Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Percutaneous absorption in diseased skin: an overview

The stratum corneum's (SC) functions include protection from external hazardous environments, prevention of water loss and regulation of body temperature. While intact skin absorption studies are abundant, studies on compromised skin permeability are less common, although products are often used to treat affected skin. We reviewed literature on percutaneous absorption through abnormal skin models. Tape stripping is used to disrupt water barrier function. Studies demonstrated that physicochemical properties influence the stripping effect: water‐soluble drugs are more affected. Abrasion did not affect absorption as much. Freezing is commonly used to preserve skin. It does not seem to modify water absorption, but still increases the penetration of compounds. Comparatively, heating the skin consistently increased percutaneous absorption. Removing SC lipids may increase percutaneous absorption of drugs. Many organic solvents are employed to delipidize. Delipidization with chloroform–methanol increased hydrophilic compound permeability, but not lipophilic. Acetone pre‐treatment enhanced hydrophilic compound penetration. More data is needed to determine influence on highly lipophilic compound penetration. Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) induces irritant dermatitis and is frequently used as a model. Studies revealed that SLS increases hydrophilic compound absorption, but not lipophilic. However, skin irritation with other chemicals increases lipophilic penetration as much as hydrophilic. Animal studies show that UV exposure increases percutaneous absorption whereas human studies do not. Human studies show increased penetration in psoriatic and atopic dermatitis skin. The data summarized here begin to characterize flux alteration associated with damaged skin. Understanding the degree of alteration requires interpretation of involved conditions and the enlarging of our database to a more complete physicochemical spectrum. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Testing the uncertainty outcome hypothesis using data from second tier soccer in Ireland

ABSTRACT This study estimates a demand relationship for second tier soccer in Ireland to test the uncertainty outcome hypothesis (UOH). Using data from three recent playing seasons, the UOH is found to be upheld. In addition, well-determined effects for fixture quality, recent team performance and travel distance between the competing teams’ stadia are also obtained.
Risk Factors for False Positive Transcranial Motor Evoked Potential Monitoring Alerts During Surgical Treatment of Cervical Myelopathy

Study Design. Retrospective consecutive series review. Objective. To examine performance of transcranial motor-evoked potential (TcMEP) monitoring in patients undergoing surgery for cervical myelopathy and potential risk factors for false positive alerts. Summary of Background Data. Although use of TcMEP monitoring has been increasing and has been specifically recommended in patients with cervical myelopathy, rates and risk factors for false positive alerts have not been established. Methods. Intraoperative neuromonitoring data for 52 consecutive patients undergoing surgery for cervical myelopathy were reviewed. All major TcMEP alerts were identified. Comprehensive demographic and clinical data, preoperative imaging studies, operative, and anesthesia records were reviewed. Results. Six of 52 patients (12%) experienced a major TcMEP alert consisting of sustained >80% loss of amplitude. There were no somatosensory-evoked potential (SSEP)-related alerts. In 2 cases, an intraoperative wake-up test was negative and in 3 cases, surgery was completed without a wake-up test and without recovery of TcMEP signals. No new postoperative neurologic deficits were observed in these patients. One patient with new postoperative weakness was correctly predicted by loss of TcMEP signals. No new deficit was observed in the remaining 46 patients. Statistical analysis revealed significantly higher body mass index (28.8 vs. 35.0; P = 0.032) and length of surgery (191 vs. 283 minutes; P = 0.019) in patients with false positive alerts. Conclusion. In this series of cervical myelopathy patients, sensitivity and specificity of TcMEP for detection of clinically significant intraoperative cord injury were 100% and 90%, respectively. Sensitivity and specificity of SSEP were 0% and 100%, respectively. The positive predictive value of a TcMEP alert was 17%. Possible risk factors for false positive TcMEP alerts include obesity and increased length of surgery. This study supports superior sensitivity of TcMEP compared with SSEP monitoring but identifies a relatively high false positive rate even in a selected high-risk cervical myelopathy population when this modality is applied in practice.
Breaking Bad News: Patient Preferences and the Role of Family Members when Delivering a Cancer Diagnosis.

BACKGROUND Western physicians tend to favour complete disclosure of a cancer diagnosis to the patient, while non-Western physicians tend to limit disclosure and include families in the process; the latter approach is prevalent in clinical oncology practice in India. Few studies, however, have examined patient preferences with respect to disclosure or the role of family members in the process. MATERIALS AND METHODS Structured interviews were conducted with patients (N=127) in the medical oncology clinic of a tertiary referral hospital in Bangalore, India. RESULTS Patients ranged in age from 18-88 (M=52) and were mostly male (59%). Most patients (72%) wanted disclosure of the diagnosis cancer, a preference significantly associated with higher education and English proficiency. A majority wanted their families to be involved in the process. Patients who had wanted and not wanted disclosure differed with respect to their preferences regarding the particulars of disclosure (timing, approach, individuals involved, role of family members). Almost all patients wanted more information concerning their condition, about immediate medical issues such as treatments or side effects, rather than long-term or non-medical issues. CONCLUSIONS While most cancer patients wanted disclosure of their disease, a smaller group wished that their cancer diagnosis had not been disclosed to them. Regardless of this difference in desire for disclosure, both groups sought similar specific information regarding their cancer and largely favoured involvement of close family in decision making. Additional studies evaluating the influence of factors such as disease stage or family relationships could help guide physicians when breaking bad news.
Ascites after liver transplantation—A mystery

Ascites after liver transplantation, although uncommon, presents a serious clinical dilemma. The hemodynamic changes that support the development of ascites before liver transplantation are resolved after transplant; therefore, persistent ascites (PA) after liver transplantation is unexpected and poorly characterized. The aim of this study was to define the clinical factors associated with PA after liver transplantation. This was a retrospective case–control analysis of patients who underwent liver transplantation at the University of Pennsylvania. PA occurring for more than 3 months after liver transplantation was confirmed by imaging studies. PA was correlated with multiple recipient and donor variables, including etiology of liver disease, preoperative ascites, prior portosystemic shunt (PS), donor age, and cold ischemic (CI) time. There were 2 groups: group 1, cases with PA transplanted from November 1990 to July 2001, and group 2, consecutive, control subjects who underwent liver transplantation between September 1999 and December 2001. Both groups were followed to censoring, May 2002, or death. Twenty‐five from group 1 had ascites after liver transplantation after a median follow‐up of 2.6 years. In group 1 vs group 2 (n = 106), there was a male predominance 80% vs 61% (P = .10) with similar age 52 years; chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) was diagnosed in 88% vs 44% (P < .0001); preoperative ascites and ascites refractory to treatment were more prevalent in group 1 (P = .0004 and P =.02, respectively), and CI was higher in group 1, (8.5 hours vs 6.3 hours, P = .002). Eight of the 25 (group 1) had portal hypertension with median portosystemic gradient 16.5 mm Hg (range, 16–24). PS was performed in 7 of 25 cases, which resulted in partial resolution of ascites. The development of PA after liver transplantation is multifactorial; HCV, refractory ascites before liver transplantation, and prolonged CI contribute to PA after liver transplantation. (Liver Transpl 2004;10:654–660.)
An Efficient Numerical Technique for the Solution of the Monodomain and Bidomain Equations

Most numerical schemes for solving the monodomain or bidomain equations use a forward approximation to some or all of the time derivatives. This approach, however, constrains the maximum timestep that may be used by stability considerations as well as accuracy considerations. Stability may be ensured by using a backward approximation to all time derivatives, although this approach requires the solution of a very large system of nonlinear equations at each timestep which is computationally prohibitive. In this paper we propose a semi-implicit algorithm that ensures stability. A linear system is solved on each timestep to update the transmembrane potential and, if the bidomain equations are being used, the extracellular potential. The remainder of the equations to be solved uncouple into small systems of ordinary differential equations. The backward Euler method may be used to solve these systems and guarantee numerical stability: as these systems are small, only the solution of small nonlinear systems are required. Simulations are carried out to show that the use of this algorithm allows much larger timesteps to be used with only a minimal loss of accuracy. As a result of using these longer timesteps the computation time may be reduced substantially
Prognostic modelling of therapeutic interventions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

BACKGROUND : Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a disease with a widely varying prognosis. The majority of patients survive about 3 years, but a significant number survive for 10 years or more, leading to problems in clinical trial design. OBJECTIVE : To demonstrate that simple clinical variables can be used to construct a robust predictive model for survival, and to assess the effect of a known treatment within this model. METHODS : We carried out a retrospective multivariate modelling of a database of 841 patients with ALS seen over a 10-year period in a specialist motor neuron disorders clinic. The use of riluzole was tested as a prognostic factor within the model. RESULTS : A prognostic score generated from one cohort of patients predicted survival for a second cohort of patients (r 2 = 0.78). Prognostic variables included site of onset, age of onset, time from symptom onset to diagnosis, and El Escorial category at presentation. Riluzole therapy was an independently significant prognostic factor (relative risk of death 0.48, P < 0.0001, model h 2 297, P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS : Clinical databases can be used to generate multivariate prognostic models in ALS. Such models could be used to predict survival, to improve criteria for matching of patients in future clinical trials, and to test the impact of interventions.
Real Options Models of the Firm, Capacity Overhang, and the Cross-Section of Stock Returns

We use a stochastic frontier model to obtain a stock-level estimate of the difference between a firm's installed production capacity and its optimal capacity. We show that this "capacity overhang" estimate relates significantly negatively to the cross-section of stock returns, even when controlling for popular pricing factors. The negative relation persists among small and large stocks, stocks with more or less reversible investments, and in good and bad economic states. Capacity overhang helps explain momentum and profitability anomalies, but not value and investment anomalies. Our evidence supports real options models of the firm featuring valuable divestment options.
Anxiety disorders among patients in a general emergency service in Israel.

OBJECTIVE Several studies have suggested that many patients with anxiety disorders present in nonpsychiatric medical settings such as primary care facilities, emergency services, and general practice. This study examined the prevalence of panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder among patients admitted to the general emergency service at an urban medical center in Israel. METHODS Four groups totaling 517 patients were assessed. The groups consisted of patients presenting with somatic complaints for whom no physical condition was diagnosed, patients with somatic complaints found to have a physical disorder, a group of nonpsychiatric consecutive admissions to the emergency service, and a group of referrals to the psychiatric emergency service. RESULTS The prevalence of panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder in the entire sample was 2.7 percent, which is comparable to the prevalence rates reported in various community studies. However, the prevalence among patients with somatic complaints but no physical disorder was 6.7 percent, significantly higher than in the nonpsychiatric comparison groups. The prevalence in the group of psychiatric referrals was 4.8 percent. CONCLUSIONS A population at risk for higher prevalence of anxiety disorders can be identified among patients seen in an emergency service. Physicians in primary care settings and general emergency services should consider anxiety disorders in the differential diagnosis of patients with somatic complaints but without a diagnosis of physical disorder.
A case-matched study of stereotactic radiosurgery for patients with multiple brain metastases: comparing treatment results for 1-4 vs ≥ 5 tumors: clinical article.

OBJECT Although stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) alone for patients with 4-5 or more tumors is not a standard treatment, a trend for patients with 5 or more tumors to undergo SRS alone is already apparent. The authors' aim in the present study was to reappraise whether SRS results for ≥ 5 tumors differ from those for 1-4 tumors. METHODS This institutional review board-approved retrospective cohort study used the authors' database of prospectively accumulated data that included 2553 consecutive patients who underwent SRS, not in combination with concurrent whole-brain radiotherapy, for brain metastases (METs) between 1998 and 2011. These 2553 patients were divided into 2 groups: 1553 with tumor numbers of 1-4 (Group A) and 1000 with ≥ 5 tumors (Group B). Because there was considerable bias in pre-SRS clinical factors between Groups A and B, a case-matched study was conducted. Ultimately, 1096 patients (548 each in Groups A and B) were selected. The standard Kaplan-Meier method was used to determine post-SRS survival and the post-SRS neurological death-free survival times. Competing risk analysis was applied to estimate cumulative incidences of local recurrence, repeat SRS for new lesions, neurological deterioration, and SRS-induced complications. RESULTS The post-SRS median survival time was significantly longer in the 548 Group A patients (7.9 months, 95% CI 7.0-8.9 months) than in the 548 Group B patients (7.0 months 95% [CI 6.2-7.8 months], HR 1.176 [95% CI 1.039-1.331], p = 0.01). However, incidences of neurological death were very similar: 10.6% in Group A and 8.2% in Group B (p = 0.21). There was no significant difference between the groups in neurological death-free survival intervals (HR 0.945, 95% CI 0.636-1.394, p = 0.77). Furthermore, competing risk analyses showed that there were no significant differences between the groups in cumulative incidences of local recurrence (HR 0.577, 95% CI 0.312-1.069, p = 0.08), repeat SRS (HR 1.133, 95% CI 0.910-1.409, p = 0.26), neurological deterioration (HR 1.868, 95% CI 0.608-1.240, p = 0.44), and major SRS-related complications (HR 1.105, 95% CI 0.490-2.496, p = 0.81). In the authors' cohort, age ≤ 65 years, female sex, a Karnofsky Performance Scale score ≥ 80%, cumulative tumor volume ≤ 10 cm(3), controlled primary cancer, no extracerebral METs, and neurologically asymptomatic status were significant factors favoring longer survival equally in both groups. CONCLUSIONS This retrospective study suggests that increased tumor number is an unfavorable factor for longer survival. However, the post-SRS median survival time difference, 0.9 months, between the two groups is not clinically meaningful. Furthermore, patients with 5 or more METs have noninferior results compared to patients with 1-4 tumors, in terms of neurological death, local recurrence, repeat SRS, maintenance of good neurological state, and SRS-related complications. A randomized controlled trial should be conducted to test this hypothesis.
[Analysis of nasal and exhaled nitric oxide concentration in nasal polyposis].

UNLABELLED Nitric oxide (NO) is implicated in the pathophysiology of inflammatory airway diseases. It has been identified as a potential marker of airway inflammation. OBJECTIVE The purpose of the study was to assess the concentrations of nasal NO in upper and lower airways in nasal polyposis patients. PATIENTS 18 nasal polyposis patients (14 men, 4 women) and 21 control subjects (7 men, 14 women), all non asthmatic non smokers, without respiratory infections were prospectively studied. METHODS They included nasal obstruction scoring, nasal endoscopic grading, allergy testing, nasal cytology, flow-volume spirometry and measurement of nasal (NNO) and exhaled NO (ENO) concentrations. NO was measured by a chemiluminescence NO Analyser (Sievers 280). NNO was analysed by aspiration with a constant flow of 3 l/mn. ENO was analysed during a slow expiration (50 ml/s) against a constant resistance of 10 cm H2O. RESULTS NNO was significantly (p<0,001) decreased in NP group (596.4 +/- 102.06 ppb) compared to control group (2 251.6 +/- 288.6 ppb). ENO was significantly (p<0.05) increased in NP group (45.4 +/- 14.1 ppb) compared to control group (11.2 +/- 1.16 ppb). NNO and ENO were not significantly different between atopic and non-atopic NP patients. NNO concentrations was inversely correlated with the values of nasal endoscopic grading. No correlation was found between NNO concentrations and respectively nasal obstruction scoring and eosinophil count in nasal mucosa. CONCLUSION Further studies are necessary to understand the pathophysiology of decreasing NNO and increasing ENO in nasal polyposis. In particular, ENO could be consider as a biologic marker of lower airway inflammation in nasal polyposis.
Low Compute and Fully Parallel Computer Vision with HashMatch

Numerous computer vision problems such as stereo depth estimation, object-class segmentation and fore-ground/background segmentation can be formulated as per-pixel image labeling tasks. Given one or many images as input, the desired output of these methods is usually a spatially smooth assignment of labels. The large amount of such computer vision problems has lead to significant research efforts, with the state of art moving from CRF-based approaches to deep CNNs and more recently, hybrids of the two. Although these approaches have significantly advanced the state of the art, the vast majority has solely focused on improving quantitative results and are not designed for low-compute scenarios. In this paper, we present a new general framework for a variety of computer vision labeling tasks, called HashMatch. Our approach is designed to be both fully parallel, i.e. each pixel is independently processed, and low-compute, with a model complexity an order of magnitude less than existing CNN and CRF-based approaches. We evaluate HashMatch extensively on several problems such as disparity estimation, image retrieval, feature approximation and background subtraction, for which HashMatch achieves high computational efficiency while producing high quality results.
Command of active matter by topological defects and patterns

Directing traffic with patterns Biological entities, such as bacteria, may direct their motion in response to their environment, but this usually does not lead to large-scale patterns or collective behavior. Peng et al. found that the orientational ordering of a liquid crystal could direct the flow of self-propelling bacteria, which in turn influenced the patterning of the liquid crystal molecules. Patterns on a substrate caused surface anchoring of the liquid crystals that transmitted to the ordering of the bacteria, thus imparting control on what would otherwise be chaotic out-of-equilibrium behavior. Science, this issue p. 882 Surface patterns orient liquid crystal molecules that control concentration, trajectories, and flows of swimming bacteria. Self-propelled bacteria are marvels of nature with a potential to power dynamic materials and microsystems of the future. The challenge lies in commanding their chaotic behavior. By dispersing swimming Bacillus subtilis in a liquid crystalline environment with spatially varying orientation of the anisotropy axis, we demonstrate control over the distribution of bacterial concentration, as well as the geometry and polarity of their trajectories. Bacteria recognize subtle differences in liquid crystal deformations, engaging in bipolar swimming in regions of pure splay and bend but switching to unipolar swimming in mixed splay-bend regions. They differentiate topological defects, heading toward defects of positive topological charge and avoiding negative charges. Sensitivity of bacteria to preimposed orientational patterns represents a previously unknown facet of the interplay between hydrodynamics and topology of active matter.
Peripheral injection of a new corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) antagonist, astressin, blocks peripheral CRF- and abdominal surgery-induced delayed gastric emptying in rats.

The effect of the corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) receptor antagonists astressin and D-Phe CRF(12-41) injected i.v. on CRF-induced delayed gastric emptying (GE) was investigated in conscious rats. Gastric transit was assessed by the recovery of methyl cellulose/phenol red solution 20 min after its intragastric administration. The 55% inhibition of GE induced by CRF (0.6 microgram i.v.) was antagonized by 87 and 100% by i.v. astressin at 3 and 10 microgram, respectively, and by 68 and 64% by i.v. D-Phe CRF(12-41) at 10 and 20 microgram, respectively. CRF (0.6 microgram)-injected intracisternally (i.c.) induced 68% reduction of GE was not modified by i.v. astressin (10 microgram) whereas i.c. astressin (3 or 10 microgram) blocked by 58 and 100%, respectively, i.v. CRF inhibitory action. Abdominal surgery with cecal manipulation reduced GE to 7.1 +/- 3.1 and 27.5 +/- 3.3% at 30 and 180 min postsurgery, respectively, compared with 40.3 +/- 4.3 and 59.5 +/- 2.9% at similar times after anesthesia alone. Astressin (3 microgram i.v.) completely and D-Phe CRF(12-41) (20 microgram i.v.) partially (60%) blocked surgery-induced gastric stasis observed at 30 or 180 min. The CRF antagonists alone (i.v. or i.c.) had no effect on basal GE. These data indicate that CRF acts in the brain and periphery to inhibit GE through receptor-mediated interaction and that peripheral CRF is involved in acute postoperative gastric ileus; astressin is a potent peripheral antagonist of CRF when injected i.v. whereas i.c. doses >/=3 microgram exert dual central and peripheral blockade of CRF action on gastric transit.