Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Treating Stroke as a Medical Emergency: A Survey of Resident Physicians’ Attitudes toward “Brain Attack” and Carotid Endarterectomy

OBJECTIVE A major impetus of the “brain attack” campaign is the early recognition and treatment of acute stroke. Critical to this goal is the education of physicians during their residency training. METHODS Resident physicians in Los Angeles who were in family practice (18%), internal medicine (51%), emergency medicine (20%), and neurology (11%) and had already completed their first year of training responded to a questionnaire on stroke and the treatment of carotid stenosis. RESULTS Of the 266 respondents, 76% had heard of the “brain attack” campaign, 22% did not identify dysarthria as a symptom of stroke, and 21% did not identify obtundation as a presentation of stroke. Twenty-eight percent chose not to use tissue plasminogen activator for acute ischemic stroke, and 60% recognized the need to begin treatment within 3 hours. More than 90% of respondents were able to identify correct screening tests for patients with suspected carotid stenosis. However, 56% responded that they would not advocate operating on patients with asymptomatic severe stenosis (>70%) until stenosis reached a critical value (85%). Conversely, 45% would recommend operative treatment for symptomatic patients who had less than 60% stenosis. Sixty-eight percent would refer patients to vascular surgeons, 14% to neurosurgeons, and 17% to both for carotid endarterectomy. CONCLUSION Recognition of stroke as a medical emergency is improving. However, significant progress can still be made in the recognition of stroke symptoms. Primary care and neurology residents remain skeptical about carotid endarterectomy for asymptomatic patients, whereas there is enthusiasm for treating stroke survivors. Education by members of the surgical community could promote the aggressive treatment of asymptomatic patients to prevent stroke.
Pigs in space: spatial memory and its susceptibility to interference

This study provided basic information about spatial memory in the domestic pig, Sus scrofa and examined how susceptible it is to disruption by environmental stimuli. Eight male pigs were tested individually in a foraging arena. Each day, they entered the arena to search for food randomly located in one of 10 enclosed areas (search trial). After finding and eating the food, they were removed from the arena for a retention interval, and then allowed back in to relocate the food in the same area as previously (relocation trial). Once pigs had achieved a criterion level of performance in relocation trials, 'disturbances' (e.g. isolation, novel food source, novel spatial environment) were presented during the retention interval. Disturbance days were separated by control days on which no disturbance was presented. During search trials, pigs did not use food-related cues to locate food, but appeared to use memory to search systematically and avoid revisits to empty areas. During relocation trials, they found food using fewer area visits than expected by chance, indicating that they could remember the location of food across both 10-min and 2-h retention intervals. Disturbances administered during 10-min retention intervals resulted in more relocation errors than on corresponding control days, indicating that spatial memory in pigs is susceptible to interference by relatively mild environmental stimuli, in contrast to that in rats, Rattus norvegicus and pigeons, Columba livia which appears to be highly resistant to retroactive interference even when potent stimuli are used. Analysis of error locations suggested that disturbances probably acted to increase the general area in which the pig remembered the food to be located, and so reduced accuracy of memory without eradicating it. There was no evidence that errors made during relocation trials represented sampling of areas not visited during the preceding search trial.Copyright 1997 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour
Growth and Chronic Disease

Growth impairment occurs with many chronic conditions. Cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s disease and juvenile idiopathic arthritis are relatively common chronic diseases in childhood associated with substantial growth impairment. While growth failure may be the initial presenting feature of pathology, the pattern of growth is also a useful measure of disease severity and response to treatment. In addition to its diagnostic value, the resulting short stature cannot only be unacceptable to patients but can also have detrimental effects on the physical health of patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis. Growth impairment in children with chronic disease is associated with disruption of the growth hormone (GH)–insulin-like growth factor (IGF) axis, and predominantly results from undernutrition, chronic inflammation and prolonged corticosteroid treatment. Undernutrition leads to major adaptations in the endocrine system geared towards conserving energy, diverting substrates away from growth and reproduction, and providing alternative sources of energy for critical body homeostasis. Although chronic inflammatory processes exacerbate undernutrition, proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β also adversely affect growth, independent of nutrition, by disrupting the integrity of the GH–IGF axis and by direct local effects on growth plate chondrogenesis. These growth-regulating mechanisms are disturbed further by corticosteroids used in some chronic conditions for their anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive properties. It is likely that the growth-suppressing processes slow growth plate senescence, and this in turn enables catch-up growth on recovery from chronic disease and withdrawal of corticosteroid treatment. Trials of recombinant human GH (rhGH) in patients with growth failure suggest improvement in linear growth as well as beneficial effects on body composition and clinical course. These have been of relatively short duration, and long-term benefits as well as the safety of rhGH need to be evaluated particularly when given concomitantly with corticosteroids.
Inhibition of transforming growth factor-beta-induced cataractous changes in lens explants by ocular media and alpha 2-macroglobulin.

PURPOSE To investigate the ocular media for the presence of inhibitors of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF beta) using a lens epithelial explant system in which TGF beta induces cataractous changes. The effect of alpha 2-macroglobulin, an inhibitor of TGF beta in other systems, also was assessed. METHODS Explants prepared from 21-day-old rats were cultured with TGF beta 2 with and without 50% bovine aqueous or vitreous or alpha 2-macroglobulin. alpha 2-macroglobulin was added to an aqueous concentrate, shown to contain endogenous TGF beta activity by blocking with anti-TGF beta. Explants were monitored by phase-contrast microscopy for 5 days and assessed in terms of capsule wrinkling, spindle-cell formation, blebbing, and cell loss. alpha 2-macroglobulin in the ocular media was assessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot analysis. RESULTS At 50% strength, neither aqueous nor vitreous demonstrated TGF beta-like activity; however, aqueous partially and vitreous completely prevented cataractous changes induced by 25 and 100 pg/ml TGF beta 2, respectively. alpha 2-macroglobulin (50 to 200 micrograms/ml) also protected against these changes, with complete inhibition of TGF beta 2 or aqueous-derived TGF beta activity at the highest concentration. A threefold higher concentration of alpha 2-macroglobulin was detected in vitreous than aqueous. CONCLUSIONS Both aqueous and vitreous contain molecule(s) that inhibit TGF beta 2 activity. alpha 2-macroglobulin has been identified in the ocular media and shown to block cataractous changes induced by TGF beta. Maintaining appropriate levels of alpha 2-macroglobulin or similar molecules in the ocular media may protect lens cells from the damaging effects of TGF beta, and reduced levels may predispose to cataract.
Parvovirus B19–associated Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: Clinical Mimicry or Autoimmune Induction?

To the Editor: Kawashiri, et al recently reported that biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARD; i.e., infliximab, etanercept, and tocilizumab) may have therapeutic efficacy by inhibiting CCL20 production in rheumatoid synovium1. Indeed, serum CCL20 concentration in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was clearly decreased by treatment with biologic DMARD. As well, DMARD also can inhibit the production … Address correspondence to Prof. D-Q. Ye; E-mail: ydq{at}ahmu.edu. cn
Study of Sympathetic Function Tests during Different Phases of Menstrual Cycle

The fluctuation in hormonal concentrations during the menstrual cycle has profound influence on autonomic and metabolic activities. In the present study we compare the autonomic sympathetic variables to find out corelation between menstrual phase-follicular phase and also to find out co-relation between menstrual phase-luteal phase. The present study was carried out on 150 healthy female subjects with normal menstrual cycles between the ages of 18 to 25 years, in the Department of physiology, Dr. S. N. Medical College Jodhpur. Sympathetic non-invasive autonomic function tests were performed that is cold pressure test and postural challenge test including resting blood pressure. The tests were conducted during menstrual phase, follicular phase and luteal phase of the menstrual cycle using mercury sphygmomanometer. The results were statistically analysed by applying paired “t” test. Blood pressure, orthostatic variation of blood pressure and cold pressor test were statistically significantly higher (p<0.05), in luteal phase as compared to menstrual phase of menstrual cycle in contrast to the significant less (p<0.05) in the follicular phase as compared to menstrual phase. The sympathetic function tests showed significant (p<0.01) differences between the follicular phase-menstrual phase and Luteal phase-menstrual phase. Our study shows that sympathetic activity is highest during luteal phase and lowest in the follicular phase as compared to menstrual phase. This higher sympathetic activity may be correlated with higher oestrogen & progesterone levels during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. The results emerging from our study emphasize the complexity of the relationship between ovarian steroids & various hemodynamic regulatory systems.
The effect of long‐term physostigmine administration in Alzheimer's disease

We assessed the effect of chronic long-term physostigmine in 20 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease. Initially, all patients went through a dose-finding phase and a double-blind crossover period, and were subsequently classified as physostigmine responders or nonresponders based on an a priori classification system. We then offered all patients long-term treatment with physostigmine regardless of their initial classification. Results revealed that responders spent significantly (p < 0.0005) longer time periods on drug (36.1 ± 4.6 months) than nonresponders (10.8 ± 3.2). During a 2nd crossover period, 18 months into treatment, responders still demonstrated behavioral improvement, as assessed with the Sandoz Clinical Assessment-Geriatric Scale, whereas there were no behavioral changes observed in nonresponders. There were no effects on formal neuropsychological assessment. The results suggest that a subgroup of Alzheimer's patients benefits from long-term physostigmine therapy.
Long‐term Stability of Endocardial Left Ventricular Pacing Leads Placed via the Coronary Sinus

Background: Left ventricular endocardial pacing leads placed via the coronary sinus (CS) are increasingly implanted to achieve cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT); however, the long‐term stability of these leads is unknown. We sought to determine the implant success and long‐term stability of CS leads in our single center experience.
Biometric person identification using near-infrared hand-dorsa vein images

Biometric recognition is becoming more and more important with the increasing demand for security, and more usable with the improvement of computer vision as well as pattern recognition technologies. Hand vein patterns have been recognised as a good biometric measure for personal identification due to many excellent characteristics, such as uniqueness and stability, as well as difficulty to copy or forge. This thesis covers all the research and development aspects of a biometric person identification system based on near-infrared hand-dorsa vein images. Firstly, the design and realisation of an optimised vein image capture device is presented. In order to maximise the quality of the captured images with relatively low cost, the infrared illumination and imaging theory are discussed. Then a database containing 2040 images from 102 individuals, which were captured by this device, is introduced. Secondly, image analysis and the customised image pre-processing methods are discussed. The consistency of the database images is evaluated using mean squared error (MSE) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR). Geometrical pre-processing, including shearing correction and region of interest (ROI) extraction, is introduced to improve image consistency. Image noise is evaluated using total variance (TV) values. Grey-level pre-processing, including grey-level normalisation, filtering and adaptive histogram equalisation are applied to enhance vein patterns. Thirdly, a gradient-based image segmentation algorithm is compared with popular algorithms in references like Niblack and Threshold Image algorithm to demonstrate its effectiveness in vein pattern extraction. Post-processing methods including morphological filtering and thinning are also presented. Fourthly, feature extraction and recognition methods are investigated, with several new approaches based on keypoints and local binary patterns (LBP) proposed. Through comprehensive comparison with other approaches based on structure and texture features as well as performance evaluation using the database created with 2040 images, the proposed approach based on multi-scale partition LBP is shown to provide the best recognition performance with an identification rate of nearly 99%. Finally, the whole hand-dorsa vein identification system is presented with a user interface for administration of user information and for person identification.
Temperature sensitivity of decomposition in relation to soil organic matter pools: critique and outlook

Abstract. Knorr et al. (2005) concluded that soil organic carbon pools with longer turnover times are more sensitive to temperature. We show that this conclusion is equivocal, largely dependent on their specific selection of data and does not persist when the data set of Katterer et al. (1998) is analysed in a more appropriate way. Further, we analyse how statistical properties of the model parameters may interfere with correlative analyses that relate the Q10 of soil respiration with the basal rate, where the latter is taken as a proxy for soil organic matter quality. We demonstrate that negative parameter correlations between Q10-values and base respiration rates are statistically expected and not necessarily provide evidence for a higher temperature sensitivity of low quality soil organic matter. Consequently, we propose it is premature to conclude that stable soil carbon is more sensitive to temperature than labile carbon.
Toxic effect of hexavalent chromium on the workers employed in chrome plating

Chromium has been considered corrosive, cytotoxic, and carcinogenic for humans and occupational exposure to chromium compounds may result in various health hazards. In this study, 200 chrome plating workers from Lahore industrial area with age ranging from 20 to 50 were selected for the assessment of health risks. A control group of 100 individuals from the same age without chromium exposure was selected. A total of 100 chrome plating workers with age ranging 20-35, were included. Hexavalent chromium was significantly higher among all the workers as compared to controls. Alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and Alanine transaminase (ALT) were significantly (p<0.001) higher in exposed groups I and II than control while albumin (Alb) level was significantly (p>0.001) lower in both the groups as compared to controls.
Optical Communications New and enhanced protection scheme in survivable meshed WDM optical networks

This letter studies the protection design problem for single-link failure in survivable WDM optical networks and presents a new shared-path protection (NSPP) scheme. For static demand matrix, this letter presents the integer linear programming (ILP) formulations and develops a heuristic that is based on the Suurballe's method and rerouting principles. Simulation results are shown to be promising. Copyright © 2006 AEIT
Total Elbow Arthroplasty in Patients Who Have Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis*

Patients who have juvenile rheumatoid arthritis often are seen at a very young age because of severe stiffness and pain in several joints. While total elbow replacement may be indicated in these patients, this procedure is difficult to perform because of contracture of the soft tissues and the extremely small bones and intramedullary cavities in these patients. As there is little information in the literature regarding this procedure, we attempted to learn about the long-term results by evaluating nineteen patients (twenty-four elbows) with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis who had been managed with total elbow arthroplasty. At an average of 7.4 years (range, two to fourteen years) after the operation, there was an improvement in the average Mayo elbow performance score from 31 points (range, 5 to 55 points) preoperatively to 90 points (range, 55 to 100 points). Twenty-two (96 per cent) of the twenty-three elbows available at the most recent follow-up evaluation caused little or no pain, but the improvement in the range of motion was not as reliable. The average arc of flexion improved from only 63 degrees preoperatively to 90 degrees postoperatively; the average postoperative arc of flexion began at 35 degrees, with additional flexion to 125 degrees. Examination of the four elbows that had been ankylosed before the procedure revealed an average arc of 73 degrees after the operation, and evaluation of the twenty ipsilateral wrists that were not limited by disease revealed that pronation and supination had been maintained. The average functional score improved from 9 points (range, 0 to 25 points) preoperatively to 23 points (range, 15 to 25 points) postoperatively (p < 0.001). The function of eighteen elbows (78 per cent) did not adversely affect the ability to perform activities of daily living. There were thirteen complications, including one perioperative death, that affected twelve of the twenty-four elbows. Seven of the nine early complications, including a fracture of the olecranon, subluxation of the prosthesis, stiffness of the elbow, and problems with wound-healing, led to an additional operative procedure but did not adversely affect the long-term outcome after appropriate diagnosis and treatment. Late complications (aseptic loosening, instability, and worn bushings) led to three poor results. None of the eighteen semiconstrained prostheses had radiographic evidence of loosening at the most recent follow-up evaluation. Of the twenty-three elbows that had been followed for at least two years, twelve (52 per cent) had an excellent result, eight (35 per cent) had a good result, and three (13 per cent) had a poor result.
Improving Measurement of Death Anxiety

Two Likert versions of Templet's death anxiety scale were constructed. Three death-anxiety scales were administered to 320 college subjects along with the Marlowe-Crowne Scale and a self-perceived religiosity checklist. 281 subjects were retested on the death anxiety measures. A Likert version of the Templer scale increased the internal consistency of the scale and its discriminability. Females scored higher than males on the three death-anxiety measures for both testing periods. The results of the present study suggest that the Templer/McMordie scale offers advantages over Templer's original scale.
A New Numerical Scheme for the Simulation of Corona Fields

A new numerical scheme is proposed for the computation of the corona space charge density and electric field distributions in wire-duct electrode configurations. An electric vector potential formulation is used for the computation of the electrostatic field, whereas the current continuity equation is applied for the derivation of the space charge density. We apply a technique based on a combination of finite element and donor cell methods. The solution procedure is obtained iteratively by using the Newton-Raphson algorithm in order to converge to a self-consistent solution. The same mesh is used throughout the whole iterative procedure. The Kaptzov's condition is easy to handle and there is no need for an outer loop in order to impose the correct charge condition on the surface of the corona wire electrode. Numerical results are presented.
A novel cache architecture to support layer-four packet classification at memory access speeds

Existing and emerging layer-4 switching technologies require packet classification to be performed on more than one header field, known as layer-4 lookup. Currently, the fastest general layer-8 lookup scheme delivers a throughput of 1 million lookups per second (MLPS), far off from 25/75 MLPS needed to support 50/150 Gbps layer-4 router. We propose the use of route caching to speed up layer-4 lookup, and design and implement a cache architecture for this purpose. We investigated the locality behavior of the Interent traffic (at layer-4) and propose a near-LRU algorithm that can best harness this behavior. In implementation, to best approximate fully-associative near-LRU using relatively inexpensive set-associative hardware, we invented a dynamic set-associative scheme that exploits the nice properties of N-universal hash functions. The cache architecture achieves a high and stable hit ratio above 90 percent and a fast throughput up to 75 MLPS at a reasonable cost.
Microvascular effects of the inhibition of dipeptidylpeptidase IV by linagliptin in nondiabetic hypertensive patients

Background: Recent studies suggest vascular benefits of dipeptidylpeptidase IV (DPP-IV) inhibition in patients with diabetes mellitus. Only little is known about potential vascular effects of DPP-IV inhibitors in nondiabetic individuals. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of DPP-IV inhibition in a nondiabetic hypertensive population. Method: This was a double-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled, mechanistic study, comparing microvascular effects of the DPP-IV inhibitor linagliptin with placebo in nondiabetic individuals with a history of arterial hypertension. Twenty-one patients received 5 mg linagliptin (5 women; age 67.6 ± 6.0 years; mean ± SD), whereas 22 patients were randomized to placebo (5 women; age 64.8 ± 7.1 years). Results: At baseline, after 6 and 12 weeks, retinal microcirculation and arterial blood pressure profiles were assessed. Moreover, blood samples were taken for the measurement of HbA1c, asymmetric dimethylarginine, C-reactive peptide, cyclic guanosinmonophosphate, transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß1) and cystatin C. Retinal capillary perfusion increased by 23.7 ± 10.3% (mean ± SEM; P < 0.05), retinal arterial flow by 7.6 ± 0.6 (P < 0.05) and the retinal hyperemic response by 290 ± 263% (P < 0.05) during treatment with linagliptin. No change in retinal blood flow was found in the placebo group. Although blood pressure declined in both groups, a significant decline in TGF-ß1 by 9.3 ± 4.5% (P < 0.05) could only be observed in the linagliptin group. No significant change in other laboratory parameters could be observed in both groups. Conclusion: Our study suggests microvascular and antifibrotic effects of linagliptin in a nondiabetic, hypertensive population.