Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bioabsorbable Synthetic Plug in the Treatment of Anal Fistulas

BACKGROUND: Management of anal fistulas is challenging, because surgeons must aim to obtain complete healing while sparing the sphincter and avoiding fecal incontinence. The optimal treatment method remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: This study assessed the safety and effectiveness of the use of a new synthetic fistula plug made of bioabsorbable polymers in the treatment of cryptoglandular anal fistulas. DESIGN: This study is a retrospective review of a database of patient records. SETTING: Patients were treated at a general hospital in Italy. PATIENTS: Forty-eight patients (39 men and 9 women; mean age, 49.9 years) with 49 fistulas were treated with the synthetic plug between November 2009 and March 2012. Types of fistula were as follows: 24 superficial transsphincteric, 18 medium transsphincteric, 5 deep transsphincteric, and 1 medium intersphincteric. INTERVENTIONS: The fistula tract was cleaned by using curettage, and a synthetic plug was sized to fit the tract and inserted. A draining seton was used preoperatively in 1 patient. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The outcome measures were complete closure of the fistula, with no discharge/residual fistula (verified by endoanal ultrasonography), perineal pain level (assessed with a visual analog scale), and fecal continence. Follow-up was conducted at 1 week and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively. RESULTS: The overall healing rate was 69.3% (34/49 fistulas, 33/48 patients). Eight patients (24.2%) had healing by 3 months after surgery, 21 patients (63.6%) had healed by 6 months, and 4 patients (12.1%) had healed by 12 months. By 3 months, no patient had perineal pain or fecal incontinence. No plug became dislodged, and no patient had the onset of anal stenosis, bleeding, local infection, or any other complication. LIMITATIONS: The number of patients and the retrospective nonrandomized nature of the investigation are limitations of this study. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with cryptoglandular anal fistulas, the use of a bioabsorbable synthetic plug provided a high rate of healing without causing fecal incontinence or other major adverse effects. Larger and randomized studies of this treatment are warranted.
Aetiology of headache in clinical ophthalmic practice at a tertiary care hospital of Karachi.

OBJECTIVE To determine the aetiology of headache in patients seen for an ocular examination. METHODS This cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted at Ophthalmology Department of Karachi Medical and Dental College, Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, Karachi, from January to December 2014, and comprised patients with headache. Patients were registered through non-probability consecutive sampling technique. A predesigned proforma was used to collect data. Complete ocular examination and investigations were conducted along with neuro-ophthalmological examination. Data analysis was done using SPSS 16. RESULTS Of the 379 patients, 225(59.4%) were female and 154(40.6%) were male. The mean age was 35.12±16.387 years (range: 6-75 years). Conditions associated with headache were divided as ocular, non-ocular and combined pathologies. Among ocular causes, asthenopia was a major entity as 62(16.36%) asthenopic patients presented with refractive errors. These were followed by presbyopics who presented with complaint of headache 56(14.78%). The number of computer users with similar complaint was 18(4.76%). Among other ocular causes of headache, the number of patients with corneal ulcers was 22(5.80%), glaucoma 15(3.96%) and endophthalmitis 4(1.06%). Among the non-ocular causes were hypertension 59(15.57%), sinusitis 41(10.82%) and migraine 47(12.4%). CONCLUSIONS The majority of patients had associate ocular causes such as refractive errors and anterior segment pathologies.
Internet-Based Psychodynamic versus Cognitive Behavioral Guided Self-Help for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Guided Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) has been tested in many trials and found to be effective in the treatment of anxiety and mood disorders. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) has also been treated with ICBT, but there are no controlled trials on guided Internet-based psychodynamic treatment (IPDT). Since there is preliminary support for psychodynamic treatment for GAD, we decided to test if a psychodynamically informed self-help treatment could be delivered via the Internet. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of IPDT for GAD and to compare against ICBT and a waiting list control group. Method: A randomized controlled superiority trial with individuals diagnosed with GAD comparing guided ICBT (n = 27) and IPDT (n = 27) against a no treatment waiting list control group (n = 27). The primary outcome measure was the Penn State Worry Questionnaire. Results: While there were no significant between-group differences immediately after treatment on the main outcome measure, both IPDT and ICBT resulted in improvements with moderate to large within-group effect sizes at 3 and 18 months follow-up on the primary measure in the completer analyses. The differences against the control group, although smaller, were still significant for both PDT and CBT when conforming to the criteria of clinically significant improvement. The active treatments did not differ significantly. There was a significant group by time interaction regarding GAD symptoms, but not immediately after treatment. Conclusions: IPDT and ICBT both led to modest symptom reduction in GAD, and more research is needed.
Agreement between clinician and patient ratings of adaptive functioning and developmental history.

OBJECTIVE Psychiatric researchers rely heavily on patient report data for clinical research. However, patient reports are prone to defensive and self-presentation biases. Recent research using practice networks has relied on clinician reports, and both forensic and personality disorder researchers have recently turned to quantified data from clinically expert observers as well. However, critics have raised legitimate concerns about the reliability and validity of data from clinician informants. The aim of this study was to assess the validity and diagnostic efficiency of clinician reports of their patients' adaptive functioning and developmental histories, using patient reports as the comparative standard traditionally used in psychiatric research. METHOD Eighty-four clinicians and their patients completed a clinical data form designed to assess a range of patient functioning, clinical history, and developmental relationship variables used in multiple clinician report studies. The authors correlated clinician and patient reports across a number of clinically relevant adaptive functioning variables and calculated diagnostic efficiency statistics for a range of clinical history variables, including suicide attempts, hospitalizations, arrests, interpersonal conflicts affecting employment, and childhood physical and sexual abuse. RESULTS Across variables, patient-therapist correlations (0.40-0.66) and overall correct classification statistics (0.74-0.96) were high. CONCLUSIONS The data demonstrate that clinicians' judgments about their patients' functioning and histories agree with patients' self-reports and that in areas of discrepancy, clinicians tend to make appropriately conservative judgments in the absence of clear data. These findings suggest that quantified clinical judgment provides a vast untapped potential for large-sample research on psychopathology and treatment.
Patients with Chest Pain and Occult Gastroesophageal Reflux Demonstrate Visceral Pain Hypersensitivity which may be Partially Responsive to Acid Suppression

OBJECTIVES:Mechanisms of chest pain in gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) are poorly understood. The recent demonstration in healthy subjects that lower esophageal acid exposure induces pain hypersensitivity within the nonacid-exposed upper esophagus (secondary allodynia) raises the possibility that an increase in spinal neuronal excitability (i.e., central sensitization) contributes to chest pain in GERD. The aim of this study was to determine whether in patients with unexplained chest pain, acid reflux contributes to esophageal pain hypersensitivity.METHODS:In 14 patients with chest pain and GERD and 8 healthy volunteers, electrical pain thresholds (PT) were recorded from the upper esophagus before, and then repeatedly for 90 min after either hydrochloric acid (0.15 M) or saline (0.15 M) infusion into the lower esophagus. Six patients underwent a repeat study after 6 wk of high-dose proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy.RESULTS:GERD patients had lower resting upper esophageal PT than in healthy subjects (40.8 ± 9 mA and 70.4 ± 11 mA, respectively; P = 0.018). Acid infusion reduced PT in the non-acid-exposed upper esophagus in healthy subjects, but not in the patients (area under curve [AUC] − 304 ± 333 and 786 ± 464; P = 0.03, respectively). Following PPI therapy, resting PT increased (34.65 ± 13.4 to 40.5 ± 12.5 mA; P = 0.03), and a reduction in PT now occurred in acid infusion (AUC − 369 ± 321; P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS:Patients with unexplained chest pain and occult GERD have esophageal pain hypersensitivity that is PPI responsive. The increase in resting PT and secondary allodynia only following PPI therapy suggests that pain hypersensitivity in these GERD patients may partially be the result of central sensitization.
High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women and their newborns in an Iranian population.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy has important health implications for the mother and infant. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in pregnancy and to examine the probable correlation between serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] in maternal blood and in neonates' cord blood. As yet, few studies have examined this phenomenon in the Iranian population; thus, this research adds to a small body of literature. METHODS Sixty-seven full-term pregnant mothers were enrolled serially from a referring general hospital in Zanjan, a province located west of Tehran. All participating mothers delivered their babies via typical vaginal delivery. Samples of maternal and cord blood were collected on the day of delivery. Serum concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, 25(OH)D and alkaline phosphatase were measured in the samples. 25(OH)D concentrations <25 nmol/L were considered to be indicative of hypovitaminosis D. RESULTS Mean maternal serum 25(OH)D was 19.4 +/- 3.9 nmol/L, and cord blood 25(OH)D was 16.7 +/- 2.9 nmol/L. Hypovitaminosis D was detected in 86% of the women and in 75% of the newborns during winter and 46% of the mothers and 35% of the newborns during summer. A positive correlation was found between maternal and cord blood 25(OH)D (r = 0.55, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS We observed a high prevalence of physiologically significant hypovitaminosis D among pregnant women and their newborns, the magnitude of which warrants public health intervention.
Smooth pursuit eye movements and phonological processing in adults with dyslexia

The extent to which adults with dyslexia are characterized by concurrent smooth pursuit eye movement and phonological difficulties was investigated, as was the relationship between performance on these respective tasks and literacy skills. A total of 19 adults with dyslexia and 19 age- and IQ-matched controls undertook a comprehensive battery of psychometric, literacy, and phonological tests. Smooth pursuit initiation was measured quantitatively under both gap and nongap conditions. The results revealed that adults with dyslexia had longer smooth pursuit latencies; however, both groups showed a similar gap effect. Moreover, the group with dyslexia had poorer phonological skills than controls. The smooth pursuit impairments affected 37% of the group whereas the phonological difficulties—most notably phoneme deletion latency—were severe among participants with dyslexia, affecting 89% of the group. Phonological processing tasks, but not the smooth pursuit task, were strongly correlated with nonword- and word-decoding skills in the group with dyslexia. These results suggest a lower incidence of smooth pursuit problems than phonological difficulties in dyslexia, and that the latter tasks are more critical for word level decoding.
SUNCT Syndrome

Short-lasting Unilateral Neuralgiform headache attacks with Conjunctival injection and Tearing (SUNCT) is a syndrome predominant in males, with a mean age of onset around 50 years. The attacks are strictly unilateral, generally with the pain persistently confined to the ocular/periocular area. Most attacks are moderate to severe in intensity and burning, stabbing or electrical in character. The mean duration of paroxysms is 1 minute, with a usual range of 10 to 120 seconds (total range 5 to 250 seconds). Prominent, ipsilateral conjunctival injection and lacrimation regularly accompany the attacks. Nasal stuffiness/rhinorrhoea are frequently noted. In addition, there is subclinical forehead sweating. During attacks, there is increased intraocular pressure on the symptomatic side and swelling of the eyelids. No changes in pupil diameter have been observed.Attacks can be triggered mostly from trigeminally innervated areas, but also from the extratrigeminal territory. There are also spontaneous attacks. An irregular temporal pattern is the rule, with symptomatic periods alternating with remissions in an unpredictable fashion. During active periods, the frequency of attacks may vary from < 1 attack/day to >30 attacks/hour. The attacks predominate during the daytime, nocturnal attacks being seldom reported.A SUNCT-like picture has been described in some patients with either intra-axial or extra-axial posterior fossa lesions, mostly vascular disturbances/ malformations. In the vast majority of patients, however, aetiology and pathogenesis are unknown.In SUNCT syndrome, there is a lack of persistent, convincingly beneficial effect of drugs or anaesthetic blockades that are generally effective in cluster headache, chronic paroxysmal hemicrania, trigeminal neuralgia, idiopathic stabbing headache (‘jabs and jolts syndrome’), and other headaches more faintly resembling SUNCT syndrome. Single reports have claimed that carbamazepine, lamotrigine, gabapentin, corticosteroids or surgical procedures may be of help. However, caution is recommended when assessing any therapy in a disorder such as SUNCT syndrome, in which the rather chaotic and unpredictable temporal pattern makes the assessment of any drug/therapeutic effect per se a particularly difficult matter.
Diversified genomic contribution among south Indian populations–A study on four endogamous groups of Andhra Pradesh

Background: The present study examines genomic variation among three tribal (Nayakpod, Thoti and Kolam) and a caste (Niyogi Brahmin) population groups of Andhra Pradesh, south India. Aim: The present study examined the genomic diversity of the populations in relation to other population groups of India using 20 autosomal loci. Subjects and methods: A total of 204 blood samples from the population groups described above were collected and analysis was carried out following standard protocols. Results: All markers were found to be polymorphic in these groups except AluCD4 among Thotis. High average heterozygosity values (0.3927 among Thotis to 0.4268 among Brahmins) are comparable with the available autosomal (Alu and restriction site polymorphisms) data for the Nilgiri hill tribes of Tamil Nadu, south India. The gene differentiation value (Gst) was found to be 4.2. The principal coordinate analysis (PCO) based on data from the 20 markers presents a smaller cluster of presently studied populations than that of the Nilgiri hill tribes of Tamil Nadu, south India. Conclusion: Although the presently studied populations of Andhra Pradesh have heterozygosity similar to that of Nilgiri hill populations, the former are more closely placed on the PCO plot than the latter, who are more scattered. Also the gene differentiation (Gst) of the former is much lower than that of the latter, indicating considerable regional variation in the inflow of genes from diverse ethnic groups within south India.
Corona mortis: Anatomical data and clinical considerations

Minimally invasive procedures, such as the TVT‐Secur™, have been linked to injury to the corona mortis. Injury during the insertion of the TVT‐Secur™ happens due to the vessel's position close to the place of the margin (25–30 mm from the symphysis pubis).
Accuracy and risk of malignancy for diagnostic categories in urine cytology at a large tertiary institution

At a high‐volume center, it became necessary to provide benchmarks for the accuracy and risk of malignancy per urine cytology diagnostic category. The additive sensitivity for the determination of the residual risk of disease was calculated with the goal of determining the performance of cytology and optimal triage, including the number of urine samples, before the detection of malignancy in surveillance patients.
Generation of chemotactic factors by Rhizopus oryzae in the presence and absence of serum: relationship to hyphal damage mediated by human neutrophils and effects of hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis

As our previous studies had shown that human neutrophils could kill Rhizopus oryzae hyphae in vitro, interactions of these hyphae with neutrophils and serum were further explored. Heated or fresh normal human sera suppressed hyphal metabolic activity as determined by [14C]uracil uptake, but severe ketoacidosis (8 X 10(-3) M beta-hydroxybutyric acid plus 2 X 10(-3) M acetoacetic acid at pH 7.0) negated this effect. Hyperglycemia (500 mg/dl) and severe ketoacidosis did not affect damage to hyphae by human neutrophils. Hyphae generated factors from sera which induced comparable chemotactic responses by neutrophils obtained from both normal and diabetic subjects, using a leading front assay performed in modified Boyden chambers. Zymosan-stimulated neutrophil chemotaxis was marginally depressed only by the combined elevation of both glucose (500 mg/dl) and ketoacids (10(-2)M) irrespective of pH (7.0 to 7.4), but not by any of these factors alone. Protein-containing supernatants from live or killed hyphae were chemotactic in the absence of serum based upon "checkerboard" assays varying the concentrations of hyphal supernatants above and below filters in the Boyden chambers. The supernatant-induced chemotactic response by neutrophils from diabetic subjects was minimally less than that of normal neutrophils (P less than 0.05). These findings indicate that R. oryzae hyphae can generate chemotactic factors which might prove to influence the inflammatory response to infections in vivo, and that severe hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis might affect interaction between the host and invading hyphae in mucormycosis.
Frequent item set mining

Frequent item set mining is one of the best known and most popular data mining methods. Originally developed for market basket analysis, it is used nowadays for almost any task that requires discovering regularities between (nominal) variables. This paper provides an overview of the foundations of frequent item set mining, starting from a definition of the basic notions and the core task. It continues by discussing how the search space is structured to avoid redundant search, how it is pruned with the a priori property, and how the output is reduced by confining it to closed or maximal item sets or generators. In addition, it reviews some of the most important algorithmic techniques and data structures that were developed to make the search for frequent item sets as efficient as possible. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Phenotypic heterogeneity of antigen‐specific CD4 T cells under different conditions of antigen persistence and antigen load

The factors responsible for the phenotypic heterogeneity of memory CD4 T cells are unclear. In the present study, we have identified a third population of memory CD4 T cells characterized as CD45RA+CCR7– that, based on its replication history and the homeostatic proliferative capacity, was at an advanced stage of differentiation. Three different phenotypic patterns of memory CD4 T cell responses were delineated under different conditions of antigen (Ag) persistence and load using CD45RA and CCR7 as markers of memory T cells. Mono‐phenotypic CD45RA–CCR7+ or CD45RA–CCR7– CD4 T cell responses were associated with conditions of Ag clearance (tetanus toxoid‐specific CD4 T cell response) or Ag persistence and high load (chronic HIV‐1 and primary CMV infections), respectively. Multi‐phenotypic CD45RA–CCR7+, CD45RA–CCR7– and CD45RA+CCR7– CD4 T cell responses were associated with protracted Ag exposure and low load (chronic CMV, EBV and HSV infections and HIV‐1 infection in long‐term nonprogressors). The mono‐phenotypic CD45RA–CCR7+ response was typical of central memory (TCM) IL‐2‐secreting CD4 T cells, the mono‐phenotypic CD45RA–CCR7– response of effector memory (TEM) IFN‐γ‐secreting CD4 T cells and the multi‐phenotypic response of both IL‐2‐ and IFN‐γ‐secreting cells. The present results indicate that the heterogeneity of different Ag‐specific CD4 T cell responses is regulated by Ag exposure and Ag load.
Development of guidelines for caregivers of people with bipolar disorder: a Delphi expert consensus study

Berk L, Jorm AF, Kelly CM, Dodd S, Berk M. Development of guidelines for caregivers of people with bipolar disorder: a Delphi expert consensus study. Bipolar Disord 2011: 13: 556–570. © 2011 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2011 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
A TMS study on the contribution of visual area V5 to the perception of implied motion in art and its appreciation

ABSTRACT Over the last decade, researchers have sought to understand the brain mechanisms involved in the appreciation of art. Previous studies reported an increased activity in sensory processing regions for artworks that participants find more appealing. Here we investigated the intriguing possibility that activity in cortical area V5—a region in the occipital cortex mediating physical and implied motion detection—is related not only to the generation of a sense of motion from visual cues used in artworks, but also to the appreciation of those artworks. Art-naïve participants viewed a series of paintings and quickly judged whether or not the paintings conveyed a sense of motion, and whether or not they liked them. Triple-pulse TMS applied over V5 while viewing the paintings significantly decreased the perceived sense of motion, and also significantly reduced liking of abstract (but not representational) paintings. Our data demonstrate that V5 is involved in extracting motion information even when the objects whose motion is implied are pictorial representations (as opposed to photographs or film frames), and even in the absence of any figurative content. Moreover, our study suggests that, in the case of untrained people, V5 activity plays a causal role in the appreciation of abstract but not of representational art.
Institutional Information Manipulation and Individual Investors’ Disadvantages: A New Explanation for Momentum Reversal on the Chinese Stock Market

ABSTRACT In this study, empirical evidence is presented to explain the momentum reversal phenomenon in the Chinese stock market in terms of the manipulation of institutional information. On the institutional “sell” side, we demonstrate that institutional traders send manipulated information to the market using a large volume of buy orders in order to boost the stock price and thus induce trading by retail investors. The reverse is also true on the institutional “buy” side. Thus instead of the traditional view of order flow information—“the more, the merrier”—the authors argue that “more is less” in the case of individual investors on the Chinese stock market. As a result, the empirical results presented in this study provide another feasible explanation for momentum reversal.