Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of valacyclovir on viral shedding in immunocompetent patients with recurrent herpes simplex virus 2 genital herpes: a US-based randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of daily suppressive therapy with a 1-g dose of valacyclovir in reducing total (clinical and subclinical) herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) shedding compared with placebo in Immunocompetent patients diagnosed as having recurrent HSV-2 genital herpes. PATIENTS AND METHODS From June 18, 2004, to December 17, 2004, patients from 27 US sites with a history of 6 or more genital herpes recurrences per year were randomized in a 3:1 ratio to receive 1 g/d of valacyclovir or placebo. During the double-blind suppressive therapy, patients were provided with the study drug (500-mg valacyclovir caplets or matching placebo) and Instructed to take 2 caplets once daily without regard to meals for 60 days. Daily genital and anal or rectal swabs were self-collected during the 60-day study period for evaluation of HSV-2 viral shedding as determined by quantitative type-specific polymerase chain reaction assay. RESULTS One hundred fifty-two patients were randomized into this study, 43 to placebo and 109 to 1 g/d of valacyclovir. A total of 134 completed the study (40 placebo [93%], 94 valacyclovir [86%]), and 18 prematurely withdrew (3 placebo [7%], 15 valacyclovir [14%]). Valacyclovir significantly reduced the percentage of days with total (clinical and subclinical) HSV-2 shedding throughout 60 days compared with placebo. In the intent-to-treat population, a 71% reduction in total shedding (P < .001), a 58% reduction in subclinical shedding (P < .001), and a 64% reduction in clinical shedding (P = .01) were observed. Valacyclovir was not associated with any significant toxic effects compared with placebo. CONCLUSION This study demonstrated that 1 g/d of valacyclovir administered for 60 days was generally well tolerated and was an effective suppressive therapy that significantly reduced total (clinical and subclinical) HSV-2 shedding compared with placebo in immunocompetent patients diagnosed as having recurrent HSV-2 genital herpes.
A Fully Integrated RF Front-End with Independent RX/TX Matching and +20dBm Output Power for WLAN Applications

An RF front-end for a WLAN SoC is implemented in 0.18mum CMOS. It integrates a +20dBm PA, a high-sensitivity LNA, and a T/R switch. The T/R switch incorporates an impedance-transformation network to provide a receive S11 of -15dB at 2.4GHz and a sensitivity of -73dBm for a 54Mb/s 802.11g signal. For 64QAM OFDM at 2.4GHz, the TX EVM is -25dB at an output power of +16dBm.
FACTORS AFFECTING BASAL METABOLISM

Superficial observations have led us to the general belief that the vital processes are much the same with average individuals. It is true that we are inclined to classify people as high-strung and nervous on the one hand and phlegmatic on the other; yet, on the average, the normal individual apparently has a metabolic plane comparable to his neighbor’s, for the general uniformity in the energy requirement, as mdicated by dietary studies of people of various classes performing like amounts of muscular wo;k, suggests that there is likewise a uniformity in the basal metabolism of these individuals, i.e., the metabolism during complete muscular rest and in the post-absorptive condition. Undoubtedly a group of miners will have about the same average metabolism as another group of miners, or a group of stenographers in one city will have much the same energy requirement as a group of stenographers in another city. But while the uniformity in energy requirement is of great significance in dietary studies and in the arrangement of dietaries, from. the standpoint of pure physiology and for the application of physiological values to a study of pathological cases, it is of much more importance for us to know how constant is the.basal metabolism with different individuals. For instance, while two groups of stenographers would have on the average the same energy requirement for the like amount of work, would the individual members of the group have the same basal metabolism? The general impression that individuals of like occupation have similar dietary needs applies only to persons of approximately similar a& and weight; for it is a matter of household observation that the growing, active child apparently requires
La industria agroalimentaria en España: características generales y comportamiento empresarial

Dada la relevancia de la industria agroalimentaria en el seno de las manufacturas espanolas, el objetivo de este trabajo es ofrecer una panoramica de la situacion actual de este sector, centrandonos para ello en el estudio de algunas de las caracteristicas mas relevantes de su estructura asi como del comportamiento empresarial ante un mercado cada vez mas competitivo. En primer lugar, se analizan como aspectos relevantes de la estructura el numero de empresas y su dimension, la forma juridica predominante, la organizacion y la integracion productivas y la productividad. En segundo lugar, se examinan las actuaciones empresariales, tanto en los mercados internacionales como en materia de investigacion y desarrollo.
Nutrition for power sports: Middle-distance running, track cycling, rowing, canoeing/kayaking, and swimming

Abstract Contemporary training for power sports involves diverse routines that place a wide array of physiological demands on the athlete. This requires a multi-faceted nutritional strategy to support both general training needs – tailored to specific training phases – as well as the acute demands of competition. Elite power sport athletes have high training intensities and volumes for most of the training season, so energy intake must be sufficient to support recovery and adaptation. Low pre-exercise muscle glycogen reduces high-intensity performance, so daily carbohydrate intake must be emphasized throughout training and competition phases. There is strong evidence to suggest that the timing, type, and amount of protein intake influence post-exercise recovery and adaptation. Most power sports feature demanding competition schedules, which require aggressive nutritional recovery strategies to optimize muscle glycogen resynthesis. Various power sports have different optimum body compositions and body weight requirements, but increasing the power-to-weight ratio during the championship season can lead to significant performance benefits for most athletes. Both intra- and extracellular buffering agents may enhance performance, but more research is needed to examine the potential long-term impact of buffering agents on training adaptation. Interactions between training, desired physiological adaptations, competition, and nutrition require an individual approach and should be continuously adjusted and adapted.
Optimal Allocation in Designs for Assessing Heterosis From cDNA Gene Expression Data

Heterosis is defined as the superiority of a hybrid cross over its two parents. Plant and animals breeders have long been exploiting heterosis, but the causes of this phenomenon are as yet only partly understood. Recently, chip technology has opened up the opportunity to study heterosis at the gene expression level. This article considers the cDNA chip technology, which allows assaying two genotypes simultaneously on the same chip. Heterosis involves the response of at least three genotypes (two parents and their hybrid), so a chip or microarray constitutes an incomplete block, which raises a design problem specific to heterosis studies. The question to be answered is how genotype pairs should be allocated to chips. We address this design problem for two types of heterosis: midparent heterosis and better-parent heterosis. The general picture emerging from our results is that most of the resources should be allocated to parent-hybrid pairs, while chips with parent-parent pairs or hybrid-reciprocal pairs should be used sparingly or not at all.
Modality Effects in Second Life: The Mediating Role of Social Presence and the Moderating Role of Product Involvement

The rapid growth of virtual worlds is one of the most recent Internet trends. Some distinguishing features of virtual environments include the employment of avatars and multimodal communication among avatars. This study examined the effects of the modality (text vs. audio) of message presentation on people's evaluation of spokes-avatar credibility and the informational value of promotional messages in avatar-based advertising inside 3D virtual environments. An experiment was conducted in the virtual Apple retail store inside Second Life, the most popular and fastest growing virtual world. The author designed a two-group (textual advertisement vs. auditory advertisement) comparison experiment by manipulating the modality of conveying advertisement messages. The author also created a spokes-avatar that represents a real-life organization (Apple) and presents promotional messages about its innovative product, the iPhone. Data analyses showed that (a) textual modality (vs. auditory modality) resulted in greater source expertise, informational value of the advertisement message, and social presence; and that (b) high product involvement (vs. low product involvement) resulted in a more positive attitude toward the product, higher buying intention, and a higher level of perceived interactivity. In addition to the main effects of product involvement and modality, results showed significant interaction between involvement and modality. Modality effects were stronger for people with low product involvement than for those with high product involvement, thus confirming the moderating effects of product involvement. Results of a path analysis also showed that social presence mediated the effects of modality on the perceived informational value of the advertisement message.
The role of regular home practice in the relaxation treatment of tension headache.

This study evaluated the contribution of regular home practice in the treatment of tension headache (HA) with progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) by giving 14 tension HA sufferers 10 sessions (over 8 weeks) of standard PMR with home practice and application instructions while 13 additional patients received the same PMR training (except for the omission of cue-controlled relaxation) with no home practice or application instruction. A third group of 6 patients merely monitored HA activity. Both treated groups showed significant reduction in HA activity, whereas the symptom monitoring group did not change. The 2 treated groups did not differ. On a measure of clinically significant reduction in HA activity (at least 50% reduction in HA activity), however, the group receiving home practice instruction (50%) showed a trend (p = .056) to improve more than did those receiving PMR without home practice (15%).
Induction of Pathogenesis-Related Genes in Response to Pathogens

5 1 Department of Plant Science, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 6 2 State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas and College of Plant Protection, 7 Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, P. R. China. 8 3 College of Plant Protection, Biological Control Center for Plant Diseases and Plant Pests of 9 Hebei, Agriculture University of Hebei, Baoding, Hebei 071000, P. R. China. 10 4 Department of Viticulture and Enology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA. 11 5 Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), Chevy Chase, MD 20815, USA. 12 13 Corresponding author: Jorge Dubcovsky, Email: jdubcovsky@ucdavis.edu 14
Genetic and phenotypic variability of optic neuropathies

Hereditary optic neuropathies comprise a group of clinically and genetically heterogeneous disorders. Two subgroups can be formed: isolated hereditary optic atrophies and optic neuropathy as part of complex disorders. In group 1 of hereditary optic neuropathies, optic nerve dysfunction is typically the only manifestation of the disease. This group comprises autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive and X-linked recessive optic atrophy and the maternally inherited Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy. Among the autosomal-dominant forms of optic atrophy, Kjer’s disease is most frequently observed. In the second group of complex disorders, various neurologic and other systemic abnormalities are regularly observed. Most frequent in this group are mtDNA mutations, inherited peripheral neuropathies, Charcot–Marie–Tooth disorders (CMT2A2, CMTX5), hereditary sensory neuropathy type 3 (HSAN3), Friedreich’s ataxia, leukodystrophies, sphingolipidoses, ceroid-lipofuscinoses and neurodegeneration with brain iron accumulation. We review current knowledge about the underlying genetic predispositions, the most urgent open questions and how this may affect our management of this heterogeneous group of disorders in the future.
Phase noise degradation of LC-tank VCOs due to substrate noise and package coupling

The present work addresses the investigation of phase noise degradation of LC-tank VCOs due to realistic digitally originated substrate noise. The dominant mechanisms by which this noise is coupled to the output of the oscillator due to the substrate and the package are analyzed, indicating that both noise at low frequencies and at high frequencies around the oscillation fundamental significantly degrade phase noise.
Environmental immunogens and T-cell-mediated responses in fibromyalgia: evidence for immune dysregulation and determinants of granuloma formation.

Thirty-nine patients with fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) according to American College of Rheumatology criteria were studied for cell-mediated sensitivity to environmental chemicals. Lymphocytes were tested by standard [(3)H]thymidine incorporation in vitro for T cell memory to 11 chemical substances. Concanavalin A (Con A) was used to demonstrate T cell proliferation. Controls were 25 contemporaneous healthy adults and 252 other concurrent standard controls without any aspect of FMS. Significantly higher (P < 0.01) stimulation indexes (SI) were found in FMS for aluminum, lead, and platinum; borderline higher (0.05 > P > 0.02) SI were found for cadmium and silicon. FMS patients showed sporadic responses to the specific substances tested, with no high-frequency result (>50%) and no obvious pattern. Mitogenic responses to Con A indicated some suppression of T cell functionality in FMS. Possible links between mitogenicity and immunogenic T cell proliferation, certain electrochemical specifics of granuloma formation, maintenance of connective tissue, and the fundamental nature of FMS are considered.
The Association Between MCT1 T1470A Polymorphism and Power-Oriented Athletic Performance

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the MCT1 T1470A polymorphism (rs1049434) on power-oriented performance and lactate concentration during or after cycling sprints in Japanese wrestlers. Participants (199 wrestlers and 649 controls) were genotyped for the MCT1 T1470A genotype (rs1049434) using the TaqMan® Assay. All wrestlers were international (n=77) or national (n=122) level athletes. Among them, 46 wrestlers performed 2 anaerobic performance tests, a 30-s Wingate Anaerobic test (WAnT) and a series of 10 maximal effort 10-s sprints on a cycle ergometer. Blood lactate levels were measured before, during, and after the tests. In the A-allele recessive model (AA vs. TA+TT), the frequency of the AA genotype was significantly higher in all wrestlers than in controls (p=0.037). Wrestlers with AA genotype had lower blood lactate concentrations than those with TA+TT genotype at 10 min after the WAnT and following the 5th and the final set of repeated cycling sprints (p<0.05). The AA genotype of the MCT1 T1470A polymorphism is over-represented in wrestlers compared with controls and is associated with lower blood lactate concentrations after 30-s WAnT and during intermittent sprint tests in Japanese wrestlers.
Prevalence and detection of delirium in elderly emergency department patients.

BACKGROUND Delirium is a complex medical disorder associated with high morbidity and mortality among elderly patients. The goals of our study were to determine the prevalence of delirium in emergency department (ED) patients aged 65 years and over and to determine the sensitivity and specificity of a conventional clinical assessment by an ED physician for the detection of delirium in the same population. METHODS All elderly patients presenting to the ED in a primary acute care, university-affiliated hospital who were triaged to the observation room on a stretcher because of the severity of their illness were screened for delirium by a research psychiatrist using the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Confusion Assessment Method. The diagnosis of "delirium" or an equivalent term by the ED physician was determined by 2 methods: completion of a mental status checklist by the ED physician and chart review. The prevalence of delirium and the sensitivity and specificity of the ED physician's clinical assessment were calculated with their 95% confidence intervals. The demographic and clinical characteristics of patients with detected delirium and those with undetected delirium were compared. RESULTS A sample of 447 patients was screened. The prevalence of delirium was 9.6% (95% confidence interval 6.9%-12.4%). The sensitivity of the detection of delirium by the ED physician was 35.3% and the specificity, 98.5%. Most patients with delirium had neurologic or pulmonary diseases, and most patients with detected delirium had neurologic diseases. INTERPRETATION Despite the relatively high prevalence of delirium in elderly ED patients, the sensitivity of a conventional clinical assessment for this condition is low. There is a need to improve the detection of delirium by ED physicians.
INTERMITTENT DIALYSIS IN CHRONIC UREMIA.

In the course of the past 15 years, dialysis has been employed with increasing frequency for treating patients with chronic renal failure. Acknowledged indications for dialysis include rapid deterioration caused by an intercurrent illness or acute exacerbation of the underlying disease, and relief of azotemia before surgery. 1-3 More recently, dialysis has been employed in the management of patients with end-stage kidney disease. 4,5 A significant prolongation of life has been obtained in a few patients by a program of "periodic" dialyses performed at intervals of three to seven days. 6 Unfortunately, this type of therapy has so many drawbacks and is so costly that it can be made available to a very small minority of carefully selected patients. An alternate approach to the therapy of advanced, chronic renal failure is to employ dialysis on an "intermittent" basis, whenever medical management alone fails to produce relief of uremia. The present
Techniques in energy metabolism studies and their limitations

The determination of the calorific value of the material stored in or lost from the body during an interval of time can be made in two ways: by the comparative slaughter method and by the balance method. In the comparative slaughter method at the beginning and at the end of the time interval the heats of combustion of the entire bodies of two precisely similar animals are determined, and the retention of energy is determined by difference. Apart from identical twins, no two animals are precisely similar, so the comparative slaughter technique necessarily involves slaughter of fairly large groups of animals if the error attached to the estimate of retention is to be kept small. The method is suited to studies with small laboratory animals and poultry (Davidson, Mathieson, Williams & Boyne, 1964). I t is an expensive method full of technical difficulty due to sampling problems when applied to large animals (Mitchell, Kammlade & Hamilton, 1928; Milford & Minson, 1965; Morris & Moir, 1963) and cannot be applied to man. The comparative slaughter method, however, does provide a direct measure of retention, limited only by analytical accuracy and by the basic assumption that initially the two groups of animals have the same energy content. With proper numbers and randomization of animals, this latter assumption does not lead to systematic error. Balance methods to determine energy retention are of two types. In one the difference between the heat of combustion of the food and the sum of the heats of combustion of the excreta, including gases and the heat produced by the animal, is measured during an interval of time. This method is called the energy balance method. I n the other, from the intake of carbon and nitrogen in food, all losses of these elements in the excreta and as gas are deducted to give estimates of the retention of C and N. Certain assumptions about the chemical forms in which C and N are stored in the body are then made to provide an estimate of the fat and protein and hence of the energy retained. When hydrogen retention is also determined by these same balance methods, estimates of fat, protein and carbohydrate retention can be achieved (Atwater & Benedict, 1904). These methods are called the C and N or C, N and H balance methods. The advantages of balance methods are that they do not involve destruction of
Incidence and recognition of malnutrition in hospital

Abstract Objectives : To determine incidence of malnutrition among patients on admission to hospital, to monitor their changes in nutritional status during stay, and to determine awareness of nutrition in different clinical units. Design : Prospective study of consecutive admissions. Setting : Acute teaching hospital. Subjects : 500 patients admitted to hospital: 100 each from general surgery, general medicine, respiratory medicine, orthopaedic surgery, and medicine for the elderly. Main outcome measures: Nutritional status of patients on admission and reassessment on discharge, review of case notes for information about nutritional status. Results : On admission, 200 of the 500 patients were undernourished (body mass index less than 20) and 34% were overweight (body mass index >25). The 112 patients reassessed on discharge had mean weight loss of 5.4% with greatest weight loss in those initially most undernourished. But the 10 patients referred for nutritional support showed mean weight gain of 7.9%. Review of case notes revealed that, of the 200 undernourished patients, only 96 had any nutritional information documented. Conclusion : Malnutrition remains a largely unrecognised problem in hospital and highlights the need for education on clinical nutrition.
A clinical study of amiodarone as a single oral dose in patients with recent-onset atrial tachyarrhythmia.

Forty-five patients with recent-onset sustained atrial tachyarrhythmia (mean heart rate at entry; 140.0 +/- 3.5 beats.min-1) associated with various cardiovascular diseases were treated by oral amiodarone, given as a single loading dose of 25.7 +/- 0.9 mg.kg-1 body weight. Conversion to sinus rhythm was observed in 29 patients during the first 24 h of treatment, leading to a success rate of 64.4%. Five additional patients converted to sinus rhythm with continuation of oral amiodarone, (10-15 mg.kg-1 by day) with a mean delay of 4.2 days. A similar population of 27 patients (mean heart rate at entry; 140 +/- 3 beats.min-1) was treated by intravenous amiodarone, given as a bolus infusion of 3-5 mg.kg-1 over 30 min (mean; 4.1 +/- 0.2 mg.kg-1), followed by a continuous infusion of 10-15 mg.kg-1 for 24 h (mean; 11.1 +/- 0.7 mg.kg-1). Eighteen patients converted to sinus rhythm during the first 24 h of therapy, leading to a success rate of 66.7%. Minor adverse effects of therapy were observed in two patients given oral amiodarone, and in seven given intravenous amiodarone. No major effect was observed. We suggest that amiodarone given as a single oral loading dose of 25-30 mg.kg-1 body weight is an effective, simple and well-tolerated therapy, suitable for most patients with recent-onset ATA.