Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Complications, co-morbidity, and blood glucose control in type 2 diabetes mellitus patients in Germany--results from the CODE-2 study.

In this study, prevalence and incidence of complications as well as co-morbidity in type 2 diabetes patients in Germany were evaluated as part of a cost-of-illness study (CODE-2(TM), Costs of Diabetes in Europe - Type 2)In a pre-study, 197 general practitioners and diabetes specialists all over Germany provided data on the complication status of 2701 randomly selected patients with type 2 diabetes. The patients were grouped into five mutually exclusive strata. This pre-study was performed to generate a general overview on complication status to select proper patients for the main study. The main study was performed on stratified samples derived from the pre-study. Irrespective of the real prevalence of the five strata, an equal number of 160 were randomly selected from each stratum. Thus, rare complications were also covered in the study. Data from 809 patients were collected retrospectively on the basis of medical files during interviews with the physician. To achieve representative estimates of absolute prevalence and incidence of diabetes-related complications in Germany, results were weighted using frequencies of the strata. Severe complications were diagnosed in 50% of these patients. Prevalences were: 10.56% myocardial infarction, 6.66% stroke, 3.97% foot ulcer, 2.30% amputations and 1.34% blindness. Overall incidences in the diabetes population were estimated at 0.78% myocardial infarction, 1.28% stroke and 0.80% amputations. 23% of the diabetes patients suffered from 2 or more complications. The complication status became considerably worse with increasing time since the diagnosis of diabetes. The mean HbA1c level was 7.51% (i.e. 122% of the upper limit of the respective normal ranges). The presence of complications and co-morbidity in type 2 diabetes patients was a frequent finding. This underlines the importance of complications in diabetes patients and the necessity to increase any means of prevention in order to relieve the personal and economic burden of type 2 diabetes.
Lenalidomide in patients with red blood cell transfusion-dependent myelodysplastic syndrome and del(5q): a single-centre “real-world” experience

“Real life” data are needed to complement published trials on the efficacy of lenalidomide in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and del(5q) and on the risk of inducing acute myeloid leukemia (AML) progression. Here, we present results of lenalidomide treatment in a consecutive, population-based series of 21 red blood cell (RBC) transfusion-dependent elderly patients with multiple comorbidities. Of 18 evaluable patients (median follow-up: 22 months), 17 achieved an erythroid hematologic response (HI-E) and 16 an RBC transfusion independence. Cytogenetic response (CyR) rate was 80%, median overall survival was 48 months (range 3–164), and 5-year leukemia-free survival was 84%. Three patients progressed to AML; one, with baseline TP53 mutation, achieved HI-E, partial CyR, and did not progress to AML. Eighteen patients experienced hematological adverse events. Overall, lenalidomide was very effective and well tolerated even in unselected elderly patients with multiple comorbidities and did not appear to increase the risk of AML.
A Multicriteria Evaluation Method for 3-D Building Reconstruction

This letter proposes a multicriteria system to evaluate the accuracy of reconstructed 3-D buildings. Current 3-D evaluation methods are derived from 2-D pixel-based evaluation; however, the difference between 2-D and 3-D evaluation methods is not well presented in previous literature. Most 3-D building evaluation methods concentrate solely on rooftop accuracy while ignoring the degree of accuracy found with regard to walls. To address these problems, this letter designs a multicriteria evaluation system based on three components: volume, surface, and point. The volume accuracy component represents the traditional classification accuracy based on random samples. The surface accuracy component evaluates shape similarity which compares sample and reference buildings, including rooftops and walls, in a true 3-D environment. The point accuracy component measures distance at feature points between the sample building and the reference building. This multicriteria system aims to provide an improved evaluation method for building reconstruction using advanced algorithms and multiplatform data. The system is also expected to provide valuable information to guide applications with different accuracy requirements.
High Visual Quality Particle Based Frame Rate Up Conversion With Acceleration Assisted Motion Trajectory Calibration

Traditionally, frame rate up conversion can be realized by either bidirectional or unidirectional approaches. Bidirectional approach suffers from motion ambiguity. However, unlike unidirectional approach, bidirectional approach does not suffer from holes and occluded regions. In this article, the particle-based frame rate up conversion algorithm is proposed by combining hierarchical motion vector field construction stage and particle-based motion trajectory calibration stage. First of all, color-oriented adaptive cost function is applied in the hierarchical motion vector field construction stage to retrieve initial motion vectors. Second, the retrieved motion vectors are memorized and calibrated by minimizing the distance between interpolated block and particle trajectory intersecting points. Besides the minimization, joint cost-function evaluation further prevents untrue motion vectors from being selected. According to the experiment results, proposed pixel-based frame rate up conversion outperforms existing works by 0.9-3.9 dB. On the other hand, the computation complexity of proposed work is less than existing bilateral approaches by 5-100, while it is larger than the unidirectional approach by 3-100, according to the target video resolution. This concludes a high visual quality frame rate up conversion design.
Effectiveness of Thought Field Therapy Provided by Newly Instructed Community Workers to a Traumatized Population in Uganda: A Randomized Trial

Thought Field Therapy (TFT) is a promising treatment for posttraumatic stress in a resource poor environment. This study further explores the benefits of this treatment in a rural population in Uganda, which had suffered from the psychological consequences of previous violent conflict. Thirty-six local community workers received a two-day training in TFT trauma intervention and treated 256 volunteers with symptoms suggestive of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) who had been randomly allocated to a treatment or waitlist (control) group. Assessment was by the Posttraumatic Checklist for Civilians (PCL-C). One week after treatment, the treated group scores had improved significantly from 58 to 26.1. The waitlist group scores did improve without treatment, from 61.2 to 47, although significantly less than the treatment group, but improved markedly to 26.4 following treatment. There was some evidence of persisting benefit 19 months later. This study supports the value of TFT as a rapid, efficient and effective therapy, empowering traumatized communities to treat themselves, although repeated treatment may still be needed.
Credit card fraud detection using fuzzy ID3

By the exponential growth of Credit Card user the fraudulent transactions also have increased dramatically. The genuine transaction and fraudulent transactions are almost similar, so it is very hard to discover a fraudulent transaction form the genuine one. In this paper we have proposed fraud detection algorithm based on Fuzzy-ID3. Intermediate nodes we split using attribute having highest information gain. The leaf nodes classifies the transactions as fraud, doubtful or normal. Experimental result exhibits that the technique is efficient one in detecting frauds.
Spatial Segregation and Interaction of Calcium Signalling Mechanisms in Rat Hippocampal CA1 Pyramidal Neurons

Postsynaptic [Ca2+]i increases result from Ca2+ entry through ligand‐gated channels, entry through voltage‐gated channels, or release from intracellular stores. We found that these sources have distinct spatial distributions in hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons. Large amplitude regenerative release of Ca2+ from IP3‐sensitive stores in the form of Ca2+ waves were found almost exclusively on the thick apical shaft. Smaller release events did not extend more than 15 μm into the oblique dendrites. These synaptically activated regenerative waves initiated at points where the stimulated oblique dendrites branch from the apical shaft. In contrast, NMDA receptor‐mediated increases were observed predominantly in oblique dendrites where spines are found at high density. These [Ca2+]i increases were typically more than eight times larger than [Ca2+]i from this source on the main aspiny apical shaft. Ca2+ entry through voltage‐gated channels, activated by backpropagating action potentials, was detected at all dendritic locations. These mechanisms were not independent. Ca2+ entry through NMDA receptor channels or voltage‐gated channels (as previously demonstrated) synergistically enhanced Ca2+ release generated by mGluR mobilization of IP3.
Changes in Proteolytic Activities in Stored Seawater and Bacterial Isolates

Organic matter in the ocean water column is produced predominantly as high molecular weight matter that cannot be directly assimilated by bacteria. Consequently, bacterial extracellular ectoenzymes act in the processing of the polymer in the sea. Proteins are important substrates for bacterial growth and sources of organic carbon and nitrogen. However, little is known about the protein degradation process and the distribution of the proteolytic enzymes among the bacterial species in natural assemblages. In this study, we evaluated the potential activities of proteolytic enzymes in seawater and the isolated bacteria from seawater. Results on seawater showed that trypsin, chymotrypsin and aminopeptidase were most active whereas the elastase activity was weak. Enzyme activities during 112 days experiment showed that microbial activity acting in proteolysis process varies in many ways in seawater. Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria, Cytophaga-FlexibacterBacteroides and Betaproteobacteria were isolated from the stored seawater. Among the 52 isolates, Alpha-, Betaproteobacteria and Cytophaga-FlexibacterBacteroides showed highest activities in aminopeptidase whereas Gammaproteobacteria showed aminopeptidase and chymotrypsin activities, suggesting that different bacterial species produce different types of proteases. This study suggests different enzymes produced by diverse natural bacterial communities are acting in different reactions in the protein processing in sea.
Projected Societal Needs in Pediatric Otolaryngology

With the recent increase in pediatric otolaryngology fellowship training programs, fellows are being trained in record numbers and there is concern about the possibility that the supply of these physicians will soon exceed societal needs. This study was conducted to determine the number of fellowship‐trained pediatric otolaryngologists that would meet the needs of society and when this need will be met. Information was collected from national organizations and from a survey of fellowship training programs. A hospital‐based practitioner model was used to predict societal needs based on the anticipated changes in patient care, mainly managed‐care capitated systems. The projected societal need is 382 pediatric otolaryngologists. If current fellowship training levels continue, this need will be met in just over 7 years.
Non‐length dependent small fiber neuropathy. A prospective case series

We report the features of non‐length dependent small fiber neuropathy (SFN) and compare them to those with distal length‐dependent SFN. In a series of 224 consecutive neuropathy patients, we evaluated 44 patients with SFN diagnosed in the presence of both symptoms and signs. Eleven were classified as non‐length dependent SFN. Disease associations were Sjögren's syndrome (two patients), impaired glucose tolerance, rheumatoid arthritis, hepatitis C virus, Crohn's disease, and idiopathic (five patients). In the 33 patients with distal SFN, the age of onset was significantly older and more had impaired glucose metabolism (16/33). In both groups, pain was mainly characterized as burning, but patients with non‐length dependent SFN more often reported an “itchy” quality and allodynia to light touch.
Towards an Alternative Strategy Towards an Alternative Strategy of Economic Development in Punjab

This paper examines long-term trends in growth and structural change of the economy of Punjab. The evolution of the structure of the Punjab economy reveals that Punjab has overstayed in agriculture. This overstay is leading to economic and ecological disaster. The slowdown of the agriculture sector has impacted and stunted the growth of other sectors of the economy and resulted in the marginalization of the state’s economy relative to other Indian states. Punjab has now fallen from a top to middle income state in India and occupies seventh rank in terms of per capita domestic product. Agricultural laborers and farmers are committing suicide and poverty and inequality have returned to Punjab. Developmental institutions have become non-functional and the private corporate sector has turned its back to Punjab especially in the post-reforms period. This paper identifies factors that have hindered economic development of Punjab’s economy. The evolution of the political scenario in the state is examined to identify the cause of political apathy towards Punjab’s long-standing economic problems. An alternative strategy has been developed and preconditions are identified so that a better 21 century Punjab can be envisioned. The new strategy has the capacity to make the process of economic development increasingly inclusive and ecologically sustainable. ________________________________________________________________
Data-dependence profiling to enable safe thread level speculation

Data-dependence profiling is a technique that enables a compiler to judiciously decide when the execution of a loop --- which the compiler could not prove to be dependence free --- should be speculated through the use of Thread Level Speculation (TLS). The data collected by a data-dependence profiler can be used to predict if may dependencies reported by a compiler static analysis are likely to materialize at runtime. A cost analysis can then be used to decide that some loops with a lower probability of dependence should be speculatively parallelized. This paper addresses the question as to whether a loops' dependence behaviour changes when the input to the program changes --- a study of 57 different benchmarks indicates that it usually does not change. Then the paper describes SpecEval, an automatic speculative parallelization framework that uses single-input data-dependence profiles to find speculation candidates in the SPEC2006 and PolyBench/C benchmarks. This paper also presents a performance evaluation of TLS implementation in IBM's Blue-Gene/Q supercomputer and shows that the performance of TLS is affected by several factors, including the number of speculated loops, the execution-time coverage of speculated loops, the miss-speculation overhead, the L1 cache miss rate and the effect on dynamic instruction path length.
Telithromycin and Quinupristin-Dalfopristin Resistance in Clinical Isolates of Streptococcus pyogenes: SMART Program 2001 Data

ABSTRACT This study evaluated the current status of antimicrobial resistance in clinical isolates of Streptococcus pyogenes in Taiwan as part of the SMART (Surveillance from Multicenter Antimicrobial Resistance in Taiwan) program. In 2001, 419 different isolates of S. pyogenes, including 275 from respiratory secretions, 87 from wound pus, and 31 from blood, were collected from nine hospitals in different parts of Taiwan. MICs of 23 antimicrobial agents were determined at a central location by the agar dilution method. All of the isolates were susceptible to penicillin (MIC at which 90% of the isolates were inhibited [MIC90], ≤0.03 μg/ml), cefotaxime (MIC90, ≤0.03 μg/ml), cefepime (MIC90, 0.06 μg/ml), meropenem (MIC90, ≤0.03 μg/ml), moxifloxacin (MIC90, 0.25 μg/ml), vancomycin (MIC90, 0.5 μg/ml), and linezolid (MIC90, 1 μg/ml). Overall, 78% of isolates were not susceptible to erythromycin (54% were intermediate, and 24% were resistant), and 5% were not susceptible to clindamycin. Of the 101 erythromycin-resistant isolates, 80.2% exhibited the M phenotype (mefA gene positive), 18.9% exhibited the cMLS (constitutive resistance to macrolides-lincosamides-streptogramin B [MLS]) phenotype (ermB gene positive), and 1% exhibited the iMLS (inducible resistance to MLS) phenotype (ermB gene positive). Fluoroquinolones (sitafloxacin > moxifloxacin > ciprofloxacin = levofloxacin = gatifloxacin > gemifloxacin) demonstrated potent activity against nearly all of the isolates of S. pyogenes tested. Thirty-two isolates (8%) were not susceptible to quinupristin-dalfopristin. Seventeen percent of isolates had telithromycin MICs of ≥1 μg/ml, and all of these isolates exhibited erythromycin MICs of ≥32 μg/ml. The high prevalence of resistance to telithromycin (which is not available in Taiwan) limits its potential use in the treatment of S. pyogenes infections, particularly in areas with high rates of macrolide resistance.
The importance of continued exercise participation in quality of life and psychological well-being in previously inactive postmenopausal women: a pilot study

Objective: Exercise and physical activity provide a wide range of health benefits for postmenopausal women, although the impact of maintained exercise participation on psychological well-being is unclear. An exploration of continued exercise participation in psychological well-being after a moderate-intensity exercise program in previously inactive postmenopausal women was therefore undertaken. Design: Twenty-three healthy sedentary postmenopausal women (age 56 ± 4 years) were randomly assigned to two groups. All participants completed the Short Form-36, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Health Anxiety Questionnaire (HAQ) and then began a 6-week walking program at 50% heart rate reserve defined by &OV0312;o2 treadmill testing. Post-intervention, all participants underwent repeat &OV0312;o2 treadmill testing and questionnaires. Group 1 was then instructed to continue exercising, whereas group 2 was instructed to desist for an additional 6-week period. On completion of the 6-week follow-up, participants completed a final set of questionnaires. Results: Participants performed 97% of the prescribed 15-hour (900 minute) exercise program (875.1 ± 177.4 minutes) in an average of 26 ± 5 sessions. Total HAQ (P = 0.001), health worry (P = 0.001), fear of illness (P = 0.037), reassurance seeking behavior (P = 0.037), SF-36 well-being (P = 0.037), total HADS (P = 0.019), and HADS depression (P = 0.015) improved significantly following the exercise program. At follow-up, group 1 had lower HADS anxiety (P = 0.013), total HADS (P = 0.02), total HAQ (P = 0.03), and HAQ interference with life (P = 0.03) and significantly higher SF-36 energy (P = 0.01) than group 2. Conclusions: Healthy postmenopausal women gain significant psychological benefit from moderate-intensity exercise. However, exercise participation must continue to maintain improvements in psychological well-being and quality of life.
Effect of pravastatin on endothelial function and endothelial progenitor cells in healthy postmenopausal women.

PURPOSE Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women. Among statins, pravastatin has been shown to significantly reduce fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events in primary and secondary prevention trials. The aim of the present research was to investigate whether treatment with pravastatin can modify some indices of cardiovascular risk in healthy postmenopausal women such as significant reductions in total and LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels. METHODS 20 patients were randomized in double-blind fashion to treatment for eight weeks with either pravastatin 40 mg/day or placebo, and subsequently, after one-week wash-out, crossed-over to the alternative treatment (placebo or pravastatin) for the following eight weeks. We performed clinical and laboratory investigations, before and at the end of each treatment period, to evaluate patient response to the treatment with pravastatin. RESULTS After eight weeks pravastatin therapy reduced the median low density lipoprotein (LDL) and total cholesterol (p < 0.01 in both cases). In contrast, insulin level and insulin sensitivity did not show any difference with regard to values observed after placebo treatment. The absolute number of endothelial progenitor cells-colony forming unit (EPC-CFU) was significantly increased by pravastatin treatment (30.6% increase, p < 0.05) and the number of senescent cells was significantly decreased. However pravastatin did not increase tube-like formation by EPC and did not improve endothelial function. CONCLUSIONS Despite beneficial effect on lipids and EPC, short term pravastatin does not seem to improve other cardiovascular risk factors, at least in healthy postmenopausal women.
Open-Access Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy a Decade after the Introduction of Proton Pump Inhibitors and Helicobacter pylori Eradication: A Shift in Endoscopic Findings

Background/Aim: Over the past 15 years, there were considerable changes in factors associated with the development and treatment of upper gastrointestinal symptoms, of which the introduction of proton pump inhibitors and Helicobacter pylori eradication in guidelines for treatment of patients with dyspepsia are the most prominent: findings at open-access upper gastrointestinal endoscopy have not been evaluated properly ever since. This study aims to compare the current prevalence of upper gastrointestinal endoscopic findings to the prevalence 15 years ago. Methods: Data about endoscopic findings of consecutive patients for the first time referred for open-access upper gastrointestinal endoscopy between January 2002 and December 2004 was collected from medical files. The prevalence of each specific finding was compared with data described in three historical populations about 15 years ago. Results: The current and historical study population consisted of 1,286 and 3,062 subjects, respectively. The prevalence of peptic ulcer disease and duodenitis significantly decreased by 12.6% (95% CI: 14.5–10.7) and 2.9% (95% CI: 4.5–1.3), respectively. On the other hand, the prevalence of reflux esophagitis and Barrett’s esophagus both significantly increased by 6.9% (95% CI: 4.2–9.6) and 2.1% (95% CI: 0.8–4.4), respectively. Conclusions: Compared to 15 years ago, the prevalence of specific findings at open-access upper gastrointestinal endoscopy has changed considerably.
Corncobs as a Potential Source of Functional Chemicals

Phytochemical examination of corncob extracts led to the isolation of a new lignan identified as 7,7'-dihydroxy-3'-O-demethyl-4-methoxymatairesinol, together with seven known compounds, identified as β-sitosterol, β-sitosteryl-β-d-glucoside, 6β-hydroxy-campest-4-en-3-one, 5α,8α-epidioxyergosta-6,22-dien-3β-ol, tricin, kaempferol and p-coumaric acid. The isolated compounds were identified by one and two-dimensional NMR spectroscopies and mass spectrometry.