Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Brief alcohol interventions: do counsellors' and patients' communication characteristics predict change?

AIMS To identify communication characteristics of patients and counsellors during brief alcohol intervention (BAI) which predict changes in alcohol consumption 12 months later. METHODS Tape-recordings of 97 BAI sessions with hazardous drinkers were analysed using the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code (MISC). Outcome measures were (i) baseline to a 12-month difference in the weekly drinking quantity, and (ii) baseline to a 12-month difference in heavy drinking episodes per month. Bivariate analyses were conducted for all MISC measures, and significant variables were included in multiple linear regression models. RESULTS Patient communication characteristics (ability to change) during BAI significantly predicted the weekly drinking quantity in the multiple linear regression model. There were significant differences for some of the counsellor skills in bivariate analyses but not in the multiple regression model adjusting for patients' talk characteristics. Changes in heavy drinking showed no significant association with patient or counsellor skills in the multiple linear regression model. CONCLUSION Findings indicate that the more the patient expresses ability to change during the intervention, the more weekly alcohol use decreases. The role of the counsellor during the interaction, and influence on the outcomes was not clearly established. Implications for BAI and related research are discussed.
Regular Exercise to Prevent the Recurrence of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: A Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of a supervised home-based exercise program on the recurrence and severity of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) together with other aspects of maternal health and obstetric and neonatal outcomes. METHODS: This randomized controlled trial allocated women with a history of GDM to an exercise intervention (14-week supervised home-based stationary cycling program) or to a control group (standard care) at 13±1 weeks of gestation. The primary outcome was a diagnosis of GDM. Secondary outcomes included maternal fitness, psychological well-being, and obstetric and neonatal outcomes. A sample size of 180 (90 in each group) was required to attain 80% power to detect a 40% reduction in the incidence of GDM. RESULTS: Between June 2011 and July 2014, 205 women provided written consent and completed baseline assessments. Of these, 33 (16%) were subsequently excluded as a result of an elevated baseline oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), leaving 172 randomized to exercise (n=85) or control (n=87). Three women miscarried before the assessment of outcome measures (control=2; exercise=1). All remaining women completed the postintervention OGTT. The recurrence rate of GDM was similar between groups (control 40% [n=34]; exercise 40.5% [n=34]; P=.95) and the severity of GDM at diagnosis was unaffected by the exercise program with similar glucose and insulin responses to the OGTT (glucose 2 hours post-OGTT 7.7±1.5 compared with 7.6±1.6 mmol/L; P>.05). Maternal fitness was improved by the exercise program (P<.01) and psychological distress was reduced (P=.02). There were no differences in obstetric and neonatal outcomes between groups (P>.05). CONCLUSION: Supervised home-based exercise started at 14 weeks of gestation did not prevent the recurrence of GDM; however, it was associated with important benefits for maternal fitness and psychological well-being. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, https://clinicaltrials.gov, NCT01283854.
Directed selection of a conformational antibody domain that prevents mature amyloid fibril formation by stabilizing Aβ protofibrils

The formation of amyloid fibrils is a common biochemical characteristic that occurs in Alzheimer's disease and several other amyloidoses. The unifying structural feature of amyloid fibrils is their specific type of β-sheet conformation that differentiates these fibrils from the products of normal protein folding reactions. Here we describe the generation of an antibody domain, termed B10, that recognizes an amyloid-specific and conformationally defined epitope. This antibody domain was selected by phage-display from a recombinant library of camelid antibody domains. Surface plasmon resonance, immunoblots, and immunohistochemistry show that this antibody domain distinguishes Aβ amyloid fibrils from disaggregated Aβ peptide as well as from specific Aβ oligomers. The antibody domain possesses functional activity in preventing the formation of mature amyloid fibrils by stabilizing Aβ protofibrils. These data suggest possible applications of B10 in the detection of amyloid fibrils or in the modulation of their formation.
Buck-boost converter topology for paralleling HB-LEDs using constant-power operation

A single switch multi-inductor buck-boost converter topology is presented for paralleling LED-networks. The proposed technique is based on discontinuous inductor currents to achieve a homogenous light-distribution of parallel connected high-brightness LEDs. In contrast to the common approach of driving LED-strings with constant-current, the proposed topology supplies the LEDs with constant-power. The topology has originally been developed for automotive low voltage applications; however applications with galvanic isolations and operating off-line from a 230V or 115V mains supply are also possible. A prototype converter has been built and tested to proof its performance for an automotive lighting application and to verify the constant-power operation of the LEDs. The converter drives 6 parallel strings with 4 high-brightness LEDs connected in series. Experimental results demonstrate a good performance when the converter is operated in its desired operation range of discontinuous conduction mode. Measurements confirm the good performance of the converter's constant-power operation, with maximum power deviations below 2% in the LEDs. A comparison of the common constant-current drive of LEDs to the prototype's constant-power operation shows a slightly more homogenous light distribution between the LED strings for the constant-power approach. Furthermore, tests with different heatsink temperatures show a better brightness stability of single LEDs operated at the proposed constant-power compared to the constant-current drive.
INTERNAL EXTINCTION IN THE SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY LATE-TYPE GALAXIES

We study internal extinction of late-type galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We find that the degree of internal extinction depends on both the concentration index c and Ks-band absolute magnitude MK. We give simple fitting functions for internal extinction. In particular, we present analytic formulae giving the extinction-corrected magnitudes from the observed optical parameters. For example, the extinction-corrected r-band absolute magnitude can be obtained by , where Δ = 0.236{1.35(c − 2.48)2 − 1.14} log(a/b), c = R90/R50 is the the concentration index, and a/b is the isophotal axis ratio of the 25 mag arcsec−2 isophote in the i band. The 1σ error in Mr,0 is 0.21 log(a/b). Late-type galaxies with very different inclinations are found to trace almost the same sequence in the (u − r)–Mr diagram when our prescriptions for extinction correction are applied. We also find that (u − r) color can be a third independent parameter that determines the degree of internal extinction.
Does Acupuncture Improve Quality of Life for Patients with Pain Associated with the Spine? A Systematic Review

This paper aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture for qualities of life (QoL) in patients suffering from pain associated with the spine (PAWS). Acupuncture has been shown to reduce pain severity, but its effect on QoL is unknown. PubMed, CINAHL, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials as well as EMBASE were searched. Published randomized controlled trials on PAWS comparing acupuncture with waiting-list or sham interventions were considered. Eight out of 186 trials were included. For physical functioning, acupuncture was better than waiting-list at immediate and short-term followups; and was better than sham interventions at immediate assessment (SMD = 0.40. 95% CI 0.06 to 0.74). For mental functioning, acupuncture was better than waiting-list at short-term followup and sham interventions at intermediate-term followup (SMD = 0.27. 95% CI 0.03 to 0.51). A similar effect was observed on pain reduction. Discrepancies in point selection for relieving anxiety and insufficient training of trial acupuncturists were also identified. Acupuncture has a moderate effect on the improvement of physical functioning and pain for PAWS patients in the short term; but the effect for mental functioning is small and delayed. Future trials should address point selection and consistency in the qualifications of trial acupuncturists.
Variations in Laparoscopic Colectomy Utilization in the United States

BACKGROUND: Recent published articles reported a wide geographic variation in the utilization of laparoscopic colectomy in the United States. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to report the current rates of laparoscopic colon resection in different types of hospitals in the United States. DESIGN: The Nationwide Inpatients Sample database was used to examine the clinical data of patients undergoing elective colon resection for the diagnosis of colon cancer or diverticular disease from 2009 to 2012. SETTING: Multivariate regression analysis was performed to compare different hospital types and regions regarding the utilization of laparoscopy. PATIENTS: Patients undergoing elective colon resection for the diagnosis of colon cancer or diverticular disease from 2009 to 2012 were selected. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome measured was the rates of laparoscopic colon resection in different types of hospitals. RESULTS: We sampled a total of 309,816 patients who underwent elective colon resection. Of these, 171,666 (55.4%) had a laparoscopic operation. The utilization of a laparoscopic approach increased from 51.3% in 2009 to 59.3% in 2012. The increased utilization of a laparoscopic approach was seen in both urban (53.6% vs 61.6%) and rural hospitals (33.4% vs 42.3%), for colon cancer (45% vs 53.5%), and diverticular disease (61.9% vs 68.2%). The conversion rate to open surgery for diverticular disease was significantly higher than for colon cancer (adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 1.23; p < 0.01). After adjustment, urban hospitals (AOR, 2.13; p < 0.01), teaching hospitals (AOR, 1.13; p < 0.01), and large hospitals (AOR, 1.33; p < 0.01) had a greater utilization of laparoscopic surgery. LIMITATIONS: This study was limited by its retrospective nature. CONCLUSIONS: Although we have finally reached the point where a majority of patients undergoing an elective colectomy for diverticular disease and colon cancer receive a laparoscopic operation, there is wide variation in the implementation of laparoscopic surgery in colon resection in the United States. The utilization of a laparoscopic approach has associations with hospital factors such as size, teaching status of the hospital, and geographic location (urban vs rural).
A Functional Model of Sensemaking in a Neurocognitive Architecture

Sensemaking is the active process of constructing a meaningful representation (i.e., making sense) of some complex aspect of the world. In relation to intelligence analysis, sensemaking is the act of finding and interpreting relevant facts amongst the sea of incoming reports, images, and intelligence. We present a cognitive model of core information-foraging and hypothesis-updating sensemaking processes applied to complex spatial probability estimation and decision-making tasks. While the model was developed in a hybrid symbolic-statistical cognitive architecture, its correspondence to neural frameworks in terms of both structure and mechanisms provided a direct bridge between rational and neural levels of description. Compared against data from two participant groups, the model correctly predicted both the presence and degree of four biases: confirmation, anchoring and adjustment, representativeness, and probability matching. It also favorably predicted human performance in generating probability distributions across categories, assigning resources based on these distributions, and selecting relevant features given a prior probability distribution. This model provides a constrained theoretical framework describing cognitive biases as arising from three interacting factors: the structure of the task environment, the mechanisms and limitations of the cognitive architecture, and the use of strategies to adapt to the dual constraints of cognition and the environment.
Statistical synopses for graph-structured XML databases

Effective support for XML query languages is becoming increasingly important with the emergence of new applications that access large volumes of XML data. All existing proposals for querying XML (e.g., XQuery) rely on a pattern-specification language that allows path navigation and branching through the XML data graph in order to reach the desired data elements. Optimizing such queries depends crucially on the existence of concise synopsis structures that enable accurate compile-time selectivity estimates for complex path expressions over graph-structured XML data. In this paper, We introduce a novel approach to building and using statistical summaries of large XML data graphs for effective path-expression selectivity estimation. Our proposed graph-synopsis model (termed XSKETCH) exploits localized graph stability to accurately approximate (in limited space) the path and branching distribution in the data graph. To estimate the selectivities of complex path expressions over concise XSKETCH synopses, we develop an estimation framework that relies on appropriate statistical (uniformity and independence) assumptions to compensate for the lack of detailed distribution information. Given our estimation framework, we demonstrate that the problem of building an accuracy-optimal XSKETCH for a given amount of space is 𝒩𝒫-hard, and propose an efficient heuristic algorithm based on greedy forward selection. Briefly, our algorithm constructs an XSKETCH synopsis by successive refinements of the label-split graph, the coarsest summary of the XML data graph. Our refinement operations act locally and attempt to capture important statistical correlations between data paths. Extensive experimental results with synthetic as well as real-life data sets verify the effectiveness of our approach. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first work to address this timely problem in the most general setting of graph-structured data and complex (branching) path expressions.
Micafungin in the treatment of invasive candidiasis and invasive aspergillosis

Micafungin is an echinocandin antifungal agent available for clinical use in Japan, Europe, and the United States. Through inhibition of β-1,3-glucan production, an essential component of the fungal cell wall, micafungin exhibits potent antifungal activity against key pathogenic fungi, including Candida and Aspergillus species, while contributing minimal toxicity to mammalian cells. This activity is maintained against polyene and azole-resistant isolates. Pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic studies have demonstrated linear kinetics both in adults and children with concentration-dependent activity observed both in vitro and in vivo. Dosage escalation studies have also demonstrated that doses much higher than those currently recommended may be administered without serious adverse effects. Clinically, micafungin has been shown to be efficacious for the treatment of invasive candidiasis and invasive aspergillosis. Furthermore, the clinical effectiveness of micafungin against these infections occurs without the drug interactions that occur with the azoles and the nephrotoxicity observed with amphotericin B formulations. This review will focus on the pharmacology, clinical microbiology, mechanisms of resistance, safety, and clinical efficacy of micafungin in the treatment of invasive candidiasis and invasive aspergillosis.
Altered Verbal Working Memory Process in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease

Impaired working memory processing is one of the broad range of cognitive deficits in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We aimed to elucidate the differences in brain activities involved in the process of working memory between AD patients and healthy comparison subjects. Twelve patients with AD were recruited along with 12 healthy volunteers as a comparison group. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was employed to assess cortical activities during the performance of a 1-back working memory paradigm using the Korean alphabet as mnemonic content. Subsequently, the difference in neural activities between the 2 groups was analyzed. The AD group performed the tasks with reduced accuracy. Group comparison analysis revealed that the AD group showed decreased brain activity in the left frontal pole (Brodmann area, BA, 10), the left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (BA47), the left insula (BA13) and the right premotor cortex (BA6) compared to the control group. The AD group showed increased activation in the left precuneus (BA7) compared to the control group. A decreased level of activation in the prefrontal cortex and an increased level of activation in the parietal neural networks from the patient group may document an altered verbal working memory process in the patients with AD.
Sea Level Interannual Variability Along the West Coast of India

Interannual sea level anomalies (SLA), and the related thermocline variations, along the west coast of India (WCI) strongly impact the ecosystems, fisheries, and potentially the monsoon rainfall. Here we investigate the mechanisms driving the WCI interannual SLA using a linear continuously stratified ocean model, which realistically simulates the leading northern Indian Ocean SLA mode associated with the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD). During, for example, positive IOD events, easterly wind anomalies near Sri Lanka in late summer and fall force downwelling coastal Kelvin waves, which induce positive WCI SLA within days. Meanwhile, equatorial easterlies force upwelling Kelvin waves that travel to WCI through the Bay of Bengal coastal waveguide. Part of this opposite signal also transits slowly through the Bay of Bengal interior as Rossby waves, eventually yielding negative SLA along the WCI in winter. The WCI SLA thus shifts from positive in fall to negative in winter during positive IOD events.
Dynamic analysis of program concepts in Java

Concept assignment identifies units of source code that are functionally related, even if this is not apparent from a syntactic point of view. Until now, the results of concept assignment have only been used for static analysis, mostly of program source code. This paper investigates the possibility of using concept information as part of dynamic analysis of programs. There are two case studies involving (i) a small Java program used in a previous research study; (ii) a large Java virtual machine (the popular Jikes RVM system). These studies demonstrate the usefulness of concept information for dynamic approaches to profiling, debugging and comprehension. This paper also introduces the new idea of feedback-directed concept assignment.
Subsets of Ambulatory Myocardial Ischemia Based on Heart Rate Activit: Circadian Distribution and Response to Anti‐Ischemic Medication

BackgroundIdentification of whether episodes of ambulatory ischemia are caused by increases in myocardial oxygen demand or to episodic coronary vasoconstriction in patients with stable coronary disease may be important to guide selection of optimal anti-ischemic therapy and to gain insight into mechanisms responsible for adverse cardiac events. Methods and ResultsMean minute heart rate activity during ambulatory ECG (AECG) monitoring was determined for 50 patients treated with propranolol, diltiazem, nifedipine, or placebo in a randomized, double-blind, crossover trial. Periods of heart rate increases of various magnitudes and durations and starting at various baseline heart rates on each therapy were identified throughout each 48-hour AECG recording, and the proportion of these periods associated with an ischemic episode was determined. The circadian variation of ischemic episodes categorized by the presence or absence of an increase in heart rate was analyzed. Eighty-one percent of ischemic episodes were preceded by an increase in heart rate . 5 beats per minute. The likelihood of developing ischemia associated with a heart rate increase was proportional to the magnitude and duration of the heart rate increase and the baseline heart rate before the increases in heart rate: likelihood ranged from 4% when the heart rate increased 5-9 beats per minute and lasted <10 minutes to 60%o when the heart rate increased . 20 beats per minute and lasted . 40 minutes. The likelihoods of developing ischemia based on changes in the heart rate variables were similar for each of the therapies. Propranolol therapy significantly reduced the magnitude and duration of heart rate increase and the baseline heart rate compared with therapy with placebo, diltiazem, or nifedipine (P<.001). Ischemic episodes associated with a heart rate increase displayed a daytime peak, whereas ischemia occurring without a heart rate increase occurred evenly throughout the day. Propranolol reduced the proportion of heart rate-related ischemic episodes and increased the proportion of non-heart rate-related episodes compared with placebo (P<.02), and nifedipine exerted the opposite effect (P=.005). Multivariate analysis indicated that the probability of developing ischemia was strongly associated with heart rate variables and was unaffected by time of day. ConclusionMost episodes of ambulatory ischemia are associated with a preceding period of increased heart rate. The likelihood of developing ischemia is predicted by heart rate variables and unaffected by time of day. Anti-ischemic efficacy is generally a result of the medication's efficacy in reducing heart rate variables. A minority of ischemic episodes are not associated with preceding periods of increased heart rate, may be caused by episodic coronary vasoconstriction, and are more effectively reduced by nifedipine than propranolol.
Biochemical profile of local rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) during successful pregnancy under backyard production system.

The aim of the current study was to establish reference plasma biochemical values for local rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) during successful pregnancy under backyard production system in Peshawar Pakistan. Local rabbits (n=20) at day 13,18 and 28 of pregnancy and non-pregnancy were used. Experiments were executed using commercially available kits for the maternal plasma biochemical parameters including glucose, total protein, albumin, creatinine, Triglycerides, BUN, ALT and AST. During current study, the established value for glucose, total protein and albumin at day 13, 18 and 28 was 108±1.55, 115±2.7, 128.3±1.8 mg/dl; 56.4±1.69, 51.5±1.60, 46.0±1.84g/l; 39.2±1.1, 37.4±1.3, 34.1±1.05g/I whereas that of creatinine, triglyceride, BUN, ALT and AST at the corresponding days of pregnancy were 0.99±0.1, 0.81±0.2, 0.79±0.05mg/dl; 35.4±2.6, 57.9±2.8, 25.6±1.9mg/dl, 8.7±0.02, 15.7±0.13, 9.2±0.21mg/dl; 49.9±3.4, 47.8±1.07, 43.6±2.5 IU/l; 22.1±1.8, 23.9±1.6, 56.4±2.4 IU/l. Current findings demonstrated significant down-regulation of these biochemical indicators except BUN and AST during pregnancy period or at the placentation period and/or at the end of fetal growth of successful pregnancy in rabbits under backyard production