Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Physical and psychological effects of cadaveric dissection on undergraduate medical students.

OBJECTIVE To assess the physical and psychological effects of human cadaveric dissection on undergraduate medical students and to observe the role of counseling in this regard. METHODS The quasi-experimental study was carried out on undergraduate medical students of Foundation University Medical College, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The batch of 2010 was designated as the control group, while the experimental group comprised the batch of 2011. The 2010 batch began dissection without prior counseling, whereas the batch of 2011 was provided counseling ahead of dissection. At the end of the academic year, both the batches were assessed for the effects of dissection, and preference for it. This was done through a pre-designed questionnaire. The results were analysed using SPSS 10. RESULTS The control group had 84 (48.55%) students, while there were 89 (51.44%) students in the experimental group. Overall, there were 138 (79.76%) girls and 35 (20.23%) boys. The students experienced multiple physical symptoms, but, 140 (80.9%) of them agreed that the symptoms disappeared spontaneously. Multiple psychological problems were also encountered. The percentage of students experiencing these problems was more in the control group as compared to the experimental group (n=56; 63% vs n=41; 49%). The difference was not statistically significant (p <0.062). Despite all the problems, 153 (88.4%) of the students wanted to continue dissections, and 80.9% preferred cadaveric specimen rather than plastic models for studying anatomy. In the experimental group 82 (97.6%) students agreed that the initial preparatory discussions were helpful in overcoming their psychological problems. CONCLUSION Multiple physical and psychological problems are associated with cadaveric dissection, but the latter can be significantly decreased with effective counseling. In spite of all problems, the students still prefer dissection over plastic models and other audio-visual aids.
Preparation and evaluation of NGF-microsphere conduits for regeneration of defective nerves

Abstract Objectives: To fabricate nerve growth factor (NGF) microsphere conduits and evaluate their promotional effects on regeneration of defective nerves. Methods: NGF microspheres containing ovalbumin were prepared using a double-emulsion method. The total amount of NGF was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and bioactive NGF was quantified by the PC12 cell line method; the NGF bioactivity present during the release period was monitored. Conduits made of polylacticacid were added to the NGF microspheres to bridge and repair the nerve injury. The sciatic nerve of Wistar rats was used to evaluate nerve-regeneration efficacy. Results: NGF microspheres were spherical, with smooth and compact surfaces. The fabrication yield, encapsulation efficiency, and drug loading of the microspheres were 58·3, 29·72, and 0·003%, respectively. The monitoring of NGF bioactivity remaining during the release period showed that ∼40% of the original bioactivity was kept on the twenty-eighth day and 10% left on the ninetieth day. Polylacticacid conduits are lowly antigenic, porous (facilitates oxygen diffusion), and able to prevent long-term compression. After 15 days, the length of nerve regenerated from NGF-microsphere conduits was statistically different from that of the control groups (P<0·05). NGF microspheres can accelerate the early nerve-regeneration rate, although the rate was not as good as that caused by autografts. Three months later, the recovery rate of the regenerated nerve collected from NGF-microsphere conduits showed lower values of nerve-conduction velocity, muscular tension, and muscle weight. However, poorer rates of regeneration were observed in the self-mutilation foot compared with those of the control group. The control group had no statistical difference from the sodium chloride and NGF-solution conduits, the best in the autograft group. Discussion: A long-term promoting effect of microsphere-bound exogenous NGF on the functional repair of peripheral nerves could not be confirmed, although the nerve-regeneration rate was rapid in the early stage. Better methods are needed to incorporate protein-release systems into nerve conduits to improve functional recovery in patients with injured nerves.
Estimating African-American mortality from inaccurate data

This paper evaluates the quality of vital statistics and census data for estimating African-American mortality over a period of six decades. The authors employ intercensal cohort comparisons and extinct generation estimates to demonstrate that conventionally constructed African-American death rates may be seriously flawed as early as age 50. Using the crude death rate at ages 50+ for 1978-1982 in conjunction with estimated growth rates and two model life table systems, the authors estimate black age-specific death rates in 1978–1982. These results suggest that if a racial crossover in death rates occurs, the age pattern of mortality among African-Americans must be far outside the range observed in populations with more accurate data.
Culture and Silviculture: Origins and Evolution of Silviculture in Southeast Europe

SUMMARY Silvicultural practices are generally developed to meet societal objectives given the constraints of the site. This simple premise is a foundation of modern silviculture. However, silviculture may vary for other reasons related to cultural factors. This paper reviews the differences in silviculture in the twelve countries that comprise southeastern Europe, an area that includes a variety of cultures, and a complex history. The silviculture generally follows three models: coppice systems that are largely unregulated, even-aged stands that include former coppice stands and other reforested sites, and systems to develop and maintain complex stand structures. Plantation management is not common. Cultural and historic drivers have affected the development of silviculture in this region. Additional drivers include forest access, the importance of wood for fuel, and proximity to central Europe. It is anticipated that European Union membership of countries in the region will lead to greater regional and international exchange and cooperation in the future.
Biologic Solutions for Degenerative Disk Disease

Study Design Literature review. Objective Review the potential use of biologic therapies for the treatment of degenerative disk disease. Summary of Background Data Degeneration of the intervertebral disk is a common occurrence which, although asymptomatic in most instances, may result in axial skeletal pain, radiculopathy, and myelopathy. Significant progress has been made in understanding the pathophysiology of degenerative disk disease and as a result, new biologic therapies, including molecular, gene, and cell-based strategies, are being investigated to halt and reverse disk degeneration. Results Growth factors, inflammatory inhibitors, proteinase inhibitors, and intracellular regulatory proteins are among the molecular therapies that have been studied with encouraging results in both in vitro and in vivo experiments. However, the utility of these therapies in humans may be limited because of the limited therapeutic duration. Gene therapies have the potential to overcome the limited therapeutic duration of molecular treatments by transferring genes to the cells within the disk to encode for therapeutic proteins with potential long-term local production. Gene therapy for disk regeneration has been successful in a number of animal studies, but significant concerns exist with the safety of the many vectors used for gene transfer. Cell-based therapies, including reimplantation of nucleus pulposus cells expanded in culture and stem cell therapies, have also been studied extensively in animal models with good results. The EuroDisc clinical trial is currently underway in Europe exploring the reimplantation of disk cells that are removed at the time of diskectomy and expanded ex vivo. Mesenchymal stem cells, which are readily available without ethical concerns, are being studied extensively for disk regeneration. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into a phenotype similar to native nucleus pulposus cells and have shown the potential for disk regeneration in animal studies. Conclusions Biologic therapies for intervertebral disk regeneration have produced very encouraging results in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Despite successful experimental results, these therapies face a number of hurdles before acceptance for human use including safety concerns, efficacy in high-order animal and human studies, and issues with the role and timing of these treatments.
Robust stabilizing regions of fractional-order PI controllers for permanent magnet synchronous motor control system

The application of fractional order calculus in motor control systems has got much attention recently, and one of the major research is using fractional-order PI<sup>λ</sup>D<sup>μ</sup> controllers instead of integral-order PI<sup>λ</sup>D<sup>μ</sup> controllers. Moreover, there are many approaches to obtain the suitable parameters of fractional-order PI<sup>λ</sup>D<sup>μ</sup> controllers, commonly according to different performance indexes or amplitude and phase margin conditions. This paper presents a graphical approach to determine the stabilizing regions of fractional-order PI<sup>λ</sup> controllers, for robust speed control of the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors. Based on D-decomposition method, the stabilizing regions in terms of the real root boundary(RRB) curves, complex root boundary(CRB) curves and infinite root boundary(IRB) lines are investigated for a given stability degree. Compared with the well-tuned PI controller, experiment results verify that the fractional-order PI<sup>λ</sup> controller has better effects on improving robustness of system against the disturbances.
Where Does the Minimum Wage Bite Hardest in California?

This study uses employment data on California county-industry pairs (CIPs) between 1990 and 2016 to test whether minimum wage increases caused employment growth to slow most in the CIPs with a large share of low wage workers. Evidence supports the hypothesis, and we use the estimates to simulate the effect of a 10% increase in the minimum wage. The simulations suggest that a 10% increase could cause a 3.4% employment loss in the average CIP in California. The job loss is projected to be concentrated in two industries: accommodation and food services, and retail. While the most populated counties of California are expected to incur the largest employment loss in terms of the number of workers, the smaller counties generally experience a larger percentage point loss in employment due to the lower wages and the greater number of workers that would be affected by the minimum wage hike. Moreover, there is substantial variation across counties in terms of the percentage of jobs lost within a given industry.
Fetal liver development requires a paracrine action of oncostatin M through the gp130 signal transducer

Fetal liver, the major site of hematopoiesis during embryonic development, acquires additional various metabolic functions near birth. Although liver development has been characterized biologically as consisting of several distinct steps, the molecular events accompanying this process are just beginning to be characterized. In this study, we have established a novel culture system of fetal murine hepatocytes and investigated factors required for development of hepatocytes. We found that oncostatin M (OSM), an interleukin‐6 family cytokine, in combination with glucocorticoid, induced maturation of hepatocytes as evidenced by morphological changes that closely resemble more differentiated hepatocytes, expression of hepatic differentiation markers and intracellular glycogen accumulation. Consistent with these in vitro observations, livers from mice deficient for gp130, an OSM receptor subunit, display defects in maturation of hepatocytes. Interestingly, OSM is expressed in CD45+ hematopoietic cells in the developing liver, whereas the OSM receptor is expressed predominantly in hepatocytes. These results suggest a paracrine mechanism of hepatogenesis; blood cells, transiently expanding in the fetal liver, produce OSM to promote development of hepatocytes in vivo.
Impact of periodontal disease on quality of life: a systematic review

The diagnosis of periodontal disease is commonly based on objective evaluations of the patient's medical/dental history as well as clinical and radiographic examinations. However, periodontal disease should also be evaluated subjectively through measures that quantify its impact on oral health-related quality of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of periodontal disease on quality of life among adolescents, adults and older adults. A systematic search of the literature was performed for scientific articles published up to July 2015 using electronic databases and a manual search. Two independent reviewers performed the selection of the studies, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality. Thirty-four cross-sectional studies involving any age group, except children, and the use of questionnaires for the assessment of the impact of periodontal disease on quality of life were included. Twenty-five studies demonstrated that periodontal disease was associated with a negative impact on quality of life, with severe periodontitis exerting the most significant impact by compromising aspects related to function and esthetics. Unlike periodontitis, gingivitis was associated with pain as well as difficulties performing oral hygiene and wearing dentures. Gingivitis was also negatively correlated with comfort. The results indicate that periodontal disease may exert an impact on quality of life of individuals, with greater severity of the disease related to greater impact. Longitudinal studies with representative samples are needed to ensure validity of the findings.
Pengaruh Car, Inflasi, Nilai Tukar Terhadap Profitabilitas Pada Bank Umum Syariah

This research using causal assosiative method. The data using time series and cross section period 2011 – 2015 with SPSS application. The population are Bank Umum Syariah (BUS) in Indonesia which is registered in Bank Indonesia directory period 2011 – 2015 that is 11 Bank Syariah. The result showed that Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) has no negative influence to ROA. Inflation and exchange rate variabeles has no influence significantly to ROA.
The smaller size of the 'coeliac iceberg' in adults.

BACKGROUND Since it has been ascertained that the prevalence of coeliac disease in the general paediatric population is 3.3 per 1000, we decided to evaluate this prevalence in the general adult population. METHODS Two thousand two hundred and thirty-seven adult subjects aged 20-87 years, representative of a population with sociodemographic characteristics typical of Western European countries with regard to sex and age, were studied. In all serum IgA antiendomysial antibodies (EMA) were searched for, and all patients who turned out to be positive underwent intestinal biopsy. RESULTS Four symptomless subjects aged between 20 and 39 years proved positive at the IgA EMA screening. This intestinal biopsy confirmed coeliac disease in all of them. The prevalence in our study group was, therefore, 1.8 per 1000. CONCLUSIONS This study shows that the size of the submerged part of the 'coeliac iceberg' is perhaps smaller in the adult population and suggests a linear trend towards a lower coeliac disease prevalence as age increases.
Stenting and secondary coiling of intracranial internal carotid artery aneurysm: technical case report.

OBJECTIVE AND IMPORTANCE Endovascular stents have been successfully used in the treatment of fusiform and dissecting aneurysms of the peripheral circulation and extracranial carotid and vertebral arteries. Technical limitations related to the inability to navigate the stent and the delivery system through tortuous vascular segments has limited their application with intracranial lesions. Availability of new flexible and pliable stent systems might overcome these difficulties. CLINICAL PRESENTATION A 49-year-old woman presented with a dissecting pseudoaneurysm of the horizontal portion of the petrous internal carotid artery that increased in size, as revealed by serial angiographic studies. INTERVENTION The aneurysm was treated by deploying a new flexible stent across the aneurysm neck and by then packing the aneurysm sac with Guglielmi detachable coils that were delivered by a microcatheter positioned through the stent struts into the aneurysm lumen. CONCLUSION New flexible stents can be used to treat intracranial internal carotid artery aneurysms in difficult-to-access areas, such as the horizontal petrous segment. The stent may disrupt the aneurysm inflow tract, thereby inducing stasis and facilitating intra-aneurysmal thrombosis. In addition, the stent acts as an endoluminal scaffold to prevent coil herniation into the parent artery, which allows tight packing of even wide-necked and irregularly shaped aneurysms. The stent may also serve as a matrix for endothelial growth. We think this new generation of flexible stents and the use of this described technique will usher in the next era of endovascular management of intracranial aneurysms.
Selective Disruption of Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1) Signaling via Phosphoinositide-dependent Kinase-1 Prevents the Protective Effect of IGF-1 on Human Cancer Cell Death*

Insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) signaling system exerts a broad antiapoptotic function and plays a crucial role in resistance to anticancer therapies. Exposure of MCF-7 breast cancer cells to IGF-1 rapidly and transiently induced tyrosine phosphorylation and activation of phosphoinositide-dependent kinase-1 (PDK1). This was paralleled by Akt/protein kinase B and protein kinase C-ζ phosphorylation, at Thr308 and Thr410, respectively. IGF-1 treatment also enhanced PDK1 interaction with IGF-1 receptor (IGF-1R) in intact MCF-7 cells. Pulldown assays revealed that PDK1 bound IGF-1R in vitro and that the region encompassing amino acids 51–359 of PDK1 was necessary for the interaction. Synthetic peptides corresponding to IGF-1R C terminus amino acids 1295–1337 (C43) and to PDK1 amino acids 114–141 reduced in vitro IGF-1R/PDK1 interaction in a concentration-dependent manner. Loading of fluoresceinated-C43 (fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-C43) into MCF-7 cells significantly reduced IGF-1R/PDK1 interaction and phosphorylation of PDK1 substrates. Moreover, FITC-C43 intracellular loading reverted the protective effect of IGF-1 on growth factor deprivation-induced cell death. Finally, the inhibition of IGF-1R/PDK1 interaction and signaling by FITC-C43 was accompanied by 2-fold enhanced killing capacity of cetuximab in human GEO colon adenocarcinoma cells and was sufficient to restore cell death in cetuximab-resistant cell clones. Thus, disruption of PDK1 interaction with IGF-1R reduces IGF-1 survival effects in cancer cells and may enhance cell death by anticancer agents.
Dynamic respiratory endoscopy without treadmill in 68 performance Standardbred, Thoroughbred and saddle horses under natural training conditions.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY High speed treadmill endoscopy provides a true assessment and diagnosis of the dynamic obstructions of the upper equine respiratory tract (DO-URT). However, treadmills do not always allow reproduction of the exact conditions of dynamic collapse of the URT. The availability of on-board endoscopes, which could be used without a treadmill, would make exercising endoscopy readily available to more equine practices. OBJECTIVES To develop and validate an innovative endoscope which could be used for the examination of the URT at exercise in ridden and harnessed sport horses performing in natural conditions. METHODS Authors worked closely with engineers of a company manufacturing veterinary endoscopes. Over a 2-year period several prototypes were tested on more than 20 cooperative horses performing either in trot, gallop, jumping or endurance. The final Dynamic Respiratory Scope (DRS) allows real-time visualisation of the URT and video recordings for post test reviewing and archiving. The DRS was then tested in 2 equine livery yards. Performance horses presented for investigation of abnormal respiratory noises at exercise and/or poor performance were subjected to exercising endoscopy. Endoscopic images of the URT were recorded and video recordings of the URT were reviewed post test. RESULTS A total of 68 horses were examined: 39 harnessed Standardbred and 29 mounted horses (16 Thoroughbred and 13 saddle horses). Of these, 44 were diagnosed with a URT abnormality. Good quality videos were obtained even at maximum speed in all cases. The innovative insertion tube provided very stable images compared to those obtained with flexible video endoscopes on treadmills. CONCLUSIONS This study validates the safety and the reliability of the DRS for imaging the equine URT during natural exercising conditions. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE Most common causes of DO-URT can be diagnosed easily during any type of performance without a treadmill and the DRS offers a great potential for further URT clinical research.
Current Optimal Assessment and Management of Carotid and Vertebral Spontaneous and Traumatic Dissection

Dissection of the internal carotid or vertebral artery has been recognized as a cause of stroke in young patients. It is disproportionate in its representation as a cause of stroke in this age group. Intimal tears, intramural hematomas, and dissection aneurysms may be the result of trauma or may occur spontaneously. Spontaneous dissection may be the result of inherent arterial weakness or in association with other predisposing factors. Clinical diagnosis is often difficult, but increased awareness and a range of modern investigations such as computerized tomography or magnetic resonance imaging may aid in diagnosis. Management options include antiplatelet therapy, anticoagulation, thrombolysis, and surgical or endovascular procedures. Prognosis is variable, and dissection may be asymptomatic but may lead to profound neurological deficit and death.
Evaluating the Economic Impact of Palliative and End-of-Life Care Interventions on Intensive Care Unit Utilization and Costs from the Hospital and Healthcare System Perspective.

Purpose of report: Understanding the impact of palliative care interventions on intensive care unit (ICU) costs and utilization is critical for demonstrating the value of palliative care. Performing these economic assessments, however, can be challenging. The purpose of this special report is to highlight and discuss important considerations when assessing ICU utilization and costs from the hospital perspective, with the goal of providing recommendations on methods to consider for future analyses. FINDINGS ICU length of stay (LOS) and associated costs of care are common and important outcome measures, but must be analyzed properly to yield valid conclusions. There is significant variation in costs by day of stay in the ICU with only modest differences between an ICU day at the end of a stay and the first day on the acute care floor; this variation must be appropriately accounted for analytically. Furthermore, reporting direct variable costs, in addition to total ICU costs, is needed to understand short-term and long-term impact of a reduction in LOS. Importantly, incentives for the hospital to realize savings vary depending on reimbursement policies. SUMMARY ICU utilization and costs are common outcomes in studies evaluating palliative care interventions. Accurate estimation and interpretation are key to understanding the economic implications of palliative care interventions.