Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A randomized comparison of coronary-stent placement and balloon angioplasty in the treatment of coronary artery disease. Stent Restenosis Study Investigators.

BACKGROUND Coronary-stent placement is a new technique in which a balloon-expandable, stainless-steel, slotted tube is implanted at the site of a coronary stenosis. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of stent placement and standard balloon angioplasty on angiographically detected restenosis and clinical outcomes. METHODS We randomly assigned 410 patients with symptomatic coronary disease to elective placement of a Palmaz-Schatz stent or to standard balloon angioplasty. Coronary angiography was performed at base line, immediately after the procedure, and six months later. RESULTS The patients who underwent stenting had a higher rate of procedural success than those who underwent standard balloon angioplasty (96.1 percent vs. 89.6 percent, P = 0.011), a larger immediate increase in the diameter of the lumen (1.72 +/- 0.46 vs. 1.23 +/- 0.48 mm, P < 0.001), and a larger luminal diameter immediately after the procedure (2.49 +/- 0.43 vs. 1.99 +/- 0.47 mm, P < 0.001). At six months, the patients with stented lesions continued to have a larger luminal diameter (1.74 +/- 0.60 vs. 1.56 +/- 0.65 mm, P = 0.007) and a lower rate of restenosis (31.6 percent vs. 42.1 percent, P = 0.046) than those treated with balloon angioplasty. There were no coronary events (death; myocardial infarction; coronary-artery bypass surgery; vessel closure, including stent thrombosis; or repeated angioplasty) in 80.5 percent of the patients in the stent group and 76.2 percent of those in the angioplasty group (P = 0.16). Revascularization of the original target lesion because of recurrent myocardial ischemia was performed less frequently in the stent group than in the angioplasty group (10.2 percent vs. 15.4 percent, P = 0.06). CONCLUSIONS In selected patients, placement of an intracoronary stent, as compared with balloon angioplasty, results in an improved rate of procedural success, a lower rate of angiographically detected restenosis, a similar rate of clinical events after six months, and a less frequent need for revascularization of the original coronary lesion.
Effects of protein kinase C on M‐phase promoting factor in early development of fertilized mouse eggs

The mechanism of development of mouse fertilized eggs from the one‐cell stage to the two‐cell stage remains unclear to date. In the present study, we have evaluated protein kinase C (PKC) and M‐phase promoting factor (MPF) kinase activity in fertilized mouse eggs treated with a PKC modulator. PKC and MPF activity have similar activity. The two subunits of MPF, p34cdc2 and cyclin B, were shown to be included in the substrates phosphorylated by PKC in fertilized mouse eggs, while PKC modulator affected the electrophoretic mobility shift of cdc2 and cdc25C by dephosphorylation and phosphorylation. These results clearly indicate that PKC may affect the progression of the cell cycle through post‐translational modification of MPF activity. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Early action of oestrogen on the incorporation of [3H]uridine in the blastocyst and uterus of rat during delayed implantation.

The early action of estrogen during the first 60 minutes on the inco rporation of tritiated-uridine into RNA in the blastocyst and uterus of the rat during delayed implantation was studied autoradiographically. To delay implantation mated Holtzman female albino rats were ovariectomized on Day 3 of pregnancy and daily subcutaneous doses of 4-mg progesterone were begun. The precursor tritiated-uridine was instilled into the uterine lumen on Day 9 of delayed implantation and these control rats were killed 15 minutes later. Experimental rats were injected subcutaneously with l-mg 17beta-estradiol on Day 9 of delayed i mplantation and killed 15 30 or 60 minutes later. All animals receive d tritiated-uridine 15 minutes before sacrifice. In 1 group the estradiol was injected 5 minutes before sacrifice. Blastocysts and uterine sections were autoradiographed and stained and the number of labeled uterine cells was counted. The number of grains per cell was counted in 100 blastocysts and uterine epithelial cells. The treatment with estrogen enhanced within 5 minutes the incorporation of tritiated-uridine into nuclear RNA in all regions of the blastocyst with an average of 18 grains/cell. The number of grains per cell increased to 24 at 30 minutes and 42 at 60 minutes after estrogen administration. Grains were localized mainly in the nuclei. In the uterine epithelium the percentage of labeled cells and the number of grains per cell increased from 29 cells and 3 grains each to 93 cells and 20 grains each within 5 minutes after estrogen treatment. This ratio remained the same at 15 30 and 60 minutes. The grains were mostly nuclear suggesting nuclear synthesis of RNA. Results show that the activation of the blast ocyst as shown by RNA synthesis is optimally stimulated in the delayed blastocyst with 5 minutes of estrogen administration. The uterine epithelial nuclei also show enhanced uptake of the RNA precursors at this time. It is thought that activation of the delayed blastocyst may involve some mechanism that alters cell permeability.
Psychiatric and Medical Effects of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroid Use in Women

Background: Although numerous studies have documented the psychiatric and physiological effects of anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) in males, virtually no studies have investigated the effects of illicit AAS use in women. Methods: We performed psychiatric and medical evaluations of 75 dedicated women athletes, recruited by advertisement primarily from gymnasiums in the Boston, Mass. , area. Results: Twenty-five (33%) of the women reported current or past AAS use. Users were more muscular than nonusers and reported use of many other ‘ergogenic’ (performance-enhancing) drugs in addition to AAS. Some described a frank syndrome of ergogenic polysubstance dependence, often with significant morbidity. Fourteen (56%) of the users reported hypomanic symptoms during AAS use and 10 (40%) reported depressive symptoms during AAS withdrawal, but none met full DSM-IV criteria for a hypomanic or major depressive episode. Nineteen (76%) users reported at least one adverse medical effect associated with AAS use. Perhaps the most interesting findings were several unusual psychiatric syndromes reported by both the AAS users and nonusers. These included rigid dietary practices (which we have termed ‘eating disorder, bodybuilder type’), nontraditional gender roles and chronic dissatisfaction and preoccupation with their physiques (a syndrome which we have termed ‘muscle dysmorphia’). Conclusions: Dedicated women athletes exhibit not only AAS abuse, but use of many other ergogenic drugs, sometimes associated with significant morbidity. In addition, these athletes frequently display several psychiatric syndromes which have not previously been well described.
A KCNJ8 mutation associated with early repolarization and atrial fibrillation.

AIM The Kir 6.1 K(atp) channel is believed to play an important role in ventricular repolarization as determined from both functional and genetic studies of the potassium inwardly-rectifying channel, subfamily J, member 8 (KCNJ8)-S422L missense mutation in patients with J-wave syndromes. Although Kir6.1 is also present in atrial tissue, it is unknown whether this channel modulates atrial repolarization and hence whether the S422L mutation portends a greater risk of atrial arrhythmias. This study sought to examine whether there was an increased frequency of the KCNJ8-S422L mutation among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and early repolarization (ER) as a possible novel susceptibility gene for AF. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 325 lone AF probands were identified from the Vanderbilt AF Registry, a collection of clinical data and DNA from consented, consecutively enrolled participants. The coding regions of KCNJ8 were sequenced, and the patient's presenting electrocardiogram (ECG) was reviewed by two independent physicians for ER abnormalities. The KCNJ8-S422L mutation was identified in two AF probands while no other candidate gene variants were identified in these cases. Twenty-two (7%) patients were found to have ER on the ECG, including the two probands carrying the S422L variant. In one small AF kindred, the S422L variant co-segregated with AF and ER. CONCLUSIONS The KCNJ8-S422L variant is associated with both increased AF susceptibility and ER indicating a role for Kir 6.1 K(atp) channel in both ventricular and atrial repolarization.
Clinical risks for development of the acute respiratory distress syndrome.

To further understanding of the epidemiology of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), we prospectively identified 695 patients admitted to our intensive care units from 1983 through 1985 meeting criteria for seven clinical risks, and followed them for development of ARDS and eventual outcome. ARDS occurred in 179 of the 695 patients (26%). The highest incidence of ARDS occurred in patients with sepsis syndrome (75 of 176; 43%) and those with multiple emergency transfusions (> or = 15 units in 24 h) (46 of 115; 40%). Of patients with multiple trauma, 69 of 271 (25%) developed ARDS. If any two clinical risks for trauma were present, the incidence of ARDS was 23 of 57, or 40%. During the study period, we identified 48 patients with ARDS who did not have one of the defined clinical risks, yielding a sensitivity of 79% (179 of 227). Secondary factors associated with increased risk for ARDS in clinical risk subgroups include an elevated Acute Physiologic and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score in patients with sepsis and increased APACHE II and Injury Severity Scores (ISS) in trauma victims. Mortality was threefold higher when ARDS was present (62%) than among patients with clinical risks who did not develop ARDS (19%; p < 0.05). The difference in mortality if ARDS developed was particularly striking in patients with trauma (56% versus 13%), but less in those with sepsis (69% versus 49%). The mortality data should be interpreted with caution, since the fatality rate in ARDS patients appears to have decreased in our institution from the time that these data were collected. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
QUÍMICA VERDE: UN NUEVO RETO GREEN CHEMISTRY: A NEW CHALLENGE

RESUMEN En la actualidad, existe un enorme deterioro del medio ambiente que ha generado la necesidad de buscar alternativas que conduzcan a la sostenibilidad ambiental. Una de estas herramientas es la “quimica verde”, concepto que contempla el diseno de productos y procesos que reduzcan la generacion de sustancias peligrosas y maximicen la eficiencia en la utilizacion recursos de materiales y energeticos. El empleo de tecnologias menos contaminantes, permitira a las empresas quimicas mitigar los efectos ambientales asociados a su actividad, reduciendo el consumo de materiales e incrementando la participacion de recursos renovables. Para alcanzar estas metas, se han propuesto 12 principios basicos de quimica verde, aplicables en diferentes campos, tales como la medicina, la agricultura, la industria quimica y farmaceutica. Esta revision detalla los principios y usos principales de la quimica verde, y suaplicacion como una filosofia de trabajo para avanzar hacia un verdadero desarrollo sostenible.
Establishing an evidence-based 9D evaluation approach for ERP post-implementation

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic and customisable framework, titled the 9D approach, aiming to evaluate the enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as well as to identify potential socio-technical problems, misfits and deficiencies that can cause ERP failure during the system post-implementation phase. ,The proposed 9D ERP evaluation framework includes nine dimensions and 85 evaluation criteria. This theoretical framework is then used in a six-step evaluation process based on a mixed-methods design. A case study involving a large-size private company in China was used as an exemplification to illustrate how the proposed 9D approach can be applied in practices. ,The findings of the study clearly demonstrated that after the ERP “go-live” point, companies still experience many challenges and problems in the post-implementation phase. These problems can be located in very diverse organisational, systemic and personnel aspects of the company, as well as across different functional areas and organisational levels. The proposed 9D approach was demonstrated to be an efficient and systematic tool to investigate and explore such ERP problems in an in-depth level within the organisational context. ,This study contributes to the theory of IS evaluation in general, and provides valuable insights into the ERP post-implementation evaluation in particular. ,The proposed ERP evaluation approach forms a sound base for continuous ERP improvement and contributes to sustain seamless alignment between ERP and its organisational context. The customisable feature of the framework offers flexibility and enables its use by companies of all sizes, any sector, and any country. ,To the best of the researchers’ knowledge, this is the most extensive and comprehensive framework for the post-evaluation of ERPs proposed hitherto. The need for this new framework was grounded on the argumentation of the drawbacks of existing ERP measurement and evaluation studies that simply focus on success rather than the more critical failure factors.
ESTRATÉGIA DE PRODUÇÃO, MELHORES PRÁTICAS E MEDIÇÃO DE DESEMPENHO: REVISÃO, LACUNAS E PLANEJAMENTO PARA FUTURAS PESQUISAS

Este artigo tem o objetivo principal de identificar lacunas de pesquisa e recomendar um planejamento para futuros trabalhos na area de estrategia de producao, sobretudo, aqueles que correlacionam melhores praticas e o desempenho operacional. Por se tratar de um tema abrangente, que e discutido ha quase meio seculo, esta pesquisa contribui tambem para mostrar as correntes de pesquisas existentes a partir de uma nova visao global e sistematizacao da literatura. Realiza-se, entao, uma completa revisao bibliografica em torno da estrategia de producao. Das seis correntes de pesquisas identificadas, quatro estao em andamento. O artigo finaliza com uma reflexao sobre as lacunas encontradas e sugere futuros trabalhos.
Investigating the Role of Situated Public Displays and Hyperlocal Content on Place-Making

Our urban environments are increasingly being outfitted with various forms of digital media, such as electronic billboards, public displays and interactive lighting. While their deployment is commonly motivated by commercial and functional objectives, the impact on the urban fabric is often neglected. However, as public displays become situated in their environment and content becomes hyperlocal, they contribute to the place-making process and become a medium for local communication and information. In this article, we build upon an analysis of two recent case studies to propose four sets of design considerations for situated public displays in urban space. We argue that public displays should provide mechanisms to (1) warrant hyperlocal relevance of the messages that are communicated, (2) build a sense of trust from the surrounding community, (3) allow citizens to reflect on the meaning and functionality, and (4) elicit enriched experiences of the environment they are situated in.
Reconstruction of the Lateral Ankle Ligaments Using an Inferior Extensor Retinaculum Flap

The aim of this study was to assess the results of 32 cases of chronic ankle instability. These were treated by ligament shortening and reinforced with an inferior extensor retinaculum flap. All patients complained of persistent functional instability unrelieved with proprioceptive exercises. Results were assessed clinically (pain, instability, recovery of sports activity, mobility) and radiologically (correction of laxity on stress x-rays). This enabled us to draw up a revision score on a scale of 100 points. We obtained a mean score of 86.7 points (45–100 points), and subjective results showed that 88% of the patients were satisfied with the surgery.
The Effect of Salesman Similarity and Expertise on Consumer Purchasing Behavior

From a managerial standpoint, the important question about salesman-customer interaction is how the salesman's behavior affects the outcome. What can the salesman do to shape the course along which the interaction proceeds? Are certain selling strategies and techniques more effective than others in this regard [4]? Brock [2] partly examined this question by comparing the selling efficacy of a paint salesman perceived as similar but inexperienced against the same salesman perceived as dissimilar but experienced. In the similar-inexperienced condition, the salesman emphasized that the magnitude of his own consumption of paint was the same as the amount being purchased by the customer; in the dissimilar-experienced condition, the salesman reported his own magnitude of consumption to be 20 times that of the customer's prospective purchase. The results indicated that similarity was more important than experience in the attempts to persuade customers to buy higher- as well as lower-priced paints than originally intended. Following Howard and Sheth's [7] concepts. Brock's findings would suggest that customers purchasing paint are following either "Limited Problem Solving" ' or "Routinized Response Behavior"^ decision processes involving psycho-social versus problem-solving game playing. Psycho-social game playing is the customer's reliance and use of the perceived power and attractiveness of the communicator in making purchase decisions. Problem-solving game playing can be defined as the customer's reliance and use of the perceived competence and trust, i.e., credibility, of the communicator in making purchase decisions, with experience and expertise being dimensions of competence [6, 8]. Thus, salesman attractiveness manifested in similarity of paint consumption
Impact of High Diversity of Achromobacter Populations within Cystic Fibrosis Sputum Samples on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing

ABSTRACT Chronic colonization by opportunistic environmental bacteria is frequent in the airways of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Studies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa evolution during persistence have highlighted the emergence of pathoadaptive genotypes and phenotypes, leading to complex and diversified inpatient colonizing populations also observed at the intraspecimen level. Such diversity, including heterogeneity in resistance profiles, has been considered an adaptive strategy devoted to host persistence. Longitudinal genomic diversity has been shown for the emergent opportunistic pathogen Achromobacter, but phenotypic and genomic diversity has not yet been studied within a simple CF sputum sample. Here, we studied the genomic diversity and antimicrobial resistance heterogeneity of 132 Achromobacter species strains (8 to 27 strains of identical or distinct colonial morphotypes per specimen) recovered from the sputum samples of 9 chronically colonized CF patients. We highlighted the high within-sample and within-morphotype diversity of antimicrobial resistance (disk diffusion) and genomic (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis) profiles. No sputum sample included strains with identical pulsotypes or antibiotic susceptibility patterns. Differences in clinical categorization were observed for the 9 patients and concerned 3 to 11 antibiotics, including antibiotics recommended for use against Achromobacter. Within-sample antimicrobial resistance heterogeneity, not predictable from colonial morphology, suggested that it may represent a selective advantage against antibiotics in an Achromobacter persisting population and potentially compromise the antibiotic management of CF airway infections.
Obstacle Avoidance for Wheeled Robots in Unknown Environments Using Model Predictive Control

Abstract This paper presents a model predictive approach for obstacle avoidance of car-like unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). An optimal tracking problem while avoiding obstacles in unknown environments is formulated in terms of cost minimization under constraints. Information on obstacles can be incorporated online in the nonlinear model predictive framework and kinematic constraints are treated by Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) condition. The overall problem is solved real-time with nonlinear programming. This approach is applied to car-like robots including tire models while explicitly considering the dimension of the UGV rather than treating it as a dimensionless cart model. Two kinds of potential-like terms are employed in the cost function for obstacles avoidance. The first term is to consider the distance between the UGV and the obstacle, and the second one is to consider the parallax information of the UGV about the obstacles. Simulation results show that both two approaches can make safe steering in a simple environment, but in a complex environment such as an urban area, the approach based on the modified parallax (MP) was more successful in the view of the computation time and safe steering.
Imaging of cardiac adrenergic innervation

Development of radioactive tracers to probe both pre- and postsynaptic sympathetic function has made possible a more widespread non-invasive assessment of the sympathetic nervous system Cardiac myocytes and the coronary circulation are innervated by both sympathetic and parasympathetic fibres which constitute the autonomic nervous system.1,2 The autonomic outflow is controlled by regulatory centres in the midbrain, hypothalamus, pons, and medulla which integrate inputs from other brain areas as well as afferent stimuli from the periphery. The efferent signals follow descending pathways in the lateral funiculus of the spinal cord that terminate on cell bodies in the intermediolateral and intermediomedial columns. Sympathetic fibres leave the spinal cord at T1–L2-3. These myelinated preganglionic fibres synapse in the paravertebral ganglia while small unmyelinated postganglionic fibres connect with body organs.3 Sympathetic innervation to the heart is provided by fibres originating from a series of ganglia which constitute the cardiac plexus. These fibres branch and terminate as sympathetic nerve endings in atrial and ventricular tissue. The main neurotransmitter of the sympathetic system is noradrenaline (norepinephrine) that, after its release by sympathetic nerve terminals, can bind to a series of different postsynaptic receptors (α and β) whose activation determine the …