Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Exhaled breath condensate pH measurement in children with asthma, allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis

Recent studies have shown that the pH of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) could be predictive of asthma exacerbation. Moreover, it has been documented that both allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis constitute risk factors for the occurrence of asthma in a progression of disease known as atopic march. The aim of our study was to establish if condensate pH could be used as a valuable mean of monitoring of asthma in atopic children. We studied 34 atopic children with acute asthma, 70 with stable asthma, 35 children with allergic rhinitis, and 17 with atopic dermatitis. Thirty healthy children were used as controls. All children underwent skin prick tests and lung function tests. Exhaled breath condensate samples were collected with a condensing device and de‐aerated with argon. The pH of EBC was measured using a pH meter. Children with acute asthma were treated with inhaled steroids and bronchodilators. We found that the pH of condensate in patients with acute asthma was lower than that of patients with stable asthma, rhinitis, and controls (7.25 vs. 7.32, p < 0.05; 7.25 vs. 7.48, p < 0.02; 7.25 vs. 7.78, p < 0.0001, respectively). Patients with stable asthma, rhinitis, and eczema had also lower pH than that of controls (7.32, 7.48, and 7.44 vs. 7.78; p < 0.0001, p < 0.006, p < 0.04, respectively). Patients with acute asthma normalized their pH after treatment (7.82 vs. 7.25; p < 0.0001). Finally, patients with acute asthma showed a positive correlation between pH and lung functional parameters (forced expiratory volume in 1 s; r = 0.39, p = 0.04). Our study shows that EBC pH measurement may be a promising marker for assessing airway inflammation and monitoring response to anti‐inflammatory treatment in asthmatic children. Furthermore, we report the first evidence of airways acidification in children with allergic rhinitis and atopic dermatitis. Therefore, EBC pH assessment may be useful in the evaluation of progression of the atopic march toward the development of asthma later in life. Further studies are recommended in order to confirm this indication.
Pig farmers have signs of bronchial inflammation and increased numbers of lymphocytes and neutrophils in BAL fluid.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether pig farmers had inflammation of the bronchial mucosa and activation of bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) cells. Pig farmers are exposed to high dust levels and have a prevalence of work-related respiratory symptoms. Bronchoscopy and BAL were performed in 27 young large-scale pig farmers, who had never smoked. Fifty three lifetime nonsmoking healthy students participated as controls. All farmers and controls had normal lung function (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) 109 and 105% predicted respectively. Estimation of macroscopic signs of inflammation in the bronchi (erythema, oedema, secretion and friability) showed that pig farmers had significantly increased signs of inflammation. The median score was 3 (range 0-6) compared to a median score of 0 (range 0-3) in controls. More pig farmers than controls (41 versus 25%) had a positive histamine challenge (provocative dose producing a 20% fall in FEV1 (PC20) < or = 32 mg.mL-1) but the difference was not significant. The cell concentration in BAL fluid was identical in the two groups. Pig farmers had a significantly increased percentage of lymphocytes (median 7, range 1-27 versus median 2, range 0-7) and neutrophils (median 2, range 0-30 versus median 1, range 0-4) compared to controls. Spontaneous migration (19.8 versus 5.5 microns) and chemotaxis (62.6 versus 11.2 microns) was significantly increased in pig farmers compared to controls. After stimulation with zymosan and phorbol myristrate acetate (PMA), the reactive oxygen radical generation of purified alveolar macrophages was also significantly increased in pig farmers. Lifetime nonsmoking pig farmers with normal lung function have macroscopic signs of bronchial inflammation and an increased number of neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage. Their alveolar macrophages showed biological signs of activation. The inflammation of pig farmers bronchi may be early signs of bronchitis.
Activation of N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate receptors by L‐glutamate in cells dissociated from adult rat hippocampus.

1. Single channel recording techniques were used to study the ion channel openings resulting from activation of N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors by the agonist glutamate. Patches were from cells acutely dissociated from adult rat hippocampus (CA1). Channel activity was studied at low glutamate concentrations (20‐100 nM) with 1 microM‐glycine, in the absence of extracellular divalent cations. 2. Channel openings were to two main conductance levels corresponding to 50 pS and 40 pS openings in extracellular solution with 1 mM‐Ca2+. Around 80% of openings were to the large conductance level. The single channel conductances increased as extracellular Ca2+ was reduced. 3. Distributions of channel open times were described by three exponential components of 87 microseconds, 0.91 ms and 4.72 ms (relative areas of 51, 31 and 18%). Most long openings were to the large conductance level. 4. The channel closed time distribution was complex, requiring five exponential components to describe it adequately. Of these five components, at least three, with time constants of 68 microseconds, 0.72 ms and 7.6 ms (relative areas of 38, 12 and 17%) represent gaps within single activations of the receptor. The presence of a component with a mean of 7.6 ms is notable because gaps of this length have not previously been identified as being within single NMDA receptor channel activations. 5. Channel activations were identified as including gaps underlying at least the first three closed time components. Activations consisted of clusters of channel openings. Distributions of the length of these clusters had mean time constants of 88 microseconds, 3.4 ms and 32 ms (relative areas of 45, 25 and 30%). Long clusters contained short, intermediate and long duration openings as well as subconductance openings. The open probability within clusters averaged 0.62. Three components were evident in distributions of the number of openings per cluster. These had mean values of 1.22, 3.2 and 11 openings per cluster. 6. An inverse correlation was evident between the length of adjacent open and closed times. When open intervals were separated into groups based on the length of adjacent gaps, the time constants of the exponential components in these conditional open time distributions were independent of the length of the adjacent gap. This supports the idea that the NMDA receptor channel gating has the properties of a discrete Markov process. 7. The long duration of NMDA receptor channel clusters suggests that they contribute to the slow time course of the NMDA receptor‐mediated synaptic current.
MicroRNA, emerging role as a biomarker of heart failure.

icroRNAs (miRNAs) are noncoding RNAs that pair with specific “target” messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and negatively regulate their expression through translational repression or mRNA degradation. It is becoming clear that miRNAs play a critical role in many biological processes. Of note, miRNAs are present in blood samples, and serve as biomarkers of diseases. In this issue of the Journal, Fukushima et al report that the plasma level of miR-126 is associated with the severity of heart failure (HF). 1
Risk factors associated with infection in tibial open fractures.

BACKGROUND The objective of the treatment of open fracture is to prevent infection, stabilize the bones, and restore function. However, infection is the most important step in achieving the latter aims. OBJECTIVE The objective of the current paper is to find risk factors associated with infection in a sample of tibial open fractures. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective analysis was carried out. The study included all patients who underwent to tibial open fracture treatment in the Hospital Geral Roberto Santos-HGRS, Salvador, Bahia, Brasil, from March to October, 2009. Patients under the age of eight, with multiple fractures or suffering from systemic or bone disease were excluded. Clinical and demographic data were collected and Patient outcomes were divided into two groups: Group 1 comprises those without infection whereas group 2 comprises those with lesions which became infected. The two groups were evaluated in search for associated factors that could lead to infection. RESULTS We studied 50 patients. Our overall infection rate was 14 (28%; CI95%=15.5-40.5). Infection was significantly associated with place of trauma (OR 3.78; CI95%=1.4-5.5; p=0.02), and time delay superior to 24 hours (OR 3.4; CI95%=1.4-20.8; p=0.03). Fractures graded as Gustilo I, II and IIIA had a lower chance for infection compared to Gustilo IIIB and IIIC (OR 4.32; CI95%=1.3-19.1; p=0.01). Fractures graded Tscherne III and IV had a higher chance for infection, and it was the most significant isolated factor (OR 8.07; CI95%=2.4-47.1; pp<0.00). CONCLUSIONS We confirmed the relationships between infection with Gustilo classification and as well as between infection and trauma from the countryside of Bahia State. We also presented a new relationship between soft tissue and infection, and another relating time delay of more than 12 hours with infection.
Covariations among fMRI, skin conductance, and behavioral data during processing of concealed information

Imaging techniques have been used to elucidate the neural correlates that underlie deception. The scientifically best understood paradigm for the detection of deception, however, the guilty knowledge test (GKT), was rarely used in imaging studies. By transferring a GKT‐paradigm to a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, while additionally quantifying reaction times and skin conductance responses (SCRs), this study aimed at identifying the neural correlates of the behavioral and electrodermal response pattern typically found in GKT examinations. Prior to MR scanning, subjects viewed two specific items (probes) and were instructed to hide their knowledge of these. Two other specific items were designated as targets and required a different behavioral response during the experiment and eight items served as irrelevant stimuli. Reaction times and SCR amplitudes differed significantly between all three item types. The neuroimaging data revealed that right inferior frontal and mid‐cingulate regions were more active for probe and target trials compared to irrelevants. Moreover, the differential activation in the right inferior frontal region was modulated by stimulus conflicts. These results were interpreted as an increased top‐down influence on the stimulus‐response‐mapping for concealed and task‐relevant items. Additionally, the influence of working memory and retrieval processes on this activation pattern is discussed. Using parametric analyses, reaction times and SCR amplitudes were found to be linearly related to activity in the cerebellum, the right inferior frontal cortex, and the supplementary motor area. This result provides a first link between behavioral measures, sympathetic arousal, and neural activation patterns during a GKT examination. Hum Brain Mapp 2007. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
NanoFlow: Scalable Normalizing Flows with Sublinear Parameter Complexity

Normalizing flows (NFs) have become a prominent method for deep generative models that allow for an analytic probability density estimation and efficient synthesis. However, a flow-based network is considered to be inefficient in parameter complexity because of reduced expressiveness of bijective mapping, which renders the models prohibitively expensive in terms of parameters. We present an alternative of parameterization scheme, called NanoFlow, which uses a single neural density estimator to model multiple transformation stages. Hence, we propose an efficient parameter decomposition method and the concept of flow indication embedding, which are key missing components that enable density estimation from a single neural network. Experiments performed on audio and image models confirm that our method provides a new parameter-efficient solution for scalable NFs with significantly sublinear parameter complexity.
Correlation of magnetoresistive sensitivity mapping (MSM) with spin stand performance

Magnetoresistive sensitivity mapping (MSM) uses an AFM tip coated with a hard magnetic film as a flux source to provide a read sensitivity profile on a biased MR head. The resulting MSM signal is monitored using a modified electronics package attached to a standard probe microscope. MSM scans are compared with standard trackscans and /spl mu/-tracks of the same heads and are shown to detect the same anomalies in the read sensitivity profile.
An online exploratory study of self medication among pharmacy graduates in India

The aim of this online exploratory study was to describe and evaluate the self medication practices, reasons behind self medication, use of antibiotics without prescription among pharmacy graduates in India using internet as a tool for data collection. The emails were sent with study questionnaire to about 342 pharmacy graduates. The results were based on feedbacks which were provided by respondents who mailed back the completed study questionnaire. 85% of the responders were pharmacy postgraduates. A total of 67% of pharmacy graduates used Crocin in last six months without prescription of a physician. Antibiotics (azithromycin) were reported to be used by 29.8% of the respondents without prescription. Approx. 20% of the respondents confirmed to take antibiotics as long as not feeling well. Cough and cold (60.6%) was the main indication for self medication. Most of the pharmacy graduates (68%) felt no need of consulting a physician for minor illness. More than half (56.1%) of the respondents confirmed that they use to give medication brought without prescription to their family members too. Pharmacist or druggist (39.2%) was found to be the main source of information and advice on self medication. It was concluded that the prevalence of self medication is high among pharmacy graduates in India and internet (email) can be used as an effective research tool for conducting health outcome research studies in India. The issue of self medication should be addressed by the respective Pharmacy council and other health authorities of India.
Clinical Study Hematological and Genetic Predictors of Daytime Hemoglobin Saturation in Tanzanian Children with and without Sickle Cell Anemia

1 MRC International Nutrition Group, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT, UK 2Muhimbili Wellcome Programme, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania 3 Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK 4Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7JX, UK 5University College London, Institute of Child Health, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Effectiveness of switching from oral ziprasidone to risperidone in a patient with comorbid autistic disorder, profound intellectual disability, Gilbert syndrome, and exacerbation of psychosis.

EFFECTIVENESS OF SWITCHING FROM ORAL ZIPRASIDONE TO RISPERIDONE IN A PATIENT WITH COMORBID AUTISTIC DISORDER, PROFOUND INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY, GILBERT SYNDROME, AND EXACERBATION OF PSYCHOSIS Antonio Del Casale, Georgios D. Kotzalidis, Michele Sacco, Chiara Rapinesi, Riccardo De Giorgi, Marco Giardini, Michele D’Andreagiovanni, Nicola Carlino, Roberto Brugnoli & Paolo Girardi Department of Neurosciences, Mental Health, and Sensory Organs (NESMOS), School of Medicine and Psychology, Sapienza University; Unit of Psychiatry, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Rome, Italy Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation, San Francesco Institute, P. Alberto Mileno Onlus Foundation, Vasto, CH, Italy Center for Outcomes Research and clinical Epidemiology (CORESEARCH), Pescara, Italy Department of Pathology, Foundation Year 2, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (NHS Grampian), United Kingdom
On the Speed of Convergence of Value Iteration on Stochastic Shortest-Path Problems

We establish a bound on the convergence time of the value iteration algorithm on stochastic shortest-path problems. The bound, which applies for admissible initial vectors as, for example, J\equiv 0 , implies a polynomial-time convergence of value iteration for all problems with polynomially bounded \Vert{J^*}\Vert/\underline{g} . This result gives a partial answer to the open problem of bounding the convergence time of value iteration on arbitrary initial vectors. The proof is obtained by analyzing a stochastic process associated with the shortest-path problem.
Racemic ketamine does not abolish cerebrovascular autoregulation in the pig

Background: Little is known about the influence of racemic ketamine on autoregulation of cerebral blood flow (CBF), and available reports regarding its influence on cerebral hemodynamics are contradictory. This study was designed to evaluate cerebrovascular responses to changes in the mean arterial pressure (MAP) during ketamine anesthesia.
Pointer Graph Networks

Graph neural networks (GNNs) are typically applied to static graphs that are assumed to be known upfront. This static input structure is often informed purely by insight of the machine learning practitioner, and might not be optimal for the actual task the GNN is solving. In absence of reliable domain expertise, one might resort to inferring the latent graph structure, which is often difficult due to the vast search space of possible graphs. Here we introduce Pointer Graph Networks (PGNs) which augment sets or graphs with additional inferred edges for improved model expressivity. PGNs allow each node to dynamically point to another node, followed by message passing over these pointers. The sparsity of this adaptable graph structure makes learning tractable while still being sufficiently expressive to simulate complex algorithms. Critically, the pointing mechanism is directly supervised to model long-term sequences of operations on classical data structures, incorporating useful structural inductive biases from theoretical computer science. Qualitatively, we demonstrate that PGNs can learn parallelisable variants of pointer-based data structures, namely disjoint set unions and link/cut trees. PGNs generalise out-of-distribution to 5x larger test inputs on dynamic graph connectivity tasks, outperforming unrestricted GNNs and Deep Sets.
The Prevalence and Treatment Outcomes of Primary Tooth Injuries

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the type and prevalence of primary tooth injuries, as well as their treatment and treatment outcomes, among children referred to the Department of Pedodontics at the Ankara University Faculty of Dentistry in Turkey. Methods: The study population consisted of patients applying to the department with a primary tooth injury over a period of 21 months. Fifty-one patients presented with trauma to 99 primary teeth. Clinical and radiographic examinations were conducted on each patient. Age, sex, time, cause of injury, and number of teeth affected were recorded, and the type of trauma was identified according to Andreasen’s classification. The teeth were treated by one of the authors. Results: The majority of trauma occurred between the ages of 2 and 4. The most common type of injury was lateral luxation (33.3%). Most injuries (33.3%) presented during May. The most common form of treatment was follow-up only (39.4%), followed by extraction (29.3%) and root canal treatment (12.1%). The average follow-up period was 11 months. During the follow-up period, complications were observed in 4 teeth. Conclusions: The study results show that in the absence of acute symptoms, parents tend not to apply to a dental clinic for children’s injuries. This finding highlights the importance of informing the public about primary tooth injuries and their consequences.
Cyber Victimization: UAE as a Case Study

The Internet has been widely adopted by UAE citizens, with one of the highest penetration rates in the world, yet the potential to become a victim of cybercrime is high. A quantitative cross-sectional online survey strategy was adopted to collect the data on cybercrime and cybervictimisation to support the identification of the most appropriate approaches to address cybervictimisation in the UAE. The results indicate the key patterns of cybervictimisation in the UAE as identity fraud, cyberharassment and cyber attack, with impacts mainly on a psychological/emotional level. Evidence pointed to strong associations between online activity and time spent online and cybervictimisation. There was a significant perception that legislative measures did not sufficiently address cybervictimisation and punitive measures were lenient. Logistic regression analysis indicated likelihood of cybervictimisation was associated with technical guardianship, online behaviour and usage, computer proficiency, time spent online, region of residence and gender. Classification and regression tree analysis identified different patterns indicating user characteristics consisting of security measures and online routine behaviour. The findings support the development of a comprehensive Incident Response Framework (IRF), which is needed to inform legal authorities and victim service provision.
Retinoid signaling is attenuated by proteasome-mediated degradation of retinoid receptors in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells.

The biological actions of retinoids are mediated by nuclear retinoid receptors, RAR and RXR, which are ligand-activated transcription factors. We investigated the mechanism of attenuation of retinoid receptor activity in human keratinocyte HaCaT cells. Treatment of HaCaT cells with all-trans-retinoic acid or 9-cis-retinoic acid reduced RARgamma and RXRalpha protein levels by one-half within 24 h. In contrast, retinoid treatment did not alter RARgamma or RXRalpha mRNA levels, suggesting that retinoids stimulate breakdown of their receptors. Pulse-chase studies revealed that retinoid treatment of HaCaT cells reduced RARgamma and RXRalpha half-lives by 50%, indicating that retinoids accelerate breakdown of their receptors. The proteasome inhibitor MG132 prevented retinoid-induced receptor loss. Furthermore, MG132 potentiated retinoid-induced receptor activity, as assessed by expression of the retinoid-regulated CRABP-II gene in HaCaT cells. These data demonstrate that retinoids attenuate retinoid receptor function by enhancing proteasome-mediated retinoid receptor breakdown in HaCaT cells. Proteasome-mediated degradation of RARgamma or RXRalpha in vitro was significantly reduced by the corepressor SMRT, which binds unliganded retinoid receptors. This protection from degradation was markedly diminished by ligand, which causes SMRT to dissociate from receptors. Ligand failed to relieve protection from degradation by SMRT of a mutant form of RXRalpha that binds SMRT in the presence and absence of ligand. Addition of coactivators TIF1, TIF2, and RIP140 had no effect on degradation of RARgamma or RXRalpha. In summary, ligand binding to retinoid receptors promotes proteasome-mediated receptor degradation via dissociation of SMRT. Ligand-stimulated receptor degradation results in attenuation of retinoid signaling.