Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The role of homoeopathic treatment in women suffering from post-caesarean backache: An open observational clinical trial

Context: An open observational trial was carried out at National Institute of Homoeopathy, India, to assess the possible effects of individualised Homoeopathy in individuals suffering from post-caesarean backache. Aim: The aim of the study was to find the role of homoeopathic treatment in individuals suffering from post-caesarean backache. Methods: Fifty subjects were enrolled. The Short-Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ) and Oswestry Low Back Pain Disability Questionnaire (ODQ) were used as the outcome measures, assessed at baseline and after 3 months of treatment. Medicines prescribed followed homoeopathic principles. Non-parametric Wilcoxon signed rank test was applied to compare the dependent observations. P < 0.05 two-tailed was considered statistically significant. Results: Five subjects dropped out and 45 completed the trial. Intention-to-treat sample (n = 50) was analysed. There were statistically significant reductions in pain rating index percentage score (median 83.3 (IQR 66.7 to 100) vs. median 66.7 (IQR 33.3 to 71.1), P < 0.001); visual analogue scale score (median 7.0 (IQR 6.0 to 8.0) vs. median 6.0 (IQR 4.8 to 7.0), P < 0.001); present pain index score (median 3.0 (IQR 2.0 to 3.0) vs. median 2.0 (IQR 2.0 to 3.0), P = 0.019) and ODQ% score (median 44.0 (IQR 39.5 to 50.0) vs. median 39.0 (IQR 31.9 to 44.0), P < 0.001) over 3 months of treatment. Natrum muriaticum (n = 11, 22%); Staphysagria (n = 8, 16%); Bryonia alba and Rhus toxicodendron (n = 6 each, 12%) and Pulsatilla nigricans (n = 4, 8%) were prescribed frequently. Conclusion: Indicated homoeopathic medicines reduced SF-MPQ and ODQ scores. Further randomised trials are warranted with enhanced methodological rigour.
Structured Diabetes Education Program for Improving Self-care Behavior in Primary Care Settings of Puducherry: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial

Context: Diabetes self-management education plays a critical role in improving patients' clinical outcome and quality of life. Aims: This study aims to study the effectiveness of a structured diabetes educational program on improvement of self-care behavior among type 2 diabetics in urban Primary Health Centres (PHCs) of Puducherry. Settings and Design: A community-based open-label parallel-arm randomized controlled trial was conducted in two randomly selected urban PHCs of Puducherry during December 2015–February 2017. Subjects and Methods: Using systematic random sampling, 157 eligible participants were recruited in intervention and control PHCs each. Sociodemographic, disease characteristics, and anthropometric measures were captured using a pretested questionnaire at baseline. Self-care behavior was recorded with Summary of Diabetes Self-Care Activities scale. Intervention consisted of structured diabetes education sessions with distribution of information leaflets and self-care kits to the intervention-arm participants, while control arm received standard care. At the end of 6 months, endline assessment was done for both groups. Data were analyzed by intention-to-treat, per-protocol, and difference-in-difference analysis using STATA. Results: Footcare increased significantly by 1.95 days/week compared to control arm, while a moderate change of 0.49 days/week in diet compliance and a minimal change of 0.10 days/week in physical activity were observed. Medication adherence, regular blood sugar testing, and smoking behavior also showed improvement in intervention arm. Conclusions: A structured education program that is culturally tailored showed an overall improvement in self-care behavior. This research supports the need for structured education program for diabetics to empower them and improve self-care practices. Trial registration: CTRI/2017/06/008772
Combating the Class Imbalance Problem in Small Sample Data Sets

The class imbalance problem is a recent development in machine learning. It is frequently encountered when using a classifier to generalize on real-world application data sets, and it causes a classifier to perform sub-optimally. Researchers have rigorously studied resampling methods, new algorithms, and feature selection methods, but no studies have been conducted to understand how well these methods combat the class imbalance problem. In particular, feature selection has been rarely studied outside of text classification problems. Additionally, no studies have looked at the additional problem of learning from small samples. This paper develops a new feature selection metric, Feature Assessment by Sliding Thresholds (FAST), specifically designed to handle small sample imbalanced data sets. FAST is based on the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUC) generated by moving the decision boundary of a single feature classifier with thresholds placed using an even-bin distribution. This paper also presents a first systematic comparison of the three types of methods developed for imbalanced data classification problems and of seven feature selection metrics evaluated on small sample data sets from different applications. We evaluated the performance of these metrics using AUC and area under the P-R curve (PRC). We compared each metric on the average performance across all problems and on the likelihood of a metric yielding the best performance on a specific problem. We examined the performance of these metrics inside each problem domain. Finally, we evaluated the efficacy of these metrics to see which perform best across algorithms. Our results showed that signal-to-noise correlation coefficient (S2N) and FAST are great candidates for feature selection in most applications.
Interactions Between Digital Noise Reduction and Reverberation: Acoustic and Behavioral Effects

Abstract Background: Digital noise reduction (DNR) processing is used in hearing aids to enhance perception in noise by classifying and suppressing the noise acoustics. However, the efficacy of DNR processing is not known under reverberant conditions where the speech-in-noise acoustics are further degraded by reverberation. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate acoustic and perceptual effects of DNR processing across a range of reverberant conditions for individuals with hearing impairment. Research Design: This study used an experimental design to investigate the effects of varying reverberation on speech-in-noise processed with DNR. Study Sample: Twenty-six listeners with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing impairment participated in the study. Data Collection and Analysis: Speech stimuli were combined with unmodulated broadband noise at several signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). A range of reverberant conditions with realistic parameters were simulated, as well as an anechoic control condition without reverberation. Reverberant speech-in-noise signals were processed using a spectral subtraction DNR simulation. Signals were acoustically analyzed using a phase inversion technique to quantify improvement in SNR as a result of DNR processing. Sentence intelligibility and subjective ratings of listening effort, speech naturalness, and background noise comfort were examined with and without DNR processing across the conditions. Results: Improvement in SNR was greatest in the anechoic control condition and decreased as the ratio of direct to reverberant energy decreased. There was no significant effect of DNR processing on speech intelligibility in the anechoic control condition, but there was a significant decrease in speech intelligibility with DNR processing in all of the reverberant conditions. Subjectively, listeners reported greater listening effort and lower speech naturalness with DNR processing in some of the reverberant conditions. Listeners reported higher background noise comfort with DNR processing only in the anechoic control condition. Conclusions: Results suggest that reverberation affects DNR processing using a spectral subtraction algorithm in such a way that decreases the ability of DNR to reduce noise without distorting the speech acoustics. Overall, DNR processing may be most beneficial in environments with little reverberation and that the use of DNR processing in highly reverberant environments may actually produce adverse perceptual effects. Further research is warranted using commercial hearing aids in realistic reverberant environments.
S100B Protein Stimulates Proliferation and Angiogenic Mediators Release through RAGE/pAkt/mTOR Pathway in Human Colon Adenocarcinoma Caco-2 Cells

Chronic inflammation and angiogenesis are associated with colonic carcinogenesis. Enteric glia-derived S100B protein has been proposed as an “ideal bridge”, linking colonic inflammation and cancer, given its dual ability to up-regulate nuclear factor-kappaB (NF-κB) transcription via receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE) signaling and to sequestrate wild type pro-apoptotic wild type (wt)p53. However, its pro-angiogenic effects on cancer cells are still uninvestigated. To this aim, we evaluated the effect of exogenous S100B (0.05–5 µM) protein alone or in the presence of S100B blocking monoclonal antibody (mAb) (1:105–1:104 v/v diluted) on (1) cultured Caco-2 cells proliferation, migration and invasiveness in vitro, respectively by 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT)-formazan, wound healing and matrigel invasion assays and (2) its effect on the release of pro-angiogenic factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) by ELISA and immunofluorescence analyses. The effect of S100B alone or in the presence of S100BmAb was then investigated on RAGE/pAkt/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway by immunoblot analysis. Our results showed that S100B markedly increases proliferation and invasiveness of Caco-2 cells, through the release of pro-angiogenic VEGF and NO paralleled to a significant decrease of wtp53 expression mediated by RAGE-p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/pAkt-mTOR and hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF1α) pathways. Such effects were counteracted by S100BmAb, indicating that S100B targeting is a potential approach to inhibit colon carcinoma proliferation and angiogenesis.
Principal Component Regression on Motor Evoked Potential in Single-Pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Motor evoked potentials (MEPs) induced by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) are commonly characterized only by their onset (latency) and size (amplitude) whereas other potentially important information in the MEPs is discarded. Hence, our aim was to examine the morphological information of MEPs using principal component regression (PCR) providing additional perception of MEPs. MEPs were recorded from the first dorsal interosseous muscle following navigated TMS focused at the primary motor cortex. The PCR holding of at least 96% of total variance of the MEP dataset was performed to parameterize MEPs into principal components (PCs), which were used with non-linear least square estimation to reconstruct original MEPs. The comparison between the original and reconstructed MEPs showed that PCs, which accounted for 96% of total variance, were able to characterize the MEP morphology, i.e., the PCR summarizes the repeated information in the MEP dataset into the PC set. In addition, PCR benefited the automated quantification of MEP features as it removed the random noise caused by the environmental interference and the inconsistency of neuronal pathways. Furthermore, we could determine the minimum number of trials required to reliably represent the whole dataset by estimating the partial information of those trials accounted for. Our results showed that this partial information exponentially increased with respect to the number of trials, and saturated within 20 MEPs holding approximately 90% of total variance of the dataset.
Combined lung and liver procurement in controlled donation after circulatory death using normothermic abdominal perfusion. Initial experience in two Spanish centers

Combining simultaneously lung and liver procurement in controlled donation after circulatory death (cDCD) using normothermic abdominal perfusion (NRP) for abdominal grafts and cooling and rapid recovery technique (RR) for the lungs increases the complexity of the procurement procedure and might injure the grafts. A total of 19 cDCDs from two centers using this combined procedure were evaluated, and 16 liver and 21 lung transplantations were performed. As controls, 34 donors after brain death (DBDs) were included (29 liver and 41 lung transplantations were performed). Two cDCD liver recipients developed primary nonfunction (12.5%). No cases of ischemic cholangiopathy were observed among cDCD recipients. The 1‐year and 2‐year liver recipients survival was 87.5% and 87.5% for the cDCD group, and 96% and 84.5% for the DBD group, respectively (P = .496). The 1‐year and 2‐year lung recipients survival was 84% and 84% for the cDCD group and 90% and 90% for the DBD group, respectively (P = .577). This is the largest experience ever reported in cDCD with the use of NRP combined with RR of the lungs. This combined method offers an outstanding recovery rate and liver and lung recipients survival comparable with those transplanted with DBDs. Further studies are needed to confirm our findings.
The Importance of Explicitly Mapping Instructional Analogies in Science Education.

The Importance of Explicitly Mapping Instructional Analogies in Science Education by Loretta Asay Dr. LeAnn Putney, Examination Committee Co-Chair Chair, Department of Educational Psychology and Higher Education University of Nevada, Las Vegas Dr. Ralph E. Reynolds, Examination Committee Co-Chair Director, School of Education Iowa State University Analogies are ubiquitous during instruction in science classrooms, yet research about the effectiveness of using analogies has produced mixed results. An aspect seldom studied is a model of instruction when using analogies. The few existing models for instruction with analogies have not often been examined quantitatively. The Teaching With Analogies (TWA) model (Glynn, 1991) is one of the models frequently cited in the variety of research about analogies. The TWA model outlines steps for instruction, including the step of explicitly mapping the features of the source to the target. An experimental study was conducted to examine the effects of explicitly mapping the features of the source and target in an analogy during computer-based instruction about electrical circuits. Explicit mapping was compared to no mapping and to a control with
Mobile telephone‐delivered contingency management interventions promoting behaviour change in individuals with substance use disorders: a meta‐analysis

Abstract Background/aims Contingency management (CM) interventions have gained considerable interest due to their success in the treatment of addiction. However, their implementation can be resource‐intensive for clinical staff. Mobile telephone‐based systems might offer a low‐cost alternative. This approach could facilitate remote monitoring of behaviour and delivery of the reinforcer and minimize issues of staffing and resources. This systematic review and meta‐analysis assessed the evidence for the effectiveness of mobile telephone‐delivered CM interventions to promote abstinence (from drugs, alcohol and tobacco), medication adherence and treatment engagement among individuals with substance use disorders. Design A systematic search of databases (PsychINFO, CINAHL, MEDLINE PubMed, CENTRAL, Embase) for randomized controlled trials and within‐subject design studies (1995–2019). The review was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA statement. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO. Setting All included studies originated in the United states. Participants Seven studies were found, including 222 participants; two targeted alcohol abstinence among frequent drinkers and four targeted smoking cessation (in homeless veterans and those with post‐traumatic stress disorder). One targeted medication adherence. Measures The efficacy of CM to increase alcohol and nicotine abstinence was compared with control using several outcomes; percentage of negative samples (PNS), quit rate (QR) and longest duration abstinent (LDA) at the end of the intervention. Findings The random‐effects meta‐analyses produced pooled effect sizes of; PNS [d = 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.63–1.25], LDA (d = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.69–1.46) and QR (d = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.27–0.66), demonstrating better outcomes across the CM conditions. Most of the studies were rated as of moderate quality. ‘Fail‐safe N' computations for PNS indicated that 50 studies would be needed to produce a non‐significant overall effect size. None could be calculated for QR and LDA due to insufficient number of studies. Conclusion Mobile telephone‐delivered contingency management performs significantly better than control conditions in reducing tobacco and alcohol use among adults not in treatment for substance use disorders.
Challenges of Treating Mental Health Issues in Correctional Settings.

The current article explores the challenges of correctional nursing and provides implications for nursing practice and advocacy for optimal outcomes for incarcerated individuals with mental illness. The role of the nurse as advocate and educator is discussed. Opportunities for changing the conversation that addresses the criminalization of mental illness, stigma, and social policy is presented as a path forward. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 57(7), 7-12. ].
Prognostic Impact of Pregnancy in Korean Patients with Breast Cancer.

BACKGROUND Pregnancy concurrent with, shortly before, or after breast cancer poses unique challenges because hormonal changes in pregnancy potentially interact with breast cancer outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS We studied a cohort of 3,687 female patients of reproductive age (<50 years) with breast cancer, linking a large institutional database and the nationwide claims database to comprehensively capture exposure status and tumor characteristics. Exposures included breast cancer during pregnancy, postpartum breast cancer (<12 months after delivery), and pregnancy after breast cancer. RESULTS Forty-five patients with postpartum breast cancer were significantly more likely to have advanced stage, hormone receptor-negative tumor and to be younger than 35 years at diagnosis than those without postpartum breast cancer. This trend was not observed with 18 patients with breast cancer during pregnancy. The unadjusted 5-year survival rates were 77% versus 96% for patients with postpartum breast cancer versus their counterparts, 89% versus 96% for patients with breast cancer during pregnancy versus their counterparts, and 98% versus 96% for patients with pregnancy after breast cancer versus their counterparts, respectively. In the multivariable analyses, postpartum breast cancer exhibited hazard ratios for death of 1.57 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.82-2.99), whereas those for breast cancer during pregnancy and pregnancy after breast cancer were 1.09 (95% CI, 0.15-7.91) and 0.86 (95% CI, 0.26-2.83), respectively. CONCLUSION Postpartum breast cancer, but not breast cancer during pregnancy, was associated with advanced stage, younger age at diagnosis (<35 years), hormone receptor-negative disease, and poorer survival. Pregnancy after breast cancer did not compromise overall survival. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE Although pregnancy around the time of diagnosis of breast cancer is expected to become increasingly common with maternal age at first childbirth on the rise, data on the prognostic impact of pregnancy have been inconsistent and rare from Asian populations. In this investigation of a Korean patient cohort with breast cancer, pregnancy-associated breast cancer was associated with advanced stage, younger age at diagnosis (<35 years), hormone receptor-negative disease, and poorer survival. This adverse impact of pregnancy on the prognosis was apparent with postpartum breast cancer but not observed with breast cancer during pregnancy. Pregnancy after breast cancer did not compromise overall survival.
Examining Listener Reaction Time in the Perceptual Assessment of Dysarthria

Objective: In the perceptual assessment of dysarthria, various approaches are used to examine the accuracy of listeners’ speech transcriptions and their subjective impressions of speech disorder. However, less attention has been given to the effort and cognitive resources required to process speech samples. This study explores the relationship between transcription accuracy, comprehensibility, subjective impressions of speech, and objective measures of reaction time (RT) to further examine the challenges involved in processing dysarthric speech. Patients and Methods: Sixteen listeners completed 3 experimental listening tasks: a sentence transcription task, a rating scale task, and an RT task that required responses to veracity statements. In each task, the speech stimuli included speech from 8 individuals with dysarthria. Results: Measurements from the 3 tasks were significantly related, with a correlation coefficient of –0.94 between average RT and transcription-based intelligibility scores and –0.89 between RT and listener ratings of dysarthria. Interrater reliability of RT measurements was relatively low when considering a single person’s response to stimuli. However, reliability reached an acceptable level when a mean was taken from 8 listeners. Conclusions: RT tasks could be developed as a reliable adjunct in the assessment of listener effort and speech processing.
Influence of inclusion level of barley in wheat-based diets and supplementation of carbohydrase on growth performance, nutrient utilisation and gut morphometry in broiler starters

ABSTRACT 1. The influence of barley inclusion level and supplementation of a multi-component non-starch polysaccharide degrading enzyme on performance and nutrient utilisation in broilers was investigated. Normal-starch hulled barley was evaluated with five levels of inclusion (0, 141, 283, 424 and 565 g/kg) in a wheat-based diet and two levels of enzyme supplementation (0 and 150 g/tonne of feed; a 5 × 2 factorial arrangement of 10 dietary treatments). All diets were equivalent in metabolisable energy and digestible amino acid contents. A total of 400, one-d old male broilers (five cages/treatment; eight birds/cage) were used in the experiment. 2. Regardless of enzyme supplementation, weight gain (WG) increased up to 283 g/kg of barley and was reduced afterwards (P < 0.01). Increasing levels of barley resulted in greater (P < 0.001) gain per feed (G/F). Enzyme addition increased WG (P < 0.05) and G/F (P < 0.001) at each barley inclusion level. 3. Birds fed diets with 0 and 565 g/kg barley showed the lowest and highest (P < 0.001to 0.05) digestibility for all nutrients measured, respectively. Digestibility of all nutrients was improved by enzyme supplementation at each barley inclusion level (P < 0.05). The nitrogen-corrected apparent metabolisable energy improved with increasing inclusion of barley (P < 0.001) and supplemental enzyme (P < 0.01). Increasing inclusion of barley increased the relative weight of gizzard (P < 0.001) and reduced jejunal digesta viscosity (P < 0.001). Supplemental enzyme (P < 0.001) reduced digesta viscosity. 4. The optimum inclusion level of barley, with respect to growth performance, was 283 g/kg of diet. Increasing barley inclusion improved nutrient and energy utilisation, possibly through lowered digesta viscosity and better function of the gizzard. Feed efficiency and nutrient and energy utilisation can benefit from carbohydrase supplementation in barley-based diets, regardless of barley inclusion level.