Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Diagnosis and management of pertussis

PERTUSSIS IS INCREASING IN FREQUENCY among children too young to be vaccinated and among adolescents and adults. This increase is due mainly to waning immunity among vaccinated individuals, who become susceptible during adolescence and adulthood and maintain the circulation of Bordetella pertussis. Infants are at highest risk of severe illness requiring hospital admission, complications and death. The clinical presentation in adolescents, adults and vaccinated individuals may be atypical, with paroxysmal cough of short duration or simply a persistent cough. Culture and polymerase chain reaction may be used to identify B. pertussis infection, but their sensitivity is high only in the early phase of the disease. Serologic tests are not standardized for the diagnosis of pertussis, and their clinical application is limited. Erythromycin is still considered in some countries to be the “gold standard” for therapy and prophylaxis; however, azithromycin and clarithromycin seem equally efficacious and are associated with fewer side effects.
Coagulase‐Negative Staphylococci Isolated from Various Skin Lesions

We isolated 162 coagulase‐negative staphylococci (48: from infection, 114: from colonization) from various skin diseases between January, 1995, and January, 1998. From eighteen infected cysts, 10 Staphylococcus epidermidis strains, 3 S. capitis strains, 2 S. hominis strains, 2 S. auricularis strains, and one S. saprophyticus strain were individually detected. Similarly, from ten folliculitis lesions, 6 S. epidermidis strains, 2 S. capitis strains, and 2 S. hominis strains, and from five furuncle lesions, 3 S. lugdunensis strains, one S. epidermidis strains, and one S. hominis strain were detected, respectively. Four abscesses with mild inflammatory signs were localized on the scalp; S. epidermidis strains alone were detected from them. From two felons, one S. lugdunensis strain and one S. haemolyticus strain were detected, respectively. Staphylococus epidermidis and S. lugdunensis strains seems to be more frequently associated with skin suppurative lesions than other strains. Staphylococcus hominis strains and S. capitis strains were suggested to be potential pathogens in the initiation of suppuration in various purulent skin lesions. Among the 28 S. epidermidis strains, 13 (46.4%) were methicillin‐resistant (oxacillin. minimum inhibitory concentration ≥4 μg/ml). Twelve (29.3%) out of the other 41 coagulase‐negative staphylococci were methicillin‐resisitant. Coagulase‐positive and ‐negative staphylococci showed no differences in susceptibility tests against various antistaphylococcal agents.
A prospective cohort study of injury in amateur and professional boxing

Background: There is concern over the potential for a high incidence of injury in boxing. This is despite a lack of prospective data evaluating the risk for modern day participants. Updated, reliable data with a focus on potential exposure to injury for both amateur and, especially, professional boxers is required. Aim: To determine the epidemiology of injury and exposure of amateur and professional boxers in Victoria, Australia. Methods: A prospective cohort study with one year follow up was carried out over 2004–2005. Thirty three amateur and 14 active professional boxers registered with either Boxing Victoria Inc (amateurs) or the Professional Boxing and Combat Sports Board of Victoria (professionals) volunteered. Exposure at training and competition was measured, and any injuries sustained during this participation were recorded. Results: Twenty one injuries were sustained by the cohort during the follow up period. Most were to the head region (71%; 95% confidence interval −3.7 to 89.4), with concussion being the most common (33%). An overall injury rate of 2.0 injuries per 1000 hours of boxing was calculated. Conclusion: The high exposure experienced by the boxers (as a result of considerable training time) indicated that boxing has acute injury rates comparable to, and often lower than, those found in other contact and non-contact sports. Further, acute injuries during training appear to be less common and severe than those sustained in bouts.
Near-far problem in noise-based frequency-offset modulation

A multiple-access noise-based frequency offset modulation (N-FOM) system is studied in the context of near-far problem. A closed-form expression for the signal-to-noise ratio is derived and the bit error rate (BER) is evaluated. The result shows that the near-far problem compromises the performance of the multiple-access N-FOM system. Performance comparison with a standard spread-spectrum system indicates that the near-far problem has an inherently different effect on the N-FOM communication. The error rate of a node in the N-FOM system increases at a much higher rate as the number of simultaneous communication links increases. However for small number of simultaneous links, an adaptive power control scheme can help minimize the threat of the near-far problem.
Influence of demographics and profitability on physician selection of family practice procedures.

BACKGROUND Family physicians must make complex decisions regarding which procedures to learn in training and which to perform in practice. Factors that influence these decisions include community needs, the potential profitability of a procedure, and the desires and skills of the individual physician. METHODS To further clarify some of these influences, we surveyed members of the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians. The survey instrument included questions about 27 different procedures, including the perceived profitability of the procedure, which procedures they had discontinued, and which they planned to learn. RESULTS More than 40% of family physicians reported doing skin surgery, flexible sigmoidoscopy, nonstress obstetrical testing, breast-cyst aspiration, multiple joint arthrocentesis, and Norplant insertion, whereas fewer than 6% perform colonoscopy, esophagogastroduodenoscopy, and nasolaryngoscopy. Fifty-seven percent of physicians had discontinued at least one procedure, and 34% planned to learn one or more procedures. Being younger, male, and practicing in smaller communities correlated with performing a greater number of procedures (P < .001), but female physicians performed more gynecologic procedures (P < .05). There was a statistically significant correlation (r = -.478, P < .05) between perceived low profitability of a procedure and family physicians discontinuing a learned procedure, and a marginal correlation between perceived profitability and planning to learn a procedure (r = .338, P < .1). CONCLUSIONS Family physicians in Wisconsin vary greatly in the number and types of procedures performed. Community size, sex, and age are important variables associated with the number and type of procedures performed. The performance of procedures is dynamic: physicians both discontinue learned procedures and learn new procedures. The profitability of the procedure influences the learning and discontinuation of procedures.
REPAS, a summary rating scale for resistance to passive movement: Item selection, reliability and validity

Purpose. To establish: (i) item characteristics and item selection for the REPAS; (ii) internal consistency, inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the final REPAS version and its subtests; (iii) the association between the REPAS and selected other clinical scales of impairment and activity limitation. Method. Thirty-three neurological patients with central paresis. Two REPAS assessments with a one-week interval by two independent raters. Concurrent assessment of the Motricity Index, Box-and-Block test, Functional Ambulation Category, Timed walking, Barthel Index, Disability Rating Scale, Carer Burden Scale, and Hygiene Score. Results. Twenty-six of 52 REPAS items fulfilled the item selection criteria. The final test version showed a high internal consistency, inter-rater and test-retest reliability (correlation coefficients: 0.87 – 0.97, no significant difference between raters or with test repetition). Reliability of the arm and leg subtests was substantial (correlation coefficients: arm subtest 0.63 – 0.98, leg subtest 0.56 – 0.96). REPAS scores were moderately associated with basic ADL competence and a carer's burden with arm or leg adductor spasticity. The REPAS, arm subtest scores, degree of arm paresis and gross manual dexterity showed a moderately high association. Conclusions. The Ashworth scale-based guidelines assured comparability of test administration and scoring. The REPAS is a reliable and valid summary rating scale for resistance to passive movement.
Intramembrane cleavage of microneme proteins at the surface of the apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii

Apicomplexan parasites actively secrete proteins at their apical pole as part of the host cell invasion process. The adhesive micronemal proteins are involved in the recognition of host cell receptors. Redistribution of these receptor–ligand complexes toward the posterior pole of the parasites is powered by the actomyosin system of the parasite and is presumed to drive parasite gliding motility and host cell penetration. The microneme protein protease termed MPP1 is responsible for the removal of the C‐terminal domain of TgMIC2 and for shedding of the protein during invasion. In this study, we used site‐specific mutagenesis to determine the amino acids essential for this cleavage to occur. Mapping of the cleavage site on TgMIC6 established that this processing occurs within the membrane‐spanning domain, at a site that is conserved throughout all apicomplexan microneme proteins. The fusion of the surface antigen SAG1 with these transmembrane domains excluded any significant role for the ectodomain in the cleavage site recognition and provided evidence that MPP1 is constitutively active at the surface of the parasites, ready to sustain invasion at any time.
High blood pressure in early acute stroke: a sign of a poor outcome?

Objective To evaluate the prognostic value of admission blood pressure in patients with acute ischemic stroke by determining whether it contributes to clinical outcome and vascular death. Methods We studied 230 consecutive patients admitted within the first 24 h after the onset of ischemic stroke. We used the first systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements recorded on admission. The functional outcome was assessed on the basis of mortality or dependency (Rankin Scale > 3) at the 10-day and 6-month visits. Results High systolic blood pressure on admission was associated with poor outcome at the 10-day and 6-month visits, independent of the baseline risk factors but not of the severity of the initial stroke (odds ratio, 1.39; 95% confidence interval, 0.50–3.87). The spontaneous decrease in systolic blood pressure within the first 10 days was higher in patients with functional improvement. The admission blood pressure was not significantly associated with total and vascular deaths, except for a threshold effect of diastolic blood pressure. Conclusions After an acute stroke, the relationship between blood pressure and clinical outcome depended on the severity of the stroke on presentation, and on the level and trend of the systolic blood pressure during the first 24 h.
Revision Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction – Etiology of Failures and Clinical Results

A retrospective study was performed to determine the etiology of failed primary anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction and evaluate the clinical results of revision ACL surgery. From January 1989 to January 1996, 90 patients with failed ACL reconstructions underwent revision ACL surgery. The etiology of failed ACL reconstruction included 47 surgical technical errors, 22 traumatic reinjuries, 7 lack of graft incorporation, 3 loss of motion, 3 related to synthetic grafts, and 8 alignment or combined ligamentous instability patterns not addressed. Of 52 revision ACL patients with minimum 2-year follow-up, 43 responded to a questionnaire and underwent a comprehensive physical examination. The Hospital for Special Surgery knee ligament evaluation revealed 63% good/excellent results. Objective laxity test revealed 77% of all patients had 0/+1 grade on Lachman and a mean 2.86-mm KT 1000. The overall results of revision ACL surgery are encouraging in providing symptomatic relief and restoring stability; however, they are significantly lower than primary ACL surgery.
Visual object tracking based on appearance model selection

Occlusion and appearance variation are two common challenges in visual object tracking. Existing methods may not distinguish occlusion from large appearance variation during appearance model updating, as both of them may cause large appearance transformation inside the bounding box. In this paper, we propose an appearance model selection (AMS) based visual tracking algorithm. In the proposed method, the appearance model will be duplicated and one of them stops updating when there is large appearance change inside the bounding box, led by either allowed appearance variation or unexpected occlusion. According to the appearance information of an incoming video frame, the proposed method will choose the best appearance model in the model pool by the model selection mechanism. The proposed method can track the visual targets with appearance variation accurately and avoid error accumulation from occlusion at the same time. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed AMS tracking method outperforms other existing related ones on four video database.
The Global Burden of Headache: A Documentation of Headache Prevalence and Disability Worldwide

This study, which is a part of the initiative 'Lifting The Burden: The Global Campaign to Reduce the Burden of Headache Worldwide', assesses and presents all existing evidence of the world prevalence and burden of headache disorders. Population-based studies applying International Headache Society criteria for migraine and tension-type headache, and also studies on headache in general and 'chronic daily headache', have been included. Globally, the percentages of the adult population with an active headache disorder are 46% for headache in general, 11% for migraine, 42% for tension-type headache and 3% for chronic daily headache. Our calculations indicate that the disability attributable to tension-type headache is larger worldwide than that due to migraine. On the World Health Organization's ranking of causes of disability, this would bring headache disorders into the 10 most disabling conditions for the two genders, and into the five most disabling for women.
Conceptions about “What It Means to be Human” in East Asia: : Similarities and Differences between Japan and Korea

Recent research has highlighted the concept of human being as significant in social psychological processes. At an interpersonal level, people often regard themselves as possessing characteristics reflective of human nature more than others. At an intergroup level, some out groups are denied characteristics that are unique to humans (For review, Haslam, Loughnan, Kashima, & Bain, 2008). Although both Korean and Japanese languages have a word that signifies human nature (ningensei in Japanese, inganseong in Korean), it is yet unknown whether human nature has the same meaning across cultures, or would be rather culture-specific. Haslam (2006) has proposed that people consider what it means to be human in two different ways – human nature (HN) and human uniqueness (HU). HN is represented by warmth, agency, and openness, and theorized as early emerging and common across all humans, while HU reflects socialized and refined human characteristics, which distinguish humans from other species. Research in Australia has shown that those two are independent from each other, and people tend to regard the HN, but not HU, aspect as an essential part of being human (Haslam, Bastian, & Bissett, 2004). We aimed to extend this Australian finding to East Asia where people are said to have different conceptions of what it means to be human. The study focused on two East Asian countries, Japan and Korea. Despite their overall similarity as East Asian cultures, past research has found that self-concepts differ somewhat between them (Kashima et al., 1995), and therefore their conceptions of humanness may slightly vary as well. Although being close to each other, the two countries might have developed somewhat different views of what it means to be human, in part influenced by different historical and geographical factors. Thus, both similarities and subtle differences between the two cultures were expected.
Methanol Extract of Holarrhena antidysenterica Inhibits the Growth of Human Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells and Osteoclastogenesis of Bone Marrow Macrophages

Oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) frequently invades mandibular bone, and outcomes for treatment with surgical resection are typically poor, ultimately resulting in death. Holarrhena antidysenterica L. (Apocynaceae), distributed throughout Sri Lanka and India, has been used as a folk remedy to treat various diseases. Treatment with methanol extract of H. antidysenterica bark (HABE) inhibited cell viability and BrdU incorporation and induced apoptotic cell death in Ca9-22 gingival and HSC-3 tongue SCC cells. Flow cytometric analysis indicated that HABE treatment preferentially induces apoptotic cell death via increasing the sub-G1 peak in Ca9-22 cells and cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase in HSC-3 cells. HABE treatment in the presence of zVAD-fmk, a pan-caspase inhibitor, rescued cell viabilities in both OSCC cell lines. The ratio of Bax to Bcl-2 increased with reductions in the Bcl-2 protein expression, and the activation of caspase 3 and subsequent cleavage of PARP was detected in HABE-treated Ca9-22 and HSC-3 cells. Furthermore, HABE treatment at noncytotoxic concentrations inhibited osteoclast formation in RANKL-stimulated bone marrow macrophages. Taken together, HABE possesses the inhibitory activity on the growth of OSCC cells and antiosteoclastogenic activity. Therefore, HABE may be a promising alternative and complementary agent for preventing and treating OSCC.
Pigment gallstone formation in the cholesterol‐fed guinea pig

Female Hartley guinea pigs fed a 0.5% cholesterol‐supplemented diet were found to form pigmented gallstones after 6 weeks (17/23) and 12 weeks (11/11), while only 2 of 44 animals fed a trace cholesterol diet formed gallstones over a comparable period. The light brown stones consisted primarily of aggregates of fine granular crystals, morphologically similar to calcium bilirubinate crystals. The stones were soluble in 0.1 N sodium hydroxide and were found to contain a substance which co‐migrated with unconjugated bilirubin during thin‐layer chromatography.
Metagenomic Analysis of Streptomyces lividans Reveals Host-Dependent Functional Expression

ABSTRACT Most functional metagenomic studies have been limited by the poor expression of many genes derived from metagenomic DNA in Escherichia coli, which has been the predominant surrogate host to date. To expand the range of expressed genes, we developed tools for construction and functional screening of metagenomic libraries in Streptomyces lividans. We expanded on previously published protocols by constructing a system that enables retrieval and characterization of the metagenomic DNA from biologically active clones. To test the functionality of these methods, we constructed and screened two metagenomic libraries in S. lividans. One was constructed with pooled DNA from 14 bacterial isolates cultured from Alaskan soil and the second with DNA directly extracted from the same soil. Functional screening of these libraries identified numerous clones with hemolytic activity, one clone that produces melanin by a previously unknown mechanism, and one that induces the overproduction of a secondary metabolite native to S. lividans. All bioactive clones were functional in S. lividans but not in E. coli, demonstrating the advantages of screening metagenomic libraries in more than one host.
High Level of PD-1 Expression on Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)-Specific CD8+ and CD4+ T Cells during Acute HCV Infection, Irrespective of Clinical Outcome

ABSTRACT We monitored expression of PD-1 (a mediator of T-cell exhaustion and viral persistence) on hepatitis C virus (HCV)-specific CD8+ and CD4+ T cells from blood and liver during acute and chronic infections and after the resolved infection stage. PD-1 expression on HCV-specific T cells was high early in acute infection irrespective of clinical outcome, and most cells continued to express PD-1 in resolved and chronic stages of infection; intrahepatic expression levels were especially high. Our results suggest that an analysis of PD-1 expression alone is not sufficient to predict infection outcome or to determine T-cell functionality in HCV infection.
Munc 18a Binding to Syntaxin 1A and 1B Isoforms Defines Its Localization at the Plasma Membrane and Blocks SNARE Assembly in a Three-Hybrid System Assay

Syntaxin 1 and synaptobrevin/VAMP play an essential role in synaptic vesicle exocytosis. Two isoforms for each of these proteins, syntaxins 1A and 1B and synaptobrevin/VAMPs 1 and 2, have been found in nerve endings. Morphological and biochemical studies have revealed a characteristic colocalization and selective interactions patterns of syntaxin 1 and synaptobrevin/VAMP isoforms in nervous and endocrine systems. Moreover, studies in vitro with recombinant proteins have shown characteristic interaction patterns for each syntaxin 1-synaptobrevin/VAMP pair. The cytosolic protein Munc-18a modulates neurotransmission by inhibiting the binding of synaptobrevin/VAMP and SNAP-25 to syntaxin 1A. In the present study, several binding assays were used to demonstrate that Munc-18a significantly binds both isoforms of syntaxin 1 (syntaxins 1A and 1B). Moreover, the coexpression of Munc-18a and syntaxin 1A or syntaxin 1B in 29.3 T cells revealed syntaxin 1-dependent localization of Munc-18a in the plasma membrane. By using the three-hybrid system, we showed the inhibitory role of Munc-18a in the formation of syntaxin 1-synaptobrevin/VAMP complexes regardless of the isoforms. Since Munc-18a can bind both isoforms of syntaxin 1, the present data suggest that this protein is a general modulator of the formation of different SNARE complexes in the nerve endings.