Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intra‐atrial thrombolytic therapy for dissolution of chronic left atrial thrombi in patients undergoing balloon mitral commissurotomy

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the solubility of left atrial thrombi to thrombolytics after failure of long‐term anticoagulant therapy in patient with mitral stenosis. One hundred and eighty‐one consecutive patients with mitral valve area ≤ 1.5 cm2 and without severe mitral regurgitation were screened with echocardiography; 30 were found to have left atrial thrombi. Follow‐up echocardiography performed 7.4 ± 5.6 months after warfarin therapy revealed that 8/30 of patients had complete dissolution and 3/30 had partial dissolution of the thrombi. Thirteen patients with residual isolated appendageal thrombi underwent balloon mitral commissurotomy and were randomized into four groups at the end of balloon mitral commissurotomy: group A, receiving intra‐atrial infusion of heparin and tissue plasminogen activator (t‐PA; n = 4); group B, heparin and streptokinase (n = 3); group C, heparin (n = 3); and group D, acting as control (n = 3). It was found that only two patients in the t‐PA group had their thrombi either completely or partially dissolved within 48 hr. Thus, this study suggests that t‐PA may have the potential of dissolving chronic left atrial thrombi. Cathet Cardiovasc Intervent 2002;56:460–465. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
A Joint Affine Model of Commodity Futures and US Treasury Yields

We derive a general joint affine term structure model of US government bond yields and the convenience yields on physical commodities. We apply this framework separately to oil and gold. Our results show clear links between bond and commodity markets, since bond factors play a significant role in the pricing of the convenience yield term structure. Our framework allows us to decompose the term structure of futures prices into expectations of future spot prices and risk premia components. We estimate that the risk premium in oil futures has been negative over the 1980s and 1990s, and turned positive in the mid-2000s, consistent with a declining role for supply shocks in the oil market over this period. In contrast, we estimate that the gold risk premium is mostly positive throughout the sample period.
Mumps virus small hydrophobic protein targets ataxin-1 ubiquitin-like interacting protein (ubiquilin 4).

The small hydrophobic (SH) protein of mumps virus has been reported to interfere with innate immunity by inhibiting tumour necrosis factor alpha-mediated apoptosis. In a yeast two-hybrid screen we have identified the ataxin-1 ubiquitin-like interacting protein (A1Up) as a cellular target of the SH protein. A1Up contains an amino-terminal ubiquitin-like (UbL) domain, a carboxy-terminal ubiquitin-associated (UbA) domain and two stress-inducible heat shock chaperonin-binding (Sti1) motifs. This places it within the ubiquitin-like protein family that is involved in proteasome-mediated activities. Co-immunoprecipitation confirmed the binding of SH and A1Up and demonstrates that a truncated protein fragment corresponding to aa 136-270 of A1Up, which represents the first Sti1-like repeat and an adjacent hydrophobic region, was sufficient for interaction, whereas neither the UbL nor the UbA domains were required for interaction. The ectopic expression of A1Up leads to a redistribution of SH to punctate structures that co-localize with the 20S proteasome in transfected or infected mammalian cells.
Assessment of Occupational Exposure to Manganese and Other Metals in Welding Fumes by Portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer

Elemental analysis of welding fume samples can be done using several laboratory-based techniques. However, portable measurement techniques could offer several advantages. In this study, we sought to determine whether the portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) is suitable for analysis of five metals (manganese, iron, zinc, copper, and chromium) on 37-mm polytetrafluoroethylene filters. Using this filter fitted on a cyclone in line with a personal pump, gravimetric samples were collected from a group of boilermakers exposed to welding fumes. We assessed the assumption of uniform deposition of these metals on the filters, and the relationships between measurement results of each metal obtained from traditional laboratory-based XRF and the portable XRF. For all five metals of interest, repeated measurements with the portable XRF at the same filter area showed good consistency (reliability ratios are equal or close to 1.0 for almost all metals). The portable XRF readings taken from three different areas of each filter were not significantly different (p-values = 0.77 to 0.98). This suggested that the metal rich PM 2.5 deposits uniformly on the samples collected using this gravimetric method. For comparison of the two XRFs, the results from the portable XRF were well correlated and highly predictive of those from the laboratory XRF. The Spearman correlation coefficients were from 0.325 for chromium, to 0.995 for manganese and 0.998 for iron. The mean differences as a percent of the mean laboratory XRF readings were also small (<5%) for manganese, iron, and copper. The differences were greater for zinc and chromium, which were present at very low amounts in our samples and below the limits of detection of the portable XRF for many of the samples. These five metals were moderately to strongly correlated with the total fine particle fraction on filters (Spearman ρ = 0.41 for zinc to 0.97 for iron). Such strong correlations and comparable results suggested that the portable XRF could be used as an effective and reliable tool for exposure assessment in many studies.
The conceptual structure of physical touch in caring.

AIMS OF THE STUDY This study was conducted to clarify and to conceptualize the phenomena of physical touch in caring. BACKGROUND Physical touch occurs frequently in patient care situations and has specific meanings within the context of caring. However, the concept of physical touch in caring has not been well articulated in the literatures, although the phenomena of touch and physical touch have been studied in relation to comfort, sense of well-being and connectedness. DESIGN/METHOD The Hybrid Model of concept development was applied to develop a conceptual structure of physical touch in caring, which included a field study carried out in Seoul, South Korea using in-depth interviews with 39 adult subjects consisting of health-care professionals, in-patients, and healthy persons. RESULTS/FINDINGS The concept of physical touch in caring emerged as a complex phenomenon having meanings on several different dimensions which were encompassed several attributes and the conceptual structure of physical touch in caring centred around five aspects of goals for physical touch: promoting physical comfort, promoting emotional comfort, promoting mind-body comfort, performing social role, and sharing spirituality. CONCLUSIONS Physical touch in caring as a concept having the dimensions of physical, emotional, social, and spiritual significance needs to be treated in a holistic way and it is possible to enrich the meanings and methods of physical touch in nursing so that its application may have effects that have positive impacts on patients' well-being and comfort.
Assay for fluorescein diacetate hydrolytic activity : Optimization for soil samples

With the increased interest in integrated soil bioecosystem studies, there is a need to have a method of measuring overall microbial activity potential. Hydrolysis of fluorescein diacetate [3 0,6 0-diacetylfluorescein (FDA)] has been suggested as a possible method because the ubiquitous lipase, protease, and esterase enzymes are involved in the hydrolysis of FDA. Following hydrolysis of FDA, fluorescein is released and can be measured spectrophotometrically. Our objective was to optimize the assay for FDA hydrolytic activity in soil samples and determine the kinetic parameters involved in this reaction. The optimized method involves extraction and quantitative measurement of the fluorescein released when 1.0 g of soil is incubated with 50 ml of 60 mM Na–phosphate solution (buffered at pH 7.6) at 37 8C for 3 h. Results showed that FDA hydrolysis was optimum at buffer pH 7.6 and the soil enzymes were denatured at temperatures above 60 8C. Three soils were used to optimize this method: Heiden clay, Raub silt loam, and Cecil sandy loam. This procedure is simple, precise, and can be used in commercial soil testing laboratories to determine general microbial activity and as a soil quality indicator. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Development of a recording protocol for the assessment of speech disorders

Speech disorder refers to multiple reasons due to which a person will be unable to produce speech sounds fluently. Articulation and Phonological disorders are the most common disorders identified among the people. Analysis of speech disorders helps in providing necessary information for providing liable treatment by speech language pathologists. Extensive preparation and proper selection of target syllables is required for the treatment of subjects with speech disorders. The present work aims at establishing a minimum assessment protocol to estimate the prevalence of speech disorder. This paper presents a method to develop the recorded syllables with the use of PRAAT tool. The sample consisting of a 3–4 second recording of the six standard syllables. The samples was obtained using the PRAAT program and recorded in the . wav format in 20 different laptops. The samples was recorded inside a laboratory with minimal acoustic conditions. These . wav formats are now analyzed in the PRAAT tool which yields the formant frequency listing of all the 120 samples. The obtained frequencies of 120 samples are compared with the reference sample collected from the noise free acoustic testing laboratory with the use of sound level meter (type 2250) at gain of 120db. The ideal sample with the least difference is used for the further processing and analysis. Further, the hardware implementation is done by inserting the specifications of the best sample to an external sound card that is externally connected to a laptop which directly helps the speech samples to be saved in . wav format. This protocol helps speech language pathologists (SLP) in saving time for treatment planning and considerable effort involved in generating word containing target syllables.
Evaluating Quality of Nursing Care: The Gap Between Theory and Practice

The purpose of this article is to determine whether nursing practice, as judged by nurse peer reviewers, varies by type or location of hospital and to assess which aspects of practice tend to be most at variance with nursing theory. This article provides a framework of continued quality assessment and improvement that is based on prior research. Trained nurse peer reviewers carried out structured implicit review, which utilized their professional judgment to evaluate the process of nursing care for patients admitted to acute hospitals with heart failure or cerebrovascular accident. Findings show significant variations in the quality of nursing care and support the continued development of nursing quality assessment and improvement initiatives directed at reducing the gap between nursing theory and practice.
Evaluation of low-level laser therapy of osteoblastic cells.

OBJECTIVE The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect of biomodulation on osteoblastic cells using a gallium-aluminium-arsenide diode laser. BACKGROUND DATA Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is a non-pharmacological therapeutic resource to which biological tissues respond well, producing such effects as the acceleration of bone formation and bone repair. MATERIALS AND METHODS Osteoblastic cell cultures (OFCOL II) were irradiated with a gallium-aluminium-arsenide diode laser (GaAlAs lambda = 830 nm; 50 mW; 3 J/cm(2); 600-microm-diameter optical fiber) and divided into two groups: group 1--irradiated cells, and group 2--non-irradiated cells. Irradiation occurred at 24-h intervals for a total of 3 d. After each interval, the cells were marked with Mito Tracker Orange dye to assess the biostimulatory effect on mitochondrial activity and cell proliferation using an MTT assay. RESULTS Intense grouping of mitochondria in the perinuclear region was observed at 24 h and 48 h following irradiation. Changes from a filamentous to a granular appearance in mitochondrial morphology and mitochondria distributed throughout the cytoplasm were observed 72 h following proliferation. Such changes led to an in vitro proliferation process, as confirmed by the MTT assay. CONCLUSION LLLT has shown itself capable of altering mitochondrial activity and the population of OFCOL II cells.
Analysis and Reduction of On-Load DC Winding Induced Voltage in Wound Field Switched Flux Machines

DC winding induced voltage pulsation in wound field switched flux (WFSF) machines causes dc winding current ripple and field excitation fluctuation, challenges the dc power source, and deteriorates the control performance. Hence, reducing this pulsation is important in the design of a WFSF machine. In this paper, based on the analytical models, rotor skewing and rotor iron piece pairing are proposed and comparatively investigated by the finite-element (FE) method to reduce the on-load dc winding induced voltage in WFSF machines having partitioned stators and concentrated ac windings. FE results show that peak-to-peak value of the on-load dc winding induced voltage in the analyzed 12/10-pole partitioned stator WFSF (PS-WFSF) machines can be reduced by 78.42% or 77.16% by using rotor skewing or rotor pairing, respectively, while the torque density can be maintained by >90%. As for the 12/11-, 12/13-, and 12/14-pole PS-WFSF machines, by using rotor iron piece inner arc pairing, the on-load dc winding induced voltage can be reduced by 64.11%, 52.12%, and 76.49%, respectively, while the torque density can be maintained by more than 90%. Prototypes are built and tested to verify the analytical and FE results.
Diagnostic utility of the two methods of ankle brachial index in the detection of peripheral arterial disease of lower extremities

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a common disease that is diagnosed with a screening test called the Ankle Brachial Index (ABI). Different methods of ABI have been described in the literature. We wanted to estimate and compare the sensitivity and specificity of an alternative method of calculating the ABI (LAP ABI, low ankle pressure ABI) with the current method (named high ankle pressure (HAP)), using digital subtraction angiography (DSA) as the gold standard.
Exploring Acoustic Factor Analysis for limited test data speaker verification

In text independent speaker verification (TI-SV) domain, recently proposed Acoustic Factor Analysis (AFA) model has shown its importance over conventional i-vector based approach. AFA takes into account the redundancies present in the mel frequency cepstral coefficient (MFCC) features. It transforms the features to a lower dimensional space which is much close to speaker subspace. In practical applications duration of the test data is very important for SV task. It may not be always the case that the test data of sufficient duration is provided. Limited data have less phonetic content, that makes TI-SV under limited data a challenging task. Previously using i-vector based approach on MFCC features, it has been proved that performance of the SV task drops as the duration of the test data is reduced. This work attempts to improve performance of SV task for limited duration test utterances using AFA model. A SV system is built based on AFA. A parallel SV system of conventional i-vector based approach using MFCC features is also created. Then SV is carried out for limited test data conditions (≤10 s) on NIST SRE 2003 dataset using both the AFA and the i-vector based approach, AFA showing improved results over the latter case. The systems are then fused at the score level and their combination is found to give significant improvement over baseline performance highlighting importance of AFA based modeling approach for limited test data condition.
High rate of mixed genotypes of hepatitis C virus in patients of an epidemic area in Japan

The subjects of this study were 151 patients (69 males and 82 females) who underwent examination and liver biopsy owing to liver dysfunction in an epidemic area with hepatitis C. Second generation hepatitis C virus antibody (HCV Ab) was positive in 116 (76.8%) of 151 cases. HCV‐RNA was detected in 120 (79.5%) by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In 7 (4.6%) cases, HCV Ab could not be found, but HCV‐RNA was detected. Three (2.0%) cases were positive for HCV Ab but negative for HCV‐RNA. On the basis of variation in nucleotide sequence within a restricted region in the putative core gene of HCV, HCV genotypes were classed into four types of I, II, III and IV by PCR. The genotypes were identified in 120 cases. Ninety‐eight (81.7%) cases carried one of the four types. Type II was found in 76 (63.3%) cases and type III in 22 (18.3%). The other 22 (18.3%) carried simultaneously two different genotypes (mixed type): 21 (17.5%) cases with type II + III and one (0.8%) case with type II + IV. In comparison with the incidence of HCV mixed types in cases with hepatitits C in a non‐epidemic area, carriers of mixed types were found at a significantly higher rate in the epidemic area. Liver biopsy of 120 cases with identified HCV genotypes in the epidemic area showed 93 cases of chronic active hepatitis, nine of chronic lobular hepatitis, 10 of chronic persistent hepatitis and eight of liver cirrhosis. No significant correlation could be detected between liver histology and HCV genotypes. Of the 120 cases, 63 (52.5%), 54 (45.0%) and 12 (10.0%) cases had past histories of folk remedies accompanying bleeding, operation and transfusion, respectively. The repetition of these medications may have caused a high ratio of carriers of the mixed genotypes of HCV.
Quinoxalinediones selectively block quisqualate and kainate receptors and synaptic events in rat neocortex and hippocampus and frog spinal cord in vitro

1 Two quinoxalinediones, FG9041 and FG9065, which had previously been shown to displace binding to the quisqualate receptor, were tested on rat neocortex and frog spinal cord in vitro against depolarizations induced by quisqualate, kainate and N‐methyl‐d‐aspartate (NMDA). In both preparations effects of quisqualate were reduced the most and those of NMDA the least. 2 The near unitary slopes of the Schild plots were consistent with a competitive type of interaction. pA2 values for FG9041 were estimated to be 6.6, 6.1 and 5.1 in frog cord and 5.9, 5.3 and about 4 in rat neocortex for quisqualate, kainate and NMDA antagonism, respectively. FG9065 gave equivalent pA2 values of 6.2, 5.6 and 4.5. 3 At concentrations, which were without effect on depolarizations induced by NMDA, FG9041 and FG9065 reduced or blocked synaptically‐evoked field potentials in hippocampal and neocortical slices superfused with normal magnesium‐containing medium. Since these synaptic components are also insensitive to NMDA antagonists, these results are consistent with their mediation by postsynaptic receptors of the quisqualate (or kainate) type. 4 By contrast, quinoxalinediones had only limited effects on spontaneous epileptiform activity seen in both neocortical and hippocampal preparations when superfused with magnesium‐free medium. These burst discharges were, however, abolished by NMDA antagonists. 5 In the frog spinal cord the early component of the dorsal root to ventral root reflexes was selectively reduced by FG9041 whereas NMDA antagonists reduced the longer latency components. 6 Our results suggest that the quinoxalinediones are likely to be useful pharmacological probes for elucidating the role of non‐NMDA receptors in the vertebrate central nervous system.
The Velocity Crowding-Out Impact: Why High Money Growth is Not Always Inflationary

In the mainstream monetary policy consensus that prevailed prior to the global crisis, there was increasing de-emphasis on money and credit aggregates in the conduct of monetary policy, because of the overwhelming faith on the interest rate, both as an instrument of policy and as an indicator of overall monetary and liquidity conditions. In the aftermath of the global crisis, however, there seems to be a renewed emphasis on money and credit trends, though how the money growth indicator could be used in the actual conduct of monetary policy remains largely unclear. The Reserve Bank, despite abandoning explicit monetary targeting in 1998, still continues to announce indicative money and credit growth trajectories and also monitors their trends in order to identify any lead information that may be relevant for policy. In the analysis of the information content embodied in money growth, recognizing the possible sources of instability in money demand and resultant changes in money velocity becomes critical. In the context of the severe "velocity crowding out of quantitative easing" that was experienced in the US in the midst of the global crisis, it is important to recognise that external developments, particularly the risk of contagion from a crisis, could at times add significant instability to domestic money demand. Shocks to money demand from both anticipated and unanticipated factors could make the velocity unstable, adding thereby noise to the analysis of the money growth variable. This paper studies the money velocity trends for India, and using the standard determinants of velocity from the literature, it aims at exploring the possibility of generating forward looking assessment of velocity, so that money growth trends could be better explained relative to other economic variables, particularly output and prices. Every projected money growth trajectory, ideally, is linked to conditional predictability of velocity, which though is not always feasible.But in the absence of a reference to velocity trends, money growth alone at times may be misleading, even in the short-run. As per the empirical findings of this paper, conventional determinants of velocity appear to be statistically significant for Indian data, but the estimated parameters alone may not be sufficient for undertaking a forward looking assessment of velocity, particularly during periods of major uncertainty that could cause velocity to deviate significantly from its medium-term trend.
Epileptic Seizures and Epilepsy: Definitions Proposed by the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE)

Summary: The International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and the International Bureau for Epilepsy (IBE) have come to consensus definitions for the terms epileptic seizure and epilepsy. An epileptic seizure is a transient occurrence of signs and/or symptoms due to abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Epilepsy is a disorder of the brain characterized by an enduring predisposition to generate epileptic seizures and by the neurobiologic, cognitive, psychological, and social consequences of this condition. The definition of epilepsy requires the occurrence of at least one epileptic seizure.
Full genomic characterization of a group C rotavirus isolated from a child in south Korea

During an epidemiological survey of human rotavirus infection in Seoul, Korea, from 2010 to 2011, one isolate of group C rotavirus (GCRV), named CAU10‐312, was detected in a 5‐year‐old child admitted to the hospital with acute gastroenteritis, and its complete genomic sequence was determined. The 11 gene segments of the strain possessed G4‐P[2]‐I2‐R2‐C2‐M2‐A2‐N2‐T2‐E2‐H2 genotypes. The genotype of strain CAU10‐312 appears to be closely related to strains from Bangladesh (DhakaC13 and BS347), India (v508), and England (Bristol), but distinct from Far East Asian strains, Chinese (Wu82 and YNR001) and Japanese (OH567 and BK0830). These findings may clarify the relationship of the genetics, evolutionary biology, and epidemiology of GCRVs and suggest that two very distinct genotype strains are in circulation in the world. J. Med. Virol. 85:1478–1484, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.