Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Delayed xenograft rejection of pig-to-baboon cardiac transplants after cobra venom factor therapy.

BACKGROUND This study sought to (i) investigate the efficacy of cobra venom factor (CVF) in preventing hyperacute rejection (HAR) after pig-to-baboon heart transplantation, (ii) examine the effect of additional splenectomy (Spx) and pharmacologic immunosuppression (IS), and (iii) study delayed graft rejection when HAR is avoided by complement depletion. METHODS Eleven recipient baboons received heterotopic pig heart transplants. Three received either no therapy or IS (cyclosporine + methylprednisolone +/- cyclophosphamide +/- methotrexate) at clinically well-tolerated doses, with graft survival for only 40, 32, and 15 min, respectively. Two received CVF+/-Spx, which extended survival to 5 and 6 days, respectively. Six underwent Spx + CVF therapy + IS; graft survival was 3 hr (technical complication), 6 days (death from sepsis), 10, 12, and 22 days (vascular rejection), and <25 days (euthanized for viral pneumonia with a functioning graft that showed histopathologic features of vascular rejection). RESULTS Dense deposition of IgM and, to a lesser extent, IgG and IgA were seen on the endothelial cells within 1 hr of transplantation, but only trace levels of complement deposition were present in CVF-treated recipients. Within approximately 5-12 days, cardiac xenografts showed progressive infiltration by mononuclear cells, consisting primarily of activated macrophages producing tumor necrosis factor-alpha and small numbers of natural killer cells; T and B cells were absent. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that (i) CVF prevents HAR, (ii) the addition of Spx + IS delays rejection, but (iii) the early deposition of antibody leads to progressive graft injury, resulting in (iv) delayed vascular rejection. Our findings indicate that the features of delayed xenograft rejection described in small animal models also occur in the pig-to-baboon model, and that rejection may occur in a complement-independent manner from the effects of antibody and/or host macrophages.
Hyperkalemia in the elderly: drugs exacerbate impaired potassium homeostasis.

OBJECTIVE To review the pathophysiology underlying the predisposition to hyperkalemia in the elderly; the medications that disrupt potassium balance and promote the development of hyperkalemia in the elderly; the prevention of hyperkalemia in elderly patients treated with potassium-altering medications; and the appropriate management of hyperkalemia when it develops. METHODS AND MAIN RESULTS A MEDLINE search of the literature (1966-1996) using the terms hyperkalemia, drugs, elderly, and treatment was conducted and pertinent review articles, textbooks, and personal files were consulted. Elderly subjects appear to be predisposed to the development of hyperkalemia on the basis of both innate disturbances in potassium homeostasis and comorbid disease processes that impair potassium handling. Hyperkalemia in the elderly is most often precipitated by medications that impair cellular uptake or renal disposal of potassium. This electrolyte disorder is best prevented by recognition of at-risk physiology in the aged, avoidance of therapy with certain high-risk medications, and monitoring of plasma potassium concentration and renal function at intervals appropriate for the medication prescribed. Management of hyperkalemia entails identification of the clinical manifestations of severe hyperkalemia, stabilization of cardiac tissue, promotion of cellular potassium uptake, and ultimately removal of potassium from the body. CONCLUSIONS Geriatric patients should be considered at risk of developing hyperkalemia, especially when they are prescribed certain medications. Potassium levels should be monitored at appropriate intervals when these patients are treated with potassium-altering medications. Appropriate management of hyperkalemia in the elderly can avoid life-threatening neuromuscular and cardiac complications.
Reproductive Disorders and Leptospirosis: A Case Study in a Mixed-Species Farm (Cattle and Swine)

Animal leptospirosis, exempt in rodents, manifests as peculiar biology where the animal can function, simultaneously or not, as a susceptible host or reservoir. In the first case, clinical symptoms are likely. In the second case, infection is subclinical and manifestations are mild or absent. Mild clinical symptoms encompass reproductive failure in production animals for host-adapted Leptospira sp. serovars. This work presents a study on Leptospira sp. infection in a mixed-species (bovine and swine) farm with documented reproductive disorders in the cattle unit. A long calving interval (above 450 days) was the hallmark observed in cows. Some cows (2/26 tested) presented a high titre of antibodies against Leptospira sp. serogroup Sejroe, but the overall within-herd prevalence was low (11.5% and 7.7% for cut-off titres of 1:30 and 1:100, respectively). The in-herd prevalence of leptospirosis in the sow unit (determined for 113/140 animals) was high when using a lowered cut-off threshold (32.7% vs. 1.8% for cut-off titre of 1:30 and 1:100, respectively). In this unit, the most prevalent serogroup was Autumnalis. The final diagnostic confirmation of Leptospira sp. maintenance within the farm was obtained through detection by PCR of Leptospira sp. DNA in an aborted swine litter. Despite the fact that a common causative infective agent was diagnosed in both species, the direct link between the two animal units was not found. Factors such as drinking from the same water source and the use of manure prepared with the swine slurry might raise suspicion of a possible cross-contamination between the two units. In conclusion, this work suggests that leptospirosis be included in the differential diagnosis of reproductive disorders and spontaneous abortions in production animals and provides data that justify the use of a lowered threshold cut-off for herd diagnosis.
Reversing Brain Damage in Former NFL Players: Implications for Traumatic Brain Injury and Substance Abuse Rehabilitation

Abstract Brain injuries are common in professional American football players. Finding effective rehabilitation strategies can have widespread implications not only for retired players but also for patients with traumatic brain injury and substance abuse problems. An open label pragmatic clinical intervention was conducted in an outpatient neuropsychiatric clinic with 30 retired NFL players who demonstrated brain damage and cognitive impairment. The study included weight loss (if appropriate); fish oil (5.6 grams a day); a high-potency multiple vitamin; and a formulated brain enhancement supplement that included nutrients to enhance blood flow (ginkgo and vinpocetine), acetylcholine (acetyl-l-carnitine and huperzine A), and antioxidant activity (alpha-lipoic acid and n-acetyl-cysteine). The trial average was six months. Outcome measures were Microcog Assessment of Cognitive Functioning and brain SPECT imaging. In the retest situation, corrected for practice effect, there were statistically significant increases in scores of attention, memory, reasoning, information processing speed and accuracy on the Microcog. The brain SPECT scans, as a group, showed increased brain perfusion, especially in the prefrontal cortex, parietal lobes, occipital lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus and cerebellum. This study demonstrates that cognitive and cerebral blood flow improvements are possible in this group with multiple interventions.
Interventions for violence against women: scientific review.

CONTEXT Intimate partner violence is prevalent and is associated with significant impairment, yet it remains unclear which interventions, if any, reduce rates of abuse and reabuse. OBJECTIVE To systematically review, from the perspective of primary health care, the available evidence on interventions aimed at preventing abuse or reabuse of women. DATA SOURCES MEDLINE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, HealthStar, and Sociological Abstracts were searched from the database start dates to March 2001 using database-specific key words such as domestic violence, spouse abuse, partner abuse, shelters, and battered women. References of key articles were hand searched. The search was updated in December 2002. STUDY SELECTION Both authors reviewed all titles and abstracts using established inclusion/exclusion criteria. Twenty-two articles met the inclusion criteria for critical appraisal. DATA EXTRACTION Following the evidence-based methods of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care, both authors independently reviewed the 22 included studies using an established hierarchy of study designs and criteria for rating internal validity. Quality ratings of individual studies--good, fair, or poor--were determined based on a set of operational parameters specific to each design category developed with the US Preventive Services Task Force. DATA SYNTHESIS Screening instruments exist that can identify women who are experiencing intimate partner violence. No study has examined, in a comparative design, the effectiveness of screening when the end point is improved outcomes for women (as opposed to identification of abuse). No high-quality evidence exists to evaluate the effectiveness of shelter stays to reduce violence. Among women who have spent at least 1 night in a shelter, there is fair evidence that those who received a specific program of advocacy and counseling services reported a decreased rate of reabuse and an improved quality of life. The benefits of several other intervention strategies in treating both women and men are unclear, primarily because of a lack of suitably designed research measuring appropriate outcomes. In most cases, the potential harms of interventions are not assessed within the studies reviewed. CONCLUSIONS Much has been learned in recent years about the epidemiology of violence against women, yet information about evidence-based approaches in the primary care setting for preventing intimate partner violence is seriously lacking. The evaluation of interventions to improve the health and well-being of abused women remains a key research priority.
An Interval Approach for Robust Control of a Large PHWR with PID Controllers

A nuclear reactor exhibits changing behavior with variation in reactor power. Further, uncertainties in the measurement of the actual power produced by the reactor, the heat transfer from the fuel to the coolant and the reactivity change due to the change in the fuel and coolant temperatures and condition of the core, make it necessary to adopt a robust control approach for design of control systems for such plants. In this paper a 540 MWe Indian PHWR consisting of 14 zones has been modeled using inexact models incorporating bounded parametric variations in power, heat transfer from the fuel to the coolant and temperature coefficients of reactivity of fuel and coolant. These inexact models are then used to obtain a robust and optimal PID controller gains for controlling the reactor power with specified time response under parametric variations, using an interval approach. The methodology is established with credible MATLAB simulations.
The Financial Implications of Coverage of Smoking Cessation Treatment by Managed Care Organizations

This paper presents results from a simulation of the financial impact and cost effectiveness of smoking cessation in a hypothetical managed care organization (MCO), using data from three large managed care organizations and from existing literature. With base-case assumptions and a market cost of capital, at five years, coverage of cessation services costs an MCO $. 61 per member per month (PMPM). In a steady-state situation, net cost is $. 41 PMPM. Both values include altered medical expenditures and MCO revenue patterns attributable to coverage-induced cessation. Quitters gain an average of 7.1 years of life, with a direct coverage cost of $3,417 for each life-year saved. Coverage of cost-effective programs by MCOs should be strongly encouraged.
Minimally Invasive Electrical Impedance Measurements of Ovum Exemplified Using Microelectrodes

It is commonly accepted that electrical impedance provides relevant information about the physiological condition of living tissues. Currently, impedance measurements are performed with relatively large surface electrodes not suitable for studies in micro tissue due to their poor spatial resolution and high ESEI that they cause on the surface of skin. A minimally invasive electrical impedance measurement technique of living tissues using needle shaped electrode is described in this paper. A series of experiments in ovum gallinaceums was performed to demonstrate the feasibility of the probes and the measurement system to decrease diagnostics uncertainty. Ovum impedance measurements with the minimally invasive probe showed that the effect of the outer layer membrane (the stratum corneum of skin) was substantially reduced compared to regular non-invasive impedance. Minimally invasive probes resulted in significant changes of all measured parameters.
Estimating Cycle Time in Complex Job shops

The development of Little's Law has been shown to give relatively precise and replicable estimates of the true cycle time in a variety of production (or network queuing) systems. The majority of the work performed using Little's Law has been done with queuing systems involving single products and single operations. However many queuing systems, such as semiconductor fabrication, are much more complex and involve several products with hundreds of operations. In this paper we compare the expected cycle time as computed by Little's Law to the actual cycle time determined from simulation analysis in a single and multiple product, multiple operation semiconductor fabrication system (a network queue environment). It was found that under simple environments, Little's Law works well. However, in complex job shop processes, such as semiconductor manufacturing, it does not. Factors that cause Little's Law to break down and the factors that are required to accurately estimate cycle time in complex job shops are addressed.
LTE-Advanced enhancements for self-backhauled LTE-U small cells: An Addis Ababa case study

The heterogeneous deployment of high-power macro cells and low-power small cells is expected to become the most common approach for operators to meet the increasing demand for capacity in high traffic areas, such as, dense urban hotspots. Furthermore, the recent proposals for operating Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks in the unlicensed spectrum bands (LTE-U) is being considered as an approach for providing additional spectrum for dense small cell deployments. However, the implementation of affordable and flexible small cell backhaul links remains challenging. To that end, self-backhauling the small cells via the existing macro cells as interesting approach, but has limited capacity compared to traditional dedicated backhaul links. In this paper, we investigate possible performance enhancements through the use of LTE-Advanced enhancements, specifically: coordinated multipoint and carrier aggregation (CA), to relax the downlink backhaul capacity bottleneck for self-backhauled LTE-U small cells. We study this proposed approach through system simulations of a selected realistic deployment scenario in a busy area of Addis Ababa. The results of the simulation campaign demonstrate that deployment of self-backhauled LTE-U small cells in dense urban hotspots can provide notable throughput gains, particularly for the case CA enhancements in the small cell backhaul links.
Microglia with an Endothelin ETB Receptor Aggregate in Rat Hippocampus CA1 Subfields Following Transient Forebrain Ischemia

Abstract: We examined endothelin (ET) receptors in the hippocampus CA1 subfields of stroke‐prone spontaneously hypertensive rats subjected to a 10‐min bilateral carotid occlusion and reperfusion. When delayed neuronal death had occurred in the pyramidal cell layer at 7 days after transient forebrain ischemia, the quantitative receptor autoradiographic method we used revealed a dramatic increase in number of 125I‐ET‐1 binding sites in the hippocampus CA1 subfields. The highest number of de novo binding sites appeared in the area corresponding anatomically to the pyramidal cell layer with neuronal death. These binding sites were characteristically the ETB receptor. The de novo 125I‐ET‐1 binding was mainly present on microglia aggregating with a high density in the damaged pyramidal cell layer. As ET‐1‐ and ET‐3‐like immunoreactivities were highly expressed within astrocytes in damaged neural tissue, the possibility that microglia with the ETB receptor are activated to participate in the pathophysiology of ischemia‐related neural tissue damage by astrocytic ET‐1 and ET‐3 produced in response to transient forebrain ischemia would have to be considered.
Investigating Tourists’ Fun-Eliciting Process toward Tourism Destination Sites: An Application of Cognitive Appraisal Theory

Previous studies have shown that destinations must distinguish themselves from competitors and develop experiential offerings that deliver memorable value to consumers. More and more consumers want experiential service during their travel. Despite the gradual increase in research on experiential consumption in tourism, no consensus has yet emerged on what factors of experiential value lead to positive behavioral outcomes in consumer cognitive appraisals. This study used the cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to investigate the determinants of consumer emotional responses, as well as how evoked emotions affect behavior in tourism. Study findings contribute to the existing body of literature on the ability of CAT to illustrate how the experiential value of “fun” influences on-the-spot behavior. This study also helps tourism destination marketers by providing a clear picture of how to elicit positive emotions among tourists for a tourism destination that leads to positive behavioral outcomes.
A Randomized, Double-Masked, Placebo-Controlled Pilot Trial of Extended IV Lidocaine Infusion for Relief of Ongoing Neuropathic Pain

ObjectivesTo determine the dose–response effect and safety of IV lidocaine at different dose infusion rates on spontaneous ongoing neuropathic pain. MethodsIn this double-masked, placebo-controlled, parallel study conducted in an outpatient clinical research center, patients with peripheral neuropathic pain received a 6-hour infusion of three doses (1, 3, and 5 mg/kg) of lidocaine or placebo. The main outcome measure was relief of pain intensity (percentage pain intensity difference [PID %]). Other measures were responder rate, adverse events, and correlation between lidocaine levels and PID %. ResultsThere was a significant difference in the median PID % between the group treated with lidocaine 5 mg/kg/h (−34.60) and the placebo group (−11.96, P=0.012). Such effect began 4 hours after the onset of treatment and lasted until the end of the study. Lidocaine at lower infusion rates was no better than placebo in relieving pain. A modest but significant correlation was found between methylethylglycinexylidide (MEGX) levels and pain relief (R2=0.60). There were no serious adverse events, but in two patients lidocaine was stopped prematurely. ConclusionsLidocaine at 5 mg/kg/h was more effective than placebo at relieving neuropathic pain. The effect started 4 hours after the onset of treatment and continued for at least 4 hours after the end of the infusion. Additional research is needed using higher infusion rates with larger sample sizes to confirm these results and to explore the role of MEGX in the relief of neuropathic pain.
Strategies for Recruiting Highly Skilled Migrants from India and China: A Case Study of Firms in Sweden

A striking characteristic in labour migration to Western Europe since the beginning of the 2000s has been the increased number of skilled migrants. In Sweden, most skilled migrants from countries outside the EU come from India, but there has also been significant skilled migration from China. This article investigates the impact that firms have on the migration from India and China. It focuses on managers' motives for employing migrants, their view of migrant workers and the means they use to find suitable workers. The article argues that interorganisational relationships play a key role in the recruitment of highly skilled migrants. The firms that employ migrants hold positions in an organisational field, and the relationships they have with other actors within the field shape how and why they employ migrants. The empirical data was collected through a multiple‐case study of 13 firms that have employed high‐skilled migrants from India and China.
Bidirectional Trafficking of Prostaglandin E2 Receptors Involved in Long-Term Potentiation in Visual Cortex

Although prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) has a broad spectrum of biological activities that have been confirmed by previous studies, the roles of PGE2 in synaptic plasticity such as long-term potentiation (LTP) in the CNS have yet to be characterized in detail. The present results of electrophysiological and biochemical studies indicated that PGE2 is actually produced in acute visual cortex slices in response to theta-bust stimulation (TBS) and is involved postsynaptically in TBS-induced LTP. RNA interference (RNAi) for PGE2 receptor subtypes EP2 and EP3, which are known to upregulate and downregulate the level of cAMP, respectively, induced significant decreases and increases of LTP, respectively. Moreover, analysis of the localization of receptor subtypes at the membrane surface or cytosol showed that stimuli such as TBS regulate the trafficking of EP2 and EP3 between the membrane and cytosol of the postsynapses, rising up to and leaving the membrane, respectively, resulting in increased and decreased expression of EP2 and EP3 at the membrane, respectively. Increased activation of EP2 and decreased activation of EP3 by PGE2 synergistically induce an increase in cAMP level, which may induce LTP. This causes activation of CREB (cAMP response element-binding protein) in the postsynaptic cells, which may be involved in the maintenance of LTP. These observations indicate that in TBS-induced LTP of the visual cortex, PGE2 is released from the postsynaptic cells and then activates PGE2 receptors at the postsynaptic membranes, which is regulated by trafficking of the differential PGE2 receptor subtypes in an activity-dependent bidirectional manner.
Fractal monopole antenna design Using Minkowski Island geometry

In this paper, two printed multiband fractal monopole antennas using the 1st and 2nd iteration of Minkowski Island geometry are proposed for WLAN communications. The monopole antennas have compact size of 28 × 18 mm2 and 21.5 × 18 mm2, respectively. The proposed antennas with different sizes of the ground plane have also been studied through numerical simulations in Ansoft HFSS. It is found that without using any impedance matching method, both of the proposed antennas exhibit good impedance match at both 2.4 and 5.2 GHz band, which is confirmed by the measurement results. It is also observed that the monopole antenna with the geometry of the 1st iteration Minkowski Island can also operate at 3.5 and 5.8 GHz, which means that it almost covers the entire required frequency bands for 802.11a/b/g and WiMAX communications. The simulation shows that both antennas exhibit high radiation efficiency and the measured radiation patterns show that both antennas have similar radiation patterns at each resonant frequency.