonusers. Higher long-term average typical dose of ecstasy was associated with poorer performance on the event and short-term time-based p.m. tasks and accounted for unique variance in the two p.m. measures over and above the variance associated with cannabis and cocaine use. CONCLUSIONS The typical ecstasy dose consumed in a single session is an important predictor of p.m. impairments with higher doses reflecting increasing tolerance giving rise to greater p.m. impairment.
A historical review of the development of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and its implications for the twenty-first century

The purpose of this paper is to provide a historical account of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) based on the existing literature. ,The paper performs keywords search of published articles from 1930 to 2017 in widely used research databases. ,The historical review shows that the OCB, as a field of study, was slow to develop. Although it has been introduced in the late 1970s and officially defined in the 1980s, its origins can be traced back to the 1930s. Despite this, OCB is generally regarded as a relatively new construct and has become one of the biggest subjects studied in the literature. OCB has reached far and wide into the business and management domains, supporting the fact that the well-being employees and their behaviors can greatly affect organizations’ effectiveness and performance. Having been the topic of a significant number of studies, there have been inconsistent research findings regarding the concepts. Furthermore, some concepts have been noted to overlap, with several scholars using different terms for essentially similar concepts. ,The advent of technology and globalization has greatly affected organizations today which resulted in increased competition in the global business. Firms have started to look into the behavior exhibited by employees as a means of achieving competitive advantage, such as OCB. Voluminous works have been conducted regarding the study of OCB; however, none have been recorded to make an in-depth exploration of when and how it first surfaced. Since its official introduction, explorations regarding OCB have dramatically increased, most especially in the twenty-first century. Unfortunately, this has resulted in an increasing difficulty to keep up with the theoretical and empirical developments in the literature. As interest in OCB continues to grow, coherent integration of the concept becomes progressively more complex and necessary. This paper looks into the chronological evolution of the OCB, giving precise details of its development from the time it was first conceptualized up until the present wherein OCB has been used to indicate organizational effectiveness and performance.
Smart Specialisation in sparsely populated areas: challenges, opportunities and new openings

ABSTRACT This paper discusses to what extent Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3) are applicable in sparsely populated areas (SPA) departing from the S3 concept’s theoretical background and the experiences of S3 implementation in five European SPA. It was found that S3 has induced a transition in how innovation is addressed, for example, through a more decentralized support system and more proactive approaches to natural resource management unlocking new market opportunities for bio-based innovations. Finally, the research noted a drive to find new governance mechanisms (multi-actor, multi-sectoral and multilevel), in order to sustain human capital development, the most critical resource in the SPA.
A Clinical Trial Comparing Physician Prompting With an Unprompted Automated Electronic Checklist to Reduce Empirical Antibiotic Utilization

Objectives:To determine whether face-to-face prompting of critical care physicians reduces empirical antibiotic utilization compared to an unprompted electronic checklist embedded within the electronic health record. Design:Random allocation design. Setting:Medical ICU with high-intensity intensivist coverage at a tertiary care urban medical center. Patients:Two hundred ninety-six critically ill patients treated with at least 1 day of empirical antibiotics. Interventions:For one medical ICU team, face-to-face prompting of critical care physicians if they did not address empirical antibiotic utilization during a patient’s daily rounds. On a separate medical ICU team, attendings and fellows were trained once to complete an electronic health record-embedded checklist daily for each patient, including a question asking whether listed empirical antibiotics could be discontinued. Measurements and Main Results:Prompting led to a more than four-fold increase in discontinuing or narrowing of empirical antibiotics compared to use of the electronic checklist. Prompted group patients had a lower proportion of patient-days on which empirical antibiotics were administered compared to electronic checklist group patients (63.1% vs 70.0%, p = 0.002). Mean proportion of antibiotic-days on which empirical antibiotics were used was also lower in the prompted group, although not statistically significant (0.78 [0.27] vs 0.83 [0.27], p = 0.093). Each additional day of empirical antibiotics predicted higher risk-adjusted mortality (odds ratio, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.05–1.23). Risk-adjusted ICU length of stay and hospital mortality were not significantly different between the two groups. Conclusions:Face-to-face prompting was superior to an unprompted electronic health record-based checklist at reducing empirical antibiotic utilization. Sustained culture change may have contributed to the electronic checklist having similar empirical antibiotic utilization to a prompted group in the same medical ICU 2 years prior. Future studies should investigate the integration of an automated prompting mechanism with a more generalizable electronic health record-based checklist.
YEAF1/RYBP and YAF-2 Are Functionally Distinct Members of a Cofactor Family for the YY1 and E4TF1/hGABP Transcription Factors*

The transcription factor hGABP/E4TF1 is a heterotetrameric complex composed of two DNA-binding subunits (hGABPα/E4TF1–60) and two transactivating subunits (hGABPβ/E4TF1–53). In order to understand the molecular mechanism of transcriptional regulation by hGABP, we searched for proteins that interact with the non-DNA-binding subunit, hGABPβ, using yeast two-hybrid screening. We identified a human cDNA encoding a protein related to YAF-2 (YY1-associated factor 2), which was previously isolated as an interacting partner of the Ying-Yang-1 (YY1) transcription factor. Reflecting this similarity, both YAF-2 and this novel protein (named YEAF1 for YY1- andE4TF1/hGABP-associatedfactor-1) interacted with hGABPβ and YY1in vitro and in vivo, indicating that YEAF1 and YAF-2 constitute a cofactor family for these two structurally distinct transcription factors. By using yeast three-hybrid assay, we demonstrated that hGABPβ and YY1 formed a complex only in the presence of YEAF1, indicating that YEAF1 is a bridging factor of these two transcription factors. These cofactors are functionally different in that YAF-2 positively regulates the transcriptional activity of hGABP but YEAF1 negatively regulates this activity. Also,YAF-2 mRNA is highly expressed in skeletal muscle, whereas YEAF1 mRNA is highly expressed in placenta. We speculate that the transcriptional activity of hGABP is in part regulated by the expression levels of these tissue-specific cofactors. These results provide a novel mechanism of transcriptional regulation by functionally distinct cofactor family members.
Temporal characteristics of L- and M-cone isolating steady-state electroretinograms.

Cone isolating stimuli were used to assess the temporal frequency response characteristics of L- and M-cone electroretinograms (ERGs) in nine trichromatic and four dichromatic human observers. The stimuli comprised sinusoidal temporal modulations varying from 5 to 100 Hz. ERGs were recorded using corneal fiber electrodes and subjected to fast Fourier transform analysis. At low temporal frequencies (<10 Hz) the L- and M-cone ERGs had similar amplitude and exhibited minimal differences in apparent latency. At higher flicker rates (>20 Hz) L-cone ERGs had greater amplitudes and shorter apparent latencies than the M-cone responses. These differences between the L- and M-cone ERGs are consistent with their mediation by chromatic and luminance postreceptoral processing pathways at low and high temporal frequencies, respectively.
The use of novel Therakos™ Cellex® for extracorporeal photopheresis in treatment of graft‐versus‐host disease in paediatric patients

Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) is an established second line treatment option for graft‐versus‐host disease (GVHD) post‐haematopoietic progenitor cell transplant. At our centre, the Therakos™ Cellex® has replaced the Therakos™ UVAR‐XTS™ machine for ECP since 2009. We reviewed the records of 385 procedures using the Therakos™ Cellex® for safety and tolerability. Nine patients underwent ECP for GVHD. The median age was 13·5 years (range 3·7–24) and weight was 49·2 kg (range 18·5–86·3). The mean duration per procedure was 106 min (range 60–205). Fifteen (3·9%) procedures were cancelled and 10 (2·6%) were delayed, with central venous line (CVL) issues being the most frequent problem. With the use of prophylactic tissue plasminogen activator, fewer CVL‐related occlusions were observed (4·7% vs. 2·3%). There was one episode of a CVL‐associated thrombosis and one episode of delayed bleeding. There were four episodes of viral reactivation, four CVL‐associated infections (1142 catheter days) and one episode of systemic inflammatory response syndrome. No patient experienced symptomatic hypotension. This is the first report outlining the safety and tolerability of the Therakos™ Cellex® device for ECP in children and young adults.
The use of indirect and opposition tests to detect simulated amnesia

Two experiments investigated the effect of instruction to simulate memory impairment on performance on a word stem completion task. In addition to the standard control group, a second control group (divided-attention group) studied the target words concurrently with a digit-monitoring task. Experiment 1, using the indirect instruction, did not discriminate clearly between the groups. Experiment 2 used the opposition instruction in which participants were required to complete stems with words they had not seen earlier. It showed that simulators and controls withheld significantly more studied target items than did the divided-attention group. Increasing the number of study list presentations further increased the difference between the performance of the simulating and control groups and the divided-attention group. These results suggest that the opposition method may be useful in detecting feigned memory impairment.
Vesicoureteral reflux and complete ureteral duplication. Conservative or surgical management?

PURPOSE The management of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) in a duplicated collecting system (DS) is controversial. Available literature is sparse and it does not assess all co-factors. We compared the outcome of VUR in DS cases with VUR in single system (SS) cases, given similar clinical management in the 2 groups. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective cohort study was done to compare the outcome of VUR in 35 children (44 units) with a DS and in 95 (150 units) with an SS. Patients with secondary reflux, incomplete duplication and ureterocele were excluded. Two groups were similar in terms of prognostic factors. Mean followup in the DS and SS groups was 43 and 48 months, respectively. Outcomes of interest were spontaneous resolution or uncomplicated persistence vs surgical correction. The same criteria were used to intervene surgically in the 2 groups. RESULTS In the DS group 24 of 35 patients (69%) underwent surgery compared with 25 of 95 (25%) in the SS group. Multivariate analysis showed an association between surgery due to complications and the presence of DS (p = 0.0001). Higher grade and female gender were independent predictors (p = 0.02 and 0.0007, respectively). The likelihood of undergoing surgery was the same for low grade VUR (I and II) in the DS and SS groups (p = 0.16). No resolution was seen in the duplex group with severe VUR at a mean followup of 42 months. CONCLUSIONS Low grade VUR in DS cases has an outcome similar to that of VUR in SS cases. Females with moderate or high grade VUR and a DS should be treated differently because they present more often with complications.