Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prophylactic antibiotic use in penetrating abdominal trauma: An Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma practice management guideline

BACKGROUND The use of prophylactic antibiotics in penetrating abdominal trauma has resulted in decreased infection rates. The Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) first published its practice management guidelines (PMGs) for the use of prophylactic antibiotics in penetrating abdominal trauma in 1998. During the next decade, several new prospective studies were published on this topic. In addition, the practice of damage control laparotomy became widely used, and additional questions arose as to the role of prophylactic antibiotics in this setting. Thus, the EAST Practice Management Guidelines Committee set out to update the original PMG. METHODS A search of the National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health MEDLINE databases was performed using PubMed (www.pubmed.gov) and specific key words. The search retrieved English language articles regarding the use of antibiotics in penetrating abdominal trauma published from 1973 to 2011. The topics investigated were the need for perioperative antibiotics, the duration of antibiotic therapy, the dose of antibiotics in patients presenting in hemorrhagic shock, and the appropriate duration of antibiotic therapy in the setting of damage control laparotomy. RESULTS Forty-four articles were identified for inclusion in this review. CONCLUSION There is evidence to support a Level I recommendation that prophylactic antibiotics should only be administered for 24 hours in the presence of a hollow viscus injury. In addition, there are no data to support continuing prophylactic antibiotics longer than 24 hours in damage control laparotomy.
Oleamide Potentiates Benzodiazepine-Sensitive gamma-Aminobutyric Acid Receptor Activity but Does Not Alter Minimum Alveolar Anesthetic Concentration

A naturally occurring brain lipid, cis-9,10-octadeceamideoleamide (OA), is found in increased concentrations in the cerebrospinal fluid of sleep-deprived cats, which suggests that it may be an endogenous sleep-inducing substance. We studied the effects of this fatty-acid derivative on the function of cloned gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABAA) receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes. Oocytes were injected with cRNA synthesized in vitro to express simple GABAA receptors (alpha 1 beta 1, alpha 3 beta 1, alpha 5 beta 1, and alpha 1 beta 2 subunit combinations) and receptors in which the GABA-induced chloride currents were potentiated in the presence of benzodiazepines (alpha 1 beta 1 gamma 2s and alpha 1 beta 2 gamma 2s subunit combinations). OA only produced significant potentiation of the peak Cl- current when applied with GABA to benzodiazepine-sensitive GABAA receptors. The peak currents of the simple GABAA receptors in the presence of OA were either unaffected or slightly inhibited by OA, but the overall mean currents were not significantly altered. Oleic acid was also capable of potentiating benzodiazepine-sensitive GABAA receptor function. The function of other ligand-gated ion channels, such as the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NR1 + NR2A or 2C) and the 5-HT3 receptor expressed in Xenopus oocytes, were unaffected by OA. Sprague-Dawley rats receiving intraperitoneal injections of oleamide (10, 20, or 100 mg/kg) showed no change in the minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration (MAC) of desflurane required to abolish movement in response to noxious (tail clamp) stimulation (control MAC 6.48% +/- 1.28% atm; 100 mg/kg OA MAC 7.05% +/- 0.42% atm). These results reinforce the view that oleyl compounds may be natural modulators of inhibitory ion channel function, but that these effects contribute little to the central nervous system depression produced by volatile anesthetics as measured by MAC. Implications: The putative sleep-inducing substance, oleamide, potentiates benzodiazepinesensitive gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor function but does not alter desflurane minimum alveolar anesthetic concentration in rats. (Anesth Analg 1998;86:1294-300)
Phase II drug metabolizing enzymes.

BACKGROUND Phase II biotransformation reactions (also 'conjugation reactions') generally serve as a detoxifying step in drug metabolism. Phase II drug metabolising enzymes are mainly transferases. This review covers the major phase II enzymes: UDP-glucuronosyltransferases, sulfotransferases, N-acetyltransferases, glutathione S-transferases and methyltransferases (mainly thiopurine S-methyl transferase and catechol O-methyl transferase). The focus is on the presence of various forms, on tissue and cellular distribution, on the respective substrates, on genetic polymorphism and finally on the interspecies differences in these enzymes. METHODS AND RESULTS A literature search using the following databases PubMed, Science Direct and EBSCO for the years, 1969-2010. CONCLUSIONS Phase II drug metabolizing enzymes play an important role in biotransformation of endogenous compounds and xenobiotics to more easily excretable forms as well as in the metabolic inactivation of pharmacologically active compounds. Reduced metabolising capacity of Phase II enzymes can lead to toxic effects of clinically used drugs. Gene polymorphism/ lack of these enzymes may often play a role in several forms of cancer.
Long-term trends in acid-sensitive plankton in the Northwest Atlantic: Indicators of change in ocean acidification?

Studies investigating the impact of increasing ocean acidification on primary producers have been largely speculative and based on short-term experimental results. Few long-term studies are available to assess the rate of change in ocean acidity versus change in plankton populations. We utilize long-term observations and historical data based on a network of sites from the northwest Pacific, Arctic, and northwest Atlantic conducted by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to assess temporal change in ocean pH levels. We utilize both recent and long-term plankton data based on an ocean monitoring program initiated in the late 1990's and derived from the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) Survey in the northwest Atlantic to assess interannual and decadal changes in acid-sensitive taxa back to the 1960's. We discuss these findings in light of the major uncertainties surrounding ocean acidification and how they will impact plankton in the marine ecosystem.
Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata Design Guideline

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is attracting a lot of attentions due to its extremely small feature sizes and ultra low power consumption. Up to now several designs using QCA technology have been proposed. However, we found not all of the designs function properly. Further, no general design guidelines have been proposed so far. A straightforward extension of a simple functional design pattern may fail. This makes designing a large scale circuits using QCA technology an extremely time-consuming process. In this paper we show several critical vulnerabilities in the structures of primitive QCA gates and QCA interconnects, and propose a disciplinary guideline to prevent any additional plausible but malfunctioning QCA designs.
Optimization in Power Usage of Smartphones

The demand for smartphones and mobile based applications is growing very fast since past few years. Thousands of applications on Google Play store received millions of downloads. The growing smartphone functionalities have increased its energy requirements. The applications provide amazing features and rich user interfaces, make use of hi-tech sensors leading to high power utilization. Many such application contains various kinds of power bugs which leads to unnecessary processes running in the system. There is large scope to optimize power utilization in smartphones. This paper identifies various components in smartphones that utilize power causing unnecessary power wastage in the system. It highlights various subsystems proposed by researchers in order to optimize power consumption in smartphones.
Random circulant orthogonal matrix based Analog Compressed Sensing

Analog Compressed Sensing (CS) has attracted considerable research interest in sampling area. One of the promising analog CS technique is the recently proposed Modulated Wideband Converter (MWC). However, MWC has a very high hardware complexity due to its parallel structure. To reduce the hardware complexity of MWC, this paper proposes a novel Random Circulant Orthogonal Matrix based Analog Compressed Sensing (RCOM-ACS) scheme. By circularly shifting the periodic mixing function, the RCOM-ACS scheme reduces the number of physical parallel channels from m to 1 at the cost of longer processing time, where m is in the order of several dozen to several hundred in MWC. It is proved that the m×M measurement matrix of RCOM-ACS scheme satisfies the Restricted Isometry Property (RIP) condition with probability 1−M−O(1) when m = O(rlog2Mlog3r), where M is the length of the periodic mixing function, r denotes the sparsity of the input signal. Furthermore, to make a good tradeoff between processing time and hardware complexity, a short processing time RCOM-ACS scheme is proposed in this paper. Simulation results show that, the proposed schemes outperform MWC in terms of recovery performance.
On implementation of scheduling algorithms in high speed input queuing cell switches

It is well known that the phenomenon of head-of-the-line (HOL) blocking limits the maximum achievable throughput of a pure input queuing cell switch. At each input, if instead of one queue for all the outputs, one queue for each output is used, and then 100% throughput can be achieved. This type of queuing, known as virtual output queuing (VOQ), removes the HOL blocking problem, but, in order to achieve 100% throughput, requires a scheduling algorithm to determine at each slot which input cells should be matched to their outputs. As the port speed is increased, the matching between inputs and outputs of the switch has to be found in a smaller time. Hence the speed of the scheduler has to be increased, which may not be possible owing to restrictions imposed by the hardware. We study a solution of this problem by the simple technique of skipping. In skipping, a new matching is found every k (> 1) slots instead of every slot. The effectiveness of skipping is shown using various traffic models.
Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders

Though the theories on the reasons why humans need to sleep vary, there is no disagreement that sleep is essential to our wellbeing and survival. External and internal physiological parameters dictate our own individual body “clocks,” or circadian rhythms. Typically, this clock runs very close to a 24-hour cycle of sleep and wakefulness. However, for some individuals, this clock can be slightly “off. ” This article will discuss what creates internal circadian rhythms and the major types of circadian rhythm disorders, with an overview of diagnosis and treatment options.
Tissue-specific changes in peripheral cortisol metabolism in obese women: increased adipose 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 activity.

Cushing's syndrome and the metabolic syndrome share clinical similarities. Reports of alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis are inconsistent, however, in the metabolic syndrome. Recent data highlight the importance of adipose 11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 1 (11beta-HSD1), which regenerates cortisol from cortisone and, when overexpressed in fat, produces central obesity and glucose intolerance. Here we assessed the HPA axis and 11beta-HSD1 activity in women with moderate obesity and insulin resistance. Forty women were divided into tertiles according to body mass index (BMI; median, 22.0, 27.5, and 31.4, respectively). Serum cortisol levels were measured after iv CRH, low dose dexamethasone suppression, and oral cortisone administration. Urinary cortisol metabolites were measured in a 24-h sample. A sc abdominal fat biopsy was obtained in 14 participants for determination of 11beta-HSD type 1 activity in vitro. Higher BMI was associated with higher total cortisol metabolite excretion (r = 0.49; P < 0.01), mainly due to increased 5alpha- and, to a lesser extent, 5beta-tetrahydrocortisol excretion, but no difference in plasma cortisol basally, after dexamethasone, or after CRH, and only a small increase in the ACTH response to CRH. Hepatic 11beta-HSD1 conversion of oral cortisone to cortisol was impaired in obese women (area under the curve, 147,736 +/- 28,528, 115,903 +/- 26,032, and 90,460 +/- 18,590 nmol/liter.min; P < 0.001). However, 11beta-HSD activity in adipose tissue was positively correlated with BMI (r = 0.55; P < 0.05). In obese females increased reactivation of glucocorticoids in fat may contribute to the characteristics of the metabolic syndrome. Increased inactivation of cortisol in liver may be responsible for compensatory activation of the HPA axis. These alterations in cortisol metabolism may be a basis for novel therapeutic strategies to reduce obesity-related complications.
Low voltage low power fully differential self‐biased 1.5‐bit quantizer with built‐in thresholds

A new fully differential self‐biased 1.5‐bit flash quantizer with built‐in threshold voltages, suitable for high speed ADCs and low voltage operation, is described. The proposed circuit is very simple, and simulation results in a 65 nm standard CMOS technology demonstrate that, following the suggested design methodology, it is able to achieve low offset, low kickback noise, low metastability probability errors and fast regeneration time with very low power dissipation. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Maximal power and force-velocity relationships during cycling and cranking exercises in volleyball players. Correlation with the vertical jump test.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to propose a test battery adjusted to volleyball players and to study the links between dynamic (vertical jump, force-velocity relationships and maximal anaerobic power in cranking and cycling) and static (maximal voluntary force and rate of force development in isometric conditions) performances. METHODS The relationships between braking force (F) and peak velocity (V) have been determined for cycling and cranking exercises in 18 male volleyball players of a district league. According to previous studies, these F-V relationships were assumed to be linear and were expressed as follows: V = V0(1-F/F0), where V0 should be an estimate of the maximal velocity at zero braking force whereas F0 is assumed to be a braking force corresponding to zero velocity. Maximal anaerobic power in cycling (Pmax leg) and cranking (Pmax arm) were calculated as equal to 0.25 V0F0. The same subjects performed a vertical jump test (VJ) and a strength test on an isometric leg press with the measurement of the unilateral isometric maximal voluntary force (MVF) and indices of rate of isometric force development (RFD): maximal rate of force development (MRFD) and the time from 25% to 50% of MVF (T25-50). RESULTS Pmax leg (15.8 +/- 1.4 W.kg-1) and V0 arm (259.6 +/- 13.1 rpm) were high but similar to the results of elite athletes, previously collected with the same protocols and the same devices. VJ was significantly with F0 leg, Pmax leg and Pmax arm related to body mass. The performances of the dynamic tests were significantly correlated and especially the parameters (V0, F0, Pmax) of the force velocity tests in cycling were significantly correlated with the same parameters in cranking. The results of the isometric tests (MVF, MRFD) were not correlated with VJ, except T25-50 of the left leg. CONCLUSIONS A vertical jump test and a force velocity test with the arms are proposed for a test battery in volleyball players.
Majority Gate Networks

Some new procedures for synthetizing three-input majority gate networks have been described. Both a geometrical approach on the map of the assigned function and an algebraic procedure have been discussed. The geometrical methods give a number of different solutions and may lead to the simplest networks, but their use requires ingenuity. Therefore, some of the solutions suggested by the analysis of the maps have been translated into algebraic expressions, which may be easily used for automatic computation. The techniques described are applicable to any and all Boolean functions and lead to simple solutions. In fact, every function of n variables can be implemented by a network having (n-1) levels of gates, if n is odd, or n levels, if n is even, at the most. All the procedures are relatively simple and can be extended to the synthesis of networks of any type (m, t).
Immunostimulating agents against influenza virus infection in senescent rats.

This study investigated the nonspecific immunomodulatory effects of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), muramyl dipeptide (MDP) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) on virus infection of the respiratory tract in Fischer-344 rats. Groups of young adult (12-16 months old) and aged (24-30 months old) rats were given BCG or MDP intranasally or vitamin C orally 6 weeks and again 3 days before an intranasal challenge with influenza virus A/Bangkok/H3N2 (10(6) 50% EID). Titers of hemagglutinin in lung homogenates and the presence of leukocytes in the respiratory tracts served as indices of infection. Lung macrophage functions of animals were determined by measuring random migration and phagocytic yeast cell killing in vitro. Clearance of Staphylococcus aureus from the respiratory tracts of the animals was also measured 4 hours after challenge. - Following BCG treatment, significantly fewer animals developed virus infection. MDP and vitamin C treatments also reduced the numbers of infected rats but did not differ significantly from the untreated control groups. BCG and MDP treatments significantly reduced the numbers of lung leukocytes in virus infected animals. Mean virus titers in the lung homogenates were significantly lower in all treatment groups by the third day of infection. Following all treatments, duration of virus infection was significantly shorter in the aged compared to the young adult groups. Lung macrophage functions increased in all treatment groups. The improvement of aged groups over their controls was greater than that of the young adults compared to their controls. BCG had the greatest protective effects in both the young adult and aged animals; MDP and vitamin C, in that order, were less effective. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Evidence for in vivo incorporation of D-lactate into peptidoglycan precursors of vancomycin-resistant enterococci

The VanA ligase encoded by the vancomycin resistance plasmid pIP816 of Enterococcus faecium BM4147 condenses D-alanine with various D-2-hydroxy and D-2-amino acids in vitro. D-Lactate added to the culture medium restored the vancomycin resistance of a strain that does not produce the VanH dehydrogenase and therefore appears to be a substrate of VanA in vivo.
Automatic vehicle to vehicle communication and vehicle to infrastructure communication using NRF24L01 module

Vehicular traffic is tremendously increasing around the world, especially in small and large urban areas. The resulting traffic has become a key issue and emergency as a recent research topic in automation in Transportation. Currently traffic lights are controlled only in important junctions and increasing their number is clearly infeasible due to high costs of installation and maintenance. A new technology will be available in near front, when all the vehicles are equipped with latest sensing technology integrated with wireless technology. The capability of communicating and coordinating between vehicles can set the priorities among the vehicles involved. We propose a new approach “Intelligent Transportation System”(ITS) to manage the traffic flow which is modeled as to nearby to “Stop and Move” and to improve the efficiency of traffic flow which in turn reduces the accidents.
Prognostic significance of cytokine modulation in non‐small cell lung cancer

Increased production of immunosuppressive interleukin‐10 (IL‐10) by non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and increased serum IL‐10 concentrations in NSCLC‐patients have recently been correlated to reduced survival. We earlier demonstrated suppression of IL‐2 secretion in whole blood cell cultures of NSCLC‐patients. We now analyzed the influence of IL‐2 secretion on survival in NSCLC‐patients and the influence of IL‐10 on IL‐2 secretion. The correlation of the IL‐2 producing ability of whole blood cells in response to PHA in 90 NSCLC‐patients at the time of diagnosis to survival was calculated by Crit‐level, the Kaplan‐Meier method and the log‐rank test. With a cut‐off value of IL‐2 production of 1,100 pg/ml by whole blood cells the difference in survival was significant with a p‐value of 0.014. In the group with high and low IL‐2, median survival was 14.1 and 9.7 months, respectively. In the subgroup of 33 surgically‐treated patients the difference in survival was significant with a p‐value of 0.011. In 14 patients with surgical resection of the tumor and high IL‐2 at diagnosis and 19 patients with surgical resection, but low IL‐2 at diagnosis, median survival was 86.2 and 11.3 months, respectively. Secretion of IL‐2 in whole blood cell cultures from healthy individuals was inhibited in a dose‐dependent manner upon addition of IL‐10. Taken together, suppression of IL‐2 secretion has prognostic significance for survival of NSCLC‐patients and may be mediated by tumor‐derived IL‐10. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Clouds in Tropical Cyclones

Abstract Clouds within the inner regions of tropical cyclones are unlike those anywhere else in the atmosphere. Convective clouds contributing to cyclogenesis have rotational and deep intense updrafts but tend to have relatively weak downdrafts. Within the eyes of mature tropical cyclones, stratus clouds top a boundary layer capped by subsidence. An outward-sloping eyewall cloud is controlled by adjustment of the vortex toward gradient-wind balance, which is maintained by a slantwise current transporting boundary layer air upward in a nearly conditionally symmetric neutral state. This balance is intermittently upset by buoyancy arising from high-moist-static-energy air entering the base of the eyewall because of the radial influx of low-level air from the far environment, supergradient wind in the eyewall zone, and/or small-scale intense subvortices. The latter contain strong, erect updrafts. Graupel particles and large raindrops produced in the eyewall fall out relatively quickly while ice splinters left.
Projeção dos Índices de Desempenho em Instituições Financeiras Brasileiras

O objetivo deste artigo e analisar a projecao dos indices de desempenho das instituicoes financeiras brasileiras. A pesquisa e caracterizada como pesquisa descritiva, documental e quantitativa. Foram utilizados dados de indices financeiros disponibilizados no banco de dados Economatica, com posicoes consolidadas em dezembro de cada ano, para os exercicios correspondentes aos anos de 2005 a 2011, para 32 empresas atuantes no mercado de financas e seguros brasileiro, com acoes negociadas na BM&FBovespa. A tecnica estatistica utilizada foi Regressao Linear, o software adotado foi o Statgraphics . Verificou-se que a partir dos testes efetuados para os indicadores dos ultimos seis anos selecionados do padrao USBank e possivel prever com alto grau de confiabilidade o comportamento dos indices para o proximo ano, identifica-se que os indices que possuem maior tendencia explicativa sao Rentabilidade do Ativo (RentAt), Exigibilidade do Ativo (Exg/At), Margem Bruta (Marg/Bru) e Rentabilidade do Patrimonio Liquido Medio (RentPat(med)), e possivel dizer que estes indicadores sofrem menos volatilidade e sao mais estaveis frente ao comportamento do mercado. As analises realizadas apontam que os indicadores Lucro por Acao (LPA) e Exigibilidade do Patrimonio Liquido (Exig/PL) podem prever com menor grau de certeza o comportamento dos indices para o proximo ano.