Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Growth hormone deficiency in patients with chronic heart failure and beneficial effects of its correction.

CONTEXT A reduced activity of the GH/IGF-I axis in chronic heart failure (CHF) has been described by several independent groups and is associated with poor clinical status and outcome. OBJECTIVE The aim of the current study was to investigate the prevalence of GH deficiency in a patient population with CHF and evaluate the cardiovascular effects of GH replacement therapy. DESIGN AND SETTING The randomized, single-blind, controlled trial was conducted at the Federico II University. PARTICIPANTS One hundred fifty-eight patients with CHF, New York Heart Association class II-IV, underwent a GH stimulation test. Sixty-three patients satisfied the criteria for GH deficiency, and 56 of them were enrolled in the trial. INTERVENTION The treated group (n = 28) received GH at a replacement dose of 0.012 mg/kg every second day (approximately 2.5 IU). MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES Changes in physical performance and various cardiovascular indexes were measured. RESULTS GH replacement therapy improved quality of life score (from 46 +/- 5 to 38 +/- 4; P < 0.01), increased peak oxygen uptake and exercise duration (from 12.9 +/- .9 to 14.5 +/- 1 ml/kg x min and from 520 +/- 36 to 586 +/- 43 sec, respectively; P < 0.01), and flow-mediated vasodilation (from 8.8 +/- 1.3 to 12.7 +/- 1.2%; P < 0.01). GH increased left ventricular ejection fraction (from 34 +/- 2 to 36 +/- 2%; P < 0.01) and reduced circulating N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels (from 3201 +/- 900 to 2177 +/- 720 pg/ml; P = 0.006). No significant changes from baseline were observed in controls. CONCLUSIONS As many as 40% of patients with CHF are GH deficient. GH replacement therapy in these patients improves exercise capacity, vascular reactivity, left ventricular function, and indices of quality of life.
Transobturator vaginal tape inside out for treatment of urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence: preliminary results in 7 female dogs.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the clinical efficacy of the transobturator vaginal tape inside-out (TVT-O) in incontinent female dogs affected with urethral sphincter mechanism incompetence (USMI) and to determine its urodynamic and morphologic effects. STUDY DESIGN Case series. ANIMALS Incontinent spayed female dogs (n=7). METHODS TVT-O tape was inserted in 7 incontinent female dogs diagnosed with USMI. Urethral pressure profilometry (UPP) and vaginourethrograms were performed preoperatively, and 1 and 3 months postoperatively. Clinical efficacy of the technique was evaluated and complications reported. Follow-up information was evaluated by a telephone questionnaire. RESULTS All dogs were continent immediately after the procedure. Incontinence recurred 2 months after surgery in 1 dog and was treated by phenylpropanolamine administration. At mean follow-up time of 11.3 months, 6 of 7 dogs were continent. An iatrogenic urethral tear occurred intraoperatively in 1 dog. No postoperative complications were encountered. The postoperative UPPs showed significantly increased maximal urethral closure pressure and integrated pressure. Postoperative vaginourethrograms were unremarkable. The surgical procedure did not modify the location of the urinary bladder neck in dogs with a "pelvic urinary bladder" preoperatively. CONCLUSIONS TVT-O was efficient in maintaining short term continence in 6 of 7 dogs affected with USMI.
Are Incidental Findings on Brain Magnetic Resonance Images in Children Merely Incidental?

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that children with developmental delay without regression of unknown etiology are more likely to have intracranial incidental findings than are children with autistic spectrum disorder or children with normal development. Of 771 patients with magnetic resonance images, 363 (47.1%) patients had developmental delay, 55 (7.1%) had autistic spectrum disorders, and 353 (45.8%) were developmentally normal. Developmentally delayed children were more likely than those with normal development (odds ratio [OR], 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-2.5; P < .001) or those with autistic spectrum disorder (OR, 2.1; 95% CI, 1.1-4.1; P = .019) to have an intracranial incidental finding. We report a higher prevalence of intracranial incidental findings in children with developmental delay as compared with those children with normal development. Future study should confirm whether the result of this study is merely incidental or truly related to a subgroup of children with developmental disability.
MCFTLE: Monte Carlo Rendering of Finite‐Time Lyapunov Exponent Fields

Traditionally, Lagrangian fields such as finite‐time Lyapunov exponents (FTLE) are precomputed on a discrete grid and are ray casted afterwards. This, however, introduces both grid discretization errors and sampling errors during ray marching. In this work, we apply a progressive, view‐dependent Monte Carlo‐based approach for the visualization of such Lagrangian fields in time‐dependent flows. Our approach avoids grid discretization and ray marching errors completely, is consistent, and has a low memory consumption. The system provides noisy previews that converge over time to an accurate high‐quality visualization. Compared to traditional approaches, the proposed system avoids explicitly predefined fieldline seeding structures, and uses a Monte Carlo sampling strategy named Woodcock tracking to distribute samples along the view ray. An acceleration of this sampling strategy requires local upper bounds for the FTLE values, which we progressively acquire during the rendering. Our approach is tailored for high‐quality visualizations of complex FTLE fields and is guaranteed to faithfully represent detailed ridge surface structures as indicators for Lagrangian coherent structures (LCS). We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by using a set of analytic test cases and real‐world numerical simulations.
Seasonal congestive heart failure mortality and hospitalisation trends, Quebec 1990–1998

Study objective: To describe seasonal congestive heart failure (CHF) mortality and hospitalisations in Quebec, Canada between 1990–1998 and compare trends in CHF mortality and morbidity with those in France. Design: Population cohort study. Setting: Province of Quebec, Canada. Patients: Mortality data were obtained from the Quebec Death Certificate Registry and hospitalisation from the Quebec Med-Echo hospital discharge database. Cases with primary ICD-9 code 428 were considered cases of CHF. Results: Monthly CHF mortality was higher in January, declined until September and then rose steadily (p<0.05). Hospital admissions for CHF declined from May until September (moving averages analysis p<0.0001). Seasonal mortality patterns observed in Quebec were similar to those observed in France. Conclusion: CHF mortality in Quebec is highest during the winter and declines in the summer, similar to observations in France and Scotland. This suggests that absolute temperatures may not necessarily be that important but increased CHF mortality is observed once environmental temperatures fall below a certain “threshold” temperature. Alternatively better internal heating and warmer clothing required for survival in Quebec may ameliorate mortality patterns despite colder external environments.
Random Shifting for CNN: a Solution to Reduce Information Loss in Down-Sampling Layers

Down-sampling is widely adopted in deep convolutional neural networks (DCNN) for reducing the number of network parameters while preserving the transformation invariance. However, it cannot utilize information effectively because it only adopts a fixed stride strategy, which may result in poor generalization ability and information loss. In this paper, we propose a novel random strategy to alleviate these problems by embedding random shifting in the down-sampling layers during the training process. Random shifting can be universally applied to diverse DCNN models to dynamically adjust receptive fields by shifting kernel centers on feature maps in different directions. Thus, it can generate more robust features in networks and further enhance the transformation invariance of down-sampling operators. In addition, random shifting cannot only be integrated in all down-sampling layers including strided convolutional layers and pooling layers, but also improve performance of DCNN with negligible additional computational cost. We evaluate our method in different tasks (e.g., image classification and segmentation) with various network architectures (i.e., AlexNet, FCN and DFNMR). Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed method.
Vase life extension and chlorophyll fluorescence yield of bougainvillea flower as influenced by ethanol to attain maximum environmental beautification as ornamental components

The study was conducted to investigate the effect of ethanol at different concentrations (ET) on bougainvillea flower longevity and delay senescence in storage condition. The treatments were water control, 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 70% ET. Flower longevity was 2 days more in 4, 8 and 10% ethanol than water control and other concentrations of ethanol. Petal wilting and senescence were occurred 2 days later in 4, 8 and 10% ET than in water control. Percent petal's color changed was later in water 4, 8 and 10% than in control, 2, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 70% ET. Chlorophyll fluorescence intensity (photosynthetic yield) followed by time (ms) at different ethanol concentrations was higher in 4, 8 and 10% ET than in water control and other concentrations. Fo (lower fluorescence) was lower in 4, 8 and 10% ET than in water and other concentrations. However, Fm and Fv ((higher fluorescence and relative variable fluorescence (Fm-Fo)) were higher in 4, 8 and 10% ET than in other ET concentrations. Fv/Fm (quantum yield or photosynthetic yield) was higher in 4, 8 and 10% ET than in other ET concentrations. The result showed flower vase life was significantly affected by ethanol concentrations and longevity was higher in 4, 8 and 10% ethanol than in water control and other concentrations.
A Systematic Review on Evaluation of Aspect Oriented Programming using Software Metrics

Aspect oriented software development has been applied in past years with the promise of improving modularization by addressing crosscutting concerns. Many studies have been published, with varying degree of success on using this paradigm. Software metrics have been presented with the purpose of evaluating the final results. However, too few studies on empirical evidence of the benefits of aspect-oriented paradigm were published, results are frequently subjective, and some studies are non-conclusive. A systematic review on aspect oriented software development and metrics is proposed in this article.
Advanced Containment Methods for the Treatment of Perthes Disease: Salter Plus Varus Osteotomy and Triple Pelvic Osteotomy

&NA; The goal of intervention in Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease has been to prevent femoral head deformation by containing the head within the acetabulum, using it as a mold for guiding femoral head development. With appropriate proximal femoral morphology, premature arthritis can hopefully be avoided. Both nonsurgical and surgical methods of treatment have evolved over time, from abduction casts and braces to advanced surgical containment methods, which are now the mainstay of treatment. The purpose of this study is to briefly review the evolution of surgical treatment of Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, and to concentrate on 2 advanced surgical containment methods: combined Salter innominate osteotomy with femoral varus osteotomy and triple pelvic osteotomy. Level of Evidence Level V.
B vitamin intakes and incidence of colorectal cancer: results from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study cohort.

BACKGROUND The role of one-carbon metabolism nutrients in colorectal carcinogenesis is not fully understood. Associations might be modified by mandated folic acid (FA) fortification or alcohol intake. OBJECTIVE We investigated associations between intakes of folate, riboflavin, vitamin B-6, and vitamin B-12 and colorectal cancer (CRC) in the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, stratified by time exposed to FA fortification and alcohol intake. DESIGN A total of 88,045 postmenopausal women were recruited during 1993-1998; 1003 incident CRC cases were ascertained as of 2009. Quartiles of dietary intakes were compared; HRs and 95% CIs were estimated by Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS Dietary and total intakes of vitamin B-6 in quartile 4 compared with quartile 1 (HR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.97 and HR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.99, respectively) and total intakes of riboflavin (HR: 0.81; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.99) were associated with reduced risk of CRC overall and of regionally spread disease. In current drinkers who consumed <1 drink (13 g alcohol)/wk, B vitamin intakes were inversely associated with CRC risk (P-interaction < 0.05). Dietary folate intake was positively associated with CRC risk among women who had experienced the initiation of FA fortification for 3 to <9 y (P-interaction < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Vitamin B-6 and riboflavin intakes from diet and supplements were associated with a decreased risk of CRC in postmenopausal women. Associations of B vitamin intake were particularly strong for regional disease and among women drinkers who consumed alcohol infrequently. Our study provides new evidence that the increased folate intake during the early postfortification period may have been associated with a transient increase in CRC risk.
Compassionate Love in Individuals With Alzheimer's Disease and Their Spousal Caregivers: Associations With Caregivers' Psychological Health.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY To examine whether compassionate love in both individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and their spousal caregivers related to less caregiving burden, more positive caregiving appraisals, and less depressive symptoms for caregivers. DESIGN AND METHODS Fifty-eight individuals with AD and their spousal caregivers participated in interviews in which both partners reported their compassionate love for their partner, and caregivers self-reported burden, positive appraisals of caregiving, and depressive symptoms. RESULTS As hypothesized, both AD individuals' and caregivers' compassionate love were associated with less burden and more positive appraisals of caregiving. Also, care givers' compassionate love mediated the association between AD individuals' compassionate love and caregivers' burden as well as the association between AD individuals' compassionate love and caregivers' positive appraisals of caregiving. Finally, there was a marginally significant association between caregivers' compassionate love and less caregiver depressive symptoms. IMPLICATIONS Results suggest that AD individuals' compassionate love is related to compassionate love in caregivers, which in turn relates to reduced burden but not significantly less depressive symptoms for caregivers. Assessing caregivers' and AD individuals' feelings of compassionate love may be useful in identifying caregivers who are resilient and those who are at a heightened risk for caregiving burden. Also, interventions that enhance both partners' compassionate love may benefit caregivers.
Floristic Features, Distribution, and Ethnobotany of Plants Gathered and Used by Local People from the Mediterranean Forest in Northern Jordan

Understanding the distribution and floristic features of native forest plants, as well as the reasons that lead local people to collect them, is of great value for planning and implementing forest conservation and rehabilitation projPublished: 8 September 2014 ةیفلخ : يتلا بابسلأاو ةیلحملا تاباغلا تاتابنل ةیتابنلا صئاصخلاو عیزوت مھف و ظافحلا عیراشم ذیفنتو طیطختل ةریبك ةیمھأ وذ اھعمجل نییلحملا ناكسلا عفدن ةیلحملا تاعمتجملا كارشإ عم ةیطسوتملا رحبلا تاباغلا يف تاباغلا لیھأت ةداعإ تایلمعلا هذھ يف . فادھلأا ) 1 ( عیزوت طمن ةسارد ) 2 ( ةیتابنلا تازیمملا لیلحت ) 3 ( يف قیقحتلا ةیجولوكیلإا مظنلا ثلاث نم اھعمج مت يتلا تاتابنلل ةیسیئرلا تامادختسلاا ندرلأا لامش يف طسوتملا ضیبلأا رحبلا تاباغلل . ثحبلا قرط : رایتخا مت 14 عاونأ لخاد و ةفاح ىلع اھعقومل اقفو ةیرق و ، ندرلأا نم يلامشلا ءزجلا يف ثلاثلا ةیطسوتملا تاباغلا 300 ناكسلا نم مظنم ھبش نایبتسا مادختساب ھجول اھجو تلاباقم تیرجأو نییلحملا . تلمشو نع اذامو اھعمج مت يتلا تاتابنلا يھ امو اھیلع لوصحلا مت يتلا تانایبلا اھنم ةدافتسلاا . لیلحت يرجأو Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA) اھعمج مت يتلا ةیتابنلا عاونلأا عیزوت يف قیقحتلا لجأ نم ةیلحملا ةفرعملا ملع يف ةمھم تارشؤم باسح متو تاباغلا عاونأ ةثلاث نم نیعم مادختسا ىلع سانلا عامجا رابتخا كلذ يف امب تاتابنلل(ICF) ، ىوتسمو نیعم مادختشلا نیعم تابن للاغتشا يف ةقدلا(FL%.) جئاتنلا : جئاتن ترھظأ DCA اھعمج مت يتلا ةعئاشلا تاتابنلا نم اعون كانھ نأ يربلا رتعزلا لاثملا لیبس ىلع فثكم لكشب تاباغلا ةثلاث عون نم Origanum syriacum L. ، ةزیبخلا Malva parviflora L. فوللا و Arum palaestinum Boiss. اھعمج مت ةیتابنلا عاونلأا ضعب كلانھ نأو تاباغلا نم نیعم عون نم . نیلحملا ناكسلا نم ھنیعلا لبق نم عامجلأا متو امك ءاودلاو ءاذغلا مث نمو ءاذغلا وھ ةیلحملا تاتابنلل يسیئرلا مادختسلاا نأب . جاتنتسلاا : عمج كولس رابتعلاا يف ذخأت نأ حرتقی ، ةساردلا جئاتن ىلع ءانب يق شھلا يئیبلا تاباغلا ماظن يف ةدوجوملاا ةیلحملا ةیجرحلا تاتابنلل سانلا نم نویلحملا ناكسلا كارشا ساسأ ىلع يجولوكیلإا ماظنلا ىلع ظافحلا جمارب يجولویبلا عونتلا فارجنا عنم و ةیئیبلا ةمادتسلاا قیقحت لجأ . Ethnobotany Research & Applications 386 www.ethnobotanyjournal. org/vol12/i1547-3465-12-385.pdf est types, namely Origanum syriacum L. , Malva parviflora L. , and Arum palaestinum Boiss. , and that some plant species are collected from a particular forest type. The main uses of the collected plants are food and medicine. The study results suggest value in taking into account the behavior of people who collect native forest plants when designing fragile forest ecosystem restoration programs. These programs should be community-based in order to achieve ecosystem sustainability and prevent biodiversity erosion.
Sesamin induces nitric oxide and decreases endothelin-1 production in HUVECs: possible implications for its antihypertensive effect

Objective Sesamin has been proved to be antihypertensive. Nitric oxide (NO) is the most important vascular relaxing factor that is regulated in endothelium. Endothelin-1 (ET-1) is characterized as a potent vasoconstrictor and is also regulated in endothelium. Alterations in the endothelial production of NO and ET-1 are known to correlate with hypertension. This study investigated the effect of sesamin on NO and ET-1 in the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Design The concentrations of NO and ET-1 in the medium of HUVECs treated by sesamin were measured. The mRNA and protein expressions of nitric oxide synthase (NOS), endothelin converting enzyme-1 (ECE-1), and endothelin-1 (ET-1) were also investigated. Other than the mRNA and protein expression, NOS activity and cyclic GMP (cGMP) were detected. Methods The NO concentration was detected by colorimetric assay. The cGMP and ET-1 were analyzed by EIA. The eNOS, ECE-1, and ET-1 mRNA expressions were assayed by Northern blot. The eNOS and ECE-1 protein expressions were analyzed by Western blot. The NOS activity was assayed by detecting the level of [H3]-1-citrullin transformed from [H3]-1-arginine. Results Sesamin not only increased the NO concentration in the medium of HUVECs in a dose-dependent manner after 24 h, but also induced eNOS mRNA and protein expressions. NOS activity in the HUVECs was also induced by sesamin. The content of cGMP was induced by sesamin through NO signaling. On the other hand, the ET-1 concentration in the medium of HUVECs treated by sesamin was suppressed in a dose-dependent manner after 24 h. The ECE-1 protein and mRNA expressions were also inhibited by sesamin. However, the mRNA expression of prepro ET-1 was not influenced by sesamin. Conclusion From the above results, it is suggested that sesamin may improve hypertension by its ability to induce NO and inhibit ET-1 production from endothelial cells. The increase of NO by sesamin is through the induction of eNOS gene expression. The decrease of ET-1 by sesamin is through the inhibition of ECE gene expression, but is not through the inhibition of prepro ET-1 gene expression.
The Prediction of Violence; Detection of Dangerousness

Contemporary evidence on the correlates of violence and the accuracy of predictions of violent outcomes is derived from a large body of research dating from approximately 1990. Substance abuse and several demographic variables have clearly been demonstrated to be significant risk factors for violence. The data on the link of various specific symptoms of psychiatric disorders to violence are inconclusive, though suggestive, because of conflicting research findings. Mental disorder does, however, represent a modest risk factor for violence. Actuarial predictions of future violence based on static nonpsychiatric characteristics achieve greater statistical accuracy than purely clinical methods, but the former are insensitive to effects of treatment and do not inform clinical intervention in an established way. Future research directions are encouraging in attempting to identify dynamic actuarial risk factors that will be both accurate and mutable. Substantive critiques of violence prediction and limitations of this body of research present a useful framework for evaluating both assumptions and conclusions about the prediction of violence in a psychiatric population.
Retrograde contamination and practical handling of urine-meters: a comparison of three systems for the measurement of hourly diuresis in an experimental bladder-drainage model and in clinical use.

OBJECTIVE To compare three different urine metering systems for their ability to prevent retrograde contamination in an in vitro model of a closed urinary drainage system and for qualities important to their practical handling in a clinical setting. PATIENTS, MATERIALS AND METHODS Using three urine-meters (the Braun Ureofix 511, the Kendall Curity 4000 and the Unoplast Unometer 500) the in vitro model was constantly flushed with a solution of Mueller-Hinton broth diluted with saline. On the first day, the urine collecting bag was inoculated with 10(8) cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The system was operated for 12 days with daily sampling of the model bladder to detect any contamination. After 12 days the experiment was stopped and sampling performed at various locations, including the urine-meter and the tubing. Nine of each type of urine-meter were tested, i.e. three in three different experiments. In the clinical study, 45 patients were randomized to each of the three urine-meters and the nurses attending them were asked to complete a questionnaire on the practical handling of the urine-meters. RESULTS When the urine-meters was omitted from the model system, the 'bladder' became contaminated with the test bacteria within 3 days. None of the nine Unometer 500 systems became contaminated, compared with four of each of the other two systems (P < 0.05). In clinical use, the Unometer 500 and Ureofix 511 were easier to suspend and empty than was the Curity 4000. The Unometer 500 was significantly easier to handle when the collecting bag was emptied. CONCLUSION Urine-meters can prevent retrograde contamination in a closed bladder-drainage model, but the degree of prevention depends upon the type of urine-meter. In daily practice, there were differences in the ease of suspension of the systems and in the emptying of the urine-meter and collecting bag.