Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Review of systematic reviews of non-pharmacological interventions to improve quality of life in cancer survivors

Objectives Over two million people in the UK are living with and beyond cancer. A third report diminished quality of life. Design A review of published systematic reviews to identify effective non-pharmacological interventions to improve the quality of life of cancer survivors. Data sources Databases searched until May 2017 included PubMed, Cochrane Central, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Web of Science, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and PsycINFO. Study selection Published systematic reviews of randomised trials of non-pharmacological interventions for people living with and beyond cancer were included; included reviews targeted patients aged over 18. All participants had already received a cancer diagnosis. Interventions located in any healthcare setting, home or online were included. Reviews of alternative therapies or those non-English reports were excluded. Two researchers independently assessed titles, abstracts and the full text of papers, and independently extracted the data. Outcomes The primary outcome of interest was any measure of global (overall) quality of life. Analytical methods Quality assessment assessing methdological quality of systematic reviews (AMSTAR) and narrative synthesis, evaluating effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions and their components. Results Of 14 430 unique titles, 21 were included in the review of reviews. There was little overlap in the primary papers across these reviews. Thirteen reviews covered mixed tumour groups, seven focused on breast cancer and one focused on prostate cancer. Face-to-face interventions were often combined with online, telephone and paper-based reading materials. Interventions included physical, psychological or behavioural, multidimensional rehabilitation and online approaches. Yoga specifically, physical exercise more generally, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) programmes showed benefit in terms of quality of life. Conclusions Exercise-based interventions were effective in the short (less than 3–8 months) and long term. CBT and MBSR also showed benefits, especially in the short term. The evidence for multidisciplinary, online and educational interventions was equivocal.
Amelogenin-mediated Regulation of Osteoclastogenesis, and Periodontal Cell Proliferation and Migration

We previously reported that amelogenin isoforms M180 and leucine-rich amelogenin peptide (LRAP) are expressed in the periodontal region, and that their absence is associated with increased cementum defects in amelogenin-knockout (KO) mice. The aim of the present study was to characterize the functions of these isoforms in osteoclastogenesis and in the proliferation and migration of cementoblast/periodontal ligament cells. The co-cultures of wild-type (WT) osteoclast progenitor and KO cementoblast/periodontal ligament cells displayed more tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive cells than the co-cultures of WT cells. The addition of LRAP to both co-cultures significantly reduced RANKL expression and the TRAP-positive cells. Proliferation and migration rates of the KO cementoblast/periodontal ligament cells were lower than those of WT cells and increased with the addition of either LRAP or P172 (a porcine homolog of mouse M180). Thus, we demonstrate the regulation of osteoclastogenesis by LRAP, and the proliferation and migration of cementoblast/periodontal ligament cells by LRAP and P172.
Anti-Human Immunodeficiency Virus Interactions of SCH-C (SCH 351125), a CCR5 Antagonist, with Other Antiretroviral Agents In Vitro

ABSTRACT SCH-C (SCH 351125) is a small-molecule antagonist of the human immunodeficiency virus type 1(HIV-1) coreceptor CCR5. It has in vitro activity against R5 viruses with 50% inhibitory concentrations ranging from 1.0 to 30.9 nM. We have studied anti-HIV-1 interactions of SCH-C with other antiretroviral agents in vitro. Synergistic interactions were seen with nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (zidovudine and lamivudine), nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (efavirenz), and protease inhibitors (indinavir) at all inhibitory concentrations evaluated. We have also studied antiviral interactions between the HIV-1 fusion inhibitor T-20 and SCH-C against a panel of R5 HIV-1 isolates. We found synergistic interactions against all the viruses tested, some of which harbored resistance mutations to reverse transcriptase and protease inhibitors. Anti-HIV-1 synergy was also observed between SCH-C and another R5 virus inhibitor, aminooxypentane-RANTES. These findings suggest that SCH-C may be a useful anti-HIV drug in combination regimens and that a combination of chemokine coreceptor/fusion inhibitors may be useful in the treatment of multidrug-resistant viruses.
Genetic Footprinting in Bacteria

ABSTRACT In vivo genetic footprinting was developed in the yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae to simultaneously assess the importance of thousands of genes for the fitness of the cell under any growth condition. We have developed in vivo genetic footprinting forEscherichia coli, a model bacterium and pathogen. We further demonstrate the utility of this technology for rapidly discovering genes that affect the fitness of E. coli under a variety of growth conditions. The definitive features of this system include a conditionally regulated Tn10 transposase with relaxed sequence specificity and a conditionally regulated replicon for the vector containing the transposase and mini-Tn10transposon with an outwardly oriented promoter. This system results in a high frequency of randomly distributed transposon insertions, eliminating the need for the selection of a population containing transposon insertions, stringent suppression of transposon mutagenesis, and few polar effects. Successful footprints have been achieved for most genes longer than 400 bp, including genes located in operons. In addition, the ability of recombinant proteins to complement mutagenized hosts has been evaluated by genetic footprinting using a bacteriophage λ transposon delivery system.
Vibrios isolated from the cultured manila clam (Ruditapes philippinarum): numerical taxonomy and antibacterial activities

Aims: A numerical taxonomic study of halophilic Vibrio isolated from healthy and brown ring disease (BRD) affected manila clams (Ruditapes philippinarum), harvested from the Atlantic coast of south‐western Spain, was performed. Methods and Results: Characterization of 123 presumptive Vibrio spp. was carried out using 94 phenotypic tests. Simple matching and Jaccard similarity coefficients were used for numerical analysis. Cluster analysis by the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages yielded 15 phena defined at 0·81 similarity. Large phena corresponded to Vibrio tubiashii, V. splendidus biotype I and V. harveyi (phena 1, 5 and 9, respectively). The species V.splendidus biotype II, V. natriegens, V. mediterranei and V. alginolyticus were also represented. The inhibitory effect of diffusible extracellular products of the isolates against 27 strains of V.tapetis, the aetiological agent of BRD, was also investigated. Only five V. tubiashii isolates inhibited the growth of V. tapetis strains. The antimicrobial effect was inhibited by heating and depended on the culture medium. Conclusions: The main Vibrio species associated with manila clams were V. tubiashii, V.spendidus and V. harveyi. The antagonistic relationship established between V. tapetis and the Vibrio spp. clam microbiota may explain the failure of isolation in plating medium of V.tapetis from BRD‐affected clams on the south Atlantic coast of Spain. Significance and Impact of the Study: Some of the strains isolated from manila clams correspond to agarolytic strains that constitute phenon 7 and they do not fit into any of the currently described Vibrio species.
Routine procedures in NICUs: factors influencing pain assessment and ranking by pain intensity.

BACKGROUND Pain associated with routine procedures in NICUs is often inadequately managed. Barriers to more appropriate pain management are nurses' and physicians' knowledge and the challenges of collaborative decision-making. Few studies describe the differing perceptions of procedural pain intensity among nurses and physicians in NICUs which could complicate common decision-making. This study set out to explore the factors influencing pain intensity assessment and to gain insight into a possible pain intensity classification of routine procedures in the NICU. METHOD A survey was conducted among 431 neonatal health care professionals from 4 tertiary level NICUs. Each routine procedure was assessed on a 10-point visual analogue scale (VAS) assuming absence of analgesia. RESULTS Multiple ANCOVA models showed that nurses rated 19 of the 27 procedures as significantly more painful than did physicians (p<0.05). We found no differences in pain assessment based on professional experience, gender or age. Of the 27 procedures listed, 70% were rated as painful and 44% were judged very painful. Ranking and classification of the pain intensity of routine procedures were drawn up. The general ranking of the median across all procedures shows that "insertion of a thoracic drain" is assessed as the most painful procedure. CONCLUSIONS The majority of routine procedures in an NICU are considered to be painful. Nurses generally rate procedures as more painful than do physicians. This difference in assessment deserves exploration in regard to its impact on collaborative decision-making in neonate pain management.
New Directions in the Dynamic Assessment of Brain Blood Flow Regulation

The principal aim of this book chapter is to provide an overview of the utilities of transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD), and high resolution vascular ultrasound for the assessment of human cerebrovascular function with respect to other common measurement tools. Specifically, we aim to: (1) examine the advantages and disadvantages of TCD in the context of other imaging metrics; (2) highlight the optimum approaches for insonation of the basal intra-cerebral arteries; (3) provide a detailed summary of the utility of TCD for assessing cerebrovascular reactivity, autoregulation and neurovascular coupling and the clinical application of these measures; (4) give detailed guidelines for the appropriate use and caveats of neck artery flow measures for the assessment of regional cerebral blood flow distribution; and (5) provide recommendations on the integrative assessment of cerebrovascular function. Finally, we provide an overview of new directions for the optimization of TCD and vascular ultrasound. Future research directions both physiological and methodological are outlined.
Factors affecting undergraduates' selection of online library resources in academic tasks: Usefulness, ease-of-use, resource quality, and individual differences

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore multiple factors affecting online library resource selection by undergraduate students. Three dimensions of factors are investigated including usefulness and ease-of-use, resource quality, and individual differences. Design/methodology/approach – An instrument was developed to measure various aspect factors and online library resource use intention. A survey was administered to 332 undergraduate students. Quantitative analysis, including structural equation modeling, ANOVA, and t-tests, was used to statistically examine the effects of the identified 11 factors on the use intention of online library resources. Findings – The findings indicated that both usefulness and ease-of-use positively influenced the undergraduates’ use intention of online library resources. Also, five resource quality constructs – accessibility, credibility, coverage, currency, and format – were the determinants of online library resources use intention. Interestingly, the effect of a.
Uncitedness in the biomedical literature

The reception of a scientific article is measured in part by its citedness in the subsequent literature. Although most papers are eventually cited, a number of papers in a variety of scientific disciplines have never been cited. A study was conducted to determine the bibliographic characteristics of uncited papers in the biomedical literature. It was found that certain bibliographic characteristics differentiate cited from uncited papers. © 1990 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Social software for reflective dialogue: questions about reflection and dialogue in student teachers’ blogs

This article presents a study of 57 Swedish pre‐school student teachers’ experiences and achievements in using blogs for reflective dialogue over the course of 2007–2008. In order to examine the extent to which students engaged in reflective dialogue, text analyses of their blogs were carried out. Furthermore, 13 narrative interviews were conducted to illuminate students’ understanding of reflection, and to establish what circumstances influenced their engagement in reflective dialogue. The framework developed by Kreber and Cranton (2000) was used to analyse the blogs in order to determine the level of reflection, while that of Gorsky and Caspi (2005) was used to illuminate students’ engagement in dialogue. The article presents a discussion of the circumstances in which students engaged in reflective dialogue. Furthermore, it illuminates the relationship between engagement in dialogue and level of reflection. The importance of students’ understanding of reflection, social interaction, and the methods of assessment are highlighted.
Clinical Pharmacology of Pipecuronium Bromide

The neuromuscular blocking and cardiovascular effects of pipecuronium, in doses ranging 2--3 times its ED95, were evaluated in 46 patients during thiopental, fentanyl, N2O/O2 anesthesia. The neuromuscular blocking effect of pipecuronium was evaluated by recording of the mechanical twitch of the adductor pollicis muscle in response to stimulation of the ulnar nerve at the wrist. Heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures, and cardiac output were noninvasively measured during the onset of the neuromuscular blockade and compared to a saline control group to separate the effect of anesthesia from those of pipecuronium.The mean ± SD time from administration of pipecuronium to 90% suppression of the first twitch (T1) of the tram-of-four was 2.6 ± 0.8, 2.0 ± 0.6, and 2.1 ± 0.6 min following the 70 μg/kg, 85 μg/kg, and 100 μg/kg dose, respectively. There was no significant difference between the different doses of pipecuronium in the time to 90% suppression of T1. In general, all three doses of pipecuronium provided good to excellent intubating conditions within 3 minutes after its administration. The time from the administration of pipecuronium to 5% recovery of T1 was 52.3 ± 18.2 min in the group given 70 μg/kg. This was significantly longer in patients given 85 μg/kg (71.9 ± 15.7 min) or 100 μg/kg (71.8 ± 22.1 min). Times to the start of recovery of T1 and to 25% recovery of T1 showed a similar significant pattern. In 2/3 of the patients, administration of neostigmine (2.5 mg) resulted in adequate recovery of muscle function within 10 minutes. Only patients with T1 recovery to less than 15% of control or a T4/T1 ratio of zero tended to take longer than 10 minutes for full recovery. Heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressures decreased significantly after the induction of anesthesia and during the onset of neuromuscular blockade. The hernody-namic variables, however, were similar between the three pipecuronium groups and a control group (N=16) that received only saline. Therefore, no cardiovascular changes could be attributed to pipecuronium when compared to the control group. Cardiac output did not change significantly over the time course of the study.Pipecuronium bromide produces a long-acting, nondepolarizing neuromuscular blockade. A dose of 70 μg/kg can be expected to provide good intubating conditions in 3 minutes with a clinical duration of approximately one hour. Larger doses (85 μg/kg and 100 μg/kg) may shorten the onset time and increase duration on average by 20 minutes. Higher doses are thus best reserved for procedures of long duration. Because no cardiovascular effects were observed with doses ranging from 2--3 times its ED95, pipecuronium can be recommended for patients in whom cardiovascular stability is desired.
Application of supervised machine learning algorithms for the classification of regulatory RNA riboswitches

Riboswitches, the small structured RNA elements, were discovered about a decade ago. It has been the subject of intense interest to identify riboswitches, understand their mechanisms of action and use them in genetic engineering. The accumulation of genome and transcriptome sequence data and comparative genomics provide unprecedented opportunities to identify riboswitches in the genome. In the present study, we have evaluated the following six machine learning algorithms for their efficiency to classify riboswitches: J48, BayesNet, Naïve Bayes, Multilayer Perceptron, sequential minimal optimization, hidden Markov model (HMM). For determining effective classifier, the algorithms were compared on the statistical measures of specificity, sensitivity, accuracy, F-measure and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot analysis. The classifier Multilayer Perceptron achieved the best performance, with the highest specificity, sensitivity, F-score and accuracy, and with the largest area under the ROC curve, whereas HMM was the poorest performer. At present, the available tools for the prediction and classification of riboswitches are based on covariance model, support vector machine and HMM. The present study determines Multilayer Perceptron as a better classifier for the genome-wide riboswitch searches.
Interaction of Personality and Treatment Conditions Associated with Success in a Smoking Control Program

&NA; A total of 104 men who were heavy smokers (minimum of a pack, and averaging 35 cigarettes a day) participated in a 10‐week program to break the habit. The majority (N=83) received group therapy, and the remainder were seen individually. Each S was randomly assigned to one of the following drug conditions: no pills, placebo, lobeline, dextroamphetamine and imipramine. Pretesting established each S as a good (N=67) or poor (N=37) risk to stop smoking. Results indicated that, both at the end of treatment and at followup 3 months later, group was superior to individual therapy, treatment without drugs was more effective than taking medication (especially for high risk cases), and low‐risk did better than high‐risk Ss. Successful Ss stayed in treatment longer than did failures. Relapse was associated with life situations of loneliness, passivity, boredom, tension and personal tragedy. The best predictor of resistance to relapse was the abrupt and complete breaking of the habit during the first 2 weeks of the program ("cold turkey").
Distance-Decay Relationships Partially Determine Diversity Patterns of Phyllosphere Bacteria on Tamrix Trees across the Sonoran Desert

ABSTRACT Dispersal limitation in phyllosphere communities was measured on the leaf surfaces of salt-excreting Tamarix trees, which offer unique, discrete habitats for microbial assemblages. We employed 16S rRNA gene pyrosequencing to measure bacterial community dissimilarity on leaves of spatially dispersed Tamarix specimens in sites with uniform climatic conditions across the Sonoran Desert in the Southwestern United States. Our analyses revealed diverse bacterial communities with four dominant phyla that exhibited differential effects of environmental and geographic variables. Geographical distance was the most important parameter that affected community composition, particularly that of betaproteobacteria, which displayed a statistically significant, distance-decay relationship.
A retrospective epidemiologic study to define risk factors, microbiology, and clinical outcomes of infective endocarditis in a large tertiary-care teaching hospital

Objective: This study aims to define risk factors as well as their association with microbiology and clinical outcomes in a large US infective endocarditis population. Methods: Hospital records were searched for appropriate infective endocarditis–related ICD codes from 16 July 2007 to 13 August 2015. A total of 363 cases were retrospectively identified that met definite Modified Duke Criteria for infective endocarditis and were analyzed by age group, causative organism, and associated risk factors for use of valvular surgical intervention, 30/90/180-day mortality after admission, and embolic phenomena. Results: Chronic hemodialysis was the most common risk factor (26.7% of cases). Of all age groups, those aged 78+ years had the lowest 30-day mortality but those aged 58–77 years had the highest mortality (p = 0.039). Staphylococcus aureus was the most prevalent causative organism. Those aged 78–97 years were more likely to have enterococcal infective endocarditis than those aged 18–27 years (p = 0.0144). Chronic hemodialysis associated infective endocarditis was more likely to be caused by coagulase-negative staphylococcus (p = 0.0121) and have a higher 30-day mortality (p = 0.141) than intravenous drug use associated infective endocarditis. Intravenous drug use and chronic hemodialysis were similarly likely to be caused by S. aureus. Intravenous drug use associated infective endocarditis was more likely to be caused by viridans group streptococci (p = 0.0001). Fungal infective endocarditis was most likely to embolize. Chronic hemodialysis patients were less likely to undergo valvular surgery (p = 0.001) and those with chronic hemodialysis who did had lower mortality than those only managed medically that did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.2991). Infective endocarditis caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci had the greatest 30-day mortality at 31.3% but did not reach statistical significance over all other causative organisms (p = 0.060). Conclusion: In our infective endocarditis population, S. aureus is the predominant causative organism. Chronic hemodialysis is the most common risk factor present in infective endocarditis populations and has greater association with coagulase-negative staphylococci and 30-day mortality. Intravenous drug use had the lowest mortality among risk factors with a similar proportion of S. aureus infective endocarditis compared to chronic hemodialysis but a higher proportion of viridans group streptococci infective endocarditis cases. Further study will need to be performed on prevention and treatment of infective endocarditis in chronic hemodialysis patients.
High Levels of Adhesion Molecules Are Associated with Impaired Endothelium-dependent Vasodilation in Patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease

Summary Soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1) were measured alongside flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) in 34 patients with intermittent claudication and 14 control subjects. Patients with plasma sICAM-1 >253 ng/mL (median value) showed lower FMD than those with sICAM-1 <253 ng/mL (5.6 ± 1.8% vs 9.6 ± 4.2%, p <0.01). Similarly, in the 17 patients with plasma sVCAM-1 >414 ng/mL, FMD was lower than in the remaining 17 patients (6.1 ± 1.9% vs 9.2 ± 4.5%, p <0.05). Additionally, when endothelial dysfunction was defined as FMD ≤5.5%, patients with FMD below this value had higher plasma concentrations of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 than those with FMD >5.5%. Therefore, our findings indicate a close association between elevated plasma levels of adhesion molecules and endothelial dysfunction. As impaired endothelial function is one of the first steps in atherogenesis, our findings have clinical relevance since they serve as the basis for further evaluation of sICAM-1 and sVCAM-1 as potential plasma markers for progression of atherosclerosis in a population at high risk.