Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Epidemiology of paediatric surgical admissions to a government referral hospital in the Gambia.

INTRODUCTION There is a paucity of published data on the type of conditions that require surgery among children in sub-Saharan Africa. Such information is necessary for assessing the impact of such conditions on child health and for setting priorities to improve paediatric surgical care. METHODS Described in the article is a 29-month prospective study of all children aged < 15 years who were admitted to a government referral hospital in the Gambia from January 1996 to May 1998. RESULTS A total of 1726 children were admitted with surgical problems. Surgical patients accounted for 11.3% of paediatric admissions and 34,625 total inpatient days. The most common admission diagnoses were injuries (46.9%), congenital anomalies (24.3%), and infections requiring surgery (14.5%). The diagnoses that accounted for the greatest number of inpatient days were burns (18.8%), osteomyelitis (15.4%), fractures (12.7%), soft tissue injuries (3.9%), and head injuries (3.4%). Gambian children were rarely admitted for appendicitis and never admitted for hypertrophic pyloric stenosis. The leading causes of surgical deaths were burns, congenital anomalies, and injuries other than burns. DISCUSSION Prevention of childhood injuries and better trauma management, especially at the primary and secondary health care levels, should be the priorities for improving paediatric surgical care in sub-Saharan Africa. Surgical care of children should be considered an essential component of child health programmes in developing countries.
Safety of perioperative minidose heparin in patients undergoing brain tumor surgery: a prospective, randomized, double-blind study.

OBJECT Thromboembolic phenomena (TEPs) continue to be a significant source of morbidity and mortality in patients undergoing neurosurgery. Although the efficacy of low-dose heparin in preventing TEPs in neurosurgical patients is well established, neurosurgeons are reluctant to use it perioperatively because of concern for increased bleeding complications. To clarify this issue, the authors used a prospective, randomized, double-blind design to evaluate the safety of minidose heparin treatment in patients undergoing surgery for supratentorial brain tumors. METHODS One hundred three patients, all 40 years of age or older, were treated with either 5000 U of heparin (55 patients) or placebo (48 patients) starting 2 hours before surgery and continuing until full mobilization or for 7 days. Both groups were well matched for sex, weight, duration of surgery, and tumor diagnosis. Subjective and objective parameters were used to estimate and calculate the perioperative bleeding tendency in all patients. Red blood cell mass loss was calculated by assessing the preoperative and postoperative hematocrit and the patient's weight. Intraoperative blood loss was determined by measuring the quantity of blood in the suction containers and subtracting the amount of irrigation fluids. Postoperative bleeding was measured by determining the amount of fluid in the subgaleal drain, and blood cell replacement was monitored during and after the procedure. Intracranial bleeding was graded according to findings on the postoperative computerized tomography scan obtained 48 to 72 hours after surgery. In addition, the senior surgeon in each case was asked to assess each patient's bleeding tendency during the operation. The results showed that perioperative administration of heparin did not significantly alter bleeding tendency by any measured parameter. The surgeon was blinded to which group individual patients had been allocated. CONCLUSIONS Perioperative minidose heparin is safe for use in patients undergoing craniotomy for supratentorial tumors. This relatively simple and inexpensive measure is recommended as a routine regimen for the prevention of TEPs in patients undergoing neurosurgery.
Performance of utility interconnected photovoltaic inverters operating beyond typical modes of operation

The high penetration of utility interconnected photovoltaic (PV) inverters can affect the utility at the point of common coupling. Today's utility interconnection standards are evolving to allow voltage and frequency support, and voltage and frequency ride-through capability. With multi-MW-sized PV plants and multitudes of small commercial and residential systems coming online each year, the interconnection standards are allowing distributed energy resource equipment to provide reactive power to supplement existing voltage-regulating devices and ride-through voltage and frequency anomalies. These new interconnection requirements, coupled with the high dc-to-ac ratios, are becoming more common with declining PV module costs and are changing the modes of operation for utility-interconnected PV systems. This report investigates the effects these modes of operation have on the inverter performance, array utilization, and power quality while focusing on conversion efficiency.
Hospital Financial Pressures and the Health of the Uninsured: Who Gets Hurt?

The increasing financial pressures of health care insurance coverage have become a key issue for advanced economies. This study tests whether hospital financial pressures have an effect on the health of the uninsured population. To do so, the author investigates the implications of managed care for the uninsured in the United States. Managed care penetration has increased financial pressures on hospitals, and previous work has shown that safety net hospitals have been affected more severely. The study results reveal that charity care patients concentrate in government hospitals in areas where financial pressures imposed by managed care are greater. In addition, the quality of care of these hospitals decreases more in areas where managed care penetration is stronger. Finally, the stronger financial pressures that managed care diffusion imposes have a negative effect on the quality of care the uninsured and those admitted to government hospitals receive.
Acquisition, expression, and reinstatement of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference in mice: effects of exposure to stress and modulation by mecamylamine

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors mediate some of the rewarding and motivational effects of ethanol, including relapses. Relapses are common in drug addicts during abstinence when exposure to any stressor ensues. However, the role of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the ethanol- and stress-induced reinstatement of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference has not yet been explored. Therefore, the present study investigated the influence of mecamylamine, a nicotinic acetylcholine receptors antagonist on acquisition, expression, and reinstatement of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference in adult male Swiss mice. The results revealed that mecamylamine (0.1–10 µg/mouse, intracerebroventricularly) dose dependently prevented the development, expression, and reinstatement of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference. Further, acute treatment with mecamylamine blocked the restraint stress and forced swim stress-induced reinstatement of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference. All of these treatments had no influence on the locomotor activity. Therefore, it is concluded that mecamylamine blocks the acquisition, expression and reinstatement of conditioned reinforcing effects of ethanol without per se reinforcing or aversive influence. This ability of mecamylamine might be a potential advantage in the treatment of alcoholism.
CCC.UGA: a new site of ribosomal frameshifting in Escherichia coli.

To activate expression of a human transferrin (Tf)-encoding cDNA in Escherichia coli by translational coupling, it was placed in an expression plasmid downstream from a 5'-terminal fragment from the replicase (R)-encoding gene of bacteriophage MS2. The resulting construct was found to produce, besides the desired Tf, a protein with the mobility of a fusion product (RTf) of the N-terminal R fragment and Tf. Analysis of available mutants showed that this fusion results from +1 ribosomal frameshifting at the end of the R reading frame. This region contains the sequence, CCC.UGA, suggesting that before termination occurs, tRNA(Pro) may dislodge from the CCC codon and reassociate with the +1 triplet CCU. By further site-directed mutagenesis, we demonstrate that both the CCC codon and the termination codon are indeed required for the observed 2-4% frameshifting. When either triplet is changed, the frequency of frameshifting drops to 0.3% or less. These results classify CCC.UGA as a new '+1 shifty stop'.
Exploring the larval fish community of the central Red Sea with an integrated morphological and molecular approach

An important aspect of population dynamics for coral reef fishes is the input of new individuals from the pelagic larval pool. However, the high biodiversity and the difficulty of identifying larvae of closely related species represent obstacles to more fully understanding these populations. In this study, we combined morphology and genetic barcoding (Cytochrome Oxidase I gene) to characterize the seasonal patterns of the larval fish community at two sites in close proximity to coral reefs in the central-north Red Sea: one shallower inshore location (50 m depth) and a nearby site located in deeper and more offshore waters (~ 500 m depth). Fish larvae were collected using oblique tows of a 60 cm-bongo net (500 μm mesh size) every month for one year (2013). During the warmer period of the year (June-November), the larval fish stock was comparable between sampling sites. However, during the colder months, abundances were higher in the inshore than in the offshore waters. Taxonomic composition and temporal variation of community structure differed notably between sites, potentially reflecting habitat differences, reproductive patterns of adults, and/or advective processes in the area. Eleven out of a total of 62 recorded families comprised 69–94% of the fish larval community, depending on sampling site and month. Richness of taxa was notably higher in the inshore station compared to the offshore, particularly during the colder period of the year and especially for the gobiids and apogonids. Two mesopelagic taxa (Vinciguerria sp. and Benthosema spp.) comprised an important component of the larval community at the deeper site with only a small and sporadic occurrence in the shallower inshore waters. Our data provide an important baseline reference for the larval fish communities of the central Red Sea, representing the first such study from Saudi Arabian waters.
Interactions between the regulation of the intracellular pH and sodium activity of sheep cardiac Purkinje fibres.

1. We have investigated the influence of the H+ and Na+ gradients across the cell membrane on the regulation of the intracellular pH (pHi) and of the intracellular Na activity (aNai) in sheep heart Purkinje fibres, using Na+‐ and pH‐sensitive microelectrodes. 2. In oxygenated, nominally bicarbonate‐free solutions (buffered with HEPES) the steady‐state pHi changed linearly with the extracellular pH (pHo) by 0.23 pH units/pHo unit change over the pHo range of 5.4‐8.4. The H+ equilibrium potential changed by about 47 mV/pHo unit change. 3. Both the steady‐state pHi and the pHi recovery from acidification induced by lowering the pHo to 6.4 were affected only to a small extent by reducing the extracellular Na concentration [Na]o, to one half or to one tenth normal. 4. The steady‐state aNai decreased by 5 to 20% when the pHo was reduced to 6.4 and increased by 3 to 8% when the pHo was raised to 8.4. These changes in aNai were still present when the Na‐K pump had been inhibited by the cardioactive steroid strophanthidin (10(‐5) M). 5. Exposure to K‐free solutions caused an increase in aNai. Following addition of 6 mM‐K (to re‐activate the Na‐K pump) the rate of decrease of aNai was not affected by pHo changes from 6.4 to 8.4. 6. Inhibition of the Na+‐K+ pump by strophanthidin (10(‐5) M) caused aNai to rise rapidly within 2‐3 min. The pHi remained unchanged for the first 1‐30 min after the pump inhibition, but then decreased by several tenths of a pH unit. 7. Amiloride (10(‐3) M) caused a small decrease in a Nai and an intracellular acidification of up to 0.2 pH units. 8. Under conditions, where aNai was high due to inhibition of the Na‐K pump by strophanthidin, lowering the [Na]o to one tenth normal produced a very large intracellular acidification, while aNai decreased. Amiloride increased this intracellular acidification even more, while the decrease in aNai remained unaffected. 9. Application of NH4Cl (20 mM) produced a decrease of aNai and a rapid intracellular alkalinization, followed by a slower acidification. Upon removal of NH4Cl the pHi dropped by several tenths of a pH unit but rapidly recovered. During this pH recovery there was a small transient increase in aNai above the control level before returning to normal. 10. The pHi recovery after the removal of NH4Cl was slowed by lowering the [Na]o to one tenth normal, and it was greatly inhibited in the presence of amiloride. The transient overshoot of aNai after NH4Cl removal was suppressed by amiloride. 11. We conclude that under some conditions there appears to be an exchange of intracellular H+ for extracellular Na+ across the cell membrane and that this exchange can help regulate the intracellular pH.
Bacteriophage Treatment Reduces Salmonella Colonization of Infected Chickens

Abstract Three different lytic bacteriophages (BPs) were isolated from the sewage system of commercial chicken flocks and used to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) colonization from experimental chickens. Ten-day-old chickens were challenged with 9.6 × 105 colony-forming units (CFU)/ml of a SE strain and treated by coarse spray or drinking water with a cocktail of the three phages at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 103 plaque-forming units (PFU) 24 hr prior to SE challenge. Chickens were euthanatized at day 20 of age for individual SE detection, quantitative bacteriology, and phage isolation from the intestine and from a pool of organs. SE detection was performed by both bacteriologic culture and genome detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Qualitative bacteriology showed that aerosol-spray delivery of BPs significantly reduced the incidence of SE infection in the chicken group (P = 0.0084) to 72.7% as compared with the control group (100%). In addition, SE counts showed that phage delivery both by coarse spray and drinking water reduced the intestinal SE colonization (P < 0.01; P < 0.05, respectively). BPs were isolated at 10 days postinfection from the intestine and from pools of organs from BP-treated chickens. We conclude that the phage treatment, either by aerosol spray or drinking water, may be a plausible alternative to antibiotics for the reduction of Salmonella infection in poultry.
The Met receptor tyrosine kinase and basal breast cancer

Breast cancer is a complex disease that comprises cancers of distinct biologies and responses to treatment. Clinical management relies on traditional clinicopathological parameters, involving lymph node status, histological grade, as well as expression of the estrogen receptor or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. Molecular pathology as well as protein and gene expression profiling have divided breast tumors into molecular subtypes associated with different clinical outcomes. One of these, defined as basal breast cancer, is associated with poor prognosis. Molecular mechanisms involved in the induction of basal breast cancer are poorly understood and targeted therapies for this subtype are lacking. Recent evidence using murine models identified a role for the Met receptor tyrosine kinase in the induction of murine mammary tumors with characteristics of human basal breast cancers. Moreover, elevated Met protein and RNA is associated with human basal tumors and poor outcome. These studies identify a link between the Met receptor tyrosine kinase, epithelial mesenchymal transition, and basal breast cancer. In this review, we provide an overview of murine Met models in relation to the spectrum of mouse models of breast cancer and a role for the Met receptor in basal breast cancer tumorigenesis.
Fertility care interventions should be provided as the first line options for HIV+ serodiscordant couples who desire children in settings with affordable access to care, regardless of their fertility status

Introduction: With increasing life expectancy, couples with at least one partner afflicted with HIV are more commonly pursuing the opportunity to have biologic offspring. Currently, there are no universally accepted recommendations regarding first line reproductive treatments for HIV serodiscordant couples lacking a history of infertility. We strongly believe that fertility care intervention should be the first line treatment, when affordably accessible, over natural conception for HIV serodiscordant couples to achieve pregnancy in a safe and efficacious manner.
Institutional legitimacy's impact on corporate social responsibility of commercial banks

This paper applied institutional theory to explore the relationships between institutional legitimacy and corporate social responsibility by analyzing financial data and media reports of commercial banks in China from 2008 to 2010. This article revealed the determinants of corporate social responsibility from regulative, normative and cognitive aspects. Empirical study shows that regulation pressure has positive effect on corporate social performance; banks with higher claims of media and the public have higher corporate social performance than those with lower claims. Besides, listed banks have higher social performance than non-listed banks. Compared to non-stated shareholders, state-owned shareholders bring higher social performance. The relationship between corporate economic performance and social performance is inverted U-type.
The effect of spousal violence on women's health: findings from the Stree Arogya Shodh in Goa, India.

BACKGROUND Spousal violence has wide-ranging effects on the physical, reproductive, sexual and psychological health of women. There are few longitudinal studies that describe this association in developing countries. AIM To test the hypothesis that spousal violence is an independent risk factor for a broad range of adverse health outcomes in women. SETTING AND DESIGN A population-based cohort study of women living in the catchment area of a primary health center in north Goa. Two thousand four hundred and ninety-four of 3000 randomly selected women were recruited of whom 1750 married women were included for this paper. MATERIALS AND METHODS Each participant was assessed at baseline with a structured interview for the assessment of exposure to spousal violence (verbal, physical, sexual) over two time periods (lifetime; recent in the past three months). The interview collected data on gynecological complaints and the Revised Clinical Interview Schedule was used for the diagnosis of depressive disorder. Laboratory tests for anemia and sexually transmitted infections (STI) were carried out. Longitudinal data was collected after six and 12 months on these outcomes. In addition, baseline measures for nutritional status and menstrual health were also obtained. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS Univariate analyses were carried out on the cross-sectional and longitudinal data to assess the association between each type of spousal violence and each health outcome. Multivariate analyses adjusted for age, literacy, household per capita income. Logistic regression was used for all analyses in Stata (Version 10). RESULTS Lifetime spousal violence was reported by 290 (16.6%, 95%CI=14.9-18.4) women; recent violence was reported by 230 (13.0%, 95%CI=11.6-14.8). The cross-sectional data showed an association between violence and a range of self-reported gynecological complaints, low Body Mass Index, depressive disorder and attempted suicide. The longitudinal analyses confirmed these associations only for STI and attempted suicide. CONCLUSION Spousal violence is specifically associated as an independent risk factor for two adverse women's health outcomes, viz., STI and attempted suicide. Public health and clinical programs targeting these outcomes must specifically address spousal violence.
Structural Features of Nucleosomes Reorganized by Yeast FACT and Its HMG Box Component, Nhp6

ABSTRACT The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Spt16/Cdc68, Pob3, and Nhp6 proteins (SPN or yFACT) bind to and alter nucleosomes in vitro, providing a potential explanation for their importance in both transcription and replication in vivo. We show that nucleosomes bound by either Nhp6 alone or the yFACT complex remain largely intact and immobile but are significantly reorganized, as indicated by changes in the pattern of sensitivity to DNase I and enhanced digestion by some restriction endonucleases. In contrast, yFACT enhanced access to exonuclease III only at very high levels of enzyme, suggesting that the DNA near the entry and exit sites of nucleosomes is largely unperturbed and that the position of the histone octamers relative to the DNA is not altered during reorganization. DNase I sensitivity was enhanced at sites clustered near the center of the nucleosomal DNA, away from the entry and exit points, and the pattern of nuclease sensitivity was only mildly affected by the configuration of linker extensions, further indicating that linkers play only a minor role in the reorganization of nucleosomes by yFACT. The DNA in contact with H2A-H2B dimers is therefore the region whose nuclease sensitivity was the least affected by yFACT reorganization. The most dramatic changes in nucleosome structure occurred when Spt16-Pob3 and the HMG box protein Nhp6 were both present, but Nhp6 alone altered DNase I sensitivity at some specific sites, supporting an independent role for this class of proteins in the general management of chromatin properties. yFACT activity does not require ATP hydrolysis and does not alter the position of nucleosomes, indicating that it acts through a mechanism distinct from chromatin remodeling. The results presented here suggest instead that yFACT promotes polymerase progression by reorganizing nucleosome cores into a less inhibitory conformation in which the properties of DNA sequences near the center of the nucleosomes are altered.
Cell‐demanded release of VEGF from synthetic, biointeractive cell‐ingrowth matrices for vascularized tissue growth

Local, controlled induction of angiogenesis remains a challenge that limits tissue engineering approaches to replace or restore diseased tissues. We present a new class of bioactive synthetic hydrogel matrices based on poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) and synthetic peptides that exploits the activity of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) alongside the base matrix functionality for cellular ingrowth, that is, induction of cell adhesion by pendant RGD‐containing peptides and provision of cell‐mediated remodeling by cross‐linking matrix metalloproteinase substrate peptides. By using a Michael‐type addition reaction, we incorporated variants of VEGF121 and VEGF165 covalently within the matrix, available for cells as they invade and locally remodel the material. The functionality of the matrix‐conjugated VEGF was preserved and was critical for in vitro endothelial cell survival and migration within the matrix environment. Consistent with a scheme of locally restricted availability of VEGF, grafting of these VEGF‐modified hydrogel matrices atop the chick chorioallontoic membrane evoked strong new blood vessel formation precisely at the area of graft‐membrane contact. When implanted subcutaneously in rats, these VEGF‐containing matrices were completely remodeled into native, vascularized tissue. This type of synthetic, biointeractive matrix with integrated angiogenic growth factor activity, presented and released only upon local cellular demand, could become highly useful in a number of clinical healing applications of local therapeutic angiogenesis.