Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Detection of 22 antiepileptic drugs by ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry applicable to routine therapeutic drug monitoring.

The purpose of this study was to develop an ultra-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method of 22 antiepileptics for routine therapeutic monitoring. The antiepileptics used in the analyses were carbamazepine, carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide, clobazam, N-desmethylclobazam, clonazepam, diazepam, N-desmethyldiazepam, ethosuximide, felbamate, gabapentin, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, N-desmethylmesuximide, nitrazepam, phenobarbital, phenytoin, primidone, tiagabine, topiramate, valproic acid, vigabatrin and zonisamide. After protein precipitation of 50 μL plasma with methanol, the supernatant was diluted with water or was evaporated to dryness and reconstituted with mobile phase in the case of benzodiazepines. Separation was achieved on an Acquity UPLC BEH C₁₈ column with a gradient mobile phase of 10 mm ammonium acetate containing 0.1% formic acid and methanol at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. An Acquity TQD instrument in multiple reaction monitoring mode with ion mode switching was used for detection. All antiepileptics were detected and quantified within 10 min, with no endogenous interference. All the calibration curves showed good linearity in the therapeutic range (r² < 0.99). The precision and accuracy values for intra- and inter-assays were within ±15% except for phenobarbital and tiagabine. A good correlation was observed between the concentration of clinical samples measured by the new method described here and the conventional methods. The values of carbamazepine and phenytoin by UPLC-MS/MS were lower than those detected by the immunoassays, which might be caused by the cross-reaction of antibodies with their metabolites. In conclusion, we developed a simple and selective UPLC-MS/MS method suitable for routine therapeutic monitoring of antiepileptics.
Acts of faith: instinct, value and IT investment decisions

Although well over 1000 journal articles, conference papers, books, technical notes and theses have been written on the subject of information technology (IT) evaluation, only a relatively small subset of this literature has been concerned with the core issues of what precisely is meant by the term ‘value’ and with the process of making (specifically) IT investment decisions. All too often, the problem and highly complex issue of value is either simplified, ignored or assumed away. Instead the focus of much of the research to date has been on evaluation methodologies and, within this literature, there are different strands of thought which can be classified as partisan, composite and meta approaches to evaluation. Research shows that a small number of partisan techniques are used by most decision makers with a minority using a single technique and a majority using a mixture of such techniques of whom a substantial minority use a formal composite approach. It is argued that, in mapping the set of evaluation methodologies on to what is termed the investment opportunity space, that there is a limit to what can be achieved by formal rational evaluation methods. This limit becomes evident when decision makers fall back on ‘gut feel’ and other non-formal/rigorous ways of making decisions. It is suggested that an understanding of these more complex processes and decision making, in IT as elsewhere, needs tools drawn from philosophy and psychology.
Opportunities to learn from ‘failure’ with electronic commerce: a case study of electronic banking

This study reports on the experience of the First Atlantic Bank of Nigeria as it embarked on the implementation and introduction of Internet and mobile banking services. Based on the concept of a logic of opposition the study conceptualizes the case company's effort with a specific emphasis on the mode and impact of learning that occurred intra- and inter-organizationally. The case considers how being a first mover in a given market can be crucial, not necessarily because of the immediate commercial benefit, but more because of the opportunity for developing customers' trust in order to ensure the success of future innovations. In addition, the case illustrates the problematic nature of evaluating the success or failure of an innovation. Further, it shows how failure can be an intermediate step to future success, while making the point, counter-intuitively perhaps, that blindly listening to customers may prove to be a barrier to successful innovations. Thus, firms might capitalize from what might initially be perceived as failure, in particular through transforming an opposing force into a promoting one.
Compressive Loading of the Spine May Affect the Spinal Canal Encroachment of Burst Fractures

Study Design: Spinal canal encroachment of burst fractures under different compressive loading. Objective: To assess whether the application of different compressive loads affect the spinal canal encroachment (SCE) of thoracolumbar burst fractures and to relate any significant encroachment differences to the fracture morphology. Summary of Background Data: The SCE is an important part of the evaluation process of thoracolumbar burst fractures. It is, however, not well understood how a variation in spinal internal loads resulting from a change in patient posture may affect the SCE after a burst fracture. The application of a compressive load on fractured vertebrae may displace bony fragments further into the canal and increase the encroachment. Methods: Ten thoracolumbar functional spinal units harvested from mature minipigs and compressed to create burst fractures were imaged by computed tomography under 3 loading conditions: without compressive force and with 2 compressive forces analogous to the load expected in vivo. SCE were measured for all loading cases and compared with each other to identify whether they systematically changed between loading cases and to discriminate which specimens were affected by an increase in the loading. Results: The application of a compressive loading did not systematically increase the SCE. However, specimens with a large bony fragment originating from the superior and posterior aspect of the vertebral body with a centrifugal orientation had a significant increase of SCE when loaded. Conclusions: An increase in spinal internal loads resulting from a change in the patient posture may increase the SCE of burst fracture. Measurement of the SCE should take into account the bony fragment distribution of burst fracture.
Quanti fi cation of β-aminopropionitrile , an inhibitor of lysyl oxidase activity , in plasma and tumor of mice by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry

Lysyl oxidase enzymes are reported to be involved in patho-physiological process such as tumorigenesis. β-Aminopropionitrile (BAPN) is an irreversible inhibitor of lysyl oxidase activity, suggesting a potentially useful therapeutic of interest in oncology. This paper describes the first assay concerning the quantification of BAPN by mass spectrometry. A high-performance liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assay was developed for the quantification of BAPN in plasma and tumor of mice. This method combines dansyl chloride (Dns) derivatization and extraction using a solid-phase extraction Oasis Max column. Deuterated BAPN was used as internal standard (IS). Separation was achieved using an C18 column HypersylGold, (ThermoElectron), 3. 0μm (100 2.1mm i.d.). Gradient elution with water containing 0.1% acetic acid (A) and acetonitrile containing 0.1% acetic acid (B) was applied. Detection was performed with an electrospray ionization interface operating in negative ion mode. Selected reaction monitoring was used with ion transitions m/z 302→249 for BAPN–Dns and m/z 306→250 for the IS. The method was fully validated in plasma and was linear and sensitive in the range of 10–500ng/mL. The lower limit of quantification in plasma was 2.5 ng/mL. This validated assay was successfully applied to a kinetic study of BAPN in mouse plasma and demonstrates that BAPN reaches the tumoral tissue. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Development of a rapid and sensitive UPLC-MS/MS assay for the determination of TM-2 in beagle dog plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A simple and sensitive method based on ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) has been developed for the determination of TM-2, which was a novel semi-synthetic taxane derivative in beagle dog plasma. Cabazitaxel was chosen as internal standard. Following extraction by methyl tert-butyl ether, the chromatographic separation was achieved on a Thermo Syncronis C18 column (50 × 2.1 mm, 1.7 µm) by gradient elution within a runtime of 3.5 min. The mobile phase consisted of (A) acetonitrile and (B) 2 mmol/L ammonium acetate in water. The detection was accomplished using positive ion electrospray ionization in multiple reaction monitoring mode. The MS/MS ion transitions were monitored at m/z 812.39 → 551.35 for TM-2 and 836.36 → 555.26 for IS, respectively. The method was linear for TM-2 (r = 0.9924) ranging from 2.5 to 1000 ng/mL. The intra-day and inter-day precisions (relative standard deviation) were within 8.0 and 17.6%, respectively, and the accuracy (relative error) was less than 2.3%. The extraction recovery ranged from 83.1 to 97.1%. The reliable method was successfully applied to a pharmacokinetic study of TM-2 in beagle dogs after intravenous drip with different doses of 0.6, 1.2, and 2.4 mg/kg, respectively.
Clinical outcomes of 1,041 total laparoscopic hysterectomies: Six years of experience in a single center

Methods The present study was performed on a total of 1,041 women who underwent TLH, with or without bilateral/unilateral salpingooophorectomy, from May 2003 to December 2008, excluding patients who also underwent other procedures simultaneously, including ovarian cystectomy, colporrhaphy, incontinence surgery, pelvic/para-aortic lymph node dissection, and/or omentectomy. The medical records were reviewed and clinical outcomes were analyzed.
Isolation and purification of monosialotetrahexosylgangliosides from pig brain by extraction and liquid chromatography.

Monosialotetrahexosylganglioside (GM1), one of glycosphingolipids containing sialic acid, plays particularly important role in fighting against paralysis, dementia and other diseases caused by brain and nerve damage. In this work, a simple and highly efficient method with high yield was developed for isolation and purification of GM1 from pig brain. The method consisted of an extraction by chloroform-methanol-water and a two-step chromatographic separation by DEAE-Sepharose Fast Flow anion-exchange medium and Sephacryl S-100 HR size-exclusion medium. The purified GM1 was proved to be homogeneous and had a purity of >98.0% by high-performance anion-exchange and size-exclusion chromatography. The molecular weight was 30.0 kDa by high-performance size-exclusion chromatography and 1546.9 Da by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. The chromogenic reaction by resorcinol-hydrochloric acid solution indicated that the purified GM1 showed a specific chromogenic reaction of sialic acid. Through this isolation and purification program, ~1.0 mg of pure GM1 could be captured from 500 g wet pig brain tissue and the yield of GM1 was around 0.022%, which was higher than the yields by other methods. The method may provide an alternative for isolation and purification of GM1 in other biological tissues.
The Volar Approach to Proximal Interphalangeal Joint Arthroplasty

Proximal interphalangeal joint arthroplasty has resulted in good outcomes in patients treated for osteoarthritis, posttraumatic arthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Most hand surgeons complete arthroplasties of the proximal interphalangeal joint through a dorsal approach. However, for the past 7 years, we have had positive results with a volar approach. We describe this technique, which avoids injury to the extensor tendon and allows for a more simplified approach to postoperative therapy compared with the therapy regimen required after the dorsal approach.
Clostridium difficile Associated Disease Clinical and Molecular Data

Clostridium difficile Associated Disease Clinical and Molecular Data Introduction. A balanced microflora of the gastrointestinal tract plays a significant role in the protection of an organism. Dramatic changes may take place in the composition of normal microflora during antibacterial therapy, because part of sensitive microorganisms die and microflora detrimental to an organism proliferates there causing gastrointestinal tract disorders (7). C. difficile is an important agent causing gastrointestinal tract disorders. It may induce manifestations ranging from asymptomatic colonization of the gastrointestinal tract to severe diarrhea, pseudomembranous colitis, toxic megacolon, intestinal perforation, and death. All these severity levels are included in the term Clostridium difficile associated disease (CDAD). A patient at risk for C. difficile is an elderly person with a severe principal disease, who receives long-term inpatient treatment, has been receiving antibiotics, antacid and antiulcer agents for a long time, has had a gastrointestinal surgical intervention or any organ transplantation, which is always related to immune suppression (11). Aim of the study. Molecular typing of Latvian strains of C. difficile and clinical data analysis. Materials and methods. The research includes data collected during the time period from August 2006 to the end of 2008 from three Latvian hospitals. A pure culture of C. difficile bacteria was isolated and cultured from fecal material. Ribotyping was done by amplification of specific regions of the 16S and 23S RNA genes and amplification products were separated in 1.5% agarose gel. Results. Fecal samples of 500 patients having manifestations of clinical symptoms of CDAD were microbiologically and molecularly studied from August 2006 to the end of 2008. 130 samples were tcdA+tcdB+ toxin-positive. Conclusions. All samples were cultured on agar in anaerobic conditions. As a result, 55 pure cultures were obtained. The average age of patients is 65 years. Women get infected more frequently than men. In 95% patients CDAD was induced by antibacterial therapy. In 86% cases, having received a positive response for C.difficile antibacterial therapy is changed. Disease development risk factors are previous antibacterial therapy, previous hospitalization, GIT manipulations and C.difficile infection in anamnesis. The biggest number of CDAD patients was found in Nephrology Department of P. Stradins Clinical University Hospital. A hypervirulent Cl.difficile ribotype 027 was not found in Latvia yet, bat 16 different ribotypes were determined using Bionumerics software. 4 of them are domineering ribotypes with 17, 14, 5 and 4 isolates in every group.
Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status in breast cancer: A comparison between borderline positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 and strongly positive human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 tumors

Background: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) status is an important biomarker and a molecular target for specific therapies such as humanized monoclonal antibody - trastuzumab. The aim of this study was to compare a group of the borderline positive HER2 (++) status patients with a strongly positive HER2 (+++) status group, according to clinicopathological features, cardiotoxicity, and treatment response. Materials and Methods: The analysis included medical records of 166 early and metastatic breast cancer patients treated with trastuzumab. Results: There were no significant differences between both groups in relation to patients′ age at initial diagnosis and comorbid conditions; however, diabetes (4%) were observed only in tumors with strong HER2 overexpression. Patients with HER2 (+++) more frequently had a history of cigarette smoking in comparison with HER2 borderline women (39% vs. 25%, P = 0.06). There was no association between overweight and HER2 status. No statistically significant differences in steroid receptor status were detected between HER (++) and HER2 (+++) positive tumors (P = 1.00). Borderline tumors were in earlier stage of disease (50% vs. 17%, P = 0.002). Lymph node metastases correlate with strongly positive breast cancer (58% vs. 33%, P = 0.04). Second neoplasm also more often developed in strongly positive HER2 tumors and contralateral breast cancer in borderline. Conclusion: In the summary, borderline positive HER2 breast cancer patients are in earlier advance stage and have a better outcome than strong positive HER2 tumors. They are less predisposed to the development of cardiac side effects. Type 2 diabetes coexisted with strong HER2 overexpression.
A Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Approach to GIS-Based Land Suitability Evaluation

Abstract Land suitability evaluation in a raster GIS environment is conceptualized as a multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. A combination of MCDM techniques selected for implementing the methodology included value and priority assessment techniques for scaling the interval and ordinal data respectively, and compromise programming (CP) to aggregate the unidimensional evaluations. The contribution of the proposed methodology to handle problems of scaling and dependence that often affect expert-based suitability analyses is discussed. A case-study of habitat evaluation for the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel is presented. The multiple-criteria models resulting from the CP analysis of an expert's perception of the habitat preference structure of the red squirrel are compared with data of actual habitat use. The predictive power of the models is good and sensitivity analysis based on the distance-metric parameter p of CP reveals some interesting differences between alternative strategies for.
Plasma rico em plaquetas e fatores de crescimento: técnica de preparo e utilização em cirurgia plástica

BACKGROUND: Platelet-rich plasma is an autologous concentration of human platelets in a small volume of plasma. The vast majority of publications reports a significant healing enhancement following its use. This study aim to establish a low-cost method to prepare a platelet-rich plasma and growth factors to be used in plastic surgery. METHODS: Blood was submitted to two centrifugations to obtain platelet-rich plasma. Twenty tests were performed changing the intensity and time of centrifugation, aim to establish the method that achieves the optimal platelet enrichment; and ten tests were performed to confirm the reproducibility of this method. RESULTS: The optimal platelets enrichment, over 4.5 times baseline, values was obtained using 300 g for 10 minutes on the first centrifugation and 640 g for 10 minutes on the second centrifugation. CONCLUSION: Platelet-rich plasma with high platelets counts can be prepared using this method and the gel can be obtained with the addition of autologous thrombin, obtained in the same procedure. This autologous platelet gel enhanced wound healing, therefore showing improved results in skin and bone grafts.
Perspectives of adolescents and their parents regarding service needs following a mild traumatic brain injury

Primary objective: Various guidelines have been developed to implement coherent and uniform management of persons with a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but those have typically been developed for adults or children and may not address or meet the specific needs of adolescents. The purpose of this study was to explore the specific service needs of adolescents (12–18 years) after a mTBI. Study design: Qualitative phenomenological study. Methods and procedures: Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 adolescents and their parents who had received different levels of care from paediatric trauma centres within the previous 12 months. Main outcomes and results: All adolescents and parents expressed the need to receive information about the injury, its expected recovery and when to return to activities. Many adolescents reported wanting to be seen rapidly, by professionals who genuinely care about them and who acknowledge that they have specific needs that differ from those of younger children. Parents and, to a lesser degree, adolescents think that enhanced communication between the healthcare and school systems would be beneficial following a mTBI to assist in returning to demanding academic activities. Conclusions: Professionals involved in the management of adolescents with mTBI should be aware of their needs in order to provide optimal and developmentally appropriate services.
A case study of amnesia: Exploring a paradigm for new semantic learning and generalization

Primary objective: The purpose of this study was to explore and extend previous findings that training with variant items improves generalization performance on novel semantic sentences in an individual with amnesia. Research design: A case study of an individual with severe amnesia, Patient T.E. , who participated in an extended training and multiple testing paradigm. Methods and procedures: Patient T.E. participated in 16 training sessions and eight test sessions on his recognition and recall performance for novel 3-word sentences. Three conditions were compared: No Variance (one version of each sentence studied), Early Variance (three versions of each sentence studied from the onset) and Late Variance (each of three versions of each sentence gradually introduced throughout training). Performance on studied items and semantically related items was evaluated. Main outcomes and results: Patient T.E. demonstrated better learning for Variance items than No Variance items and better generalization to semantically related items for the Late Variance condition. However, he showed an advantage for the No Variance condition on the recall task. Conclusions: Gradually introducing the variant items into training may be the optimal strategy for training an individual with severe amnesia to learn and generalize new semantic information.
Prevalence of aggressive behaviour after severe paediatric traumatic brain injury

Objective: The goals of this study were to explore the prevalence of aggressive behaviours after severe paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) and identify predictors of aggressive behaviours 1 year post-injury. Methods: A cohort of 97 children aged 4–19 years at time of severe TBI (GCS 3–8) were prospectively followed for 1 year. Pre-injury psychiatric status was obtained retrospectively at enrolment and post-injury behavioural and functional concerns were assessed at 1 year. Aggression was measured with a modified version of the Overt Aggression Scale (OAS). Results: Results revealed aggressive behaviour increased from pre-injury to post-injury. Pre-injury factors including aggression, attention problems and anxiety were associated with increased post-injury aggressive behaviour. Children with greater disability after injury were also at increased risk for aggressive behaviours. Conclusions: Aggression is a prevalent symptom after paediatric TBI and can significantly impede rehabilitation. Awareness of these predictors can aid in early identification of children at risk in order to help appropriately design rehabilitation programmes.