Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Co-trimoxazole and sudden death in patients receiving inhibitors of renin-angiotensin system: population based study

Objective To determine whether the prescription of co-trimoxazole with an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker is associated with sudden death. Design Population based nested case-control study. Setting Ontario, Canada, from 1 April 1994 to 1 January 2012. Participants Ontario residents aged 66 years or older treated with an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker. Cases were those who died suddenly shortly after receiving an outpatient prescription for one of co-trimoxazole, amoxicillin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, or nitrofurantoin. Each case was matched with up to four controls on age, sex, chronic kidney disease, and diabetes. Main outcome measure Odds ratio for the association between sudden death and exposure to each antibiotic relative to amoxicillin, after adjustment for predictors of sudden death according to a disease risk index. Results Of 39 879 sudden deaths, 1027 occurred within seven days of exposure to an antibiotic and were matched to 3733 controls. Relative to amoxicillin, co-trimoxazole was associated with an increased risk of sudden death (adjusted odds ratio 1.38, 95% confidence interval 1.09 to 1.76). The risk was marginally higher at 14 days (adjusted odds ratio 1.54, 1.29 to 1.84). This corresponds to approximately three sudden deaths within 14 days per 1000 co-trimoxazole prescriptions. Ciprofloxacin (a known cause of QT interval prolongation) was also associated with an increased risk of sudden death (adjusted odds ratio 1.29, 1.03 to 1.62), but no such risk was observed with nitrofurantoin or norfloxacin. Conclusions In older patients receiving angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin receptor blockers, co-trimoxazole is associated with an increased risk of sudden death. Unrecognized severe hyperkalemia may underlie this finding. When appropriate, alternative antibiotics should be considered in such patients.
Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma gondii Infection in Refugee and Migrant Pregnant Women along the Thailand–Myanmar Border

Abstract. Toxoplasma gondii primary infection in pregnancy is associated with poor obstetric outcomes. This study aimed to determine the seroprevalence of Toxoplasma infection in pregnant migrant and refugee women from Myanmar attending antenatal care in Thailand. A random selection of 199 residual blood samples from first antenatal screen in 2014–2015 was tested for Toxoplasma IgG and IgM antibodies. Seroprevalence of Toxoplasma infection was 31.7% (95% confidence interval = 25.6–38.4). Avidity testing in the three positive IgM cases indicated all were past infections. Multiparity (≥ 3 children) was significantly associated with higher Toxoplasma seropositivity rates. Seroprevalence of T. gondii infection in this pregnant population is similar to the only other report from Myanmar, where multiparity was also identified as a significant association. Toxoplasma infection is important in pregnant women. Nevertheless, in this marginalized population, this infection may be given less priority, due to resource constraints in providing the most basic components of safe motherhood programs.
Maintenance-based trust for multi-agent systems

In last years, trust and reputation has been gaining increasing interest in multi-agent systems (MAS). To address this issue, we propose in this paper a maintenance-based trust mechanism for agents operating in multi-agent systems. In the proposed model, a comprehensive trust assessment process is provided to assess the trustworthiness of the participating agents. The main characteristic of this model is the retrospect trust adjustments, which integrate the applicable constraints and modify the involved features with respect to the actual performance of the evaluated agent. Specifically, the retrospect process updates the belief set of the agents in order to adapt them to the social network changes. This paper has two contributions: after describing the architecture of the proposed framework, we provide a theoretical analysis of its assessment and discuss the system implementation, along with simulations comparing it with the broadly known frameworks.
Up-to-date management of gout

Purpose of reviewGout is a true crystal deposition disease, extremely painful and bone and tissue damaging if untreated. It is the only curable form of arthritis. Although we have many treatments to cure gout, it is a disease that is consistently undertreated/mismanaged and perceived by clinicians and the lay public as a ‘laughable condition’ with the patients’ lifestyle often held erroneously to account. This article would give you a good understanding of modern and established pharmacological and nonpharmacological treatments used in the management of acute and chronic gout and how to ‘treat to target’ to cure the disease. Recent findingsMany of the drugs we use to manage patients with gouty arthritis have been in existence since the 1970s and 1980s. In the past few years, because of the improved physiological understanding of gout, new innovative treatments such as anti-IL inhibitors, a nonxanthine oxidase inhibitor and the uricase enzymes have been developed adding to our armamentarium of drugs. SummaryWith the introduction of new research, we have been able to explore how to also use established treatments more effectively, raising the profile of gout and its best management and introducing the principle of treating the patient to urate target.
How Do Soccer Players Adjust Their Activity in Team Coordination? An Enactive Phenomenological Analysis

This study examined how individual team members adjust their activity to the needs for collective behavior. To do so, we used an enactive phenomenological approach and explored how soccer players' lived experiences were linked to the active regulation of team coordination during eight offensive transition situations. These situations were defined by the shift from defensive to offensive play following a change in ball possession. We collected phenomenological data, which were processed in four steps. First, we reconstructed the diachronic and synchronic dynamics of the players' lived experiences across these situations in order to identify the units of their activity. Second, we connected each player's units of activity side-by-side in chronological order in order to identify the collective units. Each connection was viewed as a collective regulation mode corresponding to which and how individual units were linked at a given moment. Third, we clustered each collective unit using the related objectives within three modes of regulation—local (L), global (G), and mixed (M). Fourth, we compared the occurrences of these modes in relation to the observable key moments in the situations in order to identify typical patterns. The results indicated four patterns of collective regulation modes. Two distinct patterns were identified without ball possession: reorganize the play formation (G and M) and adapt to the actions of putting pressure on the ball carrier (M). Once the ball was recovered, two additional patterns emerged: be available to get the ball out of the recovery zone (L) and shoot for the goal (L and M). These results suggest that team coordination is a fluctuating phenomenon that can be described through the more or less predictable chaining between these patterns. They also highlight that team coordination is supported by several modes of regulation, including our proposal of a new mode of interpersonal regulation. We conclude that future research should investigate the effect of training on the enaction of this mode in competition.
Experimental study of the effect of intraportal prostaglandin E1 on hepatic blood flow during reperfusion after ischaemia and hepatectomy

Prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) has protective effects experimentally and clinically in individual models of hepatic ischaemia–reperfusion injury and of partial hepatectomy. The present study investigated the effects of intraportal administration of PGE1 on hepatic blood flow, systemic arterial pressure and long‐term animal survival after 60 min of total liver ischaemia followed by 70 per cent partial hepatectomy in rats.
Strong interaction and self-agency

The interaction theory of social cognition contends that intersubjective interaction is characterized by both immersion and irreducibility. This motivates a question about autonomy and self-agency: If I am always caught up in processes of interaction, and interaction always goes beyond me and my ultimate control, is there any room for self-agency? I outline an answer to this question that points to the importance of communicative and narrative practices.
Algorithmics of Posets Generated by Words Over Partially Commutative Alphabets (Extended)

It is natural to try to relate partially ordered sets (posets in short) and classes of equivalent words over partially commutative alphabets. Their common graphical representation are Hasse diagrams. We will investigate this relation in detail and propose an efficient on-line algorithm that decompresses a string to Hasse diagram. Further we propose a definition of the canonical representatives of classes of equivalent words. The advantage of this representation lies in the fact that we can enumerate the classes of equivalent words in a lexicographical order. We will give an algorithm which enumerates all distinct classes of words over partially commutative alphabets by their lexicographically minimal representatives.
Cleaning uncertain data with quality guarantees

Uncertain or imprecise data are pervasive in applications like location-based services, sensor monitoring, and data collection and integration. For these applications, probabilistic databases can be used to store uncertain data, and querying facilities are provided to yield answers with statistical confidence. Given that a limited amount of resources is available to "clean" the database (e.g., by probing some sensor data values to get their latest values), we address the problem of choosing the set of uncertain objects to be cleaned, in order to achieve the best improvement in the quality of query answers. For this purpose, we present the PWS-quality metric, which is a universal measure that quantifies the ambiguity of query answers under the possible world semantics. We study how PWS-quality can be efficiently evaluated for two major query classes: (1) queries that examine the satisfiability of tuples independent of other tuples (e.g., range queries); and (2) queries that require the knowledge of the relative ranking of the tuples (e.g., MAX queries). We then propose a polynomial-time solution to achieve an optimal improvement in PWS-quality. Other fast heuristics are presented as well. Experiments, performed on both real and synthetic datasets, show that the PWS-quality metric can be evaluated quickly, and that our cleaning algorithm provides an optimal solution with high efficiency. To our best knowledge, this is the first work that develops a quality metric for a probabilistic database, and investigates how such a metric can be used for data cleaning purposes.
Serum and urogenital antibody responses to Escherichia coli pili in cystitis

Antipili antibody (APA) was quantitated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay in the serum, urine, and vaginal secretions of 12 women with cystitis due to Escherichia coli. Pili were purified from the strain infecting each patient. The geometric mean titers of APA in serum taken at the initial visit were: immunoglobulin G (IgG), 23.7 +/- 3.9; IgA, 4.1 +/- 4.0; and IgM, 4.4 +/- 5.7. No consistent change was observed between samples obtained at 3 and 6 weeks. APA in serum from 10 control patients was assayed against a pool of pili assembled from the 12 infecting isolates. The geometric mean titers of the control sera were: IgG, 8.4 +/- 3.2; IgA, 9.6 +/- 2.4; and IgM, 0. Antipili IgG and IgM were significantly greater in the infected than in the control sera (P less than 0.05). APA was not detected in the urine or vaginal secretions from any infected or control patient. Antigenic relationships between the 12 infecting strains were investigated by indirect immune electron microscopy. All but 1 of 12 infecting strains shared antigenic determinants. Two patients had a second E. coli infection during the study. The pili of the reinfecting isolates showed partial antigenic cross-reactivity with the pili of the initial infecting bacteria. These observations indicate that although cystitis stimulates the development of serum APAs, it fails to stimulate local APA and thus may not engender any immunological barrier to subsequent recolonization.
What We Say is Not What We Do: Effective Evaluation of Faculty Professional Development Programs

Professional development (PD) workshops designed to help faculty move from teacher- to learner-centered science courses for undergraduates are typically evaluated with self-reported surveys that address faculty's satisfaction with a workshop, what they learned, and what they applied in the classroom. Professional development outcomes are seldom evaluated through analysis of observed teaching practices. We analyzed videotapes of biology faculty teaching following PD to address three questions: (1) How learner centered was their teaching? (2) Did self-reported data about faculty teaching differ from the data from independent observers? (3) What variables predict teaching practices by faculty? Following PD, 89% of the respondents stated that they made changes in their courses that included active, learner-centered instruction. In contrast, observational data showed that participation in PD did not result in learner-centered teaching. The majority of faculty (75%) used lecture-based, teacher-centered pedagogy, showing a clear disconnect between faculty's perceptions of their teaching and their actual practices.
Aspergillus fumigatus extract differentially regulates antigen‐specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses to promote host immunity

Invasive aspergillosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the severely immunocompromised. The paucity of information about the mechanisms by which Aspergillus‐derived factors regulate antigen‐specific T cell responses in vivo poses a significant hurdle for devising effective immunization strategies to treat or prevent aspergillosis. By monitoring adoptively transferred T cell receptor transgenic, naive CD4+ (OT‐II) and CD8+ (OT‐I) T cells specific for distinct peptides of a nominal antigen, chicken ovalbumin (OVA), we demonstrate that sensitization with Aspergillus fumigatus (Af) extract plus OVA protein considerably enhances OT‐I and OT‐II T cell activation, which results in clonal expansion, primarily as a result of increased proliferation. The sensitization provided by Af extract promotes OT‐I expansion accompanied by differentiation into interferon‐γ‐producing cytotoxic cells. It is surprising that no effector differentiation of the induced OT‐II response was observed. Moreover, the Af extract‐induced OT‐I and OT‐II T cell expansion was transient, as considerable contraction in the numbers of detectable OT‐I and OT‐II T cells was evidenced by Day 10. In agreement with these observations, sensitization with Af extract plus OVA marginally promoted host immunity against an OVA‐expressing thymoma (E.G7) challenge, and the protection was enhanced by resensitization with Af extract and OVA. Our results demonstrate the ability of Af extract to differentially regulate antigen‐specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cell responses, resulting in limited augmentation of host immunity. This information suggests that strategies to target CD4+ T cell effector maturation may promote host immunity to Aspergillus and unexpectedly demonstrates the use for Af extract as a CD8+ T cell adjuvant.
Investigating the relationship between information literacy and academic performance among students

Background: Nowadays, no student can ever pursue the ends of his studies unless he makes use of his information literacy skills. To become lifelong learners, they do need these skills. Information literacy is a set of information needed for searching, retrieval, evaluating, and making best use of information. This study uncovers the relationship between information literacy and academic performance among students at Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This is a practical study using a survey method. All MA students in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences make the statistical population for this study, according to the sample size determined by using Cochran formula 265 samples that were selected by stratified random sampling. Data collection was through information literacy questionnaires designed by Davarpanah and Siamak, verified by Library and Information Sciences experts; and finally, gave a Cronbach's alpha of 0.83. To determine academic performance, the average scores of the students in previous semesters were considered. Results: The information literacy of all other students was significantly higher than medium except for students at Nursing and Nutrition faculties. The students of Management and Information Sciences faculty had the highest level of information literacy and students of nutrition faculty were attributed with the least level. There was no significant difference between male and female students’ information literacy. We also found out that there was a significant positive relationship between information literacy and students’ academic performance in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Conclusion: Information literacy is one of the most important factors that leads to educational success. As there is a significant positive relationship between information literacy and students’ academic performance, we should necessarily provide them with relative skills dealing with information literacy to improve their academic performance.
MASTL promotes cyclin B1 destruction by enforcing Cdc20-independent binding of cyclin B1 to the APC/C

When cells enter mitosis, the anaphase-promoting complex/cyclosome (APC/C) is activated by phosphorylation and binding of Cdc20. The RXXL destruction box (D-box) of cyclin B1 only binds Cdc20 after release of the spindle checkpoint in metaphase, initiating cyclin B1 ubiquitination upon chromosome bi-orientation. However, we found that cyclin B1, through Cdk1 and Cks, is targeted to the phosphorylated APC/CCdc20 at the start of prometaphase, when the spindle checkpoint is still active. Here, we show that MASTL is essential for cyclin B1 recruitment to the mitotic APC/C and that this occurs entirely independently of Cdc20. Importantly, MASTL-directed binding of cyclin B1 to spindle checkpoint-inhibited APC/CCdc20 critically supports efficient cyclin B1 destruction after checkpoint release. A high incidence of anaphase bridges observed in response to MASTL RNAi may result from cyclin B1 remaining after securin destruction, which is insufficient to keep MASTL-depleted cells in mitosis but delays the activation of separase.
Determinants of Internet Addiction among Adolescents: A Case-Control Study

Internet Addiction (IA) is associated with adverse psychosocial development and mental disorders. The study aims were to evaluate the psychosocial profiles and psychiatric comorbidities associated with IA among adolescents. A case-control study was conducted among 129 adolescents in the outpatient setting of the Adolescent Health Unit of the Second University Department of Pediatrics in Athens, Greece. The case group consisted of 86 adolescents with IA as evaluated following psychiatric interview with two independent examiners. The control group consisted of 43 adolescents without IA, frequency matched for age and gender with case group participants. The study findings indicated that adolescents with IA were significantly more likely to have divorced parents (p = 0.012) and/or dysfunctional familial relationships (p < 0.0001). The proportion of adolescents with poor academic performance (p < 0.0001) and unexcused school absences (p = 0.004) was greater among those with IA. Moreover, approximately two-thirds of the adolescents with IA were engaged in high-risk behaviors (p < 0.0001). Finally, adolescents with IA were 3.89 times more likely to present with comorbid psychiatric conditions (CI 95%: 1.19–12.70), including depression (10.5 vs. 0%; p = 0.022). Adolescent IA is associated with deterred familial functions, poor academic performance, engagement in high-risk behaviors, and an augmented likelihood for depression.
Dynamics of individual specialization and global diversification in communities

We discuss a model of an economic community consisting of N interacting agents. The state of each agent at any time is characterized, in general, by a mixed strategy profile drawn from a space of s pure strategies. The community evolves as agents update their strategy profiles in response to payoffs received from other agents. The evolution equation is a generalization of the replicator equation. We argue that when N is sufficiently large and the payoff matrix elements satisfy suitable inequalities, the community evolves to retain the full diversity of available strategies even as individual agents specialize to pure strategies.
Improved Rate Control and Motion Estimation for H.264 Encoder

In this paper, we describe rate control and motion estimation in x264, an open source H.264/AVC encoder. We compare the rate control methods of x264 with the JM reference encoder and show that our approach performs well in both PSNR and bitrate. In motion estimation, we describe our implementation of initialization and show that it improves PSNR. We also propose an early termination for simplified uneven cross multi hexagon grid search (UMH) in x264 and show that it improves the speed by a factor of 1.5. Finally, we show that x264 performs 50 times faster and provides bitrates within 5% of the JM reference encoder for the same PSNR.
Evaluation of Association of Hyperuricaemia with Metabolic Syndrome and Insulin Resistance.

INTRODUCTION The prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) ranges from <10% to as much as 84% depending on region and composition of the population studied. The MetS is a growing public health problem in the world. AIM To evaluate association of hyperuricaemia with components of MetS and insulin resistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty patients with MetS were conveniently recruited. MetS was defined as per Adult Treatment Panel III (ATP III) guidelines. For the purpose of analysis study participants were grouped into, group-I (controls - normal serum uric acid levels) and group-II (cases - hyperuricaemia). Hyperuricaemia was defined with cut-off >6.8mg/dl in both men and women. Associated work up for MetS and insulin resistance like fasting blood sugar, fasting lipid profile, fasting insulin, serum uric acid was done. Blood pressure and anthropometric measurements including weight, height and waist circumferences were measured and BMI was calculated. HOMA IR method was used to measure the degree of insulin resistance. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate association of hyperuricaemia with MetS and insulin resistance. Receiver Operating Curve (ROC) was plotted to find out optimum cut-off value for insulin resistance. RESULTS A significant increase in systolic blood pressure (p < 0.001) and triglyceride levels (p=0.027) were observed in hyperuricaemia subjects when compared to controls. After adjusting for potential confounders, Insulin resistance (HOMA IR >3.4) was independently associated with hyperuricaemia (OR=5.79, 95% CI=1.6- 20.69, p=0.007). CONCLUSION Insulin resistance beyond a threshold is independently associated with hyperuricaemia in subjects with MetS.