Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Salter Osteotomy in Legg-Calvé-Perthes Disease

Background Femoral head containment in Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease (LCPD) can be either surgical or nonsurgical. The Salter or innominate osteotomy is a common method of surgical containment. This is a review of the technique and results of this osteotomy in LCPD. Methods The operative technique is relatively simple but requires considerable experience to perform correctly. It can be used alone or in combination with a proximal femoral varus osteotomy. The indications for a Salter osteotomy are essentially the same as in any form of containment treatment in LCPD. This includes: age at clinical onset of 6 to 10 years (perhaps, 5 y in female), more than one-half capital femoral epiphyseal involvement (Catterall groups III or IV, Salter-Thompson group B, and lateral pillar groups B, B/C, and C), and a good range of hip motion before surgery. The osteotomy alone is usually indicated for younger children with recent clinical onset and no femoral head deformity or subluxation. The combined procedure is better suited for older children and those with subluxation or a deformed femoral head. Results Currently, the results of treatment are best determined at skeletal maturity using the Stulberg et al classification. When used alone, approximately 90% to 95% of the involved hips will have achieved a Stulberg et al class I, II, or III result. When combined with a proximal femoral varus osteotomy, the results are somewhat less because of the older age at onset and/or the presence of a deformed hip. Conclusions The Salter osteotomy in LCPD is an effective method of surgical treatment that can alter the natural history of the disease process. The main advantage of this osteotomy is its effect on femoral head remodeling during remaining growth.
Targeted Search for Effective Intermediate Band Solar Cell Materials

Recent years have seen a number of candidate materials for intermediate band (IB) solar cells, but none has demonstrated a high-efficiency device. We explain this deficit by means of a figure of merit, which predicts the potential effectiveness of candidate IB materials in advance of device fabrication. This figure of merit captures in a single parameter the inherent tradeoff between enhanced absorption and enhanced recombination within an IB material, and it suggests a path toward efficient IB materials. We illustrate a screening approach based on this figure of merit for a specific class of IB material systems: a dopant-induced impurity band in silicon. We show, in this case, that the optical and nonradiative electrical trapping cross sections of impurities, widely studied properties that can be measured in bulk materials, determine the potential performance of IB solar cell devices. We conclude with a list of appealing and unappealing candidate material systems.
Compact Mock Loops of the Systemic and Pulmonary Circulation for Blood Pump Testing

Mock loops are an important tool for in vitro investigations of artificial blood pumps. The simple windkessel, throttle, and atrium principle was used for the mock loop design presented. The components of the systemic and the pulmonary mock loop were designed according to calculated numerical simulation parameters. The loops offer a compact design and simple handling. For simulating biventricular assist or total artificial heart (TAH), both loops can be coupled correspondingly. The numerical simulation and the first results with the loops show very good similarity to physiological data of systemic and pulmonary circulation. The measurements of pump characteristics are significant for quantitative comparison of different pump sizes and types, or driving systems.
Cyclosporine: mechanisms of action and toxicity.

BACKGROUND Newer immunosuppressive agents are permitting transplantation to be performed more frequently. OBJECTIVES To review the mechanisms of action and toxicity of cyclosporine. DISCUSSION Graft rejection is mainly cell-mediated, although a humoral (antibody) response may also be involved. Cyclosporine and related agents such as FK-506 and rapamycin selectively inhibit adaptive immune responses by blocking T cell-dependent biosynthesis of lymphokines, particularly interleukin 2 at the level of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) transcription. Because cyclosporine is metabolized in the liver by P-450 enzymes, drugs that affect the P-450 system also affect the metabolism of cyclosporine. Hypertension is the most common side effect of cyclosporine. Cyclosporine-induced "nephrotoxicity" may be functional rather than anatomic, caused primarily by preferential constriction of the afferent renal arteriole. Bacterial and fungal infections are less common with regimens of cyclosporine plus prednisone than with azathioprine plus prednisone. Nevertheless, cyclosporine-treated patients are vulnerable to viral infections. CONCLUSIONS Although cyclosporine and related compounds represent an improvement over earlier immunosuppressive agents, they produce serious side effects with which the practitioner should be familiar.
Prognostic Significance and Diagnostic Value of Protein S-100 and Tyrosinase in Patients With Malignant Melanoma

Objectives:The utility of many molecules as tumor markers in melanoma has been investigated with different results. The aims of this study was to compare the value of tyrosinase mRNA by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in peripheral blood and of serum S-100 protein in patients with melanoma at different stages of disease. Methods:We have studied 90 peripheral blood samples corresponding to 90 patients that had been diagnosed with melanoma. The clinical staging at the time of blood sampling was performed according to the American Join Committee on Cancer guidelines. S-100 protein in serum was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (normal range: 0–0.150 &mgr;g) and the presence of tyrosinase mRNA was assessed by RT-PCR. Results:Median progression-free survival was 281 days for tyrosinase positive patients and it has not been reached for tyrosinase negative patients (P = 0.03). Median progression free survival was 213 days for patients with elevated serum S-100 and it has not been reached for patients with normal level of serum S-100 (P < 0.001). Median overall survival (OS) was 396 days for tyrosinase positive patients and it has not been reached for negative patients (P = 0.0096). Median OS was 282 days for patients with elevated serum S-100 and it has not been reached for patients with normal level of serum S-100 (P < 0.001). In a multivariate analysis, both markers have significant prognostic value for time to progression and for survival (&khgr;2 test). Conclusions:RT-PCR for tyrosinase mRNA and S-100 are significant prognostic factors for progression-free survival and OS in melanoma. S-100 has higher sensitivity and specificity than tyrosinase.
Abundance of Virus-Sized Non-DNase-Digestible DNA (Coated DNA) in Eutrophic Seawater

Total DNA concentration in 0.2-μm-pore-size Nuclepore filter filtrates (<0.2-μm fraction) of Tokyo Bay water was estimated to be 9 to 19 ng/ml by an immunochemical quantification method. Almost 90% of the DNA in the <0.2-μm fraction was found in the size fractions larger than 3.0 � 105 Da and 0.03 μm, and most was not susceptible to DNase digestion, that is, consisted of non-DNase-digestible DNA (coated DNA). A significant amount of DNA was obtained from the <0.2-μm fraction of the seawater by three different methods: polyethylene glycol precipitation, direct ethanol precipitation, and ultrafilter concentration. Gel electrophoresis analysis of the isolated DNAs showed that they consisted mainly of coated DNAs with a similar molecular sizes (20 to 30 kb [1.3 � 107 to 2.0 � 107 Da). The abundance of the ultramicron virus-sized coated DNA in natural seawater suggests that these DNA-rich particles can be attributed to marine DNA virus assemblages and that they may be a significant phosphorus reservoir in the environment.
European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition/European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases Evidence-based Guidelines for the Management of Acute Gastroenteritis in Children in Europe

Alfredo Guarino (Coordinator), Fabio Albano, yShai Ashkenazi, zDominique Gendrel, §J. Hans Hoekstra, Raanan Shamir, and jjHania Szajewska Department of Pediatrics, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, {Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Petach-Tikva, and Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, {University Paris 5 and Hôpital Saint Vincent de Paul, Paris, France, §Department of Pediatrics, Hieronymus Bosch Hospital, ’s-Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands, Schneider Children’s Medical Center, Petach-Tikva, and Institute of Gastroenterology, Nutrition, and Liver Diseases, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 46:S81–S184 # 2008 by European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition and North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition
Varix of the fetal intra‐abdominal umbilical vein: comparison with normal

To compare the normal extrahepatic portion of the fetal intra‐abdominal umbilical vein (FIUV) with varix of the FIUX, we prospectively measured the diameter of the FIUV in 150 uncomplicated second and third trimester pregnancies and compared these results with retrospective review of nine fetuses with varix of the FIUV as an isolated prenatal sonographic finding. The diameter of the normal FIUV increases linearly from approximately 3 mm at 15 menstrual weeks to approximately 8 mm at term (R = 0.92). The nine fetuses with FIUV varix had a FIUV diameter 6 to 12 standard deviations above the mean for age. Four (44%) of the nine fetuses with FIUV varix subsequently died, including one with trisomy 21. One of the remaining fetuses developed severe hydrops 2 weeks after the initial detection of the FIUV varix. FIUV varix appears to carry an increased risk of adverse fetal outcome, including fetal demise.
Anxiety and Depression Symptoms in Patients with Dengue Fever and Their Correlation with Symptom Severity

Objective: To study the prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms in patients with Dengue and to examine their correlation with symptom severity. Methods: In this cross sectional study, 531 consecutive patients who met the World Health Organization criteria for Dengue fever admitted to Mayo Hospital, Lahore between September and November 2011 were administered the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). In addition to the HADS, the severity of their symptoms, like headache, myalgias/ arthralgias, fever, and retro/periorbital pain, was assessed on a 3-point scale (mild, moderate, and severe). Results: About 60% of the patients in our study met the criteria for anxiety and 62.2% of the patients met criteria for depression. Severity of fever, headache, myalgias and arthralgias, and retro/periorbital pain was positively correlated with both anxiety (Correlation coefficients: 0.148, 0.247, 0.184, 0.184 respectively and P < 0.01 for all) and depression scores (Correlation coefficients: 0.098, 0.154, 0.131, 0.125 respectively and P value < 0.01 for all). The strongest correlation was found between severity of headache and scores for both anxiety and depression. Both mean anxiety and depression scores were significantly higher in patients with platelet count below median (30,000/mm3) than in patients with platelet count above median (9.1 ± 4.7 vs 8.2 ± 4.7, P < 0.03, and 9.5 ± 4.5 vs 8.5 ± 4.5, P < 0.01, respectively). Conclusion: A majority of patients with Dengue have anxiety and depression symptoms. Psychiatric evaluation should be done in all Dengue patients so timely treatment can be initiated.
Text-mining based predictive model to detect XSS vulnerable files in web applications

This paper presents a text-mining based approach to detect cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerable code files in the web applications. It uses a tailored tokenizing process to extract text-features from the source code of web applications. In this process, each code file is transformed into a set of unique text-features with their associated frequencies. These features are used to build vulnerability prediction models. The efficiency of proposed approach based model is evaluated on a publicly available dataset having 9408 labelled source code files. Experimental results show that proposed features based best predictive model achieves a true average rate of 87.8% with low false rate of 12.3% in the detection of XSS vulnerable files. It is significantly better than the performance of existing text-mining approach based model that achieves a true average rate of 71.6% with false rate of 33.1% on the same data set.
Mechanisms and functional significance of a slow inhibitory potential in neurons of the lateral amygdala

A slow inhibitory potential (sIP) elicited upon synaptic activation in spiny, pyramidal‐like cells with properties indicative of projection neurons was investigated in slices of the rat and guinea‐pig lateral amygdala in vitro. The sIP succeeded the triphasic sequence of excitatory and fast/slow inhibitory postsynaptic potentials mediated via glutamate and GABAA/B receptors, respectively, was readily evoked upon repetitive stimulation of the external capsule and appeared to terminate epileptiform burst discharges during pharmacologically reduced GABAergic influence. The sIP reversed close to the Cl– equilibrium potential, but was not affected by altered transmembrane Cl– gradients and not abolished by antagonists to ligand‐gated Cl– channels. Intracellular injection of QX 314 and resulting blockade of sodium spikes had no effect, whereas the Ca2+ chelator BAPTA blocked the sIP concomitantly with slow hyperpolarizing afterpotentials following intrinsically generated spike firing, thereby indicating the contribution of Ca2+‐dependent mechanisms secondary to synaptic activation. During action of BAPTA and QX 314, an N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor‐mediated potential was unmasked, which contributed to the sIP. The Ca2+‐dependent mechanisms of the sIP involved a membrane K+ conductance, as was indicated by the dependence on the K+ gradient and the shift of the reversal potential towards the K+ equilibrium potential during blocked NMDA receptors. During the presence of GABA receptor antagonists, reduction of the Ca2+‐activated K+ conductance through injection of BAPTA or application of dopamine induced a gradual shift of interictal‐like single bursts of spikes towards the generation of re‐occurring ictal‐like activity. It is concluded that pyramidal‐like projection cells in the AL can generate a sIP upon synaptic activation, which reflects the combined activation of an NMDA receptor‐mediated cation current and a K+ current that is secondary to the rise in intracellular Ca2+ concentration resulting from the preceding depolarizing response. The sIP may play an important role in controlling excitatory activity in the amygdala, particularly in preventing the transformation of interictal‐like activity towards recurrent epileptic discharges during periods of decreased GABAergic influence.
A Protocol for the Rapid Normalization of INR in Trauma Patients with Intracranial Hemorrhage on Prescribed Warfarin Therapy

Trauma patients on prescribed warfarin therapy sustaining intracranial hemorrhage can be difficult to manage. Rapid normalization of coagulopathy is imperative to operative intervention and may affect outcomes. To identify and expedite warfarin reversal, we designed a protocol to administer a prothrombin complex concentrate. A Proplex T protocol was instituted in May 2004. It dictated that trauma patients with an International Normalized Ratio (INR) greater than 1.5, history of prescribed warfarin therapy, and intracranial hemorrhage on CT scan receive a prothrombin complex concentrate for reversal of their coagulopathy. Neither the protocol nor the factor concentrate was validated for use in this subset of trauma patients; therefore, adherence to the protocol and use of the factor concentrate was not mandatory. Patients not administered the prothrombin complex concentrate received vitamin K and fresh-frozen plasma. The protocol resulted in an increased number of patients receiving Proplex T (54.3% vs 35.4%, P = 0.047). Protocol patients had improved times to normalization of INR (331.3 vs 737.8 minutes, P = 0.048), number of patients with reversal of coagulopathy (73.2% vs 50.9%, P = 0.026), and time to operative intervention (222.6 vs 351.3 minutes, P = 0.045) compared with control subjects. There were no differences in intensive care unit (ICU) days, hospital days, or mortality. The Proplex T protocol increased the number of patients who received prothrombin complex concentrate, provided rapid normalization of INR, and improved time to operative intervention.
Dark incubation causes reinitiation of cell cycle events in Anacystis nidulans

Synchronized cultures of Anacystis nidulans (Synechococcus PCC 6301), an obligate phototroph, are obtained by incubating exponential cultures in the dark for 12 to 16 h. A temporal and sequential order of macromolecular synthesis is observed within the cell division cycle of a synchronously dividing culture in the light. Apparently, dark incubation causes the cells to realign their cellular activities in such a way that all cells emerge from the dark and grow synchronously in the light. A study was conducted to explore the possible mechanisms responsible for the putative dark-induction process. Samples were taken at various times from a synchronized culture and were subjected to another round of dark incubation for 16 h. When these cultures were returned to the light, the cell number increased from 3 h and doubled at about 7 h. The protein, RNA, and DNA contents started to increase in order well before 3 h. This general pattern of cellular activities, observed for nearly all samples (i.e., for cells of different physiological ages), indicated that the dark incubation period caused the ongoing cell cycle to abort and a new cell cycle to be reinitiated under light growth conditions.
Fractional delayed damped Mathieu equation

This paper investigates the dynamical behaviour of the fractional delayed damped Mathieu equation. This system includes three different phenomena (fractional order, time delay, parametric resonance). The method of harmonic balance is employed to achieve approximate expressions for the transition curves in the parameter plane. The n = 0 and n = 1 transition curves (both lower and higher order approximations) are obtained. The dependencies of these curves on the system parameters and fractional orders are determined. Previous results for the transition curves reported for the damped Mathieu equation, delayed second-order oscillator, and fractional Mathieu equation are confirmed as special cases of the results for the current system.
Horizontal Sound Localization in Children With Bilateral Cochlear Implants: Effects of Auditory Experience and Age at Implantation

Objective: To study sound localization performance in relation to auditory experience and age at implantation in children with bilateral cochlear implants. Study Design: Clinical study. Setting: University hospital. Patients: Sixty-two sequentially and 4 simultaneously bilaterally implanted children participated in this clinical sound localization study, at a median age of 5.6 years. They underwent sequential implantations at median ages of 1.9 and 4.2 years, respectively. Simultaneous implantations were performed at a median age of 2.0 years. Methods: Localization performance was measured with pink noise presented in random order from 5 loudspeakers in the frontal horizontal plane. Twenty-one subjects participated in repeated testing. Main Outcome Measure: Sound localization performance as quantified with an Error Index. Results: On group level, bilaterally implanted children pinpointed the sounding loudspeaker in the frontal horizontal plane. Sound localization performance improved significantly with increasing bilateral cochlear implant experience, as observed in the entire study group and intraindividually, albeit large interindividual variability existed. Regression analyses in the entire study group and in the sequentially implanted children did not reveal any relationship between sound localization performance and ages at first and second implantation, interimplant interval, or age. However, second implantation before 4 years of age contributed to faster sound localization improvement with increasing bilateral cochlear implant experience. Conclusion: Median perceived azimuths coincided with presented azimuths. We suggest that listening experience after bilateral cochlear implantation affects sound localization performance, possibly owing to the ongoing stimulus-driven maturation of the central auditory system. The amount of time listening with bilateral implants has methodologic implications on sound localization assessment in bilaterally implanted children.
Where is dihydroergotamine mesylate in the changing landscape of migraine therapy?

Importance of the field: Migraine affects approximately 18% of women and 6% of men, and has an immense impact on quality of life and productivity. Advancement in therapeutic options has been slow. For many patients with difficult-to-treat migraine, the appropriate use of dihydroergotamine mesylate (DHE) can result in treatment success and unprecedented patient satisfaction. Areas covered in this review: Migraine treatment guidelines regarding the role of DHE are highlighted. An overview of the market for antimigraine drugs is provided in the context of DHE, since its introduction in 1943, and the novel agents that are likely to be available in the near future. An extensive literature search was undertaken using Medline and the Cochrane Systematic Review and Clinical Trial databases. What the reader will gain: An understanding of which migraine patients are likely to benefit maximally from treatment with DHE in its various forms. Take home message: In the most difficult patient groups – including those with status migrainosus, migraine recurrence, medication-overuse headache, and chronic daily headache – DHE has therapeutic efficacy superior to other agents. The side-effect profile of DHE is more benign than is often perceived and should not be a deterrent for use in well-chosen cases.
Automated performance analysis of business processes

Business processes (BPs) can be seen as flows of tasks that are orchestrated to accomplish well-defined goals. The ability to predict at design time the BP behavior assumes a strategic relevance, both to early assess whether or not the business goals are achieved and to gain a competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the performance prediction of BPs. Specifically, this work introduces a model-driven method that, starting from a performance-enabled description of a BP, first derives a BP performance model of EQN (Extended Queueing Network) type, and then generates and executes the EQN model implementation, thus enacting a fully automated analysis of the business process behavior. The performance model implementation is carried out by use of jEQN, a java-based domain specific language for specifying and executing EQN models. The paper also describes how the proposed model-driven method has been effectively implemented.