Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fruit, vegetables, and olive oil and risk of coronary heart disease in Italian women: the EPICOR Study.

BACKGROUND Many observational studies support the recommendation to eat sufficient amounts of fruit and vegetables as part of a healthy diet. OBJECTIVE The present study aimed to investigate the association between consumption of fruit, vegetables, and olive oil and the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in 29,689 women enrolled between 1993 and 1998 in 5 European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohorts in northern (Turin and Varese), central (Florence), and southern (Naples and Ragusa) Italy. DESIGN Baseline dietary, anthropometric, and lifestyle characteristics were collected. Major events of CHD (fatal and nonfatal myocardial infarction and coronary revascularization) were identified through a review of clinical records. Analyses were stratified by center and adjusted for hypertension, smoking, education, menopause, physical activity, anthropometric measures, nonalcohol energy, alcohol, total meat, vegetables in analyses for fruit, and fruit in analyses for vegetables. RESULTS During a mean follow-up of 7.85 y, 144 major CHD events were identified. A strong reduction in CHD risk among women in the highest quartile of consumption of leafy vegetables (hazard ratio: 0.54; 95% CI: 0.33, 0.90; P for trend = 0.03) and olive oil (hazard ratio: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.31, 0.99; P for trend = 0.04) was found. In contrast, no association emerged between fruit consumption and CHD risk. CONCLUSION An inverse association between increasing consumption of leafy vegetables and olive oil and CHD risk emerged in this large cohort of Italian women.
Design equations for small loop-based rectennas

A need exists for small devices, capable of simultaneously receiving data an power. Through connecting one or more Schottky diodes in parallel to a small loop antenna and further employing a capacitor it is possible to receive data and DC power simultaneously. Through using analytical equations the device may be optimized for data and/or power reception.
Destiny and Intracellular Survival of Leishmania amazonensis in Control and Dexamethasone-treated Glial Cultures: Protozoa-specific Glycoconjugate Tagging and TUNEL Staining

Leishmania amazonensis, an obligatory intracellular parasite, survives internalization by macrophages, but no information is available on the involvement of microglia. We have investigated microglia-protozoa interactions in mixed glial cultures infected with promastigote forms of L. amazonensis after lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or dexamethasone (DM) treatment. After 2 hr of exposure to parasites in control cultures, there was a small number of infected microglia (1%). Preincubation with LPS or DM led to 14% or 60% of microglial cells with attached parasites, respectively. DM treatment resulted in 39% of microglial cells with internalized parasites (controls or LPS-treated cells had ≤1%). Scanning electron micrographs showed numerous filopodia in DM-treated cells, whereas these projections were rarely observed in LPS-treated or control cells. DM treatment also affected the intramicroglial survival of Leishmania. In control cultures, internalized parasites, tagged with an anti-lipophosphoglycan (anti-LPG) antibody, showed fragmented DNA [terminal deoxyribonucleotide transferase-mediated dUTP-X nick end labeling (TUNEL+)] after 4 hr of interaction, but changes seemed slightly delayed in DM-treated cultures. After 12 hr, there were no LPG+/TUNEL+ profiles in controls, whereas rare LPG+ profiles still persisted in DM-treated cells. Our results suggest that microglia are highly effective in the elimination of Leishmania and that the process can be effectively studied by LPG/TUNEL double labeling.
Gene expression profile of SOD1-G93A mouse spinal cord, blood and muscle

Abstract The exact pathway leading to neuron death and muscle atrophy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has not yet been elucidated. Gene expression profile of spinal cord, blood and muscle could provide signalling pathways and systemic alterations useful for future biomarker development. In our study we compared whole genome expression profiles of lumbar spinal cord with peripheral blood and tibialis anterior muscle in 16 mutant SOD1-G93A mice and 15 wild-type littermates. In SOD1-G93A mice, 11 genes were significantly differentially expressed in spinal cord, and 16 genes in blood, while much larger transcriptional changes were noted in muscle (1745 genes significant; six overlapping with spinal cord (0.3%)) probably due to muscle atrophy. Overlap with spinal cord was enriched for significant genes in blood (six of 16 overlapping with spinal cord (37.5%)). Three genes were significantly down-regulated in all three tissues, and were closely related to mitochondrial function. Furthermore, clustering the significant genes in spinal cord and in blood, but not in muscle, could identify the SOD1-G93A mice. We conclude that blood gene expression profile overlapped with profile of spinal cord, allowing differentiation of SOD1-G93A mice from wild-type littermates. Blood gene expression profiling may be a promising biomarker for ALS patients.
Simple control techniques for multilevel inverter

This paper presents new simple control techniques for single-phase five-level Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) inverter. The proposed control technique requires only driving two high frequency switches with maintain other switches at line frequency. Operational principles with switching functions are analyzed for the two techniques. A comparison between the two proposed techniques has been done based on the resulted features. Simulation and experimental results have been done to demonstrate the validity of the proposed control techniques. Switching signals are generated experimentally using FPGA XC3S400.
Cross-site combination and evaluation of subword spoken term detection systems

The design and evaluation of subword-based spoken term detection (STD) systems depends on various factors, such as language, type of the speech to be searched and application scenario. The choice of the subword unit and search approach, however, is oftentimes made regardless of these factors. Therefore, we evaluate two subword STD systems across two data sets with varying properties to investigate the influence of different subword units on STD performance when working with different data types. Results show that on German broadcast news data, constrained search in syllable lattices is effective, whereas fuzzy phone lattice search is superior in more challenging English conversational telephone speech. By combining the key features of the two systems at an early stage, we achieve improvements in Figure of Merit of up to 13.4% absolute on the German data. We also show that the choice of the appropriate evaluation metric is crucial when comparing retrieval performances across systems.
Elevated pretreatment blood pressure and IV thrombolysis in stroke

Objectives: We investigated whether an active blood pressure–lowering strategy is associated with more patients receiving thrombolytics compared with a conservative “watch and measure” strategy, and assessed safety and functional outcome of these 2 treatment strategies. Methods: This is a post hoc analysis in 2 randomized controlled stroke trials, the PRACTISE (Promoting Acute Thrombolysis in Ischemic Stroke) and the PASS (Preventive Antibiotics in Stroke Study). We included all patients with elevated pretreatment blood pressure above 185/110 mm Hg at presentation but otherwise eligible for IV thrombolysis (IVT). The decision to use an active or conservative strategy was in accordance with local hospital treatment guidelines. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients treated with IVT. Secondary outcomes were (1) symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (increased neurologic deficit with a concomitant hemorrhage on neuroimaging), (2) functional outcome at 3 months, and (3) the door-to-needle time. Results: We included 224 patients, 66 (29%) received the active and 158 (71%) the conservative strategy. In the active group, 55 patients (83%) received thrombolytics vs 87 (55%) in the conservative group, an increase of 28% (95% confidence interval: 16%–40%). If only patients actually treated with IVT were considered, the rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was 7% in both groups. There was no difference in door-to-needle time. Conclusions: Active blood pressure lowering was associated with an increased proportion of patients treated with IVT compared with a conservative strategy, without a difference in symptomatic hemorrhage rate.
Strategies of resistance.

3. Compartmentalisation Diversify! Offline we have different personas in different social situations: at work or school we might be a different version of ourselves than at home, in the bar, or at the gym. We naturally tend to be good at managing these different identities. The compartmentialisation strategy is about managing multiple personas online as well, by separating different social networks, interests, behaviour, information and identities into different 'compartments'.
Chromium reduction in Pseudomonas putida

Reduction of hexavalent chromium (chromate) to less-toxic trivalent chromium was studied by using cell suspensions and cell-free supernatant fluids from Pseudomonas putida PRS2000. Chromate reductase activity was associated with soluble protein and not with the membrane fraction. The crude enzyme activity was heat labile and showed a Km of 40 microM CrO4(2-). Neither sulfate nor nitrate affected chromate reduction either in vitro or with intact cells.
Gas pipelines LPV modelling and identification for leakage detection

A new approach to gas leakage detection in high pressure distribution networks is proposed, where the pipeline is modelled as a Linear Parameter Varying (LPV) System driven by the source node mass flow with the pressure as the scheduling parameter, and the system output as the mass flow at the offtake. Using a recently proposed successive approximations LPV system subspace identification algorithm, the pipeline is thus identified from operational data. The leak is detected using a Kalman filter where the fault is treated as an augmented state. The effectiveness of this method is illustrated with an example with a mixture of real and simulated data.
Hemodynamic Changes During a Combined Psoas Compartment–Sciatic Nerve Block for Elective Orthopedic Surgery

BACKGROUND:Hemodynamic variables can theoretically be influenced by a combined psoas compartment–sciatic nerve block (CPCSNB) owing to a relatively high systemic absorption of local anesthetics and extended vasodilatation in the anesthetized limb (hemisympatectomy). In this study we assessed and documented hemodynamic changes during CPCSNB for elective orthopedic surgery. METHODS:Twenty consecutive patients scheduled for a total hip arthroplasty revision surgery were subjected to a CPCSNB with 150 mg bupivacaine (with epinephrine 1:200.000) 90 minutes before surgery (2 separate single-injection blocks: 30 mg bupivacaine for the sciatic nerve block and 120 mg bupivacaine for the psoas compartment block). Cardiac index, invasive arterial blood pressure, and heart rate were measured at baseline and 60 minutes after puncture using a minimally invasive cardiac output monitoring device (FloTrac/Vigileo™ system (Edwards Lifesciences, Irvine, CA)). RESULTS:Cardiac index did not change after a CPCSNB (preblock cardiac index 2.98 ± 0.54 l · min−1 · m−2 versus postblock cardiac index 2.99 ± 0.60 l · min−1 · m−2). There was a significant reduction in mean arterial blood pressure (108 ± 16 mm|Hg vs. 99 ± 16 mm|Hg (P < 0.001)) and diastolic blood pressure (75 ± 9 mm|Hg vs. 68 ± 10 mm|Hg (P = 0.001)). Heart rate increased significantly (68 ± 9 beats · min−1 vs. 73 ± 10 beats · min−1 (P = 0.001)). CONCLUSION:CPCSNB did not affect cardiac index. Changes in arterial blood pressure and heart rate, although statistically significant, remained within an acceptable clinical range (<10% variation). CPCSNB does not appear to induce clinically significant hemodynamic changes in this group of patients.
Comparison of step outputs for waist and wrist accelerometer attachment sites.

PURPOSE The objective of this study is to compare step outputs obtained from waist and wrist accelerometer attachment sites under laboratory and free-living conditions. METHODS Under the laboratory condition, participants concurrently wore ActiGraph accelerometers at their waist and nondominant wrist while walking/running at treadmill speeds between 14 and 188 m·min. Visually counted steps served as a criterion standard. Participants then wore both accelerometers for 7 d. All accelerometer step data were processed applying both the manufacturer's default and low-frequency extension filters. Paired sample t-tests were used to evaluate mean differences in criterion steps per minute and the four (attachment site × filter) estimates produced from the waist- and wrist-worn accelerometers in the laboratory study. Free-living differences in mean steps per day detected between the waist and wrist (considering both filters) were computed. RESULTS Relative to visually counted steps, the waist attachment site generally outperformed the wrist attachment site at most speeds, regardless of the applied filtering process. Under free-living conditions, the waist-worn accelerometer detected 6743 ± 2398 (default filter) and 13,029 ± 3734 (low-frequency extension) steps per day. The concurrently worn wrist accelerometer detected 9301 ± 2887 (default filter) and 15,493 ± 3958 (low-frequency extension) steps per day. CONCLUSION The wrist attachment site detected consistently fewer visually counted steps than the waist attachment site at most treadmill speeds during laboratory testing. In contrast, the wrist attachment site produced a higher average step count (ranging from approximately 2500 to 8700 more steps per day under free-living conditions, dependent on the filtering process applied) than the waist attachment site under free-living conditions. In conclusion, step outputs obtained from waist- and wrist-worn accelerometer attachment sites are generally not comparable under either laboratory or free-living conditions.
Bacterial Injectisomes: Needle Length Does Matter

Many pathogenic bacteria use a type III secretion nanomachine (an injectisome) to deliver virulence proteins into the cytosol of their eukaryotic host cells. Most injectisomes possess a stiff needlelike structure of a genetically defined length. We found that a minimal needle length was required for efficient functioning of the Yersinia enterocolitica injectisome. This minimal needle length correlated with the length of the major adhesin at the bacterial surface. The needle may be required for triggering type III secretion, and its length may have evolved to match specific structures at the bacterial and host cell surfaces.
Antitumor Activity of Escin in Mice Cervical Carcinoma U_(14) In Vivo and Human Cervical Carcinoma Hela Cell Line In Vitro

Pollution made cancer a major disease threatening people's health. In the search for new cancer drug treatments, natural products perform an essential role. Escin, a mixture of triterpene saponins extracted from Aesculus Wilsonii Rehd. , was used to analyze the cell growth inhibitory effects and the induction of apoptosis in human cervical carcinoma Hela cancer cell line in vitro. The results of MTT cell viability assay showed that escin could induce significant concentration-dependent and time-dependent inhibition of cell growth, and the cell cycle was arrested at G 1 /S phase in the escin-treated cells. Apoptosis were detected and assessed by Acridine Orange/Ethidium Bromide Staining and Flow Cytometry. The antitumor efficacy of escin on mice cervical carcinoma U_(14) in vivo was investigated, at dose of 2.8 mg/kg escin had rather high inhibition ratio(43.5%) on U_(14) tumor growth.
Retinal Function and Morphology in Rabbit After Intravitreal Injection of VEGF Inhibitors

Purpose/Aim: To explore changes in morphology and function in the rabbit retina after intravitreal high-dose injection of three commonly used VEGF inhibitors. Materials and methods: Forty-eight rabbits of mixed strain (6 months of age, body weight ≈ 3 kg) were randomized into four groups (n = 12). They were examined with full-field electroretinography (ERG) and with multifocal electroretinography (mf ERG) prior to drug exposure. The rabbits were then injected intravitreally with bevacizumab, ranibizumab, pegaptanib, or with a balanced saline solution. The dose of VEGF inhibitor was chosen to achieve a vitreous concentration approximately three times higher than the one clinically used in the adult human eye. ERG was then performed 8 weeks postinjection, and mf ERG 9 weeks postinjection. After 9 weeks, the rabbits were sacrificed and the sectioned retina was studied. Immunohistochemical analysis was performed of rods, cones, rod bipolar cells, horizontal cells, and amacrine cells. Results: Rabbits injected with VEGF inhibitors all showed significantly lower amplitude of the dark-adapted b-wave rod-mediated response to dim light, compared to the rabbits injected with BSS. The a wave (reflecting photoreceptor function) in the response to single flash white light was however not affected. Immunohistochemistry revealed a significant reduction in PKC labeling of rod bipolar cells in pegaptanib and ranibizumab injected eyes whereas bevacizumab injected eyes displayed normal PKC labeling. No apparent morphological change was seen with markers for remaining retinal cells. Conclusions: Our results indicate that the use of high-dose intravitreal VEGF inhibitors in the rabbit eye affects rod-mediated retinal function and PKC expression in rod bipolars cells for at least 9 weeks after drug administration. The three VEGF inhibitors influence the retina slightly differently. These results are important for the understanding of drug action and when devising therapeutical strategies in new areas such as retinopathy of prematurity where vitreous volume is significantly lower compared to the adult eye.
Treatment of essential neuralgia of the 9th nerve by selective tractotomy.

E SSENTIAL neuralgia of the 9th nerve is much less frequent than tha t of the 5th nerve. T h e associated suffering, however, is much greater than tha t with trigeminal neuralgia; eating and even the swallowing of liquids produces new neuralgic a t tacks . There are few reports of large groups of cases. Parsons 21 operated upon 15 patients during a period of ~5 years, and Olivecrona 2~ operated upon only ~ pat ients in 13 years. The most generally used method of t reatmen t is intracranial section of the glossopharyngea l nerve. I t is little known tha t spinal t r a c to tomy offers perfect relief from 9th nerve pain. This procedure was inspired by the findings of Brodal 2 in 1947. In 4 cases, in which Torki ldsen had performed t ractot omy for t r igeminal neuralgia, he also found analgesia in the area served by the 7th, 9th and 10th nerves. These findings were confirmed 4,6,22 and utilized for relief of pain in appropr ia te cases of mal ignant tumorsJ 9,22 Sweet made a similar observation in 194~ and 1943; 27 in 1944 and 1945 he performed trigeminal t rac to tomies in cases with 9th nerve neuralgia caused b y tumor. 27 T r a c t o t o m y was not recommended for essential neuralgia where intracranial section of the nerve was still considered a much safer and simpler method. In 1954 when we performed our first spinal tr igeminal t r a c t o t o m y for essential glossopharyngeal neuralgia TM we could find no comparable report . In 1961, Bues 3 published an account of 7 opera ted cases. The success, possibly by chance, of our first case s t imulated our interest in the problem of the exact relation of the 9th nerve
Power system model data provenance

A model of a power system is a representation of that system. The value of that model depends on both the degree to which the model correctly represents the power system, and the analyses for which that model will be used. The documentation of the data used in a model is the provenance of that data. This paper discusses the provenance of data which appears in a power system model. While model data provenance is important for any model, data provenance is especially important when a model is to be maintained and used repeatedly for the life of a facility.
Seeing More Clearly: Recent Advances in Understanding Retinal Circuitry

Among 10 breakthroughs that Science announced at the end of 2002 was the discovery of a photosensing (melanopsin-containing) retinal ganglion cell (RGC) and its role in entraining the circadian clock. This breakthrough exemplifies the ultimate goal of neuroscience: to understand the nervous system from molecules to behavior. Light-sensing RGCs constitute one of a dozen discrete RGC populations coding various aspects of visual scenes by virtue of their unique morphology, physiology, and coverage of the retina. Interestingly, the function of the melanopsin-containing RGCs in entraining the circadian clock need not involve much retinal processing, making it the simplest form of processing in the retina. This review focuses on recent advances in our understanding of retinal circuitry, visual processing, and retinal development demonstrated by innovative experimental techniques. It also discusses the advantages of using the retina as a model system to address some of the key questions in neuroscience.
Patient satisfaction with inpatient psychiatric care

The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of personality traits, diagnosis and perceived coercion on patient satisfaction with inpatient psychiatric care. The study was performed as a cross‐sectional study on 7 inpatient wards in southern Sweden. A cohort of 50 psychiatric inpatients evaluated satisfaction with care and also made ratings on a personality questionnaire. Patients with a higher level of the trait aggressive nonconformity were significantly less satisfied with the ward's physical and psychosocial environment, the treatment design and the treatment program. The phenomenon of acquiescence was not related to the reported level of satisfaction. Analyses of patient satisfaction according to diagnostic groups showed that patients with affective disorders had significantly better satisfaction than patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Patients who perceived that they were involuntarily admitted were measured as being significantly less satisfied with the care in all areas. It is concluded that, to attain a higher specificity in analyses of variation in patient satisfaction, focus may be put on situational and setting factors of the care delivered along with specific patient characteristics. Risk groups, which require great attention in the development of quality assessment and quality assurance policies, are patients with schizophrenia and patients who perceive coercion in connection with inpatient psychiatric treatment.
Cognitive femtocell networks: an overlay architecture for localized dynamic spectrum access [Dynamic Spectrum Management]

We define and propose a femtocell-based cognitive radio architecture for enabling multitiered opportunistic access in next-generation broadband wireless systems. This architecture combines the conventional femtocell idea with an infrastructure-based overlay cognitive network paradigm. The cognitive femtocell concept leads to simpler and easier proliferation of cognitive radio into practical systems. We highlight the drawbacks and advantages of the proposed network structure with a discussion on research directions for cognitive femtocell architecture. We also provide experimental results to illustrate a general proof of concept for this new modality.