Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Safety of Tenofovir–Emtricitabine for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) in Individuals With Active Hepatitis B

Background:Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with daily oral emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (FTC/TDF) prevents HIV infection. The safety and feasibility of HIV PrEP in the setting of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection were evaluated. Methods:The Iniciativa Profilaxis Pre-Exposición study randomized 2499 HIV-negative men and transgender women who have sex with men to once-daily oral FTC/TDF versus placebo. Hepatitis serologies and transaminases were obtained at screening and at the time PrEP was discontinued. HBV DNA was assessed by polymerase chain reaction, and drug resistance was assessed by population sequencing. Vaccination was offered to individuals susceptible to HBV infection. Results:Of the 2499 participants, 12 (0.5%; including 6 randomized to FTC/TDF) had chronic HBV infection. After stopping FTC/TDF, 5 of the 6 participants in the active arm had liver function tests performed at follow-up. Liver function tests remained within normal limits at post-stop visits except for a grade 1 elevation in 1 participant at post-stop week 12 (alanine aminotransferase = 90, aspartate aminotransferase = 61). There was no evidence of hepatic flares. Polymerase chain reaction of stored samples showed that 2 participants in the active arm had evidence of acute HBV infection at enrollment. Both had evidence of grade 4 transaminase elevations with subsequent resolution. Overall, there was no evidence of TDF or FTC resistance among tested genotypes. Of 1633 eligible for vaccination, 1587 (97.2%) received at least 1 vaccine; 1383 (84.7%) completed the series. Conclusions:PrEP can be safely provided to individuals with HBV infection if there is no evidence of cirrhosis or substantial transaminase elevation. HBV vaccination rates at screening were low globally, despite recommendations for its use, yet uptake and efficacy were high when offered.
A cell wall reference profile for Miscanthus bioenergy crops highlights compositional and structural variations associated with development and organ origin

Summary Miscanthus spp. are promising lignocellulosic energy crops, but cell wall recalcitrance to deconstruction still hinders their widespread use as bioenergy and biomaterial feedstocks. Identification of cell wall characteristics desirable for biorefining applications is crucial for lignocellulosic biomass improvement. However, the task of scoring biomass quality is often complicated by the lack of a reference for a given feedstock. A multidimensional cell wall analysis was performed to generate a reference profile for leaf and stem biomass from several miscanthus genotypes harvested at three developmentally distinct time points. A comprehensive suite of 155 monoclonal antibodies was used to monitor changes in distribution, structure and extractability of noncellulosic cell wall matrix glycans. Glycan microarrays complemented with immunohistochemistry elucidated the nature of compositional variation, and in situ distribution of carbohydrate epitopes. Key observations demonstrated that there are crucial differences in miscanthus cell wall glycomes, which may impact biomass amenability to deconstruction. For the first time, variations in miscanthus cell wall glycan components were comprehensively characterized across different harvests, organs and genotypes, to generate a representative reference profile for miscanthus cell wall biomass. Ultimately, this portrait of the miscanthus cell wall will help to steer breeding and genetic engineering strategies for the development of superior energy crops.
To include or not to include: Evaluations and reasoning about the failure to include peers with autism spectrum disorder in elementary students

Given the significant role that typically developing children play in the social lives of children with autism spectrum disorder, it is important to understand how they evaluate and reason about the inclusion/exclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder in social situations. The objective of this study is to determine elementary students’ evaluations, reasoning patterns, and reasoning complexity regarding the failure to include children with autism spectrum disorder in social activities. Forty-four elementary-aged students participated in interviews, which included vignettes describing four contexts in which a child with autism spectrum disorder is not invited to a social event. Responses were analyzed according to social domain theory, an approach emphasizing that children identify and coordinate different domains of social knowledge, including the moral, personal, societal, and prudential. Results showed that regardless of grade and context, most children judge that failure to include on the basis of disability status is not acceptable. However, the complexity of children’s reasoning (i.e. the extent to which they drew upon and coordinated multiple domains) was higher in older children. Mean complexity scores were also higher in a birthday party context as compared to a playdate context. We offer implications for future research and practice regarding the social inclusion of children with autism spectrum disorder.
Plasticity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis NADH dehydrogenases and their role in virulence

Significance Tuberculosis drug development remains crucial for countering the spread of drug resistance worldwide. New susceptibilities in metabolic pathways must be identified to find novel drugs to eradicate tuberculosis. The electron transport chain (ETC) is the target of recently developed tuberculosis drugs. To assess whether the NADH dehydrogenases of the ETC would be potential drug candidates, we deleted the genes encoding the three Mycobacterium tuberculosis NADH dehydrogenases Nuo, Ndh, and NdhA. We found that although the NADH dehydrogenases were not essential for growth individually, deletion of both nuo and ndh had the most profound effect on Mycobacterium tuberculosis viability and virulence. We propose that screening compound libraries against both Ndh and Nuo will lead to promising drug candidates to fight tuberculosis. Worldwide control of the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has not been achieved, and the latest statistics show that the TB problem might be more endemic than previously thought. Although drugs and a TB vaccine are available, TB eradication faces the challenges of increasing occurrences of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) strains. To forestall this trend, the development of drugs targeting novel pathways is actively pursued. Recently, enzymes of the electron transport chain (ETC) have been determined to be the targets of potent antimycobacterial drugs such as bedaquiline. We focused on the three NADH dehydrogenases (Ndh, NdhA, and Nuo) of the Mtb ETC with the purpose of defining their role and essentiality in Mtb. Each NADH dehydrogenase was deleted in both virulent and BSL2-approved Mtb strains, from which the double knockouts ΔndhΔnuoAN and ΔndhAΔnuoAN were constructed. The ΔndhΔndhA double knockout could not be obtained, suggesting that at least one type II NADH dehydrogenase is required for Mtb growth. Δndh and ΔndhΔnuoAN showed growth defects in vitro and in vivo, susceptibility to oxidative stress, and redox alterations, while the phenotypes of ΔndhA, ΔnuoAN, and ΔndhAΔnuoAN were similar to the parental strain. Interestingly, although ΔnuoAN had no phenotype in vivo, ΔndhΔnuoAN was the most severely attenuated strain in mice, suggesting a key role for Nuo in vivo when Ndh is absent. We conclude that Ndh is the main NADH dehydrogenase of Mtb and that compounds that could target both Ndh and Nuo would be good candidates for TB drug development.
Bee bread increases honeybee haemolymph protein and promote better survival despite of causing higher Nosema ceranae abundance in honeybees.

Adequate protein nutrition supports healthy honeybees and reduces the susceptibility to disease. However little is known concerning the effect of the diet on Nosema ceranae development, an obligate intracellular parasite that disturbs the protein metabolism of honeybees (Apis mellifera). Here we tested the effect of natural (bee bread) and non-natural protein diets (substitute) on haemolymph proteins titers of honeybee and N. ceranae spore production. The natural diet induced higher levels of protein and parasite development, but the survival of bees was also higher than with non-natural diets. The data showed that the administration of an artificially high nutritious diet in terms of crude protein content is not sufficient to promote healthy bees; rather the protein ingested should be efficiently assimilated. The overall results support the idea that the physiological condition of the bees is linked to protein levels in the haemolymph, which affects the tolerance to parasite; consequently the negative impact of the parasite on host fitness is not associated only with the level of infection.
Role change as breadwinner in cancer caregiving.

INTRODUCTION : Indian families are known for adopting the role of caregiver naturally when someone in the family falls ill to cancer. Although there were strong family structure and system existed here, now the changing family pattern and structure are challenging the role of cancer caregiving as well. OBJECTIVE : This study analyses the life situation of caregivers of cancer survivors during the course of treatment and attempts to explore the areas of interventions for caregivers themselves. METHODS : A descriptive research design was adopted for the study. A sample of 40 respondents was chosen for the study through purposive sampling technique. RESULTS : Majority of the caregivers were females (75%) and fell into the age group of 35 to 45 years (65%). The education among the caregivers was varying between illiteracy to postgraduation. Majority of 95% of them adapted the dual role voluntarily and 85% of them felt that they were finding it very difficult to cope with the dual responsibility. About 60% of them felt that they would fail in their roles and were not satisfied with their performances dually. CONCLUSION : Adaptation to a dual role involves time factor and as part of care to the caregiver, a guided interaction and orientation towards managing these roles would help them better ways to adapt. Given the scarcity of support system on Indian settings, the caregivers who do dual role have huge responsibility and challenges to deliver quality caregiving and fulfill their other roles as well. It is the duty of the complete health care system to seriously take this into consideration and to act on it.
Latent-Profile Analysis Reveals Behavioral and Brain Correlates of Dopamine-Cognition Associations

Evidence suggests that associations between the neurotransmitter dopamine and cognition are nonmonotonic and open to modulation by various other factors. The functional implications of a given level of dopamine may therefore differ from person to person. By applying latent-profile analysis to a large (n = 181) sample of adults aged 64-68 years, we probabilistically identified 3 subgroups that explain the multivariate associations between dopamine D2/3R availability (probed with 11C-raclopride-PET, in cortical, striatal, and hippocampal regions) and cognitive performance (episodic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed). Generally, greater receptor availability was associated with better cognitive performance. However, we discovered a subgroup of individuals for which high availability, particularly in striatum, was associated with poor performance, especially for working memory. Relative to the rest of the sample, this subgroup also had lower education, higher body-mass index, and lower resting-state connectivity between caudate nucleus and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. We conclude that a smaller subset of individuals induces a multivariate non-linear association between dopamine D2/3R availability and cognitive performance in this group of older adults, and discuss potential reasons for these differences that await further empirical scrutiny.
Development of expertise in elite and sub-elite British rugby league players: A comparison of practice experiences

Abstract Previous studies have investigated how individuals reach an expert level by counting the number of hours engaged in specific practice types. Here we sought to understand and compare the microstructure (e.g. practice tasks undertaken) of these practice hours experienced by elite and sub-elite British rugby league players. Semi-structured interviews explored the practice experiences of eight international and eight domestic level players. A two-staged thematic analysis was used to interpret the data. The analysis revealed that both player groups experienced a rich and narrow landscape of affordances and were exposed to early diversification of sports experiences during childhood. Differences were identified in domestic level players’ experiences of amateur and professional sports, where episodes of negative developmental environments were reported. International players’ practice experiences revealed differences in their professional careers, where exposure to scenario-based practice and dynamic learning environments were reported. The findings suggest that insights from ecological dynamics provide a suitable theoretical framework to guide coaches in the design of practice environments that should consider the physical, psychological, emotional and social dimensions of expertise acquisition.
Reconfigurable channel filtering architecture based on two bit sub expression minimization for digital up conversion in Software Defined Radio

A low power and low area reconfigurable architecture implying a square root raised cosine (SQRRC) interpolation filter for multi-standard Software-defined radio (SDR) is presented in this paper. The inception of the SDR technology has inspired one to attempt to develop a single device which is capable of supporting multiple wireless communication standards. To support multiple standard wireless protocols such as WCDMA, UMTS and DVB in a single device, a reconfigurable root raised cosine filter is needed due to its property to sample at low Bit Error Ratio (BER). Hence filters with taps 25, 37 and 49 with interpolation factors of 4,6 and 8 respectively based on the communication standards mentioned above with two different roll-off factors has been implemented. A two-bit Binary Subexpression elimination algorithm has been used to design an efficient multiple constant multiplier. In the proposed work, the coefficients are pre stored to reduce the excessive switching activities and the addition blocks are restructured using a parallel approach to reduce logic depth. The results show that the proposed architecture consumes less power and occupies smaller area compared to the existing architectures.
Stress Analysis of Shaft-Tube Bonded Joints Using a Variational Method

Functionally modulus graded bondline (FMGB) adhesives can be employed in bonded joints to reduce stress concentration and, hence, achieve higher joint strength. This study presents an analytical framework for the stress analysis of a shaft-tube bonded joint based on a variational technique which minimises the complimentary energy of the bonded system. This cylindrical assembly consists of similar or dissimilar adherends and a FMGB adhesive. The effect of functional grading of adhesive elastic modulus on the peak stresses and their distributions in the adhesive layer are studied. The joint with various modulus grading profiles is assessed and the results are compared with a conventional mono-modulus bondline (MMB) adhesive joint. Stress analysis indicates that the peel and shear peak stresses in the FMGB are much smaller and their distributions along bondlength are more uniform than those of MMB adhesive joints under the same axial tensile load. Numerical examples are provided to illustrate the effects of geometrical and material properties on the distributions and intensities of stresses in the bondline. Furthermore, optimal peel and shear strengths of the joint can be achieved by spatially controlling the modulus of the adhesive.
Joint coarse-and-fine reasoning for deep optical flow

We propose a novel representation for dense pixel-wise estimation tasks using CNNs that boosts accuracy and reduces training time, by explicitly exploiting joint coarse-and-fine reasoning. The coarse reasoning is performed over a discrete classification space to obtain a general rough solution, while the fine details of the solution are obtained over a continuous regression space. In our approach both components are jointly estimated, which proved to be beneficial for improving estimation accuracy. Additionally, we propose a new network architecture, which combines coarse and fine components by treating the fine estimation as a refinement built on top of the coarse solution, and therefore adding details to the general prediction. We apply our approach to the challenging problem of optical flow estimation and empirically validate it against state-of-the-art CNN-based solutions trained from scratch and tested on large optical flow datasets.
Women have more potential to induce browning of perirenal adipose tissue than men

Brown adipose tissue (BAT) can generate heat by burning fatty acids, a process mediated by uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1). White adipose tissue (WAT) depots can gain BAT‐like properties, and various studies have suggested that females have more active BAT or BAT‐like WAT. We studied sex differences in BAT‐like properties of human perirenal adipose tissue.
Gliadin‐reactive T cells in Italian children from preventCD cohort at high risk of celiac disease

Newborns at high risk of celiac disease (CD) were recruited in Italy in the context of the PreventCD study and closely monitored for CD, from 4 months up to a mean age of 8 years at follow‐up. The aim of our study was to investigate intestinal T‐cell reactivity to gliadin at the first clinical and/or serological signs of CD.
Designing embedded multiprocessor networks -on -chip with users in mind

Future embedded Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) designed at nanoscale will likely consist of tens or hundreds of (potentially energy-efficient) heterogeneous cores supporting one or several dedicated applications. For such systems, the Networks-on-Chip (NoC) communication architectures have been proposed as a scalable solution which consists of a network of resources exchanging packets while running various applications concurrently. Over recent years, embedded systems have gained an enormous amount of processing power and functionality with the ultimate goal on power and performance optimization. In this dissertation, with the ultimate goal that any system optimization is to satisfy the end user, we study outstanding problems on embedded system methodology, while incorporating the user behavior information into the modeling, analysis, optimization, and evaluation steps. Our specific contributions are as follows. • For predictable system configurations derived from use-case applications, we explore the design space of system interconnect on application-specific multi-processor systems-on-chips (MPSoCs). With the proposed analytical and simulation models, we can theoretically generate fabric solutions with optimal cost-performance trade-offs, while considering various design constrains, such as power, area, and wirelength. • For unpredictable system configurations incorporating users’ interaction with the system, we present a new design methodology for automatically generating regular NoC platforms, while including explicitly the information about the user experience into the
Differences in outcomes between cesarean section in the second versus the first stages of labor

Abstract Objective: We aimed to compare maternal morbidity and mortality of cesarean sections (CS) in the second versus first stage of labor. Study design: Retrospective study of all CS at a single, university-affiliated medical center, between January 2010 and December 2014. Eligibility was limited to term, singleton pregnancies with cephalic presentation. Maternal outcomes of second-stage CS were compared to those of first-stage CS. The primary outcome was defined as estimated blood loss >1000 ml. Results: Overall, 1004 women met the inclusion criteria, of which 290 (29%) had a second-stage CS and 714 (71%) had a first-stage CS. Women in the second-stage CS group had a higher nulliparity and hypertensive disorders rates and a lower rate of previous CS. Second-stage CS was associated with more than double the rate of estimated blood loss >1000 ml (9.7% versus 3.8%, p<.001), and more prone to unintentional uterine incision extension, uterine atony, hemoglobin decrease >2 g/l and antibiotic treatment for suspected endometritis. In a multivariable logistic regression model, second-stage CS was found to be independently associated with unintentional uterine incision extension (OR 6.8, 95% CI 4.1–11.2), uterine atony (OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.4–8.0) and antibiotic treatment for suspected endometritis (OR 2.6, 95% CI 1.4–5.1), but not with excessive blood loss (OR 1.5, 95% CI 0.8–2.8). Additionally, failed assisted vaginal delivery prior to second-stage CS was not associated with a higher rate of complications. Conclusion: Second-stage CS is associated with higher rates of adverse maternal outcomes, mainly unintentional uterine incision extension, uterine atony, and suspected endometritis.
Enhancing Silymarin Fractionation via Molecular Modeling using the Conductor-like Screening Model for Real Solvents

Undergraduate Researcher, Kansas State University 2010-2013 Prepared buffer solutions, ran protein assays, SDS-PAGE gel electrophoresis; followed methods for recombinant protein extraction and purification; used ArcGIS software to cross-reference data from the U.S. Geological Survey and National Agricultural Statistics Service; examined relationship between declining water supplies and agricultural production rates in the Ogallala Aquifer region
SNEIT: Salient Named Entity Identification in Tweets

Social media is a rich source of information and opinion, with exponential data growth rate. However social media posts are difficult to analyze since they are brief, un structured and noisy. Interestingly, many social media posts are about an entity or entities. Understanding which entity is central (Salient Entity) toa post, helps better analyze the post. In this paper we propose a model that aids in such analysis by identifying the Salient Entity in a social media post, tweets inparticular. We present a supervised machine-learning model, to identify Salient Entity in a tweet and propose that the tweet is most likely about that particular entity. We have used the premise that, when an image accompanies a text, the text most likely is about theentity in that image, to build a dataset of tweets and salient entities. We trained our model using this dataset. Note that this does not restrict the applicability of our model in any way. We use tweets with images only to obtain objective ground truth data, while features for the model are derived from tweet text. Our experiments show that the model identifies Salient Named Entity with an F-measure of 0.63. We show the effective ness of the proposed model for tweet-filtering and salience identification tasks. We have made the human annotated dataset and the source code of this model publicly available.