syedzayyan/paper_mill_benchmark huggingface dataset:
Characterizing Functional Upper Extremity Movement in Haptic Virtual Environments.

Haptic virtual environments have been used to assess cognitive and fine motor function.For tasks performed in physical environments, upper extremity movement is usually separated into reaching and object manipulation phases using fixed velocity thresholds.However, these thresholds can result in premature segmentation due to additional trajectory adjustments common in virtual environments.In this work, we address the issues of premature segmentation and the lack of a measure to characterize the spatial distribution of a trajectory while targeting an object.We propose a combined relative distance and velocity segmentation procedure and use principal component analysis (pca) to capture the spatial distribution of the participant's targeting phase.Synthetic data and 3d motion data from twenty healthy adults were used to evaluate the methods with positive results.We found that these methods quantify motor skill improvement of healthy participants performing repeated trials of a haptic virtual environment task.

Journal: Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference (2020)
Publication types: Journal Article
[99Tc]Sestamibi bioaccumulation induces apoptosis in prostate cancer cells: an in vitro study.

The main aim of this preliminary in vitro study was to evaluate both the uptake of [99tc]sestamibi into prostate cancer cells and the relationship among [99tc]sestamibi bioaccumulation, cancer cells proliferation and apoptosis.An in vitro study in which pc3 prostate cancer cell line was cultured with increasing doses of decayed sestamibi has been developed.Specifically, pc3 cells were incubated with three different concentrations of [99tc]sestamibi: 10 μg/m l, 1 μg/m l, and 0.1 μg/m l expression of apoptotic caspase-3 and aif, as well as the ultrastructure of pc3 cells, were evaluated at t0 and after 24, 48, 72, and 120 h following [99tc]sestamibi incubation.Data here reported showed the bioaccumulation of sestamibi in prostate cancer cells.As concern the cancer cell homeostasis, the treatment of pc3 cells with [99tc]sestamibi strongly influenced the cells proliferation.Indeed, a significant reduction in the number of mitosis was observed.Noteworthy, the accumulation of sestamibi in prostate cancer cells was associated with the appearance of morphological signs of apoptosis.The increase in aif and caspase 3 expression in prostate cancer cells treated with 10 μg/m l of [99tc]sestamibi confirmed that this radiopharmaceutical can trigger the apoptosis.To the best of our knowledge, this preliminary study reported for the first time in vitro data about the uptake of sestamibi in prostate cancer cells.The evidence about the accumulation of sestamibi in prostate cancer cells and its role in the apoptosis process could open new clinical perspectives on the use of this radiopharmaceutical in both the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancers.

Journal: Molecular and cellular biochemistry (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article
Xylem Parenchyma-Role and Relevance in Wood Functioning in Trees.

Woody plants are characterised by a highly complex vascular system, wherein the secondary xylem (wood) is responsible for the axial transport of water and various substances.Previous studies have focused on the dead conductive elements in this heterogeneous tissue.However, the living xylem parenchyma cells, which constitute a significant functional fraction of the wood tissue, have been strongly neglected in studies on tree biology.Although there has recently been increased research interest in xylem parenchyma cells, the mechanisms that operate in these cells are poorly understood.Therefore, the present review focuses on selected roles of xylem parenchyma and its relevance in wood functioning.In addition, to elucidate the importance of xylem parenchyma, we have compiled evidence supporting the hypothesis on the significance of parenchyma cells in tree functioning and identified the key unaddressed questions in the field.

Journal: Plants (Basel, Switzerland) (2021)
Publication types: Journal Article;Review
P300 and delay-discounting in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Previous research showed that dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks are implicated in the pathophysiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (ocd).Accordingly, patients with ocd showed altered performances during decision-making tasks.As p300, evoked by oddball paradigms, is suggested to be related to attentional and cognitive processes and generated in the medial temporal lobe and orbitofrontal and cingulate cortices, it is of special interest in ocd research.Therefore, this study aimed to investigate p300 in ocd and its associations with brain activity during decision-making: p300, evoked by an auditory oddball paradigm, was analysed in 19 ocd patients and 19 healthy controls regarding peak latency, amplitude and source density power in parietal cortex areas by s loreta.Afterwards, using a f mri paradigm, blood-oxygen-level-dependent (bold) contrast imaging was conducted during a delay-discounting paradigm.We hypothesised differences between groups regarding p300 characteristics and associations with frontal activity during delay-discounting.The p300 did not differ between groups, however, the p300 latency over the p4 electrode correlated negatively with the neo-ffi score openness to experience in patients with ocd.In healthy controls, p300 source density power correlated with activity in frontal regions when processing rewards, a finding which was absent in ocd patients.To conclude, associations of p300 with frontal brain activation during delay-discounting were found, suggesting a contribution of attentional or context updating processes.Since this association was absent in patients with ocd, the findings could be interpreted as being indeed related to dysfunctions of fronto-striatal neural networks in patients with ocd.

Journal: European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article
Factors Associated with Adverse Reactions to BNT162b2 COVID-19 Vaccine in a Cohort of 3969 Hospital Workers.

Factors associated with adverse reactions to bnt162b2 covid-19 vaccine reported by hospital workers are unclear.Our aim was to collect all reported adverse events in a cohort of hospital workers and to analyze the factors associated with their presence.We conducted an observational longitudinal study on all hospital workers of our center who received covid-19 vaccination from 27 december 2020 to 1 september 2021.Information on adverse events was reported telephonically and confirmed through clinical records.Chi-square andttests as well as multivariate logistic regression models were used.Cluster analysis was designed to explore associations between reactions.A total of 3969 hospital workers were included in the sample.Of the total sample, 182 workers (4.6%) reported adverse events.The most frequent symptoms were general malaise (n= 95), fever (n= 92), arthromyalgia (n= 80), and headache (n= 47).The factors associated with adverse events in adjusted analyses were an antecedent of covid-19 infection (or = 2.09, 95% ci: 1.47-2.98), female sex (or = 1.51, 95% ci: 1.03-2.20), and professional category (or for physicians = 0.41, 95% ci: 0.21-0.80).We report a low frequency of adverse events in hospital workers after covid-19 vaccination and no severe reaction.Men and physicians underreported their symptoms.These data should guide future strategies for recording adverse events and future research on covid-19 vaccination safety.

Journal: Vaccines (2021)
Publication types: Journal Article
Use of High-Dose Chemotherapy in Front-Line Therapy of Infants Aged Less Than 12 Months Treated for Aggressive Brain Tumors.

Introduction:malignant brain tumors in infants less than 12 months of age are extremely rare, and they have poor prognosis.We evaluated genetic characteristics and response rates of infants with congenital brain tumors subjected to high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant after gross total tumor resection.materials and methods:in total, 10 infants, aged less than 12 months, were enrolled in this study.The median age was 56 days (range: 1-279 days).Pathological examination demonstrated the following: four anaplastic astrocytomas, two glioblastomas, two central nervous system (cns) embryonal tumors, not otherwise specified (nos), and two atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumors.results:all patients were exposed to induction chemotherapy regimen, two high-dose chemotherapy courses, and autologous stem cell transplant after maximal surgery.At 1-3-5 years, the global overall survival (os) was 90, 70, and 70% and the progression-free survival (pfs) was 80-60 and 60%.In all the patients, the copy number variants (cnvs) profile was analyzed using the snp/cgh array approach.To investigate the clinical relevance of germline smarcb1mutation in at/rt patients, we performed sequence analysis of the coding regions.The two patients with at/rt were found to have germline smarcb1mutations.No braf mutations were found, and only ntrk gene fusion was present in one patient.We also have examined the association with os and pfs and different histological subtypes of infant cns proving that high-grade astrocytoma has better overall survival than other tumor types (p: 0.007 andp: 0.0590).conclusion:high-dose chemotherapy regimen represents a valid therapeutic approach for congenital brain tumors with a high rate of response.The molecular analysis has to be analyzed in all infants' brain tumor types.High-grade gliomas are characterized by a better prognosis than other histologies of infant cns.

Journal: Frontiers in pediatrics (2020)
Publication types: Journal Article
The Role of Herbivore-induced Plant Volatiles in Trophic Interactions: The Swiss Connection.

It is increasingly evident that plants actively respond to the threats and challenges that they come to face while growing.This is particularly manifested in the dynamic responses to insect herbivory, especially in terms of the volatile compounds that the attacked plants emit.Indeed, many plants respond to insect-inflicted damage with the synthesis and release of volatile organic compounds.These emissions, commonly referred to as herbivore-induced plant volatiles (hipvs), play important roles in the interactions between the emitting plants and their biotic environment.The odorous signal can be picked up and exploited by various organisms: neighbouring plants, herbivores and their natural enemies, such as predators and parasitoid wasps.Coincidence or not, scientists currently working in switzerland have made numerous key contributions to the work in this field.By highlighting their work, we attempt to give a somewhat historic overview of this field of research.

Journal: Chimia (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article;Review
Comparison of the Characteristics and Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients Treated by a Hospital-at-Home Service in Japan during the Alpha and Delta Waves.

Coronavirus infections occurred in repeated waves caused by different variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (sars-co v-2), with the number of patients increasing during each wave.A private after-hours house-call (ahhc) service provides hospital-at-home (ha h) services to patients in japan requiring oxygen when hospital beds are in short supply.This retrospective study aimed to compare the characteristics of covid-19 patients treated by the ahhc service during the covid-19 waves caused by the alpha (march−june 2021) and delta (july−december 2021) sars-co v-2 variants.All patients with covid-19 treated by the ahhc service from march to december 2021 while awaiting hospitalization were included.The data were collected from medical records and follow-up telephone interviews.The ahhc service treated 55 and 273 covid-19 patients during the alpha and delta waves, respectively.The patients treated during the delta wave were significantly younger than those treated during the alpha wave (median: 63 years and 47 years, respectively; p < 0.001).Disease severity did not differ significantly between the two waves, but the crude case-fatality rate was significantly higher during the alpha wave (10/55, 18.2%) than during the delta wave (4/273, 1.4%; p < 0.001).The patient characteristics and outcomes differed between the alpha and delta waves.

Journal: Journal of clinical medicine (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article
Cas9-Mediated Targeted Mutagenesis in Plants.

Genome engineering technologies enable targeted mutations to be induced at almost any location in plant genomes.In particular, cas9 nucleases use easily recoded rna guides to target user-defined sequences and generate double-stranded breaks (dsb) that are then repaired by the cell's endogenous repair mechanisms.Incorrect repair results in mutations at the target.When the targets are in coding sequences, this often results in loss-of-function mutations.In this chapter, we describe a method to rapidly design and assemble rna-guided cas9 constructs for plants and test their ability to induce mutations at their intended targets in rapid assays using both agrobacterium-mediated transient expression and peg-mediated dna delivery to protoplasts, the latter of which can be adapted to a wide range of plant species.We describe a pcr-based method for detecting mutagenesis and outline the steps required to segregate the cas9 transgene from the targeted mutation to enable the production of transgene-free mutated plants.These techniques are amenable to a range of plant species and should accelerate the application of cas-9-mediated genome engineering for basic plant science as well as crop development.

Journal: Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article
Management of acute exposure to toxic gases in the oil & gas industry -a practical approach.

The objective of this work is to present the key elements in the design of emergency management and response plans in scenarios where there has been loss of containment of chemical agents of acute effect focused in the protection of not routinely exposed in a determined occupational environment.To this purpose, a validation of the current criteria for the management of accidental releases is carried out, taking into account hypothetical risk scenarios.The essential elements of the emergency management system are stated, from a systemic perspective and the corresponding risk control actions; recommendations for their implementation are showed, taking as prototype hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic gas.Non controlled emissions of toxic gases of acute effect from an occupational standpoint represents a priority because of their human and financial high toll.Design and implementation of an appropriate emergency plan for uncontrollable emissions of toxics chemical agents must be addressed.

Journal: Archives of environmental & occupational health (2021)
Publication types: Journal Article
Emergency Medical Services Traumatic Brain Injury Protocols Do Not Reflect Brain Trauma Foundation Guidelines.

Implementation of traumatic brain injury (tbi) guideline recommendations for prehospital care is associated with improved outcomes, but prehospital guideline uptake is frequently delayed.Our objective was to estimate how well tbi guidelines are reflected in a national sample of prehospital tbi protocols in 2012 and 2018, 5 and 11 years after guideline publication.methods:a purposeful sample of publicly accessible prehospital protocols were obtained in 2012, and updates of those protocols were obtained in 2018.Guideline recommendations were codified into a 23-item tool that was used to dual-abstract each prehospital protocol set.Descriptive statistics and chi-square testing were used to compare differences.Fifty-three sets of protocols representing 25 states and multiple administrative structures were identified.results:none of the protocols contained all twenty-three elements of the guidelines, and more than one-third (19/53, 35%) did not have a tbi-specific protocol.While some individual items appeared more frequently in 2018 than 2012, more than half of the reviewed protocols do not contain guidance on ventilation or definitions of hypoxemia, hypotension, or pupil asymmetry.conclusions:evaluation of a diverse sample of ems protocols demonstrates a significant deficit in the adoption of tbi guidelines more than a decade after publication.

Journal: Prehospital emergency care (2021)
Publication types: Journal Article
Immune profiles to distinguish hospitalized versus ambulatory COVID-19 cases in older patients.

A fraction of patients with covid-19 develops severe disease requiring hospitalization, while the majority, including high-risk individuals, experience mild symptoms.Severe disease has been associated with higher levels of antibodies and inflammatory cytokines but often among patients with diverse demographics and comorbidity status.This study evaluated hospitalized vs.Ambulatory patients with covid-19 with demographic risk factors for severe covid-19: median age of 63, >80% male, and >85% black and/or hispanic.Sera were collected four to 243 days after symptom onset and evaluated for binding and functional antibodies as well as 48 cytokines and chemokines.Sars-co v-2-specific antibody levels and functions were similar in ambulatory and hospitalized patients.However, a strong correlation between anti-s2 antibody levels and the other antibody parameters, along with higher il-27 levels, was observed in hospitalized but not ambulatory cases.These data indicate that antibodies against the relatively conserved s2 spike subunit and immunoregulatory cytokines such as il-27 are potential immune determinants of covid-19.

Journal: iScience (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article
Evaluation of satisfaction with geospatial assistive technology (ESGAT): a methodological and usability study.

Manual wheelchair users are more vulnerable, in situations such as road crossings, hazardous sidewalks or curbs and crossing of buildings and facilities threshold.Geospatial assistive technology (gat) can help with route planning.However, it is important to ensure the usability of such products, as well as the satisfaction of persons with reduced mobility.The study's aim was (1) to develop and validate a questionnaire on the satisfaction of gat, in english and french, and to (2) assess satisfaction, efficacy and efficiency of a gat with manual wheelchair users following a filmed trial in a dense urban area.Method a methodological study was conducted (development of the questionnaire, assessment of its content validity, feasibility and practicability) followed by a trial and post-observations with the videos.Two questionnaires (english, french) were concurrently validated by two groups of experts (n= 8), and then field-tested by wheelchair users (n= 8), using google maps pedestrian routeing tool.Results the evaluation of satisfaction with geospatial assistive technology (esgat) consists in a user profile and their experience with the technology, followed by 12 satisfaction criteria rated from 1-not satisfied to 5-very satisfied.Both questionnaires were rated as feasible and practicable to complete.The usability of google maps pedestrian routeing tool was measured as "moderate" by manual wheelchairs since the total satisfaction score at the esgat was 3.9/5 (quite satisfied).The items with the lowest score were navigation assistance, hands-free function and security.The gat was effective (87.5% have completed their destination) but not efficient (37.5% needed help).implications for rehabilitationfor manual wheelchair users paired with geospatial assistive technology:• a 10 minutes questionnaire was developed and validated to assess their satisfaction after testing aid in an urban area.• satisfaction criteria to address are ease of access (service), learnability, hands-free function, ease of use for planning as well for navigating, transportability/ appearance, content, geographic information, effectiveness, efficiency, navigation assistance and security• a field test is necessary to ensure the effectiveness of the technology in avoiding or announcing potential obstacles such as sidewalk crossing ramp, damaged and congested sidewalk; sidewalk tilt (side slopes); thresholds at destination; verbal indication too soon or too late; incorrect indication; the arrow does not indicate the right direction; readjustment of the route needed; a lack of indication; and human intervention needed.

Journal: Disability and rehabilitation. Assistive technology (2022)
Publication types: Journal Article;Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
A Comparison Between the Efficacy of Scalpel and Laser Procedures for Treating Gingival Hyperpigmentation: A Case Report.

Gingival hyperpigmentation is a hereditary feature in populations.Gingival pigmentation not only affects aesthetics but also has a negative psychological effect.For many people, gingival hyperpigmentation is a severe cosmetic problem.Although black gums are not a medical issue, many individuals find them unsightly.The pigmentation of gingiva contributes to the harmony of the smile in a significant way.A periodontal plastic surgery procedure called gingival depigmentation eliminates or reduces hyperpigmentation.Different treatment approaches for gingival depigmentation have been documented, such as scalpel, electrosurgery, diamond burs, chemical methods, cryosurgery, and lasers.According to studies, cryosurgery and lasers are the best procedures since they provide better aesthetic outcomes and low recurrence rates.The coordination of treatment plans and the choice technique are influenced by the patient's skin tone, the degree of gingival pigmentation, the lip line, the upper lip curvature, aesthetic concern, and treatment expectations.This case report, which involves a 23-year-old female patient, provides a comparison between the efficacy of scalpel and laser procedures for treating gingival hyperpigmentation.The patient's left side received diode laser treatment, while the right received scalpel treatment.Scalpel depigmentation caused the treated area to recover without incident.The benefits of laser depigmentation include a bloodless surgical field and recovery without complications.No postoperative pain, bleeding, infection, or scars were seen on the first and consequent visits.The recovery went smoothly.The patient was satisfied with the treatment modality, and the outcomes were outstanding, according to the patient.There was no re-pigmentation throughout the follow-up period.This split-mouth study will provide information regarding soft tissue healing using two different approaches in the same patient.

Journal: Cureus (2022)
Publication types: Case Reports;Journal Article