Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prolonged infusion of inhibitors of calcineurin or L‐type calcium channels does not block mossy fiber sprouting in a model of temporal lobe epilepsy

Purpose: It would be useful to selectively block granule cell axon (mossy fiber) sprouting to test its functional role in temporal lobe epileptogenesis. Targeting axonal growth cones may be an effective strategy to block mossy fiber sprouting. L‐type calcium channels and calcineurin, a calcium‐activated phosphatase, are critical for normal growth cone function. Previous studies have provided encouraging evidence that blocking L‐type calcium channels or inhibiting calcineurin during epileptogenic treatments suppresses mossy fiber sprouting.
The Clinical Burden And Predictors of Sequelae Following Invasive Meningococcal Disease In Australian Children

Of 109 children admitted to a tertiary paediatric hospital with a diagnosis of invasive meningococcal disease from 2000–2011, 37.6% (n = 41) developed sequelae; for serogroup B, 41.3% developed sequelae. Independent predictors of sequelae included: fever ≥ 39°C on hospital presentation [odds ratio (OR): 4.5; P = 0.012] and a diagnosis of septicemia with meningitis compared with septicemia alone (OR: 15.5; P < 0.001) and meningitis alone (OR: 7.8; P = 0.002).
Spiritual and Pastoral Care Approaches for Helping Older Adults with Depression

SUMMARY Pastoral and Spiritual Care approaches to the reduction of depression in residential aged care facilities are considered. They are examined through specific one-to-one pastoral care, through a pastoral care person in the team approach to care and through a one-to-many relationship for group spiritual and religious activities. The suggestions in this article are offered as extensions to a manual, Challenge Depression, on managing depression in residential aged care as a way of including pastoral and spiritual care as part of an integrated approach and as part of a stand alone approach of pastoral care.
Changes in Childhood Pneumonia and Infant Mortality Rates Following Introduction of the 13-valent Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Nicaragua

Background: In 2010, Nicaragua became the first developing nation to add 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV-13) to its national immunization schedule, using a “3+0” dosing schedule. We assessed changes in incidence rates of health facility visits for childhood pneumonia and infant mortality after PCV-13 introduction in the Department of León, Nicaragua. Methods: We collected visit diagnoses from all 107 public health facilities in León between 2008 and 2012. We compared rates of pneumonia hospitalizations, ambulatory visits for pneumonia and infant mortality during the prevaccine (2008–2010) and vaccine (2011–2012) periods among different age groups of children using generalized estimating equations, accounting for clustering by municipality. Exposure time was estimated by official municipality population estimates. Results: The adjusted incidence rate ratio for pneumonia hospitalization in the vaccine versus prevaccine period was 0.67 (0.59–0.75) among infants and 0.74 (0.67–0.81) among 1-year olds. The adjusted incidence rate ratio for ambulatory visits for pneumonia was 0.87 (0.75–1.01) among infants, and 0.84 (0.74, 0.95) among 1-year olds. The adjusted incidence rate ratio for infant mortality was 0.67 (0.57–0.80). We also observed lower rates of health facility visits for pneumonia among age groups (2- to 4-year old and 5- to 14-year old) not eligible to receive PCV-13. Conclusions: Within the first 2 years of a PCV-13 immunization program in Nicaragua, we observed lower rates of hospitalizations and ambulatory visits for pneumonia among children of all ages and a lower infant mortality rate. Lower rates of pneumonia among age groups not eligible to receive PCV-13 suggest an indirect effect of the vaccine.
WSPE: a peer‐to‐peer grid programming environment

Grid programming environments are tools designed to isolate users from issues such as heterogeneity, scalability and adaptability, thus simplifying the use of a Grid infrastructure. This paper presents work stealing programming environment (WSPE), a Grid programming environment for Grid‐unaware applications. WSPE can be defined as a programming environment, since it is a software tool that presents both a programming model and an execution system. The WSPE consists of a simple programming interface and a fully decentralized runtime system following a peer‐to‐peer organization, both presented in this paper. It's runtime system employs a new scheduling mechanism, known as round stealing, inspired by the idea of work stealing. The main focus of our work is to research on methods to achieve efficient execution of parallel applications in a Grid computing infrastructure. By simulation, we show that our scheduling mechanism outperforms a more traditional mechanism in a Grid environment. We also demonstrate how an appropriate choice for a network overlay mechanism can further improve the execution efficiency. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Investigation of the Presence of Inorganic Micro- and Nanosized Contaminants in Bread and Biscuits by Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy

A European project called “Nanopathology” allowed to develop a new diagnostic tool through which the presence of inorganic particulate matter in pathological human tissues of the digestive tract could be shown. This unexpected evidence induced the authors to put forward the hypothesis that that sort of contamination was present in ingested food. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, 86 samples of wheat bread and 49 of wheat biscuits from 14 different countries were analyzed by means of an Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy to detect inorganic, micro-, and nano-scaled contaminants. The X-ray microprobe of an Energy Dispersion Spectroscope was employed to identify their chemical composition. The results indicate that 40% of the samples analyzed contained foreign bodies as ceramic and metallic debris of probable environmental or industrial origin. Because of the great variety of chemical composition of the particulate matter, those contaminants were listed according to the most expressed element. The majority of these debris are not biodegradable, some are chemically toxic, and none of them have any nutritive value. The work discusses the possible origin of such a pollution and the role that it can play on human life.
Fitness for Older Adults

K eeping active and remaining fit can help prolong your life and can even help prevent or delay illnesses or disabilities as you grow older. The benefits of physical activity extend throughout life and can improve many health conditions. Being active helps lower your risk of falls and developing heart disease and diabetes and can help you live on your own longer. Fitness and physical activity are safe for most older adults—even for those with stable chronic conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis. Your doctor can advise you about the safety of certain activities and increasing your fitness level. The September 3, 2008, issue of JAMA includes an article reporting that regular physical activity can improve mental function in older adults with memory complaints. This Patient Page is based on one published in the July 12, 2006, issue of JAMA.
Epidemiology of Pediatric Pneumococcal Meningitis and Bacteremia in Latin America and the Caribbean: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background: Pneumococcal meningitis and bacteremia pose a significant disease burden in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Methods: To perform a systematic review of studies of pediatric pneumococcal meningitis and non-pneumonia, non-meningitis pneumococcal bacteremia in LAC, we conducted an exhaustive search from 2000 to 2010 in electronic databases and grey literature. Pairs of independently selected reviewers assessed the quality and extracted the studies’ data. A STROBE-based checklist was used to assess the risk of bias in observational studies. Meta-analyses were performed. Results: Of 1218 retrieved studies, 39 were included. In children <5 years, the pooled 95% confidence interval (CI) percentage of pneumococcal etiology out of cases studied with cerebrospinal fluid/blood cultures was 6.0% (95% CI: 3.3–9.5) for meningitis and 8.0% (95% CI: 5.3–12.4) for bacteremia. The incidences per 100,000 children were 4.7 (95% CI: 3.2–6.1) and 3.9 (95% CI: 2.0–5.9) for pneumococcal meningitis and non-pneumonia, non-meningitis bacteremia, respectively. The mortality was 8.3 (95% CI: 0.0–21.0) and 0.5 (95% CI: 0.3.0-0.6)/100,000 for meningitis and sepsis, respectively. The case fatality ratio was 33.2% (95% CI: 21.3–46.2) for meningitis and 29.0% (95% CI: 21.9–36.8) for sepsis. The pooled serotype distribution from SIREVA surveillance data showed that 14, 5, 6B (for meningitis) and 14, 6B, 19F (for bacteremia) were the most frequent serotypes, all included in licensed vaccines. Conclusion: Pneumococcal meningitis and bacteremia are important causes of morbidity and mortality in LAC children <5 years of age. This systematic review provided evidence about the burden of pneumococcal disease and the serotype distribution to assess the impact the pneumococcal vaccines and to assist decision makers in the region.
Decreased Toll-Like Receptor-4/Myeloid Differentiation Factor 88 Response Leads to Defective Interleukin-1&bgr; Production in Term Low Birth Weight Newborns

Background: Morbidity and mortality rates are very high in low birth weight (LBW) newborns because of their increased susceptibility to infections compared with normal birth weight (NBW) newborns. A case and control study was designed to identify the status of toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) signaling and maternally derived immunoglobulin-G (IgG) subclasses in term LBW newborns compared with NBW newborns. Methods: To understand the basis of increased susceptibility to infections in LBW newborns, the levels of pro- and antiinflammatory cytokines interleukin-1&bgr; (IL-1&bgr;) and interleukin-10 (IL-10), respectively, released in response to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) stimulation of cord blood cells of LBW (n = 20) and NBW (n = 18) newborns, were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Further, LPS-induced expression of TLR-4 and basal and LPS-induced expression of myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88) were examined at mRNA levels in both groups. The levels of IgG subclasses in LBW (n = 20) and NBW (n = 18) newborns were quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to explore the role of maternally derived immunity in LBW newborns. Results: LPS-mediated release of IL-1&bgr; was significantly diminished in LBW newborns when compared with NBW newborns, whereas there was no significant difference in IL-10. Decreased production of IL-1&bgr; in LBW newborns was correlated with reduced expression of TLR-4 and MyD88 mRNA. No significant differences were observed in the levels of all 4 IgG subclasses between LBW and NBW newborns. Conclusions. Decreased production of IL-1&bgr; in LBW newborns was correlated with reduced expression of TLR-4 and MyD88 mRNA. This raises the possibility of increased susceptibility to infections in LBW when compared with the NBW newborns at term. Comparable levels of IgG subclasses in the 2 groups of newborns indicate that IgG is not a limiting factor in defense against infection in LBW newborns.
Real-time PCR Identification of Agents Causing Diarrhea in Rwandan Children Less Than 5 Years of Age

Background: Knowledge about causes of acute diarrhea among children in developing countries is insufficient. Molecular methods might improve diagnostics of infectious gastroenteritis, but due to the high sensitivity, findings may be difficult to interpret. Methods: Feces samples from Rwandan children 0.5–5.0 years of age, with diarrhea for <96 hours (patients, n = 544) or without diarrhea for 14 days (controls, n = 162), were analyzed by real-time polymerase chain reaction targeting 17 pathogens. Results: At least 1 agent was detected in 94% of patients and in 79% of controls, with higher rates in sick children for rotavirus (42% vs. 2%, P < 0.0001) and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC)-estA (21% vs. 9%, P = 0.0006). Detection rates did not differ significantly for adenovirus (39% vs. 36%), ETEC-eltB (29% vs. 30%), Campylobacter (14% vs. 17%) or Shigella (13% vs. 10%), but for Shigella the threshold cycle (Ct) values were lower (pathogen loads were higher) in sick children than in controls. By multivariate analysis, including gender and age, detection of rotavirus (P < 0.0001), ETEC-estA (P = 0.001), Shigella (P = 0.004) and norovirus genogroup II (P = 0.009) was associated with symptomatic infection, and a Ct value below a cutoff (in the range 28–29) improved identification of ETEC-estA, Shigella and norovirus genogroup II. Conclusion: Real-time polymerase chain reaction can detect essentially all diarrheagenic agents, and provides Ct values that improve identification of clinically relevant infections.
Basic operations, completeness and dynamicity of cyber physical socio semantic link network CPSocio‐SLN

Cyber Physical Socio Semantic Link network (CPSocio‐SLN) is a model and method for self‐organizing cyber physical socio resources in Cyber Physical Society (CP‐Society). This paper views CPSocio‐SLN as an evolution process through a series of operations, and investigates its basic operations, completeness, and dynamicity. A strategy for efficiently storing and managing CPSocio‐SLN based on the basic operation set is proposed to support efficient query and maintenance. An approach is suggested for simplifying CPSocio‐SLN reasoning by estimating the importance of reasoning at multiple levels. The study of the dynamicity can help understand its basic characteristics. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
CONCURRENCY AND COMPUTATION : PRACTICE AND EXPERIENCE Concurrency Computat

Many profilers for virtual execution environments, such as the Java virtual machine (JVM), are implemented with low-level bytecode instrumentation techniques, which is tedious, error-prone, and complicates maintenance and extension of the tools. In order to reduce the development time and cost, we promote building profilers for the JVM using high-level aspect-oriented programming (AOP). We show that the use of aspects yields concise profilers that are easy to develop, extend, and maintain, because low-level instrumentation details are hidden from the tool developer. In order to build efficient profilers, we introduce inter-advice communication, an extension to common AOP languages that enables efficient data passing between advices that are woven into the same method using local variables. We illustrate our approach with two case studies. First, we show that an existing, instrumentation-based tool for listener latency profiling can be easily recast as an aspect. Second, we present an aspect for comprehensive calling context profiling. In order to reduce profiling overhead, our aspect parallelizes application execution and profile creation, resulting in a speedup of 110% on a machine with more than two cores, compared with a primitive, non-parallel approach. Copyright 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Anoxia–ischemia: A mechanism of seizure termination in ictal asystole

Cerebral anoxia–ischemia (CAI) is a potent inhibitor of cerebral hyperactivity and a potential mechanism of seizure self‐termination. Prolonged ictal asystole (IA) invariably leads to CAI and has been implicated as a potential cause of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUDEP). IA was seen in eight consecutive patients (0.12% of all patients monitored). Ten of their seizures with IA had evidence of CAI on electroencephalography (EEG), manifested by bilateral hypersynchronous slowing (BHS), and were compared to 18 seizures without signs of CAI. The ictal EEG pattern resolved in all 10 CAI events with onset of the BHS. The period from IA onset to seizure end was reduced in events with BHS compared to events without BHS (10.5 s vs. 28.3 s, respectively; p = 0.005), and the total seizure duration tended to be shorter. Anoxia–ischemia as a result of IA may represent an effective endogenous mechanism for seizure termination and may explain why the hearts of patients with ictal asystole reported to date in the literature resumed beating spontaneously.
Low dose rate caesium-137 implant time of intracavitary brachytherapy source of a selected oncology center in Ghana

Background: The treatment time taken for a radioactive source is found to be very important in intracavitary brachytherapy treatment. The duration of the treatment time depends on the prescribed dose requested to a reference point and the calculated dose rate to the same point. The duration of the treatment time of source is found to depend on the tumour stage. In this work, the treatment time of implant has been calculated for a Caesium-137 low dose rate brachytherapy source at an oncology facility in Ghana. Objective: The objective was to determine how the treatment time of tumours depends on the dose rate to the reference point prescribed by the Oncologists and the dose rate determined by the dosimetrists at the facility. Materials and Method: Depending upon the stage of the cancer, the Oncologist determines the type of treatment modality, source configuration for the cancer patient and positions of both tandem and ovoids in the cervix. Depending also on the tumour stage, two orthogonal radiographic X-ray films are taken using a simulator machine. The treatment machine used in the study is AMRA-Curietron. The maximum activity of the source was 259GBq. It has five channels which is a manual remote afterloader. In clinical practice, the treatment time t is very short(only some few days) for such low dose rate brachytherapy source like Cs-137 which lasts only for some few days in comparison with the half life of the Cs-137 source. The mathematical equation for the calculation of treatment time is written as t=D/D. Hence t is the treatment time of the radioactive source of patients undergoing intracavitary brachytherapy treatment, D is prescribed dose to a reference point and D is the dose rate to the same reference point. Results: The calculated treatment time of the Cs-137 brachytherapy source for different source arrangements or channels used in clinical practice at the brachytherapy Centre have been determined. Also provided, are the prescribed doses to the reference point and the calculated dose rate to the same point. The source arrangements in the channels are (1-2-5), (1-3-5), (1-4-5) and (1-5) respectively. Conclusion: The treatment time of Cs-137 low dose rate radioactive source for intracavitary brachytherapy treatment has been determined using the Manchester System. The results show that the treatment time depends on the dose prescribed to a reference point, which is usually set up by the oncologist at the Oncology center and the dose rate to the same point, which is determined by the dosimetrists using the Treatment Planning System (TPS) at the facility. The treatment time for advanced stages of the tumors were found to be much higher than the early stages of tumours.
Primary care assessment of hazardous and harmful drinkers: a literature review

Working with people who misuse alcohol can be demanding and the costs to the National Health Service of dealing with harmful drinkers are acknowledged to be high. This article reinforces a view that the primary healthcare setting can be seen as a key area to influence the hazardous or harmful drinker's behaviour. It is argued that the Specialist Community Alcohol Service is best placed to offer training initiatives to assist colleagues in the primary healthcare setting. This approach could help them to utilize their assessment and other clinical skills to offer brief interventions that can result in either positive behavioural changes or appropriate referral to the Specialist Alcohol Service. This is a way of ensuring a seamless service provision for hazardous and harmful drinkers resulting in a smooth passage through systems designed to identify and treat excessive alcohol consumption at an earlier stage. The early detection of problem drinking within the primary healthcare setting is of great value. General practitioners and practice nurses are ideally placed at the forefront of interaction aimed at earlier detection and treatment of hazardous and harmful drinkers.
Optimizing H.264/AVC interprediction on a GPU‐based framework

H.264/MPEG‐4 part 10 is the latest standard for video compression and promises a significant advance in terms of quality and distortion compared with the commercial standards currently most in use such as MPEG‐2 or MPEG‐4. To achieve this better performance, H.264 adopts a large number of new/improved compression techniques compared with previous standards, albeit at the expense of higher computational complexity. In addition, in recent years new hardware accelerators have emerged, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), which provide a new opportunity to reduce complexity for a large variety of algorithms. However, current GPUs suffer from higher power consumption requirements because of its design. Up to now, GPU‐based software developers have not taken this into account. In this paper, we present a detailed procedure to implement the H.264 motion estimation for a GPU, with the aim of reducing time and, as a consequence, the energy consumption. The results show a negligible drop in rate distortion with a time reduction of over 91.5% on average and it reduces the energy consumption by a factor of 11.78 compared with the reference implementation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Risk of Intussusception After Rotavirus Vaccination: Meta-analysis of Postlicensure Studies

Background: Postlicensure surveillance studies suggest a small temporal increase in the risk for intussusception with both currently available rotavirus vaccines (RV1; Rotarix, GSK and RV5; RotaTeq, Merck & Co., Inc.). This meta-analysis was undertaken to provide a single overall estimate of the relative risk of intussusception during the 7-day period after administration of RV1 and RV5. Methods: Meta-analysis based on estimates of relative risk and corresponding 95% confidence intervals from 5 postlicensure studies providing an estimate of risk of intussusception during the 7-day period after administration of dose 1 and/or dose 2 of RV1 and/or RV5, based on active and/or passive surveillance, for confirmed intussusception cases (Brighton or other method of case confirmation). For each vaccine, the relative risk of intussusception was estimated postdose 1 and postdose 2. Results were pooled using the inverse variance method using both fixed-effect and random-effect models. Results: The overall estimate of relative risk of intussusception during the 7 days postdose 1 was 5.4 (95% confidence interval: 3.9–7.4, 3 studies) for RV1 and 5.5 (3.3–9.3, 3 studies) for RV5. The overall estimate of relative risk of intussusception during the 7 days postdose 2 was 1.8 (1.3–2.5, 4 studies) for RV1 and 1.7 (1.1–2.6, 3 studies) for RV5. Conclusions: This meta-analysis showed a similar increased risk of intussusception, during the first 7 days after administration of dose 1 and, to a lesser extent, dose 2, for both currently available rotavirus vaccines. This suggests that intussusception may be a class effect of currently available oral rotavirus vaccines.