Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Time trend of neurocysticercosis in children with seizures in a tertiary hospital of western Nepal

Introduction Neurocysticercosis is a common cause of seizure disorders in children of Western Nepal. The clinical presentation is variable. The incidence varies depending on the food habits and ethnicity of the population. The present study was undertaken with the objective of studying the mode of presentation, radiological findings and to determine the recent trend of the disease in children of Western Nepal. Methods Records from the Department of Pediatrics, Manipal Teaching Hospital, Pokhara, Nepal of children aged 0–17 years admitted from 2003 to 2015 and with the discharge diagnosis of seizure and neurocysticercosis (NCC) were reviewed. The diagnosis was primarily based on clinical features, neurological involvement and CT and MRI studies. Seizures due to other CNS pathologies were excluded. Patients with NCC were treated with Albendazole15mg/kg/day for 28 days with supportive treatments for seizures and raised intracranial pressure. Patients were followed up for one year after the completion of the treatment. Results There were 1355 cases of seizure disorders, out of which 229 (16.90%) were NCC. There were 99 (43.23%) in the age group 6–10 years followed by 91 (41.09%) in the age group of 11–15 years. Seizures were the most common presenting symptom in 88.65%, followed by raised ICP in 9.61%. Neuropsychiatric changes were noted in 38 cases (16.59%). CT scan findings revealed single lesion in 78.16% and multiple lesions in 21.83%. Poisson regression analysis showed statistically significant decline of year-wise incidence of NCC cases (p<0.05) from 2003 to 2015. Conclusion The decline in the incidence of NCC in recent years is most probably attributed to improved hygiene with the construction of household toilets to avoid open defecation and biannual deworming with Albendazole as a part of School Health and Nutrition Project.
Differentiation between mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease and depression by means of cued recall

Background. Discriminating Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from depression is a challenge in psychogeriatric medicine. A study was set up to ascertain whether cued recall could be useful in differentiating early AD and MCI from depression among elderly individuals. Method. The Visual Association Test (VAT) and the Memory Impairment Screen-plus (MIS-plus) were administered together with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) to 40 MCI patients, 35 mild AD patients, 46 depressed patients and 52 healthy control subjects. Results. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post-hoc Scheffé tests showed that AD patients had significantly lower cued recall scores (i.e. combined VAT and MIS-plus scores) than MCI patients, who in turn had lower scores than depressed patients. The scores of depressed patients and controls were not significantly different. Discriminant analysis revealed that 94% of the AD patients and 96% of the depressed patients could be classified correctly by means of the GDS and the cued recall sores. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves identified an optimal cut-off score of 8 (maximum score 12) for differentiating AD and MCI patients from depressed elderly patients and controls. Applying this cut-off, a sensitivity of 83% (58%) and a specificity of 85% (85%) was obtained when differentiating AD (MCI) from depression. Conclusions. Cued recall, operationalized by the combined scores of VAT and MIS-plus, is a useful method for differentiating AD patients from depressed individuals and healthy controls. Probably because of the great heterogeneity among MCI patients, the diagnostic power of cued recall decreases when applied to differentiate MCI from depression.
Rapid identification of Prototheca species by the API 20C system

The conventional auxanographic method of testing for the assimilation of carbohydrates and alcohols by the various species of Prototheca requires at least 2 weeks of incubation at 25 to 30 degrees C before definitive results are obtained. Even though Prototheca spp. , in culture as well as in fixed tissues, can be identified more rapidly by fluorescent-antibody techniques in which species-specific reagents are used, such diagnostic facilities and reagents are not available in most diagnostic laboratories. The API 20C clinical yeast identification system, a commercially available ready-to-use micromethod, was found to permit the definitive identification of P. stagnora, P. wickerhamii, and P. zopfii within 4 days.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation: Joint ACCP/AACVPR Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guidelines.

BACKGROUND Pulmonary rehabilitation has become a standard of care for patients with chronic lung diseases. This document provides a systematic, evidence-based review of the pulmonary rehabilitation literature that updates the 1997 guidelines published by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. METHODS The guideline panel reviewed evidence tables, which were prepared by the ACCP Clinical Research Analyst, that were based on a systematic review of published literature from 1996 to 2004. This guideline updates the previous recommendations and also examines new areas of research relevant to pulmonary rehabilitation. Recommendations were developed by consensus and rated according to the ACCP guideline grading system. RESULTS The new evidence strengthens the previous recommendations supporting the benefits of lower and upper extremity exercise training and improvements in dyspnea and health-related quality-of-life outcomes of pulmonary rehabilitation. Additional evidence supports improvements in health-care utilization and psychosocial outcomes. There are few additional data about survival. Some new evidence indicates that longer term rehabilitation, maintenance strategies following rehabilitation, and the incorporation of education and strength training in pulmonary rehabilitation are beneficial. Current evidence does not support the routine use of inspiratory muscle training, anabolic drugs, or nutritional supplementation in pulmonary rehabilitation. Evidence does support the use of supplemental oxygen therapy for patients with severe hypoxemia at rest or with exercise. Noninvasive ventilation may be helpful for selected patients with advanced COPD. Finally, pulmonary rehabilitation appears to benefit patients with chronic lung diseases other than COPD. CONCLUSIONS There is substantial new evidence that pulmonary rehabilitation is beneficial for patients with COPD and other chronic lung diseases. Several areas of research provide opportunities for future research that can advance the field and make rehabilitative treatment available to many more eligible patients in need.
A Method of Abnormal States Detection Based on Adaptive Extraction of Transformer Vibro-Acoustic Signals

State monitoring is very important for the safe operation of high-voltage transformers. A non-contact vibro-acoustic detection method based on the Blind Source Separation (BSS) was proposed in this paper to promote the development of transformer on-line monitoring technology. Firstly, the algorithm of Sparse Component Analysis (SCA) was applied for the adaptive extraction of vibro-acoustic signals, which utilizes the sorted local maximum values of the potential function. Then, the operating states of the transformer were detected by analyzing the vibro-acoustic signal eigenvectors. Different conditions including running normally, increasing of transformer vibro-acoustic amplitude and changing of frequency component of transformer vibro-acoustic were simulated. Moreover, experiments were carried out in a 220 kV substation. The research results show that the number of mixed noise sources can be estimated and the transformer vibro-acoustic signal was always ranked first in the separation signals. The source signals were effectively separated from the mixed signals while all of the correlation coefficients are more than 0.98 and the quadratic residuals are less than −32 dB. As for the experiments, the vibro-acoustic signal was separated out successfully from two voice signals and two interference signals. The acoustic signal reflection is considered as the main cause of the signal interference, and the transformer volume source model is considered as the main reason of unstable vibro-acoustic signal amplitude. Finally, the simulated abnormal states of the transformer were well recognized and the state of the tested transformer was judged to be normal.
Irritable or irritated bowel.

There are few reports of acute cerebellar ataxia presenting in adults and it is of interest that Brumlik and Means3 describe two American cases showing "lightening eye movements, peculiar shuddering tremor and cerebellar ataxia. " It is tempting to postulate that encephalitis tremens, a benign epidemic form of acute cerebellar ataxia with R.I. M.E. L. limited geographically to a region of West Africa rain forest, might represent an abor virus encephalitis involving the brainstem. However, such an assumption awaits investigation. -I am, etc., HUGH COAKHAM Royal West Sussex Hospital, Chichester, Sussex
Selling IT services for the Finnish public sector

The public sector has become increasingly dependent on information technology (IT) services. However, the tendering process can cause great challenges for both the procuring entity as well as the IT vendor, since this process is rigidly regulated by law. To ensure success in this process, IT vendors need to be able to recognize the most crucial steps in the tendering process and to develop best practices for their sales operations. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to develop a framework for guiding the efforts of vendor sales teams prior to and during the tendering process. The framework was based on Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas and was constructed using a constructive research approach combined with participant observation, theme interviews and analysis of customers’ tender documents in the public sector. The framework was designed for a specific case company and was taken into use by the case company’s sales teams as a sales tool. The framework identified seven focus areas specific to the case company: the tenderer-customer relationship, evaluation criteria for bids, relevant customer references, pricing strategy, special qualifications required from the vendor, the scope of the procured services and the vendor’s technical solution. One benefit of using this framework is that it enables the vendor to assess their chances of winning the bid, thus avoiding the use of time and money on futile tenders. Furthermore, the framework would allow sales team members not only to more effectively direct their sales efforts, but also to improve internal communication. Future work should focus on validating this framework by training the salesforce in using the framework, more widely implementing it and comparing the benefits gained against those of other tools currently used in the case company.
A basic theory of inheritance: How bad practice prevails

Research Summary This paper develops an inheritance theory explaining the diffusion and persistence of detrimental management practice. Received wisdom, in both management theory and practice, would suggest that a practice that lowers the life expectancy of adopting firms, over time, will vanish because it puts those firms at a competitive disadvantage. In this paper, I challenge this view. I develop a conceptual model that details how a practice that lowers the survival chances of adopting organizations may still spread and continue to exist across a population of firms. I propose that a combination of three basic conditions is sufficient to bring about this phenomenon: if the practice is somehow associated with success, if there exists causal ambiguity, and if the rate of its diffusion is high compared with the rate at which it accelerates firms’ demise, the practice may continue to thrive and become a widespread and persistent feature in an industry. A pivotal conceptual insight is that the endurance of particular management practices and strategies is not merely a corollary of the competitiveness of the organizations that use them but that they have fitness levels of their own. Managerial Summary All organizations have “best practices”: habits that they have picked up in the past or mimicked from others. Managers often believe that these must be the best ways of doing things, because otherwise market forces would have eliminated them. The theory in the paper explains why this belief may be wrong. Some enduring practices may be harmful without managers realizing it because it is not necessarily the most optimal practices that survive (just like harmful viruses persist in nature). As a corollary, the paper discusses how the identification and cessation of detrimental practices can form a new source of and way to understand innovation.
Exhaled nitric oxide and bronchial responsiveness to adenosine 5'-monophosphate in subjects with allergic rhinitis.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To determine differences in exhaled nitric oxide (ENO) between subjects with allergic rhinitis with and without increased responsiveness to direct and indirect bronchoconstrictor agents. STUDY DESIGN Cross-sectional study with the order of challenge tests randomized. SETTING Specialist allergy unit in a university hospital. PATIENTS Thirty-eight subjects without asthma with allergic rhinitis and 10 healthy nonatopic control subjects. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Participants were challenged with increasing concentrations of adenosine 5'monophosphate (AMP) and methacholine. ENO was measured with the single-exhalation method. A positive response to both bronchoconstrictor agents was detected in nine subjects with allergic rhinitis, whereas four subjects showed increased responsiveness to AMP but not to methacholine. The geometric mean (range) ENO values were significantly higher in subjects with allergic rhinitis with increased responsiveness to either methacholine or AMP than in subjects with normal responsiveness to both agonists: 51.3 parts per billion (ppb) [22.0 to 108.5 ppb] vs 25.1 ppb (5.7 to 102.9 ppb, respectively; p = 0.007) and healthy control subjects (11.2 ppb [5.0 to 31.9 ppb], p < 0.001). Subjects with allergic rhinitis with normal responsiveness to both agonists also had higher concentrations of ENO than healthy control subjects (p = 0.007). No correlation was found between ENO and either of the provocative concentrations of methacholine or AMP causing a 20% fall in FEV(1). CONCLUSIONS In subjects without asthma but with allergic rhinitis, the presence of bronchoconstriction in response to methacholine or AMP is associated with increased ENO concentrations. However, elevated concentrations of ENO are detected even in subjects with allergic rhinitis without airway hyperresponsiveness. These results suggest that the presence of airway hyperresponsiveness is not the only factor that determines the increased NO levels detected in subjects with allergic rhinitis.
The Contribution of the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Full and Divided Encoding: A Paired-Pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

This research investigated the contribution of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in the attentional resources in episodic encoding for both verbal and non-verbal material. Paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulations (TMS) were used to interfere transiently with either the left or right DLPFC during encoding under full attention (FA) or under divided attention (DA) in a recognition paradigm using words and random shapes. Participants recognized fewer items after TMS over the left DLPFC than over the right DLPFC during FA encoding. However, TMS over the left DLPFC did not impair performance when compared to sham condition. Conversely, participants produced fewer items after TMS over the right DLPFC in DA encoding compared to sham condition, but not compared to TMS over the left DLPFC. These effects were found for both words and random shapes. These results suggest that the right DLPFC play an important role in successful encoding with a concomitant task regardless of the type of material.
Vehicle tracking in UAV video using multi-spectral spatiogram models

In this paper we present the results of applying a general purpose feature combination framework for tracking to the specific task of tracking vehicles in UAV data sets. In the fusion framework used (previously presented elsewhere1) vehicles' pixel-based features from multiple channels, specifially RGB and thermal IR, are split across separate individual spatiogram trackers. The use of spatiograms allows embedding of some spatial information into the models whilst also avoiding the exponential increase in computational load and memory requirements associated with the more commonly used histogram. This tracking framework is embedded in a complete system for detecting and tracking vehicles. The system first carries out pre-processing to ensure spatially and temporally aligned visible spectrum and IR data prior to tracking. Vehicle detection in the initial two frames is achieved by first compensating for camera motion, followed by frame differencing and post-processing (thresholding and size filtering) to identify vehicle regions. Each vehicle is then described by a bounding box and this is used to generate a set of spatiograms for each of the available data channels. The detected vehicle is then tracked using the spatiogram tracker framework. Results of experiments on a variety of UAV data sets indicate the promising performance of the overall system, even in the presence of significant illumination variation, partial and full occlusions and significant camera motion and focus change. Results are particularly encouraging given that we do not periodically re-initialise the detection phase and this points to the robustness of the tracking framework.
Impact of school feeding programmes on educational outcomes: Evidence from dry cereals in schools in Burkina Faso

Food for Education (FFE) programmes have been implemented in developing countries since the 1960s. This paper examines the impact of the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) school feeding programme on pupils’ attendance and girls’ enrolment rate within primary schools in northern Burkina Faso. Using difference-in-difference (DID) estimation with the data set on the Beoog Biiga programme, we find that take-home rations (THRs) increased school attendance for both boys and girls. Moreover, the findings show that girls’ enrolment rate within schools increased by 3.2 per cent. This is driven by the increase in the number of newly enrolled girls compared with boys. We conclude that THRs have the potential to increase girls’ educational attainment and gender equality within schools.
Identification of the Key Factors Affecting the Adoption of Mobile Phone Gaming: A Study in the Context of Bangladesh.

In recent years the use of mobile phones and smart phones have become more widespread and continue to grow significantly and almost half of the population of the earth now use mobile communications. The mobile telecommunications industry is a key driver of both economic and social development across the globe and it is one of the most transformational industries in the world today, enriching the daily lives of almost half of the world’s population and mobile device is becoming part and parcel in our daily life and plays a pivotal role in passing time and recreation device for people specially young generation. This study investigates the identification of the key factors affecting the adoption of mobile phone gaming in the context of Bangladesh. The nature of the research is conclusive in form of descriptive with the help of collecting primary data via personal face to face interview where non probability convenience sampling were used and primary data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, correlation, ANOVA, multiple regression, factor analysis (principal component analysis). The result of the study shows that all the variables are correlated with and they have significant influence on the adoption of mobile phone gaming. The main findings of the study reveals that first three factors easiness, usefulness, enjoyment are most influencing factors for mobile phone gaming adoption and subsequent factors are attitude, intention, behavior, and concentration. The contribution made by the study is give suggestions for the operators of mobile phone to consider the above mentioned factors while designing their market offerings for customers to get the maximum benefit by satisfying mobile phone gaming users in Bangladesh. Marketers should, however, carefully consider the key factors that influence the adoption and performance the operations of mobile phone gaming.
Executive international experience and firm performance: the moderating effect of country and regional match.

Scant attention has been devoted to team international experience and firm performance. This paper offers a novel perspective by focusing on the relationship between top management team international experience and performance to study the moderating effect of the alignment of team international experience and firm international presence. Leveraging a dataset of Dutch and Swiss international companies over the five-year period from 2008-2012, for a total of 219 firm-year combinations, we found that firm performance has a U-shaped relationship with top management team international experience and changes concavity when the moderating effect of region TMT-firm match is included. These findings allow for a better understanding of international experience team dynamics and shed new light on the performance effects of international experience. Managerial and team diversity implications are discussed, together with opportunities for future research.
Comparison of atazanavir with lopinavir/ritonavir in patients with prior protease inhibitor failure: a randomized multinational trial

ABSTRACT Objectives: To compare change from baseline in HIV RNA and fasting low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels in protease inhibitor (PI)–experienced patients receiving unboosted atazanavir 400 mg once daily versus lopinavir 400 mg boosted with ritonavir 100 mg twice daily, with two nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs). Secondary objectives included virologic response, CD4 cell count changes, other lipid changes, safety, and tolerability. Methods: Randomized, open-label, multinational, 48-week study in patients with one PI-regimen failure, HIV RNA ≥ 1000 copies/mL, and CD4 count ≥ 50 cells/mm3. Results: Three hundred patients were randomized; 290 treated (144 atazanavir, 146 lopinavir/ritonavir). Lopinavir/ritonavir resulted in a significantly greater reduction in HIV RNA than unboosted atazanavir (–2.02 vs –1.59 log10 copies/mL, p < 0.001) at week 48. Secondary efficacy endpoints also favored lopinavir/ritonavir; the differences in efficacy between regimens were also observed in secondary analyses comparing those subjects who were susceptible and those subjects who were resistant to their respective PIs at baseline. However, both regimens were equally effective in subjects who had no baseline NRTI mutations. From baseline to week 48, atazanavir resulted in either no change or decreases in fasting LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, and fasting triglycerides (–6%, –2%, and +1%), whereas lopinavir/ritonavir resulted in increases (+3%, +12%, and +53%) ( p < 0.05, all between-treatment comparisons). Fewer patients were administered lipid-lowering therapy in the atazanavir arm (6% vs 20% for lopinavir/ritonavir). Both regimens were safe and well tolerated. Conclusions: While both treatments demonstrated good antiviral efficacy, relatively greater antiviral suppression was observed with lopinavir/ritonavir. In those patients with no NRTI mutations at baseline, both regimens demonstrated comparable virologic suppression. Atazanavir-treated patients demonstrated a superior lipid profile and required less frequent lipid-lowering treatment.