Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Fear of falling and restriction of mobility in elderly fallers.

OBJECTIVES To identify the characteristics of elderly persons who develop a fear of falling after experiencing a fall and to investigate the association of this fear with changes in health status over time. DESIGN A prospective study of falls over a 2-year period (1991-92). Falls were ascertained using bimonthly postcards plus telephone interview with a standardized (World Health Organisation) questionnaire for circumstances, fear of falling and consequences of each reported fall. Each participant underwent a physical exam and subjective health assessment each year form 1990 to 1993. SETTING New-Mexico Aging Process Study, USA. SUBJECTS 487 elderly subjects (> 60 years) living independently in the community. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Fear of falling after experiencing a fall. RESULTS 70 (32%) of 219 subjects who experienced a fall during the 2 year study period reported a fear of falling. Women were more likely than men to report fear of falling (74% vs 26%). Fallers who were afraid of falling again had significantly ore balance (31.9% vs 12.8%) and gait disorders (31.9% vs 7.4%) at entry in the study in 1990. Among sex, age, mental status, balance and gait abnormalities, economic resource and physical health, logistic regression analysis show gait abnormalities and poor self-perception of physical health, cognitive status and economic resources to be significantly associated with fear of falling. Subjects who reported a fear of falling experienced a greater increase in balance (P = 0.08), gait (P < 0.01) and cognitive disorders (P = 0.09) over time, resulting in a decrease in mobility level. CONCLUSION The study indicated that about one-third of elderly people develop a fear of falling after an incident fall and this issue should be specifically addressed in any rehabilitation programme.
Scheduled cesarean delivery and the prevention of human immunodeficiency virus transmission: a survey of practicing obstetricians.

OBJECTIVE To characterize practice patterns among obstetrician-gynecologists with respect to delivery for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-seropositive women, following publication of the 1999 American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) Committee Opinion regarding scheduled cesarean delivery for HIV-infected patients. METHODS A 25-question, multiple-choice survey was mailed to 2000 randomly selected obstetrician-gynecologists: 1000 maternal-fetal medicine specialists and 1000 general obstetrician-gynecologists. Mailing addresses were obtained from the 1999-2000 editions of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) and ACOG membership directories. Information was requested about general perceptions of the 1999 ACOG Committee Opinion and about practice patterns with respect to management of HIV disease in pregnancy. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and the chi-square test. Any P values <. 05 were considered significant. RESULTS After a single mailing we received 512 responses (25.6%), including 433 (43%) from SMFM members and 79 (8%) from ACOG members. Among the respondents, 47% disagreed with the current scientific validity of the 1999 ACOG Committee Opinion recommendation to offer cesarean delivery to all HIV-seropositive pregnant women. No statistically significant differences were detected in the demographic profiles, years of experience, or practice settings of participants who agreed with the scientific validity when compared to those who did not. Most respondents used viral load detection (87%) monitored on a trimester basis (67%) for clinical management decisions. Most practitioners (72%) do not recommend cesarean delivery for women who are compliant with antiretroviral therapy and who have undetectable viral loads regardless of CD4 counts. However, most practitioners (67%) do recommend cesarean delivery for those compliant women with detectable viral loads, irrespective of CD4 counts (67%). CONCLUSIONS There is considerable disagreement among practicing obstetricians with respect to the 1999 ACOG Committee Opinion recommendation to offer cesarean delivery to all HIV-seropositive women. Most physicians use viral load detection to assist with the counseling in delivery options for HIV-infected pregnant women.
Intracellular recordings from neurobiotin-labeled cells in brain slices of the rat medial nucleus of the trapezoid body

Principal cells in the medial nucleus of the trapezoid body (MNTB) are believed to be critical components in the circuit subserving sound localization. These cells, located in the superior olivary complex, convert excitatory inputs, arriving from the contralateral cochlear nucleus by way of large somatic synapses (the calyces of Held), to inhibitory projections onto principal cells in the ipsilateral lateral superior olive (LSO). We have characterized a population of cells in the rat MNTB using intracellular recording and labeling techniques in a brain slice preparation. MNTB principal cells had spherical or ellipsoid somata that gave rise to single large-diameter dendrites, which branched extensively and often extended beyond the borders of MNTB. Commonly observed axonal projection targets included LSO, the superior paraolivary nucleus, and the medial superior olive, and occasionally the lateral nucleus of the trapezoid body. The projections of individual MNTB cells showed an orderly topography that is consistent with the known tonotopic maps of the nuclei. In response to current injection, principal cells exhibited several nonlinearities, including rectification for depolarizing currents and a “sag” in the membrane potential for hyperpolarizing currents. Superthreshold depolarizing currents elicited transient firing behavior. Application of the potassium channel blocker 4-aminopyridine reduced or eliminated the rectification in the current-voltage relationships and caused depolarizing currents to elicit repetitive firing. Stimulation of afferent inputs elicited short-latency spikes, presumably driven by calyceal synaptic inputs; long-latency, presumably polysynaptic, EPSPs; and short- and long-latency IPSPs. The duration of synaptic events was strongly dependent on membrane potential, and this effect was probably due to the intrinsic membrane properties of the cell. In all cases tested, EPSPs were blocked by CNQX or DNQX, and IPSPs were blocked by strychnine. Two injected non-principal cells differed from principal cells in their morphologies and physiological characteristics.
Effects of thymoquinone on antioxidant enzyme activities, lipid peroxidation and DT‐diaphorase in different tissues of mice: a possible mechanism of action

The present investigation focused, firstly, on the effects of oral administration of thymoquinone (TQ) on antioxidant enzyme activities, lipid peroxidation and DT‐diaphorase activity in hepatic, cardiac and kidney tissues of normal mice. Superoxide dismutase (SOD; E.C:1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT; E.C:1.11.1.6), glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px; E.C:1.11.1.9), glutathione‐S‐transferase (GST; E.C:2.5.1.18), and DT‐diaphorase (E.C:1.6.99.2) enzyme activities in each tissue type were determined. Treatment of mice with the different doses of TQ (25, 50 and 100 mg kg−1 day−1 orally) for 5 successive days, produced significant reductions in hepatic SOD, CAT and GSH‐Px activities. In addition cardiac SOD activity was markedly inhibited with the higher doses of TQ, (namely 50 and 100 mg kg−1). Moreover, TQ (100 mg kg−1) significantly reduced hepatic and cardiac lipid peroxidation as compared with the respective control group. Conversely, TQ (50,100 mg kg−1) and TQ (100 mg kg−1) enhanced cardiac and renal DT‐diaphorase activity respectively. However, the selected doses of TQ neither produced any change in GST activity nor influenced reduced glutathione content in all tissues studied. TQ was tested, secondly, as a substrate for hepatic, cardiac and renal DT‐diaphorase of normal mice in the presence of NADPH. Kinetic parameters for the reduction of TQ to dihydrothymoquinone (DHTQ) indicated that DT‐diaphorase of different tissues can efficiently reduce TQ to DHTQ. Km and Vmax values revealed that hepatic DT‐diaphorase exhibited the higher values, while the lower values were associated with renal DT‐diaphorase. TQ and DHTQ were tested, thirdly, as specific scavengers for superoxide anion (generated biochemically) or as general scavengers for free radicals (generated photochemically). The results revealed that TQ and DHTQ acted not only as superoxide anion scavengers but also as general free radical scavengers. The IC50 for TQ and DHTQ in biochemical and photochemical assays were in the nanomolar and micromolar range respectively. Our data may explain at least partly the reported beneficial in vivo protective effects of TQ through the combined antioxidant properties of TQ and its metabolite DHTQ. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Obesity in Adult Lymphoma Survivors

Abstract As a result of therapeutic advances, survivors of lymphoma are now living longer. However, their mortality is higher when compared to the general population, probably due to multiple factors. Survivors of childhood leukemia and lymphoma appear to have an increased prevalence of obesity. The objectives of this retrospective study were to analyze weight change after lymphoma treatment in an adult population and determine factors predictive of weight gain. Data were collected from 219 patients and analyzed sequentially at the initial visit and at 6, 12 and 18 months. There was a progressive increase in weight from the initial visit to 6 months (1.5% increase of initial body weight), 12 months (4.5%) and 18 months (6.4%). More than 9% of patients experienced weight gain greater than 20% during follow-up. There was a statistically significant association between the percentage of increase in weight and age, B symptoms and body mass index (BMI) at presentation. Younger patients, those with B symptoms or those with lower BMI manifested more weight gain (p = 0.0008, p = 0.0440 and p = 0.0009, respectively). Other assessed factors had no effect on weight gain including sex, race, lymphoma histology, disease outcome, radiation therapy, number of treatment regimens and use of steroids. Further studies are needed to explore long-term weight trends and their impact on the health of lymphoma survivors.
Frequency of apolipoprotein E (APOE) allele types in patients with Chlamydia-associated arthritis and other arthritides.

Genetic background is important in determining whether certain infecting bacteria disseminate to the joint and cause arthritis. We assessed whether APOE genotype is associated with the presence of DNA from Chlamydia or other bacteria in synovial tissues of patients with various arthritides. Nucleic acids from synovial tissues of 135 patients were screened by PCR for DNA from Chlamydia trachomatis, C. pneumoniae and other bacteria (pan-bacteria). APOE genotype was determined by a PCR-based method for all patients in each of four resulting groups comprised of about 35 individuals each, positive for C. trachomatis only, C. pneumoniae only, other bacteria, or no bacteria. RT-PCR was used to assess synovial APOE expression. The latter assays confirmed that APOE mRNA is present in synovial tissue. Determination of APOE genotype showed that patients PCR-negative in all assays, and those positive in the C. trachomatis - and pan-bacteria- (excluding Chlamydia) directed assays, had distributions of the APOE epsilon2, epsilon3 and epsilon4 alleles mirroring those of the general population (i.e. about 8%, 79% and 13%, respectively). In contrast, 68% of patients with C. pneumoniae DNA in synovium possessed a copy of the epsilon4 allele. These results indicate that no association exists between APOE genotype and synovial presence of C. trachomatis or other bacteria. However, individuals bearing at least one copy of the APOE epsilon4 allele may be at increased risk for synovial infection by C. pneumoniae.
Epilogue: expanding the capital stock.

This article discusses sustainable development and the four types of capital: man-made capital natural capital human capital and social capital. Sustained progress requires preservation and expansion of the capital stock. Man-made capital is the primary focus of development: buildings factories machines and infrastructure. Natural capital includes natural resource assets such as minerals soil forests air water and wetlands. These goods are renewable or nonrenewable and marketable or nonmarketable. These assets have become increasingly scarce. Human capital includes investments in for instance education health and the nutrition of individuals. Human and social capital are difficult to quantify in terms of monetary value. Social capital is represented by the institutional and cultural bases of society. The authors refer to the thesis of Robert Putnam that civic community guarantees good governance and is key to sustained socioeconomic growth. Strong civic community means voluntary horizontal organizations and hierarchical vertical associations and their denseness in society. Putnam found that in Italy there was a preponderance of voluntary horizontal associations in the northern prosperous and rapidly developing parts of the country. Autocratic vertical institutions were found in the less effective parts of southern Italy. The evidence suggests that good government is nurtured by long-standing civic involvement. Capital stock is related to sustainable development to the degree to which researchers can measure each kind of capital define the production function define an exchange rate and define the threshold within which the more efficient activities can be selected. Sustainability can be weak sensible strong and very strong depending on the measure of nondeclining capital. The author recommends the progression in improvement of measurement rather than an interminable debate about the perfect formula.
Diagnostik und Therapie des Hörsturzes

Zusammenfassung Die Übersichtsarbeit behandelt aktuelle Aspekte der Diagnostik, der Differentialdiagnostik sowie der Evidenz im Bereich der systemischen und lokalen Therapie des Hörsturzes. Da vielfältige Erkrankungen existieren, die auch eine akute einseitige Schallempfindungsschwerhörigkeit als Symptom haben können, kommt der sinnvollen, gezielten Diagnostik bei der Abklärung dieses Symptomes eine besondere Rolle zu. Eine bisher wahrscheinlich relativ häufig übersehene Differentialdiagnose sind intralabyrinthäre Schwannome, da diese bisher wenig beachtet wurden und auf den häufig durchgeführten „Kopf-MRTs“ mit groben Schichten leicht zu übersehen sind. Daher sollte bei der Anforderung einer Schläfenbein-MRT-Untersuchung zur Abklärung eines Hörsturzes explizit auch nach Vorhandensein oder Ausschluss eines intralabyrinthären Schwannoms gefragt werden. Mit geeigneten MRT-Untersuchungen lässt sich heutzutage auch ein endolymphatischer Hydrops visualisieren. Die Studienlage bei der Therapie des Hörsturzes ist – bezogen auf die Qualität, nicht auf die Anzahl der Studien – unbefriedigend. Der Wert von systemisch (niedrige Dosis) oder intratympanal applizierten Kortikosteroiden in der Primärtherapie des Hörsturzes ist unklar. Um die Frage der Wirksamkeit einer in der aktuell gültigen AWMF-Leitlinie empfohlenen primären, systemischen Hochdosis-Kortikosteroidtherapie beim Hörsturz zu beantworten, wird mit Unterstützung des Deutschen Studienzentrums HNO (DSZ-HNO) in Deutschland derzeit eine multizentrische, klinische Studie durchgeführt (http://hodokort-studie.hno.org/). Bei ungenügender Erholung der Hörschwelle nach systemischer Therapie des Hörsturzes scheint nach derzeitiger Datenlage die intratympanale Kortikosteroidtherapie als Sekundärtherapie mit einer signifikant höheren Wahrscheinlichkeit der Hörschwellenverbesserung einherzugehen. Die Hörverbesserung scheint dabei jedoch unabhängig zu sein vom Behandlungsbeginn. Eine Empfehlung für ein Therapieprotokoll für die intratympanale Therapie kann auf der Basis der derzeitigen Datenlage nicht abgeleitet werden.
Time-Sharing in the Continuous Distractor Paradigm: A Reexamination of the Long-Term Recency Effect

Long-term recency effects observed in the continuous distractor paradigm are often taken as evidence against the short-term store account of recency effects. In the present study, three experiments examined the function of time-sharing process in the continuous distractor paradigm. In the first two experiments, the effect of distractor difficulty on long-term recency was investigated with easy and hard distractor tasks. Distractor difficulty was manipulated in the recency portion and in the retention interval of a nine-word list and a hard distractor task eliminated long-term recency effects. In Exp. 3, distractor difficulty was manipulated across the first and the second halves of the retention interval. Long-term recency effects were larger if the first half of the retention interval contained an easy distractor task and the second half a hard task than if the order was hard-easy. These results indicate that subjects maintain recent items in short-term store and then transfer them to a long-term store by the time-sharing process during a distraction period. Long-term recency effects to a large extent depend on this time-sharing process.
BR22, a 26 kDa thyroid transcription factor‐1 associated protein (TAP26), is expressed in human lung cells

The current authors have previously identified BR22, a thyroid transcription factor (TTF)‐1 associated protein 26 (TAP26), which interacts with TTF‐1 to enhance human surfactant protein (SP)‐B promoter activity in transfected 293 cells. However, the expression of TAP26 in the lung cells and its biological relevance to the SP‐B production under physiological conditions were not examined. In this study, endogenous co-immunoprecipitation and in situ immunohistochemical staining techniques were employed to explore the presence of TAP26 and TTF‐1 complex in the lung epithelial cells. The correlation of TAP26, TTF‐1 and SP‐B expression was inspected in H441 cells in the presence of dexamethasone, a known positive effector of the SP‐B promoter. Monoclonal antibody (mAb) against TAP26 can co-immunoprecipitate both TAP26 and TTF‐1 from H441 cells. Using this antibody in in situ staining of human lung sections, the data show that TAP26 is present in the lung alveolar epithelial cells. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and Western blot analyses of type-II cells as well as dexamethasone-treated H441 cells suggest that TAP26 expression is modulated coordinately with SP‐B and TTF‐1 in these cells. In summary, the current study demonstrates that thyroid transcription factor‐1 associated protein 26 is an associated protein of thyroid transcription factor‐1 in the lung alveolar epithelial cells where surfactant protein gene expressions take place in vivo.
A secretory pathway-localized cation diffusion facilitator confers plant manganese tolerance

Manganese toxicity is a major problem for plant growth in acidic soils, but cellular mechanisms that facilitate growth in such conditions have not been clearly delineated. Established mechanisms that counter metal toxicity in plants involve chelation and cytoplasmic export of the metal across the plasma or vacuolar membranes out of the cell or sequestered into a large organelle, respectively. We report here that expression of the Arabidopsis and poplar MTP11 cation diffusion facilitators in a manganese-hypersensitive yeast mutant restores manganese tolerance to wild-type levels. Microsomes from yeast expressing AtMTP11 exhibit enhanced manganese uptake. In accord with a presumed function of MTP11 in manganese tolerance, Arabidopsis mtp11 mutants are hypersensitive to elevated levels of manganese, whereas plants overexpressing MTP11 are hypertolerant. In contrast, sensitivity to manganese deficiency is slightly decreased in mutants and increased in overexpressing lines. Promoter-GUS studies showed that AtMTP11 is most highly expressed in root tips, shoot margins, and hydathodes, but not in epidermal cells and trichomes, which are generally associated with manganese accumulation. Surprisingly, imaging of MTP11–EYFP fusions demonstrated that MTP11 localizes neither to the plasma membrane nor to the vacuole, but to a punctate endomembrane compartment that largely coincides with the distribution of the trans-Golgi marker sialyl transferase. Golgi-based manganese accumulation might therefore result in manganese tolerance through vesicular trafficking and exocytosis. In accord with this proposal, Arabidopsis mtp11 mutants exhibit enhanced manganese concentrations in shoots and roots. We propose that Golgi-mediated exocytosis comprises a conserved mechanism for heavy metal tolerance in plants.
Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome: an important differential diagnosis of persistent unexplained vomiting

Introduction Chronic nausea and vomiting have a detrimental impact on quality of life. When standard diagnostic investigations fail to provide a definitive diagnosis, patients are often attributed as having a functional gastrointestinal disorder such as cyclic vomiting syndrome. Cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) is a relatively recently described entity presenting with symptoms similar to cyclic vomiting syndrome. Methods We carried out a retrospective cohort study of all patients attending a tertiary neurogastroenterology and secondary care gastroenterology clinic from 2013 to 2015. Data were obtained by review of clinical notes, letters and electronic patient records. Results We identified 10 cases of CHS (five men, mean age 27 years, range 19–51), who hitherto had been labelled with a variety of alternative diagnoses. All patients had symptoms that were episodic and refractory to medical therapy. Patients had experienced symptoms for a mean of 19.3±11.09 months before diagnosis. The median length of cannabinoid use was 42 months (interquartile range: 15–81.8). Eight patients (80%) had a history of compulsive hot water bathing (hydrophilia). The patients had a median follow-up of 9.5 months (range 1–20), during which symptoms recurred in three patients who returned to regular cannabis use. Conclusion CHS is an underappreciated cause of recurrent nausea and vomiting and is frequently misdiagnosed. Healthcare providers should have a low index of suspicion for diagnosing CHS and the clinical history in such patients should routinely include direct questioning on cannabis use. The prognosis is very good upon cessation of cannabis intake.
Hybrid RF Mapping and Kalman Filtered Spring Relaxation for Sensor Network Localization

An accurate and low-cost hybrid solution to the problem of autonomous self-localization in wireless sensor networks (WSN) is presented. The solution is designed to perform robustly under challenging radio propagation conditions in mind, while requiring low deployment efforts, and utilizing only low-cost hardware and light-weight distributed algorithms for location computation. Our solution harnesses the strengths of two approaches for environments with complex propagation characteristics: RF mapping to provide an initial estimate of each sensor's position based on a coarse-grain RF map acquired with minimal efforts; and a cooperative light-weight spring relaxation technique for each sensor to refine its estimate using Kalman filtered inter-node distance measurements. Using Kalman filtering to pre-process noisy distance measurements inherent in complex propagation environments, is found to have significant positive impacts on the subsequent accuracy and the convergence of our spring relaxation algorithm. Through extensive simulations using realistic settings and real data set, we show that our approach is a practical localization solution which can achieve sub-meter accuracy and fast convergence under harsh propagation conditions, with no specialized hardware or significant efforts required to deploy.