Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-term adaptation to institutionalization in dementia caregivers.

PURPOSE Longitudinal research in dementia has acknowledged the importance of transitions during the course of family caregiving. However, long-term adaptation to institutionalization has received little attention. This study attempts to describe caregivers' adaptation (changes in stress, well-being, and psychosocial resources) to placement up to 4 years following institutionalization. DESIGN AND METHODS Using data from the Caregiver Stress and Coping Study, this analysis constructed four longitudinal panels, each consisting of a preplacement assessment and either two (n = 146), three (n = 109), four (n = 75), or five (n = 38) waves after placement. We used growth curve models to examine longitudinal trajectories of adaptation in various measures of stress, global well-being, and psychosocial resources. RESULTS The findings suggested sharper decreases in stressors (e.g., role overload) and indicators of negative mental health in the shorter term panels. However, more significant intraindividual variation existed in caregivers' adaptation to placement in the longer term panels (four and five waves of postplacement). IMPLICATIONS There is relative stability in caregiver long-term adaptation to institutionalization. However, the variability in adaptation emphasizes the need to target postplacement clinical interventions to families most at risk for negative outcomes during the transition to institutional care.
Lumen-apposing metal stents for benign gastrointestinal tract strictures: An international multicenter experience

AIM To investigate technical feasibility, outcomes and adverse events of the lumen-apposing metal stent (LAMS) for benign gastrointestinal (GI) tract strictures. METHODS Between July 2015 and January 2017, patients undergoing treatment by LAMS for benign GI strictures at three tertiary referral centers were included in this study. Primary outcomes included technical success, short-term clinical success, long-term clinical success, and adverse events. Short-term clinical success was defined as symptom resolution at 30 d after stent placement. Long-term clinical success was defined by symptom resolution at 60 d in patients who continued to have indwelling stent, or continued symptom resolution at 30 d after elective stent removal. RESULTS A total of 21 patients (mean age 62.6 years, 47.6% males) underwent placement of LAMS for benign GI strictures. A 15 mm × 10 mm LAMS was placed in 16 patients, a 10 mm × 10 mm LAMS was placed in 2 patients, and a 16 mm × 30 mm LAMS was placed in 3 patients. Technical success was obtained in all cases. Short-term clinical success was achieved in 19 out of 21 cases (90.5%), and long-term clinical success was achieved in 12 out of 18 (66.7%). Mean (range) stent indwell time was 107.2 (28-370) d. After a mean (range) dwell time of 104.3 (28-306) d, 9 LAMSs were removed due to the following complications: ulceration at stent site (n = 1), angulation (n = 2), migration (n = 4) and stricture overgrowth (n = 2). Migration occurred in 4 cases (19.0%), and it was associated with stricture resolution in one case. Median (range) follow-up period was 119 (31-422) d. CONCLUSION Utilization of LAMS for benign strictures has shown to be technically feasible and safe, but adverse events highlight the need for further study of its indications.
p38 Kinase Is Activated in the Alzheimer's Disease Brain

Abstract: The p38 mitogen‐activated protein kinase is a stress‐activated enzyme responsible for transducing inflammatory signals and initiating apoptosis. In the Alzheimer's disease (AD) brain, increased levels of phosphorylated (active) p38 were detected relative to age‐matched normal brain. Intense phospho‐p38 immunoreactivity was associated with neuritic plaques, neuropil threads, and neurofibrillary tangle‐bearing neurons. The antibody against phosphorylated p38 recognized many of the same structures as an antibody against aberrantly phosphorylated, paired helical filament (PHF) tau, although PHF‐positive tau did not cross‐react with the phospho‐p38 antibody. These findings suggest a neuroinflammatory mechanism in the AD brain, in which aberrant protein phosphorylation affects signal transduction elements, including the p38 kinase cascade, as well as cytoskeletal components.
Laparoscopic fundoplication is the treatment of choice for gastro-oesophageal reflux disease

Surgical treatment of gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD) has previously been limited to chronic complicated reflux in patients with very longstanding severe symptoms. There is now an increasing tendency in many countries to utilise surgery in the earlier stages of the disease.1 This change in clinical practice is partly due to advances in surgical technique (laparoscopic approach) but paradoxically is also probably due to improvement in medical therapy.2,3 With the efficacy and availability of modern medical therapy, the focus, as well as the opportunities of therapy in GORD, have changed but also the recognition of the magnitude of the impairment in quality of life of GORD patients who are not adequately treated.4 This increased awareness may be the most pregnant cause of the suggested increase in prevalence of the disease in the adult population. An important background factor for the significant but not eminent strategic decisions to be taken in the long term management of GORD patients is the fact that there are shortcomings and drawbacks with pharmacological maintenance therapy. GORD is a disease of a chronic nature where medical therapies are entirely targeting the control of acid reflux and not correcting the underlying motor abnormalities of the upper alimentary canal.5 Low dose proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy and full dose H2 receptor antagonists insufficiently interfere with food stimulated acid production and the latter also have a significant tachyphylaxis problem.6–8 A profound and sometimes prolonged acid rebound phenomenon is perhaps a greater problem after PPI therapy in Helicobacter pylori negative subjects than previously recognised. Furthermore, in patients with severe reflux disease, twice daily dosing of PPI is often necessary. In addition, there is sometimes insufficient control of volume reflux, nocturnal symptoms, and retrosternal pain. Acid breakthrough during the night has recently been recognised …
Detection and confirmation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in clinical samples

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of the serious disease paratuberculosis in ruminants. It is a chronic enteric disease that causes considerable economic losses worldwide. Paratuberculosis leads to reduced milk production and eventually, diarrhoea, weight loss and death. Its slow development, the inappropriate immune response of the host and the fastidiousness of the bacteria all contribute to the difficulty of early diagnosis, necessary to restrict spread of the disease. Thanks to rigorous control measures, paratuberculosis is rare or absent in Sweden. However, occasional import-related outbreaks have occurred, during which all animals in the infected herds were culled. Freedom from paratuberculosis is mainly monitored by slow culture methods. In some situations, fast and reliable alternative methods are needed, for instance, when semen is imported for breeding purposes. Donor bulls may be asymptomatic carriers of MAP and the risk for venereal transmission of the disease is insufficiently investigated. In this thesis, the development and sensitivity assessment of a protocol for detection of MAP in bovine semen by real-time PCR is described. Beadbeating with zirconia/silica beads and phenol/chloroform extraction was used to purify the bacterial DNA and it was shown to successfully remove PCR inhibiting substances. A method for accurately evaluating the analytical sensitivity was also developed. By analysis of artificially infected samples, a sensitivity of 10 organisms per 100 µl sample was assessed. The target gene, for the method described here and for many other PCR methods for detection of MAP, is the insertion element IS900. Although specific for MAP, it has been shown to share similarities with genes in other mycobacteria. Positive PCR results must, therefore, be confirmed by an alternative method. Three novel real-time PCR systems were designed and validated on 267 strains and 58 positive clinical faecal and tissue samples. Two systems were based on IS900 and one system on the MAP-specific gene F57. The latter was the most specific for MAP and is therefore the recommended system for confirmation, but as it was slightly less sensitive when tested on pure DNA, the other systems may be applied when necessary.
Informing the Design of Direct-to-Consumer Interactive Personal Genomics Reports

Background In recent years, people who sought direct-to-consumer genetic testing services have been increasingly confronted with an unprecedented amount of personal genomic information, which influences their decisions, emotional state, and well-being. However, these users of direct-to-consumer genetic services, who vary in their education and interests, frequently have little relevant experience or tools for understanding, reasoning about, and interacting with their personal genomic data. Online interactive techniques can play a central role in making personal genomic data useful for these users. Objective We sought to (1) identify the needs of diverse users as they make sense of their personal genomic data, (2) consequently develop effective interactive visualizations of genomic trait data to address these users’ needs, and (3) evaluate the effectiveness of the developed visualizations in facilitating comprehension. Methods The first two user studies, conducted with 63 volunteers in the Personal Genome Project and with 36 personal genomic users who participated in a design workshop, respectively, employed surveys and interviews to identify the needs and expectations of diverse users. Building on the two initial studies, the third study was conducted with 730 Amazon Mechanical Turk users and employed a controlled experimental design to examine the effectiveness of different design interventions on user comprehension. Results The first two studies identified searching, comparing, sharing, and organizing data as fundamental to users’ understanding of personal genomic data. The third study demonstrated that interactive and visual design interventions could improve the understandability of personal genomic reports for consumers. In particular, results showed that a new interactive bubble chart visualization designed for the study resulted in the highest comprehension scores, as well as the highest perceived comprehension scores. These scores were significantly higher than scores received using the industry standard tabular reports currently used for communicating personal genomic information. Conclusions Drawing on multiple research methods and populations, the findings of the studies reported in this paper offer deep understanding of users’ needs and practices, and demonstrate that interactive online design interventions can improve the understandability of personal genomic reports for consumers. We discuss implications for designers and researchers.
Serum IgG levels as biomarkers for optimizing IVIg therapy in CIDP

Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is a proven effective treatment for chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (CIDP) and Guillain‐Barré syndrome (GBS). In GBS, patients show a large variability in serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) levels after standard IVIg treatment and a large increase in serum IgG levels (ΔIgG) was associated with a better outcome. Whether this is also the case in CIDP is not known. In contrast to GBS, most patients with CIDP need regular IVIg treatment for a prolonged period of time but the speed and magnitude of clinical response varies considerably between patients. Some patients with CIDP may need at least two IVIg courses before clinical signs of improvement become clear. At present, this clinical response is the only indicator used to adjust the IVIg dose and interval during maintenance treatment. Biomarkers reflecting disease activity or IVIg pharmacokinetics might be helpful to monitor patients and find the optimal dosage and frequency of IVIg treatment for individual patients. A recent prospective study in CIDP indicated that the increased ΔIgG after standard IVIg dosage during maintenance treatment was relatively constant within individual patients, but differed considerably between patients who were treated with the same stable dosage and interval of IVIg. Further studies are required to determine whether this variation in pharmacokinetics of IVIg is related with clinical recovery and whether IgG levels can be used as biomarkers to monitor and to adjust the optimal IVIg dosage in individual patients with CIDP.
The DEEP Project An alternative approach to heterogeneous cluster‐computing in the many‐core era

Homogeneous cluster architectures, which used to dominate high‐performance computing (HPC), are challenged today by heterogeneous approaches utilizing accelerator or co‐processor devices. The DEEP (Dynamical Exascale Entry Platform) project is implementing a novel architecture for HPC, in which a standard HPC cluster is directly connected to a so‐called ‘Booster’: a cluster of many‐core processors. By these means heterogeneity is organized differently as in today's standard approach, where accelerators are added to each node of the cluster. In order to adapt application codes to this Cluster‐Booster architecture as seamless as possible, DEEP has developed a complete programming environment. It integrates the offloading functionality given by the Message Passing Interface standard with an abstraction layer based on the task‐based OmpSs programming paradigm. This paper presents the DEEP project with an emphasis on the DEEP programming environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Relations Between Physical Activity and Behavioral and Perceptual Correlates Among Midwestern College Students

Objective Given ‘the inconsistent findings in the literature, the authors’ purpose in this study was to examine the associations between physical activity and behavioral and perceptional correlates, such as binge drinking, cigarette smoking, fruit or vegetable consumption, and weight perceptions, among midwestern college students. Participants and Methods The authors invited a convenience sample of 1,200 undergraduate college students enrolled in the 2004-2005 academic year in 4 different midwestern universities to participate in a survey. Of the 1,163 students who participated in the survey, a total of 1,134 usable surveys were received (response rate of 94.5%). Results Hierarchical multiple logistic regression analyses indicated that smoking, perceived weight, and consumption of fruit were independent predictors of physical activity when controlling for other variables. Conclusions Physical activity promotion requires tailored approaches that are dependent on the target segment of the college student populations.
Validation of the Rome III Criteria and Alarm Symptoms for Recurrent Abdominal Pain in Children

Objectives: Rome criteria were formulated to define functional gastrointestinal disorders (Rome III criteria, 2006) excluding organic diagnoses when alarm symptoms were absent. The aims of the study were to validate the Rome III criteria as to their capacity to differentiate between organic and functional abdominal pain and to assess the role of alarm symptoms in this differentiation. Methods: During 2 years all of the patients (ages 4–16 years) presenting with recurrent abdominal pain (Apley criteria) and referred to secondary care were included. Clinical diagnoses were based on protocolized evaluation and intervention with 6-month follow-up. Alarm symptoms were registered. Rome III criteria for functional pain syndromes were assigned independently. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed. Results: In 200 patients (87 boys, mean age 8.8 years), organic (17%), functional (40%), combined organic and functional (9%), spontaneous recovery (27%), and other (8%) clinical diagnoses were established. Alarm symptoms were found in 57.5% (organic causes 56%, functional causes 61%). The evaluation for Rome symptom clusters revealed symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome in 27%, functional dyspepsia in 15%, functional abdominal pain in 28%, functional abdominal pain syndrome in 14.5%, and no pain syndrome in 15.5%. Rome diagnoses, based on symptoms and absence of alarm symptoms, predicted functional clinical diagnosis with sensitivity 0.35 (95% confidence interval 0.27–0.43), specificity 0.60 (0.46–0.73), positive predictive value 0.71 (0.61–0.82), and negative predictive value of 0.24 (0.17–0.32). Conclusions: The Rome III criteria for abdominal pain are not specific enough to rule out organic causes. Alarm symptoms do not differentiate between organic and functional abdominal pain.
Zebrafish Cytosolic Carboxypeptidases 1 and 5 Are Essential for Embryonic Development*

Background: Cytosolic carboxypeptidases (CCPs) are a subfamily of enzymes that modify tubulin. Results: Zebrafish CCPs exhibit overlapping expression in developing organs. Knockdown of CCP1 and CCP5 results in similar defects including severe hydrocephalus and axial curvature. Conclusion: Loss of deglutamylating enzymes causes developmental defects in zebrafish. Significance: CCP1 and CCP5 play important roles in zebrafish embryonic development. The cytosolic carboxypeptidases (CCPs) are a subfamily of metalloenzymes within the larger M14 family of carboxypeptidases that have been implicated in the post-translational modification of tubulin. It has been suggested that at least four of the six mammalian CCPs function as tubulin deglutamylases. However, it is not yet clear whether these enzymes play redundant or unique roles within the cell. To address this question, genes encoding CCPs were identified in the zebrafish genome. Analysis by quantitative polymerase chain reaction indicated that CCP1, CCP2, CCP5, and CCP6 mRNAs were detectable between 2 h and 8 days postfertilization with highest levels 5–8 days postfertilization. CCP1, CCP2, and CCP5 mRNAs were predominantly expressed in tissues such as the brain, olfactory placodes, and pronephric ducts. Morpholino oligonucleotide-mediated knockdown of CCP1 and CCP5 mRNA resulted in a common phenotype including ventral body curvature and hydrocephalus. Confocal microscopy of morphant zebrafish revealed olfactory placodes with defective morphology as well as pronephric ducts with increased polyglutamylation. These data suggest that CCP1 and CCP5 play important roles in developmental processes, particularly the development and functioning of cilia. The robust and similar defects upon knockdown suggest that each CCP may have a function in microtubule modification and ciliary function and that other CCPs are not able to compensate for the loss of one.
Dialysis with icodextrin interferes with measurement of serum alpha-amylase activity.

BACKGROUND The glucose polymer icodextrin has gained a widespread use in peritoneal dialysis especially in patients with low ultrafiltration and high peritoneal transport properties. In patients using a once-daily exchange with icodextrin, a decreased serum amylase activity has been reported. We explored the potential underlying mechanisms of this effect. METHODS Using standard chromolytic methods, serum amylase activity was measured in blood samples from 11 patients on icodextrin treatment and from 11 patients on conventional glucose treatment. Samples were additionally supplemented with alpha-amylase and unused icodextrin dialysis fluid. Potential complex formation between icodextrin and alpha-amylase was studied by SDS-gel electrophoresis with protein silver staining and fluorophore-assisted carbohydrate staining with the AMAC (FACE) method, which provides oligosaccharide labelling. Lipase activity was measured in parallel in all samples by two standard methods. RESULTS Amylase activity was reduced by 90% in serum from patients using icodextrin for the long dwell (15.9+/-10.9 U/l) vs patients using standard glucose (157.1+/-23.7 U/l; P<0.001). Addition of icodextrin to serum samples from patients using conventional glucose solutions induced a dose-dependent decrease in amylase activity. The assay results indicated a substrate competition between ET7-G7PNP and icodextrin. AMAC fluorophore staining of icodextrin and subsequent gel electrophoresis failed to demonstrate complex formation between icodextrin and alpha-amylase. Unlike the amylase findings, icodextrin did not affect lipase activity. CONCLUSIONS The present findings indicate that icodextrin competitively interacts as a substrate in the amylase assay. In support of this, fluorophore-assisted oligosaccharide electrophoresis on SDS gel failed to reveal the formation of an 'amylase/icodextrin complex'. Lipase measurement should provide an alternative and unconfounded method for diagnosing pancreatitis in icodextrin patients.
SEROSURVEY OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE AGENTS OF CARNIVORES IN CAPTIVE RED PANDAS (AILURUS FULGENS) IN CHINA

Abstract The future of the endangered red panda (Ailurus fulgens) depends in part on the development of protective measures against infectious diseases. The present study is a first step toward improved understanding of infectious diseases in the species' home regions. Serum samples obtained from 73 red pandas in 10 captive facilities in southwest, east, and northeast China from October to December 2004 were tested for antibodies against nine common infectious pathogens of carnivores. Antibody titers against canine distemper virus (CDV), canine parvovirus (CPV), and canine adenovirus (CAV) in the three facilities in which red pandas were vaccinated were highly variable. The CAV titer in one vaccinated red panda was high enough to suggest infection with the field virus following vaccination. Together with anecdotal reports of vaccine-associated morbidity and mortality, our results suggest that the Chinese vaccine is not suitable for this species. In the seven unvaccinated groups, CDV titers were low and occurred in 20–100% of the animals; antibody titers against CPV were found in seven of eight areas. Only one of 61 and two of 61 unvaccinated red pandas had CAV and canine coronavirus titers, respectively, and these titers were all low. Positive titers to Toxoplasma gondii were found in four locations (33–94% seropositive); the titers in 52% of seropositive individuals were of a magnitude consistent with active disease in other species (1:1,024 to ≥1:4,096). One red panda in each of three locations was seropositive for Neospora caninum. Antibodies against canine herpesvirus and Brucella canis were not detected in any of the samples. Only one of the 73 red pandas had a weak positive influenza A titer. The results of this study emphasize the need for research on and protection against infectious diseases of red pandas and other endangered species in China.