Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission in a Developing Country: The Dominican Republic Experience

Transmission of HIV in the Dominican Republic occurs primarily through heterosexual contact. As part of a continuing strategy to prevent and contain the spread of HIV infection, the Ministry of Health of the Dominican Republic established an integrated package of interventions to reduce HIV mother-to-child transmission that was initiated on May 15, 2000. The program was designed to be implemented in 3 phases. The 1st phase included 4 mother and child hospitals; the 2nd phase included 8 mother and child health institutions in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, and 7 additional mother and child hospitals. The 3rd phase will include the remaining 12 mother and child health care institutions of the Dominican Republic. Evaluation of the 1st year of this program, involving 8 hospitals and >40,000 pregnant women, identified specific benefits and limitations. Low numbers of voluntary counseling sessions (6528/42,666 = 28%) and inadequate number of HIV rapid tests (23,067/42,666 = 54%) were the 2 main obstacles encountered. From the 23,067 pregnant women tested, 581 (2.5%) were HIV positive. Advantageous aspects included the successful administration of antiretroviral treatment to 89% (164/185) of the mothers and 98% (183/186) of the children. Cesarean section was performed in 67% (124/185) of the HIV-positive pregnant women, and infant formula was dispensed to 47% (87/186) of all cases. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of implementing a large-scale program to prevent mother-to-child transmission in a developing country.
Influence of Hypertension on pH of Saliva and Flow Rate in Elder Adults Correlating with Oral Health Status.

INTRODUCTION One of the most prevalent systemic conditions seen in the elderly individuals is hypertension, but very sparse knowledge regarding the influence of hypertension on oral health in known. AIM Therefore, this study was carried out to evaluate the relationship between hypertension and salivary pH, flow rate and its effect on oral health status. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study included 40 elderly individuals above 60 years of age, of which 20 individuals (control group) were normotensive without using any medication and 20 individuals (study group) were hypertensive using anti-hypertensive medication. Stimulated and unstimulated saliva samples were collected from all individuals and pH was measured using saliva pH strips, flow rate was measured using calibrated test tubes and was correlated with oral health status. Then the values were sent for statistical analysis where unpaired t-test, chi-square test were used. RESULTS The results showed that there was no significant association of hypertension with stimulated and unstimulated flow rate, rather there was a significant association of hyper-tension with stimulated salivary pH i.e., there was a significant decrease in the pH of stimulated saliva. The study also revealed a significant association with presence of bleeding on probing and periodontal pockets in individuals who were hypertensive and using anti-hypertensive medication. CONCLUSION Hence, it is a necessity to monitor blood pressure for reconstruction and maintenance of oral health in older adults. More longitudinal studies are to be carried out to explore further relationship between oral health and hypertension in older adults.
FDG PET in the evaluation of the aggressiveness of pulmonary adenocarcinoma: correlation with histopathological features

2-[Fluorine-18]fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose (FDG) uptake within the primary lesion correlates with survival on positron emission tomography (PET) studies of patients with non-small cell lung cancer. The more metabolically active the tumour, the worse the outcome. The aim of this study was to determine whether a correlation exists between aggressiveness as determined by pathology and the findings of FDG PET in pulmonary adenocarcinoma. Thirty-five patients with 38 adenocarcinomas of the lung were studied. All patients underwent thoracotomy within 4 weeks of the FDG PET study. For semiquantitative analysis, standardized uptake values (SUVs) were calculated. Patients were classified into high SUV (⩾4.0) and low SUV (<4.0) groups. The degree of FDG uptake (SUVs) in primary lung lesions was correlated with the histopathological features of aggressiveness (pleural involvement, vascular invasion or lymphatic permeation). The mean SUV of aggressive adenocarcinomas (4.36±1.94, n = 22) was higher than that of non-aggressive ones (1.53±0.88, n = 16) (P<0.0001). Tumours with a high FDG uptake have a significantly higher likelihood of aggressiveness than those with a low FDG uptake (P = 0.0004). Analysis by the Kaplan-Meier methods revealed that the groups had different prognoses (log-rank test, P = 0.0099). The high SUV group had a significantly worse prognosis. In conclusion, a correlation was seen between aggressiveness as determined by pathology and glucose metabolism as measured by FDG PET in adenocarcinoma of the lung. FDG PET may be used as a non-invasive diagnostic technique in measuring aggressiveness and prognosis in patients with pulmonary adenocarcinoma.
Cullin 4B Is Recruited to Tristetraprolin-Containing Messenger Ribonucleoproteins and Regulates TNF-α mRNA Polysome Loading

TNF-α is a central mediator of inflammation and critical for host response to infection and injury. TNF-α biosynthesis is controlled by transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms allowing for rapid, transient production. Tristetraprolin (TTP) is an AU-rich element binding protein that regulates the stability of the TNF-α mRNA. Using a screen to identify TTP-interacting proteins, we identified Cullin 4B (Cul4B), a scaffolding component of the Cullin ring finger ligase family of ubiquitin E3 ligases. Short hairpin RNA knockdown of Cul4B results in a significant reduction in TNF-α protein and mRNA in LPS-stimulated mouse macrophage RAW264.7 cells as well as a reduction in TTP protein. TNF-α message t1/2 was reduced from 69 to 33 min in LPS-stimulated cells. TNF-3′ untranslated region luciferase assays utilizing wild-type and mutant TTP-AA (S52A, S178A) indicate that TTP function is enhanced in Cul4B short hairpin RNA cells. Importantly, the fold induction of TNF-α mRNA polysome loading in response to LPS stimulation is reduced by Cul4B knockdown. Cul4B is present on the polysomes and colocalizes with TTP to exosomes and processing bodies, which are sites of mRNA decay. We conclude that Cul4B licenses the TTP-containing TNF-α messenger ribonucleoprotein for loading onto polysomes, and reduction of Cul4B expression shunts the messenger ribonucleoproteins into the degradative pathway.
Emotional processing and executive functions in major depressive disorder: dorsal prefrontal activity correlates with performance in the intra–extra dimensional set shift

Heinzel A, Northoff G, Boeker H, Boesiger P, Grimm S. Emotional processing and executive functions in major depressive disorder: dorsal prefrontal activity correlates with performance in the intra–extra dimensional set shift. Objective: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterised by predominately negatively valenced emotional symptoms that are often accompanied by cognitive impairments. We posited that cognitive impairments in MDD are related to altered emotional processing in prefrontal cortex. Methods: We compared 20 medication-free patients with MDD and 29 matched healthy controls. Both groups performed an emotional task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Furthermore, they completed the intra–extra dimensional set shift (IED) test probing for cognitive impairments. Then we correlated the results of the IED with the changes in fMRI BOLD signal in MDD patients and healthy subjects. Results: The subcategory of the IED applying extradimensional shift (EDS) showed a divergent performance of the MDD group committing significantly more errors than the control group. Correlating the EDS errors with fMRI signal changes, the healthy subjects showed a positive correlation with the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and the right orbitofrontal cortex. MDD subjects, in contrast, showed a positive correlation in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and a negative correlation in the left dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC). Conclusion: We hypothesise that the differential correlation in healthy controls and MDD patients may reflect the use of different strategies in their performance. The impaired executive functions, as reflected by altered processing in right DLPFC and left DMPFC, may implicitly influence emotional processing in patients suffering from MDD.
The role of mental disorders in the risk and speed of transition to alcohol use disorders among community youth

Background Among adolescents and young adults with DSM-IV alcohol use disorders (AUDs), there are inter-individual differences in the speed of transition from initial alcohol use (AU) to AUD. AUDs are highly co-morbid with other mental disorders. The factors associated with rapid transition from first AU to AUD remain unknown and the role of mental disorders in rapid transitions is unclear. Given this background we examined (1) whether prior anxiety, mood, externalizing and non-alcohol substance use disorders are related to the risk and speed of transition from first AU to DSM-IV alcohol abuse (AA) and alcohol dependence (AD) and (2) whether early age of onset of prior mental disorders (PMDs) is a promoter of rapid transition. Method A total of 3021 community subjects (97.7% lifetime AU) aged 14–24 years at baseline were followed up prospectively for up to 10 years. AU and mental disorders were assessed with the DSM-IV/M-CIDI. Results Among subjects with lifetime AU, several PMDs, such as specific phobia, bipolar disorder and nicotine dependence, were associated with an increased risk of AUD independent of externalizing disorders. Associations of PMDs with the speed of transition to AUDs were mostly weak and inconsistent. Only social phobia and externalizing disorders were associated with faster transitions to AD even after adjustment for other PMDs. Earlier age of onset of PMD was not associated with rapid transition. Conclusions Mental disorders are associated with the risk of AUD. With the possible exception of social phobia and externalizing disorders, they do not promote rapid transition, even if they occur particularly early. Future research needs to identify factors relevant to rapid transition to AUD.
The influence of perceived control over causes and responses to health threats: a vignette study.

OBJECTIVES To test the hypothesis that a disease caused by controllable, compared with uncontrollable, factors is more likely to result in negative emotions and less likelihood of disclosure to significant others. DESIGN AND METHODS A between-participants design in which students (N=108) imagined they had just been diagnosed with either HIV or hypertension and where the cause for each was described as either controllable or uncontrollable. Anticipated emotional and behavioural responses by self and others were assessed by questionnaire. RESULTS When the vignette represented a more controllable cause, participants thought they would have more negative feelings and that they would be less likely to disclose information about the disease to their family or an acquaintance than when the vignette represented a less controllable cause. The type of disease, but not the cause, influenced anticipated responses by others. CONCLUSIONS Although greater perceived control over future outcomes is often psychologically adaptive, these findings suggest that the perception that the onset of a disease was controllable may be maladaptive, resulting in more negative feelings and a greater reluctance to disclose the diagnosis to others. In the light of the increasing use of medical technologies aimed at primary prevention of disease, together with a cultural shift toward individual responsibility for health, there is a need for greater understanding of how the perceived controllability of the cause of a disease affects subsequent adjustment.
PRL‐dock: Protein‐ligand docking based on hydrogen bond matching and probabilistic relaxation labeling

Protein‐ligand docking is widely applied to structure‐based virtual screening for drug discovery. This article presents a novel docking technique, PRL‐Dock, based on hydrogen bond matching and probabilistic relaxation labeling. It deals with multiple hydrogen bonds and can match many acceptors and donors simultaneously. In the matching process, the initial probability of matching an acceptor with a donor is estimated by an efficient scoring function and the compatibility coefficients are assigned according to the coexisting condition of two hydrogen bonds. After hydrogen bond matching, the geometric complementarity of the interacting donor and acceptor sites is taken into account for displacement of the ligand. It is reduced to an optimization problem to calculate the optimal translation and rotation matrixes that minimize the root mean square deviation between two sets of points, which can be solved using the Kabsch algorithm. In addition to the van der Waals interaction, the contribution of intermolecular hydrogen bonds in a complex is included in the scoring function to evaluate the docking quality. A modified Lennard‐Jones 12‐6 dispersion‐repulsion term is used to estimate the van der Waals interaction to make the scoring function fairly “soft” so that ligands are not heavily penalized for small errors in the binding geometry. The calculation of this scoring function is very convenient. The evaluation is carried out on 278 rigid complexes and 93 flexible ones where there is at least one intermolecular hydrogen bond. The experiment results of docking accuracy and prediction of binding affinity demonstrate that the proposed method is highly effective. Proteins 2012; © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Association of granulocytosis with poor prognosis in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia and translocation of chromosomes 8 and 21.

Forty-three patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and a translocation 8;21 were reviewed. The patients' median age was 30 years, and 62% were men. Twenty-three patients (53%) had loss of a sex chromosome and ten (23%) had other chromosomal abnormalities in addition to the 8;21 translocation. Complete remission (CR) with induction chemotherapy was achieved in 40 patients (93%). The median CR duration was 18 months (range, 1 to 137+ months). Median survival time was 17 months (range, 0.5 to 138+ months) with a 3-year survival rate of 31%. Twenty-three patients (53%) relapsed between 1 and 58 months after entering remission with reinduction therapy resulting in 8 CRs (35%). Thirteen characteristics were examined for an effect on survival. The most striking finding was a significant association between elevated absolute granulocyte count and poor survival (P = .002). WBC count greater than 10,000/microL was also associated with shorter survival (P = .05). Patient age, albumin level, and platelet count showed trends for survival association. Although patients with AML and t(8;21) are regarded as a favorable group with respect to survival, we found a subset of patients who do very poorly. Intensive or more investigational approaches in first remission should be considered for these patients.
&agr;B-Crystallin Modulates Protein Aggregation of Abnormal Desmin

Abstract— &agr;B-crystallin (CryAB) is the most abundant small heat shock protein in the heart. Upregulation of CryAB in desmin-related myopathy and its downregulation in end-stage congestive heart failure have both been reported. We previously demonstrated via cardiac-specific transgenesis that modest increases in normal CryAB are not detrimental to the heart, whereas expression of the R120G mutation of CryAB caused a desminopathy. It is generally believed that CryAB plays an important role in protecting the intermediate filaments, but the underlying mechanism is unclear. We hypothesized that CryAB protects the desmin filaments via preventing abnormal desmin protein from aggregating adversely. To test this hypothesis in vivo, mice expressing a desmin mutation that causes a desmin-related cardiomyopathy (D7) were bred into the R120G-CryAB transgenic (TG) background to examine the accumulation and aberrant aggregation of desmin protein. Despite lower mRNA expression of D7-des than in the D7-des TG hearts, the double-TG myocardium exhibited significantly higher desmin protein levels and dramatically more aberrant desmin aggregates than the D7-des TG hearts. The double-TG mice displayed a significantly stronger cardiac hypertrophic response, with the mice dying of congestive heart failure before 7 weeks. To explore the ability of wild-type (WT) CryAB to protect against mutant desmin, a desmin mutant was expressed in both the conventional and WT-CryAB stably transfected HEK cells. Significantly less aberrant desmin aggregation was observed in the WT-CryAB–overexpressing cells than in the HEK cells. The results suggest that CryAB modulates abnormal desmin aggregation and can serve a cardioprotective role.
Adverse drug reactions associated with antiretroviral therapy in South Africa

South Africa has one of the highest prevalences of HIV and AIDS in the world. HIV/AIDS patients face countless challenges, one of which is the risk of adverse drug reactions (ADRs). This study aimed to describe the ADRs reported in South Africa with reference to the type of ADRs, antiretrovirals (ARVs) implicated, seriousness of the ADRs and patient demographics associated with specific ADRs. A retrospective quantitative study was carried out using ADR reports submitted to the National Department of Health (NDoH) from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2014. A descriptive and inferential analysis was carried out to determine the strength of the relationships between different variables. A total of 2 489 reports were analysed. This study found evidence of ADRs among patients on regimens based on stavudine (n = 1 256, 50.46%), efavirenz (n = 572, 22.98%), zidovudine (n = 209, 8.40%), tenofovir (n = 203, 8.16%) and nevirapine (n = 153, 6.15%). The 10 most common ADRs reported with the use of ARVs were peripheral neuropathy (n = 472, 19%), lipodystrophy (n = 471, 18.9%), serious skin reactions (n = 266, 10.7%), gynaecomastia (n = 219, 8.8%), renal failure (n = 140, 5.6%), dizziness (n = 133, 5.3%), hyperlactatemia (n = 118, 4.7%), psychosis/hallucinations (n = 47, 1.9%), sleep disturbances (n = 44, 1.8%) and vomiting (n = 44, 1.8%). Female patients were more likely to experience peripheral neuropathy, lipodystrophy, skin rash, anaemia and hyperlactatemia, while male patients were more prone to experience gynaecomastia and peripheral neuropathy. In addition, patients aged 30–44 years reported the most ADRs. Most reactions resulted from the use of stavudine, efavirenz, zidovudine, nevirapine and tenofovir in the population groups identified in this study.
Reorientations in the bacteriorhodopsin photocycle.

Reversible photoinduced reorientations of bacteriorhodopsin have been detected in suspensions of the purple membrane of Halobacterium salinarium. The anisotropy in bacteriorhodopsin during the nanosecond through millisecond stages of the photocycle was measured by time-resolved linear dichroism and transient absorption measurements. From these measurements the anisotropies of the K, L, M, and O intermediates were determined and related to the chromophore orientation with respect to the initially selected orientation. The anisotropies of the K and L states are 0.38 +/- 0.01 and 0.35 +/- 0.01, respectively. Further anisotropy decay after formation of the M intermediate in about 0.5 ms is evidence of orientational motion at this stage in the photocycle. A constant anisotropy with a value of 0.39 +/- 0.02 in the O intermediate demonstrates a recovery of the initial protein orientation with the formation of the O state. These results demonstrate that reorientations in BR are photoinduced and reversible. Similar measurements for L and M were carried out for purple membrane in polyacrylamide gels, where the anisotropies in the L and M states are 0.38 +/- 0.014 and 0.36 +/- 0.01, respectively. These results show that reorientations also occur in BR immobilized in gels. Anisotropy decay in the M state after formation of the M intermediate was not detected in the gels, in contrast to the M intermediate in suspensions. Orientational changes are observed for BR in purple membrane suspensions in the K state, during the K-->L step, in the M state possibly related to an M1-->M2 transition, and in the O state, where an almost complete return to the original orientation occurs. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Perpetual flight with a small solar-powered UAV: Flight results, performance analysis and model validation

This paper presents the design of the small-scale hand-launchable solar-powered AtlantikSolar UAV, summarizes flight results of a continuous 28-hour solar-powered flight that demonstrated AtlantikSolar's capability for energetically perpetual flight, and offers a model-based verification of flight performance and an outlook on the energetic margins that can be provided towards perpetual flight given today's solar-powered UAV technology. AtlantikSolar is a 5.6m-wingspan and 6.9kg mass low-altitude long-endurance UAV that was designed to provide perpetual endurance at a geographic latitude of 45N in a 4-month window centered around June 21st. A specific design emphasis is robust perpetual endurance with respect to local meteorological disturbances (e.g. clouds, winds, downdrafts). Providing the necessary energetic safety margins is a significant challenge on small-scale solar-powered UAVs. This paper thus describes the design optimizations undertaken on the AtlantikSolar UAV for maximum energetic safety margins. In addition, this paper presents the flight test results, analysis and performance verification of AtlantikSolar's first perpetual endurance continuous 28-hour flight. The flight results show a minimum state-of-charge of 40% or excess time of 7 hours during the night. In addition, the charge margin of 5.9 hours indicates sufficiently-fast battery charging during the day. Both margins exceed the performance of previously demonstrated solar-powered LALE UAVs. Another centerpiece of the paper is the verification of these flight results with the theoretical structural-, aerodynamics- and power-models that were developed and used to conceptually design the UAV. The solar-power income model is extended to take into account solar-panel temperature effects, the exact aircraft geometry and the current orientation and is compared against flight results. Finally, the paper provides an analysis and overview into under what conditions and with which energetic margins perpetual flight is possible with today's battery- and solar-cell technology. A perpetual endurance window of up to 6 months around June 21st is predicted at northern latitudes for the AtlantikSolar UAV configuration without pay-load. A final outlook into first perpetual endurance applications shows that perpetual flight with miniaturized sensing payloads (small optical and infrared cameras) is possible with a perpetual flight window of 4-5 months.
Circadian rhythms in human salivary flow rate and composition

1. Unstimulated whole saliva and parotid saliva stimulated at a constant flow rate of 1·0 ml. /min were collected from eight subjects at about 07.00, 11.00, 14.00, 17.00 and 22.00 hr and oral temperature was recorded several times daily for time spans of between 4 and 26 days. A least‐squares cosine wave was fitted to the data to test for the presence and characteristics of circadian rhythms.