Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physician versus computer knowledge of potential drug interactions in the emergency department.

INTRODUCTION Proliferation of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs makes it impossible for emergency medicine (EM) faculty to stay current on potential interactions between drugs, and with diseases, laboratory tests, and ethanol. A computer database may augment physician knowledge. OBJECTIVES To compare the performance of EM faculty and an "expert" emergency physician (EP) with that of a criterion standard computer database in identifying potential drug interactions, and to report the incidence of drug-ethanol and drug-laboratory test interactions. METHODS This was a retrospective review of 276 emergency department charts for drug, ethanol, lab, and medical history. Evaluation by both EM faculty and an "expert" EP of patient history was done to identify potential interactions, and comparison with the Micromedex Drug-Reax database for potential interactions (graded minor, moderate, or major) was made. Clinical significance of potential interactions was judged by a second EM faculty member. RESULTS Seventeen percent of the patients had potential drug-drug interactions, and 25% of these were judged to be clinically significant. Up to 52% of the patients had potential drug-ethanol interactions, while 38% of the patients could have potential drug-lab interactions. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of the EM faculty for potential drug-drug interactions compared with the computer were poor, at 14%, 58%, 6%, and 23%, respectively. The corresponding values for the "expert" EP were 25%, 86%, 26%, and 85%. The "expert" EP was statistically better than the EM faculty, but still less sensitive and predictive than the computer. CONCLUSIONS A computer can aid the physician in avoiding potential drug interactions. Prospective validation of these findings should be done.
A clinic-based molecular epidemiologic study of tuberculosis in Monterrey, Mexico.

SETTING A tuberculosis clinic associated with a university hospital in Monterrey, Mexico, an urban community with high tuberculosis incidence. OBJECTIVE To determine the diversity of DNA fingerprint patterns and the extent of drug resistance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from patients who attended the clinic. DESIGN Isolates of M. tuberculosis obtained from 186 patients during the period from 31 January 1996 to 31 March 1998 were tested for susceptibility to isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol and streptomycin. Demographic data and the social history of each patient were obtained prospectively by interview. The IS6110 DNA fingerprints were obtained for 166 of the 186 isolates. Secondary typing was carried out on isolates with fewer than six copies of IS6110. RESULTS Thirty-two per cent of the tested isolates (60/ 186) were drug-resistant, and 18% (33/186) were multidrug-resistant. Approximately 55% of the resistant isolates (33/60) were attributed to acquired resistance. A total of 106 different IS6110 fingerprint patterns were observed among the 166 fingerprinted isolates. Based on both IS6110 and pTBN12 fingerprinting, 65 (39%) of the 166 isolates were part of 22 DNA fingerprint clusters. Various drug susceptibility patterns were seen in most clusters. CONCLUSION Fingerprint clustering indicates extensive recent transmission of tuberculosis in patients attending the clinic. The prevalence of drug-resistant tuberculosis is high.
Comprehensive ribotyping scheme for heat-stable serotypes of Campylobacter jejuni

Strains from diverse sources belonging to all 47 heat-stable Penner serotypes of Campylobacter jejuni were examined for polymorphism around the 16S rRNA genes. Penner serotype reference strains and a group of nonserotypeable isolates were included in the study. Complete typeability was obtained; 30 distinct PstI and 42 HaeIII polymorphisms were found. Three bands were detected in almost all strains with these enzymes, confirming that three copies of the 16S rRNA gene are typical for C.jejuni. By combination of the two enzyme polymorphisms, 77 16S ribotypes were defined among the 261 strains analyzed. With two exceptions, no specific association was observed between these ribotypes and heat-stable serotypes. Nine serotypes were homogeneous with respect to the 16S ribotype. Most nonserotypeable strains belonged to ribotypes defined elsewhere in the study. The 16S ribotypes of C.jejuni described here were not found in strains of Campylobacter coli, and vice versa.
Adaptive Facial Behaviour using Selected Machine Learning Methods

In the not so distant future, robots looking like humans may be part of our everyday lifestyle. Then it would be important that they provide a natural behaviour and mimic. To make this possible, the way artificial skin is controlled by a number of actuators would have to be addressed. In this paper, we compare a number of partly novel algorithms for adapting to a number of different eye brow expressions. The results indicate that the novel algorithms perform better than the existing algorithms.
The use of Fish Cells in Ecotoxicology: The Report and Recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 471, 2

This is the report of the forty-seventh of a series of workshops organised by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). ECVAM’s main goal, as defined in 1993 by its Scientific Advisory Committee, is to promote the scientific and regulatory acceptance of alternative methods which are of importance to the biosciences and which reduce, refine or replace the use of laboratory animals. One of the first priorities set by ECVAM was the implementation of procedures which would enable it to become well informed about the state-of-the-art of non-animal test development and validation, and the potential for the possible incorporation of alternative tests into regulatory procedures. It was decided that this would be best achieved by the organisation of ECVAM workshops on specific topics, at which small groups of invited experts would review the current status of various types of in vitro tests and their potential uses, and make recommendations about the best ways forward (1). The workshop on the use of fish cells in ecotoxicology was held in Angera, Italy, on 22–24 October 2001, under the co-chairmanship of Argelia Castaño (Animal Health Research Centre, Spanish National Institute for Food and Agrarian Research and Technology, Valdeolmos, Madrid, Spain) and Helmut Segner (Centre for Fish and Wildlife Health, University of Bern, Switzerland). The participants came from international regulatory or governmental organisations, academia and industry. The objectives of the workshop were: a) to critically review the potential use of fish cells to replace, reduce or refine existing regulatory tests which involve the use of fish for ecotoxicological purposes; and b) to discuss the advantages, limitations, and possible future applications of fish cell systems in hazard assessment, ecotoxicological research and testing, and in environmental surveillance and monitoring. The Use of Fish Cells in Ecotoxicology
Ureteroscopic pneumatic lithotripsy of impacted ureteral calculi.

INTRODUCTION This work evaluates the results of ureteroscopic treatment of impacted ureteral stones with a pneumatic lithotripter. MATERIALS AND METHODS From March 1997 to May 2002, 42 patients with impacted ureteral stones were treated by retrograde ureteroscopic pneumatic lithotripsy. Twenty-eight patients were female and 14 were male. The stone size ranged from 5 to 20 mm. The ureteral sites of the stones were distal in 21, middle in 12 and proximal in 9. RESULTS Considering stones with distal location in the ureter, 1 patient had ureteral perforation and developed a stricture in the follow-up (4.7%). As for stones in the middle ureter, 2 perforations and 1 stricture were observed (8.3%) and regarding stones located in the proximal ureter, 5 perforations and 4 strictures occurred (44%). In the mid ureter, 1 ureteral avulsion was verified. In 34 patients without ureteral perforation, only 1 developed a stricture (2.9%). Of 8 patients who had perforation, 6 developed strictures. The overall incidence of stricture following treatment of impacted ureteral calculi was 14.2%. CONCLUSIONS Ureteroscopy for impacted ureteral calculi is associated with a higher incidence of ureteral perforation and stricture. Ureteroscopy of proximal ureteral calculi is associated with a high risk of perforation, when compared to mid or distal ureteral calculi. Ureteral perforation at the site of the stone seems to be the primary risk factor for stricture formation in these cases.
Intervention among frequent attenders of the out-of-hours service: A stratified cluster randomized controlled trial

Objective – To investigate whether the number of frequent attenders (FA) contacts with the out-of-hours service can be reduced by deploying a combination of intervention strategies. Design – A stratified cluster randomized controlled trial, each cluster containing a general practice and all its listed patients. Setting – The out-of-hours service in the county of Northern Jutland (490 000 inhabitants), Denmark. Interventions – The following intervention strategies were deployed: predisposition, individual instruction, economic incitement, continuing medical education meetings, feedback/reminder, and patient-mediated intervention. Subjects – An intervention group of 3500 patients and a control group of 4635 patients. Main outcome measures – Absolute and relative fall in the number of contacts with the out-of-hours service per patient after 6 and 12 months. Results – Analysed by group, intervention patients saw a more pronounced decline in the number of contacts than controls, except for two outcomes. However, this difference was only significant after 12 months. For women aged 17–66 years with 5–9 contacts during the previous 12 months, the decrease was significantly more pronounced in the intervention group for all outcomes (p=0.004–0.042). However, for the rest of the subgroups the effect varied more, and in several cases it was more distinct in the control group. Conclusion – The data collected point towards an effect of intervention on the use of out-of-hours services even if the responses obtained were not uniform and unequivocal. However, one has to consider the problems of multiple comparisons and in conclusion no convincing effect of the intervention was found.
Development of Safe Drugs: The hERG Challenge

Drug‐induced blockade of human ether‐a‐go‐go‐related gene (hERG) remains a major impediment in delivering safe drugs to the market. Several drugs have been withdrawn from the market due to their severe cardiotoxic side effects triggered by their off‐target interactions with hERG. Thus, identifying the potential hERG blockers at early stages of lead discovery is fast evolving as a standard in drug design and development. A number of in silico structure‐based models of hERG have been developed as a low‐cost solution to evaluate drugs for hERG liability, and it is now agreed that the hERG blockers bind at the large central cavity of the channel. Nevertheless, there is no clear convergence on the appropriate drug binding modes against the channel. The proposed binding modes differ in their orientations and interpretations on the role of key residues in the channel. Such ambiguities in the modes of binding remain to be a significant challenge in achieving efficient computational predictive models and in saving many important already Food and Drug Administration approved drugs. In this review, we discuss the spectrum of reported binding modes for hERG blockers, the various in silico models developed for predicting a drug's affinity to hERG, and the known successful optimization strategies to avoid off‐target interactions with hERG.
Dialect and Foreign Language Features in Greek-Cypriot Advertising: Investigating Factors Influencing Recipients’ Attitudes

Although advertising aims at promoting goods, by incorporating phenomena like code-mixing, it becomes an interesting area for linguists to study. In this paper, we aimed at investigating Greek-Cypriots’ view of the appearance of dialect and foreign features in local advertising. In doing so, an effort was made to test influence by the medium used to present the advertisement or the stereotype reflected. The results support studies that showed preference towards the standard variety (Papapavlou 1998). However, advertisers’ insistence on associating different types of products with different codes (Pavlou 1992, 2004) does not bear support.
Human resource management in hospitality firms in Egypt: Does size matter?

Small hospitality firms are very important to the Egyptian economy because of their potential contributions to economic growth and job creation. However, there is a paucity research about small hospitality firms in developing countries, i.e. Egypt. This research bridges a gap in knowledge and investigates human resource management practices in small versus large hospitality firms in Egypt. A pretested questionnaire was self-administered to workers in four groups of hospitality firms: large chain, large independent, small chain, and small independent. The results showed that chain hospitality firms are more likely to practice formal and appropriate human resource management in comparison to other independent firms regardless their size. The results showed that there are statistical significant differences within small firms and also within large firms. Small hospitality firms are not homogenous and recognizing the level of heterogeneity within these firms, will lead to better understanding human resource management practices in these firms. Policy makers in Egypt should pay serious attention to small hospitality firms. Failure to this will impact negatively on the hospitality industry and ultimately on tourism development, which is critical to the Egyptian economy.
The University of Toronto Head Injury Treatment Study: A Prospective, Randomized Comparison of Pentobarbital and Mannitol

ABSTRACT Fifty-nine patients were treated in a prospective, randomized comparison of pentobarbital and mannitol for the control of intracranial hypertension resulting from head injury. Patients with elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) after evacuation of intracranial hematomas were randomized to one of two treatment groups; mannitol initially or pentobarbital initially, followed by the second drug as required by further elevation of ICP. Similarly, patients with raised ICP but without hematomas requiring evacuation were randomly assigned to two treatment groups in an identical paradigm. Those with ICP elevation and no hematoma treated with pentobarbital as initial therapy had a 77% mortality compared to a 41% mortality for those with mannitol as initial treatment. Patients with evacuated hematomas had mortalities of 40% and 43% (no significant difference) for pentobarbital and mannitol respectively. In both no-hematoma and hematoma streams pentobarbital was less effective than mannitol for control of raised ICP. Multivariate statistical analysis indicates that pentobarbital coma is not better than mannitol for the treatment of intracranial hypertension and may be harmful in no-hematoma patients with intracranial hypertension after head injury.
Comparison of Hybribio GenoArray and Roche Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Linear Array for HPV Genotyping in Anal Swab Samples

ABSTRACT Human papillomavirus (HPV) is causally associated with anal cancer, as HPV DNA is detected in up to 90% of anal intraepithelial neoplasias and anal cancers. With the gradual increase of anal cancer rates, there is a growing need to establish reliable and clinically relevant methods to detect anal cancer precursors. In resource-limited settings, HPV DNA detection is a potentially relevant tool for anal cancer screening. Here, we evaluated the performance of the Hybribio GenoArray (GA) for genotyping HPV in anal samples, against the reference standard Roche Linear Array (LA). Anal swab samples were obtained from sexually active men who have sex with men. Following DNA extraction, each sample was genotyped using GA and LA. The overall interassay agreement, type-specific, and single and multiple genotype agreements were evaluated by kappa statistics and McNemar's χ2 tests. Using GA and LA, 68% and 76% of samples were HPV DNA positive, respectively. There was substantial interassay agreements for the detection of all HPV genotypes (κ = 0.70, 86% agreement). Although LA was able to detect more genotypes per sample, the interassay agreement was acceptable (κ = 0.53, 63% agreement). GA had poorer specific detection of HPV genotypes 35, 42, and 51 (κ < 0.60). In conclusion, GA and LA showed good interassay agreement for the detection of most HPV genotypes in anal samples. However, the detection of HPV DNA in up to 76% of anal samples warrants further evaluation of its clinical significance.
Radiation-induced insufficiency fractures of the pelvis: evaluation with 99mTc-methylene diphosphonate scintigraphy.

99mTc-methylene diphosphonate (99mTc-MDP) bone scans in 80 patients, 30-80 years old (average, 62 years old) with uterine cancer who received high doses of radiation (10-60 Gy; average, 46 Gy) were reviewed retrospectively to evaluate the frequency of pelvic insufficiency fractures caused by radiotherapy and to study the appearance of the fractures on bone scans. Bone scans in 29 of 80 patients showed abnormalities in the pelvis: insufficiency fractures were identified in 27 patients (34%) and osseous metastases were found in two patients (3%). The fractures and metastases were diagnosed by CT and were confirmed by observing the patients' clinical courses. Fractures were identified in 27 (39%) of 69 postmenopausal women and in none of 11 premenopausal patients (p greater than .05). Fractures were found in 21 (84%) of 25 patients who had pelvic pain and in six (11%) of 55 patients who were asymptomatic (p greater than .001). Scintigrams in patients with fractures showed more than one fracture in most patients (85%), and fractures were often symmetric (67%). Scintigrams in two patients with osseous metastases showed increased activity in an iliac wing that was outside the radiation field. Our results suggest that a marked increase in insufficiency fractures occurs after radiation therapy, especially in postmenopausal patients. A symmetric area of increased uptake of radionuclide is a characteristic scintigraphic appearance of an insufficiency fracture.
The Nominal Stock Price Puzzle: a Long View, Sweden

We study nominal and real stock prices in Sweden over the sixty-year period 1950-2009. Real GDP growth rate and real equity return is negatively correlated and over our sample period stocks have a higher growth rate compared to GDP. We find that the average stock price has declined over time. In a multivariate setting, the frequency of stock splits is positively correlated to the number of stock splits the prior year and also to the nominal stock price level. Further, recent overall return on the market (prior two year) seems to be unrelated to the propensity to stock splits.
Trimethoprim-resistant Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli strains in children in Thailand.

The percentage of Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) strains resistant to trimethoprim (TMP)-sulfamethoxazole isolated from children with diarrhea at the outpatient department of the Children's Hospital in Bangkok increased from 3 and 0%, respectively, in 1982 to 29% and 25% in 1986. One hundred thirty-nine Shigella and 22 ETEC strains resistant to greater than 1024 micrograms/ml of trimethoprim (TMPr) isolated from children with diarrhea in Bangkok in 1984 and 1985 were analyzed for the presence of type I, II and III plasmid-specific dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) genes. Thirty-two percent (45 of 139) of TMPR Shigella had genes encoding type II and 9% (13 of 139) had genes encoding type I DHFR genes. Fifty percent (11 of 22) of TMPR ETEC had type II and 14% (3 of 22) had type I DHFR genes. Plasmids encoding DHFR were identified by the Southern technique in 24% (14 of 58) of Shigella and 1 of 14 ETEC that contained genes encoding DHFR. Plasmids coding for type II DHFR were transferred to E. coli K12 by conjugation from 13 of 14 Shigella and a plasmid coding for type I DHFR was transferred from the single ETEC containing a plasmid coding for type I DHFR. Genes coding for DHFR were presumably situated on the chromosome in 76% (44 of 58) of Shigella and 93% (13 of 14) of ETEC that contained genes encoding DHFR. Since 58% (81 of 139) of TMPR Shigella and 36% (8 of 22) of TMPR ETEC strains examined did not contain genes encoding type I, II or III DHFR, high level TMP resistance was presumably caused by other types of DHFR genes. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
There is a trend for the diagnosis of glaucoma to be made at an earlier stage in 2010 compared to 2008 in Oxford, United Kingdom

New guidelines on glaucoma diagnosis and management were published by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) in 2009. The aim of this study was to determine whether these guidelines on glaucoma referral have changed the numbers of patients diagnosed with glaucoma in Oxford and whether the severity of disease at presentation has altered between 2008 and 2010.
On the relevance of social media platforms in predicting the volume and patterns of web defacement attacks

Social media platforms are commonly employed for collecting Open Source Intelligence (OSNIT) on criminals, and assessing the risk they pose to the environment they live in. However, since no prior research has investigated the relationships between hackers' use of social media platforms and their likelihood to generate cyber-attacks, this practice is less common among Information Technology Teams. Addressing this empirical gap, we draw on the social learning theory to estimate the relationships between hackers' use of social media platforms and web defacement attacks. We use publicly available hackers' reports of successful web defacement attacks and complemented with an independent data collection we launched to identify these hackers' use of different social media platforms. Our analysis and results reveal a significant link between hackers' use of social media platforms, specifically Twitter and Facebook, and the volume of web defacement attacks. While using these social media platforms is related to an increase in the volume of attacks generated during weekdays, it has no association with the volume of attacks they launch over weekends. Finally, although hackers' use of both Facebook and Twitter accounts is associated with an increase in the frequency of attacks generated against non-USA websites, the use of only Twitter is linked to a significant increase in the volume of web defacement attacks against USA websites.
Properties of a Pseudomonas stutzeri outer membrane channel-forming protein (NosA) required for production of copper-containing N2O reductase

A protein (NosA) in the outer membrane of Pseudomonas stutzeri that is required for copper to be inserted into N2O reductase has been extracted and purified to homogeneity. The purified protein could form channels in black lipid bilayers. Like N2O reductase, NosA contained copper and was only made anaerobically. In contrast to N2O reductase, its synthesis was repressed by exogenous copper (but not by Mn, Co, Ni, Zn, or Fe). Also in contrast to N2O reductase, NosA homologs were not immunologically detectable in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Pseudomonas mendocina, Pseudomonas alcaligenes, or other strains of P. stutzeri.