Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparative study for screening human immunodeficiency virus 1/human immunodeficiency virus 2 with third-generation and fourth-generation human immunodeficiency virus ELISA kits in donors from a tertiary care hospital in Northeast India

Background: Blood transfusion is the most effective means of transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The use of fourth-generation ELISA kits has significantly reduced the detection period of the viruses to its window period within 2–4 weeks. Objective: To analyze and compare the profile of blood donors who sero-converted to HIV positive. Materials and Methods: Blood donors reporting to the blood bank attached to a regional cancer center from January to December 2017 were included. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase 1 consists of random testing for HIV1/HIV2 reactive and nonreactive samples from clinical blood donors in the age group of 18–50 years. Phase 2 consists of confirmatory test with Western blot technique. Results: The fourth-generation kit confirmed 139 nonreactive out of 140 samples tested after running the samples with independent confirmatory test, whereas the third-generation ELISA test detected two HIV-reactive samples which were confirmed to be nonreactive by Western blot. Conclusions: For better clinical diagnosis and early detection of HIV, the use of fourth-generation test kits for screening of HIV infection is recommended.
Adaptation of “Adult aural rehabilitation guide” in Marathi and its utility in evaluation of postlingual adult cochlear implanted recipients

Introduction: There is a need for a systematic assessment and training module in Marathi to ascertain the auditory performance of adult cochlear implantation (CI) recipients and to provide a standard regimen for treatment. The present study aimed to adapt the adult aural rehabilitation guide (AARG) in Marathi and to evaluate the performance of adult CI recipients using this tool; and to study the effect of chronological age, duration of the unaided hearing, postimplant duration (PID), and presence/absence of training on the auditory performance of adult CI recipients. Methods: Analytic and synthetic sections from the AARG were adapted in Marathi based on the acoustic-phonetic properties of Marathi. Two separate manuals – assessment manual and training manual – were developed. The assessment tool was administered on 26 adult postlingual CI recipients who were native speakers of Marathi. Training manual was used in two participants for a step-by-step aural rehabilitation program of eight sessions. Results: Most participants achieved scores above 20 for the analytic section, but <20 in synthetic section, out of a maximum score of 29. The difficulty was greater for open-set tasks, for sentences with uncommon words, and for longer sentences. Recipients could not use auditory commands for information transfer, seeking information, and in role-play. There was no correlation of auditory performance with chronological age, duration of unaided hearing, and PID of participants. The scores obtained were correlated to the presence/absence of previous rehabilitation. Conclusion: This study could successfully bring out a systematic assessment protocol in Marathi for postlingual CI recipients, and developed a systematic training module for their rehabilitation.
Effect of musical training on psychophysical abilities and working memory in children

Introduction: Music involves fine modulations of intensity, frequency, and temporal aspects and musicians can distinguish these fine variations due to their extensive training. The long-term musical practice has been found to result in the improvement of various auditory and cognitive skills. The aim of the present investigation was to study the effect of musical training on psychophysical abilities and working memory in children. Methods: Total of 30 participants in the age range of 10 to 15 years were recruited for the study. They were equally divided into two groups. Group I had children trained in Carnatic music for more than three years and group II included 15 children with no formal musical training. Psychophysical abilities were assessed using all three frequency, intensity, and temporal parameters. Frequency discrimination and intensity discrimination was assessed through differential limen of frequency (DLF) and differential limen of intensity (DLI) at 2000 and 4000 Hz. Temporal parameters were assessed through a gap detection test (GDT), temporal modulation transfer function (TMTF), and duration discrimination test (DDT). Working memory was assessed using digit span and operation span test respectively. Results: Results showed that children with musical training had significantly better scores for DLI, DLF, GDT, and DDT. However, there was no significant difference in TMTF scores between the groups. Further, a significant better score for digit span task was obtained by children with musical training. But no significant difference was noted for operational span task between the groups. Conclusion: To conclude, the study shows the importance of musical training in fine-tuning the auditory system and its significance in ameliorating auditory psychoacoustic skills and auditory memory.
The usefulness of point of care ultrasound (POCUS) in preanaesthetic airway assessment

Background and Aims: Point of care ultrasound has the potential to become reliable airway assessment tool by accurate prediction of difficult laryngoscopy. We aimed to determine the feasibility of ultrasound in preoperative airway assessment. Methods: This prospective, observational study was conducted on 200 patients requiring general anaesthesia and tracheal intubation. The thickness of anterior soft tissue neck at the level of hyoid bone (DSHB), epiglottis (DSEM), and Pre-E/E-VC[depth of the pre-epiglottic space (Pre-E)/distance from the epiglottis to the midpoint of the distance between the vocal cords (E-VC)] were measured sonographically. The hyomental distance ratio (HMDR) was measured utilising distances with head in neutral and extended position. The primary outcome was the efficacy of the parameters in predicting difficult laryngoscopy[Cormack Lehane 3,4]. The secondary outcome was to correlate the parameters to CL grading. Results: Utilising receiver operating curves, cutoff value of HMDR for predicting difficult laryngoscopy was ≤1.0870 with sensitivity of 65%, specificity of 77%. The cutoff value, sensitivity andspecificity for Pre-E/E-VC were ≥1.785, 82.8% and 83.8%. , respectively. The cutoff value of DSHB was ≥0.99 with sensitivity of 48% and specificity of 82%. The cutoff, sensitivity and specificity for DSEM were ≥1.615, 89.7%, and 64.8%, respectively. There was moderate positive correlations of DSHB, DSEM, and Pre-E/E-VC (r = 0.551 and 0.701, 0.787: P = 0.00), whereas moderate negative correlation observed with HMDR (r = -.0671: P = 0.00). Conclusion: The strong positive correlation of Pre-E/E-VC, DSEM, and moderate negative correlation of HMDR makes these ultrasound parameters reliable predictors for difficult laryngoscopy.
Personality traits and its correlation to burnout in female nurses

Background: Few Indian studies have deliberated on the role of personality traits in perceived stress and burnout among female nurses employed in the government sector. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 600 female nurses employed in 30 government hospitals of India. Two hundred and ninety-eight valid questionnaires received with demographic data, NEO Five-Factor Inventory scores, Perceived Stress Scale-10, and Copenhagen Burnout Inventory scores were analyzed using linear regression analysis. Results: Trait neuroticism scores had modest positive correlation for personal burnout (R2: 0.32, F: 138.68), work-related burnout (R2: 0.22, F: 84.09), and overall burnout scores (R2: 0.30, F: 128.09). Extraversion scores had low negative correlation with personal burnout (R2: 0.08, F: 27.22, P < 0.00), work-related burnout (R2: 0.09, F: 28.81), and overall burnout scores (R2: 0.10, F: 31.68). Scores on agreeableness trait had weak negative correlation with personal burnout (R2: 0.09, F: 32.98), workrelated burnout (R2: 0.06, F: 20.96), patientrelated burnout (R2: 0.06, F: 21.27), and overall burnout scores (R2: 0.10, F: 33.43). Openness to experience had no significant correlation to personal, work-related, patient-related, or overall burnout scores. Conscientiousness scores had low negative correlation with the scores on personal burnout (R2: 0.12, F: 41.96), work-related burnout (R2: 0.09, F: 27.88), and overall burnout scores (R2: 0.10, F: 31.80). Neuroticism had modest positive correlation with perceived stress scores (R2: 0.33, F: 145.61). Extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were weakly negatively correlated with perceived stress scores. Conclusions: Trait neuroticism increased the vulnerability to perceived stress and burnout, whereas traits of extraversion, conscientiousness, and agreeableness were protective against perceived stress and burnout in the sample of female nurses surveyed.
Correlates of worry and functional somatic symptoms in generalized anxiety disorder

Background: Worry and functional somatic symptoms (FSS) are important clinical features of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although there is literature on the prevalence of worry and FSS in GAD, there is limited data on psychological correlates of worry and somatic symptoms in patients with GAD. Objective: The purpose of this research was to evaluate the relationship of worry and FSS with somatosensory amplification, health anxiety (hypochondriasis), and alexithymia in patients with GAD. Methods: Forty patients with the diagnosis of GAD were assessed with Penn State Worry Questionnaire, Bradford Somatic Inventory (BSI), GAD-7 Scale, somatosensory amplification Scale (SSAS), Whiteley Index (WI), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 Hindi version (TAS-H-20). Results: Worry had significant positive correlation with total scores of BSI, GAD-7 scale, TAS-H-20 subscale 1, SSAS, and WI. Younger age of onset was associated with higher FSS as assessed on BSI. BSI total score had positive correlation with total scores of GAD-7 scale, TAS-H-20 and its subscales, SSAS, WI, and with the severity grades of BSI and GAD. Conclusion: Worry and FSS are associated with somatosensory amplification and hypochondriasis. In addition, somatic symptoms are associated with alexithymia.
Clonidine: An Adjuvant to Adrenaline in Local Anesthesia for Third Molar Surgery

Purpose: The aim of the study is to compare the efficacy of anesthesia and hemodynamic parameters of clonidine and epinephrine in lignocaine for lower third molar surgery. Materials and Methods: Thirty healthy controls with impacted mandibular third molar were randomly selected from both sexes between the age group of 20–47 years. Patients were divided equally into two groups: Group I (Adrenaline group) and Group II (Clonidine group). Patients received 2.5 ml of 2% lignocaine with adrenaline (12.5 μg/ml) in Adrenaline group and 2.5 ml of 2% lignocaine with clonidine (15 μg/ml) in Clonidine group. Hemodynamic parameters (heart rate, systolic blood pressure [SBP], diastolic blood pressure [DBP], and mean arterial pressure [MAP]) were recorded preoperatively, intraoperatively, and postoperatively. The onset of anesthesia and duration of anesthesia were recorded using pinprick test for both groups. Postoperatively, patients were evaluated for pain experience by the visual analog scale and verbal rating scale. Results: Lignocaine with clonidine intraoperatively and postoperatively decreases SBP and DBP and MAP compared to lignocaine with adrenaline. There was no significant difference in the onset and duration of anesthesia in both the groups. There was a statistically significant difference seen in the visual analog scale, but no statistically significant difference was seen in the verbal rating scale. Conclusion: Clonidine has similar efficacy as that of adrenaline with better hemodynamic parameters and can be used as an alternative to adrenaline for third molar surgeries.
Maximum Somatic Allele Frequency in Combination With Blood-Based Tumor Mutational Burden to Predict the Efficacy of Atezolizumab in Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: A Pooled Analysis of the Randomized POPLAR and OAK Studies

Background: Blood-based tumor mutational burden (bTMB) was recently found to be suboptimal in predicting overall survival (OS) benefits of atezolizumab over docetaxel among patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The maximum somatic allele frequency (MSAF) is an indicator of the proportion of tumor-derived plasma DNA, which could affect the concordance between bTMB and tissue-based TMB. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the utility of MSAF, alone or in combination with bTMB, to identify NSCLC patients with or without survival benefit from atezolizumab over docetaxel. Methods: We analyzed the individual patient-level data from the randomized POPLAR and OAK studies. The bTMB and MSAF were derived from the pre-treatment blood-based genomic data. Results: In both the bTMB-high (i.e., bTMB ≥ 13) and bTMB-low subgroups, atezolizumab significantly improved OS compared with docetaxel (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.43 [95% CI, 0.29–0.65], P < 0.001 and HR = 0.73 [95% CI, 0.61–0.87], P < 0.001, respectively). Among patients with a low MSAF (i.e., MSAF < 10.3%), OS significantly favored atezolizumab (HR = 0.59 [95% CI, 0.48–0.72], P < 0.001), whereas OS with atezolizumab was similar to that with docetaxel in the MSAF-high subgroup (HR = 0.91 [95% CI, 0.68–1.20], P = 0.500; interaction test P = 0.017). Among patients from the bTMB-low and MSAF-high subgroup, OS was numerically worse with atezolizumab than with docetaxel (HR = 1.06 [95% CI, 0.78–1.45], P = 0.710); in contrast, OS was significantly improved with atezolizumab compared with docetaxel in those with either a high bTMB or low MSAF (HR = 0.57 [95% CI, 0.47–0.69], P < 0.001; interaction test P < 0.001). Consistent findings were obtained for progression-free survival data. Conclusions: MSAF alone or in combination with bTMB can effectively distinguish patients with or without survival benefit from atezolizumab compared with docetaxel. MSAF and the combined bTMB-MSAF classification may become practical predictive markers for atezolizumab in advanced NSCLC.
Spoken Language Development and the Challenge of Skill Integration

The development of phonological awareness, the knowledge of the structural combinatoriality of a language, has been widely investigated in relation to reading (dis)ability across languages. However, the extent to which knowledge of phonemic units may interact with spoken language organization in (transparent) alphabetical languages has hardly been investigated. The present study examined whether phonemic awareness correlates with coarticulation degree, commonly used as a metric for estimating the size of children’s production units. A speech production task was designed to test for developmental differences in intra-syllabic coarticulation degree in 41 German children from 4 to 7 years of age. The technique of ultrasound imaging allowed for comparing the articulatory foundations of children’s coarticulatory patterns. Four behavioral tasks assessing various levels of phonological awareness from large to small units and expressive vocabulary were also administered. Generalized additive modeling revealed strong interactions between children’s vocabulary and phonological awareness with coarticulatory patterns. Greater knowledge of sub-lexical units was associated with lower intra-syllabic coarticulation degree and greater differentiation of articulatory gestures for individual segments. This interaction was mostly nonlinear: an increase in children’s phonological proficiency was not systematically associated with an equivalent change in coarticulation degree. Similar findings were drawn between vocabulary and coarticulatory patterns. Overall, results suggest that the process of developing spoken language fluency involves dynamical interactions between cognitive and speech motor domains. Arguments for an integrated-interactive approach to skill development are discussed.
Additive Manufacturing Methods for Producing Hydroxyapatite and Hydroxyapatite-Based Composite Scaffolds: A Review

Hydroxyapatite (HAp) has been considered for decades an ideal biomaterial for bone repair due to its compositional and crystallographic similarity to bio-apatites in hard tissues. However, fabrication of porous HAp acting as a template (scaffold) for supporting bone regeneration and growth has been a challenge to biomaterials scientists. The introduction of additive manufacturing technologies, which provide the advantages of a relatively fast, precise, controllable and potentially scalable fabrication process, has opened new horizons in the field of bioceramic scaffolds. This review focuses on 3D-printed HAp scaffolds and related composite systems, where the calcium phosphate phase is combined with other ceramics or polymers improving the mechanical properties and/or imparting special extra-functionalities. The main applications of 3D-printed HAp scaffolds in bone tissue engineering are presented and discussed; furthermore, this review also emphasizes the most recent achievements towards the development and testing of multifunctional HAp-based systems combining multiple properties for advanced therapy (e.g. bone regeneration, antibacterial effect, angiogenesis and cancer treatment).
Bluetongue Disease Control in Northern Ireland During 2017 and 2018

Since the emergence of bluetongue virus in central and northern Europe in 2006, Northern Ireland's (NI) surveillance programme has evolved to include the use of risk assessments and simulation models to monitor the risk of bluetongue incursion. Livestock production is of high economic importance to NI as it exports approximately 75% of its agricultural produce. Its surveillance programme is designed to enable effective mitigation measures to be identified to minimize disease risk, and to provide additional assurances to protect NI's export markets in the European Union (EU) and third countries. Active surveillance employs an atmospheric dispersion model to assess the likelihood of wind-borne midge transfer from Great Britain (GB) to NI and to identify high risk areas. In these areas, the number of cattle tested for bluetongue is proportionally increased. Targeted surveillance is directed to ruminants imported from restricted countries and regions at risk of bluetongue. Targeted surveillance on high risk imports assists in early detection of disease as, despite all controls and preventive measures, legally imported animals may still carry the virus. In November 2018, a bluetongue-positive heifer was imported into NI. A case specific risk assessment was commissioned to estimate the likelihood of spread of bluetongue as a result of this incursion. November is the tail end of the midges' active period and therefore there was considerable uncertainty pertaining to the survival of midges inside a cattle shed and the potential for incubation of the virus in the vectors. An evidenced-based approach was adopted where temperature and midge abundance was monitored in order to minimize uncertainty and give an accurate estimate of the likelihood of virus spread to other animals following the arrival of the positive heifer. The heifer was destroyed and the evidence indicated that the risk of successful completion of the extrinsic cycle within the local midge population was negligible. This paper describes NI's surveillance programme between January 2017 and December 2018 and the case of a positive imported animal into the country. The importance of effective surveillance in early detection of threats and the usefulness of risk assessments is highlighted through the case study.
Assessing the Mediation Mechanism of Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment on Innovative Behavior: The Perspective of Psychological Capital

Due to increasingly intense competition among companies, employees’ innovative behavior has not only become a crucial factor for company development but also a topic of broad and current interest among companies and researchers. It is a requisite for companies to identify the antecedents of employees’ innovative behavior. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of psychological capital (PsyCap) on employees’ innovative behavior through its relationship with job satisfaction and organizational commitment. The partial least squares method was adopted in this study to analyze 266 employees from China. The results showed that PsyCap had positive effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and verified the relationship between employees’ innovative behavior and their job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Moreover, the mediating effect of PsyCap in terms of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on employees’ innovative behavior was verified by a mediation analysis. Employees’ innovative behavior is not only essential for the research and development department; rather, it is also important for other departments. The empirical results of this study show that companies should consider taking measures to increase employees’ PsyCap, so as to enhance their innovative behavior. Lastly, the study also provided the managerial implications of its findings and recommendations for future research.
Double Trouble: Visual and Phonological Impairments in English Dyslexic Readers

Developmental dyslexia is a reading disorder characterized by problems in accurate or fluent reading. A deficiency in phonological processing is thought to underpin the reading difficulties of individuals with developmental dyslexia and a variety of explanations have been proposed including deficits in phonological awareness and verbal memory. Recent investigations have begun to suggest that developmental deficits in the acquisition of reading may also co-occur with visual processing deficits, which are particularly salient for visually complex stimuli, yet these deficits have received relatively little attention from researchers. To further explore the nature of phonological and visual processing in developmental dyslexia, we administered a series of non-reading tasks tapping both domains. Unsurprisingly, individuals with developmental dyslexia performed worse than typically developing readers in phonological tasks. More intriguingly, they also struggled with visual tasks, specifically when discriminating between novel visual patterns, and in visuo-spatial working memory, which requires greater attentional control. These findings highlight that individuals with developmental dyslexia present not only with phonological impairments but also difficulties in processing visual materials. This aspect has received limited attention in previous literature and represents an aspect of novelty of this study. The dual phonological and visual impairments suggest that developmental dyslexia is a complex disorder characterized by deficits in different cognitive mechanisms that underpin reading.