Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Short-term ambulatory oxygen for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND Ambulatory oxygen is defined as the use of supplemental oxygen during exercise and activities of daily living. Ambulatory oxygen therapy is often used for patients on long term oxygen therapy during exercise, or for non long term oxygen therapy users who achieve some subjective and/or objective benefit from oxygen during exercise. The evidence for the use of ambulatory oxygen therapy is extrapolated from two sources: longer term studies and single assessment studies. Longer term studies assess the impact of ambulatory oxygen therapy used at home during activities of daily living. Single assessment studies compare performance during an exercise test using oxygen with performance during an exercise test using placebo air. OBJECTIVES To determine the efficacy of ambulatory oxygen in patients with COPD using single assessment studies. SEARCH STRATEGY The Cochrane Airways Group COPD register was searched with predefined search terms. Searches were current as of March 2005. SELECTION CRITERIA Only randomised controlled trials were included. Studies did not have to be blinded. Studies had to compare oxygen and placebo when administered to people with COPD who were undergoing an exercise test. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS Two reviewers (JB, B'ON) extracted and entered data in to RevMan 4.2. MAIN RESULTS Thirty one studies (contributing 33 data sets), randomising 534 participants met the inclusion criteria of the review. Oxygen improved all pooled outcomes relating to endurance exercise capacity (distance, time, number of steps) and maximal exercise capacity (exercise time and work rate). Data relating to VO2 max could not be pooled and results from the original studies were not consistent. For the secondary outcomes of breathlessness, SaO2 and VE, comparisons were made at isotime. In all studies except two the isotime is defined as the time at which the placebo test ended. Oxygen improved breathlessness, SaO2/PaO2 and VE at isotime with endurance exercise testing. There was no data on breathlessness at isotime with maximal exercise testing. Oxygen improved SaO2/PaO2 and reduced VE at Isotime. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS This review provides some evidence from small, single assessment studies that ambulatory oxygen improves exercise performance in people with moderate to severe COPD. The results of the review may be affected by publication bias, and the small sample sizes in the studies. Although positive, the findings of the review require replication in larger trials with more distinct subgroups of participants. Maximal or endurance tests can be used in ambulatory oxygen assessment. Consideration should be given to the measurement of SaO2 and breathlessness at isotime as these provide important additional information. We recommend that these outcomes are included in the assessment for ambulatory oxygen. Future research needs to establish the level of benefit of ambulatory oxygen in specific subgroups of people with COPD.
Node configuration for the Aho-Corasick algorithm in intrusion detection systems

In this paper, we analyze the performance and cost trade-off from selecting two representations of nodes when implementing the Aho-Corasick algorithm. This algorithm can be used for pattern matching in network-based intrusion detection systems such as Snort. Our analysis uses the Snort 2.9. 7 rules set, which contains almost 26k patterns. Our methodology consists of code profiling and analysis, followed by the selection of a parameter to maximize a metric that combines clock cycles count and memory usage. The parameter determines which of two types of nodes is selected for each trie node. We show that it is possible to select the parameter to optimize the metric, which results in an improvement by up to 12× compared with the single node-type case.
MUTATIONAL MELTDOWN IN LABORATORY YEAST POPULATIONS

Abstract In small or repeatedly bottlenecked populations, mutations are expected to accumulate by genetic drift, causing fitness declines. In mutational meltdown models, such fitness declines further reduce population size, thus accelerating additional mutation accumulation and leading to extinction. Because the rate of mutation accumulation is determined partly by the mutation rate, the risk and rate of meltdown are predicted to increase with increasing mutation rate. We established 12 replicate populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae from each of two isogenic strains whose genomewide mutation rates differ by approximately two orders of magnitude. Each population was transferred daily by a fixed dilution that resulted in an effective population size near 250. Fitness declines that reduce growth rates were expected to reduce the numbers of cells transferred after dilution, thus reducing population size and leading to mutational meltdown. Through 175 daily transfers and approximately 2900 generations, two extinctions occurred, both in populations with elevated mutation rates. For one of these populations there is direct evidence that extinction resulted from mutational meltdown: Extinction immediately followed a major fitness decline, and it recurred consistently in replicate populations reestablished from a sample frozen after this fitness decline, but not in populations founded from a predecline sample. Wild-type populations showed no trend to decrease in size and, on average, they increased in fitness. Corresponding Editor: A. Caballero
Diabetes in the dental office: using NHANES III to estimate the probability of undiagnosed disease.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Recent data have suggested that in the past 15 years there has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of diabetes mellitus in the USA. However, evidence suggests that approximately one-third of diabetes cases remain undiagnosed. Because 60% of Americans see a dentist at least once per year for routine, nonemergent, care, it is reasonable to propose that the dental office can be a healthcare location actively involved in screening for unidentified diabetes. MATERIAL AND METHODS This study used NHANES III to develop a predictive equation that can form the basis of a tool to help dentists determine the probability of undiagnosed diabetes by using self-reported data and periodontal clinical parameters routinely assessed in the dental office. RESULTS Our analyses reveal that individuals with a self-reported family history of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol levels and clinical evidence of periodontal disease bear a probability of 27-53% of having undiagnosed diabetes, with Mexican-American men exhibiting the highest probability and white women the lowest. CONCLUSION These findings suggest that the dental office could provide an important opportunity to identify individuals unaware of their diabetic status.
Loop polarity, loop dominance, and the concept of dominant polarity (1984)

Founded in the mid-1950s, the field of system dynamics has intellectual roots reaching much further into the past. This section seeks to publish material from that past that can contribute to current theory and practice. It welcomes previously unpublished but deserving system dynamics work, classics from past system dynamics literature that should receive renewed attention, and previously published articles from other disciplines of particular significance to current system dynamicists. Contributions emphasizing the philosophy and theory of model building, validation, implementation, education, and generic structures are particularly encouraged. Submissions may range in length from notes to main articles but may be edited. Send material, with a brief introduction placing it in historical and current contexts, to John D. Sterman, System Dynamics Group, MIT E40–294, Cambridge, MA 02139, U.S.A.
Cell Therapy Trials in Congenital Heart Disease

Dramatic evolution in medical and catheter interventions and complex surgeries to treat children with congenital heart disease (CHD) has led to a growing number of patients with a multitude of long-term complications associated with morbidity and mortality. Heart failure in patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome predicated by functional single ventricle lesions is associated with an increase in CHD prevalence and remains a significant challenge. Pathophysiological mechanisms contributing to the progression of CHD, including single ventricle lesions and dilated cardiomyopathy, and adult heart disease may inevitably differ. Although therapeutic options for advanced cardiac failure are restricted to heart transplantation or mechanical circulatory support, there is a strong impetus to develop novel therapeutic strategies. As lower vertebrates, such as the newt and zebrafish, have a remarkable ability to replace lost cardiac tissue, this intrinsic self-repair machinery at the early postnatal stage in mice was confirmed by partial ventricular resection. Although the underlying mechanistic insights might differ among the species, mammalian heart regeneration occurs even in humans, with the highest degree occurring in early childhood and gradually declining with age in adulthood, suggesting the advantage of stem cell therapy to ameliorate ventricular dysfunction in patients with CHD. Although effective clinical translation by a variety of stem cells in adult heart disease remains inconclusive with respect to the improvement of cardiac function, case reports and clinical trials based on stem cell therapies in patients with CHD may be invaluable for the next stage of therapeutic development. Dissecting the differential mechanisms underlying progressive ventricular dysfunction in children and adults may lead us to identify a novel regenerative therapy. Future regenerative technologies to treat patients with CHD are exciting prospects for heart regeneration in general practice.
Exposure-related declines in the lung function of cotton textile workers. Relationship to current workplace standards.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the current workplace standards in preventing chronic health effects from cotton dust exposure, a 5-yr longitudinal study of a large multimill population of cotton textile and synthetic process workers, employed at a major U.S. textile company, was conducted. To control for and assess the effect of type of work area on annual change in lung function, we limited the analysis to those 1,817 subjects who, throughout their textile work history at the company, worked exclusively in cotton yarn manufacturing or slashing and weaving, or in synthetic textile mills. The expected effect of smoking on average annual change in lung function was demonstrated for both cotton and synthetic workers. Despite lower overall dust exposure, cotton yarn workers exhibited steeper annual declines in lung function than did workers in slashing and weaving; this difference persisted within each smoking category, indicating a dust potency effect. There were mill differences in annual change in lung function among cotton workers, potentially masking an exposure effect. A smoking-work area interaction persisted after adjusting for mill differences, with the largest annual declines observed in cotton yarn workers who smoke. A significant dose-response relationship was seen in cotton yarn manufacturing between annual declines in FEV1, FVC, and FEF25-75 and average exposure by mill, and the larger declines were found in mills using the highest percentage and lowest grade of cotton. Synthetic textile workers had larger declines than did cotton textile workers, which were not explained by smoking or duration of employment. Unrecognized and unmeasured causative exposures or selection bias could explain this result. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
A fast short-circuit protection method using gate charge characteristics of SiC MOSFETs

This paper describes a fast protection circuit for silicon carbide metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (SiC MOSFETs) subjected to hard-switching faults (HSFs). In terms of reliability of power converters, the protection of power semiconductors against short-circuit failures is of great concern. The reverse transfer capacitance increases with decreasing drain-source voltage during normal turn-on transient. Under HSF conditions, on the other hand, it hardly changes because the drain-source voltage remains high. As a consequence, quite a significant difference appears in gate charge characteristics between under HSF conditions and normal turn-on operation. Hence, an HSF can be detected by monitoring both the gate- source voltage and the amount of gate charge. The proposed protection circuit has high noise tolerance because it monitors not only the gate-source voltage but also the amount of gate charge. The validity of the protection circuit is verified by experiment. The proposed protection circuit can detect the HSF within only one microsecond.
A Personal Construct Approach to the Conjugally Bereaved Woman

Kelly's theory of personal constructs has been applied to generate an explanation of the normal processes of grief and mourning, using widowhood as an example. The psychological states characteristic of widowhood–shock and numbness, stress, anger, anxiety, guilt, sadness, despair, hostility, idealization, depression, and psychological reorganization–are viewed as manifestations of changes in parts of the widow's personal construct system. These changes involve the processes of personal construct dislocation and adaptation. Dislocation refers to the real or apparent failure of the widow's construct system to embrace the new events associated with her husband's death. Adaptation involves two processes, assimilation and accommodation. This proposal of concurrent processes of personal construct dislocation and adaptation differs from the phase-oriented approaches to bereavement. It also encourages the widow's active coping with her bereavement reaction.
Facilitating email thread access by extractive summary generation

Email threads are the most common way to represent (archived) discussion groups or mailing lists. Due to the large volumes of such archives, better representation of the threads is required in order to allow the users to nd topics of interest and to decide which threads to read. This paper discusses our initial approach to generating thread overviews that serve as indicative summaries for the thread. The overviews give the user a better idea of what is discussed in a related set of email exchanges than the currently used conventions can provide. A relatively large user study on fty email threads was performed and it con rmed the utility of the proposed approach.
Caveolin-1 Regulates Store-Operated Ca2+ Influx by Binding of Its Scaffolding Domain to Transient Receptor Potential Channel-1 in Endothelial Cells

Caveolin-1 associates with store-operated cation channels (SOC) in endothelial cells. We examined the role of the caveolin-1 scaffolding domain (CSD) in regulating the SOC [i.e., transient receptor potential channel-1 (TRPC1)] in human pulmonary artery endothelial cells (HPAECs). We used the cellpermeant antennapedia (AP)-conjugated CSD peptide, which competes for protein binding partners with caveolin-1, to assess the interactions of caveolin-1 with TRPC1 and its consequences on thrombin-induced Ca2+ influx. We observed that AP-CSD peptide markedly reduced thrombin-induced Ca2+ influx via SOC in HPAECs in contrast to control peptide. AP-CSD also suppressed thapsigargin-induced Ca2+ influx. Streptavidin-bead pull-down assay indicated strong binding of biotin-labeled AP-CSD peptide to TRPC1. Immunoprecipitation studies demonstrated an interaction between endogenous TRPC1 and ectopically expressed hemagglutinin-tagged CSD. Analysis of the deduced TRPC1 amino acid sequence revealed the presence of CSD binding consensus sequence in the TRPC1 C terminus. We also observed that an AP-TRPC1 peptide containing the CSD binding sequence markedly reduced the thrombin-induced Ca2+ influx. We identified the interaction between biotin-labeled AP-TRPC1 C terminus peptide and caveolin-1. Thus, these results demonstrate a crucial role of caveolin-1 scaffolding domain interaction with TRPC1 in regulating Ca2+ influx via SOC.
Long-term glucose tolerance in highly experienced HIV-infected patients receiving nucleoside analogue-sparing regimens

Thirty-nine HIV-1-infected patients treated for 156 weeks with a new nucleoside analogue-sparing regimen [raltegravir, etravirine and maraviroc (REM) or raltegravir, etravirine and darunavir/ritonavir (RED)] showed a uniform increase in fasting glucose levels and a uniform decrease in insulin secretory capacity. Diabetes mellitus occurred in one RED-treated and four REM-treated patients. A worsening glucose tolerance was observed in highly treatment-experienced HIV-infected patients receiving effective antiretroviral therapy after virological failure.
Respiratory symptoms as predictors of 27 year mortality in a representative sample of British adults.

OBJECTIVE--To examine associations between reported respiratory symptoms (as elicited by questionnaire) and subsequent mortality. DESIGN--Prospective cohort study. SETTING--92 General practices in Great Britain. PARTICIPANTS--A nationally representative sample of 1532 British men and women aged between 40 and 64. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, lung cancer, and chronic bronchitis. RESULTS--Subjects were interviewed in 1958 regarding various respiratory symptoms (including cough, phlegm, breathlessness, and wheeze) by using a questionnaire which formed the basis of the Medical Research Council's questionnaire on respiratory symptoms. By the end of 1985, 889 deaths had been reported, including 51 in men due to chronic bronchitis. After adjustment for differences in age and smoking habits death rates from chronic bronchitis in men who reported symptoms were greater than those in men who did not for each of the symptoms examined. The adjusted mortality ratios were 3.4 (95% confidence interval 1.8 to 6.5) for morning cough, 3.7 (2.0 to 6.9) for morning phlegm, 6.4 (3.0 to 13.8) for breathlessness when walking on the level, and 10.5 (4.4 to 24.6) for wheeze most days or nights. Mortality ratios were also significantly raised for four episodic symptoms not usually included in more recent respiratory symptom questionnaires--namely, occasional wheeze (mortality ratio 6.0; 95% confidence interval, 2.4 to 15.1), weather affects chest (5.7; 3.1 to 10.3), breathing different in summer (4.9; 2.8 to 8.6), and cold usually goes to chest (3.7; 2.0 to 6.8). The excess mortality associated with these symptoms remained significant after further adjustment for breathlessness or phlegm. Ratios for all cause mortality in men and women were also significantly raised for most respiratory symptoms, death rates being some 20-50% higher in people reporting symptoms after adjustment for age, sex, and smoking. Breathlessness was the only symptom significantly associated with excess mortality from cardiovascular disease (mortality ratio 1.4 (95% confidence interval 1.0 to 1.9) for breathlessness when walking on the level). Ratios were generally around unity and not significant for mortality due to lung cancer. CONCLUSIONS--The results suggest that episodic symptoms, which often do not appear in standard respiratory questionnaires, predict subsequent mortality from chronic obstructive airways disease. This supports the hypothesis that reversible airflow obstruction may be a precursor of progressive and irreversible decline in ventilatory function.
Cell Therapy of Congenital Corneal Diseases with Umbilical Mesenchymal Stem Cells: Lumican Null Mice

Background Keratoplasty is the most effective treatment for corneal blindness, but suboptimal medical conditions and lack of qualified medical personnel and donated cornea often prevent the performance of corneal transplantation in developing countries. Our study aims to develop alternative treatment regimens for congenital corneal diseases of genetic mutation. Methodology/Principal Findings Human mesenchymal stem cells isolated from neonatal umbilical cords were transplanted to treat thin and cloudy corneas of lumican null mice. Transplantation of umbilical mesenchymal stem cells significantly improved corneal transparency and increased stromal thickness of lumican null mice, but human umbilical hematopoietic stem cells failed to do the same. Further studies revealed that collagen lamellae were re-organized in corneal stroma of lumican null mice after mesenchymal stem cell transplantation. Transplanted umbilical mesenchymal stem cells survived in the mouse corneal stroma for more than 3 months with little or no graft rejection. In addition, these cells assumed a keratocyte phenotype, e.g., dendritic morphology, quiescence, expression of keratocyte unique keratan sulfated keratocan and lumican, and CD34. Moreover, umbilical mesenchymal stem cell transplantation improved host keratocyte functions, which was verified by enhanced expression of keratocan and aldehyde dehydrogenase class 3A1 in lumican null mice. Conclusions/Significance Umbilical mesenchymal stem cell transplantation is a promising treatment for congenital corneal diseases involving keratocyte dysfunction. Unlike donated corneas, umbilical mesenchymal stem cells are easily isolated, expanded, stored, and can be quickly recovered from liquid nitrogen when a patient is in urgent need.
A nanotopography approach for studying the structure-function relationships of cells and tissues

Most cells in the body secrete, or are in intimate contact with extracellular matrix (ECM), which provides structure to tissues and regulates various cellular phenotypes. Cells are well known to respond to biochemical signals from the ECM, but recent evidence has highlighted the mechanical properties of the matrix, including matrix elasticity and nanotopography, as fundamental instructive cues regulating signal transduction pathways and gene transcription. Recent observations also highlight the importance of matrix nanotopography as a regulator of cellular functions, but lack of facile experimental platforms has resulted in a continued negligence of this important microenvironmental cue in tissue culture experimentation. In this review, we present our opinion on the importance of nanotopography as a biological cue, contexts in which it plays a primary role influencing cell behavior, and detail advanced techniques to incorporate nanotopography into the design of experiments, or in cell culture environments. In addition, we highlight signal transduction pathways that are involved in conveying the extracellular matrix nanotopography information within the cells to influence cell behavior.
Microanalysis of Heterogeneous Radiation in Particulate Matter as an Aid to Nuclear Source Identification

Background Materials and methods Results and discussion Methodological conclusions Abstract to Chapter 3to Chapter 3 Isolation of hot particles from environmental samples requires multiple steps to collect, separate, and analyze radioactive particulate matter, (RPM). Hot particles contain greater radioactivity than surrounding particles. Samples are collected from media which are high in particulate matter, such as indoor house dusts, dusts from vehicle air filters, household appliance dust buildups, (such as from HVAC coils with forced drafts), vacuum cleaner fine particle traps, and fine sorted surficial soils and sediments. The steps involved in detecting and isolating hot particles include: § Biased sample collection to favor the collection of samples likely to contain hot particles, including field screening of environmental samples of dusts, sediments, and soils by portable gamma spectrometry. § Laboratory gamma spectrometry screening of samples to identify signatures for specific radionuclides and total activity of the sample under shielded conditions. § Separation of hot particle-enriched fractions via dry sieving and autoradiographic mapping of monolayer preparations of particulate samples. § SEM/EDS analysis of selected samples to determine the composition, size, and morphology of individual particles.