Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renal Function Recovery and HIV Viral Suppression Following Tenofovir Discontinuation for Renal Impairment.

BACKGROUND Tenofovir associated nephrotoxicity (TDFN) is well recognized. This study describes the trend of renal function recovery and virologic consequences after cessation of tenofovir (TDF) for suspected TDFN. METHODS This was a retrospective chart review of 241 patients who underwent HLA-B*5701 allele testing between January 2007-December 2010. Demographics and clinical characteristics were compared at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 month between patients that continued and discontinued TDF. Factors associated with renal function recovery were assessed by multivariable logistic regression. RESULTS Eighty patients were identified with TDFN; 84% male, 74% African American (AA) with a median age of 55 years, and median length of TDF use for 122 weeks. Renal recovery at 12 months differed in those who stopped versus (vs.) continued TDF (83% vs. 57% p=0.03). In a crude analysis, baseline chronic kidney disease was negatively associated with renal recovery (p=0.01). An adjusted analysis showed that those who stopped TDF had 3.76 higher odds of renal recovery compared to those who did not stop TDF (95% CI: 1.26-11.27, p=0.02). There were no significant differences in virologic response after switching TDF to an alternative agent. CONCLUSION In this mostly AA male population with suspected TDFN, discontinuation of TDF was strongly associated with renal function recovery without affecting viral suppression.
Using participatory rural appraisal (PRA) in the identification of children with disabilities in rural Kilifi, Kenya.

INTRODUCTION Cross-sectional surveys have been used widely for identifying children with disabilities, but they have several disadvantages. The surveys concentrate on identifying impairments and do not encourage the participation and ownership of the community. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) provides a cost-effective and efficient method that reflects the local perceptions of disability and involves local people. These factors are important for sustainability in resource-poor countries. PURPOSE To evaluate the application of PRA to identifying children with disabilities in a rural setting. METHODS PRA was used to identify children with disabilities in two rural sub-locations in Kilifi, Kenya. Data were collected through 12 focus group discussions and 12 social mapping activities. A purposive convenience sample of teachers, village leaders and women groups participated in the PRA. The perceptions of disability were established before identification of the children. The categories of identification were based on these local perceptions. The qualitative data were analyzed thematically and validation was performed through triangulation. RESULTS Disability was perceived locally as the existence of impairments, activity limitations and participation restrictions. Disabilities were associated with traditional beliefs including witchcraft, evil spirits and punishments from God. In some cases these categories were mutually exclusive and in others they were concurrent. Children who had lost their parents and were not being cared for by relatives (disadvantaged orphans) were also perceived as disabled children by teachers and local women, but not by community leaders. CONCLUSION The results suggest that PRA is an efficient and cost-effective method of identifying children with disabilities according to local perceptions, and it may be useful in community-based rehabilitation as an alternative to surveys.
Animal Cytogenetics and Comparative Mapping

ABC Fax + 41 61 306 12 34 E-mail karger@karger.ch www.karger. com © 2005 S. Karger AG, Basel 0301–0171/05/1084–0348$22.00/0 Accessible online at: www.karger. com/cgr Abstract. Multidirectional comparative chromosome painting was used to investigate the karyotypic relationships among representative species from three Feliformia families of the order Carnivora (Viverridae, Hyaenidae and Felidae). Complete sets of painting probes derived from flow-sorted chromosomes of the domestic dog, American mink, and human were hybridized onto metaphases of the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta, 2n = 40) and masked palm civet (Paguma larvata, 2n = 44). Extensive chromosomal conservation is evident in these two species when compared with the cat karyotype, and only a few events of chromosome fusion, fission and inversion differentiate the karyotypes of these Feliformia species. The comparative chromosome painting data have enabled the integration of the hyena and palm civet chromosomes into the previously established comparative map among the domestic cat, domestic dog, American mink and human and improved our understanding on the karyotype phylogeny of Feliformia species.
Sow body composition and its associations with reproductive and litter growth performance of the primiparous sow

The complex of desirable maternal traits includes litter size, mothering ability and milk production, combined with aspects of piglet viability or survival and sow rebreeding performance. There are two major contradictory elements within this trait complex. Firstly, larger litters will be, on average, lighter at birth, and result in an extended duration of farrowing. These characteristics may affect piglet viability and access to colostrum, along with sow recovery and health after farrowing. Piglets from these litters are therefore more vulnerable to environmental stressors that can result in piglet death. Secondly, the sow’s ability to rear her litter must not compromise her own ability to rebreed for the next parity. So, increasing milk production per se to improve litter growth performance may be counterproductive if sow longevity is reduced by failure to rebreed. These areas of antagonism are likely strongest for primiparous sows, which balance their own growth and development against reproductive demands. This is generally illustrated by higher levels of piglet mortality and sow losses, and slower piglet growth, relative to litters and sows from later parities. Clearly a balance is required in performance attributes for phenotypic outcomes of both the sow and her offspring, and this may be particularly difficult to achieve in the first parity.
Capillaroscopy in 2016: new perspectives in systemic sclerosis

Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is an autoimmune disorder of unknown etiology characterized by early impairment of the microvascular system. Nailfold microangiopathy and decreased peripheral blood perfusion are typical clinical aspects of SSc. The best method to evaluate vascular injury is nailfold videocapillaroscopy, which detects peripheral capillary morphology, and classifies and scores the abnormalities into different patterns of microangiopathy. Microangiopathy appears to be the best evaluable predictor of the disease development and has been observed to precede the other symptoms by many years. Peripheral blood perfusion is also impaired in SSc, and there are different methods to assess it: laser Doppler and laser speckle techniques, thermography and other emerging techniques.
The Growth of Breast Fed and Artificially Fed Infants from Birth to Twelve Months

ABSTRACT. Growth data collected from 394 healthy infants were analysed in relation to feeding practices. Infants were grouped on the basis of sex, if breast fed or artificially fed, and duration of breast feeding. From birth to 3 months, weight gains were similar for boys (2.5 kg) and also for girls (2.3 kg) irrespective of feeding method. From 3 to 6 months weight gains were greater in infants who were artificially fed from birth (2.0 kg both sexes) or breast fed for only a short time (1.9 kg) than for those exclusively breast fed for 6 months (1.6 kg) or longer (1.7 kg). Weight gains continued to be greater in artificially fed infants after 6 months. Over 12 months, artificially fed boys gained 410 g and girls 750 g more than those who were breast fed from birth. These differences occurred even though the artificial feedings that prevailed to 6 months and longer were low‐solute (‘humanized’) formulas.
Update on Reactive Oxygen Species and Development Control of Plant Development by Reactive Oxygen Species

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are emerging as important regulators of plant development. There is now abundant evidence that ROS play roles in cell growth and that spatial regulation of ROS production is an important factor controlling plant form. Here we will review evidence that supports a role for ROS in development, but first we will define what we mean by development. The body of the vascular plant sporophyte (diploid life cycle stage) is derived from meristems and much of the action of development occurs where organs are formed in and around meristems (Martienssen and Dolan, 1998). Organogenesis, the development of organs, involves an early patterning stage that roughs out boundaries where the organswill form. Within these boundaries, groups of founder cells divide and growth occurs, leading to the formation of structures containing arrays of differentiated cells. There are twomajor contributors to growth: First, there is cell division, which increases the number of cells in an organ; second, there is expansion of those cells. The huge increase in volume in plant cells as they transit from the founder population in and around meristems to the differentiated cells of the mature organ means that cell growth is an important component of plant development (Sugimoto-Shirasu and Roberts, 2003). Recent discoveries suggest that ROS may control development through their role in regulating cell growth.
Micro anemometer by a MEMS compatible lab-on-a-tube technology

This paper reports a novel micro airflow anemometer based on the hot-film sensing principle, i.e. gas cooling of electrically heated resistance. The sensor with three Ti/Pt hot-film sensing components with width of 50μm and thickness of 130nm has been fabricated on a glass tube in a UV lithography system with multi-layer alignment by our developed MEMS compatible lab-on-a-tube technology. The micro anemometer has demonstrated high sensitivity, fast response and ability to detect wind speed and direction. The influence of environment temperature on output voltage when micro anemometer with and without the temperature compensation was evaluated. And the test response time is in the range of milliseconds, also faster than several seconds reported for that in-plane one [1]. In the wind speed and direction field-test, using a commercial ultrasonic anemometer as the reference, achieved mean error of direction is 13.5° and mean error of velocity is 0.02m/s.
Telepressure and College Student Employment: The Costs of Staying Connected Across Social Contexts

Telepressure is a psychological state consisting of the preoccupation and urge to respond quickly to message-based communications from others. Telepressure has been linked with negative stress and health outcomes, but the existing measure focuses on experiences specific to the workplace. The current study explores whether an adapted version of the workplace telepressure measure is relevant to general social interactions that rely on information and communication technologies. We validated a general telepressure measure in a sample of college students and found psychometric properties similar to the original workplace measure. Also, general telepressure was related to, but distinct from, the fear of missing out, self-control and technology use. Using a predictive validity design, we also found that telepressure at the beginning of the semester was related to student reports of burnout, perceived stress and poor sleep hygiene 1 month later (but not work-life balance or general life satisfaction). Moreover, telepressure was more strongly related to more negative outcomes (burnout, stress and poor sleep hygiene) and less positive outcomes (work-life balance and life satisfaction) among employed compared with non-employed students. Thus, the costs of staying connected to one's social network may be more detrimental to college students with additional employment obligations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ultrastructural characterisation of the olfactory mucosa of the armadillo Dasypus hybridus (Dasypodidae, Xenarthra)

The ultrastructure of the olfactory mucosa of the armadillo Dasypus hybridus was studied. A comparison with the olfactory mucosa of another armadillo (Chaetophractus villosus) was made. The olfactory mucosa of D. hybridus shows many features which are similar to those of other mammals. Interestingly, it differs from the olfactory mucosa of the armadillo C. villosus. A suggestion is made that these differences may be due to differences in the digging habits of these species. In Dasypus, the supporting cells (SCs) showed dense vacuoles, multivesicular bodies and lysosome‐like bodies probably related with the endocytotic system. The SCs show a dense network of SER presumably associated with xenobiotic mechanisms. The olfactory receptor neurons exhibit lysosome‐like bodies and multivesicular bodies in their perikarya. These organelles suggest the presence of an endocytotic system. Duct cells of Bowman's glands exhibit secretory activities. Bowman's glands are compound‐branched tubulo‐acinar mixed glands with merocrine secretory mechanisms.
A Model Approach for Assessing the Benefits of HPV Testing against Cytology in Screening for Cervical Cancer Precursors in Thailand

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of HPV 16/18 genotyping test, high risk HPV DNA testing, alone and in conjunction with the liquid-based cytology method in screening for cervical cancer precursors. Methods: A Markov model was used to describe the course of the cases of CIN2+ that had been detected over a 35 year period. Screening programs started at age 30 and were performed at an interval of once every five years. The model compared three strategies of HPV 16/18 genotyping with reflex cytology triage, high-risk HPV testing alone with referral to colposcopy and cytology-based screening with referral to colposcopy. We assumed the rate of patients lost to follow-up for those referred to colposcopy would be 0%. The clinical parameters were estimated using the data from a study conducted by the Thailand National Cancer Institute. Result: Of the three screening strategies evaluated, the high risk HPV DNA testing alone was the most effective for detecting CIN2+ over the 35 year study period. It detected 143 and 510 cases per 100,000 women more than the HPV 16/18 genotyping test and cytology-based strategy, respectively. The HPV genotyping test detected 368 cases per 100,000 women more than the cytology-based approach. In addition, when viewed with five year intervals, there were missed cases totaling approximately half of the detected cases screened by the cytology strategy and 10% of cases detected with screening by the HPV genotyping test. Conclusion: This study strongly indicates that HPV/DNA testing is preferable to cytology-based screening for cervical cancer precursors. However, the balance between the benefits, burdens and cost of each screening program should be considered.
Empirical study on board characteristics and agency costs

In order to solve the agency problems and improve the management efficiency of board of directors, this paper, selecting A-share 1399 listed companies as samples, studied the relation between board characteristics and agency costs, which was measured by total asset turnover rate and overhead expenses rate, using multiple regression analysis. This paper obtains results as follows. Board size and frequency of board meetings have a U-shaped correlation to agency costs. There is no statistically significance between proportion of independent directors and agency costs. Separation of chairman and general manager usually leads to low agency costs. The proportion of board members' share-holding has a negative correlation with the agency costs. Finally, this paper gives three suggestions to optimize board governance, involving independent directors, incentives and constraints and rules of procedure.
Bone Remodeling

Abstract: The skeleton is a metabolically active organ that undergoes continuous remodeling throughout life. Bone remodeling involves the removal of mineralized bone by osteoclasts followed by the formation of bone matrix through the osteoblasts that subsequently become mineralized. The remodeling cycle consists of three consecutive phases: resorption, during which osteoclasts digest old bone; reversal, when mononuclear cells appear on the bone surface; and formation, when osteoblasts lay down new bone until the resorbed bone is completely replaced. Bone remodeling serves to adjust bone architecture to meet changing mechanical needs and it helps to repair microdamages in bone matrix preventing the accumulation of old bone. It also plays an important role in maintaining plasma calcium homeostasis. The regulation of bone remodeling is both systemic and local. The major systemic regulators include parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcitriol, and other hormones such as growth hormone, glucocorticoids, thyroid hormones, and sex hormones. Factors such as insulin‐like growth factors (IGFs), prostaglandins, tumor growth factor‐beta (TGF‐β), bone morphogenetic proteins (BMP), and cytokines are involved as well. As far as local regulation of bone remodeling is concerned, a large number of cytokines and growth factors that affect bone cell functions have been recently identified. Furthermore, through the RANK/receptor activator of NF‐kappa B ligand (RANKL)/osteoprotegerin (OPG) system the processes of bone resorption and formation are tightly coupled allowing a wave of bone formation to follow each cycle of bone resorption, thus maintaining skeletal integrity.
ErasuCrypto: A Light-weight Secure Data Deletion Scheme for Solid State Drives

Abstract Securely deleting invalid data from secondary storage is critical to protect users’ data privacy against unauthorized accesses. However, secure deletion is very costly for solid state drives (SSDs), which unlike hard disks do not support in-place update. When applied to SSDs, both erasure-based and cryptography-based secure deletion methods inevitably incur large amount of valid data migrations and/or block erasures, which not only introduce extra latency and energy consumption, but also harm SSD lifetime. This paper proposes ErasuCrypto, a light-weight secure deletion framework with low block erasure and data migration overhead. ErasuCrypto integrates both erasurebased and encryption-based data deletion methods and flexibly selects the more cost-effective one to securely delete invalid data. We formulate a deletion cost minimization problem and give a greedy heuristic as the starting point. We further show that the problem can be reduced to a maximum-edge biclique finding problem, which can be effectively solved with existing heuristics. Experiments on real-world benchmarks show that ErasuCrypto can reduce the secure deletion cost of erasurebased scheme by 71% and the cost of cryptographybased scheme by 37%, while guaranteeing 100% security by deleting all the invalid data.
Security analysis of control system anomaly detectors

Two anomaly detectors for control systems are analyzed with respect to their sensitivity to malicious data injection attacks. A stateless anomaly detector based on the current residual signal is compared to a cumulative sum detector. The worst-case impact of a stealthy time-limited data injection attack is characterized for both detectors by a non-convex optimization problem and compared to determine which detector limits the impact the most. We prove that the problem can be solved by means of a set of convex optimization problems. Simulations verify that finding the right configuration for the cumulative sum is crucial to limit the worst-case attack impact more than with a stateless anomaly detector.
The factor V B-domain provides two functions to facilitate thrombin cleavage and release of the light chain.

Blood coagulation factors V and VIII are homologous proteins that have the domain organization A1-A2-B-A3-C1-C2. Upon thrombin activation, the B-domains of both molecules are released. Previous studies on factor VIII showed that the B-domain was not required for thrombin cleavage or activity. In contrast, deletion of the factor V B-domain (residues 709 to 1545) yielded a molecule with sevenfold reduced procoagulant activity that was not cleaved by thrombin. However, this factor V B-domain deletion molecule was activated by factor Xa, although the fold-activation was 85% that of wild-type factor V. Thrombin cleavage of factor V occurs initially after residue 709 and subsequently after residues 1018 and 1545. The requirement for thrombin cleavage within the B-domain at residue 1018 was evaluated by mutagenesis of Arg1018 to Ile. In the resultant R1018I mutant, the rate of thrombin activation and appearance of maximal cofactor activity was delayed and was consistent with delayed cleavage of the light chain at residue 1545. In contrast, the rate of factor Xa activation in the R1018I mutant was not altered. This finding suggests that thrombin cleavage at 1018 facilitates subsequent thrombin cleavage at 1545. Further mutagenesis was used to study the requirement for sequences within the factor V B-domain for thrombin cleavage at residue 1545. Whereas the factor V deletion molecule removing residues 709 to 1545 was not cleaved by thrombin, a smaller B-domain deletion molecule (residues 709 to 1476) containing an acidic amino acid-rich region (residues 1490 to 1520) was effectively cleaved by thrombin. These results show that residues 1476 to 1545, which contain an acidic amino acid-rich region, were required for thrombin cleavage of the light chain. Introduction of an acidic amino acid-rich region from factor VIII (residues 337 to 372) into the factor V 709 to 1545 deletion also restored thrombin cleavage of the light chain. In contrast, similar replacement with the acidic region from the factor VIII light chain (residues 1649 to 1689) was significantly less effective in promoting thrombin cleavage of the light chain. This finding suggests that the different acidic regions in factors V and VIII are not functionally equivalent in their interaction with thrombin. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)