Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Reported Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine among the Health Care Consumers at a Tertiary Care Center in Ajman, United Arab Emirates

Background: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) covers a wide range of approaches, including herbal medicine, manual healing techniques, traditional therapies and mind-body interventions. CAM is widely used throughout the world to treat a variety of illnesses and to maintain health. Aim: Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is popular across the world, and is widely practiced. Utilization pattern and reasons for use and non-use among patients attending a tertiary care center are assessed in this study. Subjects and Methods: One hundred and thirty-five patients of different nationalities, above the age of 18 years, Gulf Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Ajman, UAE, were interviewed using an open-ended structured questionnaire. In addition to socio-demographic characteristics, the acceptability, utilization pattern and reasons for use and non-use were elicited from the participants after obtaining consent from them. PASW 18 version was used to perform Chi-square test and descriptive statistics. Results: Among the 135 participants were 20-81 years old, those from the Far East used most 85.7% (6/7), then Pakistan 38.5% (15/39) and India 23% (16/70). The most common system used was homeopathy. Physicians advised 28.2% (11/39) of users, whereas others used non-medical information. Around 71.8% (28/39) reported good outcome for themselves and family; however, only 10% (4/39) recommended it to others. Most of the users, 75% (101/135), were not sure whether CAM was based on scientific evidence, while 18% (24/135) felt it was. Good previous experience and less treatment complications were the most common reasons for using CAM and non-use due to lack of knowledge or need. Conclusion: About one-third of the seekers of modern medicine care also use CAM, and mostly without physician advice; hence, the importance of discussing the same while taking the clinical history. In view of the belief that CAM has fewer side-effects, there is even more need for physician-initiated discussion.
Synthesis, characterization and optical properties of Eu2O3 mesoporous thin films

For the first time, nanocrystalline Eu2O3 thin films, exhibiting ∼50% of porous volume, highly accessible mesoporosity, pore diameter of about 10 nm, and thermal stability up to 830 °C, were prepared using the evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) process from europium (III) chloride and specific polyethylene oxide based copolymer structuring agent. Crystallization of the inorganic network was achieved through a controlled thermal treatment sequence that was followed by in situ time-resolved SAXS/WAXS analysis involving synchrotron radiation. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) were used to complete the characterization of the crystallization of the film. Porous structures were additionally analysed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and environmental ellipsometry porosimetry (EEP), while the composition of the films was characterized by Rutherford back-scattering (RBS). Finally, the luminescence properties of these layers were investigated.
Origin of the change in solvation enthalpy of the peptide group when neighboring peptide groups are added

Recent calorimetric measurements of the solvation enthalpies of some dipeptide analogs confirm our earlier prediction that the principle of group additivity is not valid for the interaction of the peptide group with water. We examine the consequences for understanding the properties of peptide solvation. A major consequence is that the current value of the peptide-solvation enthalpy, which is a basic parameter in analyzing the energetics of protein folding, is seriously wrong. Electrostatic calculations of solvation-free energies provide an estimate of the size and nature of the error. Peptide hydrogen exchange rates provide an experimental approach for testing the accuracy of the solvation-free energies of peptide groups found by electrostatic calculations. These calculations emphasize that ignoring electrostatic interactions with neighboring NHCO groups should be a major source of error. Results in 1972 for peptide hydrogen exchange rates demonstrate that peptide-solvation-free energies are strongly affected by adjoining NHCO groups. In the past, the effect of adjoining peptide groups on the exchange rate of a peptide NH proton was treated as an inductive effect. The effect can be calculated, however, by an electrostatic model with fixed partial charges and a continuum solvent.
Longitudinal Monitoring of the Serotonin Transporter Gene Expression to Assess Major Depressive Episode Evolution

Background: Mood disorders are frequently characterized by uncertain prognosis and studying mRNA expression variations in blood cells represents a promising avenue of identifying biomarkers for mood disorders. State-dependent gene expression variations have been described during a major depressive episode (MDE), in particular for SLC6A4 mRNA, but how this transcript varies in relation to MDE evolution remains unclear. In this study, we prospectively assessed time trends of SCL6A4 mRNA expression in responder and nonresponder patients. Methods: We examined SLC6A4 mRNA expression in blood samples from 13 patients treated for severe MDE and their matched controls by reverse transcription and quantitative PCR. All subjects were followed for 30 weeks. Patients were classified as either responders or nonresponders based on improvement of depression according to the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale. Using a longitudinal design, we ascertained mRNA expression at baseline, 2, 8, and 30 weeks and compared mRNA expression between responder and nonresponder patients, and matched controls. Results: We observed a decrease of SLC6A4 mRNA expression in responder patients across a 30-week follow-up, while nonresponder patients exhibited up-regulated SLC6A4 mRNA. Conclusion: Peripheral SLC6A4 mRNA expression could serve as a biomarker for monitoring and follow-up during an MDE and may help to more appropriately select individualized treatments.
Zebrafish as a Genetic Model in Biological and Behavioral Gerontology: Where Development Meets Aging in Vertebrates – A Mini-Review

Understanding the molecular mechanisms of aging in vertebrates is a major challenge of modern biology and biomedical science. This is due, in part, to the complexity of the aging process and its multifactorial nature, the paucity of animal models that lend themselves to unbiased high-throughput screening for aging phenotypes, and the difficulty of predicting such phenotypes at an early age. We suggest that the zebrafish genetic model offers a unique opportunity to fill in this gap and contributes to advances in biological and behavioral gerontology. Our recent studies demonstrated that this diurnal vertebrate with gradual senescence is an excellent model in which to study age-dependent changes in musculoskeletal and eye morphology, endocrine factors, gene expression, circadian clock, sleep and cognitive functions. Importantly, we have also found that the presence of a senescence-associated biomarker (‘senescence-associated β-galactosidase’) can be documented during early zebrafish development and is predictive of premature aging phenotypes later in adult life. The availability of mutant ‘genotypes’ with identified aging ‘phenotypes’ in zebrafish, in combination with a wealth of information about zebrafish development and genetics, and the existence of multiple mutant and transgenic lines, should significantly facilitate the use of this outstanding vertebrate model in deciphering the mechanisms of aging, and in developing preventive and therapeutic strategies to prolong the productive life span (‘health span’) in humans.
Optimal Itinerary Analysis for Mobile Agents in Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the most important problems studied in any sensor network is data fusion. Client/server paradigm has been a commonly used computing model in traditional distributed sensor networks (DSNs). However, the deployment of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) and its ad hoc nature have brought new challenges to the fusion task. For example, the advances in sensor technology allow better, cheaper, and smaller sensors to be used, which results in a much larger number of sensors deployed. On the other hand, sensors communicate through wireless networks where the network bandwidth is much lower than for wired communication. In this paper, we describe the usage of mobile agent for data fusion in WSNs. In this computing model, data stay at the local site, while the fusion process (code) is moved to the data sites. By transmitting the computation engine instead of data, network bandwidth requirement is largely reduced and the performance of the fusion process is more stable. One of the key problems discussed in this mobile-agentbased WSN (MAWSN) is how to plan the itinerary (or route) for a mobile agent in order to achieve progressive fusion accuracy. This paper presents a method to develop an optimal itinerary for mobile agent to fulfill the integration task while consuming minimum amount of resources, including time and power.
Safety Profile of Nifurtimox and Treatment Interruption for Chronic Chagas Disease in Colombian Adults

Nifurtimox (NFX) is one of the approved drugs used to treat Chagas disease. Safety profile studies and models on risk factors for treatment interruption in adults are scarce in Latin America. This study evaluated retrospectively the medical records of adult Chagas disease patients treated with NFX between 2007 and 2012 in Bogotá, Colombia. An accelerated failure time model was used, and associations were expressed as time ratio (TR). In total, 76 adult patients with NFX were included: 60 (79.0%) completed 60 days of treatment, 61 (80.3%) presented adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and 16 (21.0%) required treatment interruption. The predominant symptoms were epigastric pain (23.7%), nauseas (18.4%), sleep disturbances (18.4%), loss of appetite (17.1%), and temporary loss of memory (15.2%). ADRs were classified as mild (64.5%), moderate (30.4%), and severe (5.1%). Time of treatment was significantly longer when presenting ≤ 3 ADRs (TR: 1.78; 95% CI: 1.04–3.03), presence of non-severe ADRs (TR: 6.52; 95% CI: 3.24–13.1), doses of NFX ≤ 8 mg/kg/day (TR: 1.78; 95% CI: 0.90–3.49), and age < 48 years (TR: 1.57; 95% CI: 0.90–2.74). Treatment with NFX in adults caused a high frequency of ADRs, but most of the cases were mild and did not require treatment interruption. Severity and number of ADRs were the main predictors for treatment interruption.
Alternatives to Rapid Weight Loss in US Wrestling

Amateur wrestling at the high school and collegiate level in the United States often involves exercise and thermal dehydration as well as food and fluid restriction to "make weight". Available evidence suggests this is the opposite of what is optimal for high-intensity exercise performance. A high-intensity taper will substantially improve performance when conducted after a period of high-volume high intensity training. Additionally, dehydration of approximately 3-4% of body weight will most definitely impair muscular endurance during high-intensity exercise although it likely will not impair maximal muscular strength or power. Even more gradual weight loss practices over a few days, which result in a reduction of body weight by approximately 3.3 to 6% will result in impaired performance as assessed by wrestling specific tests. It would seem of paramount importance for wrestlers to maintain a high-carbohydrate diet of approximately 8-10 g carbohydrate/kg body weight/day to maintain training intensity and optimize performance during individual matches and tournaments. Thus, the evidence would suggest that, prior to competition, collegiate wrestlers should be: 1) tapered, 2) in the euhydrated state, and 3) have ingested a high carbohydrate diet, rather than undergo rapid weight loss prior to competition.
The health of California's immigrant hired farmworkers.

BACKGROUND Hispanic immigrant workers dominate California's hired farm workforce. Little is known about their health status; even less is known about those lacking employment authorization. METHODS The California Agricultural Workers Health Survey (CAWHS) was a statewide cross-sectional household survey conducted in 1999. Six hundred fifty-four workers completed in-person interviews, comprehensive physical examinations, and personal risk behavior interviews. RESULTS The CAWHS PE Sample is comprised mostly of young Mexican men who lack health insurance and present elevated prevalence of indicators of chronic disease: overweight, obesity, high blood pressure, and high serum cholesterol. The self-reported, cumulative, farm work career incidence of paid claims for occupational injury under workers compensation was 27% for males and 11% for females. CONCLUSIONS The survey finds elevated prevalence of indicators of chronic disease but lack of health care access. Participants without employment authorization reported a greater prevalence of high-risk behaviors, such as binge drinking, and were less knowledgeable about workplace protections.
Petri net structural analysis for supervisory control

The primary motivation for this research is to show how Petri nets may be efficiently used within the framework of supervisory control. In particular, the paper discusses how integer programming techniques for Petri net models may be used to validate supervisors for the control of discrete event systems. We consider a class of place/transition nets, called elementary composed state machines. The reachability problem for this class can be solved by a modification of classical incidence matrix analysis. In fact it is possible to derive a set of linear inequalities that exactly defines the set of reachable markings. Finally, we show how important properties of discrete event systems, such as the absence of blocking states or controllability, may be analyzed by integer programming techniques. >
Biomechanical Influence of Cartilage Homeostasis in Health and Disease

There is an urgent demand for long term solutions to improve osteoarthritis treatments in the ageing population. There are drugs that control the pain but none that stop the progression of the disease in a safe and efficient way. Increased intervention efforts, augmented by early diagnosis and integrated biophysical therapies are therefore needed. Unfortunately, progress has been hampered due to the wide variety of experimental models which examine the effect of mechanical stimuli and inflammatory mediators on signal transduction pathways. Our understanding of the early mechanopathophysiology is poor, particularly the way in which mechanical stimuli influences cell function and regulates matrix synthesis. This makes it difficult to identify reliable targets and design new therapies. In addition, the effect of mechanical loading on matrix turnover is dependent on the nature of the mechanical stimulus. Accumulating evidence suggests that moderate mechanical loading helps to maintain cartilage integrity with a low turnover of matrix constituents. In contrast, nonphysiological mechanical signals are associated with increased cartilage damage and degenerative changes. This review will discuss the pathways regulated by compressive loading regimes and inflammatory signals in animal and in vitro 3D models. Identification of the chondroprotective pathways will reveal novel targets for osteoarthritis treatments.
A Harmonic-Based Biologically Inspired Approach to Monaural Speech Separation

This letter proposes a computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) model for monaural speech separation. In this model, we integrate three biologically inspired approaches for: auditory spectrogram generation, analysis of its spectro-temporal content, and tracking its harmonic structure. In a top-down process, the estimated ideal binary mask (EIBM) is calculated using the spectral amplitude of the extracted spectrograms to enhance the harmonic filters for separation. Experimental results showed that our model outperformed the harmonic magnitude suppression technique in both signal-to-interference ratio and percentage of crosstalk. Moreover, the result is comparable with a current state-of-the-art system.
Gene flow and species cohesion following the spread of Schiedea globosa (Caryophyllaceae) across the Hawaiian Islands

Island radiations are often regarded as natural laboratories that allow us to study evolution in action. The genus Schiedea (Caryophyllaceae) is one of the largest radiations of angiosperms in the Hawaiian Islands, and Schiedea globosa is one of the few species in the genus to be found on more than one of the main islands. DNA sequences from nineteen nuclear and three chloroplast regions show a pattern of colonization from older to younger islands (west to east), with a concomitant decrease in genetic diversity eastwards (π = 0.53% for O‘ahu, 0.43% for Moloka‘i and 0.36% for Maui). While polymorphisms in the maternally inherited chloroplast have become fixed on different islands (FST = 0.804), significant gene flow between islands is inferred for the nuclear genome (FST = 0.270). This gene flow appears to be uneven, with most gene flow outwards from the central island. The extent of inter‐island gene flow through wind pollination was assessed in an isolation–migration framework; the inferred rate, c. 1 migrant per generation, may be sufficient to prevent divergence of S. globosa populations and ensure cohesion of the species following the colonization of new islands.
Exact Series Reconstruction in Photoacoustic Tomography with Circular Integrating Detectors

A method for photoacoustic tomography is presented that uses circular integrals of the acoustic wave for the reconstruction of a three-dimensional image. Image reconstruction is a two-step process: In the first step data from a stack of circular integrating detectors are used to reconstruct the circular projection of the source distribution. In the second step the inverse circular Radon transform is applied. In this article we establish inversion formulas for the first step, which involves an inverse problem for the axially symmetric wave equation. Numerical results are presented that show the validity and robustness of the resulting algorithm.
A Framework Toward Restoration of Writing Order from Single-Stroked Handwriting Image

Restoration of writing order from a single-stroked handwriting image can be seen as the problem of finding the smoothest path in its graph representation. In this paper, a 3-phase approach to restore a writing order is proposed within the framework of the edge continuity relation (ECR). In the initial, local phase, in order to obtain possible ECRs at an even-degree node, a neural network is used for the node of degree 4 and a theoretical approach is presented for the node of degree higher than 4 by introducing certain reasonable assumptions. In the second phase, we identify double-traced lines by employing maximum weighted matching. This makes it possible to transform the problem of obtaining possible ECRs at odd-degree node to that at even-degree node. In the final, global phase, we find all the candidates of single-stroked paths by depth first search and select the best one by evaluating SLALOM smoothness. Experiments on static images converted from online data in the Unipen database show that our method achieves a restoration rate of 96.0 percent
cis regulatory requirements for hypodermal cell-specific expression of the Caenorhabditis elegans cuticle collagen gene dpy-7

The Caenorhabditis elegans cuticle collagens are encoded by a multigene family of between 50 and 100 members and are the major component of the nematode cuticular exoskeleton. They are synthesized in the hypodermis prior to secretion and incorporation into the cuticle and exhibit complex patterns of spatial and temporal expression. We have investigated the cis regulatory requirements for tissue- and stage-specific expression of the cuticle collagen gene dpy-7 and have identified a compact regulatory element which is sufficient to specify hypodermal cell reporter gene expression. This element appears to be a true tissue-specific promoter element, since it encompasses the dpy-7 transcription initiation sites and functions in an orientation-dependent manner. We have also shown, by interspecies transformation experiments, that the dpy-7 cis regulatory elements are functionally conserved between C. elegans and C. briggsae, and comparative sequence analysis supports the importance of the regulatory sequence that we have identified by reporter gene analysis. All of our data suggest that the spatial expression of the dpy-7 cuticle collagen gene is established essentially by a small tissue-specific promoter element and does not require upstream activator or repressor elements. In addition, we have found the DPY-7 polypeptide is very highly conserved between the two species and that the C. briggsae polypeptide can function appropriately within the C. elegans cuticle. This finding suggests a remarkably high level of conservation of individual cuticle components, and their interactions, between these two nematode species.
Influence of Solution Properties and Process Parameters on the Formation and Morphology of YSZ and NiO Ceramic Nanofibers by Electrospinning

The fabrication process of ceramic yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and nickel oxide nanofibers by electrospinning is reported. The preparation of hollow YSZ nanofibers and aligned nanofiber arrays is also demonstrated. The influence of the process parameters of the electrospinning process, the physicochemical properties of the spinning solutions, and the thermal treatment procedure on spinnability and final microstructure of the ceramic fibers was determined. The fiber diameter can be varied from hundreds of nanometers to more than a micrometer by controlling the solution properties of the electrospinning process, while the grain size and surface roughness of the resulting fibers are mainly controlled via the final thermal annealing process. Although most observed phenomena are in qualitative agreement with previous studies on the electrospinning of polymeric nanofibers, one of the main differences is the high ionic strength of ceramic precursor solutions, which may hamper the spinnability. A strategy to control the effective ionic strength of precursor solutions is also presented.