Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spiritual needs of Taiwan's older patients with terminal cancer.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES To explore the core constitutive patterns from the perspective of the older patient with terminal cancer, the major foci of spiritual needs, and professional actions that manifest tangibly as spiritual care. DESIGN Hermeneutic inquiry. SETTING Two leading teaching hospitals in Taiwan. SAMPLE 35 older patients with terminal cancer with a life expectancy of three months. METHODS Participatory observation and in-depth interviews were the major data collection strategies. Hermeneutic inquiry was used to disclose, document, and interpret participants' lived experiences. MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES The perceptions of older Taiwanese patients with terminal cancer and their particular healthcare needs across various transition stages. FINDINGS Two constitutive patterns, "caring for the mortal body" and "transcending the worldly being," each with three themes and a related transformational process emerged from the data analysis. Two foci of spiritual needs were discovering patients' concerns about their dying bodies and their worldly being and facilitating the transcendence of the spiritual being from the physical realm. CONCLUSIONS Caring for older Taiwanese patients with terminal cancer and helping them transcend the fear of the unknown when they give up worldly being can produce insights into patients' primary concerns, perceptions, and spiritual needs to help them achieve a "good" death. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING The knowledge gained in this study and the six major spiritual care actions identified may empower oncology nurse educators to develop culturally valid spiritual care courses. Research-based guidance for nurse clinicians who are taking care of older Taiwanese patients with terminal cancer will be provided.
A comparative study of zooplankton diversity and abundance from three different types of water body

In this study, we compared the species composition and diversity of planktonic Rotifera, Cladocera and Copepoda between river, irrigation canal and rice field ecosystem in Balik Pulau, Penang, Malaysia. The present study was carried out from October 2013 to February 2014. Average total diversity of zooplankton tended to be the highest in river (24 species) and the lowest in rice field (19 species). Despite the relatively high species number of zooplankton supported by river, irrigation canal water body seems to contribute considerably higher total abundance than the other two types of ecosystem. Data analysis highlighted significant difference in zooplankton abundance among the different types of water body (p = 0.004). The zooplankton abundance was influenced by physical factors of the water bodies. Correlation analysis revealed a strong positive relationship between zooplankton abundance and water transparency (r = +0.547), while there exists a weak negative correlation with dissolved oxygen (r = -0.238) and temperature (r = -0.234). The findings of the present study provide useful knowledge on the spatial organization of zooplankton diversity in different types of freshwater ecosystem as well as can be used as management strategies to protect the aquatic biodiversity in the agricultural area. Keywords— Rotifera, Cladocera, Copepoda, Malaysia, zooplankton.
An assessment of mosquito breeding and control in four surface flow wetlands in tropical-subtropical Australia.

In Queensland, Australia, the tropical-subtropical climate is ideal to promote macrophyte growth in surface flow wetlands; however, there have been concerns that constructed wetlands are potential breeding sites for disease-bearing mosquitoes. The aim of this study was to assess whether mosquitoes were breeding in these constructed wetlands, and if so, where they breed, and what parameters might influence breeding: e.g. water quality, vegetation, or macroinvertebrate communities. A study of four surface flow constructed wetlands located in different climatic regions was undertaken. Mosquito larvae were sampled using 240 ml dippers and macroinvertebrates using dip nets. The wetland with the greatest biodiversity of macrophytes and macroinvertebrates had the least number of mosquito larvae (< 1% of all dips). Samples with most mosquito larvae occurred amongst dense mats of Paspalum grass or dead Typha. Despite the presence of larvae in some parts of these wetlands very few late instars or pupae were found i.e. completion of the mosquito life cycle to adult mosquitoes was unsuccessful. This study has shown that the presence of mosquito larvae can be minimised by increasing macroinvertebrate biodiversity, by planting a variety of macrophyte types and species, excluding aggressive plant species, and maintaining at least 30% open water. Macroinvertebrates are probably a crucial factor in the control of mosquito larvae ensuring that predation of the early instars prevents or limits the development of pupae and the emergence of adults.
Black beetle damage to perennial ryegrass infected with AR 1 endophyte

AR1 is a new fungal endophyte that is being released in perennial ryegrass to New Zealand farmers. This endophyte lacks the mammalian toxins, ergovaline and lolitrem B, but produces peramine which provides resistance to a major ryegrass pest, Argentine stem weevil (Listronotus bonariensis). Black beetle (Heteronychus arator) is another important pest of ryegrass in northern areas of New Zealand. Adults are selective feeders, and avoid feeding on ryegrass infected with wildtype endophyte. A limited supply of suitable food greatly reduces their reproductive capacity. Laboratory and field investigations were therefore carried out to evaluate the degree of resistance to black beetle provided by AR1. Assessments of adult black beetle feeding were made on two field trials planted in autumn 1999. In both trials, adult feeding was significantly higher on ryegrass infected with AR1 than on ryegrass with wild-type but also significantly lower on AR1 than on endophyte-free ryegrass. In a pot trial conducted in summer, black beetle adult damage to 4-week-old AR1-infected ryegrass was no different from damage to endophyte-free plants. However in 6-month-old plants, damage to AR1 plants was significantly less than to endophyte-free plants and was similar to damage levels on wild-type plants. A further pot trial showed that beetles overwintering on AR1 ryegrass had a higher reproductive capacity than those overwintering on wild-type infected ryegrass. In February 2001, two field trials planted the previous June were sampled for black beetle larvae. Black beetle presence was significantly higher on endophyte-free plots than on wild-type plots, with presence on AR1 intermediate between these treatments. Ryegrass infected with AR1, although showing a degree of resistance to black beetle compared with endophyte-free ryegrass, is more susceptible to damage than wild-type, particularly in its first year of planting. Limited data indicate that older AR1 swards may have similar resistance to that of the wild-type but further research is needed to clarify the effect of stand maturity on black beetle damage to ryegrass infected with this new endophyte.
Analysis of an incomplete longitudinal composite variable using a marginalized random effects model and multiple imputation

The total score, which is calculated as the sum of scores in multiple items or questions, is repeatedly measured in longitudinal clinical studies. A mixed effects model for repeated measures method is often used to analyze these data; however, if one or more individual items are not measured, the method cannot be directly applied to the total score. We develop two simple and interpretable procedures that infer fixed effects for a longitudinal continuous composite variable. These procedures consider that the items that compose the total score are multivariate longitudinal continuous data and, simultaneously, handle subject-level and item-level missing data. One procedure is based on a multivariate marginalized random effects model with a multiple of Kronecker product covariance matrices for serial time dependence and correlation among items. The other procedure is based on a multiple imputation approach with a multivariate normal model. In terms of the type-1 error rate and the bias of treatment effect in total score, the marginalized random effects model and multiple imputation procedures performed better than the standard mixed effects model for repeated measures analysis with listwise deletion and single imputations for handling item-level missing data. In particular, the mixed effects model for repeated measures with listwise deletion resulted in substantial inflation of the type-1 error rate. The marginalized random effects model and multiple imputation methods provide for a more efficient analysis by fully utilizing the partially available data, compared to the mixed effects model for repeated measures method with listwise deletion.
Role of the Lymphoreticular System in Prion Neuroinvasion from the Oral and Nasal Mucosa

ABSTRACT Prion neuroinvasion from peripheral tissues involves agent replication in the lymphoreticular system (LRS) prior to entry into the nervous system. This study investigated the role of the LRS in prion neuroinvasion from the oral and nasal mucosa in wild-type and immunodeficient mice and in hamsters infected with the HY and DY strains of the transmissible mink encephalopathy (TME) agent. Following inoculation at neural sites, all hosts were susceptible to prion disease and had evidence of prion infection in the brain, but infection of the LRS was found only in scrapie-infected wild-type mice and HY TME-infected hamsters. In the LRS replication-deficient models, prion neuroinvasion was not observed following intraperitoneal or oral inoculation. However, immunodeficient mice, which have impaired follicular dendritic cells, were susceptible to scrapie following intratongue and intranasal inoculation despite the absence of PrPSc in the tongue or the nasal cavity. For DY TME, hamsters were susceptible following intratongue but not intranasal inoculation and PrPSc was limited to nerve fibers of the tongue. These findings indicate that neuroinvasion from the tongue and nasal cavity can be independent of LRS infection but neuroinvasion was partially dependent on the strain of the prion agent and/or the host species. The paucity of PrPSc deposition in the oral and nasal mucosa from LRS replication-deficient hosts following neuroinvasion from these tissues suggests an infection of nerve fibers that is below the threshold of PrPSc detection and/or the transport of the prion agent along cranial nerves without agent replication.
EasyChair Preprint No 856 A Hybrid Generative / Discriminative Model for Rapid Prototyping of Domain-Specific Named Entity Recognition

We propose PYHSCRF, a novel tagger for domain-specific named entity recognition that only requires a few seed terms, in addition to unannotated corpora, and thus permits the iterative and incremental design of named entity (NE) classes for new domains. The proposed model is a hybrid of a generative model named PYHSMM and a semi-Markov CRF-based discriminative model, which play complementary roles in generalizing seed terms and in distinguishing between NE chunks and non-NE words. It also allows a smooth transition to full-scale annotation because the discriminative model makes effective use of annotated data when available. Experiments involving two languages and three domains demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms baselines.
Use of Win-Stay and Win-Shift Strategies in Place and Cue Tasks by Medial Caudate Putamen (MCPu) Lesioned Rats

This study investigated the behavioral function of the medial caudate putamen (MCPu) in the solving of maze tasks. MCPu lesioned rats (n = 35) and control rats (n = 35) were trained for the place or cue task (the four baited arms and four unbaited arms task) in an eight-arm radial maze, which requires the win-stay or the win-shift strategy. In Experiment 1, in which the place task was used, MCPu lesioned rats could learn the task in the win-shift condition, but not in the win-stay condition. MCPu lesioned rats made a lot of unbaited errors in the win-stay condition, as they persistently chose adjacent arms. Control rats could learn the tasks in both conditions. In Experiment 2, in which the cue task was used, MCPu lesioned rats and control rats could learn the tasks in both the win-stay and the win-shift conditions. If anything, the performance of MCPu rats was a little better than that of control rats in the win-stay condition. The results of these two experiments revealed that the MCPu was involved in solving the win-stay place task, but not the win-shift place, win-stay cue, and win-shift cue tasks. These findings suggest that the MCPu plays an important role in utilizing both spatial information and switching foraging strategies flexibly and efficiently, that is, processing complicated visuospatial cognition.
A pr 2 01 9 Stochastic eternal inflation is in the swampland

Here c̃ is also a positive constant of order 1 and Mp is the reduced Planck mass. Ooguri et al [2] demonstrated that the compatibility of semi-classical spacetimes undergoing accelerated expansion, Eq.(1), the covariant entropy bound [3, 4], and the distance conjecture [5] requires the condition in Eq. (2) above. Although the original de Sitter (dS) swampland conjecture was motivated by the difficulty of finding meta-stable dS solutions in string theory, the argument of [2] leads to the same conclusion starting from more general principles of quantum gravity, namely the distance conjecture together with a semi-classical notion of entropy for quasi-dS spacetimes. The instability in the potential required by Eq.(2) of the refined dS conjecture restricts the amount of inflation that any one observer can see. One might wonder if an inflationary era could be stretched beyond this limit by a period of stochastic eternal inflation [6–8], where quantum fluctuations are strong enough to balance or overcome the classical field motion along the potential and maintain the field in a region of the potential that supports inflation. If the quantum fluctuations are strong enough, they may in principle also change the global nature of the spacetime by generating sufficient inflating volumes that the global volume is dominated by those regions even as inflation ends in some Hubble patches. However, from at least one perspective it would be surprising if the stochastic eternal inflation phenomena is consistent with the dS conjectures: the quantum fluctuations in the effective theory would be allowing a violation of constraints imposed by the UV quantum gravity theory. The extra inflation cannot be entirely for free. Even if the competition between classical motion and quantum fluctuations were to pin the field’s expectation value at a point, high energy modes of the fluctuating field would be continually red-shifted into the low energy effective theory. It was previously shown by [9, 10] that a stronger, earlier version of the dS conjecture [11] restricted some forms of stochastic eternal inflation. Here we will show that stochastic eternal inflation, when it is under perturbative control, is entirely incompatible with even the refined dS conjecture. We demonstrate this by enforcing a consistency constraint on the eternal inflation regime that was overlooked by [12]. Requirements for a perturbative description of stochastic eternal inflation: In stochastic eternal inflation, the quantum motion of the field sourcing inflation is large enough to compete with the classical evolution of the field. The Hubble parameter, H , during inflation is given by 3HM p = V (φ), and H ≪ Mp is required to keep the scenario in the regime of semi-classical gravity. The equation of motion for the scalar field, in the limit where acceleration is small, is 3Hφ̇ = −csV (φ), where dots indicate time derivatives, V ′ = dV dφ , and we allow sound speed cs different from 1 for the inflaton. In general, the field evolution from quantum fluctuations dominate over the classical motion when 〈δφ〉Q δφCl = H
Effects on Collagen VI mRNA Stability and Microfibrillar Assembly of Three COL6A2 Mutations in Two Families with Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy*

We recently reported a severe deficiency in collagen type VI, resulting from recessive mutations of theCOL6A2 gene, in patients with Ullrich congenital muscular dystrophy. Their parents, who are all carriers of one mutant allele, are unaffected, although heterozygous mutations in collagen VI caused Bethlem myopathy. Here we investigated the consequences of threeCOL6A2 mutations in fibroblasts from patients and their parents in two Ullrich families. All three mutations lead to nonsense-mediated mRNA decay. However, very low levels of undegraded mutant mRNA remained in patient B with compound heterozygous mutations at the distal part of the triple-helical domain, resulting in deposition of abnormal microfibrils that cannot form extensive networks. This observation suggests that the C-terminal globular domain is not essential for triple-helix formation but is critical for microfibrillar assembly. In all parents, theCOL6A2 mRNA levels are reduced to 57–73% of the control, but long term collagen VI matrix depositions are comparable with that of the control. The almost complete absence of abnormal protein and near-normal accumulation of microfibrils in the parents may account for their lack of myopathic symptoms.
A comparative study of the clinical efficiency of chemomechanical caries removal using Carisolv and Papacarie - a papain gel.

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical efficiency of chemomechanical caries removal using Carisolv and Papacarie - a papain gel. MATERIALS AND METHODS The Carisolv system for caries removal, consisting of a solvent gel and a specially designed hand instrument, was compared to Papacarie - a papain gel. The outcome variables were: time taken for complete caries removal and volume of carious tissue excavated. Forty patients in the age-group of 20-40 years, having Black's class I dentinal caries with cavity entrance size of ≥3 mm in the molars, were enrolled for the study. The time taken for the complete removal of caries was measured using a stopwatch. Pre- and post-excavation single-step putty/wash elastomeric impression was recorded using addition silicone impression material. Subsequently, casts were poured and measured under a traveling microscope. The total volume of caries excavated was computed using the formula π (d/2)² h. The difference between the two groups in clinical efficiency and volume excavated was statistically analyzed using the Student's unpaired 't' test. RESULTS The time for caries removal with Carisolv and Papacarie were, respectively, 11.67 ± 3.25 minutes and 10.48 ± 2.96 minutes (P>.05). The mean volume of carious tissue removed with Papacarie (135.99 ± 66.43 mm ³ ) was higher than that with Carisolv (126.33 ± 53.56 mm ³ ); however, the difference was not significant. CONCLUSION Carisolv and Papacarie have similar clinically efficiency as chemomechanical agents for dentinal caries removal.
Targeting of "high anthocyanin" white clovers for increased condensed tannin levels via genetic modification

White clover cultivars with enhanced levels of foliar condensed tannins would significantly contribute to pasture productivity via increased production, forage quality and decreases in adverse environmental impacts. Recent developments suggest it is feasible to achieve this via expression of a single transgene, but that accumulation will only occur in specialised cell types which contain an active anthocyanin pathway. In this study we: (1) investigated the transformation potential of clover genotypes expressing foliar anthocyanins and (2) introduced two condensed tannin biosynthetic genes into selected genotypes. Decreased anthocyanin accumulation was observed in plants expressing either transgene suggesting a potential change in flux from the anthocyanin to the condensed tannin pathway. These plants represent the first description of genetic transformation in anthocyanin expressing white clover genotypes. Our ultimate aim is to genetically enhance foliar condensed tannin levels in white clover allowing the development of novel “bloat-safe” cultivars conferring improved animal health performance. Results to date represent a significant milestone toward this goal.
Quantification of plasma beta-catenin mRNA in colorectal cancer and adenoma patients.

PURPOSE Colorectal cancer is an important cause of cancer deaths. Here, we focused our investigation on the beta-catenin gene which is implicated in colorectal carcinogenesis and tested whether beta-catenin mRNA is detectable in the plasma of colorectal carcinoma and adenoma patients using quantitative reverse transcriptase-PCR. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Plasma beta-catenin mRNA was measured from 58 colorectal carcinoma patients, 49 colorectal adenoma patients, and 43 apparently normal subjects using intron-spanning primers and Taqman probes. Five clinicopathological parameters were studied and correlated with plasma beta-catenin mRNA concentration. Additionally, 19 colorectal carcinoma patients after tumor removal were also recruited for plasma beta-catenin mRNA measurement to further demonstrate the clinical usefulness of this test. RESULTS beta-catenin mRNA was detected with median concentrations of 8737 (range: 1480-933100), 1218 (range: 541-2254) and 291 (range: 0-1366) copies/ml plasma in colorectal carcinoma, colorectal adenoma, and apparently normal subjects, respectively. Statistical analysis demonstrated that plasma beta-catenin mRNA concentration was correlated to tumor stage but not sex, age, lymph node status, and degree in differentiation. Moreover, plasma beta-catenin mRNA concentration decreased significantly after tumor removal in 16 of 19 (84%) colorectal carcinoma patients. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that plasma beta-catenin mRNA may potentially serve as a marker for colorectal cancer.
In vitro evaluation of the antifungal activity of Heliopsis longipes extract in strains of Sclerotium cepivorum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

White rot and soft rot caused by Sclerotium cepivorum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum are the main cause of losses in garlic and lettuce crops, making their control difficult due to the production of sclerotia. An environmentally friendly alternative to disease control is the use of plant extracts; like Heliopsis longipes, which has the capacity to produce alcamidas like afinina, which are responsible for its effect as an insecticide and bactericide, it is worth mentioning that this compound is found in greater proportion in the roots of the plant. Therefore, the biological material was collected in Guanajuato in 2013, from which the fungus was isolated and in which the antifungal activity of the extract was evaluated and the viability of the sclerotia of Sclerotium cepivorum and Sclerotinia sclerotiorum was verified. through the technique of poisoned medium. Obtaining percentages of inhibition higher than 75% for the strains of Sclerotium cepivorum, while for Sclerotinia sclerotiorum less than 40%. In addition to showing statistically significant reduction in the production of sclerotia and only affect the vigor of growth in one of the strains evaluated. Therefore, the extract showed to be effective in the control of the parameters evaluated.