Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Household Storage of Medicines and Associated Factors in Tigray Region, Northern Ethiopia

Introduction The presence of medicines in households is a risk factor for irrational drug use. This study aimed at investigating the prevalence and factors associated with home storage of medicines in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. Method A community based cross-sectional study was conducted in April 2013 in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. A total of 1034 participants were enrolled in the study. A multi-stage sampling method was employed to select households. Data were collected with the help of a pre-tested structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Result Of the total households visited, 293(29%) stored drugs. The mean number of drugs per household was 1.73. The most common classes of drugs found in households were analgesics 149(29%) and antibiotics 128(25%). Most of the medicines kept in households were used for ongoing treatments 316(62%) and available in tablet dosage form (70%). More than half of the medications kept at homes were not adequately labeled while drawer 180(36%) were reported as the main place of drug storage. The proportion of home storage of medicines in rural area (AOR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.39–0.81) was lower than that of urban area. However, households having family member(s) working in health facilities (AOR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.09–3.77) were associated with an increased home storage of medicines. Conclusion Most drugs kept at home were not appropriately labeled and stored in a safe place. Residence area (rural versus urban) and the presence of health professional(s) in the households affects household drug storage. Hence, public education campaign should be considered as an intervention to improve the storage condition of medicines in the households.
When a Stone Tries to Climb up a Slope: The Interplay between Lexical and Perceptual Animacy in Referential Choices

Several studies suggest that referential choices are influenced by animacy. On the one hand, animate referents are more likely to be mentioned as subjects than inanimate referents. On the other hand, animate referents are more frequently pronominalized than inanimate referents. These effects have been analyzed as effects of conceptual accessibility. In this paper, we raise the question whether these effects are driven only by lexical concepts, such that referents described by animate lexical items (e.g., “toddler”) are more accessible than referents described by inanimate lexical items (e.g., “shoe”), or can also be influenced by context-derived conceptualizations, such that referents that are perceived as animate in a particular context are more accessible than referents that are not. In two animation-retelling experiments, conducted in Dutch, we investigated the influence of lexical and perceptual animacy on the choice of referent and the choice of referring expression. If the effects of animacy are context-dependent, entities that are perceived as animate should yield more subject references and more pronouns than entities that are perceived as inanimate, irrespective of their lexical animacy. If the effects are tied to lexical concepts, entities described with animate lexical items should be mentioned as the subject and pronominalized more frequently than entities described with inanimate lexical items, irrespective of their perceptual animacy. The results show that while only lexical animacy appears to affect the choice of subject referent, perceptual animacy may overrule lexical animacy in the choice of referring expression. These findings suggest that referential choices can be influenced by conceptualizations based on the perceptual context.
Human Anti-Varicella-Zoster Virus (VZV) Recombinant Monoclonal Antibody Produced after Zostavax Immunization Recognizes the gH/gL Complex and Neutralizes VZV Infection

ABSTRACT Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) is a ubiquitous, highly cell-associated, and exclusively human neurotropic alphaherpesvirus. VZV infection is initiated by membrane fusion, an event dependent in part on VZV glycoproteins gH and gL. Consistent with its location on the virus envelope, the gH/gL complex is a target of neutralizing antibodies produced after virus infection. One week after immunizing a 59-year-old VZV-seropositive man with Zostavax, we sorted his circulating blood plasma blasts and amplified expressed immunoglobulin variable domain sequences by single-cell PCR. Sequence analysis identified two plasma blast clones, one of which was used to construct a recombinant monoclonal antibody (rec-RC IgG). The rec-RC IgG colocalized with VZV gE on the membranes of VZV-infected cells and neutralized VZV infection in tissue culture. Mass spectrometric analysis of proteins immunoprecipitated by rec-RC IgG identified both VZV gH and gL. Transfection experiments showed that rec-RC IgG recognized a VZV gH/gL protein complex but not individual gH or gL proteins. Overall, our recombinant monoclonal anti-VZV antibody effectively neutralizes VZV and recognizes a conformational epitope within the VZV gH/L protein complex. An unlimited supply of this antibody provides the opportunity to analyze membrane fusion events that follow virus attachment and to identify multiple epitopes on VZV-specific proteins.
Lorentz transformation and light-like noncommutative SYM

We show that combining the spatial noncommutative SYM limit and Lorentz transformation, one can obtain a well-behaved light-like noncommutative SYM limit. The light-like noncommutative SYM is unitary. When the boost velocity is finite, the resulting theory with space-time noncommutativity is unitary as well. The light-like noncommutative SYM limit can also be approached by combining the noncommutative open string theory limit and Lorentz transformation. Along this line, we obtain the supergravity dual for the light-like noncommutative SYM, which is the same as the one acquired using a different method. As a comparison, the supergravity duals for the ordinary SYM, spatial noncommutative SYM and the noncommutative open string theories are given as well, in an infinitely-boosted frame with finite momentum density, which are the decoupling limits of bound states (Dp, W), (D(p−2), W, Dp), and (F1, W, Dp), respectively.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Progressive Brain Changes in Schizophrenia Related to Antipsychotic Treatment? a Meta-analysis of Longitudinal Mri Studies

Context: Antipsychotic treatment is the first-line treatment option for schizophrenia. Individual studies suggested they can significantly affect brain structure and account for progressive brain changes observed during the illness. Objectives: To quantitatively examine the effect of antipsychotics as compared to illness related factors on progressive brain changes in schizophrenia. Data sources: Electronic databases were searched until April 2012. All magnetic resonance imaging studies reporting progressive brain changes in schizophrenia subjects and antipsychotic exposure were retrieved. Study selection: 30 longitudinal MRI studies with antipsychotic administration in schizophrenia patients met the inclusion criteria. Data extraction: Brain volumes before and after antipsychotic exposure, duration of illness, severity of psychotic symptoms as well as demographic, clinical, and methodological variables were extracted from each publication, or obtained directly from its authors. Data synthesis: The overall sample was of 1046 schizophrenia patients and 780 controls for a median duration of follow-up of 72.4 weeks. At baseline, patients showed significant whole brain volume reductions and enlarged lateral ventricle (LV) volumes compared to controls. No baseline volumetric abnormalities were detected in the gray matter volumes (GMV), white matter volumes, cerebrospinal fluid and caudate nucleus. Longitudinally, there were progressive GMV decreases and LV enlargements in patients but not in controls. The GMV decreases were inversely correlated with cumulative exposure to antipsychotic treatments, while no effects were observed for duration of illness or illness severity. Conclusions: Schizophrenia is characterized by progressive gray matter volume decreases and lateral ventricular volume increases. Some of these neuroanatomical alterations may be associated with antipsy-chotic treatment. ଝ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Topological representation of the lambda-calculus

The λ-calculus can be represented topologically by assigning certain spaces to the types and certain continuous maps to the terms. Using a recent result from category theory, the usual calculus of λ-conversion is shown to be deductively complete with respect to such topological semantics. It is also shown to be functionally complete, in the sense that there is always a 'minimal' topological model in which every continuous function is λ-definable. These results subsume earlier ones using cartesian closed categories, as well as those employing so-called Henkin and Kripke λ-models.
Optimal Design of Secrecy Massive MIMO Amplify-and-Forward Relaying Systems With Double-Resolution ADCs Antenna Array

This paper focuses on a secrecy constrained massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relaying system in terms of the optimal design of system parameters such as the optimal total number of antennas at relay, where a more practical mixed analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) scheme, double-resolution ADCs scheme, is proposed. In the proposed double-resolution ADCs scheme, the total <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antennas at relay are divided into two parts, one of which includes <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antennas with medium-resolution ADCs only requiring 5~12 quantization bits and the remainder of which consists of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antennas with low-resolution ADCs. The transmission from relay to destinations is exposed to a passive eavesdropper. For such massive MIMO relaying systems, we first derive the total achievable ergodic rates of legitimate users as well as the corresponding secrecy outage rates. Then, a reasonable energy consumption model is modeled so that the secrecy energy efficiency (SEE) is derived, where the effect of the source power, the resolutions of ADCs, and the ratio of the antenna numbers with medium- and low-resolution ADCs are exploited perfectly. The presented numerical results show that replacing high-resolution ADCs with medium-resolution ADCs is beneficial for improving the system SEE while the effect on the total achievable rate is very small. Specially, three main insights are achieved: 1) there exists an optimal value of the source power at which the SEE is optimal; 2) with given ratio <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{0} :M_{1} $ </tex-math></inline-formula>, the optimal value of quantization bits of medium-resolution ADCs is upper-bounded, under which the system has higher SEE, that is to say, we obtain the upper bound of the resolution of the medium-resolution ADCs; and 3) the optimal number of the total antennas is impacted jointly by the number <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$b_{0}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of the quantization bits of medium-resolution ADCs and the ratio <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{0} :M_{1}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. Specially, while the optimal number of the total antennas is 100 or so for the pure high-resolution ADCs systems, the one for the proposed double-resolution ADCs systems would up to 500~700. Moreover, the optimal antenna number is increasing with the decrease of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$b_{0} $ </tex-math></inline-formula> and the ratio <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$M_{0} :M_{1} $ </tex-math></inline-formula> so that the system performance can be improved further.
Effect of smoking on oral pigmentation and its relationship with periodontal status

Background: To assess the effect of smoking on lip and gingival pigmentation and also to assess the relationship of pigmentation with periodontal parameters. Materials and Methods: 109 smokers and an equal number of control subjects who were nonsmokers in the age range of 35 – 44 years comprised the study sample. All the participants were assessed for pigmentation on lip and gingiva and a total periodontal status examination was done with measurements on gingival bleeding, probing depth and loss of attachment at six points in each tooth. Results: Melanin pigmentation on lips and gingiva was observed in all the smokers except for one who did not exhibit gingival pigmentation. Significantly greater number of smokers exhibited pigmentation than nonsmokers. Gingival bleeding on probing, probing depth and loss of attachment differed significantly in relation to gingival and lip pigmentation. Conclusions: Oral pigmentation was widespread and more commonly observed in smokers than nonsmokers and there was a relationship between pigmentation and periodontal deterioration.
Survival of transplanted neural progenitor cells enhanced by brain irradiation.

OBJECT Authors of previous studies have reported that adult transplanted neural progenitor cells (NPCs) are suitable for brain cell replacement or gene delivery. In this study, the authors evaluated survival and integration of adult rat-derived NPCs after transplantation and explored the potential impact on transplant survival of various mechanical and biological factors of clinical importance. METHODS Adult female Fischer 344 rats were used both as a source and recipient of transplanted NPCs. Both 9L and RG2 rat glioma cells were used to generate in vivo brain tumor models. On the 5th day after tumor implantation, NPCs expressing green fluorescent protein (GFP) were administered either intravenously (3.5 x 10(7) cells) or by stereotactic injection (1 x 10(4)-1 x 10(6) cells) into normal or tumor-bearing brain. The authors evaluated the effect of delivery method (sharp compared with blunt needles, normal compared with zero-volume needles, phosphate-buffered saline compared with medium as vehicle), delivery sites (intravenous compared with intratumoral compared with intraparenchymal), and pretreatment with an immunosuppressive agent (cyclosporin) or brain irradiation (20-40 Gy) on survival and integration of transplanted NPCs. RESULTS Very few cells survived when less than 10(5) cells were transplanted. When 10(5) cells or more were transplanted, only previously administered brain irradiation significantly affected survival and integration of NPCs. Although GFP-containing NPCs could be readily detected 1 day after injection, few cells survived 4 days to 1 week unless preceded by whole-brain radiation (20 or 40 Gy in a single fraction), which increased the number of GFP-containing NPCs within the tissue more than fivefold. CONCLUSIONS The authors' findings indicate that most NPCs, including those from a syngeneic autologous source, do not survive at the site of implantation, but that brain irradiation can facilitate subsequent survival in both normal and tumor-bearing brain. An understanding of the mechanisms of this effect could lead to improved survival and clinical utility of transplanted NPCs.
Maximum Running Speed of Captive Bar-Headed Geese Is Unaffected by Severe Hypoxia

While bar-headed geese are renowned for migration at high altitude over the Himalayas, previous work on captive birds suggested that these geese are unable to maintain rates of oxygen consumption while running in severely hypoxic conditions. To investigate this paradox, we re-examined the running performance and heart rates of bar-headed geese and barnacle geese (a low altitude species) during exercise in hypoxia. Bar-headed geese (n = 7) were able to run at maximum speeds (determined in normoxia) for 15 minutes in severe hypoxia (7% O2; simulating the hypoxia at 8500 m) with mean heart rates of 466±8 beats min−1. Barnacle geese (n = 10), on the other hand, were unable to complete similar trials in severe hypoxia and their mean heart rate (316 beats.min−1) was significantly lower than bar-headed geese. In bar-headed geese, partial pressures of oxygen and carbon dioxide in both arterial and mixed venous blood were significantly lower during hypoxia than normoxia, both at rest and while running. However, measurements of blood lactate in bar-headed geese suggested that anaerobic metabolism was not a major energy source during running in hypoxia. We combined these data with values taken from the literature to estimate (i) oxygen supply, using the Fick equation and (ii) oxygen demand using aerodynamic theory for bar-headed geese flying aerobically, and under their own power, at altitude. This analysis predicts that the maximum altitude at which geese can transport enough oxygen to fly without environmental assistance ranges from 6,800 m to 8,900 m altitude, depending on the parameters used in the model but that such flights should be rare.
Under-Reported Aspects of Platinum Drug Pharmacology

Platinum drugs remain the backbone of many antineoplastic regimens. Among the numerous chemical or pharmacological effects of platinum drugs, some aspects tend to be under-reported. Thus, this perspective paper intends to stress some neglected properties of platinum drugs: first, the physico-chemical characteristics (aquation reaction kinetics) that determine site-specific toxicity; second, the impact on RNA molecules. Knowledge of the ‘RNA world’ has dramatically changed our understanding of cellular and molecular biology. The inherent RNA-crosslinking properties should make platinum-based drugs interact with coding and non-coding RNAs. Third, we will discuss the impact on the immune system, which is now recognized to substantially contribute to chemotherapy efficacy. Together, platinum drugs are in fact old drugs, but are worth re-focusing on. Many aspects are still mysterious but can pave the way to new drugs or an improved application of the already existing compounds.
Bmc Medical Informatics and Decision Making Support Vector Machine versus Logistic Regression Modeling for Prediction of Hospital Mortality in Critically Ill Patients with Haematological Malignancies

Background: Several models for mortality prediction have been constructed for critically ill patients with haematological malignancies in recent years. These models have proven to be equally or more accurate in predicting hospital mortality in patients with haematological malignancies than ICU severity of illness scores such as the APACHE II or SAPS II [1]. The objective of this study is to compare the accuracy of predicting hospital mortality in patients with haematological malignancies admitted to the ICU between models based on multiple logistic regression (MLR) and support vector machine (SVM) based models.
Development of Synoptic-Scale Disturbances over the Summertime Tropical Northwest Pacific

Abstract This study addresses the origin of the synoptic-scale disturbances that occur in the tropical western North Pacific ocean (WP) region in Northern Hemisphere summer. These have been called “easterly waves” and“tropical depression–type” (TD) disturbances. This analysis uses the National Center for Environmental Prediction–National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis dataset. By performing a regression analysis on several terms in the vorticity equation at 850 hPa, it is shown that the TD disturbances propagate approximately as barotropic Rossby waves at 850 hPa. Given this, ray-tracing calculations and the wave activity diagnostic introduced by Plumb are used to show that wave accumulation is a promising candidate for the initial development mechanism of the TD disturbances. The expected local “growth rate” from this mechanism is simply the convergence of the group velocity, which reaches values corresponding to a growth timescale of 3 days. This convergence is dominated by, but somewhat lar.
Correlation between Liver Function Tests and Polymerase Chain Reactionin Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

Background: Hepatitis C virus infection is currently the most significant public health problem globally and particularly in Egypt. The outcomes of HCV infection range from asymptomatic chronic infection, with normal or nearly normal liver functions, to severe chronic hepatitis, evolving rapidly to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Our objective is to asses and evaluates the relationship between liver function tests, serum HCV-RNA positivity and the severity of liver damage in chronic HCV patients. Method: We studied 329 patients with chronic HCV, they were categorized into two groups according to the PCR results: first group were positive PCR (86 %), and second group were negative PCR (14 %). Liver transaminases, total and direct bilirubin, serum albumin, HCV RNA detection and viral load by real time PCR, and liver biopsy were done to all patients. Results: This study showed that the liver transaminases were significantly higher in HCV positive patients than in HCV negative patients (p value <0.0001). We also observed that the comparison between positive PCR group with negative PCR group revealed that, there were no statistically significant difference regarding albumin, alkaline phosphate, total bilirubin , direct bilirubin and prothrombin (p=0.35, p=0.80, p=0.26, p=0.86 and p=0.99 respectively). Conclusions: high results of liver function tests may be indicator for the severity of liver damage in chronic HCV patients but also PCR should be done as some cases show normal results while its PCR was high. There is no relationship between liver function tests and the grade of activity or fibrosis.
Stem Cells Expanded from the Human Embryonic Hindbrain Stably Retain Regional Specification and High Neurogenic Potency

Stem cell lines that faithfully maintain the regional identity and developmental potency of progenitors in the human brain would create new opportunities in developmental neurobiology and provide a resource for generating specialized human neurons. However, to date, neural progenitor cultures derived from the human brain have either been short-lived or exhibit restricted, predominantly glial, differentiation capacity. Pluripotent stem cells are an alternative source, but to ascertain definitively the identity and fidelity of cell types generated solely in vitro is problematic. Here, we show that hindbrain neuroepithelial stem (hbNES) cells can be derived and massively expanded from early human embryos (week 5–7, Carnegie stage 15–17). These cell lines are propagated in adherent culture in the presence of EGF and FGF2 and retain progenitor characteristics, including SOX1 expression, formation of rosette-like structures, and high neurogenic capacity. They generate GABAergic, glutamatergic and, at lower frequency, serotonergic neurons. Importantly, hbNES cells stably maintain hindbrain specification and generate upper rhombic lip derivatives on exposure to bone morphogenetic protein (BMP). When grafted into neonatal rat brain, they show potential for integration into cerebellar development and produce cerebellar granule-like cells, albeit at low frequency. hbNES cells offer a new system to study human cerebellar specification and development and to model diseases of the hindbrain. They also provide a benchmark for the production of similar long-term neuroepithelial-like stem cells (lt-NES) from pluripotent cell lines. To our knowledge, hbNES cells are the first demonstration of highly expandable neuroepithelial stem cells derived from the human embryo without genetic immortalization.