Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementing a routine outcome assessment procedure to evaluate the quality of assistive technology service delivery for children with physical or multiple disabilities: Perceived effectiveness, social cost, and user satisfaction

ABSTRACT There is a lack of evidence on the effects and quality of assistive technology service delivery (ATSD). This study presents a quasi-experimental 3-months follow-up using a pre-test/post-test design aimed at evaluating outcomes of assistive technology (AT) interventions targeting children with physical and multiple disabilities. A secondary aim was to evaluate the feasibility of the follow-up assessment adopted in this study with a view to implement the procedure in routine clinical practice. Forty-five children aged 3–17 years were included. Parents were asked to complete the Individual Prioritised Problem Assessment (IPPA) for AT effectiveness; KWAZO (Kwaliteit van Zorg [Quality of Care]) and Quebec User Evaluation of Satisfaction with Assistive Technology (QUEST) 2.0 for satisfaction with ATSD; Siva Cost Analysis Instrument (SCAI) for estimating the social cost of AT interventions. At follow-up, 25 children used the AT recommended. IPPA effect sizes ranged from 1.4 to 0.7, showing a large effect of AT interventions. Overall, parents were satisfied with ATSD, but Maintenance, Professional Services, and AT Delivery were rated not satisfactory. SCAI showed more resources spent for AT intervention compared to human assistance without technological supports. AT may be an effective intervention for children with disabilities. Issues concerning responsiveness and feasibility of the IPPA and the SCAI instruments are discussed with a view to inform routine clinical practice.
Alcohol measurement methodology in epidemiology: recent advances and opportunities.

AIM To review and discuss measurement issues in survey assessment of alcohol consumption for epidemiological studies. METHODS The following areas are considered: implications of cognitive studies of question answering such as self-referenced schemata of drinking, reference period and retrospective recall, as well as the assets and liabilities of types of current (e.g. food frequency, quantity-frequency, graduated frequencies and heavy drinking indicators) and life-time drinking measures. Finally we consider units of measurement and improving measurement by detailing the ethanol content of drinks in natural settings. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS Cognitive studies suggest inherent limitations in the measurement enterprise, yet diary studies show promise of broadly validating methods that assess a range of drinking amounts per occasion; improvements in survey measures of drinking in the life course are indicated; attending in detail to on- and off-premise drink pour sizes and ethanol concentrations of various beverages shows promise of narrowing the coverage gap plaguing survey alcohol measurement.
Long-term results of gamma knife surgery for partially embolized arteriovenous malformations.

BACKGROUND The effectiveness and risk of gamma knife surgery (GKS) in the management of partially embolized cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVMs) remain to be elucidated. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the long-term imaging and clinical outcomes of GKS in AVM patients who had undergone previous partial embolization and compare the results with patients treated with GKS alone. METHODS A total of 215 embolized AVMs were analyzed. The mean patient age was 32.9 years. The mean volume of the nidus was 4.6 mL (range, 0.1-29.4 mL), and the mean prescription dose was 19.6 Gy (range, 4-28 Gy). This group was compared with 729 nonembolized AVMs. RESULTS After embolization and GKS, angiographically confirmed total obliteration of the AVMs was significantly lower (33%) compared with patients in whom GKS was used alone (60.9%; P < .001). However, the mean nidus size was larger and the Spetzler-Martin grade was higher for the embolized AVMs compared with the nonembolized AVMs. Radiation-induced changes occurred more often in the embolized (43.4%) than the nonembolized (33.4%) AVMs (P = .028). Permanent neurological deficits associated with radiation-induced changes occurred in 2.7% of the embolized compared with 1.3% of the nonembolized patients (P = .14). CONCLUSION In our retrospective and historical series, the long-term results suggest that the obliteration rate is significantly lower in embolized AVMs compared with nonembolized AVMs, also because of the fact that the combined treatment is applied to higher grade AVMs; the percentage of grade III-V AVMs was 58.6% and 48.8% for nonembolized AVMs.
The Drosophila FHOD1-like formin Knittrig acts through Rok to promote stress fiber formation and directed macrophage migration during the cellular immune response

A tight spatiotemporal control of actin polymerization is important for many cellular processes that shape cells into a multicellular organism. The formation of unbranched F-actin is induced by several members of the formin family. Drosophila encodes six formin genes, representing six of the seven known mammalian subclasses. Knittrig, the Drosophila homolog of mammalian FHOD1, is specifically expressed in the developing central nervous system midline glia, the trachea, the wing and in macrophages. knittrig mutants exhibit mild tracheal defects but survive until late pupal stages and mainly die as pharate adult flies. knittrig mutant macrophages are smaller and show reduced cell spreading and cell migration in in vivo wounding experiments. Rescue experiments further demonstrate a cell-autonomous function of Knittrig in regulating actin dynamics and cell migration. Knittrig localizes at the rear of migrating macrophages in vivo, suggesting a cellular requirement of Knittrig in the retraction of the trailing edge. Supporting this notion, we found that Knittrig is a target of the Rho-dependent kinase Rok. Co-expression with Rok or expression of an activated form of Knittrig induces actin stress fibers in macrophages and in epithelial tissues. Thus, we propose a model in which Rok-induced phosphorylation of residues within the basic region mediates the activation of Knittrig in controlling macrophage migration.
Analysis of Pulmonary Function Test in Korean Patients With Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy: Comparison of Foreign and Korean Reference Data

Objective To determine the abnormal pulmonary function value in Korean Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients, we performed a comparative analysis of the patients' pulmonary function value expressed as % of the overseas reference data and Korean healthy children and adolescent reference data. Methods We performed pulmonary function test (PFT) in a total of 27 DMD patients. We compared the patients' FVC% and FEV1% of the overseas reference data with those of the Korean children and adolescent reference data. Also, we compared the patients' MIP% and MEP% of the prediction equation data with those of the Korean children and adolescent reference data. Results Age of the subjects ranged from 8 to 16 years (12.03±2.27 years). The mean maximal expiratory pressure (MEP), maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), vital capacity (VC), forced vital capacity (FVC), forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1), and peak cough flow (PCF) were 36.93±9.5 cmH2O, 45.79±17.46 cmH2O, 1.4±0.43 L, 1.45±0.45 L, 1.40±0.41 L, and 206.25±61.21 L/min, respectively. The MIP%, MEP%, and FVC% of the Korean children and adolescent reference data showed statistically significant higher values than those of the prediction equation data. Conclusion We observed a clear numeric difference between Korean DMD patients' pulmonary function value expressed as % of the overseas data and inland data. To perform a precise assessment of respiratory function and to determine appropriate respiratory therapy, pulmonary function values of Korean DMD patients should be interpreted taking into account the inland normal pulmonary function test data.
Effects of prolonged exposure to an augmented acoustic environment on the auditory system of middle‐aged C57BL/6J mice: Cochlear and central histology and sex differences

Genetic progressive sensorineural hearing loss in mice of the C57BL/6J (B6) inbred strain begins at high frequencies during young adulthood and is severe by 12 months (middle age). Nightly treatment with an augmented acoustic environment (AAE)—12‐hour periods of exposure to repetitive noise bursts of moderate intensity, begun at age 25 days—resulted in less severe hearing loss compared with control mice. Cochlear histopathological correlates of AAE treatment, assessed at 12–14 months of age, included lessened severity of progressive loss of outer hair cells in both sexes as well as small savings of spiral ganglion cells in females and inner hair cells in males. AAE effects on the number of surviving neurons (age 12–14 months) in the anterior ventral cochlear nucleus (AVCN) depended on sex. Compared with controls, the loss of AVCN neurons that typically accompanies the initial period of hearing loss (between 2 and 7 months of age) was not significantly affected by AAE treatment in females. In contrast, males treated with the AAE exhibited more severe loss of neurons in the dorsal and ventral extremes of the AVCN than male controls of the same age. AAE treatment begun at age 3–5 months resulted in significant but less severe loss of AVCN neurons in 1‐year‐old male mice. J. Comp. Neurol. 472:358–370, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Thimerosal reveals calcium-induced calcium release in unfertilised sea urchin eggs

Summary The fertilisation calcium wave in sea urchin eggs triggers the onset of development. The wave is an explosive increase in intracellular free calcium concentration that begins at the point of sperm entry and crosses the egg in about 20 s. Thimerosal is a sulphydryl reagent that sensitises calcium release from intracellular stores in a variety of cell types. Treatment of unfertilised eggs with thimerosal causes a slow increase that results eventually in a large, spontaneous calcium transient and egg activation. At shorter times after thimerosal treatment, egg activation and the calcium transient can be triggered by calcium influx through voltage-gated calcium channels, a form of calcium-induced/calcium release (CICR). Thimerosal treatment also reduces the latency of the fertilisation calcium response and increases the velocity of the fertilisation wave. These results indicate that thimerosal can unmask CICR in sea urchin eggs and suggest that the ryanodine receptor channel based CICR may contribute to explosive calcium release during the fertilisation wave.
Co-localization of TRPV1-expressing nerve fibers with calcitonin-gene-related peptide and substance P in fundus of rat stomach

The localization of vanilloid receptor TRPV1 was studied in rat gastric fundus by an immunohistochemical technique. Numerous TRPV1-immunoreactive nerve fibers were found around arterioles in the submucosal layer. A large number of the nerve fibers were also seen in the smooth muscle layer and in the myenteric nerve plexus, but the cell bodies could not be found. TRPV1 nerve fibers within the circular muscle layers were running parallel to the muscle fibers. Virtually all TRPV1 axons were immunoreactive for calcitonin-gene-related peptide (CGRP), with particularly extensive double labeling seen in axons of the submucosa around blood vessels. TRPV1 nerve fibers containing substance P were found running in longitudinal muscle and circular muscle. The TRPV1 axons seem to be predominantly extrinsic and contain CGRP and substance P in gastric fundus. TRPV1 neurons are thought to be sensory afferent neurons that operate to maintain gastric motility and blood flow.
The Effect of Posture on the Induction of Epidural Anesthesia for Peripheral Vascular Surgery

Background and Objectives. A study was done to determine whether a difference existed in the quality and time to maximum anesthesia between the induction of lumbar epidural anesthesia in the sitting and supine position in patients undergoing infrainguinal arterial reconstruction. Methods. An epidural catheter was inserted at L3-L4 in 40 patients who were randomly assigned to two groups. In group 1, with the patient sitting, 3 mL lidocaine 1.5% with 5 μg/mL epinephrine was given as a test dose, followed 3 minutes later by 12 mL bupivacaine 0.75% injected over 2 minutes through the catheter. After remaining in the sitting position for 5 minutes, the patient was placed supine and the quality of anesthesia assessed at 3-minute intervals for 30 minutes. Anesthesia was assessed by loss of sensation to pinprick and the Bromage scale for loss of motor function. In group 2, after placement of the catheter, the patient was immediately placed supine, the same doses of local anesthesia were given at the same time intervals as in group 1, and the onset of anesthesia was similarly assessed. In addition to a comparison between groups in the quality and time to maximum anesthesia, a correlation was sought between these variables and the age, weight, height, and body surface area (BSA) of the patients in each group. Results. The demographically similar groups showed no difference in maximum cephalad spread of anesthesia (median, interquartile range; group 1: T4, T2.5-T6; group 2: T4, T2.5-T7), motor block (group 1: 3, 2-4; group 2: 4, 4-6), or time to maximum motor block (mean ± SD; group 1, 17.4 ± 8.7 minutes; group 2, 17.9 ± 6.8 minutes). The time to maximum cephalad spread of anesthesia was shorter in group 1 (13.8 ± 6.9 minutes; group 2, 18.6 ± 6.6 minutes; P = .03). Neither the age nor weight of the patients in either group had any influence on the quality and time to maximum anesthesia. There was, however, a significant correlation between the height (r = 0.48, P = .0303) and BSA (r = 0.48, P = .0318) of the patients in group 1 and the time to maximum cephalad spread of anesthesia. Conclusions. When lumbar epidural anesthesia was induced in the sitting rather than supine position, the time to maximum cephalad spread was shorter and correlated directly with the height and BSA of the patient. The position of the patient during induction had no effect on the final level of cephalad spread and degree of motor block.
Does Economic Freedom Cause Lower Volatility in Growth? A Cross-Country Analysis

Among the fundamental causes of volatility in growth, differences in institutions have received considerable attention in recent years. This paper emphasizes the role of economic freedom, a critical component of the quality of a country’s institutional framework, in explaining growth volatility. It reports cross-country regressions demonstrating a negative effect of economic freedom on growth volatility even after controlling for other standard correlates of growth volatility.
On innovation patterns and value-tensions in public services

In the innovation studies literature, innovation patterns have been described, such as science-based and practice-based innovation, that vary among industrial sectors. As a consequence, firms become distinguished with respect to their typical innovation pattern. Less attention has been paid to the possibility of intertwined innovation patterns. Focusing on public sector services, this paper argues that intertwined innovation patterns emerge within public services as a response to value-tensions. Values can be defined as measures for beneficial behaviour that guide innovation. Value-tensions in public services include tensions between the political, economic, communal, aesthetic and intellectual values. The contribution of the paper to service innovation research is the emphasis on the concept of intertwined innovation patterns, such as the intertwinement of science-driven and task-driven innovation. Furthermore, the paper contributes by pinpointing how varied values guide innovation in public services.
Influence of dihydrotestosterone, epidermal growth factor, and basic fibroblast growth factor on the cell kinetics of the PC3, DUI45, and LNCap prostatic cancer cell lines: Relationship with DNA ploidy level

The cell kinetics (percentage of cells in the S + G2 phases of the cell cycle) and the DNA ploidy levels (nuclear DNA content) were determined in 108 samples each of the PC3, DU145, and LNCaP prostate cancer models. This was carried out by means of the digital cell image analysis of Feulgen‐stained nuclei. Two to three hundred cell nuclei were analyzed for each of the 324 samples under study. The three cell lines were submitted to experimental conditions including the addition of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), either alone or in combination, to the culture media. The results show that under the present culture conditions, the PC3 cell line was DHT‐, EGF‐ and bFGF‐insensitive. In contrast to what is generally reported in the literature, the DU145 cell line was DHT‐ and EGF‐sensitive under the present culture conditions, but bFGF‐insensitive. The LNCaP cell line was DHT‐sensitive, but EGF‐ and bFGF‐insensitive. While mainly tetraploid, the three cell lines nevertheless exhibited a significant level of heterogeneity in their nuclear DNA content distributions. Indeed, the proportions of non‐tetraploid (diploid, hyperdiploid, triploid, hypertriploid, hypertetraploid, polymorphic) DNA histograms were 14% in the PC3, 16% in the DU145, and 29% in the LNCaP cell lines. These results suggest that the DNA ploidy level would not influence the hormone sensitivity level in the cell lines since they had significantly distinct hormone sensitivity profiles while remaining mainly tetraploid. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Exposure to Mycobacterium avium induces low‐level protection from Mycobacterium bovis infection but compromises diagnosis of disease in cattle

We assessed the effect of exposure to Mycobacterium avium on the development of immune responses and the pathogenesis of disease observed following Mycobacterium bovis challenge. A degree of protection against M. bovis was observed in calves which were pre‐exposed to M. avium as assessed by the extent of lesions and bacterial load compared to the M. bovis alone group. The immune response following M. bovis challenge in cattle previously inoculated with M. avium was biased towards antigens (PPD) present in M. avium, whereas the response following M. bovis alone was biased towards antigens present in M. bovis, indicating an imprinting of memory to avian antigens on T lymphocytes. A consequence of the memory to M. avium antigens was failure to diagnose M. bovis infection by the skin test or the IFNγ assay in some of the animals which had lesions of tuberculosis at necropsy. The use of M. bovis specific antigens ESAT‐6 and CFP‐10 increased IFNγ test specificity in animals previously exposed to M. avium but the responses to these antigens were lower than those observed in animals exposed to M. bovis alone. The implication is that responses to M. avium, although providing some immunity, may mask diagnosis of M. bovis infection, even when specific antigens are employed, potentially contributing to disease transmission in the field.
Monetary Policy,Working Capital Management and Investment Efficiency——Evidence from China Real Estate

With the intention of revealing the heterogeneous impact of monetary policy on investment efficiency of China Real Estate,this paper introduces the working capital channel by which monetary policy transmits to investment efficiency and tests its conduction effects by developing a model that can correct the bias generated by traditional methods which ignore the WC channel. The empirical results not only validate the WC channel,but also reveal that transmission efficiency and financial constraint have positive correlations. Therefore,this paper contributes to the reflection of the value of WC managements and the better understanding of the impact of macroeconomic policy on the microeconomic entities which can help the government develop appropriate economic policies to promote the well-functioning of macroeconomic system.
Responding to crisis in Korea - Pt 2: An assessment of reforms to the National Innovation System

Summary: The greatest strengths in Korea’s national innovation system in the early decades have become its most serious liabilities in the recent decade leading to a major economic crisis in 1997. Before the crisis, Korea had failed to adapt to today’s rapidly changing political and economic environment. This paper attempts to make an initial assessment of the impact of the crisis on the National Innovation System in Korea. The crisis has resulted in numerous negative consequences, as reported in popular media. But it has also resulted in the emergence of new technology-based companies and an increase in foreign investment and alliances, as well as reforms to the financial, educational, and government infrastructure in Korea. It may be that the crisis will emerge as a ‘blessing in disguise,’ if policy makers and managers continue to use it as a rare opportunity to push forward long overdue reforms.
Use of proteomics for the identification of novel drug targets in brain diseases

In spite of the rapid advances in the development of the new proteomic technologies, there are, to date, relatively fewer studies aiming to explore the neuronal proteome. One of the reasons is the complexity of the brain, which presents high cellular heterogeneity and a unique subcellular compartmentalization. Therefore, tissue fractionation of the brain to enrich proteins of interest will reduce the complexity of the proteomics approach leading to the production of manageable and meaningful results. In this review, general considerations and strategies of proteomics, the advantages and challenges to exploring the neuronal proteome are described and summarized. In addition, this article presents an overview of recent advances of proteomic technologies and shows that proteomics can serve as a valuable tool to globally explore the changes in brain proteome during various disease states. Understanding the molecular basis of brain function will be extremely useful in identifying novel targets for the treatment of brain diseases.
Biological and Clinical Implications of Lysozyme Deposition on Soft Contact Lenses

ABSTRACTWithin a few minutes of wear, contact lenses become rapidly coated with a variety of tear film components, including proteins, lipids, and mucins. Tears have a rich and complex composition, allowing a wide range of interactions and competitive processes, with the first event observed at the interface between a contact lens and tear fluid being protein adsorption. Protein adsorption on hydrogel contact lenses is a complex process involving a variety of factors relating to both the protein in question and the lens material. Among tear proteins, lysozyme is a major protein that has both antibacterial and anti-inflammatory functions. Contact lens materials that have high ionicity and high water content have an increased affinity to accumulate lysozyme during wear, when compared with other soft lens materials, notably silicone hydrogel lenses. This review provides an overview of tear film proteins, with a specific focus on lysozyme, and examines various factors that influence protein deposition on contact lenses. In addition, the impact of lysozyme deposition on various ocular physiological responses and bacterial adhesion to lenses and the interaction of lysozyme with other tear proteins are reviewed. This comprehensive review suggests that deposition of lysozyme on contact lens materials may provide a number of beneficial effects during contact lens wear.