Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Bacteriuria in a Population Sample of Women: 24-year Follow-up Study: Results from the Prospective Population-based Study of Women in Gothenburg, Sweden

The aims of the study were to estimate the prevalence of bacteriuria in a female urban population, to follow up the same population over the years, and to relate bacteriuria to long-term prognosis with respect to mortality and kidney disease. The study was based on a randomly selected population sample comprising 1462 women aged 38-60 years at entrance to the study in 1968-69 with an initial participation rate of 90.1%. Bacteriuria was observed in 3-5%, increasing with age, and most often asymptomatic. Bacteriuria on one occasion meant increased risk of having bacteriuria 6 and 12 years later. The percentages of different types of bacteria and the resistance pattern were similar initially and at follow-up studies after 6 and 12 years. There were no differences in mortality or incidence of severe kidney disease during a 24-year follow-up between those with and those without bacteriuria in the baseline study.
Gene Therapy in Human Breast Cancer

Gene therapy, being a novel treatment for many diseases, is readily applicable for the treatment of cancer patients. Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. There are many clinical protocols for the treatment of breast cancer, and gene therapy is now being considered within current protocols. This review will focus on the basic concepts of cancer gene therapy strategies (suicide gene, tumor suppressor gene, anti-angiogenesis, immunotherapy, oncolytic viruses and ribozyme/antisense targeting) and current approaches for breast cancer gene therapies.
Access to and utilization of healthcare: the provider’s role

Access to and utilization of healthcare are distinct, yet related, concepts that serve as a focus for health policy and quality improvement. This article identifies their similarities and differences, calling on previous research and reviews to elaborate on a current understanding of factors that influence both, with a particular focus on those related to the healthcare provider. Access describes an individual’s ability to position oneself to receive healthcare services. Utilization presumes access and includes the formulation of a healthcare plan during a healthcare encounter and its subsequent implementation. We present a framework that envisions access and utilization as aspects of healthcare delivery that may be affected by the context within which services are delivered, the structure of the practice that delivers them and other processes leading to outcomes experienced by the healthcare consumer. Based on current trends, we anticipate that research and policy related to access and utilization over the next 5 years will be primarily driven by a focus on quality improvement. Providers are positioned to use their collective authority to exercise influence on access and quality at the individual, institutional and policy levels.
Hiperhomocysteinemia - ważny czynnik ryzyka udaru mózgu

Udary mozgu są trzecią co do czestości przyczyną śmierci oraz najczestszą przyczyną inwalidztwa w populacji osob doroslych. Etiologia udarow czesto pozostaje nieustalona. Wśrod licznych czynnikow etiopatogenetycznych udaru mozgu nalezy uwzglednic hiperhomocysteinemie, ktora odgrywa istotną role w patogenezie udaru mozgu jako czynnik wywolujący proces miazdzycowy i wplywający na zaburzenia krzepniecia. Metabolizm homocysteiny zalezy od wielu czynnikow, takich jak: stezenia kwasu foliowego, witamin B 6 i B 12 lub mutacji genow kodujących metabolizm homocysteiny: reduktazy N 5 , N 10 -metylenotetrahydrofolianowej (MTHFR, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase ), β-syntazy cystationinowej (CBS, cystationine β syntase ) i syntazy metioninowej (MS, metionine syntase ). Ocena stezenia homocysteiny u pacjentow z chorobami naczyniowymi, w tym u chorych z udarem mozgu, nie tylko poszerza wiedze o etiologii i mechanizmach udarow mozgu, ale w sposob praktyczny wplywa na ich leczenie i zapobieganie im.
A Nuclear Factor-κB Inhibitor Pyrrolidine Dithiocarbamate Ameliorates Pulmonary Hypertension in Rats

Background Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a fatal disorder that is associated with structural changes and inflammatory responses in the pulmonary vasculature. Nuclear factor (NF)-κB is a key transcription factor that is involved in the tissue remodeling mediated by inflammatory and fibroproliferative responses. However, the contribution of NF-κB-mediated inflammatory pathways to the development of PH is unknown. Methods We therefore investigated whether NF-κB activation and the expression of a downstream product vascular cell adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 is associated with pulmonary vascular diseases in rats that have been injected with the toxin monocrotaline (MCT), and whether a NF-κB inhibitor, pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), ameliorates such diseases in rats. Results VCAM-1 expression and the nuclear localization of the p65 subunit of NF-κB, as analyzed immunohistochemically, was significantly up-regulated in the endothelium of diseased vessels on the days 8 to 22 (p Conclusions We concluded that the NF-κB nuclear localization and VCAM-1 expression is temporally and spatially associated with the development of MCT-induced PH in rats, which was ameliorated by administering a NF-κB inhibitor, PDTC.
Priority setting in health: origins, description and application of the Australian Assessing Cost–Effectiveness initiative

This article reports on the ‘Assessing Cost–Effectiveness’ (ACE) initiative in priority setting from Australia. It commences with why priority setting is topical and notes that a wide variety of approaches are available. In assessing these various approaches, it is argued that a useful first step is to consider what constitutes an ‘ideal’ approach to priority setting. A checklist to guide priority setting is presented based on guidance from economic theory, ethics and social justice, lessons from empirical experience and the needs of decision-makers. The checklist is seen as an important contribution because it is the first time that criteria from such a broad range of considerations have been brought together to develop a framework for priority setting that endeavors to be both realistic and theoretically sound. The checklist will then be applied to a selection of existing approaches in order to illustrate their deficiencies and to provide the platform for explaining the unique features of the ACE approach. A case study (ACE-Cancer) will then be presented and assessed against the checklist, including reaction from stakeholders in the cancer field. The article concludes with an overview of the full body of ACE research completed to date, together with some reflections on the ACE experience.
Functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia and its relationship to neural synchrony

Schizophrenia is a debilitating disorder of unknown cause. There is increasing momentum to consider functional dysconnectivity as an endophenotype of schizophrenia, and in particular, how it relates to cognition as a core feature of the disorder. Here, the authors review the conceptual models of functional dysconnectivity in schizophrenia to date, the evidence they are based on and some of the limitations of these models. The authors then propose ‘neural synchrony’ as a potential mechanism for functional dysconnectivity and review the current state of evidence for a link between neural synchrony and cognition in schizophrenia across behavioral, physiological, brain imaging, neurochemical and neurogenetic units of enquiry. The authors conclude by outlining the unmet needs in this field and give an outlook on how to fill these gaps.
A perceptual divide? Consumer and expert attitudes to food risk management in Europe

Abstract Crises in food risk management have often been attributed to disconnection between the stakeholders involved, as when consumers do not believe risk communications or dispute risk managers' priorities. Before this problem of disconnection can be resolved, however, there is a need to clarify the nature and extent of perceptual discrepancies between stakeholders and to establish whether mutual understanding is attainable. Our recent research has identified that food risk experts and consumers do have different interpretations of what it means for risk management to be effective. Here we describe a study that used telephone interviews to present food risk experts and consumers in four different European countries with statements (derived from our previous work) indicating the different expert and consumer perspectives on food risk management, in order to assess the participants' reactions to these. We found that, though there were areas of agreement between the experts and consumers (for example, they agreed that consumers lack relevant knowledge, that food safety is a shared responsibility and that scientific uncertainty cannot be completely avoided), there were other areas where disagreement remained (for example, on the acceptability of economic interests in food risk management and the role and quality of media reporting). These results indicate the key areas where mutual understanding and appreciation are lacking between significant stakeholders, and hence the areas that should form the target for the activities of organizations like the European Food Safety Authority in order to improve the effective implementation of food risk management practices.
CLINICAL UTILITY OF CONTINUOUS SUBCUTANEOUS INSULIN INFUSION IN PATIENTS WITH TYPE 1 DIABETES: A MACEDONIAN REPORT

SUMMARY The aim of this study was to analyze and evaluate the efficacy and safety of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion (CSII) in all patients with type 1 diabetes on pump therapy in Macedonia. The study was performed at University Department of Endocrinology in Skopje from January 2004 until December 2006. CSII was initiated in diabetics with poor metabolic control. HbA 1c , severe hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis in the year before CSII were compared with the respective values during one-year pump treatment. Fourteen patients (6 male and 8 female) aged 18.9±6.4 years with type 1 diabetes were included in the study. The mean HbA 1c of 9.4±1.1% in one year pre-pump period decreased to 7.3±0.8% one year after CSII. The rate of severe hypoglycemia and diabetic ketoacidosis was reduced upon switch to pump treatment in the next year. CSII is effective and safe treatment in patients with type 1 diabetes to achieve
Fisiopatología de las Infecciones por Adenovirus

Actualmente se reconoce que los adenovirus causa con más frecuencia enfermedades del tracto respiratorio, sin embargo dependiendo del serotipo infectante, puede causar otras enfermedades como gastroenteritis, conjuntivitis, cistitis, hepatitis y exantema (Tabla 1). El espectro clínico de la enfermedad del tracto respiratorio va desde un cuadro de rinofaringitis hasta un cuadro de neumonía fulminante (5). Para algunos serotipos, el cuadro clínico varía dependiendo del lugar de la infección, así tenemos que el serotipo 7 adquirido por inhalación esta asociado con enfermedad severa del tracto respiratorio inferior, mientras que la transmisión oral del mismo serotipo causa infección asintomática o enfermedad leve.
The domesticated robot: Design guidelines for assisting older adults to age in place

Many older adults wish to remain in their own homes as they age [16]. However, challenges in performing home upkeep tasks threaten an older adult's ability to age in place. Even healthy independently living older adults experience challenges in maintaining their home [13]. Challenges with home tasks can be compensated through technology, such as home robots. However, for home robots to be adopted by older adult users, they must be designed to meet older adults' needs for assistance and the older users must be amenable to robot assistance for those needs. We conducted a needs assessment to (1) assess older adults' openness to assistance from robots; and (2) understand older adults' opinions about using an assistive robot to help around the home. We administered questionnaires and conducted structured group interviews with 21 independently living older adults (ages 65-93). The questionnaire data suggest that older adults prefer robot assistance for cleaning and fetching/organizing tasks overall. However their assistance preferences discriminated between tasks. The interview data provided insight as to why they hold such preferences. Older adults reported benefits of robot assistance (e.g., the robot compensating for limitations, saving them time and effort, completing undesirable tasks, and performing tasks at a high level of performance). Participants also reported concerns such as the robot damaging the environment, being unreliable at or incapable of doing a task, doing tasks the older adult would rather do, or taking up too much space/storage. These data, along with specific comments from participant interviews, provide the basis for preliminary recommendations for designing mobile manipulator robots to support aging in place.
How does speaking another language reduce the risk of dementia?

Recently the question of whether or not bilingualism may protect against the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has become a topic of great interest. Previous studies suggest that being bilingual slows the decline in executive control associated with the aging process. Spurred by these positive findings in normal subjects, investigators have tried to determine if being bilingual may be associated with delayed onset of AD. A number of studies collectively suggest that being bilingual may lead to a delay in the diagnosis of AD by as much as 5 years, even when taking into account confounders. Although a recent landmark study provides physical evidence confirming this advantage in AD patients, further work needs to be done to clarify its’ neuroanatomical basis.
Parallel and Cache-Efficient In-Place Matrix Storage Format Conversion

Techniques and algorithms for efficient in-place conversion to and from standard and blocked matrix storage formats are described. Such functionality is required by numerical libraries that use different data layouts internally. Parallel algorithms and a software package for in-place matrix storage format conversion based on in-place matrix transposition are presented and evaluated. A new algorithm for in-place transposition which efficiently determines the structure of the transposition permutation a priori is one of the key ingredients. It enables effective load balancing in a parallel environment.
Stroke in patients with occlusion of the internal carotid artery: options for treatment

Ischemic stroke may occur in patients in whom vascular imaging shows the ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) to be occluded. In younger patients this is often due to carotid artery dissection, while in older people this most likely results from cardiac embolism or thrombosis secondary to high-grade stenosis at the carotid bifurcation. Interventional techniques aim at recanalization of the carotid artery for early restoration of cerebral blood flow and secondary prevention of future strokes. In chronic ICA occlusion the ischemic infarct may be related to hemodynamic compromise. In this situation, extracranial-intracranial bypass surgery was introduced, but its role remains still unclear. Ischemic stroke may also occur in patients with a chronic occlusion of the contralateral ICA. This situation demands the usual stroke treatment, but surgical and neuroradiological interventions face a higher risk than unilateral vascular pathology. Medical treatment supports stroke prevention in carotid artery occlusion.
Progress in the treatment of small fiber peripheral neuropathy

Small fiber neuropathy is a syndrome of diverse disease etiology because of multiple pathophysiologic mechanisms with major presentations of neuropathic pain and autonomic symptoms. Over the past decade, there has been substantial progress in the treatments for neuropathic pain, dysautonomia and disease-modifying strategy. In particular, anticonvulsants and antidepressants alleviate neuropathic pain based on randomized clinical trials.
Measuring the size of changes in automotive software systems and their impact on product quality

The amount of software in modern cars is significant and is growing with releases of new cars. The evolutionary development of software systems means new releases require changes to the existing systems. The changes might have a positive and negative impact on the quality of the final product and software architects working with the changes often conduct impact analyses using metrics. In this paper, we present metrics used to measure the complexity and size of software systems with the purpose of identifying potential risk caused by the changes. The metrics are designed to support early phases of software development and to help reduce costly late changes to the architecture of the systems. Their main goal is to verify non-functional aspects of the system and identify parts that should be tested more in order to reduce the risk of deteriorated quality.
Dimethyl fumarate in relapsing–remitting multiple sclerosis: rationale, mechanisms of action, pharmacokinetics, efficacy and safety

Dimethyl fumarate (DMF), a fumaric acid ester, is a new orally available disease-modifying agent that was recently approved by the US FDA and the EMA for the management of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). Fumaric acid has been used for the management of psoriasis, for more than 50 years. Because of the known anti-inflammatory properties of fumaric acid ester, DMF was brought into clinical development in MS. More recently, neuroprotective and myelin-protective mechanism actions have been proposed, making it a possible candidate for MS treatment. Two Phase III clinical trials (DEFINE, CONFIRM) have evaluated the safety and efficacy of DMF in patients with relapsing–remitting MS. Being an orally available agent with a favorable safety profile, it has become one of the most commonly prescribed disease-modifying agents in the USA and Europe.
A study on perception of women delivered in last one year on RCH services rendered by public health functionaries in Jamnagar district, Gujarat, India -

Background: Provision of good quality care is the crux of the RCH Programme. Good quality of care ensures satisfied clients, who in turn come back for services and become advocates for others. Quality has not been given adequate attention in Government Health Care facilities, because of which there is underutilization of RCH services. Aims & Objective: The present study is an attempt to assess the perception of clients (women who delivered in last one year) regarding various aspects of maternal and child health care delivery components. Material and Methods: It was a community based cross sectional study carried out in ten primary health centre areas. Study subjects were the women delivered in last one year. Sample size was calculated considering the proportion of pregnant women who received at least three antenatal check-ups in district level household survey – 3. One hundred fifty such women were interviewed using pretested proforma from subcenter of each randomly selected PHC area. Data were entered and analyzed in epi info software version 3.3. 2. Results: Majority of the women (80%) opined that the behaviour of health care providers was good while 21% of women felt that the communication skills of attending doctor / FHW were not good. Only two third of the women were satisfied with the quality of services provided to them at health facility. RCH indicators were better among the women who were satisfied with the behaviour and communication skills of the health care providers. Conclusion: Present study revealed that women’s perception about various indicators of quality of care, behaviour and communication skills of the health care providers affect the overall satisfaction of the women and in turn it significantly affects utilization of RCH services.
Image snapping

Cursor snapping is a standard method for providing precise pointing in direct manipulation graphical interfaces. In this paper, we introduce image snapping , a variant of cursor snapping that works in image-based programs such as paint systems. Image snapping moves the cursor location to nearby features in the image, such as edges. It is implemented by using gradient descent on blurred versions of feature maps made from the images. Interaction techniques using cursor snapping for image segmentation and curve tracing are presented CR Descriptors: I.4. 3 [Image Processing] : image processing software. I.3. 6 [Computer Graphics] : interaction techniques.
Optimally combining sampling techniques for Monte Carlo rendering

Monte Carlo integration is a powerful technique for the evaluation of difficult integrals. Applications in rendering include distribution ray tracing, Monte Carlo path tracing, and form-factor computation for radiosity methods. In these cases variance can often be significantly reduced by drawing samples from several distributions, each designed to sample well some difficult aspect of the integrand. Normally this is done by explicitly partitioning the integration domain into regions that are sampled differently. We present a powerful alternative for constructing robust Monte Carlo estimators, by combining samples from several distributions in a way that is provably good. These estimators are unbiased, and can reduce variance significantly at little additional cost. We present experiments and measurements from several areas in rendering: calculation of glossy highlights from area light sources, the “final gather” pass of some radiosity algorithms, and direct solution of the rendering equation using bidirectional path tracing. CR Categories: I.3. 7 [Computer Graphics]: Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism; I.3. 3 [Computer Graphics]: Picture/Image Generation; G.1. 9 [Numerical Analysis]: Integral Equations— Fredholm equations. Additional
Ecophysiological tolerance of Lemna gibba L . exposed to cadmium

In this study, an experiment was carried out to study the process of stress adaptation in Lemna gibba L. grown under cadmium stress (0–20 mg Cd L ). The level of photosynthetic pigments and soluble proteins decreased only upon exposure to high Cd concentrations (for pigments 5 mg Cd L ; for soluble proteins 10 mg Cd L ). At the same time, the level of malondialdehyde (MDA) increased with increasing Cd concentration. These results suggested an alleviation of stress that was presumably the result of antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR) and glutathione S-transferase (GST) as well as ascorbate peroxidase (APX), which increased linearly with increasing Cd levels. In addition, the proline content in L. gibba increased with increasing cadmium levels. These findings suggest that Lemna is equipped with an efficient antioxidant mechanism against Cd induced oxidative stress which protects the plant’s photosynthetic machinery from damage.We also found that moderate Cd treatment (0.05–5 mg L 1 Cd) alleviated oxidative stress in plants, while the addition of higher amounts of Cd (10–20 mg L ) could cause an increasing generation of ROS, which was effectively scavenged by the antioxidative system. & 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.