Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence and Factors Associated With Adverse Drug Events Among Patients On Dolutegravir-Based Regimen At The Immune Suppression Syndrome Clinic of Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, Uganda: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy is efficacious in suppression of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) however, it is associated with numerous toxicities hence great effort has been put into development of antiretrovirals with better tolerability. The World Health Organization recommended dolutegravir as first-line antiretroviral therapy however, recent studies have raised concerns regarding its safety in real-clinical settings due to adverse drug reactions (ADEs). Hence the purpose of this study was to establish the prevalence and factors associated with adverse drug events among patients on dolutegravir-based regimen at the Immune Suppression Syndrome (ISS) Clinic- Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH). Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at ISS Clinic-MRRH among 375 randomly selected patients who had been exposed to DTG-based regimen for at least 12 weeks. The patients were interviewed to obtain data on sociodemographics, dietary habits and thereafter their files reviewed to obtain data on ADEs. Data entry was done using Epi-data 3.0 and exported to SPSS version 25.0 for analysis. The prevalence of ADEs was determined as a percentage, and ADE associated factors were assessed using bivariate analysis, those found significant were further subjected to multivariate logistic regression model and were considered significant at P<0.05. Results: The prevalence of adverse drug events among patients on DTG-based regimen was found to be 33.1% (124/375) with 5.6% (7/124) participants discontinued from treatment due ADEs, 4 of which were due to hyperglycemia and 3 due to liver toxicity. The commonly experienced ADEs included abdominal pain, hyperglycemia and liver toxicity each at 7.3%, headache at 11.3%, and allergy at 36.3%. Male sex (AOR 1.571, 95% CI 1.433- 1.984), WHO stage one at entry to care (AOR 4.586, 95% CI 1.649-12.754), stage two (AOR 4.536, 95% CI 1.611-12.776), stage three (AOR 3.638, 95% CI 1.262-10.488), were significantly associated with ADEs. Patients with undetectable viral load at initiation of DTG-based regimen were less likely to experience ADEs (AOR = .324, 95% CI .1167-.629). Conclusions: Up to a third of patients on DTG-based regimen experienced ADEs. Male sex, WHO HIV disease stage and a detectable viral load at initiation of DTG-based regimen were significantly associated with ADEs. It is crucial to actively monitor patients with these characteristics for ADEs.
Alloimmunization in Egyptian Children with Sickle Cell Disease

Transfusion is critical in the management of sickle cell disease (SCD) complications. The resultant alloimmunization to RBC group antigens is a major complication of allogeneic blood transfusion and generally presents significant challenges in the management of SCD patients. To measure the frequency of the occurrence of the alloimmune markers in sickle cell disease and to investigate its predicators. This cross-sectional study included 50 children and young adults with SCD, all patients were subjected to detailed medical history thorough clinical examination. Laboratory investigations included complete blood count, markers of hemolysis and serum ferritin. The D, C, c, E, e, M, NJKa and JKb antigens were typed using monoclonal antisera. Fya, Fyb, Jka, Jkb, S, s and Anti Lua antigens were typed by commercially prepared polyclonal anti- human sera. Antibody screening was performed using Ortho screening panel. The study Sickle SS was the most common type of SCD representing more than half of the recruited patients. Frequency of antibody positive screening among SCD was 16%. Comparison between SCD patients with positive and those with negative antibody screening showed that higher frequency of positive antibody screening in those with SB+ than those SS and SB0. Patient with positive antibodies screening were significantly older when they received their first blood transfusion and had lower transfusion index (p = 0.037) than those with negative antibodies screening (p=0.013). There were no significant difference between patients with positive and those with negative antibodies screening as regards age, gender, transfusion frequency and as regards comorbidities; painful crisis (p=0.117), stroke (p=0.398), ACS (p=0.363). The distribution of the blood group antigens in patients with SCD has important clinical significance especially those who often require regular blood transfusion and who may have developed multiple antibodies. The resultant alloimmunization is serious necessitates early recognition and management.
Design of High-Relaxivity Polyelectrolyte Nanocapsules Based on Citrate Complexes of Gadolinium(III) of Unusual Composition

Through nuclear magnetic relaxation and pH-metry, the details of the complexation of gadolinium(III) ions with citric acid (H4L) in water and aqueous solutions of cationic polyelectrolytes are established. It is shown that the presence of poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) in solution affects magnetic relaxation behavior of gadolinium(III) complexes with citric acid (Cit) to a greater extent than polydiallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDDC). A large increase in relaxivity (up to 50 mM−1s−1) in the broad pH range (4–8) is revealed for the gadolinium(III)–citric acid–PEI system, which is particularly strong in the case of PEI with the molecular weight of 25 and 60 kDa. In weakly acidic medium (pH 3–7), the presence of PEI results in the formation of two tris-ligand associates [Gd(H2L)3]3− and [Gd(H2L)2(HL)]4−, which do not exist in aqueous medium. In weakly alkaline medium (pH 7–10), formation of ternary complexes Gd(III)–Cit–PEI with the Gd(III)–to–Cit ratio of 1:2 is evidenced. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering techniques (DLS), the formation of the particles with the size of 50–100 nm possessing narrow molecular-mass distribution (PDI 0.08) is determined in the solution containing associate of PEI with tris-ligand complex [Gd(H2L)2(HL)]4−.
Response to Antimony Toxicity in Dittrichia viscosa Plants: ROS, NO, H2S, and the Antioxidant System

Dittrichia viscosa plants were grown hydroponically with different concentrations of Sb. There was preferential accumulation of Sb in roots. Fe and Cu decreased, while Mn decreased in roots but not in leaves. Chlorophyll content declined, but the carotenoid content increased, and photosynthetic efficiency was unaltered. O2●− generation increased slightly, while lipid peroxidation increased only in roots. H2O2, NO, ONOO−, S-nitrosothiols, and H2S showed significant increases, and the enzymatic antioxidant system was altered. In roots, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDAR) activities declined, dehydroscorbate reductase (DHAR) rose, and ascorbate peroxidase (APX), peroxidase (POX), and glutathione reductase (GR) were unaffected. In leaves, SOD and POX increased, MDAR decreased, and APX was unaltered, while GR increased. S-nitrosoglutathione reductase (GSNOR) and l-cysteine desulfhydrilase (l-DES) increased in activity, while glutathione S-transferase (GST) decreased in leaves but was enhanced in roots. Components of the AsA/GSH cycle decreased. The great capacity of Dittrichia roots to accumulate Sb is the reason for the differing behaviour observed in the enzymatic antioxidant systems of the two organs. Sb appears to act by binding to thiol groups, which can alter free GSH content and SOD and GST activities. The coniferyl alcohol peroxidase activity increased, possibly to lignify the roots’ cell walls. Sb altered the ROS balance, especially with respect to H2O2. This led to an increase in NO and H2S acting on the antioxidant system to limit that Sb-induced redox imbalance. The interaction NO, H2S and H2O2 appears key to the response to stress induced by Sb. The interaction between ROS, NO, and H2S appears to be involved in the response to Sb.
Using Fuzzy Clustering of User Perception to Determine the Number of Level-of-Service Categories for Bus Rapid Transit

The concept of level of service (LOS) is meant to reflect user perception of the quality of service provided by a transportation facility or service. Although the LOS of bus rapid transit (BRT) has received considerable attention, the number of levels of service of BRT that a user can perceive still remains unclear. Therefore, in this paper, we address this issue using fuzzy clustering of user perception. User perception is defined as a six-dimension vector of the perceived arrival time, perceived waiting time, bus speed perception, passenger load perception, perceived departure time, and overall perception. A smartphone-based transit travel survey system was developed, with which user perception surveys were conducted in three BRT systems in China. Fuzzy C-Means clustering, improved using a simulated annealing genetic algorithm, was adopted to partition user perception into two to ten clusters. Seven cluster validity indices were used to determine the appropriate number of LOS categories. Our results indicate that users can perceive two to four levels of service.
Effect of dietary inclusion of Moringa oleifera leaf on productive performance, egg quality, antioxidant capacity and lipid levels in laying chickens

Abstract This study was performed to evaluate dietary Moringa oleifera leaf powder (MOLP) inclusion on productive performance, egg quality, internal organ index, antioxidant capacity and lipid metabolism in hens at late laying stage. The control (CON) group received basal diet, while the MOLP2.5, MOLP5, MOLP7.5, and MOLP10 groups received basal diet MOLP inclusion at 2.5, 5, 7.5 and 10%, respectively. After six weeks, laying performance, feed intake, egg quality, organ index, antioxidant capacity and lipid indices were analysed. Results showed that low-level dietary of inclusion MOLP (<5%) did not adversely affect laying rate. Feed intake and feed conversion were significantly reduced (p < .05) in the MOLP2.5 group. Yolk colour showed linear and quadratic responses to MOLP supplementation and changes in yolk colour stabilised over time. The abdominal fat index decreased linearly as the level of MOLP supplementation increased (p < .05). Glucose showed a significant decrease in the MOLP groups, compared with the CON group (p < .05). Serum triglycerides and high-density lipoprotein were lowest in the MOLP2.5 group. Serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were significantly higher in the MOLP2.5 group (p < .05) and expression levels of SOD1 and SOD2 mRNAs were significantly higher in the MOLP2.5 and MOLP7.5 groups than in the CON group (p < .05). These results suggest that dietary addition of low-level MOLP improves yolk colour and antioxidant capacity, and reduces feed conversion and abdominal fat index in layer chickens. Highlights Feed intake, feed conversion, abdominal fat index and serum glucose were significantly reduced in group treated with 2.5% moringa oleifera leaf powder. Layer chickens fed dietary moringa oleifera leaf powder inclusion significantly improved yolk color. The antioxidant capacity and lipid performance in group with 2.5% moringa oleifera leaf powder addition was best among the treatment groups.
p 16 , MGMT , RARß 2 , CLDN 3 , CRBP and MT 1 G gene methylation in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and its precursor lesions

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is a common cancer with a very poor prognosis. New methods are needed to screen high-risk populations and identify curable tumors and precursor lesions early. Molecular markers may be useful in such screening efforts. This study was designed to determine the prevalence of p16, MGMT, RARß2, CLDN3, CRBP and MT1G gene methylation in patients with ESCC to evaluate the variation of gene methylation across a spectrum of preneoplastic lesions, and assess the feasibility of using gene methylation in a primary screening test utilizing frozen esophageal cells collected by balloon cytology samplers. Samples were obtained from high-risk subjects from north central China. These samples included 11 foci of histologically normal mucosa, 8 foci of low-grade squamous dysplasia, 7 foci of high-grade squamous dysplasia, and 13 foci of ESCC from 6 fully embedded resection specimens; endoscopic biopsies from 6 individuals with no histological evidence of disease; and frozen esophageal balloon samples from 12 asymptomatic subjects. Promoter CpG site-specific hypermethylation status was determined for each gene using realtime methylation-specific PCR (qMS-PCR) based on Taqman chemistry. Of the 6 ESCC patients, 5 showed methylation of at least one gene. For most genes, methylation occurred with increasing frequency during neoplastic progression, with the largest increase found between lowand high-grade dysplasia. There was considerable variation in methylation patterns among different foci of the same histological grade, even within individual patients, but 16/20 (80%) of high-grade dysplastic and cancer foci had ≥ 2 methylated genes, while 17/19 (89%) of normal and low-grade dysplastic foci had <2 methylated genes. These genes were rarely methylated in histologically normal mucosa from patients with or without ESCC. Gene methylation was common and easily detectable in the frozen esophageal cells collected by balloon cytology samplers. Our data suggest that methylation of p16, MGMT, RARß2, CLDN3, CRBP, and MT1G is common in the esophageal mucosa of patients with ESCC in this high-risk population, and tends to increase in prevalence in foci with increasing histological severity of disease. Methylation data from panels of genes may be able to identify patients with high-grade lesions. Balloon cytology may be able to screen the length of the esophagus effectively for a subset of cells with abnormal methylation, and may be useful in a primary screening test for ESCC and its precursor lesions.
Multiattention Adaptation Network for Motor Imagery Recognition

Brain–computer interface (BCI) based on motor imagery electroencephalogram (EEG) has been widely used in various applications. Despite the previous efforts, the remained major challenges are effective feature extraction and the time-consuming calibration procedure. To address these issues, a novel multiattention adaptation network integrating the multiple attention mechanism and transfer learning is proposed to classify the EEG signals. First, the multiattention layer is introduced to automatically capture the dominant brain regions relevant to mental tasks without incorporating any prior knowledge about the physiology. Then, a multiattention convolutional neural network is employed to extract deep representation from raw EEG signals. Especially, a domain discriminator is applied to deep representation to reduce the differences between sessions for target subjects. The extensive experiments are conducted on three public EEG datasets (Dataset IIa and IIb of BCI Competition IV, and High Gamma dataset), achieving the competitive performance with average classification accuracy of 81.48%, 82.54%, and 93.97%, respectively. All the results outperform the state-of-the-art algorithms demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed method. Importantly, we confirm that it is easier and more appropriate to transfer the information from local brain regions than from the whole brain. This enhances the transfer ability of deep features and, hence, it improves the performance of BCI systems.
Exploring Chemical Diversity of Phorbas Sponges as a Source of Novel Lead Compounds in Drug Discovery

Porifera, commonly referred to as marine sponges, are acknowledged as major producers of marine natural products (MNPs). Sponges of the genus Phorbas have attracted much attention over the years. They are widespread in all continents, and several structurally unique compounds have been identified from this species. Terpenes, mainly sesterterpenoids, are the major secondary metabolites isolated from Phorbas species, even though several alkaloids and steroids have also been reported. Many of these compounds have presented interesting biological activities. Particularly, Phorbas sponges have been demonstrated to be a source of cytotoxic metabolites. In addition, MNPs exhibiting cytostatic, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory activities have been isolated and structurally characterized. This review provides an overview of almost 130 secondary metabolites from Phorbas sponges and their biological activities, and it covers the literature since the first study published in 1993 until November 2021, including approximately 60 records. The synthetic routes to the most interesting compounds are briefly outlined.
Antioxidant Activities and Heavy Metal Contents of Castanea Sativa Honey

Honey is one of the most valuable foods in terms of its antioxidant nature and antioxidant activity. In this study, their botanic origins, total flavonoid content, total phenol content, the hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity (HPSA) (in terms of SC50 (µg mL-1)), ferric reducing antioxidant power capacity (FRAP), 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity (in terms of SC50), metal-chelating activity (MCA) (%) and heavy metal amounts were examined to determine the qualities of honey samples that gathered from Giresun city of Black Sea region in Turkey. According to the melissopalynological analysis, the botanic origins of the samples are Castanea sativa (Chestnut) Miller and uni-floral. The HPSA, FRAP, DPPH, MCA (%), total phenol content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC) were found between 251.99±0.48-258.64±1.22 µg mL-1, 71.34±0.09-73.71±0.20 %, 584.86±0.06-595.04±0.29 µg mL-1, 36.73±0.00-36.86±0.09 %, 93.82±1.05-173.15±2.46 mg GAE 100 g-1 and 5.51±0.19-8.29±0.05 mg CAE/100 g, respectively. For comparison of these results, Butylated Hydroxy Anisole (BHA), Butylated Hydroxy Toluene (BHT) and α-Tocopherol (TOC) were used as standard antioxidant compounds. In addition, it was observed that honey samples were been contaminated with most of the heavy metals (Al, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Li, Mg, Mn, Ni, Rb, and Zn) to a lesser or greater extent, whereas others (Te, Tl, and U) were never detected in these samples. However, Cd and Cs were detected only in one sample and Pb in another sample Finally, the results indicate that although honey is an important source of nutrients, nevertheless it could be affected by environmental pollution.
Assessment of Quality of Life and Pain Severity in Older Men with Osteoporosis: Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The quality of life in osteoporosis is studied for men rather than for women. Aim of the study was to determine how bone mass density (BMD) relates to life quality components and the severity of pain felt by men affected by osteoporosis. Methods: Presented research is a cross-sectional study. The cohort of 62 men aged 65 to 85 years was divided into a group with osteoporosis (N = 27) and a group without osteoporosis (N = 35). The participants’ quality of life was measured with the Qualeffo41 Questionnaire, BMD was quantified by densitometry, and pain intensity was assessed on the Visual Analogue Scale. Results: We found that lower BMD was strongly correlated to participants’ quality of life (r = −0.72), especially the quality of leisure and social activities (r = −0.66), general health perception (r = −0.59), and mobility (r = −0.57). Pain significantly affected general health perception in older men with osteoporosis. General health assessment and pain were highly correlated with each other (r = 0.888). Conclusion: BMD and the overall quality of life of the study participants were related to each other. The strongest relationship occurred between reduced BMD and leisure and social activities component. The pain significantly affected participants’ general health perception. The results may be employed to create new prophylactic strategies to improve life quality in men with osteoporosis.
Low response rates to hepatitis B vaccine in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Background: Hepatitis B is an infectious disease with converging routes of transmission with hepatitis C, making vaccination important in hepatitis C infected people. The objective was to evaluate the vaccine response against hepatitis B virus (HBV) in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV). Methods: Retrospective observational study was conducted between November 2018 and April 2020. Subjects with anti-HBs levels ≥10 mUI/ml were considered protected against HBV and those with chronic HCV who did not receive at least one dose of the vaccine schedule or with anti-HBc reagent or even with anti-HBs positive prior to the first dose documented in the HBV vaccine record were excluded. The immune response rates to VHB vaccine in patients with HCV was obtained and different variables were analysed.Results: The study group was compound of 370 subjects. The majority (55.7%) were male, with a median age of 55.6±11 years. Regarding present or past smoking, 56.9% of patients reported that were active or past tobacco users. HCV genotype 1 corresponded to 59.7% of the cases, followed by genotype 3 (36.88%). One hundred and fourteen (30.9%) of the patients had liver cirrhosis. The immune response to complete HBV vaccine was 62.3%, whereas the response to a single dose was 57.1% (p=1). Only the age of the patient at first dose (p=0.030), smoking status (p=0.017) and the presence of cirrhosis (p=0.046) influenced the immune response to HBV vaccine.Conclusions: The rate of immune response to standard schedule of HBV vaccination in patients with HCV was low (62.3%).
Optically enabled ADCs and application to optical communications

Electrical-optical signal processing has been shown to be a promising path to overcome the limitations of state-of-theart all-electrical data converters. In addition to ultra-broadband signal processing, it allows leveraging ultra-low jitter mode-locked lasers and thus increasing the aperture jitter limited effective number of bits at high analog signal frequencies. In this paper, we review our recent progress towards optically enabled time-and frequency-interleaved analog-to-digital converters, as well as their monolithic integration in electronic-photonic integrated circuits. For signal frequencies up to 65 GHz, an optoelectronic track-andhold amplifier based on the source-emitter-follower architecture is shown as a power efficient approach in optically enabled BiCMOS technology. At higher signal frequencies, integrated photonic filters enable signal slicing in the frequency domain and further scaling of the conversion bandwidth, with the reconstruction of a 140 GHz optical signal being shown. We further show how such optically enabled data converter architectures can be applied to a nonlinear Fourier transform based integrated transceiver in particular and discuss their applicability to broadband optical links in general.
Improved Channel Equalization using Deep Reinforcement Learning and Optimization

INTRODUCTION: Data transmission through channels observe large distortions arising due to the channel's dispersive nature challenged with inter-symbol interference. OBJECTIVES: The paper serves twin tasks, firstly addresses the challenges of signal interference using RL based model and secondly evaluates its effectiveness using different communication channels. METHODS: The author proposes an improvement in channel equalization with the implementation of Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) followed by the Q-Learning model for Reinforcement Learning (RL) to identify the most suitable bit streams that will offer least interference. RESULTS: Simulation analysis is performed against four existing works in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER), reflecting 20 to 30% improvement. The performance evaluation is executed using AWGN, Rician, Rayleigh, and Nakagami channels to evaluate BER against SNR, Eb/No, and Es/No. CONCLUSION: Overall, the proposed work offers high-speed data transfer through a reliable communication channel with least BER under different scenarios.