Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Low testosterone in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: does it really matter?

During the past 10 years, the American Thoracic Society (ATS) has directed considerable efforts toward optimizing the creation and dissemination of official ATS documents and enhancing the implementation of the clinical and scientific recommendations these documents propose. These efforts have culminated in the ATS Board of Directors’ approval of a new committee, the Documents Development and Implementation Committee, and a new editor position, the ATS Documents Editor. The first author (H.J.S.) of this editorial is honored to have been proposed by the search committee and approved by the ATS Board as the inaugural Documents Editor. The Documents Editor serves a collaborative role in coordinating the efforts of the ATS Board of Directors, elected officers, journal editors, assemblies, relevant committees, and staff to manage the development, review, publication, dissemination, and implementation of official ATS documents. Previously, the Documents Coordinator, Dr. Gerard Turino, who will continue to support the document process, ably performed these duties. The increasing complexity of developing and implementing ATS documents, however, has underscored the need to consolidate efforts within this new position and a new committee.
Structural Investigation for Optimization of Anthranilic Acid Derivatives as Partial FXR Agonists by in Silico Approaches

In this paper, a three level in silico approach was applied to investigate some important structural and physicochemical aspects of a series of anthranilic acid derivatives (AAD) newly identified as potent partial farnesoid X receptor (FXR) agonists. Initially, both two and three-dimensional quantitative structure activity relationship (2D- and 3D-QSAR) studies were performed based on such AAD by a stepwise technology combined with multiple linear regression and comparative molecular field analysis. The obtained 2D-QSAR model gave a high predictive ability (R2train = 0.935, R2test = 0.902, Q2LOO = 0.899). It also uncovered that number of rotatable single bonds (b_rotN), relative negative partial charges (RPC−), oprea's lead-like (opr_leadlike), subdivided van der Waal’s surface area (SlogP_VSA2) and accessible surface area (ASA) were important features in defining activity. Additionally, the derived3D-QSAR model presented a higher predictive ability (R2train = 0.944, R2test = 0.892, Q2LOO = 0.802). Meanwhile, the derived contour maps from the 3D-QSAR model revealed the significant structural features (steric and electronic effects) required for improving FXR agonist activity. Finally, nine newly designed AAD with higher predicted EC50 values than the known template compound were docked into the FXR active site. The excellent molecular binding patterns of these molecules also suggested that they can be robust and potent partial FXR agonists in agreement with the QSAR results. Overall, these derived models may help to identify and design novel AAD with better FXR agonist activity.
Amoebiasis in the Tropics: Epidemiology and Pathogenesis

Entamoeba histolytica is a protozoan parasite that causes amebic dysentery and liver abscess. The disease is common in tropical regions of the world where hygiene and sanitation is often approximate. The epidemiology of E. histolytica has been studied around the world. However, there is a dearth of comprehensive literature on the epidemiology of this pathogen as well as its pathogenicity in the tropical and underdeveloped regions of the world where the disease is actually more common. Epidemiological figures in many endemic tropical countries are often overestimated because of inaccurate identification. Accurate data on the prevalence of the pathogenic strain(s) of E. histolytica in those regions will allow for the effective cure of patients with anti-amoebic drugs thus preventing the development of resistant types and reducing management costs. With the advents of HIV and AIDS, several organisms have been identified as potential opportunistic pathogens. However, it is not clear whether amoebiasis is an opportunistic infection or not. Up to date, very little data has been published on the occurrence of E. histolytica in relation to HIV and AIDS. In developed countries amebiasis tends to be more common in older patients and occurs mostly among men who have sex with men or in institutions. However, in tropical regions, the epidemiology of amoebiasis is completely different and is more common among the general population and particularly among patients attending health care centers with diarrhea. Therefore, it is important to understand the epidemiology of this pathogen in tropical areas where it is responsible for most morbidity and mortality. The recent reclassification of E. histolytica into different species now including the pathogenic Entamoeba histolytica and the non pathogenic Entamoeba dispar and Entamoeba moshkovskii has further added to the complexity of the epidemiology of amoebiasis since these three species cannot be differentiated by microscopy that is the most commonly used diagnostic method particularly in tropical countries where resources are limited, but can only be differentiated by the use of molecular methods such as the polymerase chain reaction based methodologies. Recent development of simpler but more sensitive methods
Tc-99m-HL91 imaging in the early detection of neuronal injury in a neonatal rat model of hypoxic ischemia*

Objective:Hypoxic-ischemic insult in newborns results in progressive neuronal loss. For neuroprotective therapy to be effective, it is important to identify high-risk neonates soon after birth. 99mTc-labeled imaging agent, Tc-99m-HL91, developed as a putative hypoxic reagent, has been reported to demonstrate increased uptake in ischemic myocardium. We hypothesized that Tc-99m-HL91 is sensitive for the early identification of hypoxic-ischemic injury in neonatal rat brains. Design:Laboratory investigation. Setting:University research laboratory. Subjects:Sprague-Dawley rat pups. Interventions:Postnatal day-7 pups were divided into four groups: hypoxic-ischemia, hypoxia-only, ischemia-only, and controls. In the early (2 hrs), intermediate (20 hrs), and late (44 hrs) reoxygenation phases, Tc-99m-HL91 in vivo and ex vivo imaging and quantitative autoradiography were performed. Regions of interest were drawn to calculate the contrast ratio of Tc-99m-HL91 uptake between the ipsilateral and contralateral hemispheres. Pathology, cerebral blood flow, and blood-brain barrier damage were determined. Measurements and Main Results:After hypoxic-ischemia, there were very few pyknotic neurons in the early phase, many pyknotic neurons in the intermediate phase, and extensive neuronal loss in the late phase postreoxygenation. Blood-brain barrier damage occurred in the early phase, progressed in the intermediate phase, and became extensive in the late phase. The hypoxia-only and ischemia-only pups showed no neuronal or blood-brain barrier damage and had higher cerebral blood flow postreoxygenation compared with the hypoxia-ischemia pups. Regions of interest analysis of in vivo and ex vivo images and autoradiography revealed significantly higher Tc-99m-HL91 contrast ratio at early and intermediate phases, not late phase of hypoxic-ischemic group. Hypoxic-ischemia group had significantly higher contrast ratio values in the early and intermediate phases than the hypoxia-only and ischemia-only groups. A contrast ratio value of 0.15 in the early phase on postnatal day 7 had a sensitivity of 0.95 and specificity of 0.89 in detecting significant hypoxic-ischemic lesions on postnatal day 21. Conclusion:Tc-99m-HL91 uptake is sensitive for the early detection of hypoxic-ischemic injury in neonatal brains.
Temperature and neuromuscular function

This review focuses on the effects of different environmental temperatures on the neuromuscular system. During short duration exercise, performance improves from 2% to 5% with a 1 °C increase in muscle temperature. However, if central temperature increases (i.e., hyperthermia), this positive relation ceases and performance becomes impaired. Performance impairments in both cold and hot environment are related to a modification in neural drive due to protective adaptations, central and peripheral failures. This review highlights, to some extent, the different effects of hot and cold environments on the supraspinal, spinal and peripheral components of the neural drive involved in the up‐ and down‐regulation of neuromuscular function and shows that temperature also affects the neural drive transmission to the muscle and the excitation‐contraction coupling.
Fast Domain Adaptation of SMT models without in-Domain Parallel Data

We address a challenging problem frequently faced by MT service providers: creating a domainspecific system based on a purely source-monolingual sample of text from the domain. We solve this problem by introducing methods for domain adaptation requiring no in-domain parallel data. Our approach yields results comparable to state-of-the-art systems optimized on an in-domain parallel set with a drop of as little as 0.5 BLEU points across 4 domains.
Fuzzy thinking.

Philosophical analysis is increasingly applied to nursing issues. Whereas pre-analytical discussions might be sloppy, analysis should bring rigour. This paper explores some mistakes and misconceptions concerning nurse-related reasonings. It uses, as a running theme, a recent paper in the Journal of Advanced Nursing by Rolfe. The mistakes and misleadings to be found in the paper are not uncommon; so the paper's correction quest aims more widely than single author critique. The mistakes and misconceptions could initially appear abstract and without practical outcome; in order to avoid the threatened appearance, a nursing case study is presented, displaying some undesirable consequences for a nurse who is misled by her reading. It is hoped that this paper shows how some accuracy may be well leading.
Investigating the Effects of Social Trust and Perceived Organizational Support on Irrigation Management Performance in Rural China

Understanding the factors affecting irrigation management performance is crucial for sustainable resource use, especially with the decentralized management mode of irrigation systems being implemented in rural China. This paper contributes to the research field by incorporating different categories of social trust and perceived organization support (POS) into the analysis of irrigation management performance, by linking multiple elements that are based on the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework. We employed principal component analysis (PCA) and ordered probit regression to analyze a database covering 785 households in the upstream of the Yellow River basin. The results suggested that social trust and POS positively affected the irrigation management performance, and social trust strengthened the positive effect of POS on the performance. Furthermore, the results indicated that personal trust and institutional trust, as well as perceived emotional support and physical support, positively affected the performance. In addition, we also found that household characteristics, household cognition, group characteristics, physical conditions, and rules-in-use also had significant impact on the performance. This paper can be used to inform the government that social trust and POS need to be considered in the common-pool resources (CPRs) management.
Parents' experiences, needs, and preferences in pediatric diabetes care: Suggestions for improvement of care and the possible role of the Internet. A qualitative study.

PURPOSE To investigate the needs and preferences of parents of children with type 1 diabetes (T1D) concerning pediatric diabetes care and use of Internet in care. DESIGN AND METHODS Parents of 34 children, aged 2-12, with T1D participated in seven focus group interviews. RESULTS Analysis revealed provision of tailored care, disease information, peer support, and accessibility of healthcare professionals as major needs in parents. Internet could be used to satisfy these needs. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS According to parents, diabetes teams should focus on the impact of the disease, parents' experience, and the child's development, and provide online professional and peer support.
Small-world structure induced by spike-timing-dependent plasticity in networks with critical dynamics

The small-world property in the context of complex networks implies structural benefits to the processes taking place within a network, such as optimal information transmission and robustness. In this paper, we study a model network of integrate-and-fire neurons that are subject to activity-dependent synaptic plasticity. We find the learning rule that gives rise to a small-world structure when the collective dynamics of the system reaches a critical state which is characterised by power-law distributions of activity clusters. Moreover, by analysing the motif profile of the networks, we observe that bidirectional connectivity is impaired by the effects of this type of plasticity.
Monitoring Proteins and Protein Networks Using Reverse Phase Protein Arrays

Recent advances in high throughput, high content “omic” technologies coupled with clinical information has lead to the expectation that the complexity of the molecular information generated will lead to more robust scientific research as well as the expectation that overarching therapeutic approaches will be patient-tailored to the underlying specific molecular defects of the disease. As disease understanding progresses and more therapeutics, which predominately target proteins, are developed there is a need to more confidently determine the protein signaling events that can be correlated with drug response since the deranged protein signaling networks are often the drug target itself. In this environment, the Reverse Phase Protein Microarray (RPMA) can be utilized to address the needs of both clinical screening and disease understanding through its ability to provide an unmatched functional and highly multiplexed signaling network level mapping of ongoing signaling activation, coupled with the ability of the platform to provide this information reproducibly from a tiny needle biopsy specimen or fine needle aspirate. This platform has now been utilized for biomarker discovery/validation and advancements in disease understanding both in the clinic and at the bench in the fields of cancer, liver disease, immunological disorders, and bacterial infection.
Determining hydrological regimes in an agriculturally used tropical inland valley wetland in Central Uganda using soil moisture, groundwater, and digital elevation data

Inadequate knowledge exists on the distribution of soil moisture and shallow groundwater in intensively cultivated inland valley wetlands in tropical environments, which are required for determining the hydrological regime. This study investigated the spatial and temporal variability of soil moisture along 4 hydrological positions segmented as riparian zone, valley bottom, fringe, and valley slope in an agriculturally used inland valley wetland in Central Uganda. The determined hydrological regimes of the defined hydrological positions are based on soil moisture deficit calculated from the depth to the groundwater table. For that, the accuracy and reliability of satellite‐derived surface models, SRTM‐30m and TanDEM‐X‐12m, for mapping microscale topography and hydrological regimes are evaluated against a 5‐m digital elevation model (DEM) derived from field measurements. Soil moisture and depth to groundwater table were measured using frequency domain reflectometry sensors and piezometers installed along the hydrological positions, respectively. Results showed that spatial and temporal variability in soil moisture increased significantly (p < .05) towards the riparian zone; however, no significant difference was observed between the valley bottom and riparian zone. The distribution of soil hydrological regimes, saturated, near‐saturated, and nonsaturated regimes does not correlate with the hydrological positions. This is due to high spatial and temporal variability in depth to groundwater and soil moisture content across the valley. Precipitation strongly controlled the temporal variability, whereas microscale topography, soil properties, distance from the stream, anthropogenic factors, and land use controlled the spatial variability in the inland valley. TanDEM‐X DEM reasonably mapped the microscale topography and thus soil hydrological regimes relative to the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission DEM. The findings of the study contribute to improved understanding of the distribution of hydrological regimes in an inland valley wetland, which is required for a better agricultural water management planning.
Using Role-plays as an Empathy Education Tool for Ophthalmology Postgraduate

Purpose: To assess the role of an “empathy sensitizing module” (ESM) in ophthalmology postgraduates in promoting effective empathetic communication. Methodology: Thirty-nine ophthalmology postgraduates were taught effective empathetic communication using specially designed module, comprising of five illustrative role-plays. We evaluated the impact of the training by (a) self-assessment of empathy quotient by residents using Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE scale) before and 6 weeks after ESM training and (b) nonparticipant observation (NPO) by trained faculty in real-life settings over the next 4 months. A peer-validated, self-designed checklist was used for NPO. The change in score was analyzed using Student's paired t-test. The faculty observed the use of empathy in real-life patient encounters of the trainees over the next 6 months. In addition, secondary qualitative data were collected and analyzed to assess the impact of the module on other stakeholders such as the role-playing undergraduate students and core faculty. Results: Pretraining assessment revealed that concept of empathy during patient communication was understood by only 10% students. PostESM training, the self-rated mean empathy score, on JSE, significantly increased from 95.9 to 106.7 (of a maximum of 140). This was also confirmed by a significant improvement in externally rated empathy and soft skills scores (from 29.3 to 39.1; of a maximum of 55) using the NPO tool. Focus group discussion was done on the continued display of empathy by the trainees in real-life situation over 6 months of observation by the faculty. The group agreed that there was a gradual attrition of initial gain in empathy behavior over the observation period of 6 months. The spillover benefits of the training process were observed among the role-playing undergraduates as well. A thematic analysis of their reflections on the process revealed a substantial change with an improved understanding of effective communication. Conclusions: There is a definite scope for introducing empathetic communication in medical training. Empathetic communication can be improved by effective training in a contextual manner with a need for regular reinforcement. Sensitization at all levels including the faculty is required to implement effective communication skills in medical profession.
Macrobenthos of the shelf off north eastern Bay of Bengal

An extensive survey . (76,363 km2) of shelf benthos along the north east coast of India revealed that the macrobenthic production is rich and is comparable with that of the west coast. The biomass and population count varied from nil to 150.6(ii. = 10.61 ± 3.2gm-2)and from nil to 12,572(ii.= 839 ± 120m -2) respectively. Loose sand sheltered rich fauna whereas muddy substrata had very poor fauna. Twenty nine major taxa were identified. Polychaeta formed the dominant group followed by Bivalvia and Arnphipoda. These 3 groups together formed 87.55 % of the total faunal distribution. Most of the benthic fauna showed contagious distribution with high percentage offaunal similarity. The number of faunal taxa decreased with increasing depth. It is postulated on the basis of macrobenthic production that the demersal fish catch could be doubled against the present exploitation without causing any over-exploitation.
A Potential New Pathway for Staphylococcus aureus Dissemination: The Silent Survival of S. aureus Phagocytosed by Human Monocyte-Derived Macrophages

Although considered to be an extracellular pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus is able to invade a variety of mammalian, non-professional phagocytes and can also survive engulfment by professional phagocytes such as neutrophils and monocytes. In both of these cell types S. aureus promptly escapes from the endosomes/phagosomes and proliferates within the cytoplasm, which quickly leads to host cell death. In this report we show that S. aureus interacted with human monocyte-derived macrophages in a very different way to those of other mammalian cells. Upon phagocytosis by macrophages, S. aureus persisted intracellularly in vacuoles for 3–4 days before escaping into the cytoplasm and causing host cell lysis. Until the point of host cell lysis the infected macrophages showed no signs of apoptosis or necrosis and were functional. They were able to eliminate intracellular staphylococci if prestimulated with interferon-γ at concentrations equivalent to human therapeutic doses. S. aureus survival was dependent on the alternative sigma factor B as well as the global regulator agr, but not SarA. Furthermore, isogenic mutants deficient in α-toxin, the metalloprotease aureolysin, protein A, and sortase A were efficiently killed by macrophages upon phagocytosis, although with different kinetics. In particular α-toxin was a key effector molecule that was essential for S. aureus intracellular survival in macrophages. Together, our data indicate that the ability of S. aureus to survive phagocytosis by macrophages is determined by multiple virulence factors in a way that differs considerably from its interactions with other cell types. S. aureus persists inside macrophages for several days without affecting the viability of these mobile cells which may serve as vehicles for the dissemination of infection.
On the Utility of Graphics Cards to Perform Massively Parallel Simulation of Advanced Monte Carlo Methods

We present a case study on the utility of graphics cards to perform massively parallel simulation of advanced Monte Carlo methods. Graphics cards, containing multiple Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), are self-contained parallel computational devices that can be housed in conventional desktop and laptop computers and can be thought of as prototypes of the next generation of many-core processors. For certain classes of population-based Monte Carlo algorithms they offer massively parallel simulation, with the added advantage over conventional distributed multicore processors that they are cheap, easily accessible, easy to maintain, easy to code, dedicated local devices with low power consumption. On a canonical set of stochastic simulation examples including population-based Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and Sequential Monte Carlo methods, we find speedups from 35- to 500-fold over conventional single-threaded computer code. Our findings suggest that GPUs have the potential to facilitate the growth of statistical modeling into complex data-rich domains through the availability of cheap and accessible many-core computation. We believe the speedup we observe should motivate wider use of parallelizable simulation methods and greater methodological attention to their design. This article has supplementary material online.