Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Communication and miscommunication in informed consent to research.

Biomedical ethics require that research subjects be aware that the drugs they take or procedures they undergo are designed to fulfill the conditions of the experiment and not to benefit a subject's health. This apparently straightforward distinction between research and treatment is a source of much controversy and misunderstanding. Ethicists have labeled this problem the "therapeutic misconception. " This misconception and, more broadly, informed consent have been studied extensively. Nonetheless, the therapeutic misconception persists among research subjects. This paper argues that one factor overlooked in the persistence of the therapeutic misconception is the effect of the theoretical paradigm that guides the practice and analysis of informed consent. The paradigm poses an idealized model of communication that ignores social context. This paper examines informed consent practices associated with a cancer research trial to demonstrate an alternative approach to studying informed consent to research. Through analysis of informed consent session transcripts, it demonstrates the importance of taking account of not only what is said, but how and by whom it is said.
Natural history of strictureplasty in Crohn's disease: 9-year experience.

OBJECTIVE To study the short- and long-term outcomes in patients with Crohn's disease who have undergone strictureplasty. DESIGN A retrospective review with a prospective follow-up (mean 54.4 months [range from 4 to 108 months]). SETTING The Inflammatory Bowel Disease Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. PATIENTS Forty-three patients (29 men, 14 women) who underwent 154 strictureplasties for Crohn's disease. The mean age of the patients was 32.5 years (range from 17 to 55 years). INTERVENTION Strictureplasty by either the Heineke-Mikulicz (145 strictureplasties) or the Finney (9 strictureplasties) technique in the duodenum, small intestine and at the site of the previous anastomosis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Factors studied for symptomatic recurrence included the type of procedure previously performed, the type of strictureplasty, the number of previous operations and the site of the disease. RESULTS There were no deaths. There was one documented leak. Twenty-six patients remained symptom free during the follow-up period. Fourteen patients required reoperation for progressive obstructive disease. None of the differences in the variables studied was statistically significant when related to the symptomatic recurrence rate. However, only 2 of 11 patients who had strictureplasty as the only procedure have required reoperation. CONCLUSIONS Strictureplasty is a safe and useful procedure in the management of extensive obstructive Crohn's disease. Strictureplasty does not seem to alter the natural history of the disease.
Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity of Cumin Oil (Cuminum Cyminum, Apiaceae)

Cumin oil samples (Cuminum cyminum L.) from four different geographical origins were analyzed using GC-MS and GC-FID for their qualitative and quantitative composition. The major compounds in all cumin oils were the monoterpenes β-pinene, p-cymene and γ-terpinene and the terpenoid aldehydes cuminic aldehyde and the isomeric menthadien carboxaldehydes. All essential oils, and cuminic aldehyde, were tested, using agar diffusion and serial dilution methods, against different Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria isolated from different sources of food (pork fillet, minced meat and sausages) and clinical isolates, as well as three different Candida albicans isolates. All cumin oils and cuminic aldehyde exhibited a considerable inhibitory effect against all the organisms tested, except Pseudomonas spp.
Title : Literature Review-Deep Pit Swine Facility Flash Fires and Explosions : Sources , Occurrences , Factors , and Management – Investigator :

During the fall of 2009, there were several reported incidences of Midwestern swine facility flash fires and explosions related to liquid manure agitation and pumping from deep pit concrete storage. Various institutions and organizations have been investigating the reported incidences and trying to identify possible factors and sources for the explosions and flash fires. Additionally, possible research studies, management modifications, and mitigation alternatives are being discussed. However, prior to committing resources to support specific projects, it was felt that a literature review relating to flash fire and explosion occurrences in deep pit swine facilities, sources, and factors should be performed. The following literature review was commissioned by the National Pork Board.
Incorporation of the troponin regulatory complex of post-ischemic stunned porcine myocardium reduces myofilament calcium sensitivity in rabbit psoas skeletal muscle fibers.

Decreased calcium sensitivity of tension in post-ischemic myocardium is thought to be a mechanism of depressed function in stunning. The purpose of this study was to determine if the decrease in calcium sensitivity of tension results from ischemia and/or reperfusion-induced alterations in the thin filament regulatory troponin. The experiments utilized an open-chest porcine model of regional LAD myocardial stunning that has previously been shown to cause a decrease in calcium sensitivity of tension in permeabilized myocytes. Stunning was induced by 45 min of low-flow ischemia to the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery perfusion bed, which was followed by 30 min of reperfusion. Regional LAD function after reperfusion was 0.5+/-2.8%, as assessed by systolic wall thickening (v 23.9+/-4.1% thickening in control, P<0.001). Core biopsy samples from control circumflex and stunned LAD myocardium were acquired from each heart (n=9) after LAD reperfusion, and were used to obtain purified troponin complexes. Isometric tension-pCa relationships were measured in permeabilized psoas skeletal fibers before and after partial exchange of cardiac troponin from either control circumflex (n=6) or stunned LAD (n=8) myocardium for endogenous skeletal troponin. Calcium sensitivity of tension as assessed by pCa50 (i.e. pCa for half-maximal tension) was unchanged after exchange of troponin from control circumflex myocardium (pCa50=5. 98+/-0.02 v 5.96+/-0.06), but there was a significant decrease in calcium sensitivity of tension after exchange of troponin from stunned LAD myocardium (pCa50=5.97+/-0.07 v 5.82+/-0.05, P<0.05). We conclude that the decrease in calcium sensitivity of tension in postischemic stunned myocardium is, in part, due to ischemia and/or reperfusion-induced alterations in the cardiac troponin regulatory complex.
A controlled resuscitation strategy is feasible and safe in hypotensive trauma patients: Results of a prospective randomized pilot trial

BACKGROUND Optimal resuscitation of hypotensive trauma patients has not been defined. This trial was performed to assess the feasibility and safety of controlled resuscitation (CR) versus standard resuscitation (SR) in hypotensive trauma patients. METHODS Patients were enrolled and randomized in the out-of-hospital setting. Nineteen emergency medical services (EMS) systems in the Resuscitation Outcome Consortium participated. Eligible patients had an out-of-hospital systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 90 mm Hg or lower. CR patients received 250 mL of fluid if they had no radial pulse or an SBP lower than 70 mm Hg and additional 250-mL boluses to maintain a radial pulse or an SBP of 70 mm Hg or greater. The SR group patients received 2 L initially and additional fluid as needed to maintain an SBP of 110 mm Hg or greater. The crystalloid protocol was maintained until hemorrhage control or 2 hours after hospital arrival. RESULTS A total of 192 patients were randomized (97 CR and 95 SR). The CR and SR groups were similar at baseline. The mean (SD) crystalloid volume administered during the study period was 1.0 L (1.5) in the CR group and 2.0 L (1.4) in the SR group, a difference of 1.0 L (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.6–1.4). Intensive care unit–free days, ventilator-free days, renal injury, and renal failure did not differ between the groups. At 24 hours after admission, there were 5 deaths (5%) in the CR group and 14 (15%) in the SR group (adjusted odds ratio, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.12–1.26). Among patients with blunt trauma, 24-hour mortality was 3% (CR) and 18% (SR) with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.17 (0.03–0.92). There was no difference among patients with penetrating trauma (9% vs. 9%; adjusted odds ratio, 1.93; 95% CI, 0.19–19.17). CONCLUSION CR is achievable in out-of-hospital and hospital settings and may offer an early survival advantage in blunt trauma. A large-scale, Phase III trial to examine its effects on survival and other clinical outcomes is warranted. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic study, level I.
Strategic Management of R&D Pipelines with Cospecialized Investments and Technology Markets

The theoretical literature on managing R&D pipelines is largely based on real option theory making decisions about undertaking, continuing, or terminating projects. The theory typically assumes that each project or causally related set of projects is independent. However, casual observation suggests that firms expend much effort on managing and balancing their R&D pipelines, where managing appears to be related to the choice of R&D selection thresholds, project risk, and whether to buy or sell projects to fill the pipeline. Not only do these policies appear to differ across firms, they also appear to vary over time for the same firm. Changes in management policies suggest that the choice of R&D selection thresholds is a time-varying strategic decision and there may be some type of vertical interdependency among R&D projects in different stages. In this paper we develop a model using dynamic-programming techniques that explain why firms vary in their R&D project-management policies. The novelty and value of our model derives from the central insight that some firms invest in downstream cospecialized activities that would incur substantial adjustment costs if R&D efforts are unsuccessful whereas other firms have no such investment. If transaction costs in technology markets are positive, which implies that accessing the market for projects is costly, these investments lead to state-contingent project-selection rules that create a dynamic and vertical interdependency among R&D activities and product mix. We describe how choices of R&D selection thresholds, preferences over project risk, and use of technology markets for the buying and selling of projects differ by the state of the firm's pipeline, the magnitude of transaction costs in the adjustment market, and the magnitude of technology costs. These results yield interesting managerial and public policy implications.
Analysis of system bus transaction vulnerability in systemC TLM design platform

As system-on-chip (SoC) becomes prevalent in the intelligent system applications, the reliability issue of SoC is getting more attention in the design industry while the SoC fabrication enters the very deep submicron technology. The system bus, such as AMBA AHB, provides an integrated platform for IP-based SoC. Apparently, the robustness of system bus plays an important role in the SoC reliability. In this study, we propose a useful bus system vulnerability model and present a thorough analysis of system bus vulnerability in SystemC transaction-level modeling (TLM) design level by injecting faults into the bus signals, which can assist us in predicting the robustness of the system bus, in locating the weaknesses of the bus system, and in understanding the effect of bus faults on system behavior during the SoC design phase. The impact of benchmarks on system bus vulnerability is also addressed. The contribution of this work is to promote the dependability verification to TLM abstraction level that can significantly enhance the simulation performance, and provide the comprehensive results to validate the system bus dependability in early design phase for safety-critical applications.
The health of chrysotile asbestos mine and mill workers of Quebec.

The results of studies of respiratory symptoms and function, roentgenographic changes, and mortality in relation to dust exposure in the Quebec chrysotile industry, which has employed some 28,000 workers, are brought together and their implications for control examined. Breathlessness on exercise, diminished inspiratory capacity, parenchymal and pleural changes, and respiratory disease mortality were related to dust exposure and to each other. Respiratory cancer was also related to dust exposure. The overall excess of deaths from respiratory cancers, including five with malignant mesothelioma, was at most 50% above expectation, based on age-specific rates for Quebec and the mining region. If safety standards are set, they should be based on epidemiological evidence. From these data for the chrysotile producing industry of Quebec, a resonable figure, based on a 1% risk of acquiring clinically significant disease, would lie between 2 to 4 million particles per cubic foot, calculated for a working life of 50.
Predictability of the quasi‐biennial oscillation and its northern winter teleconnection on seasonal to decadal timescales

The predictability of the quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) is examined in initialized climate forecasts extending out to lead times of years. We use initialized retrospective predictions made with coupled ocean‐atmosphere climate models that have an internally generated QBO. We demonstrate predictability of the QBO extending more than 3 years into the future, well beyond timescales normally associated with internal atmospheric processes. Correlation scores with observational analyses exceed 0.7 at a lead time of 12 months. We also examine the variation of predictability with season and QBO phase and find that skill is lowest in winter. An assessment of perfect predictability suggests that higher skill may be achievable through improved initialization and climate modeling of the QBO, although this may depend on the realism of gravity wave source parameterizations in the models. Finally, we show that skilful prediction of the QBO itself does not guarantee predictability of the extratropical winter teleconnection that is important for surface winter climate prediction.
T/NK cell type chronic active Epstein–Barr virus disease in adults: an underlying condition for Epstein–Barr virus-associated T/NK-cell lymphoma

A chronic infectious mononucleosis-like illness caused by Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is called ‘chronic active EBV disease’, which is defined as an EBV-associated lymphoproliferative disease. This lymphoproliferative disease is rare and predominantly occurs in Japanese children. Between 1998 and 2010, seven adult-onset cases (aged 20–45 years, median 39 years) were identified, which initially presented with inflammatory diseases, including hepatitis, interstitial pneumonitis, uveitis, nephritis and hypersensitivity to mosquito bites. They showed an EBV viral load in the peripheral blood and evidence of EBV infection of T or natural killer (NK) cells. Five cases (71.4%) developed EBV-positive T/NK-cell lymphoma/leukaemia at a median of 5 years (range 1–7 years) after the diagnosis. Although l-asparaginase-containing chemotherapy was effective for the lymphomas, only allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation eradicated EBV-infected cells. This observation indicates that persistent EBV infection of T or NK cells defines a distinct disease entity, which provides an underlying condition for EBV-positive T/NK-cell lymphoma/leukaemia.
Endobronchial biopsy for sarcoidosis: a prospective study.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine the yield of endobronchial biopsy (EBB) for suspected sarcoidosis, and to evaluate if EBB increases the diagnostic value of fiberoptic bronchoscopy (FOB) when added to transbronchial biopsy (TBB). DESIGN Prospective study of consecutive patients. SETTING Pulmonary clinic of a tertiary-care, academic medical center. PATIENTS Patients consecutively referred for suspected pulmonary sarcoidosis. INTERVENTIONS All patients having FOB performed underwent an evaluation that included history, physical examination, a chest radiograph, and spirometry. During FOB, airway appearance was recorded and both TBB and EBB were performed in a standardized fashion. Six TBB specimens were obtained, as were six EBB samples. For patients with abnormal-appearing airways, four specimens were obtained from the abnormal-appearing airways and two specimens were obtained from the main carina. In patients with normal-appearing airways, four specimens were obtained from a secondary carina and two specimens were obtained from the main carina. A biopsy finding was considered positive if it demonstrated nonnecrotizing granulomas with special stains that were negative for fungal and mycobacterial organisms. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS The study cohort included 34 subjects (mean +/- SD age, 37.9 +/- 6.8 years; 58.8% were male; 64.7% were African American). EBB findings were positive in 61.8% of patients, while TBB showed nonnecrotizing granulomas in 58.8% of subjects. The addition of EBB increased the yield of FOB by 20.6%. Although EBB findings were more frequently positive in abnormal-appearing airways (p = 0.014), EBB provided diagnostic tissue in 30.0% of patients with normal-appearing endobronchial mucosa. There were no complications resulting from the addition of EBB to TBB. CONCLUSIONS Endobronchial involvement is common in sarcoidosis. EBB has a yield comparable to TBB and can safely increase the diagnostic value of FOB. Pulmonologists should consider routinely performing EBB in cases of suspected sarcoidosis.
Nonrandom involvement of chromosome 4 in the progression of rat prostatic cancer

Owing to progression of the original spontaneous Dunning R‐3327 rat prostatic cancer, a large series of transplantable prostatic tumors have been isolated that differ widely in their histological degree of differentiation, growth rate, androgen sensitivity, and metastatic ability. Using these parameters as criteria, the full spectrum of disease progression is represented within this Dunning system of rat prostatic cancers, ranging from slow‐growing, well‐differentiated, androgen‐sensitive, nonmetastatic forms to fast‐growing, anaplastic, androgen‐independent, highly metastatic forms.
Atypical psychotic symptoms in a Hispanic population: diagnostic dilemmas and implications for treatment.

OBJECTIVE To better characterize psychotic symptoms and their treatment in Hispanic populations. DESIGN Chart review. SETTING Chelsea MGH Health Center and Chelsea Counseling Center (both affiliates of the Massachusetts General Hospital). PARTICIPANTS Forty-four Hispanic patients presenting with psychotic symptoms in the context of mood and anxiety disorders. MEASUREMENTS Chart review focussed on diagnosis, description, and cataloguing of psychotic symptoms and review of treatment efficacy. RESULTS All but two patients described some atypical psychotic symptoms (e.g., doorbells or telephones ringing, voices of children, and visual hallucinations of animals or relatives). Treatment varied; 34 percent received monotherapy (either neuroleptic, antidepressant, or anxiolytic); 61 percent received polypharmacy; of these, 48 percent received a combination of antidepressant and anxiolytic; 19 percent received antidepressant with neuroleptic; 14 percent received antidepressant with neuroleptic and anxiolytic. No regimen was significantly better than any other. CONCLUSIONS Psychotic symptoms in Hispanic patients have been noted anecdotally to present differently from those described in other populations. Our review appears to support this observation. Clinicians who work with Hispanic patients should ask about these atypical psychotic symptoms. We provide speculation on the nature of these symptoms, review approaches to treatment, and make recommendations for further investigation.
Laser Microdissection-based Analysis of mRNA Expression in Human Coronary Arteries with Intimal Thickening

Intimal thickening is an early phase of atherosclerosis characterized by differentiation of plaque smooth muscle cells (SMCs) from a contractile to a synthetic phenotype. We used laser microdissection (LMD) plus real-time RT-PCR to quantify mRNAs for calponin-1 and smoothelin, markers of the contractile phenotype, and for serum response factor (SRF), a regulator of SMC differentiation, in intimal and medial SMCs of human coronary arteries with intimal thickening. RNA expression was also analyzed by ISH and protein expression was detected by IHC. LMD plus RT-PCR found similar levels of SRF mRNA in intimal and medial SMCs, while medial mRNA levels for calponin-1 and smoothelin were higher. ISH confirmed that smoothelin mRNA levels in media exceeded those in intima, whereas SRF mRNA levels were similar at both sites. For calponin-1 and smoothelin, protein levels mirrored respective mRNA levels. By contrast, more medial than intimal SRF protein was present. Our results indicate that intimal SMCs exhibit a largely synthetic phenotype, perhaps reflecting lower intimal levels of SRF protein; ISH and LMD plus real-time RT-PCR provide comparable results; as a valuable alternative to ISH, LMD plus RT-PCR allows parallel measurement of several transcripts; and tissue gene expression studies must measure both protein and mRNA levels.
Automatic Linguistic Annotation ofLarge Scale L2 Databases: The EF-Cambridge Open Language Database(EFCamDat)

∗Naturalistic learner productions are an important empirical resource for SLA research. Some pioneering works have produced valuable second language (L2) resources supporting SLA research.1 One common limitation of these resources is the absence of individual longitudinal data for numerous speakers with different backgrounds across the proficiency spectrum, which is vital for understanding the nature of individual variation in longitudinal development.2 A second limitation is the relatively restricted amounts of data annotated with linguistic information (e.g., lexical, morphosyntactic, semantic features, etc.) to support investigation of SLA hypotheses and obtain patterns of development for different linguistic phenomena. Where available, annotations tend to be manually obtained, a situation posing immediate limitations to the quantity of data that could be annotated with reasonable human resources and within reasonable time. Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools can provide automatic annotations for parts-of-speech (POS) and syntactic structure and are indeed increasingly applied to learner language in various contexts. Systems in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) have used a parser and other NLP tools to automatically detect learner errors and provide feedback accordingly.3 Some work aimed at adapting annotations provided by parsing tools to accurately describe learner syntax (Dickinson & Lee, 2009) or evaluated parser performance on learner language and the effect of learner errors on the parser. Krivanek and Meurers (2011) compared two parsing methods, one using a hand-crafted lexicon and one trained on a corpus. They found that the former is more successful in recovering the main grammatical dependency relations whereas the latter is more successful in recovering optional, adjunction relations. Ott and Ziai (2010) evaluated the performance of a dependency parser trained on native German (MaltParser; Nivre et al., 2007) on 106 learner answers to a comprehension task in L2 German. Their study indicates that while some errors can be problematic for the parser (e.g., omission of finite verbs) many others (e.g., wrong word order) can be parsed robustly, resulting in overall high performance scores. In this paper we have two goals. First, we introduce a new English L2 database, the EF Cambridge Open Language Database, henceforth EFCAMDAT. EFCAMDAT was developed by the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with EF Education First, an international educational organization. It contains writings submitted to Englishtown, the