Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Cognitive Daisy – A novel method for recognising the cognitive status of older adults in residential care: Innovative Practice

The Cognitive Daisy is an innovative assessment system created to provide healthcare staff with an instant snapshot of the cognitive status of older adults in residential care. The Cognitive Daisy comprises a flower head consisting of 15 colour coded petals depicting information about: visual-spatial perception, comprehension, communication, memory and attention. This study confirmed the practicality of the Cognitive Daisy protocol for assessing cognition in a sample of 33 older adults living in residential care and endorsed the use of the Cognitive Daisy as a tool for recognising the cognitive status of care home residents.
CARING FOR THE CRITICALLY ILL PATIENT Pharmacist Participation on Physician Rounds and Adverse Drug Events in the Intensive Care Unit

IN TRADITIONAL HOSPITAL PRACTICE most of the burden of drug therapy decision making falls on the physician. However, studies have shown that physicians sometimes make errors in prescribing drugs. While most errors are harmless or are intercepted, some result in adverse drug events (ADEs). The pharmacist’s role in prescribing is typically reactive: responding to prescription errors long after the decision has been made for patients about whom he or she has little direct clinical knowledge. Thus, the specialized knowledge of the pharmacist is not utilized when it would be most useful: at the time of ordering. Studies show that pharmacist retrospective review of medication orders prevents errors. However, the pharmacist’s impact might be substantially greater if he or she could provide input earlier, at the time of prescribing. It has been shown that pharmacist consultation with physicians and others in an intensive care unit (ICU) resulted in a net saving from reduced drug use of $10 011 in a 3-month period. HowAuthor Affiliations are listed at the end of this article. Corresponding Author: Lucian L. Leape, MD, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115. Reprints are not available from the author. Caring for the Critically Ill Patient Section Editor: Deborah J. Cook, MD, Consulting Editor, JAMA. Advisory Board: David Bihari, MD; Christian BrunBuisson, MD; Timothy Evans, MD; John Heffner, MD; Norman Paradis, MD. Context Pharmacist review of medication orders in the intensive care unit (ICU) has been shown to prevent errors, and pharmacist consultation has reduced drug costs. However, whether pharmacist participation in the ICU at the time of drug prescribing reduces adverse events has not been studied.
SPM studies of ferroelectric nanostructures prepared by a microemulsion-assisted method onto substrates #

Ferroelectric PbTiO 3 nanostructures have been fabricated using two different procedures that involve micro- emulsions and Chemical Solution Deposition onto Pt/TiO 2 /SiO 2 /(100)Si substrates. The first procedure enables the fabrication of structures with controlled size and shape, as observed by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) topography and computer assisted quantitative analysis, while the second procedure, in addition, yields very small (≈ 20 nm) isolated, ferroelectric nanoislands. The ferroelectric character of the nanostructures is dem- onstrated using Piezoelectric Force Microscopy (PFM). The ferroelectric properties depend on the height of the nanostructures, showing a strong pinning layer effect for the smaller ones, revealed by the asymmetry of the piezoelectric hysteresis loops.
Changing HIV and AIDS-Related Behavior

More than 790,000 people in the United States have developed AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2001), and approximately 800,000 to 900,000 people are living with HIV infection currently. Recent years have seen rapid and exciting improvements in the landscape of HIV and AIDS in the United States. After the introduction of effective antiretroviral medications in 1996, the incidence of new AIDS cases and AIDS deaths dropped dramatically. However, these decreases have leveled off such that there are now more than 40,000 new AIDS cases reported per year, and despite availability of effective treatment, more than 15,000 people continue to die of AIDS-related complications each year in the United States (CDC, 2001). Transmission of
Antioxidant Amplifies Antibiotic Protection in the Cecal Ligation and Puncture Model of Microbial Sepsis Through Interleukin-10 Production

Preadministration of antioxidants such as pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC) and phenyl N-tert-butyl nitrone (PBN) protects animals from lethality in sepsis models. However, the requirement of preadministration greatly diminishes the clinical significance of these studies. Although the synthetic antioxidant PBN has been shown to effectively protect rodents from lethality in endotoxemia (lipopolysaccharide [LPS] model), preliminary screening indicates that pre- or postadministration of PBN does not protect in the rat cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) model. We show in this report that in a rat CLP model, the administration of PBN (150 mg/kg, 30 min after CLP) followed by the antibiotic imipenem (IMP; 10 mg/kg, 1 h after CLP) significantly increased survival compared with other single treatment groups. Previously, we have shown that PBN's protection in a rat LPS model is mediated by the overproduction of the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin (IL)-10. We show in this study that the increase in survival found in the PBN + IMP-treated group was abrogated by immunoneutralization with anti-IL-10 antibody, indicating that endogenous IL-10 is an effective protective factor. Plasma LPS levels were shown to be elevated after imipenem treatment, and the increased LPS level could have assisted to overproduce endogenous IL-10, as in the case of the PBN-treated LPS model. Statistical analysis indicated that the increase of IL-10 in PBN + IMP-treated group at early time period has significant association to the improvement of survival.
Different Voltage-dependent Inhibition by Dihydropyridines of Human Ca Channel Splice Variants (*)

Voltage-dependent inhibition by 1,4-dihydropyridines is a characteristic property of L-type Ca channels. Six out of 50 exons of the channel α subunit gene are subjected to alternative splicing, thus generating channel isoform diversity. Using Xenopus oocytes as an expression system, we have found that transmembrane segment IIIS2 of human α subunit is involved in the control of voltage dependence of dihydropyridine action. This segment is genetically regulated through alternative splicing of exons 21/22. Site-directed mutagenesis points to two amino acids in IIIS2, which determine the difference of the splice variants in their sensitivities to dihydropyridines. This finding provides new insight into molecular mechanisms of Ca channel inhibition by this important class of drugs.
Phase I clinical and pharmacological study of 72-hour continuous infusion of etoposide in patients with advanced cancer.

Etoposide (VP-16) is a semisynthetic epipodophyllotoxin that exhibits cell cycle phase specific cytotoxicity and enhanced effectiveness with increasing duration of drug exposure. We have therefore conducted a Phase I trial to determine the side effects, tolerable doses, and pharmacokinetic parameters of VP-16 given by continuous i.v. infusion to patients with advanced cancer. Eighteen patients were treated with varying dosages of VP-16 infused continuously for 72 consecutive hours every 28 days. Using this schedule, the maximally tolerated dosage of VP-16 was 150 mg/m2/day for patients with good performance status and 125 mg/m2/day for more debilitated cancer patients. Hematological toxicity was dose limiting with median granulocyte and platelet nadirs of 700/mm3 and 116,000/mm3, respectively, at a dose of 150 mg/m2/day. Other toxicities included only mild nausea, vomiting, and alopecia. Plasma and urine VP-16 concentrations were determined using a high-performance liquid chromatography assay. At a VP-16 dosage of 150 mg/m2/day, steady-state VP-16 concentrations were in the range of 2.1 to 7.0 micrograms/ml in all patients. Further pharmacokinetic analysis revealed that the plasma clearance of VP-16 was consistently near 25 ml/min/m2 (independent of dosage) and that renal clearance accounted for only 15% of VP-16 total plasma clearance. Patient age was found to be the most important factor correlating with plasma clearance of VP-16. Linear regression analysis also revealed that both the plasma VP-16 concentration at steady state and the concentration of VP-16 in plasma at 24 h from the start of the infusion correlated with hematological toxicity; no other patient characteristics correlated with hematological toxicity. The recommended VP-16 dose for Phase II trials of 72-h continuous infusion VP-16 is 150 mg/m2/day in patients with good performance status.
Uteroglobulin‐related protein 1 and severity of respiratory syncytial virus infection in children admitted to hospital

There are several reports suggesting that genetic factors contribute to the severity of infection with the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Infants hospitalized with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) due to RSV are at a significantly increased risk for both recurrent wheezing and childhood asthma. Uteroglobin‐related protein 1 (UGRP1) is a secretory protein expressed in the airways, and speculated to have anti‐inflammatory activity. The presence of the −112G/A polymorphism in the UGRP1 promoter was found to have a significant correlation with asthma phenotype. Also plasma UGRP1 levels were shown to be associated both with this polymorphism and the severity of asthma. The study population consisted of 62 previously healthy infants, ≤12 months of age, who were hospitalized with RSV LRTI, and a control group of 99 healthy adults. Genotyping was performed by restriction fragment length polymorphism. UGRP1 serum levels were determined using ELISA. There were no significant differences in the overall distribution of UGRP1 −112G/A polymorphism genotypes or alleles between the hospitalized infants and healthy adults. A comparison of serum UGRP1 concentration measured at the time of admission and discharge between patients with and without the −112A allele revealed that there was no relation between the presence of the −112A allele and serum UGRP1 in hospitalized infants with RSV infection. Furthermore, there was no relationship between severity of RSV infection and genotype or serum UGRP1 concentration. These results suggest that UGRP1 does not have a major role in the development of severe RSV infection. J. Med. Virol. 83:1086–1092, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Delay independent asymptotic stability of n-dimensional systems of Roesser's type with state delays by means of memoryless state feedback controller

This paper deals with the problem of robust stabilization of n-dimensional discrete time systems with state delays by means of a memoryless state feedback controller. First, a sufficient stability condition on the grounds of the Lyapunov functional is examined. Next, the disturbance rejection issue is discussed. Finally, it is presented a memoryless state feedback controller that yields an asymptotically stable system with disturbance rejection characteristic. The conditions are independent of the delays and are formulated in the linear matrix inequality (LMI) settings.
The Impact of Children with High-Functioning Autism on Parental Stress, Sibling Adjustment, and Family Functioning

The article discuses a study conducted to investigate the impact of children with high-functioning autism (HFA) on parental stress, sibling adjustment, and family functioning; the study involves a sample of parents of 15 children with HFA and parents of 15 matched control children who completed questionnaires measuring the dependent variables. The results indicate parents of children with HFA experience significantly more parenting stress than parents of children with no psychological disorder, which was found to be directly related to characteristics of the children. The study further shows that the higher intellectual functioning in children with HFA does not compensate for the stress associated with parenting children with autism spectrum disorders. Because the intervention efforts directed at children with HFA will not eliminate the child's primary symptoms, treatment programs may need to address parental stress, which in turn will help optimize treatment outcome for the child and the family.
Hygrothermoelastic Nonlinear Flexural Response of Graphite Epoxy Laminated Composite Plates with Uncertain System Properties

This paper presents Hygrothermoelastic nonlinear flexural response of graphite epoxy composite plates with uncertain system properties. Lamina material properties, geometric properties, coefficients of thermal expansion, coefficients of hygroscopic expansion and lateral load are modeled as basic random variables using micromechanical model. A higher order shear deformation theory in the von-Karman sense is used to model the system behavior of the laminated plate. A direct iterative based C0 nonlinear finite element method in conjunction with the first order perturbation technique developed earlier is extended for hygrothermal problem to obtain the second order response statistics, i.e., mean and coefficient of variations of nonlinear transverse central deflection of the plate. Typical numerical results are obtained for various combinations of geometric parameters, uniform lateral pressures, staking sequences, volume fractions, aspect ratios, plate thickness ratios, boundary conditions under environmental conditions. The results obtained have been compared with those available in the literature and an independent Monte Carlo simulation.
Formal Verification of Improved Numeric Comparison Protocol for Secure Simple Paring in Bluetooth Using ProVerif

Recently, research has been conducted on automatic verification of cryptographic security protocols with the formal method. An automatic verifier is very useful because the risk of human error in such complicated protocols can be reduced. In this paper, we introduce our formalization of an improved Numeric Comparison protocol for Secure Simple Pairing in Bluetooth proposed by Yeh et al. and verify its security using ProVerif as an automatic cryptographic protocol verifier. As a result, we show that this improved protocol is subject to attacks. Moreover, we propose countermeasures against these attacks on this improved protocol. Our proposal provides this improved protocol with a higher level of security.
Calculation of the entropy in chaotic systems.

A systematic approximation which consists of neglecting long-time memory effects for the entropy in chaotic systems is studied and its fast convergence is demonstrated. We determine the Lyapunov exponent for some one-dimensional maps with a high precision. For example the Lyapunov exponent of the logistic map at the first band merging point is obtained as \ensuremath{\lambda}=0.342 172 7.
A language independent algorithm to send secret messages using steganography

The radical growth of internet & cybercrime during the last few years has forced us to think about how to improve information security efficiently during communication. Protecting the information during communication via the internet is the major challenge against eavesdropper. Encryption is a widely used technique to ensure secure communication; however, sending encrypted messages often draws an eavesdropper's attention. Steganography is a method of writing secret messages in a way that nobody, except for the sender and the recipient, suspects the existence of a hidden message. In this paper a new steganographic technique is proposed to transmit concealed messages in multi-language or combination of languages, which can be represented in Unicode. Use of inter-character spacing technique is proposed as the steganographic technique and a prototype implementation has been done with Rich Text Format (RTF) documents. An additional optimized compression technique is also proposed with enhanced user defined codes, to support Unicode language. Another advantage is that the secret message (hidden) can be in a different language than which is transmitted through the communication channel.
Symphony Lake Dataset

This paper describes Symphony Lake Dataset, 121 visual surveys of an approximately 1.3 km lake shore in Metz, France. Different from roadway datasets, it adds breadth to the data space at a time when larger and more diverse datasets are desired. Over five million images from an unmanned surface vehicle captured the natural environment as it evolved over three years. Variation in appearance across weeks, seasons, and years is significant. Success on Symphony Lake Dataset could demonstrate advancements in perception, simultaneous localization and mapping, and environment monitoring.
Does Prevention of Vasospasm in Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Improve Clinical Outcome? No

In those who survive the initial impact of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH), delayed ischemic neurological deficit (DIND) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality.1 Despite therapeutic advances leading to decreased case fatality rate of 0.9% per year from 1960 to 1992,2 mainly attributed to improved prevention of rebleeding, the 30-day case fatality rate has remained static,3 and advances in treating DIND is the Holy Grail in aSAH research. The exact pathogenesis of DIND is incompletely understood. Angiographic visualization of proximal arterial vasoconstriction was the first laboratory finding to be associated with DIND reported by Ecker and Riemenschneider.4 The axiom that aSAH produces proximal arterial narrowing and subsequent ischemia causing infarction and poor outcome has thus become the research and clinical focus in the treatment of aSAH. This article, based on a presentation given at the 2012 Princeton Conference, discusses the significance of delayed vasospasm in the pathogenesis of DIND by attempting to answer the following questions. What is the threshold of vasoconstriction that causes brain injury and how frequently is it reached in the setting of aSAH-induced vasospasm? What causes vasospasm, and is it a necessary and sufficient condition for DIND? Seventy percent of patients after aSAH have development of proximal vasospasm in the critical period of DIND.5 It is intuitive to postulate that vasospasm, which reduces cerebral blood flow (CBF), causes cerebral infarction and accompanying neurological deficit. However, in previous clinical studies, 50% to 70% of subjects with aSAH who had development of moderate-to-severe angiographic vasospasm were asymptomatic, and 20% to 25% who had development of DIND had no signs of vasospasm.6 Voldby et al7 used 133Xe injection to correlate changes in CBF with angiographic vasospasm (n=38) and showed that only severe diffuse vasospasm (>50% to 67%) produced a significant decline …
Music-enhanced Immersive Virtual Reality in the Rehabilitation of Memoryrelated Cognitive Processes and Functional Abilities: A Case Report

The use of virtual reality (VR) applications in the rehabilitation of memory-related cognitive processes and functional abilities, is supported by different studies showing that, in persons with neurologically-based memory impairment, procedural memory often remain relatively intact. VR, by way of its interactive and immersive features, could be used to exploit the patient's preserved procedural abilities. In particular, cognitive processes could be restored via procedures practiced repetitively within an environment which contains functional real-world demands. Starting from the above rationale, the paper presents the music-enhanced VRbased treatment of C. , a 65-year old woman, experiencing an impairment in memory-related cognitive processes. At the end of treatment the subject experienced a 12-week booster section. The results presented showed that, after the treatment, the patient experienced an improved clinical condition confirmed by the results of different neuropsychological tests. These results were maintained even during a 3-month follow-up.
The Surgical Treatment of External Coxa Saltans (the Snapping Hip) by Z-Plasty of the Iliotibial Band

Purpose A snapping hip (coxa saltans) secondary to a tight iliotibial band rarely needs surgical intervention. The purpose of this study is to present the surgical results of refractory external-type snapping hip by Z-plasty of the iliotibial band. Materials and Methods Nine symptomatic snapping hips in 8 consecutive patients (1 bilateral) from August 1997 through March 2002 who underwent an iliotibial band Z-plasty were reviewed. Results Eight of the 9 hips were in active-duty military and 1 was a civilian, with an average age of 25.6 years (range, 21 to 38 years). Mean duration of symptoms prior to surgical intervention was 25.2 months (range, 16 to 39 months) with an average follow-up of 22.9 months (range, 7 to 38 months). All patients had complete resolution of the snapping hip, and all but 1 returned to full unrestricted activities. The 1 failure had persistent groin pain but no residual snapping. Conclusions Patients with snapping hip of the iliotibial band refractory to conservative treatment are rare. The surgical results of Z-plasty are excellent and predictable. Careful screening is necessary to preclude other confounding diagnoses. Z-plasty is recommended as an effective surgical treatment of the refractory snapping hip secondary to iliotibial band tightness.
More about jaundice and oximetry.

oximetry readings (Sw) and oxyhetheir findings to our recent clinical study (2). Two points are relevant to the use of oximetry in icteric patients. First, hyperbilirubinemia induces a spectral error in cooximeters, leading them to overread carboxyand methemoglobin levels and thus to underestimate the oxyhemoglobin level (3). We found different spectral errors among cooximeters. The IL 282 (Instrumentation Laboratory, Lexington, Mass.) (four wavelengths) was inaccurate when the total bilirubin level exceeded 10 mg/dL and the Coming Co-2500 (Coming, Medfield, Mass.) (seven wavelengths) when total bilirubin exceeded 30 mg/dL (3), whereas the OSM3 (Radiometer, Copenhagen, Denmark) (six wavelengths) seemed less affected (unpublished data). More-
DENGUE FEVER OUTBREAK 2011: CLINICAL PROFILE OF CHILDREN PRESENTING AT MADINA TEACHING HOSPITAL FAISALABAD

Objectives: To evaluate the clinical features, disease severity, laboratory findings and outcome of serologically confirmed cases of Dengue fever in children during the recent outbreak in 2011. Methods: This case series was conducted at the department of Pediatrics in collaboration with the Pathology Department of Madina Teaching Hospital/University Medical College, Faisalabad, during the recent epidemic of Dengue fever in Pakistan i.e., August–October 2011. Clinically and serologically confirmed cases of Dengue fever were included in the study. Data was analyzed by SPSS version 19. Results: We encountered 35 cases of Dengue fever, 20 patients were male and 15 were females. Twenty nine patients belonged to rural area and 6 came from urban society. Mean age of the patients was 7 years±3.21SD. No specific pattern of fever could be identified. Abdominal pain was the most common symptom (51%). Only 2 patients complained of body aches and pains. Splenomegaly was present in 94% of cases. Majority of the patients were anemic with Hb <10g%. (p value=0.002) and platelet count ranged between 50, 000-100,000 cmm. Fifteen children had mild elevation of SGPT. Malarial parasite was found in 66% of cases (p value=0.063). All the patients improved over a period of 5-15 days. Conclusion: As there is variation in the clinical presentation of Dengue fever in children, continuous surveillance and further studies are required to identify the clinical features of Dengue fever in children of Pakistan. During Dengue fever outbreaks, the disease must also be suspected in patients having malaria.