Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Leaching of cadmium from pigmented plastics in a landfill site.

Following concern over cadmium release to the environment, which has caused a ban on most cadmium-containing products in Sweden since July 1982, a two-phase study was undertaken of the leaching of cadmium from pigmented plastics disposed to landfill. Subjection of several pigmented plastics and related materials to a small-scale standardized leaching test indicated low cadmium releases and suggested that kinetic factors control leaching. Several column validation experiments were performed with pulverized domestic waste and ''worst-case'' plastic; these demonstrated that pigmented plastics make an insignificant contribution to cadmium levels in domestic waste leachate. Concentrations up to 45 . mu.g of cadmium/L were highest from refuse alone, and all peak levels were delayed, corresponding in practice to about 10 years. The conclusion is that landfill is an acceptable disposal option for cadmium-pigmented plastics and that it does not result in a significant release of cadmium to the environment.
Retention of boron by coal ash.

Adsorption of boron by the hydrous oxides of aluminum, iron, and silicon appears to be the major process that controls the net release of boron from fly ash when the ash is leached at loading rates of greater than 25 g of ash/L. Coprecipitation of borate species with the hydrous oxides also contributes to the retention.
A preliminary evaluation of the effects of opioids on innate and adaptive human in vitro immune function

Background Studies have demonstrated that whereas some opioids have little effect on immunity (eg, buprenorphine), others can be immunosuppressive (eg, morphine) or immunostimulatory (eg, tramadol). However, a variety of approaches have been used, especially in vitro and animal models, and the findings are variable. We hypothesised that opioids have differential effects on immunity via direct actions on neutrophils, monocytes, natural killer (NK) and T cells, and this is the first study to systematically evaluate the influence of eight opioids on neutrophil and monocyte phagocytosis and oxidative burst responses, NK cell cytotoxicity and T cell responsiveness in vitro. Methods Peripheral blood was obtained from healthy volunteers, and the effects of clinically relevant concentrations of morphine, tramadol, fentanyl, buprenorphine, methadone, oxycodone, diamorphine and codeine on phagocytosis and oxidative burst responses were determined using whole blood flow cytometry. The influence of opioids on the capacity of resting and IL-2 stimulated isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) to kill NK cell-sensitive K562 cells, and the responsiveness of PBMC subpopulations to IL-2 and polyclonal stimulation were also evaluated. Results Methadone, oxycodone and diamorphine inhibited the production of IL-6 by IL-2 stimulated PBMCs. None of the opioids consistently influenced the other measured immune parameters, although there was a trend for morphine, tramadol, fentanyl and buprenorphine to inhibit phagocytosis and oxidative burst responses to Escherichia coli. Conclusions Preliminary studies using standardised in vitro methodologies have demonstrated that some therapeutic opioids suppress IL-6 production. Although this might potentially suppress bacterial defence mechanisms, it would have little direct effect on anticancer immunity. These findings should be confirmed in larger in vitro and clinical studies.
A utilidade da citologia por punção com agulha fina aliada a imunofenotipagem no diagnóstico dos linfomas não-Hodgkin

The WHO classification of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma stresses the importance of the immunophenotype for diagnosis. The aim of our study was to evaluate the use of cytology together with flow cytometric examination using a panel of monoclonal antibodies including DNA S phase analysis. Material was obtained from lymph node aspiration of 78 patients. The panel for flow cytometric analysis comprised: CD19/CD10, CD20/CD5, CD23, CD3/CD4, CD3/CD8, CD38/CD7, kappa/lambda. The final diagnosis was confirmed by lymph node biopsy. In 85% of cases, cytology combined with immuno-phenotyping and percentage of Phase S cells allowed the correct diagnosis. In the remaining cases it was possible to differentiate T or B lymphomas and estimate their aggressiveness. The panel, although small, was sufficient in all cases except for anaplastic lymphoma. S-phase fraction was important for the diagnosis of large B-cell NHL vs. Follicular NHL. In cases of T-cell lymphomas a reliable diagnosis was only possible for lymphoblastic lymphomas. In conclusions, combined cytology and cytophotometric diagnosis of lymph node aspirations is a good alternative to histologic examination, except for T-cell lymphomas. In contrast to biopsy this method is less invasive and may be repeated if necessary.
SEDANTER ORTA YAŞ BAYANLAR İLE GENÇ BAYANLARDA AEROBİK EGZERSİZİN VÜCUT KOMPOZİSYONU VE KAN LİPİDLERİNE ETKİSİ

Bu calisma, sedanter orta yas ve genc bayanlara 12 haftalik aerobik antrenman programi (kos-yuru) uygulamasinin vucut kompozisyonu ve kan lipidlerine etkisini belirlemek amaciyla yapilmistir. Gruplar duzenli olarak egzersiz yapmamis, ozel bir diyet programi uygulamayan, egzersiz yapmasina engel olacak duzeyde saglik problemleri olmayan bayanlardan olusturulmustur. Her iki gruba da 12 hafta sure ile haftada 3 gun 30 dakikalik kos- yuru egzersiz programi uygulatilmistir. Antrenman siddeti Karvonen metoduna gore %70 olarak belirlenmis, antrenman oncesi ve antrenman sonrasi vucut agirligi, vucut yag yuzdesi, yagsiz vucut agirligi, vucut yag agirligi, vucut kitle indeksi, total kolesterol, LDL kolesterol, HDL kolesterol ve trigliserit degerlerinin olcumleri yapilmistir. Orta yas bayanlarin (n=49) yas ve boy ortalamalari 40,53±2,93 yil, 156,79±4,20 cm, genc bayanlarin (n=23) yas ve boy ortalamalari 26,17±3,53 yil, 160,13±6,71 cm olarak belirlenmistir. Calisma sonunda, her iki grubunda vucut agirligi, vucut yag yuzdesi, vucut yag agirligi, yagsiz vucut agirligi, vucut kitle indeksi, total kolesterol ve LDL kolesterol degerlerinde anlamli bir azalma tespit edilmistir (p .05). Sonuc olarak, orta yas bayanlar ile genc bayanlarda 12 haftalik aerobik egzersizin vucut kompozisyonunda benzer olumlu degisikliklere neden oldugu, kan lipidlerinde ise daha cok orta yas kadinlar lehine pozitif degisikliklerin oldugu gozlenmistir
Rac and Cdc42 team up for platelets.

In this issue of Blood, Pleines et al demonstrate that the Rho GTPase family members Rac1 and Cdc42 work together to mediate cytoskeletal activities that underlie the normal production of functional platelets by megakaryocytes. [1][1] ! [Figure][2] Pleines and colleagues describe alterations
Air pollutants and forest decline.

Evidence is presented which shows that widespread dieback and decline of forests in both Europe and North America is caused by short and long-range transport of air pollutants, primarily SO/sub 2/ and NO/sub x/. A summary of a comprehensive report from West Germany indicating damage to 7.7% of the total forest area is included. (JMT)
Novel techniques for the design and control of generalized processor sharing schedulers for multiple QoS classes

Generalized processor sharing (GPS) is a scheduling discipline which provides minimum service guarantees as well as fair resource sharing. The performance of GPS is governed by the scheduling weights associated with individual connections. We address the design of the GPS weights, along with the related connection admission control (CAC). Our main goal is to achieve statistical multiplexing gains in the presence of multiple traffic and quality-of-service (QoS) classes of connections that share a common trunk. We present novel techniques to compute and adapt the weights. We also characterize the capacity region of the system, and propose a natural CAC procedure. Numerical results on 2-class and 3-class examples demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.
Atazanavir: The Advent of a New Generation of More Convenient Protease Inhibitors

Abstract Protease inhibitors (PIs) have created a new future for many HIV-infected patients. After the initial enthusiasm following its first approval, complex drug schedules and frequent toxicities of PIs prompted researchers to find alternative drugs. However, it is now clear that not all triple combinations are equally valid. Certain regimens based on the association of only reverse transcriptase inhibitors have shown high rates of virological failure, with the selection of cross-resistance mutations. The availability of new generation PIs, such as atazanavir, with improved safety profiles and more convenient administration schedules returns this drug family to the front of the HIV therapeutic armamentarium. Recent clinical studies support the assertion that atazanavir may display excellent behavior as part of first-line regimens in rescue interventions or in simplification strategies.
The end of emergency medicine as we know it

Several health, social and professional factors are forcing Emergency Physicians to rethink their role in the health system. Despite these challenges, there are a number of ways that we can evolve, including an increasing role for academic and subspecialty emergency medicine, which will ensure our specialty, remains vital and viable in the 21st century and beyond.
La microcirculación en el paciente crítico. Parte I: generalidades y fisiología en el paciente séptico

Microcirculation in the critically ill. Part I: Review and physiology of septic patients Severe sepsis and septic shock involve circulatory, inflammatory and metabolic disorders eventually resulting in a disruption of cellular energy. Microcirculatory disturbances are common in septic patients. Microcir- culation is the primary site of oxygen and nutrients exchange to cells. Direct observation using Sidestream Dark Field (SDF) imaging has allowed direct visualization of microcirculatory failure in critically ill patients. Septic shock is characterized by weak or vulnerable microcirculatory units and heterogeneity of microcircula- tory flow. Multiple mechanisms may contribute to these alterations, including endothelial dysfunction, altered glycocalyx, impaired inter-cell communication and adhesion and rolling of white blood cells and platelets. Many therapeutic interventions routinely used in the treatment of critically ill patients seem to result in limi- ted changes in microcirculatory perfusion, irrespective of systemic hemodynamics, due to the heterogeneous nature of these changes and the potentially involved mechanisms. Therefore, microcirculatory alterations and their presence in states of shock, especially in septic shock, can represent diagnostic and severity stratification tools and may be a target for therapeutic intervention (microcirculatory resuscitation), besides suggesting a prognostic role. (Key words: Microcirculation, endothelium, capillary, sepsis, shock, circulatory failure, organ failure). Rev Chil Pediatr 2013; 84 (1): 83-92
Capacity of distributed content delivery in large-scale wireless ad hoc networks

In most existing wireless networks, end users obtain data content from the wired network, typically, the Internet. In this manner, virtually all of their traffic must go through a few access points, which implies that the capacity of wireless network is limited by the aggregated transmission data rate of these access points. To fully exploit the capability of wireless network, we envision that future wireless networks shall be able to provide data content within themselves. In this paper, we address the behavior of such networks from a theoretical perspective. Specifically, we consider that multicast is used for distributed content delivery, and we investigate the asymptotic upper bound of the throughput capacity for distributed content delivery in large-scale wireless ad hoc networks (DCD-WANET). Our analysis shows how the upper bound of throughput capacity is affected by the geometric size of the network, the number of data items, the popularity of the data content, and the number of storage nodes that contain those data items. In particular, our theoretical results show that, if the number of storage nodes exceed a critical threshold, the upper bound grows with the number of storage nodes, according to a power-law where the scaling exponent depends on the popularity of data items. We also provide the data item placement strategy to achieve the upper bound of throughput capacity for DCD-WANET.
Dietary interventions more effective than physical activity or mixed interventions for weight management during pregnancy

Commentary on: Thangaratinam S, Rogozinska E, Jolly K, et al. Effects of interventions in pregnancy on maternal weight and obstetric outcomes: meta-analysis of randomised evidence. BMJ 2012; 344: e2088. [OpenUrl][1][Abstract/FREE Full Text][2] Obesity (body mass index (BMI: kg/m2) ≥30) has become a major challenge for maternal health in the 21st century. In addition to the long-term health effects of obesity, excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) and obesity are associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality for mothers and their infants.1 Existing evidence on weight gain recommendations during pregnancy is limited. The American Institute of Medicine (IOM)2 recommends certain GWG ranges according to women's pre-pregnancy BMI, including a weight gain of 5–9 kg for obese pregnant women. In their review of evidence, none of the controlled trials included have had sufficient statistical power to show benefits of GWG within the IOM guidelines, although … [1]: {openurl}? query=rft.jtitle%253DBMJ%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1136%252Fbmj.e2088%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F22596383%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/ijlink? linkType=ABST&journalCode=bmj&resid=344/may16_4/e2088&atom=%2Febmed%2F18%2F2%2Fe12.atom
About 7% of 4-year-olds in Norway meet criteria for a psychiatric diagnosis

ED FROM Wichstrøm L, Berg-Nielsen TS, Angold A, et al. Prevalence of psychiatric disorders in preschoolers. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2012;53:695–705. Correspondence to: Dr Joan L Luby, Washington University in St. Louis, 18 S. Kingshighway, L-101, St. Louis, MO 63108, USA; lubyj@psychiatry.wustl. edu For Correspondence Dr Lars Wichstrøm, Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway; lars.wichstrom@svt.ntnu. no Sources of funding: Research Council of Norway and Liaison Committee between Central Norway RHA and NTNU. CO M M EN TA RY Wichstrøm and colleagues provide the largest epidemiological study of preschool psychiatric disorders available to date to use an age-appropriate interviewer-based diagnostic assessment. This study significantly advances the small but growing literature on the prevalence of discrete Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) psychiatric disorders in preschoolers. The study confirms findings that Axis I disorders can be identified in children aged 2–6 and should add significant strength to the increasing public health emphasis on the identification of risk at the earliest possible developmental point (Shonkoff et al., 2009). Study findings should also further dispel dogmatic resistance to infant/preschool mental health that has been salient historically. However, more intriguingly, and arguably the most important result of this work, is the finding of substantially lower prevalence rates of most psychiatric disorders in this Norwegian preschool sample compared to rates derived from comparable US samples. While methodological variation is considered, the most likely sources of the disparity would seem attributable to the sharp differences in psychosocial risk and protective factors between the two populations. Consistent with an established literature demonstrating lower rates of psychiatric disorders in older children in Scandanavian versus US samples, the finding that this discrepancy can be detected even earlier in life has tremendous public health importance. The stark disparity in preschool prevalence rates suggest important psychosocial forces at play contributing to the onset and stability of mental disorders. The social contributors to these cultural differences should now be scientifically investigated as they are likely to provide clues to the aetiology and developmental psychopathology of childhood psychiatric disorders. If such sources can be identified, they may have important implications for efforts to optimise early environments to prevent the onset of mental disorders. These findings underscore the importance of infant/preschool mental health to relieve the suffering of young children and to inform the developmental aetiologies of what often become chronic disorders.
What is meta-analysis?

When clinicians begin their search for the best available evidence to inform decision-making, they are usually directed to the top of the ‘evidence pyramid’ to find out whether a systematic review and meta-analysis have been conducted. The Cochrane Library1 is fast filling with systematic reviews and meta-analyses that aim to answer important clinical questions and provide the most reliable evidence to inform practice and research. So what is meta-analysis and how can it contribute to practice? Meta-analysis is a research process used to systematically synthesise or merge the findings of single, independent studies, using statistical methods to calculate an overall or ‘absolute’ effect.2 Meta-analysis does not simply pool data from smaller studies to achieve a larger sample size. Analysts use well recognised, systematic methods to account for differences in sample size, variability (heterogeneity) in study approach and findings (treatment effects) and test how sensitive their results are to their own systematic review protocol (study selection and statistical analysis). 2 ,3 There is debate about the best practice for meta-analysis, however there are five common steps. ### Step 1: the research question A clinical research question is identified and a hypothesis proposed. The likely clinical significance is explained and the study design and analytical plan are justified. ### Step 2: systematic review A systematic review (SR) is specifically designed to address the research question and conducted …
Electronic frog eye: Counting crowd using WiFi

Crowd counting, which count or accurately estimate the number of human beings within a region, is critical in many applications, such as guided tour, crowd control and marketing research and analysis. A crowd counting solution should be scalable and be minimally intrusive (i.e., device-free) to users. Image-based solutions are device-free, but cannot work well in a dim or dark environment. Non-image based solutions usually require every human being carrying device, and are inaccurate and unreliable in practice. In this paper, we present FCC, a device-Free Crowd Counting approach based on Channel State Information (CSI). Our design is motivated by our observation that CSI is highly sensitive to environment variation, like a frog eye. We theoretically discuss the relationship between the number of moving people and the variation of wireless channel state. A major challenge in our design of FCC is to find a stable monotonic function to characterize the relationship between the crowd number and various features of CSI. To this end, we propose a metric, the Percentage of nonzero Elements (PEM), in the dilated CSI Matrix. The monotonic relationship can be explicitly formulated by the Grey Verhulst Model, which is used for crowd counting without a labor-intensive site survey. We implement FCC using off-the-shelf IEEE 802.11n devices and evaluate its performance via extensive experiments in typical real-world scenarios. Our results demonstrate that FCC outperforms the state-of-art approaches with much better accuracy, scalability and reliability.
Review article: Sepsis in the emergency department – Part 1: Definitions and outcomes

Sepsis has recently been redefined as acute organ dysfunction due to infection. The ED plays a critical role in identifying patients with sepsis. This is challenging due to the heterogeneity of the syndrome, and the lack of an objective standard diagnostic test. While overall mortality rates from sepsis appear to be falling, there is an increasing burden of morbidity among survivors. This largely reflects the growing proportion of older patients with comorbid illnesses among those treated for sepsis.
S0120 G.E.M.S.: genomics encounters MGUS and SMM.

In this issue of Blood , Dhodapkar et al[1][1] present the first US cooperative group trial in asymptomatic monoclonal gammopathies that prospectively examines state-of-the-art laboratory, genomic, and imaging as potential predictors for progression to active multiple myeloma. [Figure][2]
Conclusions about the benefits and risks associated with iron supplementation for anaemia prevention and control for preschoolers are limited by poor study quality

Commentary on: Thompson J, Biggs BA, Pasricha SR. Effects of daily iron supplementation in 2-year-old to 5-year-old children: systematic review and meta-analysis. Pediatrics 2013;131:739–53. [OpenUrl][1][Abstract/FREE Full Text][2] Anaemia is a major public health problem among young children in low-income and middle-income countries. During infancy, rapid growth and high nutritional demands increase the risk for iron deficiency, which can lead to iron deficiency anaemia (IDA). 1 Anaemia has been associated with poor performance on standardised assessments of children's cognitive language, motor, social and emotional development that have extended into school age and adolescence.2 Iron supplementation trials have been conducted in multiple sites and the WHO has recommended iron supplementation for children in areas with high rates of iron deficiency. However, iron supplementation trials have resulted in inconsistent reports regarding the benefits and health consequences among young children, raising concerns about the irreversibility of early iron deficiency … [1]: {openurl}? query=rft.jtitle%253DPediatrics%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1542%252Fpeds.2012-2256%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F23478873%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/ijlink? linkType=ABST&journalCode=pediatrics&resid=131/4/739&atom=%2Febmed%2F19%2F1%2F21.atom
Journal of Complementary and Integrative Medicine Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use in Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis : A Systematic Review of Prevalence and Evidence

Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is a chronic condition that affects children. Healthcare for JIA is aimed at symptom management and as a result, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is readily sought. The objective of this manuscript is to provide healthcare professionals and researchers with a comprehensive review of the prevalence of CAM use in JIA, determinants of use, and outcomes associated with various therapies. The implications for future clinical practice and promising areas of investigation will be discussed. An in-depth search was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED, and Cochrane Library. Programs from relevant conferences were also searched. Thirty-eight articles were retrieved and 12 were included in the analysis. Eight articles assessed the prevalence of CAM use in JIA, three investigated specific interventions (Tripterygium wilfordii Hook F, relaxation, massage), and one examined reasons for using CAM. Results showed that CAM use is relatively high among JIA patients, but prevalence rates vary due to differences in methodology and definitions of CAM. Most patients use CAM for pain relief. Results from intervention studies are preliminary and should be followed with methodologically rigorous studies. Healthcare professionals should become familiar with CAM so as to provide optimal support and care for children with JIA.