Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Predictors of Inconsistent Condom Use among a Hard to Reach Population of Young Women with Multiple Sexual Partners in Peri-Urban South Africa

Background Evidence suggests that multiple concurrent sexual partnering may be a key driver of the high HIV prevalence among young women in South Africa. However, little is known about whether and to what extent women who have multiple sexual partners also engage in other high risk sexual behaviors such as inconsistent condom use. And yet, multiple concurrent sexual partnering is of little epidemiological relevance if all partners in these sexual networks use condoms consistently. This study assesses the prevalence of sexual risk behaviors and HIV, and predictors of inconsistent condom use among women aged 16–24 with multiple sexual partners in a peri-urban setting in South Africa. Methods We used Respondent Driven Sampling, a sampling strategy for hard-to-reach populations to recruit 259 women aged 16–24 in a bio-behavioral cross-sectional survey in the Western Cape province. Estimates of population proportions and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using the Respondent-Driven Sampling Analysis Tool 5.6 (RDSAT). The primary outcome was inconsistent condom use in the past three months. Results Young women reported an average of 7 partners in the past 3 months and a high prevalence of sexual risk behaviors: concurrency (87%), transactional sex (91%) and age mixing (59%). Having >5 sexual partners in the last 3 months doubled the risk of unprotected sex (OR 2.43, CI 1.39–4.25). HIV prevalence was 4% among 16–19 year olds, increasing threefold (12%) at age 20–24. Discussion Multiple sexual partnering, where a high number of partners are acquired in a short space of time, is a fertile context for unprotected and risky sexual behavior. The young women featured in this survey present with a constellation of high-risk sexual behaviors that cluster to form a risk syndrome. Carefully tailored repeat bio-behavioral surveillance surveys are recommended for this sub-population.
Social Network Analysis as a Methodological Approach to Explore Health Systems: A Case Study Exploring Support among Senior Managers/Executives in a Hospital Network

Health systems research recognizes the complexity of healthcare, and the interacting and interdependent nature of components of a health system. To better understand such systems, innovative methods are required to depict and analyze their structures. This paper describes social network analysis as a methodology to depict, diagnose, and evaluate health systems and networks therein. Social network analysis is a set of techniques to map, measure, and analyze social relationships between people, teams, and organizations. Through use of a case study exploring support relationships among senior managers in a newly established hospital group, this paper illustrates some of the commonly used network- and node-level metrics in social network analysis, and demonstrates the value of these maps and metrics to understand systems. Network analysis offers a valuable approach to health systems and services researchers as it offers a means to depict activity relevant to network questions of interest, to identify opinion leaders, influencers, clusters in the network, and those individuals serving as bridgers across clusters. The strengths and limitations inherent in the method are discussed, and the applications of social network analysis in health services research are explored.
Composition and Distribution of Extracellular Polymeric Substances in Aerobic Flocs and Granular Sludge

ABSTRACT Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) were quantified in flocculent and aerobic granular sludge developed in two sequencing batch reactors with the same shear force but different settling times. Several EPS extraction methods were compared to investigate how different methods affect EPS chemical characterization, and fluorescent stains were used to visualize EPS in intact samples and 20-μm cryosections. Reactor 1 (operated with a 10-min settle) enriched predominantly flocculent sludge with a sludge volume index (SVI) of 120 ± 12 ml g−1, and reactor 2 (2-min settle time) formed compact aerobic granules with an SVI of 50 ± 2 ml g−1. EPS extraction by using a cation-exchange resin showed that proteins were more dominant than polysaccharides in all samples, and the protein content was 50% more in granular EPS than flocculent EPS. NaOH and heat extraction produced a higher protein and polysaccharide content from cell lysis. In situ EPS staining of granules showed that cells and polysaccharides were localized to the outer edge of granules, whereas the center was comprised mostly of proteins. These observations confirm the chemical extraction data and indicate that granule formation and stability are dependent on a noncellular, protein core. The comparison of EPS methods explains how significant cell lysis and contamination by dead biomass leads to different and opposing conclusions.
Validation of a Method for Cylindrospermopsin Determination in Vegetables: Application to Real Samples Such as Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)

Reports on the occurrence of the cyanobacterial toxin cylindrospermopsin (CYN) have increased worldwide because of CYN toxic effects in humans and animals. If contaminated waters are used for plant irrigation, these could represent a possible CYN exposure route for humans. For the first time, a method employing solid phase extraction and quantification by ultra-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) of CYN was optimized in vegetables matrices such as lettuce (Lactuca sativa). The validated method showed a linear range, from 5 to 500 ng CYN g−1 of fresh weight (f.w.), and detection and quantitation limits (LOD and LOQ) of 0.22 and 0.42 ng CYN g−1 f.w. , respectively. The mean recoveries ranged between 85 and 104%, and the intermediate precision from 12.7 to 14.7%. The method showed to be robust for the three different variables tested. Moreover, it was successfully applied to quantify CYN in edible lettuce leaves exposed to CYN-contaminated water (10 µg L−1), showing that the tolerable daily intake (TDI) in the case of CYN could be exceeded in elderly high consumers. The validated method showed good results in terms of sensitivity, precision, accuracy, and robustness for CYN determination in leaf vegetables such as lettuce. More studies are needed in order to prevent the risks associated with the consumption of CYN-contaminated vegetables.
Dosages of cold‐water immersion post exercise on functional and clinical responses: a randomized controlled trial

Cold‐water immersion (CWI) is one of the recovery techniques commonly used by athletes for post‐exercise recovery. Nevertheless, the effects of CWI using different temperatures and the dose–response relationship of this technique have not yet been investigated. The aims of this study were to compare the effects of two strategies of CWI, using different water temperatures with passive recovery post exercise in the management of some markers of muscle damage, and to observe whether any of the techniques used caused deleterious effects on performance. Sixty healthy male participants performed an eccentric protocol to induce muscle damage and were then randomized to one of three groups (CWI1: 15 min at 9 °C; CWI2: 15 min at 14 °C; CG: control group). Levels of creatine kinase, muscle soreness, pain threshold, perception of recovery, and maximal voluntary isometric contraction were monitored up to 96 h post exercise. A large effect for time for all outcomes was observed [P < 0.001; CK (ES = 0.516), muscle soreness (ES = 0.368); pain threshold (ES = 0.184); perception of recovery (ES = 0.565); MVIC (ES = 0.273)]. CWI groups presented an earlier recovery for muscle soreness with lower ratings immediately post recovery. For delayed effects, the application of CWI2 (15 min at 14 °C) presented earlier recovery compared with CWI1 and control condition for maximal voluntary isometric contraction (P < 0.05). There were no significant group and interaction (Group × Time) effects. CWI groups acted more efficiently for muscle soreness and performance considering the time of recovery was observed. No evidence was found to suggest dose–response relationship and deleterious effects.
Gender Differences in Perceived Importance and Performance of Penang Island Attributes

This paper examines the gender differences in perceived importance and performance of Penang Island attributes. The data was drawn from questionnaire survey of 801 international tourists who visited the island between August and November 2012. Previous studies related to gender differences in Malaysian destinations are found scarce and neglected, thus this paper aims to bridge this knowledge gap. The needs to study gender differences are related to the suggestions that men and women engage in different leisure activities, possess different travel motivations and perceive differently when embarking for holiday. The study found a number of gender similarities and differences between the men and women tourists, in terms of their travel style and perceptions of importance and performance of destination attributes. These results indicate that gender may not be the only influence on behaviour and perceptions, and those men and women should not be regarded as homogenous groups.
Avoidance tests as a tool to detect sublethal effects of oil‐impacted sediments

Currently, risk assessment for oil contamination does not consider behavioral responses of benthos to oil toxicity. Avoidance of oil‐contaminated sediment by benthic amphipods, however, may be a highly sensitive endpoint for sublethal effects of commonly used distillate fuels. In the present study, the avoidance behavior of temperate freshwater (Gammarus pulex) and marine (Gammarus locusta) amphipods was tested by allowing them to choose between a reference sediment and a distillate marine grade A (DMA) oil‐spiked sediment. Avoidance of DMA‐spiked sediment at 1000 mg/kg dry weight was significant within the total exposure time (96 h) in G. pulex and within the first 72 h in G. locusta in 1 of 2 tests. Absence of DMA avoidance at lower concentrations (≤250 mg/kg dry wt) indicates that test species can only detect DMA above these concentrations. However, sensitivity to oil may vary according to the phenology and physiological conditions of the populations involved, such as the species temperature tolerance and reproductive stage. The results suggest that avoidance tests may be used as an alternative to traditional chronic toxicity tests provided that a causal link between avoidance and long‐term effects can be established. Environ Toxicol Chem 2018;37:1757–1766. © 2018 SETAC
Digital Surveillance: A Novel Approach to Monitoring the Illegal Wildlife Trade

A dearth of information obscures the true scale of the global illegal trade in wildlife. Herein, we introduce an automated web crawling surveillance system developed to monitor reports on illegally traded wildlife. A resource for enforcement officials as well as the general public, the freely available website, http://www.healthmap. org/wildlifetrade, provides a customizable visualization of worldwide reports on interceptions of illegally traded wildlife and wildlife products. From August 1, 2010 to July 31, 2011, publicly available English language illegal wildlife trade reports from official and unofficial sources were collected and categorized by location and species involved. During this interval, 858 illegal wildlife trade reports were collected from 89 countries. Countries with the highest number of reports included India (n = 146, 15.6%), the United States (n = 143, 15.3%), South Africa (n = 75, 8.0%), China (n = 41, 4.4%), and Vietnam (n = 37, 4.0%). Species reported as traded or poached included elephants (n = 107, 12.5%), rhinoceros (n = 103, 12.0%), tigers (n = 68, 7.9%), leopards (n = 54, 6.3%), and pangolins (n = 45, 5.2%). The use of unofficial data sources, such as online news sites and social networks, to collect information on international wildlife trade augments traditional approaches drawing on official reporting and presents a novel source of intelligence with which to monitor and collect news in support of enforcement against this threat to wildlife conservation worldwide.
Concerns and coping of African-American mothers after youth assault requiring emergency medical treatment.

OBJECTIVE To explore maternal experience following youth assault occurring in the community. METHODS A semistructured interview was used to elicit concerns and coping strategies among 35 African-American mothers whose children received emergency department (ED) treatment for assault-related injuries. Mothers also completed measures of violence exposure, trauma symptoms, social support, and youth functioning. RESULTS The most common concerns involved family safety, maternal mental health, and youth externalizing behavior. Faith and social support were the most common coping strategies. High levels of distress were found, which were directly related to maternal violence exposure, relationships that required mothers to nurture others, and youth functioning. Distress was inversely related to relationships that provided guidance from others. CONCLUSION Distress is common among low-income African-American mothers of youth assault victims. To bolster youth recovery and to reduce the risk of future injury, ED staff should be knowledgeable regarding culturally sensitive resources to address maternal distress.
Human genetic variation in VAC14 regulates Salmonella invasion and typhoid fever through modulation of cholesterol

Significance Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) causes ∼20 million cases of typhoid fever every year. We carried out a genome-wide association study to identify genetic differences that correlate with the susceptibility of cells from hundreds of individuals to S. Typhi invasion. A SNP in VAC14 was associated with susceptibility to S. Typhi invasion and VAC14 expression. Cells mutated for VAC14 displayed increased S. Typhi docking due to increased plasma membrane cholesterol levels. The same SNP was associated with risk of typhoid fever in a Vietnamese population. Furthermore, treating zebrafish with a cholesterol-lowering drug reduced their susceptibility to S. Typhi infection. Therefore, this work demonstrates the power of coupling multiple genetic association studies with mechanistic dissection for understanding infectious disease susceptibility. Risk, severity, and outcome of infection depend on the interplay of pathogen virulence and host susceptibility. Systematic identification of genetic susceptibility to infection is being undertaken through genome-wide association studies, but how to expeditiously move from genetic differences to functional mechanisms is unclear. Here, we use genetic association of molecular, cellular, and human disease traits and experimental validation to demonstrate that genetic variation affects expression of VAC14, a phosphoinositide-regulating protein, to influence susceptibility to Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi) infection. Decreased VAC14 expression increased plasma membrane cholesterol, facilitating Salmonella docking and invasion. This increased susceptibility at the cellular level manifests as increased susceptibility to typhoid fever in a Vietnamese population. Furthermore, treating zebrafish with a cholesterol-lowering agent, ezetimibe, reduced susceptibility to S. Typhi. Thus, coupling multiple genetic association studies with mechanistic dissection revealed how VAC14 regulates Salmonella invasion and typhoid fever susceptibility and may open doors to new prophylactic/therapeutic approaches.
Ensembles in Medial and Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Construct Cognitive Maps Emphasizing Different Features of the Behavioral Landscape

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) has long been implicated in the ability to use the current value of expected outcomes to guide behavior. More recently, this specific role has been conceptualized as a special case of a more general function that OFC plays in constructing a “cognitive map” of the behavioral task space by labeling the current task state and learning relationships among task states. Here, we have used single unit recording data from 2 prior studies to examine whether and how information relating different states within and across trials is represented in medial versus lateral OFC in rats. Using a hierarchical clustering analysis, we examined how neurons from each area represented information about differently valued trial types, defined by the cue–outcome pairings, versus how those same neurons represented information about similar epochs between these different trial types, such as the stimulus sample, delay, and reward consumption epochs. This analysis revealed that ensembles in the lateral OFC (lOFC) group states according to trial epoch, whereas those in the medial OFC (mOFC) organize the same states by trial type. These results suggest that the lOFC and mOFC construct cognitive maps that emphasize different features of the behavioral landscape, with lOFC tracking events based on local similarities, irrespective of their values and mOFC tracking more distal or higher order relationships relevant to value.
Are Police Personnel in Puducherry Healthy? Findings from “Partners in Prevention” Programme in Puducherry, India

Background: Prevalence of cardiovascular diseases are reported to be high in police force, which constitute a special occupational group. “Partners in Prevention” was a special surveillance activity carried out among the personnel of the Department of Police, Government of Puducherry by JIPMER, Puducherry. The present study reports the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and other cardiovascular risk factors in this group. Materials and Methods: The design was cross-sectional analytical study covering 1618 policemen during 2013–15. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for collecting data. Anthropometric and biochemical measurements were carried out using standard techniques. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed using the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) consensus worldwide definition. Statistical analysis was performed using the IBM- SPSS 21 software. Results: The mean (SD) age of the participants was 45.7 (10.1) years. Majority (90%) of the participants were males and were in the age group of 30–59 years. Metabolic syndrome was observed in two-fifth (42%) of the study population. We found the prevalence as: hypertension (45.2%), abnormal HDL levels (62.3%), diabetes (34.7.1%), and high body mass index of >=25 kg/m2 (60.5%). Conclusion: Our study identified that police personnel were having high CVDs and risk factors. It calls for an urgent need to initiate screening and secondary prevention programmes.
Rapid Screening and Identification of Diterpenoids in Tinospora sinensis Based on High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Coupled with Linear Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry

Diterpenoids are considered the major active compounds in Tinospora sinensis in virtue of their special structures and activities. Herein, an analytical method was developed for rapid screening and identification of diterpenoids in T. sinensis using high-performmance liquid chromatography coupled with linear ion trap-Orbitrap mass spectrometry (HPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap) in negative ion mode. Two diterpenoid reference standards were first analyzed to obtain their characteristic ESI-MS/MS fragmentation patterns. Then, based on the extracted ion chromatogram (EIC) data-mining method and characteristic fragmentation pathways analysis, diterpenoids in T. sinensis were rapidly screened and identified. After that, an important parameter, Clog P, was adopted to discriminate between the isomers of diterpenoids. As a result, 63 diterpenoids were characterized from the extract of T. sinensis, including 10 diterpenoids and 53 diterpenoid glycosides. Among them, 15 compounds were tentatively identified as new compounds. Finally, target isolation of one diterpenoid glycoside named tinosineside A was performed based on the obtained results, which further confirmed the deduced fragmentation patterns and identified diterpenoid profile in T. sinensis. The results demonstrated that the established method could be a rapid, effective analytical tool for screening and characterization of diterpenoids in the complex systems of natural medicines.
Photosynthetic phenological variation may promote coexistence among co-dominant tree species in a Madrean sky island mixed conifer forest

Across much of western North America, forests are predicted to experience a transition from snow- to rain-dominated precipitation regimes due to anthropogenic climate warming. Madrean sky island mixed conifer forests receive a large portion of their precipitation from summertime convective storms and may serve as a lens into the future for snow-dominated forests after prolonged warming. To better understand the linkage between physiological traits, climate variation, and the structure and function of mixed conifer forests, we measured leaf photosynthetic (A) responses to controlled variation in internal CO2 concentration (Ci) to quantify interspecific phenological variation in A/Ci-derived ecophysiological traits among ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson and C. Lawson), southwestern white pine (Pinus strobiformis Engelm.) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco). Species had similar, positive responses in net photosynthesis under ambient conditions (Anet) to the onset of summertime monsoonal precipitation, but during the cooler portions of the year P. ponderosa was able to maintain greater Anet than P. menziesii and P. strobiformis. Moreover, P. ponderosa had greater Anet in response to ephemerally favorable springtime conditions than either P. menziesii or P. strobiformis. Monsoonal precipitation was associated with a sharp rise in the maximum rates of electron transport (Jmax) and carboxylation (VCmax) in P. menziesii in comparison with P. ponderosa and P. strobiformis. In contrast, species shared similar low values of Jmax and VCmax in response to cool winter temperatures. Patterns of relative stomatal limitation followed predictions based on species' elevational distributions, reinforcing the role of stomatal behavior in maintaining hydraulic conductivity and shaping bioclimatic limits. Phenological variation in ecophysiologial traits among co-occurring tree species in a Madrean mixed conifer forest may promote temporal resource partitioning and thereby contribute to species' coexistence. Moreover, these results provide a physiological basis for predicting the ecological implications of North American mixed conifer forests currently transitioning from snow- to rain-dominated precipitation regimes.
Dementia Prevalence in Greece: The Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD)

Introduction: Study of the epidemiology of dementia to gain insight into putative predisposing and prophylactic factors is the first step toward establishing effective preventive and therapeutic strategies for this ever-growing public health problem. Relevant data in Greece are scattered and outdated. Methods: We investigated dementia prevalence as part of a population-representative epidemiological study [Hellenic Longitudinal Investigation of Aging and Diet (HELIAD)] in 2 Greek regions. Results: Our sample comprised 1792 adults 65 years of age or older, who received a full neurological and neuropsychological evaluation that led to a consensus diagnosis. The overall prevalence of dementia was 5.0%, with 75.3% of the cases attributed to Alzheimer disease. Dementia odds were 15.8% higher for every year of advancing age and 9.4% lower for every additional year of education. Carrying at least 1 APOE-&egr;4 allele doubled the risk of dementia, whereas sex did not exert a statistically significant effect. Conclusions: Our results are consistent with previous research in Southern European countries; dementia prevalence in Greece is in the lower range of what has been reported globally.