Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health-related quality of life among haemodialysis patients--relationship with clinical indicators, morbidity and mortality.

AIM To verify the association between quality of life and morbidity, mortality and clinical indicators in haemodialysis patients. BACKGROUND While a number of therapies have been reported to increase quality of life in end-stage renal disease, patients report that they remain substantially burdened by limited physical functioning and by dialysis-related symptoms. Indeed, quality of life may be the most critical outcome for those undergoing haemodialysis. Furthermore, quality of life has been associated with clinical indicators, morbidity and survival in haemodialysis patients. DESIGN Descriptive cohort study of patients undergoing haemodialysis at the Nephrology Hemodialysis Unit of the Hospital de Clínicas in Porto Alegre, Brazil. METHODS Forty haemodialysis patients were followed for 12 months and evaluated for demographics, time on dialysis, diabetes mellitus, clinical indicators (dose of dialysis--Kt/V, haematocrit and serum albumin) and comorbidities. The comorbidities were evaluated with the end-stage renal disease severity index and health-related quality of life with The Medical Outcomes Study 36 (SF-36). RESULTS Men present higher health-related quality of life scores in the energy and fatigue component (P = 0.04). Patients treated for over one year at the beginning of follow up and patients with less schooling had better results in General Health Perception (P < 0.05). The health-related quality of life evaluation of patients who later died showed that they already had a worse perception of physical functioning as compared to the survivors (P = 0.05). Patients with diagnosed diabetes perceived their physical functioning more negatively compared with those with other etiologies of end-stage renal disease (P = 0.045). We found a correlation between physical functioning and serum albumin (r = 0.341, P < 0.05) and between physical functioning and haematocrit (r = 0.317, P < 0.05). The end-stage renal disease severity index was more strongly related to physical functioning (r = -0.538, P < 0.001). Comparing the patients' results to the indicators above and below the established targets, we observed a trend to worse health-related quality of life in patients with Kt/V above target. However, in the case of albumin, patients with results above target tended to have better results. CONCLUSION A close relationship was observed between quality of life and morbidity and mortality. Among the clinical indicators, albumin and haematocrit have the greatest influence on quality of life. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Haemodialysis patients experience various problems that may adversely influence their quality of life. Special care must be given to those who have diabetes mellitus, high morbidity scores, low serum albumin and low haematocrits.
t( 12;21): A new recurrent translocation in acute lymphoblastic leukemia

A t(12;21)(p11 ‐p12;q22) was detected by chromosome painting in three patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) among eight ALL cases with 12p‐ abnormalities. The three leukemias had similar immunophenotypes (DR+, CD10 +, CD19 + ). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) experiments using YAC clones from 21q21‐q22 were performed to better localize the breakpoint on chromosome 21. This breakpoint was localized to 21q22.2 in one patient. Although only one case of ALL with t( 12;21) has been reported previously, the present results suggest that t( 12;21) is a recurrent translocation in ALL. Genes Chrom Cancer 9:186‐191 (1994). © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Structure of the Prehistoric Population of San Pedro de Atacama1

La culture de san Pedro de Atacama s'est developpee globalement entre 500 BC et 1500 AD. Les auteurs veulent observer l'evolution de la structure genetique et la micro-evolution de la population en fonction de l'effet produit par la vie sur les hauts plateaux. Ils ont mesures 120 crânes et les ont relie a des variances phenotypiques. De la, ils suivent l'evolution de la population et de leur mode de vie sur la periode concernee, ainsi que de leur migration.
A study of enclosure shielding effectiveness measurement using frequency stirring in a mode-stirred chamber

Frequency stirring is an alternative way to mechanical stirring to achieve statistical field uniformity in an over-moded chamber or enclosure, and has the potential to be used in the shielding effectiveness measurements (SE) of enclosures. A detailed study is presented in this paper to show aspects of the practical application of frequency stirring in SE measurement. Tests are conducted in a large enclosure (0.6 m * 0.7 m * 0.8 m) which allows different stirring approaches to be compared, whereas a small enclosure simulating a real computer case is used to investigate the stirring efficiency from the low frequency quasi-static to the over-moded higher frequency region. Factors influencing the measurement such as the mode density, stirring bandwidth and receiving antenna correction factor are also discussed.
Sequential dermal microvascular and perivascular changes in the development of scleroderma

It has been previously proposed that there is a primary microvascular abnormality in patients with systemic sclerosis. In this study using conventional light and electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, and labelled adenosine uptake techniques, changes in the dermal microvasculature have been related to the various clinical stages of skin disease in systemic sclerosis.
Endovascular vs medical management of acute ischemic stroke

We read with interest the systematic review and meta-analysis of endovascular therapy (ET) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) by Chen et al.1 Even though the methods are sound and the final results provide further reassurance to clinicians that ET improves the outcomes of AIS patients with emergent large vessel occlusion, we detected inconsistencies between some data presented in the meta-analysis and those reported in the original studies.2 …
A Novel Humanized Antibody Neutralizes H5N1 Influenza Virus via Two Different Mechanisms

ABSTRACT Highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5N1 continues to be a severe threat to public health, as well as the poultry industry, because of its high lethality and antigenic drift rate. Neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) can serve as a useful tool for preventing, treating, and detecting H5N1. In the present study, humanized H5 antibody 8A8 was developed from a murine H5 MAb. Both the humanized and mouse MAbs presented positive activity in hemagglutination inhibition (HI), virus neutralization, and immunofluorescence assays against a wide range of H5N1 strains. Interestingly, both human and murine 8A8 antibodies were able to detect H5 in Western blot assays under reducing conditions. Further, by sequencing of escape mutants, the conformational epitope of 8A8 was found to be located within the receptor binding domain (RBD) of H5. The linear epitope of 8A8 was identified by Western blotting of overlapping fragments and substitution mutant forms of HA1. Reverse genetic H5N1 strains with individual mutations in either the conformational or the linear epitope were generated and characterized in a series of assays, including HI, postattachment, and cell-cell fusion inhibition assays. The results indicate that for 8A8, virus neutralization mediated by RBD blocking relies on the conformational epitope while binding to the linear epitope contributes to the neutralization by inhibiting membrane fusion. Taken together, the results of this study show that a novel humanized H5 MAb binds to two types of epitopes on HA, leading to virus neutralization via two mechanisms. IMPORTANCE Recurrence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus subtype H5N1 in humans and poultry continues to be a serious public health concern. Preventive and therapeutic measures against influenza A viruses have received much interest in the context of global efforts to combat the current and future pandemics. Passive immune therapy is considered to be the most effective and economically prudent preventive strategy against influenza virus besides vaccination. It is important to develop a humanized neutralizing monoclonal antibody (MAb) against all of the clades of H5N1. For the first time, we report in this study that a novel humanized H5 MAb binds to two types of epitopes on HA, leading to virus neutralization via two mechanisms. These findings further deepen our understanding of influenza virus neutralization.
Effect of Humidity on in-Process Crystallization of Lactose during Spray Drying

: The effect of various humidities on process yields and degrees of crystallinity for spray-dried powders from spray drying of lactose with humid air in a straight-through system have been studied. It has been suggested by Williams–Landel–Ferry kinetics (WLF) that a higher particle temperature and lower glass-transition temperature would increase the crystallization rate of the particles during the spray-drying process. Freshly humidified air produced by a Buchi-B290 spray dryer as a humidifier attached to the main spray dryer decreased the particle glass-transition temperature (Tg), while allowing the particle temperature (Tp) to reach higher values by using an insulated drying chamber. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and moisture sorption analysis were used to measure the degree of crystallinity for the spray-dried lactose powders. The results showed that higher Tp-Tg, as a result of applying humid air, improved the process yield from 21 ± 4 to 26 ± 2% and crystallinity of the particles by decreasing the latent heat of crystallization from 43 ± 1 to 30 ± 11 J/g and the sorption peak height from 7.3 ± 0.7% to 6 ± 0.7%.
Nachhaltigkeit als Kriterium für Konsumentscheidungen

Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte gewinnen bei Konsumentscheidungen fur die Verbraucher an Bedeutung. Auf Basis breit angelegter reprasentativer Umfragedaten wird analysiert, wie der Begriff in der Bevolkerung rezipiert wird und inwiefern Verbraucher in verschiedenen Konsumbereichen auf Nachhaltigkeit bei ihren Kaufentscheidungen achten.
Opinion-Ontologies - Short and Sharp

Opinion-Ontology is a short and sharp tweetable recommendation conceptualization which can be actually sent in a message. But, one should ask in which sense is this a true ontology? On the one hand, it does not represent the common vocabulary or the shared meanings of a domain, as it is subjective. On the other hand, it does contain a semantic structure, which in spite of being subjective enables making inferences and taking rational decisions in practical situations. These are demonstrated by case studies with several examples of booking a table in a restaurant or a room in a hotel in previously unvisited places. The proposed characteristics of opinion-ontologies – efficient information transmission and integration with similar opinion-ontologies without expanding their sizes – can be and we actually intend to implement in a software system, to enable testing in practice, the whole approach.
Influence of dietary sucrose on glucose and fructose tolerance and triglyceride synthesis in the baboon.

SUMMARY 1. Male and female baboons were fed a 75% sucroselfat free diet for 13 weeks. At the end of this period, and when tested by a sucrose meal, the glucose tolerance was improved, but the fructose tolerance impaired. 2. There was no difference between the male and female baboons with regard to the changes observed in glucose tolerance. The impairment of fructose tolerance as a result of the sucrose diet was more marked in the males than in the females. 3. By labelling the sucrose meals uniformly with 14C, a correlation was observed between the level of peripheral blood fructose attained and the degree to which 14Ctriglyceride appeared in the serum. No such correlation was found with glucose. 4. A cause-and-effect relationship between fructose tolerance and triglyceride specific activity was demonstrated by means of a high sucrose diet. The resulting impairment of fructose tolerance was reflected by a corresponding increase in triglyceride specific activity. The improvement in glucose tolerance under the same dietary conditions bore no relationship to the change in triglyceride specific activity. 5. Fructose was incorporated into serum triglyceride to a greater extent in the male baboons than in the females because of the higher levels of blood fructose attained in the male animals. It has been shown that following a sucrose meal the level of blood fructose, but not glucose,
Conservative Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Therapy in Early Stage of Endometrial Carcinoma Associated with Phosphatase and Tensin Homolog Expression

Young patients with the endometrial cancer IA who desire to preserve fertility, can select the conservative therapy with progestin. However, the therapy involves risks of progression and relapse. We examined immunohistochemical analyses of phosphatase and tension homolog (PTEN) and p53 expressions to predict the early relapse, and pregnancy and delivery. Twenty women with endometrial cancer, FIGO IA (1988) (FIGO staging was essentially defined post-surgically), instead of the pathogical specimen before surgery without myometrial invasion were estimated by MRI under 40 years at Gifu University Hospital, Japan from 1988 to 2009. Patients were treated with medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA, 400 - 600 mg/day) for 4 - 10 months, with whole wall endometrial curettage performed every four weeks. Response to the therapy, pregnancy, delivery and relapse of disease during follow-up over a 72-month period. Immunohistochemical expression of PTEN and p53 was also evaluated with pregnancy, delivery and relapse rate. All patients had pathological complete remissions within 4 - 10 months. Relapse rate was high (60%) in more than 72 months. Immunohistochemical PTEN retain in tumor cells before MPA treatment (8/10) was significant better correlation with pregnancy and delivery rate than of lost cases (1/5) in non-obese women (P < 0.05). Conservative therapy is feasible in carefully selected young women with endometrial cancer without myometrial invasion. However, the relapse rate was high. In cases who desire to be a pregnant, an earlier infertility treatment may be considered especially for PTEN loss especially in nonobese cases.
Falls on Integrated Medical Wards

Background: An effective approach to fall prevention should involve an assessment of environmental as well as patient-related characteristics. Objective: To study the effect of age and ward design on fall characteristics among medical inpatients. Methods: In a prospective open observational study over 1 year, we studied falls on three medical wards. Wards A and B are nuclear designed, and C is longitudinal. Results: We recorded 199 falls involving 167 fallers. Fifty-four (27.1%) involved patients under 65 years. Most falls were intrinsic (60.8%) and involved elderly male patients (male/female ratio 97/48 vs. 24/30; p = 0.009). We identified no age differences in relation to location, activity, preceding fall, classification, time, consequences, and intervention required. On ward C, most falls occurred in the bed areas (bays and cubicles), but on wards A and B a higher proportion occurred in bathroom, corridor, and dayroom (C vs. A/B 87.9 vs. 73.7/62.0%; p = 0.04/p = 0.004). On ward C, activities of daily living around the bed significantly preceded falls (C vs. A/B 44.6 vs. 25.9/24.1%; p = 0.03/p = 0.01). Most falls were unwitnessed (C vs. A/B 10 vs. 21/20; p = 0.002/p = 0.0009). Conclusions: Intrinsic falls are the commonest; however, differences exist in fall demographics between wards, and this must be recognized to enhance the effectiveness of fall prevention programmes.
Phylogenetic position of Mexican jackrabbits within the genus Lepus (Mammalia: Lagomorpha): a molecular perspective Posición filogenética de las liebres mexicanas dentro del género Lepus (Mammalia: Lagomorpha): una perspectiva molecular

Although phylogenetic affinities of Mexican jackrabbits within the genus Lepus have been evaluated for a few species, no study has included all 5 species occurring in Mexico. In this study we assess the phylogenetic position of the Mexican species relative to other forms within the genus and evaluate evolutionary affinities among the Mexican forms. To do so, we analyzed 57 complete cytochrome b sequences belonging to the 5 Mexican jackrabbits and 18 species of Lepus distributed across Asia, Africa, Europe and America. We performed phylogenetic tree reconstruction with the neighbor-joining, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood approaches. We also used a minimum spanning network to evaluate relationships among Mexican species. We found 5 main phylogenetic groups within Lepus, 4 of which corresponded to geographically well defined lineages. One group included L. americanus, 3 others corresponded to Mexican, African and European species, respectively. A fifth group included Asiatic, European and American forms. Our results suggest that Mexican species constitute a monophyletic entity that evolved independently of the other American species of Lepus. Within the Mexican forms, 2 main clades are apparent; 1 that includes L. alleni, L. callotis, and L. flavigularis, previously referred to as the white-sided jackrabbits, and a second one that groups together L. californicus and L. insularis, although L. californicus is a paraphyletic relative of L. insularis.
Trust management for reliable decision making among social objects in the Social Internet of Things

The Internet is populated with billions of electronic gadgets that have become a part of our fabric. Internet of Things is gaining popularity in at most all applications from smart buildings, intelligent transportation, healthcare and defence. IoT is a many vision one paradigm technology. One of the many visions of IoT is to make ‘Things’ social. Social Internet of Things (SIoT) is a young paradigm that integrates IoT and Social networking principles where Things are not only autonomous and smarter but also socially conscious. The authors propose a trust management scheme to facilitate trustworthy automatic decision making based on behaviour of objects. The authors use SIoT Trust metrics namely direct trust, centrality, community interest, Cooperativeness, Service Score to compute Trustworthiness among objects. The Expected trust and periodic trust updates evidently identify the presence of ‘on off’ selective forwarding attacks. The authors demonstrate the advantages of the proposed scheme with other existing trust management schemes in the literature.
Experimental comparison of many-objective evolutionary preference-based methods in a parallel framework

Multi-objective Evolutionary Algorithms (MOEA) are used to solve complex multi-objective problems. As the number of objectives increases, Pareto-based MOEAs are unable to reproduce the same effectiveness showed for two or three objectives. Thus, several authors proposed preference-based methods as an alternative. On the other hand, parallelization has shown to be useful in evolutionary optimizations. This paper combines for the first time seven preference-based methods for many objective optimization in a multi-threading parallelization framework. Preference-based methods were used to replace the elitism procedure of the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II. Executions of each alternative were carriedout for the DTLZ-2 problem in a commodity multi-core platform. Obtained solutions were compared by different criteria, providing some insights into the improvements that the proposed combination may offer in many-objective optimization.
Enhanced Dendritic Cell–based Immunotherapy Using Low-dose Cyclophosphamide and CD25-targeted Antibody for Transplanted Lewis Lung Carcinoma Cells

Regulatory T cells (Tregs) is one of the main obstacles to the success of cancer immunotherapy. The effect of dendritic cell (DC)-based immunotherapy can be attenuated by immune suppressive functions of Tregs. We used a CD25-targeted antibody and low-dose cyclophosphamide (CTX) as immunomodulators to increase the antitumor effect of intratumoral injection of immature DCs into the irradiated tumor cells (IR/iDC). CTX or CD25-targeted antibody alone showed a significant reduction in the number of Tregs within the tumor microenvironment. When they are combined with IR/iDC, the number of Tregs was further reduced. Although IR/IDC showed strong antitumor effects such as reduction in tumor growth, increase in Th1 immune response, and improvement of survival, the therapeutic effect was further improved by combining treatments with immunomodulators. CTX and CD25-targeted antibody showed no significant difference in tumor growth when combined with IR/iDC, but CTX further increased the number of interferon (IFN)-&ggr;-secreting T cells, cytotoxicity, and survival rate. Although irradiation induced depletion of T lymphocytes, administration of DCs recovered this depletion. Particularly, the lymphocytes were more significantly increased when CTX and IR/iDC were combined. Low-dose CTX has already been used as an immunomodulator in clinical trials, and it offers several advantages, including convenience, low-cost, and familiarity to clinicians. However, CD25-targeted antibody cannot only deplete Tregs, but also may affect IL-2–dependent effector T lymphocytes. Therefore, CTX is an effective means to inhibit Tregs, and an effective immunomodulatory agent for multimodality therapy such as combination treatment of conventional cancer therapy and immunotherapy.
Improved Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering Based on Hybrid Au Nanostructures for Biomolecule Detection

We report the use of highly ordered, dense, and regular arrays of in-plane silicon nanowires as building blocks to produce highly sensitive and well-reproducible surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). A combination of Au nanospheres (AuNPs) and Au coated silicon nanowires (AuSiNWs) was found to exhibit one order higher enhancement of SERS signal compared with that of the normal AuSiNWs substrate. The experimental results were further evidenced by simulating the electrical field distributions using 3-D finite-difference time-domain (3-D-FDTD). The prominence and potential applications of biosensors using AuNPs/AuSiNWs arrays were demonstrated by the improved sensitivity in detecting SERS signal of 4, 4'-Bipyridine.
Comprehensive study of soft errors in advanced CMOS circuits with 90/130 nm technology

Characteristics of soft errors (SEs) in 90/130 nm CMOS circuits were comprehensively investigated by high energy neutron- and alpha-accelerated tests. Process dependence on SEs in latch circuits due to neutrons and alpha-ray were investigated. Error patterns in multiple-bit SEs in SRAMs and their impacts on ECC design were also discussed.
What We’ve Learned From Mistakes

The error-related negativity (ERN) is a neural measure of error processing that peaks just 50 milliseconds after subjects make mistakes. Although previously conceptualized in purely cognitive terms, data increasingly suggest that the ERN is related to motivation and affect. The ERN has consistently been linked to individual differences in trait anxiety. Indeed, the ERN is itself trait-like, demonstrating high heritability and stability over time. The evidence suggests that an increased ERN is a viable biomarker of risk for anxiety disorders. The ERN is also sensitive to variation in the perceived consequences of making an error (i.e., error value): Punishing errors has a lasting effect on the ERN—an effect that is larger among more anxious individuals. Collectively, these data indicate that individual differences in anxiety and learning history could interact to influence the ERN—and that the ERN could be used to better understand trajectories of risk for anxiety disorders across development.