Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Can OCT Pachymetry Identify Keratoconus Suspects

Purpose: Comparing the optical coherence tomography (OCT) pachymetry patterns in keratoconus suspect and normal people Methods: Thirty-two keratoconus suspects and 36 healthy eyes were selected within the age range of 20-30 yrs. Their pachymetry pattern was obtained through OCT Visante in the minimum thickness spot, upper and lower corneal difference (I-S), lower temporal, and upper nasal thickness (IT-SN), withdrawal or non-withdrawal of the minimum thickness area of cornea from 0-2 central zone using the output map. Results: In all measured parameters a significant difference was observed between the two groups (p<0.0001). The Keratoconus suspects had a thinner cornea and showed more changes in corneal thickness than the normal group. Conclusion: It seems that an OCT system of anterior segment can be utilized to assess patients prior to refractive surgery or Keratoconus screening, along with equipments such as Pentacam, and Orbscan.
Review of psychotherapeutic interventions on depression in cancer patients and their impact on disease progression

Abstract Depression, ranging from mild to severe, is the most frequently found psychological symptom among individuals with cancer. Depression in cancer patients has been known to mitigate emotional distress, quality of life, adherence to medical treatment, and overall health outcomes. Specifically, depression has been associated with impaired immune response and with poorer survival in patients with cancer. Various studies have found that psychotherapeutic interventions are effective in reducing symptoms of depression, which in turn could affect disease progression and mortality. This paper provides updated information on psychotherapeutic interventions geared towards cancer patients suffering from depressive disorders, and its impact on disease progression. PubMed, Cochrane Library database, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES databases were searched from January 1980 through August 2013 using key words: psychotherapy, treatment, oncology, cancer, psycho-oncology, psychosocial issues, psychosocial stress, depression, mood disorder, and psychoneuroimmunology.
Demultiplexing chaos from multimode semiconductor lasers

We show numerically that the injection of two chaotic modes of a multimode semiconductor laser with optical feedback into two single-mode stand-alone semiconductor lasers leads to chaotic synchronization between the respective intensities. The effect of parameter mismatch between the transmitter and receiver lasers is examined, and it is concluded that the observed synchronization is a consequence of injection locking. Under these conditions, the possibility of using this demultiplexing scheme for message transmission is examined.
Complex Infomax: Convergence and Approximation of Infomax with Complex Nonlinearities

Independent component analysis (ICA) for separating complex-valued sources is needed for convolutive source-separation in the frequency domain, or for performing source separation on complex-valued data, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging or radar data. Previous complex Infomax approaches that use nonlinear functions in the updates have proposed using bounded (and hence non-analytic) nonlinearities. In this paper, we propose using an analytic (and hence unbounded) complex nonlinearity for Infomax for processing complex-valued sources. We show by simulation examples that using an analytic nonlinearity for processing complex data has a number of advantages. First, when compared to split-complex approaches (i.e., approaches that split the real and imaginary data into separate channels), the shape of the performance surface is improved resulting in better convergence characteristics. We also show that using an analytic complex-valued function for the nonlinearity is more effective in generating the higher order statistics required to establish independence when compared to complex nonlinear functions, i.e., functions that are ℂ → ℂ
Medical students and intimate examinations: What affects whether a woman will consent?

Abstract Objective: Undergraduate medical students often struggle to gain satisfactory competence levels in intimate examination. What factors increase the likelihood of a woman allowing a student to perform an intimate examination? Methods: Questionnaires were given to women attending a tertiary gynecology hospital. Women were asked a series of questions about what would influence their decision to agree to be examined by a student. Demographic data and data on previous gynaecological history and preferences on any student who might see them in clinic. We asked women to indicate their willingness to agree to vaginal examination (but not to undergo the examination). Results: Age, parity or civil status or the source of the request did not affect willingness to have a vaginal examination. The woman’s hypothetical agreement was positively affected by the student’s gender (female) and age (preferring older students); positively affected by an informal/relaxed manner and smart presentation, and positively by whether the woman had experienced gynecology clinics before. An association existed between being willing to be examined and whether the student had engaged with the woman by finding out what her presenting complaint was. Conclusions: Women’s willingness to agree to vaginal examination is influenced by several student-related factors, some modifiable.
Variabilidade espacial e temporal de atributos do solo e sua relação com a composição da uva para vinificação no Planalto Catarinense

A vitivinicultura vem expandindo a sua participacao na economia da regiao do Planalto Sul Catarinense. O solo e o clima sao dois fatores importantes na definicao da composicao da uva para vinificacao. O presente trabalho objetivou avaliar a variabilidade espacial e temporal de atributos quimicos, fisicos e o armazenamento de agua de solos de altitude e avaliar quais sao as condicoes que favorecem a produtividade e a composicao das uvas viniferas. O experimento foi realizado em um vinhedo comercial, localizado em Sao Joaquim (SC), com clima do tipo Cfb, subtropical (mesotermico), em um Cambissolo Humico e um Cambissolo Haplico, nas safras entre 2008 a 2011. A variedade foi a Cabernet Sauvignon, implantada em 2003, enxertada sobre Paulsen 1103 e conduzida no sistema de conducao espaldeira, sob sombrite. Em cada solo, em uma malha com 37 pontos, amostras foram coletadas para a determinacao dos atributos fisicos e quimicos do solo. A umidade do solo foi determinada periodicamente, em duas safras. Em cada ponto foram coletados cachos de uvas para a determinacao de suas caracteristicas fisicas, fisico-quimicas e compostos fenolicos. Os dados foram submetidos a analise exploratoria, geoestatistica, analise de variância (ANOVA) e correlacao linear de Pearson. As medias foram comparadas pelo teste t . O tipo de solo e sua posicao na paisagem influenciam a variabilidade espacial dos atributos fisicos e quimicos dos solos nos vinhedos de altitude. Ha variabilidade espacial dos atributos quimicos e fisicos nos dois Cambissolos, classificada em media a alta para os atributos fisicos e alta e muito alta para os atributos quimicos. No Cambissolo Humico a variabilidade do armazenamento de agua e menor do que no Cambissolo Haplico, e tem mais agua disponivel para as videiras. O Cambissolo Haplico, com melhor drenagem produz uva com composicao mais adequada a elaboracao de vinhos finos, enquanto o Cambissolo Humico em anos de maior pluviosidade tem a composicao da uva afetada negativamente. As caracteristicas fisicas e fisico-quimicas da uva sao dependentes do solo e do clima, com efeito mais pronunciado do clima
Glucose and diabetic vascular disease 1

The central therapeutic problem in diabetes mellitus is prevention and treatment of the chronic vascular disease associated with this disorder. Prolonged exposure to hyperglycemia is the primary factor associated with the development of diabetes‐specific microvascular disease, and the relationship between deranged glucose metabolism and arterial disease is complicated by many other factors that influence atherogenesis in non‐diabetics. Until relatively recently, knowledge about diabetic vascular disease was limited mainly to clinical description. New information about abnormal vascular physiology, ultrastructure, biochemistry, cell biology, and molecular biology now makes it possible to understand in an integrated fashion the major specific mechanisms by which hyperglycemia damages diabetic vessels. Continued progress in this area will further optimize the development of safe and effective drugs for the treatment of diabetic vascular disease. — Ruderman, N. B. ; Williamson, J. R. ; Brownlee, M. Glucose and diabetic vascular disease. FASEB J. 6: 2905‐2914; 1992.
All Reviews are Not Created Equal: The Disaggregate Impact of Reviews and Reviewers at Amazon.Com

Online product review networks help to transmit information that customers can use to evaluate product quality. The prior literature has found that, in the aggregate, better product reviews lead to higher sales. However, product review networks increasingly include an explicit social component that allows consumers to evaluate individual reviews based on the status of the reviewer and on the "helpfulness" of the review to the community. In this research, we extend this literature by analyzing the impact of reviews at a disaggregate level. We find that reviews that the community finds helpful have a stronger influence on consumers' purchase decisions than other reviews do. Moreover, these reviews have a stronger impact on less popular books than on more popular books, where consumers may be able to use other outside information sources to form an opinion of the product. Overall, our results suggest that the micro-level dynamics of community interactions are valuable in signaling quality over-and-above aggregate-level scores. One implication of this result is that the micro-level dynamics of reputation communities make it harder for self-interested parties to manipulate reviews versus an environment where consumers only have aggregate quality measures.
FUNCTIONS OF CLASS H(α,p) AND TAYLOR MEANS

In this paper, we take up Taylor means to study the degree of approximation of f ∈ H(α, p) space in the generalized Hölder metric and obtain a general theorem which is used to obtain a few more results that improve upon some earlier results obtained by Mohapatra, Holland and Sahney [J. Approx. Theory 45 (1985), 363–374] in Lp-norm, Mohapatra and Chandra [Math. Chronicle 11 (1982), 89–96] in Hölder metric and Chui and Holland [J. Approx. Theory 39 (1983), 24–38] in sup-norm. 1. Definitions and notations Let f be 2π-periodic and let f ∈ Lp[0, 2π] for p > 1. Let sn(f ; x) be the partial sum of the Fourier series of f at x, i.e., sn(f ; x) = 1 2 a0 + n ∑ k=1 (ak cos kx + bk sin kx). The space Lp[0, 2π] with p = ∞ includes the space C2π of all 2π-periodic continuous functions over [0, 2π]. Throughout, all norms are taken with respect to x and we write for 1 6 p 6 ∞, ‖f‖p = { 1 2π ∫ 2π 0 |f(x)|pdx }1/p (1 6 p < ∞), ‖f‖∞ = ‖f‖c = sup 06x62π |f(x)|. For the convenience in the working, we also write ‖f(x)‖p for ‖f‖p (1 6 p 6 ∞). Let ω(δ; f), ωp(δ; f) and ω (2) p (δ; f) denote, respectively, the modulus of continuity, integral modulus of continuity and integral modulus of smoothness which are non-negative and non-decreasing (see [15, pp. 42 and 45] and [7, p. 612]). In the case 0 < α 6 1 and ω(δ; f) = O(δ), we write f ∈ Lip α and if ωp(δ; f) = O(δ), we write f ∈ Lip(α, p). Also, if either ωp(δ; f) = o(δ) or ω(δ; f) = o(δ), as δ → 0, (1.1) 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 41A25, 42A10, 40G10
Enhancing Volunteerism in Healthcare: Mediating Effect of Social Network

The participation of volunteers in volunteerism activities particularly in combating healthcare issues among underserved communities is highly demanded. Volunteerism refers to intangible contributions of time and effort spent to help those people in straitened circumstances in a community. Volunteerism is a type of philanthropic behavior. This study explored how social network acts as a mediator in the relationships between coping strategies and social trust with volunteerism. This study used a correlational research design involving 300 community health workers (CHWs) under MERCY Malaysia, a non-government organization (NGO) in the healthcare sector. Data were analysed using a two-step approach in structural equation modeling (SEM). Results showed that social network mediated the relationship between task-oriented coping and volunteerism in community healthcare. This study gives insights to managers and NGOs in hiring and retaining CHWs in community development work based on a developing country context.
Chemokine receptors and HIV

The discovery that chemokine receptors are the human cofactors required along with CD4 for fusion and infection by HIV has opened new directions in AIDS research on mechanisms of viral entry, tropism, and pathogenesis. A possible mechanism of coreceptor function has been demonstrated that involves the formation of a complex on the cell surface between the HIV‐1 envelope, CD4, and the coreceptor. Functional studies indicate that this interaction is structurally complex, that it probably involves multiple domains of the coreceptor, and that different virus isolates interact with coreceptors in distinct ways. Other immunodeficiency viruses including simian immunodeficiency virus and feline immunodeficiency virus also utilize chemokine receptors for entry. The identification of genetic polymorphisms helps explain why some people, with alterations in the CCR5 gene that prevent expression, are protected from HIV‐1 infection. The discovery of specific HIV‐1 fusion coreceptor molecules has not only provided new insights into the mechanisms of viral entry and tropism, but also led to new avenues of investigation on strategies to block HIV infection. J. Leukoc. Biol. 62: 20–29; 1997.
Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) associated with EBV infection in a pediatric patient

Background: Epstein Barr Virus (EBV) is associated with different kinds of tumors. In the present study we tried to understand its role in pediatric MDS of a 4-year-old girl with EBV infection and MDS with refractory anemia and monosomy 7. Procedures: The work-up included: hematological tests; serology for IgM, IgG antibodies to EBV; PCR for EBV; cytogenetics of bone marrow (BM), and FISH analysis of BM and blood; immunohistochemistry-LMP1 expression on BM smears. Results: Hematological follow up showed constant mild dysplastic changes mostly in the erythroid lineage. PCR for EBV showed positive results in the nasopharygeal smears as well as in blood 15 weeks after disease onset. Cytogenetic analysis showed monosomy7 inall the mitoses of BM sample. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) showed monosomy 7% in 57% of the cells, followed by a decreased tendency in the percentage of monosomy 7 cells in both BM and blood. Immunohistochemistry for EBV-latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1) on the patient’s BM smears, 21 weeks post disease onset, showed 9% positive cells, 80% of them carried monosomy 7. Conclusion: The parallel occurrence of the EBV infection and MDS, as well as the continuous EBV PCR positive and monosomy 7, support the possibility that they are related.
The Health of Office-Based Workers in Kingston, Jamaica

The health status of Jamaican workers was evaluated as a baseline for workplace health promotion interventions. Socio-demographic, health status, and lifestyle data were collected from 1,087 employees. Blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol levels, and body mass index were measured for study participants. The most common illness reported by the study participants was migraine headaches (16.0%), followed by hypertension (13.5%) and asthma (6.1%). Based on blood pressure measurements, 34.1% were pre-hypertensive (120-139/80-89 mmHg), 13.1% had Stage 1 hypertension (140-159/90-99 mmHg), and 2.3% Stage 2 hypertension (≥160/≥100 mmHg). Furthermore, 33% were overweight, 16.7% were obese, and 10% were extremely obese. Most (55.1%) of the study participants reported excessive fast-food consumption in the last 7 days. The high rates of obesity, hypertension, and fast-food consumption reported in this study emphasized the need for focused health promotion strategies. Universality across institutions presented an excellent opportunity for national workplace health intervention programs.
Thermal treatment and leaching of biochar alleviates plant growth inhibition from mobile organic compounds

Recent meta-analyses of plant responses to biochar boast positive average effects of between 10 and 40%. Plant responses, however, vary greatly across systems, and null or negative biochar effects are increasingly reported. The mechanisms responsible for such responses remain unclear. In a glasshouse experiment we tested the effects of three forestry residue wood biochars, applied at five dosages (0, 5, 10, 20, and 50 t/ha) to a temperate forest drystic cambisol as direct surface applications and as complete soil mixes on the herbaceous pioneers Lolium multiflorum and Trifolium repens. Null and negative effects of biochar on growth were found in most cases. One potential cause for null and negative plant responses to biochar is plant exposure to mobile compounds produced during pyrolysis that leach or evolve following additions of biochars to soil. In a second glasshouse experiment we examined the effects of simple leaching and heating techniques to ameliorate potentially phytotoxic effects of volatile and leachable compounds released from biochar. We used Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME)–gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to qualitatively describe organic compounds in both biochar (through headspace extraction), and in the water leachates (through direct injection). Convection heating and water leaching of biochar prior to application alleviated growth inhibition. Additionally, growth was inhibited when filtrate from water-leached biochar was applied following germination. SPME-GC-MS detected primarily short-chained carboxylic acids and phenolics in both the leachates and solid chars, with relatively high concentrations of several known phytotoxic compounds including acetic acid, butyric acid, 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol and benzoic acid. We speculate that variable plant responses to phytotoxic organic compounds leached from biochars may largely explain negative plant growth responses and also account for strongly species-specific patterns of plant responses to biochar amendments in short-term experiments.
Physiopathology of parotid cell energetics

Attention was recently drawn to the production of D-glucose by salivary glands and its concentration in the saliva of both normal and diabetic subjects. Likewise, the identity and expression of selected transporters involved in the handling of the hexose by salivary glands were recently investigated in both normal and diabetic rats. In consideration of this information, the present report aims at providing an integrated review on the physiopathology of parotid cell energetics.
Use of host factors to identify people at high risk for cutaneous malignant melanoma .

OBJECTIVE To determine which host characteristics are risk factors for cutaneous malignant melanoma in order to aim prevention and early detection programs at people at high risk. DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Southern Ontario. SUBJECTS The 583 case subjects were aged 20 to 69 years and had had malignant melanoma newly diagnosed between Oct. 1, 1984, and Sept. 30, 1986. The 608 control subjects were randomly selected from a list of residents in the study area and were stratum matched for age, sex and municipality. INTERVENTION Through in-person interviews the interviewer ascertained exposure to putative external risk factors and assessed skin colour and number of nevi on the arm, and the subject reported his or her natural hair colour at age 20 years, eye colour, skin reaction to repeated sun exposure, and freckle and whole-body nevus densities. RESULTS Although all the host factors mentioned were significantly associated with melanoma risk when considered separately, only hair colour, skin reaction to repeated sun exposure, and self-reported freckle and nevus densities remained significant after backward logistic regression analysis. The odds ratio for melanoma was estimated to be 10.7 in people who had many nevi compared with those who had none (95% confidence interval [CI] 6.6 to 17.4), 4.0 in people who had red hair compared with those who had black hair (95% CI 1.9 to 8.2), 1.9 in people who had many freckles compared with those who had none or few (95% CI 1.3 to 2.8) and 1.4 respectively in people who burned and had a subsequent increase in tan and those who burned and had no increase in tan after repeated sun exposure compared with those who did not burn [corrected]. CONCLUSIONS Four risk factors for malignant melanoma have been identified. Prospective evaluation of their predictive value should be done. In the meantime, however, these factors should be used to identify people apparently at high risk for malignant melanoma, who can then be targeted for early detection and prevention programs.
Assessing executive functioning: On the validity, reliability, and sensitivity of a click/point random number generation task in healthy adults and patients with cognitive decline

In random number generation (RNG) tasks, used to assess executive functioning, participants are asked to generate a random sequence of digits at a paced rate, either verbally or by writing. Some previous studies used an alternative format in which participants had to randomly press different response keys, assuming that this task version demands the same cognitive processes as those implied in the standard version. The present study examined the validity of this assumption. To this end, the construct validity, reliability, and sensitivity of a conceptually similar task version of the key-press task were examined. Participants had to randomly click on, or point to, the digits 1–9, laid out orderly in a 3 × 3 grid on a computer screen. Psychometric properties of this task were examined, based on the performance of 131 healthy participants and 80 patients with cognitive decline. The results suggest that the click/point RNG task version can be used as a reliable and valid substitute for standard task versions that use the same response set and response pacing rate as those used in the present study. This task might be a useful alternative, demanding no separate recording and recoding of responses, and being suitable for use with patients with speech or writing problems.