Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Soybean milk extender improves sperm functional and oxidative stress parameters of goat sperm during slow and rapid freezing

Abstract The objective of this study was to determine effects of soybean milk extender on sperm quality end points of cryopreserved goat sperm. Pooled ejaculates from West African Dwarf (WAD) goats were diluted with various amounts (0, 5, 10, 15, 20 ml) of soybean milk (SBM) in Tris-extenders, subjected to slow or rapid freezing for 30 days and subsequently thawed and evaluated. Inclusion of SBM in extenders improved sperm quality (P < 0.05) compared to control (egg yolk-based extender) for both slow and rapid freezing methods. Semen cryopreserved with 10 or 15 % SBM extender had higher (P < 0.05) motility compared to other concentrations and the control using slow freezing. Although both cryoprotocols had higher (P < 0.05) acrosome integrity when cryopreserved with 20 % SBM extender, acrosome integrity at 20 % SBM was higher (P < 0.05) in rapid freezing compared to slow freezing. Semen cryopreserved with SBM extenders had lower (P < 0.05) Malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations in 10 to 20 % SBM extenders for both freezing methods, although MDA concentrations were lower (P < 0.05) in slow freezing compared to rapid freezing. Semen cryopreserved with SBM extenders in both protocols had fewer (P < 0.05) leukocytes and a higher (P < 0.05) acrosome reaction and sperm capacitation, whereas there was a higher (P < 0.05) acrosome reaction with 10 and 5 % SBM extenders using slow and rapid freezing respectively. In conclusion, for goat semen cryopreserved using slow or rapid freezing protocols, SBM extenders improved functional, fertilizing and seminal oxidative stress end points.
Investigating the impact of silymarin on liver oxidative injury

Introduction: Various drugs affect liver problems caused by general hypoxia, including silymarin. Due to the fungal killer toxins, nowadays, silymarin (milk thistle) is used as an effective drug in the prevention and treatment of liver diseases and liver toxicity. In addition, silymarin protects the liver cells from solvents and chemical substances. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of silymarin on liver problems induced by general hypoxia. Material and Methods: This study was a double-blinded clinical trial on patients with hypoxia who referred to the hospital emergency department. Patients were randomly divided into case and control groups. The case group was treated with silymarin at a dose of 280 mg with orally gavage technique and the control group was treated with a placebo every 8 h for 3 days. To investigate the leukocytosis, liver enzymes levels of alanine transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), prothrombin time (PT), partial thromboplastin (PTT), international normalized ratio (INR), and white blood cell (WBC) were measured before and after the intervention. SPSS 21 software was used to analyze the data. Results: In the silymarin group, liver enzymes were lower than the placebo group on the third day after treatment (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of coagulation factors and WBC count on the third day after treatment (P > 050). On the third day after treatment, the amount of GGT was lower in the silymarin group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Silymarin decreased liver enzymes (ALT, AST, and CPK) and the level of GGT. Therefore, it is recommended to be used in patients with hypoxic liver injury.
Culture-aware Point-of-Interest Category Completion in a Global Location-Based Social Network Database without Access to User Data

Point of Interest (POI) categories can facilitate a number of services, such as location-based search and place recommendation. However, such information can be incomplete and/or incorrect, especially in crowdsourcing environments. In the literature, automatic category imputation has been suggested to tackle this problem, showing that contextual information is vital for increasing the quality of such predictions. To this end, users’ check-in data, and most particularly location and time of visit, is often used as the notion of context. In this work, we propose a method that considers culture as a contextual parameter. Contrary to existing methods, our approach does not require access to user data. We illustrate the feasibility of our method by performing experiments on data from Foursquare, a global location-based social network.
Knowledge and practice toward seasonal influenza vaccine and its barriers at the community level in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: The important role of vaccination and preventive health care has been shown in several studies conducted worldwide. Despite the annual high infection rate of influenza, there are still many people who opt not to get vaccinated and be protected. We conducted this study to explore the knowledge, practices, and barriers of a Saudi Arabian population toward influenza vaccination. Methods: We conducted a community-based cross-sectional study using a questionnaire that was distributed online through social media to adult males and females aged 18 years old and above in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Results: A total of 778 individuals responded to the survey, 193 (24.8%) males and 585 (75.2%) females. Male respondents tended to have a better knowledge of influenza and flu vaccine than females. However, there were more females who have been vaccinated. More males believed that they do not belong to the high-risk group compared to females (P < 0.001). The younger age group of respondents significantly had a better knowledge of flu vaccine and influenza (P < 0.05). On the other hand, the older age group of respondents (age 45–60 and age >60 years old) have more reasons and barriers to have the vaccine. Conclusion: Knowledge of influenza and flu vaccine is relatively high, but the translation of this knowledge into practice is poor. The paradigm shift should be focused not only on knowledge of vaccines and vaccination but to attitudes and practices that will address barriers to getting the vaccine.
Knowledge and attitudes toward vaccination among Saudi medical students

Background: Studies have identified healthcare providers as an important determinant of vaccination acceptance. However, knowledge and attitudes toward vaccination have not been sufficiently studied in Saudi Arabia, especially among medical students. Therefore, we conducted this study to explore vaccination knowledge and attitudes among medical students at a large Saudi university. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 182 Saudi medical students between February 2019 and May 2019. Participants were invited to fill out a self-administered questionnaire assessing knowledge and attitudes toward vaccination. The statistical analysis included descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, independent samples t-test, and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The relationship between knowledge and attitudes was assessed using Pearson's correlation test. Results: A total of 182 respondents completed the questionnaires, giving a response rate of 91%. The study included male (52.7%) and female (47.3%) students from study years 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. The overall mean knowledge score was under average [3.05/9, standard deviation (SD) = 1.86] and the respondents showed generally moderate attitudes toward vaccination (mean = 30.60/45, SD = 6.07). While there was no sex difference in both the scores on knowledge and attitudes domains, the year of study was significantly associated with the mean knowledge score (F = 6.48, P < 0.01) and attitudes score (F = 7.12, P < 0.01). As predicted, there was a significant linear relationship between vaccination knowledge and attitudes (r = 0.71, P < 0.01). Conclusion: The study revealed generally moderate attitudes of Saudi medical students toward vaccination. However, several knowledge gaps were detected. The implications of the current findings are discussed.
Mining Semantic Soft Factors for Credit Risk Evaluation in Peer-to-Peer Lending

ABSTRACT While Peer-to-Peer (P2P) lending is rapidly growing, it is also accompanied by high credit risk due to information asymmetry. Besides conventional hard information, soft information also enters into the lending decision process. The descriptive loan texts submitted by borrowers have great potential for exploiting useful soft factors, but also pose great challenges due to the semantic sensitivity to context and the complexity of content representation. We propose a novel text mining method for automatically extracting semantic soft factors from descriptive loan texts. The method maps terms to an embedding space, assembles semantically related terms together into semantic cliques, and then defines semantic soft factors corresponding to the semantic cliques. Empirical evaluation shows that the extracted semantic soft factors contributed to significant improvement on credit risk evaluation in terms of both discrimination performance and granting performance. This work advances our knowledge of soft information indicative of a borrower’s credit risk.
Diagnostic accuracy of dual energy CT in the assessment of traumatic bone marrow edema of lower limb and its correlation with MRI

Abstract Background: Bone marrow edema is assumed to be caused as a result of trabecular microfractures that are detected by MRI. As MRI is not widely available in countries like India, this study aims to encourage the use of DECT in detection of bone edema as evidence with comparable efficiency to MRI. Aim: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of dual-energy CT in detecting bone marrow edema in patients of trauma of lower limb and correlate it with MRI. Setting and Design: It is a cross-sectional study. Materials and Methods: The study included 40 patients of age 15–70 years irrespective of sex. All the patients of lower extremity trauma underwent DECT and MRI evaluation after clinical evaluation. All the images were postprocessed on a work station and were further evaluated by a radiologist. Results: Mean attenuation at fractured site observed by Dual energy CT was found to be significantly higher as compared to that at adjacent site (170.75 ± 33.99 vs. 19.73 ± 22.50 HU). The sensitivity and specificity of dual energy CT as compared to MRI in detecting bone marrow edema were 94.1% and 91.3%, respectively. Of the 40 cases enrolled in the study, agreement of MRI and Dual energy CT was observed in 37 (92.5%). Conclusion: Dual energy CT can be an effective alternative to MRI in the detection of bone marrow edema in patients of lower limb trauma. Dual energy CT can also be used in patients in whom MRI is contraindicated.
Prevalence of anemia and its association with dietary pattern among elderly population of urban slums in Kochi

Background: Anemia is common among the elderly and it is the reason behind their poor survival. Anemia among the elderly is consistently disregarded, which can even incite cardiovascular complexities. The risk of physical decline for the elderly with iron insufficiency is twofold than that of others in the same age. The elderly populace dwelling in urban slums is progressively influenced. Hence, the objective was to study the prevalence of anemia among elderly dwelling in urban slums of Kochi corporation and its association with the dietary pattern. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out among 165 elderly (60 years of age and above), residing in urban slums of Kochi corporation. The hemoglobin level was measured using Heamocue and the dietary pattern was assessed by a structured pretested questionnaire eliciting a 7-day dietary recall. Results: The prevalence of anemia among the elderly was observed to be 60.6%, out of which 66% were females and 49% were males. The elderly females were found to be more vulnerable to anemia. Conclusion: Anemia was found to be significantly high among the elderly population in urban slums of Kochi. Regular screening and management of anemia along with dietary awareness have become the need of the hour.
Evaluation of Clinical Success, Parental and Child Satisfaction of Stainless Steel Crowns and Zirconia Crowns in Primary Molars

Introduction: Stainless steel crowns are the most successful restoration for multisurface carious lesions in primary molars. The esthetics has been poorly accepted which led to the introduction of zirconia crowns. Objectives: The aim of the study was to evaluate and compare the clinical success, parental satisfaction, and child satisfaction of stainless steel and zirconia crowns in primary molars. Methods: Thirty healthy patients aged 6–8 years bilateral pulp therapy treated primary molars were randomly divided into two equal groups of stainless steel and zirconia crowns. Tooth preparation was done according to the manufacturers' recommendations depending upon the crown each patient would receive. All crowns were cemented with Type I GIC luting cement. Patients were evaluated at 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, and 36 months. Results: Clinical success for stainless steel crowns and zirconia crowns were similar with no statistical difference between them. Zirconia accumulated less plaque than stainless steel crowns (P = 0.047). The parental satisfaction was high with both crowns. A highly significant statistical difference existed between the 2 groups in relation to the acceptance of color (P < 0.001) and child's satisfaction (P < 0.001). Conclusion: Zirconia can be considered as an esthetic alternative in the future.
Evaluation of existing knowledge, attitude, perception and compliance of hand hygiene among health care workers in a Tertiary care centre in Uttarakhand

Background and Aims: To evaluate existing knowledge, attitude and perception and compliance of hand hygiene activity among various healthcare workers in a tertiary care centre in Uttarakhand. Methods: A cross sectional study was done for a period of two months. WHO hand hygiene and compliance form with slight modification were used to study knowledge, attitude, perception and compliance (overt and covert) by direct observational technique. Statistical analysis was done using Microsoft Excel 2010 and IBM SPSS 23.0 version software. Results: A total of 220 participants were given questionnaire out of which 172 participated in study. 159 (92.4%) had already received training in HH in the past 3 years and were using alcohol based hand rub routinely. The overall correct knowledge score of various professional categories of HCW was good i.e. 71.6% Most of the healthcare workers knew the importance of adhering to this simple practice in prevention of healthcare associated infections. Most of them were aware of the conditions before or after when HH activity has to be performed. Poor compliance of hand hygiene was noted among healthcare workers on covert observation. For given hand hygiene opportunities the HH was started in 53.2% and 15.7% of overt and covert observations, respectively. However, HH compliance decreased drastically among HCW, which was 15.7% and 1.6% of overt and covert observations, respectively. Interpretation and Conclusions: The acceptance of the fact by most of the HCW that direct vigilance over this activity helped them performed better, suggested the demand of regular surveillance and several other promotional activities in the centre.
A comparative study of automated blood pressure device and mercury-free LED blood pressure device using Lin's concordance correlation coefficient and other validity measures in Indian population

Introduction: Automated blood pressure (BP) monitor is widely used to assess the blood pressure (BP) of the study subjects in community-based researches. This study aims at the detection of hypertension by automated BP device and examines the concordance and validity between automated and mercury-free LED BP devices. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the tribal state of Jharkhand in India from January 2017 to June 2017. A total of 300 study participants aged more than 18 years were enrolled in this study. BP of the patients in the sitting position was measured three times each by automated device and mercury-free LED BP device. The different sets of readings were assessed by concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) and other validity measures. Results: The CCC for systolic and diastolic BP measured by automated and mercury-free LED BP is 0.88 and 0.85, respectively. The mean difference between systolic and diastolic BP by both the instruments is statistically insignificant (P > 0.05). The sensitivity, specificity, PPV, NPV, and accuracy of automated BP devices to predict hypertension is 96.61%, 92.21%, 75%, 99%, and 93%. The area under ROC for systolic and diastolic BP is 0.984 and 0.97, respectively with P values < 0.0001 in both the cases. Conclusions: This study concluded that the overall automated BP machine has fair degree of agreement (CCC) with a manual BP device. The validity of this monitor to screen hypertension may also be considered in field settings.
Profile and outcome of patients presenting with agrochemical poisoning to the emergency department

Background: Deliberate self-harm (DSH) is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in India. Agrochemicals are the most commonly used compounds for DSH. The spectrum of Agrochemicals in use varies from region to region and time period with newer compound being regularly introduced into the market. Methodology: This retrospective cohort study included patients presenting with agrochemical poisoning to the ED during January 2017 to December 2018. Patient data was retrieved form the ED triage registry software and clinical workstation, following which their hospital outcome was determined. Results: During the study period, 1802 patients presented with DSH among which Agrochemical poisoning comprised 33.5% (604/1802). The mean age was 31 years and incidence of agrochemical poisoning was found to be higher in young adults (16–30 years–55.8%). The prevalence was more common in males (62.4%). The common agrochemical compounds consumed were insecticides (91%), herbicides (4.3%), fungicides (1.5%), fertilizer (1.5%), and plant growth regulators (1.5%). Majority (80.96%) of the patients were discharged alive from the hospital, 17% left against medical advice due to bad prognosis and 12 patients (2%) died in the hospital. Conclusion: Insecticides (mainly Organophosphates) are the most common agrochemicals used for DSH. Their management is better understood leading to better outcomes compared to other chemicals. The proportion of agrochemical use in DSH has reduced over the last decade. Imidacloprid (Insecticide) and Plant growth regulators are the new compounds for which appropriate management is not yet established and more research is needed.
Comparison between Quanti-FERON-TB Gold In-Tube test and tuberculin skin test for diagnosis of latent tuberculosis in children: A cross-section study

Objective: To compare Quanti-FERON-TB Gold In-Tube (QFT- GIT) test and tuberculin skin test (TST) for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in children. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 64 participants who were between 3 months and 14 years old and had close contact with smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis were included. Both QFT- GIT test and TST were done and the results were analyzed by SPSS software and Kappa test. Results: The distribution of gender and age according to QFT-GIT and TST results were matched (P>0.05). Overall agreement between QFT-GIT and TST for diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in children was 75%. In addition, the contingency coefficient was 0.257, and the Kappa measure of agreement was 0.246 (P=0.034). Conclusions: Compared to TST, QFT-GIT shows no apparent advantage for diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection in children.
Sociobehavioural matrix and knowledge, attitude and practises regarding HIV/AIDS among female sex workers in an international border area of West Bengal, India

Background: HIV/AIDS is still a big public health challenge of India. Female Sex Workers (FSWs) belong to an important high risk group (HRG) in the transmission of HIV/AIDS. International borders have intermingling of population and also plenty of migrant population. Thus study on FSW s with relation to HIV/AIDS in an international border area is an important area of Research. Aims: The present study was planned with the objectives of: to determine the sociodemographic profile of the FSW under the study, to assess their knowledge and attitude towards HIV/AIDS and to find out their sexual practices. Settings and Design: It was a community based descriptive cross sectional study, done at the Indo-Bhutan border town of Jaigaon in Alipurduar District of West Bengal with the help of a Non-governmental organization (NGO) working on Targeted Interventions (TI) for FSW. Methods and Material: Total 90 FSWs were interviewed using predesigned pretested questionnaire. The questionnaires used were prior validated by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). Statistical Analysis Used: The data were analysed by SPSS 14.0. Results and Conclusions: The analysis revealed that 35 % of the study population were illiterate. It was also found that 81% of respondents had heard about HIV/AIDS; 76.7% had knowledge about its spread through vaginal sex, 67.8% had idea regarding its Mother to Child transmission. 92% felt PLHIV should not be kept away from others, 93% felt they shouldn't be deprived from property. Regarding sexual activity, 76.7% had sexual activity more than 3 times/week and 97.8% used condom persistently in last one year. Coordinated Efforts is required to be taken in this regard to tackle these problems.
Awareness of safety protocols for prevention of needle stick injuries in anaesthesiologists from Maharashtra: A survey study

Background and Aim: Needle stick injury (NSI) has a serious risk of transmission of various blood borne pathogens amongst healthcare personnel and more so in anaesthesiologists. This survey assessed the prevalence of NSI and awareness of safety protocols for its prevention amongst the anaesthesiologists from Maharashtra, India. Methods: This self-administered survey was completed by 403 anaesthesiologists across Maharashtra from August 2019 to October 2019. The pre-validated and pretested 18-item questionnaire was administered using Google forms and the link was circulated amongst anaesthesiologists electronically. The questionnaire items included information on the awareness of safety protocols and immediate measure after NSI, knowledge of immunisation and safety practices followed in routine practice. Data were collected, tabulated and coded in Microsoft Excel. Descriptives are presented for the different items and prevalence of NSI. Comparison of prevalence of NSI in subgroups based on gender, period of experience and type of practice were analysed using Chi-square test. Results: The prevalence of NSI was 73.7% (n = 403) in anaesthesiologists with 71.1% (n = 235) in males and 77.4% (n = 168) in females. The anaesthesiologists from the medical schools had a prevalence of 75.0% (n = 148), those in private practice had a prevalence of 72.7% (n = 216), whereas those working in both medical school and private practice had a prevalence of 74.4% (n = 39). A greater prevalence was observed in those working for longer periods. Conclusion: The prevalence of NSI's is alarmingly high amongst anaesthesiologists and there is an immediate need of creating awareness and practice safety protocols in routine practice. Training and education are required in the formative years of healthcare curriculum.