Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
APPLICABILITY OF INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY AS A NON INVASIVE MEASUREMENT OF STRESS IN RABBIT

Correspondence: F. Luzi, fabio.luzi@unimi.it Received December 2006 Accepted February 2007. ABSTRACT: Among the main physiological stress indicators, the temperature evaluation is very important and innovative because it may be monitored without directly interacting with the animal. The use of a thermographic system, which is based on the detection of infrared radiation emitted by a subject, is a suitable method in order to measure temperature without any contact. In this research, a thermographic system was employed in order to single out the rabbit skin’s zones most suitable for the temperature monitoring during stress challenges. Six hybrid rabbits were observed during induced stress; the areas selected as reference were: the ocular area (globe and periocular area), the internal auricle pavilion, and a shaved area of the head. The results of this pilot study show that the thermographic technique is a suitable method for the evaluation of temperature on rabbit. The best areas singled out were the eye bulb, the periocular area and the ear skin. The results concerning the effect of stress on cutaneous temperature showed that during stress condition a decrease in temperature occurs with respect to the basal condition (ΔT~1°C) and this trend is more evident for the auricle pavillion. In fact, this reaction is more evidenced in the ear skin, where a vasoconstriction process occurs. Moreover, corticosterone levels slightly increase (P=0.08) following the stressor’s challenge due to tonic immobility test. In this research, both temperature and the change in corticosterone level show that the stress reaction induced by tonic immobility test is stronger than the one due to the other stressors applied to rabbits.
Nurses' views on patient self-management: a qualitative study.

AIMS To unravel outpatient nurses' views on the role of people with chronic conditions in self-management, nurses' own support role and to establish how these views relate to nurse-led self-management interventions. BACKGROUND Providing self-management support is a core task of nurses in outpatient chronic care. However, the concept of self-management is interpreted in different ways and little is known about nurses' views on patients' role in self-management and nurses' own support role. DESIGN Qualitative design. METHODS Individual semi-structured interviews were held in 2012-2013 with outpatient nurses at a university medical hospital in the Netherlands. After transcription, data-driven codes were assigned and key elements of views and experiences were discussed in the research team. Finally, insights were merged to construct and characterize types. RESULTS Twenty-seven nurses were interviewed. The analysis identified three divergent views on self-management support: adhering to a medical regimen; monitoring symptoms; and integrating illness into daily life. These views differ with respect to the patient's role in self-management, the support role of the nurse and the focus of activities, ranging from biomedical to biopsychosocial. The first two were mainly medically oriented. Nurses applied interventions consistent with their individual views on self-management. CONCLUSION Nurses had distinct perceptions about self-management and their own role in self-management support. Social and emotional tasks of living with a chronic condition were, however, overlooked. Nurses seem to lack sufficient training and practical interventions to provide self-management support that meets the integral needs of patients with a chronic condition.
Interplay of amygdala and insular cortex during and after associative taste aversion memory formation

Abstract The formation and storage of aversively motivated memories is based on plastic changes within the amygdala and other brain structures that are modulated by its activity. One of these structures is the insular cortex, which integrates environmental and interoceptive information such that memory traces can be efficient and rapidly stored. A great example of an aversively motivated learning is the taste aversion paradigm, which involves several changes at the cellular level of the amygdala and the insular cortex in order to be acquired and consolidated. So far, the interplay of these structures was described in terms of their participation during exposure to the stimuli to be associated; however, because of the cellular properties and interconnections between them, their functional interplay may go beyond the acquisition stage and the learning experience might trigger an ongoing engagement of amygdala-insular cortex reactivations in order to store the information.
Unconstrained OCR for Urdu Using Deep CNN-RNN Hybrid Networks

Building robust text recognition systems for languages with cursive scripts like Urdu has always been challenging. Intricacies of the script and the absence of ample annotated data further act as adversaries to this task. We demonstrate the effectiveness of an end-to-end trainable hybrid CNN-RNN architecture in recognizing Urdu text from printed documents, typically known as Urdu OCR. The solution proposed is not bounded by any language specific lexicon with the model following a segmentation-free, sequence-tosequence transcription approach. The network transcribes a sequence of convolutional features from an input image to a sequence of target labels. This discards the need to segment the input image into its constituent characters/glyphs, which is often arduous for scripts like Urdu. Furthermore, past and future contexts modelled by bidirectional recurrent layers aids the transcription. We outperform previous state-of-theart techniques on the synthetic UPTI dataset. Additionally, we publish a new dataset curated by scanning printed Urdu publications in various writing styles and fonts, annotated at the line level. We also provide benchmark results of our model on this dataset
The complete mitochondrial genome of the large white-bellied rat, Niviventer excelsior (Rodentia: Muridae)

The first complete mitochondrial genome of the large white-bellied rat (Niviventer excelsior) was sequenced and annotated in order to provide a source of phylogenetic characters including an assessment of gene order arrangement. The mitochondrial genome sequence (16,298 bp) of N. excelsior contains 13 protein-coding, 2 rRNA and 22 tRNA genes as well as 1 typical control region (D-Loop), which are shared by other mammalian mitochondrial genomes. The codon usage also followed the typical vertebrate pattern except for an unusual CCA stop codon, which was termination codon of Cyt b. The 16 nucleotide insertion was detected in the central conserved domain of d-Loop. The 12 heavy-strand encoded protein-coding genes were used to reconstruct the phylogenetic relationships by the Bayesian inference and maximum likelihood methods. Topologies revealed that N. excelsior clustered together with the species in genus Rattus, indicating their closer phylogenetic relationship.
Withdrawal severity after chronic intermittent ethanol in inbred mouse strains.

BACKGROUND To study withdrawal, ethanol is usually administered chronically without interruption. However, interest has recurred in models of episodic exposure. Increasing evidence suggests that chronic intermittent exposure to ethanol leads to a sensitization effect in both withdrawal severity and ethanol consumption. The goal of the present study was to examine mouse inbred strain differences in withdrawal severity following chronic intermittent exposure using the handling-induced convulsion as the behavioral endpoint. We also sought to compare the withdrawal responses of inbred strains across acute, chronic continuous, and chronic intermittent exposure regimens. METHODS Male mice from 15 standard inbred strains were exposed to ethanol vapor for 16 hours each day for 3 days and removed to an air chamber during the intervening 8 hours. Mice in the control groups were handled the same, except that they were exposed only to air. Daily blood ethanol concentrations were averaged for each mouse to estimate total dose of ethanol experienced. RESULTS Across strains, mice had an average daily blood ethanol concentration (BEC) of 1.45 +/- 0.02 mg/ml and we restricted the range of this value to 1.00-2.00 mg/ml. To evaluate strain differences, we divided data into two dose groups based on BEC, low dose (1.29 +/- 0.1 mg/ml) and high dose (1.71 +/- 0.02 mg/ml). After the third inhalation exposure, ethanol-exposed and air-exposed groups were tested hourly for handling-induced convulsions for 10 hour and at hour 24 and 25. Strains differed markedly in the severity of withdrawal (after subtraction of air control values) in both dose groups. CONCLUSION The chronic intermittent exposure paradigm is sufficient to elicit differential withdrawal responses across nearly all strains. Data from the high-dose groups correlated well with withdrawal data derived from prior acute (single high dose) and chronic continuous (for 72 hours) ethanol withdrawal studies, supporting the influence of common genes on all three responses.
Economic growth and savings in Saudi Arabia: empirical evidence from cointegration and causality analysis

Abstract The similar evolution of GDP and savings, the high level of natural resources, and the high financial surplus of Saudi Arabia motivate us to examine the linkages between economic growth and savings from 1980 to 2012 in the ARDL framework. By incorporating relevant determinants, we find cointegration among the variables and positive two-way Granger-causality between economic growth and savings over the long- and short-run. Authorities should thus pursue policies that promote economic growth and savings, to achieve higher levels of both. The results are robust to using alternative specifications and econometric procedures, and show stable economic growth and savings functions.
Effective Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis following Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

+ Objective To review a single center's experience with the initiation and maintenance of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) in 8 patients with a history of abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (AAAR). + Design Retrospective case review with long-term follow-up. +Patients (or Participants) Eight patients with multiple medical problems including a history of abdominal aortic aneurysm repair and end-stage renal failure who received peritoneal dialysis catheters between December 1986 and July 1991. + Main Outcome Measures Success of catheter implantation and maintenance of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis; incidence of peritoneal infection and long-term complications; overall clinical course. + Results Over five years 8 patients with a history of reconstructed abdominal aortic aneurysm received peritoneal dialysis catheters without complication and dialyzed successfully for 88 patient-months in total. Three patients had a total of five episodes of peritonitis, at an incidence of 0.68 episodes per patient per year, a rate not significantly different from that of our overall CAPD patient population (1.09) and that reported by other groups. + Conclusion Our experience suggests that historical AAAR poses no significant risk to and should not preclude the implementation of continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. Indeed, CAPD offers a safe and optimal dialytic alternative for patients with historical abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in whom compromised cardiovascular hemodynamics may significantly influence morbidity and survival.
Handling and environmental enrichment do not rescue learning and memory impairments in αCamKIIT286A mutant mice

Environmental enrichment and postnatal handling have been shown to improve learning and memory in the Morris water maze, and to rescue impairments caused by genetic modification, age or genetic background. Mice with a targeted point mutation that prevents autophosphorylation at threonine‐286 of the α‐isoform of the Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent kinase II have impaired hippocampus‐dependent and ‐independent strategy learning and memory in the water maze. We have investigated whether these impairments can be rescued with a combination of postnatal handling and environmental enrichment in a hybrid genetic background. Severe impairments were seen in acquisition and probe trials in both enriched and nonenriched mutants, indicating that enrichment did not rescue the learning and memory impairments. However, enrichment did rescue a specific performance deficit; enhanced floating behaviour, in the mutants. In summary, we have shown the lack of autophosphorylation of the α‐isoform of the Ca2+/calmodulin‐dependent kinase II prevents enrichment‐induced rescues of strategy learning and memory impairments. Furthermore, we have established that there are enrichment mechanisms that are independent of this autophosphorylation.
GenTAC registry report: Gender differences among individuals with genetically triggered thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection

Previous data suggest women are at increased risk of death from aortic dissection. Therefore, we analyzed data from the GenTAC registry, the NIH‐sponsored program that collects information about individuals with genetically triggered thoracic aortic aneurysms and cardiovascular conditions. We performed cross‐sectional analyses in adults with Marfan syndrome (MFS), familial thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection (FTAAD), bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) with thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection, and subjects under 50 years of age with thoracic aortic aneurysm or dissection (TAAD <50 years). Women comprised 32% of 1,449 subjects and were 21% of subjects with BAV, 34% with FTAAD, 22% with TAAD <50 years, and 47% with MFS. Thoracic aortic dissections occurred with equal gender frequency yet women with BAV had more extensive dissections. Aortic size was smaller in women but was similar after controlling for BSA. Age at operation for aortic valve dysfunction, aneurysm or dissection did not differ by gender. Multivariate analysis (adjusting for age, BSA, hypertension, study site, diabetes, and subgroup diagnoses) showed that women had fewer total aortic surgeries (OR = 0.65, P < 0.01) and were less likely to receive angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi; OR = 0.68, P < 0.05). As in BAV, other genetically triggered aortic diseases such as FTAAD and TAAD <50 are more common in males. In women, decreased prevalence of aortic operations and less treatment with ACEi may be due to their smaller absolute aortic diameters. Longitudinal studies are needed to determine if women are at higher risk for adverse events. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Phosphorylation of FcγRIIA is required for the receptor-induced actin rearrangement and capping: the role of membrane rafts

Activation of Fcγ receptor II (FcγRII) induces rearrangement of the actin-based cytoskeleton that serves as a driving force for FcγRII-mediated phagocytosis and FcγRII capping. To get insight into the signaling events that lead to the actin reorganization we investigated the role of raft-associated Src family tyrosine kinases in capping of FcγRII in U937 cells. After crosslinking, FcγRII was found to be recruited to detergent-resistant membrane domains (DRMs), rafts, where it coexisted with Lyn kinase and underwent tyrosine phosphorylation. Lyn was displaced from DRMs under the influence of DL-α-hydroxymyristic acid and 2-bromopalmitic acid, agents blocking N-terminal myristoylation and palmitoylation of proteins, respectively, and after disruption of DRM integrity by depletion of plasma membrane cholesterol withβ -cyclodextrin. Under these conditions, phosphorylation of the crosslinked FcγRII was diminished and assembly of FcγRII caps was blocked. The similar reduction of FcγRII cap formation correlated with inhibition of receptor phosphorylation was achieved with the use of PP1 and herbimycin A, specific inhibitors of Src family tyrosine kinases. Phosphorylation of FcγRIIA expressed in BHK cells, lacking endogenous FcγRs, was abolished by substitution of tyrosine 298 by phenylalanine in the ITAM of the receptor. The mutant receptor did not undergo translocation towards cap-like structures and failed to promote the receptor-mediated spreading of the cells, as compared to BHK cells transfected with the wild-type FcγRIIA. On the basis of these data, we suggest that tyrosine phosphorylation of activated FcγRIIA by raft-residing tyrosine kinases of the Src family triggers signaling pathways that control the rearrangement of the actin cytoskeleton required for FcγRII-mediated motility.
Brush-painted silver UHF RFID tags on environmental-friendly and flexible substrates

In this study, green and flexible materials (cardboard, fabric, and paper) were utilized as substrates for brush-painted silver passive UHF RFID tag antennas. These novel environmental-friendly and flexible tags achieved maximum read ranges of 8.5-12 meters, suggesting good suitability of brush-painting for the manufacturing of future green wireless devices.
Crohn disease: correlation of findings at contrast-enhanced US with severity at endoscopy.

PURPOSE To evaluate the effectiveness of visualization of vascularization at contrast material-enhanced ultrasonography (US) for assessment of the activity of Crohn disease, with severity grade determined at endoscopy as the reference standard. MATERIALS AND METHODS Ethics committee approval and written informed consent were obtained. Sixty-one patients (age range, 21-67 years; median age, 36 years) who had Crohn disease underwent both colonoscopy and US, including color Doppler and contrast-enhanced US, prospectively. To assess the vascularization of the involved bowel loop in a region expected to be seen at colonoscopy, the contrast agent uptake was measured by using quantitative analysis of the enhancement in regions of interest. Measurement of contrast enhancement was assessed as the increase in wall brightness with respect to the baseline brightness. Results were compared with the severity grade determined at endoscopy by using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve and logistic regression analysis. RESULTS Colonoscopy showed inflammatory lesions in 53 patients (mild disease, seven; moderate disease, 12; and severe disease, 34). Bowel wall thickness and grade at color Doppler US (P = .019 and .002, respectively) correlated with severity grade at endoscopy. Mural contrast enhancement in patients with active disease at endoscopy was markedly increased in comparison with enhancement in patients with inactive disease (P < .001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that an increase in wall brightness was a significant and independent variable predictive of severity grade at endoscopy. A threshold brightness value of percentage of increase of 46% had a sensitivity and specificity of 96% and 73%, respectively, in the prediction of moderate or severe grade for inflammation at endoscopy. CONCLUSION Quantitative measurements of bowel enhancement obtained by using contrast-enhanced US correlate with severity grade determined at endoscopy. Contrast-enhanced US could be a useful technique to monitor the activity of Crohn disease. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL http://radiology.rsna. org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1148/radiol.2531082269/-/DC1.
Deletion of the genes encoding the MtrA–MtrB two‐component system of Corynebacterium glutamicum has a strong influence on cell morphology, antibiotics susceptibility and expression of genes involved in osmoprotection

The MtrAB two‐component signal transduction system is highly conserved in sequence and genomic organization in Mycobacterium and Corynebacterium species, but its function is completely unknown. Here, the role of MtrAB was studied with C. glutamicum as model organism. In contrast to M. tuberculosis, it was possible to delete the mtrAB genes in C. glutamicum. The mutant cells showed a radically different cell morphology and were more sensitive to penicillin, vancomycin and lysozyme but more resistant to ethambutol. In order to identify the molecular basis for this pleiotropic phenotype, the mRNA profiles of mutant and wild type were compared with DNA microarrays. Three genes showed a more than threefold increased RNA level in the mutant, i.e. mepA (NCgl2411) encoding a putative secreted metalloprotease, ppmA (NCgl2737 ) encoding a putative membrane‐bound protease modulator, and lpqB encoding a putative lipoprotein of unknown function. Expression of plasmid‐encoded mepA in Escherichia coli led to elongated cells that were hypersensitive to an osmotic downshift, supporting the idea that peptidoglycan is the target of MepA. The mRNA level of two genes was more than fivefold decreased in the mutant, i.e. betP and proP which encode transporters for the uptake of betaine and proline respectively. The microarray results were confirmed by primer extension and RNA dot blot experiments. In the latter, the transcript level of genes involved in osmoprotection was tested before and after an osmotic upshift. The mRNA level of betP, proP and lcoP was strongly reduced or undetectable in the mutant, whereas that of mscL (mechanosensitive channel) was increased. The changes in cell morphology, antibiotics susceptibility and the mRNA levels of betP, proP, lcoP, mscL and mepA could be reversed by expression of plasmid‐encoded copies of mtrAB in the ΔmtrAB mutant, confirming that these changes occurred as a consequence of the mtrAB deletion.
Computed Tomography-Based Image-Guided System in Spinal Surgery: State of the Art Through 10 Years of Experience

BACKGROUND: Image-guided navigation systems (IGS) grant excellent clinical and radiological results, minimizing risks correlated with spinal instrumentation. However, there is some concern regarding the real need for IGS and its indications. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the accuracy, technical aspect, and radiation exposure data of the principal IGS based on computed tomography (CT) imaging. METHODS: The data of all patients treated for spinal instrumentation with the aid of an IGS system from January 2003 to March 2013 were retrospectively analyzed. We defined 2 groups: group I with an IGS system based on a preoperative CT scan; group II relied on an intraoperative CT scan. Screw accuracy was assessed with a postoperative CT scan control. Radiation dosage for patients was defined by using the technical parameters and dose report data. Statistical analysis was performed using the Fisher exact test with a significance of 5% (P value < .05). RESULTS: Two thousand twenty patients and 11 144 screws were analyzed. Group I had 794 patients (4246 screws); the accuracy was 96.1%. Group II had 1226 patients (6898 screws) treated, with 98.5% accuracy (P = .001). The radiation dose analysis showed better results in group II, with significant reduction of the effective dose to the patient. CONCLUSION: The IGS based on an intraoperative CT scan grants excellent results, eliminating the rate of reoperation for misplaced instrumentations (screws, plate, and cage) or for inadequate bone decompression. However, this technology cannot replace the surgical skills, experience, and knowledge necessary for spine surgery. ABBREVIATIONS: CTDI, Computed Tomography Dose Index DLP, dose-length product IGS, image-guided system