Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prediction of outcome in patients with sepsis using C - reactive protein & APACHE II scoring system

Background: Sepsis is one of the most common causes for mortality in the intensive care unit. Several biochemical markers and clinical scoring systems have been used to assess the severity and outcome of sepsis. Objective: To correlate the extent of C - reactive protein (CRP) elevation with mortality; in addition we also try to find a correlation by combining CRP level and APACHE II score as a predictor of outcome in patients with sepsis. Methods: This prospective study included 50 patients. Serum CRP and variables to calculate the APACHE II score were collected at the time of admission . The values of CRP concentrations and APACHE II score were compared, in relation to the severity and outcome of the disease. Results: Mean CRP value in patients who recovered from the illness was 140.6 mg/dl and in patients who died was 191.1 mg/dl (p .177). CRP level of > 137 mg/dl, has sensitivity of 60% and specificity of 60% in predicting mortality in patients with sepsis and was not statistically significant (p .157). Mean APACHE II score in patients who died was 24.2, compared to the patients who recovered was 18.5 (p .002). We observed APACHE II score of >21 have sensitivity of 76% and specificity of 60% in predicting mortality in patients with sepsis, which was statistically significant (p .010). When we take both CRP level of > 137 mg/dl and APACHE II score of > 21, we observed sensitivity 48% and specificity 84% in predicting the mortality, which was statistically significant (p 0.015). Conclusion: It is better to combine both CRP and APACHE II for predicting the mortality in sepsis patients, than using either of them.
Conceptus development in large white and prolific Chinese Meishan pigs.

Large White (LW) and Meishan (MS) gilts were killed on Days 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 30 of gestation. Mean diameters (mm) for MS and LW conceptuses, respectively, were: Day 8, 0.45 and 0.69; Day 10, 2.7 and 1.9; Day 11, 5.3 and 2.7, with the differences among days being affected by breed (P less than 0.01). Variation in diameter among conceptuses from LW gilts was greater (P less than 0.01) than that for MS gilts on Days 8-11, respectively: Day 8, 20 and 46%; Day 10, 29 and 38%; and Day 11, 22 and 44%. Conceptuses had elongated in 3 of 5 MS and 1 of 4 LW gilts on Day 11, 6 and 6 MS and 2 of 4 LW gilts on Day 12 and all gilts of both breeds on Day 14. These results indicate that conceptuses of MS gilts develop more rapidly and more uniformly between Days 8 and 14 of gestation. Overall, embryonic survival for Days 8-12 for gilts not having elongated conceptuses was 90.2% for MS and 73.2% for LW gilts (P less than 0.01). On Day 30 of gestation, embryonic survival was also higher (P less than 0.01) for MS (89%) than LW (55%) gilts. However, embryonic weight, crown-rump length, placental length, allantoic fluid volume, amniotic fluid volume, as well as total glucose, fructose and protein in allantoic fluid were not affected by breed. Placental weight was greater (P less than 0.01) for LW gilts. Uterine development at Day 30 of gestation, based on total length and weight of uterine horns, width of uterine horns, total endometrial surface area and total endometrial weight was greater (P less than 0.01) for LW gilts. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Analysis of Random Telegraph Noise and low frequency noise properties in 3-d stacked NAND flash memory with tube-type poly-Si channel structure

Random Telegraph Noise (RTN) and low frequency noise (LFN) properties were investigated for the first time in sub-100 nm 3-D stacked NAND flash memory with tube-type poly-Si channel structure. The 3-D stacked NAND flash memory showed higher noise power density of bit-line (BL) current (IBL) by ~10 times than 32 nm planar NAND flash memory. The behavior of ΔIBL was investigated with control-gate bias (VCG), BL bias (VBL) and pass bias (Vpass). As temperature (T) increases, capture and emission times becomes short. To understand poly-Si channel, planar poly-Si thin film transistors (TFT) with different grain size were prepared and analyzed in terms of noise, subthreshold swing (SS), and T.
Effects of montelukast and methylprednisolone on experimental spinal cord injury in rats.

OBJECTIVE The development of secondary brain injury after trauma is known to involve in many cellular mediators. The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the effects of the use of both methylprednisolone and montelukast on serum and tissue concentrations of NO, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, and tissue glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in rats with spinal cord injury (SCI). MATERIALS AND METHODS SCI was induced in Wistar albino rats by dropping a 10 g rod from a 5.0 cm height at T9-10. The 28 rats were randomly divided into four equal groups: montelukast, methylprednisolone, non-treatment and sham groups. Rats were neurologically tested at 24 hours after trauma and spinal cord tissue levels of MDA, SOD, GSH-PX, CAT levels and blood CK, CK-BB, LDH levels were measured. In addition, histopathological changes were also examined. RESULTS There was a significant improvement in Tarlov scores in methylprednisolone and montelukast administered group compared to the trauma group (p = 0.001). When compared to trauma group, methylprednisolone and montelukast groups had significant differences in MDA (p < 0.05), SOD (p < 0.001), CK-BB (p < 0.001) and LDH (p < 0.05) levels. Histopathologically, no significant changes were observed. CONCLUSIONS The present study shows effects of montelukast with biochemical and histopathological parameters and compares its effects with those of methylprednisolone for the first time. Our research has shown that montelukast and methylprednisolone have a neuroprotective effect on spinal cord injury.
Nomophobic behaviors among smartphone using medical and engineering students in two colleges of West Bengal

Background: Growing smartphone usage among global and Indian college students has resulted in considerable issues of “nomophobia” (NMP) or feelings of discomfort or anxiety experienced by individuals whenever unable to use their smartphones. This significantly impacts their health, work, and study. Objective: The objective of this study is to find out the prevalence of NMP among smartphone using medical and engineering undergraduates of West Bengal and to compare the nomophobic behaviors, its predictors, and smartphone usage among them. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 303 medical and 305 engineering undergraduates in West Bengal using a validated NMP questionnaire consisting of four factors. Comparison of means of individual questions and factor scores was done. Nomophobic clusters among the two groups were identified using two-stage cluster analysis. Binary logistic regression was used for comparison of predictors of NMP. Results: Engineering students showed a higher proportion of nomophobics (44.6%) than medical students (42.6%). Significant higher means was observed among engineering students for the factor “giving upconvenience” and individual variables like “scared due to running out of battery,” “nervous due to disconnection from online identity,” “uncomfortable when unable stay up-to-date with social media” and “anxious when unable to check E-mails. ” A Higher proportion of nomophobics among both groups were females, those owning smartphone beyond 2 years, having monthly mobile bill above Rs. 200 and spending over 4 h daily on smartphone. Conclusion: NMP has emerged as a significant cause of concern among both the groups. Standardized measures for identification and appropriate psychobehavioral therapy for those seeking help might alleviate the problem.
Use of Central Venous Catheter and Peripheral Venous Catheter as Risk Factors for Nosocomial Bloodstream Infection in Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants

Objective. To describe the relationship between the use of central and peripheral venous catheters and the risk of nosocomial, primary, laboratory-confirmed bloodstream infection (BSI) for neonates with a birth weight less than 1,500 g (very-low-birth-weight [VLBW] infants). Methods. Cox proportional hazard regression analysis with time-dependent variable was used to determine the risk factors for the occurrence of BSI in a cohort of VLBW infants. We analyzed previously collected surveillance data from the German national nosocomial surveillance system for VLBW infants. All VLBW infants in 22 participating neonatal departments who had a complete daily record of patient information were included. Results. Of 2,126 VLBW infants, 261 (12.3%) developed a BSI. The incidence density for BSI was 3.3 per 1,000 patient-days. The multivariate analysis identified the following significant independent risk factors for BSI: lower birth weight (hazard ratio [HR], 1.1–2.2), vaginal delivery (HR, 1.5), central venous catheter use (HR, 6.2) or peripheral venous catheter use (HR, 6.0) within 2 days before developing BSI, and the individual departments (HR, 0.0–4.6). Conclusions. After adjusting for other risk factors, use of peripheral venous catheter and use of central venous catheter were significantly related to occurrence of BSI in VLBW infants.
Money, Deficits, Debts and Inflation in Emerging Countries: Evidence from Turkey

This paper focuses on internal and external factors, which influence the inflation rate in Turkey. A monetary model of inflation rate was tested on Turkish data. It was found that government debt and deficits along with other factors are important determinants of inflation in Turkey. Furthermore, the inflation in this country is due to both domestic and foreign factors.
The Antidepressant WebMarketing depression and making medicines work.

This paper was conceived as chapters two and three of the still unwritten book, and as a basis for discussion on an Internet website and elsewhere. These chapters examine hard evidence relating to a wholly rhetorical and hypothetical question, "Do antidepressants work? " The question provides the broadest possible framework for looking at the meaning and values of medicine. Implicitly, the question also asks: what is better than nothing, and how much better are antidepressant drugs than the placebos they are compared with in clinical trials? Between the lines of the paper lie basic questions about the ethics, activities, performance and impact of the three main centres of power in medicine - government, professionals and the pharmaceutical industry. The underlying issue is whether people who are miserably unfulfilled, sad, anguished or depressed are in hands as safe as they might imagine or need.
Small Sounds, Big Deals: Phonetic Symbolism Effects in Pricing

Studies suggest that certain vowel and consonant sounds (or phonemes) can be associated with perceptions of large and small size. Mental rehearsal of prices containing numbers with small phonemes results in overestimation of price discounts, whereas mental rehearsal of prices containing numbers with large phonemes results in underestimation. Mental rehearsal of the same sale prices characterized by small phonemes in one language and large phonemes in another language can yield differential effects. For example, when sale prices are rehearsed in English, an (28.4%) discount is perceived as greater than a (29.9%) discount; however, when these same prices are rehearsed in Chinese, the latter discount is perceived as greater. Non-price-related phonemes do not yield these same discount distortions. Collectively, findings indicate that the mere sounds of numbers can nonconsciously affect and distort numerical magnitude perceptions. (c) 2010 by JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH, Inc.
Incidence of attachment loss in community-dwelling older adults.

Since 1985, only four studies have been published that present data on attachment loss in populations. The purpose of this study was to present the incidence of attachment loss over an 18-month period in a representative sample of community-dwelling older adults. In addition, the utility of multivariate prediction models to distinguish between people who will and will not experience disease progression was explored. The Piedmont 65+ Dental Study of the Elderly is a longitudinal investigation of a random sub-sample of over 1,000 community-dwelling people over the age of 65 in five contiguous North Carolina counties. The five dentists who conducted the in-home examinations and interviews at baseline also participated at 18 months and examined the same subjects. The overall attrition rate for blacks was 27% and the rate for whites was 23%. At 18-months, the baseline attachment level scores for those subjects who were lost from the study were not significantly different from the scores of those who remained in the study. A change in attachment loss of 3 mm or more over the 18 months was set as a conservative estimate of actual change taking place. Blacks were significantly more likely to experience attachment loss irrespective of the number of sites involved (P < .05). Approximately half the people had at least one losing site and about one-third of the blacks and one-fourth of the whites had at least two losing sites. A total of 24% of blacks and 16% of whites had 3 or more losing sites. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Allogeneic vaccination with a B7.1 HLA-A gene-modified adenocarcinoma cell line in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

PURPOSE To determine the safety, immunogenicity, and clinical response to an allogeneic tumor vaccine for non-small-cell lung cancer, we conducted a phase I trial in patients with advanced metastatic disease. PATIENTS AND METHODS We treated 19 patients with a vaccine based on an adenocarcinoma line (AD100) transfected with B7.1 (CD80) and HLA A1 or A2. Patients were vaccinated intradermally with 5 x 10(7) cells once every 2 weeks. Three vaccinations represented one course of treatment. If patients had complete response, partial response, or stable disease, they continued with the vaccinations for up to three courses (nine vaccinations). Immune response was assessed by a change between pre-study and postvaccination enzyme-linked immunospot frequency of purified CD8 T-cells secreting interferon-gamma in response to in vitro challenge with AD100. RESULTS Four patients experienced serious adverse events that were unrelated to vaccine. Another four patients experienced only minimal skin erythema. All but one patient had a measurable CD8 response after three immunizations. The immune response of six surviving, clinically responding patients shows that CD8 titers continue to be elevated up to 150 weeks, even after cessation of vaccination. Overall, one patient had a partial response, and five had stable disease. Median survival for all patients is 18 months (90% CI, 7 to 23 months), with corresponding estimates of 1-year, 2-year, and 3-year survival of 52%, 30%, and 30%, respectively. HLA matching of vaccine, age, sex, race, and pathology did not bear a significant relation to response. CONCLUSION Minimal toxicity and good survival in this small population suggest clinical benefit from vaccination.
Association between Plasma Myeloperoxidase and Free 3-Nitrotyrosine Levels in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease

Objective: Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is an inflammatory enzyme that is mainly released by activated neutrophils and monocytes. 3-nitrotyrosine (NT) is a stable inflammatory end product of MPO that is produced through nitrosylation of free and protein-bound tyrosines. Determination of the exact levels of free NT is technically a challenging matter. Also, there is limited information about the relationship between MPO and free NT levels and elevation of them in the plasma of patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). Therefore, we sought to determine the exact level of plasma free NT with a simple and exquisite technique in CAD patients. Methods: This study included 50 stable angina, 50 unstable angina patients, and 50 control subjects. Plasma MPO concentration was measured with an immunoassay method. Plasma free NT level was determined by a modified HPLC-fluorescence method. Lipid profile, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and other clinical risk factors of patients were also assigned. Results: Plasma level of free NT was efficiently measured by the HPLC-fluorescence method. Plasma levels of MPO and NT were significantly higher in patients with stable and unstable CAD than in control subjects (P Conclusions: We determined plasma free NT levels with a sensitive HPLC-fluorescence method with some modifications in a clinical scale. Plasma levels of MPO and NT were profoundly elevated in CAD patients. The significant relationships of the two substances and elevation of them may have useful clinical implication in patients with stable and unstable CAD.
A Hierarchical Predictor of Synthetic Speech Naturalness Using Neural Networks

A problem when developing and tuning speech synthesis systems is that there is no well-established method of automatically rating the quality of the synthetic speech. This research attempts to obtain a new automated measure which is trained on the result of large-scale subjective evaluations employing many human listeners, i.e. , the Blizzard Challenge. To exploit the data, we experiment with linear regression, feed-forward and convolutional neural network models, and combinations of them to regress from synthetic speech to the perceptual scores obtained from listeners. The biggest improvements were seen when combining stimulus-and system-level predictions.
A comprehensive analysis about the influence of low-level preprocessing techniques on mass spectrometry data for sample classification

Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption Ionisation Time-of-Flight (MALDI-TOF) is one of the high-throughput mass spectrometry technologies able to produce data requiring an extensive preprocessing before subsequent analyses. In this context, several low-level preprocessing techniques have been successfully developed for different tasks, including baseline correction, smoothing, normalisation, peak detection and peak alignment. In this work, we present a systematic comparison of different software packages aiding in the compulsory preprocessing of MALDI-TOF data. In order to guarantee the validity of our study, we test multiple configurations of each preprocessing technique that are subsequently used to train a set of classifiers whose performance (kappa and accuracy) provide us accurate information for the final comparison. Results from experiments show the real impact of preprocessing techniques on classification, evidencing that MassSpecWavelet provides the best performance and Support Vector Machines (SVM) are one of the most accurate classifiers.
Isolated Testicular Metastasis from Prostate Cancer

Patient: Male, 58 Final Diagnosis: Prostate cancer Symptoms: Testicular mass Medication: — Clinical Procedure: — Specialty: Oncology Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Prostatic adenocarcinoma is the most frequently diagnosed carcinoma in the male population; the most common sites of secondary lesions are nodes, bones, and lungs. We report the clinical case of a 58-year-old man presenting with a single metastasis in the left testis after a radical prostatectomy/lymphadenectomy for prostate cancer. Case Report: This clinical report focuses on a 58-year-old man with prostate cancer who developed an uncommon single metastasis in the left testis after radical surgery and adjuvant pelvic radiation therapy. Conclusions: Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels are important in the follow-up of prostate cancer. At the same time, physical examination of all possible sites of metastasis and proper evaluation of all signs/symptoms are indispensable in the process of identifying recurrence and for the selection of patients undergoing adjuvant therapy.
Sex Differences in the Beliefs of Nonsmokers about Why Cigarette Smokers Smoke

Nonsmokers are becoming more actively used in smoking cessation treatments in social support roles. This study sought to determine if nonsmokers understand the reasons smokers of their own sex and of the opposite sex give for smoking cigarettes. Nonsmokers (N = 175) were randomly assigned to complete a Reasons for Smoking Scale as they thought a typical smoker of either their own or the opposite sex would complete it [1]. Those results were then matched against a criterion group of smokers (N = 81) from the same college population who had completed the Reasons scale. Results indicated that male nonsmokers were generally accurate in their perceptions of each sex, underestimating only the importance smoking men attach for relaxation as a reason, and overestimating how much women report smoking out of sheer habit. Nonsmoking women, on the other hand, inaccurately perceived each of the six Reasons factors cited by women who smoke, and were similarly inaccurate on two factors cited by men. These results indicate that education aimed specifically at nonsmoking women may be necessary to make them most effective in helping peers quit smoking.
Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction–Based Analysis of Podocyturia Is a Feasible Diagnostic Tool in Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a significant cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. A clinically useful screening test that can predict development of preeclampsia at an early stage is urgently needed. The detection of podocyturia by immunohistochemistry after cell culture has been noted as a reliable marker for preeclampsia. However, this method is laborious and carries the risk of cell culture contamination. The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of quantitative polymerase chain reaction as a rapid method to detect preeclampsia. Clean-catch urine samples were collected from preeclamptic (n=35), healthy pregnant (n=34), and healthy nonpregnant (n=12) women. Furthermore, a control group of women with gestational hypertension (n=5) was included. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis was performed for podocyte-specific markers. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses were performed. Significantly elevated mRNA levels of nephrin, podocin, and vascular endothelial growth factor were detected in preeclamptic women compared with healthy pregnant and healthy nonpregnant controls. In addition, significantly elevated levels of nephrin mRNA were detected in urine of preeclamptic women compared with women with gestational hypertension. A positive correlation (&rgr;=0.82; P<0.0001) was observed between nephrin and vascular endothelial growth factor mRNA levels in preeclamptic women. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated a strong ability of this method to discriminate between the different study groups. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction analysis of podocyte-specific molecules in urine samples is a rapid and reliable method to quantify podocyturia. We demonstrate that this method distinguishes preeclamptic patients from healthy controls and women with gestational hypertension. This method may be a tool for the detection of preeclampsia at an earlier stage, thereby preventing maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality.