Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dependence of subarachnoid hemorrhage on climate conditions: a systematic meteorological analysis from the dusseldorf metropolitan area.

OBJECTIVE A number of publications suggest that there are seasonal influences on the incidence of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Most series agree on a peak incidence during springtime. Meteorological influences have been assumed to be obvious explanations for seasonal variations. Furthermore, the perceived clustering of the incidence of subarachnoid hemorrhage is also intuitively related to meteorological influences. The present study was initiated to determine whether specific meteorological conditions are related to the occurrence of SAH in the mild climatic zone of North Rhine Westphalia. METHODS We retrospectively examined 183 patients (107 women and 76 men) treated at our department between January 2003 and June 2005 for SAH that had occurred within the Düsseldorf metropolitan area. We correlated the date of SAH (Day 0) and of the week preceding the incident (Days -1, -3, -5, and -7) with the meteorological key parameters from Düsseldorf International Airport. Parameters analyzed were mean daily temperature (7C), relative humidity (%), barometric pressure (hPa), and weather condition (divided into 6 groups: clear, cloudy, rain, thunderstorms, snow, and not available). RESULTS A relative peak incidence of SAH was found for the month of April. In addition, a diurnal rhythm with two peaks during morning and in the evening, and a statistically significant nadir during forenoon and midday was evident (P <0.002). None of the average meteorological key parameters of the day of SAH differed from the annual average, and no general trends during the days preceding hemorrhage could be identified. Apparent clustering of the occurrence of SAH could not be related to short-term meteorological trends. CONCLUSION The results of the present study demonstrate a trend toward a seasonal distribution in the incidence of SAH with a peak during spring in the metropolitan area of Düsseldorf. Furthermore, weather variables, such as temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity, were shown to be without influence on aneurysm rupture within the patient population. Therefore, the result indicates the need to validate further parameters in detail to isolate risk circumstances to achieve a risk pattern for patients with SAH.
A survey of parental knowledge of vaccination

Purpose:In this study, we created a questionnaire and collected answers concerning actual conditions of vaccination and parents' knowledge of vaccination issues, in order to find false knowledge of patients. We tried to give correct information and suggested the role of the pediatrician. Methods:We made questionnaires and collected answers from 466 parents from March 2004 to June 2004. Results:Places of vaccination were pediatric clinics(49.4 percent), health centers(27.7 percent), general/university hospitals(15.0 percent) and other clinics(4.9 percent). We found 38.8 percent of parents thought that the reason for vaccination at pediatric clinics was a belief of speciality, even though there is no difference in the vaccination itself. We also found 15.0 percent of parents thought that there were no differences between pediatricians and other physicians, but 52.0 percent of parents wanted to receive vaccination at pediatric clinics in the future. Our study also found that 62.4 percent of parents wanted to make out a preliminary questionnaire for vaccination. Many parents got vaccination information from vaccination record books(57.9 percent), and 52.6 percent of parents incorrectly believed that Hib vaccination could prevent all kinds of meningitis. Conclusion:Our study suggests that pediatricians need to make efforts to give out correct information. It is necessary to use preliminary questionnaires for vaccination and correct vaccination information should be written on the vaccination record book. Also, there needs to be counselling with parents about weaning, growth and development at the time of vaccination, and to point out the differences between pediatricians and other physicians.
ON THE SHAPE OF THE SOLUTIONS OF SOME SEMILINEAR ELLIPTIC PROBLEMS

This paper deals with semilinear elliptic problems of Dirichlet type, in star shaped domains. An abstract result is stated, which gives sufficient conditions for a positive solution of the problem to have strictly star shaped superlevels. Moreover, it turns out that the maximum point is the only critical point for these solutions. Then we apply the result to the "single-peak" solutions of some widely studied problems. First a nonlinear and subcritical elliptic equation is considered, when the nonlinearity approaches the critical one. Then Schrodinger type problems are studied. Finally, the case when the potential is constant is also analyzed, on a bounded domain.
Hypercoagulability in Children with Thalassemia Major

Objective: We wished to determine the role of various factors causing hypercoagulability in thalassemia patients. Methods: Forty-six homozygous β-thalassemia patients were investigated. Protein C, protein S, and antithrombin (AT) levels were measured and lupus anticoagulants (LA) were screened. D-Dimer and fibrinopeptide A ( FPA) levels were measured to show the activation of the fibrinolytic system. Ten healthy children served as controls. Results: There was a marked decrease in protein C activity in 44.4% and in protein C antigen in 53.8% of the patients. Although no significant differences was noted between the mean values for protein S in the patient and control groups, protein S activity was <60% in 40% of the patients. AT levels were always normal. D-Dimer and FPA levels were increased, indicating the ongoing coagulation activation and fibrinolysis. Three patients had LA; which reflect the expression of phosphatidylserine on the outer surface of the erythrocyte membrane. Conclusions: In thalassemic patients, there is activation of the coagulation and fibrinolytic system which is believed to be secondary to an underlying mechanism. The presence of LA in some patients, probably due to the expression of PS on the outer surface of the erythrocyte membrane, may be the initiating event. Key Words: Thalassemia-Hypercoagulability-Protein C—Protein S—Antithrombin—Antiphospholipid antibodies.
OUTCOME OF CHIARI‐ASSOCIATED SYRINGOMYELIA AFTER HINDBRAIN DECOMPRESSION IN CHILDREN: ANALYSIS OF 49 CONSECUTIVE CASES

OBJECTIVEChiari I malformation is complicated by syringomyelia in many cases. Hindbrain decompression remains first-line surgical treatment; however, the incidence, time course, and predictors of syrinx resolution remain unclear. We set out to determine predictors of syrinx improvement after hindbrain decompression for Chiari I- associated syringomyelia. METHODSForty-nine consecutive pediatric patients undergoing posterior fossa decompression for Chiari I-associated syringomyelia were followed with serial magnetic resonance imaging evaluations postoperatively. Clinical, radiological, and operative variables were assessed as predictors of syrinx improvement as a function of time using Kaplan-Meier plots and log-rank analysis. RESULTSMean patient age was 11 ± 5 years. Syringomyelia was symptomatic in 39 (80%) and asymptomatic in 10 (20%) cases. Twenty-one (54%) patients experienced symptom resolution (median, 4 mo postoperatively). Twenty-seven (55%) patients experienced radiographic improvement in syringomyelia (median, 14 mo postoperatively). After hindbrain decompression, motor symptoms were associated with a 2.35 increased hazard ratio for symptom improvement (P = 0.031) versus all other symptoms. Among patients with sensory deficits, dysesthesia was associated with a 3.12 increased hazard ratio for symptom improvement (P = 0.032) versus symptoms of paresthesia or anesthesia. CONCLUSIONIn our experience, just more than one-half of patients with Chiari- associated syringomyelia demonstrated clinical and radiographic improvement after hindbrain decompression. Median time to radiographic improvement lagged behind clinical improvement by 10 months. Motor symptoms were more likely to improve with hindbrain decompression. Paresthesia or anesthesia symptoms were less likely to improve with hindbrain decompression. These findings may help guide surgical decision making and aid in patient education.
Bisphenol A and its analogues disrupt centrosome cycle and microtubule dynamics in prostate cancer.

Humans are increasingly exposed to structural analogues of bisphenol A (BPA), as BPA is being replaced by these compounds in BPA-free consumer products. We have previously shown that chronic and developmental exposure to BPA is associated with increased prostate cancer (PCa) risk in human and animal models. Here, we examine whether exposure of PCa cells (LNCaP, C4-2) to low-dose BPA and its structural analogues (BPS, BPF, BPAF, TBBPA, DMBPA and TMBPA) affects centrosome amplification (CA), a hallmark of cancer initiation and progression. We found that exposure to BPA, BPS, DMBPA and TBBPA, in descending order, increased the number of cells with CA, in a non-monotonic dose-response manner. Furthermore, cells treated with BPA and their analogues initiated centrosome duplication at 8 h after release from serum starvation, significantly earlier in G-1 phase than control cells. This response was attended by earlier release of nucleophosmin from unduplicated centrosomes. BPA-exposed cells exhibited increased expression of cyclin-dependent kinase CDK6 and decreased expression of CDK inhibitors (p21Waf1/CIP1 and p27KIP1). Using specific antagonists for estrogen/androgen receptors, CA in the presence of BPA or its analogues was likely to be mediated via ESR1 signaling. Change in microtubule dynamics was observed on exposure to these analogues, which, for BPA, was accompanied by increased expression of centrosome-associated protein CEP350 Similar to BPA, chronic treatment of cells with DMBPA, but not other analogues, resulted in the enhancement of anchorage-independent growth. We thus conclude that selected BPA analogues, similar to BPA, disrupt centrosome function and microtubule organization, with DMBPA displaying the broadest spectrum of cancer-promoting effects.
El proceso asistencial de cáncer: necesidades y expectativas de los usuarios

Cancer is currently one of the most relevant health problems because its high frequency, rising incidence and chronic nature. It is necessary to evaluate how care is applied to cancer patients in order to develop strategies aimed at incorporating the patients' prospects to the care provision measures. The use of semi-structured interviews as a qualitative method facilitates the analysis about how oncological patients perceive the administered care, and permits to recognize the strong and weak points of it. The screening and diagnostic stages were identified as the most difficult moments of the oncological care process. Other aspects to be improved were found in relation to the absence of psychological support, appropriate everyday material conditions, and adequate continuity of post-hospital care.
Comprehensive screening for PD-L1 expression in thyroid cancer.

PD-L1 expression is being considered a potential biomarker for response of anti-PD-1 or anti-PD-L1 agents in various tumors. The reported frequency of PD-L1 positivity varies in thyroid carcinomas, and multiple factors may contribute to the variability in PD-L1 positivity. We evaluated the PD-L1 expression in various thyroid cancers on a large scale. A total of 407 primary thyroid cancers with a median 13.7-year of follow-up were included. We evaluated the frequency of PD-L1 expression using a rabbit monoclonal antibody (clone SP142). In addition, we analyzed the relationships between PD-L1 expression and clinicopathologic factors, including TERT promoter, BRAF status and disease progression. Tumoral PD-L1 was expressed in 6.1% of papillary thyroid carcinomas, 7.6% of follicular thyroid carcinomas and 22.2% of anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. The distribution of PD-L1 positivity was different according to cancer histology types (P < 0.001). All PD-L1-positive cases of follicular thyroid carcinoma and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma showed strong intensity. The proportions of positivity in PD-L1 positive anaplastic thyroid carcinomas were more than 80%. PD-L1 in immune cells was positive in 28.5% of papillary thyroid carcinoma, 9.1% of follicular thyroid carcinomas and 11.1% of anaplastic thyroid carcinomas. There was no significant association between clinicopathologic variables, disease progression, oncogenic mutation and PD-L1 expression. PD-L1 was highly expressed in a subset of patients with advanced thyroid cancer, such as follicular and anaplastic thyroid carcinoma. Identification of PD-L1 expression may have direct therapeutic relevance to patients with refractory thyroid cancer.
Acoustic Modelling of Vowel Articulation on the Nine Thai Spreading Vowels

The Thai vowel system comprises nine short-long vowel pairs. The nine spreading vowels occur in specific locations covering the whole articulatory area. The location of each vowel can be identified according to its acoustic characteristics. Relationships between acoustic and articulatory characteristics were found in the Thai vowel system where F1 relates to vowel height and F2 relates to vowel advancement like other vowel systems. The bark F1-F0 and F3-F2 were also found to represent vowel height and vowel advancement, respectively. Vowel height includes high, mid and low vowel groups while vowel advancement includes front, central and back vowel groups. The previous binary classification criterion is not sufficient for a spreading vowel system. Hence, three new classification strategies are proposed for the classification of complex vowel systems: (1) classification by vowel height, (2) classification by vowel advancement, and (3) classification by combined vowel height and vowel advancement. Acoustic analysis on the Thai vowel system is conducted and each vowel is acoustically modelled by its acoustic-articulatory features. The F1 and bark F1-F0 are employed in classification by vowel height. The F2 and bark F3-F2 are employed in classification by vowel advancement. Both acoustic features are integrated into a single feature vector in combined vowel height and vowel advancement classification using the Bayesian classifier. From the results, linear frequency scale provides better classification accuracy than bark in every case. The linear F1 is 88.52% correct in vowel height classification while it is 94.09% correct using linear F2 in vowel advancement classification. Both linear F1 and F2 achieve 86.33% correctness in combined classification of all the vowels. These illustrate that three classification strategies efficiently classify complex vowel systems using only static spectral cues. Therefore, the simple linear F1 and F2 values can be used to model vowel articulation and to classify each vowel in languages with a complex vowel system like Thai.
INTRAOPERATIVE FLUORESCENCE STAINING OF MALIGNANT BRAIN TUMORS USING 5‐AMINOFLUORESCEIN‐LABELED ALBUMIN

OBJECTIVE The newly developed conjugate 5-aminofluorescein (AFL)-human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated in a clinical trial for fluorescence-guided surgery of malignant brain tumors to assess its efficacy and tolerability. METHODS AFL, covalently linked to human serum albumin at a molar ratio of 1:1, was administered intravenously 0.5 to 4 days before surgery at 0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg of body weight to 13 patients aged 38 to 71 years who were suspected of having malignant gliomas. Fluorescence guidance using a 488-nm argon laser was performed during surgery at will. The extent of tumor resection was verified by early postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Fluorescent and nonfluorescent samples were collected for neuropathology. Blood samples for laboratory and pharmacokinetic analyses were taken over the course of 4 weeks. RESULTS Fluorescence staining of tumor tissue was bright in 11 patients (84%), resulting in complete resection of fluorescent tumor tissue in 9 patients (69%). In 2 patients, residual fluorescent tumor tissue was also confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. Neither bleaching nor penetration of AFL-HSA into the surrounding brain edema or into necrotic tissue was seen. The agreement between fluorescence and histopathology in tumor samples and samples of the tumor border was 83.3%. There were no toxic side effects. The quality of fluorescence was independent of the dose administered. The optimal time for surgery is between 1 and 4 days after AFL-HSA administration. CONCLUSION Tumor fluorescence using AFL-HSA made fluorescence-guided brain tumor resection possible, demonstrating that albumin is a suitable carrier system for selective targeting of aminofluorescein into malignant gliomas.
Antegrade diastolic pulmonary arterial flow as a marker of right ventricular restriction after complete repair of pulmonary atresia with intact septum and critical pulmonary valvar stenosis

Abstract In order to examine right ventricular diastolic function after complete correction of pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum and critical pulmonary valvar stenosis, we undertook a prospective analysis of seven patients who had previously undergone successful repair. Comparison was with age and sex-matched controls. The relationship between antegrade pulmonary arterial diastolic flow and other indices of right ventricular dysfunction were compared. The ratio of the velocity of early rapid filling to that of atrial systolic flow was no different from normal, but the deceleration of early rapid filling showed significant shortening with inspiration in patients, but not in control subjects. All patients, but none of the controls, demonstrated significant antegrade diastolic pulmonary arterial flow during late diastole. Despite “normal” ratios ofvelocity of early rapid filling to systolic atrial flow, patients after complete correction of pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum and critical pulmonary stenosis have abnormal right ventricular diastolic function typical of a restrictive physiology. This presumably reflects incomplete adaptation due to the presence of endomyocardial fibrosis.
Obesity and menopause modify the epigenomic profile of breast cancer.

Obesity is a high risk factor for breast cancer. This relationship could be marked by a specific methylome. The current work was aimed to explore the impact of obesity and menopausal status on variation in breast cancer methylomes. Data from Infinium 450K array-based methylomes of 64 breast tumors were coupled with information on BMI and menopausal status. Additionally, DNA methylation results were validated in 18 non-tumor and 81 tumor breast samples. Breast tumors arising in either pre- or postmenopausal women stratified by BMI or menopausal status alone were not associated with a specific DNA methylation pattern. Intriguingly, the DNA methylation pattern identified in association with the high-risk group (postmenopausal women with high BMI (>25) and premenopausal women with normal or low BMI < 25) exclusively characterized by hypermethylation of 1287 CpG sites as compared with the low-risk group. These CpG sites included the promoter region of fourteen protein-coding genes of which CpG methylation over the ZNF577 promoter region represents the top scoring associated event. In an independent cohort, the ZNF577 promoter methylation remained statistically significant in association with the high-risk group. Additionally, the impact of ZNF577 promoter methylation on mRNA expression levels was demonstrated in breast cancer cell lines after treatment with a demethylating agent (5-azacytidine). In conclusion, the epigenome of breast tumors is affected by a complex interaction between BMI and menopausal status. The ZNF577 methylation quantification is clearly relevant for the development of novel biomarkers of precision therapy in breast cancer.
Developing a Core Vocabulary for a Mandarin Chinese AAC System Using Word Frequency Data

Creating a generative language system in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for both literate and non-literate users requires three fundamental design steps: analyzing the grammar of the language; developing an efficient, culturally relevant pictorial representation system for encoding the language; and selecting a list of target words to encode. This paper will focus on the problem of selecting vocabulary for the AAC system. This is an important problem because the selection of the encoded vocabulary will ultimately determine the language coverage of the AAC system. The vocabulary list should provide coverage on three fronts: it should contain the most frequently used vocabulary of the spoken language; it should allow description of all the universal, fundamental semantic concepts; and it should meet users' expectations of what they should be able to say on a daily basis, in any given situation. Mandarin Chinese, as a relatively new target language for AAC, presents some unique challenges t.
PLATELET AND LEUKOCYTE ADHESION IN THE MICROVASCULATURE AT THE CEREBRAL SURFACE IMMEDIATELY AFTER SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE

OBJECTIVEPathophysiology after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) caused by aneurysmal rupture has not been well examined. The purpose of this study was to observe platelet-leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions as indexes of inflammatory and prothrombogenic responses in the acute phase of SAH, using an in vivo cranial window method. METHODSSubarachnoid hemorrhage was induced in C57Bl/6J mice by using the endovascular perforation method. Intravital microscopy was used to monitor the rolling and adhesion of platelets and leukocytes that were labeled with different fluorochromes. Regional cerebral blood flow was measured with laser Doppler flowmetry. The platelet-leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions were observed 30 minutes, 2 hours, and 8 hours after SAH. The effect of P-selectin antibody and apocynin, an inhibitor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase, on these responses was examined at 2 hours after SAH, and compared with a different SAH model in which autologous blood was injected into the foramen magna. RESULTSSAH was accompanied by a 60% decrease in regional cerebral blood flow, whereas no changes in regional cerebral blood flow were observed on the contralateral side. SAH elicited time- and size-dependent increases in rolling and adherent platelets and leukocytes in cerebral venules. All of these interactions were attenuated by treatment with a P-selectin antibody or apocynin. There was no significant blood cell recruitment observed in the blood-injected SAH model. CONCLUSIONSAH at the skull base induced P-selectin- and oxygen radical-mediated platelet-leukocyte-endothelial cell interactions in venules at the cerebral surface. These early inflammatory and prothrombogenic responses may cause a whole-brain injury immediately after SAH.