Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Wound healing and skin in severe sepsis

It is a generally accepted dogma that sepsis disturbs skin function and wound healing, but surprisingly there is only remote pathophysiological evidence available behind that presumption. As the skin is the largest defensive barrier, the skin dysfunction in severe sepsis deserves more attention. In this study, the suction blister model was used to create experimental wounds. The study population included 44 patients with severe sepsis and 15 controls. The blister fluid was collected to analyse cytokine profile of the skin. The transepidermal water loss and blood flow from the wound were measured. A 4mm biopsy was taken under local anaesthesia on the first and the eighth day of the study from the healthy looking skin. Then 15 healing suction blisters were excised. Serum samples were also collected on the first day of the study. The barrier restoration was diminished, and the inflammation in the wound was more intense in severe sepsis than in the controls. The expression of the basement membrane components Laminin-332 and type IV collagen decreased during the septic disease, but increased over the next 3 months without achieving the level oft he controls. The expression of tight junction proteins remained nearly intact in the healing wound in severe sepsis compared to the controls. The expression of occludin on the leading edge of the migrating keratinocytes was more restricted and late in severe sepsis compared to the controls. The levels of the tumour necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-10 (IL-10) and IL-6 in skin blister fluid were higher in the sepsis compared to controls. The blister fluid and serum cytokine response in the sepsis differed since the levels of epidermal growth factor, vascular endothelial growth factor, TNF and basic fibroblastic growth factor (bFGF) in the blister fluid did not correlate with the levels of serum. The septic patients with multiple organ failure had higher levels of several cytokines than patients without organ failure. Survivors had lower levels of IL-10 and bFGF in blister fluid than the non-survivors. This study offers novel findings for skin and wound healing in sepsis. Together, all the findings suggest that skin dysfunction in severe sepsis exists even when the most profound structures remain intact. Understanding these mechanisms of impaired wound healing can improve future treatments, such as the timing of surgery.
Supersaturation fluctuations in moist turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection: a two-scalar transport problem

Moist Rayleigh–Bénard convection with water saturated boundaries is explored using a One-Dimensional Turbulence model. The system involves both temperature $T$ and water vapour pressure $e_{v}$ as driving scalars. The emphasis of the work is on a supersaturation $s$, a nonlinear combination of $T$ and $e_{v}$ that is crucial to cloud formation. Its mean as well as fluctuation statistics determine cloud droplet growth and therefore precipitation formation and cloud optical properties. To explore the role of relative scalar diffusivities for temperature ($D_{t}$) and water vapour ($D_{v}$), three different regimes are considered: $D_{v}>D_{t}$, $D_{v}\approx D_{t}$ and $D_{v}<D_{t}$. Scalar fluxes (Nusselt number, $Nu$ and Sherwood number, $Sh$) and their scalings with moist Rayleigh number $Ra_{moist}$ are consistent with previous studies of one-component convection. Moreover, variances of the scalars in the bulk region increase with their diffusivities and also reasonably follow derived scaling expressions. Eulerian properties plotted in $(T,e_{v})$ coordinates have a different slope compared to an idealized mixing process. Additionally, the scalars are highly correlated, even in the cases of high relative diffusivities (factor of four) $D_{v}$ and $D_{t}$. Based on the above fact and the scaling relation of the scalars, the supersaturation variance is found to vary approximately as $Ra_{moist}^{5/3}$, in agreement with numerical results. Finally, the supersaturation profile in the boundary layer is explored and compares well with scalar boundary layer models. A sharp peak appears in the boundary-layer-supersaturation profile, not only in the variance but also in the mean profile, due to relative diffusivities of the scalars.
Comparison of rectal and tympanic membrane temperature in healthy exercising dogs

The ability to monitor body temperature in athletes at risk of hyperthermia is essential in all species. Currently, the only commonly accepted temperature monitoring site in dogs is the rectum. This is impractical in field situations as it takes time, requires additional handlers to restrain the dog and is not tolerated by all animals. Tympanic membrane temperature (TMT) monitoring may provide a rapid measure of body temperature to facilitate identification of heat stress and heat stroke in canine athletes. In human studies, TMT diverges from rectal temperature (RT) as body temperature increases during exercise induced hyperthermia so is not recommended for monitoring human athletes. If the same divergence occurs in dogs, TMT may not be suitable for use when monitoring the temperature of canine athletes. The aim of the study was to determine if TMT diverged from RT following exercise in healthy dogs. 24 healthy dogs were recruited to the study. Body temperature was measured using a veterinary auricular in.
The effect of Sports-based Physical Activity programme on teachers’ relatedness, stress and exercise motivation

Background: Teacher wellness affects teaching performance and students’ academic achievement; hence, teacher wellness matters and should be a concern to educational researchers and practitioners. There are several teacher wellness approaches, but no one of them specifically focuses on a Sports-based Physical Activity programme. Objective: To evaluate the effects of a Sports-based Physical Activity programme on teachers’ relatedness, stress and motivation towards physical activity. Method: Middle school teachers (n = 32) volunteered to participate in the research as programme participants (n = 12) or non-programme participants (n = 20). The Sports-based Physical Activity programme included 7 weeks of training in Catchball, a team sport and a tournament as the culminating event. The study adopted a mixed-methods design: a quasi-experimental design collecting quantitative data from online surveys and a case study design collecting qualitative data from interviews with the programme participants, non-participants and the school principal. Results: Repeated-measures analysis of variance revealed that the Sports-based Physical Activity programme was effective in relatedness, F(1, 30) = 5.16, p = . 031, η p 2 = . 147, and in one of the six motivation subscales, external regulation, F(1, 30) = 4.23, p = . 048, η p 2 = . 124. The qualitative analysis findings supported the programme’s contribution to teachers’ relationship, stress and exercise motivation. Conclusion: Overall, the programme was effective in promoting teachers’ relationships in school, controlling levels of teachers’ stress and fostering teachers’ motivation towards physical activity. Further studies are required to examine the impact of a Sports-based Physical Activity approach in diverse school contexts and its impact on student learning.
Effectively including the voice of residents in care home design

Abstract Care home residents are key stakeholders in residential care homes and yet are rarely included in decision making. This study’s objective was to capture the opinions of care home residents and report on their responses to questions regarding care home life. Residents were asked about their views and observations regarding what aspects of the environment were important, why were they important and if the care home environment supported or inhibited their preferred activities in the home. A visual research method was designed to encompass these research questions, acting as an interview-prompt to engage residents. A new ethical consent procedure was also devised for use with care home residents. Residents’ exercised their critical capacities, reporting in detail on ways care home environments enabled or inhibited choice. Participants revealed how loss of autonomy and personal decision-making undermined their identity and adult choice-making abilities. Social interaction was reportedly vital and visitors highly important. Resident-to-resident relationships were difficult. Privacy was essential. The qualitative analyses highlight the ability of residents to not only participate but to also offer solutions to problems they identified. The role design can play to redress environmental deficits is discussed.
Outcome of psychological treatment of patients with substance use disorders in routine care

Abstract Background: More knowledge is needed about outcome of treatments in routine care for patients with substance use disorders (SUDs). These patients often suffer from psychological distress in addition to SUDs. Objectives: To evaluate the effects of community-based psychological treatment on SUD patients’ psychosocial problems, as well as on their substance use. Design: All patients who were referred or self-referred for psychological treatment to a social worker or a psychotherapist at three outpatient treatment centers for SUD patients were asked to participate in the study. Methods: Ratings at treatment start and end were obtained on Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation - Outcome Measure (CORE-OM, n = 100), Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - Consumption (AUDIT-C, n = 49), and Drug Use Disorders Identification Test - Consumption (DUDIT-C, n = 27). Results: CORE-OM mean scores were significantly improved. In total 14% of the patients were recovered, 10% improved, and 5% deteriorated. Both AUDIT-C and DUDIT-C mean scores were significantly improved for patients with alcohol use and patients using illicit drugs, respectively. Conclusions: Routine psychological treatment had positive effects on psychological distress as well as on reduction of substance use. A substantial number of patients remained however unchanged, particularly regarding psychological distress. More studies with larger patient groups are needed to develop treatment for SUD patients in routine care.
Predicting Malt Fermentability in Malting Barley Breeding Lines

Abstract Malt fermentability, along with malt extract, helps determine the amount of malt needed for beer production. While diastatic power (DP) was initially associated with fermentability, it was later demonstrated that variation in fermentability is poorly explained by DP alone. Several studies have suggested that β-amylase and its thermostability, as well as some malt modification parameters, can considerably improve fermentability estimations, especially with commercial malts. However, few experiments have measured variation in fermentability within barley breeding lines, where variation in quality parameters can be wider. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of standard and nonstandard malt quality parameters on the fermentability of 90 barley genotypes, grown at different locations and years in North Dakota, and to then select the best multi-linear regression equation for predicting this trait. Our results showed that, unlike the results of previous studies, β-amylase and its thermostability were not highly associated with fermentability. Rather, wort fermentable sugars, limit-dextrinase, free amino nitrogen, soluble protein, and α-amylase were found to be most closely associated with fermentability. Overall, the results of the current experiment further demonstrate that fermentability results are very population dependent, and that the development of a universal equation is unlikely.
Modelling the Influence of Product Development on Business Performance and Competitiveness in Manufacturing Enterprises

In this paper the influence of product innovation and development on business performance and competitiveness in small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises is addressed. The research was conducted via survey and it included over 2200 manufacturing enterprises from Serbia. The number of returned and usable surveys was 132 (5.98% return rate). The regression model included product development and innovation as two important engineering endeavours and business performance and competitiveness. Additionally, product quality, quality management system (QMS) and human resource management (HRM) were included in the data analysis. The results indicate that the observed relationships between the measured constructs are different, and they depend on how many employees the enterprise has. This paper contributes to the existing body of literature, provides a solid basis for future research in this domain, and other researchers and managers can use this paper as an insight to the relationships between important business metrics.
Early Childhood Factors Associated With Peer Victimization Trajectories From 6 to 17 Years of Age

In this study, we describe 4 trajectories of peer victimization from 6 to 17 years of age and early childhood behaviors and family characteristics associated with them. BrightcoveDefaultPlayer10.1542/6135516812001PEDS-VA_2019-2654 Video Abstract OBJECTIVES: To describe (1) the developmental trajectories of peer victimization from 6 to 17 years of age and (2) the early childhood behaviors and family characteristics associated with the trajectories. METHODS: We used data from 1760 children enrolled in the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development, a population-based birth cohort. Participants self-reported peer victimization at ages 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, and 17 years. Participants’ behavior and family characteristics were measured repeatedly between ages 5 months and 5 years. RESULTS: We identified 4 trajectories of peer victimization from 6 to 17 years of age: low (32.9%), moderate-emerging (29.8%), childhood-limited (26.2%), and high-chronic (11.1%). Compared with children in the low peer victimization trajectory, children in the other 3 trajectories were more likely to exhibit externalizing behaviors in early childhood, and those in the high-chronic and moderate-emerging trajectories were more likely to be male. Paternal history of antisocial behavior was associated with moderate-emerging (odds ratio [OR] = 1.54; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.09–2.19) and high-chronic (OR = 1.93; 95% CI = 1.25–2.99) relative to low peer victimization. Living in a nonintact family in early childhood was associated with childhood-limited (OR = 1.48; 95% CI = 1.11–1.97) and high-chronic (OR = 1.59; 95% CI = 1.09–2.31) relative to low peer victimization. CONCLUSIONS: Early childhood externalizing behaviors and family vulnerabilities were associated with the development of peer victimization. Some children entered the cascade of persistent peer victimization at the beginning of primary school. Support to these children and their families early in life should be an important component of peer victimization preventive interventions.
Radiomics of 18F Fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT Images Predicts Severe Immune-related Adverse Events in Patients with NSCLC.

Purpose To investigate the performance of pretreatment fluorine 18 (18F) fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT radiomics in predicting severe immune-related adverse events (irSAEs) among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treated with immunotherapy, which is important in optimizing treatment plans and alleviating future complications with early interventions. Materials and Methods The retrospective arm of this study included 146 patients with histologically confirmed stage IIIB-IV NSCLC who were treated with immune checkpoint blockade between June 2011 and December 2017 and who were split into training (n = 97) and test (n = 49) cohorts. A prospective validation arm enrolled 48 patients before initiation of immunotherapy between January 2018 and June 2019 as an independent test cohort. Radiomics features extracted from baseline (preimmunotherapy treatment) PET, CT, and PET/CT fusion images were used to generate a radiomics score (RS) to quantify patient risk for developing irSAEs by an improved least absolute shrinkage and selection operator method. Weighted multivariable logistic regression analysis was then used to develop a nomogram model to predict irSAEs, which was assessed by its calibration, discrimination, and clinical usefulness. Results The radiomics nomogram, incorporating the RS, type of immune checkpoint blockade, and dosing schedule, was able to predict patients with and without irSAEs with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.92 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.86, 0.98), 0.92 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.99), and 0.88 (95% CI: 0.78, 0.97) in the training, test, and prospective validation cohorts, respectively. Decision curve analysis showed that the radiomics nomogram model had the highest overall net benefit. Conclusion A high RS is a significant risk factor for development of irSAEs, demonstrating the value of PET/CT images in predicting irSAEs. By the identification, at baseline, of patients with NSCLC most likely to have irSAEs, treatment plans can be optimized before initiation of immunotherapy.Supplemental material is available for this article. © RSNA, 2020See also the commentary by Yousefi.
Stability assessment of underground mine stopes subjected to stress relaxation

ABSTRACT Stress relaxation plays an important role in the design of underground stopes. The aim of this paper is to assess the stope stability in connection with the stress relaxation using a classification approach. Three types of stress relaxation were clearly defined, namely partial relaxation, tangential relaxation and full relaxation. A neural network classifier was implemented to assess the stability of the stopes on the basis of case histories of stope performances. The results of the classification were compared to existing empirical methods of quantifying the stress relaxation. Overall, the present study shows higher classification accuracies, especially when the stress relaxation was considered. The results suggested that the relaxation type can be a good predictor of stability. Relaxed stope (full and tangential stress relaxation) cases are the most critical in the sense that lower accuracies were obtained and the probability of correct classification is rather erratic.
Frost heave and thaw consolidation modelling. Part 1: A water flux function for frost heaving

Although much effort has been made to develop various frost heave models in the past decades, a simple yet versatile model is still needed for engineering applications. This paper presents a method to estimate frost heave in frozen soil using a macroscopic water flux function that extends the segregation potential to make it applicable for both steady state and transient freezing and thawing states. The formation of an individual ice lens is modelled by combining previously developed stress and strain criteria. The water flux function, which includes various factors in accordance with the porosity rate function, can describe the growth of both new and old ice lenses. More importantly, every component of the water flux function is physically explained by the theory of pre-melting dynamics, where all the influencing factors are traced back to their impacts on the ice volume distribution. The performance of the model is demonstrated via simulations of one-dimensional freezing and thawing processes after the model is validated by a specific case from previous literature. Although adequate data are not available for a stricter experimental verification of the model, it is observed that the simulations predict the general course of events together with significant specific features that were identified in previous experimental studies.
Deep learning based high-resolution reconstruction of trabecular bone microstructures from low-resolution CT scans using GAN-CIRCLE

Osteoporosis is a common age-related disease characterized by reduced bone density and increased fracture-risk. Microstructural quality of trabecular bone (Tb), commonly found at axial skeletal sites and at the end of long bones, is an important determinant of bone-strength and fracture-risk. High-resolution emerging CT scanners enable in vivo measurement of Tb microstructures at peripheral sites. However, resolution-dependence of microstructural measures and wide resolution-discrepancies among various CT scanners together with rapid upgrades in technology warrant data harmonization in CT-based cross-sectional and longitudinal bone studies. This paper presents a deep learning-based method for high-resolution reconstruction of Tb microstructures from low-resolution CT scans using GAN-CIRCLE. A network was developed and evaluated using post-registered ankle CT scans of nineteen volunteers on both low- and high-resolution CT scanners. 9,000 matching pairs of low- and high-resolution patches of size 64×64 were randomly harvested from ten volunteers for training and validation. Another 5,000 matching pairs of patches from nine other volunteers were used for evaluation. Quantitative comparison shows that predicted high-resolution scans have significantly improved structural similarity index (p < 0.01) with true high-resolution scans as compared to the same metric for low-resolution data. Different Tb microstructural measures such as thickness, spacing, and network area density are also computed from low- and predicted high-resolution images, and compared with the values derived from true high-resolution scans. Thickness and network area measures from predicted images showed higher agreement with true high-resolution CT (CCC = [0.95, 0.91]) derived values than the same measures from low-resolution images (CCC = [0.72, 0.88]).
Identifying Operons with Deep Neural Networks

Genes in prokaryotic genomes often assemble in transcription units called operons. Detecting operons are of signiﬁcant importance to help infer functionality and detect regulatory networks. Several tools have been proposed to detect such operons computationally. We propose a new method, which we name Operon Hunter, that uses visual representations of genomic fragments and a residual neural network architecture to make operon predictions. Our method uses a pertained network via transfer learning to leverage big datasets. We report the highest accuracy in the literature that we know of when tested on the standard datasets that are reported in various studies: E. coli and B. subtilis, with an F1 score of 0.83, outperforming the previously reported state of the art tools. Our method also demonstrates a clear advantage when it comes to detecting full operons rather than separate gene pairs.
Clinical significance of isolated gastric varices in liver cirrhotic patients: A single‐referral‐centre retrospective cohort study

Gastric varices (GVs) occur in 10–30% of liver cirrhotic patients, with a mortality rate of up to 45%. Rupture of isolated GVs (IGVs) is less prevalent but often results in more severe hemorrhage and a higher risk of mortality than rupture of esophageal varices (EVs). However, there is no clear consensus yet about the optimal management for incidentally discovered IGVs.
Granulicatella adiacens Vertebral Osteomyelitis: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

AbstractNutritionally variant streptococci (NVS) are gram-positive cocci that are classified into 2 genera, Abiotrophia and Granulicatella. They are normal flora of the upper respiratory, urogenital, and gastrointestinal tracts of humans and are rare causes of infections. When NVS do lead to a disea