Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementation and Operational Research: Integration of PMTCT and Antenatal Services Improves Combination Antiretroviral Therapy Uptake for HIV-Positive Pregnant Women in Southern Zambia: A Prototype for Option B+?

Background:Early initiation of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) for HIV-positive pregnant women can decrease vertical transmission to less than 5%. Programmatic barriers to early cART include decentralized care, disease-stage assessment delays, and loss to follow-up. Intervention:Our intervention had 3 components: integrated HIV and antenatal services in 1 location with 1 provider, laboratory courier to expedite CD4 counts, and community-based follow-up of women–infant pairs to improve prevention of mother-to-child transmission attendance. Preintervention HIV-positive pregnant women were referred to HIV clinics for disease-stage assessment and cART initiation for advanced disease (CD4 count <350 cells/&mgr;L or WHO stage >2). Methods:We used a quasi-experimental design with preintervention/postintervention evaluations at 6 government antenatal clinics (ANCs) in Southern Province, Zambia. Retrospective clinical data were collected from clinic registers during a 7-month baseline period. Postintervention data were collected from all antiretroviral therapy–naive, HIV-positive pregnant women and their infants presenting to ANC from December 2011 to June 2013. Results:Data from 510 baseline women–infant pairs were analyzed and 624 pregnant women were enrolled during the intervention period. The proportion of HIV-positive pregnant women receiving CD4 counts increased from 50.6% to 77.2% [relative risk (RR) = 1.81; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.57 to 2.08; P < 0.01]. The proportion of cART-eligible pregnant women initiated on cART increased from 27.5% to 71.5% (RR = 2.25; 95% CI: 1.78 to 2.83; P < 0.01). The proportion of eligible HIV-exposed infants with documented 6-week HIV PCR test increased from 41.9% to 55.8% (RR = 1.33; 95% CI: 1.18 to 1.51; P < 0.01). Conclusions:Integration of HIV care into ANC and community-based support improved uptake of CD4 counts, proportion of cART-eligible women initiated on cART, and infants tested.
Reading fluency through alternative text: Rereading with an interactive sing-to-read program embedded within middle school music classroom

Singing exaggerates the language of reading. The students find their voices in the rhythm and bounce of language by using music as an alternative text. A concurrent mixed methods study was conducted to investigate the use of an interactive sing-to-read program Tune Into Reading (Electronic Learning Products, 2006) as an alternative text, embedded within a heterogeneous music classroom. Measured by the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 (QRI-4) (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006), the fluency, word recognition, comprehension, and instructional reading level of the treatment students were compared to their counterparts who sang as part of the regular music program. Concurrently, this investigation also provided a description of the peers' interactions during the literacy task assigned by the music teacher. The intent of this study was to address the following three research questions. Furthermore, the use of the interactive program provided opportunities for differentiated reading level achievement. Finally, group dynamics highly influenced the early adolescent's motivation, engagement, participation, and successful outcomes in reading fluency.
The morphological characterization of the forewing of the Manduca sexta species for the application of biomimetic flapping wing micro air vehicles

To properly model the structural dynamics of the forewing of the Manduca sexta species, it is critical that the material and structural properties of the biological specimen be understood. This paper presents the results of a morphological study that has been conducted to identify the material and structural properties of a sample of male and female Manduca sexta specimens. The average mass, area, shape, size and camber of the wing were evaluated using novel measurement techniques. Further emphasis is placed on studying the critical substructures of the wing: venation and membrane. The venation cross section is measured using detailed pathological techniques over the entire venation of the wing. The elastic modulus of the leading edge veins is experimentally determined using advanced non-contact structural dynamic techniques. The membrane elastic modulus is randomly sampled over the entire wing to determine global material properties for the membrane using nanoindentation. The data gathered from this morphological study form the basis for the replication of future finite element structural models and engineered biomimetic wings for use with flapping wing micro air vehicles.
Bayesian Hemodynamic Parameter Estimation by Bolus Tracking Perfusion Weighted Imaging

A delay-insensitive probabilistic method for estimating hemodynamic parameters, delays, theoretical residue functions, and concentration time curves by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) perfusion weighted imaging is presented. Only a mild stationarity hypothesis is made beyond the standard perfusion model. New microvascular parameters with simple hemodynamic interpretation are naturally introduced. Simulations on standard digital phantoms show that the method outperforms the oscillating singular value decomposition (oSVD) method in terms of goodness-of-fit, linearity, statistical and systematic errors on all parameters, especially at low signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). Delay is always estimated sharply with user-supplied resolution and is purely arterial, by contrast to oSVD time-to-maximum TMAX that is very noisy and biased by mean transit time (MTT), blood volume, and SNR. Residue functions and signals estimates do not suffer overfitting anymore. One CT acute stroke case confirms simulation results and highlights the ability of the method to reliably estimate MTT when SNR is low. Delays look promising for delineating the arterial occlusion territory and collateral circulation.
Quantitative computed tomography in dementia of the Alzheimer type

Men and women with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT) had more brain atrophy and ventricular dilatation, measured by quantitative CT, than did respective age- and sex-matched healthy controls (p < 0.05). The male DAT patients with mild dementia had a larger mean third ventricle volume, whereas male patients with severe dementia had larger lateral and third ventricle volumes, more CSF, and less gray matter than did controls. Statistically significant and appropriate correlations between several dementia scales and CT measures in the DAT patients indicated that brain atrophy and ventricular dilatation were related to the severity of dementia.
Tight lower bounds for the size of epsilon-nets

According to a well known theorem of Haussler and Welzl (1987), any range space of bounded VC-dimension admits an ε-net of size O(1/ε log 1/ε). Using probabilistic techniques, Pach and Woeginger (1990) showed that there exist range spaces of VC-dimension 2, for which the above bound is sharp. The only known range spaces of small VC-dimension, in which the ranges are geometric objects in some Euclidean space and the size of the smallest ε-nets is superlinear in 1/ε, were found by Alon (2010). In his examples, every ε-net is of size Ω(1/εg(1/ε)), where g is an extremely slowly growing function, related to the inverse Ackermann function. We show that there exist geometrically defined range spaces, already of VC-dimension 2, in which the size of the smallest ε-nets is Ω(1/ε log 1/ε). We also construct range spaces induced by axis-parallel rectangles in the plane, in which the size of the smallest ε-nets is Ω(1/ε log log 1/ε). By a theorem of Aronov, Ezra, and Sharir (2010), this bound is tight.
The Poetics of Mind: Figurative Thought, Language, and Understanding

1. Introduction and Overview 2. Thinking and Speaking Literally 3. Figurative Language Understanding: A Special Process? 4. Metaphor in Language and Thought 5. Understanding Metaphorical Expressions 6. Idiomaticity 7. Metonymy 8. Irony 9. The Poetic Minds of Children 10. Implications and Future Directions.
Role of Nitrogen and Carbon Transport, Regulation, and Metabolism Genes for Saccharomyces cerevisiae Survival In Vivo

ABSTRACT Saccharomyces cerevisiae is both an emerging opportunistic pathogen and a close relative of pathogenic Candida species. To better understand the ecology of fungal infection, we investigated the importance of pathways involved in uptake, metabolism, and biosynthesis of nitrogen and carbon compounds for survival of a clinical S. cerevisiae strain in a murine host. Potential nitrogen sources in vivo include ammonium, urea, and amino acids, while potential carbon sources include glucose, lactate, pyruvate, and fatty acids. Using mutants unable to either transport or utilize these compounds, we demonstrated that no individual nitrogen source was essential, while glucose was the most significant primary carbon source for yeast survival in vivo. Hydrolysis of the storage carbohydrate glycogen made a slight contribution for in vivo survival compared with a substantial requirement for trehalose hydrolysis. The ability to sense and respond to low glucose concentrations was also important for survival. In contrast, there was little or no requirement in vivo in this assay for any of the nitrogen-sensing pathways, nitrogen catabolite repression, the ammonium- or amino acid-sensing pathways, or general control. By using auxotrophic mutants, we found that some nitrogenous compounds (polyamines, methionine, and lysine) can be acquired from the host, while others (threonine, aromatic amino acids, isoleucine, and valine) must be synthesized by the pathogen. Our studies provide insights into the yeast-host environment interaction and identify potential antifungal drug targets.
Thioridazine inhibits angiogenesis and tumor growth by targeting the VEGFR-2/PI3K/mTOR pathway in ovarian cancer xenografts

Thioridazine, a member of the phenothiazine family, is a powerful anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drug. It can also suppress the growth of several types of tumor in vitro. In the current study, we evaluated the direct anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic effects of thioridazine in vivo. The injection of thioridazine into human ovarian tumor xenografts in nude mice significantly inhibited tumor growth by ~fivefold, and also decreased tumor vascularity. In addition, thioridazine inhibited the phosphorylation of the signaling molecules downstream of phosphatidylinositol-3’-kinase (PI3K), including Akt, phosphoinositide-dependent protein kinase 1 (PDK1), and mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), during ovarian tumor progression via vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR-2). These results provide convincing evidence that thioridazine regulates endothelial cell function and subsequent angiogenesis by inhibiting VEGFR-2/PI3K/mTOR signal transduction. Collectively, these results strongly suggest that thioridazine might be a novel anti-tumor and anti-angiogenic agent for use in ovarian cancer.
Effect of wheat silage maturity on digestion and milk yield in dairy cows.

The effect of wheat crop maturity on diet digestibility and lactational performance by high yielding dairy cows was measured in an 8-wk lactation experiment under commercial dairy herd conditions. Friesian cows (n = 168) were fed 7 kg of DM from either early or late cut wheat silage (harvested at middle flowering or at the end of the milk stage). Each diet contained 33% NDF, 18.5 percentage units of which was from forage. Feed intake (22 kg/d of DM) and DM digestibility (63%) of the two diets were similar. Dietary NDF digestibility was higher in the early cut silage (45.7) than in the late cut silage (41.3%). Although DM from the two silages was similarly degraded in the rumen, degradability of NDF was 24% higher in the early cut silage. Yields of milk and milk energy in the cows receiving the early cut silage were higher than those of cows receiving the late cut silage by 3.2 kg/d and . 85 Mcal/d, respectively. Apparently, NDF content is an inaccurate predictor of energy content of wheat silage.
Angiotensin II-induced negative inotropy in rat ventricular myocytes : role of reactive oxygen species and p 38 MAPK

Palomeque, Julieta, Luciana Sapia, Roger J. Hajjar, Alicia Mattiazzi, and Martı́n Vila Petroff. Angiotensin II-induced negative inotropy in rat ventricular myocytes: role of reactive oxygen species and p38 MAPK. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 290: H96–H106, 2006. First published July 29, 2005; doi:10.1152/ajpheart.00324. 2005. —The octapeptide angiotensin II (ANG II) can modulate cardiac contractility and is increased in heart failure, where contractile function is impaired. In rat cardiac myocytes, 1 M of ANG II produces a negative inotropic effect (NIE) (24.6 5% reduction). However, the subcellular signaling involved in this effect remains elusive. We examined the mechanisms and signaling events involved in the reduction in contractile function induced by the peptide in indo-1-loaded rat cardiomyocytes. The results showed that the NIE of ANG II was not associated with a parallel decrease in the intracellular Ca transient, indicating that a decrease in myofilament responsiveness to Ca underlies the reduction in contractility. We assessed the role of PKC, tyrosine kinases, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) in the NIE of the peptide. Pretreatment of cells with the NAD(P)H oxidase inhibitor diphenyleneiodonium chloride or with the superoxide scavenger 4,5-dihydroxy-1,3benzene-disulfonic acid did not affect the ANG II-induced NIE. Moreover, ANG II-induced ROS production, after 20 min of incubation with the peptide, could not be detected with the use of either the fluorophore 5-(6)-chloromethyl-2 , 7 -dichlorodihydrofluorecein diacetate or lucigenin-enhanced chemiluminescence. In contrast, the ANG II-induced NIE was abrogated by the inhibitors of PKC (calphostin C), tyrosine kinase (genistein), and p38 MAPK (SB-202190). Furthermore, the NIE was significantly exacerbated (60 10% reduction) by p38 MAPK overexpression. These results exclude the participation of ROS in the NIE of the peptide and point to PKC and tyrosine kinase as upstream mediators. Furthermore, they reveal p38 MAPK as the putative effector of the reduction in myofilament responsiveness to Ca and the decrease in contractility induced by the peptide.
Reflective Practice in ESL Teacher Development Groups: From Practices to Principles

1. Professional Development 2. Reflective Practice 3. Reflection Through Discussion 4. Reflection Through Writing 5. Reflection on Teachers' Beliefs 6. Reflection on Teachers' Roles 7. Reflection on Critical Incidents 8. Resisting Plateauing Through Teacher Reflection Groups 9. Developing Teacher Expertise Final Reflections: Professional Self-Development
Metacognitive development and the disambiguation effect in monolingual and bilingual children

use, this is not surprising. In the correction task, younger children displayed a strong tendency to avoid two labels overlapping. The older age group (mean age = 35 months) in Frank and Poulin-Dubois’ (2002) study avoided overlap on average 2.26/4 times, significantly more often than the younger group (mean age = 27 months, avoid overlap 1.24/4). In Experiment 3a, the younger group was closer in age (mean age = 43 months) to Frank and Poulin-Dubois’ older group and avoided overlap on 3.56/4. This would match Frank and Poulin-Dubois’ explanation that children display stronger mutual exclusivity when getting older. But the older children in the new study (mean age = 62 months) avoided overlap significantly less, only on 2.25/4 cases. The trend was therefore reversed. These differences can be explained by the added pragmatic cue in the new task. 64 Young children in the new task cannot consider the additional pragmatic information and need to select two different objects for two different novel labels in the test situation. These children performed similarly to the children in Frank and Poulin-Dubois study, although additional pragmatic information was given. The older children in the new study started to use the pragmatic information and select the target twice, accepting overlap. The ability to accept both labels was displayed in relation to false belief understanding, as the perspectival account would predict. Waxman and Hatch’s (1992) findings could not be repeated. The younger children in this study mostly persevered with their first answer and did not produce more labels in line with the different categorical questions. Even older children did not produce similar results as in the original study. The majority of children persevered with the first label they produced. One concern was the repeated questioning children were exposed to. This might have seemed odd and unnatural and encouraged Children to stick with the first label they had given. This was addressed in the following study.
Relation between weight and length at birth and body mass index in young adulthood: cohort study

Few studies have thoroughly examined the relation between weight in early childhood and the later risk of obesity, but recent studies have shown an association between low birth weight and cardiovascular disease in adulthood.1 High birth weight correlates with being overweight in late adolescence,2 and intrauterine growth retardation is associated with a higher ratio of waist to hip circumference (an indicator of abdominal fatness) in men.1 We examined the association between weight and length at birth and adult body mass index in Danish conscripts. We conducted our study in the fifth conscription district of Denmark. Nearly all Danish men have to appear before the draft board when they are between 18 and 26. We studied all men born after 1 January 1973 …
Scarcity: The True Cost of Not Having Enough

Sendhil Mullainathan, the 'most interesting young economist in the world', and Eldar Shafir, the 'most brilliant psychologist' of his generation, explain the hidden problem behind everything with Scarcity. Why can we never seem to keep on top of our workload, social diary or chores? Why does poverty persist around the world? Why do successful people do things at the last minute in a sudden rush of energy? Here, economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir reveal that the hidden side behind all these problems is that they're all about scarcity. Using the new science of scarcity, they explain why obesity is rampant; why people find it difficult to sleep when most sleep deprived; and why the lonely find it so hard to make friends. Scarcity will change the way you think about both the little everyday tasks and the big issues of global urgency. "Stars in their respective disciplines, and the combination is greater than the sum of its parts. Their project has a unique feel to it: it is the finest combination of heart and head that I have seen in our field". (Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow). "Scarcity is a captivating book, overflowing with new ideas, fantastic stories, and simple suggestions that just might change the way you live". (Steven D. Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics). "An ultimately humane and very welcome book". (Oliver Burkeman, Guardian). Sendhil Mullainathan is a Professor of Economics at Harvard, and a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant". He conducts research on development economics, behavioural economics, and corporate finance. He is Executive Director of Ideas 42, Institute of Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University. Eldar Shafir is William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Most of his work focuses on descriptive analyses of inference, judgment, and decision making, and on issues related to behavioural economics.
Les réseaux sociaux de santé

Les reseaux sociaux de sante sur internet se developpent dans le cadre d’un processus de prise en compte de la parole et de l’experience du malade par l’institution medicale. Du fait de leurs dynamiques d’echanges et de la volonte commune a leurs usagers de lutter contre l’isolement de la maladie, ils sont souvent presentes comme « communautaires ». Mais ce terme recouvre en fait une diversite d’opinions, de representations et de sentiments d’appartenance. Il existe cependant des reseaux, ou la conscience de buts et de valeurs partages conduit a la constitution de savoirs profanes. Nous etudions les apports et les limites de ce phenomene sur l’exemple de Yahoo autisme.
Small or far away? Size and distance perception in the praying mantis

Stereo or ‘3D’ vision is an important but costly process seen in several evolutionarily distinct lineages including primates, birds and insects. Many selective advantages could have led to the evolution of stereo vision, including range finding, camouflage breaking and estimation of object size. In this paper, we investigate the possibility that stereo vision enables praying mantises to estimate the size of prey by using a combination of disparity cues and angular size cues. We used a recently developed insect 3D cinema paradigm to present mantises with virtual prey having differing disparity and angular size cues. We predicted that if they were able to use these cues to gauge the absolute size of objects, we should see evidence for size constancy where they would strike preferentially at prey of a particular physical size, across a range of simulated distances. We found that mantises struck most often when disparity cues implied a prey distance of 2.5 cm; increasing the implied distance caused a significant reduction in the number of strikes. We, however, found no evidence for size constancy. There was a significant interaction effect of the simulated distance and angular size on the number of strikes made by the mantis but this was not in the direction predicted by size constancy. This indicates that mantises do not use their stereo vision to estimate object size. We conclude that other selective advantages, not size constancy, have driven the evolution of stereo vision in the praying mantis. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Vision in our three-dimensional world’.
Different time course of changes in sarcoplasmic reticulum and myosin isoforms in rat soleus muscle at early stage of hyperthyroidism.

AIMS AND METHODS We studied changes in the expression of myosin and sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) Ca2+-ATPase (SERCA) and in Ca2+ uptake and release rates by the SR in rat slow-twitch soleus muscles treated with thyroid hormone (3,5,3'-triiodo-l-thyronine, T3) for 1, 3, 7 and 21 days. RESULTS The content of fast SR Ca2+-ATPase isoform SERCA1a protein significantly increased as early as 3 days of T3 treatment, while a rise in fast myosin heavy chain isoforms was found only 21 days after the onset of T3 administration. T3-induced slow-to-fast transitions were much less pronounced in myosin light chain than in myosin heavy chain. Moreover, in vitro measurements of SR Ca2+-handling capacity with indo-1 indicated that increases in uptake rate preceded those of release rate (7 vs. 21 days). CONCLUSION These data suggest that changes in the myosin and SERCA expressions seem not to occur in a coordinated manner at the early stage of hyperthyroidism and that intervention with T3 may temporarily produce slow-twitch type I fibres which contain, in addition to slow SERCA2a isoform, the appreciable amounts of fast SERCA1a isoform. Moreover, it is speculated that some fibres in the hyperthyroid soleus muscles may temporarily acquire unique contractile properties distinct from normal fast and slow fibres.