Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Reduced Heart Rate Variability in Ischemic Heart Disease Is Only Partially Caused by Ischemia

Background: Reduced heart rate variability (HRV) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) indicates poor prognosis. HRV in patients with uncomplicated coronary artery disease is reduced, and an association with poor prognosis has been suggested. The mechanism of the HRV reduction is not known, but ischemia is a possibility. Aim: To evaluate, in angina patients with no prior AMI, no other disease and drug-free, if complete revascularization and thus important reduction of ischemia by means of PTCA influences HRV. Patients and Methods: Twenty-four-hour Holter recordings were performed at baseline prior to PTCA in 48 patients with angina and in 41 age-matched healthy control subjects. The recording was repeated 1 and 6 months after complete revascularization. In addition, HRV was registered during controlled respiration in the supine and standing positions and during cold pressure test at baseline in all angina patients and controls and in 17 consecutive angina patients 6 months after PTCA. Results: Compared to controls, angina patients had a significantly reduced mean RR interval (p = 0.02), SD (p = 0.003), rMSSD (p = 0.03), pNN50 (p = 0.03), total power (p = 0.003), low- (p = 0.004) and high-frequency peak (p = 0.04), but normal SDNN, SDANN and LF/HF. One and 6 months after PTCA, 42/46 and 32/40 follow-up patients, respectively, were free of angina. Six months after PTCA, there was a significant recovery of vagal modulation seen in the frequency domain during controlled respiration, but only nonsignificant trends in HRV parameters analyzed over 24 h. Conclusion: Patients with uncomplicated angina had reduced HRV, mainly affecting vagal activity, but normal low frequency variability associated with mortality. Complete revascularization caused a partial normalization of vagal modulation indicating that ischemia may be one of but not the only mechanism of the HRV reduction in uncomplicated chronic coronary artery disease.
Factors affecting diagnostic yield in needle biopsy for brain lesions

Abstract Introduction. We analyse the factors that are associated with the diagnostic yield of needle brain biopsy. Material and methods. We present a retrospective series of 124 consecutive biopsies in a 30-month period. Patients’ demographics (age, gender), lesion topography (side, location, depth), lesion characteristics (histology, volume, radiological enhancement), type of biopsy procedure (freehand, ultrasound guided, frameless and frame-based stereotactic) and the use of intraoperative histologic examination were correlated with the diagnostic rate. Descriptive statistics and a nominal logistic regression model were used to evaluate the factors influencing diagnostic yield. Results. 63 men and 61 women were included in the study with mean age 59.2 (range: 16–86). 55 were frame-based stereotactic biopsies, 33 were frameless stereotactic biopsies, 29 biopsies were performed under ultrasound guidance and 7 freehand. The diagnostic yield in our series is 93.5%. The gender, lesion topography, biopsy method, use of intraoperative histology and enhancement did not correlate with the diagnostic yield. Younger age had a negative impact on diagnostic yield. 6 out of 8 inconclusive biopsies were in non-glial lesions (p < 0.05). The odds of obtaining a positive diagnosis increased sevenfold with every cc increase in lesion volume. Conclusion. The age of the patient, the volume and the histology of the brain lesion had an impact on the diagnostic yield of needle biopsy. None of the other factors significantly influenced the diagnostic rate.
Promoter hypermethylation of DNA damage response genes in hepatocellular carcinoma

Aberrant methylation of promoter CpG islands is a major inactivation mechanism of tumour‐related genes that play a crucial role in the progression of silencing in human cancers, including HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma). We have examined the promoter methylation status of five important DNA damage response genes in fresh‐frozen HCC tissues and cell lines, as well as the possible correlation between methylation patterns and clinical features of the carcinoma. Promoter methylation status of RASSF1A (Ras association domain family 1), CHFR (checkpoint with forkhead and ring finger domains), GSTP1 (glutathione‐S‐transferase‐pi gene), MGMT [O(6)‐methylguanine‐DNA methyltransferase] and hMLH1 (human mutL homologue 1) were examined by the MSP (methylation‐specific PCR) in 70 HCC tissues and five HCC cell lines. The mRNA expression levels of these genes were measured by RT—PCR (reverse transcription—PCR). Methylation frequencies of these genes tested in HCC were 54 (78%) for RASSF1A, 30 (43%) for CHFR, 26 (38%) for GSTP1 and 22 (32%) for MGMT. No hypermethylation was detected for hMLH1 in any case of HCC or HCC cell lines. Moreover, promoter hypermethylation of RASSF1A, CHFR and GSTP1 in both HepG2 and SNU398 cells, and hypermethylation of MGMT in Huh7 cells, were detected. Treatment of three cell lines with 5Aza‐dC (5‐aza‐20‐deoxycytidine) restored or increased the expression of these genes, implicating aberrant DNA methylation in transcriptional silencing. Hypermethylation of RASSF1A and patient age were significantly associated. CHFR methylation status showed a statistically significant correlation with HCC progression. Methylation of the RASSF1A, CHFR, GSTP1 and MGMT genes seem therefore to play an important role in the pathogenesis of HCC. These epigenetic changes may have prognostic importance for patients with HCC.
Zinc and Copper Status of Allergic Children

ABSTRACT. Zinc and copper status was examined in 19 healthy and 43 atopic children (22 asthmatics and 21 eczematous) 2–14 years old. Dietary intakes for energy, protein, zinc and copper and some nutritional indices (height, weight, serum protein, albumin, ceruloplasmin) were similar in the allergic and in the control group. The proton‐induced X‐ray fluorescence technique was used to assess zinc and copper concentrations in serum and hair. No difference was detected in serum zinc concentration between allergic and healthy children. In contrast, mean hair zinc level was lower (p<0.05) in allergic than in healthy children (99±6 vs. 147±9 μg/g). Mean serum copper content was higher in asthmatic than in control children while mean hair copper was higher (p<0.05) in asthmatic and eczematous children than in the control group. These findings suggest a different zinc and copper nutritional status between allergic and healthy subjects. Allergic children, in particular, seem to be a risk of zinc deficiency.
Group-living and infestation by ectoparasites in passerines

Using data from an 1 l-year field study, I determined whether group-living passerine species showed greater infestation by contact-transmitted ectoparasites (feather mites) than sympatric, solitary species. Differences in infestation by mobile hippoboscid flies between group-living and solitary passerine species were also examined. Among the 45 species included in the analysis, feather mite prevalence was significantly greater on group- living species than on solitary ones. Two other factors investigated, bird size and migratory habit, had no effect on infestation levels. Similar results were obtained when the analysis was performed on all species outside the most species-rich family (Fringillidae), or only within the family Fringillidae itself. An analysis at the family level also suggested greater feather mite infestations in families made up only of group-living species as opposed to families including only solitary species; however, the difference was not significant. No differences were observed in hippoboscid fly abundance between group-living and solitary passerines, in all analyses at either the species or family level. These results suggest that individuals of group-living species incur a greater risk of acquiring contact-transmitted ectoparasites than individuals of solitary species, a cost which may not be negligible.
Integrating pitch and LPC-residual information with LPC-cepstrum for text-independent speaker recognition

In the speaker recognition, when the cepstral coefficients are calculated from the LPC analysis parameters, the prediction error, or LPC residual signal, is usually ignored. However, there is an evidence that it contains a speaker specific information. The fundamental frequency of the speech signal or the pitch, which is usually extracted from the LPC residual, has been used for speaker recognition purposes, but because of the high intraspeaker variability of the pitch it is also often ignored. This paper describes our approach to integrating the pitch and LPC-residual with the LPC-cepstrum in a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) based speaker recognition system. The pitch and/or LPC-residual are considered as an additional features to the main LPC derived cepstral coefficients and are represented as a logarithm of the F0 and as a filter bank mel frequency cepstral (MFCC) vector respectively. The second task of this research was to verify whether the correlation between the different information sources is useful for the speaker recognition task. For the experiments we used the NTT database consisting of high quality speech samples. The speaker recognition system was evaluated in three modes-integrating only pitch or only LPC-residual and integrating both of them. The results showed that adding the pitch gives significant improvement only when the correlation between the pitch and cepstral coefficients is used. Adding only LPC-residual also gives significant improvement, but in contrast to the pitch, using the correlation with the cepstral coefficients does not have big effect. The best results we achieved using both the pitch and LPC-residual and are 98.5% speaker identification rate and 0.21% speaker verification equal error rate compared to 97.0% and 1.07% of the baseline system respectively.
Ethical Issues in Therapy: Therapist Self-Disclosure of Sexual Feelings

Although therapist sexual attraction to clients is common, and therapist self-disclosure is an often-used intervention, therapist self-disclosure of sexual feelings to clients is an understudied phenomenon. In this article, I critically review the small base of literature on therapist self-disclosure of sexual feelings, including information on prevalence rates, empirical research, and case studies. By incorporating these findings with information from relevant sections of the American Psychological Association (2002) Ethics Code, my intent is to evaluate different aspects of therapist self-disclosure of sexual feelings and arrive at conclusions regarding therapists' use of these disclosures. It appears that direct, explicit disclosures of sexual feelings can run the risk of harming clients and may therefore be unethical. Therefore, the use of this technique is discouraged. I discuss the issue of using less explicit interventions.
Critical role for a stage‐specific actin in male exflagellation of the malaria parasite

Male gametogenesis occurs directly after uptake of malaria parasites by the mosquito vector and leads to the release of eight nucleated flagellar gametes. Here, we report that one of the two parasite actin isoforms, named actin II, is essential for this process. Disruption of actin II in Plasmodium berghei resulted in viable asexual blood stages, but male gametogenesis was specifically inhibited. Upon activation, male gametocyte DNA was replicated normally and axonemes assembled, but egress from the host cell was inhibited, and axoneme motility abolished. The major actin isoform, actin I, displayed dual localization to the cytoplasm and the nucleus in male gametocytes. After activation actin I was found to be restricted to the cytoplasm. In actII(‐) mutant parasites, this re‐localization was abolished and actin I remained in both cellular compartments. These findings reveal vital and pleiotropic functions for the actin II isoform in male gametogenesis of the malaria parasite.
Risk factors for treatment-limiting toxicities in patients starting nevirapine-containing antiretroviral therapy

Background:This collaboration of seven observational clinical cohorts investigated risk factors for treatment-limiting toxicities in both antiretroviral-naive and experienced patients starting nevirapine-based combination antiretroviral therapy (NVPc). Methods:Patients starting NVPc after 1 January 1998 were included. CD4 cell count at starting NVPc was classified as high (>400/μl/>250/μl for men/women, respectively) or low. Cox models were used to investigate risk factors for discontinuations due to hypersensitivity reactions (HSR, n = 6547) and discontinuation of NVPc due to treatment-limiting toxicities and/or patient/physician choice (TOXPC, n = 10 186). Patients were classified according to prior antiretroviral treatment experience and CD4 cell count/viral load at start NVPc. Models were stratified by cohort and adjusted for age, sex, nadir CD4 cell count, calendar year of starting NVPc and mode of transmission. Results:Median time from starting NVPc to TOXPC and HSR were 162 days [interquartile range (IQR) 31–737] and 30 days (IQR 17–60), respectively. In adjusted Cox analyses, compared to naive patients with a low CD4 cell count, treatment-experienced patients with high CD4 cell count and viral load more than 400 had a significantly increased risk for HSR [hazard ratio 1.45, confidence interval (CI) 1.03–2.03] and TOXPC within 18 weeks (hazard ratio 1.34, CI 1.08–1.67). In contrast, treatment-experienced patients with high CD4 cell count and viral load less than 400 had no increased risk for HSR 1.10 (0.82–1.46) or TOXPC within 18 weeks (hazard ratio 0.94, CI 0.78–1.13). Conclusion:Our results suggest it may be relatively well tolerated to initiate NVPc in antiretroviral-experienced patients with high CD4 cell counts provided there is no detectable viremia.
The Milgram Paradigm After 35 Years : Some Things We Now Know About Obedience to Authority ' THOMAS

Guided by the belief that we cannot make broad extrapolations from the obedience studies without first firmly establishing what has and has not been found using the paradigm itself, this article draws on 35 years of accumulated research and writings on the obedience paradigm to present a status report on the following salient questions and issues surrounding obedience to authority: (a) How should we construe the nature of authority in the obedience experiment? (b) Do predictions of those unfamiliar with the obedience experiment underestimate the actual obedience rates? (c) Are there gender differences in obedience? and (d) Have obedience rates changed over time?
Retention of Stem Cell Plasticity in Avian Primitive Streak Cells and the Effects of Local Microenvironment

Primitive streak (PS) is the first structure occurring in embryonic gastrulation, in which the epiblast cells undergo the epithelial‐mesenchymal transition to become the loose mesoderm cells subsequently. Because the mesoderm cells departing from different portions of PS are blessed with disparate migration trajectory and differentiation fate, one question is when the cell fate is determinated. To understand whether the cell fate and cell migration pattern will be alternated along with the microenvironment transformation, the traditional transplantation technology was used to replace the anterior PS cells in HH4 host embryo using posterior PS tissue labeled by green fluorescent protein (GFP) in the same stage donor embryo, and then, we tracked the migration trajectory of the GFP‐positive cells with fluorescence stereomicroscope after incubation, and eventually verified the cell contribution from the transplants with in situ hybridization and immunocytochemistry. The same experimental strategy applied for posterior PS site replacement in host embryo. We found that the transplanted posterior PS cells to anterior part of streak followed the anterior PS cell migration pattern rather than kept its posterior streak cell migration trajectory, and so did vice versa. In addition, the transplants were involved in the contribution to the subsequent organogenesis as the local PS tissues affirmed by specific expression of myocardial or hematopoietic markers. Therefore, our data strongly suggest that the PS cells still keep stem cell plasticity during gastrulation and the eventual cell fate will depend on the spatial gene expression within local microenvironment along with development. Anat Rec, 296:533–543, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Special axo‐dendritic synapses in the hippocampal cortex: Electron and light microscopic studies on the layer of mossy fibers

Electron microscopy of restricted, well-defined portions of the central nervous system is advantageous in providing anatomical data on a specific region as well as on nervous tissue in general. We have chosen for study the layer of mossy fibers within the hippocampal portion of the cerebral cortex. This region is packed with numerous axons and dendritic shafts of characteristic dimensions and course. It was hoped, therefore
The Use of Vibration as an Exercise Intervention

CARDINALE, M. , and C. BOSCO. The use of vibration as an exercise intervention. Exerc. Sport Sci. Rev., Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 3–7, 2003. The use of vibration as a means for enhancing athletic performance is a recent issue in exercise physiology. Current evidence suggests that vibration is effective in enhancing strength and the power capacity of humans, although the mechanisms mediating this effect are unknown.
Hemifacial spasm associated with epidermoid tumors of the cerebellopontine angle

Hemifacial spasm (HFS) is rarely due to serious compressive lesions, such as tumors, aneurysms, or vascular malformations, located in the cerebellopontine angle. Because of the interesting association of HFS with epidermoid tumors, we reviewed the records of all patients with HFS and all patients with intracranial epidermoid tumors seen from January 1975 to December 1986. Of the 18 patients who had epidermoid tumors of the cerebellopontine angle, 3 (17%) had a facial movement disorder that resembled HFS at sometime during their illness. There were 429 patients who had HFS with no obvious serious compressive lesion of the facial nerve. Therefore, HFS was associated with epidermoid tumor in 0.7% of cases. All 3 patients developed other findings due to involvement of adjacent neural structures. Patients with HFS have a low probability of having a serious compressive lesion, but those with atypical features should be evaluated for cerebellopontine angle masses such as epidermoid tumors.
Improved Detection of Developmental Delays Among Young Children in Foster Care

OBJECTIVE: Our goal was to determine if systematic use of a validated developmental screening instrument is feasible and improves the detection of developmental delay (DD) in a pediatric medical home for children in foster care. DESIGN AND METHODS: This study had a pre-post study design, following a practice intervention to screen all children in foster care for DD by using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ). The baseline detection rate was determined by medical chart review for all children aged 4 to 61 months who were new to foster care (NFC) during a 2-year period. After implementation of systematic screening, caregivers of young children who were NFC or already in foster care (IFC) completed the ASQ at preventive health care visits. We assessed the feasibility of systematic screening (the percentage of ASQs completed among the NFC and IFC groups). We compared the detection of DD among the baseline NFC group and the screening-NFC group by using bivariate and multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS: Of 261 visits that occurred after initiation of screening, 251 (96%) visits had a completed ASQ form in the medical chart, demonstrating high feasibility. Among children who were NFC, the detection of DD was higher in the screening than baseline period for the entire population (58% vs 29%; P < .001), for each age group (infants: 37% vs 14%; toddlers: 89% vs 42%; preschool: 82% vs 44%; all P ≤ .01), and for all developmental domains. On adjusted analyses, the detection of potential DD in toddler and preschool children was higher among the NFC screening group than the NFC baseline group. CONCLUSION: Systematic screening for DD using the ASQ was feasible and seemed to double the detection of DDs.
A Dual-Polarized Planar-Array Antenna for S-Band and X-Band Airborne Applications

A new dual-frequency dual-polarized array antenna for airborne applications is presented in this paper. Two planar arrays with thin substrates (R/T Duroid 5880 substrate, with epsivr = 2.2 and a thickness of 0.13 mm) are integrated to provide simultaneous operation at S band (3 GHz) and X band (10 GHz). Each 3 GHz antenna element is a large rectangular ring-resonator antenna, and has a 9.5 dBi gain that is about 3 dB higher than the gain of an ordinary ring antenna. The 10 GHz antenna elements are circular patches. They are combined to form the array with a gain of 18.3 dBi, using a series-fed structure to save the space of the feeding line network. The ultra-thin array can be easily placed on an aircraft's fuselage, due to its lightweight and conformal structure. It will be useful for wireless communication, radar, remote sensing, and surveillance applications.
Waiting for in vitro fertilization treatment: Spontaneous and ART live births

This study analysed the live birth rates in 760 couples referred in 1994 to St Mary's Hospital, Manchester, a non-fee-paying National Health Service (NHS) centre, who had waited for up to 4 years for IVF treatment. These live birth rates were compared with those of 199 couples referred at a similar time to Manchester Fertility Services, a fee-paying unit, where they received IVF treatment shortly after referral. The waiting time was advantageous in that 17.8% (135 of 760) of the couples referred to St Mary's Hospital conceived without IVF treatment, 60% within one year of referral. However, the waiting time was detrimental to women aged 30–34 in whom treatment was delayed by 3–4 years. Only 26.8% (204 of 760) of couples originally referred eventually received NHS-funded IVF treatment at St Mary's. A waiting time not exceeding 18 months would allow most spontaneous conceptions and reduce the adverse effect of prolonged waiting on the take-up rate for treatment and on the chance of success in the older women.
Cooperative coding for wireless networks

User-cooperation represents an effective way of introducing diversity in wireless networks. Spatial diversity gains are obtained through the cooperation of mobile users and the use of the partner's antenna. In this paper, we design channel codes that are capable of achieving the full diversity provided by user-cooperation, with the constraint that they also provide the best possible performance in the noncooperative case. The codes continue to perform well, even when the interuser channel is noisy, still offering significant improvements with respect to the noncooperative case.