Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Novel placement of cortical bone trajectory screws in previously instrumented pedicles for adjacent-segment lumbar disease using CT image-guided navigation.

OBJECT Symptomatic adjacent-segment lumbar disease (ASLD) after lumbar fusion often requires subsequent surgical intervention. The authors report utilizing cortical bone trajectory (CBT) pedicle screw fixation with intraoperative CT (O-arm) image-guided navigation to stabilize spinal levels in patients with symptomatic ASLD. This unique technique results in the placement of 2 screws in the same pedicle (1 traditional pedicle trajectory and 1 CBT) and obviates the need to remove preexisting instrumentation. METHODS The records of 5 consecutive patients who underwent lumbar spinal fusion with CBT and posterior interbody grafting for ASLD were retrospectively reviewed. All patients underwent screw trajectory planning with the O-arm in conjunction with the StealthStation navigation system. Basic demographics, operative details, and radiographic and clinical outcomes were obtained. RESULTS The average patient age was 69.4 years (range 58-82 years). Four of the 5 surgeries were performed with the Minimal Access Spinal Technologies (MAST) Midline Lumbar Fusion (MIDLF) system. The average operative duration was 218 minutes (range 175-315 minutes). In the entire cohort, 5.5-mm cortical screws were placed in previously instrumented pedicles. The average hospital stay was 2.8 days (range 2-3 days) and there were no surgical complications. All patients had more than 6 months of radiographic and clinical follow-up (range 10-15 months). At last follow-up, all patients reported improved symptoms from their preoperative state. Radiographic follow-up showed Lenke fusion grades of A or B. CONCLUSIONS The authors present a novel fusion technique that uses CBT pedicle screw fixation in a previously instrumented pedicle with intraoperative O-arm guided navigation. This method obviates the need for hardware removal. This cohort of patients experienced good clinical results. Computed tomography navigation was critical for accurate CBT screw placement at levels where previous traditional pedicle screws were already placed for symptomatic ASLD.
Sensitive Detection of PrPSc by Western Blot Assay Based on Streptomycin Sulphate Precipitation

Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, also termed prion diseases, are fatal neurodegenerative disorders that affect both humans and animals, which are characterized by presences of protease‐resistance disease‐associated prion protein (PrPSc) in brains. In the present study, we optimized the Western blot assay for PrPSc with a precipitation procedure of streptomycin sulphate. After incubated with suitable amount of streptomycin sulphate, the detective sensitivity for PrPSc was remarkably improved. The precipitation of PrPSc was obviously influenced by pH value in the solution. Employs of PrPSc stock sample into various mimic specimens, including normal hamster brain homogenate, human cerebrospinal fluid and urine, demonstrated that streptomycin precipitation markedly increased the detective sensitivity of PrPSc, regardless in low concentration or in large volume. In addition, the PrPSc from a human brain tissue of familiar Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (fCJD) was efficiently precipitated with streptomycin sulphate. As a sensitive, specific, rapid and flexible protocol for PrPSc, the protocol in this study has the potential, alone or combined with other techniques, to detect low levels of PrPSc in the specimens not only from central nerve system, but also from peripheral organs or fluids.
Formalising Policies for Insider-threat Detection: A Tripwire Grammar

The threat that organisations face from within is growing signiﬁcantly, as it has been widely demonstrated by the harm that insiders have caused recently. For many years the security community has invested in barriers and perimeters, of increasing sophistication, designed to keep those with ma-lign intent outside of the organisations’ information infrastructures. But assuming that one can keep the threat out of an organisation is simply not a practical stance to adopt. In our research we are concerning ourselves with how technology might be deployed to help with the detection of insider threats both automatically and in support of human-led mechanisms. This paper describes our recent research into how we might support threat detection when actions taken can be immediately determined as of concern. In particular we capture actions that fall into one of two categories: those that violate a policy which is speciﬁcally crafted to describe behaviours that should be avoided; or those that exhibit behaviours which follow a pattern of a known insider-threat attack. We view these concerning actions as something that we can design and implement tripwires within a system to detect. We then orchestrate these tripwires in conjunction with an anomaly detection system. We present a review of the security policies organisation apply and a grammar to describe tripwires. We further validate our grammar by formalising the most common tripwires for both categories. Our aim is to provide a single framework for unambiguously capturing tripwires, alongside a library of existing ones in use. Therefore, tripwires may be used to map experiences regardless of the heterogeneity of the security tools and practices deployed.
Emotion perception and executive control interact in the salience network during emotionally charged working memory processing

Processing of emotional stimuli can either hinder or facilitate ongoing working memory (WM); however, the neural basis of these effects remains largely unknown. Here we examined the neural mechanisms of these paradoxical effects by implementing a novel emotional WM task in an fMRI study. Twenty‐five young healthy participants performed an N‐back task with fearful and neutral faces as stimuli. Participants made more errors when performing 0‐back task with fearful versus neutral faces, whereas they made fewer errors when performing 2‐back task with fearful versus neutral faces. These emotional impairment and enhancement on behavioral performance paralleled significant interactions in distributed regions in the salience network including anterior insula (AI) and dorsal cingulate cortex (dACC), as well as in emotion perception network including amygdala and temporal‐occipital association cortex (TOC). The dorsal AI (dAI) and dACC were more activated when comparing fearful with neutral faces in 0‐back task. Contrarily, dAI showed reduced activation, while TOC and amygdala showed stronger responses to fearful as compared to neutral faces in the 2‐back task. These findings provide direct neural evidence to the emerging dual competition model suggesting that the salience network plays a critical role in mediating interaction between emotion perception and executive control when facing ever‐changing behavioral demands. Hum Brain Mapp 35:5606–5616, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Toxicological Assessment of Pollen from Different Bt Rice Lines on Bombyx Mori (Lepidoptera: Bombyxidae)

Abstract The relative toxicity of Bt rice pollen to domestic silkworm, Bombyx mori Linnaeus (Lepidoptera: Bombycidae), was assessed by a leaf-dip bioassay under laboratory conditions. Silkworm first instars were sensitive to pollen from Bt rice lines, B1 and KMD1, but were not sensitive to pollen from Bt rice line TT9–3. First instars were 1.34–2.12 times more sensitive to B1 pollen than older instars. Bioassays of subacute toxicity under a worst-case scenario suggested that continuous exposure to a sublethal dose of B1 pollen or equivalent doses of non-Bt rice pollen affected silkworm survival and development. Young larvae were more affected by continuous exposure to Bt pollen than older larvae but less affected by non-Bt pollen. Ultrastructural observations showed that Cry proteins associated with Bt pollen were released into the larval lumen and resulted in pathological midgut changes and negative impacts on silkworm survival and development. However, considering that the sublethal dose of Bt pollen (LC15) used in this study is equivalent to the highest detected density of rice pollen on mulberry leaf under field conditions and that the likelihood of such high density of rice pollen occurring in the fields is extremely low, we suggest that the risk of Bt rice pollen on silkworm rearing is negligible.
Bacteriologic flora of the lower respiratory tract.

THE complex nature of chronic bronchitis makes it difficult to define the relative importance of the many factors that might contribute to its pathogenesis and course.1 , 2 The progressive decline of the patient can generally be related to the number, length and severity of acute exacerbations that he suffers. The role of infection in the decline of the bronchitic patient is indicated by the morphologic findings in the bronchopulmonary tree,3 by the relative success of antibacterial treatment of the acute illness and by the occasional effectiveness of the prophylactic use of selected antibiotics.4 5 6 Much of the difficulty in evaluating the role .
PSYCHODIAGNOSTIC FOLLOW‐UP OF NEOVLETTA®‐A NEW LOW DOSE ORAL CONTRACEPTIVE

Abstract. In 45 somatically healthy women the possible occurrence of psychic effects of a new low dose combined oral contraceptive was studied using different psychodiagnostic test methods. All the participants were previous users of some of the standard combined oral contraceptives, but had discontinued either due to experienced side‐effects, due to fear of such effects or due to other reasons. Four patients dropped out before the end of the six‐month‐observation period. Women who discontinued previous use of oral contraceptives due to side‐effects or due to fear of side‐effects exhibited a more pronounced degree of neuroticism compared to those who terminated due to other reasons. Those who experienced side‐effects during earlier medication had initially a higher depression score than the two remaining groups suggesting that women's basic psychic nature seems to play an important role in the development of psychic symptoms during oral contraceptive therapy. None of the three groups developed additional signs of depression during treatment. Moreover, no impairment of the sexual function, assessed by a number of parameters, was found. The findings clearly indicate that Neovletta® did not cause any psychic disturbance in the patients studied.
Providing both guaranteed and best effort services using Spatial Division Multiplexing NoC with dynamic channel allocation and runtime reconfiguration

To overcome the scalability issue, network-on-chip (NoC) communication architectures have been used in today's system-on-chip. At the same time, more and more applications place increasingly stringent demands on the quality of service for the on-chip communication. Thus it is important to provide guaranteed services to these NoC architectures. We propose a novel solution that maintains the area efficiency of this spatial division multiplexing (SDM) . approach but improves its utilization of network resources by providing both guaranteed and best effort services. Experimental results show that the proposed solution achieves an area savings of 16%, and maintains a comparable level of performance in terms of data throughput compared to a state-of-the-art approach.
A volterra filtering approach for the polynomial formulation of the constant modulus criterion

In this work, an extended polynomial formulation of the constant modulus (CM) criterion under quadratic constraints is presented. Based on the method of Lagrange Multipliers, this `Volterra-CM formulation' brings very relevant information about the structure of the null-gradient CM solutions in the equalizer parameter space, including a conjecture regarding the relationship between the smallest multiplier and the optimal CM receiver. In the case of a two-tap filter, the proposed formulation allows that the solutions be obtained in terms of a single parameter, the corresponding Lagrange multiplier. For filters with more than two taps, the problem requires that a nonlinear system be solved, which is done with the aid of an iterative algorithm. The obtained global convergence rates show that the formulation is an effective tool to describe the structure of the optimal CM solution.
Characterisation of nasal Staphylococcus delphini and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius isolates from healthy donkeys in Tunisia.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Staphylococcus intermedius group (SIG) bacteria can colonise the nares of some animals but are also emerging pathogens in humans and animals. OBJECTIVES To analyse SIG nasal carriage in healthy donkeys destined for food consumption in Tunisia and to characterise recovered isolates. METHODS Nasal swabs from 100 healthy donkeys were tested for SIG recovery, and isolates were identified by biochemical and molecular methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility of isolates was tested and detection of antimicrobial resistance and virulence genes was performed. Isolates were typed at the clonal level by multilocus sequence typing and SmaI pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. RESULTS Staphylococcus delphini and Staphylococcus pseudintermedius (included in SIG) were obtained in 19% and 2% of the tested samples, respectively, and one isolate per sample was characterised. All isolates were meticillin susceptible and mecA negative. Most S. delphini and S. pseudintermedius isolates showed susceptibility to all antimicrobials tested, with the exception of 2 isolates resistant to tetracycline (tet(M) gene) or fusidic acid. The following toxin genes were identified (percentage of isolates): lukS-I (100%), lukF-I (9.5%), siet (100%), se-int (90%), seccanine (19%) and expA (9.5%). Thirteen different pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles were identified among the 21 SIG isolates. Additionally, the following 9 different sequence types (STs) were detected by multilocus sequence typing, 6 of them new: ST219 (6 isolates), ST12 (5 isolates), ST220 (3 isolates), ST13, ST50, ST193, ST196, ST218 and ST221 (one isolate each). CONCLUSIONS Staphylococcus delphini and S. pseudintermedius are common nasal colonisers of donkeys, generally susceptible to the antimicrobials tested; nevertheless, these SIG isolates contain virulence genes, including the recently described exfoliative gene (expA) and several enterotoxin genes, with potential implications for public health. This is the first description of S. delphini in Tunisia. The Summary is available in Chinese - see Supporting information.
Application of epstein‐barr virus (EBV) serology to the diagnosis of north american nasopharyngeal carcinoma

A cooperative study was establishment among a number of institutions in the USA to determine the clinical value of Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) serology for the diagnosis of different histopathological types of North American nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) including occult primary tumors. One hundred‐twenty‐four patients with confirmed NPC have now been entered into the study. For each patient, anti‐EBV antibody titers were determined at diagnosis and related to the histopathology as classified according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The results suggest that certain anti‐EBV antibodies are of potential value for the diagnosis of undifferentiated types of NPC but not for the well‐differntiated cancer. The IgA anti‐VCA antibody response is the most specific for this disease and of the greatest diagnostic value when used alone or in combination with the anti‐EA test. These tests have also been used succesfully for the detection of occult NPC. These results indicate that these tests can be useful aids to the clinician for the diagnosis of certain histopathologic types of this disease.
Radiologic and Clinicopathologic Findings of Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor

Purpose The aim of the study was to describe the clinical, radiographic, and pathologic features of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) to enhance the recognition of this rare disease. Materials and Methods The clinical, imaging, and pathologic findings were retrospectively reviewed in 54 patients with IMT lesions, which were conformed by biopsy or surgical pathology. Of 54 patients, 51 had preoperative computed tomography (CT) examination and 13 had preoperative magnetic resonance imaging records. Results The clinical appearances of these 54 patients had some relationship with the locations of lesions. Of 54 IMT patients, 87.0% cases (47/54) had solitary lesion. The mean long diameter of the lesions located at the sites of chest, abdomen, and pelvic regions was bigger than that of other locations (F = 3.025, P = 0.038). On plain CT images, soft tissue mass was found in all IMT lesions, except for 3 lesions that arose in the intestine tract, appearing as focal or diffuse thickening in the bowel wall. After contrast administration, all lesions were persistently enhanced; 72.7% cases (24/33) demonstrated heterogeneous enhancement with various cystic regions. Comparing the CT features with different anatomic lesions, ill-defined margin on the plain CT images and calcification were seen more frequently in the lesions of the head and neck (P = 0.010 and 0.035); however, the other radiological findings had no significant differences (all P > 0.05). Twelve of 51 IMT patients showed invasion into adjacent structures. On magnetic resonance imaging, 92.3% lesions (12/13) showed soft tissue masses demonstrating isointense to hypointense contrast compared with skeletal muscle on T1-weighted images and heterogeneously high signals on T2-weighted images; 85.7%(6/7) of lesions were heterogeneously enhanced with cystic changes. Immunohistochemistry showed that the percentage of positive staining for SMA, vimentin, anaplastic lymphoma kinase, CD68, CD34, CD99, B-cell lymphoma/leukemia-2, cytokeratin, Desmin, and S-100 protein were 88.9%, 87.0%, 44.4%, 59.3%, 53.7%, 29.6%, 42.6%, 28.5%, 13.0%, and 24.1%, respectively. Conclusions Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor can involve any part of the body, and the clinical and radiological appearances are various owing to different anatomic sites. An ill-defined soft tissue mass heterogeneous enhancement with or without invasion into adjacent structures on computed tomographic or magnetic resonance images and positive staining for SMA and vimentin on immunohistochemical examination could suggest the diagnosis.
Role of RpoS in Virulence of Pathogens

ABSTRACT Understanding mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis is critical for infectious disease control and treatment. Infection is a sophisticated process that requires the participation of global regulators to coordinate expression of not only genes coding for virulence factors but also those involved in other physiological processes, such as stress response and metabolic flux, to adapt to host environments. RpoS is a key response regulator to stress conditions in Escherichia coli and many other proteobacteria. In contrast to its conserved well-understood role in stress response, effects of RpoS on pathogenesis are highly variable and dependent on species. RpoS contributes to virulence through either enhancing survival against host defense systems or directly regulating expression of virulence factors in some pathogens, while RpoS is dispensable, or even inhibitory, to virulence in others. In this review, we focus on the distinct and niche-dependent role of RpoS in virulence by surveying recent findings in many pathogens.
Measurement of depressive symptoms among cardiac patients: Should sex differences be considered?

Confounding of depressive and cardiac symptoms may hold implications for assessment. This study investigated psychometric properties and sex differences in two depression scales among cardiac patients. Cardiac inpatients from 11 hospitals were recruited and completed a mailed survey including the Beck Depression Inventory-II and Gotland Scale of Male Depression 1 year later. The scales were significantly correlated and both were associated with social desirability. Females scored higher than males on the fatigue factor only (p < .001). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory-II were more favorable in this population. Practitioners must not overlook reports of fatigue in female cardiac patients.
Effects of a combination of umeclidinium/vilanterol on exercise endurance in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: two randomized, double-blind clinical trials

Objective: Exercise intolerance is a hallmark of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: Patients with COPD were randomized in two multicentre, double-blind, incomplete block crossover studies. Patients received two of six treatments in sequence (12 weeks each): placebo, umeclidinium (UMEC)/vilanterol (VI) (125/25 mcg or 62.5/25 mcg), VI (25 mcg) or UMEC (62.5 mcg or 125 mcg). Exercise endurance time (EET) and trough forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) (Week 12) were co-primary endpoints. Safety was monitored throughout. Results: Both studies showed similar 3-hour post-dose EET improvements from baseline for UMEC/VI (Week 12). Significant EET improvements were observed with both UMEC/VI doses versus placebo at Week 12 in Study 418 (UMEC/VI 125/25 mcg: 65.8 s; p = 0.005; UMEC/VI 62.5/25 mcg: 69.4 s; p = 0.003), but not in Study 417, where a placebo effect was evident. Post hoc integrated data analysis showed significant but smaller EET improvements for both UMEC/VI doses versus placebo at Week 12 (UMEC/VI 125/25 mcg: 47.5 s; p = 0.002; UMEC/VI 62.5/25 mcg: 43.7 s; p = 0.001). Both studies showed trough FEV1 improvements at Week 12 for both UMEC/VI doses. The incidence of adverse events was similar between treatment groups within each study. Conclusions: UMEC/VI improved lung function and EET.
HLA‐A, ‐B, ‐C, ‐DR, and ‐DQ Matching in Pancreas Transplantation: Effect on Graft Rejection and Survival

To enhance selection of appropriate deceased donors for pancreas transplants, we sought to determine whether HLA matching improved posttransplantation outcomes. In this single‐center study of 1219 pancreas transplants, we correlated posttransplantation outcomes with HLA‐A, ‐B, ‐C, ‐DR, and ‐DQ matches and mismatches. Rejection was linearly correlated with the number of mismatches. The individual number of HLA mismatches reached significance at four or more with a 2.3‐ to 2.9‐fold increase in rejection. The effect was most predominant with HLA‐B (1.8‐fold with one mismatch and 2.0‐fold with two mismatches) and ‐DR (1.9‐fold with two mismatches) loci, whereas HLA‐A, ‐C, and ‐DQ matches or mismatches did not independently predict acute rejection. The affect was strongest in solitary pancreas transplants, with little impact for simultaneous pancreas and kidney (SPK). In contrast, HLA matching did not affect graft or patient survival rates but was associated with a reduced risk of opportunistic infection. Avoidance of acute rejection saved an estimated $32 000 for solitary pancreas recipients and $52 000 for SPK recipients in hospital costs. Our data do not support the use of HLA matching for predicting pancreas graft survival but do support its significance for the reduction of acute rejection, particularly for solitary pancreas recipients.
Satisfaction with Life, Psychosocial Health and Materialism among Hungarian Youth

Previous research suggests that youth’s life satisfaction may be influenced by health and certain socioeconomic/sociocultural factors, which may be important in a post-socialist country like Hungary. We investigated the relationship between youth’s life satisfaction, materialism and their psychosocial health in a sample of secondary school students (N = 1114) in Hungary. Findings show that youth’s psychosocial health may play an important role in their levels of life satisfaction, particularly depressive and psychosomatic symptoms and health behaviors (e.g. diet control and smoking). SES self-assessment and materialistic success were positively, while materialistic happiness was negatively related to youth’s life satisfaction.