Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized comparison of tubeless and standard percutaneous nephrolithotomy.

PURPOSE We present a randomized study of tubeless or nephrostomy-free percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL), a modification of the standard technique, compared with standard PCNL to evaluate the role of tubeless PCNL in minimizing postoperative discomfort and reducing duration of hospital stay. PATIENTS AND METHODS Two hundred and two patients undergoing PCNL were randomized to two groups: Group A (standard PCNL) with nephrostomy tube placement postoperatively, and group B (tubeless PCNL) with antegrade placement of a Double-J stent without nephrostomy. Inclusion criteria were: normal renal functions, single tract procedure with complete clearance, and minimal bleeding at completion. The two groups were comparable in age and sex and in metabolic and anatomic features. Factors evaluated included postoperative pain, analgesia requirement, blood loss, postoperative morbidity, hospital stay, and time to recovery. RESULTS All patients had an uneventful postoperative recovery. The average visual analogue scale pain score on postoperative day 1 for group A patients was 59 +/- 5.1 compared with 31 +/- 4.8 in group B (P < 0.01). The mean analgesia requirement for group A (meperidine 126.5 +/- 33.3 mg) was significantly more compared with group B (meperidine 81.7 +/- 24.5 mg) (P < 0.01). The difference in average blood loss and urinary infection for the two groups was not statistically significant. The incidence of urinary leakage from the nephrostomy site was significantly less for the tubeless group (0/101), compared with the standard PNL group (7/101). The average hospital stay in the tubeless group (21.8 +/- 3.9 hours) was significantly shorter than that of the standard PCNL group (54.2 +/- 5 hours) (P < 0.01). Tubeless group patients took 5 to 7 days for complete convalescence whereas standard PCNL patients recovered in 8 to 10 days. No long-term sequelae were noticed in the median follow-up period of 18 months in any patient. CONCLUSION Nephrostomy-free or tubeless PCNL reduces postoperative urinary leakage and local pain related to the drainage tube. It also minimizes hospital stay; the majority of patients were discharged from the hospital in fewer than 24 hours.
Health care-associated measles outbreak in the United States after an importation: challenges and economic impact.

BACKGROUND On 12 February 2008, an infected Swiss traveler visited hospital A in Tucson, Arizona, and initiated a predominantly health care-associated measles outbreak involving 14 cases. We investigated risk factors that might have contributed to health care-associated transmission and assessed outbreak-associated hospital costs. METHODS Epidemiologic data were obtained by case interviews and review of medical records. Health care personnel (HCP) immunization records were reviewed to identify non-measles-immune HCP. Outbreak-associated costs were estimated from 2 hospitals. RESULTS Of 14 patients with confirmed cases, 7 (50%) were aged ≥ 18 years, 4 (29%) were hospitalized, 7 (50%) acquired measles in health care settings, and all (100%) were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. Of the 11 patients (79%) who had accessed health care services while infectious, 1 (9%) was masked and isolated promptly after rash onset. HCP measles immunity data from 2 hospitals confirmed that 1776 (25%) of 7195 HCP lacked evidence of measles immunity. Among these HCPs, 139 (9%) of 1583 tested seronegative for measles immunoglobulin G, including 1 person who acquired measles. The 2 hospitals spent US$799,136 responding to and containing 7 cases in these facilities. CONCLUSIONS Suspecting measles as a diagnosis, instituting immediate airborne isolation, and ensuring rapidly retrievable measles immunity records for HCPs are paramount in preventing health care-associated spread and in minimizing hospital outbreak-response costs.
Human monocyte CD163 expression inversely correlates with soluble CD163 plasma levels

CD163 is a monocyte/macrophage‐restricted receptor involved in the clearance of hemoglobin–haptoglobin complexes and regulation of inflammatory processes. CD163 is shed from the cell surface and exists as a soluble form in plasma (sCD163). Monocyte CD163 and sCD163 are potential diagnostic tools in variety of disease states.
Alterations of regional cerebral blood flow after NMDA receptor antagonist administration in patients with alcohol‐related dementia

Although N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists may have beneficial influences on cognition in patients with alcohol‐related dementia (ARD), their effects on regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) remain unknown. This study evaluated changes in rCBF in ARD patients after administration of NMDA receptor antagonist for 12 weeks using technetium‐99m ethyl cysteinate dimer (Tc‐99m ECD) single‐photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). Twenty‐eight ARD patients were administered memantine for 12 weeks and underwent clinical evaluations and brain SPECT scans at baseline and follow‐up. Whole‐brain changes in perfusion were examined on a voxel‐by‐voxel basis. At follow‐up, the patients showed reduced rCBF in the left medial frontal gyrus, left cingulate gyrus, left claustrum, right brainstem, left superior temporal gyrus, bilateral fusiform gyrus, and left cerebellum. On the other hand, increased rCBF was found in the bilateral uncus, left parahippocampal gyrus, bilateral superior frontal gyrus, right inferior parietal lobule, left cuneus, and left superior temporal gyrus. Perfusion increases in various brain areas including the superior frontal, parahippocampal, and inferior parietal areas, which may play important roles in the pathophysiology of ARD, suggest potential benefits of NMDA receptor antagonists on brain functions in patients with ARD.
Factors Affecting the Adoption and use of NERICA Varieties among Rice Producing Households in Ghana

This paper uses cross sectional data which were collected from 200 smallholder rice producers in Ghana, to examine the factors influencing the adoption and extent of use of NERICA rice varieties in Ghana. About 57.93 per cent of the sampled rice producers allocated 35.77 per cent of their land to NERICA accounting for about 33.13 per cent of seeds planted. The Tobit regression model suggests fertilizer use, existence of other complementary projects in the area, proportion of active persons in household, access to alternative income sources, distance to seed source and education as key factors influencing the quantity of seeds planted as well as the proportion of land allocated to the NERICA varieties. With the exception of distance to seed source, all the other factors positively influenced the extents of adoption. The findings suggest the need to ensure availability of NERICA seeds within acceptable distances to farming communities. This could be achieved through identification of certified rice seed growers in strategic locations throughout the country and supported with necessary logistics to produce NERICA seeds at reasonable proximities to rice producing communities. This could also be enhanced through establishment of linkages with existing institutions and projects to compliment promotional efforts
Clinical manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus in patients with antiribosomal P protein antibodies.

INTRODUCTION Antibodies against ribosomal P protein (anti-P) are detected predominantly in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). However, the data on their frequency and clinical relevance remain inconclusive. OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to assess the frequency as well as clinical and serological relevance of anti-P autoantibodies in Polish patients with SLE and to determine the significance of these antibodies in the diagnosis of SLE. PATIENTS AND METHODS Anti-P antibody levels were measured in the sera of 100 SLE patients using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blotting. All patients underwent a routine clinical and laboratory evaluation. Disease activity was assessed using the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) score. RESULTS Anti-P antibodies were detected in 14 of 100 patients. When compared to anti-P-negative patients, this group was characterized by earlier onset of SLE, higher disease activity, more frequent occurrence of fever and facial erythema, decreased serum levels of complement, and elevated levels of alanine and aspartate aminotransferases. In 2 cases, anti-P antibodies were the only serological marker of SLE detected in these patients. CONCLUSIONS SLE with the presence of anti-P antibodies is characterized by an early onset and high disease activity.
Associations between Plasma Cytokines and Depressive Mood in Patients with Breast Cancer

Objective: The few studies on the associations between cytokines and depressive mood in patients with cancer have produced conflicting results. This study investigated the associations between plasma cytokines and depressive mood in patients with breast cancer using a large panel of pro-inflammatory, anti-inflammatory, and immune-modulating cytokines. Methods: We recruited 273 hospitalized patients with breast cancer awaiting surgery. Preoperative plasma samples were obtained for cytokine analysis, including pro-inflammatory (interleukin [IL]-2, IL-12, interferon [IFN]-γ, and tumor necrosis factor [TNF-α]), anti-inflammatory (IL-4, IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13), and immune-modulating (granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor [GM-CSF]) cytokines. Depressive mood was measured using the Montgomery—Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) at 2–5 days postoperatively, when the patients could cooperate. Covariates included various demographic and clinical characteristics. The association between the MADRS score and each cytokine level was estimated using linear regression models. Results: Cytokine levels were significantly inter-correlated. Depressive mood was associated with lower levels of pro-inflammatory (IL-2, IL-12, and TNF-α), anti-inflammatory (IL-5, IL-10, and IL-13), and immune-modulating (GM-CSF) cytokines independent of potential covariates such as living area or functional level. Conclusions: The findings suggest that depressive mood is associated with a generally decreased inflammatory reaction or immune function in patients with breast cancer.
Giant-cell reaction in surgically excised subretinal neovascular membrane.

Surgical excision of subretinal neovascular membrane is a treatment currently offered for selected patients with subfoveal neovascularization.1Pathologic study of excised membranes has provided insight into the pathogenesis of subretinal neovascularization.2We report herein a case in which pathologic examination of an excised membrane revealed a foreign-body giant-cell reaction. Report of a Case. —A 79-year-old white woman was examined for subfoveal neovascularization in her left eye. The patient had a history of age-related macular degeneration and had previously undergone laser photocoagulation in her right eye. The patient's medical history was significant for non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. Initial examination revealed that the patient's visual acuity was counting fingers at 1 ft in her right eye and 20/60 OS. External examination showed mild blepharitis and cataracts in both eyes. Fundus examination showed a posterior vitreous detachment and scattered discrete nodular drusen in both eyes. There was no evidence of intraocular inflammation.
Health Activism: Communication Theory and Action for Social Change

This article argues that “health activism” as a concept has been overlooked as an important element of health communication and situates the concept in relation to key areas of research in the field, including health citizenship and community organizing. The author presents theoretical frameworks for comparing and contrasting health-related social action based on issue focus and political orientation that facilitate communication-based contributions to multidisciplinary research. This contribution is discussed in more detail by theorizing communicative processes associated with health activism. It is then argued that the study of health activism can benefit from adopting critical perspectives that focus on issues of power and conflict and on multisectoral views of health that examine activist efforts related to a broad array of the determinants of health, including political, economic, and environmental issues. Use of the term health activism is not particularly common in either popular or academic discourse, especially when compared to the ubiquity of the term environmental activism. We are more likely to hear discussion of AIDS activism or breast cancer activism than we are to hear the covering term “health activism. ” By referring to activists one disease or health issue at a time without reference to the more encompassing concept, many scholars and the public may overlook important commonalities (and differences) among activist efforts that focus on a range of issues related to health. Initially defined in terms of efforts, often grassroots, to change norms, social structures, policies, and power relationships in the health arena, health activism includes actions related to patient activism, health care reform, disease prevention, illness advocacy, physical disability, environmental justice, public safety, and health disparities in populations such as women, minorities, gays, and lesbians, among others.
Aberrant Current Source-Density and Lagged Phase Synchronization of Neural Oscillations as Markers for Emerging Psychosis.

BACKGROUND Converging evidence indicates that neural oscillations coordinate activity across brain areas, a process which is seemingly perturbed in schizophrenia. In particular, beta (13-30 Hz) and gamma (30-50 Hz) oscillations were repeatedly found to be disturbed in schizophrenia and linked to clinical symptoms. However, it remains unknown whether abnormalities in current source density (CSD) and lagged phase synchronization of oscillations across distributed regions of the brain already occur in patients with an at-risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis. METHODS To further elucidate this issue, we assessed resting-state EEG data of 63 ARMS patients and 29 healthy controls (HC). Twenty-three ARMS patients later made a transition to psychosis (ARMS-T) and 40 did not (ARMS-NT). CSD and lagged phase synchronization of neural oscillations across brain areas were assessed using eLORETA and their relationships to neurocognitive deficits and clinical symptoms were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. RESULTS ARMS-T patients showed higher gamma activity in the medial prefrontal cortex compared to HC, which was associated with abstract reasoning abilities in ARMS-T. Furthermore, in ARMS-T patients lagged phase synchronization of beta oscillations decreased more over Euclidian distance compared to ARMS-NT and HC. Finally, this steep spatial decrease of phase synchronicity was most pronounced in ARMS-T patients with high positive and negative symptoms scores. CONCLUSIONS These results indicate that patients who will later make the transition to psychosis are characterized by impairments in localized and synchronized neural oscillations providing new insights into the pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenic psychoses and may be used to improve the prediction of psychosis.
Liver iron stores in patients with secondary haemosiderosis under iron chelation therapy with deferoxamine or deferiprone

Summary. Total body iron stores including liver and spleen iron were assessed by non‐invasive SQUID biomagnetometry. The liver iron concentration was measured in groups of patients with β‐thalassaemia major or other post‐transfusional siderosis under treatment with the oral iron chelator deferiprone (n = 19) and/or with parenteral deferoxamine (n = 33). An interquartile range for liver iron concentrations of 1680‐4470μg/g liver was found in these patients. In both groups a poor correlation between liver iron and serum ferritin values was observed.
Reward breaks through center‐surround inhibition via anterior insula

Focusing attention on a target creates a center‐surround inhibition such that distractors located close to the target do not capture attention. Recent research showed that a distractor can break through this surround inhibition when associated with reward. However, the brain basis for this reward‐based attention is unclear. In this fMRI study, we presented a distractor associated with high or low reward at different distances from the target. Behaviorally the low‐reward distractor did not capture attention and thus did not cause interference, whereas the high‐reward distractor captured attention only when located near the target. Neural activity in extrastriate cortex mirrored the behavioral pattern. A comparison between the high‐reward and the low‐reward distractors presented near the target (i.e., reward‐based attention) and a comparison between the high‐reward distractors located near and far from the target (i.e., spatial attention) revealed a common frontoparietal network, including inferior frontal gyrus and inferior parietal sulcus as well as the visual cortex. Reward‐based attention specifically activated the anterior insula (AI). Dynamic causal modelling showed that reward modulated the connectivity from AI to the frontoparietal network but not the connectivity from the frontoparietal network to the visual cortex. Across participants, the reward‐based attentional effect could be predicted both by the activity in AI and by the changes of spontaneous functional connectivity between AI and ventral striatum before and after reward association. These results suggest that AI encodes reward‐based salience and projects it to the stimulus‐driven attentional network, which enables the reward‐associated distractor to break through the surround inhibition in the visual cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 36:5233–5251, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Protein and Isozymes Electrophoresis for Identifying Some Transplanted Carp Species

ELGHOBASHY PH. A. , A. A. RAMADAN, M. A. RASHD and I. H. IBRAHEM, 2006. Protein and isozymes electrophoresis for identifying some transplanted carp species. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci.12: 268-283 Genetics similarity and diversity of five cultured carp fishes collected from Abbassa area (CLAR) in Sharkia, Egypt were examined. SDS-PAGE for muscle protein and native-PAGE for some isozymes, such as esterases and malate dehydrogenase were studied on ten individuals fish of each species. To discriminate isozymes variation among carp species, different synthetic Est substrates; α, β-N acetate and α-N propionate were tested. The results indicated that the soluble muscle protein patterns it may be conducted that each population had a unique banding pattern. Close relationship was noticed between bighead and black carp with similarity coefficient value of (94%). Silver carp had a different banding pattern and branched out as subgroup from each of bighead and black. The results of α, β naphthyl esterase showed perfect similarity within silver individuals. The average similarity values among the five carp species resulted from cluster analysis of α, β esterase isozymes data showed a close relationship between grass and silver carp (95%). High similarity in black, mirror carp, and grass carp while bighead and silver carp showed rear polymorphism with propionate esterase. Also the result showed that the variation in Mdh was limited and restricted on silver and mirror carp, while bighead, black and grass carp showed no variation within their populations. The final data of this work showed close relationship between bighead and black carp (85%). Moreover, quite close relationship
MgATP-Dependent Transport of Phytochelatins Across the Tonoplast of Oat Roots

In Cd-exposed oat (Avena sativa) roots Cd was found to be associated primarily with the phytochelatin ([gamma]-glutamylcysteinyl)3-glutamic acid [([gamma]EC)3G], with a peptide to Cd ratio of 1:3 (cysteine to Cd ratio of 1:1), even though both ([gamma]EC)2G and ([gamma]EC)3G were present in the roots. Phytochelatins are known to accumulate in the vacuoles of plant cells on exposure to Cd, but the mechanism is not clear. Here we present evidence for the transport of the phytochelatins ([gamma]EC)3G and ([gamma]EC)2G as well as the Cd complex Cd-([gamma]EC)3G across the tonoplast of oat roots. Transport of ([gamma]EC)3G had a Km, for MgATP of 0.18 mM and a Vmax of 0.7 to 1 nmol mg-1 protein min-1. Transport of ([gamma]EC)3G was also energized by MgGTP and to a lesser extent MgUTP and was highly sensitive to orthovanadate, with a 50%-inhibitory concentration of 0.9 [mu]M. The Cd complex Cd-([gamma]EC)3G and ([gamma]EC)2G were also transported in a MgATP-dependent, vanadate-sensitive manner. Therefore, this process is a candidate for the transport of both phytochelatins, and Cd as its peptide complex, from the cytoplasm into the vacuole.
Development and Application of Biological Age Prediction Models with Physical Fitness and Physiological Components in Korean Adults

Background: Several biological age (BA) prediction models have been suggested with a variety of biomarkers. Valid models should be able to measure BA in a relatively short time period and predict subsequent physiological capability. Physiological and physical fitness variables have been shown to be distinctive markers for predicting BA and morbidity. The practical and noninvasive nature of such variables makes them useful as clinical assessment tools in estimating BA for in-depth diagnosis and corresponding intervention. Objective: To identify, develop and evaluate biomarkers and BA prediction models and validate their clinical usefulness for the practical diagnosis of functional aging. Methods: Fourteen variables were measured in 3,112 male and 1,233 female participants aged 30 and older between the years 2004 and 2007. Through a series of parsimonious stepwise elimination processes, two sets of 8 gender-specific variables were selected as candidate biomarkers for 1,604 men and 760 women. Principal component analysis, linear regression analysis and adjustment methods were further applied to obtain two sets of true BA (TBA) prediction models. The TBA models were examined for validity by comparing TBA to the corresponding chronological age (CA) with clinical risk factors. Results: TBA prediction models with r2 values of 0.638 and 0.672 were developed, each unique to men and women, respectively. The overall mean TBA and CA of the participants were 53.9 and 51.8 years, respectively, with a marginal difference of –2.1 and –1.3 years. The regression slopes or rates of TBA as a function of CA were 1.00 and 1.28 for men and women with r values of 0.799 and 0.820 (p < 0.001), respectively. In comparing TBA to CA rates between healthy and clinical risk groups, both sarcopenic and obese groups showed significant increases in TBA. Conclusions: The selected biomarkers encompass various complex physiopathological factors related to intrinsic and extrinsic physiological and functional aging. The BA prediction models based on the selected biomarkers could be practical in assessing BA for Korean adults.