Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
ORAL SUBMUCOUS FIBROSIS AND IRON DEFICIENCY ANEMIA RELATIONSHIP REVISITED- RESULTS FROM AN INDIAN STUDY

Objectives: To estimate the levels of serum iron and hemoglobin in cases of oral submucous fibrosis. (OSMF) and comparing the values with that of healthy subjects and further with the values of the patients diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia. Materials and methods: 20 patients clinically diagnosed with OSMF and confirmed histopathologically without any other systemic disease constituted the study group. This group was further divided into Stages I and II as per the staging given by Pindborg. 10 age and sex matched healthy subjects constituted the control group. Ten more subjects with iron deficiency anemia without any history of areca nut chewing and matched for age and sex constituted the anemic group. Hemoglobin and serum iron levels were estimated by Sahli’s and Ferrene methods respectively. Results and conclusions: The OSMF group showed significantly lower levels of hemoglobin and serum iron in comparison with the healthy control group. On comparison between anemic and OSMF group, hemoglobin level was lower in anemic group but the serum iron level was significantly lower in the OSMF group. Further the values of serum iron as well as hemoglobin displayed a greater reduction in Stage II when compared with Stage I OSMF. The above results establish the fact that serum iron level is an important marker for OSMF the levels of which could be used to predict the prognosis and progression of the condition to malignancy with greater accuracy.
Health Behaviour in Black South African University Students

Four important health behaviours – dietary fat avoidance, regular exercise, smoking and alcohol consumption - were assessed by questionnaire, together with measures of risk awareness, beliefs about the importance of each behaviour for health, health status, health locus and health value. The sample included 793 Black University students from non-health courses chosen at random from the University of the North, South Africa. The students were 370 (46.7%) males and 423 (53.3%) females in the age range of 18 to 25 years (M age 21.0 years, SD=3.48). The following prevalences for healthy behaviour was found: almost half (44.7%) avoided fat and cholesterol and likewise 48% had exercised in the past 14 days. More than 90% were non-smokers and 84% were non-drinkers or drank alcohol only very occasionally. Sex emerged as an independent predictor for smoking and drinking. Men smoked and drank more than women did. The level of risk awareness about healthy behaviour seemed to be low in this sample. Risk awareness and prevalence of health behaviour was only found to have significant effects for non-smoking and not for the other health behaviours (exercise, fat intake, alcohol consumption). Beliefs were more important independent predictors of dietary fat intake and exercises than was risk awareness.
Motivation and job satisfaction of cleaning staff in the NHS: a pilot study

Fourteen NHS hospital ward cleaning staff were interviewed about their background, job satisfaction and motivation as part of the evaluation of a new cleaning system. Four (28%) staff had attended university, five (35%) had no qualifications and the remainder had a range of educational attainments. Nine (64%) did the job to earn money, three (22%) because they liked it and two (14%) because there were no other opportunities. Repetitive tasks were undertaken routinely with tight control of method and order of working. The work was tiring and ad hoc requests increased the burden. Although all staff knew what was expected of them in their job, nine (62%) reported they “knew themselves” if they had done a good job as feedback was frequently absent or belated. Opportunities including access to the internet were limited and long hours doing extra work reduced free time. This pilot study highlights the potential of these healthcare cleaning professionals to contribute and develop given the opportunities.
SELF-RECOGNITION and WELL-BEING: SPEAKING ABORIGINAL ENGLISH in HEALTHY CLASSROOMS Introduction: Theory into practice

This paper applies the findings of doctoral research undertaken in the Northern Territory. It draws on extended interviews with nine Indigenous students studying at university to produce four findings for classroom learning and teaching, one of which highlights the need to recognise Aboriginal English as a focal point of the curriculum for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. I take the position that this recognition in schools depends to a significant degree on universities training their preservice teachers to recognise Aboriginal English as necessary to Aboriginal student learning and therefore as a legitimate dialect of the classroom, and this in turn requires universities to recognise the importance of Aboriginal English in their own curricula.Towards the end of the paper, I draw on some literature to suggest ways in which Aboriginal English could be incorporated into the classroom.
Transvascular Autonomic Modulation: A Modified Balloon Angioplasty Technique for the Treatment of Autonomic Dysfunction in Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Purpose To describe the use of transvascular autonomic modulation (TVAM) to improve cardiovascular autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, comparing the safety and efficacy of this modified technique with traditional balloon angioplasty. Methods Twenty-one MS patients (11 men; mean age 48.7±13.0 years) who presented with symptoms of cardiovascular ANS dysfunction underwent TVAM. These patients were compared with age/sex-matched MS patients (10 men; 49.3±11.1 years) in the same stages of the disease who presented with chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI) and who underwent venous balloon angioplasty. TVAM involved the coupling of balloon angioplasty of the internal jugular veins with the application of external manual compression and dilation of the azygos and renal veins; unlike traditional angioplasty for CCSVI, which treats only abnormal veins (≥50% stenosis or static valve), all targeted vessels were treated with TVAM regardless of the presence of an abnormality. The effect of TVAM on ANS function was indicated by determining heart rate variability based on the electrocardiographic R-R interval lengths using vector analysis to derive the mean circular resultant (MCR) and the expiration/inspiration (E/I) ratio, the Valsalva ratio, and the 30:15 postural ratio at 24 hours after intervention. Results Left renal vein compression was common among the TVAM patients and resulted in ≥50% luminal compromise in 10 of 21 patients. Azygos vein abnormalities (a static valve) were identified in 5 patients. Overall, 18 patients met the diagnostic criteria for CCSVI with at least one lesion >50%, but only 10 lesions were considered treatable by traditional balloon angioplasty. After intervention, the R-R interval values, including the 30:15 postural ratio (p=0.01), the MCR (p=0.1), and E/I ratio (p=0.1), were higher for the TVAM patients compared to the control group. The safety profile of the TVAM procedure was similar to that of traditional balloon angioplasty. Conclusion The combination of balloon angioplasty of anatomically normal veins coupled with external compression during dilation of these veins can improve indicators of ANS dysfunction. The safety and efficacy of TVAM in MS patients observed in this pilot study is encouraging, paving the way for the treatment of dysautonomia in pathological states other than MS. Further studies should investigate TVAM in a larger MS cohort.
Implementation of particle swarm optimization based methodology for node placement in wireless sensor networks

In this paper a Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based technique for generating a heterogeneous network configuration comprising assignment of shouters and whisperers to available node positions is proposed. The generated network configuration is optimized to obtain desired network characteristics. The proposed technique is compared with contemporary evolutionary techniques such as Genetic Algorithms (GA) for performance.
First-in-Man Experience With the ReVive PV Peripheral Thrombectomy Device for the Revascularization of Below-the-Knee Embolic Occlusions

Purpose To report the initial use of a novel thrombectomy device for revascularization of below-the-knee thromboembolic occlusions encountered during proximal revascularization procedures. Case Reports The ReVive PV Peripheral Thrombectomy Device is a non-detachable, self-expanding stent-like device recently approved for peripheral thrombectomy. Four patients (3 women; mean age 68.8 years) undergoing proximal revascularization procedures experienced embolic occlusions of all 3 trifurcation vessels in 1 patient, the tibioperoneal trunk alone in 2 cases, and the peroneal artery alone in the last patient. In all cases, the involved arteries represented the primary or sole vessel(s) providing outflow to the lower extremity. In each case, the ReVive PV device was used to successfully extract the thrombus and restore flow to the distal extremity. No complications were encountered during any of the procedures. Conclusion The ReVive PV peripheral thrombectomy device may facilitate the safe and efficient revascularization of distal arterial embolic occlusions.
Comparison of Outcomes With Open, Fenestrated, and Chimney Graft Repair of Juxtarenal Aneurysms: Are We Ready for a Paradigm Shift?

Purpose To review the literature reporting open surgical and endovascular treatment of juxtarenal aortic aneurysm (JAA). Methods A systematic search of the PubMed database was carried out to identify English-language articles published between January 2001 and July 2012 on the management of JAA with open surgery, fenestrated endovascular aneurysm repair (F-EVAR), and the chimney graft technique (Ch-EVAR). The search found 20 studies with a total of 1725 patients (76% men; age range 66–74 years) undergoing open surgery, 10 studies detailing 931 patients (87.6% men; age range 72–75 years) receiving F-EVAR, and 5 studies comprising 94 patients (75% men; age range 68–82) reporting Ch-EVAR. Results A total of 2465 vessels were targeted with fenestrations and 151 with chimney grafts (CG); intraoperative target vessel preservation was 98.6% and 98.0%, respectively. Cumulative 30-day mortality was 3.4%, 2.4%, and 5.3% for open surgery, F-EVAR and Ch-EVAR, respectively (p=NS). Impaired renal function was noted in 18.5%, 9.8%, and 12% following open surgery, F-EVAR, and Ch-EVAR, respectively (open vs. F-EVAR: p<0.001). New-onset dialysis was required postoperatively in 3.9%, 1.5%, and 2.1%, respectively (open vs. F-EVAR: p<0.001). Postoperative cardiac complications were noted in 11.3%, 3.7%, and 7.4%, respectively (open vs. F-EVAR: p<0.001). The incidence of ischemic stroke was 0.1% and 0.3% following open surgery and F-EVAR, but 3.2% after Ch-EVAR (open vs. Ch-EVAR: p=0.002; F-EVAR vs. Ch-EVAR: p=0.012). Early proximal type I endoleak was lower after F-EVAR compared to Ch-EVAR (4.3% vs. 10%, respectively, p=0.002). Conclusion Open surgery remains a safe and effective treatment option for good risk patients with JAA. F-EVAR is associated with low operative mortality, compares favorably to open surgery in terms of morbidity, and current midterm data indicate that it can be a valid treatment option in both low- and high-risk patients. Early results of Ch-EVAR demonstrate feasibility only. In view of the limited number of reports and the lack of long-term data, the technique should be considered only in acute poor surgical risk patients, as a bailout in case of unintentional renal artery coverage, or in elective poor surgical cases that are not suitable for F-EVAR.
Feasibility of optical coronary tomography in quantitative measurement of coronary arteries with lipid-rich plaque.

BACKGROUND The aim of the present study was to evaluate the feasibility of optical coherence tomography (OCT) for measurement of vessel area in coronary arteries with lipid-rich plaque as compared with intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). METHODS AND RESULTS: We investigated 80 coronary artery segments with lipid-rich plaque on OCT and non-attenuated plaque on IVUS. According to the lipid arc on OCT, the plaques were classified into 4 groups: group 1, lipid arc ≤90°; group 2, 90°270°. Vessel circular arcs that could not be identified due to OCT signal attenuation were interpolated using an approximating algorithm. OCT-measured vessel area was well-correlated with IVUS-measured vessel area (R=0.834, P<0.001). On Bland-Altman plot, there was a good agreement between OCT-measured vessel area and IVUS-measured vessel area, although mean difference and limits of agreement increased with increase of lipid arc (mean difference in groups 1-4: -0.21, -0.31, -1.02, and -2.13 mm(2); lower limit: -1.49, -3.22, -5.24, and -9.25 mm(2); and upper limit: 1.07, 2.60, 3.20, and 4.99 mm(2)). Intra-observer (R=0.97-0.99, P<0.001) and inter-observer (R=0.97-0.99, P<0.001) reproducibility for OCT measurement of vessel area was excellent. CONCLUSIONS Like IVUS, OCT can be used to measure vessel area in coronary arteries with lipid-rich plaque.
Prevalência e preditores antropométricos de pressão arterial elevada em escolares de João Pessoa - PB

FUNDAMENTO: A hipertensao arterial pertence ao grupo de doencas cardiovasculares de maior mortalidade no mundo e pode se iniciar na infância. OBJETIVO: Avaliar a prevalencia de niveis pressoricos elevados em criancas da rede publica de ensino e sua associacao com indicadores antropometricos. METODOS: Trata-se de um estudo transversal, composto por uma amostra aleatoria de 750 escolares, entre 6-9 anos de idade, da rede de ensino municipal de Joao Pessoa, Paraiba. Os dados foram coletados por uma equipe previamente treinada. A pressao foi aferida com tecnica auscultatoria com auxilio de estetoscopio e esfigmomanometro aneroide. Os dados antropometricos coletados foram as medidas do peso, da estatura e da circunferencia abdominal. Foram feitos testes de associacao qui-quadrado e t de Student para comparacoes de medias, ambos com nivel de significância de 5,0%. Foram construidos tres modelos de regressao logistica, relacionando nivel pressorico elevado com as variaveis antropometricas para encontrar um melhor modelo de predicao. RESULTADOS: A prevalencia de niveis pressoricos elevados foi de 13,6%. A variavel indice de massa corporal (IMC) apresentou associacao significativa com o aumento da pressao arterial (p < 0,0001) e a maior razao de chances (OR = 1,17). A elevacao dos niveis pressoricos tambem ocorreu com o aumento do peso (p < 0,0001) e da circunferencia abdominal (p < 0,0001). CONCLUSAO: A associacao do excesso de peso com a elevacao da pressao arterial identificada destaca a necessidade de intervencao e medidas de controle do estado nutricional, como educacao alimentar, para prevencao e tratamento da obesidade como fator de risco das doencas cardiovasculares na faixa etaria pediatrica e futura. (Arq Bras Cardiol 2010; 95(5): 629-634)
Osteonecrosis of the Hip: Management in the Twenty-first Century

Osteonecrosis, also known as avascular necrosis or aseptic necrosis, is a disease of impaired osseous blood flow. The term aseptic necrosis had been commonly used in the past to distinguish osteonecrosis related to nonseptic causes from that related to septic causes. It commonly affects patients in the third, fourth, or fifth decade of life. Three hundred thousand to six hundred thousand people have osteonecrosis of the femoral head in the United States. The development of osteonecrosis can have a major impact on an individual's lifestyle. Since so many of the patients are young when they are diagnosed, they often need to alter their work and leisure activities. The ultimate goal of treating osteonecrosis of the hip is preservation of the femoral head. However, this is difficult since the condition is associated with a number of different diseases and neither the etiology nor the natural history has been definitively determined. The diagnosis of osteonecrosis accounts for 5% to 12% of total hip replacements performed1. It is difficult to obtain an understanding of the etiologic factors in osteonecrosis because the clinical composition of medical centers varies widely and because, for the most part, reported etiologic associations are based not on prospective studies but rather on cross-sectional and case-control studies. Osteonecrosis can be associated with traumatic or nontraumatic conditions. Since osteonecrosis eventually develops in only a relatively small percentage of patients with any of these conditions2, recent attention has been focused on understanding underlying predispositions to the development of osteonecrosis when challenged by environmental factors. Current interest is centering on genetic mutations leading to hypercoagulability, which results in microthrombosis and osteonecrosis when challenged by environmental (epigenetic) events. Patients with so-called idiopathic osteonecrosis most likely have some type of coagulation abnormality that has not been identified. ### Traumatic Osteonecrosis Osteonecrosis of the femoral …
Multi-organ involvement in the patient who survived the Tokai-mura criticality accident

The clinical course of the only survivor among the three victims of the Tokai-mura criticality accident in 1999 is presented. The patient was exposed to more than 2 Gy in total of neutrons and γ-rays and consequently exhibited severe bone marrow failure during the first month after the exposure, for which granulocyte colony-stimulating factor was administered and measures to prevent infection were taken. Hypoxemia, interstitial oedema of the lungs, epilation and gingival lesion were also noted but were not clinically serious. The patient recovered from the disease and as of December 2003 remains well. In the chronic phase, the patient exhibited cataract and transient subclinical hypothyroidism.
Application migration to cloud: a taxonomy of critical factors

Cloud computing has attracted attention as an important platform for software deployment, with perceived benefits such as elasticity to fluctuating load, and reduced operational costs compared to running in enterprise data centers. While some software is written from scratch specially for the cloud, many organizations also wish to migrate existing applications to a cloud platform. Such a migration exercise to a cloud platform is not easy: some changes need to be made to deal with differences in software environment, such as programming model and data storage APIs, as well as varying performance qualities. We report here on experiences in doing a number of sample migrations. We propose a taxonomy of the migration tasks involved, and we show the breakdown of costs among categories of task, for a case-study which migrated a . NET n-tier application to run on Windows Azure. We also indicate important factors that impact on the cost of various migration tasks. This work contributes towards our future direction of building a framework for cost-benefit tradeoff analysis that would apply to migrating applications to cloud platforms, and could help decision-makers evaluate proposals for using cloud computing.
Oral hygiene status and practices among rural dwellers

Objectives: To determine the oral hygiene status and practices among rural dwellers in Delta and Edo States of Nigeria. Materials and Methods: One-hundred and fifty-four participants (45 males and 109 females) between the ages of 5 and 88 years with mean age of 33.44΁2.34 years selected among individuals attending Children Evangelism Ministry Free Medical Outreach in five rural communities in both Delta and Edo State of Nigeria were studied. Data were collected through clinical examinations and the use of interviewer-administered questionnaires. Results: Of the 154 participants studied, 22.1% participants had one or more carious teeth, 11.7% participants had at least one missing tooth and 0.6% participants had fillings. Toothache (33.1%) and gingival bleeding (27.3%) were reported oral health problems among the participants. One third (33.8%) of the participants had poor oral hygiene status. Oral hygiene status was significantly associated with age, gender, and educational status, but there was no significant variation among the various communities. Majority of the participants cleaned their teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste-133 (86.4%), indulged in once-daily tooth cleaning-115 (74.7%), and have never visited the dentist-145 (94.2%). There existed significant association between daily tooth cleaning frequency, age, gender, location and level of education. Conclusion: The oral hygiene and oral health practices among rural dwellers were suboptimal. There is need to develop and implement community-oriented oral health promotion programs targeting oral health practices to control preventable oral diseases among rural dweller.
Identification of potential therapeutic molecular targets preferentially expressed by esophageal cancer cells

Evaluation of: Maurer J, Schöpp M, Thurau K et al. Immunohistochemical analysis on potential new molecular targets for esophageal cancer. Dis. Esophagus 27(1), 93–100 (2014). Targeting specific molecules and their associated molecular pathways in cancers is becoming an attractive treatment modality with remarkable success in some forms of human cancer. We review a recent study by Maurer and colleagues which examined the level of expression of five different proteins in esophageal cancers and compared this to adjacent normal tissues and whether neoadjuvant chemotherapy has any effect on their level of expression. Among the five proteins investigated, TIMP-4 was suggested as the most promising target as it is not significantly expressed by adjacent normal tissues and its high expression levels persist after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
Automatic tagging and geotagging in video collections and communities

Automatically generated tags and geotags hold great promise to improve access to video collections and online communities. We overview three tasks offered in the MediaEval 2010 benchmarking initiative, for each, describing its use scenario, definition and the data set released. For each task, a reference algorithm is presented that was used within MediaEval 2010 and comments are included on lessons learned. The Tagging Task, Professional involves automatically matching episodes in a collection of Dutch television with subject labels drawn from the keyword thesaurus used by the archive staff. The Tagging Task, Wild Wild Web involves automatically predicting the tags that are assigned by users to their online videos. Finally, the Placing Task requires automatically assigning geo-coordinates to videos. The specification of each task admits the use of the full range of available information including user-generated metadata, speech recognition transcripts, audio, and visual features.
Update on systemic therapy of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer

In the last decade, major progress in the treatment of advanced non-small-cell lung cancer has been made through the better understanding of the molecular biology of lung cancer, identification of new oncogene drivers and development of oncogene-directed drugs. Oncogene-directed therapies with EGFR or anaplastic lymphoma kinase tyrosine kinase inhibitors became standard practice in patients with activating EGFR mutations or anaplastic lymphoma kinase rearrangements, improving median survival rates to up to 35 months. Encouragingly, there are still numerous other targeted drugs and treatment strategies under development. In addition, nowadays chemotherapy can be tailored based on histology of the primary tumor and response to induction chemotherapy, raising median survival rates up to 13 months. These major developments, both in oncogene- and non-oncogene-directed therapies is presented in this review, together with a further designation of the most relevant future strategies, such as immunotherapy.