Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Women ’ s Empowerment on Reproductive and Child Health Services among South Asian Women

This study shed light on women’s empowerment associated with increased utilization of reproductive and child health services in selected countries of South Asia. The research questions are explored through the use of bivariate and multivariate analyses based on nationally representative data from the Demographic and Health Survey of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh among married women aged 15-49 years. Proxy variables on different dimensions of women’s empowerment are used to obtained empowerment Index by principal component analysis and are tested for an association with the utilization of maternal and child health services by using logistic regression models with the STATA-14 statistical package. The study found a positive and significant association between women’s empowerment and utilization of RCH services in these all countries. The likelihood of women is highest to attend more antenatal care visits and postnatal care; visit institutions for delivery, take their children for immunization and use modern family planning methods with empowerment score those complete education, have wealth and media exposure as compared to those less educated, poorer and have no media. Couples in which both husband and wife made reproductive and child health decisions are the most likely to use these services followed by individual decision-makers. The findings suggest that use of maternal health care services is influenced by women’s roles in decision-making and the attitudes of women towards domestic violence, after controlling for some socio-economic and demographic factors which are organized at the individual, household, and community level. The study results suggest that policy actions that increase women’s empowerment at home could be effective in helping assure good maternal health.
Bacteremia in Children 3 to 36 Months Old After Introduction of Conjugated Pneumococcal Vaccines

After the introduction of PCV13, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, and Staphylococcus aureus caused 77% of bacteremia, and 76% of bacteremia occurred with a source. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: In June 2010, Kaiser Permanente Northern California replaced all 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) vaccines with the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13). Our objectives were to compare the incidence of bacteremia in children 3 to 36 months old by 3 time periods: pre-PCV7, post-PCV7/pre-PCV13, and post-PCV13. METHODS: We designed a retrospective review of the electronic medical records of all blood cultures collected on children 3 to 36 months old at Kaiser Permanente Northern California from September 1, 1998 to August 31, 2014 in outpatient clinics, in emergency departments, and in the first 24 hours of hospitalization. RESULTS: During the study period, 57 733 blood cultures were collected in the population of children 3 to 36 months old. Implementation of routine immunization with the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine resulted in a 95.3% reduction of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteremia, decreasing from 74.5 to 10 to 3.5 per 100 000 children per year by the post-PCV13 period. As pneumococcal rates decreased, Escherichia coli, Salmonella spp, and Staphylococcus aureus caused 77% of bacteremia. Seventy-six percent of all bacteremia in the post-PCV13 period occurred with a source. CONCLUSIONS: In the United States, routine immunizations have made bacteremia in the previously healthy toddler a rare event. As the incidence of pneumococcal bacteremia has decreased, E coli, Salmonella spp, and S aureus have increased in relative importance. New guidelines are needed to approach the previously healthy febrile toddler in the outpatient setting.
Relationship between speech recognition in noise and sparseness

Abstract Objective: Established methods for predicting speech recognition in noise require knowledge of clean speech signals, placing limitations on their application. The study evaluates an alternative approach based on characteristics of noisy speech, specifically its sparseness as represented by the statistic kurtosis. Design: Experiments 1 and 2 involved acoustic analysis of vowel-consonant-vowel (VCV) syllables in babble noise, comparing kurtosis, glimpsing areas, and extended speech intelligibility index (ESII) of noisy speech signals with one another and with pre-existing speech recognition scores. Experiment 3 manipulated kurtosis of VCV syllables and investigated effects on speech recognition scores in normal-hearing listeners. Study sample: Pre-existing speech recognition data for Experiments 1 and 2; seven normal-hearing participants for Experiment 3. Results: Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that kurtosis calculated in the time-domain from noisy speech is highly correlated (r > 0.98) with established prediction models: glimpsing and ESII. All three measures predicted speech recognition scores well. The final experiment showed a clear monotonic relationship between speech recognition scores and kurtosis. Conclusions: Speech recognition performance in noise is closely related to the sparseness (kurtosis) of the noisy speech signal, at least for the types of speech and noise used here and for listeners with normal hearing.
CD30 induction and cytokine profiles in hepatitis C virus core-specific peripheral blood T lymphocytes.

Since an efficient control of virus infections may depend on the appropriate lymphokine profile, we studied cytokine responses and CD30 induction, a recently proposed surrogate marker of type 2 cells, in 10 healthy anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV)-seropositive blood donors without viremia (group A) and in 15 patients with hepatitis C (group B). Intracytoplasmic IFN-gamma, IL-2, IL-4, and IL-10 were determined by triple-color flow cytometry in the CD3+ and CD3+/CD30+ lymphocyte subsets after stimulation of PBMC with rHCV core protein and five core-derived peptides corresponding to the four immunodominant Th epitopes C.T1 to C.T4. In group A, more type 1 cytokines were induced by the rHCV core protein and all immunodominant core peptides (p < 0.05), whereas IL-10-producing T cells were found more frequently in group B. Induction of CD30+ T cells was found almost exclusively in group B (p < 0.01). The difference in cytokine responses was due to the CD3+/CD30- T cell subset and not the CD3+/CD30+ subset, which predominantly produced both IL-10 and IFN-gamma, but only small amounts of IL-2 and IL-4. We conclude that immunodominant HCV core peptides induce preferentially type 1 cytokines in healthy anti-HCV-positive blood donors and CD30 expression in patients with chronic hepatitis C. However, in both groups, CD30+ T lymphocytes produce an intermediate Th0-like cytokine profile. Thus, chronicity in HCV infection may reflect a lack of type 1 cytokine production.
Protection by deferoxamine from endothelial injury: a possible link with inhibition of intracellular xanthine oxidase.

Hydroxyl radical scavengers and xanthine oxidase inhibitors protect cultured bovine pulmonary endothelial cells (BPAEC) from lytic injury by the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We hypothesized that exposure of BPAEC to cytotoxic concentrations of LPS activated intracellular xanthine oxidase, and that intracellular iron-dependent hydroxyl radical formation (a Fenton reaction) ensued, resulting in cell lysis. To test this, the protective effects of deferoxamine against H2O2 and LPS-induced cytotoxicity to BPAEC was assessed by 51Cr release. Preincubation with 0.4 mM deferoxamine conferred 67 +/- 15% (mean +/- SE) protection from LPS-induced cytotoxicity but 48 h of preincubation were required to induce significant protection. Significant protection form a classical Fenton reaction model, injury by 50 microM H2O2, could be induced by a 1-h preincubation with a 0.4 mM deferoxamine. The dissociated time course suggested that deferoxamine might work by different mechanisms in these models. The effects of LPS and deferoxamine on BPAEC-associated xanthine oxidase (XO) and xanthine dehydrogenase (XD) activity were assessed using a spectrofluorophotometric measurement of the conversion of pterin to isoxanthopterin. BPAEC had 106 +/- 7 microU/mg XD+XO activity; XO activity constituted 48 +/- 1% of total XO+XD activity. LPS at a cytotoxic concentration did not alter XO, XD, or percent XO. Deferoxamine had striking proportional inhibitory effects on XO and XD in intact cells. XO+XD activity fell to 6 +/- 1% of control levels during a 48-h exposure of BPAEC to deferoxamine. Deferoxamine did not inhibit XO+XD ex vivo. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
PRODUCTION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A HALOTOLERANT CELLULASE FROM BACILLUS AQUIMARIS VITP 4 STRAIN

B.aquimaris VITP4 strain, a moderately halotolerant bacterium, isolated from Kumta coastal area, Karnataka, India produced significant amount of cellulase in Zobell’s media. At 5% NaCl concentration, maximum growth and enzyme production was observed. Among the nitrogen sources, ammonium chloride and ammonium nitrate gave maximum production of cellulase. Galactose, lactose and glucose were found to be favourable carbon sources for bacterial growth and cellulase production. The culture supernatant containing the cellulase (26 kDa) was concentrated by membrane filtration (MWCO 10kDa) and was subsequently precipitated using ammonium sulphate. The enzyme showed significant activity in a broad range of temperature (30-70°C) with an optimum at 40°C and activity in the pH range of 4.0-11.0 with an optimum at pH 8.0. Metal ions such as Mg, Ca, Ni and Fe enhanced the enzyme activity. However, Hg and Ag completely inhibited the enzyme activity even at low concentration. Addition of detergents such as Tween-20, SDS and β-ME resulted in loss of activity, but CTAB (10 mM) did not have any inhibitory effect on cellulase activity. In addition to cellulose, the bacterium was found to be capable of using carboxy methyl cellulose and filter paper as alternate substrates and resulted in equivalent production of cellulase, revealing possible application in paper processing industries.
The Use of Milk as Hydrating Beverage after Cycle Ergometer Exercise Impacts on Food Patterns ?

Background: Assess hydration by drinking milk and water in different proportions after exercise and the impact of food consumption on the pattern of physically active. Methods: A randomized cross over clinical trial was designed in order to evaluate the use of milk as a hydrating beverage after exercise. Five adults of both sexes were submitted to a stationary bicycle exercise carried out in a 2:1 effort/pause ratio, with Heart Rate (HR) variations between 80 and 110% of the anaerobic threshold HR, until the participants lost 1.5% of their initial body weight. Skimmed Milk (SM) or SMand Mineral Water (SMW) in different orders of offer were compared to mineral water (W) alone as the control, and offered randomly to the volunteers until 150% of the body weight loss had been recovered. After each test, the subjects filled in a 3-day food record to assess the effect of each beverage combination on the subsequent macro and micronutrients intake. Results: The results showed no difference amongst the beverages (SM, SMW or W) with respect to hydrating capacity; however, when SMW was taken, the volunteers showed an increased calorie intake, an adequate intake of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin B2 and an intake of vitamin D close to its upper level. In conclusion, SMW was considered adequate for hydration purposes and its use should be recommended considering individual aspects.
CLUB Impact of Perceived Stigma in People Newly Diagnosed With Lung Cancer : A Cross-Sectional Analysis

L ung cancer is a disease frequently diagnosed in the advanced stages, with treatment often focused on management of symptoms and enhancement of quality of life rather than on curative interventions (Langendijk et al., 2000; Stinchcombe & Socinski, 2009). Weighing the potential risks and benefits of treatment, and whether it is seen as worthwhile, is an important consideration when making treatment decisions (Blinman, Alam, Duric, McLachlan, & Stockler, 2010). In accordance with the provision of patientcentered care, identifying the patient’s attitudes and preferences regarding treatment becomes an important aspect of the decision-making process. A systematic review by Schmidt, Damm, Prenzler, Golpon, and Welte (2015) found that people with lung cancer commonly placed greater value on treatment that extended life rather than on treatment that improved quality of life. Despite this, most people with lung cancer reportedly prefer to take a more passive approach to their treatment decisions (Schmidt et al., 2015). People with lung cancer also have inaccurate treatment expectations and misconceptions of treatment being curative instead of alleviating symptoms (Weeks et al., 2012). Patients may feel unable to make informed decisions about their care that aligns with their values or may be uncomfortable with expressing their wishes. The patient–provider relationship can be a critical element that influences treatment decisions and expectations (Lin et al., 2014). For example, a qualitative study by Sharf, Stelljes, and Gordon (2005) found that people with lung cancer may refuse treatment because of distrust toward medical procedures and uncertainty around the recommendations given by their healthcare providers. The ways in which treatment options are communicated to the patient OBJECTIVES: To investigate perceived stigma and its possible associations with treatment expectations and preferences in newly diagnosed patients with lung cancer.
Malignant Pleural Effusion: Prognostic Factors for Survival and Response to Chemical Pleurodesis in a Series of 120 Cases

Chemical pleurodesis is an effective treatment of malignant pleural effusions, but indications must be individualised to optimise its results. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship of various prognostic features with both the response rate to pleurodesis and the probability of patient survival. A non-concurrent cohort study was carried out in which 120 evaluable patients with malignant pleural effusion underwent pleurodesis. Lung (40%), breast (26.6%), and unknown primary site (12.5%) carcinomas were the most frequent neoplasms. Clinical data and pleural fluid parameters were analysed. Median overall survival was 9 months. Pleural fluid glucose (<60 mg/dl), Karnofsky performance status (<70), size of the effusion in chest radiographs (massive effusion), pleural fluid pH (<7.20), presence of concomitant alterations in chest radiographs, and pleural lactic acid dehydrogenase levels (>600 U/l) showed a significant association with the probability of failure. Patients with these features, along with those having non-chemosensitive tumours (in particular, non-small cell lung cancer), had a significantly worse actuarial survival. This study confirms that some pretreatment clinical data and pleural fluid parameters can predict both the outcome of pleurodesis and the survival of patients with malignant pleural effusion.
A validated high performance liquid chromatography method for the analysis of thymol and carvacrol in Thymus vulgaris L. volatile oil

Thymus vulgaris L. (Lamiaceae) is a well-known medicinal plant that contains important compounds such as thymol and carvacrol and it has been used in many pharmaceutical dosage forms. Thymol and carvacrol in essential oils are often quantified by gas chromatography (GC) technique but in this work, a validated and reliable high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method has been developed for the analysis of these two components in T. vulgaris essential oil. The essential oil of the plant was analyzed by HPLC and GC techniques. The HPLC system consisted of ACE C18 column and an isocratic acetonitrile:water (50:50) as the mobile phase which was kept at a flow rate of 1 ml/min. The method was validated for selectivity, linearity (r2 > 0.997 for both thymol and carvacrol), precision (intra-day 0.8-1.9, 1.7-2.6; and inter-day 3.5-4.5, 3.6-4.7) and recovery (97.7%, 97.6%) for thymol and carvacrol, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) and limits of quantization (LOQs) were calculated to be 2.8, 0.6 µg/ml and 8.6, 1.8 µg/ml for thymol and carvacrol, respectively. The GC system consisted of flame ionization detector (FID) and CP-SIL 8 column. The concentrations of thymol and carvacrol in essential oil obtained by HPLC (41.2%, 4.3%) and GC (40.7%, 4.2%) were compared by statistical methods and they showed good agreement.
CONJUGATED LINOLENIC ACID CONTENT IN SEEDS OF SOME POT MARIGOLD ( CALENDULA OFFICINALIS L . ) CULTIVARS GROWN IN POLAND

Seed oil of ten cultivars of pot marigold grown in Poland was analyzed in order to determine the main factors affecting its content and composition. The seeds of the pot marigold cultivars grown in Poland contained relatively large amounts of oil (17.32% ± 2.60%), which was abundant in conjugated linolenic acids (49.53% ± 5.43%) and had low content of saturated fatty acids (8.62% ± 1.97%). In addition to the effect of cultivars, the large contents of α-calendic acid in oils were a result of low average temperature and extensive precipitation during seed maturation. The statistical analysis suggested that linoleic acid was the main precursor of α-calendic acid, and α-calendic acid was the precursor of β-calendic acid.
Pivotal Advance: Heme oxygenase 1 expression by human CD4+ T cells is not sufficient for their development of immunoregulatory capacity

HO‐1 is the only inducible one of three isoenzymes that catalyzes the oxidative degradation of heme. HO‐1 is inducible by various cellular stress factors and exerts cytoprotective and immunomodulatory effects. Recent publications demonstrated that HO‐1 is constitutively expressed by CD4+CD25+ Tregs and induced in CD4+CD25− T cells upon FoxP3 transfection. Here, we investigated whether HO‐1 was essential and sufficient for human Tregs to exert immunosuppression in vitro. PGJ2 induced pronounced expression of HO‐1 in CD4+CD25− T cells without accompanying FoxP3 induction. Treatment of CD4+CD25− T cells with PGJ2 decreased their proliferation, whereas the HO‐1 inhibitor SnPP enhanced the proliferation of HO‐1‐expressing Tregs, suggesting that HO‐1 may modulate the proliferative capacity of T lymphocytes. HO‐1 modulation by SnPP treatment of Tregs or PGJ2 treatment of CD4+CD25− T cells neither suppressed nor induced immune‐modulatory function in these cells, respectively, as measured by responder‐cell proliferation and/or IL‐2 production. In summary, these data suggest that HO‐1 expression by Tregs might contribute to their typical reluctance to proliferate but does not account independently for their suppressive functions.
CD4+ T cell responses to interleukin-2 administration in HIV-infected patients are directly related to the baseline level of immune activation.

BACKGROUND Intermittent interleukin (IL)-2 administration to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients leads to CD4(+) T cell expansions. The factors potentially affecting these expansions were investigated in the present study. METHODS A matched (for baseline CD4(+) T cell count) case-control study was designed. Nonresponders (NRs) were defined as patients with a <or=10% increase in CD4(+) T cell count 2 months after the third IL-2 cycle (week 24), compared with that at baseline (week 0). Control subjects experienced a >or=50% increase in CD4(+) T cell count at week 24. Immunophenotype, Ki67 and forkhead box protein P3 (FoxP3) expression, and T cell receptor excision circle (TREC) measurements in T cells were evaluated at weeks 0 and 24 in both groups. RESULTS Control subjects and NRs did not differ significantly at baseline in age, viral load, CD4(+) T cell count, nadir CD4(+) T cell count, or CD8(+) T cell count. At week 0, NRs had lower TREC levels per 1x106 T cells and higher levels of T cell proliferation and activation than did control subjects. At week 24, both groups experienced decreases in T cell proliferation and increases in CD25 and FoxP3 expression on CD4(+) T cells, with TREC levels per 1x106 CD4(+) T cells decreasing significantly only in control subjects. CONCLUSIONS Increased immune activation can adversely affect CD4(+) T cell expansions after IL-2 administration. Despite the lack of expansion, other evidence of IL-2-induced biological activity was observed.
Human vision combines oriented filters to compute edges

The experiments examined the perceived spatial structure of plaid patterns, composed of two or three sinusoidal gratings of the same spatial frequency, superimposed at different orientations. Perceived structure corresponded well with the pattern of zero crossings in the output of a circular spatial filter applied to the image. This lends some support to Marr & Hildreth’s (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 207, 187 (1980)) theory of edge detection as a model for human vision, but with a very different implementation. The perceived structure of two-component plaids was distorted by prior exposure to a masking or adapting grating, in a way that was perceptually equivalent to reducing the contrast of one of the plaid components. This was confirmed by finding that the plaid distortion could be nulled by increasing the contrast of the masked or adapted component. A corresponding reduction of perceived contrast for single gratings was observed after adaptation and in some masking conditions. I propose the outlines of a model for edge finding in human vision. The plaid components are processed through cortical, orientationselective filters that are subject to attenuation by forward masking and adaptation. The outputs of these oriented filters are then linearly summed to emulate circular filtering, and zero crossings (zcs) in the combined output are used to determine edge locations. Masking or adapting to a grating attenuates some oriented filters more than others, and although this changes only the effective contrast of the components, it results in a geometric distortion at the zc level after different filters have been combined. The orientation of zcs may not correspond at all with the orientation of Fourier components, but they are correctly predicted by this two-stage model. The oriented filters are not ‘orientation detectors’, but are precursors to a more subtle stage that locates and represents spatial features.
Satisfaction in Qualities of Tourism Destination Management : A Case of American Tourists in Thailand

A plethora of inbound tourists visit Thailand every year. However, the American tourist segment is an astonishing small fraction of Thai tourism market share. Why? Are Americans not satisfied with their experience in Thailand? This paper studies the level of satisfaction of American tourists concerning their experience with the quality of tourism management received in Thailand in order to understand the post purchase dissonance. The objectives of this paper were (a) to evaluate the level of satisfaction of American tourists in Thailand about their experience of the qualities in three categories: products & services, tourist destination, and tourist information and (b) to study their willingness to revisit Thailand in the future (c) to investigate if there are differences in overall tourists’ satisfaction in terms of age and level of education. The respondents were 400 outbound American tourists on their way back home through Suvannabhumi airport, Thailand. Findings revealed that American tourists ranked the quality of food & beverage as their highest satisfied in the category of product & service. The quality of shopping malls in Thailand had the highest satisfaction rank in the category of tourist destination. The quality of tourist information from business organizations had the highest satisfaction rank in the category of tourist information. In addition, the findings revealed that the overwhelming 96 percent of American tourists who had already visited Thailand wanted to revisit Thailand and as high as 97 percent of them would recommend their friends and family to visit Thailand. Finally, analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that age and education level did not lead to significance in overall American tourists’ satisfaction.