Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The aging of America.

: As America's baby boomers age, communities, states and the federal government must address an older society's needs for safe, convenient homes, transportation and care. Most of the elderly will reside in the sprawling suburbs, which many experts say must change to be more like small European villages if the aged are to live independently.
Maternal depression increases infant risk of diarrhoeal illness: a cohort study

Maternal depression increases infant risk of diarrhoeal illness: a cohort study . Rahman A. , Bunn J., Lovel H. & Creed F. ( 2007 ) Archives of Disease in Childhood , 92 , 24 – 28 . Aims To examine the associations between post-natal depression in mothers and diarrhoeal illness in their infants in the first year of life in a low-income country. Methods Using a prospective cohort design, 265 infants (n = 130 of mothers having a depressive episode according to the International Classification of Diseases, 10th revision, at 3 months post-natal and n = 135 of psychologically well mothers), living in rural Rawalpindi, Pakistan, were followed up for 1 year. Frequency of diarrhoeal episodes was measured fortnightly by health workers using a standard questionnaire. Results Infants of depressed mothers had significantly more diarrhoeal episodes per year than those of controls (mean 5.5 vs. 4.0; 95% CI 0.9–2.0). The relative risk of having ≥5 diarrhoeal episodes per year in infants of depressed mothers was 2.3 (95% CI 1.6–3.1). The association remained significant after adjustment for other risk factors by multivariate analysis. Conclusions Maternal depression is associated with infant diarrhoeal morbidity in a low-income community setting. It is independent of the effects of known factors such as under-nutrition, socio-economic status and parental education. Preventive child health programmes targeting mothers must consider their mental health.
Antidiabetic potential of ethanol leaf extract of Bryophyllum pinnatum on alloxan-induced diabetic rats and their haematological profiles

Bryophyllum pinnatum is a known herb found in the tropical region of Africa and other parts of the world. In this study, the ethanol extract of the plant was investigated for possible anti-diabetic effect on alloxan induced hyperglycaemic wistar albino rats. Phytochemical studies revealed that Flavonoids and alkaloids were highly abundant compared to steroids and terpenoids which were slightly present while glycosides and reducing sugar were moderately present. Diabetes was induced via intraperitoneal injection using alloxan monohydrate. Groups 2 to 5 were induced while Groups 1, 6 and 7 were not. Group 1 was negative control group; Group 2 was positive control group, while Group 3 was the standard control. Groups 4 to 7 were the treatment groups. The results of anti-hyperglycaemic effect of the extract showed a significant (p<0.05) reduction in the glucose level of alloxan-induced diabetic rats in Groups 4 and 5, respectively treated with 200 and 400 mg/kg body weight of the extract when compared with the positive control. However, there was a significant increase (p<0.05) in some haematological parameters such as red blood cell count, haemoglobin count, packed cell volume of groups 4, 5, 6, and 7 when compared with the positive control. There was a significant decrease (p<0.05) in the malondialdehyde, low density lipoprotein, triacylglycerol and total cholesterol concentrations of groups 4, 5, 6, and 7 when compared with the positive control. The result of the study showed that the extract of B. pinnatum exhibited anti-hyperglycaemic activities in alloxan-induced diabetic wistar albino rats. Key words: Brohyllum pinnatum, phytochemistry, Diabetes, haematological parameters.
Detection of Helicobacter pylori in head and neck cancer patients: Results from a prospective comparative study combining serology, PCR, and rapid urease test

BACKGROUND: The goal of this study was to evaluate prospectively the presence and impact of the gastric carcinogen Helicobacter pylori in the upper aerodigestive tract. Previous studies suggested it could represent a risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. METHODS: Serology, rapid urease test, and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for H. pylori were performed in head and neck cancer patients (N=56) and cancer-free controls (N=90). Comparison between groups was done using logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Rates of positive serology and rapid urease test did not differ between the two groups in logistic regression analysis (P=0.677 and P=0.633, respectively). Birth in a developing country and age above 50 years old were predictors of positive serology (P<0.001 and P=0.040, respectively). Using qPCR, no biopsy showed presence of H.pylori. CONCLUSION: This study challenges the concept that H. pylori may be a risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Assessing quality in community pharmacy

Objective This review aimed to identify English‐language instruments used to assess quality in community pharmacy and to evaluate their reported validity, reliability, feasibility and acceptability. Method A systematic review was conducted to identify literature relating to the use of instruments to assess quality in community pharmacy. The electronic databases searched included Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, Medline, e‐PIC and Pharmline, covering the period of time between January 1990 and March 2007. Reference lists of identified studies and websites of pharmacy bodies were also searched.
Multivariate models and algorithms for systems biology

Rapid advances in high-throughput data acquisition technologies, such as microarrays and next-generation sequencing, have enabled the scientists to interrogate the expression levels of tens of thousands of genes simultaneously. However, challenges remain in developing effective computational methods for analyzing data generated from such platforms. In this dissertation, we address some of these challenges. We divide our work into two parts. In the first part, we present a suite of multivariate approaches for a reliable discovery of gene clusters, often interpreted as pathway components, from molecular profiling data with replicated measurements. We translate our goal into learning an optimal correlation structure from replicated complete and incomplete measurements. In the second part, we focus on the reconstruction of signal transduction mechanisms in the signaling pathway components. We propose gene set based approaches for inferring the structure of a signaling pathway. First, we present a constrained multivariate Gaussian model, referred to as the informed-case model, for estimating the correlation structure from replicated and complete molecular profiling data. Informed-case model generalizes previously known blind-case model by accommodating prior knowledge of replication mechanisms. Second, we generalize the blind-case model by designing a two-component mixture model. Our idea is to strike an optimal balance between a fully constrained correlation structure and an unconstrained one. Third, we develop an Expectation-Maximization algorithm to infer the underlying correlation structure from replicated molecular profiling data with missing (incomplete) measurements. We utilize our correlation estimators for clustering real-world replicated complete and incomplete molecular profiling data sets. The above three components constitute the first part of the dissertation. For the structural inference of signaling pathways, we hypothesize a directed signal pathway structure as an ensemble of overlapping and linear signal transduction events. We then propose two algorithms to reverse engineer the underlying signaling pathway structure using unordered gene sets corresponding to signal transduction events. Throughout we treat gene sets as variables and the associated gene orderings as random. The first algorithm has been developed under the Gibbs sampling framework and the second algorithm utilizes the framework of simulated annealing. Finally, we summarize our findings and discuss possible future directions. Keywords: Replicated data, incomplete data, correlation, covariance matrix, multivariate Gaussian mixture models, expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, gene sets, Gibbs sampling, signaling pathways, signal transduction, discrete optimization, simulated annealing.
Neonatal Mortality Of Low Birth Weight Neonates Born In A Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital In Pakistan

Objective: To determine the neonatal mortality incidence and its association with weight and gestational age of low birth weight babies delivered in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted from June 2013 to May 2014 in the neonatal unit of Combined Military Hospital Kharian, Pakistan. All low birth weight (LBW), singleton babies born alive in this hospital were recruited in the study. Neonatal information was collected in a predesigned proforma. LBW neonates were observed/ treated in neonatal unit of this hospital and followed up for 28 days of age by different ways (like follow up visits, hospital records and telephonic calls). Results: Out of total 2900 deliveries, 390 (13.4%) were LBW but complete follow up was possible for only 380 cases. Ten cases were lost as they could not complete follow up due to logistic problems. Gender distribution ratio of LBW neonates was M:F 1:1.07 whereas 38.4% were full term and 61.5% were preterm. Among preterm babies, 53.6% were appropriate for gestational age (AGA) and 7.8% were small for gestational age (SGA) whilst full term LBW were 38.4% (p-value<0.001). Among followed up (N: 380) LBW neonates, 88 (23.1%) died during neonatal period giving a neonatal mortality rate (NMR) of 23.1% (231.5/1000 LBW live births). Early neonatal mortality and late neonatal mortality was 89.7% versus 10.2% of total neonatal mortality (p-value<0.001). No significant difference was observed between male mortality (23.4%) and female mortality (22.8%) (p value= 0.188). Mortality amongst term LBW was 9% as compared to 32% amongst preterm LWB. Majority of neonates who died were preterm AGA (32.8%), pre term SGA (26.6%) followed by term LBW (8.9%) (p-value <0.001). As a single parameter, weight dependent mortality among less than 1000 gm weight neonates was 94.1%, between 1000-1499 gm 52.3% and between 2000-2499gm 11.2% (p-value<0. 001). Conclusion: Neonatal mortality is inversely proportional to birth weight. Neonatal mortality rate of LBW babies is about four times more than our national neonatal mortality rate. Majority of neonatal deaths occurred within early neonatal period. Please download the full paper by clicking on the PDF file below.
Alterations in leukocyte β-receptor affinity with aging: a potential explanation for altered β-adrenergic sensitivity in the elderly

Abstract The elderly have reduced β-adrenergic sensitivity to agonists, but no change in receptor density. We investigated the relation between β-receptor affinity for agonists and age in β-receptors on lymphocytes from 20 healthy men 21 to 74 years old. As an index of β-receptor affinity for agonists, we determined the IC50 of isoproterenol — the concentration of isoproterenol required to inhibit 50 per cent of iodohydroxybenzylpindolol binding in vitro. We found that receptor affinity for agonists was correlated with age and plasma norepinephrine concentration. Twelve subjects (six 21 to 29 years old and six 55 to 74 years old) were also studied in both the supine and upright positions. In samples obtained in the supine position, the proportion of receptors binding agonist with a high affinity was decreased in the older subjects as compared with the young subjects (22±1 per cent vs. 38±3 per cent; P<0.05). With upright posture and the associated acute elevation of endogenous plasma catecholamines, the p.
Approaching Sustainability Learning Via Digital Serious Games

Finding proper ways to address learning about sustainability is a relevant issue. Sustainability learning has to face some inherent complexities, due to two main factors: the interdisciplinary domains related to sustainability issues, such as ecology, economics, politics, and culture, and the involvement of several social structures, such as individuals, families, and communities. One recent research proposal is to exploit serious games to foster learning in this area. This resulted in a significant increase in the number of approaches discussed in the literature over the last few years. Notwithstanding this growing scenario, sustainability serious games still lack a reasoned evaluation, in order to clarify their possible applications and to define effective design strategies to approach them. To this end, in this paper, we investigate the current state of the art of serious games for sustainability, identifying, and discussing the most common applications. The research process included both scientific publications and unpublished materials. References were searched according to guiding questions, which helped focus the extraction of information, and through recursive browsing of their citations. Based on the research results, we propose a taxonomy for sustainability serious games and a classification of reviewed works according to this taxonomy. We also analyze design strategies, drawn from the literature, expressly conceived for the development of effective sustainability serious games. Finally, we discuss the current challenges and present possible areas of research in this field.
Self-reported withdrawal symptoms and pathological gambling.

A broad spectrum of pathological gamblers (N = 222) were queried with regard to physical symptoms when attempting to slow down or stop gambling. Results were compared with a control group of substance-dependent patients who gambled at least casually. Sixty-five percent of the pathological gamblers (us. only 2% of controls) experienced at least one of the following: insomnia (50%), headaches (36%), upset stomach or diarrhea (34%), loss of appetite (29%), physical weakness (27%), heart racing or palpitations (26%), shaking (19%), muscle aches or cramps (17%), difficulty breathing (13%), sweating (12%), and chills or fever (6.5%). In addition, 91 % experienced “cravings” and 87% felt “restless and irritable” when attempting to cut down or stop gambling. Contrary to expectations, none of the symptoms correlated with gender, type of gambling, extent of alcohol or drug use while gambling, or self-described alcoholism or drug addiction. Symptoms did correlate with number of hours spent gambling, severity of the .
Interactive Human Communication: Some Lessons Learned from Laboratory Experiments.

Abstract : The following are among the principal findings of 11 experiments on interactive communication: (1) Modes of communication having a voice channel are faster, but much wordier, than those not having a voice channel. (2) Face- to-face communication is not appreciably faster, and is generally wordier, than communication by voice alone. (3) Typing skill per se does not appear to be a significant factor in the kind of communication examined in these studies. (4) Giving communicators the freedom to interrupt has no effect on problem solution time or on the number of words used. When communicators are free to interrupt, they use more messages and messages are shorter; when they cannot interrupt, they use fewer and longer messages. (5) Communicators are much more likely to take control of a communication system if the system has a voice channel. (6) In many realistic tasks, communicators spend as much as 50% of their time in activities other than communicating. (7) College students and high school students do about the same kinds of things in communication tasks, and in the same proportions; however, college students do everything faster. (8) Natural human communication is extremely unruly and often seems to follow few grammatical, syntactic, or semantic rules. (9) Oral communication is highly redundant and most communication can be carried on effectively with a small, carefully selected set of words.
Treatment with Oral Melphalan and Dexamethasone of An Extended Patient Population with AL Amyloidosis.

Abstract 3889 Poster Board III-825 Oral melphalan and dexamethasone (MDex) has been adopted in many referral centers as standard therapy for AL amyloidosis, particularly in patients who are not eligible for high dose melphalan (M) and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT). A randomized trial failed to demonstrate the superiority of ASCT over MDex, and phase III trials are being designed to compare MDex with regimens including new drugs. However, only few small series of patients treated with MDex have been published so far. We report the outcome of 126 consecutive patients with AL amyloidosis who received first line MDex between January 2004 and December 2007. All the patients who were not eligible for ASCT with high dose M, due to any of the following conditions: age >60 years, N terminal natriuretic peptide type B (NT-proBNP) >332 ng/L, troponin I (cTnI) >0.1 ng/mL, glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) ≤50 mL/min, were included. Patients were given M (0.22 mg/Kg, or 0.16 mg/Kg if eGFR was 3% of body weight or complex ventricular arrhythmias at 24 h Holter ECG) on days 1-4 q28 days for up to 9 cycles. Treatment was discontinued if complete remission (CR) or partial hematologic response (PR) plus organ response (OR) was reached after 6 cycles, or in case of lack of response after 3 cycles. The International Society for Amyloidosis (ISA) consensus criteria for hematologic and organ response and progression were used. Progression free survival (PFS) was defined as the time to death or hematologic or organ progression according to the ISA criteria. Response and progression of NT-proBNP were defined as 3 300 ng/L and 3 30% modifications. The median number of organs involved was 2 (range 1-5), 92 patients (73%) had heart involvement, with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class ≥2 heart failure in 66 cases (60%) and 93 patients (74%) had renal involvement, with eGFR 0.1 ng/mL in 27 patients (22%) and NT-proBNP was >332 ng/L in 99 (79%). Twenty-four patients (19%) experienced severe, though non fatal, adverse events. The most common was fluid retention (12%), that was significantly associated with NYHA class (p=0.02) and cTnI concentration (p Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Women’s Reproductive Health, Sociocultural Context and AIDS Knowledge in Northern India

This paper identifies sociocultural and reproductive health correlates of knowledge about HIV among ever-married women using 1998–99 National Family Health Survey data from two low HIV prevalence Indian states, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Uttar Pradesh (UP). Logistic regressions were undertaken modelling women’s awareness of HIV, of whether the disease can be avoided and of effective means of protection. In MP 22.7 per cent women were aware of HIV; 56.4 per cent (of 22.7 per cent) knew that the disease can be avoided; and 47.5 per cent (of 56.4 per cent) possessed correct knowledge about effective means of protection. In UP 20.7 per cent women had awareness of HIV; 59.2 per cent (of 20.7 per cent) knew that the disease can be avoided; and 45.7 per cent (of 59.2 per cent) were informed about effective means of protection. In both states older, uneducated, rural, poor, those not exposed to television, and those who had never used a modern family planning method were less likely to possess HIV awareness. However, for women who were aware of HIV, acquisition of further knowledge about it had fewer socioeconomic barriers. These barriers were state specific so interventions to overcome them need to be highly focused.
Profile of stroke patients treated at a community - based rehabilitation centre in a Cape Town health district

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in both developed and developing countries. Limited information is available, in South Africa, on the epidemiological profile of stroke survivors requiring rehabilitation. A descriptive study was therefore undertaken to compile, amongst others the demographic and medical profile of stroke patients attending rehabilitation at a primary health care facility (Bishop Lavis Rehabilitation Centre). Both medical- and rehabilitation records were reviewed to ensure completeness of information and to minimize missing clinical data bias. Relevant data was captured on a data capture sheet. The latter was based on key findings from the literature and developed by the researcher. The mean age of the population of stroke patients studied was 59 years, which is markedly younger than what has been reported globally in the literature. As was expected, hypertension was found to be the most prevalent risk factor. The presence of a combination of risk factors in the majority of the group (on average, 2.4 risk factors per person) warrants the introduction of aggressive health education and stroke prevention programmes at this primary health care centre.
A systematic review of psychological return-to-work interventions for people with mental health problems and/or physical injuries

The objectives of the current systematic review are (a) to describe psychological return-to-work (RTW) interventions for people with mental health problems and/or physical injuries, and (b) to summarize the impact of these RTW interventions on work and health outcomes. Three conventional systematic review methods were used, and 14 studies were identified. The most popular psychological interventions focus on coping strategies, problem-solving strategies, and belief/attitude adjustments. These components are most often grouped together under the broad label, cognitive behavioural approach, an approach which has yielded significant results in terms of RTW and health improvement outcomes. Other key interventions include communication between stakeholders and the involvement of each framework level (i.e., individual, group, and organization) in the RTW process, supported by follow-up in the community.
Effects of Payment Changes on Trends in Access to Post-Acute Care

6 Jump down to document THE ARTS CHILD POLICY CIVIL JUSTICE EDUCATION ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS NATIONAL SECURITY POPULATION AND AGING PUBLIC SAFETY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY SUBSTANCE ABUSE TERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE WORKFORCE AND WORKPLACE The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world.
Voriconazole and Caspofungin Cidality Against Non-Albicans Candida Species

Caspofungin is generally regarded as fungicidal, and voriconazole is described as fungistatic against Candida species. In this study, we challenged these statements by testing the fungicidal activity of these 2 agents against 197 non-albicans Candida isolates. Minimum inhibitory concentration testing was performed by a microbroth dilution method according to the M27-A2 standard of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute, whereas minimum fungicidal concentration determinations were performed by subculturing the contents of each visibly clear well from the minimum inhibitory concentration panel. Fungicidal activity was defined as a 99.9% or greater reduction in the number of colony-forming unit per milliliter. Voriconazole demonstrated greater inhibitory activity than caspofungin against the non-albicans Candida tested and exhibited fungicidal activity against 5% of these strains. Interestingly, almost one third of the non-albicans yeast isolates tested versus caspofungin exhibited fungistatic rather than fungicidal activity. This investigation demonstrates the lack of universal fungicidal and fungistatic activity of caspofungin and voriconazole against non-albicans Candida strains.