Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Patient-related barriers to hypertension control in a Nigerian population

Background Hypertension control is a challenge globally. Barriers to optimal control exist at the patient, physician, and health system levels. Patient-related barriers in our environment are not clear. The aim of this study was to identify patient-related barriers to control of hypertension among adults with hypertension in a semiurban community in South-East Nigeria. Methods This was a cross-sectional descriptive study of patients with a diagnosis of hypertension and on antihypertensive medication. Results A total of 252 participants were included in the survey, and comprised 143 males (56.7%) and 109 females (43.3%). The mean age of the participants was 56.6±12.7 years, with a diagnosis of hypertension for a mean duration of 6.1±3.3 years. Among these patients, 32.9% had controlled blood pressure, while 39.3% and 27.8%, respectively, had stage 1 and stage 2 hypertension according to the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection and Evaluation of High Blood Pressure. Only 23.4% knew the consequences of poor blood pressure control and 64% were expecting a cure from treatment even when the cause of hypertension was not known. Furthermore, 68.7% showed low adherence to medication, the reported reasons for which included forgetfulness (61.2%), financial constraints (56.6%), high pill burden (22.5%), side effects of medication (17.3%), and low measured blood pressure (12.1%). Finally, knowledge and practice of the lifestyle modifications necessary for blood pressure control was inadequate among the participants. Conclusion Poor knowledge regarding hypertension, unrealistic expectations of treatment, poor adherence with medication, unawareness of lifestyle modification, and failure to apply these were identified as patient-related barriers to blood pressure control in this study.
After the "Silent Epidemic": Marital Satisfaction in Long Term Spousal Caregivers of Individuals with Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

has been approved by the Examining Committee for the thesis requirement for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Psychological and Quantitative Foundations (Counseling Psychology) at the August 2013 graduation. ii To my loving family and all those who have been impacted by TBI. iii Yes, I am personally the victim of deferred dreams, of blasted hopes, but in spite of that I close today by saying I still have a dream, because, you know, you can't give up in life. If you lose hope, somehow you lose that vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you to go on in spite of all. And so today I still have a dream. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my dissertation committee, Drs. Altmaier as her steadfast encouragement, dedicated mentorship, and unwavering belief in my ability to succeed has given me a truly priceless gift—believing in myself. I also wish to thank my long-term supervisor and friend; Dr. Patricia Espe-Pfeifer who has guided me within the field of neuropsychology and continually offered her wisdom, guidance, and mentorship throughout my graduate school experience. I also wish to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to the organizations that supported this study and most importantly, the spousal caregivers who generously gave their time to participate in this research. Your participation is a meaningful contribution to better understanding the experience of long-term spousal caregivers as well as touching the lives of others by sharing a piece of your story. And a big thanks: to my loving family, especially my parents, a long-term couple of severe TBI—you are the greatest role models and supports of my life—it is because of you both that I have not lost the ability to dream. I am proud and honored to be your daughter. My grandma—I miss you, always. My significant other, Eric, who has reminded me daily, some days more than once, of his unconditional love and his belief in me; and my friends Elham, Tina, and Jessi—thank you for your continued encouragement. I have been blessed to encounter many truly wonderful people on this journey who have assisted, carried, and encouraged me throughout the process, so although not named on this page, you all are very much remembered in my heart. v ABSTRACT Severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a pervasive and devastating condition, often resulting in permanent alterations in cognition, …
Linear model identification of beetle-mimicking flapping wing micro-air vehicle in hovering flight

This paper presents a linear time invariant model identification for beetle mimicking flapping wing micro air vehicle (FWMAV) in hovering mode. The identification is facilitated by assuming the wings of the beetle rectangular in shape and the body is considered cylindrical. The main thrust is provided by flapping the wings of the FWMAV whereas the trailing-edges-change mechanism was kept off. The measurable aerodynamic forces and moment's measured data are utilized in the states' reconstruction. The state reconstruction was carried out via the discrete time integration of linear and angular acceleration. Having reconstructed the states, the standard least mean square estimation (LMSE) based estimation approach is used to estimate the system's stability and control derivatives. The results of the estimation are validated with the experimental data, and show the success of the estimation approach.
Formation of Antiviral Cytoplasmic Granules during Orthopoxvirus Infection

ABSTRACT Vaccinia virus (VV) mutants lacking the double-stranded RNA (dsRNA)-binding E3L protein (ΔE3L mutant VV) show restricted replication in most cell types, as dsRNA produced by VV activates protein kinase R (PKR), leading to eIF2α phosphorylation and impaired translation initiation. Here we show that cells infected with ΔE3L mutant VV assemble cytoplasmic granular structures which surround the VV replication factories at an early stage of the nonproductive infection. These structures contain the stress granule-associated proteins G3BP, TIA-1, and USP10, as well as poly(A)-containing RNA. These structures lack large ribosomal subunit proteins, suggesting that they are translationally inactive. Formation of these punctate structures correlates with restricted replication, as they occur in >80% of cells infected with ΔE3L mutant VV but in only 10% of cells infected with wild-type VV. We therefore refer to these structures as antiviral granules (AVGs). Formation of AVGs requires PKR and phosphorylated eIF2α, as mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) lacking PKR displayed reduced granule formation and MEFs lacking phosphorylatable eIF2α showed no granule formation. In both cases, these decreased levels of AVG formation correlated with increased ΔE3L mutant VV replication. Surprisingly, MEFs lacking the AVG component protein TIA-1 supported increased replication of ΔE3L mutant VV, despite increased eIF2α phosphorylation and the assembly of AVGs that lacked TIA-1. These data indicate that the effective PKR-mediated restriction of ΔE3L mutant VV replication requires AVG formation subsequent to eIF2α phosphorylation. This is a novel finding that supports the hypothesis that the formation of subcellular protein aggregates is an important component of the successful cellular antiviral response.
The bounty of RAGs: recombination signal complexes and reaction outcomes

Summary: V(D)J recombination is a form of site‐specific DNA rearrangement through which antigen receptor genes are assembled. This process involves the breakage and reunion of DNA mediated by two lymphoid cell‐specific proteins, recombination activating genes RAG‐1 and RAG‐2, and ubiquitously expressed architectural DNA‐binding proteins and DNA‐repair factors. Here I review the progress toward understanding the composition, assembly, organization, and activity of the protein‐DNA complexes that support the initiation of V(D)J recombination, as well as the molecular basis for the sequence‐specific recognition of recombination signal sequences (RSSs) that are the targets of the RAG proteins. Parallels are drawn between V(D)J recombination and Tn5/Tn10 transposition with respect to the reactions, the proteins, and the protein‐DNA complexes involved in these processes. I also consider the relative roles of the different sequence elements within the RSS in recognition, cleavage, and post‐cleavage events. Finally, I discuss alternative DNA transactions mediated by the V(D)J recombinase, the protein‐DNA complexes that support them, and factors and forces that control them.
Efficacy of chloroquine in the treatment of uncomplicated, Plasmodium falciparum malaria in northern Ghana

Abstract Chloroquine (CQ) resistance in Plasmodium falciparum contributes to growing malaria-attributable morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the extent and degree of such resistance vary considerably between endemic areas. Data on CQ resistance in northern Ghana are almost entirely lacking. The therapeutic efficacy of CQ in uncomplicated malaria was therefore assessed, in a standard, 14-day protocol, in 225 children aged <5 years in Tamale, in the Northern region of Ghana. Early treatment failure (ETF) was observed in 11% of the children and late treatment failure in 18%. High initial parasite density and young age were independent predictors for ETF. Resistant parasitological responses (RI-RIII) were seen in 57% of the cases that could be classified. More than half of these responses occurred in children fulfilling the criteria for adequate clinical response (ACR), indicating a considerable lack of agreement between parasitological and clinical outcome. During the follow-up period, haemoglobin levels increased by approximately 1g/dl not only in patients with ACR but also in those who experienced clinical failure more than 1 week post-treatment. As CQ-treatment failure occurred in >25% of the children and more than half of the parasitological responses indicated resistance, current recommendations for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in young children in northern Ghana have to be reconsidered.
The value of teledermatology using a mobile app compared to conventional dermatology

429 also presented a significant number of infections. Very few reports exist of HrCLM acquired in southern European countries other than Spain and Italy, raising the issue of a publication bias. In France, Germany, and the UK, several cases occurred in the northern areas of these countries. Therefore, the climate hypothesis must be considered with caution. The diagnosis of HrCLM should not be ruled out based on a patient who has not travelled or occurrence during autumn. A typical eruption and characteristic exposure should raise autochthonous HrCLM as an hypothesis. Autochthonous HrCLM may be emerging both in north and south Europe, although a clear link with global warming appears to be hard to establish.
Antimony, Arsenic and Chromium Speciation Studies in Biała Przemsza River (Upper Silesia, Poland) Water by HPLC-ICP-MS

In this paper the total concentration of As, Cr, Sb, pH and the red-ox potential of water and sediment samples of the Biała Przemsza River were determined. The arsenic (AB, MMA, DMA, As(III), As(V)), chromium (Cr(III), Cr(VI)) and antimony (Sb(III), Sb(V)) forms were studied by HPLC-ICP-MS. Ions were successfully separated on Hamilton PRP-X100: (AB, MMA, DMA, As(III), As(V)), Dionex Ion Pac AS-7 (Sb(III), Sb(V)) and Dionex IonPac AG7 columns: Cr(III), Cr(VI) with LOD 0.16 μg/L, 0.08 μg/L, 0.09 μg/L, 0.012 μg/L, 0.08 μg/L, 0.12 μg/L, 0.009 μg/L, 0.012 μg/L, 0.19 μg/L, 0.37 μg/L, respectively. The simplified BCR three-step sequential chemical extraction was performed on the bottom sediment samples. The samples were collected monthly, between April and December 2014, at five sampling points. Large contents of manganese, lead, cadmium and zinc were found in the Biała Przemsza River water. In December 2014, the lead content in the bottom sediment in Sławków was nearly 6000 mg/kg. In the river water, only the inorganic arsenic speciation forms were found. Sb(V), As(V) and Cr(III) were dominant. Studies have shown that arsenic, antimony and chromium were mainly bound to oxides, organic matter and sulphides in the bottom sediments.
On the Privacy Properties of Variants on the Sparse Vector Technique

The sparse vector technique is a powerful differentially private primitive that allows an analyst to check whether queries in a stream are greater or lesser than a threshold. This technique has a unique property -- the algorithm works by adding noise with a finite variance to the queries and the threshold, and guarantees privacy that only degrades with (a) the maximum sensitivity of any one query in stream, and (b) the number of positive answers output by the algorithm. Recent work has developed variants of this algorithm, which we call {\em generalized private threshold testing}, and are claimed to have privacy guarantees that do not depend on the number of positive or negative answers output by the algorithm. These algorithms result in a significant improvement in utility over the sparse vector technique for a given privacy budget, and have found applications in frequent itemset mining, feature selection in machine learning and generating synthetic data. In this paper we critically analyze the privacy properties of generalized private threshold testing. We show that generalized private threshold testing does not satisfy \epsilon-differential privacy for any finite \epsilon. We identify a subtle error in the privacy analysis of this technique in prior work. Moreover, we show an adversary can use generalized private threshold testing to recover counts from the datasets (especially small counts) exactly with high accuracy, and thus can result in individuals being reidentified. We demonstrate our attacks empirically on real datasets.
Long-term Combination Therapy with Infliximab Plus Azathioprine Predicts Sustained Steroid-free Clinical Benefit in Steroid-dependent Ulcerative Colitis

Background:Infliximab (IFX) has demonstrated effectiveness for inducing 12-month steroid-free clinical remission in patients with steroid-dependent ulcerative colitis (UC), but long-term data are lacking. The aim of the study was to describe the long-term outcome of IFX treatment in steroid-dependent UC and investigate if predictors of sustained clinical response and colectomy could be identified. Methods:Consecutive patients with steroid-dependent UC treated with IFX were studied. The coprimary prespecified outcomes were sustained clinical response in patients who achieved clinical remission or response after IFX induction and colectomy-free survival. Secondary analyses were addressed to look for predictors of sustained clinical response and colectomy. Results:After induction, 76% (96/126) of patients achieved clinical benefit. The median duration of follow-up on IFX maintenance therapy was 41.5 months (interquartile range, 26–45). Sixty-four percent (46/96) of patients had sustained clinical response at median follow-up. Colectomy-free survival was 77% at median follow-up. Combination therapy of IFX with thiopurines was an independent predictor of sustained clinical response (P < 0.0001; hazard ratio [HR], 3.98; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.73–9.14). Independent predictors of colectomy were Mayo endoscopic subscore of 3 at baseline (P = 0.04; HR, 2.77; 95% CI, 1.09–7.05) and high C-reactive protein after induction (P = 0.001; HR, 5.65; 95% CI, 2.03–15.7). Thiopurine naive status (P = 0.025; HR, 0.34; 95% CI, 0.13–0.87) was protective from colectomy. Conclusions:Long-term IFX treatment is effective in inducing sustained clinical response in patients with steroid-dependent UC. Combination therapy is predictive of sustained clinical response in the long-term. Patients with more severe endoscopic lesions at baseline and high C-reactive protein after induction are at higher risk of colectomy. Conversely, thiopurine naive status is protective from colectomy.
Factors associated with malnutrition in patients with head and neck cancer

Abstract Conclusions: Comorbidities as well as T classification were the primary determinants for the nutritional status of patients with head and neck cancer. Objectives: We aimed to elucidate the underlying conditions of malnutrition in patients with head and neck cancer. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 726 patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer between 2004 and 2013. Associations between malnutrition and clinical parameters were assessed using univariate and multivariate analyses. Results: Median body mass index was 21.5 (range 11.6–38.0). According to World Health Organization criteria, the nutritional status of these patients was classified into four groups: underweight (18%), normal (63%), overweight (17%), and obese (1%). Comorbidities were detected in 40% of patients. Multivariate analysis revealed the following factors to be independent factors associated with malnutrition: advanced T stage, metachronous cancer, collagen disease, gastrointestinal disease, and pulmonary disease.
Territory Quality and Plumage Morph Predict Offspring Sex Ratio Variation in a Raptor

Parents may adapt their offspring sex ratio in response to their own phenotype and environmental conditions. The most significant causes for adaptive sex-ratio variation might express themselves as different distributions of fitness components between sexes along a given variable. Several causes for differential sex allocation in raptors with reversed sexual size dimorphism have been suggested. We search for correlates of fledgling sex in an extensive dataset on common buzzards Buteo buteo, a long-lived bird of prey. Larger female offspring could be more resource-demanding and starvation-prone and thus the costly sex. Prominent factors such as brood size and laying date did not predict nestling sex. Nonetheless, lifetime sex ratio (LSR, potentially indicative of individual sex allocation constraints) and overall nestling sex were explained by territory quality with more females being produced in better territories. Additionally, parental plumage morphs and the interaction of morph and prey abundance tended to explain LSR and nestling sex, indicating local adaptation of sex allocation However, in a limited census of nestling mortality, not females but males tended to die more frequently in prey-rich years. Also, although females could have potentially longer reproductive careers, a subset of our data encompassing full individual life histories showed that longevity and lifetime reproductive success were similarly distributed between the sexes. Thus, a basis for adaptive sex allocation in this population remains elusive. Overall, in common buzzards most major determinants of reproductive success appeared to have no effect on sex ratio but sex allocation may be adapted to local conditions in morph-specific patterns.
Cross-European and Functional Food-Related Consumer Segmentation for New Product Development

Functional Food emerged as a constant segment in the European food market and offers potential for product innovations that make it attractive for the food industry in nearly stagnating markets. Target group research is one key factor for successful innovative food products. The aim of this project was to develop and test a Functional Food-related consumer segmentation model. For this purpose a survey was conducted in Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom with a total of 590 respondents. Factor analysis revealed consumers' motivation to buy or to refuse Functional Food. Motives, consumers' knowledge about Functional Food, their trust toward diverse actors in the context of nutrition, and their purchase patterns were used in a cluster analysis and resulted in eight consumer segments. These groups differ significantly regarding sociodemographic characteristics. A conjoint study examined consumers' preferences toward a new type of orange juice enriched with functional ingredients recombined with different health claims. Aggregated preferences for single consumer segments provide indications for target group-specific product development. Cross-country comparisons of consumer segments showed distinct shifts of segment distribution in single countries. This might be considered for companies' marketing approaches or the European Commission's health and consumer protection policy.
Blunt impact to the chest leading to sudden death from cardiac arrest during sports activities.

BACKGROUND Sudden death from cardiac arrest in a young person may occur during sports play after a blunt blow to the chest in the absence of structural cardiovascular disease or traumatic injury (cardiac concussion or commotio cordis). We studied the clinical features of this apparently uncommon but important phenomenon. METHODS We identified cases from the registries of relevant agencies and organizations, as well as newsmedia accounts, and developed a clinical profile of 25 children and young adults, 3 to 19 years of age. RESULTS Each victim collapsed with cardiac arrest immediately after an unexpected blow to the chest, which was usually inflicted by a projectile (such as a baseball or hockey puck). Incidents took place during organized competitive sports in 16 cases and in recreational settings at home, at school, or on the playground in 9. In each instance, the impact to the chest was not judged to be extraordinary for the sport involved and did not appear to have sufficient force to cause death. Twelve victims collapsed virtually instantaneously on impact, whereas 13 remained conscious and physically active for a brief time before cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was administered within about three minutes to 19 victims, but normal cardiac rhythm could be restored in only 2 (both incurred irreversible brain damage and died shortly thereafter). Seven victims (28 percent) were wearing some form of protective chest padding. CONCLUSIONS We speculate that most sudden deaths related to impact to the chest (not associated with traumatic injury) are due to ventricular dysrhythmia induced by an abrupt, blunt precordial blow, presumably delivered at an electrically vulnerable phase of ventricular excitability. This profile of blunt chest impact leading to cardiac arrest adds to our understanding of the range of causes of sudden death on the athletic field and may help in the development of preventive measures.
Cultural differences in academic rhetoric

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Information Complexity in Bandit Subset Selection

We consider the problem of eciently exploring the arms of a stochastic bandit to identify the best subset of a specied size. Under the PAC and the xed-budget formulations, we derive improved bounds by using KL-divergence-based condence intervals. Whereas the application of a similar idea in the regret setting has yielded bounds in terms of the KL-divergence between the arms, our bounds in the pure-exploration setting involve the \Cherno information" between the arms. In addition to introducing this novel quantity to the bandits literature, we contribute a comparison between strategies based on uniform and adaptive sampling for pure-exploration problems, nding evidence in favor of the latter.