Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Influence of ethnicity on the perception and treatment of early post-operative pain

Background: Previous studies indicated that patients from Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups tend to receive less analgesics compared to Caucasian (White) patients after similar surgical procedures. Most such data originated from North America and suggested that health-care professionals may perceive the expression of excessive pain by BAME patient groups as an exaggerated response to pain, rather than sub-optimal treatment. There are limited data comparing acute pain management between South Asian and White British patients. Objective: We aimed to investigate correlation between patients’ ethnicity and disparities of early post-operative pain perception/management, in an ethnically diverse population. Methods: We conducted a retrospective case note review of acute post-operative pain after total abdominal hysterectomy (TAH) in 60 South Asian and 60 age-matched White British females. Data for 140 variables (pre-, intra- and post-operative) for each patient were recorded. We used propensity score matching to produce 30 closely matched patients in each group minimizing effects of recorded co-variates. Data were analysed with and without propensity score matching. Results: There were no significant differences in acute post-operative pain scores, morphine requirements, pain management, adverse effects or duration of post-operative care unit stay between South Asian and White British patients. The median duration of hospital stay of South Asian patients was longer (4.5 days versus 3.0 days, p < 0.001). Conclusion: We conclude that in an institution where both patients and health-care professionals are from an ethnically diverse population, neither post-operative pain nor pain management are influenced significantly by South Asian ethnicity.
Expanding the donor pool: effect on graft outcome.

The short-term success rate of cadaveric renal transplants has improved dramatically during the past decade. In 1990, one-year graft survival rates were about 70%; by 2000, they were greater than 90% (United States Renal Data System, 2001). Unfortunately, as transplantation has become more
Weak decays of the H dibaryon.

We posit the existence of a flavor, color and spin singlet six‐quark configuration called the H dibaryon. A wave function for this particle is written down, and its weak decays for a range of possible H‐masses are computed. Both ΔS=2 and ΔS=1 transitions are considered.
Evaluation of the Alvarado score in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

This study has been performed in the Emergency center, Clinical centre of Serbia, during the period 01.03. 2007-01.09. 2007. We performed this study on 57 patients with diagnosis suspected for acute appendicitis (ages 16-70). Parameters that make the Alvarado score are the following: migration of pain, anorexia, nausea or vomiting, right lower abdominal quadrant tenderness, rebound tenderness in right iliac fossa, elevated temperature, leukocytosis, shift to the left of neutrophils. The aim of the work is to evaluate the Alvarado scoring system in diagnosis of the acute appendicitis. With all the patients Alvarado score has been determinate preoperatively, and diagnosis was confirmed by intraoperative finding and histopatological examination of the removed appendix. All the patients with score 7 or more were surgically managed. Specificity (positive predictive value) was 92.59 % in males and 76.67 % in females. The negative appendectomy rate was 7.41 % with the males and 23.33 % with the females. The values of the Alvarado score are significantly higher in the patients with acute appendicitis, compared with the patients of the other diseases. With the application of the Alvarado scoring system we can decrease postoperative morbidity and mortality.
Short term clinical outcome of acute saddle pulmonary embolism

Wider application of spiral computed tomography (CT) not only improves diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism (PE) (fig 1), but also allows for non-invasive visualisation of saddle thromboemboli at the level of the bifurcation of the pulmonary trunk and extending into the main right and the main left pulmonary arteries.1–3 Such proximal thrombus may be regarded as unstable, “in-transit” embolus, which can fragment spontaneously or secondary to treatment and obstruct multiple, distal pulmonary arteries. It remains unclear whether this may further increase haemodynamic compromise. Also, it is unknown whether saddle PE requires modification of clinical management. We tried to evaluate if saddle thromboembolus affected two week outcome of patients with acute PE. Figure 1 Spiral CT scan showing large saddle pulmonary thromboembolus in a 46 year old man successfully treated with anticoagulation. Saddle PE was documented with spiral CT in 17 patients (10 men, 7 women, mean (SD) age 66 (11) years) out of 289 consecutive patients with tomographically diagnosed PE (5.2%). The saddle PE (S-PE) group was compared to 44 consecutive patients (17 men, 27 women, aged 66 (13) years with central, defined as at least lobar, non-saddle PE (NS-PE) proven by spiral CT. At the time of the diagnosis all patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography for the assessment of right …
PROPTOSIS AND BLINDNESS: AN UNUSUAL PRIMARY PRESENTATION OF CHRONIC GRANULOCYTIC LEUKAEMIA

Proptosis and blindness are uncommon presentations of chronic granulocytic leukaemia. We present a 20-year old man with four months history of bilateral swelling of the eyes and deteriorating vision, abdominal swelling and early satiety. Examination revealed massive splenomegaly and bilateral blindness resulting from retinal detachment most probably due to retro-orbital accumulation of malignant myeloid cells. Peripheral blood film confirmed chronic granulocytic leukaemia, CGL. Clinical response to hydroxyurea was excellent but retinal detachment and blindness persisted. We suggest that CGL should be excluded in all cases of painless eye-swelling.
The Long�?Term Effects of Early Track Choice

Despite its efficiency in tailoring education to the needs of students, a tracking system has the inherent problem of misallocating students to tracks because of incomplete information at the time of the tracking decision. This paper investigates the effects of attending a more advanced track in middle school on long-term education and labor market outcomes for Germany, a country with a very rigorous tracking system where the risk of misallocating students to tracks is, due to the early age at which tracking takes place, particularly high. Our research design exploits quasi-random shifts between tracks induced by date of birth, and identifies the long-term effects of early track attendance for a group of marginal students most at risk of misallocation. Remarkably, we find no evidence that for these students, attending a more advanced track leads to more favorable long-term outcomes. We attribute this result to the up- and downgrading of students between tracks after middle school when more information about their potential is available. Overall, our findings underscore that flexibilities built into a tracking system, which allow students to revise initial track choices at a later stage, effectively remedy even a prolonged exposure to a less advanced school environment.
Sex and Grade Differences in Verbal Creative Thinking among Iranian Middle-School Children

The relations of sex and grade with verbal originality of 407 boys and 479 girls (M age = 12.7 yr., SD=.9) in Iranian middle schools (Grades 6 through 8) were investigated. The Sounds and Images test, one of the components of Thinking Creatively with Sounds and Words, was administered to measure verbal originality. Analysis showed boys scored significantly higher than girls on verbal originality and Grade 6 children scored significantly higher than Grade 7 children. The results were discussed in terms of sociocultural factors.
Emerging Diseases

Many flaviviruses cause important and serious human diseases, including yellow fever, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis and tick-borne encephalitis viruses. Two further flaviviruses, the closely related dengue and Zika virus, have emerged as significant threats to global health with their potential to inflict severe disease to millions of people. Here, we look at some of the molecular similarities and differences between these two emerging diseases, as this is key to the development of novel preventions and therapeutics.
Violent behavior by girls reporting violent victimization: a prospective study.

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationships between individual victimization and neighborhood-level violence on subsequent violent perpetration by adolescent girls in a community-based sample. DESIGN Longitudinal, multilevel analysis of data collected by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. Three in-home interviews were conducted approximately 24 months apart between November 1995 and January 2002 with youth and their caregivers. Community-level data also were collected in 1995 from a random sample of Chicago residents. Hierarchical regression models and propensity scores were used. SETTING Families and neighborhoods in Chicago. PARTICIPANTS Population-based sample of 637 girls, ages 9 to 15 years at baseline, and the neighborhoods in which they resided. This sample is diverse in race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, and neighborhood characteristics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Self-reports of violent behavior in the 12 months before the third interview. RESULTS At baseline, 38% of the girls reported perpetrating at least 1 violent behavior in the prior 12 months, 28% reported past year violent behavior at the first follow-up interview, and 14% reported past year violent behavior at the third interview. The odds of violent behavior were 2.2 times higher among girls who reported prior violent victimization, after prior confounding factors and baseline violent behavior were controlled (95% confidence interval, 1.3- 4.4). Homicides and concentrated poverty in girls' neighborhoods also were associated with aggression by girls. CONCLUSIONS Improving safety in communities and homes may reduce rates of violent perpetration by adolescent girls. Study results suggest that, to facilitate identification of and healing among adolescent survivors of violence, practitioners should recognize perpetration of violence as potential sequelae of prior violent victimization.
Chemiluminescent response to pathogenic organisms: normal human polymorphonuclear leukocytes

Chemiluminescence (CL) is a sensitive indicator of phagocytosis and intracellular killing; however, little is known of the normal CL response by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes to different pathogenic microorganisms. We investigated the luminol-enhanced CL response of normal polymorphonuclear leukocytes to a number of common bacterial pathogens and two yeasts. We analyzed the CL response to viable and heat-killed microorganisms at 25 and 37 degrees C. The CL response to all microorganisms was greater and more rapid at 37 degrees C. Variable responses were observed with viable and heat-killed microorganisms; some were unaffected, whereas other demonstrated reduced CL. Each microorganism caused a reproducible response pattern, which could be placed into two general categories. In the first category were those which caused a rapid exponential rise and decay in CL: Enterobacter cloacae, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella flexneri, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, and zymosan. In the second category were those which rose slowly over a longer time course to a poorly defined peak: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, and Streptococcus pyogenes. The CL response also reflected serum opsonic activity. The effect of inactivated complement, factor B, and removal of specific antibody were investigated. Increasing the concentration of zymosan gave a proportional rise in peak CL; however, a strain of E. coli caused a variation in peak time rather than peak height. Different CL kinetics were shown for three strains of K. pneumoniae, possibly a result of each having different membrane or cell wall characteristics. This study defines the nature and factors affecting the normal CL response to a variety of common pathogenic microorganisms.
Measuring Gait Variables Using Computer Vision to Assess Mobility and Fall Risk in Older Adults With Dementia

Fall risk is high for older adults with dementia. Gait impairment contributes to increased fall risk, and gait changes are common in people with dementia, although the reliable assessment of gait is challenging in this population. This study aimed to develop an automated approach to performing gait assessments based on gait data that is collected frequently and unobtrusively, and analysed using computer vision methods. Recent developments in computer vision have led to the availability of open source human pose estimation algorithms, which automatically estimate the joint locations of a person in an image. In this study, a pre-existing pose estimation model was applied to 1066 walking videos collected of 31 older adults with dementia as they walked naturally in a corridor on a specialized dementia unit over a two week period. Using the tracked pose information, gait features were extracted from video recordings of gait bouts and their association with clinical mobility assessment scores and future falls data was examined. A significant association was found between extracted gait features and a clinical mobility assessment and the number of future falls, providing concurrent and predictive validation of this approach.
Baseline CD4 Count and Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background:In light of recent changes to antiretroviral treatment (ART) guidelines of the World Health Organization and ongoing concerns about adherence with earlier initiation of ART, we conducted a systematic review of published literature to review the association between baseline (pre-ART initiation) CD4 count and ART adherence among adults enrolled in ART programs worldwide. Methods:We performed a systematic search of English language original studies published between January 1, 2004 and September 30, 2015 using Medline, Web of Science, LILACS, AIM, IMEMR, and WPIMR databases. We calculated the odds of being adherent at higher CD4 count compared with lower CD4 count according to study definitions and pooled data using random effects models. Results:Twenty-eight articles were included in the review and 18 in the meta-analysis. The odds of being adherent was marginally lower for patients in the higher CD4 count group (pooled odds ratio, 0.90; 95% confidence interval, 0.84 to 0.96); however, the majority of studies found no difference in the odds of adherence when comparing CD4 count strata. In analyses restricted to comparisons above and below a CD4 count of 500 cells per microliter, there was no difference in adherence (pooled odds ratio, 1.01; 95% confidence interval: 0.97 to 1.05). Conclusions:This review was unable to find consistent evidence of differences in adherence according to baseline CD4 count. Although this is encouraging for the new recommendations to treat all HIV-positive individuals irrespective of CD4 count, there is a need for additional high-quality studies, particularly among adults initiating ART at higher CD4 cell counts.
Red cell distribution width and mortality in older adults: a meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Red cell distribution width (RDW) is a quantitative measure of variability in the size of circulating erythrocytes with higher values reflecting greater heterogeneity in cell sizes. Recent studies have shown that higher RDW is associated with increased mortality risk in patients with clinically significant cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether RDW is prognostic in more representative community-based populations is unclear. METHODS Seven relevant community-based studies of older adults with RDW measurement and mortality ascertainment were identified. Cox proportional hazards regression and meta-analysis on individual participant data were performed. RESULTS Median RDW values varied across studies from 13.2% to 14.6%. During 68,822 person-years of follow-up of 11,827 older adults with RDW measured, there was a graded increased risk of death associated with higher RDW values (p < .001). For every 1% increment in RDW, total mortality risk increased by 14% (adjusted hazard ratio [HR]: 1.14; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.11-1.17). In addition, RDW was strongly associated with deaths from CVD (adjusted HR: 1.15; 95% CI: 1.12-1.25), cancer (adjusted HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.07-1.20), and other causes (adjusted HR: 1.13; 95% CI: 1.07-1.18). Furthermore, the RDW-mortality association occurred in all major demographic, disease, and nutritional risk factor subgroups examined. Among the subset of 1,603 older adults without major age-associated diseases, RDW remained strongly associated with total mortality (adjusted HR: 1.32; 95% CI: 1.21-1.44). CONCLUSIONS RDW is a routinely reported test that is a powerful predictor of mortality in community-dwelling older adults with and without age-associated diseases. The biologic mechanisms underlying this association merit investigation.
Kemalism, the EU, and the Turkish welfare state

Warend die turkische Republik ein gut erforschtes Gebiet ist, ist das Forschungsthema des turkischen Wohlfahrtsstaates ein relativ neues. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll den grundlegenden Aufbau des turkischen Wohlfahrtsstaates hinsichtlich der Auszahlung von Sozialleistungen, des Umfanges der Leistungen und der generellen Form des Wohlfartsstaates darlegen. Des Weiteren soll in dieser Arbeit, unter Berucksichtigung der jeweiligen politischen und okonomischen Gegebenheiten bis hin zum EU-Eintrittsprozess, festgestellt werden, inwiefern der tatsachliche Wohlfahrtsstaat - sowohl gegenwartig als auch in der Vergangenheit - der grundsatzlichen und der in weiterer Folge herrschenden Ideologie des Kemalismus entspricht. Eine Untersuchung bestimmter Bereiche wie der Bildungs- und Gesundheitspolitik – jeweils unter besonderer Berucksichtigung von Frauenpolitischen Aspekten – bildet die Grundlage fur die abschliesende Analyse, in welchem Ausmas der turkische Wohlfahrtsstaat letztlich Kemalistisch ist oder nicht.
Detection and subcellular localization of three Ptl proteins involved in the secretion of pertussis toxin from Bordetella pertussis

The ptl locus of Bordetella pertussis contains eight open reading frames which are predicted to encode proteins (PtlA to PtlH) that are essential for secretion of pertussis toxin from the bacterium and which are members of a family of transport proteins found in other types of bacteria. We have detected PtlE, PtlF, and PtlG in immunoblots of extracts of B. pertussis by using antibodies raised to fusion proteins consisting of maltose-binding protein and the individual Ptl proteins. These proteins have apparent molecular weights similar to those predicted by DNA sequence analysis. Cell fractionation studies indicated that all three Ptl proteins are associated with the membranes of B. pertussis, suggesting that the Ptl proteins form a gate or channel which facilitates transport of pertussis toxin. Cell extracts of other Bordetella spp. were probed with antibodies to Ptl proteins for the presence of these transport proteins. Neither Bordetella parapertussis nor Bordetella bronchiseptica contained detectable levels of PtlE or PtlF. This lack of detectable Ptl protein may provide an explanation for previous observations which indicated that introduction of the genes encoding pertussis toxin subunits from B. pertussis into other Bordetella spp. results in production of the toxin but not secretion of the toxin.
Devenir à moyen des enfants infectés par le VIH traités avant l'âge de deux ans et ses déterminants en Afrique de l'Ouest : faisabilité, tolérance, observance, efficacité opérationnelle, simplification

Depuis 2010, l’OMS recommande de traiter tous les enfants infectes par le VIH avant deux ans, et pour ceux ≤ trois ans avec traitement antiretroviral precoce (TAP) a base de lopinavir/ritonanir (LPV/r). En Afrique de l’Ouest (AO), peu de donnees existent sur l’acces a un TAP et sur la reponse a ce traitement. L’objectif de ce travail etait de documenter le devenir a moyen terme (25 mois) et ses facteurs associes des enfants recevant un TAP avant l’âge de deux ans dans le contexte du projet MONOD ANRS 12206 en AO. Mon travail a consiste a evaluer la faisabilite du TAP base sur le LPV/r, d’evaluer sa reponse clinique, immunologique, virologique et sa tolerance, d’evaluer la possibilite d’une simplification en remplacant le LPV/r par de l’Efavirenz (EFV) chez des enfants en succes virologique, et de decrire le profil de resistance aux antiretroviraux. Nos resultats montrent que le TAP a base de LPV/r chez les enfants est faisable en AO, mais l’acces au traitement reste encore trop tardif avec une mortalite pre et post initiation du TAP elevee. Malgre cet acces tardif, le traitement est bien tolere et est efficace avec un taux de succes virologique apres 12 mois de 78 %, et de 74 % a 25 mois. Chez les enfants en succes virologique a M12, le LPV/r peut etre remplace par EFV a condition de disposer d’une charge virale en routine et demaintenir une bonne observance. Cependant, chez les enfants en echec virologique, la frequence des mutations de resistances aux inhibiteurs nucleosidiques et non nucleosiques de la transcriptase inverse etait preoccupante. Il demeure urgent de developper des interventions innovantes pour accroitre l’acces au diagnostic, au TAP, et faciliter l’observance.
The Pharmacokinetics of Alfentanil After Normothermic and Hypothermic Cardiopulmonary Bypass

The pharmacokinetics of alfentanil were studied after two different methods of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) which used either a normothermic technique or a hypothermic technique with body temperatures below 30 degrees C.A group of surgical patients who did not undergo CPB were also studied. All patients (n = 36) received alfentanil 50 micro gram/kg as a rapid infusion over 10 min and plasma levels were measured for the following 8 h. The volume of distribution in steady state (Vdss) and the volume of central compartment (Vc) were significantly greater in the CPB groups (P = 0.009 and P = 0.04), compared to the nonbypass group. However, the elimination half-life of alfentanil (t 1/2 beta) (mean, 95% confidence interval) did not differ significantly between the normothermic (134 min, range 104-172), hypothermic (143 min, range 111-184), and nonbypass (111 min, range 86-142) groups. Between the normothermic and hypothermic CPB groups no significant differences in Vdss, rate of clearance (Cl), or t 1/2 beta were found. The pharmacokinetics of alfentanil showed fewer changes after CPB in this study than have been reported previously. Furthermore, different temperature management protocols during CPB did not influence alfentanil elimination. (Anesth Analg 1995;81:458-64)