Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Peer Health Workers on AIDS Care in Rakai, Uganda: A Cluster-Randomized Trial

Background Human resource limitations are a challenge to the delivery of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in low-resource settings. We conducted a cluster randomized trial to assess the effect of community-based peer health workers (PHW) on AIDS care of adults in Rakai, Uganda. Methodology/Principal Findings 15 AIDS clinics were randomized 2∶1 to receive the PHW intervention (n = 10) or control (n = 5). PHW tasks included clinic and home-based provision of counseling, clinical, adherence to ART, and social support. Primary outcomes were adherence and cumulative risk of virologic failure (>400 copies/mL). Secondary outcomes were virologic failure at each 24 week time point up to 192 weeks of ART. Analysis was by intention to treat. From May 2006 to July 2008, 1336 patients were followed. 444 (33%) of these patients were already on ART at the start of the study. No significant differences were found in lack of adherence (<95% pill count adherence risk ratio [RR] 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.23–1.35; <100% adherence RR 1.10, 95% CI 0.94–1.30), cumulative risk of virologic failure (RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.61–1.08) or in shorter-term virologic outcomes (24 week virologic failure RR 0.93, 95% CI 0.65–1.32; 48 week, RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.47–1.48; 72 week, RR 0.81, 95% CI 0.44–1.49). However, virologic failure rates ≥96 weeks into ART were significantly decreased in the intervention arm compared to the control arm (96 week failure RR 0.50, 95% CI 0.31–0.81; 120 week, RR 0.59, 95% CI 0.22–1.60; 144 week, RR 0.39, 95% CI 0.16–0.95; 168 week, RR 0.30, 95% CI 0.097–0.92; 192 week, RR 0.067, 95% CI 0.0065–0.71). Conclusions/Significance A PHW intervention was associated with decreased virologic failure rates occurring 96 weeks and longer into ART, but did not affect cumulative risk of virologic failure, adherence measures, or shorter-term virologic outcomes. PHWs may be an effective intervention to sustain long-term ART in low-resource settings. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00675389
Information-theoretic Bounds of Resampling Forensics: New Evidence for Traces Beyond Cyclostationarity

Although several methods have been proposed for the detection of resampling operations in multimedia signals and the estimation of the resampling factor, the fundamental limits for this forensic task leave open research questions. In this work, we explore the effects that a downsampling operation introduces in the statistics of a 1D signal as a function of the parameters used. We quantify the statistical distance between an original signal and its downsampled version by means of the Kullback-Leibler Divergence (KLD) in case of a wide-sense stationary 1st-order autoregressive signal model. Values of the KLD are derived for different signal parameters, resampling factors and interpolation kernels, thus predicting the achievable hypothesis distinguishability in each case. Our analysis reveals unexpected detectability in case of strong downsampling due to the local correlation structure of the original signal. Moreover, since existing detection methods generally leverage the cyclostationarity of resampled signals, we also address the case where the autocovariance values are estimated directly by means of the sample autocovariance from the signal under investigation. Under the considered assumptions, the Wishart distribution models the sample covariance matrix of a signal segment and the KLD under different hypotheses is derived.
Comparisons of Musculoskeletal Disorders among Ten Different Medical Professions in Taiwan: A Nationwide, Population-Based Study

Objective Medical personnel are at risk of musculoskeletal disorders but little is known whether the risk of musculoskeletal disorders were different among various medical professions. Therefore, this study compared the risk of musculoskeletal disorders among personnel of 10 different medical professions in Taiwan using a nationwide health claims database. Methods Data from the 2000–2010 Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database were used to identify personnel of 10 different medical professions. Diagnoses based on the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) were used to identify eight different musculoskeletal disorders that occurred after the license issuance date. Cox proportional hazards model was used to compare the risk of eight musculoskeletal disorders among the 10 different medical professions using dentists as the reference category. Results A total of 7,820 medical personnel were included in the analysis. Using dentists as the reference category, physical therapists showed a significantly higher risk of all eight musculoskeletal disorders (ranging from 1.59 [p = 0.032] in sprains and strains of other and unspecified parts of back to 2.93 [p < 0.001] in spondylosis and allied disorders). Conclusions Compared with dentists, a profession that already known to suffer from high rates of work-related musculoskeletal disorders, physical therapists, registered nurses, and doctors of Chinese medicine showed an even higher risk of musculoskeletal disorders.
Age- and sex-dependent susceptibility to phenobarbital-resistant neonatal seizures: role of chloride co-transporters

Ischemia in the immature brain is an important cause of neonatal seizures. Temporal evolution of acquired neonatal seizures and their response to anticonvulsants are of great interest, given the unreliability of the clinical correlates and poor efficacy of first-line anti-seizure drugs. The expression and function of the electroneutral chloride co-transporters KCC2 and NKCC1 influence the anti-seizure efficacy of GABAA-agonists. To investigate ischemia-induced seizure susceptibility and efficacy of the GABAA-agonist phenobarbital (PB), with NKCC1 antagonist bumetanide (BTN) as an adjunct treatment, we utilized permanent unilateral carotid-ligation to produce acute ischemic-seizures in post-natal day 7, 10, and 12 CD1 mice. Immediate post-ligation video-electroencephalograms (EEGs) quantitatively evaluated baseline and post-treatment seizure burdens. Brains were examined for stroke-injury and western blot analyses to evaluate the expression of KCC2 and NKCC1. Severity of acute ischemic seizures post-ligation was highest at P7. PB was an efficacious anti-seizure agent at P10 and P12, but not at P7. BTN failed as an adjunct, at all ages tested and significantly blunted PB-efficacy at P10. Significant acute post-ischemic downregulation of KCC2 was detected at all ages. At P7, males displayed higher age-dependent seizure susceptibility, associated with a significant developmental lag in their KCC2 expression. This study established a novel neonatal mouse model of PB-resistant seizures that demonstrates age/sex-dependent susceptibility. The age-dependent profile of KCC2 expression and its post-insult downregulation may underlie the PB-resistance reported in this model. Blocking NKCC1 with low-dose BTN following PB treatment failed to improve PB-efficacy.
Impaired Cross-Talk between Mesolimbic Food Reward Processing and Metabolic Signaling Predicts Body Mass Index

The anticipation of the pleasure derived from food intake drives the motivation to eat, and hence facilitate overconsumption of food, which ultimately results in obesity. Brain imaging studies provide evidence that mesolimbic brain regions underlie both general as well as food-related anticipatory reward processing. In light of this knowledge, the present study examined the neural responsiveness of the ventral striatum (VS) in participants with a broad BMI spectrum. The study differentiated between general (i.e., monetary) and food-related anticipatory reward processing. We recruited a sample of volunteers with greatly varying body weights, ranging from a low BMI (below 20 kg/m2) over a normal (20–25 kg/m2) and overweight (25–30 kg/m2) BMI, to class I (30–35 kg/m2) and class II (35–40 kg/m2) obesity. A total of 24 participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while performing both a food and monetary incentive delay task, which allows to measure neural activation during the anticipation of rewards. After the presentation of a cue indicating the amount of food or money to be won, participants had to react correctly in order to earn “snack points” or “money coins,” which could then be exchanged for real food or money, respectively, at the end of the experiment. During the anticipation of both types of rewards, participants displayed activity in the VS, a region that plays a pivotal role in the anticipation of rewards. Additionally, we observed that specifically anticipatory food reward processing predicted the individual BMI (current and maximum lifetime). This relation was found to be mediated by impaired hormonal satiety signaling, i.e., increased leptin levels and insulin resistance. These findings suggest that heightened food reward motivation contributes to obesity through impaired metabolic signaling.
Modelling and Inversion of Ground Magnetic and Electromagnetic Data for Delineation of Subsurface Structures at Siloam Hot Spring in the Soutpansberg Basin

Geophysical surveys utilising magnetic and electromagnetic techniques were carried out at the Siloam hot spring. The spring is in the Soutpansberg Basin in the northern part of South Africa. The research was to investigate groundwater bearing structures at the hot spring. Magnetic survey results showed that the spring occurs between two north dipping dykes. The two dykes could be faulted segments of a single dyke or sill. Magnetic susceptibility results highlighted the presence of metamorphic and volcanic rocks. Electromagnetic survey results showed that the hot spring was within a roughly east to west trending, zone with high electrical conductivity values. Based on the survey results, water is exploiting fractures in the dyke or sill.
Counting Fixed Points and Gardens of Eden of Sequential Dynamical Systems on Planar Bipartite Graphs

We study counting various types of configurations in certain classes of graph automata viewed as discrete dynamical systems. The graph automata models of our interest are Sequential and Synchronous Dynamical Systems (SDSs and SyDSs, respectively). These models have been proposed as a mathematical foundation for a theory of large-scale simulations of complex multi-agent systems. Our emphasis in this paper is on the computational complexity of counting the fixed point and the garden of Eden configurations in Boolean SDSs and SyDSs. We have shown in [47] that counting fixed points is, in general, computationally intractable. We show in the present report that this intractability still holds when both the underlying graphs and the node update rules of these SDSs and SyDSs are severely restricted. In particular, we prove that the problems of exactly counting fixed points, gardens of Eden and two other types of S(y)DS configurations are all #P-complete, even if the SDSs and SyDSs are defined over planar bipartite graphs, and each of their nodes updates its state according to a monotone update rule given as a Boolean formula. We thus add these formal discrete dynamical systems to the list of those problem domains for which counting the combinatorial structures of interest is intractable even when the related decision problems are known to be efficiently solvable.
Percentage of motile spermatozoa at 22 hours after swim-up procedure: An indicator for intracytoplasmic sperm injection?

Objective The decision to use in vitro fertilization (IVF), intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), or split insemination (IVF-ICSI) in the first cycle is based on the number of motile sperm. Hence, total fertilization failure (TFF) often occurs during IVF cycles, despite normozoospermia. To investigate whether the cumulative motile swim-up spermatozoa percentage at 22 hours post-insemination (MSPPI) is an indicator for ICSI, we analyzed TFF, fertilization, blastocyst development, chemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, and live birth rates. Methods This prospective study was performed using data obtained from 260 IVF cycles. At 22 hours after insemination, the remaining swim-up spermatozoa were observed and divided into six groups according to MSPPI (<10%, 10% to <30%, 30% to <50%, 50% to <70%, 70% to <90%, and 90% to 100%). Results Regardless of the ejaculated motile sperm concentration (0.6–280×106/mL motile spermatozoa), the incidence of TFF significantly increased when MSPPI was <10%, and the fertilization rate significantly decreased when MSPPI was <30%. We found that cumulative MSPPI correlated with the cumulative fertilization rate (Spearman correlation, 0.508, p<0.001). Regarding embryo development, we observed no significant differences in the rates of blastocyst development, chemical pregnancy, clinical pregnancy, or live birth among all groups. Conclusion Our findings suggest that MSPPI is a viable indicator for split IVF-ICSI and ICSI. Taken together, by employing the MSPPI test in advance before IVF, ICSI, or split IVF-ICSI cycles, unnecessary split IVF-ICSI and ICSI may be avoided.
Changes in Self-Regulation-Related Prefrontal Activities in Eating Disorders: A Near Infrared Spectroscopy Study

Objective The aim of this study is to clarify the symptomatology of the eating disorders examining the prefrontal function and activity associated with self-regulation among participants with or without eating disorders. Methods Ten patients with anorexia nervosa, fourteen with bulimia nervosa, and fourteen healthy control participants performed two cognitive tasks assessing self-regulatory functions, an auditorily distracted word fluency task and a rock-paper-scissors task under the measurements on prefrontal oxyhemoglobin concentration with near infrared spectroscopy. The psychiatric symptoms of patient groups were assessed with several questionnaires. Results Patients with bulimia nervosa showed decreased performances and prefrontal hyper activation patterns. Prefrontal activities showed a moderate negative correlation with task performances not in the patient groups but only in the healthy participants. The prefrontal activities of the patient groups showed positive correlations with some symptom scale aspects. Conclusions The decreased cognitive abilities and characteristic prefrontal activation patterns associated with self-regulatory functions were shown in patients with bulimia nervosa, which correlated with their symptoms. These findings suggest inefficient prefrontal self-regulatory function of bulimia nervosa that associate with its symptoms.
Vehicle localization based on odometry assisted magnetic matching

Magnetic is a promising technical for positioning in the GNSS denied scenarios such as parking lot and tunnel, since the magnetic field exists everywhere on the earth. In this paper, for vehicle navigation, an odometry assisted magnetic matching algorithm is proposed, in which the magnetometer and the odometry of vehicle are used. The proposed scheme consists of two phases: offline phase and online phase. During the offline phase, the magnetic map is constructed which includes the magnetic field intensities and the coordinates of Reference Points, which are distributed uniformly along the road. During the online phase, the position is estimated by matching the magnetic field intensities in a certain distance window to the magnetic map constructed in the offline phase. To overcome the mismatch and error fluctuation problem, odometry is also used to evaluate the result. Experiments based on a mini bus showed that the performance of proposed scheme is accurate (2a:4.8m) and reliable (max error: 13m).
Eigenvalue mode confirmation in a mutually coupled active antenna chain array

Arrays of coupled active antenna oscillators can be used for power-combining at microwave and millimetre-wave frequencies. It is known that the relative phase angle between active antenna oscillators placed in an array and hence their far-field radiation pattern can have certain discrete values depending on the separation distance between elements. Thus in order to characterise an active array an accurate method of evaluating the coupling between oscillators and a knowledge of the available modes that exist within the array are required. In this paper the available modes for an array of mutually coupled active antenna elements are evaluated by examination of the eigenvectors of the impedance matrix of the passive element components in the active array. Time domain numerical simulations are performed and the resulting predictions compared to those obtained by experiment and by the eigenvalue approach.
Polymerization characteristics, flexural modulus and microleakage evaluation of silorane-based and methacrylate-based composites.

PURPOSE To compare the behavior of a new low-shrinkage silorane-based composite (P90) with two conventional methacrylate-based composites, in terms of polymerization shrinkage, polymerization stress, gel point, flexural modulus and microleakage. METHODS The materials tested were P90 (3M ESPE), AP-X (Kuraray), Quixfil (Dentsply). Polymerization shrinkage was measured using the Accuvol method. Polymerization stress was assessed using a stress-strain analyzer. Polymerization shrinkage (%) and force (N) were continuously recorded for 300 seconds. Polymerization shrinkage and stress after 300 seconds and gel point were recorded. Flexural modulus was obtained by three-point bending. A laboratory microleakage test was performed. Class V cavities prepared on labial surfaces of 70 freshly extracted human teeth were randomly assigned to the seven groups (N=10): P90/PSA (P90 System Adhesive), AP-X/CBA (Clearfil SE Bond Adhesive), Quixfil/XBA (XP Bond Adhesive), P90/CBA, P90/XBA, AP-X/PSA, Quixfil/PSA. The teeth were immersed in 1% basic fuchsin dye for 24 hours at room temperature. All teeth were cut in a labial-lingual direction and the penetration of dye along the wall of cavities was observed under a stereoscopic light microscope. Statistical analysis was performed with one-way ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA test and post hoc tests (P< 0.05). RESULTS The low-shrinkage silorane-based composite (P90) exhibited significantly lower polymerization shrinkage, polymerization stress, flexural modulus and a later gel point than the conventional methacrylate-based composites. In the microleakage test, P90/PSA, AP-X/CBA, AP-X/PSA demonstrated the lowest microleakage scores without a significant difference among them (P> 0.05). Quixfil/XPA exhibited the highest microleakage scores.
Channel Parameter Estimation for LOS MIMO Systems

In this paper we consider the estimation of channel coefficients and frequency offsets for LOS MIMO systems. We propose that by exploiting the structure of the channel matrix, which is present due to the geometrical nature of the channel, the estimation process can be enhanced. If a single oscillator setup is used at transmitter and receiver, respectively, this structure is preserved and can be exploited. Some methods using this fact are discussed and their performance is evaluated with respect to estimation accuracy, revealing that with relatively short training sequences, estimation results close to the fundamental bounds can be achieved.
Single-Session Motivational Interviewing for Drug Detoxification Inpatients: Effects on Self-Efficacy, Stages of Change and Substance Use

Thirty-five inpatients at a Stockholm hospital drug user detoxification unit received single-session Motivational Interviewing (MI) between 2006 and 2008. At baseline and after 3 months, they were compared to a semirandomized control group of 52 patients with treatment as usual. In the MI group, self-efficacy increased regarding abstention in connection with positive feelings, appreciation of positive drug effects increased, and participants tended to transition toward preparation/action stages of change. Despite implementation challenges, the study demonstrates the feasibility and effectiveness of single-session MI delivery in the inpatient drug detoxification setting and suggests paths for future research on delivery of single-session MI.
Extracorporeal shockwave therapy for patellar tendinopathy: a review of the literature

Background and purpose: Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (EWST) has become a popular treatment for patellar tendinopathy. The purpose of this review was to study the effectiveness of ESWT treatment for patellar tendinopathy; to draft guidelines for an effective treatment protocol of ESWT treatment; and to identify topics for further research. Methods: A computerised search of the Medline and Embase databases was conducted on 1 August 2007, to identify studies dealing with the effectiveness of ESWT for patellar tendinopathy. Results: Seven articles describing the effectiveness of ESWT on patellar tendinopathy, all published after 2000, were included. These studies included a total of 283 patients (298 tendons), 204 of whom (215 tendons) were assigned to ESWT treatment. The treatment results were positive but most studies had methodological deficiencies, small numbers and/or short follow-up periods. Method of application and shockwave generation, energy level, number and frequency of treatments, use of (local) anaesthesia and method of localisation were variable. Conclusion: ESWT seems to be a safe and promising treatment for patellar tendinopathy with a positive effect on pain and function. Based on current knowledge it is impossible to recommend a specific treatment protocol. Further basic and clinical research into the working mechanism and effectiveness of ESWT for patellar tendinopathy are necessary.
Life experiences and the acquired capability for suicide in incarcerated men

ABSTRACT Suicide is a leading cause of death in U.S. prisons. Prisoners may be at risk for suicide due to their greater likelihood of experiencing events that promote the acquired capability for suicide. The current study examined the associations of 10 domains of life experiences with the acquired capability for suicide in 399 male prisoners. All life experience domains were associated with acquired capability with certain domains evidencing relatively stronger relations. Results support that aggression, thrill seeking, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and accidental injury may be particularly important to the development of the acquired capability for suicide in prisoners.
Machine Transliteration using Target-Language Grapheme and Phoneme: Multi-engine Transliteration Approach

This paper describes our approach to "NEWS 2009 Machine Transliteration Shared Task. " We built multiple transliteration engines based on different combinations of two transliteration models and three machine learning algorithms. Then, the outputs from these transliteration engines were combined using re-ranking functions. Our method was applied to all language pairs in "NEWS 2009 Machine Transliteration Shared Task. " The official results of our standard runs were ranked the best for four language pairs and the second best for three language pairs.