Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A prospective, randomised study on the use of well-ﬁtting masks for prevention of invasive aspergillosis in high-risk patients

The problem of inhalation of Aspergillus spores outside rooms with high-efﬁciency particulate air (HEPA) ﬁltration has not been resolved as yet. Well-ﬁtting masks are used in industrial and health care settings to protect from inhaling particles of 0.3–0.5 l m size. To investigate the efﬁcacy and tolerability of well-ﬁtting masks in high-risk patients, we conducted a prospective, randomised, multicentre study comparing standard hospital hygiene procedures with or without wearing masks in adults undergoing chemotherapy for acute leukaemia or allogeneic haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (aHSCT). Forty-one patients were randomly assigned to wearing masks and 39 to the control group. In all, 76% of patients were treated in laminar airﬂow or HEPA-ﬁltered rooms, 84% received oral polyenes, and three aHSCT recipients were given ﬂuconazole. Duration of neutropenia was similar in both treatment groups. Invasive fungal infections were diagnosed in eight patients in either study arm. One patient in each arm died from proven invasive aspergillosis. There was no difference in the use of systemic antifungals. Of patients in the mask group, 65% described the comfort as acceptable, 26% as unpleasant, and 9% as intolerable. This ﬁrst randomised study on the use of well-ﬁtting masks failed to show a reduction of invasive fungal infections. of 2 after study.
RMHP_A_298783 1263..1270

Medical Physics Department, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia Purpose: To optimize the maintenance of radiation shields, this study aims to analyze annual inspection files to assess the integrity of radiation shields and their associated factors with regard to defects in radiation shields in clinical settings. Methods: A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted at hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The data from annual inspection files of 1019 clinical lead radiation shields were analyzed. The factors of shield shape, unit where a shield is used, shield thickness, short-term use and number of users were examined. In addition to the inspection file analysis, radiation attenuation measurements were obtained for a subset of shields to compare newly purchased shields with older shields. Statistical analyses were performed using Fisher’s exact test and a t-test. Results: The results show that the highest percentage of failing shields were found in the emergency unit, fluoroscopy unit and operation room with a failure of approximately 7.14%, 5.61%, and 3.98%, respectively, of these shields. Fluoroscopy and operation room units were statistically significantly associated with shield defects. There was no association between shield damage and shape of shield, shield thickness, short-term use or number of users. Radiation attenuation measurements were similar for new and older shields. Conclusion: As fluoroscopy units and operating rooms have a higher percentage of damaged shields, it is recommended that the shields employed in these units should be regularly inspected more frequently than once a year. The study highlights that the shields’ age, transmission measurements that confirm that the correct shields are purchased according to the required kVp, physical appearance, and cleanliness should be recorded in annual inspection files. This study highlights the need for uniform inspection files of radiation shields across hospitals. National and international organizations may apply these findings to develop appropriate recommendations.
Edinburgh Research Explorer Episodic Training for Domain Generalization

Domain generalization (DG) is the challenging and topi-cal problem of learning models that generalize to novel testing domains with different statistics than a set of known training domains. The simple approach of aggregating data from all source domains and training a single deep neural network end-to-end on all the data provides a surprisingly strong baseline that sur-passes many prior published methods. In this paper we build on this strong baseline by designing an episodic training procedure that trains a single deep network in a way that exposes it to the domain shift that characterises a novel domain at runtime. Specifically, we decompose a deep network into feature extractor and classifier components, and then train each component by simulating it interacting with a partner who is badly tuned for the current domain. This makes both components more robust, ultimately leading to our networks producing state-of-the-art performance on three DG benchmarks. Furthermore, we consider the pervasive workflow of using an ImageNet trained CNN as a fixed feature extractor for downstream recognition tasks. Using the Visual Decathlon benchmark, we demonstrate that our episodic-DG training improves the performance of such a general purpose feature extractor by explicitly training a feature for robustness to novel problems. This shows that DG training can benefit standard practice in computer vision.
Developing and Validating of a New Multi-Dimensional Scale for Anti-Social Behaviour in a Higher Education Setting

The purpose of this research is to construct and validate a multi-dimensional scale of Anti-social Behaviour (hereafter ASB) in a Western higher education context (i.e. USA). To achieve this, four studies, each with a different sample, were performed. Study 1 (n = 150) generated a pool of potential measuring items of ASB following an exploratory design. Study 2 (n = 254) explored the dimensionality of the items produced in Study 1 using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and reliability measures. Study 3 (n = 654) confirmed the factorial structure from Study 2 and assessed the measurement model invariance using a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach. Finally, Study 4 (n = 287) assessed the predictive validity of the ASB measure through testing a hypothetical path model linking ASB to narcissism and Machiavellianism via a SEM procedure. In total, our research findings concluded that the ASB measurement model is a two-factor multi-2 dimensional structure comprising: Interpersonal Antagonistic Behaviour (six items) as well as Indirect Distractive Behaviour (four items). Research and practical implications are discussed. This research offers a new ASB measurement model, the Antisocial Behaviour - University Level Scale (ASBULS), specifically designed and validated for assessing implications of ASB in higher education. The findings conclude that the proposed ASB measurement model is a two-factor multidimensional structure comprising of Interpersonal Antagonistic Behaviour (six items) and Indirect Distractive Behaviour (four items). The predictive validity of the proposed measurement model has been verified. In this section, we offer implications for both practice and scholarship.
Immunization of Volunteers with Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhi Strain Ty21a Elicits the Oligoclonal Expansion of CD8 (cid:1) T Cells with Predominant V (cid:2) Repertoires

CD8 (cid:1) T cells are likely to play an important role in host defense against Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi by several effector mechanisms, including lysis of infected cells (cytotoxicity) and gamma interferon (IFN- (cid:2) ) secretion. In an effort to better understand these responses, we studied the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire of serovar Typhi-speciﬁc CD8 (cid:1) T cells in humans. To this end, we determined the TCR beta chain (V (cid:3) ) usage of CD8 (cid:1) T cells from three volunteers orally immunized with Ty21a typhoid vaccine by ﬂow cytometry using a panel of monoclonal antibodies. Although TCR V (cid:3) usage varied among volunteers, we identiﬁed oligoclonal V (cid:3) subset expansions in individual volunteers (V (cid:3) 2, 5.1, 8, 17, and 22 in volunteer 1; V (cid:3) 1, 2, 5.1, 14, 17, and 22 in volunteer 2; and V (cid:3) 3, 8, 14, and 16 in volunteer 3). These subsets were antigen speciﬁc, as shown by cytotoxicity and IFN- (cid:2) secretion assays on V (cid:3) sorted cells and on T-cell clones derived from these volunteers. Moreover, eight-color ﬂow cytometric analysis showed that these clones exhibited a T effector memory phe- notype (i.e., CCR7 (cid:4) CD27 (cid:4) CD45RO (cid:1) CD62L (cid:4) ) and coexpressed gut homing molecules (e.g., high levels of integrin (cid:5) 4 (cid:3) 7, intermediate levels of CCR9, and low levels of CD103). In conclusion, our results show that long-term T-cell responses to serovar Typhi in Ty21a vaccinees are oligoclonal, involving multiple TCR V (cid:3) families. Moreover, these serovar Typhi-speciﬁc CD8 (cid:1) T cells bearing deﬁned V (cid:3) speciﬁcities are phenotyp-ically and functionally consistent with T effector memory cells with preferential gut homing potential.
Association of canopy spectral reﬂectance indices and yield components of winter

Grain yield of wheat is a complex trait made up of the interaction between different yield components and environmental effects. Due to the importance of yield traits, breeders need efficient and precise methods to measure differences among genotypes. Since that spectral proximal sensing is promising for high-throughput non-destructivephenotyping, recent findings suggest that multispectral proximal sensors can be used in place of labour intensive methods to estimate specific plant traits. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of different spectral reflectance indices (SRIs) in assessing stem height and spike length in 4 winter wheat genotypes grown in different conditions of seed priming. Seeds of each winter wheat genotypes were primed with different concentrations of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and after sown in soil pots. Spectral reflectance from the plants at different growth stages during vegetation was measured using an active multispectral, optical sensor namely Plant-O-Meter. Since that device provides four indicative wavelengths between 465, 535, 630 and 850 nm, several SRIs were calculated. The results revealed that most of SRIs measured at full flowering stage (BBCH 65) of wheat were positively correlated ( P < 0.01) with stem height of wheat, with r values of up to 0.674. For the trait spike length of wheat the greatest positive association was found at medium milk grown stage (BBCH 75) of wheat under each treatment, with r values of up to 0.798. Overall, statistically significant correlations were more influenced by the phenological stage of estimation and the index used.
Role of Combined Inoculation with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi, as a Sustainable Tool, for Stimulating the Growth, Physiological Processes, and Flowering Performance of Lavender

: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are essential soil microorganisms for terrestrial ecosystems and form beneﬁcial symbioses with the root systems of most agricultural plants. The purpose of this paper was to examine the effect of the community of six AMF on the growth, physiological response, and ﬂowering performance in organic potted lavender culture. The mixture of AMF containing Rhizophagus irregularis , Claroideoglomus claroideum , Funneliformis mosseae , Funneliformis geosporum , Claroideoglomus etunicatum , and Glomus microaggregatum was added in a pot with peat, volcanic rock, and coconut bark. We analyzed the fresh shoot biomass, root biomass, total plant biomass, leaf area, ﬂowering performance, photosynthesis rate, and photosynthetic pigment content. Pearson’s correlation coefﬁcient was performed to get a better understanding of the relationships between the studied variables. The total plant biomass was more pronounced in plants with AMF-S 20g (212.01 g plant − 1 ) and AMF-S 30g (220.25 g plant − 1 ) than with AMF-S 10g (201.96 g plant − 1 ) or in untreated plants (180.87 g plant − 1 ). A statistically signiﬁcant increase for Chl a, Chl b, and Car was found for AMF-S 20g and AMF-S 30 . Our ﬁndings suggest that the AMF mixture application in a growing substrate with peat, coconut bark, and volcanic rock improved plant growth, physiological processes, and ornamental value in mycorrhizal lavender plants. This environmentally friendly agricultural practice could be used for the sustainable production of lavender.
Toxic and signalling roles of oxalic acid. oxalic acid: natural born killer or natural born protector?

Oxalic acid is thought to be a key factor of the early pathogenic stage in a wide range of necrotrophic fungi. We have recently published that oxalic acid induces Programmed Cell Death (PCD) in Arabidopsis thaliana cells. This cell death results from an early anionic efflux which is a prerequisite for the synthesis of ethylene and the PCD. Complementary experiments have been carried out by using seedlings of A. thaliana . The effects of millimolar concentrations of oxalic acid were analysed on A. thaliana seedlings. A treatment with a 3 mM oxalic acid solution does not alter the development of the plants but induces the transcription of defence related genes which are anion channel dependant. Moreover, our results suggest that a pretreatment of the seedlings with oxalic acid is able to confer the resistance of A. thaliana against Sclerotium rolfsii . Regarding our results, we suggest that oxalic acid plays two distinct roles, depending on the concentration: a high concentration of oxalic acid induces a large PCD and then contribute to the progression of the fungi. However, at low concentration it is able to induce the establishment of a resistance of the plant against the fungi.
Patients' Rights: Awareness of the Pediatric Patients’ Guardians Attending Benha University Hospital.

Introduction: The majority of the patients would do nothing when facing problems or harm in the hospital if they ignore their rights or how to insist on them. Objectives: The objectives of this cross sectional study were to assess the awareness of the pediatric patients’ guardians about Patients’ Rights and to detect the factors associated with this awareness. Subjects and Methods: An interview questionnaire sheet was completed by 375 guardians; it included items about their socio-demographic characters and items to assess their awareness about the term of Patients’ Rights and its components. Results: About 75% of the interviewed child guardians were familiar with the term of patient’s rights, but only 4.8% of them reported they saw a post showing the patients' rights in the hospital. The guardians showed high awareness regarding some rights rather than others. Urban residents were significantly (P<0.05) more aware of two rights than rural ones. There was a significant association between the age of the sick child and the awareness of his guardian about another two rights P (<0.05). Being familiar with the term of "Patients' Rights" and most of its components increased significantly (P<0.05) with higher educational levels of the guardians. Guardians of children with chronic diseases were significantly more familiar with the term (P=0.004). Conclusion: Although a good percentage of the studied guardians were familiar with the term of patients’ rights, about one quartet of them did not know that their sick children have rights.
Artificial grammar learning in Alzheimer’s disease

Patients with early Alzheimer’s disease (AD) exhibit impaired declarative memory although some forms of nondeclarative memory are intact. Performance on perceptual nondeclarative memory tasks is often preservedin AD, whereas conceptual nondeclarative memory is often impaired. A conceptual nondeclarative learning task that has been studied in amnesic patients is the artificialgrammar learning (AGL) task. Healthy participants and patients with impaired declarativememory both acquire infor- mation about an underlying rule structurein this taskand exhibit the ability to identify rule-conforming items,despite the subjectiveexperienceof guessingatthe response. In this study, 12 patients diagnosed with early AD were tested on the AGL task and a matched recognition task. The patients were able to reliably distinguish rule-conforming items from others, indicating successfulAGL. Performance of the AD patients was impaired, relativeto controls, on a similarrecognitiontask, although they were found to use information about the grammaticalityof study items in an attempt to improve their recognition performance. The AD patients showed a dissociation similar to that seen in anterograde amnesia: impaired recognition memory in conjunction with successful AGL. This finding suggests that the brain areasthat support AGL are not compromised earlyin the course of AD. In addition, the nondeclarative memory of the AD patients acquired during AGL appeared to influence their performance on a declarative memory task, suggesting an interaction between this nondeclarative memory task and declarative memory. the grammaticality of the stimulus items on a conscious, recognition memory judgment.
Case report: Abortion and disseminated infection by in an (Vicugna pacos) fetus in Southern California.

Coccidioidomycosis is a fungal disease affecting humans and other mammals caused by the soil-dwelling fungi Coccidioides immitis and C. posadasii . Abortion due to Coccidioides spp. infection is rare in domestic animals and transplacental transmission is considered uncommon in women. This report describes a case of placental-fetal infection and abortion in an alpaca with disseminated C. posadasii infection. PCR ampli ﬁ cation and DNA sequencing were used to con ﬁ rm the etiology, C. posadasii , in fetal tissues. & 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of International Society for Human and Animal Mycology. All rights reserved.
Lawson, Glyn and Brown, Michael and Coughlan, Tim and Floyde, Anne and Baurley, Sharon and Elliott, Meretta and Koppe, Therese and Tsai, Allen (2016) Enhancing the design process with drama-related

This paper presents a critical review of several applications of drama-related methods to design, discussing their benefits and limitations and providing comment on practical aspects of their implementation. Drama-related methods can shed light on the contexts in which a new product will be used, helping to clarify any potential issues users may have with the design. These methods can improve communication and facilitate more fruitful collaboration between the various stakeholders. Improvisation can be used to improve the effectiveness and reliability of brainstorming sessions. However, the level of acting skill required of the participants needs consideration, and must be appropriate to the purpose of the evaluation. Also, drama methods generally add resources to the design process, and there is a lack of validation studies of tangible improvements to the designed product. We provide recommendations for design-drama approaches with the potential to benefit different stages of a product’s development.
E ﬀ ect of an Aquatic Balance-Training Program in Patients with Chronic Stroke: A Single-Group Experimental Pilot Study

: Background and Objectives : Stroke survivors face severe problems a ﬀ ecting their mobility, such as balance impairments and an increased risk of falls. The principal aim of this study was to quantify the e ﬀ ects of 12 sessions of Halliwick aquatic therapy for the treatment of balance in patients with chronic stroke. Materials and Methods : Twenty-nine people with stroke participated in this single-group experimental pilot study. Sessions were performed three times a week for a total of 12 sessions. A stabilometric assessment was conducted using a computerized platform. The evaluations were performed at baseline, at four weeks, and one month after completing the aquatic program. Results : The results obtained revealed signiﬁcant di ﬀ erences for postural stability values ( p < 0.001) and single-leg stabilometry. However, in the case of values within the limits of stability, such as forward (F = 0.339, p = 0.676), backward (F = 0.449, p = 0.644), forward right oscillations (F = 1.637, p = 0.21), and the anterior / posterior instability index (F = 0.614, p = 0.55), no signiﬁcant di ﬀ erences were found. Conclusions : These ﬁndings suggest that Halliwick therapy may potentially improve stroke balance impairments. The main limitations of the study were the sample size, the lack of a control group, and the study not being blind. normality
An improved model to study tumor cell autonomous metastasis programs using MTLn3 cells and the Rag2 2 / 2 c c 2 / 2 mouse

The occurrence of metastases is a critical determinant of the prognosis for breast cancer patients. Effective treatment of breast cancer metastases is ham-pered by a poor understanding of the mechanisms involved in the formation of these secondary tumor deposits. To study the processes of metastasis, valid in vivo tumor metastasis models are required. Here, we show that increased expression of the EGF receptor in the MTLn3 rat mammary tumor cell-line is essential for efﬁcient lung metastasis formation in the Rag mouse model. EGFR expression resulted in delayed orthotopic tumor growth but at the same time strongly enhanced intravasation and lung metastasis. Previously, we demonstrated the critical role of NK cells in a lung metastasis model using MTLn3 cells in syngenic F344 rats. However, this model is incompatible with human EGFR. Using the highly metastatic EGFR-overexpressing MTLn3 cell-line, we report that only Rag2 - / - c c - / - mice, which lack NK cells, allow efﬁcient lung metastasis from primary tumors in the mammary gland. In contrast, in nude and SCID mice, the remaining innate immune cells reduce MTLn3 lung metastasis formation. Furthermore, we conﬁrm this ﬁnding with the orthotopic transplantation of the 4T1 mouse mammary tumor cell-line. Thus, we have established an improved in vivo model using a Rag2 - / - c c - / - mouse strain together with MTLn3 cells that have increased levels of the EGF receptor, which enables us to study EGFR-dependent tumor cell autonomous mechanisms underlying lung metastasis formation. This improved model can be used for drug target validation and development of new therapeutic strategies against breast cancer metastasis formation.
The Inﬂuence of Design on Electrical Performance of AlGaN/GaN Lateral Schottky Barrier Diodes for Energy-Efﬁcient Power Applications

: In this paper, lateral AlGaN/GaN Schottky barrier diodes are investigated in terms of anode construction and diode structure. An original GaN Schottky diode manufacturing-process ﬂow was developed. A set of experiments was carried out to verify dependences between electrical parameters of the diode, such as reverse and forward currents, ON-state voltage, forward voltage and capacitance, anode-to-cathode distance, length of ﬁeld plate, anode length, Schottky contact material, subanode recess depth, and epitaxial structure type. It was found that diodes of SiN/Al 0.23 Ga 0.77 N/GaN epi structure with Ni-based anodes demonstrated two orders of magnitude lower reverse currents than diodes with GaN/Al 0.25 Ga 0.75 N/GaN epitaxial structure. Diodes with Ni-based anodes demonstrated lower V ON and higher I F compared with diodes with Pt-based anodes. As a result of these investigations, an optimal set of parameters was selected, providing the following electrical characteristics: V ON = 0.6 (at I F = 1 mA/mm), forward voltage of the diode V F = 1.6 V (at I F = 100 mA/mm), maximum reverse voltage V R = 300 V, reverse leakage current I R = 0.04 µ A/mm (at V R = − 200 V), and total capacitance C = 3.6 pF/mm (at f = 1 MHz and 0 V DC bias). Obtained electrical characteristics of the lateral Schottky barrier diode demonstrate great potential for use in energy-efﬁcient power applications, such as 5G multiband and multistandard wireless base stations.