Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Understanding the spectrum of haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis: update on diagnostic challenges and therapeutic options

The cytokine storm syndrome ‘haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis’ (HLH) is an under‐recognized hyperinflammatory disorder, causing high morbidity and mortality risk in children and adults. It can be subdivided into a primary, genetic form and a secondary, acquired form that complicates diverse infections, malignancies and autoimmune or autoinflammatory disorders. Both subtypes present with the same spectrum of non‐specific symptoms, making accurate diagnosis and rapid treatment initiation challenging. In the last decade, increased awareness and international collaborative efforts fuelled a marked progress in diagnostic protocols and novel treatment strategies for HLH and new diagnostic guidelines are being tailored to specific secondary HLH subtypes. Therapy is gradually shifting its focus from overall immunosuppression towards targeting specific cytokines, cell types or signalling pathways underlying pathophysiology. Nevertheless, continued research efforts remain indispensable to customize therapy to individual patient needs.
Novel disturbance-observer-based control for systems with high-order mismatched disturbances

ABSTRACT A novel disturbance-observer-based control method is investigated to attenuate the high-order mismatched disturbances. First, a finite-time disturbance observer (FTDO) is proposed to estimate the disturbances as well as the derivatives. By incorporating the outputs of FTDO, the original system is then reconstructed, where the mismatched disturbances are transformed to the matched ones that are compensated by feed-forward algorithm. Moreover, a feedback control law is developed to achieve the stability and tracking performance requirements for the systems. Finally, the proposed composite control method is applied to an unmanned helicopter system. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control method exhibits excellent control performance in the presence of high-order matched and mismatched disturbances.
Short‐term microbiological effects of photodynamic therapy in non‐surgical periodontal treatment of residual pockets: A split‐mouth RCT

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been used as a therapeutic alternative to treat periodontitis, especially in challenging sites that require additional periodontal therapy such as residual pockets. The aim of this split‐mouth randomized trial was to evaluate the microbiological and clinical effects of PDT on non‐surgical treatment of unresponsive pockets.
Effects of Ecballium Elaterium on Proinflammatory Cytokines in a Rat Model of Sepsis

ABSTRACT Objective: Ecballium elaterium (EE) is a plant from Cucurbitaceae family. Its anti-inflammatory role in sepsis is not well understood. We investigated the effects of EE on serum levels of proinflammatory cytokines and further explored the mechanisms underlying histological changes in liver and ileum following EE administration in a polymicrobial sepsis model. Methods: Thirty rats were divided into three groups of 10 rats each. Rats were subjected to sham laparotomy plus normal saline administration (control group, CG), laparotomy with cecal ligation and puncture (CLP) (sepsis group, SG), and laparotomy with CLP plus 2.5 mg/kg EE administration (experimental group, EG). Twenty-four hours after laparotomy, animals underwent cardiac puncture, and blood was collected for interleukin 1 (IL-1), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) assessment. Whole sections of liver and ileum tissues were collected for histologic examination. Results: The serum level of IL-6 was significantly lower in EG as compared to SG. Although IL-6 levels were shown a statistically significant (p < 0.0001) decline to near control values, no significant changes were observed in serum levels of IL-1 and TNF-α after EE treatment. Histologic examination revealed statistically significant reduction in collagen formation (p = 0.001) on serosal surface of ileum and hepatic venous congestion (p = 0.040) in EG as compared to SG. Conclusion: EE might play a protective role in sepsis prevention and treatment by decreasing IL-6 production and reducing liver damage and may influence bacterial translocation by reinforcing intestinal barrier function.
Mouldable, thermoplastic, glue‐on frog‐supportive shoes change hoof kinetics in normal and obese Shetland ponies

Summary Background Obesity and hyperinsulinaemia are frequently encountered in the equine population and risk factors for the development of laminitis. There are many options for hoof support that claim a beneficial effect, but often the scientific evidence is scarce. Objectives To quantify the effect of frog‐supportive shoes on hoof kinetics in normal and obese ponies. Study design Controlled in vivo trial. Methods Ten Shetland mares (n = 10) with a normal (n = 5) or obese (n = 5) body condition were led over a dynamically calibrated pressure plate before (T0), immediately after (T1) and 72 h (T2) after application of the shoes. The following locomotor variables were measured: stance duration (StDur), vertical impulse (VI), peak vertical force (PVF), time to PVF and time from PVF to lift off. The hoof print was divided into a toe and heel region and the StDur toe–heel index was calculated. The toe–heel hoof balance curves of the vertical force were plotted throughout the stance phase. Results The VI and PVF increased significantly 72 h after application of the shoes, when compared with T0 and T1. The StDur toe–heel index and toe–heel balance curves were significantly different between the normal and obese ponies. These variables became more comparable between the groups after application of the frog‐supportive shoes. Main limitations It would have been interesting to measure the effect of the shoe in patients with acute laminitis. However, this would have had major welfare implications. Conclusions The obese ponies moved more carefully than the normal group, demonstrated by a decreased loading of the toe area. The data illustrate that the ponies became more comfortable 72 h after application of the shoes, with a pronounced effect in the obese group. Thus, these results suggest that frog‐supportive shoes could be beneficial, especially for obese ponies.
Measurements and Characterisation of Surface Scattering at 60 GHz

This paper presents the analysis and characterization of the surface scattering process for both specular and diffused components. The study is focused on the investigation of various building materials each having a different roughness, at a central frequency of 60GHz. Very large signal strength variations in first order scattered components is observed as the user moves over very short distances. This is due to the small-scale fading caused by rough surface scatterers. Furthermore, it is shown that the diffused scattering depends on the material roughness, the angle of incidence and the distance from the surface. Finally, results indicate that reflections from rough materials may suffer from high depolarization, a phenomenon that can potentially be exploited in order to improve the performance of mm-Wave systems using polarization diversity.
There is Significant Practice Pattern Variability in the Management of the Hospitalized Ulcerative Colitis Patient at a Tertiary Care and IBD Referral Center

Background and Goals: Despite published clinical guidelines, substantive data underlying the approach to the management of hospitalized ulcerative colitis (UC) patients failing outpatient therapy are lacking. Variability in practice is therefore not uncommon and may impact clinical outcomes. The degree of variability, however, is not well-studied. Our aim was to evaluate variability in management of the hospitalized UC patient to inform future efforts targeting care optimization for this high-risk population. Study: An internet survey was distributed among inflammatory bowel disease providers, which included: (1) nonvignette-based questions assessing provider demographics, experience, and practice setting; (2) diagnostic and therapeutic practice patterns based on a vignette of a hospitalized UC patient. Descriptive and univariate analyses were performed. Results: Ninety-one percent of eligible individuals were included. Nearly 97% endorsed confidence in management of hospitalized UC patients. In general, 83% initiate intravenous corticosteroids (IVCS) as initial therapy, whereas 17% initiate infliximab (IFX) (+/−IVCS). At IVCS failure in the vignette, 74% initiated IFX, 15% increased IVCS dose, 7% initiated cyclosporine, and 4% chose colectomy. Of those choosing IFX, 65% chose 5 mg/kg as the initial dose, whereas the remainder chose 10 mg/kg. Twenty-eight percent gave an additional IFX 5 mg/kg and 7% gave an additional 10 mg/kg dose to the patient in the vignette not responding to 5 mg/kg. Conclusions: Even among experienced inflammatory bowel disease providers, there is significant practice pattern variability in the management of hospitalized UC patients. Future efforts should target this variability. Adjunctively, prospective trials are needed to guide appropriate therapeutic algorithms, especially with respect to positioning and optimally dosing IFX in this population.
Probing of the interfacial Heisenberg and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange interaction by magnon spectroscopy

This Topical Review presents an overview of the recent experimental results on the quantitative determination of the magnetic exchange parameters in ultrathin magnetic films and multilayers grown on different substrates. The experimental approaches for probing both the symmetric Heisenberg and the antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange interaction in ultrathin magnetic films and at interfaces are discussed in detail. It is explained how the experimental spectrum of magnetic excitations can be used to quantify the strength of these interactions.
OCCURRENCE OF BACILLUS CEREUS AND STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS ORGANISMS IN SOME DAIRY DESSERTS

Accepted: 11/5/2015 A total of 60 dairy desserts samples comprising ice cream, mehallabia and rice with milk (20 samples of each) were collected from different dairy shops and supermarkets in Assiut city, Egypt. All samples were examined bacteriologicaly for isolation and enumeration of B. cereus and Staph. aureus organisms. The incidences of B. cereus in ice cream, mehallabia and rice with milk samples were 55, 60 and 15%, and the average counts were 3.1 X 10 9 , 1.07 X 10 10 and 1.7 X 10 9 cfu/g food, respectively. The incidence of Staph. aureus in this study was 15% for each of ice cream and rice with milk samples with average of 6.7 X 10 5 and 2.7 X 10 7 cfu/g food, respectively. Staph. aureus organisms could not be detected in all examined mehallabia samples in this study. Staph. aureus enterotoxins A and C were detected in some food positive samples for staphylococcal isolation. The public health importance of the isolated organisms was also discussed.
Evaluation of Reliability of MYZONE MZ-3 Heart Rate Monitor: A Study for the Future of Telephysiotherapy for Preoperative Prehabilitation in Cancer Patients.

BACKGROUND There are a number of commercially available heart rate (HR) monitors on the market. The reliability of these monitors has had varying results. To the best of our knowledge, there are no telemonitoring services utilizing these devices for perioperative prehabilitation services for patients undergoing major surgery. The goal of this study is to pilot the MYZONE® MZ-3 HR monitor to assess its level of reliability to provide a feasible telephysiotherapy prehabilitation service through prescription-based exercise programs to patients presenting for major cancer surgery within our leading oncological health service. MATERIALS AND METHODS Paired HR data from each participant were captured and analyzed using a Bland-Altman plot. RESULTS Seven healthy participants were included in the study with a total number of paired HR data points of 1,928. The bias (mean difference) between electrocardiogram and the MYZONE MZ-3 was 0.4 beats per minute (bpm) with an adjusted 95% limits of agreement of -4.5 to 5.3 bpm. CONCLUSION The commercially available MYZONE MZ-3 HR monitor is a reliable tool for delivering telephysiotherapy to patients undergoing major cancer surgery. Further studies are needed to validate its use in this setting.
Happiness understanding system based on human action recognition

The daily human action understanding system based on HAPPINESS factors is presented for happiness promotion using human action recognition. Recognition and understanding of human behavior is a popular research topic in computer vision. The proposed system extracts the features of skeleton information using the entire body and arm movement. Dynamic Time Warping is applied to compare the similarity between the two actions in action recognition. There are two contributions in this work, 1) A suitable templates selection among different subjects regarding as a representative human HAPPINESS action. And Non-Static Sequence Segmentation is proposed for action recognition. The system classifies the corresponding HAPPINESS factors from the results of action recognition. Experiments were performed on online test and the results show that the accuracy is 84.81%.
Microwave ablation of ex vivo bovine tissues using a dual slot antenna with a floating metallic sleeve

Abstract Purpose: To study the efficiency of a dual slot antenna with a floating metallic sleeve on the ablation of different ex vivo bovine tissues. Materials and methods: COMSOL Multiphysics® version 4.4 (Stockholm, Sweden), which is based on finite element methods (FEM), was used to design and simulate monopole and dual slot with sleeve antennas. Power, specific absorption rate (SAR), temperature and necrosis distributions in the selected tissues were determined using these antennas. Monopole and dual slot with sleeve antennas were designed, simulated, constructed and applied in this study based on a semi-rigid coaxial cable. Ex vivo experiments were performed on liver, lung, muscle and heart of bovine obtained from a public animal slaughter house. The microwave energy was delivered using a 2.45 GHz solid-state microwave generator at 40 W for 3, 5 and 10 min. Aspect ratio, ablation length and ablation diameter were also determined on ablated tissues and compared with simulated results. Student’s t-test was used to compare the statistically significant difference between the performance of the two antennas. Results: The dual slot antenna with sleeve produces localised microwave energy better than the monopole antenna in all ablated tissues using simulation and experimental validation methods. There were significant differences in ablation diameter and aspect ratio between the sleeve antenna and monopole antenna. Additionally, there were no significant differences between the simulation and experimental results. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the dual slot antenna with sleeve produced larger ablation zones and higher sphericity index in ex vivo bovine tissues with minimal backward heating when compared with the monopole antenna.
What determines supportive behaviors following bereavement? A systematic review and call to action

ABSTRACT Very few factors that impact the grieving process can be modified after the fact to the extent that social support can. However, social support has received limited research attention, resulting in little conceptual understanding of the mechanisms behind perceptions of, and intentions to support, grieving persons. This systematic review aimed to explore bereaved, decedent, and respondent-related determinants of the provision of social support. The review yielded 42 studies impacted by various methodological and sampling limitations. This review poses a call to the field for more rigorous study of social support determinants to better assist the bereaved and their natural supporters.
Micromonospora phytophila sp. nov. and Micromonospora luteiviridis sp. nov., isolated as natural inhabitants of plant nodules.

Two actinobacterial isolates, strains SG15T and SGB14T, were recovered through a microbial diversity study of nitrogen fixing nodules from Pisum sativum plants collected in Salamanca (Spain). The taxonomic status of these isolates was determined using a polyphasic approach and both presented chemotaxonomic and morphological properties consistent with their classification in the genus Micromonospora. For strains SG15T and SGB14T, the highest 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities were observed with Micromonospora coxensis JCM 13248T (99.2 %) and Micromonospora purpureochromogenes DSM 43821T (99.4 %), respectively. However, strains SG15T and SGB14T were readily distinguished from their phylogenetic neighbours both genetically and phenotypically indicating that they represent two new Micromonospora species. The following names are proposed for these species: Micromonosporaphytophila sp. nov. type strain SG15T (=CECT 9369T; =DSM 105363T), and Micromonosporaluteiviridis sp. nov. type strain SGB14T (=CECT 9370T; =DSM 105362T).
Identification of rosmarinic acid and sulfated flavonoids as inhibitors of microfouling on the surface of eelgrass Zostera marina

Abstract A bioassay-guided approach was used to identify defense compounds that are present on the surface of Zostera marina and which inhibit settlement of microfoulers at natural concentrations. Moderately polar eelgrass surface extracts inhibited the settlement of seven marine bacteria and one yeast that originated from non-living substrata. In contrast, five other bacterial strains that had been directly isolated from eelgrass surfaces were all insensitive, which suggested a selective effect of surface metabolites on the microbial communities present on eelgrass. Bioassay-guided isolation of active compounds from the extracts in combination with UPLC-MS and 1H-NMR spectroscopy resulted in the identification of rosmarinic acid, luteolin-7-sulfate and diosmetin-7-sulfate or its isomer chrysoeriol-7-sulfate. All three compounds are nontoxic repellents, as they did not inhibit bacterial growth, but prevented bacterial settlement in a dose-dependent manner. Between 15.6 and 106.8 μg ml−1 of rosmarinic acid were present on the eelgrass surface, enough for half maximal settlement inhibition of bacteria.
An efficient algorithm for segregation of white and red blood cells based on modified hough transform

In this proceeding, an efficient method of blood cell counting, particularly, for identifying red blood cell and white blood cell is discussed. The method is based on a modified hough transform known as hough transform filters. Using these filters, simultaneous shape recognition of circles of different radii becomes much easier without having to change image parameters using thresholding or contrast enhancement etc. for each step. Initial results show that the method detects RBC and WBC without fail apart from the ones closer to image boundaries.
Renal Hypersensitivity to Vasopressin in Congestive Heart Failure

Plasma vasopressin (AVP) levels are often elevated in congestive heart failure (CHF). To determine the significance of AVP in CHF, we performed clearance studies on the UM-X7.1 strain of cardiomyopathic (CM) hamsters with moderate heart failure and age-matched healthy controls. Exogenous AVP or a selective V<sub>2</sub> agonist (0.3 ng·kg<sup>–1</sup>·min<sup>–1</sup>) reduced the fractional excretion of sodium (FE<sub>Na</sub>) and water (FE<sub>H2</sub>O) by 40–46% in the control group. Although the CM hamsters exhibited a blunted physiological response to the V<sub>2</sub> agonist, their urinary cAMP levels were fivefold that of normal and reflect an altered regulation of V<sub>2</sub> receptor signalling during CHF. Additional studies also showed that infusion of a V<sub>2</sub> antagonist (0.3 ng·kg<sup>–1</sup>·min<sup>–1</sup>) produced natriuresis and diuresis in CM hamsters (FE<sub>Na</sub>: 7.9 ± 1.1 vs. 4.8 ± 0.6%, p < 0.05; FE<sub>H2</sub>O: 2.2 ± 3 vs. 1.5 ± 0.2%, p < 0.05) but did not decrease fluid reabsorption in the normal hamsters. In conclusion, the attenuated renal response to exogenous AVP in CM hamsters may be attributed to an enhanced endogenous AVP response during CHF.
Evidence That Psychopathology Symptom Networks Have Limited Replicability

Network analysis is quickly gaining popularity in psychopathology research as a method that aims to reveal causal relationships among individual symptoms. To date, 4 main types of psychopathology networks have been proposed: (a) association networks, (b) regularized concentration networks, (c) relative importance networks, and (d) directed acyclic graphs. The authors examined the replicability of these analyses based on symptoms of major depression and generalized anxiety between and within 2 highly similar epidemiological samples (i.e., the National Comorbidity Survey—Replication [n = 9282] and the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing [n = 8841]). Although association networks were stable, the 3 other types of network analysis (i.e., the conditional independence networks) had poor replicability between and within methods and samples. The detailed aspects of the models—such as the estimation of specific edges and the centrality of individual nodes—were particularly unstable. For example, 44% of the symptoms were estimated as the “most influential” on at least 1 centrality index across the 6 conditional independence networks in the full samples, and only 13–21% of the edges were consistently estimated across these networks. One of the likely reasons for the instability of the networks is the predominance of measurement error in the assessment of individual symptoms. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the growing field of psychopathology network research, and conclude that novel results originating from psychopathology networks should be held to higher standards of evidence before they are ready for dissemination or implementation in the field.