Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vaccination coverage in healthcare workers: a multicenter cross-sectional study in Italy

Summary Introduction In recent years, a phenomenon known as “vaccine hesitancy” has spread throughout the world, even among health workers, determining a reduction in vaccination coverage (VC). A study aimed at evaluating VC among healthcare workers (HCWs) in 10 Italian cities (L’Aquila, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, Sassari, Catanzaro, Ferrara, Catania, Naples, Messina) was performed. Materials and methods Annex 3 of the Presidential Decree n. 445 of 28 December 2000 was used to collect information on the vaccination status of HCWs. The mean and standard deviation (SD) were calculated with regard to the quantitative variable (age), while absolute and relative frequencies were obtained for categorical data (sex, professional profile, working sector, vaccination status). The connection between VC and the categorical variables was evaluated by chi-square method (statistical significance at p < 0.05). The statistical analyses were performed by SPSS and Stata software. Results A total of 3,454 HCWs participated in the project: 1,236 males and 2,218 females. The sample comprised: physicians (26.9%), trainee physicians (16.1%), nurses (17.2%) and other professional categories (9.8%). Low VC was generally recorded. Higher VC was found with regard to polio, hepatitis B, tetanus and diphtheria, while coverage was very low for measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, chickenpox and influenza (20-30%). Conclusions This study revealed low VC rates among HCWs for all the vaccinations. Measures to increase VC are therefore necessary in order to prevent HCWs from becoming a source of transmission of infections with high morbidity and/or mortality both within hospitals and outside.
Bmc Musculoskeletal Disorders a Systematic Review of the Psychometric Properties of the Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire

Background: The Boston Carpal Tunnel Questionnaire (BCTQ) is a disease-specific measure of self-reported symptom severity and functional status. It is frequently used in the reporting of outcomes from trials into interventions for carpal tunnel syndrome. We conducted a systematic review of published studies on the psychometric properties of the BCTQ to determine the level of evidence on the instrument's validity, reliability and responsiveness to date.
Factors related to job satisfaction among South Korean dentists.

OBJECTIVES The purposes of this study were to investigate the level and distribution of job satisfaction and to explore work environment factors associated with job satisfaction of South Korean dentists. METHODS A stratified systematic random sample of 1029 dentists was selected from the 10 357 registered dentists in the Korean Dental Association. They were surveyed via a self-administered mail questionnaire. Job satisfaction was measured by a modified version of the Dentist Satisfaction Survey. RESULTS The response rate was 62.2%. The mean score of overall job satisfaction among South Korean dentists was 3.2 out of 5. In terms of work environment factors, the most satisfying aspect was patient relations (3.7) and the least satisfying aspect was personal time (2.8). Multiple regression analysis identified a model including patient relations, perception of income, personal time, staff, and specialty training that accounted for 35% of variation in overall job satisfaction. The majority of the variance was explained by patient relations. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that patient relations, perception of income, personal time, staff, and specialty training are important work environment factors for job satisfaction among South Korean dentists. The findings of this study will be helpful to policy makers to design plans to increase the level of job satisfaction among South Korean dentists.
Epidemiology and Survival Analysis of Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors in Lebanon: Real-life study from a Hospital tumor registry 2000-2015.

BACKGROUND We report, to our knowledge, one of the largest studies concerning gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) in the Middle East. We also present a survival analysis of GIST in our 15-year real-life experience. METHODS We studied demographic, epidemiologic and survival characteristics of 70 patients with confirmed GIST in a cross-sectional study between 2000 and 2015. RESULTS The median age of our patients was 62 ±12.8 years (range, 25-84) with a male to female ratio of 1.7. The gastric and the small intestine GIST were the most frequent primary sites. The majority of our patients had localized disease at diagnosis (81.4%). Metastasis was limited to the abdominal cavity and lymph node spreading occurred in 14.3%. After a median follow up of 838 days (range 48-4309 days) with only two patients reported dead, two and five-year overall survival rates were 98% and 95% respectively. Median overall survival was not reached. CONCLUSION In the light of our results, molecular profiling of Lebanese patients with GIST would be of interest to detect the particularities responsible for the increased overall survival and lymph node spreading.
EXPRESSION IN HAEMATOLOGICAL MALIGNANCIES : RESPONSE TO ALKYLATING AGENT IN THE COMET ASSAY

Aims. The P53 gene is a tumour suppressor, often inactivated by deletion and/or point mutation in malignancies. The incidence of p53 mutation in haematological malignancies varies with malignancy type and cell lineage affected. It is associated with disease progression, poor prognosis and resistance to chemotherapy. The wild-type p53 protein has a short half-life and cannot be detected by immunocytochemistry, whereas the mutated form has an extended half-life and can be. Materials and methods. Using lymphocyte cytospin preparations from patients with a range of haematological malignancies, p53 mutation was assessed with immunocytochemistry. Results. 83 patients showed intracellular p53 in 16 cases, including 4/18 (22%) Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), 3/15 (20%) chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), 2/13 (15%) myeloma, 2/19 (11%) chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), 1/3 (33%) hairy cell leukaemia (HCL), 4/15 (27%) myelodysplatic syndromes (MDS) including two transformed acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Using the Comet assay, lymphocytes from the p53 positive NHL, CLL, CML and AML cases showed reduced damage to the alkylating agent, ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS), when compared to p53 negative cases. Conclusions. This suggested that mutant p53 positive cases are resistant to damage by cytotoxic agents.
Iterative Joint Channel Estimation and Symbol Detection for Multi-User MIMO OFDM

Multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems have recently attracted substantial research interest. However, compared to single-input-single-output (SISO) systems, channel estimation in the MIMO scenario becomes more challenging, owing to the increased number of independent transmitter-receiver links to be estimated. In the context of the Bell layered space-time architecture (BLAST) or space division multiple access (SDMA) multi-user MIMO OFDM literature, no channel estimation technique allows the number of users to be higher than the number of receiver antennas, which is often referred to as an "overloaded" scenario. In this contribution we propose a new genetic algorithm (GA) assisted iterative joint channel estimation and multi-user detection approach for MIMO SDMA-OFDM systems, which exhibits a robust performance in the above-mentioned overloaded scenario. Furthermore, GA-aided multi-user detection (MUD) techniques found in the literature can only provide a hard-decision output, while the proposed GA is capable of providing "soft" outputs, hence achieving an improved performance with the aid of channel decoders. Finally, a range of simulation results are provided to demonstrate the superiority of the proposed scheme
Segmental Organization of Vestibulospinal Inputs to Spinal Interneurons Mediating Crossed Activation of Thoracolumbar Motoneurons in the Neonatal Mouse

Vestibulospinal pathways activate contralateral motoneurons (MNs) in the thoracolumbar spinal cord of the neonatal mouse exclusively via axons descending ipsilaterally from the vestibular nuclei via the lateral vestibulospinal tract (LVST; Kasumacic et al., 2010). Here we investigate how transmission from the LVST to contralateral MNs is mediated by descending commissural interneurons (dCINs) in different spinal segments. We test the polysynaptic nature of this crossed projection by assessing LVST-mediated ventral root (VR) response latencies, manipulating synaptic responses pharmacologically, and tracing the pathway transynaptically from hindlimb extensor muscles using rabies virus (RV). Longer response latencies in contralateral than ipsilateral VRs, near-complete abolition of LVST-mediated calcium responses in contralateral MNs by mephenesin, and the absence of transsynaptic RV labeling of contralateral LVST neurons within a monosynaptic time window all indicate an overwhelmingly polysynaptic pathway from the LVST to contralateral MNs. Optical recording of synaptically mediated calcium responses identifies LVST-responsive ipsilateral dCINs that exhibit segmental differences in proportion and dorsoventral distribution. In contrast to thoracic and lower lumbar segments, in which most dCINs are LVST responsive, upper lumbar segments stand out because they contain a much smaller and more ventrally restricted subpopulation of LVST-responsive dCINs. A large proportion of these upper lumbar LVST-responsive dCINs project to contralateral L5, which contains many of the hindlimb extensor MNs activated by the LVST. A selective channeling of LVST inputs through segmentally and dorsoventrally restricted subsets of dCINs provides a mechanism for targeting vestibulospinal signals differentially to contralateral trunk and hindlimb MNs in the mammalian spinal cord.
Environmental forcings of Paleogene Southern Ocean dinoflagellate biogeography

[1] Despite warm polar climates and low meridional temperature gradients, a number of different high-latitude plankton assemblages were, to varying extents, dominated by endemic species during most of the Paleogene. To better understand the evolution of Paleogene plankton endemism in the high southern latitudes, we investigate the spatiotemporal distribution of the fossil remains of dinoflagellates, i.e., organic-walled cysts (dinocysts), and their response to changes in regional sea surface temperature (SST). We show that Paleocene and early Eocene (∼65–50 Ma) Southern Ocean dinocyst assemblages were largely cosmopolitan in nature but that a distinct switch from cosmopolitan-dominated to endemic-dominated assemblages (the so-called “transantarctic flora”) occurred around the early-middle Eocene boundary (∼50 Ma). The spatial distribution and relative abundance patterns of this transantarctic flora correspond well with surface water circulation patterns as reconstructed through general circulation model experiments throughout the Eocene. We quantitatively compare dinocyst assemblages with previously published TEX86–based SST reconstructions through the early and middle Eocene from a key locality in the southwest Pacific Ocean, ODP Leg 189 Site 1172 on the East Tasman Plateau. We conclude that the middle Eocene onset of the proliferation of the transantarctic flora is not linearly correlated with regional SST records and that only after the transantarctic flora became fully established later in the middle Eocene, possibly triggered by large-scale changes in surface-ocean nutrient availability, were abundances of endemic dinocysts modulated by regional SST variations.
Routing Strategies for Delay-Tolerant Networks

Delay-Tolerant Networks (DTNs) have the potential to interconnect devices in regions that current networking technology cannot reach. The idea is that an end-to-end connection may never be present. To make communication possible, intermediate nodes take custody of the data being transferred and forward it as the opportunity arises. Both links and nodes may be inherently unreliable and disconnections may be long-lived. To realize the DTN vision, routes must be found over multiple unreliable, intermittently-connected hops. Many researchers have investigated this fundamental challenge, particularly over the past five years. This paper surveys the area of routing in delay-tolerant networks and presents a system for classifying the proposed routing strategies.
Modelling and Control Design of a V-Shaped Thermal Actuator System via Partial Derivative Equation Approach

This work presents a dynamic model of V-shaped thermal actuator using an assumption that all beams are considered to be homogeneous and the heat source is evenly distributed on those beams. Furthermore, the control scheme of this system is proposed from the view point of partial derivative equations (PDE) and separation method. The offline simulation results show that the outgoing parameters reflect exactly the physical nature of the subject and they are suitable with the simulation outcomes in the software Ansys. The work outcome would be a foundation for the model development and control design problem for micro motors using thermal expansion effects.
Topic models in information retrieval

Topic modeling demonstrates the semantic relations among words, which should be helpful for information retrieval tasks. We present probability mixture modeling and term modeling methods to integrate topic models into language modeling framework for information retrieval. A variety of topic modeling techniques, including manually-built query models, term similarity measures and latent mixture models, especially Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), a formal generative latent mixture model of documents, have been proposed or introduced into IR tasks. We investigated and evaluated them on several TREC collections within presented frameworks, and show that significant improvements over previous work can be obtained. Practical problems such as efficiency and scaling considerations are discussed and compared for different topic models. Other recent topic modeling techniques are also discussed.
Who's Who with Big-Five: Analyzing and Classifying Personality Traits with Smartphones

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between behavioral characteristics derived from rich smart phone data and self-reported personality traits. Our data stems from smart phones of a set of 83 individuals collected over a continuous period of 8 months. From the analysis, we show that aggregated features obtained from smart phone usage data can be indicators of the Big-Five personality traits. Additionally, we develop an automatic method to infer the personality type of a user based on cell phone usage using supervised learning. We show that our method performs significantly above chance and up to 75.9% accuracy. To our knowledge, this constitutes the first study on the analysis and classification of personality traits using smartphone data.
Alcohol screening and brief interventions for offenders in the probation setting (SIPS Trial): a pragmatic multicentre cluster randomized controlled trial.

AIM To evaluate the effectiveness of different brief intervention strategies at reducing hazardous or harmful drinking in the probation setting. Offender managers were randomized to three interventions, each of which built on the previous one: feedback on screening outcome and a client information leaflet control group, 5 min of structured brief advice and 20 min of brief lifestyle counselling. METHODS A pragmatic multicentre factorial cluster randomized controlled trial. The primary outcome was self-reported hazardous or harmful drinking status measured by Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) at 6 months (negative status was a score of <8). Secondary outcomes were AUDIT status at 12 months, experience of alcohol-related problems, health utility, service utilization, readiness to change and reduction in conviction rates. RESULTS Follow-up rates were 68% at 6 months and 60% at 12 months. At both time points, there was no significant advantage of more intensive interventions compared with the control group in terms of AUDIT status. Those in the brief advice and brief lifestyle counselling intervention groups were statistically significantly less likely to reoffend (36 and 38%, respectively) than those in the client information leaflet group (50%) in the year following intervention. CONCLUSION Brief advice or brief lifestyle counselling provided no additional benefit in reducing hazardous or harmful drinking compared with feedback on screening outcome and a client information leaflet. The impact of more intensive brief intervention on reoffending warrants further research.
The Midlife Transition: Crisis or Chimera?

The construct of the midlife crisis is examined on definitional, developmental, psychoanalytic, and existential dimensions, and the literature reviewed. The DSM-III—R criteria for Adjustment Disorder appear to subsume the midlife crisis paradigm, and only a small percentage of people high in neuroticism are prone to developmental crises. It is argued that the crisis model is a contemporary social construct that has outlived its usefulness.
Emerging and investigational drugs for premature ejaculation

Over the past 20−30 years, the premature ejaculation (PE) treatment paradigm, previously limited to behavioural psychotherapy, has expanded to include drug treatment. Pharmacotherapy for PE predominantly targets the multiple neurotransmitters and receptors involved in the control of ejaculation which include serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, norepinephrine, gamma amino-butyric acid (GABA) and nitric oxide (NO). The objective of this article is to review emerging PE interventions contemporary data on the treatment of PE was reviewed and critiqued using the principles of evidence-based medicine. Multiple well-controlled evidence-based studies have demonstrated the efficacy and safety of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in delaying ejaculation, confirming their role as first-line agents for the medical treatment of lifelong and acquired PE. Daily dosing of SSRIs is likely to be associated with superior fold increases in IELT compared to on-demand SSRIs. On-demand SSRIs are less effective but may fulfill the treatment goals of many patients. Integrated pharmacotherapy and CBT may achieve superior treatment outcomes in some patients. PDE-5 inhibitors alone or in combination with SSRIs should be limited to men with acquired PE secondary to co-morbid ED. New on-demand rapid acting SSRIs, oxytocin receptor antagonists, or single agents that target multiple receptors may form the foundation of more effective future on-demand medication. Current evidence confirms the efficacy and safety of dapoxetine, off-label SSRI drugs, tramadol and topical anaesthetics drugs. Treatment with α1-adrenoceptor antagonists cannot be recommended until the results of large well-designed RCTs are published in major international peer-reviewed medical journals. As our understanding of the neurochemical control of ejaculation improves, new therapeutic targets and candidate molecules will be identified which may increase our pharmacotherapeutic armamentarium.
Results from lattice simulations of N=4 supersymmetric Yang--Mills

We report recent results and developments from our ongoing lattice studies of $\mathcal N = 4$ supersymmetric Yang--Mills theory. These include a proof that only a single fine-tuning needs to be performed, so long as the moduli space is not lifted by nonperturbative effects. We extend our investigations of supersymmetry restoration in the continuum limit by initiating Monte Carlo renormalization group studies. We present additional numerical evidence that the lattice theory does not suffer from a sign problem. Finally we study the static potential, which we find to be Coulombic at both weak and strong coupling. We compare the static potential Coulomb coefficients to perturbation theory, including initial results for N=3 colors in addition to N=2.
Stem Cell Factor/c-kit Up-regulates Cyclin D3 and Promotes Cell Cycle Progression via the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase/p70 S6 Kinase Pathway in Spermatogonia*

Stem cell factor (SCF)/c-kit plays an important role in the regulation of hematopoiesis, melanogenesis, and spermatogenesis. In the testis, the SCF/c-kit system is believed to regulate germ cell proliferation, meiosis, and apoptosis. Studies with type A spermatogonia in vivo and in vitro have indicated that SCF induces DNA synthesis and proliferation. However, the signaling pathway for this function of SCF/c-kit has not been elucidated. We now demonstrate that SCF activates phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3-K) and p70 S6 kinase (p70S6K) and that rapamycin, a FRAP/mammalian target of rapamycin-dependent inhibitor of p70S6K, completely inhibited bromodeoxyuridine incorporation induced by SCF in primary cultures of spermatogonia. SCF induced cyclin D3 expression and phosphorylation of the retinoblastoma protein through a pathway that is sensitive to both wortmannin and rapamycin. Furthermore, AKT, but not protein kinase C-ζ, is used by SCF/c-kit/PI3-K to activate p70S6K. Dominant negative AKT-K179M completely abolished p70S6K phosphorylation induced by the constitutively active PI3-K catalytic subunit p110. Constitutively active v-AKT highly phosphorylated p70S6K, which was totally inhibited by rapamycin. Thus, SCF/c-kit uses a rapamycin-sensitive PI3-K/AKT/p70S6K/cyclin D3 pathway to promote spermatogonial cell proliferation.
Effects of exercise with or without blueberries in the diet on cardio-metabolic risk factors: An exploratory pilot study in healthy subjects

Abstract Background. The improvement of insulin sensitivity by exercise has been shown to be inhibited by supplementation of vitamins acting as antioxidants. Objective. To examine effects of exercise with or without blueberries, containing natural antioxidants, on cardio-metabolic risk factors. Methods. Fifteen healthy men and 17 women, 27.6 ± 6.5 years old, were recruited, and 26 completed a randomized cross-over trial with 4 weeks of exercise by running/jogging 5 km five times/week and 4 weeks of minimal physical activity. Participants were also randomized to consume 150 g of blueberries, or not, on exercise days. Laboratory variables were measured before and after a 5 km running-race at maximal speed at the beginning and end of each period, i.e. there were four maximal running-races and eight samplings in total for each participant. Results. Insulin and triglyceride levels were reduced while HDL-cholesterol increased by exercise compared with minimal physical activity. Participants randomized to consume blueberries showed an increase in fasting glucose levels compared with controls, during the exercise period (blueberries: from 5.12 ± 0.49 mmol/l to 5.32 ± 0.29 mmol/l; controls: from 5.24 ± 0.27 mmol/l to 5.17 ± 0.23 mmol/l, P = 0.04 for difference in change). Triglyceride levels fell in the control group (from 1.1 ± 0.49 mmol/l to 0.93 ± 0.31 mmol/l, P = 0.02), while HDL-cholesterol increased in the blueberry group (from 1.51 ± 0.29 mmol/l to 1.64 ± 0.33 mmol/l, P = 0.006). Conclusions. Ingestion of blueberries induced differential effects on cardio-metabolic risk factors, including increased levels of both fasting glucose and HDL-cholesterol. However, since it is possible that indirect effects on food intake were induced, other than consumption of blueberries, further studies are needed to confirm the findings.