Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sequential cerebral salt wasting complicating SIADH in a patient following head trauma

Hyponatremia is the most commonly encountered dyselectrolytemia following head trauma. The two main mechanisms responsible for non-iatrogenic hyponatremia are cerebral salt wasting (CSW) syndrome and the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone secretion (SIADH). SIADH is the commonest dyselectrolytemia cause of hyponatremia following traumatic brain injury (TBI) whereas CSW is the most elusive and challenging diagnosis of the causes of hyponatremia from intracranial causes. The need to distinguish between CSW and SIADH is critical because the management of CSW is volume restitution and sodium restoration whereas for SIADH, the management is exact opposite - water restriction. Our recent experience with a 67-year old Caucasian female post-TBI illustrated very interesting observations. To our knowledge, this is the first case of the sequential development of symptomatic hyponatremia from SIADH followed by the development of hyponatremia from CSW in the same patient during the same admission. Furthermore, our case further highlighted the contrarian observation that with a high index of suspicion for CSW and its early diagnosis, volume depletion and hypovolemia from polyuria may not be a distinguishing presenting factor, when contrasted with SIADH.
Elongation Factor-1α Accurately Reconstructs Relationships Amongst Psyllid Families (Hemiptera: Psylloidea), with Possible Diagnostic Implications

Abstract The superfamily Psylloidea (Hemiptera: Sternorrhyncha) lacks a robust multigene phylogeny. This impedes our understanding of the evolution of this group of insects and, consequently, an accurate identification of individuals, of their plant host associations, and their roles as vectors of economically important plant pathogens.The conserved nuclear gene elongation factor-1 alpha (EF-1α) has been valuable as a higher-level phylogenetic marker in insects and it has also been widely used to investigate the evolution of intron/exon structure. To explore evolutionary relationships among Psylloidea, polymerase chain reaction amplification and nucleotide sequencing of a 250-bp EF-1α gene fragment was applied to psyllids belonging to five different families. Introns were detected in three individuals belonging to two families. The nine genera belonging to the family Aphalaridae all lacked introns, highlighting the possibility of using intron presence/absence as a diagnostic tool at a family level. When paired with cytochrome oxidase I gene sequences, the 250 bp EF-1α sequence appeared to be a very promising higher-level phylogenetic marker for psyllids.
Association of Secondhand Smoke With Stroke Outcomes

Background and Purpose— Approximately half of never smokers are exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS). Smoking is a well-established stroke risk factor, yet associations between SHS, stroke, and poststroke mortality remain uncertain. We aimed to determine the prevalence of exposure to SHS among those with and without stroke and its impact on mortality. Methods— Data were obtained from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys for 27 836 never smokers with/without self-reported stroke aged ≥18 years, sampled from 1988 to 1994 and 1999 to 2012, with linked mortality through 2010. Household exposure to SHS was determined by self-report; exposure severity was quantified by serum cotinine level. Independent relationships between SHS and all-cause mortality were assessed using Cox regression models, before and after adjusting for sociodemographics and comorbidities. Results— From 1988 to 1994 to 1999 to 2012, age-adjusted prevalence of exposure to SHS declined from 11.5% to 6.6% among survivors of stroke (P=0.08), and 14.6% to 5.9% among persons without stroke (P<0.01). Factors associated with high exposure to SHS were male sex, black race, ⩽12th-grade education, poverty income ratio ⩽200%, high alcohol intake, and history of myocardial infarction (all P<0.05). High exposure to SHS was associated with higher odds of previous stroke (odds ratio, 1.46; P=0.026). There was a dose-dependent relationship between exposure to SHS and all-cause mortality after stroke. Conclusions— Individuals with previous stroke have 50% greater odds to have been exposed to SHS; SHS is associated with a 2-fold increase in mortality after stroke. This study highlights the importance of obtaining exposure to SHS history and counseling patients and their families on the potential impact of SHS on poststroke outcomes.
Design of Experiment (DOE) Study of Hydroxyapatite-Coated Magnesium by Cold Spray Deposition

In this study, hydroxyapatite powder was sprayed onto pure magnesium plate using a simple modified cold spray process. The effects of process parameters (i.e.standoff distance, surface roughness, substrate, substrate heating temperature and number of spray) were studied using 2k-1 factorial design.Analysis of variant (ANOVA) were used to determine the significant of process parameters on the coating. Thickness of coating, nanohardness and elastic modulus were chosen as the responses for assessing the most significant parameters that affected the hydroxyapatite coated onto pure magnesium plate. HAP particles have found to be bonded well in sample of run 11 while sample of run 4 show poor bonding between HAP particles and magnesium substrate. The effect of individual variables on the response was briefly discussed.
Evaluation of cellular standards for low data rate applications regarding power consumption and timing parameters

3GPP introduced new specifications for low data rate applications, due to the IoT sector and also the enormous amount of connected devices. This standards should reduce overhead, increase coverage and reduce power consumption in addition to an increasing capacity. This paper focuses on power consumption measurements of the current existing standards e.g. LTE and makes a comparison with the new Narrowband-IoT standards. Also an evaluation on timing parameters and different modes during the transmission is given. Finally this paper helps to decide which standard provides the best benefit for a certain application.
Gastrocnemius Myoelectric Control of a Robotic Hip Exoskeleton Can Reduce the User's Lower-Limb Muscle Activities at Push Off

We present a novel assistive control strategy for a robotic hip exoskeleton for assisting hip flexion/extension, based on a proportional Electromyography (EMG) strategy. The novelty of the proposed controller relies on the use of the Gastrocnemius Medialis (GM) EMG signal instead of a hip flexor muscle, to control the hip flexion torque. This strategy has two main advantages: first, avoiding the placement of the EMG electrodes at the human–robot interface can reduce discomfort issues for the user and motion artifacts of the recorded signals; second, using a powerful signal for control, such as the GM, could improve the reliability of the control system. The control strategy has been tested on eight healthy subjects, walking with the robotic hip exoskeleton on the treadmill. We evaluated the controller performance and the effect of the assistance on muscle activities. The tuning of the assistance timing in the controller was subject dependent and varied across subjects. Two muscles could benefit more from the assistive strategy, namely the Rectus Femoris (directly assisted) and the Tibialis Anterior (indirectly assisted). A significant correlation was found between the timing of the delivered assistance (i.e., synchronism with the biological hip torque), and reduction of the hip flexors muscular activity during walking; instead, no significant correlations were found for peak torque and peak power. Results suggest that the timing of the assistance is the most significant parameter influencing the effectiveness of the control strategy. The findings of this work could be important for future studies aimed at developing assistive strategies for walking assistance exoskeletons.
Associations of body fat and its changes over time with quality of life and prospective mortality in hemodialysis patients.

BACKGROUND In maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients, a larger body size is associated with better survival but a worse self-reported quality of life (QoL). It is not clear whether muscle mass or body fat confers the survival advantage. OBJECTIVE We hypothesized that both a low baseline body fat percentage and a loss of fat over time were independently associated with higher mortality but with a better QoL score. DESIGN In 535 adult MHD patients, body fat was measured directly with the use of near infrared interactance and QoL was measured with a Short Form 36 questionnaire. The patients were followed for < or =30 mo. RESULTS Across four 12% increments of body fat at baseline, the reported QoL scores were progressively lower (P < 0.01). After a multivariate adjustment for demographics and surrogates of muscle mass and inflammation (ie, midarm muscle circumference, serum creatinine, and proinflammatory cytokines), 46 patients with body fat of <12% had a death hazard ratio (HR) 4 times that of 199 patients with body fat content between 24% and 36% (HR: 4.01; 95% CI: 1.61, 9.99; P = 0.003). In 411 MHD patients whose body fat was remeasured after 6 mo, a fat loss (< or =-1%) was associated with a death risk 2 times that of patients who gained fat (> or =1%) after a multivariate adjustment (HR: 2.06; 95% CI: 1.05, 4.05; P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS A low baseline body fat percentage and fat loss over time are independently associated with higher mortality in MHD patients even after adjustment for demographics and surrogates of muscle mass and inflammation, whereas a tendency toward a worse QoL is reported by MHD patients with a higher body fat percentage. Obesity management in dialysis patients may need reconsideration.
Rapid Anterior Segmental Maxillary Retraction by Compression Osteogenesis

Abstract Maxillary protrusion is one of the deformities of the upper jaw. Orthodontics and orthodontics combined with anterior segmental osteotomy are the common treatment strategies for this deformity. The hypothesis of this study was that the maxillary bone segment could be gradually moved backward safely by using a tooth-borne-specific compression device that causes bone compression at the bony segment interface after performance of surgical bone cuts in cases of anterior maxillary protrusion. Ten patients with skeletal maxillary protrusion were treated by modified subapical maxillary osteotomy. Then the protrusion was gradually set back and fixed in a new position through the use of a compression device. After 8 weeks, the device was removed, and soft and hard tissue was evaluated. The average setback of the anterior maxillary segment was found to be 6.8 mm. The ratio of the upper lip to the maxillary incisor retraction was 0.52:1. The nasolabial angle increased with a change of 13.5°. The mentolabial angle increased with a change of 12.5°. This study is the first clinical study in using compression osteogenesis aided by a modified anterior subapical maxillary osteotomy technique in the management of skeletal maxillary protrusion that considered as an alternative to traditional surgical methods and to avoid its complications. It can be used successfully and safely, leading to rapid maximum setback of the anterior maxillary segment with great contact between bone segment, better and gradual hard and soft tissue remodeling, short treatment duration, and avoid using plates and screws with its complications.
Received power threshold and reply timing controlled reactive routing scheme for reliable ad hoc network

Most of reactive ad hoc routing schemes establish a route by using route request (RREQ) and route reply (RREP) messages. In actual wireless environments, however, route construction with this method is not always successful, nor is the established route stable. This paper analyses two issues that prevent stable route establishment. They are the packet collision of RREQ/RREP and the decrease of channel correlation between RREQ/RREP. In order to overcome these problems, an improved reactive routing scheme is proposed that employs received threshold and reply timing control. The route construction performance for the proposed scheme is evaluated by network simulation. The simulated results show that the proposed scheme can improve route construction probability under fading environment with a small increase of route construction delay.
Degradation of heme oxygenase‐1 by the immunoproteasome in astrocytes: A potential interferon‐γ‐dependent mechanism contributing to HIV neuropathogenesis

Induction of the detoxifying enzyme heme oxygenase‐1 (HO‐1) is a critical protective host response to cellular injury associated with inflammation and oxidative stress. We previously found that HO‐1 protein expression is reduced in brains of HIV‐infected individuals with HIV‐associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) and in HIV‐infected macrophages, where this reduction associates with enhanced glutamate release and neurotoxicity. Because HIV‐infected macrophages are a small component of the cellular content of the brain, the reduction of macrophage HO‐1 expression likely accounts for a small portion of brain HO‐1 loss in HIV infection. We therefore investigated the contribution of astrocytes, the major pool of brain HO‐1. We identified immunoproteasome‐mediated HO‐1 degradation in astrocytes as a second possible mechanism of brain HO‐1 loss in HIV infection. We demonstrate that prolonged exposure of human fetal astrocytes to interferon‐gamma (IFNγ), an HIV‐associated CNS immune activator, selectively reduces expression of HO‐1 protein without a concomitant reduction in HO‐1 RNA, increases expression of immunoproteasome subunits, and decreases expression of constitutive proteasome subunits, consistent with a shift towards increased immunoproteasome activity. In HIV‐infected brain HO‐1 protein reduction also associates with increased HO‐1 RNA expression and increased immunoproteasome expression. Finally, we show that IFNγ treatment of astrocytic cells reduces HO‐1 protein half‐life in a proteasome‐dependent manner. Our data thus suggest unique causal links among HIV infection, IFNγ‐mediated immunoproteasome induction, and enhanced HO‐1 degradation, which likely contribute to neurocognitive impairment in HAND. Such IFNγ‐mediated HO‐1 degradation should be further investigated for a role in neurodegeneration in inflammatory brain conditions.
Evaluation of an Oxygen-Diffusion Dressing for Accelerated Healing of Donor-Site Wounds

Accelerating the healing process and reducing pain during healing are beneficial for the following reasons: faster return to work, lower risk of wound infection, improved quality of life, and possibly reduced need for analgesia. This clinical study assessed the effectiveness of a new oxygen-diffusion dressing (OxyBand; Oxyband Technologies, St. Louis, MO) compared with standard Xeroform gauze dressings (Convidien, Mansfield, MA), in the care of skin-graft donor sites in burn patients. Time to healing was the primary endpoint, and pain scores and cosmetic outcome were also assessed. This was a prospective, randomized, controlled study of burn patients undergoing harvesting of two donor sites. Patients were followed at predetermined time points for 30 to 45 days to determine the time to reepithelialization, cosmetic appearance, and pain. Subjects were adult burn patients with less than 30% TBSA burns admitted to the burn center, who required excision and grafting. Twenty patients were enrolled, of whom 17 completed the study. Average age was 35 years. Average burn size was 9.2% TBSA. Patients underwent harvesting of split-thickness skin grafts with one donor wound dressed with OxyBand and the other dressed in Xeroform gauze. Wounds were inspected and photographed on postoperative days 4 and 8, and then every 2 days until the donor wounds were healed. Pain scores at each site were also collected at these visits (rated by patients on a scale from 0 to 10). Mean time to wound healing for OxyBand was 9.3 ± 1.7 days; for Xeroform, 12.4 ± 2.7 days (P < .001). Pain scores were lower (P < .01) at the OxyBand site compared with the Xeroform site at all time points during postoperative days 4 to 12. There was no difference in the cosmetic outcome of the wounds at 30 to 45 days postoperatively. This study revealed a decrease in the time to healing and in pain at donor sites dressed with an oxygen-diffusion dressing.
Efficient bulk mass accommodation of N 2 O 5 into neutral aqueous aerosol

An isotope exchange experiment with the short-lived radioactive tracer N is used to trace N2O5 uptake into nitrate containing aqueous aerosol particles. While uptake of N labelled N2O5 to deliquesced Na2SO4 aerosol is consistent with previous studies, in presence of aerosol phase nitrate efficient exchange of labelled nitrate with the non-labelled nitrate pool was observed. The experiments provide direct evidence for efficient bulk mass accommodation of N2O5 into aqueous solution with αb > 0.4 at room temperature, as well as for the fast disproportionation dissociation into nitronium and nitrate. While for experimental reasons this study is limited to nitrate containing non-acidic aerosol, it is likely that bulk mass accommodation and dissociation is are not limiting N2O5 uptake also under wider ranges of conditions.
Indoor localization based on a single-tone SIMO-structured Doppler radar system

Indoor localization is a hot topic in microwave engineering. However, short-range localization of passive moving objects in indoor environments remains a technical challenge. In this paper, we propose a single-frequency continuous-wave Doppler radar sensor implemented in a form of a single-input multiple-output (SIMO) architecture with a redundant receiving channel. It only uses the Doppler information in the localization. In this case, this localization is naturally immune to stationary clutters such as walls and furniture, making it only responsive to moving objects. The obtained results imply the potential for the localization and tracking of moving objects in indoor environments with strong stationary scatters.
Non-orthogonal multiple access systems with wireless energy harvesting

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a candidate multiple access scheme in 5G systems for the simultaneous access of tremendous number of wireless nodes. On the other hand, RF-enabled wireless energy harvesting is a promising technology for self-sustainable wireless nodes. In this paper, we consider a NOMA system where the near user harvests energy from the strong radio signal to power-on the information decoder. A generalized energy harvesting framework is proposed by combining the conventional time switching and power splitting scheme, and the achievable rate regions for time switching and power splitting are characterized in closed-form. Numerical results demonstrate the relationship among generalized scheme, time switching scheme and power splitting scheme.
The efficacy of a novel collagen–gelatin scaffold with basic fibroblast growth factor for the treatment of vocal fold scar

Vocal fold scar remains a therapeutic challenge. Basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) was reported to have regenerative effects for vocal fold scar, although it has the disadvantage of rapid absorption in vivo. A collagen–gelatin sponge (CGS) can compensate for the disadvantage by providing a sustained release system. The current study evaluated the efficacy of CGS combined with bFGF on vocal fold scar, using rat fibroblasts for an in vitro model and a canine in vivo model. We prepared fibroblasts from scarred vocal folds (sVFs) in rats and showed that bFGF accelerated cell proliferation and suppressed expression levels of cleaved caspase 3 and α‐smooth muscle actin. Has 1, Has 3, Fgf2, Hgf and Vegfa mRNA levels were significantly upregulated, while Col1a1 and Col3a1 were dose‐dependently downregulated, with a maximum effect at 100 ng/ml bFGF. In an in vivo assay, 6 weeks after lamina propria stripping, beagles were divided into three groups: CGS alone (CGS group); CGS with bFGF (7 µg/cm2; CGS + bFGF group); or a sham‐treated group. Vibratory examination revealed that the glottal gap was significantly reduced in the bFGF group and the two implanted groups, whereas the CGS + bFGF group showed higher mucosal wave amplitude. Histological examination revealed significantly restored hyaluronic acid and elastin redistribution in the CGS + bFGF group and reductions in dense collagen deposition. These results provide evidence that CGS and bFGF combination therapy may have therapeutic potential and could be a promising tool for treating vocal fold scar. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Genetic dissection of a cell-autonomous neurodegenerative disorder: lessons learned from mouse models of Niemann-Pick disease type C

Understanding neurodegenerative disease progression and its treatment requires the systematic characterization and manipulation of relevant cell types and molecular pathways. The neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorder Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is highly amenable to genetic approaches that allow exploration of the disease biology at the organismal, cellular and molecular level. Although NPC is a rare disease, genetic analysis of the associated neuropathology promises to provide insight into the logic of disease neural circuitry, selective neuron vulnerability and neural-glial interactions. The ability to control the disorder cell-autonomously and in naturally occurring spontaneous animal models that recapitulate many aspects of the human disease allows for an unparalleled dissection of the disease neurobiology in vivo. Here, we review progress in mouse-model-based studies of NPC disease, specifically focusing on the subtype that is caused by a deficiency in NPC1, a sterol-binding late endosomal membrane protein involved in lipid trafficking. We also discuss recent findings and future directions in NPC disease research that are pertinent to understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration in general.