Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
National survey on specimen acceptability for complete blood count testing of clinical laboratories in China

Sir, Available evidence demonstrated that errors in the pre-analytic phase accounted for nearly 70% in total testing process (TTP) [1]. Specimen adequacy is a critical pre-analytic factor affecting the accuracy and generalization of test result [2]. Acceptance of improper specimens for analysis may result in erroneous information that could affect patient care. This study was conducted to investigate the state of specimen acceptability for complete blood count testing in China and to identify reasons of rejection. At the same time, two creative tools of Six Sigma and quality indicators were introduced to monitor and evaluate laboratory performance on specimen acceptability, which added creativeness to our study. A total of 1192 laboratories, who had been covered in external quality assessment (EQA) programmes for complete blood count proposed by the National Center for Clinical Laboratories (NCCL), were enrolled in this study. These participants were required to record information on all of their rejected specimens from 1 June 2012 to 30 June 2012, including department from which the rejected specimens came from, reasons of rejection, the total number of specimens they received during the period and data regarding laboratory practice of specimen acceptability. All these data could be submitted on an online EQA platform (www.clinet.com.cn) developed by NCCL. Mann–Whitney (M–W) and Kruskal–Wallis (K–W) tests were used to identify the potential impacts of specimen acceptability by SPSS Statistics 13.0 (Graduate School of Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China). P-value <0.05 was considered as significant. A total of about 512 of the 1192 (42.95%) clinical laboratories submitted their data, of which 43 were excluded because of their incomplete or improper record. During the data collection period, 4 009 523 specimens for complete blood count assay were received in total, in which 5 940 were rejected. The overall rejection rate was 0.15%. For the total rejection rate of each laboratory, the percentiles of P5, P25, P50, P75 and P95 were 0.02%, 0.07%, 0.15%, 0.26% and 0.60%, respectively. Figure 1 shows that 92.96% (436/469) of the participants had a total specimen rejection rate less than 0.5% and up to 65.88% (309/469) of laboratories had one less than 0.2%. However, we actually did not know how these participants performed, because what quality levels these percentages represented could not be defined due to lack of quality specifications for total specimen rejection rate. Therefore, the tool of Six Sigma was introduced. Six Sigma is a widely accepted quality management tool, which can quantify the performance of processes as a rate of DPMO (defects per million opportunities) [3].
Maximum Tensile Strength of Sand - Coal Fly Ash - Lime Blends for Varying Curing Period and Temperature

The pozzolanic reactions, responsible for the resistance of soil-lime blends, are endothermic. As such, increasing the curing temperature in turn increases the strength of lime-stabilized soil. Recent research has shown that there is a maximum limit to the resistance of a specimen, based on its curing time. This study aims to predict the maximum tensile strength of sand-coal fly ash-lime blends for several curing times. To achieve that, a series of splitting tensile tests were carried out using cylindrical specimens with diameter and length equal to 50 mm and 100 mm, respectively. Lime content varied from 3% to 7%, dry unit weight ranged from 14 kN/m to 16 kN/m, curing temperatures were 20, 35, 50, 65, 80 and 90 °C, curing periods were 1, 3 and 7 days and fly ash content was established as 25%. Results show that the increase in curing temperature boosts the tensile strength of sand-coal fly ash-lime blends up to a limit that varies with curing time. The porosity/lime index, defined as the ratio of the compacted mixture’s porosity and volumetric lime content adjusted by an exponent, proves to be an appropriate parameter to estimate the splitting tensile strength of the soil-coal fly ash-lime studied for all curing times and temperatures studied. Using this index, curves were obtained for the calculation of the maximum temperature that influences the resistance of the studied mixture for each curing time. An equation capable of determining the maximum resistance that can be reached in each curing time, independent of curing temperature, was also obtained through the index.
Cost effectiveness analysis of inhaled anticholinergics for acute childhood and adolescent asthma

A recent systematic review by the Cochrane Airways Group showed that adding multiple doses of anticholinergics to β2 agonists is safe and effective in improving lung function and avoiding hospital admission for school aged children and adolescents attending casualty departments with severe acute asthma.1 The estimated reduction in the risk of admission was 9.4% (0.4% to 18.4%). This intervention presumably improves bronchodilatation until systemic corticosteroids take effect. Evidence of cost effectiveness, however, is lacking. To clarify whether scarce healthresources should be spent on this intervention we conducted an economic evaluation. We used various assumptions to estimate the financial implications of treatment (see table on the BMJ 's website). The costs of drug administration were not included, as anticholinergics are always given with β2 agonists and involvelittle additional manipulation. The cost of nebulisers, other drugs, and the casualty attendance were also excluded. No consideration was given to possible changes in length of stay in casualty. …
Detection of neurotropic viruses circulating in Tuscany: The incisive role of Toscana virus

Acute meningitis is perhaps the most frequent among central nervous system infections. We report a study considering 277 cases of meningitis hospitalized in the southern Tuscany area (Italy) during the period from 1995 to 1998 investigated by tissue culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods. The cytochemical analysis of the cerebrospinal fluid samples suggested the diagnosis of aseptic meningitis, recognized as viral meningitis in 104 cases by detection of viral DNA or RNA. The results collected by tissue culture technique, available for 95 clinical samples, reported a positive isolation for only 12 cases. The viruses identified in the neurological infection were Toscana virus (81%), enterovirus (12%), mumps virus (3%), measles virus (1%), and herpes virus type 1 (3%). These data demonstrate the incisive role of the RNA viruses as the cause of meningitis, and overall the relevance of Toscana virus. J. Med. Virol. 60:86–90, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Cellular and Viral Specificities of Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Vif Protein

ABSTRACT The vif gene of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) greatly enhances the infectivity of HIV-1 virions that are released from cells classified as nonpermissive (e.g., lymphocytes, macrophages, and H9 leukemic T cells) but is irrelevant in permissive cells (e.g., HeLa or COS cells). Recently, it was reported that vif expression in nonpermissive cells dramatically increases infectivity not only of HIV-1 but also of other enveloped viruses, including murine leukemia viruses (MLVs). This was surprising in part because MLVs and other murine retroviruses lackvif genes yet replicate efficiently in T lymphocytes. To investigate these issues, we first developed improved methods for producing substantial quantities of HIV-1 virions with vifdeletions from healthy H9 cells. These virions had approximately the same amounts of major core proteins and envelope glycoproteins as the control wild-type virions but were only approximately 1% as infectious. We then produced H9 cells that contained wild-type orvif deletion HIV-gpt proviruses, which lack a functional env gene. After superinfection with either xenotropic or amphotropic MLVs, these cells released HIV-gpt virions pseudotyped with an MLV envelope plus replication-competent MLV. Interestingly, the pseudotyped HIV-gpt (vif deletion) virions were noninfectious, whereas the MLV virions simultaneously released from the same H9 cells were fully infectious. These results strongly suggest that the Vif protein functions in a manner that is both cell specific and at least substantially specific for HIV-1 and related lentiviruses. In addition, these results confirm thatvif deletion HIV-1 virions from nonpermissive cells are blocked at a postpenetration stage of the infection pathway.
Electronic commercial diplomacy: a research model and an empirical analysis of embassy websites

This article deals with the question to what extent governments adopted digital communication channels in their commercial diplomacy services? Commercial diplomatic services are offered by governments to companies and entrepreneurs who aspire to do business in another country. First, this article presents a research framework drawn from the literature, followed by the results of an empirical study. A structured website analysis was carried out of the embassy websites of the top ten countries in e-government. The findings show that electronic commercial diplomacy (e-CD) is still in an 'embryonic' stage. The countries in this study have developed strategies and goals for their online presence, but the interactive services are still limited. Furthermore, the findings suggest that implementation settings - strategy, goals - can explain the type of e-CD to a more significant extent than institutional settings
Utilization of amino acids by Trypanosoma brucei in culture: L-threonine as a precursor for acetate

The amino acid compositions of several culture media have been analysed and compared. The utilization and excretion of amino acids and other metabolites have been followed during growth of Trypanosoma brucei S42 in a defined medium. All of the added L-threonine was metabolized by the cells, even when it was present at elevated concentrations. Glucose was consumed throughout the growth cycle: glutamine was consumed more rapidly than glutamic acid, which was itself used at about the same rate as proline. Threonine was cleaved to form glycine and acetate, both of which accumulated in the medium. Alanine and succinate were excreted together with a small amount of pyruvate, but these three products accounted for less than half of the glucose used. CO2 production from glucose was not measured, but insignificant amounts of CO2 were produced from threonine. Tetraethylthiuram disulphide blocked the cleavage of threonine and was a potent inhibitor of trypanosome growth.
Alternative Approaches to Evaluating Multispecies Fishery Efficiency

In this paper, the estimate of the productive efficiency for some Italian fleet segments is proposed. The estimate is based on a Stochastic Frontier Production (SFP) function and a Data Envelopment Analysis frontier (DEA) using micro data of fishing vessels. The essential random nature of the fishing processes under consideration suggests that stochastic method might be preferable to non-parametric DEA method for efficiency estimation. In other words, the risk connected with DEA is that random noise, probably due to exogenous shocks or measurement error, may be considered as inefficient. On the other hand, DEA does not identify an explicit functional form for the production function combined with a distributional form for the inefficiency term. Therefore, DEA should be less prone to mis-specification than Stochastic Frontier Production. In fishery literature, several empirical comparisons between DEA and SFP have been conducted in order to assess the level of efficiency of fishing vessels and fleet segments. This paper attempts to apply both techniques, simultaneously, to the Mediterranean area which is characterised by multi-species and artisanal-type fishery.
Multinational Teams: The Relationship Between Work Values and Productivity and the Moderating Effect of Degree of Operational Integration

The present study gathered data from 147 employees in two U.S. headquartered multinational manufacturing companies. Participants responded to questions about their work-related values, perceptions of the productivity of their work teams, and the degree of operational integration between firms‟ foreign affiliate offices and their U.S. based headquarters. Additionally, analyses were conducted to assess the relationship between team productivity and psychic distance, which is a measure of country-level cultural differences. Work values were assessed using The Values Scale (Neville & Super, 1989), perceptions of team productivity were assessed used an instrument by Kirkman and Rosen (1999), degree of operational integration was measured using a set of items developed by Slangen (2006), and psychic distance was assessed using a scale created by Hakanson and Ambos (2010). As expected, work values were found to be different between a firm‟s headquarters and a foreign office and work values predicted perceptions of team productivity when controlling for the age of the team. Psychic distance was found to predict team productivity when team age was controlled, and a more highly integrated degree of operational integration was found to relate to perceived productivity. Contrary to expectation, a significant interaction was not found to exist between work values, degree of integration, and psychic distance. However, a significant interaction
The Canadian Underground Economy: An Examination of Giles and Tedds

In their book Taxes and the Canadian Underground Economy, David E.A. Giles and Lindsay M. Tedds describe a hidden economy in Canada that is large and growing rapidly. They estimate an amount of additional income - unobserved by the authorities and untaxed - ranging from a low of 3.46 percent of official GDP in 1976 to a high of 15.64 percent of GDP in 1995. Others have questioned these findings, but the econometric method employed by Giles and Tedds is complex. In this paper, Trevor Breusch peels back the separate layers of model fitting, prediction, and benchmarking and reveals the origins of their results. He shows that the time path of their estimates has little or no connection with underground income as a percentage of GDP and that the overall level of their estimates is a result of numerical accidents.
Reproductive, endocrine, and organ weight differences of swine selected for high or low serum cholesterol.

Three generations of selection for 56-d blood cholesterol concentrations were used to establish low and high cholesterol lines of pigs in which cholesterol concentrations differed by 39% in the last generation. Litter size (number of fully formed pigs born per litter) diverged with each successive generation of selection and, at the third generation, litter size differed between the low and high line by two pigs (high line = 8.5 +/- .6; low line = 10.5 +/- .5; P < .05). A random selection of offspring (gilts, n = 109; boars, n = 46; barrows, n = 94) from the third generation and a control line maintained throughout the experiment were monitored for hormonal and anatomical relationships that might provide insight into the mechanisms that altered fecundity. Ovulation rate (number of corpora lutea) as determined on d 60 of pregnancy was increased in the low (n = 29) compared with the high cholesterol line (n = 38; 11.8 +/- .3 vs 9.8 +/- .3, respectively; P < .05), and litter size continued to be increased in the low cholesterol line (P < .05). No differences were noted between lines in kidney, ovarian, or total corpora lutea weight. Empty uterine weight and adrenal weight were increased in the high cholesterol line (P < .05) in randomly selected offspring of the third generation, and liver weight increased in the low line (P < .05). Associated with increased concentrations of cholesterol were increased serum concentrations of progesterone (gilts) and testosterone (boars) in the high cholesterol line (P < .05). (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Virus Diversity in a Winter Epidemic of Acute Diarrhea in France

ABSTRACT In France, an epidemic peak of acute diarrhea is observed each winter. Previous results suggested a viral etiology for these winter epidemics. We investigated the role of enteric viruses in acute diarrhea and their molecular diversity. One hundred sixty-one patients with acute diarrhea and 45 healthy patients (controls) from the general population were given a standardized questionnaire between December 1998 and May 1999. Stool specimens were screened for group A and C rotaviruses, human caliciviruses, astroviruses, and adenovirus types 40 and 41 by reverse transcription-PCR and/or enzyme immunoassay. Virologic analysis was positive for 63 cases (39%). Caliciviruses and group A rotaviruses were the most frequent (19 and 17% of cases, respectively). Two control stool specimens were found positive for group A rotavirus, and one was found positive for astrovirus. Molecular characterization of the strains disclosed a cocirculation of P[8],G1, P[8],G4, and P[4],G2 rotaviruses; type 1, 2, 3, 4, and 8 astroviruses; and Sapporo-like and Norwalk-like human caliciviruses. These four types of viruses accounted for an attributable risk of acute diarrhea of 34.7% for the general population, under the assumption of a causal role of these viruses.
Reducing Risk for Back Pain in Nursing Personnel

Transferring the clients from toilet to wheelchair was the task ranked as most stressful by nursing assistants in a nursing home. The compressive force to the L5S1 disc by client weight during the toilet to wheelchair transfer exceeded the action limit permitted as safe by NIOSH. Two of the three mechanical hoists were perceived to be as stressful or more stressful than the moment transfer methods with the walking belt. Of the five manual methods for transferring, the use of the walking belt was determined to be least stressful and most comfortable for nursing subjects and clients.
Integrating Renewables in Electricity Markets: Operational Problems

Introduction. - Renewable Energy Sources - Modeling and Forecasting. - Clearing the Day-Ahead Market with a High Penetration of Stochastic Production. - Balancing Markets. - Managing Uncertainty with Flexibility. - Impact of Stochastic Renewable Energy Generation on Market Quantities. - Trading Stochastic Production in Electricity Pools. - Virtual Power Plants. - Facilitating Renewable Integration by Demand Response. - Random Variables and Stochastic Processes. - Basics of Optimization. - Introduction to Stochastic Programming. - Introduction to Robust Optimization. - GAMS Codes.
Do clinical and experimental investigations support an antiatherogenic role for dietary phytosterols/stanols?

The plasma cholesterol‐reducing effect of phytosterols (PS) has been recognized in several studies, but the usefulness of PS in preventing coronary heart disease remains controversial, as some investigations claim that the high PS concentrations found in plasma and specific tissues are related to an increased risk of cardiovascular events. It has also been demonstrated that PS may induce inflammation and reduce cholesterol efflux from macrophages, conditions that are directly implicated in the development of atherosclerosis. As to arterial dysfunction and atherosclerosis, some studies have concluded that plasma PS concentrations are unrelated or only weakly related or that PS intake or plasma PS concentrations are harmful. Thus, in light of the National Cholesterol Education Program‐ATPIII report, it is necessary to evaluate the relevance of their findings. To this end, we have evaluated the studies conducted on cells, animal models, and humans regarding the influence of PS on the development of atherosclerosis. © 2012 IUBMB Life, 64(4): 296–306, 2012
The Rapeutic Effect of Proaftol in Treatment of Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis

Abstract Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is a quite frequent, painful, ulcerative disease that affects the lining of the oral cavity and has an unknown etiology. The aim of this article is to examine the impact of the medication proaftol on epithelization speed and severity of pain in patients with RAS. In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study respondents were divided into two groups where one group was treated with proaftol spray and the other with a placebo. Aphthae considered for treatment had a diameter of 5-6 mm. The participants were given instruction on the use of the spray, two sprayings on the place of the aphtae 3-4 times a day. We examined two parameters in the symptomatology of RAS-lesion size (mm) and pain intensity (noted on four subjective levels: 0-no pain, 1-discomfort, 2-moderate pain, 3-severe pain). These parameters were noted on the baseline, the third, the fifth and the eighth days of examination. Results: A significant faster reduction of the dimension of aphthous ulcers in patients treated with proaftol 3rd day p < 0.001, 5th day p < 0.0006, 8th day full epithelization in the control group. The magnitude of pain in the experimental compared with the control group on 3rd, 5th and 8th day was also significantly reduced: p < 0.0001, p < 0.007, p < 0.007 respectively. Conclusion: The use of proaftol positively influences the rate of epithelization and reduction of subjective feeling of pain in patients with RAS. The action of propolis should be the goal of studies with a larger number of subjects.
Overview of Transgenic Glioblastoma and Oligoastrocytoma CNS Models and Their Utility in Drug Discovery

Many animal models have been developed to investigate the sources of central nervous system (CNS) tumor heterogeneity. Reviewed in this unit is a recently developed CNS tumor model using the piggyBac transposon system delivered by in utero electroporation, in which sources of tumor heterogeneity can be conveniently studied. Their applications for studying CNS tumors and drug discovery are also reviewed. © 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Adhesion and Differentiation-inhibitory Activities of the Immunoglobulin Superfamily Member, Carcinoembryonic Antigen, Can Be Independently Blocked*

The external domains of Ig superfamily members are involved in multiple binding interactions, both homophilic and heterophilic, that initiate molecular events leading to the execution of diverse cell functions. Human carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), an Ig superfamily cell surface glycoprotein used widely as a clinical tumor marker, undergoes homophilic interactions that mediate intercellular adhesion. Recent evidence supports the view that deregulated overexpression of CEA has an instrumental role in tumorigenesis through the inhibition of cell differentiation and the disruption of tissue architecture. The CEA-mediated block of the myogenic differentiation of rat L6 myoblasts depends on homophilic binding of its external domains. We show here that L6 transfectant cells expressing CEA can “trans-block” the myogenesis of juxtaposed differentiation-competent L6 transfectant cells expressing a deletion mutant of CEA (ΔNCEA). This result implies the efficacy of antiparallel CEA-CEA interactions between cells in the differentiation block. In addition, ΔNCEA can acquire differentiation blocking activity by cross-linking with specific anti-CEA antibodies, thus implying the efficacy of parallel CEA-CEA interactions on the same cell surface. The myogenic differentiation blocking activity of CEA was demonstrated by site-directed mutations to involve three subdomains of the amino-terminal domain, shown previously to be critical for its intercellular adhesion function. Monovalent Fab fragments of monoclonal antibodies binding to the region bridging subdomains 1 and 2 could both inhibit intercellular adhesion and release the myogenic differentiation block. Amino acid substitutions Q80A, Q80R, and D82N in subdomain 3, QNDTG, however, were found to completely ablate the differentiation blocking activity of CEA but had no effect on intercellular adhesion activity. A cyclized peptide representing this subdomain was the most effective at releasing the differentiation block.