Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Developmental Patterns and Outcomes in Infants and Children with Disorders in Relating and Communicating: A Chart Review of 200 Cases of Children with Autistic Spectrum Diagnoses

Charts of 200 children who were diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorder were reviewed. The goal of the review was to reveal patterns in presenting symptoms, underlying processing difficulties, early development, and response to intervention in order to generate hypotheses for future studies. The chart review suggests that a number of children with autistic spectrum diagnoses are, with an appropriate intervention program, capable of empathy, affective reciprocity, creative thinking, and healthy peer relationships; that an intervention approach that focuses on individual differences, developmental level, and affective interaction may be especially promising; and that there are different underlying processing patterns with a difficulty in connecting affect and sequencing capacities as a possible common denominator. It also suggests that there is an early marker, the difficulty in engaging in complex purposeful gestural communication, and that contrary to traditional beliefs, a significant number of children may have relatively better functioning in the first year with a regression in the second and third years. This review also suggests that difficulties with relating and intimacy are often secondary to underlying processing disturbances. Many of the children can become quite loving and caring, thoughtful and creative, suggesting a need to change the criteria for diagnosing these disorders.
Serology of HBV and its clinical implications among Nigerian subjects.

This study involved 74 healthy Nigerian adults comprising 14 immunised (IM) and 60 nonimmunised (NIM) against HBV infection. They were sero-assayed for HBsAg, HBeAg, antiHBe, anti-HBc, anti-HBs and anti-HCV using 3 generation ELISA kits. HBsAg, HBeAg and anti-HBe, anti-HBc, anti-HbsAg and anti-HCV were seen in 39.2%, 13.5%, 2.7%, 12.2%, 35.1%, and 10.8%, respectively. Only the detection rate of HBeAg was greater than anti-HBe, p< 0.005 while those of HBsAg, HBeAg, anti-HBe and anti-HBc were higher among the NIM (p<0.05 each) compared to the IM. In addition, only detection rates of anti-HBe and anti-HBc were comparatively greater among male subjects (p<0.05). Serological diagnoses suggestive of early non-infective phase, infectivity (only among NIM), carrier state and no exposure to HBV infection were observed in 23%, 13.5%, 2.7% and 60.8% of all subjects, respectively. Further, 35.1% of the subjects had possible exposure to two HBV serotypes. Only 14.3% of the IM had evidence of early phase HBV infection compared to 45% of the NIM group in its different phases (p<0.05). Co-infection of both HBV and HCV was observed in 1.3% of all subjects but mainly among NIM. In conclusion, various types of serological patterns of HBV infection including dual HBV serotypes are present in Nigerian adults while a very high proportion of citizens remain unexposed to the infection. Immunisation against HBV protects against the acquisition and serological manifestation of infection.
Sympathetic control of accommodation: evidence for inter‐subject variation

Autonomic innervation of ciliary smooth muscle is mediated principally by the parasympathetic nervous system and is supplemented by the sympathetic nervous system. Previous drug and nerve stimulation experiments on humans and animals have demonstrated that sympathetic innervation is inhibitory (via β‐2 adrenoceptors), relatively small, slow and augmented by concurrent levels of background parasympathetic activity. These characteristics are pertinent to the sympathetic system having a specific role in our ability to adapt successfully to sustained near vision tasks and, given the clear association between near vision and the onset and development of myopia, to a putative aetiological role in myopia development in pre‐disposed individuals. A fifth characteristic, namely the variation between individuals in access to an inhibitory sympathetic facility is therefore of particular interest. A novel method for continuous recording of accommodation, currently employed in a large sample longitudinal study of myopia in young adults, was used following topical instillation of non‐selective (timolol) and selective (betaxolol) sympathetic β‐adrenoceptor antagonists. Measures of post‐task accommodative hysteresis were taken with reference to the time‐course of regression of accommodation when open‐loop (Difference of Gaussian) conditions were immediately imposed following short (10 s) and long (3 min) duration far (0D) and near (3D above tonic level) tasks viewed through a Badal system. Data confirm earlier informal experimental observations that only one in three individuals are likely to have access to a sympathetic inhibitory facility during sustained near vision.
Multiplex PCR for Detection of Seven Virulence Factors and K1/K2 Capsular Serotypes of Klebsiella pneumoniae

ABSTRACT A single multiplex PCR assay targeting seven virulence factors and the wzi gene specific for the K1 and K2 capsular serotypes of Klebsiella pneumoniae was developed and tested on 65 clinical isolates, which included 45 isolates responsible for community-acquired severe human infections. The assay is useful for the surveillance of emerging highly virulent strains.
Antisense peptide nucleic acid targeting GluR3 delays disease onset and progression in the SOD1 G93A mouse model of familial ALS

Glutamate excitotoxicity is strongly implicated as a major contributing factor in motor neuron degeneration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Excitotoxicity results from elevated intracellular calcium ion (Ca2+) levels, which in turn recruit cell death signaling pathways. Recent evidence suggests that α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor subunit (GluR) stoichiometry is a dominant factor leading to excess Ca2+ loading in neurodegeneration. In particular, the Ca2+ permeable glutamate receptor subunit 3 (GluR3) has been implicated in several neurologic conditions such as bipolar disorder and epilepsy. Recent proteomic analysis within our group on the copper zinc superoxide dismutase (SOD1)G93A transgenic mouse model of familial ALS (FALS) reveals a potentially deleterious upregulation of GluR3 in spinal cord compared to that in wild‐type littermates. Based on this finding we designed a 12mer antisense peptide nucleic acid (PNA) directed against GluR3. This sequence significantly reduced levels of GluR3 protein and protected neuroblastoma × spinal cord (NSC‐34) cells against death induced by the AMPA receptor‐specific agonist (S)‐5‐fluorowillardiine. We subsequently treated SOD1G93A mice thrice weekly with intraperitoneal injections of the antisense PNA (2.5 mg/kg) commencing at postnatal day 50. Mice treated with the antisense sequence had significantly extended survival compared to mice injected with a nonsense sequence. Western blot analysis, however, did not reveal a significant reduction in GluR3 protein levels in whole extracts of the lumbar spinal cord. These results suggest that interference with the GluR3 component of the AMPA receptor assembly may be a novel strategy for controlling excitotoxic destruction of motor neurons and may lead to new therapeutic opportunities for the treatment of human ALS. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Study of maternal influences on fetal iron status at term using cord blood transferrin receptors

AIMS To determine effects of maternal iron depletion and smoking on iron status of term babies using serum transferrin receptors (STfR) and their ratio to ferritin (TfR-F index) in cord blood. METHODS Iron, ferritin, STfR, and haemoglobin (Hb) concentration were measured and TfR-F index calculated in 67 cord /maternal blood pairs. Twenty six mothers were iron depleted (ferritin <10 μg/l) and 28 were smokers. RESULTS Maternal iron depletion was associated with decreased cord ferritin (113v 171 μg/l) and Hb (156v 168 g/l) but no change in STfR or TfR-F index. Smoking was associated with increased cord Hb (168v 157 g/l) and TfR-F index (4.1v 3.4), and decreased ferritin (123v 190 μg/l). Cord TfR-F index and Hb were positively correlated (r = 0.48). CONCLUSIONS Maternal iron depletion is associated with reduced fetal iron stores but no change in free iron availability. Smoking is associated with increased fetal iron requirements for erythropoiesis.
Postnatal development of the harderian gland in the Syrian golden hamster (Mesocricetus auratus): A light and electron microscopic study

The main objective of the present investigation was to study the morphological and chronological aspects of the development of the Harderian gland in the Syrian golden hamster. Tissues were obtained from male and female hamsters at days 1,3,5,7,10,12,15,17,20,27,37,46, and 90 after birth and processed for light and transmission electron microscopy. The present observations indicate that a well‐defined temporal sequence in microscopic and ultrastructural modification is recognizable in the development of the hamster Harderian gland. Four stages of development were proposed. Between days 1–5 (first stage), the gland shows characteristics of an immature structure. The glandular cells contain many free ribosomes, few and small organelles, and large irregular‐shape nuclei. Between days 7–17 (second stage), there is a marked increase of organelles involved in synthesis and secretion. The gland begins the secretion of lipids and porphyrins, but no morphological differences between male and female glands are observed. Between days 20–36 (third stage), the morphological differences between the two sexes appear and progressively develop. In 45‐day‐old hamsters, the Harderian gland possesses the structural characteristics of adult glands, and further developmental changes are essentially quantitative in nature (fourth stage). At all stages of development, the population of secretory cells has a uniform appearance. The morphological results are discussed as well as the possible relationship of this temporal sequence with hormonal changes. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Snow depth mapping in high-alpine catchments using digital photogrammetry

Abstract. Information on snow depth and its spatial distribution is crucial for numerous applications in snow and avalanche research as well as in hydrology and ecology. Today, snow depth distributions are usually estimated using point measurements performed by automated weather stations and observers in the field combined with interpolation algorithms. However, these methodologies are not able to capture the high spatial variability of the snow depth distribution present in alpine terrain. Continuous and accurate snow depth mapping has been successfully performed using laser scanning but this method can only cover limited areas and is expensive. We use the airborne ADS80 optoelectronic scanner, acquiring stereo imagery with 0.25 m spatial resolution to derive digital surface models (DSMs) of winter and summer terrains in the neighborhood of Davos, Switzerland. The DSMs are generated using photogrammetric image correlation techniques based on the multispectral nadir and backward-looking sensor data. In order to assess the accuracy of the photogrammetric products, we compare these products with the following independent data sets acquired simultaneously: (a) manually measured snow depth plots; (b) differential Global Navigation Satellite System (dGNSS) points; (c) terrestrial laser scanning (TLS); and (d) ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data sets. We demonstrate that the method presented can be used to map snow depth at 2 m resolution with a vertical depth accuracy of ±30 cm (root mean square error) in the complex topography of the Alps. The snow depth maps presented have an average accuracy that is better than 15 % compared to the average snow depth of 2.2 m over the entire test site.
Social Influence and Knowledge Management Systems Use: Evidence from Panel Data

Theory suggests that coworkers may influence individuals' technology use behaviors, but there is limited research in the technology diffusion literature that explicates how such social influence processes operate after initial adoption. We investigate how two key social influence mechanisms (identification and internalization) may explain the growth over time in individuals' use of knowledge management systems (KMS)--a technology that because of its publicly visible use provides a rich context for investigating social influence. We test our hypotheses using longitudinal KMS usage data on over 80,000 employees of a management consulting firm. Our approach infers the presence of identification and internalization from associations between actual system use behaviors by a focal individual and prior system use by a range of reference groups. Evidence of these kinds of associations between system use behaviors helps construct a more complete picture of social influence mechanisms, and is to our knowledge novel to the technology diffusion literature. Our results confirm the utility of this approach for understanding social influence effects and reveal a fine-grained pattern of influence across different social groups: we found strong support for bottom-up social influence across hierarchical levels, limited support for peer-level influence within levels, and no support for top-down influence.
Mean Platelet Volume Decreases in Adult Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea After Uvulopalatal Flap Surgery

Aim:The main purpose of the study was to investigate changes in mean platelet volume (MPV) values in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) who had undergone uvulopalatal flap (UPF) surgery. Method:The study included a review of the medical records of 37 adult patients who had undergone UPF surgery after being diagnosed with OSAS. The baseline blood parameters of patients, including the MPV and platelet distribution width (PDW) values, were measured and repeated 3 months after treatment. Polysomnographic evaluations of the patients were also performed during admission and the 3rd month control. Comparisons of MPV values and their correlation with polysomnographic parameters were the main outcomes measured. Results:The blood parameters of all patients were similar except for MPV values, which were significantly lower after treatment (P < 0.001). Patients’ apnea hypopnea index (AHI) and apnea episodes were significantly reduced after the UPF surgery, whereas their oxygen saturation significantly increased (P < 0.001). The MPV values were not correlated with polysomnographic parameters (P > 0.05). Conclusion:The UPF surgery, which is a relatively simple surgical intervention to treat OSAS, alleviates nocturnal hypoxic episodes and lowers platelet volume. These may both be important predictors of adverse cardiovascular outcomes related to OSAS.
Mental well-being of young people in Scotland : 1994-2006

Mental well-being of young people is affected by many aspects of their lives including school experience (HBSC Briefing Paper 13, 2007), friendships and peer relations (Settertobulte and Gaspar de Matos, 2004), as well as family life and family relationships (HBSC Briefing papers 11 & 12, 2007). Adolescence can be a time of emotional distress for a number of young people, brought on by biological and psychological changes occurring through puberty, in conjunction with external changes such as school transitions, changing peer and friendship networks and changes in family structure and relationships. Parental separation and re-partnering often result in further upheavals in the home environment such as parent-child conflict, economic hardship and family disorganisation. Good emotional and physical health enables young people to deal with these challenges and eases the transition through adolescence (Petersen et al, 1997). Promoting young people’s health can therefore have long-term benefits for individuals and societies. In a previous Briefing Paper (HBSC Briefing Paper 2, 2003) age and gender patterns and trends in mental well-being were presented using 1994-2002 HBSC survey data. In line with other academic research findings (West and Sweeting, 2003; Bergman and Scott, 2001), the mental well-being of boys was found to be better than that of girls and children in primary school had better mental wellbeing than those in secondary. Trend data showed some improvement in happiness and confidence between 1994 and 2002. This fourteenth Briefing Paper in the HBSC series aims to examine the personal and social environmental factors known to affect mental well-being of 11-15 year-olds in Scotland and presents findings from the Scottish 2006 Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children: WHO Collaborative Cross-National Survey (HBSC). Trends in mental well-being between 1994 and 2006 are presented using data from previous HBSC surveys. The survey methodology is described in the Technical Appendix. This paper examines happiness, life satisfaction, perceived health, confidence and their association with gender, age, family affluence, family structure and geography. The purpose of the paper is to increase knowledge and understanding of the mental well-being of young people in Scotland with a focus on inequalities and to create a picture of those most at risk of adverse outcomes; to provide evidence for policy makers and practitioners; and to inform actions aimed at health improvement among adolescents. HBSC Briefing Paper 14 December 2007
TABLE I : A short summary of related work , decision forest based classification and regression approaches in the literature Related Method

Accurate localization of anatomical landmarks is an important step in medical imaging, as it provides useful prior information for subsequent image analysis and acquisition methods. It is particularly useful for initialization of automatic image analysis tools (e.g. segmentation and registration) and detection of scan planes for automated image acquisition. Landmark localization has been commonly performed using learning based approaches, such as classifier and/or regressor models. However, trained models may not generalize well in heterogeneous datasets when the images contain large differences due to size, pose and shape variations of organs. To learn more data-adaptive and patient specific models, we propose a novel stratification based training model, and demonstrate its use in a decision forest. The proposed approach does not require any additional training information compared to the standard model training procedure and can be easily integrated into any decision tree framework. The proposed method is evaluated on 1080 3D highresolution and 90 multi-stack 2D cardiac cine MR images. The experiments show that the proposed method achieves state-of-theart landmark localization accuracy and outperforms standard regression and classification based approaches. Additionally, the proposed method is used in a multi-atlas segmentation to create a fully automatic segmentation pipeline, and the results show that it achieves state-of-the-art segmentation accuracy.
Decreasing Congestive Heart Failure Readmission Rates Within 30 Days at the Tampa VA

High hospital readmission rates contribute to the problem of escalating costs and fragmented quality in the US health care system. This article describes the implementation of a home telehealth (HT) performance improvement project with subsequent cost-avoidance savings. The HT project was designed to potentiate communication between and among patients, clinicians, and administrative staff, in addition to reducing readmissions for patients with congestive heart failure at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa, Florida. Pre- and post-HT implementation comparisons were made of readmission rates, costs, and veteran satisfaction from the same 4-month periods in 2012 and 2013. The application of telehealth and phone care initiatives reduced the congestive heart failure hospital readmission rate by 5%, decreased costs, and improved veteran satisfaction with overall care experience.
RIVASTIGMINE IN PATIENTS WITH ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND CONCURRENT HYPERTENSION

Rivastigmine has demonstrated significant benefits in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD). We aimed to confirm whether rivastigmine was effective in patients with or without concurrent vascular risk factors (VRF), as previously suggested. We chose to stratify the 725 patients involved in an international dose‐ranging study according to the presence of arterial hypertension (a marker of VRF) at baseline. Efficacy in each subgroup was assessed using the ADAS‐cog, a measure of cognitive performance, the Progressive Deterioration Scale (PDS) and the Clinician's Interview‐Based Impression of Change (CIBIC) with caregiver input. Patients receiving rivastigmine 6–12 mg/day showed better outcomes on the ADAS‐cog than those receiving placebo, in both the hypertensive and non‐hypertensive subgroups. Hypertensive patients receiving rivastigmine 6–12 mg/day also showed improvement over those receiving 1–4 mg/day (p=0.023). Rivastigmine 6–12 mg/day also provided better outcomes than placebo on the PDS in the hypertensive (p=0.031) and non‐hypertensive (p=0.035) subgroups. All patients receiving rivastigmine 6–12 mg/day had superior CIBIC‐plus scores than those receiving placebo. There was a trend for lower incidences of nausea and vomiting in rivastigmine‐treated patients with hypertension than in those without hypertension. No cardiac adverse events or drug‐drug interactions were reported. Our data support the hypothesis that rivastigmine provides benefits to patients with or without hypertension, and contribute to the evidence that particular benefits may be observed in those with vascular risk factors.
Learning Activities, Exploration, and the Performance of Strategic Initiatives

This study examines the contingent effect of the degree of exploration characterizing strategic initiatives on the relationship between group-level organizational learning activities (i.e., searching, processing, codifying, and practicing) and the performance of strategic initiatives. Results from a sample of 96 strategic initiatives conducted by three large European insurance corporations provide broad, albeit not unanimous, support for our prediction that the four learning activities are more beneficial when the degree of exploration is high. Moreover, for initiatives with lower degrees of exploration, we found no significant association of searching, processing, codifying, or practicing with initiative performance. These findings suggest that effective organizational learning depends not only on investments in learning activities, but also on the alignment between these investments and the degree of exploration inherent in the learning task.