Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbial Analysis of Obturators During Maxillofacial Prosthodontic Treatment Over an 8-Year Period

Objective The aim of the study was to investigate the microbial colonization (by Candida species, anaerobic and facultative anaerobic bacteria) of maxillary obturators used for the restoration of maxillary defects, including during radiotherapy. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Participants Fifteen patients requiring a maxillary obturator prosthesis had swabs of their obturators and adjacent tissues taken at different stages of their treatment over a period of 8 years. Method Identification of microbial species from the swabs was carried out using randomly amplified polymorphic DNA polymerase chain reaction (RAPD PCR) analysis, checkerboard DNA–DNA hybridization, CHROMagar Candida chromogenic agar, and DNA sequencing. Results Candida species were detected in all patients and all patients developed mucositis and candidiasis during radiotherapy which was associated with an increase in colonization of surfaces with Candida spp. , particularly C albicans. Microbial colonization increased during radiotherapy and as an obturator aged, and decreased following a reline, delivery of a new prosthesis, or antifungal treatment during radiotherapy. Conclusions Microbial colonization of maxillary obturators was related to the stage of treatment, age of the obturator material, radiotherapy and antifungal medications, and antifungal treatment may be recommended if C albicans colonization of palatal tissues is greater than 105 colony-forming units per cm2 following the first week of radiotherapy.
Development of a simulation placement in a pre-registration nursing programme.

BACKGROUND A 4-week simulation placement for first-year student nurses using an innovative blended approach was developed and delivered in one university. This was the first tariff-funded simulation placement in the UK for student nurses. AIMS To describe how this flexible simulation placement was developed, operated and adapted due to COVID-19 while exploring the student nurses' experiences and preparedness for practice. METHODS An anonymous online survey was undertaken and a placement evaluation was completed and compared with traditional clinical placement evaluations by previous students at the same point in their studies. RESULTS Students were as satisfied with the simulation placement as students who had attended real practice placements: 92% of students were satisfied with their simulated placement experience and 92% felt prepared for practice. CONCLUSION This simulated placement has been an acceptable replacement for traditional practice placements, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Measuring Plant Attractiveness to Pollinators: Methods and Considerations

Abstract Global pollinator declines have fostered increased public interest in creating pollinator-friendly gardens in human-managed landscapes. Indeed, studies on urban pollinator communities suggest that flower-rich greenspaces can serve as promising sites for conservation. Ornamental flowers, which are readily available at most commercial garden centers, are ubiquitous in these landscapes. These varieties are often non-native and highly bred, and their utility to pollinators is complex. In this study, we used observational data and citizen science to develop a methods framework that will assist stakeholders in the floriculture industry to incorporate metrics of pollinator health into existing breeding and evaluation protocols. The results of this study support how plant attractiveness to pollinators is often dependent on variables such as climate and plant phenology, which should be considered when developing an assessment tool. Furthermore, we found that some cultivars were consistently attractive across all observations while for other cultivars, pollinator visitation was apparently conditional. We determine using multiple statistical tests that 10 min is a sufficient length of time for observation of most plant types to broadly estimate three measures of plant attractiveness: visitor abundance, primary visitors attracted, and cultivar rank attractiveness, without sacrificing efficiency or accuracy. Additionally, we demonstrate that properly trained non-expert observers can collect accurate observational data, and our results suggest that protocols may be designed to maximize consistency across diverse data collectors.
Different phenotypes of moyamoya disease in a Chinese familial case involving heterozygous c.14429G>a variant in RNF213

Abstract Purpose Moyamoya disease (MMD) is an uncommon chronic and occlusive cerebrovascular disorder involving the development of abnormal collateral vessels. This report aimed to describe a Chinese familial case with a rare variant in the RNF213 gene. Methods The present report presents a rare familial case of MMD involving a heterozygous c.14429G>A variant in RNF213 and exhibiting different phenotypes. Results A 3-year-old Chinese boy and his 10-year-old sister diagnosed severe bilateral MMD, while their mother was diagnosed asymptomatic bilateral MMD, based on the imaging results of magnetic resonance angiography (MRA). The boy mainly showed numbness at left hand accompanied by dysphasia and dyskinesia, while his sister had complex symptoms including dysphasia, dyskinesia at both hands and fatigue of limbs. Muscle force was ranked as left (upper limb/lower limb: 4/3) and right (upper limb/lower limb: 3/4). Genetic testing indicated a heterozygous c.14429G>A variant in RNF213 in 3 patients. The 3 patients shared the same amino acid substitution of p.Arg4810Lys caused by c.14429G>A. The father of two children also underwent genetic testing for RNF213 and MRI examination but found normal in all indices. Conclusions Genetic testing for RNF213 is suggested for MMD screening towards family members, and c.14576G>A variant is identified as an important pathogenic mutation with family heritability.
Impact of lung function and baseline clinical characteristics on patient-reported outcome measures in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease

Abstract Objective The SENSCIS® trial demonstrated a significant reduction of lung function decline in patients with SSc-associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) treated with nintedanib, but no significant effect on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). To assess whether SSc/SSc-ILD severity and large changes in lung function correlate with HRQoL, a post-hoc analysis of SENSCIS®, aggregating treatment arms, was undertaken. Methods Patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures [St. George’s Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ), Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT)-Dyspnoea, and HAQ–Disability Index (HAQ-DI), incorporating the Scleroderma HAQ visual analogue scale (SHAQ VAS)] at baseline and week 52 were assessed for associations to SSc-ILD severity. Results At baseline and at week 52, forced vital capacity (FVC) <70% predicted was associated with worse PRO measure scores compared with FVC ≥70% predicted [week 52: SGRQ 45.1 vs 34.0 (P < 0.0001); FACIT-Dyspnoea 48.9 vs 44.5 (P < 0.0001); HAQ-DI 0.7 vs 0.6 (P < 0.0228); SHAQ VAS breathing problems 3.6 vs 2.6 (P < 0.0001)]. Patients with diffuse cutaneous SSc and other characteristics associated with SSc-ILD severity had worse PRO measure scores. Patients requiring oxygen or with >30% fibrosis on high-resolution computed tomography at baseline demonstrated worse PRO measure scores at week 52. After 1 year, patients with a major (>10%) improvement/worsening in FVC demonstrated corresponding improvement/worsening in SGRQ and other PRO measures, significant for the SGRQ symptom domain (P < 0.001). Conclusion Severe SSc-ILD and major deteriorations in lung function have important impacts on HRQoL. Treatments that slow lung function decline and prevent severe SSc-ILD are important to preserve HRQoL. Trial registration clinicaltrials.gov, www.clinicaltrials.gov, NCT02597933
(Not so) intuitive results from a smart agriculture low-power wireless mesh deployment

A 21-node low-power wireless mesh network is deployed in a peach orchard. The network serves as a frost event prediction system. On top of sensor values, devices also report network statistics. In 3 months of operations, the network has produced over 4 million temperature values, and over 350,000 network statistics. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the statistics, in order to precisely understand the performance of the network. Nodes in the network exhibit an expected lifetime between 4 and 16 years, with an end-to-end reliability of 100%. We show how -- contrary to popular belief -- wireless links are symmetric. Thanks to the use of Time Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH), the network topology is very stable, with ≤5 link changes per day in the entire network.
Bacterial isolates and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of ocular infection at a tertiary referral hospital in the South of Italy

Purpose The present study aimed to determine the prevalence of bacterial and fungal infections of the eye and also to assess the antibiotic susceptibility pattern of bacterial isolates at a tertiary referral eye care hospital in Bari, Italy. Methods Two hundred seventy three samples collected during a 2-year observation period. Culture, Gram's stain, potassium hydroxide mount and occasionally Giemsa staining was done for the clinical specimens. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed for bacterial growth. Results Out of 273 samples processed, 236 (86.4%) yielded growth: of them, 183 (77,5%) were bacterial, 26 (11%) fungal, and 23 (9,7%) specimens showed the presence of Acanthamoeba. Among bacterial infections, 99 (54.5%) bacterial isolates were Gram-positives, and 82 (44.8%) were Gram-negatives. Among Gram positives, Tigecycline showed the greatest susceptibility (93.8%), followed by Linezolid (97%) and Daptomycin (95.18%). Gram negative bacteria strains were susceptible to Imipenem (95%), Meropenem (98,5%) and Amikacin (91%) Multidrug in vitro resistance (resistance >3 classes of antibiotics) was found in 45 Gram positive (63%). and 33 Gram negative (44%). Conclusion Conjunctival specimens yielded mainly bacterial growth with Staphylococcus species being the predominant isolate followed by Pseudomonas species. Findings from the current analysis evidence a substantial level of in vitro resistance to ≥3 antibiotics.
Polygenic discrimination of migratory phenotypes in an estuarine forage fish

Abstract Migration is a complex phenotypic trait with some species containing migratory and nonmigratory individuals. Such life history variation may be attributed in part to plasticity, epigenetics, or genetics. Although considered semianadromous, recent studies using otolith geochemistry have revealed life history variation within the critically endangered Delta Smelt. Broadly categorizable as migratory or freshwater residents, we examined Restriction site Associated DNA sequencing data to test for a relationship between genetic variation and migratory behaviors. As previously shown, we found no evidence for neutral population genetic structure within Delta Smelt; however, we found significant evidence for associations between genetic variants and life history phenotypes. Furthermore, discriminant analysis of principal components, hierarchical clustering, and machine learning resulted in accurate assignment of fish into the freshwater resident or migratory classes based on their genotypes. These results suggest the presence of adaptive genetic variants relating to life history variation within a panmictic population. Mechanisms that may lead to this observation are genotype dependent habitat choice and spatially variable selection, both of which could operate each generation and are not exclusive. Given that the population of cultured Delta Smelt are being used as a refugial population for conservation, as a supply for wild population supplementation, and currently represent the majority of all living individuals of this species, we recommend that the hatchery management strategy consider the frequencies of life history-associated alleles and how to maintain this important aspect of Delta Smelt biological variation while under captive propagation.
ENHANCEMENT AND PREDICTION OF FLOW BOILING HEAT TRANSFER INSIDE HORIZONTAL TUBES CONTAINING TWISTED- TAPE INSERTS

This paper presents an experimental study on heat transfer augmentation during convective boiling of R134a inside a 15.9 mm ID horizontal tube containing twisted-tape inserts. The use of twisted-tape inserts is a heat transfer enhancement technique applied on heat exchangers over more than one century ago. However, the heat transfer augmentation comes together with pressure drop increment, impacting the pumping power and, consequently, the system efficiency. Moreover, until now it is not clear when the effects on the heat exchanger efficiency of the heat transfer enhancement overcomes pressure drop penalties. In the present study, pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient experiments were performed. Experimental results were obtained during flow boiling of R134a for twisted- tape ratios of 3, 4, 9 and 14, mass velocities ranging from 75 to 200 kg / m 2 s, h eat flux of 10 kW / m 2 and saturation temperatures of 5 and 15 °C. The results obtained lead to the conclusion that higher heat transfer rates can be achieved using twisted-tape inserts at the expense of a reasonable pressure drop. In addition, a new correlation to predict the heat transfer coefficients during two-phase flow inside tubes containing twisted-tape inserts is proposed. The performance of the correlation can be deemed adequate, considering that it compares well with experimental results of different authors.
Drug repurposing against the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domain of dengue serotype 3 by virtual screening and molecular dynamics simulations

Abstract Dengue is an arboviral disease caused by the dengue flavivirus. The NS5 protein of flaviviruses is a potential therapeutic target, and comprises an RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RDRP) domain that catalyses viral replication. The aim of this study was to repurpose FDA-approved drugs against the RDRP domain of dengue virus serotype 3 (DENV3) using structure-based virtual screening and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The FDA-approved drugs were screened against the RDRP domain of DENV3 using a two-step docking-based screening approach with Glide SP and Glide XP. For comparison, four reported DENV3 RDRP inhibitors were docked as standards. The hitlist was screened based on the docking score of the inhibitor with the lowest docking score (PubChem ID: 118797902; reported IC50 value: 0.34 µM). Five hits with docking scores and Molecular Mechanics/Generalized Born Surface Area (MM-GBSA) energy lower than those of 118797902 were selected. The stability of the hit-receptor complexes was investigated using 100 ns MD simulations in an explicit solvent. The results of MD simulations demonstrated that polydatin and betiatide remained stably bound to the receptor, and formed stable interactions with the RDRP domain of DENV3. The hit-receptor interactions were comparable to those of 118797902. The average Prime MM-GBSA energy of polydatin and betiatide was lower than that of 118797902 during simulation, indicating that their binding affinity to DENV3 RDRP was higher than that of the standard. The results of this study may aid in the development of serotype-selective drugs against dengue in the future. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma
The Effect of the Kirsten Rat Sarcoma Viral Oncogene Homolog (Kras) Proto-Oncogene, GTPase Genetic Polymorphism on the Safety and Efficacy of Bevacizumab Combination Treatment Regimens for Patients with Nonsquamous, Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer with Brain Metastases

Background: Non-small cell lung cancer with brain metastasis (NSCLCBM) is normally observed in advanced-stage patients. Bevacizumab has shown to improve survival in the first-line treatment of metastatic brain NSCLC when added as a bolus plus irinotecan. However, a better understanding of the molecular mechanism is required to further drive progress in this field. Methods: A total of 155 patients were selected, including 42.10% with Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog (Kras)-mutant tumors. Of the 155 patients, 62.04% had developed brain metastasis (BM). Seven functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the Kras gene were extracted from the HapMap SNP database and were used for genotyping. The haplologit command in Statistical Software for Data Science (STATA) was used to model the association between haplotypes and case status. A Cox analysis was used to evaluate the prognostic value of the SNPs. Results: Among the patients treated with combination regimens, recurrence after local treatment was more frequent in those with two types of Kras mutations (odds ratio [OR] = 2.033 [0.5015–4.2552], p = 0.009). Among the patients with untreated BM, overall survival was shorter than that of patients with Kras mutations according to univariate analysis (OR = 5.130 [1.240–41.012], p = 0.033). Conclusions: Kras mutations have a predictive role for BM recurrence and outcome in patients with NSCLC treated with bevacizumab combination regimens.
The Answer Bot Effect (ABE): A powerful new form of influence made possible by intelligent personal assistants and search engines

We introduce and quantify a relatively new form of influence: the Answer Bot Effect (ABE). In a 2015 report in PNAS, researchers demonstrated the power that biased search results have to shift opinions and voting preferences without people’s knowledge–by up to 80% in some demographic groups. They labeled this phenomenon the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME), speculating that its power derives from the high level of trust people have in algorithmically-generated content. We now describe three experiments with a total of 1,736 US participants conducted to determine to what extent giving users “the answer”–either via an answer box at the top of a page of search results or via a vocal reply to a question posed to an intelligent personal assistant (IPA)–might also impact opinions and votes. Participants were first given basic information about two candidates running for prime minister of Australia (this, in order to assure that participants were “undecided”), then asked questions about their voting preferences, then given answers to questions they posed about the candidates–either with answer boxes or with vocal answers on an Alexa simulator–and then asked again about their voting preferences. The experiments were controlled, randomized, double-blind, and counterbalanced. Experiments 1 and 2 demonstrated that answer boxes can shift voting preferences by as much as 38.6% and that the appearance of an answer box can reduce search times and clicks on search results. Experiment 3 demonstrated that even a single question-and-answer interaction on an IPA can shift voting preferences by more than 40%. Multiple questions posed to an IPA leading to answers that all have the same bias can shift voting preferences by more than 65%. Simple masking procedures still produced large opinion shifts while reducing awareness of bias to close to zero. ABE poses a serious threat to both democracy and human autonomy because (a) it produces large shifts in opinions and voting preferences with little or no user awareness, (b) it is an ephemeral form of influence that leaves no paper trail, and (c) worldwide, it is controlled almost exclusively by just four American tech companies. ABE will become a greater threat as people increasingly rely on IPAs for answers.
Germany Endometriosis Pattern Changes; Prevalence and Therapy over 2010 and 2019 Years: A Retrospective Cross- Sectional Study

Background The aim of this study was to investigate whether the prevalence and the therapy patterns of endome- triosis differ in 2010 and 2019. Materials and Methods This retrospective cross-sectional study was based on the data from the IQVIA Disease Analyzer database and included women with at least one visit to one of the 136 private gynecologist practices in Germany in 2010 or 2019. The prevalence of endometriosis as well as prevalence of each endometriosis therapy such as Dienogest, other Progestins than Dienogest, and Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormones, was calculated in both years. Results The present study included 346,249 women documented in 2010 and 343,486 women documented in 2019. The prevalence of endometriosis increased from 0.53% in 2010 to 0.66% in 2019 (P<0.001). The proportion of en- dometriosis patients treated with Dienogest increased significantly between 2010 and 2019 (18.1 vs. 35.0%). The proportion of women prescribed other Progestins than Dienogest has not significantly changed between 2010 and 2019 (8.4 vs. 8.3%). Gonadotropin-releasing hormones were prescribed only rarely in both 2010 and 2019, with a significant decrease in prescriptions between these two years (3.7 vs. 2.0%). Conclusion There were significant changes in the prevalence and medical therapeutic patterns of endometriosis in 2010 versus 2019 reflecting changes in therapy guidelines and possibly in diagnostic methods.
Tear film lipid layer thickness measurement from Ocular Surface Analyzer as a marker to monitor treatment of meibomian gland dysfunction in a study comparing physiological detergent-free eyelid wipes with conventional therapy: A randomized trial

Purpose: To compare the efficacy of physiological, non-detergent eyelid wipes with conventional lid hygiene in patients with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). Methods: Fifty participants with MGD were recruited and randomized into two groups. Participants in group I used Evolve Pure™ Eyewipes twice a day to clean the eyelid debris along with standard therapy (antibiotic and lubricants) and participants in group II followed lid hygiene with warm compresses along with standard therapy. Symptoms, ocular surface assessment (lipid layer thickness, tear meniscus height, non-invasive tear film breakup time, and meibography), slit-lamp biomicroscopy (eyelash contamination, meibomian gland blockage, meibomian gland secretion, and meibomian gland telangiectasia) and tear film osmolarity were noted at baseline and 90 days after therapy. Results: Significant improvement in symptoms and signs of MGD was observed in both groups after treatment (P < 0.001); however, the clinical improvement was better with the use of eyelid wipes. Lipid layer thickness increased significantly in group I (P = 0.0006) and group II (P = 0.0002), which was maintained even after adjusting for sociodemographic variables such as age, sex, and severity score of symptoms and signs. Conclusion: Lipid layer thickness of the tear film is a sensitive marker in monitoring response to treatment in patients with MGD. The use of physiological detergent-free eyelid wipes is non-inferior to lid hygiene and warm compresses, which remains the mainstay for treatment of MGD; the clinical improvement with eyelid wipes was noted to be better.