Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Ulcerative Dermatitis and Valvular Endocarditis Associated with Staphylococcus aureus in a Hyacinth Macaw (Anadorhynchus hyacinthinus)

SUMMARY An 18-yr-old male hyacinth macaw (Anadorhynchus hyacinthinus) was found dead in his aviary with no preexisting signs. The bird had a chronic history of feather damaging behavior, with severe ulcerative dermatitis. Pathologic findings revealed a vegetative valvular endocarditis, myocarditis, septicemia, chronic severe glomerulonephritis, and thyroid dysplasia. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from the valve, the liver, and the skin. Repeated trauma and low-rate bacteriemia may have contributed to the development of endocarditis. Translocation of S. aureus skin infection in the bloodstream may lead to subacute endocarditis in humans and such mechanism is suspected in this case. This case suggests that endocarditis associated with S. aureus septicemia is a potential complication of feather damaging behavior. This case also reports a systemic complication of ulcerative dermatitis secondary to feather damaging behavior. Endocarditis has been poorly reported in psittacine species, and such medical complication of feather damaging behavior has never been reported to our knowledge. Furthermore, S. aureus is a bacteria of public health concern and should be integrated into the differential when pet parrots with dermatitis are in proximity to owners. RESUMEN Dermatitis ulcerativa y endocarditis valvular asociada con Staphylococcus aureus en un guacamayo azul (Anadorhynchus hyacinthinus). Un guacamayo azul o jacinto macho de 18 años de edad, (Anadorhynchus hyacinthinus) fue encontrado muerto en su aviario sin signos preexistentes. El ave tenía una historia crónica de comportamiento caracterizado por autolesión de las plumas, con dermatitis ulcerativa grave. Los hallazgos patológicos revelaron una endocarditis valvular vegetativa, miocarditis, septicemia, glomerulonefritis crónica severa y displasia de la tiroides. Se aisló Staphylococcus aureus de la válvula cardiaca, del hígado y de la piel. El trauma repetido y la bacteriemia de bajo nivel pudieron haber contribuido al desarrollo de la endocarditis. La translocación de la infección cutánea por S. aureus en el torrente sanguíneo puede conducir a endocarditis subaguda en los seres humanos y se sospecha de este mecanismo en este caso. Este caso sugiere que la endocarditis asociada con la septicemia por S. aureus es una complicación potencial del comportamiento de autolesión de las plumas. Este caso reporta una complicación sistémica de dermatitis ulcerativa secundaria a un comportamiento de autolesión de las plumas. No se ha reportado frecuentemente endocarditis en especies de psitácidos y esta complicación médica del comportamiento de autolesión de las plumas nunca se ha reportado de acuerdo con nuestro conocimiento. Por otra parte, S. aureus es una bacteria de preocupación para la salud pública y debe integrarse en el diferencial cuando loros mascotas con dermatitis se encuentran en proximidad con sus propietarios.
Photoperiod and ovulatory menstrual cycles in female macaque monkeys.

Macaques (Macaca mulatta and M. assamensis) which had been maintained on a 12L :12D light cycle for the previous 4 years and had 25-35-day menstrual cycles were randomly assigned to two groups. Those in Group 1 were kept in 12L :12D for 13 months. Those in Group 2 were subjected to three successive 5-month periods of 20L :4D, 4L :20D and 20L :4D. There were no significant differences between the two groups in the frequency, duration and percentage of ovulatory menstrual cycles, suggesting that photoperiod is not the sole regulator of seasonal breeding in these animals.
The diagnosis and understanding of schizophrenia. Part II. Expanded perspectives for describing and comparing schizophrenic patients.

In part I of this series of reports, we outlined the use of key symptoms as criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The classification of a patient as schizophrenic on the basis of these symptoms is only the beginning of a more complete description. The next step is to define more broadly the characteristics of patients who have these symptoms and to evaluate from the broader perspective the ways in which they form a single homogeneous group or subgroups, and the ways in which they are similar to or different from other types of patients. These issues involve consideration of several alternative diagnostic principles. Most fundamental is a decision about the criteria to be used for defining similarity and difference. Will "discriminating symptoms" be the only criteria for determining diagnostic groups? Will other symptoms be given any importance? Will severity of symptoms as well as type of symptoms be included as a criterion for diagnosis? Will the characteristics of the data play a role in establishing diagnostic criteria, or will these criteria be established before the patient group is evaluated? Finally, will diagnostic subgroups be established, and if so, what criteria of similarity and difference will determine the nature of these groups?
Impacts of domestic load and electric vehicles on domestic consumption in UK

This paper highlights domestic consumption of electricity in UK and effect of electric vehicles on the domestic demands. Also, consider the trends and growth of domestic electricity demand and the implication of using the electric vehicles. One challenging factor is the management of the domestic load electricity demand on the electric vehicles. To this end, this paper investigates new management technology technique that can be used in domestic sector. The key point to tackle this problem is to outline pattern shape of the electricity usage per individual household. However, lack of information on individual usage per consumer is complicating the path to the new solutions. Data were collected from daily energy consumption and energy peak demands from UK electricity industries. In additional the research explores the effect of recently introduced UK energy plan to reduce the CO2 emission and how this affects usage of the electric vehicle. The proposal in the new solutions includes the use of renewable energy sources such as solar panels and batteries banks for domestic supply. This would go a long way to reducing electricity demand as well as reduce CO2 emission from domestic sector.
Transmission of Cytomegalovirus From Mothers to Preterm Infants by Breast Milk

Objectives: To assess the risk of transmission of cytomegalovirus (CMV) by breast milk from CMV-seropositive mothers to their breast-fed preterm infants and to evaluate their outcome. Patients and Methods: The study population comprised breast-fed preterm infants with a birth weight of <1500 g and gestational age of <35 weeks. Venous blood samples from the mothers and infants were tested for CMV IgG and IgM antibodies on the 5th and 30th day after birth. Breast milk was obtained for CMV DNA detection by polymerase chain reaction and viral culture on the 5th day and on the 3rd, 6th and 12th week. Urine samples of the babies were collected at the same time for CMV culture. Neurodevelopmental assessment was done at 6 months of age, corrected for preterm birth. Results: Thirty-eight mothers and 42 infants (including 4 sets of twins) were enrolled in the study. A mother-infant pair was excluded because of inadequate breast milk collection. Thirty-six mothers (97.3%) were CMV-seropositive. CMV DNA of breast milk was detected in 35 seropositive mothers. Six infants of 5 mothers were infected (infected group) at a mean of 77 days after birth, and 34 infants of 31 mothers were not (noninfected group). In all the mothers of the infected group, CMV virus could be cultured from the milk whey. The average maternal CMV IgG on day 5 after delivery was higher in the infected than in the noninfected group. Sepsis-like symptoms and hyperbilirubinemia were more frequently noted in the infected infants than in the noninfected, but the difference was not statistically significant. Neurodevelopmental outcome did not significantly differ between the 2 groups. Conclusions: The risk of CMV infection in breast-fed premature infants was highest when the mothers shed viable virus in their breast milk. These mothers had high CMV IgG, which may help identify those mother-infant pairs at risk. Inactivation of the virus in milk by freezing may be a way of reducing the transmission of this virus via breast milk.
Premature lesions of the carotid vessels in HIV-1-infected patients treated with protease inhibitors

ObjectivesTo evaluate the presence of premature atherosclerotic lesions of epiaortic vessels in HIV-1-infected protease inhibitor-(PI) treated patients compared with PI-naive patients and healthy individuals. DesignOne-hundred and two HIV-1-positive patients, including 55 treated with PI for at least 12 months and 47 either naive or treated with PI-sparing regimens, were subjected to epiaortic vessel ultrasonography. These data were compared with those obtained from 104 healthy individuals. MethodsIntima characteristics, pulsation and resistance indexes, and minimal, peak and mean speed were evaluated using a colour power doppler. Atherosclerotic plaques were described. Independent risk factors and values for glycaemia, cholesterolaemia and triglyceridaemia were considered. Statistical analysis included the chi-square test, Mantel–Haenszel test, odds ratio and logistic regression analysis. ResultsOf the PI-treated patients, 29 out of 55 (52.7%) presented acquired lesions of the vascular wall at ultrasonography, whereas similar lesions were found in seven out of 47 (14.9%) PI-naive patients. Of the 104 healthy individuals, seven cases (6.7%) of intimal medial thickness were noted. A slightly significant correlation was found between carotid lesions and age, male sex and hypercholesterolaemia, whereas cigarette smoking, hypertriglyceridaemia and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stage significantly increased the risk of vascular lesions (P = 0.022, P = 0.017 and P = 0.079 respectively). However, the highest significance regarded use of PI (P = 0.011). These results were confirmed by logistic regression analysis. ConclusionsThese data demonstrate a higher than expected prevalence of premature carotid lesions in the PI-treated compared with PI-naive patients. If confirmed, a periodic ultrasonographic study of the vascular wall should be included in the follow-up of HIV infected patients.
Travell Trigger Points—Molecular and Osteopathic Perspectives

Abstract The proposed etiology of Travell trigger points (TrPs) has undergone a fundamental revision in recent years. New research results suggest that TrPs are evoked by the abnormal depolarization of motor end plates. This article expands the proposed etiology to include presynaptic, synaptic, and postsynaptic mechanisms of abnormal depolarization (ie, excessive release of acetycholine [ACh], defects of acetylcholinesterase, and upregulation of nicotinic ACh-receptor activity, respectively). This working hypothesis regarding the etiology of TrPs has changed the approach to treating TrPs. As an example, Travell and Simons abandoned the application of ischemic compression to TrPs; instead the authors adopted several techniques associated with osteopathic medicine (ie, muscle-energy, myofascial, counterstrain; high-velocity, low-amplitude). Scientists are now proposing and reporting the results of new approaches using capsaicin, a vanilloid-receptor agonist, and ACh antagonists (eg, dimethisoquin hydrochloride, botulinum toxin, quinidine, linalool). The purpose of this article is to review these new concepts and describe new resulting approaches to the treatment of TrPs.
Analysis and Performance Evaluation of Axial Flux Air-Cored Stator Permanent Magnet Machine with Concentrated Coils

In this paper the performance of air-cored stator axial flux permanent magnet machines with different type of concentrated (non-overlapping) coil windings is evaluated. The evaluation is based on theoretical analysis and is confirmed by finite element analysis and measurements. It is shown that concentrated-coil winding machines can have similar performance as normal overlapping winding machines using less copper.
MLK‐3 activates the SAPK/JNK and p38/RK pathways via SEK1 and MKK3/6.

Mixed lineage kinase‐3 (MLK‐3) is a 97 kDa serine/threonine kinase with multiple interaction domains, including a Cdc42 binding motif, but unknown function. Cdc42 and the related small GTP binding protein Rac1 can activate the SAPK/JNK and p38/RK stress‐responsive kinase cascades, suggesting that MLK‐3 may have a role in upstream regulation of these pathways. In support of this role, we demonstrate that MLK‐3 can specifically activate the SAPK/JNK and p38/RK pathways, but has no effect on the activation of ERKs. Immunoprecipitated MLK‐3 catalyzed the phosphorylation of SEK1 in vitro, and co‐transfected MLK‐3 induced phosphorylation of SEK1 and MKK3 at sites required for activation, suggesting direct regulation of these protein kinases. Furthermore, interactions between MLK‐3 and SEK and MLK‐3 and MKK6 were observed in co‐precipitation experiments. Finally, kinase‐dead mutants of MLK‐3 blocked activation of the SAPK pathway by a newly identified mammalian analog of Ste20, germinal center kinase, but not by MEKK, suggesting that MLK‐3 functions to activate the SAPK/JNK and p38/RK cascades in response to stimuli transduced by Ste20‐like kinases.
A bZIP transcription factor from Phytophthora interacts with a protein kinase and is required for zoospore motility and plant infection

Zoospores are critical in the disease cycle of Phytophthora infestans, a member of the oomycete group of fungus‐like microbes and the cause of potato late blight. A protein kinase induced during zoosporogenesis, Pipkz1, was shown to interact in the yeast two‐hybrid system with a putative bZIP transcription factor. This interaction was confirmed in vitro using a pull‐down assay. The transcription factor gene, Pibzp1, was single copy and expressed in all tissues. Transformants of P. infestans stably silenced for Pibzp1 were generated using plasmids expressing its coding region in sense or antisense orientations. A protoplast transformation method induced silencing more efficiently than transformation by an electroporation scheme. Wild‐type and silenced strains exhibited no differences in hyphal growth or morphology, mating, sporangia production or zoospore release. However, zoospores from the mutants spun in tight circles, instead of exhibiting the normal pattern of straight swimming punctuated by turns. Zoospore encystment was unaffected by silencing, but cysts germinated more efficiently than controls. Germinated cysts from the mutants failed to develop appressoria and were unable to infect plants; however, they could colonize wounded tissue. These phenotypes indicate that Pibzp1 is a key regulator of several stages of the zoospore‐mediated infection pathway.
L2-gain of systems with input delay and controller failure: zero-order hold model

This paper studies the stability and L2-gain problem for a class of systems with input delay subject to controller failure. When the controller fails, zero-order hold is adopted. The paper addresses how long and how frequent the failure can be and still maintain the system exponentially stable and weighted L2-gain. We first utilize switched delay systems including unstable subsystems to describe the controller failure problem. Then, the concepts of controller average failure frequency and failure length rate are introduced. Next, based on a novel piecewise Lyapunov functional including the largedelay-integral terms (LDIT), sufficient conditions guaranteeing exponential stability and weighted L2-gain of the considered system are developed.
The pupillary response to color and luminance variant multifocal stimuli.

PURPOSE We are developing multifocal pupillographic objective perimetry (mfPOP) to assess localized changes in function within visual pathways. In this study, we investigate novel mfPOP stimuli designed to target neural components from either or both the sub-cortical pupillary luminance response and the cortically driven color response. METHODS Pupillary responses of 12 subjects were recorded to eight mfPOP stimulus variants (protocols). Forty-eight visual field test-regions (24/eye) were stimulated concurrently with uncorrelated sequences of either high or low luminance-contrast, luminance- plus color-contrast, or equiluminant color-exchange stimuli. Stimulus pulses were of 50 ms duration and were presented at mean intervals of 4 seconds/region. Test durations were 4 or 8 minutes; therefore, estimated responses were derived from 60 or 120 stimulus presentations to each test region. RESULTS Pupillary response amplitudes were more influenced by luminance-contrast than the color-contrast of stimuli; response delays, however, were more closely linked to the proportion of color- versus luminance-contrast in each protocol. Significant differences (P < 0.05) in amplitudes but not delays were present between all three high luminance-contrast protocols and a low luminance-contrast luminance protocol, regardless of color content. The reverse pattern was observed between the equiluminant color exchange protocol and this same low luminance-contrast luminance protocol. Only the low luminance-contrast plus color exchange protocol differed significantly from the low luminance-contrast luminance protocol in both measures. CONCLUSIONS Two protocols, utilizing low and high luminance-contrast plus color exchange, were identified as likely to incorporate both cortical and subcortical response components, and were deemed potential candidates for further investigation in clinical studies.
Maximizing Intervention Effectiveness

Frequently, policy makers seek to roll out an intervention previously proven effective in a research study, perhaps subject to resource constraints. However, because different subpopulations may respond differently to the same treatment, there is no a priori guarantee that the intervention will be as effective in the targeted population as it was in the study. How then should policy makers target individuals to maximize intervention effectiveness? We propose a novel robust optimization approach that leverages evidence typically available in a published study. Our model can be easily optimized in minutes for realistic instances with off-the-shelf software and is flexible enough to accommodate a variety of resource and fairness constraints. We compare our approach with current practice by proving performance guarantees for both approaches, which emphasize their structural differences. We also prove an intuitive interpretation of our model in terms of regularization, penalizing differences in the demographic distribution between targeted individuals and the study population. Although the precise penalty depends on the choice of uncertainty set, we show that for special cases we can recover classical penalties from the covariate matching literature on causal inference. Finally, using real data from a large teaching hospital, we compare our approach to common practice in the particular context of reducing emergency department utilization by Medicaid patients through case management. We find that our approach can offer significant benefits over common practice, particularly when the heterogeneity in patient response to the treatment is large. This paper was accepted by Chung-Piaw Teo, optimization.
Failure of an ACE inhibitor to improve exercise tolerance. A randomized study of trandolapril. Trandolapril study group.

BACKGROUND There has been conflicting evidence of the effect of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors on exercise tolerance. Meta-analysis of published results has suggested that a beneficial effect of ACE inhibitors is demonstrated if a trial design is adequate. SETTING Multicentre International Trial. METHODS In a double-blind, randomized, multicentre trial, 292 patients with moderate (New York Heart Association Grades II and III) heart failure were treated with trandolapril or placebo in addition to diuretics, and followed for 16 weeks. Exercise tolerance on a treadmill was assessed at baseline and after 4, 8, 12 and 16 weeks of treatment. Both a modified Bruce and a modified Naughton protocol were used. RESULTS Exercise tolerance improved in both treatment groups, with no significant benefit from trandolapril treatment. CONCLUSION Trandolapril does not improve exercise tolerance as measured by treadmill testing.
Differential expression of platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β in an aging model of wound repair

Impaired wound healing as a result of age is a well‐documented phenomenon. However, the overall deficit in healing is substantially increased when the healing wound of an aged animal is ischemic. We hypothesized that both of these deficits are cytokine mediated. We have studied the messenger RNA expression of platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β, using the rabbit dermal ulcer model of wound repair, in young (3 to 6 months) and aged (48 months and 60 months) rabbits under normal and ischemic conditions. Platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β mRNA expression was measured with the use of quantitative reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction with incorporation of a synthetic, nonhomologous DNA fragment complementary to platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β primers as a competitive internal standard. Results in young rabbits showed a large upregulation of platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β mRNA expression after wounding. In both aged animal groups, platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β expression was found to be significantly decreased in nonischemic wounds relative to young nonischemic controls. Ischemia was found to have little effect on platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β mRNA expression in young animals relative to matched controls. However, ischemia induced a large decrease in the platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β mRNA levels of wounds of aged animals relative to paired aged nonischemic wounds. Results suggest an age‐related delay in platelet‐derived growth factor receptor‐β mRNA expression in healing wounds, as well as an age‐related decline in responsiveness to confounding ischemia.
Hepatitis B viral kinetics: A dynamic puzzle still to be resolved

The study of viral kinetics (VK) during treatment of chronic infection with HIV,1-4 hepatitis C virus (HCV),5 and hepatitis B virus (HBV)6-8 has resulted in improved understanding of viral and immunological dynamics and has led to several clinical implications. In vivo antiviral effects of interferon (IFN) against HCV and of various reverse-transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors against HIV have been identified and quantified using models of viral dynamics. However, although chronic HBV infection has long been treated with IFN, hepatitis B VK has been reported only during treatment of this infection with various polymerase inhibitors.8-16 In the case of HBV infection, for which treatment is still far from optimal, it is of special importance to understand viral dynamics and antiviral mechanisms associated with all possible therapies. A first step toward achieving this objective is the comprehensive study reported by Sypsa et al.17 comparing HBV DNA kinetics during the first month of treatment of HBV infection with pegylated interferon 2b (Peg-IFN2b), lamivudine, and their combination.