Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SARS: coping with the impact at a community hospital.

AIM This paper presents the findings of a staff survey conducted at a 350-bed acute care facility located on the periphery of Toronto, Canada. BACKGROUND Toronto's severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) crisis resulted in trauma-like effects at hospitals hardest hit by the disease. A systematic examination of the impact on staff working in hospitals that saw relatively few cases, while maintaining the precautions associated with elevated alert levels, has not been undertaken. METHODS A questionnaire was distributed for 1 month commencing 17 April 2003 and 300 completed responses were obtained (approximately one in six staff members). The data collected included demographic and occupational information, in addition to perceptions of SARS' impact on patient care, factors contributing to adverse impacts on patient care, working conditions, decision-making, communication and relations, sources of support, and the impact on workers' lives outside work. Items for these sections were developed by a multi-disciplinary team of health care workers and hospital administrators. RESULTS In the absence of pre-SARS normative data for the survey, demographic and occupational variables were used to look for patterns of differences between relevant subgroups of respondents. Statistically significant differences were found for gender (73.9% women), nurses (24.7%) vs. others, doctors (20.3%) vs. others, older (40 years or older, 60.0%) vs. younger persons, emergency or intensive care unit workers (8.0%) vs. others, and those employed fewer years at the hospital (less than 5 years: 46.2%) vs. five or more years. These differences varied across the following domains: factors adversely affecting patients, communications, support, working conditions, decision-making and, to a lesser extent, impact on life outside work. While all groups found SARS stressful, nurses reported a greater impact on morale and job satisfaction. Nurses relied more on peer support than doctors, felt less informed and less involved in decision-making than doctors felt, and were more likely to report that infection control procedures were not strict enough. CONCLUSIONS The between-group differences and the pattern of these differences clearly illustrate the polarizing and stressful impact SARS had at a hospital with only a small number of probable or suspect cases. The clear differences between groups defined by demographics, professions and clinical roles suggest a subtle and pervasive secondary impact of the SARS outbreak, with repercussions health care facilities must contend with while maintaining increased levels of vigilance in the wake of SARS.
Does location matter? A proposed methodology to evaluate neighbourhood effects on cardiac arrest survival and bystander CPR.

BACKGROUND Traditional variables used to explain survival following out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) account for only 72% of survival, suggesting that other unknown factors may influence outcomes. Research on other diseases suggests that neighbourhood factors may partly determine health outcomes. Yet, this approach has rarely been used for OHCA. This work outlines a methodology to investigate multiple neighbourhood factors as determinants of OHCA outcomes. METHODS A retrospective, observational cohort study design will be used. All adult non-emergency medical service witnessed OHCAs of cardiac etiology within the city of Toronto between 2006 and 2010 will be included. Event details will be extracted from the Toronto site of the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Epistry-Cardiac Arrest, an existing population-based dataset of consecutive OHCA patients. Geographic information systems technology will be used to assign patients to census tracts. Neighbourhood variables to be explored include the Ontario Marginalization Index (deprivation, dependency, ethnicity, and instability), crime rate, and density of family physicians. Hierarchical logistic regression analysis will be used to explore the association between neighbourhood characteristics and 1) survival-to-hospital discharge, 2) return-of-spontaneous circulation at hospital arrival, and 3) provision of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Receiver operating characteristics curves will evaluate each model's ability to discriminate between those with and without each outcome. Discussion This study will determine the role of neighbourhood characteristics in OHCA and their association with clinical outcomes. The results can be used as the basis to focus on specific neighbourhoods for facilitating educational interventions, CPR awareness programs, and higher utilization of automatic defibrillation devices.
Minimally invasive focused parathyroidectomy without using intraoperative parathyroid hormone monitoring or gamma probe.

BACKGROUND Minimally invasive parathyroidectomy (MIP) is widely used worldwide for the treatment of primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT). It is usually combined with a perioperative adjunct for high success rate. AIM To demonstrate that MIP can be successfully performed in a selected group of patients with presumabally solitary adenoma as the cause of pHPT without using any perioperative adjuncts. SETTINGS AND DESIGN A prospective data analysis of two surgeons' series from a teaching hospital in Turkey. MATERIALS AND METHODS Of the 47 patients referred with a diagnosis of pHPT during January 2004-May 2008, 30(63%) patients with sporadic pHPT with presumed solitary adenoma were included for analysis. These patients underwent MIP via focused lateral (n=24) or anterior (n=6) approach. Preoperative localization was done using 99 mTc-labelled sestamibi scan and ultrasonography. Only patients with concordant tests for single adenoma were selected for MIP. Serum parathyroid hormone and calcium levels were measured postoperatively and at follow-up visits. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Parametric data presented were analyzed with Excel XP (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA). RESULTS Barring one patient, all other patients were initially biochemically cured by MIP. One patient remained hypercalcemic, who was found to have a second adenoma at the second operation. During a mean follow-up of 16 (3-55) months, all patients were normocalcemic with a mean serum calcium level of 9.4 (8.9-10.2) mg/dl. Parathormone levels were persistantly elevated only in one patient (3.4%). No postoperative permanent complication was encountered. CONCLUSION The results of MIP achieved in high-volume endocrine surgery centers can be replicated in low-volume center without any intraoperative adjuncts, in patients with overt clinical pHPT and concordant results of sestamibi and ultrasound.
Role and regulation of activation of caspases in cisplatin-induced injury to renal tubular epithelial cells.

BACKGROUND Cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity to renal tubular epithelial cells are not well understood. Although caspases play a critical role in the execution of the cell death pathway, their specific role in toxic injury to renal tubular epithelial cells has not been elucidated previously. METHODS The role of caspases in cisplatin-induced injury was determined using caspase inhibitors and p35 transfected LLC-PK1 cells. The Akt/PKB phosphorylation pathway was studied for the regulation of caspase activation in these cells. RESULTS The activation of initiator caspases-8, -9 and -2, and executioner caspase-3 began after eight hours of cisplatin treatment, thereafter markedly increased in a time (8 to 24 hours) and dose-dependent manner (0 to 200 micromol/L). Proinflammatory caspase-1 did not show cisplatin-induced activation. Inhibition of caspase-3 by over expressing cowpox virus p35 protein or alternatively by the peptide inhibitor DEVD-CHO provided marked protection against cell death and partial protection against DNA damage. We then examined the role of the Akt/PKB phosphorylation pathway in regulation of cisplatin-induced caspase activation. There was a marked induction of Akt/PKB phosphorylation in a time (0 to 8 hours) and dose-dependent (0 to 200 micromol/L) manner during the course of cisplatin injury. Cisplatin-induced Akt/PKB activation was associated with Bad phosphorylation, suggesting induction of a cell survival signal mediated by the Bcl-2 family member, Bad. Wortmannin or LY294002, two structurally dissimilar inhibitors of phosphatidylinositol 3'-kinase (PI-3 kinase), abolished both cisplatin-induced Akt phosphorylation and Bad phosphorylation, and promoted cisplatin-induced early and accelerated activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9, but not of caspase-8 and caspase-1, indicating that inhibition of the Akt/PKB phosphorylation pathway enhances the mitochondrial-dependent activation of caspases. The impact of enhanced activation of caspases by wortmannin or LY294002 was reflected on accelerated cisplatin-induced cell death. CONCLUSIONS These studies demonstrate differential activation and role of caspases in cisplatin injury, and provide the first evidence of cisplatin-induced induction of the Akt/PKB phosphorylation pathway, inhibition of which enhances activation of caspase-3 and caspase-9.
Quetiapine Nanoemulsion for Intranasal Drug Delivery: Evaluation of Brain-Targeting Efficiency

ABSTRACTTo evaluate the possibility of improved drug delivery of quetiapine fumarate (QTP), a nanoemulsion system was developed for intranasal delivery. Effects of different HLBs of Emalex LWIS 10, PEG 400 and Transcutol P, as co-surfactants, were studied on isotropic region of pseudoternary-phase diagrams of nanoemulsion system composed of capmul MCM (CPM) as oil phase, Tween 80 as surfactant and water. Phase behaviour, globule size, transmission electron microscope (TEM) photographs and brain-targeting efficiency of quetiapine nanoemulsion were investigated. In vitro dissolution study of optimised nanoemulsion formulation, with mean diameter 144 ± 0.5 nm, showed more than twofold increase in drug release as compared with pure drug. According to results of in vivo tissue distribution study in Wistar rats, intranasal administration of QTP-loaded nanoemulsion had shorter Tmax compared with that of intravenous administration. Higher drug transport efficiency (DTE%) and direct nose-to-brain drug transport (DTP%) was achieved by nanoemulsion. The nanoemulsion system may be a promising strategy for brain-targeted delivery of QTP.
The Corporeal Turn

What has been called the "corporeal turn" in recent Jewish studies is provoking anxiety. If "Judaism's mind has been more interesting and more influential than Judaism's body," a distinction worthy of study in its own right, critics are calling for "a swing back to its more traditional mooring in the text (which, in any case, has often dealt with the body). " But those who took the corporeal turn never left the text behind. Rather, they brought a concern with the body to the text and found new ways to read and think about those texts. What troubles the critics would seem to lie elsewhere. Reviewing several books published in the 1990s, Hillel Halkin characterized the trend as "feminizing Jewish Studies," which he did not intend as a compliment.1 The problem was not that their authors ignored the text.2 Rather, it was the way they read the texts; their ap proach was marked, in his view, by "postmodern thinking," skepticism, a "nonto anti-Zionist" stance, an affirmation of "Diaspora Jewish iden tity," and above all an open embrace of feminism and feminist theory (and, though he does not say so in so many words, a preoccupation with sexuality and homosexuality). Non-Orthodox Jewish America is, in his view, suffering from deep confusion, exacerbated (if not caused) by the "sexual revolution," and this kind of work just makes things worse. A firestorm ensued, fueled a few months later by Gabriel Schoenfeld's wholesale condemnation of "the voguish hybrid known as gender stud ies" in Holocaust scholarship.3
Use of spent osmotic solutions for the production of fructooligosaccharides by Aspergillus oryzae N74

In the food industry, osmotic dehydration can be an important stage to obtain partially dry foodstuffs. However, the remaining spent osmotic solution at the end of the process could become a waste with an important environmental impact due to the large amount of organic compounds that it might contain. Since one of the most important osmotic agents used in osmotic dehydration is sucrose, this spent osmotic solution could be used to be biotransformed to produce fructooligosaccharides by a fructosyltransferase. This study evaluated the production of fructooligosaccharides using the fructosyltransferase produced by Aspergillus oryzae N74, and the spent osmotic solution that resulted in the osmotic dehydration of Andes berry (Rubus glaucus) and tamarillo (Cyphomandra betacea). Assays were conducted at small and bioreactor scales, using spent osmotic solution with or without re-concentration. At small scale no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed in the fructooligosaccharides production yield, ranging from 31.18% to 34.98% for spent osmotic solution from tamarillo osmotic dehydration, and from 33.16% to 37.52% for spent osmotic solution from Andes berry osmotic dehydration, using either the SOS with or without re-concentration. At bioreactor scale the highest fructooligosaccharides yield of 58.51 ± 1.73% was obtained with spent osmotic solution that resulted from tamarillo osmotic dehydration. With the spent osmotic solution from Andes berry osmotic dehydration the yield was 49.17 ± 2.82%. These results showed the feasibility of producing fructooligosaccharides from spent osmotic solution that is considered a waste in food industry.
System Identification based on Multi-kernel Least Squares Support Vector Machines (Multi-kernel LS-SVM)

This paper develops a new approach to identify nonlinear systems. A Multi-Kernel Least Squares Support Vector Machine (Multi-Kernel LS-SVM) is proposed. The basic LS-SVM idea is to map linear inseparable input data into a high dimensional linear separable feature space via a nonlinear mapping technique (kernel function) and to carry out linear classification or regression in feature space. The choice of kernel function is an important task which is related to the system nonlinearity degrees. The suggested approach combines several kernels in order to take advantage of their performances. Two examples are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Imagining machines with imagination

The author reviews and comments upon George Morton's predictive paper "Machines with Imagination". He argues that Morton's paper demonstrates a significant insight into the progress of machine intelligence, particularly because that progress was hardly accomplished in a linear progression of systematic advances. Indeed, the forecasts laid down in Morton's paper have become pertinent only after a series of relative failures and false starts within the developing field of artificial intelligence.
Regulation of Mn-Superoxide Dismutase Activity and Neuroprotection by STAT3 in Mice after Cerebral Ischemia

Cerebral ischemia and reperfusion increase superoxide anions (O2·−) in brain mitochondria. Manganese superoxide dismutase (Mn-SOD; SOD2), a primary mitochondrial antioxidant enzyme, scavenges superoxide radicals and its overexpression provides neuroprotection. However, the regulatory mechanism of Mn-SOD expression during cerebral ischemia and reperfusion is still unclear. In this study, we identified the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) as a transcription factor of the mouse Mn-SOD gene, and elucidated the mechanism of O2·− overproduction after transient focal cerebral ischemia (tFCI). We found that Mn-SOD expression is significantly reduced by reperfusion in the cerebral ischemic brain. We also found that activated STAT3 is usually recruited into the mouse Mn-SOD promoter and upregulates transcription of the mouse Mn-SOD gene in the normal brain. However, at early postreperfusion periods after tFCI, STAT3 was rapidly downregulated, and its recruitment into the Mn-SOD promoter was completely blocked. In addition, transcriptional activity of the mouse Mn-SOD gene was significantly reduced by STAT3 inhibition in primary cortical neurons. Moreover, we found that STAT3 deactivated by reperfusion induces accumulation of O2·− in mitochondria. The loss of STAT3 activity induced neuronal cell death by reducing Mn-SOD expression. Using SOD2−/+ heterozygous knock-out mice, we found that Mn-SOD is a direct target of STAT3 in reperfusion-induced neuronal cell death. Our study demonstrates that STAT3 is a novel transcription factor of the mouse Mn-SOD gene and plays a crucial role as a neuroprotectant in regulating levels of reactive oxygen species in the mouse brain.
Fluctuating spin density waves in metals

Recent work has used a U(1) gauge theory to describe the physics of Fermi pockets in the presence of fluctuating spin density wave order. We generalize this theory to an arbitrary band structure and ordering wave vector. The transition to the large Fermi-surface state, without pockets induced by local spin density wave order, is described by embedding the U(1) gauge theory in a SU(2) gauge theory. The phase diagram of the SU(2) gauge theory shows that the onset of spin density wave order in the Fermi liquid occurs either directly, in the framework discussed by Hertz, or via intermediate non-Fermi-liquid phases with Fermi surfaces of fractionalized excitations. We discuss application of our results to the phase diagram of the cuprates.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GROWTH AND MUTATION IN PSEUDOMONAS FLUORESCENS

Lwoff and Audureau (1941) have reported experiments which they interpret as evidence for the occurrence of spontaneous bacterial mutations' in the absence of growth. These workers discovered a positive biochemical mutation, involving the ability to use succinate as the source of energy, in the bacterium Moraxella iwoffi. M. iwoffi is an obligate aerobe with simple nutrient requirements and develops rapidly in a medium containing the necessary minerals, ammonia nitrogen, and any one of a variety of simple carbon compounds. The parent strain is unable to utilize succinate, but rare succinate-positive mutants are formed, being present to the extent of approximately one cell out of every 108 cells in parent clones. When small numbers of parent cells (approx. 105) are placed in tubes of mineral succinate medium, growth (as indicated by visible turbidity) becomes apparent after a variable length of time, ranging from 3 to 30 days. The growth in such positive cultures always consists of the succinate-positive mutant. The conclusions drawn by Lwoff and Audureau from such experiments were (1) that the parent strain cannot grow in a mineral succinate medium and, consequently, (2) that the variable time that elapses before visible turbidity appears is the time necessary for mutation to take place in a population of nonproliferating cells together with the time required for a mutant cell, once formed, to multiply up to the point of visible turbidity. Such an interpretation, if true, would necessitate a widening of Luria and Delbriick's (1943) definition of the mutation rate, which carries the definite implication that bacterial mutations occur only in the proliferating state. However, since the results obtained by Luria and Delbruick (1943) and Witkin (1947) have been interpreted as showing that, in the case of mutations to virus resistance, growth is necessary for mutations to occur, it appeared desirable to analyze somewhat more closely the type of situation met with in the experiments of Lwoff and Audureau before accepting their conclusions as valid. An opportunity to do so arose when a very similar positive biochemical mutant was discovered in an organism nutritionally similar to Moraxella lwoffl. The organism is Pseudomonasfluorescens, also an autotrophic aerobe (Lwoff et al., 1946), and the mutation involves ability to utilize as a carbon source itaconate (methylene succinate), a substance not used by the parent strain.
Three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded framework in bis(melamin-1-ium) naphthalene-1,5-disulfonate melamine pentahydrate.

Crystals of the title compound, 2C(3)H(7)N(6)(+). C(10)H(6)O(6)S(2)(2-). C(3)H(6)N(6). 5H(2)O, are built up of neutral 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine (melamine), singly protonated melaminium cations, naphthalene-1,5-disulfonate dianions and water molecules. Two independent anions lie across centres of inversion in the space group P1. The melamine molecules are connected by N-H.N hydrogen bonds into two different one-dimensional polymers almost parallel to the (010) plane, forming a stacking structure along the b axis. The centrosymmetric naphthalene-1,5-disulfonate anions interact with water molecules via O-H.O hydrogen bonds, forming layers parallel to the (001) plane. The cations and anions are connected by N-H.O and O-H.N hydrogen bonds to form a three-dimensional supramolecular framework.
This method leads to a clearer understanding of various aspects of the OO approach . Using Objects for Systems Analysis

nated as a programming and software design discipline offering advantages such as reusability, extendibility and portability. Recently, object thinking has been applied extensively to systems analysis [1, 3, 4, 8, 10]. It has even been claimed that “the real payoff (of the object-oriented approach) comes from addressing front-end conceptual issues, rather than back-end implementation issues” [10]. However, in this evolution, programming concepts have crept into some analysis methods. This is demonstrated by statements such as: “Objects serve two purposes: They promote understanding of the real world and provide a practical basis for computer implementation” [10] or “An object is any thing, real or abstract, about which we store data and those methods that manipulate the data” [8]. We believe that improper adaptation of programming concepts has impeded the successful application of object-oriented systems analysis. Systems analysis involves modeling a domain. It is therefore fundamentally different from software design, which is implementation-oriented. According to Kilov and Ross [7], “the library of generic programming concepts is at too low a level for analysis. ” Of course, object-oriented analysis provides input for designing software. Accordingly, software design objectives such as modularity and reuse could be seen as relevant during analysis. We argue, however, that this perspective may interfere with understanding the domain by drawing attention to implementation considerations. This can be detrimental to system success, since “focusing on implementation issues too early . often leads to an inferior product” [10]. By drawing on distinctive models of representation we are able to analyze the role of objects in domain modeling. This method leads to a clearer understanding of various aspects of the OO approach. Using Objects for Systems Analysis