Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adherence to recommendations of Barrett’s esophagus surveillance guidelines: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract Background Guidelines aim to reduce treatment variation and improve quality of care. In the literature there is large variation in the reported rates of adherence to recommendations of surveillance for Barrett’s esophagus (BE). The aim of this systematic review was to identify explanatory parameters determining these differences in adherence rates. Methods Embase, Medline Epub, and Web of Science were searched. Studies reporting adherence in at least one of five domains were selected: general domain, surveillance interval, biopsy protocol, landmark identification, and histopathological information. Adherence was expressed as the proportion of endoscopies or endoscopists being in accordance with guideline recommendations. Variation in adherence was evaluated by 1) meta-regression of adherence rates in random effects meta-analysis to define subgroups, and 2) compiling an overview of the most reported explanatory parameters for (non)adherence. Results 56 studies, including 14 002 BE patients and 4932 endoscopists, were included. Subgroup analysis showed that variation in rates of adherences to surveillance interval recommendations (I 2 = 98 % – 99 %) was explained by difference in country (43 %), by practice type (90 %), and by year of publication (11 %). Variation in adherence to the Seattle protocol was explained by difference in country (14 %). Factors most frequently reported to be associated with better adherence were shorter BE length, salaried employment, surveillance in university hospitals, and dedicated programs. Conclusions This study provides insight into the variability of rates of adherence to BE surveillance recommendations between studies. Better adherence in university hospitals and dedicated programs indicate that persistent alertness of guidelines is important.
Arabidopsis H+-ATPase AHA1 controls slow wave potential duration and wound-response jasmonate pathway activation

Significance Phosphorylation (P)-type ATPases act to maintain and modulate charge distribution across membranes and these proteins have been coopted for electrical signaling in animals. When wounded, membranes in the leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana depolarize rapidly. This is followed by a slower repolarization phase. We found that the proton pump AHA1 acted to control membrane potential when these plants were wounded. Specifically, the repolarization phase in aha1 mutants is prolonged relative to that in wild-type plants. In parallel, the jasmonate defense pathway is activated strongly and the mutant plants are better defended against herbivores than the wild type. We reveal that plants, like animals, use P-type ATPases in electrical signaling and show that AHA1 couples membrane potential to anti-herbivore defense. Electrogenic proton pumps have been implicated in the generation of slow wave potentials (SWPs), damage-induced membrane depolarizations that activate the jasmonate (JA) defense pathway in leaves distal to wounds. However, no defined H+-ATPases have been shown to modulate these electrical signals. Pilot experiments revealed that the proton pump activator fusicoccin attenuated SWP duration in Arabidopsis. Using mutant analyses, we identified Arabidopsis H+-ATPase 1 (AHA1) as a SWP regulator. The duration of the repolarization phase was strongly extended in reduced function aha1 mutants. Moreover, the duration of SWP repolarization was shortened in the presence of a gain-of-function AHA1 allele. We employed aphid electrodes to probe the effects of the aha1 mutation on wound-stimulated electrical activity in the phloem. Relative to the wild type, the aha1-7 mutant increased the duration and reduced the amplitudes of electrical signals in sieve tube cells. In addition to affecting electrical signaling, expression of the JA pathway marker gene JAZ10 in leaves distal to wounds was enhanced in aha1-7. Consistent with this, levels of wound-response jasmonoyl-isoleucine were enhanced in the mutant, as was defense against a lepidopteran herbivore. The work identifies a discrete member of the P-type ATPase superfamily with a role in leaf-to-leaf electrical signaling and plant defense.
How I treat Waldenström's Macroglobulinemia.

Waldenström's macroglobulinemia (WM) is an uncommon lymphoma characterized by the infiltration of the bone marrow by clonal lymphoplasmacytic cells that produce monoclonal IgM. The disease may have an asymptomatic phase or patients may present with symptoms and complications due to marrow or other tissue infiltration or due to physicochemical or immunological properties of the monoclonal IgM. Diagnosis of WM has been clearly defined and genetic testing for somatic mutation of MYD88L265P is a useful tool for the deferential diagnosis from other conditions and specific criteria that define symptomatic disease that needs treatment offer clinical guidance. The treatment of WM has evolved rapidly, with treatment options that include anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody-based combinations and BTK inhibitors. The choice of therapy is based on the need for a rapid disease control, presence of specific disease complications and patient's age. With the use of BTK inhibitors, the use of continuous therapy has been introduced as another option over fixed duration therapy. In this review we will focus on different clinical scenarios and discuss treatment options, based on the available data.
Lipid-based nanoparticle formulations for small molecules and RNA drugs

ABSTRACT Introduction: Liposomes and lipid-based nanoparticles (LNPs) effectively deliver cargo molecules to specific tissues, cells, and cellular compartments. Patients benefit from these nanoparticle formulations by altered pharmacokinetic properties, higher efficacy, or reduced side effects. While liposomes are an established delivery option for small molecules, Onpattro® (Sanofi Genzyme, Cambridge, MA) is the first commercially available LNP formulation of a small interfering ribonucleic acid (siRNA). Areas covered: This review article summarizes key features of liposomal formulations for small molecule drugs and LNP formulations for RNA therapeutics. We describe liposomal formulations that are commercially available or in late-stage clinical development and the most promising LNP formulations for ASOs, siRNAs, saRNA, and mRNA therapeutics. Expert opinion: Similar to liposomes, LNPs for RNA therapeutics have matured but still possess a niche application status. RNA therapeutics, however, bear an immense hope for difficult to treat diseases and fuel the imagination for further applications of RNA drugs. LNPs face similar challenges as liposomes including limitations in biodistribution, the risk to provoke immune responses, and other toxicities. However, since properties of RNA molecules within the same group are very similar, the entire class of therapeutic molecules would benefit from improvements in a few key parameters of the delivery technology.
Anxiety and depressive symptoms and missing breast cancer and cervical screening: results from Brazos valley community health survey

ABSTRACT Breast and cervical cancer screening are associated with dramatically reduced cancer mortality. Mental illnesses have been demonstrated to influence preventative behaviours. This study aims to explore whether anxiety or depressive symptoms is associated with breast and cervical cancer screening. We analyzed data (n = 3104) from the 2013 Brazos Valley Community Health Assessment. The GAD-7 Scale was used to assess the anxiety level, and PHQ-2 was used to assess the depressive symptoms. Stata 15.0 statistical software was used to perform descriptive and logistic regression analysis. Overall, 80.61% of women in each sample met breast cancer or cervical cancer screening guidelines, respectfully. Anxiety was associated with missing breast and cervical cancer screening, but the association was only significant for cervical cancer (OR = 1.430, CI = 1.009, 2.026), not for breast cancer (OR = 1.406, CI = .952, 2.078). Depressive symptom was significantly associated with missing breast (OR = 1.502, CI = 1.051, 2.149) and cervical (OR = 1.689, CI = 1.208, 2.362) cancer screening after controlling for demographics. Women with depressive symptoms and anxiety had higher odds of missing breast and cervical cancer screening. Health promotion programs should consider targeting individuals with anxiety and depression to improve cancer-screening rates.
Determining information sources for health related issues utilised by community members

Reason for information seeking by consumers and community members has been the subject of previous research to ascertain any unique issues about the personal attributes of the information seeker, the search environment and context or particular issues associated with the goods or services being researched. Several researchers have identified ways to study how information on health related topics is communicated to the community. While research is limited on the sources, search approaches and conditions associated with obtaining reliable information on health issues and topics, there is extensive literature on the important aspects of communication processes that impact on the unique, and at times complex, environment within which health consumer research occurs. This research project has enabled a review of the interpersonal and noninterpersonal communication modes to understand a range of issues that impact on the community member as the receiver of messages on health issues and topics. A qualitative and quantitative research approach has been utilised in original research to examine a number of issues associated with where community members in Australia turn to find information on health related topics. The study involves the comparison of a number of communication and information gathering approaches and expectations with a picture of information source experiences. The study highlights a range of considerations for campaign, individual communication, environment and background communication planning for those involved in engaging with the community to impart health care orientated messages.
Influência de um programa sistematizado de danças circulares em aspectos psiconeuroimunológicos de idosos cuidadores de indivíduos com doença de Alzheimer

The responsibility of daily care for individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD) may cause changes on health of older caregivers who experience closely the decline functional and cognitive in a relative. In this context, the aim of this study was to analyze the influence of a systematic circular dances program (SCDP) on psychoneuroimmunological aspects of older caregivers of patients with AD. Therefore, four manuscripts were conducted to achieve the following purposes: a) analyze the effect of chronic exercise on serum cortisol levels in older people; b) investigate the relationships between psychoneuroimmunological parameters and determine the predictors to burden in older caregivers of patients with AD; c) verify if there are differences in the level of physical activity, functional fitness, stress, depressive symptoms and biochemical parameters in older caregivers of patients with AD compared with noncaregivers, and also describe the characteristics of older caregivers and; d) analyze the influence of a systematic circular dances program on psychoneuroimmunological aspects of older caregivers of patients with AD. As main results, we observed that chronic exercise may influence the serum cortisol levels in older people. Caregiver burden is associated with, and influenced by parameters related to the caregiver psychological suffering and to characteristics inherent to AD. The SCDP presented a positive influence on caregiver burden and stress, decreased levels of blood glucose, the greater magnitude of decrease in cortisol levels and the DHEAS/cortisol ratio, better accuracy in the perception of time and improvements on functional fitness. In conclusion, the systematic circular dances program was able to promote benefits on psychoneuroimmunological aspects of older caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
Predicting Perceived Naturalness of Human Animations Based on Generative Movement Primitive Models

We compared the perceptual validity of human avatar walking animations driven by six different representations of human movement using a graphics Turing test. All six representations are based on movement primitives (MPs), which are predictive models of full-body movement that differ in their complexity and prediction mechanism. Assuming that humans are experts at perceiving biological movement from noisy sensory signals, it follows that these percepts should be describable by a suitably constructed Bayesian ideal observer model. We build such models from MPs and investigate if the perceived naturalness of human animations are predictable from approximate Bayesian model scores of the MPs. We found that certain MP-based representations are capable of producing movements that are perceptually indistinguishable from natural movements. Furthermore, approximate Bayesian model scores of these representations can be used to predict perceived naturalness. In particular, we could show that movement dynamics are more important for perceived naturalness of human animations than single frame poses. This indicates that perception of human animations is highly sensitive to their temporal coherence. More generally, our results add evidence for a shared MP-representation of action and perception. Even though the motivation of our work is primarily drawn from neuroscience, we expect that our results will be applicable in virtual and augmented reality settings, when perceptually plausible human avatar movements are required.
Flood-Risk Analysis on Terrains under the Multiflow-Direction Model

An important problem in terrain analysis is modeling how water flows across a terrain and creates floods by filling up depressions. In this article, we study a number of flood-risk related problems: Given a terrain Σ, represented as a triangulated xy-monotone surface with n vertices, a rain distribution R, and a volume of rain ψ, determine which portions of Σ are flooded. We develop efficient algorithms for flood-risk analysis under the multiflow-directions (MFD) model, in which water at a point can flow along multiple downslope edges and which more accurately represent flooding events. We present three main results: First, we present an O(n log n)-time algorithm to answer a terrain-flood query: if it rains a volume ψ according to a rain distribution R, determine what regions of Σ will be flooded. Second, we present a O(n log n + nm)-time algorithm for preprocessing Σ containing m sinks into a data structure of size O(nm) for answering point-flood queries: Given a rain distribution R, a volume of rain ψ falling according to R, and point q ∈ Σ, determine whether q will be flooded. A point-flood query can be answered in O(|R|k+k2) time, where k is the number of maximal depressions in Σ containing the query point q and |R| is the number of vertices in R with positive rainfall. Finally, we present algorithms for answering a flood-time query: given a rain distribution R and a point q ∈ Σ, determine the volume of rain that must fall before q is flooded. Assuming that the product of two k × k matrices can be computed in O(kω) time, we show that a flood-time query can be answered in O(nk + kω) time. We also give an α-approximation algorithm, for α > 1, which runs in O(n log n log α ρ)-time, where ρ is a variable on the terrain that depends on the ratio between depression volumes. We implemented our algorithms for computing terrain and point-flood queries as well as approximate flood-time queries. We tested the efficacy and efficiency of these algorithms on three real terrains of different types (urban, suburban, and mountainous.)
Comparison of Effectiveness between Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Approach on the Interest of Junior High School Students

The purpose of this study is to reveal the effectiveness of contextual teaching and learning (CTL) and problem-based learning (PBL) approaches on students' interest. This study was quasi-experimental research with pretest-posttest group design. The population of this research was all students of grade VIII of State Junior High School 9 Yogyakarta. Then, the sample involved 34 Junior High School students in each class that has been taken using purposive random sampling. The first experiment class used Contextual Teaching and Learning (CTL) approach, and the second one used the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach. The instrument was the interest questionnaire which was given to the students before (pretest) and after treatment (posttest). The data were analyzed using one sample t-test with a significance level of 5% to find out the effectiveness of CTL and PBL approaches on students' interest. Then, the data were analyzed using independent sample t-test to compare the effectiveness of both approaches. The results showed that both CTL and PBL methods were effective in terms of students' interest mean scores. The comparison result demonstrated that CTL was more effective than PBL to improve the interest of junior high school students.
Do We Have to Look at the Mirror All the Time? Effect of Partial Visuomotor Feedback on Body Ownership of a Virtual Human Tail

Studies have shown that the sense of body ownership towards virtual humanoid avatars with additional body parts can be successfully elicited when synchronous visuomotor and/or visuotactile feedback is given. In an interactive virtual reality (VR) application, however, it is difficult for users to uninterruptedly observe the added body parts, especially when they are attached to the backs of the avatars. Thus, the embodiment of such body parts needs to be achieved using limited synchronous visuomotor feedback. Commonly, it is specifically done by looking at a virtual mirror reflection of the avatar’s movement. However, the methodology of eliciting the sense of body ownership in such conditions remains to be studied. In this paper, we investigate whether it is possible to elicit a sense of body ownership using an avatar with a tail attached to its coccyx, even when the synchronous visuomotor feedback from a mirror is partial (i.e., interrupted or reduced, not a complete asynchrony). In the experiment, participants performed a task under the following three conditions regarding visuomotor synchrony provision: where the feedback is constantly given, given until halfway through the trial (reduction), and interruptedly given (interruption). Results suggest that the interruption or the reduction of the synchronous visuomotor feedback does not significantly disturb the elicitation of body ownership of the virtual tail. Thus, ownership in this fashion can be elicited in a manner insignificantly inferior to that of when synchronous visuomotor feedback is constantly given. Our findings create opportunities for researchers and engineers to more freely design interactive VR applications involving the embodiment of virtual avatars with extra body parts attached.
A Systematic Review on Cloud Testing

A systematic literature review is presented that surveyed the topic of cloud testing over the period 2012--2017. Cloud testing can refer either to testing cloud-based systems (testing of the cloud) or to leveraging the cloud for testing purposes (testing in the cloud): both approaches (and their combination into testing of the cloud in the cloud) have drawn research interest. An extensive paper search was conducted by both automated query of popular digital libraries and snowballing, which resulted in the final selection of 147 primary studies. Along the survey, a framework has been incrementally derived that classifies cloud testing research among six main areas and their topics. The article includes a detailed analysis of the selected primary studies to identify trends and gaps, as well as an extensive report of the state-of-the-art as it emerges by answering the identified Research Questions. We find that cloud testing is an active research field, although not all topics have received enough attention and conclude by presenting the most relevant open research challenges for each area of the classification framework.
CF Training for Moral and Ethical Decision Making in an Operational Context

Abstract : A half-day focus group discussion exploring current Canadian Forces (CF) training for moral and ethical decision making (MEDM) in an operational context was convened at CFB Kingston, Kingston, ON with six active Commissioned and Non-Commissioned Canadian Forces Officers who each had operational experiences involving moral and ethical challenges. Participants emphasized the importance of robust MEDM training for CF operational effectiveness. They identified five indirect means of training MEDM, which include promoting and instilling CF ethos and identity; learning from CF members operational experience and providing strong mentorship; evaluating and promoting individuals who consistently demonstrate high ethical conduct; systematizing MEDM knowledge transfer, and providing good post-MEDM support, including after action reviews, stress debriefings, and post-mission decompression opportunities. Participants also discussed specific requirements for training MEDM. For example, participants emphasized training MEDM is required at all rank levels and that it needs to occur regularly, as optimal MEDM cannot be promoted in a "two-day" course once every year. Lastly, participants also endorsed several direct means of training MEDM in an operational context. These included classroom case study training; live scenario-based training; and computer simulations.
Analysis of the Quality of Points of Interest in the Most Popular Location-based Games

Location-basedgames (LBGs) have risen to popularity recently with games like Pokémon GO, Jurassic World: Alive and Walking Dead: Our World. The games revolve around travelling to points of interests (PoIs) to perform missions, but where the points are located and what they represent in the real world varies between games. In this study, we look at the PoI placements in five popular LBGs for Android and iOS platforms: Pokémon GO, Ingress, Jurassic World: Alive, The Walking Dead: Our world and Draconius GO. The first two games utilize the same criteria-based manually created database of PoIs referred to as Portal Network, whereas the next three rely on algorithmically created PoIs. We use three factors in determining the quality of PoIs: 1) connection to real world places 2) uniqueness and metadata and 3) placement. Based on the three factors, the manually created PoI database used in Ingress, Pokémon GO and the upcoming Harry Potter: Wizards Unite outperforms automatically generated alternatives in cities and near tourist attractions, and provides a more immersive, robust and safe platform for LBGs in comparison to alternatives. However, algorithmic options maintain better PoI coverage in rural areas, an issue manual solutions will need to address.