Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Long-Term Antiretroviral Treatment Outcomes in Seven Countries in the Caribbean

Objectives:To report long-term HIV treatment outcomes in 7 Caribbean countries. Design:Observational cohort study. Methods:We report outcomes for all antiretroviral therapy (ART) naive adult patients enrolled on ART from program inception until study closing for cohorts in Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Martinique, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico. Incidence and predictors of mortality were analyzed by time-to-event approaches. Results:A total of 8203 patients were on ART from 1998 to 2008. Median follow-up time was 31 months (interquartile range: 14–50 months). The overall mortality was 13%: 6% in Martinique, 8% in Jamaica, 11% in Trinidad, 13% in Haiti, 15% in the Dominican Republic, 15% in Barbados, and 24% in Puerto Rico. Mortality was associated with male gender [hazard ratio (HR), 1.58; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.33 to 1.87], body weight (HR, 0.85 per 10 pounds; 95% CI: 0.82 to 0.89), hemoglobin (HR, 0.84 per g/dL; 95% CI: 0.80 to 0.88), CD4 cell count (0.90 per 50 CD4 cells; 95% CI: 0.86 to 0.93), concurrent tuberculosis (HR, 1.58; 95% CI: 1.25 to 2.01) and age (HR, 1.19 per 10 years; 95% CI: 1.11 to 1.28). After controlling for these variables, mortality in Martinique, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Haiti was not significantly different. A total of 75% of patients remained alive and in care at the end of the study period. Conclusions:Long-term mortality rates vary widely across the Caribbean countries. Much of the difference can be explained by disease severity at ART initiation, nutritional status, and concurrent tuberculosis. Earlier ART initiation will be critical to improve the outcomes.
Identification of a Role for Histone H2B Ubiquitylation in Noncoding RNA 3′-End Formation Through Mutational Analysis of Rtf1 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The conserved eukaryotic Paf1 complex regulates RNA synthesis by RNA polymerase II at multiple levels, including transcript elongation, transcript termination, and chromatin modifications. To better understand the contributions of the Paf1 complex to transcriptional regulation, we generated mutations that alter conserved residues within the Rtf1 subunit of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae Paf1 complex. Importantly, single amino acid substitutions within a region of Rtf1 that is conserved from yeast to humans, which we termed the histone modification domain, resulted in the loss of histone H2B ubiquitylation and impaired histone H3 methylation. Phenotypic analysis of these mutations revealed additional defects in telomeric silencing, transcription elongation, and prevention of cryptic initiation. We also demonstrated that amino acid substitutions within the Rtf1 histone modification domain disrupt 3′-end formation of snoRNA transcripts and identify a previously uncharacterized regulatory role for the histone H2B K123 ubiquitylation mark in this process. Cumulatively, our results reveal functionally important residues in Rtf1, better define the roles of Rtf1 in transcription and histone modification, and provide strong genetic support for the participation of histone modification marks in the termination of noncoding RNAs.
harakiri, a novel regulator of cell death, encodes a protein that activates apoptosis and interacts selectively with survival‐promoting proteins Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL

Programmed cell death is essential in organ development and tissue homeostasis and its deregulation is associated with the development of several diseases in mice and humans. The precise mechanisms that control cell death have not been elucidated fully, but it is well established that this form of cellular demise is regulated by a genetic program which is activated in the dying cell. Here we report the identification, cloning and characterization of harakiri, a novel gene that regulates apoptosis. The product of harakiri, Hrk, physically interacts with the death‐repressor proteins Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL, but not with death‐promoting homologs, Bax or Bak. Hrk lacks conserved BH1 and BH2 regions and significant homology to Bcl‐2 family members or any other protein, except for a stretch of eight amino acids that exhibits high homology with BH3 regions. Expression of Hrk induces cell death which is inhibited by Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL. Deletion of 16 amino acids including the conserved BH3 region abolished the ability of Hrk to interact with Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL in mammalian cells. Moreover, the killing activity of this mutant form of Hrk (Hrk ΔBH3) was eliminated or dramatically reduced, suggesting that Hrk activates cell death at least in part by interacting with and inhibiting the protection afforded by Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL. Because Hrk lacks conserved BH1 and BH2 domains that define Bcl‐2 family members, we propose that Hrk and Bik/Nbk, another BH3‐containing protein that activates apoptosis, represent a novel class of proteins that regulate apoptosis by interacting selectively with survival‐promoting Bcl‐2 and Bcl‐XL.
Contextual determinants in disclosing one’s stigmatized identity during expatriation: The case of lesbian and gay self-initiated expatriates

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to add to the understanding of the international work experiences of lesbian and gay self-initiated expatriates (SIEs) with a particular focus on the effects of different contexts on their disclosure decisions. In doing so, this study responds to the call for more empirical and extensive studies of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) expatriates. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is based on in-depth analysis of four interviews of lesbian and gay SIEs. Findings - The findings presented in this paper support three contextual determinants – personal, organizational, and country-level context. These contextual determinants significantly influence lesbian and gay SIEs’ disclosure decisions and their overall international work experience. Originality/value - Given the rapid globalization and dynamic business environment, workforce diversity has become a business imperative over the past few decades. Diversity in today’s workforce includes not simply gender and racial diversity, but also age, culture, sexual orientation, religion, education, and disabilities as primary categories of diversity. Moreover, new technologies require highly skilled labor the world over, exacerbating existing global talent shortages. These advancements in technology, accompanied by massive shortfalls in skilled labor, have expanded the pool of potential expatriates to include those non-traditional ones who have been excluded from international assignments. Particularly, as LGBT rights to equal employment opportunity and their potential contributions to international assignments have been increasingly recognized worldwide in recent years, attention to LGBT expatriates has grown exponentially. Nevertheless, neither their experiences as lesbian and gay SIEs in international assignments nor the effects of contexts on those experiences, including disclosure decisions, have yet to be fully explored. In this sense, this paper provides a contribution to the deeper understanding of lesbian and gay SIEs in multidimensional contexts of an international assignment. Although the study examined lesbian and gay expatriates, results suggest insights into the entire LGBT expatriate community.
Impact of Monetary Policy on Capital Inflows in Nigeria

Foreign capital flows depends on the prevailing monetary forces as supported by capital flows theory and the mechanism linking these two variables is that contraction of net domestic assets through an open market sale of bonds will place upward pressure on domestic interest rates. Higher interest rates attract foreign funds, generating a capital inflow which relieves the pressure on domestic interest rates. Has this actually happened? It is against this backdrop that the present study investigated the impact of monetary policy on international capital inflows in Nigeria for a period of 22 years (1994-2015) using time series data. The autoregressive distributed lag technique revealed that the short-run and long-run significant determinants of foreign capital inflows are largely from broad money supply, nominal exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rates spread except inflation rate that is insignificant in the long-run. This outcome upholds theoretical prediction. Long-run equilibrium relationship was found between the dependent variable and the regressors. Further examination of the short run dynamics of the model showed that the speed of adjustment coefficients ECM (-1) to restore equilibrium have a negative sign and statistically significant at 1% level, ensuring that long-run equilibrium can be attained and about 89% of the short-run deviation from the equilibrium (long-run) position is corrected annually to maintain the equilibrium. Since the empirical evidence revealed that monetary aggregates such as broad money supply, nominal exchange rate, inflation rate and interest rates spread influence foreign capital inflows, it is therefore recommended that government should continue to pursue expansionary monetary policy and foreign exchange policies that would ensure competitiveness of the economy in order to attract the much needed foreign capital inflows that would engender economic growth.
Stereoselectivity in metabolism of ifosfamide by CYP3A4 and CYP2B6

The aim was to identify the hepatic cytochromes P450 (CYPs) responsible for the enantioselective metabolism of ifosfamide (IFA). The 4-hydroxylation, N2- and N3-dechloroethylation of IFA enantiomers were monitored simultaneously in the same metabolic systems using GC/MS and pseudoracemate techniques. In human and rat liver microsomes, (R)-IFA was preferentially metabolized via 4-hydroxylation, whereas its antipode was biotransformed in favour of N-dechloroethylation. CYP3A4 was the major enzyme responsible for metabolism of IFA enantiomers in human liver. The study also revealed that CYP3A (human CYP3A4/5 and rat CYP3A1/2) and CYP2B (human CYP2B6 and rat CYP2B1/2) enantioselectively mediated the 4-hydroxylation, N2- and N3-dechloroethylation of IFA. CYP3A preferentially supported the formation of (R)-4-hydroxyIFA (HOIF), (R)-N2-dechloroethylIFA (N2D) and (R)-N3-dechloroethylIFA (N3D), whereas CYP2B preferentially mediated the generation of (S)-HOIF, (S)-N2D and (S)-N3D. The enantioselective metabolism of IFA by CYP3A4 and CYP2B1 was confirmed in cDNA transfected V79 cells.
Bridging Western Ethics and Japanese Local Ethics by Listening to Nurses’ Concerns

Among Japanese nurses ethics is perceived as being distant and unrelated to their practice, although this is filled with ethical concerns and the making of ethical decisions. The reasons for this dissociation are the primacy of western values in modern Japanese health care systems and the suppression of Japanese nurses’ indigenous ethical values because of domination by western ethics. A hermeneutic study was conducted to listen to the ethical voices of Japanese nurses. Seven ethical concerns were revealed. Although some of these concerns may seem to share similar values with western ethical principles, the basis for the concerns was unique and rooted in the Japanese cultural value system. The meanings of each concern are explicated in conjunction with related background meanings. Listening and trying to understand these nurses’ voices in their own context suggests a way of bridging the gap between abstract and universal ethics and practical and local ethics.
Cellular trade-offs and optimal resource allocation during cyanobacterial diurnal growth

Significance Cyanobacteria are important players in Earth’s biogeochemical cycles and a promising resource for the synthesis of renewable raw materials. Of particular interest are the cellular organization that enables fast growth and the corresponding intracellular limits on growth rates. Here, we develop a constraint-based computational model of phototrophic growth to investigate the optimal allocation of cellular resources in a diurnal light environment. The model-derived optimal metabolite partitioning during diurnal growth is in qualitative agreement with recent experimental data. Our results suggest that phototrophic metabolism at fast growth rates is highly optimized and strongly dependent on the timing characteristics of enzyme synthesis. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the experimentally observed pattern of glycogen accumulation is in agreement with predictions based on optimal resource allocation. Cyanobacteria are an integral part of Earth’s biogeochemical cycles and a promising resource for the synthesis of renewable bioproducts from atmospheric CO2. Growth and metabolism of cyanobacteria are inherently tied to the diurnal rhythm of light availability. As yet, however, insight into the stoichiometric and energetic constraints of cyanobacterial diurnal growth is limited. Here, we develop a computational framework to investigate the optimal allocation of cellular resources during diurnal phototrophic growth using a genome-scale metabolic reconstruction of the cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942. We formulate phototrophic growth as an autocatalytic process and solve the resulting time-dependent resource allocation problem using constraint-based analysis. Based on a narrow and well-defined set of parameters, our approach results in an ab initio prediction of growth properties over a full diurnal cycle. The computational model allows us to study the optimality of metabolite partitioning during diurnal growth. The cyclic pattern of glycogen accumulation, an emergent property of the model, has timing characteristics that are in qualitative agreement with experimental findings. The approach presented here provides insight into the time-dependent resource allocation problem of phototrophic diurnal growth and may serve as a general framework to assess the optimality of metabolic strategies that evolved in phototrophic organisms under diurnal conditions.
Body temperature during work at different environmental temperatures.

In human subjects it was found that during muscular work only small and unsystematic differences existed between temperatures measured at different depths in the rectum, whereas a steep temperature gradient was found along the upper oesophagus. —The oesophageal temperature measured just above the diaphragm (i. e. close to aorta and left heart) reached during exercise the work level much faster, and, also in the recovery period returned to the resting level much more rapidly than did the rectal temperature. During leg-work the level reached by the oesophageal temperature was considerably lower than that reached by the rectal temperature while during arm-work they were of about the same height. Breathing of air saturated with water vapor at body temperature did not influence the temperature in the lower oesophagus but eliminated the steep temperature gradient in upper oesophagus. Under these conditions the sublingual temperature was equal to the temperature in lower oesophagus. The experiments suggest that the oesophageal temperature measured just above the diaphragm is a good index of the temperature of a large part of the core of the body. —During work both rectal and oesophageal temperatures were practically independent of environmental temperatures between 5 and 30°C.
Giant sublingual epidermoid cyst resembling plunging ranula

Epidermoid and dermoid cysts represent less than 0.01% of all oral cavity cysts. We describe a rare case of large epidermoid cyst in floor of mouth, with an oral as well as submental component resembling plunging ranula reported in the literature from India. We present a case of a 16-year-old girl with complaints of a mass in sublingual region, difficulty chewing, and dysphagia for about 5 months. Fine-needle aspiration cytology showed keratin flakes and proteinaceous material. Contrast-enhanced CT oral cavity was done and showed 7.0 × 5 × 4.5 cm well-circumscribed non-enhancing cystic mass extending into the floor of the mouth. On examination, a firm swelling was noticed in the submental area, extending down to the thyroid notch. The patient underwent surgical removal of the mass. On histopathology, acidophilic stratum corneum and basophilic dot like staining of stratum granulosum, which is the hallmark of an epidermoid cyst, were seen.
Short-term prediction of wind power based on deep Long Short-Term Memory

This paper proposes a wind power prediction model based on the Long Short-Term Memory model, one of the deep learning method. Deep learning conforms to the trend of big data and has powerful capability of learning and generalization for mass data. Principal component analysis (PCA) is used to choose input samples and reduce the dimensions of the input variables of the LSTM prediction model based on numerical weather prediction(NWP) data. Simulation results show that, compared with BP neural network and support vector machine(SVM) model, the LSTM prediction model has higher prediction accuracy and greater potential for engineering applications. It is effective to apply the Long Short-Term Memory model to the field of wind power prediction.
Customer referral management: the implications of social networks

This study suggests that trust – credibility and benevolence – is the key element in the process of customer referral management. Along with tie strength and shared value, the proposed referral model was tested with life-insurance buyers. The results indicated that the first step for salespeople to gain more referrals and to develop closer relational strength is the development of higher levels of benevolence. Conversely, salespeople emphasise establishing mutual value, thereby building more ability-based trust, which is not as effective in obtaining more referrals. The study findings will be useful to companies to develop different types of relationship marketing programmes.
Methodology and rationale for the measurement of harm with trigger tools

The growing recognition of harm as an unwelcome and frequently unrecognized byproduct of health care has initiated focused efforts to create highly reliable organizations for safe healthcare delivery. While debate continues over the exact magnitude of harm, there is a general acceptance of the need to improve our ability to deliver care in a safer manner. A major barrier to progress in safety has been the ability to effectively measure harm consistently and thus develop effective and targeted strategies to prevent its occurrence. This has resulted in a shift from initiatives focused exclusively on analysis of errors to those targeting events linked to harm. There is a growing recognition of a distinction between errors and adverse events as they often represent unique concepts fostering different strategies for improvement of safety. Conventional approaches to identifying and quantifying harm such as individual chart audits, incident reports, or voluntary administrative reporting have often been less successful in improving the detection of adverse events. As a result, a new method of measuring harm—the trigger tool—has been developed. It is easily customized and can be readily taught, enabling consistent and accurate measurement of harm. The history, application, and impact of the trigger tool concept in identifying and quantifying harm are discussed.
The utility of a bilateral breast pumping system for mothers of premature infants.

Mothers of premature infants have difficulty maintaining their milk supply as a result of the separation that occurs between the mother and the baby. The hypothesis in the present investigation is that use of a bilateral (simultaneous) breast pumping system will increase the volume of milk expressed in these mothers. Thirty-two breastfeeding mothers of premature infants were randomly assigned to either the control (single) or the experimental (bilateral) breast pump group. Mothers pumped at least four times a day. Data collection included a daily milk production log, weekly serum prolactin levels, and a weekly State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Participation lasted from four to six weeks. Data analysis included average STAI scores; average prolactin levels; and weekly averages for number of pumping sessions, hours of pumping, and milk production in milliliters. The two groups did not differ on several demographic characteristics, STAI scores, prolactin levels, number of pumping sessions per week, or weekly milk production. The amount of time spent pumping, however, was statistically less for mothers who used the bilateral pump (7.6 +/- 3.0 hours/week) versus those who used the single pump (11.1 +/- 3.1 hours/week) (p = .003). Although use of either the single pump or the bilateral electric pump resulted in similar milk production, the bilateral pump significantly reduced the time invested in pumping. Health professionals should advocate use of the bilateral pump for mothers of premature infants. Additional studies are needed to determine strategies for increasing milk production in this population.
Genotype–phenotype relationships as prognosticators in Rett syndrome should be handled with care in clinical practice

Rett syndrome (RTT; OMIM 312750) is an X‐linked dominant neurodevelopmental disorder leading to cognitive and motor impairment, epilepsy, and autonomic dysfunction in females. Since the discovery that RTT is caused by mutations in MECP2, large retrospective genotype–phenotype correlation studies have been performed. A number of general genotype–phenotype relationships were confirmed and specific disorder profiles were described. Nevertheless, conflicting results are still under discussion, partly due to the variability in classification of mutations, assessment tools, and structure of the data sets. The aim of this study was to investigate relationships between genotype and specific clinical data collected by the same experienced physician in a well‐documented RTT cohort, and evaluate its prognostic value in counseling young parents with a newly diagnosed RTT girl regarding her future outcome. The Maastricht–Leuven Rett Syndrome Database is a register of 137 molecularly confirmed clinical RTT cases, containing both molecular and clinical data on examination and follow up by the same experienced physician. Although the general genotype–phenotype relationships were confirmed, the clinical severity was still found to be very variable. We therefore recommend caution in using genotype–phenotype data in the prognosis of outcome for children in Rett syndrome. Early diagnosis, early intervention, and preventive management are imperative for better outcomes and better quality of daily life for RTT females and their families. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.