Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cochlear Function and Otoacoustic Emissions

Reprint requests: Dr. Norton, Children's Hospital and Medical Center, 4800 Sand Point Way, NE, Seattle, WA 98105. Understanding normal cochlear function is essential to understanding cochlear dysfunction. Conversely, misunderstanding cochlear function results in a misunderstanding of cochlear dysfunction and thus, a misunderstanding of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). The latter statement describes the situation that existed in hearing science and audiology for some 40 years. Briefly, in 1946 a young English physicist, Thomas Gold, was, in his words, "confronted with a number of puzzling things about the mechanism of hearing" by R.J. Pumphrey, a biologist. Gold concluded that to account for the high sensitivity, sharp frequency tuning, and wide dynamic range observed perceptually (in humans) and in eighth nerve recordings (from guinea pigs), the cochlea must possess a sharply tuned mechanical response system. He proposed that there was some kind of positive feedback, like that used in regenerative radio receivers, which overcame the viscous damping of the cochlea. Gold developed four key hypotheses: 1) there should be active elements related to the hair cells, 2) the mechanical observations of the live, healthy cochlea should give a narrow frequency response, 3) sometimes the positive feedback system would be unstable and produce spontaneous emissions, and 4) that such a system must have a nonlinearity. In 1948, Gold traveled to Harvard University to discuss his ideas with George von Bekesy, the recognized world authority on cochlear mechanics and hearing. Gold suggested to von Bekesy that the frequency response of the living, healthy cochlea was sharply tuned, not broadly tuned as von Bekesy observed in cadavers. In Gold's words, "he (von Bekesy) wouldn't have it! He thought that there must be some cunning neural mechanisms that somehow steepens up the subjective response. " Despite being convinced he was correct, Gold eventually gave 1
Dipyridamole Stress Echocardiography Does Not Trigger Release of Highly-Sensitive Troponin I and T

Summary Background: The patients with episodes of chest pain and no electrocardiographic or biomarker abnormalities are currently monitored and subjected to non-invasive testing. Stress echocardiography is one of the most often used provocative tests, being the most cost- and risk-effective imaging technique. Some concerns about this technique have been raised regarding potential drug-induced myocardial injury. Our study hence aimed to establish whether or not dipyridamole stress echocardiography elicits release of troponin I (TnI) and T (TnT), as reliable bio-markers of myocardiocyte injury. Methods: Thirty-two patients, after exclusion of ongoing acute coronary syndrome (ACS) during evaluation in the emergency department (ED), were studied with echocar-diography both at the baseline and after pharmacological stress with dipyridamole. Results: All subjects had biomarkers assessment immediately before the stress-test (T1), 1 h from conclusion of the test (T2), and 6 h afterwards (T3). Cardio specific troponins were assessed with one contemporary-sensitive (TnI) and two highly-sensitive (HS) methods (HS-TnI and HS-TnT). The concentration of TnI, HS-TnI and HS-TnT did not differ throughout the three time points. At no time point the concentration of either HS-TnI or HS-TnT was significantly different among patients with negative or positive stress test. Conclusions: The data shows that dipyridamole stress testing does not trigger release of troponin in patients with and without inducible reversible ischemia.
Familiar melody recognition by children and adults using cochlear implants and normal hearing children

Abstract This study investigated the effects of age at time of testing, hearing history (age at hearing loss) and hearing status on melody recognition. Four groups were compared: children with normal hearing thresholds, and three groups of cochlear implant recipients (children with prelingual deafness, children with postlingual deafness, adults with postlingual deafness). Participants were tested for recognition of familiar melodies (no lyrics) in a closed-set task. Groups differed in accuracy in the following rank order (most to least accurate): children with normal hearing thresholds, adult cochlear implant recipients, children with postlingual deafness, children with prelingual deafness. Melody recognition scores were correlated with age, variables regarding hearing history, musical background/experience and speech perception scores. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Audiovisual emotion recognition

It is a fact that human emotions are expressed in the voice as well as on the face. Early studies showed that combining these two modalities could improve the recognition accuracy. In this paper we have extensively researched the available audio and video based emotion recognition techniques as well as bimodal techniques and then combined the audio features and video features using a rule-based technique to get improved recognition results. Experiments showed that negative emotions such as anger and sadness could be recognized from each other with almost 100% accuracy by using audio features. Audio-based recognition dropped to 93.6% accuracy if the recognition of joy and surprise is included along with the angry emotion. We have observed that the proposed rule-based combined audiovisual emotion detection technique improves the recognition accuracy of all six universal emotions even if considered them together
Live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV): recent effectiveness results from the USA and implications for LAIV programmes elsewhere

The USA has a long-standing paediatric influenza vaccination programme, including use of live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). Following US evidence of apparent lack of vaccine effectiveness (VE) of LAIV in 2015/2016, particularly against A(H1N1)pdm09, the USA suspended the use of LAIV in the 2016/2017 season. The UK introduced LAIV for children in 2013/2014 and Finland in 2015/2016. Both countries have since been closely monitoring programme performance. In 2015/2016, the UK and Finland, unlike the USA, found evidence of significant VE of LAIV against laboratory-confirmed influenza. Several studies, however, reported relatively lower VE of LAIV against A(H1N1)pdm09 infection compared with inactivated influenza vaccine, although not for A(H3N2) or B. The reasons for these apparent differences remain under investigation. Both the UK and Finland continue to recommend the use of LAIV in children for the 2017/2018 season and are intensifying further monitoring of their childhood programmes against a range of end-points.
Performance evaluation of flooding-based and associativity-based ad hoc mobile multicast routing protocols

Multicasting exhibits a very attractive characteristic by efficiently distributing a single stream of data to a large number of recipients. Several multicast routing protocols have been proposed for mobile ad hoc networks. Issues associated with such a network include dynamics in network topology, limited link bandwidth and limited power life. We present the performance evaluation of two categories of multicast routing algorithms for mobile ad hoc networks, namely: (a) flooding-based, and (b) associativity-based multicast routing. Two multicast routing protocols based on these two classes are simulated in a common network environment. Simulation results obtained reveal the superior characteristics of our proposed associativity-based multicast routing scheme under the scenario of low to moderate mobility. The flooding-based scheme, however, results in very high communication overhead even though it is able to maintain good throughput in a scenario with very high mobility.
Randomised trial of estimating oral endotracheal tube insertion depth in newborns using weight or vocal cord guide

Background When intubating newborns, clinicians aim to position the endotracheal tube (ETT) tip in the midtrachea. The depth to which ETTs should be inserted is often estimated using the infant’s weight. ETTs are frequently incorrectly positioned in newborns, most often inserted too far. Using the vocal cord guide (a mark at the distal end of the ETT) to guide insertion depth has been recommended. Objective To determine whether estimating ETT insertion depth using the vocal cord guide rather than weight results in more correctly positioned ETT tips. Design Single-centre randomised controlled trial. Setting Level III neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at a university maternity hospital (National Maternity Hospital, Dublin, Ireland). Patients Newborn infants without congenital anomalies intubated in the NICU. Interventions Participants were randomised to have ETT insertion depth estimated using weight [insertion depth (cm) = weight (kg) +6] or vocal cord guide. Main outcome measure Correct ETT position, that is, tip between the upper border of the first thoracic vertebra (T1) and the lower border of the second thoracic vertebra (T2) on a chest X-ray as determined by one paediatric radiologist masked to group assignment. Results 136 participants were randomised. The proportion of correctly positioned ETTs was similar in both groups (weight 30/69 (44%) vs vocal cord guide 27/67 (40%), p=0.731). Most incorrectly positioned ETT (69/79, 87%) were too low. Conclusion Estimating ETT insertion depth using the vocal cord guide did not result in more correctly positioned ETT tips. Trial registration number ISRCTN39654846.
Immunological Aspects of Pregnancy Hypertension

The immunological alterations in pregnancy hypertension were studied peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations in normal and hypertensive pregnancies by means monoclonal antibodies. In pregnant women with hypertension an increase was found in Leu 3 and NK cells, but only the increase of NK cells showed significant difference. The mechanism of this increase is still unknown and a study of NK activity and interleukln 2 could contribute to the understanding of the lymphocyte differences
Therapeutic hypothermia in mild neonatal encephalopathy: a national survey of practice in the UK

Although major cooling trials (and subsequent guidelines) excluded babies with mild encephalopathy, anecdotal evidence suggests that cooling is often offered to these infants. We report a national survey on current cooling practices for babies with mild encephalopathy in the UK. From 74 neonatal units contacted, 68 were cooling centres. We received 54 responses (79%) and included 48 (five excluded due to incomplete data and one found later not to offer cooling). Of these, 36 centres (75%) offered cooling to infants with mild encephalopathy. Although most of the participating units reported targeting 33–34°C core temperature, seven (19%) considered initiating cooling beyond 6 hours of age and 13 (36%) discontinued cooling prior to 72 hours. Babies were ventilated for cooling in two (6%) units and 13 (36%) sedated all cooled babies. Enteral feeding was withheld in 15 (42%) units and reduced below 25% of requirements in eight (22%) units. MRI and neurodevelopmental outcome evaluation were offered to all cooled babies in 29 (80%) and 27 (75%) units, respectively. Further research is necessary to ensure optimal neuroprotection in mild encephalopathy.
Management of Obesity in Pregnancy

Maternal pregravid obesity is associated with adverse outcomes in pregnancy. There are many complications by maternal obesity during pregnancy, such as spontaneous abortion, congenital malformations, gestational hypertention, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes mellitus, fetal macrosomia, and so on. Also, at parturition, the prevalence of cesarean section and associated complications such as deep vein thrombosis, wound disruption, and infection increase. Further- more, offspring of obese women increases the risk of adolescent components of the metabolic syndrome. To improve short- and long-term adverse outcome associated with obese pregnant women, we need to encourage obese women to lose body weight before pregnancy. During pregnancy, weight gain should be limited to Institute of Medicine guidelines.
Incidence of neonatal necrotising enterocolitis in high-income countries: a systematic review

Objective To conduct a systematic review of neonatal necrotising enterocolitis (NEC) rates in high-income countries published in peer-reviewed journals. Methods We searched MEDLINE, Embase and PubMed databases for observational studies published in peer-reviewed journals. We selected studies reporting national, regional or multicentre rates of NEC in 34 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. Two investigators independently screened studies against predetermined criteria. For included studies, we extracted country, year of publication in peer-reviewed journal, study time period, study population inclusion and exclusion criteria, case definition, gestation or birth weight-specific NEC and mortality rates. Results Of the 1888 references identified, 120 full manuscripts were reviewed, 33 studies met inclusion criteria, 14 studies with the most recent data from 12 countries were included in the final analysis. We identified an almost fourfold difference, from 2% to 7%, in the rate of NEC among babies born <32 weeks’ gestation and an almost fivefold difference, from 5% to 22%, among those with a birth weight <1000 g but few studies covered the entire at-risk population. The most commonly applied definition was Bell’s stage ≥2, which was used in seven studies. Other definitions included Bell’s stage 1–3, definitions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, International Classification for Diseases and combinations of clinical and radiological signs as specified by study authors. Conclusion The reasons for international variation in NEC incidence are an important area for future research. Reliable inferences require clarity in defining population coverage and consistency in the case definition applied. PROSPERO International prospective register of systematic reviews registration number CRD42015030046.
Predictors of Maternal Weight Gain during Normal and High Risk Pregnancies: A Retrospective Study in Primary Care, Eastern Saudi Arabia

Background: Pregnancy is the only time in a woman's life where weight gain is expected and encouraged. Therefore, women are concerned whether pregnancy will have an impact on their body weight. Objective: To determine gestational weight gain during normal and high risk pregnancy and to find-out the maternal factors that are associated with maternal weight gain during normal and high risk pregnancies. Subjects and Methods: A retrospective study was conducted in Al-Khobar city, Eastern Saudi Arabia. All pregnant women registered, during the year 2010-2011 (n=323), at three randomly selected primary health care centers were included in the study. The number of records with completed registered studied variables and weight gain during pregnancy was 229 records (70.9% of total records) was divided according to the criteria of high risk pregnancy, into two groups, namely normal pregnancy (n=123) and high risk pregnancy (n=106). The maternal body weight gain was divided into three categories as low weight gain (≤ 8.0 kg), normal weight gain (8.1—16.0 kg) and high weight gain (≥ 16.1 kg). Statistical analysis was done using descriptive and analytic statistics as well as logistic regression analysis. Results: The rate of women having normal maternal weight gain during normal pregnancy was 35% as compared to those 18.9% during high risk pregnancy. While, 63.4% of women had low weight gain during normal pregnancy, 80.2% of them had low weight during high risk pregnancy. About 31.2% of women during normal pregnancy were aged 35-45years old when compared to 68.8% of women during high risk pregnancy and the difference was statistically significant (p<0.01). Increased parity and number of living children are significantly associated with low maternal weight gain during normal pregnancy. Decreased antenatal visits during high risk pregnancy were significantly associated with low weight gain during high risk pregnancy. Conclusion: Low weight gain was more during high risk pregnancy; increase in parity and number of living children during normal pregnancy, decreased antenatal visits during high risk pregnancy are significantly associated with low maternal weight gain. Suitable measures should be taken to control maternal body weight gain during pregnancy.
Sideritis euboea extract lowers total cholesterol but not LDL cholesterol in humans: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Aim: Sideritis euboea is used to prepare a widely consumed beverage. We evaluated the biological activity of S. euboea in healthy human subjects, focusing on serum cardiovascular factors, including lipids, inflammation and glucose homeostasis markers. Patients & methods: In a double-blind study, 54 participants were randomly assigned to consume S. euboea aqueous extract food (n = 27, intervention group) or a placebo food (n = 27, control group) for a 1-month period. A total of 47 participants were included in the final ana lysis. Serum lipids (total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, lipoprotein lipase(a)), Homeostasis Model Assessment and inflammatory markers were determined. Results: Total cholesterol was reduced significantly in the intervention group, while no beneficial effects on other lipid parameters and inflammatory markers were observed. In females, S. euboea significantly ameliorated the Homeostasis Model Assessment index. Conclusion: The consumption of S. euboea induces only a significant total cholesterol lowering effect while it exerts insulin-sensitizing actions in females. Larger studies with a longer intervention period should be performed.
Prediction of school outcome after preterm birth: a cohort study

Objective To identify if the educational trajectories of preterm infants differ from those of their term peers. Design This work is based on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Educational measures were categorised into 10 deciles to allow comparison of measures across time periods. Gestational age was categorised as preterm (23–36 weeks) or term (37–42 weeks). Multilevel mixed-effects linear regression models were derived to examine the trajectories of decile scores across the study period. Gestational group was added as an interaction term to assess if the trajectory between educational measures varied between preterm and term infants. Adjustment for possible confounders was performed. Subjects The final dataset contained information on 12 586 infants born alive at between 23 weeks and 42 weeks of gestation. Main outcome measures UK mandatory educational assessments (SATs) scores throughout educational journal (including final GCSE results at 16 years of age). Results Preterm infants had on average lower Key Stage (KS) scores than term children (−0.46 (−0.84 to −0.07)). However, on average, they gained on their term peers in each progressive measure (0.10 (0.01 to 0.19)), suggesting ‘catch up’ during the first few years at school. Preterm infants appeared to exhibit the increase in decile scores mostly between KS1 and KS2 (p=0.005) and little between KS2 and KS3 (p=0.182) or KS3 and KS4 (p=0.149). Conclusions This work further emphasises the importance of early schooling and environment in these infants and suggests that support, long after the premature birth, may have additional benefits.
Avoid Overtraining in Young Athletes

O ne of the primary questions that coaches ask themselves today is “How much can I push my young athletes in order to maximize performance gains without exceeding their physical or psychological limits? ” More specifically they may ask, “How do I know where the ‘training threshold’ lies and when my athletes are about to reach it, so that I can keep them from going beyond what is possible for them? ” An important aspect of effective coaching is to maximize individual and team performance through progressive overload and skill development without overtraining athletes. Finding this training threshold, or the amount of training necessary (and possible) to reap the greatest improvements in performance, is particularly important in professional sports, where performance equals championships won and monetary gain. Yet, it is becoming an increasingly important issue further down the sport continuum: from collegiate to high school, and even in youth sports. Over the past several decades, the number of youths participating in sports as well as the number of youth sports offered has increased significantly (Adirim & Cheng, 2003; Brenner, 2007; Marsh & Daigneault, 2000; Seto, Statuta, & Solari, 2010). Furthermore, youths are increasingly specializing in sports at a younger age (a fact catalyzed through year-round participation in numerous leagues, seasons, and summer camps, and by the use of personal coaches; Brenner; Matos & Winsley, 2007; Seto et al.). Real or imagined, the pressure on young athletes to perform at a high level appears to be escalating every day (Brenner; Kentta, Hassmen, & Raglin, 2001; Vetter & Symonds, 2010). Not surprisingly, all of this has led to an increase in the number of acute and chronic injuries among young athletes (Baxter-Jones, Maffulli, & Helms, 1993; Brenner; Dalton, 1992; Seto et al.; Vetter & Symonds, 2010; Watkins & Peabody, 1996).
Research on Illicit Drugs in Western Europe: An Overview

This paper gives an overview of the range of different approaches that can be found in Europe, of the major trends and developments in research methods that are taking place, of the different national and international structures within which research is carried out, and of some of the problems that face researchers. The emphasis is on research on illicit drugs, on the countries of western Europe, and on the fields of social science, epidemiology and services research.
Relapse of sarcoidosis upon treatment with etanercept

Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-α is thought to play a central role in promoting and perpetuating inflammation in sarcoidosis, and treatment with TNF-α inhibitors has been reported to be successful.1–3 We present a patient with quiescent sarcoidosis who relapsed shortly after beginning treatment with a TNF-α inhibitor for an unrelated medical condition. A 35-year-old woman with a history of sarcoidosis, in remission while on no treatment, and ankylosing spondylitis experienced a severe flare of inflammatory back pain that was not responsive to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Treatment with etanercept 50 mg subcutaneously weekly was begun with marked symptomatic improvement in her back pain. Three weeks after starting etanercept, she developed dry cough, exertional dyspnoea, blurred vision …
Activation of (cid:1) -diacylglycerol kinase is critical for the mitogenic properties of anaplastic lymphoma kinase

Oncogenic rearrangements of the tyrosine kinase receptor anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), most commonly represented by the nucleophosmin/ALK fusion protein (NPM/ALK), are involved in the pathogenesis of anaplastic large-cell lymphomas (ALCLs). In an effort to identify new intracellular transducers operative in ALK-positive malignancies, we have investigated the potential involvement of diacylglycerol kinase (DGK). Here we show that (cid:1) DGK is constitutively activated in the NPM/ALK-positive ALCL-derived cell line Karpas 299 and in NPM/ ALK-infected 32D hematopoietic cells. These results were further validated in ﬁbroblastic NIH-3T3 cells expressing a previously described chimeric epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)/ALK molecule that allows dissection of ALK enzymatic function under conditions of controlled ligand-induced activation. In this cell system, we also show that ALK-mediated (cid:1) DGK activation is dependent on p60 src tyrosine kinase, with which (cid:1) DGK forms a complex. The speciﬁc inhibition of (cid:1) DGK, obtained by cell treatment with R59949, signiﬁcantly reduced cellular growth in all cell lines. This result was further conﬁrmed in Karpas 299 cells following speciﬁc down-regulation of (cid:1) DGK by RNA interference. Overall, our data indicate that