Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Modulating effects of L‐arginine on cytokine‐stimulated lymphocyte migration in vitro

Elective microsurgical transplants have become routine. Yet there remains a 1–5% rate of complete flap necrosis among these surgical reconstructions. This rate is much higher in emergent replantations. Despite technically accurate surgery, perfusion fails in this group. This lack of perfusion, or no‐reflow, has been attributed to ischemic‐reperfusion injury. The exact nature of this phenomenon remains poorly characterized, though it is clear that significant changes occur in such situations at the endothelial vascular interface. In an effort to understand the biomolecular events involved in ischemic‐reperfusion injury we investigated the modulation of leukocyte transendothelial migration. Using a chemotactic chamber model with a cytokine stimulate mono‐layer of umbilical vein endothelium, we evaluated the migration rate of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in the presence of exogenous L‐arginine and/or the nitric oxide synthase inhibitor L‐NAME. Levels of INF‐γ and TNF‐α production were also determined. It was found that in the face of cytokine pre‐stimulation and L‐arginine, mononuclear cell trans‐endothelial migration increased dramatically. There were also parallel increases in inflammatory cytokine output. These responses were sharply decreased by L‐NAME. The results of this study suggest that in vitro nitric oxide augments transendothelial migration of inflammatory cells. Modulation of this response may provide a clinically useful method of minimizing ischemic‐reperfusion injury. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. MICROSURGERY 23:262–267 2003
Cree Women Speak: Intergenerational Perspectives on Weight Gain during Pregnancy and Weight Loss after Pregnancy

Obesity is prevalent among the First Nations population in Canada, with serious associated health risks. Recent studies also indicate that a high percentage of First Nations women are overweight or obese at the start of their pregnancies, with a tendency to retain weight after their children are born. In response to these concerns, a community-based study was conducted in two Cree communities, using qualitative methods to investigate young mothers’ perceptions and concerns about weight gain during pregnancy and challenges to postpartum weight loss. Female Elders were also interviewed to provide some historical context and to give some insight into culturally appropriate responses to the current weight-related health challenges being faced by young mothers. Overall, the study showed that most of the participants—young and old— associated “healthy foods” with traditional foods and “healthy living” with bush life. However, while Elders recounted staying active and eating traditional foods throughout their pregnancies, the younger women tended not to put their knowledge of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle into practice, mainly due to various individual and societal barriers. Some of the barriers identified related to lifestyle changes, including increased consumption of “white man’s foods” and decreased physical activity, as well as to larger social changes, such as the medicalization of pregnancy and diminished community support networks for young mothers. Participants provided insight into how traditional practices could be intertwined with the benefits of contemporary life to help address some of the health issues currently affecting young Cree mothers.
Cirurgia cardíaca no idoso

BACKGROUND: Because of the increase in the life expectancy of the Brazilian population, elderly patients are being increasingly referred to cardiac surgery. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Seventy-five patients, 70 years of age or older, who underwent cardiac surgery in the HC-UFPR, between 1995 and 1999 were studied. The purpose of this study was to analyze early and long-term results. Ages from 70 to 88 years, with 34 females (46.7%) and 41 males (53.3%). Symptoms included angina (81.3%), dyspnea (42.6%) and syncope (16%). There was 57.3% of patients in NYHA class I, 17.3% in class II, 18.6% in class III and 6.6% in class IV. The main risk factors listed were high blood pressure (61.3%), smoke (48%), diabetes mellitus (28%) and 9.3% had already had cardiac operations. Surgical procedures included 50 coronary artery bypass grafts - CABG (66.6%), 9 aortic valve replacements (12%), 5 aortic operations (6.6%), 4 CABG + valve replacement (5.2%) and other procedures (7%). The main postoperative complications were cardiovascular - ventricular arrhythmias (22.6%), supraventricular arrhythmias (21.3%), low cardiac output (16%) - infections (16%) and pulmonary problems (9.3%). The median stay in the ICU was 5 days. RESULTS: Sixty-five (78.4%) survivors had complete follow-up. The mean follow-up time was 20.7 months and long-term survival was 92%. Only one of the late deaths was cardiac related. CONCLUSION: Although this subgroup is associated with chronic diseases compromising other organs, advances in cardiac surgery and intensive care have made possible an intervention with safety and low morbidity and mortality.
β-Lactam Resistance in Gram-Negative Bacteria: Global Trends and Clinical Impact

Microbial drug resistance is an inescapable consequence of the utilization of antimicrobial agents in a given environment. Nowhere is the importance of resistance more evident than among agents of the beta-lactam family. Trends toward increased resistance can be seen among fastidious gram-negative bacteria like Haemophilus influenzae, where ampicillin resistance varies from 1% to 64% globally. For Escherichia coli, ampicillin resistance has risen to > or = 50% in high-risk populations, and resistance to third-generation cephalosporins is now being seen in certain areas. Inducible beta-lactamases have been responsible for increasing multiple beta-lactam resistance among certain Enterobacteriaceae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and this has been associated with increased use of newer cephalosporins. Xanthomonas maltophilia with its two inducible beta-lactamases is becoming an increasingly important nosocomial pathogen, especially in areas of heavy imipenem utilization. Only through the recognition of factors associated with increasing resistance and the mechanisms responsible can strategies be designed for minimizing beta-lactam resistance.
Hypercoagulability: Introduction and Perspective

Although it may be impossible to distinguish reliably between normo- and hypercoagulable individuals on the basis of results from single assays of so-called baseline or resting levels of proteins or activities in blood, it might be feasible to do so by measuring the increases in the levels or activities in response to some kind of vascular stress, such as stasis or adequately reproducible vascular injury
Regulating the types of foods and beverages marketed to Australian children: how useful are food industry commitments?

Aim: Any regulation of food marketing to children requires clear definitions of the types of foods considered inappropriate and subject to restrictions. The aim of this research was to examine the commitments made by signatory companies of the Australian Food and Grocery Council's Responsible Marketing to Children Initiative regarding the types of foods considered appropriate for marketing to children. Methods: Nutrient criteria developed by signatory food companies were examined by comparing (i) thresholds set for negative nutrients (saturated fats, added sugars and sodium) and total energy to two existing nutrient criteria: Healthy Kids Association and the National Heart Foundation Tick, and (ii) the types of foods considered appropriate for marketing to children, if applying companies' commitments or the product's nutrient profile using the Food Standards Australia and New Zealand nutrient profiling tool. Results: All five company-developed nutrient criteria examined specified higher thresholds for negative nutrients compared with existing criteria, and were more likely to report negative nutrients per serve rather than per 100 g. When applying company commitments, 57% more energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages were considered appropriate for marketing to children, compared with nutrient profiling. Conclusion: Food industry commitments regarding the types of foods considered appropriate for marketing to children do not adequately restrict the marketing for energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods. It is recommended food manufacturers who commit to restricting their marketing of unhealthy foods to children use a standardised, independent nutrient profiling tool based on per 100 g/100 mL to determine the appropriateness of foods and beverages for marketing to children.
A Music Therapy System for Patients with Dementia who Repeat Stereotypical Utterances

Some patients with dementia repeat stereotypical utterances and/or scream in agitation for several hours. Music therapy is a method known to alleviate the symptoms of dementia. Altshuler explained that a music therapist should first play music that matches the current mood of a patient according to the iso-principle, principle of music therapy. We thought that if certain types of music can calm patients down, a music therapy system that is usable for musical novices could be useful in nursing homes. Therefore, we present a music therapy system, "MusiCuddle," that automatically plays a short musical phrase (tune) in response to a caregiver's simple key entry. This music overlaps with patients' utterances and/or screaming. The first note of the tune is same as the fundamental pitch (F0) of the patient's utterances. We compiled four types of tunes (chords, cadences, Japanese school songs, and phrases created from the patients' utterances) into a database. The cadences were selected from established music scores and began with an unsteady or/and agitated chord in order to resonate with the patient's mental instability. We conducted a case study to investigate how MusiCuddle changes a patient's behaviors. In the case study, the pitches extracted from the patient's utterances were varied and wide-ranging. We thought her level of agitation might be reflected in her pitches. Pitch differences in the first note affect and change the entire mood of the music. Therefore, it may be said that the Mu- siCuddle can play music to resonate with his/her mood by extracting pitch from her utterance in accordance with the iso-principle. Moreover, we recorded the patient's utterances and compared them with vs. without using MusiCuddle to estimate the influence of MusiCuddle. The results suggested that tunes presented by MusiCuddle may give patients an opportunity to stop repeating stereotypical utterances.
Total Intravenous Anesthesia in Greyhounds: Pharmacokinetics of Propofol and Fentanyl—MA Preliminary Study

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate concomitant propofol and fentanyl infusions as an anesthetic regime, in Greyhounds. ANIMALS: Eight clinically normal Greyhounds (four male, four female) weighing 25.58 +/- 3.38 kg. DESIGN: Prospective experimental study. METHODS: Dogs were premedicated with acepromazine (0.05 mg/kg) by intramuscular (i.m.) injection. Forty five minutes later anesthesia was induced with a bolus of propofol (4 mg/kg) by intravenous (i.v.) injection and a propofol infusion was begun (time = 0). Five minutes after induction of anesthesia, fentanyl (2 microg/kg) and atropine (40 microg/kg) were administered i.v. and a fentanyl infusion begun. Propofol infusion (0.2 to 0.4 mg/kg/min) lasted for 90 minutes and fentanyl infusion (0.1 to 0.5 microg/kg/min) for 70 minutes. Heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, end-tidal carbon dioxide, body temperature, and depth of anesthesia were recorded. The quality of anesthesia, times to return of spontaneous ventilation, extubation, head lift, and standing were also recorded. Blood samples were collected for propofol and fentanyl analysis at varying times before, during and after anesthesia. RESULTS: Mean heart rate of all dogs varied from 52 to 140 beats/min during the infusion. During the same time period, mean blood pressure ranged from 69 to 100 mm Hg. On clinical assessment, all dogs appeared to be in light surgical anesthesia. Mean times (+/- SEM), after termination of the propofol infusion, to return of spontaneous ventilation, extubation, head lift and standing for all dogs were 26 +/- 7, 30 +/- 7, 59 +/- 12, and 105 +/- 13 minutes, respectively. Five out of eight dogs either whined or paddled their forelimbs in recovery. Whole blood concentration of propofol for all eight dogs ranged from 1.21 to 6.77 microg/mL during the infusion period. Mean residence time (MRTinf) for propofol was 104.7 +/- 6.0 minutes, mean body clearance (Clb) was 53.35 +/- 0.005 mL/kg/min, and volume of distribution at steady state (Vdss) was 3.27 +/- 0.49 L/kg. Plasma concentration of fentanyl for seven dogs during the infusion varied from 1.22 to 4.54 ng/mL. Spontaneous ventilation returned when plasma fentanyl levels were >0.77 and <1.17 ng/mL. MRTinf for fentanyl was 111.3 +/- 5.7 minutes. Mean body clearance was 29.1 +/- 2.2 mL/kg/min and Vdss was 2.21 +/- 0.19 L/kg. CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: In Greyhounds which were not undergoing any surgical stimulation, total intravenous anesthesia maintained with propofol and fentanyl infusions induced satisfactory anesthesia, provided atropine was given to counteract bradycardia. Despite some unsatisfactory recoveries the technique is worth investigating further for clinical cases, in this breed and in mixed breed dogs.
FUNCTION OF THE THYROID AND THE PITUITARY IN MONGOLISM: WITH A REPORT ON THE BLOOD GROUPS OF AMERICAN MONGOLOID DEFECTIVES AND COMMENTS ON THE DETERMINATION OF CHOLESTEROL

In four previous publications 1 one of us (C. E. B.) has accumulated evidence that the so-called mongoloid deficiency is associated with an endocrine disorder. It has been demonstrated that the physical appearance in this condition is due to a developmental failure in growth, especially of the skull. Further studies are under way to determine how far the mental deficiency of this condition depends on the same factors. The conception of an endocrine disorder as a primary factor differs from the opinions of most contemporary writers, who regard mongolism as a pathologic mutation due to an unknown factor in the germ cells or as an atavistic regression. The latter view is emphasized by Down 2 and especially by Crookshank, 3 who consider mongolism as a racial regression. Our anatomic studies indicate that there is no relation between mongoloid deficiency and the Mongolian race. However, in order to approach the problem
Do exercises prevent musculoskeletal complications after cardiac surgery

The purpose of this prospective study was to document the effect of an exercise programme on the incidence of pain and dysfunction of the shoulder girdle and upper back after cardiac surgery. Eighty-one patients who underwent cardiac surgery during an 8 week period completed a randomised controlled study. The patients in Group 1 received no exercises; the patients in Group 2 received exercises aimed primarily at regaining shoulder girdle and upper back range of movement. These exercises were supervised by a physiotherapist in the immediate post-operative period and patients were instructed to continue the exercises for 8 weeks following discharge from hospital. A questionnaire designed to assess pain and dysfunction of the shoulder girdle and back was completed pre-operatively and 8–10 weeks post-operatively. In addition, patients were telephoned on return of the questionnaire to confirm that their responses reflected their actual condition. Approximately 30% of patients developed musculoskeletal complica.
Magnet or Sticky? Measuring Project Characteristics from the Perspective of Developer Attraction and Retention

Open Source Software (OSS) is vital to both end users and enterprises. As OSS systems are becoming a type of infrastructure, long-term OSS projects are desired. For the survival of OSS projects, the projects need to not only retain existing developers, but also attract new developers to grow. To better understand how projects retain and attract contributors, our preliminary study aimed to measure the personnel attraction and retention of OSS projects using a pair of population migration metrics, called Magnet (personnel attraction) and Sticky (retention) metrics. Because the preliminary study analyzed only 90 projects and the 90 projects are not representative of GitHub, this paper extend the preliminary study to better understand the generalizability of the results by analyzing 16,552 projects of GitHub. Furthermore, we also add a pilot study to investigate the typical duration between releases to find more appropriate release duration. The study results show that (1) approximately 23% of developers remain in the same projects that the developers contribute to, (2) the larger projects are likely to attract and retain more developers, (3) 53% of terminal projects eventually decay to a state of fewer than ten developers and (4) 55% of attractive projects remain in an attractive category.
Metabolomics in premature labor: a novel approach to identify patients at risk for preterm delivery

Objective. Biomarkers for preterm labor (PTL) and delivery can be discovered through the analysis of the transcriptome (transcriptomics) and protein composition (proteomics). Characterization of the global changes in low-molecular weight compounds which constitute the ‘metabolic network’ of cells (metabolome) is now possible by using a ‘metabolomics’ approach. Metabolomic profiling has special advantages over transcriptomics and proteomics since the metabolic network is downstream from gene expression and protein synthesis, and thus more closely reflects cell activity at a functional level. This study was conducted to determine if metabolomic profiling of the amniotic fluid can identify women with spontaneous PTL at risk for preterm delivery, regardless of the presence or absence of intraamniotic infection/inflammation (IAI). Study Design. Two retrospective cross-sectional studies were conducted, including three groups of pregnant women with spontaneous PTL and intact membranes: (1) PTL who delivered at term; (2) PTL without IAI who delivered preterm; and (3) PTL with IAI who delivered preterm. The first was an exploratory study that included 16, 19, and 20 patients in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. The second study included 40, 33, and 40 patients in groups 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Amniotic fluid metabolic profiling was performed by combining chemical separation (with gas and liquid chromatography) and mass spectrometry. Compounds were identified using authentic standards. The data were analyzed using discriminant analysis for the first study and Random Forest for the second. Results. (1) In the first study, metabolomic profiling of the amniotic fluid was able to identify patients as belonging to the correct clinical group with an overall 96.3% (53/55) accuracy; 15 of 16 patients with PTL who delivered at term were correctly classified; all patients with PTL without IAI who delivered preterm neonates were correctly identified as such (19/19), while 19/20 patients with PTL and IAI were correctly classified. (2) In the second study, metabolomic profiling was able to identify patients as belonging to the correct clinical group with an accuracy of 88.5% (100/113); 39 of 40 patients with PTL who delivered at term were correctly classified; 29 of 33 patients with PTL without IAI who delivered preterm neonates were correctly classified. Among patients with PTL and IAI, 32/40 were correctly classified. The metabolites responsible for the classification of patients in different clinical groups were identified. A preliminary draft of the human amniotic fluid metabolome was generated and found to contain products of the intermediate metabolism of mammalian cells and xenobiotic compounds (e.g. bacterial products and Salicylamide). Conclusion. Among patients with spontaneous PTL with intact membranes, metabolic profiling of the amniotic fluid can be used to assess the risk of preterm delivery in the presence or absence of infection/inflammation.
Occupational Well-Being among the Very Old

Background: Limited knowledge is available on how very old people orchestrate and carry out their occupational life to achieve a sense of occupational well-being. Study objectives: To highlight very old persons’ ways of describing and discussing their occupational engagement in relation to a sense of occupational well-being. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with 48 men and women between 90 and 98 years of age in their urban homes. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results: The results show that occupational engagement in relation to the surrounding world and occupational engagement unconstrained by space and time were important in achieving occupational well-being. The surrounding world involves having contact with family, friends, and society as well as living up to a shared norm of being independent. Unconstrained by space and time includes thinking, planning and creating a narrative of life based on the past, present and future. Limitations: The present study contributes to the body of knowledge focusing on occupational engagement and how it is linked to health through occupational well-being among older people, however; it is not known to what degree the respondents were experiencing healthy ageing. Recommendations: Future studies should further develop the understanding of doing in relation to being among older people.
Caring for elderly patients with dementia: nursing interventions

License. The full terms of the License are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Ltd, provided the work is properly attributed. Permissions beyond the scope of the License are administered by Dove Medical Press Ltd. Information on how to request permission may be found at: http://www.dovepress. com/permissions.php Nursing: Research and Reviews 2013:3 107–117 Nursing: Research and Reviews Dovepress
Readmission after discharge from a medium secure unit

Aims and method We examined readmission to psychiatric hospital of 550 patients discharged from one medium secure unit over 20 years. Multiple sources were used to obtain readmission data. Results Readmission was common, particularly to non-secure psychiatric hospitals. At least 339 patients (61.6%) were readmitted to any psychiatric hospital (mean follow-up 9.5 years), with over a third (37.6%) subsequently being readmitted to medium- or high-security or both. Of those discharged directly to the community, having previous in-patient treatment and a Mental Health Act classification of mental illness were associated with shorter time to first readmission. Clinical implications The long-standing nature of disorders is evident in the high rates of readmission overall and the need for readmission to medium and high secure services, suggesting that these patients require long-term follow-up and support from mental health services.