Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dioecious plants are more precocious than cosexual plants: A comparative study of relative sizes at the onset of sexual reproduction in woody species

Abstract The reproductive capacities of dioecious plant species may be limited by severe pollen limitation and narrow seed shadows for the two reasons. First, they are unable to self‐pollinate, and seed production occurs only with pollinator movement from males to females. Second, only 50% of the individuals in populations contribute to seed production. Despite these handicaps, dioecious plants maintain their populations in plant communities with cooccurring cosexual plants, and no substantial difference in population growth rates has been found between dioecious and cosexual plants. Hence, dioecious plants are thought to mitigate these disadvantages by adopting ecological traits, such as insect pollination, animal‐dispersed fleshy fruits, and precocious flowering. We studied the relationship between flowering and plant size in 30 woody species with different sex expressions, leaf habits, fruit types, and maximum plant sizes. The study site was located in an evergreen broad‐leaved forest on the island of Honshu, Japan. A phylogenetic linear regression model showed that dioecious species tended to mature at smaller sizes than did cosexual taxa. At the population level, given equal plant densities and reproductive efforts, the precocity of dioecious plants could serve as one of the factors that mitigate the limitations of pollen and seed‐shadow handicaps by increasing the density of reproductive individuals in the population. At the individual level, smaller size of onset of flowering may play a role in enhancing reproductive success over a lifetime by increasing reproductive opportunities. We discussed the possible effect of the relationship between precocity and some ecological traits of dioecious plants, such as small flowers pollinated by unspecialized insects, fleshy fruit dispersed by animals, and their preferential occurrence in the tropics and in island habitats. The universality of precocity among dioecious plants should be investigated in diverse plant communities. Such studies will increase our understanding of the evolution of plant breeding systems.
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Severity and PAP Compliance in Atrial Fibrillation Patients

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is highly prevalent in patients with atrial fibrillation and successful treatment has been shown to reduce morbidity in this high-risk group. This study evaluates the effect of OSA severity on treatment compliance. Methods: Electronic medical records were reviewed for sleep study variables (Apnea-hypopnea index -AHI), the prescribed positive airway pressure device, and PAP compliance. The OSA diagnoses were categorized into 3 categories based on the patients’ AHI. An AHI of >5-<15 was considered “Mild”. An AHI of 15-<30 was considered “Moderate”. An AHI of 30 or more was considered “Severe”. At 3 months, compliance was reviewed. PAP usage of 4 or more hours for 70 % or more of the nights was considered compliant. Chi-square test was performed to compare the three OSA groups for compliance. Results: A total of 222 patients met inclusion criteria and 192 patients had OSA. Mild OSA was observed in 35 patients, moderate OSA in 52 patients and severe OSA in 105 patients. Among patients who were started on therapy, 95% were on CPAP and 10 % were on BIPAP. There was a statistically significant difference in PAP compliance across OSA severity groups (Mild 45% vs Moderate 61 % vs Severe 67%, P-value 0 .03). Conclusion: Severe OSA patients were more compliant with PAP as compared to mild OSA patients; there is a significant upward trend in compliance withincreasing OSA severity. As even mild OSA can affect atrial fibrillation outcomes, barriers to treatment compliance in this group need to be evaluated.
Avoiding handover fumbles: a controlled trial of a structured handover tool versus traditional handover methods

Background Handover of patient information represents a critical time period during a patient's hospitalisation. While recent guidelines promote standardised communication during these patient care transitions, significant variability in structure and practice persists among hospitals and providers. Methods The authors surveyed internal medicine residents regarding handover practices before and after introduction of a structured, web-based handover application. The handover application standardised patient data in a format suitable for both patient handovers and day-to-day patient management. Results A total of 80 residents were surveyed prior to the intervention (80% response rate) and 161 residents during the intervention (average 68% response rate for all surveys distributed). At baseline, residents perceived deficits in handover practices related to the variability of information transferred and correlated that variability to near-miss events. After introduction of the handover application, 100% of handovers contained an updated problem list, active medications, and code status (compared to <55% at baseline, p<0.01); residents perceived approximately half as many near-miss events on call (31.5% vs 55%; p=0.0341) and were twice as likely to respond that they were confident or very confident in their patient handovers compared to traditional practices (93% vs 49%; p=0.01). Conclusion Standardisation of information transmitted during patient handovers through the use of a structured, web-based application led to consistent transfer of vital patient information and was associated with improved resident confidence and fewer perceived near-miss events on call.
Is Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation as Effective as Daily Supplementation for Decreasing Incidence of Anemia in Adolescent Girls

THIS CLINICAL TRIAL 1 compared the effectiveness of weekly vs daily administration of iron plus folic acid for the treatment of anemia in adolescent Nepalese girls, a population with an extremely high prevalence of anemia. The study was conducted in a single governmentrun school in Dharan, an urban foothill town in Nepal. Girls from the 8th to 12th grades aged 11 to 18 years were enrolled. Baseline characteristics measured included sociodemographic variables, diet (vegetarian vs nonvegetarian), history of parasites, menarcheal status, anthropometrics, and presence of specific physical abnormalities. The baseline prevalence of anemia in this population was 69%. Subjects were randomized to 1 of 3 groups: group A (n=70) received supplementation with tablets containing 350 mg of ferrous sulfate and 1.5 mg of folic acid once a day for 90 to 100 days; group B (n=67) received the same combination on a fixed day once a week for 14 weeks, supervised by 1 of the investigators; and group C (n=72) received no treatment during the study period. Of the 225 girls enrolled, 209 met inclusion criteria, and 181 completed the trial. The primary outcomes included prevalence of anemia (defined as hematocrit36%), mean hematocrit, and net change in hematocrit for each group from baseline to 15 days after completion of therapy. The prevalence of anemia declined from 68.6% and 70.1% in groups A and B to 20.0% and 13.4%, respectively (P .001). In group C, the control group, the prevalence went from 68.1% to 65.3% (P=.81). Mean hematocrit and net changes in mean hematocrit also increased significantly in both treatment groups compared with the control group. Increases in all outcomes between the daily and weekly observed treatment regimens were statistically equivalent. We evaluated this study using standards of design, analysis, and results for therapeutic trials described in the “Users’ Guide” series published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 2,3 The focus is on the quality of the study, the validity of its results, and the generalizability of the outcomes.
La perception sauvage. Étude sur les ordres sensoriels des enfants " sauvages "

La perception sauvage Etude sur les ordres sensoriels des enfants " sauvages " Cet essai se veut une etude de trois cas classiques d'enfants " sauvages " : l'enfant sauvage de l'Aveyron, les enfants-loups de l'Inde et Kaspar Hauser. Ces cas sont examines pour ce qu'ils peuvent nous apporter sur les ordres sensoriels, ou modes de perception, de tels enfants. On a constate que chaque enfant connait un ordre sensoriel particulier, lequel semble avoir ete determine par son environnement. Une fois ramene a la societe, l'enfant se voit contraint de former ses sensations au regime sensoriel de la culture dominante. Ces trois recits demontrent les differentes facons selon lesquelles les sensations peuvent etre ordonnees, a l'interieur et a l'exterieur de la culture. Ils laissent aussi entrevoir a quel point la societe determine ce que l'on percoit et la maniere dont on le percoit.
Intraindividual variability and short-term change. Commentary.

BACKGROUND Interest in the study of intraindividual variability is growing rapidly. OBJECTIVE The present collection of papers deals with both longer-term, growth and change and shorter-term intraindividual variability. METHODS The papers emphasize primarily the former within the context of analyzing large, longitudinal data sets. Also discussed are some key methodological matters. RESULTS Criteria to help with choosing methods and modeling with missing data are included. CONCLUSIONS A promising direction is toward developing a more systematic and intensive conception of the meaning and significance of the wide variety of manifestations of intraindividual variability and integrating them into theories of aging.
The effects of fluticasone with or without salmeterol on systemic biomarkers of inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

RATIONALE Small studies have suggested that inhaled corticosteroids can suppress systemic inflammation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). OBJECTIVES To determine the effect of inhaled corticosteroids with or without long-acting beta(2)-adrenergic agonist on systemic biomarkers of inflammation. METHODS We conducted a double-blind randomized placebo-controlled trial across 11 centers (n = 289 patients with FEV(1) of 47.8 +/- 16.2% of predicted) to compare the effects of inhaled fluticasone alone or in combination with salmeterol against placebo on circulating biomarkers of systemic inflammation over 4 weeks. The primary endpoint was C-reactive protein (CRP) level. Secondary molecules of interest were IL-6 and surfactant protein D (SP-D). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS Neither fluticasone nor the combination of fluticasone/salmeterol had a significant effect on CRP or IL-6 levels. There was, however, a significant reduction in SP-D levels with fluticasone and fluticasone/salmeterol compared with placebo (P = 0.002). Health status also improved significantly in both the fluticasone and fluticasone/salmeterol groups compared with placebo, driven mostly by improvements in the symptom scores. Changes in the circulating SP-D levels were related to changes in health status scores. FEV(1) improved significantly only in the fluticasone/salmeterol group compared with placebo. CONCLUSIONS ICS in conjunction with long-acting beta(2)-adrenergic agonist do not reduce CRP or IL-6 levels in serum of patients with COPD over 4 weeks. They do, however, significantly reduce serum SP-D levels. These data suggest that these drugs reduce lung-specific but not generalized biomarkers of systemic inflammation in COPD.
CHAPTER 11 THE NEUROPROTECTIVE ROLE OF CREATINE AUTUMN

Significant progress has been made in identifying neuroprotective agents and their translation to patients with neurological disorders. While the direct causative pathways of neurodegeneration remain unclear, they are under great clinical and experimental investigation. There are a number of interrelated pathogenic mechanisms triggering molecular events that lead to neuronal death. One putative mechanism reported to play a prominent role in the pathogenesis of neurological diseases is impaired energy metabolism. If reduced energy stores play a role in neuronal loss, then therapeutic strategies that buffer intracellular energy levels may prevent or impede the neurodegenerative process. Recent studies suggest that impaired energy production promotes neurological disease onset and progression. Sustained ATP levels are critical to cellular homeostasis and may have both direct and indirect influence on pathogenic mechanisms associated with neurological disorders. Creatine is a critical component in maintaining cellular energy homeostasis, and its administration has been reported to be neuroprotective in a wide number of both acute and chronic experimental models of neurological disease. In the context of this chapter, we will review the experimental evidence for creatine supplementation as a neurotherapeutic strategy in patients with neurological disorders, including Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s disease, as well as in ischemic stroke, brain and spinal cord trauma, and epilepsy
IL-7 is critical for homeostatic proliferation and survival of naïve T cells

In T cell-deficient conditions, naïve T cells undergo spontaneous “homeostatic” proliferation in response to contact with self-MHC/peptide ligands. With the aid of an in vitro system, we show here that homeostatic proliferation is also cytokine-dependent. The cytokines IL-4, IL-7, and IL-15 enhanced homeostatic proliferation of naïve T cells in vitro. Of these cytokines, only IL-7 was found to be critical; thus, naïve T cells underwent homeostatic proliferation in IL-4− and IL-15− hosts but proliferated minimally in IL-7− hosts. In addition to homeostatic proliferation, the prolonged survival of naïve T cells requires IL-7. Thus, naïve T cells disappeared gradually over a 1-month period upon adoptive transfer into IL-7− hosts. These findings indicate that naïve T cells depend on IL-7 for survival and homeostatic proliferation.
Pour en finir avec la banlieue. / Ending the use of the term "suburb".

La confusion qui regne entre les significations du mot banlieue entretient une obscurite prejudiciable a la clarte des debats dont elle est le sujet central. Nee d'une realite juridique devenue administrative, la banlieue est d'abord un terrain pour les sciences sociales, qui l'erigent en terrain d'investigation. Les images de la banlieue occupent aujourd'hui les medias, sans que les producteurs de ces representations aient une claire conscience de la sedimentation des codes anti-urbains a partir desquels ils operent. Les quartiers de banlieue sont enfin l'objet masque de la politique de la ville, issue des inquietudes anciennes du mouvement du logement social. La question des banlieues est une etrange specificite francaise, apparue autour d'une capitale dont le poids symbolique est sans egal ailleurs, et nationalisee a partir des annees 1970. Reflechir en termes de rapport centre/peripherie est un archaisme qui ne permet pas de penser les configurations nouvelles, et le diagnostic sur les quartiers en crise n'est que le dernier avatar du vieil organicisme.
Production of a bacteriocine-like substance by group-A streptococci of M-type 4 and T-pattern 4.

A unique and characteristic bacteriocine-like inhibitor elaborated by M-type 4, T-pattern 4, group-A streptococci was isolated and partially purified. This inhibitor was found to be produced optimally in Todd-Hewitt broth; after extraction and concentration, was shown to be protein in nature, and to have a m.w. of c. 8000. It was extremely heat stable and acid tolerant, but was quickly inactivated in alkaline conditions. It could be demonstrated in cell-bound form, but 99.5% was found in culture supernates. It was specifically adsorbed by viable sensitive cells, and its mode of action was bacteristatic.
CORRELACIONES ENTRE SUPERFICIES CORTICALES Y SUS ASIMETRIAS EN CEREBROS HUMANOS POSTMORTEM

RESUMEN: El objetivo del presente trabajo fue determinar en cerebros postmortem, las correlaciones entre los valores de las superficies corticales de cada uno de los hemisferios del area anterior del lenguaje, el plano temporal, el plano ascendente posterior, el giro cingular anterior y sus respectivas asimetrias % (ASIM%). Se calcularon los coeficientes de correlacion de Pearson y sus significaciones estadisticas. Los valores de asimetrias y de superficies corticales fueron determinados y publicados anteriormente (ALBANESE et al. 1989; 1995; 1997). Las correlaciones que se muestran en el presente trabajo no han sido publicadas. El area anterior del lenguaje (n = 24) y el plano temporal (n = 17) que presentan lateralidad izquierda, muestran correlaciones de signo positivo y estadisticamente significativas, entre las respectivas ASIM% y las correspondientes superficies derechas. Sus coeficientes de correlacion (r) y sus significaciones estadisticas son respectivamente 0.43 p<0.05 y 0.65 p<0.01. Dichas asimetrias no correlacionan significativamente con las correspondientes superficies izquierdas. El plano ascendente posterior (n = 17) y el giro cingularanterior (n = 20) que presentan lateralidad derecha muestran correlaciones de signo negativo y estadisticamente significativas entre las respectivas ASIM% y sus correspondientes superficies izquierdas. Sus coeficientes de correlacion (r) y sus significaciones estadisticas son respectivamente -0.50 p<0.05 y -0.72 p<0.01. Dichas asimetrias no se correlacionan significativamente con las correspondientes superficies derechas. Los resultados indican que en las cuatro zonas estudiadas, las respectivas asimetrias se correlacionan significativamente con la superficie correspondiente al hemisferio contralateral al dominante. Esto sugiere su probable compromiso en el desarrollo de la asimetria. El hallazgo de estas y otras correlaciones entre valores obtenidos de estudios morfologicos cerebrales en sujetos controles, sugiere la existencia de patrones de orden aun poco explorados, los que podrian estar alterados en enfermos mentales.
Positive Design: An Introduction to Design for Subjective Well-Being

confirmed that it is not personal resources that make a person happy, but rather how those resources are exploited (for an overview see Biswas-Diener, 2008). This idea of material wealth as a resource for happiness opens up a different perspective for design, given that consumer products are also resources. A smart phone, for example, is a resource used to listen to music, organise work, or show consideration through thoughtful text messages: activities that can be meaningful by providing joy, personal direction, and even virtue. The concept we wish to advance in this paper is that if products function as resources that address meaningful goals,
Critical Appraisal of Emergency Medicine Education Research: The Best Publications of 2014.

OBJECTIVES The objective was to critically appraise and highlight rigorous education research study articles published in 2014 whose outcomes advance the science of emergency medicine (EM) education. METHODS A search of the English language literature in 2014 querying Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PsychINFO, PubMed, and Scopus identified 243 EM-related articles using either quantitative (hypothesis-testing or observational investigations of educational interventions) or qualitative (exploring important phenomena in EM education) methods. Two reviewers independently screened all of the publications using previously established exclusion criteria. Six reviewers then independently scored the 25 selected publications using either a qualitative or a quantitative scoring system. Each scoring system consisted of nine criteria. Selected criteria were based on accepted educational review literature and chosen a priori. Both scoring systems use parallel scoring metrics and have been used previously within this annual review. RESULTS Twenty-five medical education research papers (22 quantitative, three qualitative) met the criteria for inclusion and were reviewed. Five quantitative and two qualitative studies were ranked most highly by the reviewers as exemplary and are summarized in this article. CONCLUSIONS This annual critical appraisal series highlights seven excellent EM education research studies, meeting a priori criteria and published in 2014. Methodologic strengths in the 2014 papers are noted, and current trends in medical education research in EM are discussed.
The evolution of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation feeder.

1 Executive Director, Georgia Warm Springs Foundation, Warm Springs, Ga. 31830; member, Committee on Prosthetics Research and Development, National Academy of Sciences—National Research Council, Washington, D. C. ingenious device" (Fig. 1). This apparatus was later called a "foot-operated feeder" because it required voluntary extension of her foot against a movable footboard on her wheelchair to bring about tilting of the seesaw cradle supporting her forearm. In this manner, she was able to feed herself. She used this device for twenty years and then returned to Warm Springs and was fitted with a far more efficient type with the imposing name "balanced forearm orthe-
The value of conventional high‐field MRI in MS in the light of the McDonald criteria: a literature review

Lunde Larsen LS, Larsson HBW, Frederiksen JL. The value of conventional high‐field MRI in MS in the light of the McDonald criteria: a literature review. Acta Neurol Scand: 122: 149–158. © 2010 John Wiley & Sons A/S.
An infant with large fontanelles, aplasia cutis congenita, tessier facial cleft, polydactyly inversus, and toe syndactyly: A previously undescribed syndrome?

We report on a 5‐month‐old female with large and widely spaced anterior and posterior fontanelles, aplasia cutis congenita, Tessier 3 oblique facial cleft, polydactyly, and syndactyly of toes. The polydactyly is unusual as an accessory finger is attached to the left fifth finger with mirrored, end‐to‐end fusion. We are naming this anomaly “polydactyly inversus. ” The infant appears to have a previously unreported syndrome of unknown cause. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.