Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long‐term safety of budesonide nasal aerosol: a 5.5‐year follow‐up study

The effects of prolonged treatment with intranasally applied budesonide was studied in twenty‐four patients with perennial allergic or non‐allergic rhinitis. Patients on continuous treatment were followed up for 5.5 years. At entry and follow‐up visits, rhinoscopic findings, nasal symptom scores, blood chemistry, haematology, urine analysis and determination of plasma cortisol levels, before and after stimulation with ACTH (Synacthen®, Ciba‐Geigy AG, Basel, Switzerland), were registered. Biopsies of the nasal mucosa were taken before entry into the study, after 1 year of treatment, and after varying time intervals ranging from 2.5 to 5.5 years during the treatment. The biopsy specimens were examined blindly by an independent pathologist. The analyses revealed no histopathological changes in the nasal mucosa. All nasal symptom parameters assessed by the patients were significantly reduced from the baseline during the entire follow‐up period. No clinically significant changes in the haematological and blood chemistry parameters were observed. Plasma cortisol analyses before and after challenge with ACTH revealed no influence on the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. The present study suggests that intranasal budesonide in the dose of 200–400 μg/day is also a safe treatment for prolonged treatment of perennial rhinitis.
A self-aligning knee joint for walking assistance devices

This paper presents a novel self-aligning knee mechanism for walking assistance devices for the elderly to provide physical gait assistance. Self-aligning knee joints can assist in flexion/extension motions of the knee joint and compensate the knee's transitional movements in the sagittal plane. In order to compensate the center of rotation, which moves with the flexion/extension motion of the human knee joint, a self-aligning knee joint is proposed that adds redundant degrees of freedom (i.e., 2-DoF) to the 1-DoF revolute joint. The key idea of the proposed mechanism is to decouple joint rotations and translations for use in lower-extremity wearable devices. This paper describes the mechanical design of this self-aligning knee mechanism and its implementation on a wearable robot and in preliminary experiments. The performance of the proposed mechanism is verified by simulations and experiments.
An efficiency optimization strategy of PV/DC modular integrated structure under power mismatch condition

Conventional parallel connected dc-dc converter of photovoltaic (PV) system is widely used. However, the output voltage of PV integrated converter is relatively low. In some practical application, the converters need to be connected in series to create a high and suitable dc-bus voltage. So series connected dc-dc converters are getting more and more concerned recently. To obtain higher performance, series PV/DC modular integrated structure is becoming of higher interest. In series PV/DC modular integrated structure, the serial output current is forced to be equal, which will obviously decrease the system efficiency under some special imbalance cases. This paper proposes an optimization approach that utilizes a power diversion circuit to decouple the output current, which overcomes the mutual influence among the mismatch PV modules and the normal ones. Simulation and experiment results indicate that the proposed optimization strategy operates well with efficiency improvement of 13.02% under a special mismatch case.
Accelerated DNA-SLAM for RGB-D images

In the highly active research field of Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM), RGB-D images have been a major interest to use. Real-time SLAM for RGB-D images is of great importance since dense methods using all the depth and intensity values showed superior performance in the past. Due to development of GPU and CPU technologies, the real-time implementation of the mentioned algorithms is no longer an impassable problem. In this paper, we present an acceleration approach for the DNA-SLAM algorithm. We argue some possible challenges while converting the CPU implemented algorithm to the GPU. Finally, runtime evaluation and improvements are shown on the public CoRBS dataset.
Alternaria Brassicae Induces Systemic Jasmonate Responses in Arabidopsis Which Travel to Neighboring Plants via a Piriformsopora Indica Hyphal Network and Activate Abscisic Acid Responses

Stress information received by a particular local plant tissue is transferred to other tissues and neighboring plants, but how the information travels is not well understood. Application of Alternaria Brassicae spores to Arabidopsis leaves or roots stimulates local accumulation of jasmonic acid (JA), the expression of JA-responsive genes, as well as of NITRATE TRANSPORTER (NRT)2.5 and REDOX RESPONSIVE TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR1 (RRTF1). Infection information is systemically spread over the entire seedling and propagates radially from infected to non-infected leaves, axially from leaves to roots, and vice versa. The local and systemic NRT2.5 responses are reduced in the jar1 mutant, and the RRTF1 response in the rbohD mutant. Information about A. brassicae infection travels slowly to uninfected neighboring plants via a Piriformospora Indica hyphal network, where NRT2.5 and RRTF1 are up-regulated. The systemic A. brassicae-induced JA response in infected plants is converted to an abscisic acid (ABA) response in the neighboring plant where ABA and ABA-responsive genes are induced. We propose that the local threat information induced by A. brassicae infection is spread over the entire plant and transferred to neighboring plants via a P. indica hyphal network. The JA-specific response is converted to a general ABA-mediated stress response in the neighboring plant.
Molecular mechanism of Hoxd13-mediated congenital malformations in rat embryos.

OBJECTIVE To investigate the molecular mechanism of Hoxd13-mediated congenital malformations in rat embryos. METHODS SD female rats were mated with male rats in a 1:1 mating scheme. Thirty pregnant female rats were randomly divided into three groups: the control group receiving a normal diet, the model group receiving a vitamin A-deficient diet, and the treatment group receiving a vitamin A-deficient diet supplemented with pcDNA-Hoxd13. The expression of Hoxd13 mRNA and protein in normal embryonic tissue and congenital malformations was determined by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. At day 20, rats were dissected, and the fetal weight, body and tail length, and the number of live births, absorbed fetus, and stillbirth in each group were recorded. Wnt and Slim1 expression was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis. β-catenin and c-myc expression was also quantified by Western blot analysis. RESULTS The expression of Hoxd13 mRNA and protein in congenital malformations was significantly lower compared with normal embryonic tissue (P<0.01). The administration of exogenous Hoxd13 in the treatment group markedly increased the fetal weight, body and tail length (P<0.05), improved the embryonic survival rate, and reduced the embryonic resorption rate and stillbirth rate (P<0.05). Exogenous Hoxd13 markedly promoted the expression of Wnt2, Wnt5a, Wnt7b and Slim1 protein and mRNA (P<0.01), and the expression of β-catenin and c-myc protein in congenital malformations (P<0.01). CONCLUSION Hoxd13 expression was decreased in rat embryos with congenital malformations. The administration of exogenous Hoxd13 alleviated fetal malformation probably through stimulation of Slim1 expression and Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway.
Intrasexual selection favours an immune‐correlated colour ornament in a dragonfly

Sexual signalling is predicted to shape the evolution of sex‐specific ornamentation, and establishing the costs and benefits of ornamentation and the information that ornamentation provides to receivers is necessary to evaluating this adaptive function. Here, we assessed the adaptive function of a common colour ornament in insects, melanin wing ornamentation, using the dragonfly Pachydiplax longipennis. We hypothesized that greater ornamentation would improve territory‐holding success by decreasing aggression that males receive from territorial rivals, but that more ornamented males may have shorter lifespans. Using mark–recapture field observations, we found that more ornamented males had greater territory‐holding success and that viability selection did not act on wing melanization. We then compared the aggression of territorial rivals to decoy males before and after experimentally augmenting wing melanization, finding that males significantly reduced aggression following the manipulation. We next hypothesized that wing melanization would signal fighting ability to territorial rivals by reflecting condition via investment in the costly melanin synthesis pathway. We observed a positive relationship between ornamentation and the likelihood of winning territorial disputes, suggesting that wing melanization provides information about fighting ability to rivals. We also found a positive relationship between melanin‐based immune defence and ornamentation, supporting a link between the signal and condition. We conclude that wing melanization is a condition‐related signal of fighting ability and suggest that this may be a common mechanism promoting the evolution of melanin ornamentation.
ASSESSMENT OF PREVALENCE OF POTENTIAL DRUGDRUG INTERACTIONS IN MEDICAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT OF A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL IN INDIA

Background: Critically ill-patients frequently receive multidrug regimens (polypharmacy) with the goal of providing the superlative pharmacotherapeutic support. Drug-drug interaction (DDI) is a specific type of adverse event, which develops due to multiple regimen therapy, and that may lead to significant hospitalization and death. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted for a period of 3 months to assess the prevalence potential DDIs in medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) patients of a north Indian tertiary care hospital using Lexi Comp drug interact android mobile application. Results: A total of 72 patients were identified for this study. 65.27% (47) were males, and 34.72% (25) were females. The average age of the study population was 52 years, and average length of stay in hospital was found to be 7 days. An average of 17.09 drugs per patient was administered to the patients during the study period. 90.02% (65) of patients experienced at least one potential DDI. A total of 222 interactions observed during the study period with an occurrence rate of 3.08 DDI per patient. There were 106 types drug pairs was found to get interacted at least 1 time. Corticosteroids, anticonvulsants, central nervous system depressants, sympathomimetics and quinolone antibiotics are the main class of drugs mostly interacted in MICU. Conclusion: The study shows that, concomitant administration rate of potentially interacting drugs are very high in MICU. We suggest that, special safety measures must be followed by physicians, pharmacists, and nurses to prevent and monitor DDIs in all departments of the hospital especially in intensive care departments. Health providers must be able to identify and classify drug interactions (DIs), and know how to manage them clinically, that is, how to minimize or more over prevent them. Practice of a computer assisted DI checker before prescribing/administering of the drugs can avoid DDIs. In settings with multiple drug use like in ICUs, attendance of a pharmacist or clinical pharmacist, taking the responsibility for monitoring DIs and notifying the physician about potential problems could decrease the harm inpatient and ensure the patient safety. Keywords: Drug interaction, Intensive care, Patient safety, Rational therapy.
Mechanisms involved in the cardiovascular-renal actions of nitric oxide inhibition.

The roles of the sympathetic nervous system, angiotensin II, and arginine vasopressin in the cardiovascular-renal responses to nitric oxide synthesis inhibition were examined in eight conscious dogs equipped with arterial and venous catheters and a nonoccluding bladder catheter. Nitric oxide inhibition was achieved by intravenous infusion of NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) at 37.1 nmol/kg per minute for 140 minutes in the control group. The same dogs, after a 1-week recovery, were pretreated for 2 days with either prazosin for alpha 1 blockade, prazosin plus propranolol for alpha 1 plus beta blockade, L-158,809 for angiotensin receptor blockade, or d(CH2)Tyr(Me)arginine vasopressin for vasopressin-V1 blockade, and the L-NAME infusion was repeated. After 140 minutes of L-NAME infusion into the control group, mean arterial pressure and renal vascular resistance had increased 16% and 71%, and renal blood flow, glomerular filtration rate, urine flow, and urinary sodium excretion had decreased 33%, 16%, 61%, and 64%, respectively. The decrement in renal blood flow and glomerular filtration during L-NAME administration was unaffected by any of the neurohumoral blockers. During V1 blockade L-NAME resulted in only a 3% increase in arterial pressure, attenuation of the renal vascular resistance response, and almost total elimination of the decrease in urine flow. During angiotensin blockade the L-NAME-induced increase in arterial pressure was markedly attenuated, and the decrease in urinary sodium excretion was attenuated in the alpha 1 plus beta blockade group. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Customers' complaints and its determinants: the case of a training educational hospital in iran.

BACKGROUND Today, despite the efforts of the medical community and healthcare staff along with the advancements in medical technology, patients' dissatisfaction and complaints have been increased. The present study aimed at making a survey on the patients' complaints in a large training hospital affiliated to Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS). METHODS This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on written and verbal complaints of patients and their relatives in a tertiary (specialty and sub-specialty) training hospital. All the recorded patients' complaints, from March to December 2012, were reviewed. Data were categorized and analyzed using descriptive statistics by Microsoft Excel 2007. RESULTS A total of 233 complaints were reviewed, of which 46.35%, 31.34% and 22.31%, respectively, were verbal, written and made on the phone. The main reasons for complaints were accessibility to medical staff (21.46%), communication failures (20.17%) and dissatisfaction with the provided care (14.59%). Thirty one (13.31%) cases were solved at first place, 194 (83.26%) referred to the complaints from the committee and 3.43% referred to the legal authorities. The average response time was about six to seven days. CONCLUSION The findings of the study suggest that sufficient availability of medical staff, improvement in communication skills and paying attention to the patients' needs and expectations may reduce complaints from public health facilities.
Nonreciprocal guided modes in photonic crystals of magnetic garnet particles with a planar defect

It is shown that a planar defect in the stacking sequence of an all-dielectric photonic crystal of garnet spheres strongly supports localized optical guided modes, which originate from Mie resonances of the individual spheres. If the defect breaks space-inversion symmetry and the garnet particles are magnetized inplane, nonreciprocal and lossless transport of light on the defect plane, expected on the basis of group theory in the Voigt–Cotto–Mouton configuration, is demonstrated in ultrathin films of the defect crystal by means of full electrodynamic calculations using the layer-multiple-scattering method properly extended to photonic crystals of gyrotropic spheres.
Bioadhesive Microspheres for Bioavailability Enhancement of Raloxifene Hydrochloride: Formulation and Pharmacokinetic Evaluation

Raloxifene hydrochloride (R-HCl), a BCS class II drug, remains a mainstay in the prevention and pharmacologic therapy of osteoporosis. Its absolute bioavailability, however, is 2% due to poor solubility and extensive first pass metabolism. The present study describes two simultaneous approaches to improve its bioavailability, complexation of R-HCl with cyclodextrin(s), and formulation of mucoadhesive microspheres of the complex using different proportions of carbopol and HPMC. Microspheres were pale yellow in color, free-flowing, spherical, and porous in outline. The particle size ranged between 3 and 15 μm, and entrapment efficiency was found to be within 81.63% to 87.73%. A significant improvement in the solubility of R-HCl was observed, and it differed with the combination of excipients used. X-ray diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry studies revealed that enhancement in drug solubility was resulted due to a change in its crystallinity within the formulation. Microspheres possessed remarkable mucoadhesion and offered controlled drug release, lasting up to 24 h. They produced a sharp plasma concentration–time profile of R-HCl within 30 min post-administration to Wistar rats. [AUC]0–24 h was found to be 1,722.34 ng h/ml, and it differed significantly to that of pure drug powder (318.28 ng h/ml). More than fivefold increase in AUC and more than twofold increase in MRT were observed. FT-IR studies evidenced no interaction among drug and excipients. The results of this study showed that mucoadhesive microspheres could be a viable approach to improve the pharmacokinetic profile of R-HCl.
A Comparison of Rapid Bacterial Methods to U.S. EPA‐Approved Methods for Biosolids

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) specifies methods for testing microorganisms in biosolids, including U.S. EPA Methods 1680 and 1682 for fecal coliforms and Salmonella sp. , respectively. However, these methods require 3 to 5 days to complete. For research or nonregulatory process monitoring purposes, it would be desirable to have a more rapid, less labor‐intensive method of enumerating these organisms. The purpose of this study was to compare a modified Colilert with Quanti‐Tray/2000 method to U.S. EPA Method 1680 for enumeration of fecal coliforms and E. coli, and to compare spread plating on xylose‐lysine deoxycholate (XLD) supplemented with 10 μg/L novobiocin to U.S. EPA Method 1682 for Salmonella sp. in biosolids. These alternative enumeration methods require only 1 day to complete, using fewer costly materials. This limited study indicated that the more rapid methods provide results that are statistically comparable to U.S. EPA methods under most conditions and would be acceptable for rapid, nonregulatory data collection.
Why Standard Measures of Human Capital are Misleading

After a long, dormant period, recent attention has turned to a variety of measurement issues surrounding the concept of human capital. The traditional approach of rely entirely on measures of school attainment, while convenient, is almost certainly misleading. The availability of cognitive skills measures greatly improves on these measurements, but there remains also concern about other unmeasured factors, including noncognitive skills. This paper considers alternative approaches to assessing the role of human capital on individual earnings and on economic growth.
Manipulative Elicitation - A New Attack on Elections with Incomplete Preferences

Lu and Boutilier proposed a novel approach based on "minimax regret" to use classical score based voting rules in the setting where preferences can be any partial (instead of complete) orders over the set of alternatives. We show here that such an approach is vulnerable to a new kind of manipulation which was not present in the classical (where preferences are complete orders) world of voting. We call this attack "manipulative elicitation. " More specifically, it may be possible to (partially) elicit the preferences of the agents in a way that makes some distinguished alternative win the election who may not be a winner if we elicit every preference completely. More alarmingly, we show that the related computational task is polynomial time solvable for a large class of voting rules which includes all scoring rules, maximin, Copeland α for every α ∈ [0,1], simplified Bucklin voting rules, etc. We then show that introducing a parameter per pair of alternatives which specifies the minimum number of partial preferences where this pair of alternatives must be comparable makes the related computational task of manipulative elicitation NP-complete for all common voting rules including a class of scoring rules which includes the plurality, k-approval, k-veto, veto, and Borda voting rules, maximin, Copeland α for every α ∈ [0,1], and simplified Bucklin voting rules. Hence, in this work, we discover a fundamental vulnerability in using minimax regret based approach in partial preferential setting and propose a novel way to tackle it.
Pausing of Golgi Bodies on Microtubules Regulates Secretion of Cellulose Synthase Complexes in Arabidopsis[W]

Plant growth and organ formation depend on the oriented deposition of load-bearing cellulose microfibrils in the cell wall. Cellulose is synthesized by plasma membrane–bound complexes containing cellulose synthase proteins (CESAs). Here, we establish a role for the cytoskeleton in intracellular trafficking of cellulose synthase complexes (CSCs) through the in vivo study of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)-CESA3 fusion protein in Arabidopsis thaliana hypocotyls. GFP-CESA3 localizes to the plasma membrane, Golgi apparatus, a compartment identified by the VHA-a1 marker, and, surprisingly, a novel microtubule-associated cellulose synthase compartment (MASC) whose formation and movement depend on the dynamic cortical microtubule array. Osmotic stress or treatment with the cellulose synthesis inhibitor CGA 325'615 induces internalization of CSCs in MASCs, mimicking the intracellular distribution of CSCs in nongrowing cells. Our results indicate that cellulose synthesis is coordinated with growth status and regulated in part through CSC internalization. We find that CSC insertion in the plasma membrane is regulated by pauses of the Golgi apparatus along cortical microtubules. Our data support a model in which cortical microtubules not only guide the trajectories of CSCs in the plasma membrane, but also regulate the insertion and internalization of CSCs, thus allowing dynamic remodeling of CSC secretion during cell expansion and differentiation.
The Functional Significance of the Pentose Phosphate Pathway in Synaptosomes: Protection Against Peroxidative Damage by Catecholamines and Oxidants

Abstract: Catecholamines added in vitro in rat brain synaptosomes activate the decarboxylation of glucose radioactively labelled on carbon 1, suggesting an effective activation of the pentose phosphate pathway. Stimulation also occurred with phenazine methosulphate, reduced glutathione and hydrogen peroxide. The activation of the pentose phosphate pathway by 5‐hydroxytryptamine, noradrenaline and dopamine is ascribed to the activation of monoamine oxidase, producing both the respective biogenic aldehyde and hydrogen peroxide. Evidence is presented that the further metabolism of the aldehyde by aldehyde reductase and the removal of hydrogen peroxide by glutathione peroxidase both release the limitation of N ADP+ availability for the pentose phosphate pathway by leading to the oxidation of NADPH. The relevance of the maintenance of reduced NADP+ on brain is discussed in relation to the metabolism of glutathione and to lipid peroxidation.