Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Primary effect of dual growing rod technique for the treatment of severe scoliosis in young children.

BACKGROUND Treatment of rapidly progressing scoliosis in young children is a challenge for spine surgeons. Some surgeons had begun to use dual growing rod technique for treatment of rapidly progressing scoliosis in young children and had achieved acceptable results. The aim of this study was to determine the primary results and complications of this new technique in China. METHODS Eleven children suffering from rapidly progressing scoliosis were treated with dual growing rod technique between November 2004 and March 2009 at Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH). There were 10 females and 1 male in the group with Risser sign of 0 grade. The mean age at initial surgery was 6.1 years (range, 2.1-10.9 years). Ten patients were diagnosed as congenital scoliosis and 1 patient neuromuscular scoliosis. All the patients had 1-4 lengthening procedures (mean, 1.8 procedures) after the initial surgeries. The radiographic results of all the patients were investigated. RESULTS The coronal Cobb angle of scoliosis improved from (67.64+/-11.43) degrees to (34.64+/-8.26) degrees after initial surgery with the correction rate observed at (47.15+/-16.48)%. The coronal trunk shift improved from (2.00+/-1.73) cm to (1.49+/-1.31) cm after initial surgery. The T1-S1 height increased from (25.47+/-6.16) cm to (28.84+/-5.69) cm after initial surgery. The coronal Cobb angle of scoliosis was (36.82+/-11.76) degrees and the coronal trunk shift was (1.11+/-1.29) cm after the most recent lengthening procedure with the most recent correction rate observed at (44.73+/-19.43)%. The T1-S1 height was (31.29+/-4.50) cm after the most recent lengthening procedure with an average T1-S1 length increase of 1.6 (range, 1.0-2.7) cm per year during the lengthening period. The sagittal balance was maintained. Five of the total patients (45.5%) had complications including: hook displacement, pedical screw loosening, and broken rod. We performed revision surgeries with simultaneous lengthening procedures in all 5 cases with satisfactory results. CONCLUSIONS The dual growing rod technique was useful in the management of rapidly progressing scoliosis in young children. This technique could control severe scoliosis, allow for spinal growth, and maintain the coronal and sagittal balance. But the technique has high complications requiring strict and regular follow-up.
Postural Sway During Cane Use by Patients with Stroke

Maeda A, Nakamura K, Higuchi S, Yuasa T, Motohashi Y: Postural sway during cane use by patients with stroke. Am J Phys Med Rehabil 2001;80:903–908. ObjectiveTo quantitatively evaluate the effects of body support with a cane on postural sway by measuring gravity-center sway of patients with stroke who reside at home. DesignThe subjects were 41 patients with stroke and 36 healthy independent elderly people. Each subject stood in the standard Romberg position on a gravicorder under two conditions: without support and with a cane. ResultsIn both groups, the largest area of gravity-center sway occurred when the subjects stood without support. The area of gravity-center sway of the patients with stroke was significantly greater than that of the healthy independent elderly. In the patients with stroke group, the percentage decrease in the standing position with the cane was 58.0% in the men and 53.9% in the women, as opposed to 67.7% in the men and 67.8% in the women in the group of healthy independent elderly. ConclusionThe authors quantitatively evaluated the effects of body support with a cane on postural sway of patients with stroke. The effect of body support with cane on postural sway of patients with stroke was more effective than that of healthy independent elderly.
Circulating tumor cells in pancreatic cancer patients: Methods of detection and clinical implications

The poor prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients is associated with the frequent and early dissemination of the disease, as well as late detection due to unspecific and late symptoms from the primary tumor. Pancreatic cancers frequently spread to the liver, lung and skeletal system, suggesting that pancreatic tumor cells must be able to intravasate and travel through the circulation to distant organs. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are tumor cells that have acquired the ability to enter the circulatory system; this cell population is ultimately responsible for the development of metastases in distant organs. Clinical studies have revealed that the presence of CTCs in blood is correlated with disease progression for other cancers, such as breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. However, as CTCs are extremely rare, both enrichment and sensitive methods of detection are required for their enumeration. This review highlights various enrichment procedures and methods for the detection of CTCs. Furthermore, we systematically review previously reported studies of the clinical relevance of CTC detection in pancreatic cancer patients. There is evidence that the presence of CTCs also correlates with an unfavorable outcome in pancreatic cancer patients. However, technical/methodological issues may explain why some studies only show a trend toward an association between CTC detection and disease progression. Larger studies, as well as characterization of the CTC population, are required to achieve further insight into the clinical implications of CTC detection in pancreatic cancer patients.
Fusion barrier distributions for heavy ion systems involving prolate and oblate target nuclei.

Fusion excitation functions spanning the entire barrier region in 1 MeV energy steps for the two systems {sup 40}Ca + {sup 192}Os, {sup 194}Pt are presented. The results of fission fragment angular distribution measurements for fusion-fission of {sup 40}Ca + {sup 197}Au at several projectile energies within the barrier region are also presented. The fusion data are of high enough precision to allow for extraction of the distribution of fusion barriers from the second differential of the product of {ital E} and {sigma}. Basic coupled channels calculations which are in quite good agreement with the data are shown and discussed. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }
Epidemiology and Pathogenesis of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Infections

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic nonfermentive gram negative bacillus that is responsible for a wide variety of infections in humans ranging from relatively uncomplicated urinary tract infections (UTIs) to severe and life threatening infections including neonatal sepsis and chronic lung infections in patients with cystic fibrosis. P. aeruginosa produces a number of membrane bound and secreted virulence factors that aid in the attachment of the organism to host cells, the invasion of tissue, and the inhibition of the immune response. Epidemiology of P. aeruginosa It is almost impossible to prevent exposure to P. aeruginosa because it can be found anywhere. It is nonfastidious and requires little in terms of nutritional requirements, thus it can be found on inanimate objects such as hospital room sinks, toilets, showers and patient care equipment, especially respiratory ventilators. The surfaces of fresh fruits and vegetables may even harbor P. aeruginosa. The organism has a particular predilection for water and as a result, it has been isolated from soaps and disinfectants, contact lens solutions, cosmetics and hot tubs, all of which have been documented as sources of infection. Though not a major member of the human normal flora, it is most commonly found in small amounts in the gastrointestinal tract. It may transiently colonize a variety of moist skin surfaces including under the arm and on the perineum. The throat and nose have been shown to be sites that may be colonized with P. aeruginosa as well.1 P. aeruginosa can cause infection in almost any part… ABBREVIATIONS: HAI = Healthcare-associated infections, MRSA = methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, NNIS = National Nosocomial Infection Surveillance System, CDC = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, DSN = Dialysis Surveillance Network, NaSH = National Surveillance System for Healthcare Workers, NHSN = National Healthcare Safety Network
Perception of Tourism Impact and Support Tourism Development in Terengganu, Malaysia

(1) Background: Tourism is a prominent industry with the capability to generate income for developed as well as developing countries. However, studies are still lacking, particularly those specifically investigating the perception of local residents towards tourism. The perception of the locals is important, since it could determine the extent of their support for tourism development. In addition, previous research has found that male residents are more supportive towards tourism development. Therefore, this factor is adapted in this study to additionally examine whether gender may influence the tourism industry. (2) Methods: This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) technique for determining the structural estimates between constructs. (3) Results: The respondents agree that positive perception, negative perception and tourism impact have a significant impact on support for tourism development, which has been recognized as a Social Exchange Theory model. Moreover, the findings also reveal that gender has the potential to moderate the causal effects of tourism impact on tourism development. (4) Conclusion: The residents understand the tourism sector could strengthen the national economy, but they also want natural resources to be protected.
Fumonisin mycotoxins in human hair

This study shows for the first time the accumulation of fumonisin mycotoxins in human hair of population clusters exposed to contaminated maize, and thus the feasibility of human hair analysis for the assessment of past fumonisin exposure. Composite hair samples were obtained from the Bizana, Butterworth and Centane districts within the Transkei region of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Following methanol extraction and strong anion exchange clean up, the fumonisins FB1, FB2 and FB3 were detected using high performance liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS). Hair from Centane and Butterworth showed mean levels of FB1 of 26.7 and 23.5 μg kg−1 hair, respectively. FB2 was only detected in hair from Centane and in one sampling point in Butterworth, with mean levels of 6.5 and 5.7 μg kg−1 hair, respectively. Hair samples from Bizana, on the other hand, were found to contain higher levels of FB 1 (mean 33.0 μg kg−1 hair) and FB 2 (mean 11.1 μg kg−1 hair). No samples contained more than trace levels of FB 3 . Recoveries from spiked hair samples using this method ranged from 81% to 101%, demonstrating the applicability of hair analysis in assessing human exposure to fumonisin mycotoxins.
Clinical review: Ethical and medical considerations of androgen deprivation treatment of sex offenders.

CONTEXT Blood testosterone codetermines the threshold for erotosexual imagery and sexual activity. Androgen deprivation may therefore have a place in the treatment of unacceptable sexual behavior. Although androgen deprivation can be effective for sex offenders, their basic human rights must be respected; otherwise such treatment constitutes a violation of their physical integrity and is ethically unacceptable. As experience in treating prostate cancers demonstrates, androgen deprivation may have serious side effects. Endocrinologists are qualified to advise on and monitor androgen deprivation, but they are placed in an atypical position because the indication for such treatment is not dictated by endocrine disease. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to provide an ethical framework for advising on androgen deprivation treatment of sex offenders and dealing with side effects. EVIDENCE ACQUISITION AND SYNTHESIS A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Psychinfo, and references from the multiple systematic reviews and meta-analyses published on this topic. An attempt has been made to provide an appreciation of the ethical aspects of androgen deprivation in sex offenders, the efficacy of treatment, the potential risks of treatment, therapeutic options, and recommendations for monitoring treatment. CONCLUSIONS Provided that the human rights of sex offenders are respected and informed consent is given, androgen deprivation within a comprehensive framework of psychotherapeutic treatment can make a meaningful contribution to the prevention of recidivism by enabling better control of sexual impulses. Knowledge of side effects and their treatment has been mostly gleaned from experience with prostate cancer patients, and this should be made available to sex offenders undergoing androgen deprivation.
Integration of High-Volume Molecular and Imaging Data for Composite Biomarker Discovery in the Study of Melanoma

In this work the effects of simple imputations are studied, regarding the integration of multimodal data originating from different patients. Two separate datasets of cutaneous melanoma are used, an image analysis (dermoscopy) dataset together with a transcriptomic one, specifically DNA microarrays. Each modality is related to a different set of patients, and four imputation methods are employed to the formation of a unified, integrative dataset. The application of backward selection together with ensemble classifiers (random forests), followed by principal components analysis and linear discriminant analysis, illustrates the implication of the imputations on feature selection and dimensionality reduction methods. The results suggest that the expansion of the feature space through the data integration, achieved by the exploitation of imputation schemes in general, aids the classification task, imparting stability as regards the derivation of putative classifiers. In particular, although the biased imputation methods increase significantly the predictive performance and the class discrimination of the datasets, they still contribute to the study of prominent features and their relations. The fusion of separate datasets, which provide a multimodal description of the same pathology, represents an innovative, promising avenue, enhancing robust composite biomarker derivation and promoting the interpretation of the biomedical problem studied.
Cardiorespiratory fitness as predictor of cancer mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND Epidemiologic studies have reported that cardiorespiratory fitness is inversely associated with mortality from cancer. However, the evidence relating cardiorespiratory fitness to cancer mortality has not yet been quantitatively summarized. METHODS Following the preferred reporting items for sytematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) checklist, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between cardiorespiratory fitness and total cancer mortality. Relevant studies were identified through a literature search in PubMed up to August 2013 and by screening reference lists of qualifying articles. Data extraction was carried out independently by both authors and summary risk estimates were obtained using random-effects models. RESULTS Six prospective studies with an overall number of 71 654 individuals and 2002 cases of total cancer mortality were included. The median follow-up time in the studies was 16.4 years. Cardiorespiratory fitness showed a strong, graded, inverse association with total cancer mortality. Using low cardiorespiratory fitness as the reference group, intermediate and high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness were related to statistically significant decreased summary relative risks (RRs) of total cancer mortality of 0.80 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.67-0.97] and 0.55 (95% CI 0.47-0.65), respectively. Studies that adjusted for adiposity yielded similar results to those that did not adjust for adiposity. CONCLUSION Increased cardiorespiratory fitness represents a strong predictor of decreased total cancer mortality risk, independent of adiposity.
Glycemic control, inflammation, and cognitive function in older patients with type 2 diabetes

Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and C‐reactive protein (CRP) have been associated with cognitive impairment independently. However, it is unclear if their combination exacerbates poor cognitive function. We assessed whether long‐term glycemic level and glycemic variability modulate the association of systemic inflammation with cognitive function, in a sample of cognitively normal older people with type 2 diabetes.
Perceptions and practices of physicians regarding outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy in persons who inject drugs.

Injection drug use (IDU) is a major public health problem leading to increased morbidity, mortality, and healthcare expenditures. Persons who inject drugs (PWID) are often hospitalized with severe infections, such as endocarditis, which typically require prolonged courses of intravenous (IV) antibiotics. Outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy (OPAT) via a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) is the standard of care for continuing IV medications once patients are medically stable and ready for discharge. PWID have been excluded from OPAT studies, leaving little evidence to guide care. Furthermore, likely due to fears of ongoing IDU, PWID are often kept in the hospital for the full duration of their antibiotic courses. This practice is costly and may not be optimal, especially considering that hospitalized PWID have high rates of discharges against medical advice. In 2012, as part of a quality-improvement effort focused on hospitalized PWID requiring long courses of IV antibiotics, UKHealthCare in Lexington, Kentucky, established a protocol for OPAT in PWID meeting specific criteria. As this protocol was not widely adopted, we sought to formally assess attitudes, practices, and mediating factors impacting the decision making about discharging PWID on OPAT to inform future efforts. This study was approved by the University of Kentucky (UK) Institutional Review Board.
Informed choice in mammography screening: a randomized trial of a decision aid for 70-year-old women.

BACKGROUND Many women who have participated in mammography screening are now approaching 70 years of age. These women are advised to consider both the benefits and harms of continuing to be screened. Doing so may be difficult for individual women, and there are no evaluated decision support tools to assist them. METHODS To assess the effect of a decision aid (DA) about whether to continue or stop mammography screening for women aged 70 years, a population-based, randomized controlled trial was conducted in New South Wales, Australia. Women aged 70 years who had regularly participated in mammography screening were eligible to participate in the trial. Women received a DA providing balanced, quantitative information or standard information available from the screening program. The main outcomes were the percentage of women making an informed choice about whether to continue or stop screening and the percentage of women participating in the screening. RESULTS Women who received the DA (the intervention group) were better informed than the control group (mean increase in knowledge score out of 10, 2.62 for the intervention group vs 0.68 for the control group; P < .001), and a significantly greater percentage made an informed choice (73.5% vs 48.8%; P < .001). The DA did not increase anxiety and slightly reduced decisional conflict. There was no difference in the percentage of women who participated in screening within 1 month. CONCLUSIONS This DA increased knowledge and assisted women to make an informed choice. It did not alter participation in screening. The DA is an effective way to assist women to make a decision about continuing mammography screening and seems to be a feasible intervention within a population screening program.
An i-vector backend for speaker verification

We propose a new approach to the problem of uncertainty modeling in text-dependent speaker verification where speaker factors are used as the feature representation. The state-of-the-art backend in this situation consists in using point estimates of speaker factors to model the joint distribution of pairs of enrollment and test feature vectors under the same-speaker hypothesis. We develop a version of this backend that works with Baum-Welch statistics instead of point estimates. The likelihood ratio calculations for speaker verification turn out to be formally equivalent to evidence calculations with i-vector extractors having non-standard normal priors. Experiments show that this i-vector backend performs well on Part III of the RSR2015 dataset.
One-Year Risk of Institutionalization in Demented Outpatients With Caretaking Relatives

In order to determine the factors associated with good and poor 1-year prognosis of demented patients, the caretakers of 100 home-based patients attending a specialist memory clinic were inteviewed. After the follow-up, 71% continued to live at home. Mild dementia, independence in activities of daily living, fair independence in functions of instumental activities of daily living, and lack of depression were clear signs for a good prognosis. Some patients with severe dementia and poor functional capacity continued to live at home. Continuing home care was also more likely if memory impairment, as opposed to functional problems, was expressed as the main concern. The proportion of caretakers mentioning memory decline as the main problem decreased during 1 year from 38% to 9% and the proportion mentioning functional problems increased from 48% to 64% among those continuing in home care. Memory disturbances are the first to appear and cause problems, but only functional decline threatens living at home.
A Low-Profile Wearable Antenna Using a Miniature High Impedance Surface for Smartwatch Applications

A novel antenna structure enabled by a miniature high impedance surface (HIS) is proposed for smartwatch applications. The smartwatch antenna must be low-profile, highly directive, low specified absorption rate (SAR), and robust to the loading effect due to a human body. HISs are particularly suitable to cope with these design goals. However, an HIS is usually too electrically large to fit into the design space of smartwatch applications. Furthermore, the characterization of HISs is determined by observing the reflection phase of a unit cell, but this method becomes improper for finite-size and miniaturized HISs. In this letter, a new design method is presented. By using fractional factorial designs (FFD), the antenna performances are significantly enhanced even though the size of the HIS is only 0. 3λ0 × 0. 3λ0. Accordingly, the dimensions of the proposed antenna are 38 × 38 × 3 mm3 (at 2.4 GHz), which is the most compact HIS structure to date. The directivity of the antenna is 6.3 dBi, and the maximum 1 g averaged SAR value is only 0.29 W/kg for an input power of 100 mW; moreover, the radiation efficiency and impedance matching are very robust against the loading effect due to wrist tissue.