Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Breathing – Swallowing Discoordination and Inef ﬁ ciency of an Airway Protective Mechanism Puts Patients at Risk of COPD Exacerbation

Introduction: Dysphagia is a newly acknowledged multifactorial risk factor for the exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Effective screening methods are awaited. We performed a prospective study to evaluate the impact of musculature and breathing – swallowing discoordination on the exacerbation of COPD with a novel swallowing monitor using a piezoelectric sensor. Patients and Methods: This was the second part of a prospective study of patients with COPD from the Iizuka COPD cohort. Seventy patients with stable COPD underwent dysphagia screening, skeletal muscle mass index (SMI) and tongue pressure measurements, and swallowed 3 mL and 30 mL of water while wearing a swallowing monitor. Patients were followed for one year. Results: During the follow-up period, 28 patients experienced exacerbations (E group), and 42 had none (non-E group). There was no signi ﬁ cant difference in tongue pressure measurements between the two groups. The SMI in the E group was signi ﬁ cantly lower than that in the non-E group. Among the swallowing monitor measurements, the 3 mL I-SW% (the percentage of swallows in which inspiration preceded the swallow [out of ten 3 mL swal-lows]) was signi ﬁ cantly lower in the E group than in the non-E group. Conclusion: Breathing – swallowing coordination is an independent factor related to the exacerbation of COPD. Not only the presence of discoordination but also the inability to produce an airway protection mechanism may contribute to more frequent aspiration and exacerbations. http://doi.org/10.2147/COPD.S257622
Signal evolution and infarction risk for ADC lesions in acute ischemic stroke are both time and perfusion dependent

Background and Purpose— This study aimed to examine the temporal relationship between tissue perfusion and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) changes within 6 hours of ischemic stroke onset and how different reperfusion patterns may affect tissue outcome in ADC lesion. Methods— Thirty-one participants were sequentially imaged at 3 hours, 6 hours and 1 month post stroke. Three regions of interest (ROIs) were defined within initial ADC lesions: ROI(1) reperf3hr hyper-acute reperfusion (within 3 hours), ROI(2) reperf6hr acute reperfusion (3-6 hours), and ROI(3) nonreperf no reperfusion (by 6 hours). For each ROI, changes of ADC ( Δ ADC) from 3 to 6 hours and risks of infarction were examined. Results— The magnitude of initial ADC reduction was similar in all three ROIs (P=0.51). Δ ADC were strongly associated with reperfusion (P<0.0001) but not with initial ADC reduction (P=0.83). Δ ADC in ROI(1) reperf3hr , ROI(2) reperf6hr were significantly larger than that of ROI(3) nonreperf (P<0.05). Positive Δ ADC were obtained from 3 to 6 hours in ROI(1) reperf3hr that had restored perfusion prior to 3 hours, demonstrating a temporal delay between reperfusion and ADC changes. Risk of infarction were significantly higher in ROI(3) nonreperf than those in ROI(1) reperf3hr and ROI(2) reperf6hr . Conclusions— Improvement of ADC did not occur coincidently with reperfusion but showed a temporal delay. Regions with similar initial ADC reductions at 3 hours had different evolution of ADC and infarction risks depending on when or if tissue reperfused. These findings provide a physiological basis for the observation that a single ADC measurement at a fixed time after stroke onset may not accurately predict tissue outcome.
To “See” is to Stereotype Image Tagging Algorithms, Gender Recognition, and the Accuracy – Fairness Trade-off

Machine-learned computer vision algorithms for tagging images are increasingly used by developers and researchers, having become popularized as easy-to-use “cognitive services. ” Yet these tools struggle with gender recognition, particularly when processing images of women, people of color and non-binary individuals. Socio-technical researchers have cited data bias as a key problem; training datasets often over-represent images of people and contexts that convey social stereotypes. The social psychology literature explains that people learn social stereotypes, in part, by observing others in particular roles and contexts, and can inadvertently learn to associate gender with scenes, occupations and activities. Thus, we study the extent to which image tagging algorithms mimic this phenomenon. We design a controlled experiment, to examine the interdependence between algorithmic recognition of context and the depicted person’s gender. In the spirit of auditing to understand machine behaviors , we create a highly controlled dataset of people images, imposed on gender-stereotyped backgrounds. Our methodology is reproducible and our code publicly available. Evaluating five proprietary algorithms, we find that in three, gender inference is hindered when a background is introduced. Of the two that “see” both backgrounds and gender, it is the one whose output is most consistent with human stereotyping processes that is superior in recognizing gender. We discuss the accuracy – fairness trade-off, as well as the importance of auditing black boxes in better understanding this double-edged sword.
Illness Representations in Noncardiac Chest Pain – a Brief Behavioral Medical Intervention

ausgerichtete psychologische Intervention zu entwickeln und hinsichtlich ihrer Anwendbarkeit zu evaluieren. Patienten und Methoden: 57 Patienten mit nicht-kardialem Brustschmerz nahmen randomisiert an unserer Intervention teil und wurden zu Brustschmerzen und subjektiven Krankheitsrepräsentationen sowie zur subjektiven Bewertung der Intervention befragt. Ergebnisse: Die Intervention wurde durch die meisten Teilnehmer sehr positiv eingeschätzt («Erfolg versprechend», «weiterzu-empfehlen»). Jedoch lehnten vorab 42% der potenziell geeigneten Patienten eine Teilnahme ab. Die Interven-tionsgruppe war im Gegensatz zu den Refusern jünger, berichtete ungünstige Krankheitsrepräsentationen und größere Brustschmerzintensität. Schlussfolgerung: Es bleibt eine Herausforderung, Patienten mit nicht-kar-dialem Brustschmerz mittels verhaltensmedizinischen Interventionen frühzeitig zu erreichen, insbesondere akut weniger beeinträchtigte Personen. Demgegenüber zeigen unsere Ergebnisse, dass eine niederschwellige Intervention realisierbar ist und überwiegend als wirk-sam eingeschätzt wird.
The impact of measurement error in modeled ambient particles exposures on health effect estimates in multilevel analysis A simulation study

the validation data simulations. the in designing the simulations. constructed the monitoring dataset. constructed the dispersion model. M.D.-Y. J.D. S. constructed the machine learning methods models and K.D. constructed the LUR and hybrid models. used models Various spatiotemporal models have been proposed for predicting ambient particulate exposure for inclusion in epidemiological analyses. We investigated the effect of measurement error in the prediction of particulate matter with diameter <10 µm (PM 10 ) and <2.5 µm (PM 2.5 ) on the estimation of health effects. We 1,000 small administrative in London, United Kingdom, and simulated the underlying daily exposure surfaces for PM 10 and PM 2.5 for 2009–2013 incorporating temporal variation and spatial covariance informed by the extensive London monitoring network. We added measurement error assessed by comparing measurements at fixed sites and predictions from spatiotemporal land-use regression (LUR) models; dispersion models; models using satellite data and applying machine learning algorithms; and combinations of these methods through generalized additive models. Two health outcomes were simulated to assess whether the bias varies with the effect size. We applied multilevel Poisson regression to simultaneously model the effect of long- and short-term pollutant exposure. For each scenario, we ran 1,000 simulations to assess measurement error impact on health effect estimation. Results: For long-term exposure to particles, we observed bias toward the null, except for traffic PM 2.5 for which only LUR under-estimated the effect. For short-term exposure, results were variable between exposure models and bias ranged from −11% (under-estimate) to 20% (overestimate) for PM 10 and of −20% to 17% for PM 2.5 . Integration of models performed best in almost all cases. Conclusions: No single exposure model performed optimally across scenarios. In most cases, measurement error resulted in attenuation of the effect estimate.
Effects of Ceramide Accumulation in Cardiomyocytes Derived from human-induced Pluripotent Stem Cells on Mitochondrial Function and Mitophagy

Mohamed Bekhite (  Mohamed.el_Saied@med.uni-jena.de ) University hospital Jena https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0346-9181 Andres González-Delgado Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Innere Medizin I Kardiologie Angiologie Pneumologie Internistische Intensivmedizin Tom Kretzschma Universitatsklinikum Jena, KIM I Tina Müller Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Anasthesiologie und Intensivtherapie Jasmine M.F. Wu Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Innere Medizin I Kardiologie Angiologie Pneumologie Internistische Intensivmedizin Tarek Bekfani Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Innere Medizin I Kardiologie Angiologie Pneumologie Internistische Intensivmedizin Marcus Franz Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Innere Medizin I Kardiologie Angiologie Pneumologie Internistische Intensivmedizin Maria Wartenberg Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Innere Medizin I Kardiologie Angiologie Pneumologie Internistische Intensivmedizin Markus Gräler Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Anasthesiologie und Intensivtherapie Boris Greber Max-Planck-Institut fur Biophysik Christian Schulze Universitatsklinikum Jena Klinik fur Innere Medizin I Kardiologie Angiologie Pneumologie Internistische Intensivmedizin
“Lost in the Shuffle”: How Relationships and Personalized Advisement Shape Transfer Aspirations and Outcomes for Community College Students

Objective: Few community college students who aspire to transfer ever do so. Prior research suggests that relationships with advisors, faculty, and administrators may play an important role in promoting successful transfer outcomes, particularly for traditionally underserved students. This study examines how students identified and weighed possible transfer destination colleges, and how dedicated and personalized advisement shaped students’ transfer plans and contributed to their transfer outcomes. Method: This mixed-methods study uses interviews to explore students’ transfer planning processes, as well as student record data to examine transfer outcomes. Analyses compare students who received personalized transfer advising through a community college honors program and similarly qualified transfer-aspiring peers attending the same six community colleges who received “business as usual” advising. Results: Findings suggest that personalized advisement and relationships with transfer advisors contributed to higher rates of transfer and may support transfer to more-selective destinations. Contributions: This research extends the literature on community college transfer by tracing students’ planning processes, exploring factors that raise or lower transfer aspirations, and estimating the effects of an advising-intensive honors program on students’ transfer outcomes, including the selectivity of their transfer destinations. We also offer more empirical support for the importance of personal relationships and transfer agents in facilitating successful transfer outcomes.
Spheno-Occipital Synchondrosis Fusion Degree as an Age Estimation Tool: A Cone-Beam Computed Tomography Study

Background: Considering the late ossification potential of spheno-occipital synchondrosis (SOS), it can be used as a tool to estimate age in adolescents. The time of SOS fusion is known to vary in different populations. Objectives: This study aimed to assess the degree of SOS fusion in Iranian individuals, using cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan. Patients and Methods: The CBCT images of 240 patients (126 females and 114 males), aged 6 - 25 years, were assessed regarding the degree of SOS fusion, based on a four-stage scoring system. Spearman’s correlation coefficient test and regression analysis were performed to assess the correlation between age and fusion stage. Mann-Whitney test was also applied to determine differences between males and females. Besides, Kruskal-Wallis test was used to assess differences in the median values. Results: The SOS was completely open at the mean age of 7.63 years in females and 8.85 years in males. The mean age of partially fused SOS (stage 1) was eight years in females and 10 years in males. Besides, the mean age of completely fused SOS (stage 3) was 12 years in females and 16 years in males. The results of Spearman’s correlation coefficient test showed a significant positive relationship between age and the degree of SOS fusion in males and females (rs = 0.783, P < 0.001 in females and rs = 0.911, P < 0.001 in males). Conclusion: The SOS closure degree can be applied for age estimation in the Iranian population. This study presented a method which is highly accurate for age estimation.
Effect of Dried Rumen Content and Carbohydrate Sources in Ensiling Process on Corn Stover Silage ( Zea mays ) to Increasing Nutrient Contents and InVitro Digestibility

— The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of addition of inoculant and/or additives and incubation time on nutrient content of Dry Matter (DM), Organic Matter (OM), Crude Protein (CP), Neutral Detergen Fiber (NDF), in vitro DM digestibility and in vitro BO digestibility. Corn stover silage was made 100% corn stover with inoculant and/or additives with treatments P 0 (without addition as control), P 1 (4% additives), P 2 (4% mixed of inoculant and additives (1:0,5 weight ratio), and P 3 (4% inoculant + 4% additives) with incubation time i.e. 2, 4 and 21 days. The incubation time is 0 days for comparison before the ensilage process. The variables observed were DM, OM, CP, NDF, in vitro DM digestibility and in vitro BO digestibility. Data were analysis of variance (ANOVA). The method used in the nutrient content test is a 4x3 factorial Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 4 replications and continued with Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT). The method used in the digestibility test is an experimental method with a CRD with 4 treatments and 4 replications. The results showed that addition of inoculant and/or additives gave highly significant effect (P<0.01) on DM, OM, CP, NDF, significantly effect (P<0.05) on DM digestibility, but not significantly different BO digestibility. The incubation time showed gave highly significant effect (P<0.01) on DM, OM, CP, and NDF. Interactions showed not significantly effect in DM, OM, CP and NDF. The results of the study can be concluded with addition of inoculants and/or additives were effect on increased of DM, OM, CP, DM digestibility, and reduced on NDF, and not affect on BO digestibility in corn stover silage(Zea mays) .
Factors Influencing Alcohol Use Among Myanmar Young Migrant Workers in Thailand

: Young migrant workers depict both vulnerability and resilience toward negative health outcomes. A deeper understanding of their needs provides healthcare providers the opportunities to help increase their positive health and well-being. This cross-sectional study examined alcohol use in documented young Myanmar migrants working in Thailand and the factors associated with alcohol consumption. Cooper’s Four-factor Model of Drinking Motives and the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping were used as guiding frameworks. The participants were 186 young migrant workers from migrant communities in a coastal province near Bangkok, Thailand. Interviews were used for data collection using demographic questionnaire and standardized measures of alcohol use, acculturative stress, depressive symptoms and self-esteem. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and logistic regression. Results indicated that participants perceived themselves as having positive self-esteem, not currently experiencing discrimination or acculturative stress, and motivated to consume alcohol mainly for positive social interaction rather than for coping or enhancement of positive affect. Almost two thirds of participants reported consuming at least 1 alcoholic drink in the past 12 months. However, 92.5 % of those were classified as low risk drinkers. Gender, length of stay, and drinking history predicted alcohol use. Our findings add further evidence that the significant differences across studies regarding migrants working in Thailand arise from differences in age, types of work, region in Thailand, registration status, length of stay, peer and community supports. As such, public health policies and programs and health services provided by community nurses related to alcohol use need to be tailored to specific regions within the country and to specific populations of migrant workers based on information from local empirical studies. Int J
TERRESTRIAL SNAILS AS BIOINDICATIVE ORGANISM FOR ASSESSING ECOTOXICOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF AGROCHEMICALS IN RURAL AREA.

Terrestrial snail, Monacha cantiana was used as a bioindicative organisms to assess the ecotoxicological effect in El Behira governorate. Five districts (El-Dalengat, Kom Hamada, Damanhour, Shoubrakhet and Etay El-Baroud) were selected for the animals collection during winter and spring seasons of 2008/2009. AChE activity was observed at a highest value (71.65  mole/mg protein/min) in Damanhour district which considered a control zone. Lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) is an indicative criteria of exposure to chemical stress, was showed the lowest inhibition (13.7 IU/ mg protein) in Etay El-Baroud. On the other hand, from the family of enzymes with important roles in the biotransformation of xenobiotics substances, glutathione- S -transferase (GST) was chosen. It recorded significantly decreasing in activity of snails collected from El-Dalengat, Damanhour and Etay El-Baroud districts, respectively, with values (63.01, 73.54, and 87.99%) compared with control. The terrestrial snail was an efficient bioindicator that accumulate bioavailable contaminants as a diagnosis tools for toxicological responses.
Incidence and Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease among Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in a Tertiary Health Care Setting of Ethiopia: 8-Year Retrospective Follow-Up Study

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major cause of death and disability among people with diabetes in the world and it is proving to be a major barrier to sustainable human development. Despite CVD continuing to devastate human survival, few studies in Ethiopia have focused on its prevalence which alone are insufficient to assess the risk of incident cardiovascular events. Therefore, we determined the incidence and predictors of cardiovascular disease among diabetic patients in a selected tertiary healthcare setting of Ethiopia. Methods: A retrospective cohort study using secondary data was conducted on 399 ran-domly selected diabetes patients. Data were entered using Epi-Data and analyzed using Stata version 14. Multivariable Weibull proportional hazards regression analysis was used to identify the predictors of CVDs (namely, coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, and peripheral arterial disease (PAD)) at 5% level of significance. Results: After a median follow-up of 5.9 years, the overall incidence rate of CVD per 100 person–years (PY) was 2.71 (95% CI=16.9–17.6). The multivariable Weibull proportional hazard regression analysis showed a significant association of chronic kidney disease (CKD); (adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) [95% CI]=2.53 [1.36–4.72]), systolic blood pressure (SBP)≥140; (AHR [95% CI]=4.30 [2.12–8.73]) and triglyceride (TG)≥200 mg/dL; (AHR [95% CI[=5.10 [2.02–12.89]) with risk of incident CVD. Conclusion: CVD is a public health problem among diabetic patients in Ethiopia. SBP≥140, chronic kidney disease, and high triglyceride were independent predictors of new CVD among diabetic patients. These findings emphasize the need of attention for CVD patients with CKD and hypertension (HTN) comorbidities and a longer follow-up period using a prospective study design to determine the long-term effects of predictors of CVD among diabetic patients. per Deciliter; HDL-C, high density lipoprotein cholesterol; LDL-C, low density lipoprotein cholesterol.
T Cell Hybridoma Composition of Membrane Rafts of a Murine Glucocorticoids Alter the Lipid and Protein

Glucocorticoids (GC) are widely used anti-inﬂammatory agents known to suppress T cell activation by interfering with the TCR activation cascade. The attenuation of early TCR signaling events by these compounds has been recently attributed to a selective displacement of key signaling proteins from membrane lipid rafts. In this study, we demonstrate that GC displace the acyl-bound adaptor proteins linker for activation of T cells and phosphoprotein associated with glycosphingolipid-enriched microdomains from lipid rafts of murine T cell hybridomas, possibly by inhibiting their palmitoylation status. Analysis of the lipid content of the membrane rafts revealed that GC treatment led to a signiﬁcant decrease in palmitic acid content. Moreover, we found an overall decrease in the proportion of raft-associated saturated fatty acids. These changes were consistent with a decrease in ﬂuorescence anisotropy of isolated lipid rafts, indicating an increase in their ﬂuidity. These ﬁndings identify the mechanisms underlying the complex inhibitory effects of glucocorticoids on early TCR signaling and suggest that some of the inhibitory properties of GC on T cell responses may be related to their ability to affect the membrane lipid composition and the palmitoylation status of important signaling molecules. The Journal of Immunology, 2003, 170: 2932–2939.
Diplomarbeit Reliability of Dynamic Causal Modelling of Brain Connectivity

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a neuroimaging technique used to investigate the inner mechanisms of the human brain when presented with certain tasks. A sequence of 3D-images of the brain is acquired during certain experimental conditions to detect subtle changes in brain metabolism, which allow for inferences on neuronal activity during cognitive experiments. In order to analyse the acquired data, numerous approaches can be used, depending on the nature of the research question. Customarily, the relationship between stimulus and brain activity is assumed linear and is thus modelled in the General Linear Model framework. However, this simple yet robust approach does not allow for modelling interrelations between different parts of the brain. In this work, we are focusing on a particular method used for investigating dynamic functional connectivity of brain regions and changes related to certain task conditions, namely Dynamic Causal Modelling (DCM). After recent criticism on this method, we have investigated the test-retest reliability of Dynamic Causal Modelling. We acquired fMRI data on fourteen healthy subjects at ultra-high field while the subjects were repeatedly performing a facial emotion processing task. The task was repeated six times within a measurement session, the whole session was repeated after 14 days. With this study, we aimed to reproduce reported findings and assess the reproducibility of our results after repeated measurements. While the common approach using the General Linear Model yielded results showing high reproducibility and also coinciding with the results of other groups, the DCM results of a previous study could not be reproduced using this data set. Results over repeated measurements were also inconsistent. Further investigations are necessary to unveil the reason for these inconclusive results – whether the results may be attributed to poorly chosen model hypotheses, an undersized sample or other factors.