Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are faecal markers good indicators of mucosal healing in inflammatory bowel disease?

AIM To review the published literature concerning the accuracy of faecal inflammatory markers for identifying mucosal healing. METHODS Bibliographical searches were performed in MEDLINE electronic database up to February 2015, using the following terms: "inflammatory bowel disease", "Crohn's disease", "ulcerative colitis", "faecal markers", "calprotectin", "lactoferrin", "S100A12", "endoscop*", "mucosal healing", "remission". In addition, relevant references from these studies were also included. Data were extracted from the published papers including odds ratios with 95%CI, P values and correlation coefficients. Data were grouped together according to each faecal marker, Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, and paediatric compared with adult study populations. Studies included in this review assessed mucosal inflammation by endoscopic and/or histological means and compared these findings to faecal marker concentrations in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) patient cohorts. Articles had to be published between 1990 and February 2015 and written in English. Papers excluded from the review were those where the faecal biomarker concentration was compared between patients with IBD and controls or other disease groups, those where serum biomarkers were used, those with a heterogeneous study population and those only assessing post-operative disease. RESULTS The available studies show that faecal markers, such as calprotectin and lactoferrin, are promising non-invasive indicators of mucosal healing. However, due to wide variability in study design, especially with regard to the definition of mucosal healing and evaluation of marker cut offs, the available data do not yet indicate the optimal roles of these markers. Thirty-six studies published between 1990 and 2014 were included. Studies comprised variable numbers of study participants, considered CD (15-164 participants) or UC (12-152 participants) separately or as a combined group (11-252 participants). Eight reports included paediatric patients. Several indices were used to document mucosal inflammation, encompassing eleven endoscopic and eight histologic grading systems. The majority of the available reports focused on faecal calprotectin (33 studies), whilst others assessed faecal lactoferrin (13 studies) and one study assessed S100A12. Across all of the biomarkers, there is a wide range of correlation describing the association between faecal markers and endoscopic disease activity (r values ranging from 0.32 to 0.87, P values ranging from < 0.0001 to 0.7815). Correlation coefficients are described in almost all studies and are used more commonly than outcome measures such as sensitivity, specificity, PPV and/or NPV. Overall, the studies that have evaluated faecal calprotectin and/or faecal lactoferrin and their relationship with endoscopic disease activity show inconsistent results. CONCLUSION Future studies should report the results of faecal inflammatory markers in the context of mucosal healing with clear validated cut offs.
Score Functions for Determining Regional Conservation in Two-Species Local Alignments

We construct several score functions for use in locating unusually conserved regions in a genomewide search of aligned DNA from two species. We test these functions on regions of the human genome aligned to the mouse genome. These score functions are derived from properties of neutrally evolving sites on the mouse and human genome and can be adjusted to the local background rate of conservation. The aim of these functions is to try to identify regions of the human genome that are conserved by evolutionary selection because they have an important function, rather than by chance. We use them to get a very rough estimate of the amount of DNA in the human genome that is under selection.
Safety of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy for endocarditis.

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Functional effects of robotic-assisted locomotor treadmill thearapy in children with cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to assess gait in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy rehabilitated with the use of Lokomat active orthosis. DESIGN A randomized controlled trial. SUBJECTS Fifty-two children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. METHODS Temporospatial parameters of gait and selected kinematic parameters were assessed. Children from the study group used active orthosis in addition to following a programme of individual exercises. Children in the control group participated only in individual exercises. RESULTS The difference between the initial and control examinations was statistically insignificant. After the programme was finished, there was a slight improvement in walking speed in both groups. Improvement in the mean walking speed was not significantly different between the groups (p = 0.5905). Range of motion decreased slightly in both groups, and the difference between mean amounts of change was not significant (p = 0.8676). There was significant improvement in maximal range of flexion in the hip joint (p = 0.0065) in the study. It was shown that with a decrease in the mean value of adduction in hip joint, the mean walking speed increased (r = -0.53, p = 0.0011). CONCLUSION There are several limitations to this study, therefore these results should be regarded as preliminary. Further research consistent with the above indications is needed to investigate the impact of this new treatment option in patients with cerebral palsy.
A Survey and Comparative Study of Broadcast Warning Message Dissemination Schemes for VANETs

Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications also known as vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) allow vehicles to cooperate to increase driving efficiency and safety on the roads. In particular, they are forecasted as one of the key technologies to increase traffic safety by providing useful traffic services. In this scope, vehicle-to-vehicle dissemination of warning messages to alert nearby vehicles is one of the most significant and representative solutions. The main goal of the different dissemination strategies available is to reduce the message delivery latency of such information while ensuring the correct reception of warning messages in the vehicle’s neighborhood as soon as a dangerous situation occurs. Despite the fact that several dissemination schemes have been proposed so far, their evaluation has been done under different conditions, using different simulators, making it difficult to determine the optimal dissemination scheme for each particular scenario. In this paper, besides reviewing the most relevant broadcast dissemination schemes available in the recent literature, we also provide a fair comparative analysis by evaluating them under the same environmental conditions, focusing on the same metrics, and using the same simulation platform. Overall, we provide researchers with a clear guideline of the benefits and drawbacks associated with each scheme.
Prevalence and Characteristics of Multiple Psychiatric Disorders in Cardiac Rehabilitation Patients

PURPOSE Anxiety and depressive disorders have been established as independent risk factors for the development of and recovery from coronary heart disease (CHD). However, few studies have reported on the prevalence and personal characteristics of comorbid psychiatric disorders (PD) among cardiac populations. This project examined the prevalence of comorbid depressive and anxiety disorders among men and women with CHD commencing cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and the demographic, medical, and psychosocial characteristics among those meeting multiple PD criteria. METHODS Participants were 143 CHD patients (M age, 61 years; SD, 11.2; 70% men, 91% Caucasian, 64% married) entering CR who were evaluated via a semistructured, psychiatric interview to assess both current and lifetime prevalence rates of PD. Demographic, medical, and psychosocial variables were also assessed. RESULTS Approximately 45% met criteria for at least 1 anxiety disorder, and 20% met criteria for either major depressive disorder or dysthymic disorder either at the time of evaluation or in their lifetime. Across all participants, 26% met criteria for ≥2 PD. Of those with a depressive disorder, 76% also met criteria for at least 1 anxiety disorder. Participants with comorbid PD were of younger age and female and reported less education (P < .01). Comorbidity was also associated with self-reported overall diminished physical, emotional, and social quality of life, depression, and anxiety. CONCLUSION Comorbid PD are highly prevalent in the CR setting and are associated with specific demographic characteristics and reduced quality of life. These data offer additional support that routine screening for PD is warranted in outpatient cardiac settings.
Serum Antibody Levels to Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans Predict the Risk for Coronary Heart Disease

Objective—The association between serum antibody levels to major periodontal pathogens and coronary heart disease (CHD) was analyzed in a prospective population-based study. Methods and Results—The population comprised 1023 men (aged 46 to 64 years) in the Kuopio Ischemic Heart Disease Study. The subjects with CHD at baseline (n=113) were more often seropositive for Porphyromonas gingivalis IgA (38.9% versus 28.5%, P=0.021) and IgG (60.2% versus 46.7%, P=0.007) than those without CHD. During the 10-year follow-up, 109 men free from CHD at baseline experienced an acute myocardial infarction or CHD death. The men with an end point were more often seropositive for Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans IgA (15.5% versus 10.2%, P=0.019) than those who remained healthy. In the highest tertile of A. actinomycetemcomitans IgA-antibodies compared with the lowest one, the relative risk (RR) for an end point adjusted for CHD risk factors was 2.0 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 3.3). In the Porphyromonas gingivalis IgA-antibody tertiles, the highest RR of 2.1 (1.3 to 3.4) was observed in the second tertile. All antibody levels correlated positively with the carotid artery intima-media thickness. Conclusions—High-serum antibody levels to major periodontal pathogens are associated with subclinical, prevalent, and future incidence of CHD. Periodontal pathogens or host response against them may contribute to the pathogenesis of CHD.
Articular cartilage grading of the knee: diagnostic performance of fat-suppressed 3D volume isotropic turbo spin-echo acquisition (VISTA) compared with 3D T1 high-resolution isovolumetric examination (THRIVE)

Background Conventionally, two-dimensional (2D) fast spin-echo (FSE) sequences have been widely used for clinical cartilage imaging as well as gradient (GRE) sequences. Recently, three-dimensional (3D) volumetric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been introduced with one 3D volumetric scan, and this is replacing slice-by-slice 2D MR scans. Purpose To evaluate the image quality and diagnostic performance of two 3D sequences for abnormalities of knee cartilage: fat-suppressed (FS) FSE-based 3D volume isotropic turbo spin-echo acquisition (VISTA) and GRE-based 3D T1 high-resolution isovolumetric examination (THRIVE). Material and Methods The institutional review board approved the protocol of this retrospective review. This study enrolled 40 patients (41 knees) with arthroscopically confirmed abnormalities of cartilage. All patients underwent isovoxel 3D-VISTA and 3D-THRIVE MR sequences on 3T MRI. We assessed the cartilage grade on the two 3D sequences using arthroscopy as a gold standard. Inter-observer agreement for each technique was evaluated with the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). Differences in the area under the curve (AUC) were compared between the 3D-THRIVE and 3D-VISTA. Results Although inter-observer agreement for both sequences was excellent, the inter-observer agreement for 3D-VISTA was higher than for 3D-THRIVE for cartilage grading in all regions of the knee. There was no significant difference in the diagnostic performance (P > 0.05) between the two sequences for detecting cartilage grade. Conclusion FSE-based 3D-VISTA images had good diagnostic performance that was comparable to GRE-based 3D-THRIVE images in the evaluation of knee cartilage, and can be used in routine knee MR protocols for the evaluation of cartilage.
Collaborative drug therapy management services and reimbursement in a family medicine clinic.

PURPOSE The legislative and regulatory issues surrounding the reimbursement of pharmacists for cognitive services are reviewed and billing practices for a pharmacist-physician collaborative drug therapy management service (DTMS) in a family medicine clinic are examined. A case study is offered to illustrate the real-world application of these practices. SUMMARY As regimens of prescription medications have become more complex and the potential for adverse drug reactions and interactions has increased, the need for individualized optimal drug therapy and drug-therapy experts has grown. Pharmacists, who are professionally trained to be an integral part of the medical team, are well prepared to ensure optimal drug therapy and medication safety for patients. Consequently, collaboration between physicians and pharmacists can lead to improved patient care and reduced medication errors. The following 10 steps are recommended for establishing a successful collaborative DTMS: (1) establish a working relationship with physician colleagues, (2) assess the needs of your patients, (3) draft collaborative DTMS protocols and agreements, (4) apply for credentialing status within your health organization, (5) consult the billing office staff at the clinic, (6) design a clinic-encounter form, (7) identify and train support personnel, (8) allocate resources, (9) advertise the DTMS, and (10) evaluate and improve your service. CONCLUSION Establishing a DTMS presents many challenges and obstacles, but they should not lead to discouragement. Rather, pharmacists should be diligent and continue to explore ways in which they could provide optimal medication therapy to patients through appropriate channels that also facilitate reimbursement.
Floating-gate-based intrinsic plasticity with low-voltage rate control

Homeostatic intrinsic plasticity is a neurobiological mechanism which adapts a neuron's channel properties over long timescales to achieve a desired average firing rate. This mechanism works to stabilize neural network dynamics. We present simulation results of a neuromorphic circuit implementation of homeostatic intrinsic plasticity using floating-gate transistors. While high voltages are required for tunneling and injection, the control parameter in our implementation is a low voltage, allowing f r easy interfacing with typical analog CMOS control circuitry.
Existence of global weak solutions to a hybrid Vlasov‐MHD model for magnetized plasmas

We prove the global‐in‐time existence of large‐data finite‐energy weak solutions to an incompressible hybrid Vlasov‐magnetohydrodynamic model in three space dimensions. The model couples three essential ingredients of magnetized plasmas: a transport equation for the probability density function, which models energetic rarefied particles of one species; the incompressible Navier–Stokes system for the bulk fluid; and a parabolic evolution equation, involving magnetic diffusivity, for the magnetic field. The physical derivation of our model is given. It is also shown that the weak solution, whose existence is established, has nonincreasing total energy, and that it satisfies a number of physically relevant properties, including conservation of the total momentum, conservation of the total mass, and nonnegativity of the probability density function for the energetic particles. The proof is based on a one‐level approximation scheme, which is carefully devised to avoid increase of the total energy for the sequence of approximating solutions, in conjunction with a weak compactness argument for the sequence of approximating solutions. The key technical challenges in the analysis of the mathematical model are the nondissipative nature of the Vlasov‐type particle equation and passage to the weak limits in the multilinear coupling terms.
Reverse Osmosis Desalination with High Permeability Membranes - Cost Optimization and Research Needs

Reverse osmosis (RO) water desalination is now well established as a mature water desalination technology. With the current generation of seawater and brackish-water RO membranes, it is now both economically and technically feasible to desalt brackish water and seawater on a large scale. In order to further expand the applications of RO desalting technologies, optimal process conditions must be selected to minimize water production costs associated with energy consumption, membrane replacement costs, chemical usage, and residual brine concentrate management. In the present review, a multi-pronged process-optimization approach for reverse osmosis desalination is presented. A theoretical framework discussed for optimizing energy consumption with and without energy recovery devices (ERDs), considering the impact of membrane replacement and brine management costs. The approach enables quantification of the optimal water recovery of RO desalting, considering various factors including the use of energy recovery.
The expression characterization of chicken uncoupling protein gene

The UCPs are members of the mitochondrial inner membrane transporter family, present in the mitochondrial inner membrane. Their main function is increasing the energy expenditure via diminishing the resulting production of ATP from mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation instead of yielding dissipative heat. They are associated with the metabolism of fat and regulation of energy expenditure. The UCP gene can be viewed as the candidate gene for chicken fatness. In the present study, RT-PCR and Northern Blot methods were developed to investigate the expression of the UCP gene in ten tissues including heart, liver, spleen, lung, kidney, gizzard, intestine, brain, breast muscle and abdominal fat of chicken. The results of both RT-PCR and Northern Blot methods showed that the UCP gene expressed specific in breast muscle. The expression levels of UCP gene in breast muscles from egg-type and meat-type chickens of hatching, 2, 4, 6 and 8 wk of age were detected by RT-PCR assay and results showed that the expression levels of UCP gene were related to breeds. Expression level of UCP gene in layers was higher than that in broilers at various weeks of age except at 6 wk. The UCP gene's expression was higher at 6 wk and had no significant difference among other weeks of age in broilers; in layers the expression level of UCP gene had no significant difference among weeks of age. The experiment results also showed that insulin could increase the expression level of UCP gene by 40% compared with control group.
Beneficial Effects of Radiation-Induced Autoantibody on Clinical Outcomes after Stereotactic Radiotherapy for Metastatic Breast Cancer

Purpose: Recent observations suggest that irradiation activates host immunologic response, resulting in potential clinical benefits. The aim of this study is to assess whether autoimmunity induced by stereotactic radiotherapy (SRT) has beneficial impacts on the treatment outcomes for metastatic breast cancer patients. Methods and Materials: Plasma serially corrected before, during, and after SRT on a prospective protocol from 28 patients with metastatic breast cancer were analyzed. Western blot experiments were performed to detect antibody formation to tumor antigens extracted from human breast cancer cell lines, and 13 cytokines were also measured by cytokine array. Results: Tumor-specific antibody of IgM or IgG binding was detected in 50 % (14/28) and 57% (16/28) of the patients, respectively, and median time to appearance of IgM and IgG was 9 days (range, 4-15 days) and 24 days (range, 10-111 days) from the start of RT, respectively. The immuno-responsive group had significantly improved overall survival. The 3-year OS rates of the IgM positive (n=14) and negative (n=14) groups were 68.8 % and 22.2 %, respectively (p=0.027). Similarly, the corresponding rates of IgG positive (n=16) and negative (n=12) groups were 65.6 % and 22.2 %, respectively (p=0.33). Furthermore, the immuno-responsive patients typically had elevated levels of granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, interferongamma, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha. Conclusion: These data suggest that radiation-induced autoimmunity works synergistically with local effects of radiation, with endogenous cytokines acting as immune adjuvants, ultimately translating to improved survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer.
Anticipated versus actual alcohol consumption during 21st birthday celebrations.

OBJECTIVE The 21st birthday celebration is often associated with excessive alcohol consumption. The current study examined whether individuals consume more alcohol than anticipated during their celebration and whether situational factors contribute to prediction errors. METHOD College students (N = 150; 50% female) who planned to drink during their 21st birthday celebration were contacted by telephone 1 week before their celebrations and asked about their birthday plans, including anticipated alcohol consumption. The week after the celebration, in-person semi-structured interviews and self-report measures were administered to obtain information about the 21st birthday celebration, including type and amount of alcohol consumed, pace of drinking, influential peer involvement, and engagement in 21st birthday traditions. RESULTS The majority of 21st birthday celebrants consumed more alcohol than they anticipated, with men showing greater prediction error than women. Situational factors were positively associated with the discrepancy between anticipated and actual alcohol consumption. CONCLUSIONS Drinking shots, drinking at a fast pace, celebrating with influential peers, and engaging in 21st birthday traditions were associated with drinking more alcohol than anticipated during 21st birthday celebrations. Findings suggest future interventions that target situational factors could reduce excessive 21st birthday drinking.