Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Volume control, blood pressure and cardiovascular function. Lessons from hemodialysis treatment.

The balance of sodium, through its dietary intake and renal excretion, determines extracellular fluid volume (ECV). Chronic renal failure and dialysis patients present with a positive sodium balance and increased ECV. The consequences are systemic hypertension and vascular and cardiac remodelling, especially left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). High blood pressure (BP) and LVH increase the mortality risk of dialysis patients. Correction of ECV overload with ultrafiltration has led to the dry weight concept, which is the postdialysis body weight that allows BP to remain normal until the next dialysis session, without the need for antihypertensive medication and despite interdialytic weight gain. Blood pressure is the key indicator of ECV and is used to set the body weight target at each dialysis session. Normalization of BP indicates normalization of ECV, usually with a lag-time. Shortening dialysis time, which increases intradialytic morbidity, compromises the achievement of dry weight and normalization of ECV. Such intradialytic events may also lead to an increase in dialysate sodium concentration, which causes thirst, and greater interdialytic weight gain, positive sodium balance and worsening BP. These complications have led to the development of other tools for ECV assessment, such as inferior vena cava diameter, bioimpedance, and blood volume monitoring; their usefulness is discussed.
Conditional negative association for competing urns

We prove conditional negative association for random variables xj = 1 {|σ ‐1(j)|≥t j} (j∈[n]:= {1…n}) , where σ(1)…σ(m) are i.i. d. from [n]. (The σ(i) 's are thought of as the locations of balls dropped independently into urns 1…n according to some common distribution, so that, for some threshold tj, xj is the indicator of the event that at least tj balls land in urn j.) We mostly deal with the more general situation in which the σ(i) 's need not be identically distributed, proving results which imply conditional negative association in the i.i. d. case. Some of the results—particularly Lemma 8 on graph orientations—are thought to be of independent interest. We also give a counterexample to a negative correlation conjecture of D. Welsh, a strong version of a (still open) conjecture of G. Farr. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 2012
Atmospheric Methane Consumption by Forest Soils and Extracted Bacteria at Different pH Values

ABSTRACT The effect of pH on atmospheric methane (CH4) consumption was studied with slurries of forest soils and with bacteria extracted from the same soils. Soil samples were collected from a mixed hardwood stand in New Hampshire, from jackpine and aspen stands at the BOREAS (Boreal Ecosystem Atmosphere Study) site near Thompson, northern Manitoba, from sites in southern Québec, including a beech stand and a meadow, and from a site in Ontario (cultivated humisol). Consumption of atmospheric CH4 (concentration, approximately 1.8 ppm) occurred at depths of >5 cm in both acidic (pH 4.5 to 5.2) and alkaline (pH 7.2 to 7.8) soils. In slurries of acidic soils, maximum activity occurred at different pH values (pH 4.0 to 6.5). Bacteria extracted from these soils by high-speed blending and density gradient centrifugation showed pH responses different from the pH responses of the slurries. In all cases, these bacteria had a methanotrophy pH optimum of 5.8 and exhibited no activity at pH 6.8 to 7.0, the pH optimum range for known methanotrophs. This difference in pH responses could be useful in modifying media currently used for isolation of these organisms. Methanotrophic activity was induced in previously non-CH4-consuming soils by preincubation with 5% (vol/vol) CH4 (50,000 μl of CH4 per liter) or by liquid enrichment with 20% CH4. The bacteria showed pH responses typical of known methanotrophs and not typical of preexisting consumers of ambient CH4. Furthermore, methanotrophs induced by high CH4 levels were more readily extracted from soil than preexisting ambient CH4 consumers were. In the alkaline soils, preexisting activity either was destroyed or resisted extraction by the procedure used. The results support the hypothesis that consumers of ambient CH4 in soils are physiologically distinct from the known methanotrophs.
Pleural mesothelioma mimics the integrin profile of activated, sessile rather than detached mesothelial cells

Mesothelial cells (MC) form a polarized monolayer lining serosal cavities. During serositis, the MC lining undergoes hyperplasia, and MC are shed into effusions. During these processes, contact with basement membrane and, ultimately, neighboring cells is at least temporarily lost, suggesting regulated alterations in cell/matrix and cell/cell adhesion. Such interactions are primarily mediated by integrins. Malignant mesothelioma has a growth pattern characterized by lateral, limited invasive but contiguous spread. During serositis, activated MC, both sessile and detached, expressed an extended spectrum of β1, β3 and β4 integrins compared with resting MC, as shown by immunohistology. Malignant mesothelioma had an integrin repertoire and a subcellular distribution resembling that of activated sessile rather than floating MC. In vitro, MC exposed a more comprehensive pattern of integrins than that of the newly established mesothelioma cell lines ME‐HD‐1 and ME‐HD‐2, as shown by flow cytometry. MC consistently adhered better than mesothelioma cells to laminin, tenascin, fibronectin and collagen type IV. Adhesion of MC and mesothelioma cells to these matrix proteins was, at least in part, mediated via β1 integrins. The different integrin profiles and adhesion properties of cultured MC and mesothelioma cells may reflect a limited functional differentiation of the latter. Int. J. Cancer 72:77–86, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss Inc.
Simultaneous ablation and injection by electrically-induced mono-dispersed bubble knife for biomedical applications

For the present study, simultaneous ablation and injection was successfully operated by using electrically-induced micro-bubble knife for biomedical applications. The novelty of the present techniques are (1) dispensing of micro-bubble can penetrate and make an ablation of a cytomembrane and (2) the reagent was successfully introduced to the interface of the bubble surface. This technique has advantages over the conventional injection technologies such as electroporation or ultrasound operation in terms of localization of injection and ability of transportation.
A Two-stage Model for Credit Guarantee Pricing Based on Relative VaR Method

The VaR model-based credit guarantee pricing method includes the absolute VaR method and the relative VaR method.Compared with the absolute VaR method,using the relative VaR method to measure the risk of loans more than one year is more accurate and closer to reality.Because the existing absolute VaR method has a defect of only considering the original debt risk,this paper uses the relative VaR method and presents a two-stage pricing model of credit guarantee which considers both the original debt risk and the extended debt risk.It makes the VaR model-based credit guarantee pricing method more scientific and reasonable.
Resting heart rate is an independent predictor of death in patients with colorectal, pancreatic, and non‐small cell lung cancer: results of a prospective cardiovascular long‐term study

Patients with advanced cancer have been shown to suffer from abnormal cardiac function and impaired exercise capacity that may contribute to their impaired quality of life. As tachycardia is considered as a sign of potential early cardiac damage, we sought to determine whether resting heart rate and other ECG‐derived variables have prognostic value.
A Mobile Information System Based on Crowd-Sensed and Official Crime Data for Finding Safe Routes: A Case Study of Mexico City

Mobile information systems agendas are increasingly becoming an essential part of human life and they play an important role in several daily activities. These have been developed for different contexts such as public facilities in smart cities, health care, traffic congestions, e-commerce, financial security, user-generated content, and crowdsourcing. In GIScience, problems related to routing systems have been deeply explored by using several techniques, but they are not focused on security or crime rates. In this paper, an approach to provide estimations defined by crime rates for generating safe routes in mobile devices is proposed. It consists of integrating crowd-sensed and official crime data with a mobile application. Thus, data are semantically processed by an ontology and classified by the Bayes algorithm. A geospatial repository was used to store tweets related to crime events of Mexico City and official reports that were geocoded for obtaining safe routes. A forecast related to crime events that can occur in a certain place with the collected information was performed. The novelty is a hybrid approach based on semantic processing to retrieve relevant data from unstructured data sources and a classifier algorithm to collect relevant crime data from official government reports with a mobile application.
Use of a Rician Distribution for Modeling Aspect-Dependent RCS Amplitude and Scintillation

A generalized model based on the Rician distribution is proposed as a more inclusive description of a broader variety of targets than can be modeled using the Swerling types. In this approach, both the mean and scintillation of the target RCS can be represented as aspect angle and frequency dependent. The Rician pdf is expressed as a function of two parameters, the fractional contribution of the fixed-amplitude component to the target RCS with the remainder as Rayleigh and the total RCS. The pdf of the RCS of Swerling 3 targets is shown to closely agree with the pdf of a target with 75% of the RCS from a fixed-amplitude scatterer. A parameter estimation procedure for the new model is given and the application of the new model is illustrated with a hollow cylindrical tank and double-ended cone.
Mongoose Rabies in the Caribbean

Mongooses (Herpestes auropunctatus) have been introduced into most of the larger Caribbean islands, some notable exceptions being Dominica, Tobago, and Montserrat. Rabies in Caribbean mongooses is present in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic (and presumably Haiti), and Grenada. Bat rabies is known on Cuba, Grenada, and Trinidad, although mongooses found on Trinidad are free of the disease. None of the other islands is known to have rabies, although it could be present in sequestered bat populations. All reported case numbers of mongoose rabies in the Caribbean are underestimates, and available information is at best incomplete and at times fragmentary. Nevertheless, data are presented from the four affected islands. Mongoose reduction campaigns have been undertaken on Cuba and Grenada. In Cuba strychnine sulfate inoculated into labeled eggs is used, whereas in Grenada sodium fluoroacetate (1080) has been used in boiled cowhide baits. Mongoose poisoning is unsatisfactory and ineffective in the long-term. Because many mongooses naturally exposed to rabies virus develop serum neutralizing antibodies and are considered to be immunized, possibly for life, vaccination in the wild has been under consideration since the mid-1970s. Early attempts to produce a pill coated with ERA vaccine for enteric absorption in mongooses were not very successful, but new modified vaccines and recombinant techniques hold considerable promise.
When Does a Deep Dyslexic Make a Semantic Error? The Roles of Age-of-Acquisition, Concreteness, and Frequency

Semantic reading errors are the central and defining feature of deep dyslexia. This study compared the words the deep dyslexic patient LW read correctly with those she omitted and those to which she produced semantic errors in terms of their concreteness, age-of-acquisition, frequency, and length. Semantic errors were made to less concrete, later-acquired, and shorter words than were read correctly; there was no reliable effect of word frequency. More importantly, the actual semantic errors produced were later-acquired than the stimulus words, but they were not more concrete or reliably more frequent. These results implicate age-of-acquisition in the process that produces semantic errors. It is proposed that concreteness determines the specificity of the semantic system to activate a set of candidate responses and that age-of-acquisition biases the ease with which certain words can be selected from this set to be produced as reading responses.
900-MHz microwave radiation promotes oxidation in rat brain

Recently, there have been several reports referring to detrimental effects due to radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) exposure. Special attention was given to investigate the effect of mobile phone exposure on the rat brain. Since the integrative mechanism of the entire body lies in the brain, it is suggestive to analyze its biochemical aspects. For this, 35-day old Wistar rats were exposed to a mobile phone for 2 h per day for a duration of 45 days where specific absorption rate (SAR) was 0.9 W/Kg. Animals were divided in two groups: sham exposed (n = 6) and exposed group (n = 6). Our observations indicate a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the level of glutathione peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, and an increase in catalase activity. Moreover, protein kinase shows a significant decrease in exposed group (P < 0.05) of hippocampus and whole brain. Also, a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the level of pineal melatonin and a significant increase (P < 0.05) in creatine kinase and caspase 3 was observed in exposed group of whole brain as compared with sham exposed. Finally, a significant increase in the level of ROS (reactive oxygen species) (P < 0.05) was also recorded. The study concludes that a reduction or an increase in antioxidative enzyme activities, protein kinase C, melatonin, caspase 3, and creatine kinase are related to overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in animals under mobile phone radiation exposure. Our findings on these biomarkers are clear indications of possible health implications.
Systematic Review of Studies on Compliance with Hand Hygiene Guidelines in Hospital Care

Objectives. To assess the prevalence and correlates of compliance and noncompliance with hand hygiene guidelines in hospital care. Design. A systematic review of studies published before January 1, 2009, on observed or self-reported compliance rates. Methods. Articles on empirical studies written in English and conducted on general patient populations in industrialized countries were included. The results were grouped by type of healthcare worker before and after patient contact. Correlates contributing to compliance were grouped and listed. Results. We included 96 empirical studies, the majority (n = 65) in intensive care units. In general, the study methods were not very robust and often ill reported. We found an overall median compliance rate of 40%. Unadjusted compliance rates were lower in intensive care units (30%–40%) than in other settings (50%–60%), lower among physicians (32%) than among nurses (48%), and before (21%) rather than after (47%) patient contact. The majority of the time, the situations that were associated with a lower compliance rate were those with a high activity level and/or those in which a physician was involved. The majority of the time, the situations that were associated with a higher compliance rate were those having to do with dirty tasks, the introduction of alcohol-based hand rub or gel, performance feedback, and accessibility of materials. A minority of studies (n = 12) have investigated the behavioral determinants of hand hygiene, of which only 7 report the use of a theoretical framework with inconclusive results. Conclusions. Noncompliance with hand hygiene guidelines is a universal problem, which calls for standardized measures for research and monitoring. Theoretical models from the behavioral sciences should be used internationally and should be adapted to better explain the complexities of hand hygiene.
Invasive and Noninvasive Group A Streptococcal Isolates with Different speA Alleles in The Netherlands: Genetic Relatedness and Production of Pyrogenic Exotoxins A and B

ABSTRACT Streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SPE-A) and SPE-B have been implicated in the pathogenesis of severe group A streptococcal (GAS) disease. We studied 31 invasive GAS strains including 18 isolates from patients with toxic shock syndrome and 22 noninvasive strains isolated in The Netherlands between 1994 and 1998. These strains were associated with the different allelic variants of the gene encoding SPE-A. We selected endemic strains with speA-positive M and T serotypes: speA2-associated M1T1 and M22-60T12 strains,speA3-associated M3T3 strains, andspeA4-associated M6T6 strains. SincespeA1-positive isolates were not frequently encountered, we included speA1 strains of different serotypes. The GAS strains were compared genotypically by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and phenotypically by the in vitro production of SPE-A and SPE-B. All strains within one M and T type appeared to be of clonal origin. Most strains produced SPE-A and SPE-B, but only a minority of thespeA4-positive isolates did so. Among our isolates,speA1- and speA3-positive strains produced significantly more SPE-A than speA2- andspeA4-carrying strains, while SPE-B production was most pronounced among speA1- and speA2-containing strains. There was a marked degree of variability in the amounts of exotoxins produced in vitro by strains that shared the same genetic profile. We conclude that the differences in the in vitro production of SPE-A and SPE-B between our selected strains with identical M and T types were not related to either genetic heterogeneity or the clinical course of GAS disease in the patient from whom they were isolated.
Interventional treatment of atrial fibrillation – contemporary methods and perspectives

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is estimated to affect nearly 3 million people around the world. It is the most common arrhythmia and its incidence increases with age. Catheter ablation is an interventional procedure performed to reduce the patient’s AF burden when pharmacotherapy did not succeed in relieving the patient’s symptoms. The ablation is most effective in paroxysmal AF; however, many techniques are being developed to make this procedure more eligible for patients with persistent arrhythmia. The most common AF ablation technique involves separating electric activity of the pulmonary veins from the left atrium. Over recent years, many novel and promising techniques were developed (e.g., balloon cryoablation, circular catheter ablation, laser ablation, robotic navigation, etc.), which may further improve AF ablation efficacy.
The impact of enhanced cleaning within the intensive care unit on contamination of the near-patient environment with hospital pathogens: A randomized crossover study in critical care units in two hospitals*

Objectives:To determine the effect of enhanced cleaning of the near-patient environment on the isolation of hospital pathogens from the bed area and staff hands. Design:Prospective randomized crossover study over the course of 1 yr. Setting:Intensive care units at two teaching hospitals. Patients:There were 1252 patients staying during enhanced cleaning and 1331 staying during standard cleaning. Interventions:In each of six 2-month periods, one unit was randomly selected for additional twice-daily enhanced cleaning of hand contact surfaces. Measurements and Main Results:Agar contact samples were taken at five sites around randomly selected bed areas, from staff hands, and from communal sites three times daily for 12 bed days per week. Patients admitted in the year commencing April 2007 were analyzed for hospital-acquired colonization and infection. Over the course of 1152 bed days, 20,736 samples were collected. Detection of environmental methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus per bed-area day was reduced during enhanced cleaning phases from 82 of 561 (14.6%) to 51 of 559 (9.1%) (adjusted odds ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.40–0.86; p = .006). Other targeted pathogens (Acinetobacter baumannii, extended-spectrum &bgr;-lactamase-producing Gram-negative bacteria, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and Clostridium difficile) were rarely detected. Subgroup analyses showed reduced methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus contamination on doctors' hands during enhanced cleaning (3 of 425; 0.7% vs. 11 of 423; 2.6%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.26; 95% confidence interval, 0.07–0.95; p = .025) and a trend to reduction on nurses' hands (16 of 1647; 1.0% vs. 28 of 1694; 1.7%; adjusted odds ratio 0.56; 95% confidence interval, 0.29–1.08; p = .077). All 1252 critical care patients staying during enhanced and 1,331 during standard cleaning were included, but no significant effect on patient methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus acquisition was observed (adjusted odds ratio, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.58–1.65; p = .93). Conclusions:Enhanced cleaning reduced environmental contamination and hand carriage, but no significant effect was observed on patient acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Trial Registry:ISRCTN. Identifier: 06298448. http://www.controlled-trials.com/isrctn/.
Essential tremor — Neurodegenerative or nondegenerative disease towards a working definition of ET

Essential tremor (ET) is a syndrome of tremor in posture and movement, but recent studies have revealed additional cerebellar motor disturbances, cognitive disturbances, personality changes, hearing loss, and olfactory deficits. Even dementia and shortened life expectancy were found in one cohort. Recent postmortem studies have found limited Lewy body pathology in some patients and Purkinje cell loss with torpedoes and Bergmann gliosis in others. These findings have led to the hypothesis that ET is a syndrome produced by at least two neurodegenerative diseases with more widespread clinical consequences than previously appreciated. We review the evidence for and against this hypothesis and conclude that studies purporting to support this hypothesis have failed to control for age‐associated comorbidities, depression, medications, and other confounding factors. We propose the alternative hypothesis that abnormal neuronal oscillation is the fundamental abnormality in ET, and the well‐documented cerebellar signs and symptoms, the controversial non‐motor signs, and even the cerebellar pathology of ET could be caused by this oscillation. A major problem for many studies is the lack of a diagnostic gold standard. Lacking such a standard, we propose a subclassification of ET into three categories: hereditary ET, sporadic ET, and senile ET, which we believe will help researchers resolve many of the controversies in this field. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society