Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Infants of adolescent mothers: perinatal, neonatal, and infancy outcome.

Data from 2 studies are analyzed to investigate the social and medical consequences of adolescent parenting: 1) neonatal data on 55711 pregnancies from the Collaborative Perinatal Project of the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke and 2) neonatal data on 4000 pregnancies from the University of Kansas Medical Center. In an extensive national review a relationship was found between maternal age and the weight and gestational age of the fetus; mothers under 18 years of age had shorter mean gestational ages but their infants were appropriate weights for gestational age. Mothers over 35 years tended to have infants who were smaller than those born to 14-24 year olds and they were more frequently premature. In other studies black adolescent mothers consistently had a higher frequency of very low birth weight infants and had significantly fewer infants 4000 gm or over than 20-29 year old blacks. Adolescent white mothers had a greater number of infants under 2500 gm than the older white mothers but the number of adolescent white mothers delivering very low birth weight infants was too small for meaningful comparisons. The incidence of medical complications of pregnancy was 15% for all white mothers and 15.4% for white mothers under age 19. The incidence of complicating behavioral conditions such as low prepregnancy weight poor weight gain in pregnancy lack of prenatal care smoking drug addiction and alcoholism was 47.3% in adolescent mothers who gave birth to infants with complications. In the Kansas City study when maternal and fetal growth retarding factors are taken into consideration no biologic disadvantage appears to be unique to adolescent mothers. Other findings also fail to support the latter theory but do suggest that amniotic fluid infections are correlated with the excessive preterm deliveries recorded in the youngest mothers. Some studies showed: 1) total duration of hospitalization is slightly longer in infants of adolescent mothers but this may be related to greater financial and transportation problems among adolescents; and 2) infants born to adolescent mothers are at an increased risk of dying of sudden infant death syndrome a risk that is significantly increased in the 2nd or 3rd child of a mother under age 20. Some long range prospects for infants of adolescent mothers indicate that the intellectual developmental and educational expectations for these children is lower than for those born to older mothers but the former are usually poor and live in extended disrupted families with multiple caregivers. Parenting skills and maternal readiness may be the critical determinants in the long-range outcome of infants born to adolescent mothers.
Clarithromycin and risk of Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea.

Sir, Guyot and colleagues 1 reported a retrospective analysis of antibiotic and other potential risk factors in Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea in elderly in-patients. They claimed that clarithromycin was a significant risk factor for C. difficile-associated diarrhoea, but there are important caveats to their report. Most important was their choice of control patients. Rather than comparing risks in cases with those in asymptomatic controls, the authors selected patients for whom diarrhoeal stools had been routinely submitted to the laboratory, but which tested negative for C. difficile toxins. Hence, any risk factor identified by their approach was simply one associated with a diarrhoeal faecal specimen that was C. difficile toxin positive, and not a risk factor for antibiotic-associated diarrhoea per se. Furthermore, the decision to select control patients admitted to wards where C. difficile cases occurred was markedly weakened by not using one-to-one matching. The authors noted that cases (29 out of 64) clustered on six wards, and yet, because controls were not individually matched to cases by ward location, only 22 out of 64 control patients were from these six wards. While this difference by itself is not significant, not controlling adequately for ward location may be an important confounding variable if there is uneven (qualitative or quantitative) distribution of virulent C. difficile strain types within the two study hospitals. Cases and controls were not matched by age (other than both were � 65 years); the summary age details for each group do not state whether these were mean or median values (the latter would have been preferable). Furthermore, length of stay before onset of diarrhoea was significantly longer in cases than in controls, so the former had greater potential for hospital acquisition of C. difficile. I question the statement ‘which reflects the tendency to use clarithromycin as monotherapy in the elderly’. I suspect that Guyot et al. may have meant to say ‘which reflected
Trichostrongylina Parasites of Dasypodidae (Xenarthra) from Argentina; A New Species of Macielia (Molineidae: Anoplostrongylinae) in Chaetophractus vellerosus and Redescription of Trichohelix tuberculata

Abstract: Macielia jorgei n. sp. is described from Chaetophractus vellerosus from La Rioja, Argentina. Also Trichohelix tuberculata is redescribed in detail. The new species is characterized by parasitizing the small intestine, possessing a bursal membrane and telamon, having complex and sclerotized spicules distally divided into 2 processes, a simple, poorly sclerotized gubernaculum, and synlophe with bilateral symmetry and 12 cuticular ridges. This is the second report of a species of Macielia in Argentina. The synlophe of Trichohelix tuberculata is asymmetric and is characterized by 3 ventral ridges, oriented to the left. The size of these ridges decreases until they disappear at midbody.
Distributed Agent Consensus-Based Optimal Resource Management for Microgrids

This paper considers the optimal resource management problem for microgrids. Microgrids provide a promising approach to fulfil challenges of the integration of distributed renewable generations and energy storage systems. However, the resource management in a microgrid encounters the new difficulty, i.e., supply–demand imbalance, caused by the intermittence of renewable sources. Therefore, an optimal solution is proposed to the resource management by enhancing the communication and coordination under a multiagent system framework. An agent is a participant, for instance, the distributed renewable generator/energy storage system of the microgrid. With this multiagent system, the distributed optimal solution only utilizes the local information, and interacts with the neighboring agents. Thus, single-node congestion is avoided since the requirement for a central control center is eliminated, and it is robust against single-link/node failures. The analysis will show that the proposed solution can solve the resource management problem in an initialization-free manner. Additionally, the proposed strategy can maintain the supply–demand balance under a time-varying supply–demand deviation. The simulation studies are carried out for IEEE 14-bus and 162-bus power systems to validate the effectiveness of the proposed distributed solution.
Mycophenolic Acid Pharmacodynamics and Pharmacokinetics Provide a Basis for Rational Monitoring Strategies

Mycophenolic acid (MPA), the active immunosuppressant form of the pro-drug mycophenolate mofetil (MMF), is a widely used component of immunosuppressive regimens in organ transplantation. This immunosuppressant is commonly administered in combination with a calcineurin inhibitor (CIN)+ corticosteroid with or without induction therapy in the form of a polyclonal anti-T lymphocyte preparation or one of the available humanized monoclonal interleukin 2 inhibitors. There is strong evidence that maintenance CIN-MMFsteroid-based triple therapy, initiated in the early posttransplant period significantly reduces the risk of acute rejection in the first post-transplant year, when compared to double therapy regimens comprising CIN and steroids alone. After the initial phase of graft stabilization, there are several therapeuticapproachescurrentlyemployed in transplantpractice, including: (1) maintenance of a three-drug regimen, at reduced doses compared to the early post-transplant period; (2) elimination of corticosteroid; (3) reduction or elimination of CIN; (4) replacement of CIN with sirolimus in patients who are especially sensitive to the nephrotoxic effects of these agents; or (5) reduction or discontinuation of MMF, while retaining full-dose CIN or sirolimus and maintenance corticosteroids are among the other therapeutic options under investigation. Dose individualization of CIN is facilitated by target drug concentration monitoring, whereas for MMF, empiric dosing is most commonly practiced.
EARLY TERTIARY OUT-OF-INDIA DISPERSAL OF CRYPTERONIACEAE: EVIDENCE FROM PHYLOGENY AND MOLECULAR DATING

Abstract Phylogenetic analyses and molecular dating estimates based on chloroplast DNA sequences were used to establish the relationships of the southern and Southeast Asian Crypteroniaceae and elucidate their biogeographic history. Maximum parsimony and likelihood analyses of rbcL sequences suggested that Crypteroniaceae should be restricted to Crypteronia, Axinandra, and Dactylocladus and that Crypteroniaceae, so defined, are sister to a clade formed by three small African taxa (Oliniaceae, Penaeaceae, and Rhynchocalycaceae) and the monotypic Central and South American Alzateaceae. Three molecular dating approaches (maximum-likelihood under a molecular clock, Langley-Fitch, and penalized-likelihood) were used to infer the age of Crypteroniaceae using both paleobotanic and geologic calibrations. Comparisons among these three methods revealed significant lineage effects in rbcL sequences. Clock-independent dating estimates suggested that divergence of Crypteroniaceae from its African and South American relatives coincided with the breakup of Gondwana, and that India likely served as a “raft” transporting Crypteroniaceae to Asia, with later expansion to Southeast Asia. To our knowledge, Crypteroniaceae are the first plant group for which the out-of-India hypothesis is well corroborated by molecular-based estimates of divergence times.
Automatic Generation and Evaluation of Recombination Games

Many new board games are designed each year, ranging from the unplayable to the truly exceptional. For each successful design there are untold numbers of failures; game design is something of an art. Players generally agree on some basic properties that indicate the quality and viability of a game, however these properties have remained subjective and open to interpretation. The aims of this thesis are to determine whether such quality criteria may be precisely defined and automatically measured through self-play in order to estimate the likelihood that a given game will be of interest to human players, and whether this information may be used to direct an automated search for new games of high quality. Combinatorial games provide an excellent test bed for this purpose as they are typically deep yet described by simple welldefined rule sets. To test these ideas, a game description language was devised to express such games and a general game system implemented to play, measure and explore them. Key features of the system include modules for measuring statistical aspects of self-play and synthesising new games through the evolution of existing rule sets. Experiments were conducted to determine whether automated game measurements correlate with rankings of games by human players, and whether such correlations could be used to inform the automated search for new high quality games. The results support both hypotheses and demonstrate the emergence of interesting new rule combinations.
Racial Differences in Breast Cancer Screening Among Women from 65 to 74 Years of Age: Trends from 1987–1993 and Barriers to Screening

ABSTRACT Breast cancer mortality is decreasing for elderly white women but increasing for elderly black women. National surveys were used to study racial differences in breast cancer screening and effects of Medicare funding for mammography and to examine explanatory factors. A total of 13,545 women, aged 65–74, from the Health Care Finance Administration's Master Beneficiary File participated. After Medicare funding for screening mammography, the percent reporting a mammogram increased for white women, but not for black women. Clinical breast examination and breast self-examination decreased. Physician's recommendation, geographic area, education level and health status were the variables significantly affecting mammography usage for both races. Physicians recommended mammography more often if women were white, married, educated beyond high school and had an annual income greater than $20,000. These results support the need to design and test strategies specifically for black women and interventions to emphasize physician recommendations for breast cancer screening.
Disomy of distal Xq in males: Case report and overview

A 46,XYq 8‐year‐old male was referred for microcephaly, growth, and mental retardation, hypotonia, genital hypoplasia, and dysmorphisms. FISH analysis showed that the rearranged Y chromosome originated from an unbalanced translocation of Xq27.3‐qter onto the deleted Yq11.22. Analysis of reported patients with disomy of region distal to Xq26 suggests that this rare anomaly, associated with failure to dosage compensate X‐linked genes that are normally inactivated, when present in two copies, is causing a quite distinct phenotype. This imbalance is the aberrant by product of the recombinogenic pairing of the distal pseudoautosomal Xq–Yq region at male meiosis. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Programación Financiera Para Empresas de Iniciativa Conjunta

RESUMEN En este artículo desarrollamos un modelo de optimización que contempla los objetivos rentabilidad, riesgo y control societario en el diseño financiero de un joint venture. Tomando como punto de partida unas bases razonables de negociación entre la compañía multinacional y el gobierno del país huésped (partícipes en la empresa de iniciativa conjunta), se calcula la ganancia como variable aleatoria que depende del rendimiento inversor sobre los capitales y del endeudamiento. Los resultados obtenidos al maximizar irrestrictivamente la ganancia se filtran teniendo en cuenta diversos niveles de restricción para los riesgos de apalancamiento y volatilidad. Asimismo, se introduce una criba de control societario en favor de la multinacional. De este modo, el modelo venture para ambos partícipes, la multinacional y el gobierno.
Mortality and utilisation of critical care resources amongst high‐risk surgical patients in a large NHS trust *

Previous reports describe a population of non‐cardiac surgical patients at high risk of complications and death. Outcomes are sub‐optimal for such patients, perhaps in part related to inadequate provision or ineffective utilisation of critical care resources. In this study, data describing 26 051 in‐patient non‐cardiac surgical procedures performed in a large NHS Trust between April 2002 and March 2005 were extracted from local databases. Of these procedures, 2 414 (9.3%) were high risk with an overall mortality rate of 12.2% and a prolonged hospital stay (high‐risk population median (IQR) 16 (9–30) days vs standard risk 3 (2–6) days). Mortality rates for specific procedures were consistent with UK averages. However, only 852 (35.3%) high‐risk patients were admitted to a critical care unit at any stage after surgery. Of 294 high‐risk patients who died, only 144 (49.0%) were admitted to a critical care unit at any time and only 75 (25.6%) of these deaths occurred within a critical care area. Mortality rates were high amongst patients discharged and readmitted to critical care (37.7%) and amongst those admitted to critical care following initial postoperative care on a standard ward (29.9%). These data suggest that the outcome of high‐risk general surgical patients could be improved by adequate provision and more effective utilisation of critical care resources.
Psoralen and UVA light: an in vitro investigation of multiple immunological mechanisms underlying the immunosuppression induction in allograft rejection.

Photopheresis (ECP) is a novel immunomodulatory therapy effectively used to treat several T-cell-mediated diseases and to reverse allograft rejection after organ transplantation. It consists of infusion of UVA-irradiated autologous leukocytes collected by apheresis and extracorporeally incubated with 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP). In this study we explored the potential immunological events for therapeutic efficacy of photopheresis in preventing allograft rejection by evaluating in vitro the combined effects of 8-MOP and UVA (PUVA) on multiple immunological parameters, such as induction of apoptosis, production of soluble mediators, and expression of cell antigens. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) obtained from healthy subjects were treated with 8-MOP and UVA at the same doses as those clinically used in ECP. We demonstrate that PUVA treatment induced leukocyte hyporesponsiveness and a decrease in expression of co-stimulatory and adhesion molecules as well as of cytokine levels. Additionally, PUVA treatment induced apoptosis in both mononuclear cells (possibly through the Fas/FasL system and/or the CD38 pathway) and purified monocytes. In conclusion, our work focuses attention on the initial phase of immune response and identifies some new targets of therapy (e.g., costimulatory molecules) able to trigger final effects underlying therapeutic efficacy of photopheresis.
3D reconstruction of underwater scenes using image sequences from acoustic camera

This paper introduces a system for three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of underwater environments using multiple images acquired by an acoustical camera from different points of view. The final target of the work is to produce a full 3D representation of the observed environment to improve its exploration and analysis. Indeed, as the DIDSON acoustic camera provides sequences of 2D images (distance and azimuth), the challenge consists in determining the missing elevation information about the observed scene in order to reconstruct (x,y,z) models, together with the geometrical transformation parameters between the acquisition view points, using image information only. Our research work is in its early stage, the work presented in this paper is particularly focused on the first step of the 3D reconstruction system which is feature point extraction as feature points must represent the scene geometrical characteristics. Thus, the proposed methodology is based on corner detection from extracted contours. However, speckle noise introduces local, non-geometrically relevant contours that should be removed. Embedded within a multi-scale edge analysis approach, analyzing extracted contours from several consecutive images allows relevant contours selection. This methodology applied to real and simulated images, shows promising results to complete the full 3D reconstruction process.
Effects of cortisone acetate and pituitary ACTH on rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatic fever and certain other conditions.

PATIENTS with rheumatoid arthritis, acute rheumatic fever, certain other diseases with articular complications and certain nonrheumatic diseases have been improved markedly and promptly, but usually temporarily, by intramuscular injections of cortisone or ACTH. Cortisone is the hormone of the adrenal cortex previously known as compound E (17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone). ACTH is the pituitary adrenal corticotropic hormone which stimulates responsive adrenal glands to produce cortisone or a cortisone-like steroid such as compound F. Our preliminary results have been reported. 1 Herein are presented further experiences with these hormones. Because they are still scarce and because our experience with them is still limited, this report, like our preceding one, is presented as a study in clinical physiology and not as a report on clinical therapeutics. STUDIES WHICH LED TO OUR USE OF THESE HORMONES In 1925 the weakness, fatigue and low blood pressure common among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (which we then called "chronic
Evaluation of general practitioners' routine assessment of patients with diabetes in Tshwane, South Africa

Abstract Background: Diabetes mellitus is a composite disease that, if not well managed and controlled, may lead to severe complications. To avoid or delay these debilitating complications, it is necessary for the practitioner to implement adequate management of the disease by using currently available clinical guidelines. The authors wished to establish the use of existing diabetes management guidelines by general practitioners (GPs) in the City of Tshwane (Pretoria) Metropolitan Municipality of South Africa. Method: A cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted. A total of 50 randomly selected general practitioners participated in the survey. Results: A large majority of the participants (92%) was aware of the existence of the latest guidelines for the management of diabetes in South Africa. The assessments performed by most GPs were body mass index and lipid profile, as reported by 96% of the respondents, followed by foot examination, microalbumin (88%) and glycated haemoglobin (84%) measurements. The practice of eye specialist referrals was found adequate in 22% of the participants. Fifty-four per cent reported that they did not undertake any continuing professional development activity regarding diabetes in the preceding year. Conclusion: Although the GPs surveyed in the Tshwane district were aware of the existence of guidelines for the assessment of patients with diabetes, their implementation was not satisfactory. Training institutions play a pivotal role in guiding future practitioners to improve such implementation. Also, the improvement of the quality of primary health care systems is of great importance.
Treatment of Combined Anterior Cruciate-Posterior Cruciate Ligament-Medial-Lateral Side Knee Injuries

The multiple ligament injured knee is a complex problem in orthopedic surgery. These injuries may or may not present as acute knee dislocations, and careful assessment of the extremity vascular status is essential for possible arterial or venous compromise. These complex injuries require a systematic approach to evaluation and treatment. Physical examination and imaging studies enable the surgeon to make a correct diagnosis and formulate a treatment plan. The incidence of posterior cruciate ligament injuries (PCL) is reported to range from 1% to 40% of acute knee injuries. The incidence is dependent on the patient population reported and is approximately 3% in the general population and 38% in reports from a regional trauma center.4,7,11 The incidence of PCL tears in acute knee injuries at the authors’ regional trauma center is 38%, with more than half of these PCL injuries occurring in multiple trauma patients. Fortysix percent of these PCL injuries are combined anterior cruciate (ACL)-PCL tears, while 41% are PCL-posterolateral corner tears; only 3% of acute PCL injuries are isolated. This article describes the authors’ approach to treatment and results in the multiple ligament injured knee.