Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Glutamate receptor phenotypes in the auditory brainstem and mid‐brain of the developing rat

Glutamate receptors mediate most excitatory synaptic transmission in the adult vertebrate brain, but their activation in developing neurons also influences developmental processes. However, little is known about the developmental regulation of the subunits composing these receptors. Here we have studied age‐dependent changes in the expression of α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐4‐isoxazole (AMPA) and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA) receptor subunits in the cochlear nucleus complex (CN), the superior olivary complex (SOC), the nuclei of the lateral lemniscus, and the inferior colliculus of the developing rat. In the lateral superior olive, the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body, and the ventral nucleus of the lateral lemniscus, the distribution of AMPA receptor subunits changed drastically with age. While GluR1 and GluR2 subunits were highly expressed in the first 2 postnatal weeks, GluR4 staining was detectable only thereafter. GluR1 and GluR2 immunoreactivities rapidly decreased during the third postnatal week, with the GluR1 subunits disappearing from most neurons. In contrast, the adult pattern of the distribution of AMPA receptor subunits emerged gradually in most of the other auditory nuclei. Thus, progressive as well as regressive events characterized AMPA receptor development in some nuclei, while a monotonically maturation was seen in other regions. In contrast, the staining patterns of NMDA receptor subunits remained stable or only decreased during the same period. Although our data are not consistent with a generalized pattern of AMPA receptor development, the abundance of GluR1 subunits is a distinctive feature of early AMPA receptors. As similar AMPA receptors are present during plasticity periods throughout the brain, neurons undergoing synaptic and structural remodelling might have a particular need for these receptors.
Application of Fourier Integrals for Determination of Antenna Far-Field Patterns from Measurements at Fresnel Distances

A method for determination of antenna far-fields, based on a measurement at Fresnel distances, is presented. The method is applicable to highly directive antennas, measured in anechoic chambers, which size is not large enough to satisfy the far-field condition for the antenna under test (AUT). The method is based on an approximation of the accurate diffraction integral at Fresnel distances by a Fourier integral. According to the method, a quasi far-field radiation pattern of the AUT is measured at a Fresnel distance R, the measured pattern is used for a reconstruction of a distorted, due to the short range, aperture excitation, and the distorted aperture excitation is corrected magnitudewise and phasewise in accordance with ${R}$ and, then, forward propagated to the far-field. An advantage of the method is that it allows an accurate treatment of the distorted phase and the magnitude of the Green kernel in the diffraction integral, with respect to the ideal far-field, in contrast to the usual quadratic approximation of the phase and expansion in an infinite row of the exponential phase term. The method offers computational precision advantages over existing methods in shorter measurement distances R and low levels of sidelobes. The accuracy of the method improves as the directivity of the AUT gets higher. The measurement distance R must not be too short to smear too much the measured Fresnel pattern and to compromise the validity of the mentioned Fourier approximation of the diffraction integral.
Parental knowledge and use of epinephrine auto‐injector for children with food allergy

Epinephrine should be prescribed for patients at risk of anaphylaxis. Our purpose was to determine the use of Anapen® prescribed for food‐allergic children, to assess parental knowledge regarding Anapen, and to evaluate the arrangements for emergency kits and personalized care projects in everyday life. A prospective study was performed with a questionnaire sent to families with a food‐allergic child previously prescribed Anapen. One hundred and fifty two families were contacted and finally 111 children included (median age 6.5 yrs). Main food allergens were peanuts (n = 89), egg (n = 39) and cow's milk (n = 10). The use of Anapen had been demonstrated to 90% of parents (by prescribing physician, 69%; pharmacist, 25%; general practitioner, 5%; nurse 1%), with a training device (76%) and/or written instructions (49%). When asked to list symptoms requiring injection, 48% of parents cited more than one response: breathing difficulties only (23%), or with angio‐edema (41%), collapse or faintness (38%), anaphylactic shock (48%). Of 107 children attending school, 54% had a personalized care project, 72% an Anapen device, and 60% a complete emergency kit (epinephrine, inhaled β‐agonist, corticosteroid, anti‐H1 drug). β‐Agonists were forgotten at school by 34 children (13 asthmatics). Anapen was used in one child for angio‐edema and dyspnea after inadvertent ingestion of egg at home. In our population, epinephrine auto‐injectors and emergency kits were insufficiently available at schools and in daily life. The use of auto‐injectors was not adequately demonstrated. The prescription of epinephrine for food‐allergic children at risk of anaphylaxis requires accurate diagnosis, educational programs, information, and follow up.
Economic evaluation of an intensified disease management system for patients with type 2 diabetes.

We evaluated the effect of a disease management (DM) program on adherence with recommended laboratory tests, health outcomes, and health care expenditures for patients with type 2 diabetes. The study was a natural experiment in a primary care setting in which the intervention was available to 1 group and then compared to the experience of a matched control group. Univariate analysis and difference in differences analysis were used to test for any significant differences between the 2 groups following a 12-month intervention period. A payer perspective was used to estimate the health care cost consequences based on hospital and physician utilization weighted by Medicare prices. The results were nonsignificant at the . 10 level, except for compliance with recommended tests, which showed significant results in the univariate analysis. The intervention increased compliance with testing for HbA1c, microalbuminuria, and lipids, and decreased HbA1c value and the percent of patients with HbA1c >or=9.5%. The point estimates showed small reductions in health care cost; only reductions in costs for office visits were significant at the . 10 level. We concluded that while there were signs of improvement in adherence to testing, the low effectiveness may be attributed to existing diabetes management activities in this primary care setting, high compliance rates for testing at the beginning of the study, and a steep learning curve for this complex, information-technology-based DM system. The study raises questions about the incremental gains from complex systems approaches to DM and illustrates a rigorous method to assess DM programs under "real-world" conditions, with control for possible selection bias.
A 12-week clinical and instrumental study evaluating the efficacy of a multisource radiofrequency home-use device for wrinkle reduction and improvement in skin tone, skin elasticity, and dermal collagen content

This study was performed in order to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a new handheld home-use multisource radiofrequency device on facial rejuvenation. Forty-seven male and female subjects were enrolled. All subjects received a NEWA® 3DEEP™ home-use device (EndyMed Medical, Caesarea, Israel) to be used on facial skin three times per week for the first four weeks and then reduced to two times per week for the following eight weeks. Assessments included expert clinical grading for efficacy, instrumental evaluation, image analysis, and photography. Forty-five subjects completed the study; all subjects reported the treatment to be painless with only mild erythema lasting up to 15 minutes post-treatment. No other adverse events were reported. Statistically significant improvements were noted in the appearance of marionette lines, skin brightness, elasticity, firmness, lift (facial), lift (jawline), texture/smoothness, tone, and radiance/luminosity by expert visual assessment. Statistically significant improvements in skin firmness and elasticity were found using a Cutometer MPA 580, as well as in collagen and hemoglobin content of the skin using a SIAscope. The results of this study indicate that the NEWA® multisource radiofrequency home-use device is effective in self-administered skin rejuvenation.
Movement characteristics in young patients and the impact on CBCT image quality.

OBJECTIVES To assess patient movement characteristics in children and young adults and the impact on CBCT image quality. METHODS During 33 CBCT examinations, the patients (age: average, 14 years; range, 9-25 years) who had moved were identified by video observation [movement group (MG)]. The CBCT data sets were matched with those of 33 non-moving patients according to age, diagnostic task, examined region, field of view and voxel resolution [non-movement group (N-MG)]. Three observers scored the videos of MG, regarding motional state second by second (moving/non-moving), and movement characteristics: duration (in seconds), complexity (uniplanar or multiplanar) and distance (<3/≥3 ≤ 10/>10 mm). The observers blindly assessed axial sections of the 66 examinations individually, categorizing the image quality (appropriate/acceptable/inappropriate). Next, the observers blindly assessed axial sections of the matched-pairs images simultaneously, deciding which image in the pair had the highest image quality or if it was impossible to decide. The relationship between image quality and movement/movement characteristics was evaluated. RESULTS When the 66 CBCT images were evaluated individually, no relationship between image quality and movement was found. However, based on the matched-pairs assessment, accumulated number (≤2 vs ≥3, p = 0.039), duration (≤5 s vs ≥6 s, p = 0.024) and complexity (uniplanar vs multiplanar, p = 0.046) of movements had an impact on image quality; the more severe the movement, the more often the image quality was assessed lower in the MG. CONCLUSIONS Axial CBCT images of young patients who moved during examination did not always present lower quality than images originating from non-moving patients. Image quality was, however, significantly lower in the moving patients when movement occurred several times, had a long duration or was multiplanar.
Modeling employer self-insurance decisions after the Affordable Care Act.

OBJECTIVE To present a microsimulation model that addresses the methodological challenge of estimating the firm decision to self-insure. METHODOLOGY The model considers the risk that the firm bears when self-insuring and the opportunity to mitigate that risk by purchasing stop-loss insurance. The model makes use of a structural, utility maximization framework to account for numerous aspects of the firm decision, and a multinomial probit to reproduce the elasticity of the firm's demand for health insurance. FINDINGS AND CONCLUSIONS Our simulations provide three important conclusions. First, they project significant increases in self-insurance rates among small firms--presumably induced by the desire to avoid ACA's rate-banding and risk adjustment regulations-only if generous stop-loss policies become widely available. Second, they show that this increase would be due to this hypothetical adoption of widespread, generous reinsurance by the market and not by passage of the ACA. Third, even with a substantial increase of self-insurance rates among small firms, they project negligible adverse selection in the exchanges, as indicated by our finding that the increase in exchange premium is less than 0.5% when assuming very generous stop-loss policies after implementation of the ACA.
Cardiothoracic CT angiography: current contrast medium delivery strategies.

OBJECTIVE Over the last decade, rapid technologic evolution in CT has resulted in improved spatial and temporal resolution and acquisition speed, enabling cardiothoracic CT angiography to become a viable and effective noninvasive alternative in the diagnostic algorithm. These new technologic advances have imposed new challenges for the optimization of contrast medium delivery and image acquisition strategies. CONCLUSION Thorough understanding of contrast medium dynamics is essential for the design of effective acquisition and injection protocols. This article provides an overview of the fundamentals affecting contrast enhancement, emphasizing the modifications to contrast material delivery protocols required to optimize cardiothoracic CT angiography.
Audit for extraoral radiographic examinations in a digital department.

OBJECTIVES To investigate whether extraoral radiographs requested by clinicians were actually viewed by the clinicians after recording. METHODS Digital extraoral images recorded at the radiology department were tracked over a 1-year period. Digital images are communicated to the clinical departments through our Picture Archiving and Communication System and may be viewed at any computer which houses the image display and enhancement software "DigiView". DigiView keeps track of user actions, among others where and when an image is opened. An image was defined as viewed if it had been opened in DigiView within 3 months after it had been recorded. The number of opened and non-opened images was calculated in relation to the referring clinical departments/units in the dental school. RESULTS 2374 digital extraoral images were requested by the clinical departments. Two-thirds of these images were requested from the orthodontic department. Twenty-two percent (n=346) of their requested images were not opened. The distribution of non-opened images for the other clinical departments was: oral surgery=3% (18 images); periodontology=17% (1 image); treatment planning=33% (1 image); prosthetic=5% (6 images); county=21% (8 images) and oral physiology=23% (6 images). Panoramic images constituted the majority (58%) of non-opened images. Twenty-six percent of the images were opened once, 15% were opened twice and 41% were opened three times or more. CONCLUSIONS Digital imaging offers new possibilities for audit compared with conventional film radiography. It seems that custom in some disciplines rules the referral of patients to radiographic examination and that this may lead to over-prescription.
Intraoperative chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion as an adjuvant to gastric cancer: final results of a randomized controlled study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Although the most frequent cause of death after curative resection of advanced gastric cancer is peritoneal recurrence, there was no effective therapy for the prevention of peritoneal recurrence. This randomized trial sought to determine whether intraoperative chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion could eliminate microscopic residual disease and thereby improve survival of patients with advanced gastric cancer. METHODOLOGY One-hundred and thirty-nine patients with T2-4 gastric cancer underwent curative gastrectomy with extended lymphadenectomy. These patients were randomly allocated into the following three groups. Patients in the CHPP group received surgery + chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion, and those in the CNPP group underwent surgery + chemonormothermic peritoneal perfusion. The third group was surgery alone group. In the CHPP and CNPP groups, peritoneal cavity was perfused with 6-8 liters of heated saline at, respectively, 42-43 degrees C and 37 degrees C with 30 mg of mitomycin C and 300 mg of cisplatin by a extracorporeal circulation machine. RESULTS Major operative complication occurred in 19% (9/48), 14% (6/44) and 19% (9/47) of the CHPP, CNPP and surgery alone group, respectively. Complication which uniquely developed after chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion was bowel perforation. Mortality rates of each group were 4% (2/48), 0% (0/44) and 4% (2/47) in the CHPP, CNPP and surgery alone group, respectively. Overall 5-year survival rates of CHPP, CNPP and surgery alone groups were 61%, 43% and 42%, respectively. In a subset analysis, patients with gastric cancer having serosal invasion or lymph node metastasis have shown a statistically significant improvement in survival when treated with chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion. However, chemonormothermic peritoneal perfusion had no survival benefit. By analyzing with Cox proportional hazard model, chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion emerged as an independent prognostic factor for good survival. Surgery alone had three-fold higher risk of death than chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion. CONCLUSIONS Chemohyperthermic peritoneal perfusion had an efficiency for the prophylaxis of recurrence after curative resection of advanced gastric cancer, and is indicated for patients with tumor infiltrating beyond serosal layer and node positive tumor.
Plasma pentosidine: a potential biomarker in the management of multiple sclerosis

Background: The chronic inflammation associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) may lead to the upregulation of pentosidine. Objectives: This cross-sectional study compares plasma pentosidine levels among healthy controls (HCs) and patients with MS at different disease stages. The study also determines pentosidine's usefulness as a biomarker of MS disease activity and/or severity via its correlation with a number of indicators of MS disease. Methods: Pentosidine levels were analyzed in 98 MS patients and 43 HCs using reverse-phase high-pressure liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Results: Plasma pentosidine levels were significantly higher in MS patients when compared with HCs (p = 0.02). Patients on disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) had lower plasma pentosidine levels when compared with DMT-naïve patients (p = 0.01). Pentosidine plasma levels correlated with indicators of MS disease severity, including Extended Disability Status Scale (p = 0.03), MS Severity Scale (p = 0.01), and MS Functional Composite (p = 0.03). No correlation between pentosidine levels and age, rate of clinical relapse, and disease duration was observed. Conclusions: Our results suggest that pentosidine could be a novel, inflammatory biomarker in MS clinical practice. Longitudinal studies are warranted to determine any causal relationship between changes in plasma pentosidine levels and MS disease pathology. These studies may pave the way for use of advanced glycation end product (AGE) inhibitors and AGE-breaking agents as new therapeutic modalities in MS.
Expression of clusterin in normal and preeclamptic placentas

Aim: Clusterin is a multifunctional protein that is up‐regulated during many different pathophysiological states. Clusterin may be related to a compensation mechanism involving aggregation of soluble proteins, inhibition of complement‐mediated cell damage, adaptive regeneration or apoptosis. Clusterin may increase in response to cell damage that results from hypoxic stress in the preeclamptic placenta. The goal of this study was to measure clusterin expression and localization in normal and preeclamptic placental tissues.
Prognostic value of plasma HIV RNA in the natural history of Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia, cytomegalovirus and Mycobacterium avium complex. Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVES To use follow-up on untreated HIV-positive men to assess the prognostic information provided by baseline data on plasma HIV RNA, CD4 cell count, age, and HIV-related symptom status, separately for three specific AIDS-defining illnesses: Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). METHODS The study population were 734 HIV-positive homosexual men enrolled in the Multicenter AIDS Cohort Study, with follow-up (1984-1985 through mid-1988) restricted to the antiretroviral treatment-free and prophylaxis-free era. Baseline marker values were categorized and assessed as predictor variables in separate time-to-event analyses for each of the three specific outcomes. RESULTS A total of 138 cases of PCP, 25 cases of CMV, and 25 cases of MAC were observed. For PCP and CMV, higher categories of HIV RNA and lower categories of CD4 cell count were associated with increased risk relative to the respective reference groups. For MAC, oral candidiasis or fever and elevated HIV RNA at baseline were the primary risk factors. Further analysis highlighted the importance of monitoring HIV RNA levels in addition to CD4 cell counts when evaluating patients' risk of developing PCP. CONCLUSIONS In the absence of treatment, plasma HIV RNA levels provide prognostic information about the risk of these three specific AIDS-defining illnesses, independently of the CD4 cell count. These data provide a useful reference as researchers investigate changing patterns in the incidence and predictors of opportunistic infections in the era of increasingly active antiretroviral therapies.
The influence of an induced negative emotional state on autobiographical memory coherence

Individuals who experience difficulty constructing coherent narratives about significant personal experiences generally report less psychological well-being and more depressive symptoms. It remains, however, unclear whether a negative emotional state, one of the core symptoms of depression, causes this impairment in autobiographical memory coherence. The current study aimed to examine the causal relation between mood and memory coherence by means of a mood induction paradigm. A group of 165 students were randomly allocated to one of three mood groups: negative, positive, and neutral. We hypothesized that memory coherence would decrease following a negative mood induction. In addition, working memory capacity was expected to mediate the association between mood and memory coherence. Contrary to predictions, memory coherence increased following a negative mood induction. This increase was likewise observed in the positive mood group, though memory coherence remained consistent in the neutral mood group. This effect of mood on memory coherence was solely observed in female participants and not in the small male subsample. Results provided no support for the hypothesis that working memory capacity functioned as an underlying mechanism. Different theoretical explanations are discussed.
The hazardous effects of three natural food dyes on developmental stages and longevity of Drosophila melanogaster

Nowadays, food dyes obtained from herbal, animal, microbial and mineral sources are widely used as food additives. In this study, the toxic effects of three different natural food dyes (carmine, turmeric and annatto) on 72 ± 4 h larvae of Oregon-R wild type of Drosophila melanogaster were investigated. For this purpose, four different application doses (50, 75, 100, 125 mg mL−1) were chosen by means of preliminary studies. It was determined that larval mortality increased with increasing concentration in the application groups and the toxicity order was carmine > turmeric > annatto. It was observed that the survival rate was highest in the control with 98% and lowest in 125 mg mL−1 carmine with 16%. In addition, the average lifespan of the adult individuals obtained from third instar larvae was also studied. While the average lifespan was 40.88 ± 1.44 days in the control group, these values were 10.81 ± 0.55–23.90 ± 1.27 days in the carmine group, 15.00 ± 0.80–22.42 ± 1.43 days in the turmeric group and 10.33 ± 1.03–35.68 ± 1.54 days in the annatto group, respectively. According to the obtained results, when both the developmental period from larvae into adults and the lifespan of the developing adults were compared with the control group, the food dyes were found to be toxic and the toxicity order of carmine > turmeric > annatto was identified.