Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Barriers to accessing safe motherhood and reproductive health services: the situation of women with disabilities in Lusaka, Zambia

Purpose: To ascertain how well health services in Lusaka, Zambia currently meet the safe motherhood and reproductive health care needs of women who have physical impairment leading to disability. Methods: A qualitative study was conducted in Lusaka, Zambia. In-depth tape-recorded interviews were conducted with 24 purposively selected women with disabilities and with 25 safe motherhood/reproductive public sector health service providers. Qualitative analysis was conducted using NVivo software. Results: Women with disabilities encounter various social, attitudinal and physical barriers to accessing safe motherhood and reproductive health (RH) services in this particular setting. The strong desire for children and affection can increase vulnerability to sexual exploitation. At the same time, a generalized assumption among reproductive health service providers that women with disabilities will not be sexually active, and not require RH services, leads to increased vulnerability to sexually transmitted infection including HIV. Once pregnant, traditional beliefs about transmission of disabilities can create barriers to integration in ante-natal clinics. Nurse-midwives' fear of delivery complications in women with physical impairments can also result in routine over-referral to a tertiary maternity facility which is outside the locality and harder for women with mobility limitations to get to. Conclusion: Greater understanding of the influences underpinning societal attitudes towards sexuality and disability in this setting, and more extensive communication between health care staff and women with disabilities would facilitate positive action towards improving safe motherhood and reproductive health services for women with disabilities.
Analysis of telomere dynamics in peripheral blood cells from patients with Lynch syndrome

In patients with Lynch syndrome, germline mutations in DNA mismatch repair (MMR) genes cause a high risk of developing a broad spectrum of cancers. To date, the management of patients with Lynch syndrome has represented a major challenge because of large variations in age at cancer onset. Several factors, including genetic anticipation, have been proposed to explain this phenotypic heterogeneity, but the molecular mechanisms remain unknown. Telomere shortening is a common event in tumorigenesis and also has been observed in different familial cancers. In this study, the authors investigated the possibility of a relation between telomere length and cancer onset in patients with Lynch syndrome.
Foot Placement Compensator Design for Humanoid Walking Based on Discrete Control Lyapunov Function

In this paper, an online foot position compensator (FPC) is proposed for improving the robustness of humanoid walking based on orbital energy conservation and discrete control Lyapunov function (DCLF), with which the asymptotic stability of the humanoid system can be maintained and, thus, the foot placement control is achieved. The online FPC is developed based on linear model predictive control (MPC) by replanning the trajectories of the center of mass (CoM) and properly placing the footsteps to resist external disturbances and recover the walking posture. To further improve the robustness of the humanoid robots to suppress strong external disturbance, a strategy of upper body posture control is proposed. The presented controller stabilizes the humanoid robot by utilizing hip joints to modulate the upper body posture online. Webots simulations and real experiments on a full-body NAO humanoid robot verify the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Comparison of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, DNA hybridization, hemagglutination, and electron microscopy for detection of canine parvovirus infections

Canine fecal samples were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) by using monoclonal antibodies to the canine parvovirus hemagglutinating protein. These data were compared with results obtained with DNA hybridization assays, hemagglutination assays, and electron microscopy. The highest correlation was observed between the ELISA and the hemagglutination tests, with 94.4% of samples showing agreement. Lower correlation was obtained between ELISA and DNA hybridization tests (73.3%). Correlation between ELISA and electron microscopy was 60.9%. The studies indicated that the ELISA can be used as a sensitive and specific diagnostic assay for canine parvovirus infections.
Processing of the Matricellular Protein Hevin in Mouse Brain Is Dependent on ADAMTS4*

The matricellular SPARC family member hevin (SPARC-like 1/SPARCL-1/SC1/Mast9) contributes to neural development and alters tumor progression in a range of mammalian models. The distribution of hevin in mouse tissues was reexamined with a novel monoclonal antibody that discriminates between hevin and its ortholog SPARC. We now report proteolysis of hevin in many tissues, with the most extensive processing in the brain. We demonstrate a cleavage site within the hevin sequence for the neural tissue proteinase ADAMTS4. Digestion of hevin by ADAMTS4 in vitro produced fragments similar to those present in brain lysates. Monoclonal antibodies revealed a SPARC-like fragment generated from hevin that was co-localized with ADAMTS4 in vivo. We show that proteolysis of hevin by ADAMTS4 in the mouse cerebellum is important for the normal development of this tissue. In conclusion, we have identified the fragmentation of hevin by ADAMTS4 in the mouse brain and propose that this specific proteolysis is integral to cell morphology and extracellular matrix deposition in the developing brain.
Universal use of nonionic iodinated contrast medium for CT: evaluation of safety in a large urban teaching hospital.

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the safety of the universal use of the nonionic iodinated contrast agent iopromide in patients undergoing CT in a large urban teaching hospital. SUBJECTS AND METHODS For 2 years, we prospectively recorded all adverse events temporally associated with the administration of iopromide in 29,508 consecutive patients undergoing contrast-enhanced CT at our institution. The types, intensities, treatments, and outcomes of adverse events were recorded along with relevant patient history, including risk factors. Descriptive analyses of the variables, comparisons of means, and proportions using Student's t and chi-square tests, and logistic regressions were conducted. RESULTS Adverse events were observed in 211 patients (0.7%) and were categorized as follows: urticaria (n = 161), facial or laryngeal edema (n = 13), bronchospasm (n = 8), severe nausea or vomiting (n = 10), or other (n = 19). One hundred eighty-eight adverse events (89%) were rated mild, 19 moderate (9%), and four severe (2%), including one fatality. Adverse events required treatment in 89 patients (42%). A history of allergy was present in 92 patients (44%), and 29 (14%) had a prior contrast reaction. Other relevant risk factors were identified in 63 patients (30%). No relationship existed between the occurrence of adverse events and any of the following: patient age, dose of iodine administered, or time of study (i.e., month, season, and year). Women (p < 0.001) and outpatients (p < 0.001) had a statistically significant higher incidence of adverse events. CONCLUSION The universal use of iopromide as an IV CT contrast agent has a favorable safety profile.
Impact of thymidylate synthase promoter and DNA repair gene polymorphisms on susceptibility to childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The aim of this study was to evaluate the frequency of polymorphisms in the TYMS, XRCC1, and ERCC2 DNA repair genes in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) approaches. The study was conducted in 206 patients and 364 controls from a Brazilian population. No significant differences were observed among the analyzed groups regarding XRCC1 codon 399 and codon 194 and ERCC2 codon 751 and codon 312 polymorphisms. The TYMS 3R variant allele was significantly associated with a reduced risk of childhood ALL, represented by the sum of heterozygous and polymorphic homozygous genotypes (odds ratio 0.60; 95% confidence interval 0.37–0.99). The results suggest that polymorphism in TYMS may play a protective role against the development of childhood ALL.
catM encodes a LysR-type transcriptional activator regulating catechol degradation in Acinetobacter calcoaceticus

On the basis of the constitutive phenotypes of two catM mutants of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, the CatM protein was proposed to repress expression of two different loci involved in catechol degradation, catA and catBCIJFD (E. Neidle, C. Hartnett, and L. N. Ornston, J. Bacteriol. 171:5410-5421, 1989). In spite of its proposed negative role as a repressor, CatM is similar in amino acid sequence to positive transcriptional activators of the LysR family. Investigating this anomaly, we found that insertional inactivation of catM did not cause the phenotype expected for the disruption of a repressor-encoding gene: in an interposon-generated catM mutant, no cat genes were expressed constitutively, but rather catA and catB were still inducible by muconate. Moreover, this catM mutant grew poorly on benzoate, a process requiring the expression of all cat genes. The inducibility of the cat genes in this catM mutant was completely eliminated by a 3.5-kbp deletion 10 kbp upstream of catM. In this double mutant, catM in trans restored muconate inducibility to both catA and catB. These results suggested the presence of an additional regulatory locus controlling cat gene expression. The ability of CatM to function as an activator was also suggested by these results. In support of this hypothesis, in vivo methylation protection assays showed that CatM protects two guanines in a dyad 65 nucleotides upstream of the catB transcriptional start site, in a location and pattern typical of LysR-type transcriptional activators. Gel mobility shift assays indicated that CatM also binds to a region upstream of catA. DNA sequence analysis revealed a nucleotide near the 3' end of catM not present in the published sequence. Translation of the corrected sequence resulted in the deduced CatM protein being 52 residues longer than previously reported. The size, amino acid sequence, and mode of action of CatM now appear similar to, and typical of, what has been found for transcriptional activators in the LysR family. Analysis of one of the constitutive alleles of catM previously thought to encode a dysfunctional repressor indicated instead that it encodes an inducer-independent transcriptional activator.
Fathers of Children With Type 1 Diabetes

This study describes how fathers of children diagnosed with type 1 diabetes understand their involvement in their child’s daily life from a health promotion perspective. Sixteen Swedish fathers of children living with type 1 diabetes were interviewed. Manifest and latent content analysis was used to identify two themes: the inner core of the father’s general parental involvement and the additional involvement based on the child’s diabetes. The former was underpinned by the fathers’ prioritization of family life and the fathers being consciously involved in raising the child, and the latter by the fathers promoting and controlling the child’s health and promoting and enabling the child’s autonomy. The results highlight that the quality of the fathers’ involvement is essential in the management of a child’s chronic illness. It is important for pediatric diabetes health care professionals to assess the quality of fathers’ involvement to promote the child’s health.
Puerperal complications following elective cesarean sections for twin pregnancies

Abstract Objective: To estimate the maternal puerperal morbidity in elective and emergent cesareans in twins. Study design: We evaluated postpartum complications among patients who underwent elective cesarean birth for twin pregnancy. This group was compared to matched singletons and to emergent cesareans in twins. Results: During the period September 1994–March 2006 there were 299 (47.4%) elective and 80 (12.7%) emergent cesarean sections in twin pregnancies, for a total of 379 (60.1%) cesarean births for both twins. Controls included 299 cases of elective cesareans in singletons. The comparison between elective and emergent cesareans and between elective cesareans in twins and in singletons found no significant differences in postpartum fever, scar infection, and postpartum hemorrhage. Venous thromboembolism occurred in two twin pregnancies, one in the elective and one in the emergent cesarean group. Postpartum hysterectomy was required in a singleton pregnancy following an elective cesarean birth. Conclusion: At present, no data exist to show a disadvantage for a planned cesarean birth for twins.
Litigation as an Incentive to Change in Local Authority Public Services in England & Wales Non-Technical Summary

In this paper we consider the relationship between l vels of judicial review litigation and the quality of local government services. The f indings indicate that judicial review may be making a positive contribution to loc al government in England and Wales. The paper also considers the way local gover nm nt officials perceive judicial review and argues that reactions cannot be wholly u nderstood in terms of incentives. Judicial review makes a positive contribution to pu blic administration at least partly because it promotes values that are central to the et os of public administration and assists officials in resolving tensions between ind ividual and collective justice.
On the optimum design of differential unitary space-time modulation

For asymptotically high SNR, the design criteria of differential unitary space-time (DUST) coding are based on the rank-and-determinant criterion (Hughes, B.L., 2000; Hochwald, B.M. and Sweldens, W., 2000). For a large number of receive antennas or low SNR scenarios, the Euclidean distance criterion is appropriate for differential unitary space-time codes (Wang, J. et al., 2002). In practical systems, with a reasonable number of transmit and receive antennas, the SNR is neither asymptotically high nor asymptotically low. Therefore it is interesting to find what is a good code design criterion at medium range SNR. Based on the exact pairwise error probability, we derive the union bound on the symbol error probability (SEP) of the DUST modulation. Instead of using the rank-and-determinant or Euclidean distance criteria, we optimize the codes such that the union bound on the SEP is minimized for a predetermined scenario taking into account the number of transmit and receive antennas and the operating SNR. Our simulation results show that for a wide range of SNRs, the codes with the minimum union bound for a particular SNR outperform the codes designed based on rank-and-determinant or Euclidean distance criteria.
Low-molecular-weight heparin for thromboprophylaxis in pregnant women with mechanical heart valves

Background. Pregnancy in a woman with a mechanical heart valve is a life-threatening situation. Due to the inability of unfractionated heparin to prevent valvular thromboses, warfarin or other vitamin K antagonists have been the preferred anticoagulants for the mother. They are, however, potentially harmful to the fetus. With the advent of low-molecular-weight heparins, clinicians were hopeful for an alternative that was safe for the fetus, but more effective than unfractionated heparin, which carries a 29–33% risk of life-threatening thromboses and a 7–15% chance of mortality. Unfortunately, fatal thromboses have occurred with low-molecular-weight heparin as well. Methods. We searched the MEDLINE database and other sources to identify cases of the use of low-molecular-weight heparin for thromboprophylaxis in women with mechanical heart valves. Results. We found 73 cases and added three of our own for a total of 76. There were 17 thrombotic events (22%). Thirteen were valve thromboses, two were strokes, and two were myocardial infarctions. There were three deaths (4%). Conclusions. While pregnant women with mechanical heart valves who receive low-molecular-weight heparin for thromboprophylaxis are at extremely high risk of life-threatening thromboses, there is no evidence that low-molecular-weight heparin is inferior to unfractionated heparin.
Prevalence of human coronaviruses in adults with acute respiratory tract infections in Beijing, China†

Human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are a common etiological agent of acute respiratory tract infections. HCoV infections, especially those caused by the two HCoVs identified most recently, NL63 and HKU‐1, have not been characterized fully. To evaluate the prevalence and clinical presentations of HKU1 and NL63 in adults with acute respiratory tract infections, an investigation of HCoV infections in Beijing, China from 2005 to 2009 was performed by using reverse transcriptase PCR assays and sequencing analysis. Among 8,396 respiratory specimens studied, 87 (1%) clinical samples were positive for HCoVs, of which 50 samples (0.6% of the total) were positive for HCoV‐OC43, 15 (0.2%) for HCoV‐229E, 14 (0.2%) for HCoV‐HKU1, and 8 (0.1%) for HCoV‐NL63. The prevalence of HCoV infection in adults exhibited distinct seasonal fluctuations during the study period. In addition, patients positive for HCoV‐229E infections were more likely to be co‐infected with other respiratory viruses. Enterovirus, rhinovirus, and parainfluenza virus type 3 were the most common viruses found in patients with HCoV infections. The demographic and clinical data present in this study of HCoV infections in adults with acute respiratory tract infections should improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of HCoVs. J. Med. Virol. 83:291–297, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Predictive Factors for Improvement of Atrophic Gastritis and Intestinal Metaplasia After Helicobacter Pylori Eradication: A Three‐Year Follow‐Up Study in Korea

Background and Aims: To date, data on the effects of anti‐Helicobacter therapy on the improvement of atrophic gastritis (AG) and intestinal metaplasia (IM) have been conflicting. This study was performed to investigate whether eradication of H. pylori could lead to the improvement of AG and IM, and the prognostic factors associated with the improvement of AG and IM.
Economic analysis of retrofitting existing gas turbine power plants with cogeneration facility

Cogeneration refers to the generation of combined heat and power (CHP), which is more efficient than a central power plant generating only electricity. The proportion of power generation using CHP is growing world-wide due to efficiency improvements and environmental benefits. Exhaust heat from GT power plants can be fed to boilers for producing steam. Steam is used for reservoir flooding, petrochemical industries, food processing etc. Operational gas turbine power generation plants can be retrofitted to co-generation power plant to produce steam in addition to electrical power. A computational preliminary economic feasibility study of retrofitting a given existing gas turbine power generation plant into a co-generation power plant is presented in this paper. A 80 MW GE-6111FA frame has been selected for the present study. The work includes the effect of relative humidity (RH), ambient air temperature, etc., on economics of the power plant. GTPRO/PEACE software has been used for carrying out the analysis. The RH and temperature have been varied from 30 to 45 % and from 80 to 100° F, respectively. For a decrease of inlet air temperature by 10 °F, net plant output and efficiency have been found to increase by 4.3 and 1.4 %, respectively for GT only situation. However, for GT with cogeneration scenario, for a decrease of inlet air temperature by 10 °F, net plant efficiency has been found to be increased from 33.3 % (GT only) to 63.4 % (cogeneration). For situations with and without cogeneration, break even fuel price has been found to vary from 2.6 to 3.0 USD/MMBTU respectively and break even electricity price have been found to vary from 0.018 to 0.022 USD/kWh respectively. For the simulation conducted, emission has been found to be 344352 ton/year.
Patient satisfaction is comparable to early discharge versus overnight observation after elective percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND Previous investigation has suggested that early discharge after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is feasible and safe, but these studies have utilized largely radial approaches or been conducted in non-U.S. cohorts. We sought to assess patient satisfaction, safety and cost of a strategy of selective early discharge in U.S. patients undergoing PCI via a femoral approach with contemporary adjunctive pharmacologic and hemostasis agents. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with stable coronary artery disease undergoing elective PCI were prospectively recruited and randomized to either routine care, with an overnight hospital stay, versus early discharge 2 hours following successful PCI with adjunctive bivalirudin therapy and a femoral arterial closure device at the end of the procedure. The primary endpoints were safety and patient satisfaction as measured by a validated patient satisfaction survey during the index hospital stay and at 30 days. A total of 39 patients were randomized, with 20 to routine care and 19 to early discharge. There was no difference in major safety endpoints including death, non-fatal MI, urgent target lesion revascularization and thrombolysis in myocardial infarction (TIMI) major bleeding, with none in either group. Mean patient satisfaction scores were similar and high in both groups (89.6 for early discharge patients and 90.7 for routine care patients, p = 0.68). There was lower cost in the early discharge group, with a mean cost of 8,604 USD versus 10,565 USD in the routine care group (mean difference 1,961 USD, 95% confidence interval, -96 USD to 4,017 USD). CONCLUSION Patients undergoing elective PCI for stable coronary artery disease may have similar safety and satisfaction with early discharge when using a careful strategy that incorporates optimal stent and hemostasis results and contemporary adjunctive anticoagulation therapy, with lower cost. This strategy may serve as a basis for a larger-scale randomized trial.
An adaptive hybrid MIMO scheme

Hybrid MIMO scheme applies some of the transmit antennas with pure diversity schemes (e.g. STBC) while others with pure spatial multiplexing schemes (e.g. VBLAST), in order to achieve the diversity gain and multiplexing gain at the same time. However, the spatial multiplexing schemes without diversity gain are susceptible to the fading effect. In this paper, we propose an adaptive hybrid MIMO scheme that the Perfect STBC is adopted to transmit together with the Alamouti STBC. Since the Perfect STBC obtains the full diversity gain and full rate, it can increase the reliability without loss of efficiency. Meanwhile, according to the feedback from the receiver, this scheme adaptively adjusts the allocation of transmit antennas. According to the simulation, this hybrid scheme can improve the system performance significantly.