Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Community-acquired pneumonia: impact of immune status.

This cross-sectional and prospective one year study evaluated adults admitted to an inner city hospital with community-acquired pneumonia. The study used extensive diagnostic methods to evaluate the etiologies of community-acquired pneumonia in hospitalized patients with differing immunologic status. Of 385 study patients, concurrent problems associated with immunosuppression were noted in 221 (57%) patients, 180 of whom were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected. The five most common causes of community-acquired pneumonia were: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Pneumocystis carinii, aspiration, Hemophilus influenzae, and gram-negative bacilli. Only 8.3% of patients had either Legionella, Chlamydia pneumoniae or Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Despite use of state-of-the-art diagnostic techniques, no diagnosis was made in 46 of 180 (25.6%) HIV-infected patients, 56 of 164 (34.1%) immunocompetent patients, and 20 of 41 (48.8%) non-HIV-infected immunosuppressed patients. The diagnostic yield of pre-antibiotic sputum c.
Rates of local procedural-related structural injury following clipping or coiling of anterior communicating artery aneurysms

Background Surgical clipping and endovascular coiling yield similar functional outcomes for the treatment of saccular aneurysms of the anterior communicating (ACOM) artery. However, surgical treatment may be associated with greater rates of cognitive impairment due to injury of adjacent structures. We aimed to quantify the rates of injury (infarction/hemorrhage) for both clipping and coiling of ACOM aneurysms. Methods This was a retrospective dual-center radiological investigation of a consecutive series of patients with ruptured and unruptured ACOM aneurysms treated between January 2011 and October 2014. Post-treatment CT or MRI was assessed for new ischemic or hemorrhagic injury. Injury relating to the primary hemorrhage or vasospasm was differentiated. Univariate analysis using χ2 tests and multivariate analysis using binary logistic regression was used. Results 66 patients treated with clipping were compared with 93 patients treated with coiling. 32/66 (48.5%) patients in the clipping group suffered treatment-related injury (31 ischemic, 1 hemorrhagic) compared with 4/93 (4.4%) patients in the coiling group (3 ischemic, 1 hemorrhagic) (p<0.0001). For patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage, the multivariate OR for infarction for clipping over coiling was 24.42 (95% CI 5.84 to 102.14), p<0.0001. The most common site of infarction was the basal forebrain (28/66 patients, 42.4%), with bilateral infarction in 4. There was injury of the septal/subcallosal region in 12/66 patients (18%). Conclusions Clipping of ACOM aneurysms is associated with significantly higher rates of structural injury than coiling, and this may be a reason for superior cognitive outcomes in patients treated with coiling in previously published studies.
Effects of Dynamic Stretch Training on Lower Extremity Power Performance of Young Sprinters

[Purpose] In order to succeed and achieve in sports, athletes need to enhance their specific athletic performance in competitions. Therefore, athletes seek to find the best training method for improvement. Stretch is a major part of athletic training preparation during in and off season. However, performing static stretch during warm-up session is controversial. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of different stretches prior to a 40 m sprint and the Margaria-Kalamen Power Test on lower extremity power. [Subjects] Twenty-eight high school sprinters participated in this study. [Methods] They performed three 40 m sprints and the Margaria-Kalamen Power Test following the 12 weeks of different stretches. Repeated measures ANOVA was used for statistical analysis. [Results] The results show that after 12 weeks of intervention, 40 m sprint times and the Margaria-Kalamen Power test performance were significantly enhanced in dynamic stretch compared to static stretch. [Conclusion] We concluded that 12 weeks of dynamic stretch improved 40 m sprint times and leg power compared to static and mixed types of stretch programs. It should be noted that a dynamic stretch program enhanced lower extremity power in high school sprinters.
Latin Hyperrectangle Sampling for Computer Experiments

Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) is a popular method for evaluating the expectation of functions in computer experiments. However when the expectation of interest is taken with respect to a nonuniform distribution, the usual transformation to the probability space can cause relatively smooth functions to become extremely variable in areas of low probability. Consequently, the equal probability cells inherent in hypercube methods often tend to sample an insufficient proportion of the total points in these areas. This article introduces Latin hyperrectangle sampling (LHRS), a generalization of LHS that allows for nonequal cell probabilities, to address this problem. A number of examples are given illustrating the improvement of the proposed methodology over LHS with respect to the variance of the resulting estimators. Extensions to orthogonal array-based LHS, stratified LHS, and scrambled nets are also described.
Detection and characterization of intracranial aneurysms: a 10-year multidetector CT angiography experience in a large center

Background CT angiography (CTA) is increasingly used for the detection, characterization, and follow-up of intracranial aneurysms. A lower threshold to request a CT angiogram may render a patient population that differs from previous studies primarily evaluated with conventional angiography. Our objective was to broaden our knowledge of the factors associated with aneurysm rupture and patient mortality in this population. Methods All CTA studies performed over a 10-year period at a large neurovascular referral center were reviewed for the presence of an intracranial aneurysm. Patient demographics, mortality, CTA indication, aneurysm location, size, and rupture status were recorded. Results 2927 patients with aneurysms were identified among 29 003 CTAs. 17% of the aneurysms were ruptured at the time of imaging, 24% of aneurysms were incidentally identified, and multiple aneurysms were identified in 34% of patients. Aneurysms most commonly arose from the supraclinoid internal carotid artery (22%), the middle cerebral artery (18%), and the anterior communicating artery (13%). Male sex, age <50 years, aneurysms >6 mm, and aneurysms arising from the anterior communicating artery, posterior communicating artery, or the posterior circulation were independent predictors of aneurysm rupture. Independent mortality predictors included male sex, posterior circulation aneurysms, intraventricular hemorrhage, and intraparenchymal hemorrhage. Conclusions These results indicate that aneurysms detected on CTA that arise from the anterior communicating artery, posterior communicating artery, or the posterior circulation, measure >6 mm in size, occur in men, and in patients aged <50 years are associated with rupture.
Perception of Health Status and Participation in Present and Future Health Promotion Behaviors Among African-American Women

SUMMARY African-American women have a twofold prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, and stroke and nearly a threefold higher risk of overall mortality compared to Caucasian women. Many of these potentially preventable health conditions are related to lifestyle. The purpose of this small, cross-sectional, descriptive survey study was to describe the perceived health status, current health-promotion behaviors, and interest in participating in future health-promotion activities among African-American women. We then sought to determine if there was an association between perceived health status and current health-promotion behaviors, and between perceived health status and interest in participating in future health-promotion activities. We administered a modified version of the Behavioral Risk Factor Questionnaire (BRFQ) by mail or telephone to a convenience sample of 53 African-American women living in the San Francisco Bay area. In general, the fairly healthy women reported being physically inactive, eating primarily a low-fat diet, not smoking cigarettes or drinking, and coping fairly well with stress, but not eating the daily recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables. Findings revealed perceived health status was not associated with current health-promotion behaviors or interests in participating in future health-promotion activities. A majority of the women, however, were interested in participating in future health-promotion activities, such as a women's health program, nutrition improvement, and moderate physical activity, indicating potential opportunities for health-promotion interventions that engage African-American women in healthier lifestyles. To help an individual make a future change, such as one's health-promotion practices, health-promotion interventionists must understand the individual's present behavior in the context of that culture.
Sonomorphological and color doppler flow imaging evaluation of adnexal masses

Objective: Evaluation of adnexal masses with conventional gray scale and Color Doppler flow imaging to assess the diagnostic reliability of sonographic and Doppler findings to differentiate malignant and benign ovarian masses. Materials and Methods: Sonomorphologic indexing of 74 adnexal masses in 52 patients was done to designate a mass as benign or malignant . The findings of color flow imaging and spectral Doppler were further added to differentiate malignant from benign lesions. The results were correlated with surgery/laparoscopy/FNAC/ follow up scans. Results: Sonomorphology has the highest sensitivity (92.5 percent) and negative predictive value (92.8 percent). Evaluation of vessel morphology and arrangement has the highest specificity (96.8 percent) with a positive predictive value of 95.2 percent. Peak systolic velocity is a better discriminator of malignant versus benign adnexal masses showing lesser degree of overlap as compared to resistive and pulsatility indices. Combined sonomorphologic and vascular scoring increased both the positive predictive value (54.36 percent to 76.6 percent) and diagnostic accuracy (68.9 percent to 80.4 percent) in predicting malignancy. Conclusion: There is considerable overlap in the morphologic patternsof various adnexal masses and hence a multiparameter analysis incorporating morphologic scoring, vessel location, vessel arrangement and spectral waveform analysis is helpful in determining those patients in whom early intervention is necessary.
A Novel Approach to Segment Skin Lesions in Dermoscopic Images Based on a Deformable Model

Dermoscopy is an imaging technique that has been widely used in the diagnosis of skin lesions. However, its accuracy largely depends on the dermatologist's experience; thus, computer-aided diagnosis techniques are required. In this paper, a novel approach based on a deformable model is proposed to handle the segmentation of skin lesions in dermoscopic images. The RGB color space is converted so that the color information contained in the images can be used effectively to differentiate normal skin and skin lesions; and the differences in the color channels are combined together to define the speed function and the stopping criterion of the deformable model. This novel approach is robust against the noise, and provides an effective and flexible segmentation. Two image databases were used to test the performance of the novel approach and the segmentation results obtained were satisfactory. Quantitative analysis on 250 dermoscopic images showed that the novel algorithm outperformed other state-of-the-art algorithms. Also, using comparative data, the reliability and the implementation issues of the approach are discussed in this paper.
Influence of methylated p15 INK4b and p16 INK4a genes on clinicopathological features in colorectal cancer

Background and Aim: Genetic silencing by promoter methylation has attracted attention in the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer. Methylation of the p16INK4a gene has been found in primary colorectal cancer. Although the p15INK4b gene displays high homology to the p16INK4a gene in the amino acid sequence, methylation of p15INK4b has not been fully studied. We investigated p15INK4b methylation status in patients with colorectal cancer to verify the association between the methylation of p15INK4b and clinicopathological features compared with p16INK4a.
The Anatomy and Biology of the Human Skeleton

This handsome volume is the first photographically illustrated textbook to present for both the student and the working archaeologist the anatomy of the human skeleton and the study of skeletal remains from an anthropological perspective. It describes the skeleton as not just a structure, but a working system in the living body. The opening chapter introduces basics of osteology, or the study of bones, the specialized and often confusing terminology of the field, and methods for dealing scientifically with bone specimens. The second chapter covers the biology of living bone: its structure, growth, interaction with the rest of the body, and response to disease and injury. The remainder of the book is a head-to-foot, structure-by-structure, bone-by-bone tour of the skeleton. More than 400 photographs and drawings and more than 80 tables illustrate and analyze features the text describes. In each chapter structures are discussed in detail so that not only can landmarks of bones be identified, but their functions can be understood and their anomalies identified as well. Each bone's articulating partners are listed, and the sequence of ossification of each bone is presented. Descriptive sections are followed by analyses of applications: how to use specific bones to estimate age, stature, gender, biological affinities, and state of health at the time of the individual's death. Anthropologists, archaeologists, and paleontologists as well as physicians, medical examiners, anatomists, and students of these disciplines will find this an invaluable reference and textbook.
High Bit-Depth Medical Image Compression With HEVC

Efficient storing and retrieval of medical images has direct impact on reducing costs and improving access in cloud-based health care services. JPEG 2000 is currently the commonly used compression format for medical images shared using the DICOM standard. However, new formats such as high efficiency video coding (HEVC) can provide better compression efficiency compared to JPEG 2000. Furthermore, JPEG 2000 is not suitable for efficiently storing image series and 3-D imagery. Using HEVC, a single format can support all forms of medical images. This paper presents the use of HEVC for diagnostically acceptable medical image compression, focusing on compression efficiency compared to JPEG 2000. Diagnostically acceptable lossy compression and complexity of high bit-depth medical image compression are studied. Based on an established medically acceptable compression range for JPEG 2000, this paper establishes acceptable HEVC compression range for medical imaging applications. Experimental results show that using HEVC can increase the compression performance, compared to JPEG 2000, by over 54%. Along with this, a new method for reducing computational complexity of HEVC encoding for medical images is proposed. Results show that HEVC intra encoding complexity can be reduced by over 55% with negligible increase in file size.
Study on Health Extension Workers: Access to Information, Continuing Education and Reference Materials

Background: Access to information through continuing education (CE), reference and other resource materials is a prerequisite to the achievement of MDGs. Access of health workers to information in Ethiopia has been poor and will be further challenged by the deployment of 30,000 Health Extension Workers (HEW). Therefore, a study was undertaken to make a clear needs assessment, define priorities and identify resources to plan appropriate CE programs and prepare reference materials. Method: The study was conducted in 27 woredas, 50 health posts (HP) and on 60 HEW in all regions where HEW have been already deployed. Results: Almost all HEW have participated, on average for three and half days, in CE since their deployment. Woreda Health Offices (WHOs) were the main organizers. The HEW training modules are the only reference materials available at the HP level. Training in curative care and delivery related subjects stand out in future CE expectations of the HEW. Discussion and conclusions: The attention given to CE is encouraging but requires better planning and coordination. There is need to provide more reference and other resource materials. Increased use of modern technology for providing information should be explored. Ethiopian Journal of Health Development Vol. 21 (3) 2007: pp. 240-245
Polymorphisms of interferon‐γ and interferon‐γ receptor 1 genes and pulmonary tuberculosis in Koreans

Background and objective: Many genetic variations are thought to be risk factors for the development of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB). The association of interferon‐γ (IFN‐γ) and IFN‐γ receptor 1 (IFN‐γR1) gene polymorphisms with pulmonary TB is controversial. This study examined the association between IFN‐γ and IFN‐γR1 gene polymorphisms and pulmonary TB among Koreans.
Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome: Does It Really Exist?

The question concerning the existence of adult respiratory distress syndrome seems to be a moot one. Clinicians practicing contemporary critical care medicine would undoubtedly respond yes to this question, but how is adult respiratory distress syndrome actually defined? Is there disagreement among individuals concerning criteria for the syndrome? Does it make a practical difference in the way we define the existence of adult respiratory distress syndrome?
Recovery from Myocardial Stunning Is Faster with Desflurane Compared with Propofol in Chronically Instrumented Dogs

Volatile anesthetics exert a protective role in myocardial ischemia. An increase in sympathetic tone might exert deleterious effects on the ischemic myocardium. The use of the volatile anesthetic desflurane in myocardial ischemia is controversial because of its sympathetic activation. We compared propofol and desflurane on myocardial stunning in chronically instrumented dogs. Mongrel dogs (n = 8) were chronically instrumented for measurement of heart rate, left atrial, aortic, and left ventricular pressure, rate of rise of left ventricular pressure, and myocardial wall-thickening fraction (WTF). An occluder around the left anterior descending artery (LAD) allowed the induction of reversible LAD-ischemia. Two experiments were performed in a cross-over fashion on separate days: 1) Induction of 10 min of LAD-ischemia during desflurane anesthesia and 2) Induction of 10 min of LAD-ischemia during propofol anesthesia. Both anesthetics were discontinued immediately after completion of ischemia. WTF was measured at predetermined time points until complete recovery from ischemic dysfunction occurred. Both anesthetics caused a significant decrease of WTF in the LAD-perfused myocardium. LAD-ischemia led to a further significant decrease of LAD-WTF in both groups. During the first 3 h of reperfusion, WTF was significantly larger in the desflurane group. Mean arterial pressure and heart rate were greater during ischemia and the first 10 min of reperfusion in the desflurane group compared with the propofol group. Recovery from myocardial stunning in dogs was faster when desflurane was used at the time of ischemia as compared with propofol anesthesia. The mechanism for this difference is unclear, but sympathetic activation by desflurane was not a limiting factor for ischemic tolerance in chronically instrumented dogs. Implications The use of the volatile anesthetic desflurane during cardiac ischemia is controversial because of its effect of sympathetic activation. In chronically instrumented dogs, recovery from myocardial stunning was faster when desflurane was used for anesthesia during ischemia compared with propofol.
Auxin Biosynthesis

lndole-3-acetic acid (IAA), the most important natural auxin in plants, is mainly synthesized from the amino acid tryptophan (Trp). Recent genetic and biochemical studies in Arabidopsis have unambiguously established the first complete Trp-dependent auxin biosynthesis pathway. The first chemical step of auxin biosynthesis is the removal of the amino group from Trp by the TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE OF ARABIDOPSIS (TAA) family of transaminases to generate indole-3-pyruvate (IPA). IPA then undergoes oxidative decarboxylation catalyzed by the YUCCA (YUC) family of flavin monooxygenases to produce IAA. This two-step auxin biosynthesis pathway is highly conserved throughout the plant kingdom and is essential for almost all of the major developmental processes. The successful elucidation of a complete auxin biosynthesis pathway provides the necessary tools for effectively modulating auxin concentrations in plants with temporal and spatial precision. The progress in auxin biosynthesis also lays a foundation for understanding polar auxin transport and for dissecting auxin signaling mechanisms during plant development.
Evolutionary Ensemble Learning Algorithm to Modeling of Warfarin Dose Prediction for Chinese

An evolutionary ensemble modeling (EEM) method is developed to improve the accuracy of warfarin dose prediction. In EEM, genetic programming (GP) evolves diverse base models, and the genetic algorithm optimizes the parameters of the GP. The EEM model is assembled by using the prepared base models through a technique called “bagging. ” In the experiment, a dataset of 289 Chinese patients, which was provided by the First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, is used for training, validation, and testing. The EEM model with selected feature groups is benchmarked with four machine-learning methods and three conventional regression models. Results show that the EEM model with the M2+G group, namely age, height, weight, gender, CYP2C9, VKORC1, and amiodarone, presents the largest coefficients of determination (R2), the highest percentage of the predicted dose within 20% of the actual dose (20%-p), the smallest mean absolute error, mean squared error, and root-mean-squared error on the test set, and the least decrease in R2 from the training set to the test set. In conclusion, the EEM method with M2+G delivers superior performance and can, therefore, be a suitable prediction model of warfarin dose for clinical applications.