Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treatment of Stroke in Canadian Emergency Departments: Time to be Leaders.

The debate on effectiveness of thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke has divided the emergency medicine community since the publication of the NINDS trial in 1995. 1 This trial was the ﬁ rst to show the effectiveness of treating acute stroke with intravenous alteplase, providing the ﬁ rst therapy that could be administered in emergency departments (EDs) to treat ischemic stroke. However, the merits of this trial, and the risks and bene ﬁ ts of alteplase in stroke, have been hotly debated in the emergency medicine community for the last twenty years. Community-based studies showed that the therapy caused harm, re-analysis of the trial data wasn ’ t as conclusive, and opinion leaders within the emergency medicine community advocated against its widespread adoption. 2-4 The Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) Position Statement on Thrombolysis for Acute Ischemic Stroke re ﬂ ected this sentiment in 2000, suggesting alteplase use be limited to research settings. 5 Since then, many within the emergency medicine community have been passionately against the use of thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke. This vehement passion against thrombolysis is re ﬂ ected in what we believe is a biased editorial published in CJEM in April 2015. 6 This debate regarding the effectiveness of thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke has resulted in collateral damage. This contrarian viewpoint, although rooted in the best interests of patient safety — that we don ’ t offer a therapy that has signi ﬁ cant and lethal side effects — has hindered progress in stroke care within EDs and has limited leadership, collaboration, and engagement. as stroke champions in stroke centers, by improving the quality and depth of stroke education we deliver our residents, or by participating in or leading stroke programs of research. Our involvement could only reduce the burden of stroke on Canadians further. It is time for us to be leaders. Competing Interests: DRH consults for Bayer and P ﬁ zer. The other authors declare no competing interests.
Behavioral pattern continuity from prenatal to postnatal life a study by four-dimensional (4D) ultrasonography

Abstract Aim: To investigate whether the same behavioral patterns were present pre- and postnatally, and whether there were any differences in the frequency of movements observed in fetal and in early neonatal life. Subjects and methods: Ten out of 37 pregnant women in the third trimester of pregnancy (median gestational age 34 weeks, range 33 to 35 weeks) in the two-month period (from November 1st to December 31st, 2003) were enrolled in the investigation. Ten term, appropriate for gestational age newborns (seven born vaginally, three by elective SC, six girls, six first-born) and were enrolled in the study. All 4D examinations were performed on Voluson 730 (Kretztechnik, Zipt, Austria) and Acuvix (Medison, Korea) with transabdominal 5 MHz transducer. After standard assessment in 2D B-mode ultrasound, a 4D mode was switched on and live 3D image was reconstructed by selecting the ideal representative 2D image placed in the region of interest (ROI). The recordings of neonatal behavior were made on the Sony P-612 OHMPL videotape by video camera (Sony Camcoder CC DTRV 318 Hv8) and reviewed on the videocassette recorder (Sony VHS SLV-N 900). The median of newborns' age at the moment of recording was 49 hours (range 4 to 112). During the examination, newborns were lying in the bed, separated from other infants in the nursery, dressed, and lying on their backs in a supine position with unrestrained hands. The temperature in the room was 22 to 24°C. The video recording was performed mainly while the children were actively awake or during alert inactivity. Results: There were no movements observed in fetal life that were not present in neonatal life, while the Moro reflex was present only in neonates. The most frequent fetal and neonatal movements were scowling, eye and mouth opening, and hand to face, hand to eye and hand to head movements. Isolated blinking, mouth to eyelid movement, yawning, tongue expulsion and scowling were more frequent in neonates than in fetuses, although the difference was not statistically significant. Hand to mouth movements were more frequent in neonatal than in fetal life while all other hand movements were less frequent in neonates than in fetuses, although the differences did not reach statistical significance. Spearman rank order correlation reached statistical significance in smiling (R=0.71; t=2.91; P=0.02) and in hand to ear movement (R=0.80; t=3.86; P=0.005), and was almost statistically significant in isolated eye blinking (R=0.61; t=2.17; P=0.06), while the correlations between the rest of the movements were not statistically significant. Conclusions: 4D ultrasonography is a powerful tool in the assessment of fetal behavior, and our study showed that there is a continuity from fetal to neonatal behavior, especially in terms of isolated eye blinking movements, mouth and eyelid opening, yawning, tongue expulsion, smiling, scowling and hand movements directed to other parts of the face.
Microbe management: application of mycorrhyzal fungi in sustainable agriculture

There is an increasing need to find alternatives to high-intensity agriculture. Intensively managed agrosystems are inefficient and lead to reduced ecosystem functioning and environmental degradation. These effects are predicted to magnify under the warmer, drier climate of the future. Plant growth-promoting microbes promise to replace or supplement many destructive, high-intensity practices. Symbiotic fungi, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in particular, may be useful in agrosystems, but their use has languished for decades. The benefits of using AMF are undeniable, so why haven't they been incorporated into cropping systems? Research shows that AMF functioning may be much more complex than previously thought. Until we can elucidate their functional variation, and classify it on a useful taxonomic level, practical applications of AMF cannot move forward.
Regulation of the G Protein-coupled Receptor Kinase GRK5 by Protein Kinase C*

G protein-coupled receptor kinases (GRKs) specifically recognize and phosphorylate the hormone-occupied form of numerous G protein-coupled receptors, ultimately resulting in termination of receptor signaling. While little is presently known about the regulation of GRK function, recent studies suggest a role for protein kinase C (PKC) phosphorylation of the β-adrenergic receptor kinase in membrane association and activation of the kinase. To assess a potential general role for PKC in regulating GRK function, we characterized the ability of PKC to phosphorylate GRK5, a recently identified member of the GRK family. We demonstrate that GRK5 can be rapidly and stoichiometrically phosphorylated by PKC in vitro Intact cell studies reveal that GRK5 is also phosphorylated when transiently expressed in COS-1 cells following treatment with the PKC activator, phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. In vitro analysis reveals two major sites of PKC phosphorylation within the C-terminal 26 amino acids of GRK5. GRK5 phosphorylation by PKC dramatically reduces its ability to phosphorylate both receptor (light-activated rhodopsin) and non-receptor (casein and phosvitin) substrates. Kinetic analysis reveals an ∼5-fold increased Km and ∼3-fold decreased Vmax for rhodopsin, with no change in the Km for ATP. The reduced affinity of PKC-phosphorylated GRK5 for rhodopsin was also evident in a decreased ability to bind to rhodopsin-containing membranes, while direct binding of GRK5 to phospholipids appeared unaltered. These results suggest that PKC might play an important role in modulating the ability of GRK5 to regulate receptor signaling and that GRK phosphorylation by PKC may serve as a disparate mechanism for regulating GRK activity.
Beneficial effects of dexamethasone in children with pneumococcal meningitis.

Fifty-six children older than 2 years with meningitis caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae were enrolled in a prospective, double blind, placebo-controlled trial to evaluate the efficacy of dexamethasone therapy in addition to antimicrobial therapy. Twenty-nine of 56 received dexamethasone (0.6 mg/kg/day iv, divided into 4 daily doses for 4 days) and the remaining 27 received placebo. At the beginning of therapy the clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients in the treatment groups were comparable, except for the Glasgow coma score (P = 0.004), which was lower in the dexamethasone group. Patients were examined daily during hospitalization and 6 weeks after discharge from the hospital. Hearing was assessed 6 weeks after discharge by means of pure tone audiometry. Two patients in the dexamethasone group and one patient in the placebo group died. There were no differences between the two groups with regard to the duration of fever, the incidence of secondary fever and electrolyte imbalance, seizure activities occurring during hospitalization and rash. Although the differences were statistically insignificant, moderate or severe unilateral or bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at 6 weeks and the overall neurologic sequelae, including hearing loss, at 1 year were higher in the placebo group, at 23% vs. 7.4% (P = 0.11) and 26.9% vs. 7.4% (P = 0.062), respectively. At 3 months after discharge, because of the improvement in hearing loss in one dexamethasone-treated patient the incidence of hearing impairment was significantly less than that in the placebo group, at 3.7% vs. 23%, respectively (P = 0.044). No improvement in hearing loss was observed after 3 months. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Inbred SAM-P/10 as a Mouse Model of Spontaneous, Inherited Brain Atrophy

We developed a novel inbred strain of mouse with age-related brain atrophy and it was named “Senescence Accelerated Mouse (SAM)-P/10. ” Macroscopic morphometry indicated that the brains of SAM-P/10 showed age-dependent involutional changes mainly in the frontal portion of the cerebrum. The brain weight decreased by 8.6% throughout the lifespan. There were no obvious defects in postnatal development. Semi-macroscopic morphometry revealed a prominent atrophy in the neocortex, olfactory cortex and amygdala. Microscopic morphometry showed that the neocortical neurons were lost with aging, with mostly the large neurons being affected which were lost by 35.6% throughout the life-span. Somata of the neocortical neurons shrank with advancing age. In a control SAM-R/1 strain with only a slight macroscopic involutional change in the brain without weight loss, neither loss of the neocortical large neurons nor shrinkage of the neocortical neurons was evident with aging. Learning and memory skills were evaluated using the one-trial passive avoidance task and conditional avoidance task. Young SAM-P/10 mice performed well in both tasks but older SAM-P/10 showed a poorer performance in both tasks, and this was even poorer than the performance of very old SAM-R/1 mice. Thus, SAM-P/10 can serve as a spontaneous animal model of brain atrophy for a variety of studies of aging of the brain. A better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases with dementia should be forthcoming.
Estrogen and Tamoxifen Differentially Regulate Beta-Endorphin and cFos Expression and Neuronal Colocalization in the Arcuate Nucleus of the Rat

Estrogen regulates hypothalamic gene expression, synthesis and release of the endogenous opioid peptide β-endorphin (βEND), although a consensus estrogen response element sequence has not been identified in the rat proopiomelanocortin (POMC) gene. POMC gene expression is also regulated by the activation of AP-1 promoter elements, which are known to be estrogen sensitive. The present studies examine whether estrogen modulates the hypothalamic POMC system through a non-classical mechanism involving AP-1 binding proteins such as cFos. Immunohistochemical double-labeling for βEND and cFos was used and immunoreactive (-ir) populations were quantified in the arcuate nucleus and periarcuate area across time using unbiased stereological methods. Ovariectomized rats were injected with 50 µg estradiol (E2), 500 µg tamoxifen citrate (TAM) or both (E2+TAM) and were perfused 1, 2, 4 or 48 h later. E2 rapidly increased numbers of cFos-ir, βEND-ir and doubly-labeled cells after 4 h, and the number of βEND-ir cells remained high 48 h later, suggesting that the stimulatory effects of cFos on POMC in the hypothalamus persist after the cFos signal decays. Treatment with TAM alone did not affect the numbers of immunoreactive cells, although E2+TAM blocked the E2-mediated induction in all immunoreactive populations. Similar effects were seen at the transcriptional level. E2 increased hypothalamic POMC mRNA after 4 h, while TAM treatment or coadministration of E2+TAM did not significantly change the levels of POMC mRNA. Cellular colocalization of βEND-ir and cFos-ir supports a possible intracellular co-regulation of these peptides by an estrogen-dependent mechanism within a subset of hypothalamic neurons. It does not, however, appear that E2 acts directly through an AP-1 site within the POMC gene.
Genetic admixture supports an ancient hybrid origin of the endangered Hawaiian duck

Speciation is regarded primarily as a bifurcation from an ancestral species into two distinct taxonomic units, but gene flow can create complex signals of phylogenetic relationships, especially among different loci. We evaluated several hypotheses that could account for phylogenetic discord between mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and nuclear DNA (nuDNA) within Hawaiian duck (Anas wyvilliana), including stochastic lineage sorting, mtDNA capture and widespread genomic introgression. Our results best support the hypothesis that the contemporary Hawaiian duck is descended from an ancient hybridization event between the mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and Laysan duck (Anas laysanensis). Whereas mtDNA clearly shows a sister relationship between Hawaiian duck and mallard, nuDNA is consistent with a genetic mosaic with nearly equal contributions from Laysan duck and mallard. In addition, coalescent analyses suggest that gene flow from either mallard or Laysan duck, depending on the predefined tree topology, is necessary to explain contemporary genetic diversity in Hawaiian ducks, and these estimates are more consistent with ancient, rather than contemporary, hybridization. Time since divergence estimates suggest that the genetic admixture event occurred around the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary, which is further supported by circumstantial evidence from the Hawaiian subfossil record. Although the extent of reproductive isolation from either putative parental taxon is not currently known, these species are phenotypically, genetically and ecologically different, and they meet primary criteria used in avian taxonomy for species designation. Thus, the available data are consistent with an admixed origin and support the hypothesis that the Hawaiian duck may represent a young hybrid species.
Verificação da influência dos extratos temporais da liberação de carga nas oportunidades de melhoria no nível de serviço percebido em um terminal de carga aérea internacional

A carga aerea representa uma das importantes vertentes de uso da infra-estrutura dos aeroportos, constituindo-se na principal vocacao de importantes unidades, como e o caso do Aeroporto Internacional de Campinas – Viracopos. A operacao do terminal de carga aerea de importacao de Viracopos foi analisada a partir do acompanhamento de 30 mil unidades de carga que passaram pelo terminal de importacao nos primeiros tres meses de 2008. Foram propostas metodologias para estratificacao do tempo para entrega da carga e para implantacao de planos de incentivo que podem tornar mais justas a tarifacao dos servicos prestados pelo aeroporto aos consignatarios de carga. Os resultados dessa pesquisa apontam que programas de flexibilizacao de tarifas aeroportuaria, tais como o VCPFLEX, estao em consonância com a busca por melhoria do nivel de servico oferecido pelo terminal de carga aerea
Bipartite Consensus of Linear Multi-Agent Systems Over Signed Digraphs: An Output Feedback Control Approach

Abstract This paper studies bipartite consensus problems for multi-agent system over signed directed graphs. We consider general linear agents and design a dynamic output feedback control law for the agents to achieve bipartite consensus. Our results show that structural balance property of the graph and an appropriate consensus error information are two crucial factors of bipartite consensus.
Design and fabrication of a single membrane push-pull SPDT RF MEMS switch operated by electromagnetic actuation and electrostatic hold

In this paper, we report a new push-pull-type SPDT (single pole double throw) switch actuated by the combination of electromagnetic and electrostatic forces for low power and low voltage operation. The switch is initially actuated by large electromagnetic force to change its state and is held to maintain its state by applying electrostatic force to reduce static power consumption. The electromagnetic force can be easily generated at low voltage. The maximum actuation voltage is below 4.3 V and the required energy is 15.4 µJ per switching. It achieves signal isolation of −54 dB and insertion loss of −0.16 dB at 2 GHz, respectively. For 20 GHz operation, isolation and insertion loss were measured as −36 dB and −0.52 dB, respectively. The proposed SPDT switch combines two switching elements in a single structure, simplifying the overall structure and control signals and eliminating mismatches between the two switching elements. The dimension of the switch has been optimized using FEM simulation and analytical calculations. We have successfully carried out a lifetime test over more than 166 million cycles with the maximum actuation voltage below 4.3 V.
Age-related declines in activity level: the relationship between chronic illness and religious activities.

OBJECTIVES When they are faced with major life transitions such as worsening health, older adults may selectively withdraw from activities. Because of the importance of religion to a large proportion of the elderly population, research is needed to determine whether levels of religious involvement are affected by serious health problems such as the onset of a chronic disease. METHODS Multiple waves of data from the Duke Established Populations for Epidemiologic Studies of the Elderly were used to analyze the effects of five different chronic conditions on two religious activities: service attendance and religious media use. RESULTS Findings show that broken hip, cancer, and stroke were significantly related to levels of religious attendance. Furthermore, the combined conditions also significantly predicted religious attendance, with more conditions being associated with lower attendance. Neither the individual or summed conditions were significantly related to religious media use. DISCUSSION The study finds some evidence to support the idea that older adults withdraw from social activities such as religious involvement when faced with declining health. In contrast, levels of religious media use remain stable following the onset of one or more new chronic conditions.
Nutrition Information In Community Newspapers: Goal Framing, Story Origins, and Topics

Obesity rates are high in the rural United States. Because small communities often have few health care practitioners, nutrition news in community newspapers may be a useful source of information. This content analysis of a random sample of 164 nutrition stories from 10 community newspapers in the rural West North Central Midwest was guided by concepts from goal-framing theory. Locally generated stories comprised nearly half of the sample, suggesting that nutrition is a salient topic in many rural communities. Hedonic frames related to food enjoyment were twice as frequent as health improvement frames. Results suggest food promotion was the most common topic of nutrition stories, with guidelines for a healthy diet appearing about half as often. Stories about a healthy diet and food promotion were most often written locally. Findings are discussed with recommendations for improvement of community news coverage of nutrition.
Clustering Large Sparse Text Data: A Comparative Advantage Approach

Document clustering is the process of partitioning a set of unlabeled documents into clusters such that documents within each cluster share some common concepts. To analyze the clusters easily, it is convenient to represent the concepts using some key terms. However, by using terms as features, text data is represented in a very high-dimensional vector space, and the computational cost is high. Note that the text data are of high sparsity, and not all weights in the centers are important for classification. Based on this observation, we propose in this study a comparative advantage-based clustering algorithm which can find out the relative strength between clusters, as well as keep and enlarge their strength. Since the vectors are represented by term frequency, the clustering results are more comprehensible compared with dimensionality reduction methods. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can keep the characteristic of k-means algorithm, but the computational cost is much lower. Moreover, we also found that the proposed method has a higher chance of getting better results.
Unexplained hypereosinophilia and the need for cytogenetic and molecular genetic analyses.

BACKGROUND Idiopathic hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) is a diagnosis made after the exclusion of other causes of eosinophilia. However, differentiation of idiopathic HES from eosinophilic leukemia is sometimes difficult. In some cases, these diagnoses can be differentiated by cytogenetic or molecular findings, as illustrated in the patients described herein. OBSERVATIONS We describe 3 patients with HES and associated pruritus; 1 patient also had recurrent lesions of eosinophilic cellulitis. All 3 patients were initially diagnosed as having idiopathic HES, but after evaluation and demonstration of molecular abnormalities, they were classified as having eosinophilic leukemia. CONCLUSIONS Patients with a diagnosis of idiopathic HES should be evaluated for cytogenetic or molecular genetic abnormalities. These abnormalities can establish a diagnosis of chronic eosinophilic leukemia and may provide clues for emerging therapies.
Mechanisms of photoperiod in regulation of rice flowering

A study on the photoperiodic control of flower in rice is advancing and rice has become an example of short day plant. Many genes used in flowering time determination in rice have been identified by many methods. The conclusion from these molecular studies is a remarkable conservation of genes which play an important role in the control of flowering time in rice. The rice photoperiod sensitivity gene Hd3a was originally detected as a heading date related quantitative trait locus found on chromosome 6 of rice. High resolution linkage mapping of Hd3a was carried using a huge segregating population derived from advanced backcross progeny between a japonica variety, Nipponbare, and an indica variety, Kasalath. Researchers revealed that there are three (3) pathways for the day length regulation of flowering in rice, short day activation pathway and long day suppression pathway lastly the long day activation pathway. Some genes where used in multiple pathways and others are specific to a particular pathway. There regulation also depends on the developmental stages. Rice may be an ideal plant to study the night break effect on flowering. In the near future there would be a need for better understanding of the control of flowering in rice at the genetic level.