Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Interprofessional Stroke Rehabilitation for Stroke Survivors Using Home Care

Objective: To compare a specialized interprofessional team approach to community-based stroke rehabilitation with usual home care for stroke survivors using home care services. Methods: Randomized controlled trial of 101 community-living stroke survivors (<18 months post-stroke) using home care services. Subjects were randomized to intervention (n=52) or control (n=49) groups. The intervention was a 12-month specialized, evidence-based rehabilitation strategy involving an interprofessional team. The primary outcome was change in health-related quality of life and functioning (SF-36) from baseline to 12 months. Secondary outcomes were number of strokes during the 12-month follow-up, and changes in community reintegration (RNLI), perceived social support (PRQ85-Part 2), anxiety and depressive symptoms (Kessler-10), cognitive function (SPMSQ), and costs of use of health services from baseline to 12 months. Results: A total of 82 subjects completed the 12-month follow-up. Compared with the usual care group, stroke survivors in the intervention group showed clinically important (although not statistically significant) greater improvements from baseline in mean SF-36 physical functioning score (5.87, 95% CI -3.98 to 15.7; p=0.24) and social functioning score (9.03, CI-7.50 to 25.6; p=0.28). The groups did not differ for any of the secondary effectiveness outcomes. There was a higher total per-person costs of use of health services in the intervention group compared to usual home care although the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.76). Conclusions: A 12-month specialized, interprofessional team is a feasible and acceptable approach to community-based stroke rehabilitation that produced greater improvements in quality of life compared to usual home care. Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00463229
Nonlinear sinogram smoothing for low-dose X-ray CT

When excessive quantum noise is present in extremely low dose X-ray CT imaging, statistical properties of the data has to be considered to achieve a satisfactory image reconstruction. Statistical iterative reconstruction with accurate modeling of the noise, rather than a filtered back-projection (FBP) with low-pass filtering, is one way to deal with the problem. Estimating a noise-free sinogram to satisfy the FBP reconstruction for the Radon transform is another way. The benefits of the latter include a higher computation efficiency, more uniform spatial resolution in the reconstructed image, and less modification of the current machine configurations. In a clinic X-ray CT system, the acquired raw data must be calibrated, in addition to the logarithmic transform, to achieve the high diagnostic image quality. The calibrated projection data or sinogram no longer follow a compound Poisson distribution in general, but are close to a Gaussian distribution with signal-dependent variance. In this paper, we first investigated a relatively accurate statistical model for the sinogram data, based on several phantom experiments. Then we developed a penalized likelihood method to smooth the sinogram, which led to a set of nonlinear equations that can be solved by iterated conditional mode (ICM) algorithm within a reasonable computing time. The method was applied to several experimental datasets acquired at 120 kVp, 10 mA/20 mA/50 mA protocols with a GE HiSpeed multi-slice detector CT scanner and demonstrated a significant noise suppression without noticeable sacrifice of the spatial resolution.
Anticonvulsant Medications Extend Worm Life-Span

Genetic studies have elucidated mechanisms that regulate aging, but there has been little progress in identifying drugs that delay aging. Here, we report that ethosuximide, trimethadione, and 3,3-diethyl-2-pyrrolidinone increase mean and maximum life-span of Caenorhabditis elegans and delay age-related declines of physiological processes, indicating that these compounds retard the aging process. These compounds, two of which are approved for human use, are anticonvulsants that modulate neural activity. These compounds also regulated neuromuscular activity in nematodes. These findings suggest that the life-span–extending activity of these compounds is related to the anticonvulsant activity and implicate neural activity in the regulation of aging.
Extracellular matrix regulates alpha s1‐casein gene expression in rabbit primary mammary cells and CCAAT enhancer binding protein (C/EBP) binding activity

Previous studies have shown that both the signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) and the CCAAT enhancer binding proteins (C/EBPs) are involved in the regulation of casein gene expression by mammary epithelial cells. Prolactin (Prl) activation of STAT5 is necessary for casein gene expression. The extracellular matrix (ECM) regulates also casein gene expression. Here, we have investigated whether ECM regulates C/EBPs activity in primary rabbit mammary epithelial cells. Isolated primary mammary cells were cultured on plastic or on floating collagen I gel. Prolactin induced αs 1‐casein gene expression when cells were cultured on collagen but not on plastic. It is noteworthy that activated STAT5 was detected in both culture conditions. Several STAT5 isoforms (STAT5a, STAT5b, and other STAT5 related isoforms, some with lower molecular weight than the full‐length STAT5a and STAT5b) were detected under the different culture conditions. However, their presence was not related to the expression of αs 1‐casein gene. The binding of nuclear factors to a C/EBP specific binding site and the protein level of C/EBPβ differed in cells cultured on plastic or on collagen but these parameters were not modified by Prl. This suggests that C/EBP binding activity was regulated by ECM and not by Prl. Interestingly, these modifications were correlated to the expression of the αs 1‐casein gene. Hence, the activation of the αs 1‐casein gene expression depends on two independent signals, one delivered by Prl via the activation of STAT5, the other delivered by ECM via C/EBP. J. Cell. Biochem. 82:371–386, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Similar Uptake of Lung Carcinogens by Smokers of Regular, Light, and Ultralight Cigarettes

Cigarette design has changed markedly over the past 60 years and sales-weighed levels of tar and nicotine have decreased. Currently, cigarettes are classified as regular (>14.5 mg tar), light (>6.5-14.5 mg tar), and ultralight (≤6.5 mg tar), based on a Federal Trade Commission–specified machine-smoking protocol. Epidemiologic studies suggest that there is no difference in lung cancer risk among people who smoke light or ultralight cigarettes compared with regular cigarettes, but the uptake of lung carcinogens in smokers of these types of cigarettes has never been reported. We recruited 175 smokers, who filled out a tobacco use questionnaire in which their current brand was identified as regular, light, or ultralight. Urine samples were collected and analyzed for 1-hydroxypyrene (1-HOP), total 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL plus its glucuronides) and total cotinine (cotinine plus its glucuronides). 1-HOP and total NNAL are biomarkers of uptake of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone, lung carcinogens in cigarette smoke. Total cotinine is a biomarker of nicotine uptake. There were no statistically significant differences in urinary levels of 1-HOP, total NNAL, and total cotinine in smokers of regular, light, and ultralight cigarettes, whether the results were expressed per mg urinary creatinine, per mL of urine, or per mg creatinine divided by cigarettes per day. Levels of machine measured tar were available for the cigarettes smoked by 149 of the subjects. There was no correlation between levels of tar and any of the biomarkers. These results indicate that lung carcinogen and nicotine uptake, as measured by urinary 1-HOP, total NNAL, and total cotinine is the same in smokers of regular, light, and ultralight cigarettes. The results are consistent with epidemiologic studies that show no difference in lung cancer risk in smokers of these cigarettes.
Political Uncertainty in Developed and Emerging Markets

Following Pastor and Veronesi (2012, 2013), we test for a relationship between political uncertainty and financial market risk. We extended Pastor and Veronesi's work by considering a panel of international markets, including emerging markets, which may face greater political uncertainty. Our results are less clear-cut than the original (USA) results, finding that while volatility is impacted by political uncertainty, the same can not be said for value-weighted average pairwise correlations. Finally, we disaggregated our panel and examine the countries individually. The results here are heterogeneous while some countries support the policy to market risk transmission hypothesis, others may do not.
Audit of fidelity of implementation of the older prisoner health and social care assessment and plan (OHSCAP)

ABSTRACT Numbers of older prisoners have been increasing in recent years and there is no national strategy addressing their care. Older prisoners have more physical health needs, complex social care needs and high rates of mental disorder compared with younger prisoners. These needs are often not identified or addressed. We developed the Older prisoner Health and Social Care Assessment and Plan (OHSCAP), a structured approach for identifying and managing the health and social care needs of older prisoners. It consists of an assessment, care plan and review of needs. The current study aims to establish the fidelity of implementation of the OHSCAP as part of a larger RCT. Compliance, context and competence fidelity were audited to assess compliance with training and the manual, adequacy of completion and identification of needs and quality of care planning. Results showed that the OHSCAP was not implemented as intended with needs identified not being consistently translated into care plan actions, little evidence to suggest that prisoner involvement in the care planning process and difficulties in collaborative working. Implications with respect to effectively embedding complex interventions within prisons, along with wider policy-related issues affecting the entire prison estate are discussed.
A second-order-statistics-based solution for online multichannel noise tracking and reduction

We propose a second-order-statistics-based approach to online multichannel noise tracking and reduction. We combine the multichannel speech presence probability (MC-SPP) that we proposed in [1] with an alternative formulation of the minima-controlled recursive averaging (MCRA) technique that we generalize from the single- to the multichannel case. Then, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MC-SPP and multichannel noise estimator by integrating them into variants of the multichannel noise-reduction Wiener filter.
Pooling Data and Linkage Analysis in the Chromosome 5q Candidate Region for Asthma

We investigated a variety of methods for pooling data from eight data sets (n = 5,424 subjects) to validate evidence for linkage of markers in the cytokine cluster on chromosome 5q31–33 to asthma and asthma‐associated phenotypes. Chromosome 5 markers were integrated into current genetic linkage and physical maps, and a consensus map was constructed to facilitate effective data pooling. To provide more informative phenotypes with better distributional properties, variance component models were fitted using Gibbs sampling methods in order to generate residual additive genetic effects, or sigma‐squared‐A‐random‐effects (SSARs), which were used as derived phenotypes in subsequent linkage analyses. Multipoint estimates of alleles shared identically by descent (IBD) were computed for all full sibling pairs. Linkage analyses were performed with a new Haseman‐Elston method that uses generalized‐least‐squares and a weighted combination of the mean‐corrected trait‐sum squared and trait‐difference squared as the dependent variable. Analyses were performed with all data sets pooled together, and also separately with the resulting linkage statistics pooled by several meta‐analytic methods. Our results provide no significant evidence that loci conferring susceptibility to asthma affection or atopy, as measured by total serum IgE levels, are present in the 5q31–33 region. This study has provided a clearer understanding of the significance, or lack of significance, of the 5q31–33 region in asthma genetics for the phenotypes studied. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Proteomic Analysis of Ubiquitin-Like Posttranslational Modifications Induced by the Adenovirus E4-ORF3 Protein

ABSTRACT Viruses interact with and regulate many host metabolic pathways in order to advance the viral life cycle and counteract intrinsic and extrinsic antiviral responses. The human adenovirus (Ad) early protein E4-ORF3 forms a unique scaffold throughout the nuclei of infected cells and inhibits multiple antiviral defenses, including a DNA damage response (DDR) and an interferon response. We previously reported that the Ad5 E4-ORF3 protein induces sumoylation of Mre11 and Nbs1, which are essential for the DDR, and their relocalization into E4-ORF3-induced nuclear inclusions is required for this modification to occur. In this study, we sought to analyze a global change in ubiquitin-like (Ubl) modifications, with particular focus on SUMO3, by the Ad5 E4-ORF3 protein and to identify new substrates with these modifications. By a comparative proteome-wide approach utilizing immunoprecipitation/mass spectrometry, we found that Ubl modifications of 166 statistically significant lysine sites in 51 proteins are affected by E4-ORF3, and the proteome of modifications spans a diverse range of cellular functions. Ubl modifications of 92% of these identified sites were increased by E4-ORF3. We further analyzed SUMO3 conjugation of several identified proteins. Our findings demonstrated a role for the Ad5 E4-ORF3 protein as a regulator of Ubl modifications and revealed new SUMO3 substrates induced by E4-ORF3. IMPORTANCE The adenovirus E4-ORF3 protein induces dynamic structural changes in the nuclei of infected cells and counteracts host antiviral responses. One of the mechanisms that accounts for this process is the relocalization and sequestration of cellular proteins into an E4-ORF3 nuclear scaffold, but little is known about how this small viral protein affects diverse cellular responses. In this study, we analyzed for the first time the global pattern of ubiquitin-like (Ubl) modifications, with particular focus on SUMO3, altered by E4-ORF3 expression. The results suggest a role for the Ad5 E4-ORF3 protein as a regulator of Ubl modifications and reveal new SUMO3 substrates targeted by E4-ORF3. Our findings propose Ubl modifications as a new mechanism by which E4-ORF3 may modulate cellular protein functions in addition to subnuclear relocalization.
Lipophilic prodrug conjugates allow facile and rapid synthesis of high-loading capacity liposomes without the need for post-assembly purification

Abstract Dihydropyridopyrazoles are simplified synthetic analogues of podophyllotoxin that can effectively mimic its molecular scaffold and act as potent mitotic spindle poisons in dividing cancer cells. However, despite nanomolar potencies and ease of synthetic preparation, further clinical development of these promising anticancer agents is hampered due to their poor aqueous solubility. In this article, we developed a prodrug strategy that enables incorporation of dihydropyridopyrazoles into liposome bilayers to overcome the solubility issues. The active drug was covalently connected to either myristic or palmitic acid anchor via carboxylesterase hydrolyzable linkage. The resulting prodrugs were self-assembled into liposome bilayers from hydrated lipid films using ultrasound without the need for post-assembly purification. The average particle size of the prodrug-loaded liposomes was about 90 nm. The prodrug incorporation was verified by differential scanning calorimetry, spectrophotometry and gel filtration reaching maximum at 0.3 and 0.35 prodrug/lipid molar ratios for myristic and palmitic conjugates, respectively. However, the ratio of 0.2 was used in the particle size and biological activity experiments to maintain long-term stability of the prodrug-loaded liposomes against phase separation during storage. Antiproliferative activity was tested against HeLa and Jurkat cancer cell lines in vitro showing that the liposomal prodrug retained antitubulin activity of the parent drug and induced apoptosis-mediated cancer cell death. Overall, the established data provide a powerful platform for further clinical development of dihydropyridopyrazoles using liposomes as the drug delivery system.
[Psychometric attributes of the Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-Psychosocial (SCOPA-PS): validation in Spain and review].

AIMS To evaluate the psychometric attributes of the Scales for Outcomes in Parkinson's Disease-Psychosocial (SCOPA-PS) in Spain and to compare them with previous studies. PATIENTS AND METHODS We performed a multi-centre, cross-sectional study of 387 patients with Parkinson's disease (PD), 70% of whom were in Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages 2 or 3, with a mean age of 65.8 +/- 11.1 years and 8.1 +/- 6 years' progression. The following measures were applied: SCOPA-Motor, SCOPA-Cognition, modified Parkinson's Psychosis Rating Scale, Clinical Impression of Severity Index for Parkinson's Disease (CISI-PD), Cumulative Illness Rating Scale-Geriatrics, SCOPA-Autonomic, SCOPA-Sleep, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Fatigue and Pain Visual Analogue Scales, EQ-5D and SCOPA-PS. Acceptability, internal consistence, dimensionality, construct validity and precision of the SCOPA-PS were analysed. RESULTS The SCOPA-PS summary index displayed no ceiling or floor effect. Internal consistence was satisfactory (alpha = 0.85; item-total correlation => 0.39). Two factors were identified (53.5% of the variance). The SCOPA-PS was highly correlated (r(S) => 0.5) with the HADS, SCOPA-Motor, SCOPA-Automatic and EQ-5D index, and moderately so (r(S) = 0.35-0.49) with CISI-PD, fatigue and HY. The SCOPA-PS discriminated significantly between patients grouped according to HY stages, levels of severity of the CISI-PD, age groups and length of time with PD. The standard error of the measure was 7.24 +/- 18.7. As a whole, these findings are in agreement with previous studies. CONCLUSIONS The SCOPA-PS is a scale with a satisfactory degree of acceptability, and it is consistent, valid and precise for evaluating the psychosocial impact of PD.
Distributed Seeking of Time-Varying Nash Equilibrium for Non-Cooperative Games

In this note, we address a Nash equilibrium seeking problem for non-cooperative games. In contrast to previous works on Nash equilibrium seeking, the Nash equilibrium under consideration can be time-varying. A non-model-based seeking scheme is proposed to achieve time-varying Nash equilibrium seeking, where each player updates its strategy by employing an extremum seeking method. The proposed Nash seeking scheme consists of a gradient estimation algorithm and a gradient search algorithm, which can be designed in a modular fashion. For symmetric quadratic games, the proposed Nash equilibrium seeking method enables the estimated strategy to globally asymptotically converge to the Nash equilibrium. For general quadratic games that are not necessarily symmetric, the estimated strategy converges to a neighborhood of the Nash equilibrium. For more general non-quadratic games that may admit multiple equilibria, local convergence to the Nash equilibrium is proven.
Improved observer-based fault estimator design for a class of T-S fuzzy systems

For a class of Takagi–Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy nonlinear systems, in this article, an improved fuzzy observer-based fault estimator is designed to estimate the fault signals on-line based on common Lyapunov function. Attention is focused on the linear matrix inequality (LMI)-based design method with specified performance constraints and less conservatism, which is suitable for complex system models with more rules. The multiobjective and H ∞ optimisation theory is applied to cope with the constraints on the disc-regional poles assignment index and the robustness to disturbances. Some developed relaxing techniques are utilised to reduce the conservatism and the number of LMI constraints which were generated by the conventional design method with common quadratic Lyapunov function. Thus, the resulting estimator is not only less conservative, but can also guarantee the desired fault estimation performance on the rapidity as well as robustness to neglected modelling dynamics, and the robustness against external disturbances with satisfied estimation accuracy to faults signals. The conventional design is also presented for comparative study. All the results are formulated in the form of LMIs. Simulative examples demonstrate that our proposed method is less conservative and effective for fault estimation.
Life-prolonging treatment in nursing homes: how do physicians and nurses describe and justify their own practice?

Background Making the right decisions, while simultaneously showing respect for patient autonomy, represents a great challenge to nursing home staff in the issues of life-prolonging treatment, hydration, nutrition and hospitalisation to dying patents in end-of-life. Objectives To study how physicians and nurses protect nursing home patients' autonomy in end-of-life decisions, and how they justify their practice. Design A qualitative descriptive design with analysis of the content of transcribed in-depth interviews with physicians and nurses. Participants Nine physicians and ten nurses in 10 nursing homes in Norway. Results and interpretations Assessment of the patient's competence to consent to treatment is almost absent. The physicians build their practice on the principles of beneficence and nonmaleficence. Nurses tend to trust the patients' rejection of life support, even when the patients have difficulty speaking or suffer from dementia. Relatives were, according to the health personnel, included in decision-making processes to a very limited extent. However, futile life support is sometimes provided contrary to the physicians' judgement of what constitutes the patient's best interest on occasions when they are pressurised by next of kin. Conclusions The study reveals a need to improve decision-making routines according to ethical ideals and legislation. Conflicts between relatives and healthcare professionals in the decision-making process deflect the focus from searching for the best possible treatment for the terminal patient. Further discussion is required as to whether the concept of autonomy is applicable in situations in which the patient is impaired and dying.