Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioimpedance-based identification of malnutrition using fuzzy logic

Protein-energy malnutrition reduces the quality of life, lengthens the time in hospital and dramatically increases mortality. Currently there is no simple and objective method available for assessing nutritional status and identifying malnutrition. The aim of this work is to develop a novel assistance system that supports the physician in the assessment of the nutritional status. Therefore, three subject groups were investigated: the first group consisted of 688 healthy subjects. Two additional groups consisted of 707 patients: 94 patients with primary diseases that are known to cause malnutrition, and 613 patients from a hospital admission screening. In all subjects bioimpedance spectroscopy measurements were performed, and the body composition was calculated. Additionally, in all patients the nutritional status was assessed by the subjective global assessment score. These data are used for the development and validation of the assistance system. The basic idea of the system is that nutritional status is reflected by body composition. Hence, features of the nutritional status, based on the body composition, are determined and compared with reference ranges, derived from healthy subjects' data. The differences are evaluated by a fuzzy logic system or a decision tree in order to identify malnourished patients. The novel assistance system allows the identification of malnourished patients, and it can be applied for screening and monitoring of the nutritional status of hospital patients.
Short Selling and Default Prediction: International Evidence

We examine how short selling affects the accuracy of default prediction models. Our results indicate that a dynamic multiperiod logit model accurately predicts 18 percentage points more actual occurrences of default in countries where short-selling is widely practiced. Moreover, our analyses indicate that short selling has virtually no impact on the proportion of inaccurately classified non-default observations. In addition, we find that the lower predictive accuracy in short sale constrained environments is attenuated by the introduction of put option trading. Taken together, these results provide evidence that short selling increases the informativeness of equity market indicators of financial distress without affecting the level of uninformative speculative trading. Finally, in countries that face significant short selling restrictions, our results indicate that greater availability of other, non-market-based, sources of information significantly improves default prediction accuracy, providing evidence of an enhanced role for corporate transparency in settings with significant capital market frictions.
Neural representation for the temporal structure of sound patterns.

Responses to infrequently exchanging two segments of a complex tonal pattern were tested for the presence of the mismatch negativity event-related brain potential component. This component is elicited when an auditory stimulus differs from the sensory memory trace of the previously presented repetitive sound. Because the segments exchanged in the tonal pattern differed from each other only in their durations, the elicitation of the mismatch response revealed that the temporal structure of sound patterns is encoded in the traces underlying the mismatch process. Results showing that the mismatch response was elicited even when the tonal patterns were presented continuously (i.e. without silent intervals separating successive patterns) demonstrate the automatic detection of periodicity in the acoustic stream.
The Chordae Tendineae of the Heart in Chicken

In this study, the chordae tendineae of 10 adult chickens have been investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM). It has been observed that the diameter of the collagen fibrils on the left side of the heart was greater than those on the right side. The present study has determined that only perichordal and interchordal ligaments are present in the chicken. It was also observed that axial tendons were surrounded by perichordal membrane. Although no difference was evident among the apex of the chordae, differences were observed between the base and apex of the same chordae.
A review of the use of business simulation to enhance students' employability (wip)

This paper investigates the potential use of business simulation games in enhancing employability skills of undergraduate business students in UK higher education institutions. It identifies the meaning of employability to different stakeholders in order to generate a list of skills that are considered important to various stakeholders as employers, government and academics. The benefits and learning outcomes as well as perceived limitations of business simulation games are then defined. Employability skills that can be improved using business simulation games and the importance of mapping and testing employability skills developments in simulation business environment are recognised.
Intravenous Lidocaine Speeds the Return of Bowel Function, Decreases Postoperative Pain, and Shortens Hospital Stay in Patients Undergoing Radical Retropubic Prostatectomy

Postoperative ileus is a concern among surgical patients.Epidural anesthesia and analgesia with local anesthetics can decrease the duration of ileus. Significant systemic absorption of local anesthesia occurs during epidural use. In this study, we examined whether many of the beneficial effects on bowel function seen with epidural lidocaine are also present when the drug is given parenterally. Forty patients undergoing radical retropubic prostatectomy were studied with one half of the patients receiving a lidocaine bolus (1.5 mg/kg) and infusion (3 mg/min, unless weight <70 kg, then 2 mg/min); the other half received a saline infusion. A blind observer recorded the patient's daily pain score, the time the patient first experienced flatulence and had the first bowel movement, and the total use of analgesics. Lidocaine-treated patients first experienced flatulence in a significantly shorter time (P < 0.01) than control patients. Lidocaine patients' hospital stay was also significantly shorter (P < 0.05); on average, they spent 1.1 fewer days in the hospital. IV lidocaine initiated before anesthesia and continued 1 h postoperatively significantly sped up the return of bowel function. Lidocaine patients were also more comfortable postoperatively. Many of the bowel function benefits attributed to epidural lidocaine are also present when the drug is administered parenterally. Additionally, the length of hospital stay was reduced in lidocaine-treated patients. Implications: This study prospectively examined whether IV lidocaine could affect the return of bowel function after radical prostate surgery. Lidocaine-treated patients had shorter hospital stays, less pain, and faster return of bowel function. In this population, lidocaine infusion can be a useful adjunct in anesthetic management. (Anesth Analg 1998;86:235-9)
Alteration of Marrow Cell Gene Expression, Protein Production, and Engraftment into Lung by Lung‐Derived Microvesicles: A Novel Mechanism for Phenotype Modulation

Numerous animal studies have demonstrated that adult marrow‐derived cells can contribute to the cellular component of the lung. Lung injury is a major variable in this process; however, the mechanism remains unknown. We hypothesize that injured lung is capable of inducing epigenetic modifications of marrow cells, influencing them to assume phenotypic characteristics of lung cells. We report that under certain conditions, radiation‐injured lung induced expression of pulmonary epithelial cell‐specific genes and prosurfactant B protein in cocultured whole bone marrow cells separated by a cell‐impermeable membrane. Lung‐conditioned media had a similar effect on cocultured whole bone marrow cells and was found to contain pulmonary epithelial cell‐specific RNA‐filled microvesicles that entered whole bone marrow cells in culture. Also, whole bone marrow cells cocultured with lung had a greater propensity to produce type II pneumocytes after transplantation into irradiated mice. These findings demonstrate alterations of marrow cell phenotype by lung‐derived microvesicles and suggest a novel mechanism for marrow cell‐directed repair of injured tissue.
The pallidosubthalamic projection: An anatomical substrate for nonmotor functions of the subthalamic nucleus in primates

The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is the best target for correcting motor disability in parkinsonian patients with high‐frequency stimulation. However, STN stimulation has also been reported to modify cognitive, emotional, and motivational functions. The aim of this study was to analyze the topographic organization of the STN according to its inputs coming from the sensorimotor, associative, and limbic territories of the external globus pallidus (GPe) in monkeys, with special reference to the limbic projection. Axonal tracers were injected into the different functional territories of the GPe. Injection performed in the limbic GPe resulted in labeling of cell bodies in the dorsal nucleus accumbens and in a dense labeling of axons in the anterior and medioventral portion of the STN. In comparison, injections in the associative and sensorimotor GPe led to labeling in the central and dorsolateral parts of the STN, respectively. Individual pallidosubthalamic axons ramified into numerous varicose branches, which were restricted to a given territory in the STN. These data provide a functional cartography of this structure in primates and suggest that behavioral disorders observed in stimulated parkinsonian patients could result from a dysfunction of the limbic part of the STN. © 2004 Movement Disorder Society
Estimating Intergenerational Mobility With Grouped Data

This article distinguishes three measures of intergenerational economic mobility that emerge when the population is divided into groups: overall individual mobility, within-group mobility, and between-group mobility. We clarify their properties and the relationship between them. We then evaluate Clark’s use of surname between-group persistence as a preferred measure of intergenerational mobility in the book The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility. We show that aggregate surname-level intergenerational persistence cannot be compared with individual persistence because group-level income averages captures diverse individual-level and group-level factors impossible to disentangle without additional identifying information. Furthermore, measures of group persistence do not address the problem of measurement error leading to attenuation bias, which is Clark’s rationale to study surname mobility. An empirical example partitioning the population into groups based on racial/ethnic origins and a simulation clarify the relationship between these different measures of mobility.
Enhancing Communication Between Oncologists and Patients With a Computer-Based Training Program

BACKGROUND Quality cancer care requires addressing patients' emotions, which oncologists infrequently do. Multiday courses can teach oncologists skills to handle emotion; however, such workshops are long and costly. OBJECTIVE To test whether a brief, computerized intervention improves oncologist responses to patient expressions of negative emotion. DESIGN Randomized, controlled, parallel-group trial stratified by site, sex, and oncologic specialty. Oncologists were randomly assigned to receive a communication lecture or the lecture plus a tailored CD-ROM. (ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT00276627) SETTING Oncology clinics at a comprehensive cancer center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, and a comprehensive cancer center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. PARTICIPANTS 48 medical, gynecologic, and radiation oncologists and 264 patients with advanced cancer. INTERVENTION Oncologists were randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to receive an interactive CD-ROM about responding to patients' negative emotions. The CD-ROM included tailored feedback on the oncologists' own recorded conversations. MEASUREMENTS Postintervention audio recordings were used to identify the number of empathic statements and responses to patients' expressions of negative emotion. Surveys evaluated patients' trust in their oncologists and perceptions of their oncologists' communication skills. RESULTS Oncologists in the intervention group used more empathic statements (relative risk, 1.9 [95% CI, 1.1 to 3.3]; P = 0.024) and were more likely to respond to negative emotions empathically (odds ratio, 2.1 [CI, 1.1 to 4.2]; P = 0.028) than control oncologists. Patients of intervention oncologists reported greater trust in their oncologists than did patients of control oncologists (estimated mean difference, 0.1 [CI, 0.0 to 0.2]; P = 0.036). There was no significant difference in perceptions of communication skills. LIMITATIONS Long-term effects were not examined. The findings may not be generalizable outside of academic medical centers. CONCLUSION A brief computerized intervention improves how oncologists respond to patients' expressions of negative emotions. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE National Cancer Institute.
Functional Antagonism of Chemokine Receptor CCR1 Reduces Mortality in Acute Pneumovirus Infection In Vivo

ABSTRACT We present an antiviral-immunomodulatory therapeutic strategy involving the chemokine receptor antagonist Met-RANTES, which yields significant survival in the setting of an otherwise fatal respiratory virus infection. In previous work, we demonstrated that infection with the natural rodent pathogen pneumonia virus of mice involves robust virus replication accompanied by cellular inflammation modulated by the CC chemokine macrophage inflammatory protein 1α (MIP-1α). We found that the antiviral agent ribavirin limited virus replication in vivo but had no impact on morbidity and mortality associated with this disease in the absence of immunomodulatory control. We show here that ribavirin reduces mortality, from 100% to 10 and 30%, respectively, in gene-deleted CCR1−/− mice and in wild-type mice treated with the small-molecule chemokine receptor antagonist, Met-RANTES. As MIP-1α-mediated inflammation is a common response to several distantly related respiratory virus pathogens, specific antiviral therapy in conjunction with blockade of the MIP-1α/CCR1 inflammatory cascade may ultimately prove to be a useful, generalized approach to severe respiratory virus infection and its pathological sequelae in human subjects.
Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection 44 due to formaldehyde treatment and / or poor Toll-like receptor stimulation by inactivated

Human respiratory syncytial virus (HRSV) is the leading cause of respiratory failure and viral death in infants (Thompson et al., 2003). In HRSV bronchiolitis, plugs of mucus, epithelial cell debris, and innate inflammatory cells obstruct the airways leading to pulmonary obstruction (Aherne et al., 1970; Lugo and Nahata, 1993). In autopsy lung tissues from fatal HRSV disease cases, epithelial damage and mechanical airway obstruction are implicated as key features of HRSV pathogenesis (Johnson et al., 2007; Welliver et al., 2007). Although laboratory animal models of HRSV pathogenesis have been widely used to determine pathogenic mechanisms of HRSV infection, the commonly used lab strains of HRSV do not cause airway epithelial cell desquamation, airway mucus production, or lung dysfunction in mice (Moore et al., 2009a; Peebles et al., 2001). However, some strains of HRSV (e.g. line 19 and clinical isolate A2001/2-20) were shown to cause airway mucus expression and lung dysfunction in mice, and clinical isolates can cause airway epithelial cell desquamation in mice (Moore et al., 2009a; Stokes et al., 2011). The fusion (F) glycoprotein of HRSV strain line 19 was implicated in the mechanism of line 19-induced airway mucus (Moore et al., 2009a). Variation in HRSV glycoprotein sequence may contribute to disease variation observed clinically. The pathogenesis of HRSV is likely due to a combination of host and viral genetic determinants. HRSV strainspecific virulence in mice facilitates mechanistic studies of HRSV pathogenesis and may provide more robust challenge models to test whether vaccines have potential to prevent HRSV disease.
Fate of protein-containing liposomes injected into rats. An approach to the treatment of storage diseases.

[3H]Amyloglucosidase and 131I-labelled albumin were entrapped into liposomes (lipid spherules) composed of phosphatidyl choline, cholesterol and dicetyl phosphate (7:2:1 molar ratio). 131I-labelled albumin was also entrapped in [3H]cholesterol-liposomes. Investigations on the fate in vivo following intravenous injection of such protein-containing liposomes into rats, showed that the bulk of liposomal radioactivity is removed from the blood within minutes. There is no measurable leakage of entrapped 131I-labelled albumin while liposomes are in the circulation. Most of the removed liposomal radioactivity was recovered in the liver. Autoradiographic examination of the liver 3 min after injection of albumin-containing [3H]cholesterol-liposomes suggests that hepatocytes and probably Kupffer cells are involved in the uptake of liposomes. It appears that liposomes enter this tissue intact but subsequently liposomal membranes and entrapped protein are catabolized. These catabolic processes are probably occurring in the liver lysosomes, as most of the liposomal radioactivity in this tissue was recovered in the mitochondrial-lysosomal fraction. Liposomes appear to be promising as a vehicle for the administration of enzymes and possibly also drugs to patients with storage diseases.
Early diagnosis of neonatal sepsis using a hematological scoring system.

OBJECTIVE To assess the utility of the hematologic scoring system (HSS) of Rodwell et al for the early detection of neonatal sepsis. DESIGN Analysis of the peripheral smear findings according to the HSS by a pathologist blinded to the infection status of the neonate. SUBJECTS One hundred and three high risk neonates having predisposing perinatal factors or clinical suspicion of sepsis. RESULTS Analysis of the hematologic profiles in the light of the HSS found that an abnormal immature to total neutrophil (1:T) ratio followed by an abnormal immature to mature neutrophil (1:M) ratio were the most sensitive indicators in identifying infants with sepsis. These two criteria along with thrombocytopenia (< 1,50,000/cm3) had a high negative predictive value over 94%. The study also found that the higher the score the greater the certainty of sepsis being present. CONCLUSION The HSS is simple, quick, cost effective and readily available tool in the early-diagnosis of neonatal sepsis and could provide a guideline to decisions regarding antibiotic therapy.
The LOC387715 Gene, Smoking, Body Mass Index, Environmental Associations with Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Background and Aims: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the leading cause of blindness in the Western World. It is now evident that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to disease susceptibility. We tested the hypotheses that (a) a common coding SNP in the LOC387715 gene is associated with advanced AMD (geographic atrophy or choroidal neovascularization), and (b) that modifiable environmental exposures alter AMD susceptibility associated with this SNP. Methods: A case-control association analysis was performed on participants (530 advanced AMD cases and 280 controls) ascertained as part of the multi-center Age-Related Eye Disease Study. AMD status was determined by the reading center from fundus photographs using the AREDS AMD grading categorization. Environmental risk factor exposure data was collected from participants whose DNA was also genotyped for the LOC387715 gene SNP rs10490924. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. Results and Conclusions: The number of risk alleles at the LOC387715 SNP was associated with advanced AMD, with odds ratios (OR) = 3.0 (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.1–4.3) for the GT heterozygous genotype and OR = 12.1 (5.6–26.5) for the homozygous TT risk genotype, after controlling for demographic and behavioral risk factors. The LOC387715 SNP was associated with both forms of advanced AMD. Current cigarette smoking and body mass index were independently related to AMD, controlling for genotype. However, there was no statistical interaction between LOC387715 genotype and smoking with regard to advanced AMD development.
New statistical strategy for monitoring safety and efficacy in single-arm clinical trials.

PURPOSE Efficacy and toxicity are both important outcomes in cancer clinical trials. Nonetheless, most statistical designs for phase II trials only provide rules for evaluating treatment efficacy, and moreover only allow early stopping after fixed cohorts of patients have been treated. We illustrate a new statistical design strategy for monitoring both adverse and efficacy outcomes on a patient-by-patient basis in phase II and other single-arm clinical trials. DESIGN The new strategy is used to design a phase II trial of the experimental regimen idarubicin plus cytarabine (ara-C) plus cyclosporine for treatment of patients with intermediate-prognosis acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). The design requires a maximum of 56 patients and provides continuous monitoring boundaries to terminate the trial if the toxicity rate is unacceptably high or the complete remission (CR) rate is unacceptably low compared with the rates of these events with the standard regimen of anthracycline plus ara-C. RESULTS The design has an 88% to 91% probability of stopping the trial early with a median of 15 to 18 patients if the toxicity rate of the experimental regimen is . 05 to . 10 above that of the standard and there is no improvement in the CR rate. If there is a . 15 improvement in the CR rate and the toxicity rate is no more than . 05 above that of the standard, then there is at least an 83% probability that the trial will run to completion. CONCLUSION The proposed monitoring strategy provides a flexible, practical means to continuously monitor both safety and efficacy in single-arm cancer clinical trials. The design strategy can be implemented easily using a freely available menu-driven computer program, and provides a scientifically sound alternative to the use of ad hoc safety monitoring rules.
Writing Genres

Short Stories (3-30 pgs.) comic strips Novelas (30-60 pgs.) Poems fables plays/skits ballads and other narrative formats folk tales myths rhyming formats anthologies picture books counted syllable formats fairy tales song lyrics sestina parodies memoirs free verse Adventures Animal Stories Fantasies Historical Fiction Humorous Stories Mysteries Sports Stories Realistic/Contemporary Fiction Science Fiction
A novel counter‐selection method for markerless genetic modification in Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803

The cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is a photosynthetic organism capable of efficient harnessing of solar energy while capturing CO2 from the environment. Methods to genetically alter its genomic DNA are essential for elucidating gene functions and are useful tools for metabolic engineering. In this study, a novel counter‐selection method for the genetic alteration of Synechocystis was developed. This method utilizes the nickel inducible expression of mazF, a general protein synthesis inhibitor, as a counter‐selection marker. Counter‐selection is particularly useful because the engineered strain is free of any markers which make further genetic modification independent of available antibiotic resistance genes. The usability of this method was further demonstrated by altering genes at several loci in two variants of Synechocystis. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog. , 2013