Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii in Dogs From Northeastern Portugal

Abstract Prevalence of antibodies to Toxoplasma gondii was investigated in 673 domestic dogs from northeastern Portugal, using the modified agglutination test (MAT) with 1∶20 as cutoff for seropositivity; antibodies were found in 256 dogs (38.0%). Differences between seroprevalence levels in males (36.7%) and females (41.8%) and between pure-breed (42.1%) and mixed-breed dogs (35.2%) were not statistically significant. Multiple logistic regression analysis identified age above 12 mo (odds ratio [OR] = 4.0), chance of eating birds or small mammals (OR = 4.0), housing exclusively outdoors (OR = 1.5), home-cooked meals (OR = 3.0), and eating raw meat or viscera (OR = 7.7) as risk factors for the canine T. gondii infection. Some control measures are suggested based on these findings.
Standardized Screening and Assessment of Older Emergency Department Patients: A Survey of Implementation in Quebec*

ABSTRACT Cost-effective methods have been developed to help busy emergency department (ED) staff cope with the growing number of older patients, including quick screening and assessment tools to identify those at high risk and note their specific needs. This survey, from a sample of key informants from all EDs (n=111) in the province of Quebec (participation rate of 88.2%), investigated the implementation of these tools and barriers to implementation. Questionnaires (administered either by telephone or by self-completion) included characteristics of the ED, characteristics of the respondent, use of tools, and method of implementation. Barriers to the implementation of these tools included lack of resources for screening and follow-up, misunderstandings of the difference between screening and assessment tools, and need for adaptation of the tools to the local context. Education of staff and pre-implementation adaptation and testing are needed for successful implementation. RÉSUMÉ Des méthodes efficientes ont été développées pour aider le personnel des départements d'urgence (DU) à s'ajuster au nombre croissant de patients âgés, leur procurant des outils de dépistage et d'évaluation permettant d'identifier les patients plus à risque ainsi que les besoins spécifiques à ceux-ci. Ce sondage des informateurs-clé de tous les départements d'urgence (n=111) de la province de Québec porte sur l'implantation de ces outils ainsi que sur les barrières à leur implantation. Les questionnaires (complétés soit par téléphone ou auto-administrés) incluaient : les caractéristiques du département d'urgence (DU), les caractéristiques des répondants, l'utilisation d'outils ainsi que le mode d'implantation. Les barrières à l'implantation de ces outils sont : le manque de ressources pour dépister et faire le suivi, la méconnaissance de la différence entre outils de dépistage et d'évaluation et enfin, la nécessité d'adapter les outils aux contextes locaux. La formation des intervenants et des essais préalables sont nécessaires à l'implantation fructueuse.
Las gastroenteritis víricas: un problema de salud pública

Acute gastroenteritis (AG), which may be caused by bacteria, parasites and enteropathogenic viruses, including rotaviruses, astroviruses, adenoviruses and caliciviruses, is an important health problem. The frequency of rotavirus as a cause of sporadic cases of AG ranges between 17.3% and 37.4%. Although it has been suggested that common exposure is not an important factor in the diffusion of rotavirus, it is difficult to associate apparently sporadic cases, meaning that there are probably outbreaks that go undetected. Astroviruses cause GA with a frequency ranging between 2 and 26%: outbreaks have been described in schools and kindergartens, but also in adults and the elderly. The frequency of identification of adenoviruses 40 and 41 as causes of sporadic AG in non-immunosuppressed children ranges between 0.7% and 31.5%, although there is probably underreporting because the sensitivity of conventional techniques is low. Caliciviruses are separated phylogenetically into two genera: Norovirus and sapovirus. Norovirus is frequently associated with food- and water-borne outbreaks of AG. It is estimated that 40% of cases of AG due to norovirus are foodborne. In Sweden and some regions of the United States, norovirus is the first cause of outbreaks of foodborne diseases. Sapovirus outbreaks due to person-to-person and foodborne transmission affecting both children and adults have recently been reported in countries such as Canada and Japan.
Prevalence of Antibodies to Theileria equi and Babesia caballi in Horses From Northeastern Mexico

Abstract: The objective of this study was to obtain an estimate for seroprevalences of Theileria equi (Babesia equi) and Babesia caballi in horses from northeastern Mexico. Sera were collected in spring of 2007 in 248 clinically healthy horses used for different purposes. Antibodies were detected by the indirect immunofluorecent technique. The overall seroprevalence was 61.7% and those for T. equi and B. caballi were 45.2% and 27.4%, respectively. Horse purpose, sex, and age group were not associated with infection with Theileria equi or Babesia caballi.
Les prescriptions hors AMM : revue de la littérature

Cet article propose une synthese bibliographique sur le theme des prescriptions hors AMM, prescriptions ne respectant pas une ou plusieurs mentions officielles de l’AMM. Il presente les differentes approches choisies pour aborder cette pratique : importance, origines et facteurs explicatifs, problemes souleves par les prescripteurs et propositions d’amelioration… Il montre la complexite des situations, compte tenu des domaines concernes divers, de l’evolution des connaissances medicales et de la particularite de chaque situation.
Dietary Carotenoids, Vitamins A, C, and E, and Advanced Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Objective. —To evaluate the relationships between dietary intake of carotenoids and vitamins A, C, and E and the risk of neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of irreversible blindness among adults. Design. —The multicenter Eye Disease Case-Control Study. Setting. —Five ophthalmology centers in the United States. Patients. —A total of 356 case subjects who were diagnosed with the advanced stage of AMD within 1 year prior to their enrollment, aged 55 to 80 years, and residing near a participating clinical center. The 520 control subjects were from the same geographic areas as case subjects, had other ocular diseases, and were frequency-matched to cases according to age and sex. Main Outcome Measures. —The relative risk for AMD was estimated according to dietary indicators of antioxidant status, controlling for smoking and other risk factors, by using multiple logistic-regression analyses. Results. —A higher dietary intake of carotenoids was associated with a lower risk for AMD. Adjusting for other risk factors for AMD, we found that those in the highest quintile of carotenoid intake had a 43% lower risk for AMD compared with those in the lowest quintile (odds ratio, 0.57; 95% confidence interval, 0.35 to 0.92;Pfor trend=.02). Among the specific carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin, which are primarily obtained from dark green, leafy vegetables, were most strongly associated with a reduced risk for AMD (Pfor trend=.001). Several food items rich in carotenoids were inversely associated with AMD. In particular, a higher frequency of intake of spinach or collard greens was associated with a substantially lower risk for AMD (Pfor trend Conclusion. —Increasing the consumption of foods rich in certain carotenoids, in particular dark green, leafy vegetables, may decrease the risk of developing advanced or exudative AMD, the most visually disabling form of macular degeneration among older people. These findings support the need for further studies of this relationship. (JAMA. 1994;272:1413-1420)
“There’s an App for That”: An Interview with Dr. Jennifer Stinson, an M-Health Expert

Increased adoption of smartphone technology by the general public has opened up an exciting new means by which healthcare professionals can interact with their patients [1]. The smartphone’s unique ability to combine mobile communication and computation offers a novel modality by which physicians can deliver healthcare interventions to their patients. Thus, it is no wonder that the use of smartphones in healthcare settings (so called “m-health”) has become the focus of widespread interest amongst healthcare professionals, with many smartphone-based medical applications already in widespread use amongst physicians and patients [2]. Leading the charge in this m-health revolution is Dr. Jennifer Stinson, a nurse clinician scientist based at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, who aims to capitalize on the popularity of smartphones among adolescents [3]. Dr. Stinson is a pioneer in the field of m-health, creating one of the first electronic pain diaries using the Palm Tungsten PDA to help adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) related pain [4]. More recently, she has created the “Pain Squad” smartphone-based app, a multiple award-winning pain measurement tool for children and adolescents with cancer [5]. I was able to speak with Dr. Stinson about her experience with m-health, her views about the future of m-health, and her advice for interested healthcare professionals and trainees who want to integrate mobile technology into their own patient care. The following is an edited version of that conversation.
Apport de la microalbuminurie, diabète et risque cardiovasculaire

La microalbuminurie a longtemps ete consideree comme le temoin d’une atteinte de la barriere glomerulaire. Elle traduit en fait une atteinte de l’ensemble de l’endothelium vasculaire. Comme pour la pression arterielle, de nombreuses etudes montrent que le risque cardiovasculaire suit une relation continue avec l’excretion urinaire d’albumine et que sa diminution est associee a une reduction du risque d’evenements renaux ou cardiovasculaires. A ce titre, une large detection de la microalbuminurie peut etre recommandee de meme que son utilisation comme objectif therapeutique.
ASSOCIATION OF PARAOXONASE-2 GENETIC VARIATION WITH SERUM PARAOXONASE ACTIVITY AND SYSTEMIC LUPUS ERYTHEMATOSUS

SLE, a severe autoimmune disease is of major public health relevance since it predominantlyaffects women at child bearing age and even though immunosuppressives have increased the lifespan of SLE patients, lack of absolute cure is still troubling. Risk of premature coronary heartdisease (CHD) is strikingly high in SLE women (35-44 years) than the general population. Lowparaoxonase (PON) activity is associated with increased CHD as well as SLE risk. PONmultigene (PON1, PON2 PON3) are anti-oxidants that cluster on chromosome 7q21-22 at 94.5-94.6 Mb, in close vicinity to a linkage peak for SLE on 7q21.1 at 77.5Mb. PON1 (PON1/192,PON1/55) and PON3 (PON3/10340,PON3/2115) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) arethe known significant modulators of PON/paraoxon activity. The purpose of this study was todetermine the impact of PON2 tagSNPs with PON activity, SLE risk, lupus nephritis, parametersof LDL oxidation and subclinical carotid vascular disease measures. Nineteen PON2 tagSNPswere screened from HapMap and SeattleSNP databases in 489 SLE and 569 healthy controlwomen from two recruitment sites (Pittsburgh and Chicago), using Pyrosequencing, RFLP orTaqMan allelic discrimination methods. Pairwise linkage disequilibrium (r2iÝ 0.8) identified 15 tagSNPs that captured all the 19 PON2 variants in our sample. Although none of the PON2tagSNPs revealed any obvious association with SLE risk, low PON/paraoxon activity wasindependently associated with SLE. Two PON2 variants [rs6954345(Ser311Cys) and rs987539]showed significant association with PON/paraoxon activity in Pittsburgh whites(cases+controls). Our data revealed few modest associations of PON2 variants with lupusnephritis (rs17876205, rs17876183, rs10261470, rs987539, rs9641164) in white (Pittsburgh+Chicago) SLE cases, parameters of LDL oxidation [PON2/rs11545941(Ala148Gly),rs13306702, rs2286233, rs10261470, rs17876205, rs4729189] in white (Pittsburgh) SLE casesand consistent association of PON2/rs11981433 and rs12704795 SNPs with carotid intima mediathickness and plaque in white(Pittsburgh+Chicago) SLE cases. In conclusion, our data suggest that PON2 genetic variants have modest effect on serum PON activity, risk of lupus nephritis and subclinical carotid vascular disease measures in SLE patients.
Optimizing Solar UV-Radiation Exposures for Vitamin D3: Comparing Global and Diffuse Spectral UV Radiation

Abstract Turnbull, D. J. and Parisi, A. V. Optimizing Solar UV-Radiation Exposures for Vitamin D3: Comparing Global and Diffuse Spectral UV Radiation. Radiat. Res. 169, 344–349 (2008). Currently, there is a major gap in the knowledge that is needed to optimize the beneficial effects related to ultraviolet (UV) radiation at wavelengths that induce vitamin D3 synthesis (UVD3) compared to reducing the biologically damaging overexposure to UV radiation. The aim of this study was to investigate the use of diffuse (radiation that is scattered from all directions) UV radiation to optimize exposures to UVD3 radiation and maximize the reduction of exposure to UVA radiation. Data on global and diffuse solar UV-radiation spectra were collected at 10-min intervals in the Southern Hemisphere in the late spring and summer from 1 November 2006 to 28 February 2007. For a solar zenith angle (SZA) of approximately 5°, the observed maximum UVD3 irradiances were 0.80 W/m2 and 0.46 W/m2 for global and diffuse UV radiation, respectively. The observed maximum UVA irradiances were 79.0 W/m2 and 36.2 W/m2 for global and diffuse UV radiation, respectively. For diffuse UV radiation, the maximum ratio of vitamin D3 to UVA radiation was 1.75% at a SZA of approximately 10°, whereas the maximum ratio for global UV was 1.27% at 10°. For SZAs of 25° and less, more UV radiation is in the wavelength region contributing to vitamin D3 synthesis (UVD3) than in the UVA region for diffuse UV radiation than for global UV radiation.
Estimating Risk of Low Radiation Doses – A Critical Review of the BEIR VII Report and its Use of the Linear No-Threshold (LNT) Hypothesis

This article explores the origin of the linear no-threshold (LNT) dose-response model and how it came to be used in cancer risk assessment worldwide. Following this historical appraisal is an evaluation of the LNT model, within the framework of the BEIR VII report of the National Academy of Sciences, on the health effects of ionizing radiation. The final section of this article provides an assessment of the LNT model's capacity to make accurate predictions of risk in the low-dose zone based on recent molecular mechanistic findings and epidemiological methods, with particular emphasis on the limitations of epidemiological studies to estimate risks in the low-dose zone.
Hepatoprotective effects of Pluchea indica (less) extract in experimental acute liver damage in rodents

The methanol fraction of the extract of Pluchea indica roots exhibited significant hepatoprotective activity against experimentally induced hepatotoxicity by carbon tetrachloride in rats and mice. The extract caused significant reduction of the elevated serum enzyme levels (AST, ALT, LDH and serum alkaline phosphatase) and serum bilirubin content in acute liver injury. A significant increase of reduced serum total protein, albumin and albumin/globulin ratio was also observed on extract treatment. The extract significantly reduced the prolonged pentobarbitone‐induced sleeping time and also caused a significant reduction of plasma prothrombin time in comparison with CCl4‐treated animals. The extract caused significant reduction of the increased bromosulphalein retention by CCl4‐treatment. These findings are suggestive of a potent hepatoprotective effect of the extract under investigation.
Pediatric curriculum content for occupational therapy assistants

Olson Doreen M. (Writer) (Last Name) (First Name) (Initial) (Title) Development of Guidelines for Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant Curriculum Content Education Dr. Ed Biggerstaff July / 2000 62 (Graduate Major) (Research Advisor) (Month/Year) (No. of Pages) American Psychological Association (Name of Style Manual Used in this Study) With the onset of new standards for educational programs by the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education (ACOTE), colleges and universities are reviewing their curriculums for compliance. The standards guide curriculums as well as provide that occupational therapy education is consistent with meeting the practice needs and current treatment techniques of the occupational therapy practice across the nation. Educational curriculums vary distinctly in the curriculum design and what is covered in educational
Statistical and Operational Issues Arising in an Interim Analysis When the Study Will Continue

Guidelines/or conducting interim analyses in clinical trials sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry have been recently published (1). Usually, the clinical trial will terminate or the design will change when the interim analysis shows outstanding efficacy results. There are situations, however, where the interim analysis shows outstanding efficacy results and yet the study continues, for example, when regulatory requirements in the United States and Europe differ concerning study duration. A case study is presented which describes the statistical and operational issues encountered while performing a two-year interim analysis of a three-year registration study when the study was to continue to the three-year timepoint with the same design regardless of the outcome of the interim analysis. The statistician plays a central role in developing and implementing the strategy to effectively resolve these issues.
Optimal spatial sampling design for the estimation of the variogram based on a least squares approach

A methodology for the choice of optimal spatial sampling designs is proposed. The problem is to find an optimal finite set of space locations where a random field has to be sampled, in order to minimize the variability of the parametric variogram estimator. Under the hypothesis that the random field is Gaussian second‐order stationary and using a first‐order approximation for the linearization of the parametric variogram with respect to its parameters, we are able to express the covariance matrix of the parameter estimators as a function of the sampling design. An optimization algorithm based on a generalized least squares approach is proposed in order to reduce the variability of these estimators through the minimization of the determinant of their covariance matrix. In order to validate this approach, a practical case study is conducted for two different variogram models. It shows that compared to random sampling designs, the benefit of the optimization procedure is somewhat limited for a variogram model without nugget effect. For a variogram model with nugget effect, random sampling designs are associated with much higher variability on the parameter estimators than optimized designs because of the typical lack of information offered by random sampling designs for small distances between locations. The performance of random sampling designs compared to optimized or alternative regular designs is shown to be poor with respect to parameter estimation, especially when a nugget effect is included in the variogram model. The parameters that benefit the most from the optimization procedure are the variance and the nugget effect, whereas the improvement for the range parameter estimation is limited. The optimization algorithm provides yardstick results, yielding reference values for the selection of an alternative regular design. The applicability of the algorithm is very wide, and it can greatly help the user to understand the way the parameters are influenced by the choice of a set of sampling locations instead of another.
Quality Assurance/Quality Control Issues in GMP Regulatory Compliance

This paper covers key quality assurance/quality control issues from a Canadian perspective. Canadian Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) regulations and guidelines, present and future, are discussed. The Canadian situation with respect to GMPs for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) is explained. GMPs, with a focus on APIs, are discussed. A future direction for GMPs for APIs is offered. Key Canadian GMP regulation and guideline issues in development are reviewed. Concerns for APIs manufactured without GMP compliance are expressed, suggestions for API GMP requirements are offered, guiding principles for GMP regulations are suggested, a need for uniform quality standards is stated, and quality standard compliance advice for drug exporters to Canada is offered. ISO 9000 as not being a substitute for GMP compliance is also mentioned.
41Ca in Tooth Enamel. Part II: A Means for Retrospective Biological Neutron Dosimetry in Atomic Bomb Survivors

Abstract 41Ca is produced mainly by absorption of low-energy neutrons on stable 40Ca. We used accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to measure 41Ca in enamel of 16 teeth from 13 atomic bomb survivors who were exposed to the bomb within 1.2 km from the hypocenter in Hiroshima. In our accompanying paper (Wallner et al., Radiat. Res. 174, 000–000, 2010), we reported that the background-corrected 41Ca/Ca ratio decreased from 19.5 × 10−15 to 2.8 × 10−15 with increasing distance from the hypocenter. Here we show that the measured ratios are in good correlation with γ-ray doses assessed by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in the same enamel samples, and agree well with calculated ratios based on either the current Dosimetry System 2002 (DS02) or more customized dose estimates where the regression slope as obtained from an errors-in-variables linear model was about 0.85. The calculated DS02 neutron dose to the survivors was about 10 to 80 mGy. The low-energy neutrons responsible for 41Ca activation contributed variably to the total neutron dose depending on the shielding conditions. Namely, the contribution was smaller (10%) when shielding conditions were lighter (e.g., outside far away from a single house) and was larger (26%) when they were heavier (e.g., in or close to several houses) because of local moderation of neutrons by shielding materials. We conclude that AMS is useful for verifying calculated neutron doses under mixed exposure conditions with γ rays.