Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cognitive Functions and White Matter Tract Damage in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Diffusion Tensor Tractography Study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: ALS is predominantly a disease of the motor system, but cognitive and behavioral symptoms also are observed. DT MR imaging is sensitive to microstructural changes occurring in WM tracts of patients with ALS. In this study, we investigated the association between cognitive functions and extramotor WM tract abnormalities in ALS patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: DT MR imaging was obtained from 16 nondemented patients with ALS and 15 healthy controls. Patients with ALS underwent a neuropsychologic and behavioral evaluation. DT tractography was used to asses the integrity of the CST, corpus callosum, and the major long-range association tracts. The relationship between DT MR imaging metrics and cognitive functions was tested by using linear model analyses, adjusting for age and clinical disability. RESULTS: Eleven patients (69%) scored below the fifth percentile in at least 1 cognitive test, and 2 of them had a mild executive impairment. Performances at tests assessing attention and executive functions correlated with DT MR imaging metrics of the corpus callosum, CST, and long association WM tracts bilaterally, including the cingulum, inferior longitudinal, inferior fronto-occipital, and uncinate fasciculi. Verbal learning and memory test scores were associated with fornix DT MR imaging values, whereas visual-spatial abilities correlated with left uncinate fractional anisotropy. CONCLUSIONS: WM tract degeneration is associated with neuropsychologic deficits in patients with ALS. DT tractography holds promise to gain insight into the role of the brain WM network abnormalities in the development of cognitive impairment in patients with ALS.
Arthroscopic Evaluation of Radiofrequency Chondroplasty of the Knee

Background Considerable debate exists over the use of radiofrequency-based chondroplasty to treat partial-thickness chondral defects of the knee. This study used second-look arthroscopy to evaluate cartilage defects previously treated with bipolar radiofrequency—based chondroplasty. Hypothesis Partial-thickness articular cartilage lesions treated with bipolar radiofrequency—based chondroplasty will show no progressive deterioration. Study Design Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods One hundred ninety-three consecutive patients underwent bipolar radiofrequency—based chondroplasty over 38 months; 15 (25 defects treated with bipolar radiofrequency—based chondroplasty) underwent repeat arthroscopy for recurrent or new injuries. Time from the initial to repeat arthroscopy ranged from 0.7 to 32.7 months. At both procedures, the location, size, grade, and stability of lesions were evaluated, recorded, and photographed arthroscopically. Results At the initial procedure, 25 lesions treated using bipolar radiofrequency—based chondroplasty ranged from 9 to 625 mm2 (mean, 170.2 ± 131.2 mm2; median, 120 mm2); at second look, lesion size was 9 to 300 mm2 (mean, 107.7 ± 106.7 mm2; median, 100 mm2). At second look, 3 (12%) demonstrated unstable borders with damage in the surrounding cartilage that appeared to be progressive. Eight (32%) lesions were unchanged in size. Eight (32%) demonstrated partial filling with stable repair tissue, and 6 (24%) demonstrated complete filling with stable repair tissue. Lesions in the tibiofemoral compartments showed better response to radiofrequency chondroplasty than did those within the patellofemoral joint (P < .05). Conclusion Only 3 of 25 lesions demonstrated progression. More than 50% showed partial or complete filling of the defect. Bipolar radiofrequency chondroplasty is an effective way to treat partial-thickness cartilage lesions; however, long-term effects of this treatment on cartilage remain unknown.
On the foundations of the universal relation model

The universal relation model aims at achieving complete access-path independence in relational databases by relieving the user of the need for logical navigation among relations. We clarify the assumptions underlying it and explore the approaches suggested for implementing it. The essential idea of the universal relation model is that access paths are embedded in attribute names. Thus attribute names must play unique “roles. ” Furthermore, it assumes that for every set of attributes there is a basic relationship that the user has in mind. The user's queries refer to these basic relationships rather than to the underlying database. Two fundamentally different approaches to the universal relation model have been taken. According to the first approach, the user's view of the database is a universal relation or many universal relations, about which the user poses queries. The second approach sees the model as having query-processing capabilities that relieve the user of the need to specify the logical access path. Thus, while the first approach gives a denotational semantics to query answering, the second approach gives it an operational semantics. We investigate the relationship between these two approaches.
Traumatic fracture of the basisphenoid and secondary bacterial meningitis in a Thoroughbred gelding

Basisphenoid fractures in the horse usually occur as a result of a traumatic incident (Stick et al. 1980; Perrin 1993; Sweeney et al. 1993; Johnson et al. 1996). Hyperextension of the head can lead to contraction of the longus capitis muscle and subsequent displacement of the basisphenoid fracture fragment both ventrally and caudally. Severe neurological abnormalities are typically noted secondary to this cranial trauma (Stick et al. 1980). Epistaxis due to guttural pouch haemorrhage can be an additional life threatening complication (Sweeney et al. 1993). Bacterial meningitis can develop as a result of disruption of the integrity of the calvarium (Johnson et al. 1996). Therapy consists of antimicrobial administration and supportive care. The prognosis for horses suffering from basisphenoid fractures is exceedingly guarded, with both shortand long-term complications (Stick et al. 1980). In this article we report on a traumatic fracture of the basisphenoid and secondary bacterial meningitis in a Thoroughbred gelding.
Naltrexone for opioid dependence: evaluation of a manualized psychosocial protocol to enhance treatment response

The clinical application of the narcotic antagonist, naltrexone for the treatment of opioid dependence has been minimal. This study evaluated the impact of a multi-component, manualized, psychosocial protocol designed to enhance the clinical value of naltrexone for opioid dependence treatment. Eighty-one detoxified individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for opioid dependence were inducted onto naltrexone and randomly assigned to either a standard (ST) group, with monthly medical monitoring visits, or an enhanced (EN) group in which participants received counseling and educational interventions three times per week. EN group participants took more study medication, were retained in treatment longer, used less opioids while in treatment and showed greater improvement on a number of psychological/affective dimensions. The improved performance of the EN group was relatively short-lived as there were no significant group differences at 6- or 12-month post-admission follow-up points. \[Rawson RA, McCann MJ, Shopta.
Efficacy and Safety of Crocus sativus L. in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment: One Year Single-Blind Randomized, with Parallel Groups, Clinical Trial.

There is evidence to suggest the efficacy of Crocus (saffron) in the management of cognitive decline. This study examined the efficacy of Crocus in patients with amnesic and multi domain MCI (aMCImd). The participants included 17 patients on Crocus and 18 on a waiting list, who were examined with a short neuropsychological battery, MRI 3T, while some patients were examined via 256-channel electroencephalogram (HD-EEG) at baseline and after 12 months. The results showed that patients on Crocus had improved Mini-Mental State Examination scores (p = 0.015), while the control group deteriorated. Also, MRI, EEG, and ERP showed improvement in specific domains. This led us to conclude that Crocus is a good choice for management of aMCImd.
Managing Loss and a Threatened Identity: Experiences of Parents of Children Growing Up in Foster Care, the Perspectives of their Social Workers and Implications for Practice

Professor Gillian Schofield is Professor of Child and Family Social Work and Co-Director of the Centre for Research on the Child and Family, University of East Anglia. She has a special research interest in family placement and has published widely on foster-care, attachment and permanence. Bente Moldestad is a clinical social worker and a researcher in 'The Norwegian Longitudinal Study on Out-of-Home Care' in the Child Protection Unit, Uni Research, University of Bergen. She has published a range of articles on parents of children in foster care and kinship care. Dr Ingrid Hojer is Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, University of Gothenburg. Her main research interest is child welfare, with a focus on foster care, including foster families, sons and daughters of foster carers and parents of children in foster care. She has published widely in these areas. Her recent research is on young people leaving care. Dr Emma Ward is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Research on the Child and Family, University of East Anglia. She has worked on a range of projects including studies of prospective adoptive parents, permanence in foster care and parents of children in foster-care. Her current research is on looked after children and offending. Dag Skilbred is a child welfare worker with main interests in interactive competence, parent counselling and inter-agency work, and has published in these areas. He is now working in the project 'Screening of Children within Child Welfare Service—Inter- Agency Work on Assessments and Services' at the Child Protection Unit, Uni Research, University of Bergen. Julie Young is a Senior Research Associate in the Centre for Research on the Child and Family, University of East Anglia. She has been involved in studies of adoption, the influence of post-adoption contact on all parties, the adjustment of birth relatives to the adoption of their children, fostering and child protection. Dr Toril Havik is a specialist in clinical child psychology and Head of Research at the Child Protection Unit, Uni Research, University of Bergen. She leads the research programme 'The Norwegian Longitudinal Study of Out-of-Home Care' and has published widely on varied aspects of foster care.
Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in Iran: A systematic review

Objective: Taking the diversity of the methodologies applied in prevalence studies of psychiatric disorders in Iran and their heterogeneous results into consideration, there seems to be need for a systematic review in order to compile the findings and seek appropriate recommendations for future studies. This study aims at systematically identifying studies conducted in Iran describing the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in general population, and to summarize the findings of these studies. Method: To identify the relevant studies, several databases including Pubmed Medline, ISI Web of Science, PsychINFO, CINAHL, EMBASE, Irandoc, IranPsych, IranMedex, Scientific Information Database as well as reference lists of the accessed documents, unpublished reports, conference proceedings and dissertations were searched. In the next step, the original studies which contained an estimation of prevalence of 'any psychiatric disorder' (overall prevalence) among a sample of general population in the country were selected. This was followed by data extraction, presentation of the results, quality assessment and quantitative pooling of estimated rates of prevalence of psychiatric disorders. Results: A total number of 35 studies were included. Estimations provided for prevalence rates in different groups illustrate diversity and heterogeneity; the rates varied in the range of 1.9-58.8%. Most of the studies had assessed the point prevalence of the disorders conducted using screening instruments. The median point prevalence has been reported to be 28.70% in screening studies, and 18.60% in studies using diagnostic interviews. Pooled estimates obtained through meta-analysis for screening and diagnostic studies were 29.1% and 21.9%,respectively. The results of the studies which have used diagnostic interviews as their data collection tool showed less heterogeneity than the ones using screening instruments. In quality assessment of the studies, only one third proved to be of high quality. Conclusion: Even though the pooled rates for prevalence of psychiatric disorders are comparable to the rates in many other countries, the most important finding of this study is the diversity of the prevalence rates among different communities in Iran. This diversity does not seem to be attributed solely to the different time frames and geographical locations of the studies. It might also have resulted from differences in methodologies (e.g., using different tools), study procedures and study quality.
Lifestyle Interventions and the Prevention and Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes

The diabetes epidemic is fueled by a societal increase in insulin resistance, caused by lifestyle factors, particularly excessive caloric intake and physical inactivity. Aging also plays a role in the increase in insulin resistance; however, even in older populations, the increase in insulin resistance appears to be attributable mainly to age-related obesity and inactivity. Insulin resistance reflects deposition of visceral, hepatic, and intramyocellular fat, while toxic messages from the adipose organ (free fatty acids, cytokines, and oxidative stress) impair insulin action to restrain glucose production in the liver and promote glucose disposal in muscle. Unexercised muscle is also insulin resistant because of intracellular sequestration of glucose transporters. These processes lead to hyperglycemia if compensatory secretion of insulin is inadequate due to decreases in pancreatic β-cell function and mass, ultimately resulting in the development of prediabetes and, later, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Lifestyle interventions, programs that promote diabetes risk reduction and weight loss through behavior change, increased physical activity, and dietary modification, can decrease insulin resistance and prevent or delay the development of prediabetes and progression to T2DM. Lifestyle interventions are also important to improve diabetes management, particularly early in the natural history before loss of β-cell function and mass is so extensive that multidrug pharmacologic therapy is required. Effective interventions often include both an increase in physical activity (ideally, at least 150 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic exercise and strength training) and dietary modification to promote weight loss. major contributor to morbidity and mortality. T2DM can lead to renal dysfunction, peripheral and autonomic neuropathy, vision problems, and cardiovascular disease.2 In the United States alone, from 2005 to 2050, the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes is expected to more than double from 5.6% to 12.0%. 3 In 2005 to 2006, the prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes combined was estimated to be 42.3% for Americans aged 20 years or older. The total prevalence of
A Transcriptional Program for Detecting TGFβ-Induced EMT in Cancer

Most cancer deaths are due to metastasis, and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) plays a central role in driving cancer cell metastasis. EMT is induced by different stimuli, leading to different signaling patterns and therapeutic responses. TGFβ is one of the best-studied drivers of EMT, and many drugs are available to target this signaling pathway. A comprehensive bioinformatics approach was employed to derive a signature for TGFβ-induced EMT which can be used to score TGFβ-driven EMT in cells and clinical specimens. Considering this signature in pan-cancer cell and tumor datasets, a number of cell lines (including basal B breast cancer and cancers of the central nervous system) show evidence for TGFβ-driven EMT and carry a low mutational burden across the TGFβ signaling pathway. Furthermore, significant variation is observed in the response of high scoring cell lines to some common cancer drugs. Finally, this signature was applied to pan-cancer data from The Cancer Genome Atlas to identify tumor types with evidence of TGFβ-induced EMT. Tumor types with high scores showed significantly lower survival rates than those with low scores and also carry a lower mutational burden in the TGFβ pathway. The current transcriptomic signature demonstrates reproducible results across independent cell line and cancer datasets and identifies samples with strong mesenchymal phenotypes likely to be driven by TGFβ. Implications: The TGFβ-induced EMT signature may be useful to identify patients with mesenchymal-like tumors who could benefit from targeted therapeutics to inhibit promesenchymal TGFβ signaling and disrupt the metastatic cascade. Mol Cancer Res; 15(5); 619–31. ©2017 AACR.
Factors influencing application of evidence-based practice among nurses

Evidence-based practice (EBP) involves the application of care that is based on scientific evidence, to ensure the delivery of quality patient care. Generally, there is a dearth of documentary evidence on the evolution of EBP and standardization of nursing practice in the developing world. This study was conducted to determine factors influencing application of EBP specifically at the Kenyatta National Hospital, in Nairobi, Kenya. Nurses working in medical and surgical wards, the surgical outpatient clinic (SOPC) and medical outpatient clinics (MOPC) were purposefully selected. A sample size of 156 was determined, with 130 nurses consenting to be interviewed and 14 nurse managers discussing and informing the interview guide to gather qualitative facts and to determine their knowledge on EBP and the extent of EBP application in the wards. Results of the descriptive analysis suggested that over 92% of the respondents agreed that EBP was not widely used and not factored into current practices. Major factors .
Immunological Reconstitution after Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis: Relationship Between Clinical Benefits and Intensity of Immunosuppression

Objective. To analyze the relationship between clinical benefits and immunological changes in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) treated with autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Methods. Ten patients with SSc were treated with high-dose cyclophosphamide followed by highly purified CD34+ cells (n = 5) or unpurified grafts (n = 5). Two groups of patients were retrospectively constituted based on their clinical response (good responders, n = 7; and poor responders, n = 3). As well as clinical findings, immunological reconstitution through autologous HSCT was assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorter analysis, quantification of signal joint T cell receptor rearrangement excision circles (sjTREC), reflecting the thymic function, and foxp3, a key gene of regulatory T cells, mRNA levels. Results. Patients’ clinical and immunological findings were similar between good and poor responders, or CD34-purified and unpurified groups at inclusion. The sjTREC values were significantly suppressed at 3 months after autologous HSCT in good responders compared with poor responders (p = 0.0152). Reconstitution of CD4+CD45RO− naive T cells was delayed in good responders compared with poor responders. The phenotype of other lymphocytes, cytokine production in T cells, and foxp3 gene expression levels after autologous HSCT did not correlate with clinical response in good or poor responders. Clinical and immunological findings after autologous HSCT were similar between CD34-purified and unpurified groups. Conclusion. Our results suggest that immunosuppression intensity, sufficient to induce transient suppression of thymic function, is attributable to the feasible clinical response in patients with SSc treated with autologous HSCT. Appropriate monitoring of sjTREC values may predict clinical benefits in transplanted SSc patients after autologous HSCT.
"Cheapening the Struggle:" Obese People's Attitudes Towards The Biggest Loser

Once the domain of clinicians and researchers, we must now accept that ‘obesity’ has become ingrained in popular culture. An example is the emergence of a feast of reality television shows about obesity and weight loss. The most popular show is The Biggest Loser, where contestants compete to lose weight and win cash.
Leg ulcers: atypical presentations and associated comorbidities

WoundsWest's Online Wound Management Education Program is a core component of WoundsWest. It involves the interdisciplinary development of an anticipated 16 online wound management education modules, which are designed to assist health professionals and health services to deliver best practice in wound management and reduce preventable wounds and adverse wound management outcomes. The development of these modules involves an extensive search of the literature to ascertain the evidence for best practice. In preparation for the development of the forthcoming online Leg Ulcer Module a considerable number of atypical leg ulcer presentations and associated comorbidities were identified. This paper outlines some of these presentations and comorbidities and reminds health professionals of the need for further diagnostic investigations when leg ulcer signs and symptoms are atypical, or the ulcer fails to heal in an orderly and timely manner.
Assessment of the educational environment in a newly established dental college

Objectives: This study was aimed to assess quantitatively and qualitatively the students' perceptions of teaching environment in a newly established dental school. Materials and Methods: A modified DREEM questionnaire was introduced to all the dental students of first and second year dentistry. Quantitative descriptive questions and open-ended questions were added to the questionnaire on the reasons why students joined the dental course and their perception of it as well as positive and negative aspects within the college. Results: Out of total thirty four students (97%) returned the completed questionnaire. The overall mean score was 101.39 indicating more positive than negative environment. Scores in 4 out of the 5 domains were significantly higher in 1 st year students compared to 2 nd year students. Most of students had good social life. Students were not satisfied with the support system in the college. 73.5% of students chose the course themselves and 47.1% found the course tough while 32.4% found it interesting. Conclusions: It is important to assess the students' perceptions of educational environment in their first dental years especially in newly established colleges. Special attention should be paid to transition of students from first to second year. It would be interesting to monitor the perception of the same students over years.
Fracture healing and bone repair: an update

Bone healing represents a physiological process of repair and restoration of function. Recent advances in a variety of medical disciplines have enabled scientists and clinicians to characterise this phenomenon at the molecular level. A number of molecular mediators and cells interact utilising different pathways. Despite the involvement of many local and systemic factors failure of the naturally occurring mechanisms can occur leading to either delayed union or non-union. This review article is focused on the recent understanding of the mechanisms governing the bone repair process.