Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Essential Oils and Monolaurin on Staphylococcus aureus: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

The antimicrobial properties of volatile aromatic oils and medium-chain fatty acids derived from edible plants have been recognized since antiquity. To give examples, Origanum oil, used as a food-flavoring agent, possesses a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity due, at least in part, to its high content of phenolic derivatives such as carvacrol and thymol. Similarly, lauric acid, present in heavy concentrations in coconuts, forms monolaurin in the body that can inhibit the growth of pathogenic microbes. Using Staphylococcus aureus in broth cultures and a microdilution method, comparative efficacy of Origanum oil, and a constituent carvacrol, other essential oils and monolaurin were examined. Origanum oil was the most potent of the essential oils tested and proved bactericidal in culture to two strains of Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC #14154 and #14775) at 0.25 mg/mL. In vitro, monolaurin's effects mirrored Origanum oil. The combination of both was bactericidal at the 0.125 mg/mL concentration of each. In two separate In vivo experiments, injected Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC #14775) killed all 14 untreated mice within a 1-week period. In treated mice, over one third survived for 30 days when given oral Origanum oil daily for 30 days (6/14). Fifty percent of the mice survived for 30 days when receiving daily vancomycin (7/14) and monolaurin (4/8). Over 60% of mice survived when receiving a daily combination of Origanum oil and monolaurin (5/8). Origanum oil and/or monolaurin may prove to be useful antimicrobial agents for prevention and therapy of Staphylococcus aureus infections.
Can Psychological Traits Be Inferred From Spending? Evidence From Transaction Data

The automatic assessment of psychological traits from digital footprints allows researchers to study psychological traits at unprecedented scale and in settings of high ecological validity. In this research, we investigated whether spending records—a ubiquitous and universal form of digital footprint—can be used to infer psychological traits. We applied an ensemble machine-learning technique (random-forest modeling) to a data set combining two million spending records from bank accounts with survey responses from the account holders (N = 2,193). Our predictive accuracies were modest for the Big Five personality traits (r = .15, corrected ρ = .21) but provided higher precision for specific traits, including materialism (r = .33, corrected ρ = .42). We compared the predictive accuracy of these models with the predictive accuracy of alternative digital behaviors used in past research, including those observed on social media platforms, and we found that the predictive accuracies were relatively stable across socioeconomic groups and over time.
Characterization of frequently mutated cancer genes in Chinese breast tumors: a comparison of Chinese and TCGA cohorts.

Background The complexity of breast cancer at the clinical, morphological and genomic levels has been extensively studied in the western population. However, the mutational genomic profiles in Chinese breast cancer patients have not been explored in any detail. Methods We performed targeted sequencing using a panel consisting of 33 breast cancer-related genes to investigate the genomic landscape of 304 consecutive treatment-naïve Chinese breast cancer patients at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital (GDPH), and further compared the results to those in 453 of Caucasian breast cancer patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Results The most frequently mutated gene was TP53 (45%), followed by PIK3CA (44%), GATA3 (18%), MAP3K1 (10%), whereas the copy-number amplifications were frequently observed in genes of ERBB2 (24%), MYC (23%), FGFR1 (13%) and CCND1 (10%). Among the 8 most frequently mutated or amplified genes, at least one driver was identifiable in 87.5% (n=267) of our GDPH cohort, revealing the significant contribution of these known driver genes in the development of Chinese breast cancer. Compared to TCGA data, the median age at diagnosis in our cohort was significantly younger (48 vs. 58 years; P<0.001), while the distribution of estrogen receptor (ER), progesterone receptor (PR) and human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) statuses were similar. The largest difference occurred in HR+/HER2- subtype, where 8 of the 10 driver genes compared had statistically significant differences in their frequency, while there were differences in 2 of 10 driver genes among the TNBC and HR+/HER2+ group, but none in the HR-/HER2+ patients in our cohort compared to the TCGA data. Collectively, the most significant genomic difference was a significantly higher prevalence for TP53 and AKT1 in Chinese patients. Additionally, more than half of TP53-mutation HR+/HER2- Chinese patients (~60%) are likely to harbor more severe mutations in TP53, such as nonsense, indels, and splicing mutations. Conclusions We elucidated the mutational landscape of cancer genes in Chinese breast cancer and further identified significant genomic differences between Asian and Caucasian patients. These results should improve our understanding of pathogenesis and/or metastatic behavior of breast cancer across races/ethnicities, including a better selection of targeted therapies.
Co‐infection of Wolbachia and Spiroplasma in spider mite Tetranychus truncatus increases male fitness

Wolbachia and Spiroplasma are intracellular bacteria that are of great interest to entomologists, because of their ability to alter insect host biology in multiple ways. In the spider mite Tetranychus truncatus, co‐infection of Wolbachia and Spiroplasma can induce cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) and fitness costs; however, little is known about the effect of co‐infection at the genetic level and the molecular mechanisms underlying CI. In this study, we explored the influence of the two symbionts on male mite host fitness and used RNA sequencing to generate the transcriptomes of T. truncatus with four different types of infection. In total, we found symbiont‐infected lines had a higher hatch proportion than the uninfected line, and the development time of the uninfected line was longer than that of the other lines. Co‐infection changed the expression of many genes related to digestion detoxification, reproduction, immunity and oxidation reduction. Our results indicate that co‐infection of Wolbachia and Spiroplasma confers multiple effects on their hosts, and helps illuminate the complex interactions between endosymbionts and arthropods.
Role of the carboxyl terminal MATEE sequence of spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase in the activity and stabilization by the polyamine analog N1,N12-bis(ethyl)spermine.

Purified recombinant spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SSAT) was found to be unstable in the absence of polyamines, but the loss of activity could be prevented or reversed by the addition of the polyamine analog and potential antitumor agent N1,N12-bis(ethyl)spermine (BE-3-4-3), which is known to be a potent inducer of SSAT in mammalian cells. Addition of BE-3-4-3 prevented the loss of SSAT activity and the digestion of the protein by the proteases trypsin, Lys-C, or Glu-C. In the absence of BE-3-4-3, this digestion occurred at the sequence Lys141Arg142Arg143 for trypsin or Lys-C and at the sequence Glu151Glu152 for Glu-C. When these sites were altered by mutation to residues which are not substrates for these proteases, cleavage in the absence of BE-3-4-3 occurred at residues Lys161, Lys166, and Glu162. These results indicate that the structure of SSAT contains a region that binds to the polyamine analog, BE-3-4-3, and that binding alters the configuration of the protein to prevent protease access to the region from amino acid residue 141 to the carboxyl terminal end (residue 171) of the SSAT. In order to determine the nature of the regulatory sites, specific mutations were made in the SSAT amino acid sequence, and the activity of the resulting SSAT protein and the sensitivity to proteases in the presence and absence of BE-3-4-3 was determined. The results indicate that the carboxyl terminal domain, MATEE, is critical for activity and for protection by BE-3-4-3. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
High-flow nasal oxygenation for anesthetic management

High-flow nasal oxygenation (HFNO) is a promising new technique for anesthesiologists. The use of HFNO during the induction of anesthesia and during upper airway surgeries has been initiated, and its applications have been rapidly growing ever since. The advantages of this technique include its easy set-up, high tolerability, and its abilities to produce positive airway pressure and a high fraction of inspired oxygen and to influence the clearance of carbon dioxide to some extent. HFNO, via a nasal cannula, can provide oxygen both to patients who can breathe spontaneously and to those who are apneic; further, this technique does not interfere with bag-mask ventilation, attempts at laryngoscopy for tracheal intubation, and surgical procedures conducted in the airway. In this review, we describe the techniques associated with HFNO and the advantages and disadvantages of HFNO based on the current state of knowledge.
The one‐inflated positive Poisson mixture model for use in population size estimation

The one‐inflated positive Poisson mixture model (OIPPMM) is presented, for use as the truncated count model in Horvitz–Thompson estimation of an unknown population size. The OIPPMM offers a way to address two important features of some capture–recapture data: one‐inflation and unobserved heterogeneity. The OIPPMM provides markedly different results than some other popular estimators, and these other estimators can appear to be quite biased, or utterly fail due to the boundary problem, when the OIPPMM is the true data‐generating process. In addition, the OIPPMM provides a solution to the boundary problem, by labelling any mixture components on the boundary instead as one‐inflation.
Systematic Evaluation and Comparison of Statistical Tests for Publication Bias

BACKGROUND: This study evaluates the statistical and discriminatory powers of three statistical test methods (Begg’s, Egger’s, and Macaskill’s) to detect publication bias in meta-analyses. METHODS: The data sources were 130 reviews from the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2002 issue, which considered a binary endpoint and contained 10 or more individual studies. Funnel plots with observers’ agreements were selected as a reference standard. We evaluated a trade-off between sensitivity and specificity by varying cut-off p-values, power of statistical tests given fixed false positive rates, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve. RESULTS: In 36 reviews, 733 original studies evaluated 2,874,006 subjects. The number of trials included in each ranged from 10 to 70 (median 14.5). Given that the false positive rate was 0.1, the sensitivity of Egger’s method was 0.93, and was larger than that of Begg’s method (0.86) and Macaskill’s method (0.43). The sensitivities of three statistical tests increased as the cut-off p-values increased without a substantial decrement of specificities. The area under the ROC curve of Egger’s method was 0.955 (95% confidence interval, 0.889-1.000) and was not different from that of Begg’s method (area=0.913, p=0.2302), but it was larger than that of Macaskill’s method (area=0.719, p=0.0116). CONCLUSION: Egger’s linear regression method and Begg’s method had stronger statistical and discriminatory powers than Macaskill’s method for detecting publication bias given the same type I error level. The power of these methods could be improved by increasing the cut-off p-value without a substantial increment of false positive rate.
Measuring empathy in a group of South African undergraduate medical students using the student version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy

Background Patient-centred care is a model of care that demands healthcare providers change their focus from the disease to the patient and his or her perceived physical and psycho-social needs. This model requires healthcare workers to listen actively and to have effective communication skills and well-developed levels of empathy. Aim The aim of this study was to determine the suitability of the Jefferson Scale for Empathy (JSE-S) as a valid test for empathy in third-year medical students at a South African university and also to determine the baseline level of empathy in this same group of students. Setting The study took place at a medical school in the Western Cape, South Africa. This medical degree (MB ChB) is a 6-year programme. Students are first exposed to patients within their second year of training, but it is during their third-year that they start their clinical rotations. We wanted to test whether our empathy training would give students the necessary skills and enable them to establish good empathic communication habits in order to prevent a fall in empathy during this vulnerable period. Methods This article explores the suitability of the student version of the JSE-S as a valid test for empathy, within the South African medical school context. We briefly discuss the psychometrics and the scores against what is already known in countries like ours, specifically, developing nations where cultural and language differences exist in the student populations. Furthermore, we explore whether the JSE-S is a valid scale for pre- and post-intervention measurement of medical student empathy within our context and discuss the limitations of self-assessment. We also report on baseline levels of empathy in third-year medical students. Results Two hundred and six third-year medical students (69% females) completed the JSE-S prior to the intervention. Females and students aged 25 years and older had significantly higher scores than males and those 22 years old or less. The mean JSE was 109.98 (SD = 12.54), which is lower than most internationally reported scores. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.81, indicating scale reliability and consistency, but graded item response testing highlighted variance in three reverse-scored questions. Conclusion The JSE-S is an appropriate and valid scale for measuring levels of empathy in undergraduate medical students in South Africa. However, language may need to be clarified in the negatively phrased items.
[Clinically relevant late-life depression as risk factor of dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies].

AIM To carry out a meta-analysis of population-based prospective cohort studies to investigate the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD) according to clinically relevant depression, assessed with Geriatric Mental State (GMS) criteria. PATIENTS AND METHODS A systematic literature search of the studies published in PubMed and Web of Science up to January 2018 was performed to identify all longitudinal studies on the association between clinically relevant depression (diagnosed with GMS criteria) and risk of dementia in the elderly. We calculated pooled relative risks to examine depression as a possible risk factor for dementia in community studies, as well as to compute population attributable fraction (PAF). RESULTS Six studies met inclusion criteria for the systematic review. All of them provided enough information to perform a meta-analysis. Participants with clinically relevant depression had a 54% higher risk of dementia (p = 0.026) with a PAF attributable to clinically relevant depression of 8.6%. The numbers for AD were 50% higher risk (p = 0.038) and a PAF of 10.8%. CONCLUSION Clinically relevant depression is associated with an increased risk for dementia and AD in the community, with a potential impact higher than other known/recognized risk factors. Future studies should explore the mechanisms linking depression and dementia and AD as well as whether an effective treatment of clinically significant depression could prevent dementia and AD development.
Four Social Brain Regions, Their Dysfunctions, and Sequelae, Extensively Explain Autism Spectrum Disorder Symptomatology

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a challenging neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms in social, language, sensory, motor, cognitive, emotional, repetitive behavior, and self-sufficient living domains. The important research question examined is the elucidation of the pathogenic neurocircuitry that underlies ASD symptomatology in all its richness and heterogeneity. The presented model builds on earlier social brain research, and hypothesizes that four social brain regions largely drive ASD symptomatology: amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), temporoparietal cortex (TPC), and insula. The amygdala’s contributions to ASD largely derive from its major involvement in fine-grained intangible knowledge representations and high-level guidance of gaze. In addition, disrupted brain regions can drive disturbance of strongly interconnected brain regions to produce further symptoms. These and related effects are proposed to underlie abnormalities of the visual cortex, inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), caudate nucleus, and hippocampus as well as associated symptoms. The model is supported by neuroimaging, neuropsychological, neuroanatomical, cellular, physiological, and behavioral evidence. Collectively, the model proposes a novel, parsimonious, and empirically testable account of the pathogenic neurocircuitry of ASD, an extensive account of its symptomatology, a novel physiological biomarker with potential for earlier diagnosis, and novel experiments to further elucidate the mechanisms of brain abnormalities and symptomatology in ASD.
Randomised controlled trial of a novel online cognitive rehabilitation programme for children with cerebral palsy: a study protocol

Introduction Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common cause of physical disability in children, with an estimated 600–700 infants born with CP in Australia each year. CP is typically associated with motor impairments, but nearly half of all children with CP also experience cognitive impairment, potentially impacting educational and vocational achievement. This paper reports the protocol for a randomised controlled trial of a computerised cognitive training intervention based on behavioural principles: Strengthening Mental Abilities through Relational Training (SMART). The study aims to investigate SMART’s effect on fluid reasoning, executive function and academic achievement in children with CP. Methods and analysis Sixty children with mild to moderate CP (Gross Motor Function Classification Scale I–IV) aged between 8 years and 12 years will be recruited. Participants will be randomly allocated to two groups: SMART cognitive training and waitlist control. Families will access the programme at home over a 4-month period. Assessments will be administered at baseline, 20 weeks and at 40 week follow-up for retention. The primary outcome will be fluid intelligence, while academic achievement, executive function and social and emotional well-being will be secondary outcomes. Ethics and dissemination This study has approval from the Children’s Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service Research Ethics Committee (HREC/14/QRCH/377) and The University of Queensland (2017001806). If the computerised cognitive training programme is found to be effective, dissemination of these findings would assist children with CP by providing an accessible, cost-effective intervention that can be completed at home at the individual’s own pace. Registration details The study was registered prospectively on 10 November 2017 to present. Recruitment is now under way, and we aim to complete recruitment by June 2019, with data collection finalised by March 2020. Trial registration number ACTRN12617001550392; Pre-results.
Effects of coughing on intra‐thoracic pressure, arterial pressure and peripheral blood flow

Pulse pressure, as well as mean pressure, changes have been shown to influence baroceptors (Ead, Green & Neil, 1952). In man, rapid pressure fluctuations or transients in the vascular system are derived from the heart beat (pulse pressure) or from external factors. One of the latter is coughing, and 'cough transients' of large amplitude can be imposed on the arterial, cardiac and venous pressure pulses. Some of their effects on the circulation and lungs are described in this paper. Since both coughing and the Valsalva manoeuvre raise intrathoracic pressure it has been found convenient to compare the two procedures.
Myringoplasty. The lessons of failure.

THIS is the final paper in a series which have been devoted to analysing the results of myringoplasty and tympanoplasty operations. Hitherto only the successes have been reported but there have also been failures; this paper attempts to see what lessons can be learnt from the latter. In the second paper (Booth, 1973) presenting the results of the myringoplasty cases (Final Report), 517 results were analysed (Attended Series 292; Series X 225). intact the cases, ear'. Eleven of the thirty-one cases to complete a six-month follow-up.
Histology, histochemistry and ultrastructure of the nasopharyngeal tonsil of the buffalo (Bubalus bubalis)

The light microscopic appearance and ultrastructure of the nasopharyngeal tonsil (tonsilla pharyngea), collected from 12 adult buffaloes of local mixed breed, were explored for the distribution of different types of epithelia, lymphoid tissue and high endothelial venules. The tonsillar mucosa was lined by pseudostratified columnar ciliated epithelium having goblet cells. The respiratory epithelium associated with the underlying lymphoid tissue formed the lymphoepithelium. The epithelium was further modified into follicle‐associated epithelium (FAE) characterized by reduced epithelial height, presence of a few dome‐shaped cuboidal cells equivalent of the M‐cells and absence of goblet and ciliated cells. The lymphoid tissue was distributed in the form of isolated lymphoid cells, diffuse lymphoid tissue and lymphoid follicles, mainly distributed within the propria‐submucosa along with the sero‐mucous glandular tissue. The goblet cells of the respiratory epithelium and the acinar cells contained different mucopolysaccharides. Scanning electron microscopy of the surface mucosa demonstrated a dense mat of cilia, island‐like arrangement of microvillus cells, M‐cells and a few brush‐like cells. The transmission electron microscopy revealed the different cell organelles of the respiratory epithelium and the FAE. Lymphocyte migration via the high endothelial venules in the propria‐submucosa was also observed.