Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Incidence of Potential Drug-Drug Interactions in a Limited and Stereotyped Prescription Setting - Comparison of Two Free Online Pharmacopoeias

Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are very common adverse events in health care delivery settings. The use of electronic pharmacopeias can potentially reduce the incidence of DDIs, but they are often thought to be cumbersome to use. This study is aimed at studying the incidence of potential DDIs in a surgical department, where a limited number of drugs are used in stereotyped combinations. We also compared two popular drug compendia in detecting potential DDIs. Methods: The prescriptions of selected patients were entered into Epocrates® and Medscape® for Android smartphones. Potential DDIs were generated and their categories were noted. The warnings generated by Epocrates® were compared with those generated by Medscape® and an agreement index was calculated. Results: Three hundred and thirty-one patients were included for analysis who had received a total of 2,878 drug orders. The incidence of potential DDIs was very high - 89% of all prescriptions. Phenytoin was the drug most commonly implicated, followed by furosemide. Of the DDIs detected, 0.14% were potentially serious and the drug combinations were contraindicated. There was a significant discrepancy between the categories of potential DDIs detected by Epocrates® and Medscape®. No clinically significant DDI was detected in any patient in this cohort. Conclusions: Despite routinely using only a limited number of drugs in stereotyped combinations, prescriptions in surgical departments may not be immune from a significant incidence of DDIs. The use of free apps could reduce the incidence of DDIs, enhance patient safety, and also aid in educating trainees.
Beyond Differentiation and Integration: The Challenges of Managing Internal Complexity in Federations

In this paper we examine the management of internal complexity in federations as a means of shedding new light on how the challenges inherent in governing these forms of inter-organizational networks are managed. Our analysis reveals that these networked organizations differed as a function of their approach to four complexity management activities: perspective shifting, shaping interactions, managing standards and constructing commitment. Based on the use of these four activities we identify three approaches to complexity management in this study – leveraging complexity, suppressing complexity and disengaging from complexity. Each of these approaches differed in their focus on differentiation or integration in the implementation of complexity management activities. We found that only leveraging complexity went beyond separate management activities aimed at differentiation or integration and employed policies and activities that possessed the capacity to optimize both simultaneously. In doing so, our study highlights new possibilities for complexity management by revealing the ways in which management activities can be designed to optimize both integration and differentiation.
Understanding Collaborative Practices in Distributed Agile Development: Research Proposal

Agile methodologies in software development are gaining prominence in global settings where distributed cross-cultural software teams collaborate on projects, addressing the needs of dynamic business environments. However, undertaking collaborative work in distributed settings can create significant challenges, especially as a number of agile principles and practices rely on physical proximity and face-to-face interactions. An interpretative qualitative approach using case studies has been adopted to gain deeper insights into how such teams work. The analysis is being informed by theoretical concepts of awareness, common ground and boundary objects. Early findings suggest that distributed team members use multifaceted techniques, such as shared software artifacts that evolve over time to negotiate and enhance common ground for better collaborative practices to emerge. It is expected that research undertaken will provide a framework to understand this process. Practically, the research will propose guidelines for global software teams planning to adopt agile methods in distributed environments.
Sea level in ocean reanalyses and tide gauges

[1] Previous studies have noted the presence of interannual to multidecadal variability in tide gauge sea level records which is correlated with meteorological variability and which can overwhelm the signal associated with global sea level rise. This study examines the usefulness of using a set of seven ocean reanalysis and synthesis products in studies of sea level variability by comparing the tide gauges and reanalysis products at a representative set of 87 tide gauge station locations. The comparison is carried out for both a half-century base period and a century long-extended period. Treating the set of products as an ensemble of realizations obtained using different techniques, the results show generally good agreement for the half-century period with ensemble average correlations of 0.57 and RMS differences of 2.2 cm, reducing to a correlation of 0.5 for the extended period. A significant fraction of the difference between tide gauge sea level and product sea level is associated with meteorological forcing. These results support the conclusion that much of the interannual to multidecadal variability that appears in the tide gauge records is meteorologically driven. This suggests that ocean products have potential to be used to isolate this variability from the signal associated with the underlying global sea level rise.
Click-guides and panic buttons: Designed possibilities for youth agency and user empowerment in online youth counselling services

This study examines how possibilities for agency are designed into online youth counselling services, as well as how such possibilities are addressed by young prospective users during the design of the services. The data are drawn both from the design of a national website for youth clinics in Sweden and from a design project developing e-services for local youth clinics in a Swedish municipality. The agency of young users is here treated as a key concern for understanding how user empowerment is accomplished through the design of websites and e-services. Using combined research materials (i.e. two websites and focus group meetings), this study demonstrates how design features may both facilitate and restrict young people’s involvement and control over sensitive and private issues. In addition, we demonstrate how the designed possibilities for empowerment may allow young users to critically approach and effectively use such services.
Postpartum sleep disturbance and psychomotor vigilance performance

Postpartum Sleep Disturbance and Psychomotor Vigilance Performance Salvatore Insana Postpartum women have high rates of sleep disturbance and commonly suffer from many of the effects of disturbed sleep, though attentional state has not been studied extensively in this population. This study assessed sleep and attentional state psychomotor performance in postpartum women to develop a better understanding of how sleep disturbance –specifically sleep fragmentation and partial sleep deprivation– is associated with attentional state psychomotor performance. Participants were a sample of 24 postpartum mothers from a larger study. Mothers were 29.96 (SD = 7.94) years old, had a mean income of $65,808 (SD = $41,398), and had 17.04 (SD = 2.53) years of education. Of these women, 95.83% lived with their partner, 91.67% were white, and 50% were primiparious. Data were collected from 8 through 15 weeks postpartum, inclusive. Mothers wore an actigraph on their non-dominant wrist to record their sleep and recorded their sleep and wake behaviors in an electronic diary. Mothers completed a psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) each morning within 2 hours of awakening and before consuming caffeine. Overall, mothers obtained a reasonable amount of 24 hour sleep (7 hours and 36 minutes); however, this sleep was fragmented (M = 14.19, SE = .16). Additionally, mothers performed poorly on the PVT (Reaction time: M = 397.52, msec. SE = 2.61; Percent lapses M = 15.89, SE = .52) when compared to normative values. Results indicate that sleep time and sleep fragmentation from the previous night are not associated with attentional based psychomotor performance the following day in this sample of women. Across postpartum weeks 8-16 the amount of sleep obtained remained the same; however, across time it became less fragmented (p < .001) and was obtained in more consolidated periods. The current study provides objective data regarding the amount of sleep fragmentation in postpartum women and describes how sleep fragmentation changes across postpartum weeks 8-16. Additionally, this study indicates that postpartum women perform poorly on the PVT, yet they obtain a reasonable amount of sleep time.
Measuring the influence of social abilities on acceptance of an interface robot and a screen agent by elderly users

Personal robots and screen agents can be equipped with social abilities to facilitate interaction. This paper describes our research on the influence of these abilities on elderly user's acceptance of such a system. Experiments were set up in eldercare institutions where a robotic and screen agent with simulated conversational capabilities were used in a Wizard of Oz experiment. Both agents were used with two conditions: a more socially communicative (the agent made use of a larger set of social abilities in interaction) and a less socially communicative interface. Results show that participants who were confronted with the more socially communicative version of the robotic agent felt more comfortable and were more expressive in communicating with it. This suggests that the more socially communicative condition would be more likely to be accepted as a conversational partner. This effect was less strong however, with the screen agent, suggesting that embodiment plays a role in this. Furthermore, results did show a correlation between social abilities as perceived by participants and some aspects of technology acceptance for both systems, but this did not relate to the more and less socially communicative conditions. Evaluating the experiments and specifically the use of our acceptance model we suggest that this particular context of robotic and screen agents for elderly users requires the development of a more appropriate acceptance model which not only features technology acceptance, but also conversational acceptance.
Was Star Formation Suppressed in High-Redshift Minihalos?

The primordial gas in the earliest dark matter halos, collapsing at redshifts z ~ 20, with masses Mhalo ~ 106 M☉ and virial temperatures Tvir < 104 K, relied on the presence of molecules for cooling. Several theoretical studies have suggested that gas contraction and star formation in these minihalos was suppressed by radiative, chemical, thermal, and dynamical feedback processes. The recent measurement by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) of the optical depth to electron scattering, τ ≈ 0.09 ± 0.03, provides the first empirical evidence for this suppression. The new WMAP result is consistent with vanilla models of reionization, in which ionizing sources populate cold dark matter halos down to a virial temperature of Tvir = 104 K. On the other hand, we show that in order to avoid overproducing the optical depth, the efficiency for the production of ionizing photons in minihalos must have been about an order of magnitude lower than expected from massive metal-free stars and lower than the efficiency in large halos that can cool via atomic hydrogen (Tvir > 104 K). This conclusion is insensitive to assumptions about the efficiency of ionizing photon production in the large halos, as long as reionization ends by z = 6, as required by the spectra of bright quasars at z ≲ 6. Our conclusion is strengthened if the clumping of the ionized gas evolves with redshift, as suggested by semianalytical predictions and three-dimensional numerical simulations.
Protective Effect of Punica granatum L. against Serum/Glucose Deprivation-Induced PC12 Cells Injury

The discovery and development of natural products with potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic properties have been one of the most interesting and promising approaches in the search for the treatment of many neurodegenerative diseases including ischemic stroke. Serum/glucose deprivation (SGD) has served as an excellent in vitro model for the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of neuronal damage during ischemia and for the development of neuroprotective drugs against ischemia-induced brain injury. Recent studies suggested that pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) or its active constituents exert pharmacological actions such as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties. Therefore, in this study we investigated the possible protective effects of different extracts of pomegranate against SGD-induced PC12 cells injury. Initially, the cells were pretreated with different concentrations of pulp hydroalcoholic extract (PHE), pulp aqueous extract (PAE) and pomegranate juice (PJ) for 2 h and then deprived of serum/glucose (SGD) for 6 and 12 h. SGD caused a significant reduction in cell viability (measured by the MTT assay) after 6 and 12 h, as compared with control cells (P < 0.001). Pretreatment with PHE, PAE, and PJ significantly and concentration-dependently increased cell viability following SGD insult for 6 and 12 h. A significant increase in DNA damage (measured by the comet assay) was seen in nuclei of cells following SGD for 12 h (P < 0.001). In control groups, no significant difference was seen in DNA damage between PHE, PAE, and PJ-pretreated and vehicle-pretreated PC12 cells (P > 0.05). PHE, PAE, and PJ pretreatment resulted in a significant decrease in DNA damage following ischemic insult (P < 0.001). This suppression of DNA damage by PHE, PAE and PJ was found to be concentration dependent. These data indicate that there is a cytoprotective property in PHE, PAE, and PJ under SGD condition in PC12 cells, suggesting that pomegranate has the potential to be used as a new therapeutic strategy for neurodegenerative disorders.
Busulfan and melphalan as conditioning regimen for allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission

Background Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation with HLA-identical donors has been established for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia patients for over 30 years with a cure rate of 50% to 60%. Objectives To analyze the overall survival of patients and identify factors that influence the outcomes of this type of transplant in patients in 1st complete remission who received a busulfan and melphalan combination as conditioning regimen. Methods Twenty-five consecutive patients with acute myeloid leukemia were enrolled between 2003 and 2008. The median age was 34 years old (Range: 16 - 57 years). All patients received cyclosporine and methotrexate for prophylaxis against graft-versus-host disease. Median neutrophil engraftment time was 16 days (Range: 7 - 22 days) and 17 days (Range: 7 - 46 days) for platelets. Sinusoidal obstructive syndrome was observed in three patients, seven had grade II acute graft-versus-host disease and one extensive chronic graft-versus-host disease. Results The overall survival by the Kaplan-Meier method was 48% after 36 months with a plateau at 36 months after transplantation. Intensive consolidation with high-dose arabinoside resulted in an improved survival (p-value = 0.0001), as did grade II acute graft-versus-host disease (p-value = 0.0377) and mild chronic graft-versus-host disease (p-value < 0.0001). Thirteen patients died, five due to infection within 100 days of transplant, two due to hemorrhages, one to infection and graftversus-host disease and three relapses followed by renal failure (one) and infection (two). The cause of death could not be determined for two patients. Conclusion The busulfan and melphalan conditioning regimen is as good as other conditioning regimens providing an excellent survival rate.
Singularity-free state-space representation for non-holonomic, omnidirectional undercarriages by means of coordinate switching

Non-holonomic, omnidirectional undercarriages that are composed of steered standard wheels seem to provide a solid compromise between versatility, flexibility and high robustness against various ground conditions. However, such undercarriages are characterized by the occurrence of a number of singular configurations. To avoid these singular configurations most control-approaches restrict the admissible configuration-space thus eventually reducing the mobility and flexibility of the undercarriage. Within this work a state-space representation that forms a locally singularity-free atlas of the admissible configuration-space is presented. Based on this state-space description a switching based controller is developed that incorporates the former singular regions into the used configuration space and thus allows to exploit the full flexibility of non-holonomic, omnidirectional undercarriages. The implemented controller is quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated and compared to one approach that avoids the singular regions and one that completely neglects the non-holonomic bindings.
Reliability of Trachoma Clinical Grading—Assessing Grading of Marginal Cases

Background Clinical examination of trachoma is used to justify intervention in trachoma-endemic regions. Currently, field graders are certified by determining their concordance with experienced graders using the kappa statistic. Unfortunately, trachoma grading can be highly variable and there are cases where even expert graders disagree (borderline/marginal cases). Prior work has shown that inclusion of borderline cases tends to reduce apparent agreement, as measured by kappa. Here, we confirm those results and assess performance of trainees on these borderline cases by calculating their reliability error, a measure derived from the decomposition of the Brier score. Methods and Findings We trained 18 field graders using 200 conjunctival photographs from a community-randomized trial in Niger and assessed inter-grader agreement using kappa as well as reliability error. Three experienced graders scored each case for the presence or absence of trachomatous inflammation - follicular (TF) and trachomatous inflammation - intense (TI). A consensus grade for each case was defined as the one given by a majority of experienced graders. We classified cases into a unanimous subset if all 3 experienced graders gave the same grade. For both TF and TI grades, the mean kappa for trainees was higher on the unanimous subset; inclusion of borderline cases reduced apparent agreement by 15.7% for TF and 12.4% for TI. When we assessed the breakdown of the reliability error, we found that our trainees tended to over-call TF grades and under-call TI grades, especially in borderline cases. Conclusions The kappa statistic is widely used for certifying trachoma field graders. Exclusion of borderline cases, which even experienced graders disagree on, increases apparent agreement with the kappa statistic. Graders may agree less when exposed to the full spectrum of disease. Reliability error allows for the assessment of these borderline cases and can be used to refine an individual trainee's grading.
Analysis of murine gammaherpesvirus-68 transcription during lytic and latent infection.

Murine gammaherpesvirus-68 (MHV-68) is a gamma2-herpesvirus that upon experimental infection of laboratory mice establishes a latent infection in B lymphocytes. To date, no virus-encoded gene products have been reported to be expressed during latent infection. In this study, viral transcription has been analysed in a persistently infected B-cell line and abundant and preferential transcription of open reading frame M3 has been identified. Significantly, in situ hybridization analysis of latently infected mouse spleens with probes corresponding to 20 MHV-68 ORFs demonstrated active transcription of a single ORF, corresponding to M3. The kinetics and pattern of transcription of M3 were compared with that of the virally encoded tRNAs (vtRNAs), previously demonstrated to constitute a marker for latent infection in the spleen. Transcription of vtRNAs in splenic tissue could be first detected at 7 days post-inoculation (p.i.) in scattered cells in periarteriolar lymphoid sheaths (PALS). At 10 days p.i. , vtRNA transcription was widespread and localized not only to cells in PALS but also to cells within developing germinal centres and from 21 days p.i. expression was detected exclusively within lymphoid follicles. Transcription of vtRNAs could be detected as late as 70 days p.i. In contrast, the histological localization of M3 transcription, which was first detected at 7 days p.i. in scattered cells in PALS, never changed and transcription could not be detected beyond 21 days p.i. These results suggest that M3 is an ORF that is expressed early during the establishment of latency in vivo.
Multi-Stage Silicification of Pliocene Wood: Re-Examination of an 1895 Discovery from Idaho, USA

The 1895 discovery of a petrified tree near Clover Creek in south-central Idaho, USA, attracted worldwide attention and resulted in the naming of a new species of ancient oak, Quercinium pliocaenicum Schuster. For more than a century, the discovery has largely been forgotten, even though specimens reside in reputable museums. Reinvestigation of the locality in 2014/2015 resulted in newly-collected specimens and a wealth of new data. Optical microscopy confirms the cellular anatomy used for the original taxonomic study. X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive electron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and cathodoluminescence microscopy reveal details of the mineralization, showing the presence of opal-CT as the primary component, with chalcedony as a lesser constituent. This mineralogy suggests petrifaction occurred in at least two stages, beginning with opalization of cellular tissue, leaving open vessels that became filled with chalcedony during a later mineralization episode. Clover Creek oak represents relict flora growing in a wetter climate before the uplift of the Cascade Range created a rain shadow that caused profound desertification of the inland Pacific Northwest.
Contributions of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) to Quality Education: A Synthesis of Research

This research is a synthesis of studies carried out in 18 countries to identify contributions of education for sustainable development (ESD) to quality education. Five common questions were used for the interviews in each country to solicit education leaders and practitioners’ views on the outcome and implementation of ESD. The analysis revealed that major themes repeated across the 18 studies, showing that ESD contributes in many ways to quality education in primary and secondary schools. Teaching and learning transforms in all contexts when the curriculum includes sustainability content, and ESD pedagogies promote the learning of skills, perspectives and values necessary to foster sustainable societies. The research also identified the need to integrate ESD across all subjects, to provide professional development for teachers to ensure ESD policy implementation and to adopt ESD management practices to support ESD in the curriculum in order to broaden ESD across countries.