Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Masitinib in treatment of pancreatic cancer

ABSTRACT Introduction: Pancreatic cancer continues to have high mortality despite the development of many chemotherapeutic agents. The 5-year relative survival for stage IV patients is less than 3%. This urgent unmet need warrants the development of novel and active therapeutic agents, which focus both on targeting cancer cells and modifying the microenvironment of cancer cells. Areas covered: In this article, the authors review the development of masitinib, a novel tyrosine kinase inhibitor of numerous targets, including c-Kit, PDGFR and FGFR. This review covers its development from the bench to clinical trials assessing its potential in pancreatic cancer. Expert opinion: While masitinib has not shown an increase in overall survival (OS) or progression free survival (PFS) compared to the current standard of care in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, masitinib may have a role in decreasing inflammation related to those patients with increased pain scores with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. If we have the tools to identify accurate subgroups of patients who may benefit from particular therapies, this agent may be of benefit to these patients. Indeed, if more sophisticated biomarkers and the identification of patient subgroups are better explained, the authors believe that masitinib will become part of the armamentarium against pancreatic adenocarcinoma.
Physical employment standard for Canadian wildland firefighters: examining test–retest reliability and the impact of familiarisation and physical fitness training

Abstract To assess the impact of repeat performances (familiarisation) plus exercise training on completion time for the Ontario Wildland Firefighter (WFF) Fitness Test circuit (WFX-FIT), normally active general population participants (n = 145) were familiarised to the protocol then randomised into (i) exercise training, (ii) circuit only weekly performances or (iii) controls. At Baseline, the WFX-FIT pass rate for all groups combined was 11% for females and 73% for males, indicating that the Ontario WFX-FIT standard had a possible adverse impact on females. Following test familiarisation, mean circuit completion times improved by 11.9% and 10.2% for females and males, respectively. There were significant improvements in completion time for females (19.8%) and males (16.9%) who trained, plus females (12.2%) and males (9.8%) who performed the circuit only, while control participants were unchanged. Post training, the pass rate of the training group was 80% for females and 100% for males. Practitioner Summary: This paper details the impact of familiarisation plus exercise training as accommodation to mitigate potential adverse impact on initial attack wildland firefighter test performance. The results underscore the importance of test familiarisation opportunities and physical fitness training programmes that are specific to the demands of the job.
RUNX1: A Regulator of NF-κB Signaling in Pulmonary Diseases

Runt-related transcription factor 1 (RUNX1), a member of the RUNX family, is one of the key regulatory proteins in vertebrates. RUNX1 is involved in embryonic development, hematopoiesis, angio-genesis, tumorigenesis and immune response. In the past few decades, studies mainly focused on the effect of RUNX1 on acute leukemia and cancer. Only few studies about the function of RUNX1 in the patholog-ical process of pulmonary diseases have been reported. Recent studies have demonstrated that RUNX1 is highly expressed in both mesenchymal and epithelial compartments of the developing and postnatal lung and that it plays a critical role in the lipopolysaccharide induced lung inflammation by regulating the NF-κB pathway. RUNX1 participates in the regulation of the NF-κB signaling pathway through interaction with IkB kinase complex in the cytoplasm or interaction with the NF-κB subunit P50. NF-κB is well-known signaling pathway necessary for inflammatory response in the lung. This review is to highlight the RUNX1 structure, isoforms and to present the mechanism that RUNX1 regulates NF-κB. This will illus-trate the great potential role of RUNX1 in the inflammation signaling pathway in pulmonary diseases.
The relationship between the presence of lower urinary tract symptoms and waist circumference

Purpose The aim of the study is to evaluate the pressure of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) according to waist circumference (WC) and correlate the presence of urinary tract symptoms (UTS) with WC. Patients and methods The study was observational and cross-sectional. One-hundred and sixty-four females between 45 and 65 years of age were evaluated. The sample was divided into two groups, according to WC: Group ≤80 (G≤80) was composed of females in whom WC was up to 80 cm; and Group >80 (G>80) was composed of females with WC above 80 cm. The subjects were assessed in terms of sociodemographic data, pre-existing conditions, urogynecological and obstetric history, and the presence of lower UTS (LUTS), as well as physical examination, measurement of WC, height, and weight. The PFM assessment was made by perineometry. To compare the mean between groups, the independent samples t-test was applied, and to correlate the WC with perineometry and LUTS, the Pearson’s correlation test was used. Results The final sample was composed of 156 patients. The average age of participants was 55.21 (±24.5) years in G≤80 and 57.23 (±6.12) years in G>80. There were significant differences regarding the presence of LUTS between the groups (P<0.05); as to the perineometry, there was a significant difference (P=0.03) between the groups: 38.68±13.63 cmH2O for G≤80 and 30.11±11.20 cmH2O for G>80. There was a correlation between the presence of urinary urgency (r=0.7; P=0.00), nocturia (r=0.7; P=0.00), and urinary incontinence (r=0.9; P=0.00) with WC. Conclusion Females with larger abdominal diameter have a higher prevalence of LUTS such as urinary incontinence, nocturia, and urinary urgency, as well as a lower PFM pressure. Furthermore, a relationship between LUTS with WC was also observed.
Prevalence, Virulence Genes, Antimicrobial Susceptibility, and Genetic Diversity of Bacillus cereus Isolated From Pasteurized Milk in China

Bacillus cereus is a common and important food-borne pathogen that can be found in various food products. Due to low-temperature sterilization for a short period of time, pasteurization is not sufficient for complete elimination of B. cereus in milk, thereby cause severe economic loss and food safety problems. It is therefore of paramount importance to perform risk assessment of B. cereus in pasteurized milk. In this study, we isolated B. cereus from pasteurized milk samples in different regions of China, and evaluated the contamination situation, existence of virulence genes, antibiotic resistance profile and genetic polymorphism of B. cereus isolates. Intriguingly, 70 samples (27%) were found to be contaminated by B. cereus and the average contamination level was 111 MPN/g. The distribution of virulence genes was assessed toward 10 enterotoxigenic genes (hblA, hblC, hblD, nheA, nheB, nheC, cytK, entFM, bceT, and hlyII) and one emetic gene (cesB). Forty five percent strains harbored enterotoxigenic genes hblACD and 93% isolates contained nheABC gene cluster. The positive rate of cytK, entFM, bceT, hlyII, and cesB genes were 73, 96, 75, 54, and 5%, respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility assessment showed that most of the isolates were resistant to β-lactam antibiotics and rifampicin, but susceptible to other antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, gentamicin and chloramphenicol. Total multidrug-resistant population was about 34%. In addition, B. cereus isolates in pasteurized milk showed a high genetic diversity. In conclusion, our findings provide the first reference on the prevalence, contamination level and characteristics of B. cereus isolated from pasteurized milk in China, suggesting a potential high risk of B. cereus to public health and dairy industry.
Asthma prevalence among adults in Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To investigate asthma prevalence and to measure asthma symptoms among Saudi adults in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey using the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) questionnaire carried out between April and June 2016, among male and female Saudi nationals aged 20-44 years living in Riyadh. Disproportionate cluster sampling method was used. Asthma was defined based on answering “yes” to any of the following: Have you had wheezing when you did not have a cold in the last 12 months? Have you been told by a physician to have asthma? Are you taking medicine for asthma? Results: A total of 2,405 participants completed the survey. The prevalence of wheezing in the last 12 months when not having a cold was 18.2% with no significant difference between males and females (p=0.107). The prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma was 11.3% with no significant difference between males and females (p=0.239). The prevalence of taking medicine for asthma was 10.6%. There were no significant differences between asthmatic vs. non-asthmatic in terms of residency area (p=0.07), education level (p=0.11) and smoking tobacco (p=0.06). However, significant differences found between asthmatic and non-asthmatic in relation to nasal allergies (p<0.001). Conclusion: Asthma prevalence is high and much higher than the prevalence reported in most countries using the ECRHS questionnaire.
Association between race/skin color and premature birth: a systematic review with meta-analysis

ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE To analyze the association between race/skin color and the occurrence of prematurity. METHODS Meta-analysis with observational studies, selected by a systematic review in the bibliographic databases Medline and Biblioteca Virtual da Saúde with the descriptors: “Race or ethnic group” and “ethnicity and health” associated with the words “infant premature” and “obstetric labor premature”. Articles published in the period from 2010 to 2014, of the observational epidemiological type, in Portuguese, English and Spanish, were included. Articles that did not have abstracts or that were review articles, theses, dissertations, and editorials were excluded. We adopted the relative risk and their respective confidence intervals (95%CI) as measures of effect, obtained through the random effect model and represented by the forest plot type graph. The Egger test and the Newcastle-Ottawa scale, respectively, were used to analyze possible publication biases and the quality of the studies. RESULTS Of the 926 articles identified, 17 were eligible for the study. Of the 17 full texts published, seven were retrospective cohort studies, nine were cross-sectional studies, and one was a case-control study. Except for one study, the others reported a positive association between race/color of skin and prematurity. Compared with full-term newborns, the relative risk of the combined effect in those born preterm was 1.51 (95%CI 1.39-1.69). The funnel chart suggested publication bias. CONCLUSIONS The present meta-analysis indicated a positive association for the risk of prematurity according to race/skin color.
Micrometer-Sized Titanium Particles Induce Aseptic Loosening in Rabbit Knee

Wear debris induced aseptic loosening is the leading cause of total knee arthroplasty (TKA) failure. The complex mechanism of aseptic loosening has been a major issue for introducing effective prevention and treatment methods, so a simplified yet efficient rabbit model was established to address this concern with the use of micrometer-sized titanium particles. 20 New Zealand white rabbits were selected and divided into two groups (control = 10, study = 10). A TKA surgery was then performed for each of them, with implantation of a titanium rod prosthesis which was coated evenly with micrometer-sized titanium in the study group and nothing in the control group, into right femoral medullary cavity. After 12 weeks, all the animals were euthanized and X-ray analyses, H&E staining, Goldner Masson trichrome staining, Von Kossa staining, PCR, and Western blotting of some specific mRNAs and proteins in the interface membrane tissues around the prosthesis were carried out. The implantation of a titanium rod prosthesis coated with 20 μm titanium particles into the femoral medullary cavity of rabbits caused continuous titanium particle stimulation around the prosthesis, effectively inducing osteolysis and aseptic loosening. Titanium particle-induced macrophages produce multiple inflammatory factors able to activate osteoclast differentiation through the OPG/RANKL/RANK signaling pathway, resulting in osteolysis while suppressing the function of osteoblasts and reducing bone ingrowth around the prosthesis. This model simulated the implantation and loosening process of an artificial prosthesis, which is an ideal etiological model to study the aseptic prosthetic loosening.
Development of a virtual learning environment for cardiorespiratory arrest training.

OBJECTIVE To develop a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) aiming at the training of nursing team workers and emergency vehicle drivers in Basic Life Support (BLS) to attend Cardiorespiratory arrest, and to evaluate the quality of its contents among specialists in the area of Emergency and Urgent care. METHOD Applied research of technological development. The methodology used was based on the Instructional Design Model (ADDIE), which structures the teaching-learning planning in different stages (analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation). The VLE was composed of texts elaborated from bibliographic research, links, edited video from a simulation scenario in the laboratory and questions to evaluate the fixation of the content, organized in modules. RESULTS After its development, it was evaluated as adequate to satisfy the needs of the target public, by eight expert judges, which was made available for electronic access. CONCLUSION The VLE has potential as a tool for training and qualification in BLS, as it can be easily integrated with other pedagogical approaches and strategies with active methodologies. OBJETIVO Desenvolver um Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem (AVA) visando à capacitação de trabalhadores da equipe de enfermagem e condutores de veículo de emergência em Suporte Básico de Vida (SBV) no atendimento à Parada Cardiorrespiratória, e avaliar a qualidade do seu conteúdo junto a especialistas na área de Urgência e Emergência. MÉTODO Pesquisa aplicada, de produção tecnológica. A metodologia utilizada foi baseada no Modelo de Design Instrucional (ADDIE), que estrutura o planejamento de ensino-aprendizagem em estágios distintos (analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation). O AVA foi composto por textos elaborados a partir de pesquisa bibliográfica, links, vídeo construído a partir de um cenário de simulação em laboratório e questões para avaliar a fixação do conteúdo, organizados em módulos. RESULTADOS Após a sua construção, foi avaliado como adequado para satisfazer às necessidades do público-alvo, por oito juízes especialistas, sendo disponibilizado para acesso eletrônico. CONCLUSÃO O AVA tem potencial como ferramenta para formação e capacitação em SBV porser facilmente integrado a outras abordagens pedagógicas e estratégias com metodologias ativas.
Feasibility of Presurgical Exercise in Men With Prostate Cancer Undergoing Prostatectomy

Background: Prostatectomy is associated with short- and long-term morbidity, which includes attenuation of muscle function and deterioration of lean body mass. Physical function is a known predictor of morbidity and mortality, with initial evidence indicating that presurgical exercise is associated with fewer postsurgical complications and shorter hospitalization. The aim was to determine the feasibility of a supervised presurgical exercise program for prostate cancer (PCa) patients scheduled for prostatectomy. Methods: Ten men (68+6.4 years old) with localized PCa undertook a 6-week resistance and aerobic exercise program prior surgery. Training was undertaken twice weekly and patients were assessed at baseline, presurgery, and 6 weeks postsurgery. Outcome measures included muscle and physical performance, body composition, urinary incontinence and questionnaire. Results: Muscle strength increased by 7.5% to 24.3% (P < .05) from baseline to presurgery but decreased to pretraining levels postsurgery, except for knee extensor strength (P = .247). There were significant improvements (P < .05) in the 6-m fast walk (9.3%), 400-m walk (7.4%), and chair rise (12.3%) at presurgery. Following surgery, improvements in physical performance were maintained. There was no change in lean or fat mass prior to surgery, but lean mass declined by 2.7 kg (P = .014) following surgery. There were no adverse effects from the exercise program. Conclusions: Exercise undertaken prior to prostatectomy improved muscle and physical performance, with functional benefits maintained 6 weeks postsurgery. Presurgical exercise for PCa patients has the potential to facilitate recovery by improving physical reserve capacity, especially in men with poor muscle nd physical performance.
Handling Model Uncertainty and Multiplicity in Explanations via Model Reconciliation

Model reconciliation has been proposed as a way for an agent to explain its decisions to a human who may have a different understanding of the same planning problem by explaining its decisions in terms of these model differences.However, often the human's mental model (and hence the difference) is not known precisely and such explanations cannot be readily computed.In this paper, we show how the explanation generation process evolves in the presence of such model uncertainty or incompleteness by generating {\em conformant explanations} that are applicable to a set of possible models.We also show how such explanations can contain superfluous informationand how such redundancies can be reduced using conditional explanations to iterate with the human to attain common ground. Finally, we will introduce an anytime version of this approach and empirically demonstrate the trade-offs involved in the different forms of explanations in terms of the computational overhead for the agent and the communication overhead for the human.We illustrate these concepts in three well-known planning domains as well as in a demonstration on a robot involved in a typical search and reconnaissance scenario with an external human supervisor.
Occluded Person Re-Identification

Person re-identification (re-id) suffers from a serious occlusion problem when applied to crowded public places. In this paper, we propose to retrieve a full-body person image by using a person image with occlusions. This differs significantly from the conventional person re-id problem where it is assumed that person images are detected without any occlusion. We thus call this new problem the occluded person re-identitification. To address this new problem, we propose a novel Attention Framework of Person Body (AFPB) based on deep learning, consisting of 1) an Occlusion Simulator (OS) which automatically generates artificial occlusions for full-body person images, and 2) multi-task losses that force the neural network not only to discriminate a person's identity but also to determine whether a sample is from the occluded data distribution or the full-body data distribution. Experiments on a new occluded person re-id dataset and three existing benchmarks modified to include full-body person images and occluded person images show the superiority of the proposed method.
Overlap and refractory effects in a brain–computer interface speller based on the visual P300 event-related potential

We reveal the presence of refractory and overlap effects in the event-related potentials in visual P300 speller datasets, and we show their negative impact on the performance of the system. This finding has important implications for how to encode the letters that can be selected for communication. However, we show that such effects are dependent on stimulus parameters: an alternative stimulus type based on apparent motion suffers less from the refractory effects and leads to an improved letter prediction performance.
Perinatal Outcomes in Women With a History of Chronic Hypertension but Normal Blood Pressures Before 20 Weeks of Gestation.

OBJECTIVE To compare the perinatal outcomes of normotensive women with those of women with a history of chronic hypertension with normal blood pressures before 20 weeks of gestation, stratifying the latter by whether they were receiving antihypertensive medication. METHODS We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all singletons with a history of chronic hypertension from 2000 to 2014. Exclusions were blood pressure greater than 140/90 mm Hg before 20 weeks of gestation, fetal anomalies, major medical problems other than hypertension, and diabetes. For the same time period, a randomly selected group without a diagnosis of chronic hypertension was chosen using the same exclusion criteria. Outcomes were compared among women without chronic hypertension, women with chronic hypertension on no antihypertensive medication but with blood pressures less than 140/90 mm Hg before 20 weeks of gestation, and women with chronic hypertension on antihypertensive medication with blood pressures less than 140/90 mm Hg before 20 weeks of gestation. The primary outcome was a perinatal composite of stillbirth, neonatal death, respiratory support at birth, arterial cord pH less than 7, 5-minute Apgar score 3 or less, and seizures. Secondary outcomes assessed were preterm birth before 37 and 34 weeks of gestation, small for gestational age, and preeclampsia. RESULTS Of 830 women with chronic hypertension and blood pressures less than 140/90 mm Hg before 20 weeks of gestation, 212 (26%) were not taking antihypertensive medication and 618 (74%) were. These groups were compared with 476 women without chronic hypertension. Women with hypertension were more likely to be older and have baseline renal disease and diabetes compared with women in the no hypertension group. The perinatal composite was more common in both hypertensive groups: no antihypertensive medication (9.9%) and antihypertensive medication (14.6%) compared with women in the control group (2.9%) (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.9, 95% CI 1.21-6.85 no antihypertensive medications compared with no chronic hypertension; adjusted OR 5.0, 95% CI 2.38-10.54 antihypertensive medications vs no chronic hypertension). The risk of early preterm birth, small for gestational age, and preeclampsia was not significantly increased in women with chronic hypertension and no antihypertensive medications compared with women without chronic hypertension. CONCLUSION Despite normal baseline blood pressures without medications before 20 weeks of gestation, women with chronic hypertension are at an increased risk of adverse perinatal outcomes compared with women without.