Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Burnout and its association with extracurricular activities among medical students in Saudi Arabia

Objectives To assess levels of burnout in medical students, and to explore the influence of extracurricular activities on burnout at a medical school in Saudi Arabia. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted with first to fourth year medical students at King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Socio-demographic, burnout level (the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Student Survey, MBI-SS) and participation in extracurricular activities data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Statistical analyses were performed using the Pearson’s chi-square test and binary logistic regression. Results From the 306 medical students approached, 249 (81.4%) completed the questionnaire. The level of high burnout was 67.1% (n=167). The study revealed that the majority (62.3%, n=155) of students had high levels of cynicism, 58.6% (n=146) had high levels of emotional exhaustion, and 60.2% (n=150) had low levels of professional efficacy. Most of the students (73.5%, n=183) participated in extracurricular activities, and 112 (45%) students were organizers of extracurricular activities. No significant association was found between burnout levels and the frequency of involvement in extracurricular activities (χ2=2.2, df=2, p=0.333). However, students who were organizing extracurricular activities were less likely to have low professional efficacy (OR=0.51, 95% CI: 0.27- 0.96). Conclusions High levels of burnout were reported at this medical school. Although the burnout level is not significantly associated with the frequency of involvement in extracurricular activities, leading and organizing extracurricular activities might result in lower levels of burnout. Therefore, improving the students’ leadership skills should be considered in curriculum planning, and greater emphasis should be placed on the quality of involvement in extracurricular activities rather than the quantity.
Fully nonlinear oscillator noise analysis: an oscillator with no asymptotic phase

Oscillators exist in many systems. Detailed and correct characterization and comprehension of noise in autonomous systems such as oscillators is of utmost importance. Previous approaches to oscillator noise analysis are based on some kind of perturbation analysis, some linear and some nonlinear. However, the derivations of the equations for perturbation analysis are all based on information that is produced by a linearization of the oscillator equations around the periodic steady‐state solution, where it is assumed that the oscillator is orbitally stable and it has the so‐called asymptotic phase property. In this paper, we first discuss these notions from a qualitative perspective, and demonstrate that the asymptotic phase property is crucial in validating all of the previous approaches. We then present the case of a simple oscillator that is orbitally stable but without asymptotic phase, for which previous approaches fail. We then present a fully nonlinear noise analysis of this oscillator. We derive and compute nonlinear, non‐stationary and non‐Gaussian stochastic characterizations for both amplitude and phase noise. We arrive at results that are distinctly different when compared with the ones obtained previously for oscillators with asymptotic phase. We compare and verify our analytical results against extensive Monte Carlo simulations. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Self-Reported Periodontal Disease: Validation in an Epidemiological Survey.

BACKGROUND Evidence is accumulating to support poor oral health as a risk factor for systemic conditions, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes control, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and pneumonia. Prohibitive costs for clinical assessment of periodontal disease limit information to assess the prevalence and trends of periodontal diseases in the United States population. However, self-report is used widely to assess economically the population-based prevalence of various medical conditions and health-related behaviors and characteristics. METHODS The goal of this secondary data analysis was to identify self-report items sufficiently correlated with clinical periodontal disease for use via face-to-face or telephone interviews. Data for analysis were collected for a project focused on oral health that included face-to-face interview items regarding oral health-related self-care, professional care, and barriers; knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes; risk behavior; impact on quality of life; and demographic characteristics. Also, participants had complete oral examinations. RESULTS Logistic regression analyses identified self-reported items contributing to two sets of models predicting moderate or severe periodontal disease (MODSEV) and severe periodontal disease (SEV). Age, gender, race/ethnicity, smoking, and periodontal health-related self-report items constituted predictive models with maximum sensitivity and specificity of 71% and 83%, respectively, with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.85 (as a measure of accuracy) for MODSEV. For SEV, predictive models' maximum sensitivity and specificity were 92% and 53%, respectively, with a maximum AUC of 0.92. CONCLUSION These analyses suggest that self-report may be valid for surveillance of periodontal disease burden and trends in the American population, in lieu of more costly clinical periodontal examinations.
Antifungal Effects of Lipopeptide Produced by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BH072

An antifungal lipopeptide iturin A with strong activity against Fusarium oxysporum was produced by honey isolated strain Bacillus amyloliquefaciens BH072. For large-scale biocontrol application, the antifungal effect was deeply demonstrated by structure and mode of action. Cyclic structure and second structure were determined based on situ acid hydrolysis and Fourier Transformed-Infra Red (FT-IR) Spectra analysis. Structure of α-helix was predicted which might be associated with activity. Afterwards, antifungal mechanism of iturin A on F. oxysporum were investigated from fungal cell wall to the plasma membrane and finally to intracellular proteins by morphological, activity of alkaline phosphatase (AKP), conductivity, Malondialdehyde (MDA) and SDS-PAGE detection. Antifungal damage appears on not only the spore germination and mycelium growth of F. oxysporum, but also the leakage of cellular proteins. Moreover, growth of F. oxysporum could be inhibited in the presence of iturin A at a MIC of 2.5 mg/mL. Considered with its high production in previous work, B. amyloliquefaciens strain BH072 and iturin A might be a promising candidate for biocontrol.
A conformational checkpoint between DNA binding and cleavage by CRISPR-Cas9

A conformational checkpoint of Cas9 enables on-target cleavage while blocking access to the active state at off-target sites. The Cas9 endonuclease is widely used for genome engineering applications by programming its single-guide RNA, and ongoing work is aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of DNA targeting. DNA cleavage of Cas9 is controlled by the conformational state of the HNH nuclease domain, but the mechanism that governs HNH activation at on-target DNA while reducing cleavage activity at off-target sites remains poorly understood. Using single-molecule Förster resonance energy transfer, we identified an intermediate state of Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9, representing a conformational checkpoint between DNA binding and cleavage. Upon DNA binding, the HNH domain transitions between multiple conformations before docking into its active state. HNH docking requires divalent cations, but not strand scission, and this docked conformation persists following DNA cleavage. Sequence mismatches between the DNA target and guide RNA prevent transitions from the checkpoint intermediate to the active conformation, providing selective avoidance of DNA cleavage at stably bound off-target sites.
SIRT3 Silencing Sensitizes Breast Cancer Cells to Cytotoxic Treatments Through an Increment in ROS Production

SIRT3, the major deacetylase in mitochondria, plays a crucial role modulating ROS production and scavenging by regulating key proteins implicated in mitochondrial turnover and in antioxidant defenses. Therefore, SIRT3 could confer resistance to chemotherapy‐induced oxidative stress, leading to a lower ROS production and a higher cell survival. Our aim was to analyze whether SIRT3 silencing in breast cancer cells through a specific siRNA could increase oxidative stress and thus compromise the antioxidant response, resulting in a sensitization of the cells to cisplatin (CDDP) or tamoxifen (TAM). For this purpose, we studied cell viability, ROS production, apoptosis and autophagy in MCF‐7 and T47D cell lines treated with these cytotoxic compounds, these either alone, or in combination with SIRT3 silencing. Moreover, protein levels regulated by SIRT3 were also examined and survival curves were analyzed to study the importance of SIRT3 expression for the overall survival of breast cancer patients. When SIRT3 was silenced and combined with cytotoxic treatments, cell viability was highly decreased, and was accompanied by a significant increase in ROS production. While TAM treatment increased autophagic cell death, CDDP significantly triggered apoptosis, whereas SIRT3 silencing produced an enhancement of these two action mechanisms. SIRT3 knockdown also affected PGC‐1α and TFAM (mitochondrial biogenesis), and MnSOD and IDH2 (antioxidant defenses) protein levels. Finally, survival curves showed that higher SIRT3 expression is correlated to a poorer prognosis for patients with grade 3 breast cancer. In conclusion, SIRT3 could be a therapeutic target for breast cancer, improving the effectiveness of CDDP and TAM treatments. J. Cell. Biochem. 118: 397–406, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants for pulmonary embolism: who, where and for how long?

ABSTRACT Introduction: Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is a relatively common cardiopulmonary emergency that is a major cause of hospitalization and morbidity and is the primary cause of mortality associated with venous thromboembolism (VTE). During the last decade, one of the biggest changes in the management of PE has been the approval of four non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants (NOACs; apixaban, dabigatran, edoxaban and rivaroxaban) for the treatment of PE and deep vein thrombosis and secondary prevention of VTE. Areas covered: This article reviews the evolving management of PE in the NOAC era and addresses three fundamental questions: who should receive NOACs over conventional heparin/vitamin K antagonist regimens for the treatment of acute PE; should patients be treated as inpatients or outpatients; and how long should patients be treated to reduce the risk of recurrence? Expert commentary: The management of PE is changing. NOACs provide new anticoagulant treatment options for patients with PE, based on Phase III clinical study results. The consistent efficacy and safety profile of NOACs across many PE patient subgroups, including the elderly, fragile patients, those with active cancer and high-risk (right ventricular dysfunction) patients, suggests NOAC use will increase among these patients.
Structural Characterisation of Tpx from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis Reveals Insights into the Binding of Salicylidene Acylhydrazide Compounds

Thiol peroxidase, Tpx, has been shown to be a target protein of the salicylidene acylhydrazide class of antivirulence compounds. In this study we present the crystal structures of Tpx from Y. pseudotuberculosis (ypTpx) in the oxidised and reduced states, together with the structure of the C61S mutant. The structures solved are consistent with previously solved atypical 2-Cys thiol peroxidases, including that for “forced” reduced states using the C61S mutant. In addition, by investigating the solution structure of ypTpx using small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), we have confirmed that reduced state ypTpx in solution is a homodimer. The solution structure also reveals flexibility around the dimer interface. Notably, the conformational changes observed between the redox states at the catalytic triad and at the dimer interface have implications for substrate and inhibitor binding. The structural data were used to model the binding of two salicylidene acylhydrazide compounds to the oxidised structure of ypTpx. Overall, the study provides insights into the binding of the salicylidene acylhydrazides to ypTpx, aiding our long-term strategy to understand the mode of action of this class of compounds.
Firework: Data Processing and Sharing for Hybrid Cloud-Edge Analytics

Now we are entering the era of the Internet of Everything (IoE) and billions of sensors and actuators are connected to the network. As one of the most sophisticated IoE applications, real-time video analytics is promising to significantly improve public safety, business intelligence, and healthcare & life science, among others. However, cloud-centric video analytics requires that all video data must be preloaded to a centralized cluster or the cloud, which suffers from high response latency and high cost of data transmission, given the scale of zettabytes of video data generated by IoE devices. Moreover, video data is rarely shared among multiple stakeholders due to various concerns, which restricts the practical deployment of video analytics that takes advantages of many data sources to make smart decisions. Furthermore, there is no efficient programming interface for developers and users to easily program and deploy IoE applications across geographically distributed computation resources. In this paper, we present a new computing framework, Firework, which facilitates distributed data processing and sharing for IoE applications via a virtual shared data view and service composition. We designed an easy-to-use programming interface for Firework to allow developers to program on Firework. This paper describes the system design, implementation, and programming interface of Firework. The experimental results of a video analytics application demonstrate that Firework reduces up to 19.52 percent of response latency and at least 72.77 percent of network bandwidth cost, compared to a cloud-centric solution.
Locally Up-regulated Lymphotoxin α, Not Systemic Tumor Necrosis Factor α, Is the Principle Mediator of Murine Cerebral Malaria

Cerebral malaria (CM) causes death in children and nonimmune adults. TNF-α has been thought to play a key role in the development of CM. In contrast, the role of the related cyto-kine lymphotoxin α (LTα) in CM has been overlooked. Here we show that LTα, not TNFα, is the principal mediator of murine CM. Mice deficient in TNFα (B6.TNFα−/−) were as susceptible to CM caused by Plasmodium berghei (ANKA) as C57BL/6 mice, and died 6 to 8 d after infection after developing neurological signs of CM, associated with perivascular brain hemorrhage. Significantly, the development of CM in B6. TNFα−/− mice was not associated with increased intracellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 expression on cerebral vasculature and the intraluminal accumulation of complement receptor 3 (CR3)-positive leukocytes was moderate. In contrast, mice deficient in LTα (B6.LTα−/−) were completely resistant to CM and died 11 to 14 d after infection with severe anemia and hyperparasitemia. No difference in blood parasite burden was found between C57BL/6, B6. TNFα−/−, and B6. LTα−/− mice at the onset of CM symptoms in the two susceptible strains. In addition, studies in bone marrow (BM) chimeric mice showed the persistence of cerebral LTα mRNA after irradiation and engraftment of LTα-deficient BM, indicating that LTα originated from a radiation-resistant cell population.
Estimating Weekly Urine Flow Rate And Residual Kidney Urea Clearance: A Method To Deal With Interdialytic Variability

Both urine volume and residual kidney clearances are known to increase over the course of an interdialytic interval. However, no strategy has been proposed for adjusting data from an interdialytic urine collection to a weekly value for urine flow rate or residual kidney urea clearance. Data from a reanalysis of published results allows a proposal for such an adjustment, which assigns a relative value to each dialysis day of the week based on its distance from a preceding hemodialysis treatment. The strategy also identifies which urine collection periods and interdialytic intervals give results that should be most representative of weekly average values.
Modified approach for keratinized tissue augmentation in multiple teeth

This case report demonstrated a modified technique of free gingival graft (FGG) aiming to increase keratinized attached tissue in large recipient areas. A FGG to increase the amount of attached gingival tissue, facilitate oral hygiene, and prevent further clinical attachment loss was realized in two patients. Because the extensive recipient area, a modified technique was performed to obtain a smaller graft of the donor area. A template of the graft was made about 25%–30% smaller than the total recipient area. After graft removal, interspersed incisions were made in the upper and lower edges of it. After 9–24 months of follow-up, the final width of the keratinized tissue was 4.0–4.4 times larger in comparison to initial clinical condition. In conclusion, this FGG technique can be considered an alternative to gain sufficient amount of keratinized gingival tissue using a smaller graft.
Transcriptome Analysis and SNP Development Can Resolve Population Differentiation of Streblospio benedicti, a Developmentally Dimorphic Marine Annelid

Next-generation sequencing technology is now frequently being used to develop genomic tools for non-model organisms, which are generally important for advancing studies of evolutionary ecology. One such species, the marine annelid Streblospio benedicti, is an ideal system to study the evolutionary consequences of larval life history mode because the species displays a rare offspring dimorphism termed poecilogony, where females can produce either many small offspring or a few large ones. To further develop S. benedicti as a model system for studies of life history evolution, we apply 454 sequencing to characterize the transcriptome for embryos, larvae, and juveniles of this species, for which no genomic resources are currently available. Here we performed a de novo alignment of 336,715 reads generated by a quarter GS-FLX (Roche 454) run, which produced 7,222 contigs. We developed a novel approach for evaluating the site frequency spectrum across the transcriptome to identify potential signatures of selection. We also developed 84 novel single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers for this species that are used to distinguish coastal populations of S. benedicti. We validated the SNPs by genotyping individuals of different developmental modes using the BeadXPress Golden Gate assay (Illumina). This allowed us to evaluate markers that may be associated with life-history mode.
What can speech production errors tell us about cross-linguistic processing in bilingual aphasia? Evidence from four English/Afrikaans bilingual individuals with aphasia

Introduction The aim of this study is contribute to clinical practice of bilinguals around the globe, as well as to add to our understanding of bilingual aphasia processing, by analysing confrontation naming data from four Afrikaans/English bilingual individuals with acquired aphasia due to a left hemisphere stroke. Methods This is a case series analysis of four Afrikaans/English bilingual aphasic individuals following a left cerebrovascular accident. Error analysis of confrontation naming data in both languages was performed. Research questions were directed toward the between language differences in lexical retrieval abilities, types of errors produced and degree of cognate overlap. Results Three of the four participants showed significantly higher naming accuracy in first acquired language (L1) relative to the second acquired language (L2) and the largest proportion of error type for those three participants in both L1 and L2 was omission. One of the four participants (linguistically balanced) showed no between language accuracy difference. Regarding cognate overlap, there was a trend for higher accuracy for higher cognate words (compared to low). Discussion This study showed that naming performance in these four individuals was reflective of their relative language proficiency and use patterns prior to their stroke. These findings are consistent with the hierarchical model, in normal bilingual speakers and with persons with bilingual aphasia.
Flame-retardant Polyamide 11 and 12 Nanocomposites: Processing, Morphology, and Mechanical Properties

The objective of this study is to develop improved polyamide (nylon) 11 (PA11) and 12 (PA12) polymers with enhanced flame retardancy, thermal, and mechanical properties for selective laser sintering rapid manufacturing. PA11 and PA12 were melt-blended, dispersing low concentrations of nanoparticles, namely nanoclays (NCs), carbon nanofibers (CNFs), and nanosilicas (NSs) via twin-screw extrusion. To enhance their thermal and flammability properties, an intumescent flame retardant (FR) was added to the mechanically superior NC and CNF PA11 formulations. NC or CNF additions to either PA11 or PA12 generally increased its tensile strength and modulus, but sharply reduced its elongation at rupture. FR additives reduced PA11’s properties considerably. This substitution, however, only exacerbated the already steep drop in elongation at rupture due to FR additives alone; while elongation dropped 58% with the addition of 30 wt% FR, it dropped 98% with the addition of 25 wt% FR/5 wt% CNF.