Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mucosal melanoma: current strategies and future directions

ABSTRACT Introduction: Mucosal melanomas are a rare subtype of melanoma that develop from melanocytes in the mucosal lining of the body, exhibit a distinct clinical behavior, and are associated with a worse prognosis. Due to this unique behavior and the rarity of the disease, optimal management strategies for mucosal melanoma remain uncertain. Areas covered: In this review, the epidemiology, genetic characteristics, treatment strategies, and recent developments in mucosal melanoma will be discussed. A literature search was conducted using the PubMed-NCBI database. The following searches were conducted: ‘mucosal melanoma’ ‘mucosal melanoma’ therapy; ‘mucosal melanoma’ diagnosis. Expert opinion: The treatment of mucosal melanoma remains challenging, with no established standard of care. For patients with localized disease who achieve a complete resection, there may be benefit with adjuvant chemotherapy, although the generalizability of this data remains in question. In patients with advanced disease, combination nivolumab and ipilimumab is a reasonable option in patients who are not eligible for a clinical trial. Ongoing trials assessing combinations of immune and targeted therapies offer promise and patients should be referred for enrollment in clinical trials whenever possible. Further studies are needed to identify biomarkers of response and resistance, understand the genetic landscape, and find the optimal sequence or combination of therapies.
Evaluation of biochemical, hematological, RIBA and PCR assays in predicting viremia in anti-HCV positive patients.

INTRODUCTION The detection of HCV-RNA by PCR assays is considered to be the gold standard for confirming the presence of HCV viremia. However, high costs, long and laborious procedures limit their widespread usage. This retrospective study was conducted to assess the predictive performances of biochemical and hematological parameters, anti-HCV signal-to-cutoff (S/CO) ratios and RIBA assay for HCV viremia. METHODOLOGY Medical records of 210 patients with positive anti-HCV results were analyzed. Samples were tested for anti-HCV by the Roche Elecsys assay. RIBA and PCR assays were performed with Inno-Lia HCV Score test, and Roche Cobas TaqMan HCV test, respectively. RESULTS Anti-HCV positive patients were categorized into two groups: positive HCV-RNA(viremic) group (n = 94) and negative HCV-RNA(non-viremic) group (n = 116). All viremic patients had positive RIBA results, while in the non-viremic group, 80 (69%) patients had negative/indeterminate RIBA results and 36 (31%) patients had positive RIBA results. Compared with the non-viremic group, the viremic group had significantly higher alanine aminotransaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, mean platelet volume, platelet distribution width and anti-HCV levels, and significantly lower platelet count and plateletcrit levels (p < 0.05). With multivariate logistic regression analysis, serum ALT and anti-HCV levels were found to be strong predictive factors for HCV viremia. A S/CO ratio of ≥ 12.34 was identified as the optimal anti-HCV level to predict viremia. CONCLUSIONS An anti-HCV S/CO ratio of 12.34 can determine the necessity for PCR assay, when carefully evaluated together with the biochemical and hematological evidence. This approach may reduce the cost of diagnosis particularly in low-resource settings.
The Psychometric Properties of the Chinese eHealth Literacy Scale (C-eHEALS) in a Chinese Rural Population: Cross-Sectional Validation Study

Background The eHealth Literacy Scale (eHEALS) is the most widely used instrument in health studies to measure individual’s electronic health literacy. Nonetheless, despite the rapid development of the online medical industry and increased rural-urban disparities in China, very few studies have examined the characteristics of the eHEALS among Chinese rural people by using modern psychometric methods. This study evaluated the psychometric properties of eHEALS in a Chinese rural population by using both the classical test theory and item response theory methods. Objective This study aimed to develop a simplified Chinese version of the eHEALS (C-eHEALS) and evaluate its psychometric properties in a rural population. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 543 rural internet users in West China. The internal reliability was assessed using the Cronbach alpha coefficient. A one-factor structure of the C-eHEALS was obtained via principal component analysis, and fit indices for this structure were calculated using confirmatory factory analysis. Subsequently, the item discrimination, difficulty, and test information were estimated via the graded response model. Additionally, the criterion validity was confirmed through hypothesis testing. Results The C-eHEALS has good reliability. Both principal component analysis and confirmatory factory analysis showed that the scale has a one-factor structure. The graded response model revealed that all items of the C-eHEALS have response options that allow for differentiation between latent trait levels and the capture of substantial information regarding participants’ ability. Conclusions The findings indicate the high reliability and validity of the C-eHEALS and thus recommend its use for measuring eHealth literacy among the Chinese rural population.
Inherited thrombophilic risk factors in Serbian breast cancer patients

Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death among women. An increased burden of thrombotic events among breast cancer patients, leading to higher mortality and morbidity rates, is well established. There are a number of genetic risk factors associated with thrombosis, but their contribution to thrombotic tendencies in patients with cancer is not completely elucidated. We aimed to investigate possible role of FV Leiden, FII G20210A, MTHFR C677T and PAI-1 4G/5G gene variants in etiopathology of breast cancer and accompanying thrombosis in cohort of Serbian patients. Our study included 316 subject divided in three groups: breast cancer patients with (97) or without (99) accompanying thrombosis and healthy control group (120). According to our results, the prevalence for all four prothrombotic gene variants were similar in cancer patients with and without thrombosis and no statistically significant difference was observed between these groups. We detected lower frequency of MTHFR 677TT genotype in breast cancer patients when compared to control group (P=0.014; OR=0.145 (95%CI 0.031-0.679)), indicated that MTHFR C677T homozygosity could play a protective role in breast cancer susceptibility. Our study noted the lack of association between common prothrombotic gene variants and increased prothrombotic risk in Serbian breast cancer patients. Also, our results point out possible role of MTHFR 677TT genotype in etiology of breast cancer, but further studies on larger cohort of patients are needed.
Hospital-wide therapist scheduling and routing: Exact and heuristic methods

Abstract We address the problem of scheduling and routing physical therapists hospital-wide. At the beginning of a day, physiotherapy jobs are known to a hospital’s scheduler, who decides for each job when, where and by which therapist it is performed. If a therapist is assigned to a sequence which contains two consecutive jobs that must take place in different treatment rooms, then transfer times must be considered. We propose three approaches to solve the problem. First, an Integer Program (IP) simultaneously schedules therapies and routes therapists. Second, a cutting plane algorithm iteratively solves the therapy scheduling problem without routing constraints and adds cuts to exclude schedules which have no feasible routes. Since hospitals are interested in obtaining quick solutions, we also propose a heuristic algorithm, which schedules therapies sequentially by simultaneously checking routing and resource constraints. Using real-world data from a hospital, we compare the performance of the three approaches. Our computational analysis reveals that our IP formulation fails to solve test instances that have more than 30 jobs to optimality in an acceptable solution time. Our cutting plane algorithm can solve instances with more than 100 jobs optimally. The heuristic approach can be used to quickly generate large-scale solutions.
Supervised data mining in networks: link prediction and applications

Link prediction is the problem of predicting the existence of currently-unobserved links or links that will appear in the future between pairs of nodes in complex networks. This problem has attracted a great deal of attention from researchers in diverse disciplines due to its applicability in a wide range of tasks, such as the identification of disease-associated candidate genes or the improvement of recommendations suggested by recommender systems. This PhD dissertation comprises different lines of work, all of them closely related to the link prediction problem. On the one hand, after an exhaustive study of the state of the art in link prediction, the main limitations of currently proposed approaches were identified. These limitations were related to the difficulties associated to the trade-off between scalability and performance in link prediction techniques. Two scalable link prediction techniques were proposed that follow different approaches to exploit local network features. On the other hand, different applications of link prediction techniques were addressed. We proposed a novel algorithm for generic prioritization, such as disease-gene prioritization, which achieved better results than other state-of-the-art techniques due to its capacity for integrating heterogeneous data sources. We also developed a novel algorithm for word sense disambiguation of semantic relations between concepts, based on link prediction and without the requirement of annotated data. We showed how our algorithm achieved better accuracy than other state-of-the-art techniques in different evaluation tasks and how relations extracted using our approach could improve the performance of state-of-the-art general-purpose word sense disambiguation techniques. In addition, since node role influences how links are formed in complex networks, we developed a novel distance metric based on the concept of automorphic equivalence with application to node role discovery. Finally, we developed a software framework for network data mining. This framework, called NOESIS, contains efficient implementations of an extensive list of network-related algorithms, including a complete library of link prediction techniques.
Association between emotional regulation and family support with quality of life of women with cervical cancer

Background and purpose: Cervical cancer ranks third globally and ranks second in Indonesia for all cancers in women. Women with cervical cancer experience physical and psychological disorders that can affect their quality of life. This study aims to determine the association between emotional regulation and family support with the quality of life of women with cervical cancer.Methods: A cross sectional survey was conducted in April 2018 at the Sanglah Hospital Obstetric Clinic. The study samples were chosen consecutively and consisted of 100 women with cervical cancer who underwent outpatient care. Data was collected using questionnaires filled in by the respondents and from the patient's medical records. Bivariate analysis was conducted with chi square test and multivariate with logistic regression.Results: The results showed that emotional regulation and family support were found to be significantly related to the quality of life of women with cervical cancer, each with AOR=17.64; 95%CI: 3.01-103.46; p=0.001 and AOR=11.28; 95%CI: 1.88-67.78; p=0.008. Conclusion: Emotional regulation and family support are related to the quality of life of women with cervical cancer. Efforts to improve emotional regulation and family support for patients should be carried out to improve their quality of life.
Peripartum Beta Endorphin levels in Relation to Labor Disorders and Post-Calving Reproductive Performance of Buffaloes.

The aim of this study was determine the relationship between plasma β-endorphin profiles in the peripheral blood circulation and cortisol concentrations during peri-partum (preand post-partum periods) of buffalo cows severed from dystocia, retained placenta or delayed heat (oestrus) and long calving interval in the previous parity. Blood samples were collected from 20 buffalo cow in late pregnancy period (2 months before expected parturition date) until 100 days after calving. Twenty buffalo cows were divided into four groups according to parturition disorders, 5 animals in each. Animals showed normal calving (group A), suffering from dystocia (group B), with retained placenta (group C) and having long calving interval in the previous parity (group D). At parturition, results showed that buffalo cows suffering from calving disorders groups B, C and D had higher βendorphin concentrations than that in group A. Whereas, β-endorphin concentrations were (110.15±3.21, 124.08±2.84, 104.09±2.45 and 96.53±0.94) respectively, at one month before parturition. Average β-endorphin concentration in buffalo cows with retained placenta, dystocia and delayed heat during peri-parturient period was higher (P<0.01) than in group A. Peak of βendorphin at the time of parturition was noticed in all buffalo groups especially in group C. Both of β-endorphin and cortisol secretion showed the concomitant trend during peri-parturient period, showing gradually decrease after parturition till two months of delivery. Finally, buffalo cows which had calving disorders showed a clear impact on blood plasma β-endorphin concentration at late pregnancy, time of delivery and post-partum periods.
Perinatal Outcomes of Maternal Anemia in Alexandria, Egypt

Background & Objective(s): Anaemia is considered the most frequent complication related to pregnancy. It is also the most common preventable cause of fetal and maternal mortality and morbidity. Despite the routine use of iron and folate supplementation for prevention of anaemia in Egypt, the prevalence of anaemia is still high This study was conducted to estimate the occurrence of anaemia and investigate the relationship between maternal anaemia and perinatal outcomes at Karmouz Family Health Unit in Alexandria. Methods: The study involved 206 pregnant women in third trimester. It was conducted on two phases: First, a cross sectional study using an interviewing questionnaire to collect data about sociodemographic profile and drug history. Laboratory data was collected from records to estimate the occurrence of anaemia. Then, a prospective cohort study was carried out using a follow up sheet to assess perinatal outcomes of maternal anaemia. Results: The results of our study show that the occurrence of anaemia among studied pregnant women was high (73.8%). Most of the women who did not regularly receive iron supplementation were anaemic. Maternal anaemia was shown to be significantly associated with preterm labor, low birth weight, congenital anomalies, small head sized babies and neonatal intensive care admission. Moreover, hemorrhage and infection were significantly encountered maternal complications. Conclusion: Irregular intake of iron supplementation during pregnancy was significantly associated with anaemia. Moreover, maternal anaemia was significantly related to maternal and neonatal
Risk Factors of the Masticatory Function in Patients with Temporomandibular Disorders: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Study

Received August 9, 2019 Revised August 21, 2019 Accepted August 21, 2019 Purpose: To investigate the masticatory function of patients with different temporomandibular disorders (TMD) phenotypes, and to explore the risk factors for the masticatory function of TMD patients among multiple biopsychosocial variables using patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Methods: Clinical features and TMD diagnoses of 250 cases were investigated by reviewing medical records. Psychosocial factors were evaluated using four questionnaires representing pain severity and pain interference (Brief Pain Inventory), pain catastrophizing (Pain Catastrophizing Scale, PCS), psychological distress (Symptom Check List-90-Revised, SCL-90R) and kinesiophobia (Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia for Temporomandibular Disorders, TSKTMD). Masticatory function, as a dependent variable, was determined using the Jaw Functional Limitation Scale (JFLS). Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s rank correlation were used for analyses. Results: A total of 145 cases were included and classified into four subgroups including group 1: TMD with internal derangement without pain (n=14), group 2: TMD with muscle pain (n=32), group 3: TMD with joint pain (n=60) and group 4: TMD with muscle-joint combined pain (n=39). Pain severity (p=0.001) and interference (p=0.022) were the highest in group 2, but the mean global score of JFLS was the highest in group 3, followed by group 4, group 2, and group 1 (p=0.013). Pain severity, pain interference, the mean global score of PCS and the mean global score of TSK-TMD showed significant and moderate correlation with the mean global score of JFLS. All subdimensions and the global severity index of SCL-90R had significant, but weak correlations with all scores of JFLS. Conclusions: The results suggest that masticatory functional limitation depends on the TMD phenotypes. Among the various PROs, pain perception, pain catastrophizing and kinesiophobia seem to be more influential risk factors on jaw function than psychological distress, such as depression and anxiety.
The relationships between social participatory roles and cognitive engagement levels in online discussions

Understanding the relationship between social interaction patterns and cognitive engagement levels has critical implications on collaborative learning theory, pedagogy, and technology. This study used a multi‐method approach to examine the relationship between students' social participatory roles and cognitive engagement levels within asynchronous online discussions. Results showed that students' social participatory role was a critical indicator of cognitive engagement level. Socially active students made more cognitive contributions to knowledge inquiry and knowledge construction. But there were exceptions: after taking leadership roles (i.e., discussion designers and facilitators), some students moved from peripheral participation to active participation. Second, there was a progressive development process: individual students' deep‐level knowledge inquiry could trigger peer interaction, which could further advance group knowledge construction. Third, students had a tendency to keeping social‐cognitive engagement patterns throughout discussions. Based on the result, this study proposed implications for collaborative learning theory, pedagogy support, and tool development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Van der Knaap disease

Van der Knaap disease is a rare form of leukodystrophy, phenotypically characterized by megalencephaly, early-onset ataxia, pyramidal features, cognitive impairment, with an autosomal recessive inheritence. MRI Brain shows T1 and FLAIR hypointense subcortical cysts in mostly temporal lobes and in fronto-parietal subcortical areas. Authors report a 20 yr. girl with typical features.
Interstitial fibroblasts in donor kidneys predict late posttransplant anemia

Abstract Background Posttransplant anemia (PTA) is associated with the progression of kidney disease and mortality in kidney transplant recipients. Although the main causes of PTA are recipient factors, donor factors have not been fully investigated. In this study we investigated the association of donor pathological findings with the incidence of PTA in kidney transplant recipients after 3 years of transplantation. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study at a single university hospital. A total of 50 consecutive adult recipients and donors were enrolled. To assess the structure of interstitial lesions, immunohistochemical staining of interstitial fibrosis and fibroblasts were assessed in 0-h biopsies for quantitative analysis. Results The incidence of PTA in this cohort was 30%. The mean hemoglobin (Hb) was 11.6 ± 0.8 g/dL in patients with PTA and 14.3 ± 1.5 g/dL in patients without PTA. An inverse association was observed in biopsies between interstitial fibrosis area and interstitial fibroblast area (P < 0.01) and each pathological finding was examined for its association with PTA incidence after multivariate adjustment. For the interstitial fibrosis area, the odds ratio (OR) was 1.94 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.26–2.99; P < 0.01]. For the interstitial fibroblast area, the OR was 0.01 (95% CI 0.00–0.16; P < 0.01). Receiver operating characteristics curve analysis indicated that the interstitial fibroblast area had high predictive power for the incidence of PTA. Conclusions The presence of interstitial fibroblasts in donor kidneys may play an important role in predicting the incidence of PTA.
Significant Changes in Trans-Epithelial Barrier Proteins of Adenoid Tissue with Atopic Status in Children.

OBJECTIVES Adenoid tissue is important in local immune response and epithelial barrier dysfunction of this tissue may contribute to allergies. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between the status of cross-epithelial barrier elements in adenoid tissue lymphoepithelium and inhalant allergen sensitization. MATERIALS AND METHODS Children aged 5-15 years, who underwent adenotonsillectomy, participated in this study. All subjects underwent skin prick testing with environmental inhalant allergens. Occludin, ZO1, e-cadherin, β-catenin, desmoglein, desmoplakin, and connexon-43 were stained immunohistochemically in the adenoid tissues obtained and scored by H-score. RESULTS We enrolled 76 children, 14 among whom were sensitized to environmental allergens. Among the zonula occludens proteins, median H-scores for occludin, claudin, and ZO-1 were significantly lower in the atopic compared to the nonatopic group respectively (p<0.001). Similarly, median H-scores for e-cadherin and β catenin proteins of the zonula adherens were significantly lower in the atopic group (p<0.001). Both desmoglein and desmoplakin H-scores were significantly lower in the atopic group [60 (50-100) vs 280 (260-300), p<0.001 and 105 (87.5-120) vs 280 (67.25-300), p<0.001 respectively]. Moreover, connexin-43 protein of the gap junction was significantly lower in the atopic group (p<0.001). CONCLUSION Adenoid tissue, which is the initial point of contact of inhalant allergens demonstrates epithelial barrier junctional protein, changes in children with inhalant allergen sensitization without clinical allergic disease symptoms. Therefore, it may be concluded that epithelial barrier function plays an important role in the development of allergen sensitization versus tolerance.