Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Community acquired pneumonia

We live in an era when medical practice is increasingly regulated by guidelines and protocols. Ideally, such guidance should be evidence based, and in particular it is generally recommended that advice on medical treatment should be based on the results of adequately powered, double blind, placebo controlled trials or, some would say, better still, a meta-analysis of several such trials. Unfortunately, evidence of this standard is often lacking, and many guidelines amount to little more than the opinions of the authors. This is not to say that opinion based guidelines are valueless—the opinions of experienced clinicians may be better than no opinion at all. Thus, a significant proportion of the advice contained in the first edition of the British Thoracic Society Guidelines on asthma management1 was opinion, rather than evidence based, yet its publication was followed by a fall in childhood asthma admissions. This fall might have reflected some unknown benign environmental influence, but was much more likely to have resulted from improved management of asthma in the community as the guidelines gradually changed clinical practice. Moreover, guidelines that indicate areas where supporting evidence is lacking can point the way to future research. The publication of the asthma guidelines was followed by various papers presenting evidence that had hitherto been lacking, for instance in relation to the use of intravenous aminophylline in acute asthma.2 This month sees the publication in our sister journal Thorax of a new set of Guidelines,3 this time on the management of community acquired pneumonia in children. In preparing these Guidelines, the authors have followed a well trodden path. An extensive literature review was followed by close scrutiny of apparently relevant papers. Those of us who have sat on guideline working parties will appreciate how this process, which can involve the review …
Causativization in Hupa

In this paper I analyze the morphosyntactic alternations involving the causative morpheme ̃in Hupa, an Athapaskan language. The distribution of this morpheme is of interest because it is intermediate between that of what might be called a ‘lexical’ causative, and that of a syntactic causative which takes a clausal complement. I will argue that a uniform treatment may be given for ̃in structural terms; that is, that its distribution is determined by syntactic considerations, such that it always appears as a causative (light) verbal head with the same type of complement. The analysis I propose provides an identical syntactic treatment for two sets of environments, one of which exhibits idiosyncrasies associated with Lexical processes, and one of which does not; this raises questions concerning the applicability of a syntactic account for all of the cases in question. I thus devote the concluding sections of the paper to a discussion of the resolution to this question, and its implications for the relationship between syntax and argument structure. In addition, I discuss the implications of the discussion for analyses of the Transitivity Alternation, focussing on questions surrounding the morphology found in intransitive/transitive pairs.
The purification and characterization of alpha-L-fucosidase from the hepatopancreas of Octopus vulgaris.

We have isolated and purified, by affinity chromatography with Agarose-epsilon-amino-caproyl-fucosamine, an alpha-L-fucosidase [alpha-L-fucoside fucohydrolase EC 3.2. 1.51] from the hepatopancreas of Octopus vulgaris. In the purified fraction only fucosidase activity could be detected. However, two protein bands, one major (about 95 per cent) and one minor (about 5 per cent), were evident on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Isoelectric focusing also revealed two activities, pI 8.1 (major) and pI 7.3 (minor). Under denaturing conditions the molecular weight of the major band was estimated to be 52,000 while that of the minor one was 43,000. Only one major activity peak with an apparent molecular weight of 70,000--75,000 was detected by gel filtration chromatography. The enzyme has two optimal pH values, and the relative activities are temperature-dependent; one optimum is at pH 5.5 +/- 0.2 and the other at pH 3.0 +/- 0.2. We found that the enzyme has a maximum activity at about 70 degrees C, but 50 per cent of the enzyme was inactivated at 70 degrees C after 5 min. The purified enzyme, using p-nitrophenyl-L-fucoside as substrate, has a specific activity of 38.9 units/mg of protein, Km of 3.58 x 10(-4) M and Vmax of 65 mumol/min/mg of protein. alpha-L-Fucose acts as a competitive inhibitor, with a K1 of 1.2 x 10(-3) M. alpha-L-Fucosidase released radioactive fucose from cellular glycopeptides, but no detectable free fucose was released fom 5 natural substrates.
Processamento de consultas baseado em ontologias para sistemas de biodiversidade

Sistemas de informacao de biodiversidade lidam com um conjunto heterogeneo de informacoes providas por diferentes grupos de pesquisa. A diversificacao pode ocorrer com relacao `as especies estudadas, `a estruturacao das informacoes coletadas, ao local de estudo, metodologias de trabalho ou objetivos dos pesquisadores, dentre outros fatores. Esta heterogeneidade de dados, usuarios e procedimentos dificulta o reuso e o compartilhamento de informacoes. Este trabalho contribui para diminuir tal obstaculo, melhorando o processo de consulta `as informacoes em sistemas de biodiversidade. Para tanto, propoe um mecanismo de expansao de consultas que pre-processa uma consulta de usuario (cientista) agregando informacoes adicionais, provenientes de ontologias, para aproximar o resultado da intencao do usuario. Este mecanismo e baseado em servicos Web e foi implementado e testado usados dados e casos de uso reais Abstract
Voice Stress Analysis using Linear Predictive Coding in MATLAB

Speech in humans is generated by a series of formants generated by the resonances in the nasal, pharyngeal and vocal tracts. Linear prediction of speech is one of the most widely used techniques for analysis of speech samples. Voice stress analysis as a field of study holds immense importance to human life. Stress analysis has been used in critical situation endangering life and in several medical scenarios as well. This paper uses Linear Predictive Coding (LPC) to analyse the stress levels in the voice samples by comparing them to existing samples and outputting a human emotion. Index Terms – LPC, MATLAB, stress analysis, emotion recognition.
C-Type Lectin SIGN-R1 Has a Role in Experimental Colitis and Responsiveness to Lipopolysaccharide

Pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs) function to maintain the balance between controlled responses to pathogens and uncontrolled innate immune activation leading to inflammation. In the context of commensal bacteria and the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease, although a role for the TLRs is known, there is a less defined function for C-type lectin receptors (CLRs). We demonstrate that mice deficient (−/−) in the CLR specific intracellular adhesion molecule-3 grabbing nonintegrin homolog-related 1 (SIGN-R1) (CD209b) have reduced susceptibility to experimental colitis, with a reduction in the disease severity, colon damage, and levels of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6. To determine whether SIGN-R1−/− mice had a systemic defect in innate activation, we examined the responsiveness of macrophages from SIGN-R1−/− mice to TLR ligands. SIGN-R1−/− peritoneal macrophages, but not bone marrow-derived macrophages, have a specific defect in IL-1β and IL-18 production, but not other cytokines, in response to the TLR4 ligand LPS. In vivo SIGN-R1−/− mice had significantly reduced susceptibility to LPS-induced shock. To address the synergistic relationship between SIGN-R1 and TLR4 in the context of experimental colitis, SIGN-R1/TLR4−/− mice were generated. SIGN-R1/TLR4−/− mice displayed reduced susceptibility to experimental colitis relative to severity of disease observed in wild-type or TLR4−/− mice. The in vivo use of a blocking mAb confirmed a functional role for SIGN-R1 in LPS-induced shock and experimental colitis. These data indicate a role for SIGN-R1 in the regulation of inflammation in a model of experimental colitis and illustrate that SIGN-R1 is a critical innate factor in response to LPS.
Functional connectivity in a patient with complex hallucinations. A case of autoscopy

RESUMEN La autoscopia, del griego autos (si mismo) y skopeo (mirar), son alucinaciones complejas durante las cuales el paciente experimenta una duplicacion visual de su cuerpo. El presente articulo discute algunos correlatos de conectividad cerebral obtenida por resonancia funcional en reposo, en una paciente con epilepsia refractaria y alucinaciones autoscopicas durante sus crisis. El objetivo es presentar los hallazgos por neuroimagenes funcionales de una paciente que presenta alucinaciones del tipo autoscopico. Como parte del protocolo de evaluacion de pacientes con epilepsia refractaria se realiza examen de videomonitoreo electroencefalografico, imagenes de tomografia por emision de positrones e imagenes de resonancia magnetica funcional en reposo a una paciente que sufre alucinaciones autoscopicas durante las crisis. La informacion obtenida por estos estudios se correlaciona con la informacion clinica. En la paciente, el estudio de tomografia por emision de positrones y el videomonitoreo electroencefalografico indican alteraciones en el lobulo occipital derecho, hallazgos que coinciden con reportes en la literatura sobre autoscopia. La sincronizacion neuronal, medida por resonancia funcional, es anormal en la misma region alterada en la tomografia por emision de positrones, permitiendo relacionar el fenomeno autoscopico con cambios de la conectividad cerebral. La paciente cuenta con caracteristicas clinicas de alucinacion autoscopica. La resonancia magnetica indica zonas con alteraciones de la dinamica cerebral que, en el caso de la paciente, coinciden con regiones reportadas en la literatura. El presente estudio aporta evidencias sobre el papel de los mecanismos de sincronizacion neuronal y la percepcion de alucinaciones.
The Far-Reaching Influence of Hepatic Enzyme-Inducing Antiepileptic Drugs

Effects of Antiepileptic Drugs on Lipids, Homocysteine, and C-Reactive Protein. Mintzer S, Skidmore CT, Abidin CJ, Morales MC, Chervoneva I, Capuzzi DM, Sperling MR. Ann Neurol 2009;65:448–456. OBJECTIVE: The widely prescribed anticonvulsants phenytoin and carbamazepine are potent inducers of cytochrome P450 enzymes, which are involved in cholesterol synthesis. We sought to determine whether these drugs have an effect on cholesterol and other serological markers of vascular risk. METHODS: We recruited 34 epilepsy patients taking carbamazepine or phenytoin in monotherapy whose physicians had elected to change treatment to one of the noninducing anticonvulsants lamotrigine or levetiracetam. Fasting blood samples were obtained both before and 6 weeks after the switch to measure serum lipid fractions, lipoprotein(a), C-reactive protein, and homocysteine. A comparator group of 16 healthy subjects underwent the same serial studies. RESULTS: In the epilepsy patients, switch from either phenytoin or carbamazepine produced significant declines in total cholesterol (-24.8 mg/dL), atherogenic (non-high-density lipoprotein) cholesterol (-19.9 mg/dL), triglycerides (-47.1 mg/dL) (all p < 0.0001), and C-reactive protein (-31.4%; p = 0.027). Patients who stopped taking carbamazepine also had a 31.2% decline in lipoprotein(a) level (p = 0.0004), whereas those taken off phenytoin had a decrease in homocysteine level (-1.7 μmol/L; p = 0.005). All of these changes were significant when compared with those seen in healthy subjects (p < 0.05). Results were similar whether patients were switched to lamotrigine or levetiracetam. INTERPRETATION: Switching epilepsy patients from the enzyme-inducers carbamazepine or phenytoin to the noninducing drugs levetiracetam or lamotrigine produces rapid and clinically significant amelioration in several serological markers of vascular risk. These findings suggest that phenytoin and carbamazepine may substantially increase the risk for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease.
Early attachment security, subsequent maternal sensitivity, and later child development: Does continuity in development depend upon continuity of caregiving?

In order to test the hypothesis (1) that the most competent 3-year-olds would be those with histories of secure attachment (at 15 months) who subsequently experienced (relatively) high-sensitive mothering (at 24 months), (2) that the least competent children would be those with histories of insecure attachment who subsequently experienced (relatively) low-sensitive mothering, and (3) that those with mixed or inconsistent attachment-sensitivity histories would fall in between, data gathered as part of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care were examined. A-priori tests supported the hypothesis in the case of all five developmental outcomes examined (problem behavior, social competence, expressive language, receptive language, school readiness), though group means did not always rank in the predicted direction. Further planned comparisons of children with mixed attachment-sensitivity histories revealed that, in the case of all outcomes, insecurely attached children who subsequently experienced high-sensitive mothering significantly outperformed secure children who subsequently experienced low-sensitive mothering. Follow-up analyses highlighted the role of maternal and family stress in accounting for why some infants who were classified as secure at 15 months experienced low-sensitive mothering at 24 months and why some infants classified as insecure subsequently experienced high-sensitive mothering. Results are discussed with regard to the role of early experience in shaping development.
The QUT-NOISE-SRE protocol for the evaluation of noisy speaker recognition

The QUT-NOISE-SRE protocol is designed to mix the large QUT-NOISE database, consisting of over 10 hours of back- ground noise, collected across 10 unique locations covering 5 common noise scenarios, with commonly used speaker recognition datasets such as Switchboard, Mixer and the speaker recognition evaluation (SRE) datasets provided by NIST. By allowing common, clean, speech corpora to be mixed with a wide variety of noise conditions, environmental reverberant responses, and signal-to-noise ratios, this protocol provides a solid basis for the development, evaluation and benchmarking of robust speaker recognition algorithms, and is freely available to download alongside the QUT-NOISE database. In this work, we use the QUT-NOISE-SRE protocol to evaluate a state-of-the-art PLDA i-vector speaker recognition system, demonstrating the importance of designing voice-activity-detection front-ends specifically for speaker recognition, rather than aiming for perfect coherence with the true speech/non-speech boundaries.
Methanol extract of Nigella sativa seed induces changes in the levels of neurotransmitter amino acids in male rat brain regions

Abstract Context: Nigella sativa L. (Ranunculaceae) (NS) has been used for medicinal and culinary purposes. Different parts of the plant are used to treat many disorders. Objective: This study investigates the effects of NS methanol extract on brain neurotransmitter amino acid levels. Materials and methods: We measured the changes in aspartate, glutamate, glycine and γ-aminobutyric acid in five brain regions of male Wistar rats after methanol extract treatment. Animals were injected intraperitoneally with saline solution (controls) or NS methanol extract (equivalent of 2.5 g/kg body weight) and sacrificed 1 h later or after administering 1 daily dose for 8 days. The neurotransmitters were measured in the hypothalamus, cortex, striatum, hippocampus and thalamus by HPLC. Results and discussion: Results showed significant changes in amino acids compared to basal values. Glutamate increased significantly (16–36%) in the regions analyzed except the striatum. Aspartate in the hypothalamus (50 and 76%) and glycine in hippocampus (32 and 25%), thalamus (66 and 29%) and striatum (75 and 48%) also increased with the two treatment intervals. γ-Aminobutyric acid significantly increased in the hippocampus (38 and 32%) and thalamus (22 and 40%) but decreased in the cortex and hypothalamus although in striatum only after eight days of treatment (24%). Conclusion: Our results suggest that injected methanol extract modifies amino acid levels in the rat brain regions. These results could be of interest since some neurodegenerative diseases are related to amino acid level imbalances in the central nervous system, suggesting the prospect for therapeutic use of NS against these disorders.
Altering the Length of the Lipopolysaccharide O Antigen Has an Impact on the Interaction of Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium with Macrophages and Complement

ABSTRACT A panel of isogenic Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium strains that vary only in the length of the O antigen was constructed through complementation of a wzz double mutant (displaying unregulated O-antigen length) with one of two homologous (wzz ST and wzz fepE) or three heterologous (wzz O139 of Vibrio cholerae and wzz SF and wzz pHS-2 of Shigella flexneri) wzz genes. Each gene was functional in the S. enterica serovar Typhimurium host and specified production of O-antigen polymers with lengths typical of those synthesized by the donor bacteria (ranging from 2 to >100 O-antigen repeat units). By use of this panel of strains, it was found that O-antigen length influences invasion/uptake by macrophage cells; this is the first time this has been shown with Salmonella. O-antigen length was confirmed to be related to complement resistance, with a minimum protective length of >4 and <15 repeat units. O antigen of 16 to 35 repeat units was found to activate complement more efficiently than other lengths, but this was unrelated to complement resistance. No evidence was found to suggest that modifying the length of the O-antigen polymer affected expression of the O1, O4, or O5 antigenic factors.
Intravenous Pamidronate Prevents Femoral Bone Loss and Renal Stone Formation During 90‐Day Bed Rest

Long‐term bed rest has potential risks of bone loss and renal stone formation. We examined the effects of resistive exercise and intravenous pamidronate on BMD, bone turnover, urinary calcium, and renal stone formation in 25 healthy males during 90‐day bed rest. Pamidronate prevented femoral bone loss and renal stone formation, but resistive exercise showed little effects.
SEPARATION BY MONOCHROMATIC LIGHT OF PHOTOSYNTHETIC PHOSPHORYLATION FROM OXYGEN EVOLUTION.

Although photoproduction of oxygen is an essential part of the over-all photosynthetic process in plants, it does not appear to be essential for the formation of ATP,1 a key step in the conversion of light energy into chemical energy.2-4 Upon illumination, isolated chloroplasts form ATP by two photochemical reactions, cyclic and noncyclic photophosphorylation.4. 5 In neither of these is photoproduction of oxygen essential: it is either absent, as in the case of cyclic photophosphorylation,4, 6 or, when present, as in the case of noncyclic photophosphorylation,7' 8 it can be experimentally separated9 without impairing ATP formation (and TPN reduction). From this, it was suggested'0 11 that the photosynthetic energy conversion process consisting of cyclic and noncyclic photophosphorylation is basically the same in oxygen-evolving green plants as in the strictly anaerobic photosynthetic bacteria, the photosynthesis of which is never accompanied by oxygen evolution. Oxygen evolution would, in this view, be an accessory photochemical reactions dependent mainly on an accessory pigment system, which like chlorophyll b or the phycobilins, is found only in oxygen-evolving photosynthetic cells. Other investigators have suggested, however, that ATP formation by chloroplasts in vivo is always accompanied by oxygen evolution. In this view, the experimentally demonstrable cyclic photophosphorylation without oxygen evolution would be an artifact resulting from the use of such added cofactors as methyl phenazonium methosulfate (phenazine methosulfate); in endogenous cyclic photophosphorylation, it was held,'2 oxygen evolution would always occur but would be masked by a simultaneous and equal oxygen consumption, the over-all result being an oxygen exchange, i.e., a pseudocyclic6 type of photophosphorylation. It seemed desirable, therefore, to investigate the relation of ATP formation to oxygen evolution in the recently discovered endogenous type of cyclic photophosphorylation by chloroplasts,13 the type dependent on the native chloroplast protein, ferredoxin. This cyclic photophosphorylation is free from the objection that it is catalyzed by exogenous catalysts, some of which, like phenazine methosulfate, are clearly nonphysiological. The findings reported here indicate that the ferredoxin-dependent cyclic photophosphorylation by isolated chloroplasts is independent of photoproduction of oxygen; it occurs in far-red monochromatic light (708 mA) at which only little oxygen evolution by isolated chloroplasts has been observed. The experimental unmasking of ferredoxin-dependent cyclic photophosphorylation in chloroplasts was greatly facilitated by the prevention of photochemical oxygen evolution; nevertheless, this type of photophosphorylation is facilitated, not impeded, by the presence of oxygen gas, which always surrounds functioning chloroplasts in vivo. These findings are consistent with the central role which is envisaged' for ferredoxin in photosynthetic phosphorylation (cyclic and noncyclic) by chloroplasts in intact cells.
A meta-analysis of the efficacy of preoperative surgical safety checklists to improve perioperative outcomes.

BACKGROUND Meta-analyses of the implementation of a surgical safety checklist (SSC) in observational studies have shown a significant decrease in mortality and surgical complications. OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of the SSC using data from randomised controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS This meta-analysis followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines and was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42015017546). A comprehensive search of six databases was conducted using the OvidSP search engine. RESULTS Four hundred and sixty-four citations revealed three eligible trials conducted in tertiary hospitals and a community hospital, with a total of 6 060 patients. All trials had allocation concealment bias and a lack of blinding of participants and personnel. A single trial that contributed 5 295 of the 6 060 patients to the meta-analysis had no detection, attrition or reporting biases. The SSC was associated with significantly decreased mortality (risk ratio (RR) 0.59, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.42 - 0.85; p=0.0004; I2=0%) and surgical complications (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.57 - 0.71; p<0.00001; I2=0%). The efficacy of the SSC on specific surgical complications was as follows: respiratory complications RR 0.59, 95% CI 0.21 - 1.70; p=0.33, cardiac complications RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.28 - 1.95; p=0.54, infectious complications RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.29 - 1.27; p=0.18, and perioperative bleeding RR 0.36, 95% CI 0.23 - 0.56; p<0.00001. CONCLUSIONS There is sufficient RCT evidence to suggest that SSCs decrease hospital mortality and surgical outcomes in tertiary and community hospitals. However, randomised evidence of the efficacy of the SSC at rural hospital level is absent.