Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oral iron supplementation after blood donation: a randomized clinical trial.

IMPORTANCE Although blood donation is allowed every 8 weeks in the United States, recovery of hemoglobin to the currently accepted standard (12.5 g/dL) is frequently delayed, and some donors become anemic. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of oral iron supplementation on hemoglobin recovery time (days to recovery of 80% of hemoglobin removed) and recovery of iron stores in iron-depleted ("low ferritin," ≤26 ng/mL) and iron-replete ("higher ferritin," >26 ng/mL) blood donors. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Randomized, nonblinded clinical trial of blood donors stratified by ferritin level, sex, and age conducted in 4 regional blood centers in the United States in 2012. Included were 215 eligible participants aged 18 to 79 years who had not donated whole blood or red blood cells within 4 months. INTERVENTIONS One tablet of ferrous gluconate (37.5 mg of elemental iron) daily or no iron for 24 weeks (168 days) after donating a unit of whole blood (500 mL). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Time to recovery of 80% of the postdonation decrease in hemoglobin and recovery of ferritin level to baseline as a measure of iron stores. RESULTS The mean baseline hemoglobin levels were comparable in the iron and no-iron groups and declined from a mean (SD) of 13.4 (1.1) g/dL to 12.0 (1.2) g/dL after donation in the low-ferritin group and from 14.2 (1.1) g/dL to 12.9 (1.2) g/dL in the higher-ferritin group. Compared with participants who did not receive iron supplementation, those who received iron supplementation had shortened time to 80% hemoglobin recovery in both the low-ferritin (mean, 32 days, interquartile range [IQR], 30-34, vs 158 days, IQR, 126->168) and higher-ferritin groups (31 days, IQR, 29-33, vs 78 days, IQR, 66-95). Median time to recovery to baseline ferritin levels in the low-ferritin group taking iron was 21 days (IQR, 12-84). For participants not taking iron, recovery to baseline was longer than 168 days (IQR, 128->168). Median time to recovery to baseline in the higher-ferritin group taking iron was 107 days (IQR, 75-141), and for participants not taking iron, recovery to baseline was longer than 168 days (IQR, >168->168). Recovery of iron stores in all participants who received supplements took a median of 76 days (IQR, 20-126); for participants not taking iron, median recovery time was longer than 168 days (IQR, 147->168 days; P < .001). Without iron supplements, 67% of participants did not recover iron stores by 168 days. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among blood donors with normal hemoglobin levels, low-dose iron supplementation, compared with no supplementation, reduced time to 80% recovery of the postdonation decrease in hemoglobin concentration in donors with low ferritin (≤26 ng/mL) or higher ferritin (>26 ng/mL). TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01555060.
A robot teaching framework for a redundant dual arm manipulator with teleoperation from exoskeleton motion data

In this paper we present a master-slave system to program dual arm industrial robots. Since traditional robot motion programming apparatus, teach pendants, usually deal with single arm motions, it is difficult to teach dual arm motions requiring synchronization of the arms. Furthermore, a teach pendant is 1-dimensional position input device which is not sufficient to teach 3-dimensional motions so that it requires quite much time for teaching complex motions. To deal with this problem, we developed a passive exoskeleton as a master device for a master-slave teleoperation system. The proposed teleoperation-based robot programming method was verified through experiments on via point teaching. An operational space framework is adopted to control the slave arm.
Disease stigma and its mediating effect on the relationship between symptom severity and quality of life among community-dwelling women with stress urinary incontinence: a study from a Chinese city.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To examine the association between disease stigma and quality of life and whether disease stigma mediates the relationship between symptom severity and quality of life among community-dwelling women with stress urinary incontinence in China. BACKGROUND Urinary incontinent patients perceived great stigma, which inhibited from seeking medical help. There is evidence that stigma associated with some other diseases had a complex relationship with illness severity and quality of life. However, little empirical research has examined the role that stigma plays among urinary incontinent population. DESIGN A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used. METHODS A purposive sample of 333 women with stress urinary incontinence from a Chinese city was enrolled. Data were collected on symptom severity, disease stigma and quality of life using the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form, Social Impact Scale and Incontinence Quality-of-Life Measure, respectively. The mediate effect of disease stigma was analysed using a series of hierarchical regression models. RESULTS Disease stigma negatively correlated with quality of life among stress urinary incontinent women. Social isolation and internalised shame, but not social rejection, the domains of disease stigma, partially mediated the effect of symptom severity on quality of life, attenuating the effect by 34·3% together. CONCLUSIONS Disease stigma impairs quality of life of women with stress urinary incontinence and mediates the association between symptom severity and quality of life. Health workers may improve their quality of life by addressing perceived stigma. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE Our findings suggest that in clinical practice, stigma reduction may have the potential to not only improve quality of life, but also mitigate the impact of the severity on quality of life among urinary incontinent women. Social isolation and internalised shame should be more concerned in targeted interventions.
Penicillin Resistance in Viridans Streptococcal Bacteremia is Related with High Mortality

Sir, Viridans streptococci (VS) are a significant cause of bacteremia in neutropenic patients with cancer, in those with endocarditis or in patients after dental surgery or endoscopy. These infections have traditionally been associated with limited morbidity, but serious complications such as septicaemic shock and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) have been described sporadically in recent years (1, 2). Clinical significance has been demonstrated in penicillin resistant (PEN-R) S. pneumoniae in several studies (3, 4); however, in viridans streptococci only one study in cancer patients (5) revealed in a multivariate fashion that those infected with PEN-R strains had higher mortality in comparison to individuals infected with PEN / susceptible VS. This was not demonstrated with erythromycin resistance (ERY-R) (6). The aim of this short letter is to assess the clinical significance and outcome of PEN and ERY resistance of VSB within a national bacteremia survey in Slovakia. Within 2 y, 127 cases of viridans streptococcal bacteremia (VSB) were observed in national surveillance of streptococcal bacteremia in Slovakia: assessing risk factors and impact of PEN-R on mortality, we compared PEN-R VSB to PEN-S VSB. 111 cases were due to penicillin susceptible (PEN-S) and 16 due to penicillin resistant (PEN-R) VSB (Table I). 13% of VSB cases were caused by PEN-R strains. Risk factors for penicillin resistance (MIC /2 mg/ml) were ventilatory support (p B/0.01), intubation (p B/0.001) and resistance to other antibiotics; 44% of PEN-R VSB were resistant also to erythromycin or cotrimoxazol or tetracycline in comparison to 7% of PEN-R VSB (p B/0.005). Endoscopic procedures in the upper respiratory system were at risk for development of PEN-R VSB. Also, there was difference in outcome, 69% vs 21% (p B/0.0002) of cases infected with PEN-RVSB dying in comparison to PEN-S VSB. Penicillin resistance is therefore clinically significant in viridans streptococcal bacteremia.
Beyond Word-based Language Model in Statistical Machine Translation

Language model is one of the most important modules in statistical machine translation and currently the word-based language model dominants this community. However, many translation models (e.g. phrase-based models) generate the target language sentences by rendering and compositing the phrases rather than the words. Thus, it is much more reasonable to model dependency between phrases, but few research work succeed in solving this problem. In this paper, we tackle this problem by designing a novel phrase-based language model which attempts to solve three key sub-problems: 1, how to define a phrase in language model; 2, how to determine the phrase boundary in the large-scale monolingual data in order to enlarge the training set; 3, how to alleviate the data sparsity problem due to the huge vocabulary size of phrases. By carefully handling these issues, the extensive experiments on Chinese-to-English translation show that our phrase-based language model can significantly improve the translation quality by up to +1.47 absolute BLEU score.
CHANGES IN FLUORIDE LEVELS IN THE LIVER , KIDNEY , AND BRAIN AND IN NEUROTRANSMITTERS OF MICE AFTER SUBACUTE ADMINISTRATION OF FLUORIDE

The effects of fluoride after subacute oral administration of NaF at levels of 0, 1, 5, 25, and 125 ppm F– were evaluated in adult male BALB/c mice. Fluoride levels in the murine liver, kidney, and cerebrum after one month were determined using a highly sensitive flow-injection apparatus with a fluoride ion selective electrode as the detector. To examine for neurotoxic effects, levels of regional brain neurotransmitters and their metabolites were determined by a high performance liquid chromatography procedure. Water intake increased among the groups administered 25 and 125 ppm F–, and the concentrations of fluoride in liver and kidney were significantly increased among the 125 ppm group compared to the control. On the other hand, the fluoride levels in the cerebrum were not significantly different among the groups. However, a significant difference was observed in homovanillic acid (HVA) in the hypothalamus. Significant differences in the levels of neurotransmitters and their metabolites were not observed in other brain regions.
The Broad Scope of Health Effects from Chronic Arsenic Exposure: Update on a Worldwide Public Health Problem

Background: Concerns for arsenic exposure are not limited to toxic waste sites and massive poisoning events. Chronic exposure continues to be a major public health problem worldwide, affecting hundreds of millions of persons. Objectives: We reviewed recent information on worldwide concerns for arsenic exposures and public health to heighten awareness of the current scope of arsenic exposure and health outcomes and the importance of reducing exposure, particularly during pregnancy and early life. Methods: We synthesized the large body of current research pertaining to arsenic exposure and health outcomes with an emphasis on recent publications. Discussion: Locations of high arsenic exposure via drinking water span from Bangladesh, Chile, and Taiwan to the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maximum contaminant level (MCL) in drinking water is 10 µg/L; however, concentrations of > 3,000 µg/L have been found in wells in the United States. In addition, exposure through diet is of growing concern. Knowledge of the scope of arsenic-associated health effects has broadened; arsenic leaves essentially no bodily system untouched. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with skin, lung, bladder, kidney, and liver cancer. Dermatological, developmental, neurological, respiratory, cardiovascular, immunological, and endocrine effects are also evident. Most remarkably, early-life exposure may be related to increased risks for several types of cancer and other diseases during adulthood. Conclusions: These data call for heightened awareness of arsenic-related pathologies in broader contexts than previously perceived. Testing foods and drinking water for arsenic, including individual private wells, should be a top priority to reduce exposure, particularly for pregnant women and children, given the potential for life-long effects of developmental exposure.
Decrease in Ovalbumin Specific IgE of Mice Serum after Oral Uptake of Lactic Acid Bacteria

Different kinds of lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria fermented milk were fed to ovalbumin-specific IgE-elevated mice for 3 days, and after the final administration, changes in the ovalbumin-specific IgE values for each sample were compared to the value for non-fermented milk. Seven of the Lactobacillus-fermented milks caused a significant decrease in the serum ovalbumin-specific IgE levels. Above all, Lactobacillus acidophilus L92, Lactobacillus acidophilus CP1613, and Lactobacillus fermentum CP34 fermented milk had the most significant effects of decreasing the serum ovalbumin-specific IgE levels compared to a control group. The L. acidophilus L92 and L. fermentum CP34 cells also showed significant ovalbumin-specific IgE lowering activities. From these results, an active component seems to exist in the cells of L. acidophilus L92 and L. fermentum CP34 strains. Recovery of the radiolabeled L. acidophilus L92 and L. fermentum CP34 cells from the small intestine and the large intestine of the mouse 13 h after oral administration were higher than the recovery of any other strain.
Several Novel Nuclear Envelope Transmembrane Proteins Identified in Skeletal Muscle Have Cytoskeletal Associations*

Nuclear envelopes from liver and a neuroblastoma cell line have previously been analyzed by proteomics; however, most diseases associated with the nuclear envelope affect muscle. To determine whether muscle has unique nuclear envelope proteins, rat skeletal muscle nuclear envelopes were prepared and analyzed by multidimensional protein identification technology. Many novel muscle-specific proteins were identified that did not appear in previous nuclear envelope data sets. Nuclear envelope residence was confirmed for 11 of these by expression of fusion proteins and by antibody staining of muscle tissue cryosections. Moreover, transcript levels for several of the newly identified nuclear envelope transmembrane proteins increased during muscle differentiation using mouse and human in vitro model systems. Some of these proteins tracked with microtubules at the nuclear surface in interphase cells and accumulated at the base of the microtubule spindle in mitotic cells, suggesting they may associate with complexes that connect the nucleus to the cytoskeleton. The finding of tissue-specific proteins in the skeletal muscle nuclear envelope proteome argues the importance of analyzing nuclear envelopes from all tissues linked to disease and suggests that general investigation of tissue differences in organellar proteomes might yield critical insights.
General Subpopulation Framework and Taming the Conflict Inside Populations

Structured evolutionary algorithms have been investigated for some time. However, they have been under explored especially in the field of multi-objective optimization. Despite good results, the use of complex dynamics and structures keep the understanding and adoption rate of structured evolutionary algorithms low. Here, we propose a general subpopulation framework that has the capability of integrating optimization algorithms without restrictions as well as aiding the design of structured algorithms. The proposed framework is capable of generalizing most of the structured evolutionary algorithms, such as cellular algorithms, island models, spatial predator-prey, and restricted mating based algorithms. Moreover, we propose two algorithms based on the general subpopulation framework, demonstrating that with the simple addition of a number of single-objective differential evolution algorithms for each objective, the results improve greatly, even when the combined algorithms behave poorly when evaluated alone at the tests. Most importantly, the comparison between the subpopulation algorithms and their related panmictic algorithms suggests that the competition between different strategies inside one population can have deleterious consequences for an algorithm and reveals a strong benefit of using the subpopulation framework.
Use of Reflectance Measurements for the Detection of N, P, K, ADF and NDF Contents in Sainfoin Pasture

The objective of this study was to determine the relationships between nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (P), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) contents of sainfoin (Onobrychis sativa Lam.) pasture and canopy reflectance. Canopy reflectance measurements were made by using a portable spectroradiometer. An experiment was conducted in the Turkey in May and June in 2007 and 2008. Sainfoin pasture N, P, K, ADF and NDF contents correlated linearly with the reflectance ratios R780/650 (0.61≤ r2 ≤0.80) and first derivatives of the reflectance ratios 760/630 (0.70≤ r2 ≤0.84). Linear equations between each forage variable and reflectance or first derivatives reflectance had high r2 (0.68≤ r2 ≤0.83 and 0.79≤ r2 ≤0.90, respectively) in R780 and R760 wavelengths. In stepwise regression of the reflectance (in 460, 550, 650 and 780 nm wavelengths), the r2 of predicted and measured N, P, K, ADF and NDF contents of sainfoin pasture were (0.85, 0.85, 0.78, 0.81 and 0.74, respectively), in stepwise regression of the first derivatives of reflectance (in 440, 530, 630 and 760 nm wavelengths), the r2 of predicted and measured N, P, K, ADF and NDF contents of sainfoin pasture were (0.87, 0.91, 0.83, 0.93 and 0.86, respectively). Our results suggest that canopy reflectance in blue, green, red and near infrared wavebands with NIR/Red and NDVI ratios can be used for nondestructive prediction of forage quality variables in sainfoin pasture.
Proteasomal Degradation of Topoisomerase I Is Preceded by c-Jun NH2-Terminal Kinase Activation, Fas Up-Regulation, and Poly(ADP-Ribose) Polymerase Cleavage in SN38-Mediated Cytotoxicity against Multiple Myeloma

Topoisomerase I inhibitors are effective anticancer therapies and have shown activity in hematologic malignancies. Here we show for the first time that SN38, the potent active metabolite of irinotecan, induces c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase activation, Fas up-regulation, and caspase 8-mediated apoptosis in multiple myeloma (MM) cells. Proteasomal degradation of nuclear topoisomerase I has been proposed as a resistance mechanism in solid malignancies. SN38-induced proteasomal degradation of topoisomerase I was observed during SN38-mediated cytotoxicity against MM.1S myeloma cell line but occurred after c-Jun NH2-terminal kinase activation, Fas up-regulation, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage and failed to protect cells from apoptosis. Differential toxicity was observed against MM cells versus bone marrow stromal cells, and SN38 inhibited adhesion-induced up-regulation of MM cell proliferation when MM cells adhere to bone marrow stromal cells. In addition, SN38 directly inhibited constitutive and inducible interleukin 6 and vascular endothelial growth factor secretion by bone marrow stromal cells. Synergy was observed when SN38 was used in combination with doxorubicin, bortezomib, as well as poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitor NU1025 and Fas-activator CH11. These findings have clinical significance, because identification of downstream apoptotic signaling after topoisomerase I inhibition will both elucidate mechanisms of resistance and optimize future combination chemotherapy against MM.
Cognitive, emotional, and social benefits of regular musical activities in early dementia: randomized controlled study.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY During aging, musical activities can help maintain physical and mental health and cognitive abilities, but their rehabilitative use has not been systematically explored in persons with dementia (PWDs). Our aim was to determine the efficacy of a novel music intervention based on coaching the caregivers of PWDs to use either singing or music listening regularly as a part of everyday care. DESIGN AND METHODS Eighty-nine PWD-caregiver dyads were randomized to a 10-week singing coaching group (n = 30), a 10-week music listening coaching group (n = 29), or a usual care control group (n = 30). The coaching sessions consisted primarily of singing/listening familiar songs coupled occasionally with vocal exercises and rhythmic movements (singing group) and reminiscence and discussions (music listening group). In addition, the intervention included regular musical exercises at home. All PWDs underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment, which included cognitive tests, as well as mood and quality of life (QOL) scales, before and after the intervention period and 6 months later. In addition, the psychological well-being of family members was repeatedly assessed with questionnaires. RESULTS Compared with usual care, both singing and music listening improved mood, orientation, and remote episodic memory and to a lesser extent, also attention and executive function and general cognition. Singing also enhanced short-term and working memory and caregiver well-being, whereas music listening had a positive effect on QOL. IMPLICATIONS Regular musical leisure activities can have long-term cognitive, emotional, and social benefits in mild/moderate dementia and could therefore be utilized in dementia care and rehabilitation.
On the Effect of Communication Delays in Failure Diagnosis of Decentralized Discrete Event Systems

We study the effect of communication delays on the performance of a coordinated decentralized architecture for failure diagnosis of untimed discrete event systems. The architecture consists of local sites communicating with a coordinator that is responsible for diagnosing the failures occurring in the system. A protocol that realizes the architecture is defined by the diagnostic information generated at the local sites, the communication rules used by the local sites, and the decision rule used by the coordinator to infer the occurrence of failures. Our prior work (Debouk et al., 2000) has addressed the performance of a set of protocols under the assumption that messages are received by the coordinator in the order in which they are sent globally. In this work we relax the abovementioned assumption. We modify the coordinator's decision rule for two of the protocols analyzed in Debouk et al. (2000) to account for the reception of out of order messages. We discover conditions on the system structure under which the modified protocols perform as well as the centralized diagnostic scheme proposed in Sampath et al. (1995).
Continuous Update with Random Encoding (CURE): A New Strategy for Dynamic Imaging

Although dynamic imaging is presently used for various applications, it is still limited by the temporal resolution. In this paper, we present a new technique that uses a random phase‐encoding strategy to facilitate faster and smoother update of images and to improve the temporal resolution in dynamic studies. The technique was implemented on a conventional clinical scanner and demonstrated with various in vivo studies. Technical details, simulations, and experimental results are described. Images from experimental studies indicate that the new technique is robust in generating dynamic images and can be potentially utilized for clinical applications.