Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The relationship between somatic symptoms and depression.

OBJECTIVE We investigated the influence of somatic symptoms on the severity and clinical outcomes in female Korean patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in routine practice. METHODS Two hundred and seven female patients with MDD were prospectively recruited. Patients with somatic symptoms (PSS) was defined as a total score ≥ 10 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15), others were classified as non PSS (NPSS). The PHQ-9 for de-pression, the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) for anxiety, the Clinical Global Impression-Severity (CGI-S) for clinical status, and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for health status were utilised. RESULTS Of 207 participants, 126 (60.9%) were PSS and 81 (39.1%) were classified as NPSS. The proportion of patients showing severe symptoms (65.1% vs. 24.7%) and recurrence of depression (74.6% vs. 49.4%), the CGI-S (4.6 vs. 4.1), the PHQ-9 (16.8 vs. 11.1), and the GAD-7 (8.3 vs 6.7) scores were significantly higher in PSS than in NPSS, while the VAS (39.4 vs. 51.2) was significantly lower in PSS than in NPSS. The improvement of depressive symptoms (-1.3 vs. -2.0) measured by the changes in CGI-S was also significantly less in PSS than in NPSS after 6 months treatment. CONCLUSION Our findings have shown the significant impact of somatic symptoms on the symptomatology as well as treatment outcomes in Korean female patients with MDD, indicating that clinicians should carefully evaluate somatic symptoms in patients with MDD in routine clinical practice. Due to the methodological shortcomings of the present study, further adequately powered and well-designed investigations are necessary.
Effect of Brief Behavioral Intervention Program in Managing Stress in Medical Students from Two Southern California Universities

Abstract The study aims to assess 1) the prevalence of stress among a group of third and fourth year medical students (MS) from two Southern California universities and 2) the effect of a brief behavioral intervention program (BBIP) on stress management among the students instructed on stress intervention techniques. The stress level was determined by using the General Well Being Scale (GWBS), a self-report questionnaire designed by the National Center for Health Statistics.1 The stress testing was done prior to the psycho-educational lecture on stress. The prevalence of stress and the variation of stress based on gender, academic year (third vs. fourth year) and time of testing (beginning vs. end of rotation) was measured in 104 medical students. To assess the effect of the psycho-educational lectures on stress, the last 32 students who rotated in our service had the pre-test and the lecture at the beginning of the rotation and the post-test at the end of the rotation. Among the medical students studied, 53/104 (51%) reported stress; among this group, 20/53 (37.7%) reported severe stress or distress. The prevalence of stress in this group of students was not significantly different if the stress level was measured at the beginning (46.9%) vs. the end of the rotation (52.8%, p = 0.57). The total stress score was lower (suggesting higher stress) in the fourth vs. third year MS (69.7+/-16.3 vs. 73.2+/-12.7, p=0.2), and in female students vs. male students (69.9+/-14.5 vs. 73.7+/-13.8, p=0.17). Female students, when compared to their male counterparts, had a lower anxiety score (12.2+/-4.4 vs. 15.4+/-4.3, p p0.005), consistent with higher anxiety level, since the polarity for the anxiety questions is reversed. Among the students who had both a pre and post-test (N=32) after the BBIP (deep diaphragmatic breathing, self-control relaxation, walking meditation), the reported stress decreased from 46.9 % (15/32) to 21.9% (7/25) (p 0.05). In addition, scores indicated that the brief behavioral intervention program significantly decreased the anxiety level and improved the positive well-being. Our study showed that stress is very prevalent among the medical students tested, affecting 51% of the students. Among those who reported stress, 37.7% reported distress. Female students reported a higher level of anxiety compared to their male colleagues. Following the implementation of a brief behavioral program, the prevalence of stress in this group of students decreased by 46.7 %. This was associated with a decrease in the reported anxiety and an increase in the positive well-being. Since stress is very prevalent among medical students, increased awareness of stress and early intervention may prevent burnout, improve job satisfaction and ultimately improve health care delivery.
Parallel database systems 101

Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copyin is by permission of the Association of Computing Y Machinery. o copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. SIGMOD’95,San Jose , CA USA @ 1995 ACM 0-89791-731 -6/95/0005. $3.50 436 be applied to a parallel database system in an hour as a simple sanity check. These tests are simpler than the TPC D benchmrwk that tests the query optimizer and the ability to run multiple-concurrent tasks.
Flavopiridol Inactivates P-TEFb and Blocks Most RNA Polymerase II Transcription in Vivo *

Flavopiridol (L86-8275, HMR1275) is a cyclin-dependent kinase (Cdk) inhibitor in clinical trials as a cancer therapy that has been recently shown to block human immunodeficiency virus Tat transactivation and viral replication through inhibition of positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb). Flavopiridol is the most potent P-TEFb inhibitor reported and the first Cdk inhibitor that is not competitive with ATP. We examined the ability of flavopiridol to inhibit P-TEFb (Cdk9/cyclin T1) phosphorylation of both RNA polymerase II and the large subunit of the 5, 6-dichloro-1-β-d-ribofuranosylbenzimidazole (DRB) sensitivity-inducing factor and found that the IC50determined was directly related to the concentration of the enzyme. We concluded that the flavonoid associates with P-TEFb with 1:1 stoichiometry even at concentrations of enzyme in the low nanomolar range. These results indicate that the apparent lack of competition with ATP could be caused by a very tight binding of the drug. We developed a novel immobilized P-TEFb assay and demonstrated that the drug remains bound for minutes even in the presence of high salt. Flavopiridol remained bound in the presence of a 1000-fold excess of the commonly used inhibitor DRB, suggesting that the immobilized P-TEFb could be used in a simple screening assay that would allow the discovery or characterization of compounds with binding properties similar to flavopiridol. Finally, we compared the ability of flavopiridol and DRB to inhibit transcription in vivo using nuclear run-on assays and concluded that P-TEFb is required for transcription of most RNA polymerase II molecules in vivo.
SIGNIFICANCE OF ANTIBODY DETECTION IN THE DIAGNOSIS OF CRYPTOCOCCAL MENINGITIS

Cryptococcus neoformans is the causative agent of Cryptococcosis, a chronic and life-threatening infection common in AIDS patients. Sonicated proteins of cryptococci were reported to contain antigenic properties. In the present study antigens are prepared from cryptococcal culture filtrate and by sonication. Secretory antigens are prepared by precipitation of culture filtrate using saturated ammonium sulfate followed by dialysis. Prepared antigens are tested for the presence of antibodies in the CSF samples of cryptococcal meningitis cases by ELISA. Comparison is made between India ink staining, latex antigen test, and the antibodies to the sonicated and secretory antigens. The results indicate that although antigen could be detected in the majority of samples, antibody could also be detected to the extent of 80–85%. It is interesting to note that some samples that were negative for India ink staining also showed high antibody responses. Hence, antibody detection could be a valuable marker in association with India ink staining for the early diagnosis of the cryptococcal infection. This test may also counter false positivity encountered in latex antigen test. Antibody detection assay would be a viable alternative, which has 83% sensitivity and 100% specificity. Thus the presently described test aids in immunodiagnosis of cryptococcal infection.
Unidirectional Slot-Loaded Loop Antenna With Wideband Performance and Compact Size for Congestive Heart Failure Detection

A slot-loaded meandered loop antenna for congestive heart failure (CHF) detection system is presented. To meet the requirements for a CHF detection system, the antenna is designed to have a compact size, wideband at the ultra-high frequency band and unidirectional radiation. To that end, several techniques are applied to the main utilized structure, which is a conventional loop antenna. To lower the resonant frequency and enhance the directivity within a compact size, the loop is capacitively loaded using a pair of slots. To compensate for the effect of the capacitive coupling on the input impedance matching, an inductive reactance is added by meandering the loop's structure. With the applied modifications, the proposed antenna has a compact size of 0.21 × 0.21 with respect to the wavelength at the lowest operating frequency. The realized dimension represents only a quarter of the size of its counterpart planar designs. The proposed antenna achieves a wide measured fractional bandwidth of 50% (0.66-1.1 GHz), 9 dB peak front-to-back ratio and 4.1 dBi gain. The antenna is then used as part of a CHF detection system that also includes a compact transceiver, scanning platform, and laptop for control and processing. Using a suitable frequency-domain processing and imaging algorithm, the system successfully detects an early CHF in an artificial torso phantom.
Breaking Bad News to Togolese Patients

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to map Togolese people’s positions regarding the breaking of bad news to elderly patients. Two hundred eleven participants who had in the past received bad medical news were presented with 72 vignettes depicting communication of bad news to elderly female patients and asked to indicate the acceptability of the physician’s conduct in each case. The vignettes were all combinations of five factors: (a) the severity of the disease, (b) the patient’s wishes about disclosure, (c) the level of social support during hospitalization, (d) the patient’s psychological robustness, and (e) the physician’s decision about how to communicate the bad news. Five qualitatively different positions were found. Two percent of the participants preferred that the physician always tell the full truth to both the patient and her relatives, 8% preferred that the truth be told depending on the physician’s perception of the situation, 15% preferred that the physician tell the truth but understood that in some cases nondisclosure to the patient was not inappropriate, 33% preferred that the physician tell the full truth to the relatives but not as much information to the patient, and 42% preferred that the physician tell the full truth to the relatives only. These findings present a challenge to European physicians taking care of African patients living in Europe or working in African hospitals, and to African physicians trained in Europe and now working in their home countries. If these physicians respect the imperative of always telling the truth directly to their patients, their behavior may trigger anger and considerable misunderstanding among African patients and their families.
On the multiple‐minima problem in the conformational analysis of polypeptides. V. Application of the self‐consistent electrostatic field and the electrostatically driven monte carlo methods to bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor

In connection with the accompanying paper to test various models for the hydration of polypeptides, we have explored a limited portion of the conformational energy hyperspace of the small protein bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) with the aid of two search methods developed in this laboratory. A series of low‐energy conformations was obtained as a result of this study. These conformations constitute a set of local minima in the conformational energy space of the molecule as described by the ECEPP/2 (Empirical Conformational Energy Program for Peptides) potential energy function, without the inclusion of hydration. Five different initial conformations were used in this exploration: the first corresponds to an energy‐refined structure based on the crystallographic coordinates (4PTI) provided by Deisenhofer and Steigemann25 and reported previously by Meirovitch and Scheraga.3 The remaining four initial conformations were obtained by using a Variable‐Target‐Function procedure, applied to the experimental Cartesian coordinates (5PTI) reported by Wlodawer et al.26
Multiple models fusion for pattern classification on noise data

An important characteristic of real-world learning process is that the data frequently contains uncertainties. The uncertainties in the datasets deteriorate the learning process. Hence, to properly represent and handle the uncertainty problem is one of the key issues in the decision learning system. This paper offers a multiple models fusion method to address the uncertainty problem, by conducting the fusion of two models, Bayesian classifier and Probabilistic based Noise Aware Support Vector Machine. Specifically, we take the advantage of noise-insensitive characteristic of the Naïve Bayesian classifier, to enhance the noise-tolerant ability of probabilistic information based Support Vector Machine. The method fuses the probabilistic decision information obtained from the two classifiers in a flexible way to give the final decision. Furthermore, the multiple models fusion method is evaluated on an artificial dataset for a classification task. The experiment results show good performance when compared with using only one learning technique in the noise environment.
Clinical predictors of mental disorders among medical outpatients.

BACKGROUND Mental disorders are common among primary care patients and often not detected by primary care physicians. We report on clinical cues that may allow physicians to target patients for psychiatric screening. METHODS Two hundred fifty consecutive adults presenting to a walk-in clinic completed previsit surveys assessing demographics, symptom characteristics, recent stress, functional status (Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-6), and mental disorders (Primary Care Evaluation of Mental Disorders [PRIME-MD]). Patients with positive findings for a mental disorder on the PRIME-MD underwent a semistructured interview. Immediately after the visit, physicians completed the Difficult Doctor Patient Relationship Questionnaire. RESULTS Patients averaged 50.5 years of age (range, 18-92 years). Little more than half were women (53%); 43%, white; 44%, African American; 8%, Hispanic; and 6%, other. Twenty-six percent had an underlying mental disorder; 11% had more than 1 mental disorder. Sixteen percent had a depressive disorder; 6%, major depression; 11%, an anxiety disorder; 2%, panic disorder; and 9%, a somatoform disorder. Independent correlates of a mental disorder included reporting recent stress (odds ratio [OR], 6.7; 95% confidence interval [CI], 3.3-13.6), having 5 or more physical symptoms (OR, 4.0; 95% CI, 2.1-7.9), or reporting health to be less than very good (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.1-4.3). There was a stepwise increase in the likelihood of having a mental disorder and number of correlates present. Among patients with no predictors, only 2% had an underlying mental disorder, compared with 72% among patients with all 3 clinical predictors. CONCLUSIONS Patients who report recent stress, 5 or more physical symptoms, or poor health are more likely to have an underlying mental disorder. These clinical cues may allow clinicians to select patients in whom formal screening for mental disorders would be particularly fruitful.
[Relationship of arterial wall parameters to cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular risk assessed by SCORE system].

OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationship of arterial wall parameters (flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery, augmentation index, pulse wave velocity, stiffness index, carotid intima-media thickness) to conventional cardiovascular risk factors and cardiovascular risk assessed by SCORE system. MATERIAL AND METHODS A total of 209 subjects aged 40-65 years without clinically overt cardiovascular disease were examined. Parameters of arterial stiffness were obtained by two methods: augmentation index and carotid-radial pulse wave velocity by applanation tonometry and stiffness index by the means of finger photoplethysmography. Flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery, reflecting endothelial function, and carotid intima-media thickness was determined using a high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography. RESULTS Age and the presence of diabetes strongly influenced all parameters of the arterial wall (diabetes was not independent predictor when evaluating augmentation index). Mean arterial pressure and gender were independent predictors for arterial stiffness parameters--carotid-radial pulse wave velocity and augmentation index. Flow-mediated dilatation was strongly dependent on the diameter of the brachial artery, age, and body mass index. Using logistic regression, it was found that pulse wave velocity (P=0.014), intima-media thickness (P=0.004), and flow-mediated dilatation (P=0.020) were important parameters dividing subjects to the groups of increased (> or =5%) and low (<5%) cardiovascular risk assessed by SCORE system. The cutoff values for intima-media thickness and pulse wave velocity were 0.078 cm and 8.95 m/s, respectively. CONCLUSIONS Arterial wall parameters are closely associated with conventional risk factors; they are influenced by age and the presence of diabetes. Arterial stiffness parameters are also influenced by mean arterial pressure; high-density lipoprotein cholesterol has influence on carotid intima-media thickness. Cutoff values for carotid intima-media thickness and carotid-radial pulse wave velocity could help to discriminate patients with increased cardiovascular risk.
Recognition of Naegleriae ameba surface protein epitopes by anti‐human CD45 antibodies

Phagocytosis is a highly conserved mechanism exhibited by both free‐living amebas and mammalian blood cells. Similarities demonstrated by either cell type during engulfment of the same bacterial species may imply analogous surface proteins involved in receptor‐mediated endocytosis. The increased availability of anti‐human leukocyte antibodies or clusters of differentiation (CD) markers used in conjunction with flow cytometric (FCM) and/or immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis provides investigators with a relatively easy method to screen different cell populations for comparable plasma membrane proteins. In this study, we incubated Naegleria and Acanthamoeba amebas with several directly conjugated anti‐human leukocyte monoclonal antibodies (mAb) for similarly recognized amebic epitopes. CD marker selection was based upon a recognized role of each mAb in phagocyte activation and/or uptake of bacteria. These included CD14, CD45, and CD206. In FCM, only one CD45 antibody demonstrated strong reactivity with both Naegleria fowleri and Naegleria gruberi that was not expressed in similarly tested Acanthamoeba species. Additional testing of N. gruberi by IHC demonstrated reactivity to a different CD45 antibody. Our results suggest a possible utility of using anti‐human leukocyte antibodies to screen amebic cells for similarly expressed protein epitopes. In doing so, several important items must be considered when selecting potential mAbs for testing to increase the probability of a positive result. © 2010 International Society for Advancement of Cytometry
Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin Protects Renal Tubular Epithelial Cell in Ischemic/Reperfusion Injury Rats via Apoptosis-Regulating Proteins

We investigated the role of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) on renal tubular epithelial cell in the renal ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) rats. Male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly assigned to three groups. The control group (n = 5) underwent left nephrectomy. The ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) + normal saline (NS) (n = 5) and I/R + NGAL groups (n = 5) were subjected to 45 min right renal ischemia followed by 48 h of reperfusion after left nephrectomy. The pathological changes of kidney tissues were investigated using hematoxylin–eosin staining; renal tubular epithelial cell apoptosis was detected using terminal dUTP nick-labeling method; expression of apoptosis-regulating protein Fas and Bcl-2 was measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction, Western blot, and immunohistochemical staining. Compared with I/R + NS group, kidney tissues from I/R + NGAL group revealed reduced histological damage and a decreased number of renal tubular epithelial cell apoptosis (9.2 ± 2.53 nuclei or 4.0 ± 0.7 per high-power field vs. 20.3 ± 3.7 nuclei or 8.1 ± 0.3 per high-power field); rats with NGAL showed downregulated fas mRNA (2.34 ± 0.51 vs. 6.84 ± 2.34), fas protein (0.65 ± 0.05 vs. 0.95 ± 0.08), and upregulated bcl-2 protein (0.33 ± 0.05 vs. 0.24 ± 0.03). The results had statistical significance (p < 0.05). We think NGAL could protect against renal IRI and might be related to decreasing tubular epithelial cell apoptosis via adjusting the expression of apoptosis-regulating proteins.
Extracellular matrix administration as a potential therapeutic strategy for periodontal ligament regeneration

Introduction: The current strategies employed for the treatment of connective tissue disease include the application of stem cells, the use of functional molecules that can reorganize tissue integrity and cellular activities to recover connective tissue function. Approaches to the regeneration of periodontal tissue, which is the tooth-supporting connective tissue, have made some progress recently and provide a useful experimental model for the evaluation of future strategies to treat connective tissue diseases such as periodontal disease. Areas covered: The ultimate goal of periodontal tissue regeneration is to reconstruct the ligament structure that will sustain the required mechanical force to connect with mineralized tissues such as cementum and alveolar bone. In this review, we discuss the proposed use of extracellular matrix (ECM) administration therapy as an additional therapeutic strategy to stem cell transplantation and cytokine administration in the current field of periodontal tissue regeneration therapy. Expert opinion: Although various available tissue engineering technologies can now achieve periodontal tissue regeneration, ECM administration therapy is likely to play an essential future role in the development and regeneration of periodontal tissue and attenuate the signaling events that mediate tissue degradation. Hence, ECM administration could serve as a novel technology in periodontal tissue regeneration and also as a viable approach to alleviating connective tissue disorders such as Marfan's syndrome.