Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optic neuropathies in sub-Saharan Africa.

Purpose: An epidemic of subacute optic neuropathy with sensori-neural hearing loss and peripheral neuropathy has affected Tanzania. The primary objective of this thesis was:- To describe the clinical features of the disease. To describe the magnitude of the epidemic To investigate the aetiology of the disease To determine if daily oral B-complex supplements improved prognosis. Methods: 225 acute cases in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and 105 acute cases in Mogadishu, Somalia were assessed for signs and symptoms of optic neuropathy, peripheral neuropathy, and hearing loss. Blood and urine samples were collected from very acute cases (< 2 weeks of disease onset) in Tanzania and matched controls for aetiological studies. The same Tanzanian cases were recruited to the treatment study, of which 209 cases came back for 1 month re-assessment and a further 173 patients completed the three month treatment and returned for re-assessment. Ophthalmic, neurological and audiometric examinations were undertaken at baseline and follow-up. Population-based surveys were conducted in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Gambia to determine the magnitude of the epidemic. Results: The optic neuropathy is characterised by bilateral and symmetrical loss of visual acuity and colour vision, and central or caeco-central scotomas. On fundoscopy hyperaemia and swelling of the optic discs were observed at the early stages, as all cases progressed to temporal optic atrophy and nerve fibre layer loss in the papillomacular bundle. 35% of the Tanzanian cases and 59% of the Somalian cases had an accompanying peripheral neuropathy, 65% of the Tanzanian cases and 28% of the Somalian cases had sensori-neural hearing loss.
Neural substrates underlying eyeblink classical conditioning in adults with alcohol use disorders.

BACKGROUND Excessive alcohol consumption produces changes in the brain that often lead to cognitive impairments. One fundamental form of learning, eyeblink classical conditioning (EBC) has been widely used to study the neurobiology of learning and memory. Participants with alcohol use disorders (AUD) have consistently shown a behavioral deficit in EBC. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study is the first to examine brain function during conditioning in abstinent AUD participants and healthy participants. METHODS AUD participants met DSM-IV criteria for alcohol dependence, had at least a 10 year history of heavy drinking, and were abstinent from alcohol for at least 30 days. During fMRI, participants received auditory tones that predicted the occurrence of corneal airpuffs. Anticipatory eyeblink responses to these tones were monitored during the experiment to assess learning-related changes. RESULTS Behavioral results indicate that AUD participants showed significant conditioning deficits and that their history of lifetime drinks corresponded to these deficits. Despite this learning impairment, AUD participants showed hyperactivation in several key cerebellar structures (including lobule VI) during conditioning. For all participants, history of lifetime drinks corresponded with their lobule VI activity. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that excessive alcohol consumption is associated with abnormal cerebellar hyperactivation and conditioning impairments.
Cranial and Facial Epicrania Fugax: Combination of Both Clinical Pictures in the Same Patients

Epicrania fugax (EF) has recently been recognized as a primary headache and is currently included in the appendix of the International Classification of Headache Disorders, 3rd edition (ICHD-3). In 2008, Pareja et al first defined the cranial subtype as brief paroxysms of pain lasting 1-10 seconds and moving through different nerve territories of one hemicranium with a linear or zigzag trajectory. Since then, different pain trajectories have been described: forward, backward, coronal, and even multidirectional. A facial variant has also been acknowledged, with the pain radiating through several dermatomes of the face in an upward or downward direction. To date, cranial and facial EF have been considered as 2 independent clinical pictures. For both entities, the underlying pathophysiology still remains uncertain. Here, we describe 2 cases in which the clinical features of cranial and facial EF were combined. The first patient was a 39-year-old woman with no relevant past medical history who reported having repeated attacks of electrical pain in the previous 10 days before consultation. The pain started at the cheek of either the left or the right side of the face and rapidly ascended in a straight line to the ipsilateral frontal region in less than 1 second. Pain intensity varied from 5 to 9 out of 10, and a feeling of allodynia persisted at the end of the trajectory after each attack. No trigeminoautonomic symptoms were present during the paroxysms. She experienced countless bursts of these episodes every 5 minutes throughout the day. In addition, she had pain attacks of similar characteristics that began at the occipital region Headache doi: 10.1111/head.13755 © 2020 American Headache Society Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. ISSN 0017-8748
Effects of Soccer Match-Play on Unilateral Jumping and Interlimb Asymmetry: A Repeated-Measures Design

Abstract Bishop, C, Read, P, Stern, D, and Turner, A. Effects of soccer match-play on unilateral jumping and interlimb asymmetry: a repeated-measures design. J Strength Cond Res 36(1): 193–200, 2022—The aims of this study were two-fold: (a) determine the effects of repeated soccer match-play on unilateral jump performance and interlimb asymmetries and (b) examine associations between asymmetry and commonly reported external load variables collected during competition. Single-leg countermovement jumps and drop jumps were collected before and immediately after 5 soccer matches in elite academy soccer players. Global positioning system data were also collected during each match as part of the routine match-day procedures. Single-leg countermovement jump height and concentric impulse showed significant reductions after matches (p < 0.01; effect size [ES]: −0.67 to −0.69), but peak force did not (p > 0.05; ES: −0.05 to −0.13). Single-leg drop jump height and reactive strength also showed significant reductions after matches (p < 0.01; ES: −0.39 to −0.58). No meaningful reductions in asymmetry were present at the group level, but individual responses were highly variable. Significant associations between postmatch reactive strength asymmetry and explosive distance (r = 0.29; p < 0.05), relative explosive distance (r = 0.34; p < 0.05), high-speed running (r = 0.35; p < 0.05), and relative high-speed running (r = 0.44; p < 0.01) were observed. These findings show that unilateral jump tests are more appropriate than asymmetry to detect real change after soccer competition, and practitioners should be cautious about using asymmetry to inform decision-making during the temporal recovery period.
A Statistical Observation of the Ocular Injuries

Purpose: We investigated the regional characteristics and new currents of ocular injuries and use the results for the prevention and treatment of ocular injuries. Methods: We retrospectively surveyed 1115 eyes of 1013 patients who visited Gachon medical center from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003. The incidence of ocular injuries, sex, age, monthly and seasonal distribution, causes, diagnosis, visual acuity and complications were reviewed statistically. Results: The incidence of ocular injuries was 4.2%. The incidence was more common in males (75.8%) and in the 4th decade (22.2%). The patients who needed admission or surgery were 22.2%. Ocular injuries were more common in summer (28.5%) and less in winter (20.4%). The most common cause was industrial accidents (40.0%) and the second common cause was violence (30.9%). The most common injured site was the orbit (36.3%). Among the diagnoses of the inpatients, orbital wall fracture was most common (41.9%). The initial visual acuity was less than 0.1 for 14.2% of the eyes and the final acuity was less than 0.1 of the eyes for 5.2%. Conclusions: This survey gathered the regional characteristics and new currents of ocular injuries.
Age-specific incidence of influenza A responds to change in virus subtype dominance.

When H3N2 replaced H1N1 as the dominant influenza subtype during the 2018-19 season, the pattern of age-specific influenza incidence shifted due to the lingering effects of antigenic imprinting. The characteristic shape that imprinting leaves on influenza susceptibility could foster important advances in understanding and predicting the epidemiology of influenza.
Variations in the microbial community of biofilms under different near-wall hydraulic shear stresses in agricultural irrigation systems

Abstract The hydraulic characteristics along agricultural irrigation pipelines directly affect the local near-wall hydraulic shear stress and biofilm accumulation. However, the variations in the microbial community during the process remain unknown. Based on the Couette-Taylor reactor, a device was developed to accurately control the hydraulic shear stress. The results indicated that the near-wall hydraulic shear stresses showed quadratic correlations with microbial contents (represented by phospholipid fatty acids r > 0.77, p < 0.05), and the maximum values were obtained under the shear stresses of 0.20-0.35 Pa. For two types of treated wastewater, the mutual operational taxonomic units among different shear stress treatments showed good consistency (>185). Their corresponding response in the microbial community was represented by the quantitative correlations between the near-wall hydraulic shear stresses and the polymorphism indices (r > 0.82, p < 0.05). Among the microorganisms, Firmicutes at the phylum level were significantly affected by the shear stress and significantly influenced the biofilm accumulation process.
Survival of African American and non‐Hispanic white men with prostate cancer in an equal‐access health care system

African American (AA) men in the general US population are more than twice as likely to die of prostate cancer (PC) compared with non‐Hispanic white (NHW) men. The authors hypothesized that receiving care through the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system, an equal‐access medical system, would attenuate this disparity.
Mediators of a 12-month change in physical activity in ethnically diverse sample of postpartum women.

Purpose Understanding theoretically derived social and behavioral mediators of long-term increases in physical activity (PA) in a vulnerable population at risk for being underactive is needed to inform future research, clinical applications, and public health efforts. This is an analysis of potential mediators of an intervention that increased long-term (12-month) moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in postpartum (2-12months) women in a randomized trial, using a longitudinal analysis. Methods Healthy, underactive (i.e., not meeting national guidelines for MVPA) women (n = 311; mean age = 32 ± 5.6 years, 85% minorities) with infants (mean age: 5.7 ± 2.8 months) were randomly assigned to either a tailored eHealth condition consisting of personalized telephone counseling plus access to a website tailored to new mothers' MVPA issues or to a standard MVPA materials-only website. MVPA was assessed via surveys completed at baseline, then 6 and 12 months later. Theoretically derived mediators included social support for MVPA, self-efficacy to increase MVPA, barriers to increasing MVPA, and benefits of increasing MVPA. Results All mediators, except benefits, improved over the 12 months in the tailored eHealth condition. The tailored condition's effect on increasing MVPA from 6 months to 12 months was mediated by an increase in social support from baseline to six months. No other hypothesized mediators were significant. Conclusion Our results demonstrated that learning strategies to increase social support for MVPA was instrumental in new mothers' increase in MVPA over a 12 month intervention. During this brief but impactful life-stage, where the focus can understandably be on her baby, being able to elicit support from friends and family may facilitate women's efforts to focus on their own needs with respect to MVPA. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov number.
Low expression of ICAM-1 in blood eosinophils in patients with active eosinophilic esophagitis.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic and isolated inflammation of the esophagus, defined by an important infiltration of eosinophilic leukocytes. Only the histopathological study determines the diagnosis and evolution of the disease. Therefore, patients must undergo a large number of esophageal biopsies, with the risk involved in the procedure and the necessary resources. Objective: The presence of active circulating eosinophils, quantifiable through the expression of specific proteins of cellular activation in their membrane, could be a concordant parameter with the histopathological findings that are currently the only valid parameters in EoE studies. METHODS The activity of peripheral blood eosinophils from patients with EoE was analyzed by identifying five surface molecules (CD69, IL-5Rα, CD44, ICAM-1, CD63) expressed by the active eosinophils by flow cytometry. The results were compared with the infiltrate of eosinophils present in patient's esophageal biopsies. RESULTS ICAM-1 significantly reduced in patients with active EoE compared to no active EoE patients, allergic patients and healthy controls. In these patients, an inverse correlation between the number of eosinophils present in the esophageal biopsy and the percentage of ICAM-1 expression in peripheral blood eosinophils was observed. For the rest of the molecules studied no difference was observed. CONCLUSION The expression of ICAM-1 in blood eosinophils could be a non-invasive marker useful for the diagnosis and assessment of patients with EoE.
Ferroptotic agent‐induced endoplasmic reticulum stress response plays a pivotal role in the autophagic process outcome

Ferroptosis has been reported as a unique form of cell death. However, in recent years, researchers have increasingly challenged the uniqueness of ferroptosis compared to other types of cell death. In this study, we examined whether ferroptosis shares cell death pathways with other types of cell death, especially autophagy, via the autophagic process. Here, we observed that ferroptosis inducers (artesunate [ART] and erastin [ERA]) and autophagy inducers (bortezomib [BOR] and XIE62‐1004) led to autophagosome formation via the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response. Unlike XIE62‐1004, ART, ERA, and BOR, which affect glutathione production or utilization, induced oxidative stress responses—an increase in the levels of heme oxygenase‐1 and lipid peroxidation. Oxidative stress responses were attenuated by deletion of autophagy‐related gene‐5 or treatment with autophagy inhibitors (bafilomycin and chloroquine). Our studies provide an overview of common death pathways—the ER stress response‐associated autophagic process in ferroptosis and autophagy. We also highlight the role played by glutathione redox system in the outcome of the autophagic process.
Impact of catheter ablation therapy for atrial fibrillation on healthcare expenditures in a middle European cohort.

AIMS Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent arrhythmia in western countries. It is associated with increased mortality and morbidity and responsible for hospitalization rates of 10-40% per patient per year. Studies from the UK and the USA have shown that AF is responsible for ∼1% of the total healthcare expenditures in these countries. The only potentially curative treatment is pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). Published health economic data on the impact of PVI mainly consist of simulations of expenditures with assumed efficacy taken from ablation studies. Real expenditure data are missing as well as pre-ablation period data and long-term data. METHODS AND RESULTS We analyse true healthcare expenditures based on inpatient and outpatient data from the Upper Austrian Health Insurance Fund social security system of patients undergoing PVI during 2005 to 2015. We identified 1135 patients undergoing PVI with 268 having multiple procedures. Days of hospitalization and days of sick leave started to rise in the year before ablation. PVI was able to lower both parameters to the level of 1 year before ablation. Comparing four quarters before and after a single-index ablation, a highly significant reduction in inpatient healthcare expenditures was documented. There was a significant, but numerically small increase in outpatient expenditures, resulting in a significant reduction in overall healthcare expenditures. CONCLUSION Analysing a cohort of the Upper Austrian Health Insurance Fund undergoing PVI, we found significant cost-saving effects on post-interventional healthcare expenditures and a reduction in days of sick leave.
SACNN: Self-Attention Convolutional Neural Network for Low-Dose CT Denoising With Self-Supervised Perceptual Loss Network

Computed tomography (CT) is a widely used screening and diagnostic tool that allows clinicians to obtain a high-resolution, volumetric image of internal structures in a non-invasive manner. Increasingly, efforts have been made to improve the image quality of low-dose CT (LDCT) to reduce the cumulative radiation exposure of patients undergoing routine screening exams. The resurgence of deep learning has yielded a new approach for noise reduction by training a deep multi-layer convolutional neural networks (CNN) to map the low-dose to normal-dose CT images. However, CNN-based methods heavily rely on convolutional kernels, which use fixed-size filters to process one local neighborhood within the receptive field at a time. As a result, they are not efficient at retrieving structural information across large regions. In this paper, we propose a novel 3D self-attention convolutional neural network for the LDCT denoising problem. Our 3D self-attention module leverages the 3D volume of CT images to capture a wide range of spatial information both within CT slices and between CT slices. With the help of the 3D self-attention module, CNNs are able to leverage pixels with stronger relationships regardless of their distance and achieve better denoising results. In addition, we propose a self-supervised learning scheme to train a domain-specific autoencoder as the perceptual loss function. We combine these two methods and demonstrate their effectiveness on both CNN-based neural networks and WGAN-based neural networks with comprehensive experiments. Tested on the AAPM-Mayo Clinic Low Dose CT Grand Challenge data set, our experiments demonstrate that self-attention (SA) module and autoencoder (AE) perceptual loss function can efficiently enhance traditional CNNs and can achieve comparable or better results than the state-of-the-art methods.
Existing Mobile Phone Apps for Self-Care Management of People With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Systematic Analysis

Background Alzheimer disease and related dementias (AD/RD) are progressive neurocognitive disorders that currently affect approximately 50 million people worldwide. Mobile phone apps have been well-integrated into daily lives and can be used to deliver and promote health care. There is an increase in the use of technology to provide care and support to AD/RD patients and their families. Objective This study aimed to review apps designed for AD/RD patients and analyze the benefits of, and challenges to, such technological solutions. Methods A systematic approach was applied to review the availability, content, features, and quality of mobile phone apps to support self-care among AD/RD patients. Results The initial search for this review was conducted in January 2019, and the screening and analysis of the included apps were completed in May 2019. A total of 14 apps were included from an initial search of 245 apps. The top 3 features were alert (9/14, 64%), self-care tips (6/14, 42%), and social networking capacity (5/14, 35%). On average, the readability of the apps was a tenth-grade reading level (SD 3.06). The overall quality was 3.71 out of 5 (SD 1.37). Conclusions Our findings suggest that currently available apps for AD/RD patients may not meet complex needs and may be challenging to use, given the possible impaired communication ability associated with AD/RD. Therefore, high-quality apps need to be developed and rigorously evaluated for feasibility and efficacy.
Detecting Pervasive Source Code Plagiarism through Dynamic Program Behaviours

Source code plagiarism is a persistent problem in undergraduate computer science education. Unfortunately, it is a widespread phenomena with many students plagiarising either because they are unwilling or incapable of completing their own work. Many source code plagiarism detection tools have been proposed to identify suspected cases of source code plagiarism. However, these tools are not resilient to pervasive plagiarism-hiding transformations that significantly change the structure of source code. In this paper, two case studies are presented that explore how resilient current source code plagiarism detection tools are to plagiarism-hiding transformations. Furthermore, an evaluation of a new advanced technique for source code plagiarism detection is presented to show that is it possible to identify pervasive cases of source code plagiarism. The results of this evaluation indicate the technique is robust in its ability to identify the same program after it has been transformed.
Industry-Focused Projects in an Intense One-Year ICT Programme

Project-based learning (PJBL) and studio-based learning (SBL) are alternative methods of learning characterised by aspects like collaboration, authenticity of problems, process-focus, student self-management, and continuous reflection. Those teaching approaches deviate significantly from traditional forms of teaching and learning, raising questions about applicability and effectiveness. We integrated industry-focused project work into a one-year postgraduate programme teaching non-IT graduates information and communication technology skills and knowledge. Over a period of three years with an increasing number of student enrolments and in close collaboration with industry partners we put elements of PJBL and SBL in action. As coordinators of this programme we are reflecting on our experiences and can show that in our context industry-focused project work is an effective form of learning. We hope that our observations and findings will inform and inspire other teachers and researchers to implement aspects of PJBL and SBL as overarching concepts in their learning contexts.