Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Frequency and severity of acute rejection in live- versus cadaveric-donor renal transplants

Background. Live donors are an increasingly important source of kidneys for transplantation in Australia. The aim of this study was to compare the rate and severity of rejection between patients receiving kidney transplants from live versus cadaveric donors. Methods. A retrospective analysis was undertaken of all patients receiving live-donor (n=109) and cadaveric-donor (n=389) renal transplants at our institution between April 1, 1994, and March 31, 2000. Follow-up was completed on all patients until graft loss, death, or May 31, 2001. Results. The baseline characteristics of the live-donor and cadaveric groups were similar, except for recipient age (mean±SD, 36.3±15.6 vs. 44.5±14.4 years, respectively; P <0.001); donor age (46.1±11.3 vs. 36.1±16.4 years, P <0.001); pretransplant dialysis duration (1.36±2.1 vs. 3.4±4.4 years, P <0.001); and the proportions of patients receiving first allografts (95% vs. 88%, respectively; P <0.05), antibody induction (8% vs. 20%, P <0.01), and mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) (60% vs. 37%, P <0.001). Acute rejection was observed in 48 (44%) live-donor and 108 (28%) cadaveric transplants (P =0.001). Cadaveric donor type was independently predictive of less acute rejection both on logistic regression (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 0.47; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.30–0.73; P =0.001) and multivariate Cox proportional hazards model analysis (hazard ratio, 0.49; 95% CI, 0.34–0.69; P <0.001). Patients receiving cadaveric-donor transplants were also significantly less likely to receive antibody therapy for rejection (univariate, 18% vs. 9%; P =0.006; multivariate AOR, 0.45; 95% CI, −0.25–0.82; P <0.01), independent of recipient age, gender, race, transplant number, human leukocyte antigen mismatch, sensitization, induction therapy, delayed graft function, MMF use, tacrolimus or cyclosporine A use, sirolimus-everolimus use, year of transplant, donor age, or dialysis duration. However, donor type did not independently influence graft survival, immunologic graft survival, or patient survival. Conclusions. Live-donor kidney transplant recipients had a higher rate and severity of rejection and a shorter rejection-free period than cadaveric renal transplant recipients. Further consideration of the reasons for this difference and the use of alternative immunosuppressive strategies for live-donor transplants are recommended.
Alcohol brief interventions practice following training for multidisciplinary health and social care teams: A qualitative interview study

Introduction and Aims Few studies of the implementation of alcohol brief interventions (ABI) have been conducted in community settings such as mental health, social work and criminal justice teams. This qualitative interview study sought to explore the impact of training on ABI delivery by staff from a variety of such teams. Design and Methods Fifteen semi-structured telephone interviews were carried out with trained practitioners and with managers to explore the use of, perceived need for and approaches to ABI delivery and recording with clients, and compatibility of ABIs with current practice. Interviews were analysed thematically using an inductive approach. Results Very few practitioners reported delivery of any ABIs following training primarily because they felt ABIs to be inappropriate for their clients. According to practitioners, this was either because they drank too much or too little to benefit. Practitioners reported a range of current activities relating to alcohol, and some felt that their knowledge and confidence were improved following training. One practitioner reported ABI delivery and was considered a training success, while expectations of ABIs did not fit with current practice including assessment procedures for the remainder. Discussion and Conclusions Identified barriers to ABI delivery included issues relating to individual practitioners, their teams, current practice and the ABI model. They are likely to be best addressed by strategic team- and setting-specific approaches to implementation, of which training is only one part. [Fitzgerald N, Molloy H, MacDonald F, McCambridge J. Alcohol brief interventions practice following training for multidisciplinary health and social care teams: A qualitative interview study. Drug Alcohol Rev 2015;34:185–93]
Combining content with user preferences for TED lecture recommendation

This paper introduces a new dataset and compares several methods for the recommendation of non-fiction audiovisual material, namely lectures from the TED website. The TED dataset contains 1,149 talks and 69,023 profiles of users, who have made more than 100,000 ratings and 200,000 comments. This data set, which we make public, can be used for training and testing of generic and personalized recommendation tasks. We define content-based, collaborative, and combined recommendation methods for TED lectures and use cross-validation to select the best parameters of keyword-based (TFIDF) and semantic vector space-based methods (LSI, LDA, RP, and ESA). We compare these methods on a personalized recommendation task in two settings, a cold-start and a non-cold-start one. In the former, semantic-based vector spaces perform better than keyword-based ones. In the latter, where collaborative information can be exploited, content-based methods are outperformed by collaborative filtering ones, but the proposed combined method shows acceptable performances, and can be used in both settings.
Beat the Machine: Challenging Workers to Find the Unknown Unknowns

We present techniques for gathering data that expose errors of automatic predictive models. In certain common settings, traditional methods for evaluating predictive models tend to miss rare-but-important errors--most importantly, rare cases for which the model is confident of its prediction (but wrong). In this paper we present a system that, in a game-like setting, asks humans to identify cases that will cause the predictive-model-based system to fail. Such techniques are valuable in discovering problematic cases that do not reveal themselves during the normal operation of the system, and may include cases that are rare but catastrophic. We describe the design of the system, including design iterations that did not quite work. In particular, the system incentivizes humans to provide examples that are difficult for the model to handle, by providing a reward proportional to the magnitude of the predictive model's error. The humans are asked to "Beat the Machine" and find cases where the automatic model ("the Machine") is wrong. Experiments show that the humans using Beat the Machine identify more errors than traditional techniques for discovering errors in from predictive models, and indeed, they identify many more errors where the machine is confident it is correct. Further, the cases the humans identify seem to be not simply outliers, but coherent areas missed completely by the model. Beat the machine identifies the "unknown unknowns".
Prevalence of esophageal cancer in the Northern part of Afghanistan.

BACKGROUND Esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) is the standard technique for diagnosis of patients presenting with upper gastrointestinal symptoms. Some reports have shown high prevalence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan. The aim of this study was to investigate epidemiological profile of esophageal cancer among patients in this region. MATERIALS AND METHODS We identified 364 consecutive patients that received EGD examinations to examine upper gastrointestinal tract at the endoscopy unit of Balkh regional Hospital from March 2012 to March 2013. The case subjects included both in-patients and out-patients aged 16 years or more. We evaluated the results retrospectively. RESULTS The cases consisted of 184 (51%) males and 180 (49%) females. The mean age was 47.3±17.8 and the age range 17-88 years. Ninety two cases had esophageal cancer, out of which 58 (63.0%) were male. The mean age at time of diagnosis was 57.8±13.2 years. Uzbek-Turkmen peoples were more common among patients with esophageal cancer (52.2%). Dysphagia was the most frequent symptom among patients with esophageal cancer at the time of presentation, seen in 77 (84.8%) of cases. CONCLUSIONS Our results showed high incidence of esophageal cancer in the northern part of Afghanistan, especially in the Uzbek-Turkmen ethnic group.
Performance Bounds for Erasure, List, and Decision Feedback Schemes With Linear Block Codes

A message independence property and some new performance upper bounds are derived in this work for erasure, list, and decision-feedback schemes with linear block codes transmitted over memoryless symmetric channels. Similar to the classical work of Forney, this work is focused on the derivation of some Gallager-type bounds on the achievable tradeoffs for these coding schemes, where the main novelty is the suitability of the bounds for both random and structured linear block codes (or code ensembles). The bounds are applicable to finite-length codes and to the asymptotic case of infinite block length, and they are applied to low-density parity-check code ensembles.
Using Side-bending Radiographs to Determine the Distal Fusion Level in Patients With Single Thoracic Idiopathic Scoliosis Undergoing Posterior Correction With Pedicle Screws

Study Design Prospective. Objectives To evaluate a strategy to determine the distal fusion level in posterior pedicle screw correction of single thoracic idiopathic scoliosis. Summary of Background Data No standard method for selecting the lowest instrumented vertebra (LIV) for the correction of thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis with posterior all-pedicle screw instrumentations exists. Methods Thirty-eight patients with single right thoracic (Lenke 1A) adolescent idiopathic scoliosis undergoing posterior pedicle screw fixation were studied. The LIV was determined using guidelines based on preoperative side-bending radiographs. In brief, (1) the whole thoracic Cobb curve should be included in the fusion mass, and the LIV should not be superior to the lower-end vertebra of the Cobb measurement. (2) On the right side-bending radiographs, the LIV should be derotated to neutral in skeletally immature (Risser 0 to 3) patients and the disc immediately below the LIV must open on the left side by at least 5 degrees. (3) On the left side-bending radiographs, the disc immediately below the LIV must be open on the right side by at least 0 degree. The first segment meeting the criteria when proceeding from the lower-end vertebra caudally is chosen as the LIV. Outcomes were based on the standing radiographs. Results Minimum follow-up was 2 years. The mean preoperative thoracic curve was 48.4±9.2 degrees and 12.6±6.1 degrees at final follow-up, resulting in a mean correction of 74.7%±8.5%. The mean preoperative compensatory lumbar curve of 23.7±7.5 degrees was 6.3±4.8 degrees at final follow-up. A change in lumbar lordosis from −41.2±11.9 degrees preoperatively to −38.2±9.9 degrees at final follow-up occurred. All patients achieved coronal balance and no decompensation or adding-on phenomenon was observed. Compared with the recommended fusion end by the Harrington stable zone method, 86.9% patients were saved 1 or more motion segment. Conclusions The method described was effective in obtaining satisfactory curve correction, adequate trunk balance, and preservation of motion segments.
Development of Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) Targeting the GroEL Gene for Rapid Detection of Riemerella anatipestifer

SUMMARY. Riemerella anatipestifer (RA) infections cause major economic losses in the duck industry. Detection of RA using conventional assays is time-consuming and laborious. In this study, a simple and rapid assay for the detection of RA was established based on the GroEL gene sequence of RA using loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) with a set of six primers (two outer primers, two inner primers, and two loop primers). This assay was able to detect all the tested RA strains with different serotypes. A minimum of 10 colony-forming units (CFU) of RA was detected, which represents 50-fold higher sensitivity than that of the standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. This assay showed good specificity to RA strains and did not react with any other species of bacteria. The assay is rapidly completed and the amplification is achieved at a minimum of 20 min at 65 C. Furthermore, the assay successfully detected RA in the liver samples of ducklings infected with RA, suggesting that the assay could be used for the clinical diagnosis of RA infection.
The sBook: towards social and personalized learning experiences

Despite the widespread use of Web 2.0 techniques in our entire surrounding environment, which tend to make it more social, more dynamic and driven by users, some domains have not really changed yet. This is the case for (e-)books which reading remains mainly a solitary activity - or which is done at least without appropriate collaborative tools. However, the benefits of making this activity - and especially active reading - more social and digital are huge - in particular for people having learning reading goals - leading potentially to a wide range of new services: faster access to information, possibility to interact with people sharing similar concerns or able to provide relevant explanations, determining most interesting areas in a book, or even helping users accessing faster the information that will make them progress in their learning curve. Thus, in this position paper, we describe a set of concepts and features about a "sBook", which consists in making e-books more social, more communicative, in order to sustain students in a learning activity, and leverage collective intelligence from social interactions to make students' learning experience more efficient.
The irrelevant sound effect in short-term memory: Is there developmental change?

With two experiments, effects of irrelevant speech and classroom noise on serial recall of common nouns presented pictorially were investigated in children and adults. Experiment 1 used fixed list lengths for children (first graders) and adults. Experiment 2 used list lengths adjusted to participants' (second–third graders, adults) individual spans. In both experiments, children and adults were equally impaired by irrelevant speech. This contrasts with a related study (differences in methodology) by Elliott (2002), who reported severe increase in the detrimental impact of irrelevant speech with decreasing age. In both experiments, classroom noise had no effect in overall analyses. For Experiment 1, however, separate group analyses revealed impairment in children. Results suggest that effects of irrelevant sounds on serial recall stem from two separate mechanisms: Specific interference due to the sounds' automatic access to short-term memory, and/or attention capture. Only for the latter there is developmental change.
Role of canine basal cells in postnatal prostatic development, induction of hyperplasia, and sex hormone‐stimulated growth; and the ductal origin of carcinoma *

The canine prostate has often been proposed as a model for abnormal growth of the human gland. Hyperplasia of the prostate is common in aging men and has been estimated to be present in 100% of old intact dogs. While prostatic carcinoma is common in older men, it appears to be rare in dogs and unlike the disease in humans, it occurs with relatively high frequency in castrated animals. Since basal cells are thought to be key participants in normal and abnormal growth of the human gland, we used immunohistochemistry to investigate the role that they may play in canine prostatic development, the evolution of hyperplasia and carcinoma, and the effects of sex hormones on these cells.
Psychology Research and Behavior Management Dovepress Current Perspectives on Attachment and Bonding in the Dog–human Dyad

This article reviews recent research concerning dog–human relationships and how attributes that arise from them can be measured. It highlights the influence of human characteristics on dog behavior, and consequently, the dog–human bond. Of particular importance are the influences of human attitudes and personality. These themes have received surprisingly little attention from researchers. Identifying human attributes that contribute to successful dog– human relationships could assist in the development of a behavioral template to ensure dyadic potential is optimized. Additionally, this article reveals how dyadic functionality and working performance may not necessarily be mutually inclusive. Potential underpinnings of various dog– human relationships and how these may influence dogs' perceptions of their handlers are also discussed. The article considers attachment bonds between humans and dogs, how these may potentially clash with or complement each other, and the effects of different bonds on the dog– human dyad as a whole. We review existing tools designed to measure the dog–human bond and offer potential refinements to improve their accuracy. Positive attitudes and affiliative interactions seem to contribute to the enhanced well-being of both species, as reflected in resultant physiological changes. Thus, promoting positive dog–human relationships would capitalize on these benefits, thereby improving animal welfare. Finally, this article proposes future research directions that may assist in disambiguating what constitutes successful bonding between dogs and the humans in their lives.
The Influence of Agility Training on Physiological and Cognitive Performance

Abstract Lennemann, LM, Sidrow, KM, Johnson, EM, Harrison, CR, Vojta, CN, and Walker, TB. The influence of agility training on physiological and cognitive performance. J Strength Cond Res 27(12): 3300–3309, 2013—Agility training (AT) has recently been instituted in several military communities in hopes of improving combat performance and general fitness. The purpose of this study was to determine how substituting AT for traditional military physical training (PT) influences physical and cognitive performance. Forty-one subjects undergoing military technical training were divided randomly into 2 groups for 6 weeks of training. One group participated in standard military PT consisting of calisthenics and running. A second group duplicated the amount of exercise of the first group but used AT as their primary mode of training. Before and after training, subjects completed a physical and cognitive battery of tests including V[Combining Dot Above]O2max, reaction time, Illinois Agility Test, body composition, visual vigilance, dichotic listening, and working memory tests. There were significant improvements within the AT group in V[Combining Dot Above]O2max, Illinois Agility Test, visual vigilance, and continuous memory. There was a significant increase in time-to-exhaustion for the traditional group. We conclude that AT is as effective or more effective as PT in enhancing physical fitness. Further, it is potentially more effective than PT in enhancing specific measures of physical and cognitive performance, such as physical agility, memory, and vigilance. Consequently, we suggest that AT be incorporated into existing military PT programs as a way to improve war-fighter performance. Further, it seems likely that the benefits of AT observed here occur in various other populations.
Adaptation of Spike Timing Precision Controls the Sensitivity to Interaural Time Difference in the Avian Auditory Brainstem

While adaptation is widely thought to facilitate neural coding, the form of adaptation should depend on how the signals are encoded. Monaural neurons early in the interaural time difference (ITD) pathway encode the phase of sound input using spike timing rather than firing rate. Such neurons in chicken nucleus magnocellularis (NM) adapt to ongoing stimuli by increasing firing rate and decreasing spike timing precision. We measured NM neuron responses while adapting them to simulated physiological input, and used these responses to construct inputs to binaural coincidence detector neurons in nucleus laminaris (NL). Adaptation of spike timing in NM reduced ITD sensitivity in NL, demonstrating the dominant role of timing in the short-term plasticity as well as the immediate response of this sound localization circuit.
Oxidative stress in critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome

ObjectiveTo evaluate whether critically ill patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome, on admission to an intensive care unit, had more severe oxidative stress than those without this syndrome. DesignA prospective, cohort study. SettingA mixed medical and surgical adult intensive care unit with 12 beds. PatientsA total of 68 consecutive patients admitted to the intensive care unit. InterventionsVenous blood samples were routinely obtained within 24 hrs of admission. Measurements and Main ResultsPatients’ plasma total antioxidant capacity, the lipid peroxidation products malondialdehyde and 4-hydroxynonenal, reduced sulfhydryl groups, and nitrites/nitrates were measured by spectrophotometric technique at admission to the intensive care unit. Myeloperoxidase (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay) and polymorphonuclear elastase (immuno-activation assay) were also measured on admission to the intensive care unit. The patients with criteria of systemic inflammatory response syndrome (n = 20) had higher Acute Physiology and Chronic health Evaluation III scores (determined by collecting the worst value within 24 hrs after admission to the intensive care unit) and plasma concentrations of lipid peroxidation products and nitrites/nitrates and lower plasma concentration of reduced sulfhydryl groups and plasma total antioxidant capacity than patients without the syndrome (n = 48). Moreover, the markers for leukocyte activation, myeloperoxidase and polymorphonuclear elastase, presented higher concentrations in the plasma of patients with systemic inflammatory response syndrome. ConclusionsPatients admitted to the intensive care unit with criteria of systemic inflammatory response syndrome had a more severe oxidative stress than patients without this syndrome.
Subtilisin‐like proteases of the malaria parasite

Proteases play critical roles in the life cycle of the malaria parasite, Plasmodium spp. Within the asexual erythrocytic cycle, responsible for the clinical manifestations of malaria, substantial interest has focused on the role of parasite serine proteases as a result of indications that they are involved in red blood cell invasion. Over the past 6 years, three Plasmodium genes encoding serine proteases of the subtilisin‐like clan, or subtilases, have been identified. All are expressed in the asexual blood stages and, in at least two cases, the gene products localize to secretory organelles of the invasive merozoite. They may have potential as novel drug targets. Here, we review progress in our understanding of the maturation, specificity, structure and function of these Plasmodium subtilases.
Preserving the Original Heparin Structure of a Novel Low Molecular Weight Heparin by γ-Irradiation

Summary Several preparations of low molecular weight heparins (LMWHs) obtained by physical depolymerisation (irradiation with γ-rays) of pig mucosal heparin have been characterised by mono- and two-dimensional NMR-spectroscopy. Integration of typical 1H- and 13C-NMR signals provided a useful quantification of their sulfation pattern. The availability of the corresponding parent heparins showed that the original structure (including that of the active site for antithrombin, as also confirmed by affinity chromato-graphy) had not been significantly modified by the depolymerisation procedure. This process involves only a slight decrease of undersulfated sequences. A peculiarity of γ-LMWH is the absence of the ‘linkage region’, commonly present in unmodified heparins and most LMWHs.