Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Early hyperbaric oxygen effects on neuropathic pain and nitric oxide synthase isoforms in CCI rats

Neuropathic pain is pain caused by injury or dysfunction in the central and/or peripheral nervous system. Neuropathic pain has a high incidence with a complex mechanism, but effective treatment remains elusive. Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy has been widely used in the treatment of a variety of neurological diseases. The current study used a rat model of neuropathic pain induced by chronic constriction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve. We observed the effects of early use of 2.5 absolute atmosphere (ATA) HBO on neuropathic pain-related behaviors and the expression of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) isoforms in the spinal dorsal horn. In the CCI group, mechanical withdrawal threshold (MWT) was decreased, Thermal withdrawal latency (TWL) was shortened, and mRNA and protein levels of iNOS and nNOS were significantly increased compared to the sham group. MWT was increased, TWL was enhanced, and iNOS and nNOS levels were significantly decreased in the HBO group compared to the CCI group. There was no change in eNOS levels across all groups. HBO treatment at early stages can improve hyperalgesia.
Convolutional Embedding of Attributed Molecular Graphs for Physical Property Prediction

The task of learning an expressive molecular representation is central to developing quantitative structure-activity and property relationships. Traditional approaches rely on group additivity rules, empirical measurements or parameters, or generation of thousands of descriptors. In this paper, we employ a convolutional neural network for this embedding task by treating molecules as undirected graphs with attributed nodes and edges. Simple atom and bond attributes are used to construct atom-specific feature vectors that take into account the local chemical environment using different neighborhood radii. By working directly with the full molecular graph, there is a greater opportunity for models to identify important features relevant to a prediction task. Unlike other graph-based approaches, our atom featurization preserves molecule-level spatial information that significantly enhances model performance. Our models learn to identify important features of atom clusters for the prediction of aqueous solubility, octanol solubility, melting point, and toxicity. Extensions and limitations of this strategy are discussed.
Stockouts of HIV commodities in public health facilities in Kinshasa: Barriers to end HIV

Stockouts of HIV commodities increase the risk of treatment interruption, antiretroviral resistance, treatment failure, morbidity and mortality. The study objective was to assess the magnitude and duration of stockouts of HIV medicines and diagnostic tests in public facilities in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. This was a cross-sectional survey involving visits to facilities and warehouses in April and May 2015. All zonal warehouses, all public facilities with more than 200 patients on antiretroviral treatment (ART) (high-burden facilities) and a purposive sample of facilities with 200 or fewer patients (low-burden facilities) in Kinshasa were selected. We focused on three adult ART formulations, cotrimoxazole tablets, and HIV diagnostic tests. Availability of items was determined by physical check, while stockout duration until the day of the survey visit was verified with stock cards. In case of ART stockouts, we asked the pharmacist in charge what the facility coping strategy was for patients needing those medicines. The study included 28 high-burden facilities and 64 low-burden facilities, together serving around 22000 ART patients. During the study period, a national shortage of the newly introduced first-line regimen Tenofovir-Lamivudine-Efavirenz resulted in stockouts of this regimen in 56% of high-burden and 43% of low-burden facilities, lasting a median of 36 (interquartile range 29–90) and 44 days (interquartile range 24–90) until the day of the survey visit, respectively. Each of the other investigated commodities were found out of stock in at least two low-burden and two high-burden facilities. In 30/41 (73%) of stockout cases, the commodity was absent at the facility but present at the upstream warehouse. In 30/57 (54%) of ART stockout cases, patients did not receive any medicines. In some cases, patients were switched to different ART formulations or regimens. Stockouts of HIV commodities were common in the visited facilities. Introduction of new ART regimens needs additional planning.
Pitx2 regulates gonad morphogenesis

Organ shape and size, and, ultimately, organ function, relate in part to the cell and tissue spatial arrangement that takes place during embryonic development. Despite great advances in the genetic regulatory networks responsible for tissue and organ development, it is not yet clearly understood how specific gene functions are linked to the specific morphogenetic processes underlying the internal organ asymmetries found in vertebrate animals. During female chick embryogenesis, and in contrast to males where both testes develop symmetrically, asymmetrical gonad morphogenesis results in only one functional ovary. The disposition of paired organs along the left–right body axis has been shown to be regulated by the activity of the homeobox containing gene pitx2. We have found that pitx2 regulates cell adhesion, affinity, and cell recognition events in the developing gonad primordium epithelia. This in turn not only allows for proper somatic development of the gonad cortex but also permits the proliferation and differentiation of primordial germ cells. We illustrate how Pitx2 activity directs asymmetrical gonad morphogenesis by controlling mitotic spindle orientation of the developing gonad cortex and how, by modulating cyclinD1 expression during asymmetric ovarian development, Pitx2 appears to control gonad organ size. All together our observations indicate that the effects elicited by Pitx2 during the development of the female chick ovary are critical for cell topology, growth, fate, and ultimately organ morphogenesis and function.
Enhanced Tobacco Control Initiative at Johns Hopkins Health System: Employee Fairness Perception

Organizations often fail to establish a clear awareness of what employees consider fair when implementing changes to employee benefits in the workplace. In 2016, the Johns Hopkins Health System (JHHS) enhanced their tobacco control efforts. In addition to enhanced smoking cessation benefits, employees were offered an increased reduction in their insurance premiums if they were nonsmokers. To qualify for the reduction, employees participated in testing rather than relying on self-reporting as had been done in the past. The shift to testing prompted a concern by some senior management at JHHS who did not want employees to feel they were not trusted. As the program unfolded at JHHS, the four-component model of procedural justice was applied to provide a framework for reviewing the implementation of the new voluntary tobacco testing at JHHS from a fairness lens. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the application of the four-component procedural model of justice to the tobacco testing process at JHHS. As approximately 75% of employees participated in the program, the experience at JHHS can be instructive to other employers who are looking to implement changes in their workplaces and how to minimize unintended consequences with their employees.
Determinants of health expenditure in OECD countries: A decision tree model

Objective: This study aimed to identify the major variables in the estimation of health expenditure in OECD member countries with the decision tree method and to categorize the member countries by health expenditure. Methods: The study population comprised the 2014 data of the 35 OECD countries. In the study, health expenditure as a share of gross domestic product was the dependent variable while gross domestic product per capita, percentage of total population covered by public and private insurance, out-of-pocket health expenditure as percentage of total expenditure on health, age dependency ratio, life expectancy at birth, number of hospitals per million population, number of physicians per 1000 population/head counts, pharmaceutical sales and perceived health status were designated as independent variables. The decision tree model was constructed with the CART algorithm using the Orange data mining software package. Results: In the study, GDP per capita, life expectancy at birth, age dependency ratio, number of hospitals and percentage of the population with a bad perceived health status were identified as the major variables in the estimation of health expenditure. OECD countries were categorized in 6 groups according to the decision tree model. According to the CART algorithm used in the model, the classification accuracy rate and the precision of estimation were computed as 80.56% and 81.25%, respectively. Conclusion: The study results revealed that the most important determinant for estimating the share of GDP allocated to health expenditure was GDP per capita. Future studies should be conducted with the inclusion of different variables in the model.
Targeted deletion of c-Met in thymic epithelial cells leads to an autoimmune phenotype

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) and its receptor c‐Met signaling have been implicated in regulating various types of cells including epithelial cells. We have previously reported that c‐Met is expressed by thymic epithelial cells (TECs), and that in vivo administration of hybrid cytokines containing IL‐7 and the beta‐ or alpha‐chain of HGF significantly increase the number of TECs. In order to study the role of c‐Met signaling in TECs, we generated conditional knockout (cKO) mice in which c‐Met was specifically deleted in TECs using a Foxn1‐Cre transgene. We show here that c‐Met deficiency in TECs results in age‐progressive reduction in TEC number and reduced number of regulatory T cells. Consequently, c‐Met TEC cKO mice displayed an autoimmune phenotype. Thus, c‐Met signaling in TECs is important for the maintenance of TECs and immune self‐tolerance.
Genome sequence of the highly weak-acid-tolerant Zygosaccharomyces bailii IST302, amenable to genetic manipulations and physiological studies

Abstract Zygosaccharomyces bailii is one of the most problematic spoilage yeast species found in the food and beverage industry particularly in acidic products, due to its exceptional resistance to weak acid stress. This article describes the annotation of the genome sequence of Z. bailii IST302, a strain recently proven to be amenable to genetic manipulations and physiological studies. The work was based on the annotated genomes of strain ISA1307, an interspecies hybrid between Z. bailii and a closely related species, and the Z. bailii reference strain CLIB 213T. The resulting genome sequence of Z. bailii IST302 is distributed through 105 scaffolds, comprising a total of 5142 genes and a size of 10.8 Mb. Contrasting with CLIB 213T, strain IST302 does not form cell aggregates, allowing its manipulation in the laboratory for genetic and physiological studies. Comparative cell cycle analysis with the haploid and diploid Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains BY4741 and BY4743, respectively, suggests that Z. bailii IST302 is haploid. This is an additional trait that makes this strain attractive for the functional analysis of non-essential genes envisaging the elucidation of mechanisms underlying its high tolerance to weak acid food preservatives, or the investigation and exploitation of the potential of this resilient yeast species as cell factory.
MEMS deformable mirrors for focus control in vital microscopy

This paper describes deformable membrane mirrors designed for focus control and aberration compensation in vital microscopy and shows microscope images obtained using these mirrors. The mirrors are metalized polymer membranes ranging from 1-3 mm in diameter using the photo-cured epoxy SU-8 2002, constructed using a die-bonding process. They are electrostatically actuated using three concentric electrodes to provide large displacement while minimizing spherical aberration.
Reinforcement and Imitation Learning for Diverse Visuomotor Skills

We propose a model-free deep reinforcement learning method that leverages a small amount of demonstration data to assist a reinforcement learning agent. We apply this approach to robotic manipulation tasks and train end-to-end visuomotor policies that map directly from RGB camera inputs to joint velocities. We demonstrate that our approach can solve a wide variety of visuomotor tasks, for which engineering a scripted controller would be laborious. In experiments, our reinforcement and imitation agent achieves significantly better performances than agents trained with reinforcement learning or imitation learning alone. We also illustrate that these policies, trained with large visual and dynamics variations, can achieve preliminary successes in zero-shot sim2real transfer. A brief visual description of this work can be viewed in this https URL
Nonsurgical Root Canal Therapy of Large Cystic Periapical Lesions Using Simple Aspiration and LSTR (Lesion Sterilization and Tissue Repair) Technique: Case Reports and Review

Introduction: This review and case report presents the treatment of two large cystic periapical lesions using simple aspiration technique for decompression and triple antibiotic paste for disinfection of the root canal system. Methods: A non-surgical approach was followed for the two large cystic periapical lesions. Simple aspiration irrigation technique along with lesion sterilization therapy with triple antibiotic paste was used without any surgical intervention. Results: Complete periapical healing of both the cyst like periapical lesions occurred without any surgical intervention. A 1 year follow-up radiograph showed complete healing of the lesion. Conclusion: Pathogenesis, histology, and molecular cell biology of inflammatory apical true cysts are not different from pocket cysts. Therefore, inflammatory apical true cysts might regress after nonsurgical root canal therapy by the mechanism of apoptosis or programmed cell death, similar to inflammatory pocket cysts. Non-surgical approach using a combination of Simple Aspiration technique and LSTR (lesion sterilization and tissue repair) technique was successful in healing large cyst-like periradicular lesions.
Competition for nitrogen between Fagus sylvatica and Acer pseudoplatanus seedlings depends on soil nitrogen availability

Competition for nitrogen (N), particularly in resource-limited habitats, might be avoided by different N acquisition strategies of plants. In our study, we investigated whether slow-growing European beech and fast-growing sycamore maple seedlings avoid competition for growth-limiting N by different N uptake patterns and the potential alteration by soil N availability in a microcosm experiment. We quantified growth and biomass indices, 15N uptake capacity and N pools in the fine roots. Overall, growth indices, N acquisition and N pools in the fine roots were influenced by species-specific competition depending on soil N availability. With inter-specific competition, growth of sycamore maple reduced regardless of soil N supply, whereas beech only showed reduced growth when N was limited. Both species responded to inter-specific competition by alteration of N pools in the fine roots; however, sycamore maple showed a stronger response compared to beech for almost all N pools in roots, except for structural N at low soil N availability. Beech generally preferred organic N acquisition while sycamore maple took up more inorganic N. Furthermore, with inter-specific competition, beech had an enhanced organic N uptake capacity, while in sycamore maple inorganic N uptake capacity was impaired by the presence of beech. Although sycamore maple could tolerate the suboptimal conditions at the cost of reduced growth, our study indicates its reduced competitive ability for N compared to beech.
Activating attachments enhances heart rate variability

Although activating mental representations of attachment figures is beneficial for psychological health, there is a paucity of knowledge of the underlying mechanisms. We investigated how priming attachment figures may modulate parasympathetic stress response. Participants (N = 62) with varying degrees of attachment security underwent a cold pressor test, and then imagined an attachment or non-attachment figure. Heart rate variability was assessed throughout the study. Participants with low avoidant attachment levels displayed less negative affect and greater heart rate variability following the attachment prime than those who imagined the non-attachment prime. This beneficial effect of attachment priming was not observed in participants with high avoidant attachment levels. These findings highlight that activating attachment representations can enhance the parasympathetic stress response in people with secure attachment styles, and provides one explanation for the psychological benefits of attachment proximity.
Reliability of the Timed Up and Go Test in Fibromyalgia

Purpose: The aim of the study was to evaluate the test–retest reliability of the timed up and go test using manual and automatic chronometer (chronopic) in women with fibromyalgia. Design: Cross-sectional study with convenience sample. Method: A total of 49 women with fibromyalgia, aged 50.20 ± 10.01 participated in the study. Findings: The intraclass correlation coefficient was . 935 with the manual stopwatch and . 955 with the chronopic. The smallest real difference using manual stopwatch was 9.327%, whereas for the timed up and go using the chronopic it was 7.708%. Mean of the three repetitions was significantly different (p = .005) between both chronometers. Conclusion: Timed up and go is a reliable physical fitness test for assessing agility/dynamic balance in women with fibromyalgia. Clinical Relevance: The reliability is higher when the time is tracked using an automatic chronometer, which is easy to use and not expensive in terms of time and money, the use of this device is recommended in the nursing practice.
ABP 501 for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis

ABSTRACT Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease, which has a negative impact on the ability to perform activities daily. Tumour necrosis factor α (TNF) is a cytokine with diverse cellular effects, and a key regulator of the inflammatory response. ABP 501 is a biosimilar to adalimumab, a TNF inhibitor. Areas covered: In this review, we examined ABP 501, as a biosimilar candidate to adalimumab in the treatment of RA focusing on the available data. Current data indicate that ABP 501 is a highly similar alternative to adalimumab in terms of safety, efficacy, tolerability and immunogenicity. ABP 501 has already been approved by health authorities in Europe and the United States of America, as a subcutaneous (s.c.) therapy option for the treatment of patients with RA, but also for the full spectrum approved for its bio-originator adalimumab. Expert opinion: Current body of evidence suggests that all biologic activities have been demonstrated to be equivalent between ABP 501 and the originator, including binding rates and affinity to TNF, and also the effector functions such as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). Therefore, it is fully expected to have same efficacy and safety in all indications.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) The Bernstein-Von-Mises theorem under misspecification

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Development of a 2001 National land-cover database for the United States

Multi-Resolution Land Characterization 2001 (MRLC 2001) is a second-generation Federal consortium designed to create an updated pool of nation-wide Landsat 5 and 7 imagery and derive a second-generation National Land Cover Database (NLCD 2001). The objectives of this multi-layer, multi-source database are two fold: first, to provide consistent land cover for all 50 States, and second, to provide a data framework which allows flexibility in developing and applying each independent data component to a wide variety of other applications. Components in the database include the following: (1) normalized imagery for three time periods per path/row, (2) ancillary data, including a 30 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived into slope, aspect and slope position, (3) perpixel estimates of percent imperviousness and percent tree canopy (4) 29 classes of land cover data derived from the imagery, ancillary data, and derivatives, (5) classification rules, confidence estimates, and metadata from the land cover classification. This database is now being developed using a Mapping Zone approach, with 66 Zones in the continental United States and 23 Zones in Alaska. Results from three initial mapping Zones show single-pixel land cover accuracies ranging from 73 to 77 percent, imperviousness accuracies ranging from 83 to 91 percent, tree canopy accuracies ranging from 78 to 93 percent, and an estimated 50 percent increase in mapping efficiency over previous methods. The database has now entered the production phase and is being created using extensive partnering in the Federal government with planned completion by 2006.
Foot health-related quality of life among elderly with and without lesser toe deformities: a case–control study

Purpose The aim of this study was to compare the health-related quality of life impact related to foot health and health in general in older adults with lesser toe deformities (LTD) and without any foot conditions. Methods A case–control observational study was carried out following the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology criteria. A total of 100 older adults with a mean age of 74.39±6.02 years were recruited at an outpatient clinic; 50 of these subjects had LTD (case group) and 50 subjects were without any foot conditions (control group). Presence of LTD was determined in both feet using the Kelikian push-up test, and the Foot Health Status Questionnaire scores were self-reported. Results The case group showed lower scores in quality of life in relation to health in general and to foot health specifically. Statistically significant differences (p<0.05) between case and control groups were shown by means of the Wicoxon test. Conclusion A negative impact in quality of life in relation to foot health should be considered in older adults with LTD, regardless of gender.