Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis: What the primary care provider should know

Purpose: To provide nurse practitioners (NPs) with an overview of spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis, including the pathophysiology and etiology, incidence and prevalence, clinical presentation, diagnosis and differentials, management, and prognosis for these conditions. Data sources: Selected research, reviews, and clinical articles, and the authors' experience. Conclusions: Spondylolysis and spondylolisthesis are two common and confusing diagnoses identified by healthcare providers in the treatment of low back pain. Symptoms can vary depending on the degree of disarticulation with radiculopathy occurring in advanced grades of spondylolisthesis. Standing, lateral lumbosacral radiographs remain the gold standard for diagnosis. The majority of patients will improve with conservative treatments. Surgical options are warranted after 6 months of failed conservative treatments for patients with radiculopathy, neurogenic claudication, progressive neurological deficits, high‐grade slips, or bladder and bowel symptoms. Implications for practice: NPs can distinguish these diagnoses and perform appropriate conservative management prior to referral to specialists for surgical evaluation. NPs are important providers in interdisciplinary care by assisting patients with both psychosocial and physical management of their back pain.
Catecholamine and cortisol responses to lower extremity revascularization: correlation with outcome variables. Perioperative Ischemia Randomized Anesthesia Trial Study Group.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether catecholamine and cortisol secretory responses to surgery contribute to postoperative complications. DESIGN Prospective, randomized, case series. SETTING A university hospital operating suite and surgical intensive care unit. PATIENTS Sixty patients undergoing lower extremity vascular surgery. INTERVENTIONS Patients were randomized to receive either epidural anesthesia/epidural opiate analgesia (regional anesthesia) or general anesthesia/intravenous patient-controlled analgesia (general anesthesia). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Anesthesia was managed according to a prospectively designed protocol. Hemodynamic parameters and plasma catecholamine concentrations were determined at specific intraoperative and postoperative time points. Intraoperative and postoperative urine samples were collected and analyzed for free cortisol concentrations. Outcomes evaluated were cardiac (nonfatal myocardial infarction and cardiac death) and surgical (graft occlusion). Mean arterial pressure during emergence from anesthesia and in the early postoperative period correlated positively with plasma norepinephrine concentration (p < .01). In addition, plasma catecholamine concentrations were higher in patients with postoperative hypertension. Plasma norepinephrine concentrations at the time of emergence from anesthesia and postoperatively were also higher in patients requiring repeat surgery for graft revision, thrombectomy, or amputation (p < .05). Multivariate analysis indicated that the norepinephrine concentration at the time of emergence, but not type of anesthesia, correlated with reoperation for graft occlusion, suggesting that the previously reported beneficial effect of regional anesthesia may be due to modulation of the stress response. Myocardial infarction or cardiac death occurred in three patients. These patients had markedly increased catecholamine concentrations. CONCLUSIONS The catecholamine response to lower extremity vascular surgery contributes to the development of postoperative hypertension and may also be important in the development of thrombotic complications.
Impact of comorbidity on the individual's choice of primary health care provider

Abstract Objective. This study examined whether age, gender, and comorbidity were of importance for an individual's choice of listing with either a public or a private primary health care (PHC) practice. Design and setting. The study was a register-based closed cohort study in one private and one public PHC practice in Blekinge County in southern Sweden. Subjects. A cohort (12 696 individuals) was studied comprising all those listed with the public or private PHC practice on 1 October 2005 who were also listed with the public PHC practice on 1 October 2004. Main outcome measures. The listing/re-listing behaviour of the population in this cohort was studied at two points in time, 1 October 2005 and 1 October 2006, with respect to age, gender, and comorbidity level as measured by the ACG Case-Mix system. Results. Individuals listed with the public practice both on 1 October 2005 and one year later were significantly older, were more often females, and had a higher comorbidity level than individuals listed with the private practice. Individuals with a higher comorbidity level were more likely to re-list or to stay listed with the public practice. Conclusions. This study shows that the probability of choosing a public instead of private PHC provider increased with higher age and comorbidity level of the individuals. It is suggested that using a measure of comorbidity can help us understand more about the chronically ill individual's choice of health care provider. This would be of importance when health care policy-makers decide on reimbursement system or organization of PHC.
The GreenCut2 Resource, a Phylogenomically Derived Inventory of Proteins Specific to the Plant Lineage*

The plastid is a defining structure of photosynthetic eukaryotes and houses many plant-specific processes, including the light reactions, carbon fixation, pigment synthesis, and other primary metabolic processes. Identifying proteins associated with catalytic, structural, and regulatory functions that are unique to plastid-containing organisms is necessary to fully define the scope of plant biochemistry. Here, we performed phylogenomics on 20 genomes to compile a new inventory of 597 nucleus-encoded proteins conserved in plants and green algae but not in non-photosynthetic organisms. 286 of these proteins are of known function, whereas 311 are not characterized. This inventory was validated as applicable and relevant to diverse photosynthetic eukaryotes using an additional eight genomes from distantly related plants (including Micromonas, Selaginella, and soybean). Manual curation of the known proteins in the inventory established its importance to plastid biochemistry. To predict functions for the 52% of proteins of unknown function, we used sequence motifs, subcellular localization, co-expression analysis, and RNA abundance data. We demonstrate that 18% of the proteins in the inventory have functions outside the plastid and/or beyond green tissues. Although 32% of proteins in the inventory have homologs in all cyanobacteria, unexpectedly, 30% are eukaryote-specific. Finally, 8% of the proteins of unknown function share no similarity to any characterized protein and are plant lineage-specific. We present this annotated inventory of 597 proteins as a resource for functional analyses of plant-specific biochemistry.
Mapping spatio-temporal disaster data into MongoDB

This paper describes an approach to map the spatio-temporal disaster data into MongoDB. This process is part of our research with title Prototype Development Disaster Management Information System (DIMaS) which manages disaster data in Indonesia where data is represented by the aspects of space and time. It would be better if spatio-temporal data in DIMaS is stored in spatio-temporal DBMS. But, there is limited number of such DBMS. Furthermore, existing spatio-temporal DBMS such as Secondo, is hard to be integrated with and manipulated through our web application. Therefore, MongoDB is selected as the target DBMS. As a NoSQL database, MongoDB can support large stream data processing and provide sufficient basic features to manage the flow of data space on a specific location along time, to meet the needs of data expression in spatio-temporal environment. Spatio-temporal data has spatio-temporal attributes which is modeled in spatio-temporal research [6] as Object Relational Model. When we use MongoDB, we have to convert these attributes into a collection of JSON documents. The attributes of the spatio-temporal as mpoint (moving point), mline (moving line), or mregion (moving region) must be mapped into the form of JSON document collection. Mapping process has been designed on how JSON documents can be formed in accordance with disaster data that has been stored in Object Relational Model [6]. Some examples on how the object data mapping process carried out in the form of JSON documents will be described in this paper. As a result, it is shown that spatio-temporal data, which is modeled as object-relational, can be converted into JSON documents. As a future work, we have to build a query engine to process a request to these spatio-temporal data.
Bloodmeal Size and Spirochete Acquisition of Ornithodoros hermsi (Acari: Argasidae) During Feeding

ABSTRACT Ornithodoros hermsi Wheeler (Acari: Argasidae) is the vector of Borrelia hermsii, the primary cause of tick-borne relapsing fever in North America. This tick is one of the smallest Ornithodoros species involved with the biological transmission of spirochetes; yet, the amount of blood ingested while feeding is unknown. Therefore, we determined the amount of blood O. hermsi ingested during a bloodmeal to establish its potential for spirochete acquisition while feeding on an infected host. Ticks at different developmental stages were weighed before and after feeding and the volume of blood ingested was calculated. Females ingested the most blood, averaging ≈15 µl per meal, but late-stage nymphs took in the most blood in proportion to unfed body weight. A cohort of nymphs was weighed three more times during the 48 h after feeding, which demonstrated that O. hermsi may have excreted coxal fluid ranging from 24–36% of the bloodmeal weight. We also developed a quantitative polymerase chain reaction method to determine the number of spirochetes ingested and maintained within the ticks after feeding. The density of spirochetes in ticks having just engorged was slightly less than in the host's blood. In the first 5 d after feeding, the number of spirochetes within the ticks declined from the number initially ingested but then remained constant through 15 d. These observations establish a basis for future studies to determine the minimum number of spirochetes required in the host's blood to allow O. hermsi to become persistently infected and transmit during subsequent bloodmeals.
Haemagglutination and glycolipid‐binding activities of Lactobacillus reuteri

The carbohydrate-binding activity of Lactobacillus reuteri was studied by haemagglutination (HA), HA inhibition and thin layer chromatography (TLC) overlay assays. Three of the six Lact. reuteri strains examined showed HA activity. Two strains (JCM1081 and JCM1112T) agglutinated neuraminidase-treated, but not untreated, erythrocytes. Strain JCM2762 agglutinated both treated and untreated erythrocytes. The HA activity of JCM 1081 was inhibited by galactose, lactose, methyl beta-galactoside and asialoglycophorin A. Among 12 glycosphingolipids, TLC overlay assay showed that JCM1081 strongly bound to asialo-GM1. These results indicated that JCM1081 bound to the beta-galactosyl residues of the non-reducing terminal of sugar chains of glycoconjugates. The carbohydrate-binding ability of JCM1081 may be responsible for the adhesion of this strain to the mucosal surface of the intestine.
“Putting Reform Into Action” — Thirty Years of the World Heritage Convention: How to Reform a Convention without Changing Its Regulations

The World Heritage Convention, revolutionary in its conception thirty years ago, has today become the most widely accepted international legal instrument for the protection of cultural and natural heritage. Now, however, it requires adjustments if its successful implementation is to continue. These changes must not modify the Convention but must achieve an equivalent level of implementation. This article focuses on three issues, which are currently the subject of ongoing discussions: the representivity of the World Heritage List, equitable representation in the World Heritage Committee, and revision of the Operational Guidelines. The author not only describes the procedures for reform and the results achieved so far, but he also compares the legal provisions of this Convention to the other international legal instruments for the protection of cultural heritage.
A Novel Approach for Path Plan of Mobile Chargers in Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks

Wireless Rechargeable Sensor Networks (WRSNs) have attracted increasing research attention in recent years. In WRSNs, a mobile charger is often used to charge the network nodes. To reduce the charging delay, the existing works often formulate the problem as a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), where the charger is required to visit the specific positions of the network nodes due to the limited charging range. However, we argue that as the charging technology develops, the charging range is becoming increasingly larger. The wireless charging ability is under-utilized using the TSP model. Some other works try to exploit the wireless charging ability by clustering the charging spots, however, the moving path of the charger is not carefully considered. In this paper, we first analyze the optimization opportunity and then propose a novel charging strategy by modeling the problem as TSP with neighborhood (TSPN). The model is able to exploit the wireless charging ability and reduce the moving delay of the charger at the same time. We also propose an adaptive merging process to reduce the stops of the charger for further optimization. We conduct simulation experiments to study the performance of our proposed scheme, the results show that compared to the state-of-the-art works, the proposed work greatly reduce the charging delay and the moving delay of the charger.
Una Representación Basada en Lógica Borrosa para el Clustering de páginas web con Mapas Auto-Organizativos

This article evaluates a web page-oriented representation model for document clustering, using self-organizing maps. The representation is based on heuristic combinations of criteria by means of a fuzzy rules system. The experiments show an improvement in the proposed model behaviour versus traditional representations as TF, Bin-IDF and TF-IDF, with different vector dimensions, and using a reference collection.
Autocrine induction of DNA synthesis by mechanical injury of cultured smooth muscle cells. Potential role of FGF and PDGF.

To determine whether replication of arterial smooth muscle cells (SMCs) in response to mechanical injury would occur in the absence of serum and other cells, we created an in vitro model in which confluent, growth-arrested cultures of rat SMCs were injured by gentle pressure of a soft plastic tube and then kept in serum-free medium for up to 4 days. Replication of SMCs in and around the injury, as measured by tritiated thymidine incorporation, was noted within 24 hours and peaked at 48 hours after injury, whereas noninjured cells remained quiescent. An increased expression of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) A mRNA, noted 6 hours after injury, was followed by an increased PDGF AA immunoreactivity in SMCs in and around the zone of injury at 24 and 48 hours after injury. A PDGF A chain antisense oligonucleotide inhibited 87.0 +/- 4.0% (P < .005) of SMC replication in the injury zone, whereas the corresponding sense oligonucleotide reduced SMC replication by only 37.2%. An antibody to fibroblast growth factor (FGF) almost completely inhibited SMC replication in the injured zone, whereas an antibody to PDGF AA was without effect. Incubation of SMCs with FGF increased PDGF A mRNA levels in SMCs, and 5 mumol/L PDGF A antisense oligonucleotides reduced FGF-induced SMC replication by 62%. Taken together, these results demonstrate that injured rat SMCs in culture release FGF that activates DNA synthesis of neighboring SMCs both by a direct mechanism and by stimulating the production of PDGF AA.
A new DC-free multimode code design with error correction capability for optical storage systems

DC-free run-length limited codes have been the cornerstone of all three generations of optical recording, CD, DVD and BD. Research into efficient coding methods is paramount for the upcoming fourth generation. A Multimode coding technique is an efficient coding method that has been reported in the literatures. Under multimode coding rules, a user word is translated into a plurality of possible candidate words, and among the candidate words the encoder selects the codeword with the least low-frequency spectral content. In our paper, we will present a new coding technique for constructing error correcting high-rate DC-free multimode code using a low-density parity-check (LDPC) code for future high-density optical recording. The scheme achieves reliable DC-suppression and obtains considerable bit error rate (BER) performance gain through the iterative decoding (or turbo equalization) with the concatenated detector.
Wearable bio-sensors bracelet for driveras health emergency detection

Abnormality of the driver's Bio-physiological parameters has great impact on the driver's capability, and the ability to control a vehicle; which may cause severe car accidents. In this paper, a novel system was developed to monitor the driver's health status through a Wearable Bio-Sensors Bracelet that detects heath emergency threatening situations. The system collects live bio-signals data through a Wearable Bio-Sensors Bracelet that is embedded with multiple Bio-sensors such as Electromyography (EMG), Electrocardiography (ECG), Electrodermal Activity (EDA), Accelerometer (ACC) and Temperature. A robotics rover car model has been used as a testing vehicle scenario. The developed system detects an emergency and takes control over the rover maneuver when the driver lost his capacity, and automatically avoids any obstacle by sensing the surrounding area. The system has been demonstrated in a prepared emergency scenario and verified the potential. This paper describes the design concept, system configuration, and the future prospect of the study.
Role of Pelvic Incidence, Thoracic Kyphosis, and Patient Factors on Sagittal Plane Correction Following Pedicle Subtraction Osteotomy

Study Design. An analysis of clinical and radiographic data of 40 consecutive patients with fixed sagittal imbalance. Objective. To determine the effect of mid lumbar pedicle subtraction osteotomy (PSO), pelvic incidence (PI), thoracic kyphosis (TK), and patient characteristics on correction obtained in patients with fixed sagittal imbalance. Summary of Background Data. PSO is commonly performed for spinal reconstruction in patients with fixed sagittal imbalance. Prior studies have not investigated the role that osteotomy location, PI, TK, and presenting patient characteristics may play in the correction obtained after PSO. Methods. Forty consecutive patients were identified who underwent PSO with minimum 2-year clinical and radiographic follow-up at a single institution. Data were analyzed before surgery and at 2 and 24 months after surgery to identify the magnitude and durability of correction and associated variables. Results. C7 plumb line improved from mean 15 cm anterior to the sacrum before surgery to 3.0 cm after surgery and 4.5 cm at 24 months (P < 0.0001); mean PSO wedge size was 32.4°. Patients treated for idiopathic deformity (typically following prior Harrington rod fusions) had better maintenance of correction than patients with degenerative sagittal imbalance, although not statistically significant (P = 0.06). Fusion to the upper thoracic spine preserved correction better than fusion to the thoracolumbar junction. Sagittal plane correction, SRS outcome scores and Oswestry scores were equivalent comparing PSO's performed at L2 and L3. Using our patient data, we tested models of PI and TK to predict the lumbar lordosis needed to achieve ideal sagittal balance. The formula PI + LL + TK ≤45° showed 91% sensitivity for predicting ideal sagittal balance at 24 months (P = 0.001). Conclusion. PI and TK can predict the lumbar lordosis necessary to correct sagittal imbalance in patients under-going PSO with high sensitivity. Sagittal correction and clinical outcome scores were equivalent comparing PSO's performed at L2 and L3. Patients with degenerative sagittal imbalance and those with shorter fusions are more likely to lose correction with time.
New actigraph for long‐term tremor recording

A new method of movement analysis is validated, allowing an actigraph to discriminate tremor from other movements and store duration and intensity measures of both movement types. For algorithm optimization, wrist acceleration was recorded in nine controls and nine Parkinson's disease patients, while simultaneously rating their observed tremor minute by minute on item 20 of the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale. An optimization procedure to minimize false positives in controls while maximizing tremor detection in patients resulted in false positive tremor classification in 2.4% ± 2.5% of the movement time of control subjects (range, 0%–7%), while providing tremor classification in 82.1% ± 15.4% of the movement time in patients (range, 55%–100%), correlating r = 0.93 with their averaged observed tremor score. A second, generalizability study showed that application of the optimized algorithm resulted in accurate classification of 71% ± 14% of the observed tremor time (range, 46%–90%) in another 9 patients and in a false positive classification in only 0.5% ± 0.8% of the time in another 10 controls (range, 0%–2.4%). The commercial availability of this actigraph now for the first time makes it possible to investigate tremor fluctuations over several weeks. An example is given of how long‐term monitoring can be of use in evaluation of symptom management. © 2006 Movement Disorder Society
Effects of denaturants and osmolytes on proteins are accurately predicted by the molecular transfer model

Interactions between denaturants and proteins are commonly used to probe the structures of the denatured state ensemble and their stabilities. Osmolytes, a class of small intracellular organic molecules found in all taxa, also profoundly affect the equilibrium properties of proteins. We introduce the molecular transfer model, which combines simulations in the absence of denaturants or osmolytes, and Tanford's transfer model to predict the dependence of equilibrium properties of proteins at finite concentration of osmolytes. The calculated changes in the thermodynamic quantities (probability of being in the native basin of attraction, m values, FRET efficiency, and structures of the denatured state ensemble) with GdmCl concentration [C] for the protein L and cold shock protein CspTm compare well with experiments. The radii of gyration of the subpopulation of unfolded molecules for both proteins decrease (i.e., they undergo a collapse transition) as [C] decreases. Although global folding is cooperative, residual secondary structures persist at high denaturant concentrations. The temperature dependence of the specific heat shows that the folding temperature (TF) changes linearly as urea and trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) concentrations increase. The increase in TF in TMAO can be as large as 20°C, whereas urea decreases TF by as much as 35°C. The stabilities of protein L and CspTm also increase linearly with the concentration of osmolytes (proline, sorbitol, sucrose, TMAO, and sarcosine).