Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum indices: managing assay interference

Clinical laboratories frequently encounter samples showing significant haemolysis, icterus or lipaemia. Technical advances, utilizing spectrophotometric measurements on automated chemistry analysers, allow rapid and accurate identification of such samples. However, accurate quantification of haemolysis, icterus and lipaemia interference is of limited value if laboratories do not set rational alert limits, based on sound interference testing experiments. Furthermore, in the context of increasing consolidation of laboratories and the formation of laboratory networks, there is an increasing requirement for harmonization of the handling of haemolysis, icterus and lipaemia-affected samples across different analytical platforms. Harmonization may be best achieved by considering both the analytical aspects of index measurement and the possible variations in the effects of haemolysis, icterus and lipaemia interferences on assays from different manufacturers. Initial verification studies, followed up with ongoing quality control testing, can help a laboratory ensure the accuracy of haemolysis, icterus and lipaemia index results, as well as assist in managing any biases in index results from analysers from different manufacturers. Similarities, and variations, in the effect of haemolysis, icterus and lipaemia interference in assays from different manufacturers can often be predicted from the mechanism of interference. Nevertheless, interference testing is required to confirm expected similarities or to quantify differences. It is important that laboratories are familiar with a number of interference testing protocols and the particular strengths and weaknesses of each. A rigorous approach to all aspects of haemolysis, icterus and lipaemia interference testing allows the analytical progress in index measurement to be translated into improved patient care.
Effect of collection tube type and freeze–thaw cycles on myeloperoxidase concentrations in blood samples of acute coronary syndrome patients

Background Myeloperoxidase has shown potential as a marker for prognosis of coronary artery disease, but presently little is known about preanalytical handling of samples for quantifying myeloperoxidase. The present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of collection tube and freeze–thaw cycles on myeloperoxidase concentrations. Methods Acute coronary syndrome patients (n = 88) were enrolled after obtaining written informed consent from coronary care unit of a tertiary care hospital (January 2012–June 2014). About 5 mL venous blood was collected from patients and divided into serum, lithium heparin, ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and sodium citrate tubes. Except serum, all tubes were kept on ice immediately after collection. Samples were centrifuged at −4℃, separated immediately after centrifugation and stored at −40℃ until analysis. Myeloperoxidase was quantified by in-house and commercial assays and re-quantified after five freeze–thaw cycles. Results Myeloperoxidase concentrations, (serum samples) determined by commercial and in-house assays correlated well (r = 0.946) (P < 0.001) and were higher in serum samples. Within plasma, myeloperoxidase concentrations were slightly higher in ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (307.7 ± 52.1) and lower in lithium heparin (290.3 ± 49.2) and sodium citrate (221.4 ± 40.3) but not statistically significant. Correlation between myeloperoxidase concentrations (in-house enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) after first cycle and fifth freeze–thaw cycle dropped to r = 0.448 (P < 0.001). Conclusion Myeloperoxidase concentrations are comparable in three types of plasma tubes when samples are placed on ice immediately, centrifuged at low temperatures and separated immediately after centrifugation. Multiple freeze–thaw cycles have an effect on myeloperoxidase and should be avoided for quantifying myeloperoxidase.
LABYRINTHINE DROPSY AND MÉNIÈRE'S DISEASE

The association of labyrinthine dropsy (hydrops labyrinthi; dilatation of endolymphatic spaces) with the clinical entity known as Meniere's disease was first described by Hallpike and Cairns 1 in 2 cases. Since then additional cases of labyrinthine dropsy and clinical Meniere's disease have been described by other investigators (Yamakawa, 2 1 case; Hallpike and Wright, 3 1 case, and Rollin, 4 2 cases). In addition, Rollin described the same pathologic entity in 2 cases of deafness without vertigo and in 1 case without any available history. The discovery of the dropsy, or dilatation of the endolymphatic spaces, provides a rational basis for the clinical syndrome, but neither the details of how the disturbance of function is produced nor the cause of the pathologic condition has as yet been satisfactorily explained. The disease is now recognized as fairly common, but since it does not shorten life and the distressing symptoms tend to be transient, pathologic material
Time to move on? Commentary on the early intervention in psychosis debate

Readers of this journal have recently encountered another round in the debate over early intervention in psychosis (Castle, 2012; Yung, 2012). But what exactly is the nature of this debate? There appears to be no dispute over the value of good quality care and treatment based on the best available evidence for people with psychotic disorders as early as possible in the course of their illness. There are no advocates for poor quality care delayed – long after suffering has commenced and disability has become entrenched. No, the areas of contention appear mainly to concern: (i) the quality and strength of the evidence that early intervention for psychosis (EIP) produces better outcomes; (ii) how EIP ought best be implemented in clinical services; (iii) the risk–benefit balance in intervening before the onset of psychotic symptoms; and (iv) the extent to which EIP ought to dominate the mental health services policy reform agenda. I shall comment on each of these in turn.
Interferon-αcon-1 Treatment of Three Patients with Severe Glucocorticoid-Dependent Asthma

We report herein the therapeutic effect of interferon (IFN)-αcon in three patients with severe persistent asthma and long-term oral glucocorticoid treatment. IFN-αcon (9 µg) administered subcutaneously thrice a week over a period of more than 24 months led to a substantial clinical improvement with regard to the number of daily asthma attacks, nighttime disturbance, emergency visits and hospitalizations. In addition, lung function and exercise capacity improved. At the same time, treatment with IFN allowed discontinuation of the daily glucocorticoid dose in all patients for the first time in more than 8 years. Our findings suggest that IFN-αcon leads to a significant clinical improvement while at the same time allowing reduction and discontinuation of the glucocorticoid treatment in severe persistent glucocorticoid-dependent asthma.
Brief depressive symptoms in patients with bipolar disorder: Analysis of long-term self-reported data

Objective: Most patients with bipolar disorder experience depressive symptoms outside of an episode of depression as defined by DSM-IV criteria. This study explores the frequency of brief depressive episodes, lasting 1 to 4 days, using daily self-reported mood ratings. Method: Mood ratings were obtained from 448 patients (281 bipolar I, 167 bipolar II) using ChronoRecord software (91,786 total days). Episodes of depression and days of depression outside of episodes were determined. The intensity of depressive symptoms (mild versus moderate to severe) was compared. Results: Using the DSM-IV length criteria, 61% of all depressive days occurred outside of a depressed episode. Decreasing the minimum length criterion to 2 days, both the number of patients experiencing a depressed episode (128 to 317) and the mean percent of days spent in a depressed episode by each patient (7.9% to 17.8.%) increased by about 2½ times, and 34.3% of depressed days remained outside of an episode. Depending on the episode length, the proportion of days within an episode with severe symptoms varied from ⅓ to ¼ for episodes lasting from 14 to 2 days, and ¼ for single-day episodes. There was no significant difference in the frequency of brief depressive episodes between bipolar I and II disorders. For all episode lengths, patients taking antidepressants spent 4% more days within an episode and 6% more days with depressive symptoms outside of an episode than those not taking antidepressants. Conclusion: Brief depressive episodes lasting 1 to 4 days occur frequently in bipolar disorder and do not distinguish between bipolar I and II disorders. Symptoms of moderate to severe intensity occur on ¼ to ⅓ of the days in brief depressive episodes. This study did not address brief depression in those without bipolar disorder. Patients taking antidepressants experienced more brief depressive episodes. Controlled trials are needed to assess the impact of antidepressants on subsyndromal depressive symptoms.
Muscle dysmorphia: Towards a diagnostic consensus

With the impending release of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), much research is currently being directed at refining the categorisation and diagnostic guidelines for eating disorders, given that up to 60% of eat-ing disorder cases currently fall into the residual Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS) cate-gory (Fairburn et al., 2007). Research has now called for those developing the DSM-5 to ‘
Culicídeos do lago de Itaipu, no rio Paraná, Sul do Brasil

Mosquito catches were made in Guaira county, Parana State, southern Brazil, in the vicinity of Itaipu dam, from January to December 1991. The catches were made with a Shannon light trap and human bait. The Shannon light trap was installed beside the highway that used, formerly, to lead to the Sete Quedas cataracts and the human bait was used in the urban area. Data about the Culicidae fauna were obtained as to predominant species, seasonal variation, time of highest density and affinity with human host. Forty-one species were identified as belonging to the Anopheles, Aedes, Aedomyia, Coquillettidia, Culex, Mansonia, Psorophora and Uranotaenia genera. With the Shannon light trap 21,280 mosquitoes were caught and with human bait 1,010. In the catches made with the Shannon light trap, Coquillettidia shannoni, Mansonia humeralis, Anopheles trianulatus, Aedes scapularis and Anopheles albitarsis accounted for 82.78% of all mosquitoes taken. In the catches made on human bait the highest densities of these mosquitoes occurred between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Aedes scapularis, Mansonia humeralis and Anopheles albitarsis represented 91,21% of all mosquitoes caugth with human bait. The highest densities of Aedes scapularis, on human bait, were found between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. and those of Mansonia humeralis and Anopheles albitarsis between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Among the genera caught with the Shannon ligth trap Coquillettidia shannoni, Mansonia humeralis and Anopheles albitarsis were most frequent in April, Anopheles triannulatus in January and Aedes scapularis in February.
The experiences of Australian parents with psychosis: The second Australian national survey of psychosis

Objective: Being a parent is an important part of one’s identity and role. Previous research outlines many challenges associated with parenting by people with severe mental illness. However, there is a limited research describing parenting experiences of mothers and fathers who have psychosis. Method: The second Australian national survey of psychosis recruited 1825 people living with symptoms of, or a diagnosis of, psychosis. The survey was conducted through face-to-face interviews and included key clinical and demographic information, as well as parenting specific information. Results: Over half of all women and a quarter of men were parents. Almost a quarter of women but only 5.5% of the men had dependent children (own and/or stepchildren) living at home with them. Of parents with dependent children, the most common diagnosis was schizophrenia (48.2% fathers, 28.9% mothers), and there were high rates of comorbidity with substance abuse/dependence (alcohol: fathers 69.2%, mothers 44.3%; cannabis: fathers 69.22%, mothers 47.8%). A substantial proportion of parents with dependent children experienced challenges including low educational attainment, unemployment, poverty, and social isolation. Although many parents living with dependent children functioned in the average range, a significant proportion was moderately to severely disabled on global independent functioning ratings (fathers 49.1%, mothers 35.7%) and some were identified as having obvious/severe impairments in their ability to care for their child(ren) (fathers 28.3%, mothers 21.3%). Conclusions: Most parents living with psychosis function well. However, a significant proportion has impairments in parenting and general functioning that could have adverse consequences for both the parent and children. This study brings into focus the need for interventions to optimise successful parenting outcomes.
The practical guide to range of motion assessment

Edited by T Reilly and A M Williams. London: Published by Routledge, 2003, £24.99, softcover, pp 332. ISBN 0415262321 The editors are to be congratulated for their work in the field over the years represented in this text which has arisen from a series of World Congresses of Science and Football which began in 1987 in Liverpool. Unfortunately this also reveals a weakness in the limited pool of authors from which the text draws, the majority of whom list their professional addresses as Liverpool. As an Aussie with an AFL background, it may be a bit …
Understanding virtual community members' relationships from individual, group, and social influence perspectives

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a model of how people are influenced from the perspectives of individuals (cognitive trust and affective trust), group (sense of virtual community), and social influence (normative influence and information influence) factors. Design/methodology/approach This research adopts structural equation modeling to test the proposed model and the structural model shows a good fit. This research sample consists of 312 members who have used Facebook for at least six months. Findings The results indicate the following. Both cognitive trust and affective trust have effects on members’ sense of virtual community. Cognitive trust, affective trust, and sense of virtual community have effects on both normative influence and informative influence, respectively. Members in a virtual community could create a sense of virtual community via affective trust. Members’ sense of virtual community partially mediates between cognitive/affective trust and normative/informative influence. Originality/value This study investigates the multiple perspectives of the interpersonal interaction between individual, community, and social influence.
Electroconvulsive therapy in a patient with drug-resistant depression and thyroid hormone imbalance

Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 48(1) drug users. Many use marijuana and alcohol. Quite a few have used methamphetamine in the past, sometimes for prolonged periods. In the diagnostic phase I ask patients how they reacted to illegal amphetamines. Often the answers are: ‘It made my friends high, but it made me feel calm. I could get things done. It made me feel normal. ’ Over time I have learned that these kinds of answers are highly predictive of a positive reaction to methylphenidate or dexamphetamine. Psychostimulants help patients organise their lives, allow them to work or study, and assist them to improve their relationships. Stimulants put them in control of their lives. The former ‘abuse’ of illegal drugs can easily be recast as a form of self medication. Doctors Dobry and Sher mention that a foreseeable problem with prescribing stimulants to former users of methamphetamine is that they can become addicted to the prescribed stimulants. This may be the case, but is, in my experience, unlikely. I have failed to find cases of methylphenidate or dexamphetamine addiction and could not find any colleagues who had diagnosed or treated such cases. So, if addiction occurs, the risk of addiction can’t be very high. Addiction to psychostimulants should not be confused with being dependent on them, in the sense that patients with ADHD can depend on psychostimulants to live their lives in an acceptable way, like other patients may not be able to get on with life without antidepressants. With the successful treatment of adult ADHD, stimulants generally also lower the urge to use alcohol or marijuana. One of the main features of adult ADHD is a lifelong feeling of stress and unrest. Alcohol, marijuana and sometimes methamphetamine are used to dampen these ongoing unpleasant feelings. In sum, patients with a history of methamphetamine addiction are, in my experience, more likely than others to suffer from ADHD, and are likely to react positively to treatment with stimulants.
The altered expression of MiR‐221/‐222 and MiR‐23b/‐27b is associated with the development of human castration resistant prostate cancer

We have previously identified seven miRs‐miR‐221, ‐222, ‐23b, ‐27b, ‐15a, ‐16‐1, and ‐203, that are differentially expressed in the hormone sensitive LNCaP cell line and the hormone resistant LNCaP‐abl cell line and hypothesized that these miRs may characterize certain subtypes of human castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
A 21-year retrospective outcome study of New South Wales forensic patients granted conditional and unconditional release

Aim: To retrospectively examine the outcomes of forensic patients found not guilty by reason of mental illness (NGMI) in New South Wales (NSW) and subsequently released into the community, as measured by reoffending, conditional release revocation and psychiatric hospital readmission. Method: Data were collected from the NSW Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) files for all patients who received an NGMI verdict between January 1990 and December 2010, and who were released into the community during this period. The outcome measures of conditional release revocation and psychiatric hospital readmission were extracted from these files. Information about subsequent criminal charges, convictions and penalties were obtained from the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research’s reoffending database. Results: During the 21-year period studied, 364 offenders received an NGMI verdict and were placed under the supervision of the MHRT. Of these, 197 were released into the community, including 85 who were granted unconditional release. Over a follow-up period averaging 8.4 years, 18% of conditionally released patients reoffended, 11.8% were convicted of a further offence, 8.7% were charged with a violent offence, 3.1% were convicted of a violent offence and 3.7% were sentenced to a term of imprisonment. Five (3.1%) conditionally released forensic patients received a further NGMI verdict. One-quarter of the conditionally released patients had their conditional release revoked and half were readmitted to hospital. Of the forensic patients granted unconditional release, 12.5% were charged with an offence, 9.4% received convictions for an offence, 6.3% were charged with a violent offence and 4.7% were convicted of a violent offence, in a mean follow-up period of 7.6 years. None committed a further serious offence resulting in a term of imprisonment, nor a second NGMI verdict. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the treatment and rehabilitation of forensic patients in NSW, together with the decision-making procedures of the MHRT, is effective in protecting the community from further offending by forensic patients.
Lower anterior cingulate volume in seriously violent men with antisocial personality disorder or schizophrenia and a history of childhood abuse

Objective: Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and schizophrenia, as well as childhood abuse, are associated with violent behaviour and show marked volumetric reduction in the anterior cingulate (AC), a brain region implicated in regulation of violence through its involvement in decision making, empathy, impulse control, and emotion regulation. The present study examined, for the first time to the authors’ knowledge, the grey matter volume of the AC in relation to seriously violent behaviour and childhood psychosocial deprivation (including physical and sexual abuse) in the context of a mental disorder (schizophrenia or ASPD). Methods: Fifty-seven men [14 with ASPD and a history of serious violence; 13 with schizophrenia and a history of serious violence (VSZ); 15 with schizophrenia without a violence history (SZ); 15 nonviolent healthy participants] underwent whole-brain magnetic resonance imaging and were rated on the presence of physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, extreme poverty, foster home placement, criminal parent, severe family conflict, and broken home (collectively ‘psychosocial deprivation’). Stereological volumetric ratings of the AC were examined for group differences and their association with childhood psychosocial deprivation. Results: A higher proportion of ASPD and VSZ patients had suffered psychosocial deprivation as children, in particular severe physical abuse, relative to SZ patients and healthy participants. ASPD and VSZ, but not SZ, patients had significantly lower AC volume relative to healthy participants. AC volumes correlated negatively with (total) psychosocial deprivation as well as physical and sexual abuse ratings. Group differences in AC volume became nonsignificant when psychosocial deprivation ratings were covaried for. Conclusions: Violent mentally disordered individuals with ASPD or schizophrenia suffer from a significant AC volume loss and this deficit, at least in part, is explained by their histories of stressful childhood experiences. Current and future therapies aiming to reduce violence in such populations would benefit by attending to biological (and other) correlates of childhood abuse.
Expression of MicroRNAs associated with Gleason grading system in prostate cancer: miR‐182‐5p is a useful marker for high grade prostate cancer

Expression profiles of some microRNAs (miRNAs) were associated with clinicopathological findings in human prostate cancer (PC), but the relative expression of miRNAs among Gleason patterns (GPs) remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the expression of several known microRNAs in each GP of PC.
Global helmet vaccine initiative

Today, road traffic fatalities are the single largest cause of death among 15–19 year olds in developing countries, and the second leading cause of death among children aged 5–14. Studies show that motorcycle helmets are a proven vaccine to combat this epidemic of death and serious injury on the roads, reducing chance of death by 42% and injury by 79%. With the goal of a helmet on every head in the Decade of Action for Road Safety, the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative (GHVI) aims to promote motorcycle helmet wearing across the developing world working in partnership with governments, the private sector and non-governmental organisations. Established by the Asia Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation, and building on the experience of a successful national helmet campaign in Vietnam, GHVI will work in pilot countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America to encourage the policy changes and investment decisions that can lead to increased and sustainable motorcycle helmet wearing. Initial partners in GHVI are AIP Foundation, the FIA Foundation and the World Bank Global Road Safety Facility. Programs in Vietnam, Cambodia, Senegal and India are already underway. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.helmetvaccine. org/.