Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oral levosimendan improves filling pressure and systolic function during long-term treatment

Abstract Objectives. Oral levosimendan improves ventricular function in short-term clinical trials. The effects of long-term treatment with oral levosimendan were investigated on echocardiographic parameters of left ventricular function in patients with chronic heart failure. Design. Twenty-nine patients with NYHA III-IV congestive chronic HF were prospectively enrolled in a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled study. Oral levosimendan was administered on top of existing medication over a treatment period of at least 180 days. Echocardiographic measurements estimating pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) and tissue Doppler mitral basal myocardial velocities (Sm, Em) were performed at baseline and 90 and 180 days after randomisation. Results. Estimated PCWP at baseline was elevated in both groups and decreased by 13% in the levosimendan group compared to an increase of 9% in the placebo group (p = 0.035). Sm was decreased in both groups at baseline and improved by 0.9 cm/s in the levosimendan group and decreased by 0.1 cm/s in the placebo group (p = 0.035). Levosimendan did not significantly alter heart rate or systolic blood pressure. Conclusions. Oral levosimendan improved hemodynamic function in chronic heart failure patients and the effect was sustained over the 180-day follow-up period.
Introduction: Analyzing interaction between doctors and patients in primary care encounters

In 1976, Patrick Byrne and Barrie Long published a path-breaking study of the doctor–patient relationship. Based on some 2,500 taperecorded primary care encounters,Doctors Talking to Patients anatomized the medical visit into a series of stages, and developed an elaborate characterization of doctor behaviors in each of them. Drawing on Michael Balint’s (1957) proposal that the primary care visit has therapeutic value in its own right, Byrne and Long focused on the ways in which its therapeutic possibilities were attenuated by the prevalence of doctor-centered behaviors in the encounters they studied. The study was also conceived as an intervention: physicians were invited to use its coding framework to evaluate their own conduct, and to modify it in a more patient-centered direction. Not surprisingly, given these goals,Doctors Talking to Patients was itself somewhat doctor-centered. The authors had little to say about patients’ contributions to the encounter or the sociocultural context of social interaction in primary care. In the present volume we revisit Byrne and Long’s project of anatomizing the primary care visit, doing so from a primarily sociological and interactional perspective. We begin from the standpoint that physician and patient – with various levels of mutual understanding, conflict, cooperation, authority, and subordination – jointly construct the medical visit as a real-time interactional product. Within this orientation, we consider some of the social, moral, and technical dilemmas that physicians and patients face in primary care, and the resources that they deploy in solving them. Our objective is to open the study of doctor–patient relations to a wide range of social and interactional considerations.
Analysis of Delay Variation in Encoded On-Chip Bus Signaling under Process Variation

In this paper, we model on-chip signaling over a bus consisting of encoding, drivers, transmission lines, receivers and decoding. We characterize the signaling circuitry as a function of its load capacitance. The effective load capacitance seen by a driver is derived for the decoupling method and distributed RLC transmission line models. The driver delay and rise time corresponding to the derived effective capacitance are used to derive the far-end voltage of a transmission line bus. The effects of process variation are taken into account in the characterization of the signaling circuitry and in the wire analysis. The overall delay variation of the bus due to device and wire process variation is then calculated. The model is verified by comparing it to HSPICE. We implement regular voltage mode, level- encoded dual-rail and l-of-4 signaling circuitry and apply the derived model to analyze them. The implementation and analysis are done in 45 nm technology.
Long-Term Findings from Woodridge in Reducing Illegal Cigarette Sales to Older Minors

The purpose of the present study is to assess the effectiveness of an enforcement program in reducing cigarette sales to older minors in a community that had been successful in reducing illegal sales of cigarettes to younger minors. Cigarette sales rates were monitored over a 3-year period with quarterly compliance testing in Woodridge, Illinois. Sales rates for older minors werefound to be only slightly higher than those of younger minors with one exception. Thesefindings suggest that the enforcement of cigarette control laws is an effective means by which access to cigarettes can be reducedforbothyoungerand olderminors.
Mechanism of hot electron electroluminescence in GaN-based transistors

The nature of hot electron electroluminescence (EL) in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors is studied and attributed to Bremsstrahlung. The spectral distribution has been corrected, for the first time, for interference effects due to the multilayered device structure, and this was shown to be crucial for the correct interpretation of the data, avoiding artefacts in the spectrum and misinterpretation of the results. An analytical expression for the spectral distribution of emitted light is derived assuming Bremsstrahlung as the only origin and compared to the simplified exponential model for the high energy tail commonly used for electron temperature extraction: the electron temperature obtained results about 20% lower compared to the approximated exponential model. Comparison of EL intensity for devices from different wafers illustrated the dependence of EL intensity on the material quality. The polarization of electroluminescence also confirms Bremsstrahlung as the dominant origin of the light emitted, ruling out other possible main mechanisms.
Reversible Loss of N-Acetyl-Aspartate in Rats Subjected to Long-Term Focal Cerebral Ischemia

To evaluate the true meaning of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) measurements in ischemic stroke, the authors followed the temporal changes in brain NAA content in rats subjected to permanent focal ischemia. Ischemia was induced by photothrombotic cortical occlusion. At 1, 3, 8, and 30 d after onset of ischemia, NAA was measured in the infarct by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to ultraviolet detection and histologic damage was examined. Cerebral content of NAA was markedly reduced in the lesioned tissue, reaching −90% after 3 d, a time at which viable neurons were no longer detected. N-Acetyl-aspartate concentrations after 8 and 30 d were higher than that observed after 3 d. This metabolic change coincided with an important microglial and astroglial activation. The results of this study raise questions regarding the use of NAA as a specific neuronal marker in chronic stage of stroke.
Living in an 'Electronic Age': Cyberbullying among Irish Adolescents

The prevalence and nature of specific forms of cyberbullying (CB) in a sample of Irish post-primary school students, aged 12 to 18 years (n=122), are examined. Overall, CB was found to be less frequent than traditional bullying (TB). Although all forms of CB were largely short-term, CB was regarded by participants as worse than TB, with the notable exception of email. No significant relationships emerged between several background variables and CB. Overall rates of CB seem to be lower than in other countries, but further research would be required to determine its prevalence and nature.
Confidence Distributions and a Unifying Framework for Meta-Analysis

This article develops a unifying framework, as well as robust meta-analysis approaches, for combining studies from independent sources. The device used in this combination is a confidence distribution (CD), which uses a distribution function, instead of a point (point estimator) or an interval (confidence interval), to estimate a parameter of interest. A CD function contains a wealth of information for inferences, and it is a useful device for combining studies from different sources. The proposed combining framework not only unifies most existing meta-analysis approaches, but also leads to development of new approaches. We illustrate in this article that this combining framework can include both the classical methods of combining p-values and modern model-based meta-analysis approaches. We also develop, under the unifying framework, two new robust meta-analysis approaches, with supporting asymptotic theory. In one approach each study size goes to infinity, and in the other approach the number of studies goes to infinity. Our theoretical development suggests that both these robust meta-analysis approaches have high breakdown points and are highly efficient for normal models. The new methodologies are applied to study-level data from publications on prophylactic use of lidocaine in heart attacks and a treatment of stomach ulcers. The robust methods performed well when data are contaminated and have realistic sample sizes and number of studies.
Revisiting the right-ear advantage for speech: implications for speech displays

Cherry (1953) reported that when listeners were presented with dichotic signal over headphones, they could reliably report words presented to the attended ear, while only being aware of the gross properties of the talker in the unattended ear. More recently, Gallun et al. (2007) showed that there were large differences in performance on dichotic tasks depending on ear of presentation, with significantly larger errors occurring when the target was presented to the left, rather than right ear (i.e., a right-ear advantage). In the current experiment, we explored two factors, type of signal in the non-target ear and uncertainty about the target ear, and their effects on right-ear advantage. The results indicated that the right-ear advantage was modulated by two factors: 1) nature of the speech stimuli presented in the unattended ear, and 2) target ear uncertainty. Substantial differences were observed between listeners in the tasks, leading to varying amounts of right-ear advantage across listeners for the listening conditions tested. These results and their implications for the design of multichannel speech communication displays are discussed, and the use of these methods is recommended as a useful screening tool for selection of personnel who listen to and use multichannel speech displays.
Rituximab-CHOP versus CHOP alone or with maintenance rituximab in older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.

PURPOSE To address early and late treatment failures in older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), we designed a two-stage randomized trial of cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (CHOP) versus rituximab plus CHOP (R-CHOP), with a second random assignment to maintenance rituximab (MR) or observation in responding patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Untreated DLBCL patients who were 60 years or older were randomly assigned to R-CHOP (n = 318) or CHOP (n = 314); 415 responders were randomly assigned to MR (n = 207) or observation (n = 208). The primary end point was failure-free survival (FFS). All P values were two sided. RESULTS Three-year FFS rate was 53% for R-CHOP patients and 46% for CHOP patients (P = .04) at a median follow-up time of 3.5 years. Two-year FFS rate from second random assignment was 76% for MR compared with 61% for observation (P = .009). No significant differences in survival were seen according to induction or maintenance therapy. FFS was prolonged with MR after CHOP (P = .0004) but not after R-CHOP (P = .81) with 2-year FFS rates from second random assignment of 77%, 79%, 74%, and 45% for R-CHOP, R-CHOP + MR, CHOP + MR, and CHOP, respectively. In a secondary analysis excluding MR patients, R-CHOP alone reduced the risks of treatment failure (P = .003) and death (P = .05) compared with CHOP alone. CONCLUSION Rituximab administered as induction or maintenance with CHOP chemotherapy significantly prolonged FFS in older DLBCL patients. After R-CHOP, no benefit was provided by MR. These results, which are consistent with an additive effect of rituximab, suggest that future studies could focus on maintenance strategies with novel agents as well as new induction therapies.
Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio and red blood cell distribution width is a practical predictor for differentiation of febrile seizure types.

OBJECTIVE Febrile seizures (FS) are the most common neurological emergency in childhood. They are divided into two groups accordingly clinical features, simple febrile seizure and complex febrile seizure. Until now laboratory tests have not been used as a parameter of classification of them. The objective of this study is to estimate the usefulness of the hematogical parameters especially neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) in the differentiation of febrile seizure types. PATIENTS AND METHODS A retrospective review was conducted on patients from 6 months to 6 years old presenting with first febrile seizure admitted to a tertiary care hospital. Epidemiological and laboratory variables of the patients were collected. RESULTS The mean NLR in the simple FS and complex FS groups was 2.18±1.9 and 3.8±4.2 respectively, and the difference was significant (p=0.024). The mean serum red blood cell distribution width in the simple FS and complex FS groups was 16.1±1.1 and 16.6±0.8 respectively, and the difference was significant (p=0.019). NLR and RDW values in complex FS patients were statistically higher than simple febrile patients. ROC analysis showed that if the chosen cut-off point for NLR is 1.98 the sensitivity and specificity are 66.7% and 60.3% respectively. These were statistically significant (p=0.040 AUC 0.623, CI 0.503-0.743). If the chosen cut-off point for RDW is 16.350, the sensitivity and specificity are 59.0% and 58.6%, respectively. These were statistically significant (p=0.037 AUC 0.626, CI 0.515-0.736) too. CONCLUSIONS NLR and RDW were simple, effective and practical predictors for differentiation of FS types. They will have potential values in public health practice for management of FS patients.
CARACTERIZAÇÃO DO PERFIL DE ATENDIMENTO NO SERVIÇO DE EMERGÊNCIA PEDIÁTRICA DE UM HOSPITAL NO INTERIOR DE GOIÁS

Para a Organizacao Mundial de Saude (OMS) uma emergencia e o surgimento inesperado de um problema de causa diversa, que provoque uma atencao iminente por parte da familia ou do sujeito que sofre a acao onde existe o perigo de morte ou perigo da perda da funcao de um orgao. Objetivou-se identificar e analisar o perfil de atendimento no servico de emergencia pediatrica do Hospital municipal de Itaberai-GO no periodo compreendido entre fevereiro de 2013 a fevereiro de 2014.Trata-se de um estudo descritivo com abordagem quantitativa de carater transversal, realizado no Hospital Municipal de Itaberai - Dro. Gilberto Silva Caldas no Municipio de Itaberai-GO. Com o estudo verificou-se que o perfil da clientela que procurou a unidade foi constituida predominantemente de usuarios do sexo masculino (53%); na faixa etaria de 1-3 anos(35,3%). No que se refere ao motivo da procura por atendimento no pronto socorro, encontramos como principal queixa a febre (41,3%) seguida da tosse 11,5%. 32,7% procurou servico de emergencia com menos de 24h apos o aparecimento da queixa, sendo que 60% foram liberados para tratamento no domicilio e 83,7% receberam alta apos a consulta. Consideracoes finais: concluir -se que a maioria das criancas nao necessitavam de atencao terciaria, fato comprovado pelo numero de altas ter ultrapassado o numero de internacoes, transferencias e observacoes na enfermaria pediatrica. Tudo isso indica ser urgente a instalacao de medidas que visem o fortalecimento das unidades basicas de saude, de maneira a direcionar a assistencia proporcionando prevencao e promocao da saude.
Final Report on Key Comparison CCM.P-K4 in Absolute Pressure from 1 Pa to 1000 Pa

This report describes a CCM key comparison of low absolute-pressure standards at seven National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) that was carried out during the period March 1998 to September 1999 in order to determine their degrees of equivalence at pressures in the range 1 Pa to 1000 Pa. The primary standards, which represent two principal measurement methods, included five liquid-column manometers and four static expansion systems. The transfer standard package consisted of four high-precision pressure transducers, two capacitance diaphragm gauges to provide high resolution at low pressures, and two resonant silicon gauges to provide the required calibration stability. Two nominally identical transfer packages were used to reduce the time required for the measurements, with Package A being circulated among laboratories in the European region (IMGC, NPL-UK, and PTB) and Package B being circulated among laboratories in the Asia-Pacific region (CSIRO, KRISS, and NPL-I). The results obtained with different transfer packages were normalized by using data obtained from simultaneous calibrations of the two packages at the pilot laboratory (NIST). The degrees of equivalence of the measurement standards were determined in two ways, deviations from key comparison reference values and pairwise differences between these deviations. Apart from results from one NMI that were identified as outliers, the absolute pressure standards of the seven participating NMIs were generally found to be equivalent and the results revealed no significant relative bias between the two principal methods tested by this comparison.
Raman scattering due to interface optical phonons in GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells.

We present measurements and calculations of the resonant Raman line shape due to optic phonons in GaAs/AlAs multiple quantum wells (MQW's). Under resonant photoexcitation conditions we observe broad features between the bulk LO and TO frequencies in both the GaAs and AlAs optic phonon regions, due to modes propagating in the layer plane (in-plane modes). These are much stronger for the outgoing than the incoming resonance condition due to relaxation of the photoexcited exciton to states of the finite in-plane center-of-mass wave vector. The broad feature in the GaAs region displays a number of dips that can be assigned to the anticrossing of the interface dispersion with odd-order confined modes. We present a macroscopic model for calculating the resonant Raman line shape that incorporates the coupling to the in-plane modes, described realistically as combinations of interfacelike and confinedlike parts. Calculated line shapes reproduce closely the spectra measured for several MQW's of differing layer widths. In particular, good agreement is found for the dependence of both the GaAs and AlAs optic phonon regions on the AlAs thickness, which provides convincing proof of the role of interface modes in the spectra. © 1995 The American Physical Society.
Renaissance Self-Fashioning from More to Shakespeare

"Renaissance Self-Fashioning "is a study of sixteenth-century life and literature that spawned a new era of scholarly inquiry. Stephen Greenblatt examines the structure of selfhood as evidenced in major literary figures of the English Renaissance More, Tyndale, Wyatt, Spenser, Marlowe, and Shakespeare and finds that in the early modern period new questions surrounding the nature of identity heavily influenced the literature of the era. Now a classic text in literary studies, "Renaissance Self-Fashioning" continues to be of interest to students of the Renaissance, English literature, and the new historicist tradition, and this new edition includes a preface by the author on the book's creation and influence. "No one who has read [Greenblatt's] accounts of More, Tyndale, Wyatt, and others can fail to be moved, as well as enlightened, by an interpretive mode which is as humane and sympathetic as it is analytical. These portraits are poignantly, subtly, and minutely rendered in a beautifully lucid prose alive in every sentence to the ambivalences and complexities of its subjects. " Harry Berger Jr., University of California, Santa Cruz"
Influence de l'écartement des rangs et de la hauteur de la haie foliaire sur le comportement agronomique et le développement racinaire de la vigne

Un essai d'ecartement des rangs combine a differentes hauteurs de la haie foliaire a ete mis en place en 1996 sur le domaine experimental de la Station de recherche Agroscope Changins-Wadenswil ACW a Pully (VD) avec le cepage Chasselas. Avec une meme charge en rameaux et un meme nombre de grappes par cep, l'elargissement des interlignes a provoque une augmentation du rendement par cep, mais une forte diminution du rendement par unite de surface sans amelioration de la teneur en sucre des mouts. La reaction a ete identique pour le poids des bois de taille. Le rapport surface foliaire exposee par kilogramme de raisin (SFE/kg) permet de bien expliquer la variation de la richesse en sucre des mouts. La distance interligne a eu peu d'effets sur l'acidite des mouts, le poids des baies et la fertilite des bourgeons. Le nombre de racines par cep a augmente avec l'accroissement de l'interligne, mais la densite racinaire par metre lineaire a diminue. Une hauteur de feuillage elevee a entraine un accroissement de la densite racinaire.
Effective and selective immune surveillance of the brain by MHC class I‐restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes

Cytotoxic CD8+ T cells are abundantly present in human virus‐induced or putative autoimmune diseases of the central nervous system (CNS). Their direct role in the induction of inflammatory brain damage is, however, poorly understood. We have studied CD8+ T cell‐mediated brain inflammation by transferring MHC class I‐restricted hemagglutinin (HA)‐reactive T cells from a TCR transgenic mouse line into transgenic mice, which express HA in astrocytes. We show that activated CD8+ T cells alone can induce monophasic brain inflammation in immunocompetent recipient animals. Similar to previous studies, involving transfer of CD4+ cells, brain inflammation peaks after 5–7 days and then declines. The pathology of brain inflammation, however, differs fundamentally from that induced by CD4+ cells. The inflammatory reaction is dominated by T cells and activated microglia in the virtual absence of hematogenous macrophages. This is associated with exquisitely specific destruction of antigen‐containing astrocytes in the absence of any bystander damage of myelin, oligodendrocytes or neurons. Furthermore, in contrast to CD4+ T cells, some CD8+ cells accumulate in the brain and activate microglia in recipient animals, even in the absence of the specific antigen in the CNS. These data indicate that CD8+ T cells areprime candidates for immune surveillance of the CNS.
Infection of dogs with Babesia canis in Gwagwalada metropolis of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

Epidemiological investigation was carried out to determine the prevalence of infection with Babesia canis in dogs in Gwagwalada metropolis of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Nigeria, from November 2013 to January 2014. Blood samples were collected from 101 dogs and examined for the parasite. Data obtained were analyzed to determine the prevalence of Babesia canis and the correlation of infection with age, sex, breed, types of management and presence or absence of tick infestation on the animal. Dogs screened were those from randomly selected house holds within the area. Overall results show an infection rate of 9/101 (8.9%). The prevalence was higher (P