Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical relevance of minimal residual disease monitoring in mature B-cell disorders: role of qualitative and quantitative PCR-based strategies

Os tratamentos atuais induzem remissao clinica completa em uma alta percentagem de pacientes portadores de Sindromes linfoproliferativas de celulas B maduras (SLBM). No entanto, muitos destes pacientes recaem devido a persistencia de celulas tumorais residuais que sao indetectaveis pelos metodos de diagnostico convencionais. Os metodos baseados na reacao em cadeia da polimerase (PCR) qualitativos cada vez mais tem sido utilizados para a deteccao da doenca residual minima (DRM) e propiciam informacoes uteis em relacao ao prognostico dos pacientes. Neste relato as condutas atuais em relacao a DRM e o emprego dos metodos de PCR qualitativos e quantitativos sao apresentadas e discutida a importância da monitorizacao da DRM para os transplantes autologos e alogenicos de medula ossea. A experiencia acumulada nas ultimas decadas demonstra que as analises de PCR tem um impacto no prognostico da maioria das SLBM, especialmente nos pacientes submetidos a programas com altas doses de quimioterapia. As principais vantagens da monitorizacao molecular sao: rapidez na avaliacao da atividade anti-tumoral dos novos tratamentos e identificacao precoce dos pacientes que apresentem alto risco de recaida de molestia.
Socio-Economic analysis of apple beneficiaries in Kashmir Valley

This present study attempts to examine apple production system of the Kashmir valley of J&K state. High growth and low instability in apple production is an ideal condition for achieving sustainable agricultural performance in the state. There is a growing concern that with technological change in production, variability has increased. Since the magnitude of growth and instability in production has serious implications for policy makers, the period-wise growth and level of instability in area, production and yield of apple in the Baramulla district of Kashmir region were estimated by using time series data from 2001–02 to 2014–15. The relative peace in the state has made it possible for farmers to focus on improving their livelihoods. The apple sector has the potential to influence several households and improve their economic prospects. New market players have to be invited in, resources found for investments, change in policy and support systems from the government and building capacities in individuals and institutions for effective and remunerative participation in the value chain.
The role of contextual marketing offer in Mobile Commerce acceptance: comparison between Mobile Commerce users and nonusers

We propose Contextual Perceived Value (CPV) of marketing offer as a new construct that reflects Mobile Commerce (MC)-specific features. The primary contribution of this research is to integrate MC-specific variable (CPV of marketing offer) with TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) to explain MC acceptance. This study also investigated the role of contextual marketing offer in MC acceptance between MC-users and nonusers. The empirical results support the extended TAM in explaining consumers' behavioural intentions to use MC. Specifically, the effect of CPV of marketing offer on the behavioural intention to use MC was greater for MC-nonusers group than for MC-users group.
Type I hair cell regeneration induced by Math1 gene transfer following neomycin ototoxicity in rat vestibular sensory epithelium

Abstract Conclusion: In the current study, hair cells of vestibular terminal organs in rats were completely eliminated with trans-scala vestibuli injection of neomycin, and then the Math1 gene was transferred. It was shown that type I vestibular hair cells were regenerated and synapses were formed. Objectives: The objective of this study was to identify the cell type of the regenerated vestibular hair cells and relative innervation and synaptic linkage after hair cells of vestibular terminal organs in rats were completely eliminated. Methods: Neomycin injection was used to eliminate all the vestibular terminal organs, and then the animals were treated with an injection of Ad-Math1-EGFP in the scala vestibuli of the cochlea. Results: Math1 gene transfer into the inner ear induced type I hair cell regeneration and synaptic formation. However, neither the number nor the appearance of the hair cells was normal.
A novel efficient conference scheme for mobile communications

A conference scheme enables a group of people to establish a common secret key to hold a secure conference. Recently, technological advances have allowed all conferees to hold a mobile conference via wireless communication. However, wireless communications are more susceptible to eavesdropping and unauthorised access than conversations via wires. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure confidentially and authenticity in mobile teleconferencing. Based on the Elliptic Curve Cryptography, this article proposes a new efficient conference scheme, which allows a participant to join or quit a teleconference dynamically. No trusted centre and no interactive protocol among participants are required to construct the common conference key for each session. It can save on communication overhead.
Chinese consumer's adoption intention towards 3G mobile phone

This research paper proposed a model for the adoption of wireless communication technology. Specifically, we examined factors affecting the adoption of 3G mobile phone in China. This research is primarily based on a telephone survey with a valid sample of 280 random respondents who have experience in using 3G mobile phones from five major cities in China. The empirical result shows that 'technology cluster' is significantly important, while other factors in predicting user's intention to adopt 3G mobile phone are not significant. To some extent, it is contradictory to some existing innovation adoption literatures. Practical and theoretical implications and explanations are provided. Further research in this area is highly recommended.
An Insight Into the Delivery of a Palliative Approach in Residential Aged Care

Managing the complex care needs of older people is a global concern. General practitioners (GPs) play a pivotal role in aged care, yet little is known about their capacity to provide palliative care in nursing homes. This study aimed to investigate GPs' perceptions and understanding of a palliative approach. A convenience sample of rural GPs (n = 13) participated in a series of three focus groups undertaken in August, 2005. These focus groups were all audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic content analysis. Four key themes emerged: uncertainty about a palliative approach, a need to reorientate providers, the challenges of managing third parties, and making it work and moving forward. These preliminary findings suggest that integrating a palliative approach in aged care requires GPs to have a greater awareness of this paradigm and to be more effectively engaged in multidisciplinary care planning.
Recognizing Student Emotions using Brainwaves and Mouse Behavior Data

Brainwaves EEG signals and mouse behavior information are shown to be useful in predicting academic emotions, such as confidence, excitement, frustration and interest. Twenty five college students were asked to use the Aplusix math learning software while their brainwaves signals and mouse behavior number of clicks, duration of each click, distance traveled by the mouse were automatically being captured. It is shown that by combining the extracted features from EEG signals with data representing mouse click behavior, the accuracy in predicting academic emotions substantially increases compared to using only features extracted from EEG signals or just mouse behavior alone. Furthermore, experiments were conducted to assess the prediction accuracy of the system at points during the learning session where several of the extracted features significantly deviate in value from their mean. The experiments confirm that the prediction performance increases as the number of feature values that deviate significantly from the mean increases.
Damaged utricular function clarified by oVEMP in patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo

Abstract Conclusion: Utricular dysfunction in patients with posterior canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (pBPPV) was supported by findings for ocular vestibular evoked myogenic potential (oVEMP). Objective: To evaluate the utricular and saccular function in patients with pBPPV. Methods: This study focused on 12 patients definitively diagnosed with pBPPV showing typical nystagmus by Dix-Hallpike maneuver and 12 controls. In these subjects, oVEMPs and cVEMPs to air-conducted 500 Hz tone burst (125 dB SPL) were measured. The patients also underwent caloric tests. Results: More of the patients with pBPPV showed abnormal responses in oVEMPs by stimulation on their affected side than the controls, while the results of cVEMPs showed no significant differences between pBPPV patients and controls. The abnormal results for oVEMPs on the affected side showed a higher percentage than those for cVEMPs and caloric tests in pBPPV patients. There was no significant association between any of the tests. These findings support the possibility that oVEMP reflects the specific abnormal condition in pBPPV, i.e. that the urticular function in pBPPV patients was highly damaged.
The effect of trust transference in multi-banking channels; offline, online and mobile

This study aims at investigating the trust transference among offline, online and mobile banking channels. Empirical results with 280 valid questionnaire data revealed that customers' offline trust transfers to the online banking channel, reflecting online trust, and perceived satisfaction with online banking transactions. In turn, those constructs built in offline and online banking channels affects the four constructs in the mobile banking channel: mobile addiction, perceived differentiation with mobile banking service, perceived safety with mobile banking transactions and intention to use mobile banking.
Initial trust and adoption of mobile brokerage service

This study proposes a model of initial investor trust in mobile brokerage service and considers the effects of seven antecedent variables on shaping an investor's initial trust in and adoption intention toward mobile brokerage service. We test the proposed model through a questionnaire survey involving 332 subjects. The results indicate that the initial trust is mainly affected by information quality, structural assurance, perceived ubiquity, disposition to trust and compatibility. It is also found that initial trust, perceived ubiquity and compatibility are vital for the intention to use mobile brokerage service. The findings provide useful suggestions and implications for academics and practitioners.
Use of bone anchoring device in electromagnetic computer-assisted navigation in lateral skull base surgery

Abstract Conclusion: The use of the bone anchoring device associated with a fiducial marker, both fixed close to the operating field, improves the reproducibility and effectiveness of the computer-assisted navigation in lateral skull base surgery. Objectives: Computer-assisted navigation in lateral skull base surgery using the electromagnetic system Digipointeur® needs an external fiducial marker (titanium screw) close to the operating field to increase position accuracy (PA) to about 1 mm. Displacement of the emitter placed in the mouth (Buccostat®) induces a drift of the system, leading to at least 20% of unsuccessful procedures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the PA, stability, and reproducibility of computer-assisted navigation in lateral skull base surgery using a bone anchoring device to provide a fixed registration system near the operating field. Methods: Forty patients undergoing a lateral skull base procedure with the Digipointeur® system performed with both the titanium screw and bone anchoring device were included in this prospective study. They were divided in two groups. In the first one (n = 9), the PA was measured before and after screw registration for five intratemporal landmarks, during a translabyrinthine approach. In the second group (n = 31), all lateral skull base procedures were included and the PA was evaluated visually by the surgeon on different landmarks of the approaches as well as the stability of the system. Results: In the first group, the PA was 7.08 ± 0.59 mm and 0.77 ± 0.17 mm (mean ± SEM, p < 0.0001) before and after screw registration, respectively. In the second group, the PA was considered as accurate by the surgeon in all cases and no drift of the system was observed. Computer-assisted surgery was never abandoned due to increased stability of the bone-anchored emitter.
Do mobile shoppers feel smart in the smartphone age?

The research examined whether mobile shoppers feel smart in today's smart age. It has been observed that impulse buying and price dependency are increasing among mobile shoppers in the smart phone age. We paid attention to 'smart shopper feelings SSFs' to find the reason of the phenomenon. SSFs are defined as ego-expressive excitements generated in consumers by price promotion. Consumers using smartphones can browse for and purchase items easily and feel 'smarter', with a greater sense of efficacy compared with traditional shopper. In this paper, the antecedents and consequences of SSFs that come from mobile shopping were identified and tested. Our results show that the characteristics of a buying experience undergone through mobile promotion and shopping applications significantly affected SSFs. Furthermore, the experience identified a significant effect of SSFs on impulse buying and price dependence. The implications of this work and suggestions for further research are outlined based on the results.
Effects of platformization strategy on continuance intention of mobile messaging apps

As mobile messaging apps e.g., WhatsApp are becoming increasingly popular with the widespread adoption of smart phones, competition to gain a larger user-base gets more intense among app providers. To win the competition by leveraging their user bases, messaging app providers pursue a platformization strategy through which they offer a variety of services e.g., games, shopping, etc. to their messaging app users. The main objective of this study is to gauge the effect of the platformization strategy on the messaging app users. To do so, we first identify several factors e.g., perceived network size, innovativeness, service variety and convenience to locate services that can characterise the platformization strategy. We then develop a research model that focusses on the effects of the factors on users' intention to continue to use messaging apps. This research model is tested with data collected from 148 users through an online questionnaire survey. The results of data analysis using structural equation modelling through partial least square PLS approach suggest that perceived network size and perceived innovativeness of services have significant effects on the users' continuance of intention to use mobile messaging apps.
Estimation of heart rate from an apnoea detection device using matched filtering

Today, there are several respiration monitors available that are intended to detect the onset of apnoea in sleeping infants and adults. These monitors typically detect movement due to the respiration. This paper presents a method for the extraction of a subject's heart rate from a commercial apnoea monitor. The significance of the method lies in the fact that certain cases of apnoea cannot always be detected when only monitoring breathing, and the heart rate can serve as an additional diagnostic or warning tool. An adaptive heartbeat detection system, based on matched filtering, is proposed which detects individual heartbeats from subjects with different physiological features. Additionally, a heart rate estimation system is proposed which determines the heart rate by using the information obtained from the heartbeat detection system. Data was recorded from adults and infants, and the matched filtering heartbeat detection system was able to monitor the heart rate of adults to within less than 5% and infants within 13% of the actual heart rate as determined using an electrocardiogram (ECG).
Sample entropy-based HRV characterisation

The non-linear methods-based heart rate variability analyses are widely becoming popular as these are based upon analysing original RR-interval series. The sample entropy (SampEn) is one of these methods used for quantifying signal complexity, and is based upon hypothesis that decreasing entropy is a pointer towards loss of heart rate variability (HRV). This paper characterises the sample entropy-based HRV quantification in healthy subjects of different age groups. It clearly demonstrates that sample entropy decreases in higher age groups, which indicates loss of HRV. The tolerance or threshold for template matching affects the entropy magnitude of cardiovascular time series, but it remains nearly same at fixed value of ‘r’ for data lengths of the order of 10m to 30m.
Application of Connectionist Approach in Classification of Nutritional Status Among Arsenic Affected people in Rural Areas in Bangladesh

Various methods can be applied to build predictive models for the clinical data with binary outcome variables. This research aims to explore and compare the process of constructing common predictive models. Models based on an artificial neural network (the connectionist approach) and binary logistic regressions were compared in their ability to classifying malnourished subjects and those with over-weighted participants in rural areas of Bangladesh. Subjects were classified according to the indicator of nutritional status measured by body mass index (BMI). This study also investigated the effects of different factors on the BMI level of a sample population of 460 adults of six villages in Bangladesh. Demographic, enthropometric and clinical data were collected based on a total of 460 participants aged over 30 years from six villages in Bangladesh that were identified as mainly dependent on wells contaminated with arsenic. Out of 460(140 male and 320 females) participants 186(40.44%) were identified as malnourished (BMI 18.5 gm). Among other factors, arsenic exposures were found as significant risk factors for low body mass index (BMI) with a higher value of odds ratio. This study shows that, binary logistic regression correctly classified 72.85% of cases with malnourished in the training datasets, 76.08% in the testing datasets and 75.26% of all subjects. The sensitivities of the neural network architecture for the training and testing datasets and for all subjects were 84.28%, 84.78% and 81.72% respectively, indicate better performance than binary logistic regression model. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.3329/akmmcj.v5i2. 21128 Anwer Khan Modern Medical College Journal Vol. 5, No. 2: July 2014, Pages 23-29
The effect of psychosocial factors on outcomes of cochlear implantation

Abstract Conclusion: Psychosocial factors should be considered during cochlear implantation (CI). There were differences in psychosocial characteristics according to the etiology of deafness. The outcomes may be affected by psychosocial variables such as the severity of mental distress and social problems as well as duration of deafness. Objective: To evaluate the psychosocial characteristics of deaf people undergoing CI and to determine which psychosocial factors affect performance after CI. Methods: A total of 289 subjects who underwent CI were enrolled. The participants were classified into prelingually deaf (pre-LD) and postlingually deaf groups (post-LD), including progressive and sudden deafness subgroups. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was administered before CI to measure psychosocial and emotional problems. To measure CI outcomes, speech perception ability was assessed by the open-set Korean version of the Central Institute of Deafness (K-CID) test and categories of auditory performance (CAP) scores before and after CI. Results: Approximately 45% of subjects experienced psychological problems before undergoing CI. Subjects in the Pre-LD group had more psychosocial distress and were more likely to be oversensitive in interpersonal situations, while those in the post-LD group were more depressed. Deafness duration and psychosocial factors significantly predicted hearing ability after CI. Deafness duration directly and indirectly affected the outcome of CI. That is, duration of deafness caused psychosocial problems, which may have resulted in negative effects on outcomes of CI.
The History of Simulation and Its Impact on the Future

ABSTRACT Simulation has had a long and varied history in many different fields, including aviation and the military. A look into the past to briefly touch on some of the major historical aspects of simulation in aviation, military, and health care will give readers a broader understanding of simulation's historical roots and the relationship to patient safety. This review may also help predict what the future may hold for simulation in nursing. Health care, like aviation, is driven by safety, more specifically patient safety. As the link between simulation and patient safety becomes increasingly apparent, simulation will be adopted as the education and training method of choice for such critical behaviors as communication and teamwork skills.
A Comparison of Pharmacotherapy in Inpatients with Major Depressive Disorders Between Patients With Single Episodes and Patients With Recurrent Episodes

Purpose: Antidepressants possessing a wide range of pharmacological properties are available for the daily treatment of major depressive disorders (MDD). However, MDD patients with a partial response or a resistance to standard antidepressant therapy need to be treated with adjunctive psychotropic drugs such as mood stabilizers or atypical antipsychotics in order to achieve full remission. Investigation of combination pharmacotherapy in actual clinical practice could provide an insight into the features of adjunctive medications. Methods: The subjects of the study were MDD inpatients who were admitted from April 2010 to March 2013. The demographic and clinical data and prescription profiles for the psychotropic drugs at discharge were obtained from the medical charts of the patients. A statistical analysis of the data was conducted to clarify the difference between a single episode and recurrent episodes of MDD. Results: The adjunctive medication prescription rate for patients with recurrent episodes was significantly higher for antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and hypnotic drugs than that for patients with a single episode, even though no statistically significant differences were found between the two types of patients in their background characteristics. In addition, the proportion of patients who received prescriptions for both adjunctive antipsychotics and adjunctive mood stabilizers was understandably higher for recurrent MDD patients. Discussion: The present cross-sectional study demonstrated that there is a general tendency toward the prescription of multiple psychotropic drugs for the treatment of MDD inpatients, and that this tendency was more prominent in patients with recurrent episodes. Therefore, a well-designed treatment protocol that is supported by evidence from clinical trials is indispensable for the treatment of MDD in clinical practice.