Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
yrsonima intermedia A . Juss . : Gastric and duodenal anti-ulcer , antimicrobial nd antidiarrheal effects in experimental rodent models aquel

Ethnopharmacological relevance: An ethnopharmacological survey indicated that the leaves of Byrsonima intermedia A. Juss. (Malpighiaceae), a medicinal species commonly found in the Brazilian Cerrado, can be used against gastroduodenal disorders, such as gastric ulcers and diarrhea. Aim of the study: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a methanolic extract of Byrsonima intermedia (MBI) leaves on gastric and duodenal ulcers and to assess the antimicrobial and antidiarrheal effects of this extract. Material and methods: The anti-ulcerogenic effect of MBI was investigated with different ulcerogenic agents in rodents (mice and rats), including non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), HCl/ethanol, pyloric ligature, absolute ethanol, cysteamine and ischemia–reperfusion. The gastroprotective effect of MBI was assessed by analysing the volume of gastric juice, pH, total acidity, mucus, NO, sulfhydryl compound, vanilloid receptor, glutathione (GSH) levels, and myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity in the gastric and duodenal mucosa. The gastric and duodenal healing effects of MBI were also evaluated during 7 or 14 days of treatment. The antidiarrheal action (measured by intestinal motility and diarrhea induced by castor oil) and anti-bacterial action of MBI against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Helicobacter pylori were also evaluated by microdilution methods. Results: The phytochemical profile from MBI indicated the presence of phenolic acids, flavan-3-ols, oligomeric proanthocyanidins, and flavonoids. MBI (500 mg/kg, p.o.) significantly inhibited totally gastric and duodenal lesions (69%) and healed gastric (49% on 14 days) and duodenal lesions (45% on 7 and 14 days). The MBI exert gastroprotective action by participation of endogenous sulfhydryl compounds, vanilloid receptors and increase in GSH level to effective gastric and duodenal protection. MBI also displayed curative (42%) and preventive (49%) antidiarrheal effects by involvement of opiate receptors and also antimicrobial effects in vitro. Conclusions: Byrsonima intermedia leaves present gastroprotective, healing and antidiarrheal activities, supporting previous claims that its traditional use can treat gastrointestinal disorders.
Executive dysfunction in Alzheimer disease.

BACKGROUND Executive dysfunction (EDF) is common in Alzheimer disease (AD); however, its relationship to other symptoms is difficult to assess in patients with AD. OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence of EDF and study its relationship to cognitive, functional, and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with AD. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS A retrospective analysis of data from participants in the English Instruments Protocol of the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study. Subjects were drawn from a sample of patients evaluated at tertiary referral centers. RESULTS A total of 64% of AD patients were classified as having EDF. Patients with EDF performed worse on tests of cognition (P <.001), dementia severity (P <.001), and activities of daily living (P =.01) and had more frequent symptoms of psychosis (P =.03) with greater emergence during the 12-month interval (P =.03) compared with patients with normal executive function. Less than 30% of the variance in executive function performance was explained by cognitive measures. CONCLUSION These findings support the assessment of executive function in persons with AD and the importance of frontal lobe dysfunction in AD.
TIM genes: a family of cell surface phosphatidylserine receptors that regulate innate and adaptive immunity

Summary: The TIM (T cell/transmembrane, immunoglobulin, and mucin) gene family plays a critical role in regulating immune responses, including allergy, asthma, transplant tolerance, autoimmunity, and the response to viral infections. The unique structure of TIM immunoglobulin variable region domains allows highly specific recognition of phosphatidylserine (PtdSer), exposed on the surface of apoptotic cells. TIM‐1, TIM‐3, and TIM‐4 all recognize PtdSer but differ in expression, suggesting that they have distinct functions in regulating immune responses. TIM‐1, an important susceptibility gene for asthma and allergy, is preferentially expressed on T‐helper 2 (Th2) cells and functions as a potent costimulatory molecule for T‐cell activation. TIM‐3 is preferentially expressed on Th1 and Tc1 cells, and generates an inhibitory signal resulting in apoptosis of Th1 and Tc1 cells. TIM‐3 is also expressed on some dendritic cells and can mediate phagocytosis of apoptotic cells and cross‐presentation of antigen. In contrast, TIM‐4 is exclusively expressed on antigen‐presenting cells, where it mediates phagocytosis of apoptotic cells and plays an important role in maintaining tolerance. TIM molecules thus provide a functional repertoire for recognition of apoptotic cells, which determines whether apoptotic cell recognition leads to immune activation or tolerance, depending on the TIM molecule engaged and the cell type on which it is expressed.
Microsecond pulsed DC matching measurements on MOSFETs in strong and weak inversion

We present a first successful attempt to use microsecond DC pulses for matching measurements on 65-nm MOS transistors down to low current levels. We demonstrate that the interface states that contribute to the mismatch (if they indeed do so) in the weak and moderate inversion region must have charging and discharging time constants below 1 μs.
A preliminary study on design and development of a journal focused crawler system using EBD methodology: Part II — Conflict identification and solution generation

This paper is part two of a preliminary study on design and development of a journal focused crawler system using EBD methodology. In this paper, the authors continue to apply EBD on the case study. Based on the result of the environment analysis, the authors took the step of conflict identification. Through conflict identification, the authors found that the critical conflict of design and development of a journal focused web crawler system is “to identify the parsing rule to download maximum content within minimum time”. This critical conflict is also the root conflict, so later on by generating primitive solution to this critical conflict, the authors successfully solve the design task and reach its original design goal. Finally, through this case study by applying EBD, it displays that EBD can help designer find the critical conflict and generating the corresponding solutions.
Target Localization Using Ensemble Support Vector Regression in Wireless Sensor Networks

Target localization, whose goal is to estimate the location of an unknown target, is one of the key issues in applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). With recent advances in fabrication technology, deployments of large-scale WSNs have become economically feasible. However, there exist issues such as limited communication and the curse of dimensionality in applying machine-learning algorithms such as support vector regression (SVR) on large-scale WSNs. Here, in order to overcome such issues, we propose an ensemble implementation of SVR for the problem of target localization. The convergence property of the localization algorithm using the ensemble SVR is verified, and the robustness of the proposed scheme against measurement noise is analyzed. Furthermore, experimental results confirm that the estimation performance of the proposed method is more accurate and robust to measurement noise than the conventional SVR predictor.
Are Current Rapid Detection Tests for Group A Streptococci Sensitive Enough? Evaluation of 2 Commercial Kits

A new, 1-step, enzyme-linked immunoassay kit for detection of Group A Streptococci (GAS) in throat samples (QuickVue In-Line One-Step Strep A Test; Quidel Corporation, San Diego, CA) was evaluated for use in a study comprising 536 patients in 8 primary healthcare centres. Compared to conventional culture at the clinical microbiology laboratory, the sensitivity achieved was 73.9% and the specificity 86.8%; these figures were not affected to any major extent by broth enrichment of samples before culturing or following PCR testing of the cysteine proteinase gene for independent diagnosis of GAS. It was also found that most samples containing low numbers of GAS were missed by the rapid test. We therefore evaluated the kit in use in our area (TestPack Plus Strep A Test; Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, IL) in a separate study of 615 patients. Somewhat increased sensitivity (82.8%) and specificity (96.1%) were obtained. As current antigen tests depend on subjective judgement of test outcome, improvements in test design or provision of more detailed instructions may be desirable in order to achieve optimal results.
Correlation between electroencephalography and heart rate variability during sleep

Abstract It is known that autonomic nervous activities change in correspondence with sleep stages. However, the characteristics of continuous fluctuations in nocturnal autonomic nerve tone have not been clarified in detail. The study aimed to determine the possible correlation between the electroencephalogram (EEG) and autonomic nervous activities, and to clarify in detail the nocturnal fluctuations in autonomic nerve activities. Overnight EEGs and electrocardiograms of seven healthy males were obtained. These EEGs were analyzed by fast Fourier transformation algorithm to extract delta, sigma and beta power. Heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV) were calculated in consecutive 5‐min epochs. The HRV indices of low frequency (LF), high frequency (HF) and LF/HF ratio were calculated from the spectral analysis of R‐R intervals. The sleep stages were manually scored according to Rechtschaffen and Kales’ criteria. Low frequency and LF/HF were significantly lower during non‐rapid eye movement (NREM) than REM, and were lower in stages 3 and 4 than in stages 1 and 2. Furthermore, delta EEG showed inverse correlations with LF (r = − 0.44, P < 0.001) and LF/HF (r = − 0.41, P < 0.001). In contrast, HF differed neither between REM and NREM nor among NREM sleep stages. Detailed analysis revealed that correlation was evident from the first to third NREM, but not in the fourth and fifth NREM. Delta EEG power showed negative correlations with LF and LF/HF, suggesting that sympathetic nervous activities continuously fluctuate in accordance with sleep deepening and lightening.
Hand dorsal vein recognition: Sensor, algorithms and evaluation

Biometric recognition involves in identifying the individual based on behavioural and biological characteristics. Among the various biometric modalities, the dorsal hand vein recognition has been known for high accuracy, stability and resistance to spoofing. The crucial fact, in achieving an accurate biometric recognition strongly correlates with the quality of the dorsal hand vein image that can be captured in real-life scenarios. In this paper, we present a new dorsal hand vein sensor that can capture a good quality of dorsal hand vein images. The introduced sensor is based on a near infrared illumination that can emit light in a spectrum of 940nm that in turn is used to illuminate the dorsal hand region. The presented sensor employs a single camera with a simple structure that will further improve the quality of the light to properly illuminate the dorsal hand region. Extensive experiments are carried out on our newly collected database comprised of 50 subjects resulting in 100 unique dorsal hand veins. We also present an extensive evaluation of eight different state-of-the-art techniques that demonstrated the outstanding performance of the Log-Gabor and Sparse Representation Classifier (SRC) with an EER of 0.7%.
Recession of the soft tissue margin at oral implants. A 2-year longitudinal prospective study.

The aim of this study was to longitudinally evaluate alterations in the position of the periimplant soft tissue margin, occurring during a 2-year period after insertion of fixed prostheses. 41 patients, subjected to treatment with partial or full-arch implant supported fixed prostheses based on a total of 163 standard Brånemark oral implants, were included in the study. A baseline examination was performed at time of insertion of the prosthetic construction and involved assessments of plaque, mucositis, probing depth, bleeding on probing marginal soft tissue level, width of masticatory mucosa and marginal soft tissue mobility. All patients were re-examined after 6 months, and after 1 and 2 years, respectively. A regression analysis was performed to evaluate if alterations, occurring in the position of the periimplant soft tissue margin during the 2 years, could be predicted by various variables recorded at time of the installation of the fixed prosthesis. The descriptive analysis showed a slight decrease in mean probing depth (0.2 mm) and width of masticatory mucosa (0.3 mm) during the follow-up period. Apical displacement of the soft tissue margin mainly took place during the first 6 months of observation. Lingual sites in the mandible showed the most pronounced soft tissue recession, decrease of probing depth, and decrease of width of masticatory mucosa. The statistical analysis revealed that lack of masticatory mucosa and mobility of the periimplant soft tissue at time of bridge installation were poor predictors of soft tissue recession occurring during the 2 years of follow-up, but indicated in greater amount of recession in women than men, in the mandible than in the maxilla, at lingual than at facial sites and with increased initial probing depth. It was suggested that the recession of the periimplant soft tissue margin mainly may be the result of a remodelling of the soft tissue in order to establish "appropriate biological dimensions" of the periimplant soft tissue barrier, i.e., the required dimension of epithelial-connective tissue attachment in relation to the faciolingual thickness of the supracrestal soft tissue.
Functional Evidence For Anti‐Oxidant Action Of Fluvastatin On Low‐Density Lipoprotein Using Isolated Macrophages And Aorta

1. Fluvastatin has been reported to have not only a hypocholesterolaemic effect, but also a protective effect on low‐ density lipoprotein (LDL) from oxidation. We functionally evaluated the anti‐oxidant effect of fluvastatin on oxidation of LDL by copper ions in vitro using mouse macrophages and rabbit aorta preparations.
Langzeit-Lebensqualität (SF-36) nach laparoskopischer versus offener Narbenhernien-Reparation

Narbenhernien stellen heutzutage ein groses soziookonomisches Problem dar. Diese Studie befasste sich zunachst mit der Frage, ob die postoperative HRQoL zwischen Patienten mit laparoskopisch (LHR), bzw. offen (OHR) versorgten Narbenbruchen Unterschiede aufzeigt. Einem zwischen den Jahren 1997 und 2005 operierten,131 Patienten (82 Frauen, 49 Manner, Alter 61,2 ± 11,2) umfassenden offen versorgten Patientenkollektiv wurden 25 (10 Frauen, 15 Manner, Alter 58,1 ± 11,4) im Zeitraum zwischen 2002 und 2005 laparoskopisch operierte Patienten gegenubergestellt. Es erfolgte eine umfangreiche Erfassung von patientenbezogenen und die Operation betreffenden Daten. Die Patienten wurden schlieslich postoperativ mittels SF-36 Fragebogen zur individuellen HRQoL befragt. Mit Ausnahme eines signifikant groseren BMI fur die laparoskopisch versorgte Gruppe zeigten sich keine signifikanten Unterschiede bezuglich der Patienten- bzw. Operationsdaten. Keine der acht Domanen des SF-36 zeigte einen statistisch signifikanten Unterschied zugunsten einer der beiden Gruppen. Auch diese Studie konnte also keine deutlich veranderte postoperative Lebensqualitat fur LHR oder OHR zeigen. Als Vorteil zugunsten der LHR darf die zumindest tendenziell (wenn auch nicht statistisch signifikante) niedrigere Rate an Komplikationen und die verhaltnismasig gute Durchfuhrbarkeit bei adiposen Patienten gewertet werden. Nach denselben Kriterien wurden 12 (Alter 57,3 ± 11,8 Jahre; 4 Manner, 8 Frauen) mittels schwerer Netzprothesen (HW) versorgte Patienten, mit der gleichen Anzahl von Patienten nach Alter und Geschlecht (Alter 58,3 ± 11,1 Jahre, 5 Manner, 7 Frauen) gematcht, welche einer Hernienkorrektur mit leichtgewichtigen Netzen (LW) unterzogen worden waren. Auch hier erfolgte die Erfassung der HRQoL mittels SF-36 Fragebogen. Bezuglich Patienten und Operationsdaten war ebenso wenig ein signifikanter Unterschied zwischen den beiden Gruppen festzustellen, wie bei der Auswertung der SF-36 Items.
An Ideographic Analysis of Native American Sovereignty in the State of Utah: Enabling Denotative Dissonance and Constructing Irreconcilable Conflict

In 1990, the Office of Nuclear Waste Negotiation under the direction of the federal government sought a community to voluntarily store nuclear waste. The program, known as Monitored Retrievable Storage (MRS), would temporarily store 40,000 metric tons of spent nuclear fuel within a designated community until a permanent storage location could be determined. In 1992, the Goshute Tribe, located on the Skull Valley Goshute Reservation in southwest Utah, submitted a grant application and was awarded $100,000 to investigate the benefits and impacts of implementing the MRS program on their reservation. Since then, the Goshute Band has leased land to a private group of electrical utilities for the temporary storage of the spent nuclear fuel. The tribe, along with the out-of-state utility companies, is in the process of transporting the nuclear fuel to the Goshute Reservation. Targeting a Native American tribe to store nuclear waste is not specific to the Goshutes. Tribes in the United States are increasingly p 43 targeted by governments and corporations to consider the economic possibilities of storing nuclear waste on their reservations. The Pine Ridge Sioux, Chippewa, California Campo, Mescalero Apache, Northern Arapaho, Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone, Lower Brule Sioux, Chickasaw, Sac and Fox, Alabama-Quassarta, Ponca, Eastern Shawnee, Caddo, Yakima, and others have either been approached or have applied
Évolution de la perception de la douleur par les sages-femmes en France, durant les trente dernières années

Si l'accouchement, durant des siecles, etait percu comme inevitablement douloureux, aujourd'hui les femmes ne sont plus sujettes a la malediction biblique. Grâce a l'avenement de l'analgesie peridurale en salle de naissance il y a une trentaine d'annees, la perception de la douleur en est profondement bouleversee. Nous avons alors cherche a connaitre quelle valeur la sage-femme donne aujourd'hui a la douleur. L'etude qualitative, multicentrique, realisee par entretiens aupres de sages-femmes a revele que celles qui ont plus d'experience restent les plus sceptique vis-a-vis de l'utilisation de la peridurale. De plus, la douleur en maternite n'est pas clairement condamnee. Nous validons ainsi notre premiere hypothese puisqu'en obstetrique, devenir mere implique necessairement une certaine souffrance qui est toujours percue comme ayant un sens. Cependant, nous ne pouvons valider entierement notre deuxieme hypothese puisque la peridurale n'est pas vue par toutes les sages-femmes comme le moyen le plus adequat pour soulager une femme en salle de naissance.
Aortic valve fibroelastoma presenting with myocardial infarction

Fibroelastoma is a rare, benign cardiac tumor. It is the second most common primary cardiac tumor and the most common primary cardiac valvular tumor. Nonvalvular endocardial location is rare and may be difficult to differentiate from thrombus and myxoma. Fibroelastoma consists of a small, highly papillary, pedunculated, and avascular tumor which is covered by a single layer of endothelium. It contains fine elastic fibrils arranged in whorls in a hyaline stroma. Fibroelastoma is mostly found incidentally at the time of echocardiography, cardiac catheterization, surgery, or autopsy. Symptomatic patients present with various clinical presentations, mainly cardiovascular in nature. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Declining altruism in medicine

Altruism, the performance of cooperative unselfish acts beneficial to others, has been studied in several medical contexts, including the donation of organs and genetic material and patients' participation in potentially hazardous experiments and trials.1 Physicians' altruism towards their patients and others has been less well studied and is implicit, rather than explicit, in statements about medical professional values and attitudes. Altruism is, however, embodied in many cultural stereotypes of the “good doctor,” such as John Berger's country practitioner in A Fortunate Man. 2 Altruistic behaviour by physicians might include, for example, continuing to work or providing informal medical advice outside contracted hours, giving free treatment to poor patients in fee for service healthcare systems, and a general willingness to go the extra mile in professional activities. There is much evidence that many doctors work beyond their contracted hours, but there is also a growing feeling that altruism in medicine, if not dying, is at least declining. This might be expressed, for example, in the anaesthetist's …
Gaussian mixture regression on symmetric positive definite matrices manifolds: Application to wrist motion estimation with sEMG

In many sensing and control applications, data are represented in the form of symmetric positive definite (SPD) matrices. Considering the underlying geometry of this data space can be beneficial in many robotics applications. In this paper, we present an extension of Gaussian mixture regression (GMR) with input and/or output data on SPD manifolds. As the covariance of SPD datapoints is a 4th-order tensor, we develop a method for parallel transport of high order covariances on SPD manifolds. The proposed approach is experimented in the context of prosthetic hands, with the estimation of wrist movements based on spatial covariance features computed from surface electromyography (sEMG) signals.
A low noise CMOS preamplifier for femtoampere current detection

This paper presents a low noise CMOS preamplifier for femtoampere detection. Based on a classical charge amplifier, a ping-pong technique is proposed to reset the charge amplifier, keeping the preamplifier stable even in a strong parasitic DC current. With a low reset frequency, the undesired folding noise is greatly reduced and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output can be kept almost constant. The simulation results show that using the proposed preamplifier, the output SNR can still be 72 for an input current of 200 fA among a parasitic DC current of 100 pA. The dynamic range is observed over 120 dB.