Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of macroscopic one-layer over number 1 nylon suture vasovasostomy with the standard two-layer microsurgical procedure

Abstract Objective: To compare the outcomes of macroscopic one-layer vasovasostomy (MOLVV) with those of two-layer microsurgical vasovasostomy (TLMVV). Methods: Standard TLMVV was performed in 112 men (Group 1), while MOLVV was performed in 94 patients. All of the MOLVVs were performed with number 1 nylon suture as a temporary stent. The outcome measures were as follows: patency rate, pregnancy rate, operation time, total procedure cost, and complications. Results: The mean operation duration was 114 ± 10 min for the TLMVV technique, and 74 ± 5 min for the MOLVV procedure (P = 0.024). In patients who underwent vasal patency at 6-month postoperative period, the median sperm density (106/mL) was 28.3 and 27.7 in Groups 1 and 2, respectively (P = 0.62). At the same time, the median total motile sperm count (× 106) was 39.4 and 32.6 in two-layer microsurgical and one-layer macroscopic groups, respectively (P = 0.47). Patency rates were 82.1% in Group 1 and 77.7% in Group 2, which were not significantly different (P = 0.21). The pregnancy rate was 28.4% for patients in Group 1 and 26.7% for patients in Group 2 (P = 0.38). Conclusions: There were no significant differences in terms of patency and pregnancy rates between MOLVV and TLMVV methods, but the MOLVV technique offers a decreased cost and operative time, and a simplified procedure.
On Universal Properties of Capacity-Approaching LDPC Code Ensembles

This paper is focused on the derivation of some universal properties of capacity-approaching low-density parity-check (LDPC) code ensembles whose transmission takes place over memoryless binary-input output-symmetric (MBIOS) channels. Properties of the degree distributions, graphical complexity, and the number of fundamental cycles in the bipartite graphs are considered via the derivation of information-theoretic bounds. These bounds are expressed in terms of the target block/bit error probability and the gap (in rate) to capacity. Most of the bounds are general for any decoding algorithm, and some others are proved under belief propagation (BP) decoding. Proving these bounds under a certain decoding algorithm, validates them automatically also under any suboptimal decoding algorithm. A proper modification of these bounds makes them universal for the set of all MBIOS channels which exhibit a given capacity. Bounds on the degree distributions and graphical complexity apply to finite-length LDPC codes and to the asymptotic case of an infinite block length. The bounds are compared with capacity-approaching LDPC code ensembles under BP decoding, and they are shown to be informative and are easy to calculate. Finally, some interesting open problems are considered.
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Virulence and Specific Variations in Trace Elements during Acute Lung Infection: Implications in Cystic Fibrosis

Metal ions are necessary for the proper functioning of the immune system, and, therefore, they might have a significant influence on the interaction between bacteria and host. Ionic dyshomeostasis has been recently observed also in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients, whose respiratory tract is frequently colonized by Stenotrophomonas maltophilia. For the first time, here we used an inductively mass spectrometry method to perform a spatial and temporal analysis of the pattern of changes in a broad range of major trace elements in response to pulmonary infection by S. maltophilia. To this, DBA/2 mouse lungs were comparatively infected by a CF strain and by an environmental one. Our results showed that pulmonary ionomic profile was significantly affected during infection. Infected mice showed increased lung levels of Mg, P, S, K, Zn, Se, and Rb. To the contrary, Mn, Fe, Co, and Cu levels resulted significantly decreased. Changes of element concentrations were correlated with pulmonary bacterial load and markers of inflammation, and occurred mostly on day 3 post-exposure, when severity of infection culminated. Interestingly, CF strain – significantly more virulent than the environmental one in our murine model - provoked a more significant impact in perturbing pulmonary metal homeostasis. Particularly, exposure to CF strain exclusively increased P and K levels, while decreased Fe and Mn ones. Overall, our data clearly indicate that S. maltophilia modulates pulmonary metal balance in a concerted and virulence-dependent manner highlighting the potential role of the element dyshomeostasis during the progression of S. maltophilia infection, probably exacerbating the harmful effects of the loss of CF transmembrane conductance regulator function. Further investigations are required to understand the biological significance of these alterations and to confirm they are specifically caused by S. maltophilia.
A Low H I Column Density Filament In Ngc 2403: Signature Of Interaction Or Accretion

Observed H i accretion around nearby galaxies can only account for a fraction of the gas supply needed to sustain the currently observed star formation rates. It is possible that additional accretion occurs in the form of low column density cold flows, as predicted by numerical simulations of galaxy formation. To constrain the presence and properties of such flows, we present deep H i observations obtained with the NRAO Green Bank Telescope of an area measuring 4° × 4° around NGC 2403. These observations, with a 5σ detection limit of 2.4 × 1018 cm-2 over a 20 km s-1 linewidth, reveal a low column density, extended cloud outside the main H i disk, about 17' (~ 16 kpc or ~ 2 R25) to the NW of the center of the galaxy. The total H i mass of the cloud is 6.3 × 106 M⊙, or 0.15 percent of the total H i mass of NGC 2403. The cloud is associated with an 8 kpc anomalous-velocity H i filament in the inner disk, that was previously observed in deep VLA observations. We discuss several scenarios for the origin of the cloud, and conclude that it is either accreting from the intergalactic medium, or is the result of a minor interaction with a neigboring dwarf galaxy. The reduced datacubes (FITS files) are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat? J/A+A/569/A68
Direct analysis of aberrant glycosylation on haptoglobin in patients with gastric cancer

Based on our previous studies, differential analysis of N-glycan expression bound on serum haptoglobin reveals the quantitative variation on gastric cancer patients. In this prospective case-control study, we explore the clinically relevant glycan markers for gastric cancer diagnosis. Serum samples were collected from patients with gastric cancer (n = 44) and healthy control (n = 44). N-glycans alteration was monitored by intact analysis of Hp using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry followed by immunoaffinity purification with the serum samples. Intensity and frequency markers were defined depending on the mass spectrometry data analysis. Multiple markers were found with high diagnostic efficacy. As intensity markers (I-marker), six markers were discovered with the AUC > 0.8. The high efficiency markers exhibited AUC of 0.93 with a specificity of 86% when the sensitivity was set to 95%. We additionally established frequency marker (f-marker) panels based on the tendency of high N-glycan expression. The AUC to conclude patients and control group were 0.82 and 0.79, respectively. This study suggested that N-glycan variation of serum haptoglobin were associated with patients with gastric cancer and might be a promising marker for the cancer screening.
Differential regulation of components of the apoptotic and ubiquitin-mediated proteolytic pathway in slow- and fast-twitch muscle type in lambs receiving increasing amounts of dietary non-structural carbohydrate

Non-fibre carbohydrate (NFC) rich diets are commonly fed in ruminant production systems. The objective was to determine whether NFC challenge affects proteasome activity, or messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) expression of proteasome subunits or apoptotic Bcl-2 proteins, in slow- or fast- twitch muscle of sheep. For 12 d prior to slaughter, lambs (n = 8) received either a control diet (28.4% of dry matter as grain), or a diet of increasing amounts of grain up to 79.1% of dry matter. A decrease in urinary pH (P = 0.01), base excess of blood and extracellular fluid (P = 0.01), bicarbonate (P = 0.03) and total carbon dioxide (P = 0.04), and an increase in anion gap (P = 0.07) in NFC lambs are indicative of metabolic acidosis. NFC lambs had significantly lower mRNA expression of the 20S -β subunit (P = 0.05), and a tendency toward lower mRNA expression of the 20S-α subunit (P = 0.11) and the 19S isoform (P = 0.15) in soleus, but not to the same extent in extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscle. Downregulation o.
Chlamydia: Possible Mechanisms of the Long Term Complications

Chlamydia trachomatis is one of the infectious cause of ocular disease that is endemic in the regions with limited sanitary resources. The infection may start on eye lids and progress to trichiasis, keratoconjunctivitis and corneal opacity, that eventually lead to vision loss. The chronic infection of the same microorganism in female reproductive system may be associated with pelvic inflammatory disease, infertility, ectopic pregnancy and is proposed to induce ovarian cancer by chronic tubal inflammation. The causative microorganism is also demonstrated to be one of the infectious sources of male infertility. Chlamydia pneumonia, the other serotype of the microorganism, which is capable of pulmonary infection, has been demonstrated to induce nasal polyps, asthma in pediatric and adult population.
A Generalizability Study of Salter Environmental Type Assessment Scores by Social Climate Domain

Abstract The Salter Environmental Type Assessment-Experimental Form B (SETA-Form B; D. W. Sullen 2000a) was designed to be a commensurate environmental assessment for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. This study addressed the generalizability of the SETA-Form B scores provided by XOO college students across 4 environmental domains. Although the results were mostly positive, potential problems were found with scores on the Judging Perceiving Scale.
On New Triangle Quadrature Rules for the Locally Corrected Nyström Method Formulated on NURBS-Generated Bézier Surfaces in 3-D

Nonuniform rational b-splines (NURBS) are the most widely used technique in today's geometric computer-aided design systems for modeling surfaces. Combining the locally corrected Nyström (LCN) method with NURBS requires formulating LCN on both quadrilateral and triangular Bézier surfaces, as a typical NURBS-generated Bézier mesh includes elements of both the types. While on quadrilateral elements the product of 1-D Gaussian quadrature rules can be applied to LCN effectively, Gaussian integration rules available for triangles cannot efficiently be applied to LCN for two reasons. First, they do not possess the same number of quadrature points as the number of functions in a complete set of polynomial basis at an arbitrary order. Second, they exacerbate the condition number of the resulting matrix equation at higher orders due to an increasing density of quadrature points near the edges and corners of triangles. In this paper, we construct a new set of quadrature rules for Bézier triangles (i.e., degenerate quadrilaterals) based on the Newton-Cotes (equidistant) quadrature rules and apply these rules to the LCN solution of the electric, magnetic, and combined field integral equations. Results show that the new family of quadrature rules overcomes both the aforementioned issues and can be applied to LCN effectively for orders from 0 to 9, inclusively.
The concurrent accumulation of intra-abdominal and subcutaneous fat explains the association between insulin resistance and plasma leptin concentrations : distinct metabolic effects of two fat compartments.

Obesity is associated with insulin resistance, particularly when body fat has a central distribution. However, insulin resistance also frequently occurs in apparently lean individuals. It has been proposed that these lean insulin-resistant individuals have greater amounts of body fat than lean insulin-sensitive subjects. Alternatively, their body fat distribution may be different. Obesity is associated with elevated plasma leptin levels, but some studies have suggested that insulin sensitivity is an additional determinant of circulating leptin concentrations. To examine how body fat distribution contributes to insulin sensitivity and how these variables are related to leptin levels, we studied 174 individuals (73 men, 101 women), a priori classified as lean insulin-sensitive (LIS, n = 56), lean insulin-resistant (LIR, n = 61), and obese insulin-resistant (OIR, n = 57) based on their BMI and insulin sensitivity index (S(I)). Whereas the BMI of the two lean groups did not differ, the S(I) of the LIR subjects was less than half that of the LIS group. The subcutaneous and intra-abdominal fat areas, determined by computed tomography, were 45 and 70% greater in the LIR subjects (P < 0.001) and 2.5- and 3-fold greater in the OIR group, as compared with the LIS group. Fasting plasma leptin levels were moderately increased in LIR subjects (10.8 +/- 7.1 vs. 8.1 +/- 6.4 ng/ml in LIS subjects; P < 0.001) and doubled in OIR subjects (21.9 +/- 15.5 ng/ml; P < 0.001). Because of the confounding effect of body fat, we examined the relationships between adiposity, insulin sensitivity, and leptin concentrations by multiple regression analysis. Intra-abdominal fat was the best variable predicting insulin sensitivity in both genders and explained 54% of the variance in S(I). This inverse relationship was nonlinear (r = -0.688). On the other hand, in both genders, fasting leptin levels were strongly associated with subcutaneous fat area (r = 0.760) but not with intra-abdominal fat. In line with these analyses, when LIS and LIR subjects were matched for subcutaneous fat area, age, and gender, they had similar leptin levels, whereas their intra-abdominal fat and insulin sensitivity remained different. Thus, accumulation of intra-abdominal fat correlates with insulin resistance, whereas subcutaneous fat deposition correlates with circulating leptin levels. We conclude that the concurrent increase in these two metabolically distinct fat compartments is a major explanation for the association between insulin resistance and elevated circulating leptin concentrations in lean and obese subjects.
Posttraumatic Stress, Nonadherence, and Adverse Outcome in Survivors of a Myocardial Infarction

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms have been reported in patients with coronary vascular disease, after the trauma of a myocardial infarction (MI). The effect of these symptoms on post-MI disease control has not been elucidated. We conducted a study that sought to determine whether PTSD symptoms post-MI are associated with increased likelihood of cardiovascular readmission and with nonadherence to treatment recommendations. Methods: Patients were recruited during a visit in a cardiology clinic 6 months post-MI and were followed for 1 year. Adherence to aspirin was measured by platelet thromboxane production (an indication of aspirin's effect). Medical outcome was measured as rate of admission due to cardiovascular causes during the follow-up period. Self-report measures of PTSD (Impact of Event Scale), Depression, and Global Distress (SCL-90-R) were administered at enrollment. Results: Seventy-three patients were studied. Above-threshold PTSD symptom scores at enrollment, but not depression or global distress scores, were significant predictors of nonadherence to aspirin and of an increased likelihood of cardiovascular readmission over the course of the following year. Conclusions: PTSD symptoms predicted poor disease control in this cohort of MI survivors. The data suggest that screening MI survivors for symptoms of PTSD may be beneficial if this high-risk population is to be targeted for interventions.
Characterization of the genetic variation present in CYP3A4 in three South African populations

The CYP3A4 enzyme is the most abundant human cytochrome P450 (CYP) and is regarded as the most important enzyme involved in drug metabolism. Inter-individual and inter-population variability in gene expression and enzyme activity are thought to be influenced, in part, by genetic variation. Although Southern African individuals have been shown to exhibit the highest levels of genetic diversity, they have been under-represented in pharmacogenetic research to date. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify genetic variation within CYP3A4 in three South African population groups comprising of 29 Khoisan, 65 Xhosa and 65 Mixed Ancestry (MA) individuals. To identify known and novel CYP3A4 variants, 15 individuals were randomly selected from each of the population groups for bi-directional Sanger sequencing of ~600 bp of the 5′-upstream region and all thirteen exons including flanking intronic regions. Genetic variants detected were genotyped in the rest of the cohort. In total, 24 SNPs were detected, including CYP3A4*12, CYP3A4*15, and the reportedly functional CYP3A4*1B promoter polymorphism, as well as two novel non-synonymous variants. These putatively functional variants, p.R162W and p.Q200H, were present in two of the three populations and all three populations, respectively, and in silico analysis predicted that the former would damage the protein product. Furthermore, the three populations were shown to exhibit distinct genetic profiles. These results confirm that South African populations show unique patterns of variation in the genes encoding xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes. This research suggests that population-specific genetic profiles for CYP3A4 and other drug metabolizing genes would be essential to make full use of pharmacogenetics in Southern Africa. Further investigation is needed to determine if the identified genetic variants influence CYP3A4 metabolism phenotype in these populations.
Centrally Peaked X-Ray Supernova Remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud Studied with ASCA and ROSAT

This paper presents ASCA/SIS and ROSAT/HRI results of three supernova remnants (SNRs) in the Small Magellanic Cloud: 0103-726, 0045-734, and 0057-7226. The ROSAT/HRI images of these SNRs indicate that the most of the X-ray emissions are concentrated in the center region. Only from 0103-726 are faint X-rays along the radio shell also detected. The ASCA/SIS spectra of 0103-726 and 0045-734 exhibit strong emission lines from highly ionized metals. The spectra were well-fitted with non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) plasma models. The metal abundances are found to be larger than the mean chemical compositions in the interstellar medium (ISM) of the SMC. Thus, X-rays from these two SNRs are attributable to the ejecta gas, although the ages estimated from the ionization timescale are significantly large, ~> 10^4 yr. The chemical compositions are roughly consistent with the type-II supernova origin of a progenitor mass ~ 6 x 10^3 yr. Although no constraint on the metal abundances was obtained, the rather weak emission lines are consistent with the low metal abundances in the ISM of the SMC. A possible scenario for the evolution of the morphologies and spectra of SNRs is proposed.
Deep Approaches and Learning Outcomes : An Exploration Using Indirect Measures

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between students’ engagement in deep approaches to learning (DAL) and measures of affective learning outcomes. Students completed 13 items designed to represent indirect assessments of their effectiveness on three institutionally defined learning outcomes. Each scale was regressed on gender, class level, enrollment in a soft discipline, and score on an overall DAL scale. Results showed statistically significant positive effect between engagement in DAL and scores on each of the three indirect assessment measures. Further research exploring the link between DAL, student academic ability, and direct measures of student learning is suggested.
Counseling in challenging contexts : working with individuals and families across clinical and community settings

1. Counseling Contexts that Challenge. 2. Approaches to Counseling. 3. Resources and Their Meaning. 4. Context and Culture. 5. Navigation. 6. Negotiation. 7. Engage. 8. Assess. 9. Contract. 10. Work. 11. The Counselor's Workplace. 12. Intentional Practice, Ethics, and Alliances. 13. Clinical and Community Work Combined.
Glucose self‐monitoring in primary care: a survey of current practice

Background: The role of long‐term glycaemic control in minimizing long‐term complications of diabetes mellitus is evidence‐based and national guidelines recommend a target glycosylated haemoglobin level of approximately 7%. Although the role of self‐monitoring blood and urine glucose is less well defined, this activity consumes vast National Health Service (NHS) resources.
Recent and future environmental suitability to dengue fever in Brazil using species distribution model.

BACKGROUND Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne disease that affects more than 2.5 billion people worldwide. Here, we used the dataset of municipality infestation level from the Brazilian Health Ministry with the aim of building vector distribution models to identify epidemiological hotspots. METHODS Maxent software was used to predict the environmental suitability of the vector under current and 2050 climatic conditions. We built potential risk maps for current and future epidemiological scenarios in order to provide data for vector control planning. RESULTS The results showed that the current epidemiological status is critical in the coastal region, with 80% of the population in risk areas and 30% in epidemiological outbreak areas. Our results also suggest that the area covered by the vector distribution in Brazil will decrease in future projections in the north, but will spread to the south. CONCLUSIONS The results may provide useful information for health agencies and policymakers in focusing efforts in epidemiological hotspots. Therefore, understanding the niche distribution dynamics of Aedes aegypti is an important step towards public health planning for vector control.
VTIS: A Volunteered Travelers Information System

VTIS is a dynamic notification system that takes in a user's route and calculates the time-delay imposed by disruptions to the normal traversal. The disruptions are calculated by using crowdsourced notifications. This is accomplished by the creation of a client side application for notification display and a server infrastructure that will process and store the event information. We have devised a system that will generate personalized notifications for users based on a provided path, temporal range, and set of transportation modes. At a high level, the functionality of this system is to identify events that affect the user's route and notify the user of these events. The VTIS will provide a multimodal notification system based on information mined from Twitter data and volunteered information from VTIS users. This information will be stored to create a repository of transportation events. , This repository will be queried to notify affected users of events that may affect their route. Although this outlined problem has been solved previously, our approach is novel in several ways: (1)accounting for multiple modes, (2)combining user input with mined data, and the (3)modeling method used to calculate effects on the user's route. Some of these methods have been implemented separately; however, a comprehensive system has not been constructed that includes all of these items.