Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Omega-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Physical Performance Optimization

Increased muscle oxidative stress and inflammatory responses among athletes have been reported consistently. In addition, it is well known that exhaustive or unaccustomed exercise can lead to muscle fatigue, delayed-onset muscle soreness, and a decrement in performance. Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) have been shown to decrease the production of inflammatory eicosanoids, cytokines, and reactive oxygen species; have immunomodulatory effects; and attenuate inflammatory diseases. While a number of studies have assessed the efficacy of omega-3 PUFA supplementation on red blood cell deformability, muscle damage, inflammation, and metabolism during exercise, only a few have evaluated the impact of omega-3 PUFA supplementation on exercise performance. It has been suggested that the ingestion of EPA and DHA of approximately 1–2 g/d, at a ratio of EPA to DHA of 2:1, may be beneficial in counteracting exercise-induced inflammation and for the overall athlete health. However, the human data are inconclusive as to whether omega-3 PUFA supplementation at this dosage is effective in attenuating the inflammatory and immunomodulatory response to exercise and improving exercise performance. Thus, attempts should be made to establish an optimal omega-3 fatty-acid dosage to maximize the risk-to-reward ratio of supplementation. It should be noted that high omega-3 PUFA consumption may lead to immunosuppression and prolong bleeding time. Future studies investigating the efficacy of omega-3 PUFA supplementation in exercise-trained individuals should consider using an exercise protocol of sufficient duration and intensity to produce a more robust oxidative and inflammatory response.
Examining and mitigating acellular hemoglobin vasoactivity.

SIGNIFICANCE There has been a striking advancement in our understanding of red cell substitutes over the past decade. Although regulatory oversight has influenced many aspects of product development in this period, those who have approached the demonstration of efficacy of red cell substitutes have failed to understand their implication at the level of the microcirculation, where blood interacts closely with tissue. RECENT ADVANCES The understanding of the adverse effects of acellular hemoglobin (Hb)-based oxygen carriers (HBOCs) has fortunately expanded from Hb-induced renal toxicity to a more complete list of biochemical mechanism. In addition, various unexpected adverse reactions were seen in early clinical studies. The effects of the presence of acellular Hb in plasma are relatively unique because of the convergence of mechanical and biochemical natures. CRITICAL ISSUES Controlling the variables using genetic engineering and chemical modification to change specific characteristics of the Hb molecule may allow for solving the complex multivariate problems of acellular Hb vasoactivity. HBOCs may never be rendered free of negative effects; however, quantifying the nature and extent of microvascular complications establishes a platform for designing new ameliorative therapies. FUTURE DIRECTIONS It is time to leave behind the study of vasoactivity and toxicity based on bench-top measurements of biochemical changes and those based solely on systemic parameters in vivo, and move to a more holistic analysis of the mechanisms creating the problems, complemented with meaningful studies of efficacy.
Caveolin-1, transforming growth factor-β receptor internalization, and the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis

Purpose of reviewTo review the scientific literature supporting the participation of caveolin-1 in the pathogenesis of tissue fibrosis and the notion that modulation of the caveolin-1 pathway may represent a novel treatment for systemic sclerosis and other fibrotic diseases. Recent findingsCaveolin-1 plays an important role in the regulation of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling owing to its participation in TGF-β receptor internalization. TGF-β receptor internalized through caveolin-1 lipid rafts undergoes rapid degradation, effectively decreasing TGF-β signaling. Studies have shown that caveolin-1 knockdown in vitro markedly increased collagen gene expression in normal human lung fibroblasts. Caveolin-1 was reduced in affected systemic sclerosis lungs and skin and in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis lung tissues and fibroblasts. Increasing caveolin-1 expression markedly improved bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Restoration of caveolin bioavailability employing penetratin, a cell-permeable peptide carrier for a bioactive caveolin-1 fragment, abrogated TGF-β activation of cultured human dermal fibroblasts. Systemic administration of penetratin-caveolin-1 peptide to mice with bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis reduced fibrosis. SummaryCaveolin-1 plays an important role in the regulation of TGF-β signaling and participates in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Restoration of caveolin function employing active caveolin-1 fragments coupled to cell-permeable carrier peptides may represent a novel approach for their treatment.
Simplified Volumetric Flow Cytometry Allows Feasible and Accurate Determination of Cd4 T Lymphocytes in Immunodeficient Patients Worldwide

The determination of CD4 cells is of crucial clinical importance for patients with AIDS. However, the high costs involved represent limitations for CD4 cell counting in developing countries. In order to provide an affordable technique, we introduced a simplified volumetric counting (SVC) technique without sample manipulations and investigated it in a multicentre study. Blood samples from 434 healthy donors and immunodeficient patients were tested in eight hospital laboratories in Europe, Africa and Asia. CD4 cell counts were compared using inhouse flow cytometric methods and the SVC technique. The SVC method was performed on a low-cost flow cytometer (CyFlow SL, Partec, Münster, Germany) after 15 min antibody incubation without pre-analytic manipulations, such as washing or erythrocyte lysing procedures. Linear regression analysis demonstrated a correlation of r=0.942 (Europe), r=0.952 (Africa) and r=0.989 (Asia) between the SVC technique and the in-house methods. Bland Altman plot analysis of all patient data showed a mean bias between the two methods of +26 CD4 cells in favour of the SVC technique (measured range: 6–1905 cells/μl; median CD4 cell count: 388/μl). Three centres used the FACS-count technique (Becton-Dickinson, San José, Calif., USA) as an in-house method dispensing with pre-analytic manipulations. The comparison of SVC and FACS-count method revealed a mean bias of +32 CD4 cells/μl (median CD4 cell count: 349/μl). The accuracy of the SVC was tested on standards with known CD4 cell counts (n=6) and was shown to be 95.2%. The low-cost device and the simplified no-lyse, no-wash test procedure reduces the costs per determination and facilitates the use of flow cytometry in developing countries.
Neuropsychiatric sequelae one year after a minor head injury

Lawrence Marshall, a distinguished consultant neurosurgeon, had a minor head injury in 1984 while skiing.1 He was unconscious at most for 15 seconds. Cognitive symptoms were immediately present but improved over the course of many months; his work was not affected. On the other hand some people, after a blow to the head of equivalent force, will be severely incapacitated with psychological symptoms lasting years. These diverse outcomes reflect the complexity of the interaction between physiological and psychological processes in the development of symptoms after head injury.2 Perhaps, therefore, a good starting point is …
Toward Local Stability Analysis of Externally Interfered Digital Filters Under Overflow Nonlinearity

This brief focuses on the local stability analysis of 1-D digital filters that are subject to the saturation overflow nonlinearity and external interference by exploiting local saturation arithmetic. A novel stability criterion that analyzes the local asymptotic stability of a digital filter under zero external interference is investigated. Furthermore, an extension to attain a local ${H}_{\infty}$ performance is developed to tackle the external interference. The conventional global stability criteria using the global saturation arithmetic can be derived as specific cases of the proposed local results. The proposed local stability criteria provide a lesser conservative estimate of interference attenuation level in comparison with existing global techniques. Furthermore, information on the tolerable energy bound on external interference for a given attenuation level is also revealed contrary to global schemes. In addition to this, the proposed methodology can be applied to evaluate the minimum word length to achieve the desired fixed-point resolution and the performance specifications for the sake of hardware optimization. A novel two-step approach is also provided for solving the filter stability analysis condition using convex routines. A numerical example is presented to demonstrate these features.
Scalability evaluation in many-core systems due to the memory organization

Many-core systems are a common place in the electronic consumer market. Thus, complex benchmark suites have been modeled for shared memory (SM) architectures since it is easier to develop applications (threads) for many-core. Shared memory presents a scalability limitation due to the number of memory accesses. One way to mitigate the SM limitations is to adopt distributed memory system (DSM) architectures. However, DSM presents the same scalability limitation, since the number of processors is clearly superior to the number of SMs in the system. The alternative is to adopt distributed memory organization (DM), which enables the direct communication among the tasks (message passing). The goal of this paper is to highlight the limitations of shared memory connected through a network-on-chip (NoC) in many-core systems, executing a similar workload with both memory organizations. Results evaluate communication volume into NoC and a total number of executed instructions. SM has a worst traffic distribution, with hotspots around the SM, and a much higher communication volume compared to DM. It is worth to highlight such effects since aging effects may appear earlier due to hotspots, reducing the system lifetime.
Surface Identification Using the Dichromatic Reflection Model

The author describes a method based on the dichromatic reflection model for identifying object surfaces. The surface spectral reflectance function of an inhomogeneous object is described as the sum of a constant interface (specular) reflectance and a body (diffuse) reflectance under all illumination geometries. The interface component is used to estimate the spectral power distribution of the illuminant without using a reference white standard, whereas the body component is used as the principal indication of the surface identity. The body reflectance function of each surface is recovered. A method to classify the observed reflectances is developed, and an algorithm to estimate a body reflectance function, unique to each surface, from the classified reflectances is proposed. The author shows the reliability of the surface classification method and the accuracy of estimated body reflectance function. >
Shared care in diabetes

EDITOR,—Zosia H Miedzybrodzka and colleagues' claim that stepwise screening for cystic fibrosis is better than couple screening is unjustified.1 Antenatal screening for cystic fibrosis should minimise the number of women identified as being at high risk for a given proportion of affected pregnancies detected and should ensure that a diagnostic test is available for everyone defined as being at high risk. Stepwise screening …
Oxidative stress biomarkers in sporadic ALS

We aimed to investigate oxidative stress biomarkers in a cross-sectional pilot study of 50 participants with sporadic ALS (SALS) compared to 46 control subjects. We measured urinary 8-oxodeoxyguanosine (8-oxodG), urinary 15-F2t-isoprostane (IsoP), and plasma protein carbonyl by ELISA methods. We also determined if ELISA measurement of 8-oxodG could be validated against measures from high-pressure liquid chromatography coupled with electrochemical detection, the current standard method. We found that 8-oxodG and IsoP levels adjusted for creatinine were significantly elevated in SALS participants. These differences persisted after age and gender were controlled in regression analyses. These markers are highly and positively correlated with each other. 8-oxodG measured by the two techniques from the same urine sample were positively correlated (p<.0001). Protein carbonyl was not different between SALS participants and controls. In conclusion, using ELISA, we confirmed that certain oxidative stress biomarkers were elevated in SALS participants. ELISA may be reliable and thus useful in epidemiology studies requiring large numbers of samples to determine the significance of increased oxidative stress markers in SALS. Further studies are required.
Customer relationship management and information technology as determinants of Malaysian hospitality industry: A qualitative approach

Today, the hospitality industry is deviating from their traditional way of doing business and is now becoming more customer focused aimed at developing a positive and satisfying relationship with their customers. Information technology is the most significant factor that is helping the management of hotel industry to lower costs, increase operational excellences with profitability and give value to customer's time. Malaysian hospitality industry is based on Malaysian customer, culture involving a specific way of treating customers. The competitive advantage in this industry is based on the time and cost factors, which worries the customer and the hotel management. Information technology has helped the entire industry to prevent the wastage of resources and time by fulfilling optimum customer needs and demands. This paper is an attempt to explore the customer relationship management and IT related issues in three star rated hotels in the state of Penang, Malaysia. This paper would contribute as a useful guide to three star hotels, giving them some valuable information on what the customer expectations are in terms of CRM and IT facilities and if they are duly met then services and operational issues shall not occur. The significance of this case study includes providing a scope for three star rating hotels to improve their IT based activities to influence service quality and reduce the weaknesses, through availing opportunities and to strengthen their position in the industry.
O-o44G - Contaminação salivar por microrganismos entéricos em pacientes com dependência química

Nas ultimas decadas observou-se um aumento vertiginoso no consumo de agentes quimicos, licitos ou nao, capazes de induzir dependencia e esse aumento se deu principalmente no genero feminino. Essa dependencia aumenta a susceptibilidade pessoal a diversos agentes infecciosos, principalmente os microrganismos oportunistas, como as bacterias entericas, que podem vir a se disseminar atraves da saliva e sao causas frequentes de infeccoes multirresistentes a antimicrobianos. Assim, o objetivo desse estudo foi comparar a ocorrencia de dois dos principais grupos de microrganismos oportunistas na saliva de pacientes dependentes e nao dependentes com diferentes condicoes de saude periodontal. Participaram do estudo 200 pacientes com dependencia quimica e 400 pacientes nao dependentes. Exames clinicos intra e extrabucais foram realizados e amostras saliva foram transferidas para agua ultrapura e a presenca de membros da familia Enterobacteriaceae, genero Enterococcus, E. faecalis, E. faecium foi avaliada por PCR. Utilizou-se o teste de Qui-Quadrado para avaliar os dados quando tres ou mais variaveis estavam envolvidas e o teste de Mann-Whitney para as avaliacoes dicotomicas. Verificou-se que os pacientes dependentes de ambos os generos mostraram maior ocorrencia de membros da familia Enterobacteriaceae, os quais tambem se mostraram associados a perda ossea apenas nos pacientes com dependencia quimica. luara_colombo@hotmail.com
The BUGS "Basic UXO Gathering System" project for UXO clearance & mine countermeasures

The objective of the Basic UXO Gathering System (BUGS) is to test, evaluate and demonstrate the use of distributed robotics in clearing unexploded submunitions and minefield neutralization. A team consisting of industry, universities, and the government is working together on the BUGS programme. We are concentrating on control methodologies required for multiple, autonomous robots working together to perform a practical and useful mission. The choice of architecture is important in selecting a system that is flexible enough to operate reliably and robustly in an unknown environment. This paper also addresses the current team efforts on the BUGS project.
A large aspergilloma

A 42-year-old man presented with productive cough, haemoptysis, night sweating, temperature 39°C, asthenia and weight loss of 35 kg in 12 months. He had a 25-year history of smoking (40 cigarettes/day) and alcoholism. Laboratory tests showed normochromic normocytic anaemia (haemoglobin 8.8 g/dL, red blood cell 2.72×106/mmc, and mean corpuscular volume 100), neutrophilic leucocytosis and white cell count 17 78×103/mmc). Chest CT scan revealed an excavated lesion in the apico-dorsal segment of the left upper lobe (65×70 mm) with solid vegetation inside, delimitated by a thick wall with polylobate edges, and the suggestive presence of …
Relationship between duration of therapy services in a comprehensive rehabilitation program and mobility at discharge in patients with orthopedic problems.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between duration of physical therapy and occupational therapy and mobility at the time of discharge from a comprehensive rehabilitation program in a group of patients with orthopedic diagnoses. SUBJECTS Subjects were 116 consecutive patients with orthopedic diagnoses (mean age=72.6 years, SD=12.0, range=21-99) who were admitted to a comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation program. METHODS This retrospective cohort study utilized the Uniform Data Set, social service records, and quality assurance records to provide demographic and medical information. The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) provided information regarding mobility at admission and discharge. The duration of physical therapy and occupational therapy was measured in hours. RESULTS Subjects received an average of 40.8 hours of therapy and showed an average change in FIM mobility subscale scores of 24.5. Multiple linear regression was used to demonstrate that duration of therapy was a predictor of FIM score at the time of discharge (partial correlation=.069) after controlling for length of stay, number of diagnoses, FIM cognitive subscale score at admission, and FIM mobility subscale score at admission. Duration of therapy accounted for 6.9% of the variance in the model. CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION This study indicates that the amount of physical therapy and occupational therapy that patients with orthopedic diagnoses receive during enrollment in an inpatient comprehensive rehabilitation program is related to the FIM mobility subscale score at the time of discharge. The authors suggest that increasing the hours of therapeutic intervention that a patient receives in inpatient rehabilitation could improve functional outcomes at discharge.
The clinical course of advanced dementia.

To the Editor: Mitchell et al. (Oct. 15 issue)1 describe the causes of and rates of death among nursing home residents with advanced dementia. Despite the preference of most health care proxies for comfort-focused care, a distressing number of patients had inadequately palliated symptoms and underwent burdensome interventions. This study provides useful data that can guide discussions about care with health care proxies of patients with dementia in all care settings. The authors do not comment on do-not-hospitalize (DNH) or do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders. The hospitalization rate of 16.7% among patients in the study by Mitchell et al. was lower than we would have expected, given that the rate of DNH orders among patients with advanced dementia in nursing homes is low (7.1%). 2 No information is provided regarding whether patients had DNH orders that may have contributed to this finding. It would be useful to know whether health care proxies who supported DNH or DNR orders were more likely to have discussed a prognosis with physicians and understood the expected complications of advanced dementia. Similarly, it would be valuable to determine whether the presence of such orders is associated with better symptom control in line with goals of care.
Hepatic encephalopathy

PREVIEW Hepatic encephalopathy is characterized by neuropsychiatric manifestations ranging from a slightly altered mental status to coma, and neuromuscular symptoms may be present. This complication of chronic or acute liver disease is a result of the failure of the liver to detoxify toxins originating in the intestine. The pathogenesis probably is multifactorial, although the predominant causative agent appears to be ammonia. In this article, Drs Abou-Assi and Vlahcevic discuss the timely recognition and correction of factors contributing to this often reversible condition.
A design of distributed brainstorming support tool with gamification elements

This paper describes the design of a distributed brainstorming support tool focusing on gamification. In previous studies, there are very few studies focused on continuous creative activities. Gamification elements in the distributed brainstorming tool are aimed at maintaining intrinsic motivation toward continuous creative activities. The activities for gamification elements are earning points by idea generation, create a avatar with the earned points, and competing with other players for total points. We show interface design of gamification for distributed brainstorming, and then describe a plan of control experiments to demonstrate hypothetical effects of the gamification, such as maintenance of idea generation by intrinsic motivation.
THE ANTIMICROBIAL EFFECTS OF THE LEAF EXTRACTS OF Moringa oleifera ON SELECTED CLINICAL BACTERIAL ISOLATES *

Antibiotic susceptibility pattern of two batches of clinical isolates consisting of eight organisms were collected from the Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH). The isolates collected for the first batch were from wound infections and include Staphylococcus aureus, Non-haemolytic Streptococcus, Escherichia coli, Proteus sp, Pseudomonas sp, Klebsiella pneumonia, Vibrio cholera and Salmonella typhi. The organisms in the second batch include Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus thermophilus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas sp, Klebsiella pneumonia, Bacillus anthracis, Salmonella typhi and Vibrio cholera. The test showed that all the test organisms were susceptible to Ofloxacin, Ciprofloxacin, Pefloxacin and Gentamycin with reasonable zones of inhibition. Cold Methanoic Extract, 95% Ethanoic Extract, Absolute Ethanoic Extract and Distilled Water Extract of Moringa oleifera were assayed for in vitro antibacterial activity using agar diffusion method. The first set of organisms produced zones of inhibition ranging from 1mm-6.5mm. The second set of organisms produced zones of inhibition ranging from 2mm-21mm. The result showed that the potency of the extracts depend on the solvent used for the extraction and method of extraction. Cold Methanoic Extraction (CME) was found to be most effective. The extract has its highest activity at pH 4.29. The extracts were found to be bacteriostratic but not bacteriocidal.